"But Also Those Who Have Loved His Appearing."

                 It seems that most of the prophecy teachers that are everywhere today.....on television and through podcasts and their books....and all their conferences....believe in and therefore teach a....pre-trib....rapture of the church. If you are not familiar with this....it means that the church is taken up....in the twinkling of an eye....and then the seven year tribulation begins. This teaching is relatively new....mid-19th century. We may not know....indeed we do not know....the exact timing of when the church will be taken away....but it is safe to say this....it will not be pre-trib.
                 It was a different church when this eschatological doctrine came into being. We did not have all of the toys and entertainments that we do today. It is a totally different world and church than it was a hundred and fifty years ago. The problem with pre-trib was not nearly as stark back then as it is today. People were serious about their faith....and were actually born again....and not just recruited in an attempt to get back their socially and economically conservative country.
                 If there would be a pre-trib rapture....then those being taken up would by-and-large be Christians who read regularly and believed all the Bible verses that talk about a straight and narrow way. Today....well let me give you this anecdote....forty years ago their was a popular T-shirt in Christian bookstores.....with an imprint on it of a pair of sneakers....empty sneakers....in what was obviously some kind of sports arena stands....and the person had been taken up....you could tell this from the graphics....while there were legs all around the sneakers....of people still cheering the game. The message was that we in America could go right on enjoying all of our pastimes and entertainments....and when we get zapped up....well....we get zapped up.....who cares which team might win the game.
                  So....I don't think that we today should even want a pre-trib rapture....because we are not ready....and we are not really even that concerned about beasts and bowls and seals and trumpets and oceans and rivers turning red....because we will have been gone....taken away. The alternative is daunting....and humbling....for if these things may be just ahead....then we had better be in serious self-examination on whether or not we are even slightly prepared....and whether we have plenty of oil for our lamps....and whether or not we would even be among those taken up!
                  Here's one thing that we are good at....we are good at saying how we just have to trust God in whatever may be ahead. The problem is that we do not have a corresponding trust in God's warning about whatever may be ahead! Therein is a great difference friends! We might try this....we might actually put ourselves into the situations that God's Word describes....about even family members turning on us....for that is coming folks....for even if we consider the issues in the news today....particularly political issues....the confusion and delusion and anger and hate that abounds literally everywhere....we should be able to discern that there would be very difficult times ahead!
                  There is a verse....another one of those many verses that we have conveniently pushed off to the side...."Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness....which the Lord the righteous judge....will award to me on that day....and not only to me....(Paul)....but also to those who have loved his appearing." 2 Timothy 4:8 ESV
                  "Loved His appearing"....these are believers who are earnestly looking forward to the appearing of Jesus....the crown is for those who want and desire and plead for His appearing. If we take this literally....this might....and maybe should....shake us to our very core....in that Jesus might not be coming for those who outwardly profess belief....but inwardly retain a greater love for the world! 

Addendum: As I mentioned above....'prophecy teachers"....are literally everywhere. It's almost like a good gig for a lifework....where you go around telling people about this from Daniel or that from Revelation....and write all these books....and go to all these conferences....and you do not have the responsibilities of being a pastor....but there are a lot of pastors who do preach and teach on prophecy....the difference it seems so often is that prophecy teachers today.....most of them....are just a little too cheery....with a few too many smiles....as they teach about the Antichrist and the Tribulation....whereas if they realized that when Daniel became ill just seeing the vision....that it will be more than a vision to us....and to them....if they are indeed secure in the mercies of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

"Set Your Minds On Things That Are Above....Not The Things Of Earth." (Colossians 3:2 ESV)

            It was the best-selling non-fiction book of the 1970s.....Hal Lindsey's....The Late Great Planet Earth. That's not only quite an accomplishment in publishing....but it says a whole lot about what the American public was like back then. The evangelical....Born Again....awakening was in full-swing....in no small part because we as a people were becoming animated as to the day and the age that we live in as it relates to the Bible. I've read the anecdote a few times....it may or may not be true....but the report was that Israel's first Prime Minister....David Ben-Gurion....had a copy of Hal Lindsey's book by his death bed.
            Prophecy....'teachers'....and they came out of the woodwork....talked about a chip in the hand in order to buy or sell....and a ten-nation end-times European confederacy....and a coming Antichrist....and wars and pandemics and cosmic and geological signs....and particularly great delusion and a falling away in the church....and they were mocked....but as it turned out....these things not only have begun but they are increasing at a greater and greater pace. Recently....a month ago....ten European nations signed a defense compact....and I haven't even heard anyone mentioning the possible significance of that.
              AI....artificial intelligence....has been an issue long before the recent spate of news reports. It has been a done deal for quite some time now....for there is no stopping it. The warnings from a couple of tech execs are too late....and Trump's comments of it being a hoax are the rantings of an unstable mind that will change allegiances in a moment if his grand plans of personal exaltation demand a shift.
             The Lord is near. It's as simple as that. We failed to see the signs. The evangelical fervor of the 70s and into the 80s....did what all revivals do....it waned. I once posted a long time ago....that the Billy Graham evangelical became the Ralph Reed evangelical....that became the Karl Rove evangelical....which was no evangelical at all....and we have since become the Donald Trump evangelical....following a false prophet....and maybe even worse.
             That niche stills remains in evangelicalism....with Bible prophecy teachers everywhere....some good and some bad and some ugly....but overall the pulpits are leery of being tagged some kind of end of the world date-setting fanatic....but as I posted in the past....God does not have us date-setting....but He does want us to be....mind-setting.....setting our minds on the return of the King of Kings....to a world that if we would but open our eyes....we would see all of the prophecies....as God deems it our need to know....from all over God's Word....being fulfilled....here and there....increasing in frequency and intensity....and we would be living as did those reading the letters of Paul and Peter and Jude and John....living day-to-day....in both joy and trepidation....fulfilling our responsibilities....but at the same time looking up for our redemption which surely draweth nigh!

              Forty-some years ago mercy was extended upon the least worthy of it....myself....and I was given faith unto salvation....as if I was pulled up in a net with thousands of other fish! Why? I will never know in this lifetime. Since that time....I had been conscious of one overwhelming responsibility....as God had also blessed us with one child....a son....and it was therefore my responsibility to raise him in the training and admonition of the Lord. God provided here also....as our son....now grown....knows his Lord and Savior....and he choose a wife who also follows Christ....and they have a son being raised in the heavenly graces of God's promises. It was not my responsibility that our son would be born again....for only God determines that....and many men....much more faithful than I....were not given that blessing....but it was my responsibility to pray.....fervently....and to care for the spiritual life of our child. So now I am old. Too old maybe to man an oar.....or to pull up a net full of fish....but not too old to hear the command....and then to toss the net over the side....and tell the younger men to pull...."Pull....the net will be filled when you just pull! I was once in just such a net....and so were you! Trust the One who gave the command to throw the net into the water!
               

Lord's Day Post

                  I was reminded a few days ago of this old Peanuts comic....Snoopy was on his dog house typing as usual...."It was a dark and stormy night"....when Lucy rocked his world with...."That's a terrible way to start a story....all good stories start with....'Once upon a time'!" Snoopy thought it over and then typed...."Once upon a time....it was dark and stormy night."
                  It may not be in every single post....but generally....no matter what the topic....I will try to remind or inform the reader in some way....that judgment is coming....soon....like right now. In yesterday's post for instance....a remembrance of 9/11....the last sentence was from the Olivet Discourse in Luke 21....on the coming judgment.
                  On September 7 of 2023....my wife and I had gone to see the new movie....Golda....which revolved solely upon the few days of the Yom Kippur War of 1973....and I gave a short review of the film....that ended with this...."It's more than a good primer on the October 1973 war....and Helen Mirren's characterization of Golda Mirren was incredible....but the reason that you might want to see this movie is that Israel may be in a similar situation in the very near future." Less than a month later was the Sukkot attack.
                    On September 14....on the eve of Rosh Hashanah....I posted this...."It seems that very few people in America know the seriousness of the situation that the world faces right now....and surprisingly it seems that the people of Israel are as every bit in the dark. It's surprising because their very existence is a day by day situation....but they are more worried about losing some personal individual liberties."
                   I'll beat a dead horse a little bit here....the movie Gettysburg....which was released on October 8 of 1993....began with a scene of Brigadier General John Buford....looking over the future battlefield....and telling his aide something like...."Deven....I've led a soldier's life....and I've never seen anything this clear....I can see it like its already happened." Well that's kind of like what Christians think who have studied Bible prophecy over years and even decades. We can see it clear....that Jesus is at the very doorstep....because God's Word makes it very clear....but it doesn't matter how clear the scene....if you do not open your eyes to see it! 
                    How may times have I thought this prayer....and even posted on it....that if it be in God's perfect will....and to His glory alone....that on this night before the Lord's Day....as pastors are going over the prepared text of their sermon to be given the next morning....(I believe that there is a big college football game tonight....on TV....Ohio State and Texas....hopefully these shepherds have been on their knees tonight...pleading for the safety of their sheep....and not in their Lazy Boy....watching a game)....as these pastors turn out the light beside their bed....that the Holy Spirit might cause them to toss and turn all night....with the feeling that they may have missed something....that they may be failing their sheep in some way....and that by morning these same pastors will enter their pulpits....without their prepared texts....saying a prayer for the Holy Spirit to give them an unction...and words....to not only feed their sheep....but strengthen and prepare them....for what they are now realizing must be just ahead!

Looking Back......And Looking Up

                The Jerusalem Post has an article on its website right now about a young man....31 years old at the time....Daniel Lewin....an Israeli/American who had made aliyah to Israel....served in an IDF counterterrorism unit....and whose career was up to that time a brilliant mathematician and entrepreneur....and who was the first victim on 9/11....as he was a passenger of American Flight 11....stood up to confront the terrorists....and was attacked from behind and killed. There are as I type only a few hours left...in Israel....of Rosh Hashannah....the Jewish New Year....and beginning of the High Holy Days....the Ten Days of Repentance. Rosh Hashanna 2001 was six days after the attacks.
                 I've travelled over much of the world....but have not been in New York City since the New York World's Fair in 1964....odd....I passed by a dozen times but never went into the city. So....I have never been to Ground Zero. On September 10 of 2011....the tenth anniversary....as my wife and I attended the opening of the Flight 93 Memorial in Shanksville....and as we were walking the 'miles' back to our car....extremely tired but at times walking faster than the long line of cars exiting the Memorial....one car with two men in it stopped to offer us a seat....we thankfully accepted....and they gave us fruit drinks. They were two of the four children of Flight 93 passenger Joe Driscoll. It made a special day....a little more special.
                 It has been twenty-five years since 9/11....and it is still difficult to think back on the people in the planes....or jumping from the buildings....or rushing up the buildings trying to save others. It is also difficult to think back on the over 58 thousand Americans that died in Vietnam....or the 200,000/plus Vietnamese boatpeople who died at sea....trying to escape the horror coming from the north....or Iraq and Afghanistan....or the Sukkot massacre of October 7....2023....or the Christians being killed in Africa....or so many other horrors of war and killing.
                  There is a verse from God's Word that comes to mind as I look back....Luke 21:28....this from the NKJV...."Now when these things begin to happen....look up and lift up your heads....because your redemption draws near."

Life Isn't A Cabaret!

             The film was released on September 13....1972....6 days later I got out of the army....and saw it in the theaters....a year later....possibly two....I took a date to see the play at the Stephen Foster Memorial Theater on the Pitt campus....but the theme of....Cabaret....has haunted me on-and-off ever since. The film was nominated for ten Academy Awards....and won eight. There were some controversies...but the American public at the time was very sympathetic to the plight of Israel....for it had been less than three decades from the Holocaust...and really less than a decade since we were fully informed on what had happened. One of the saddest things about what is happening in America today....with immense prophetic biblical implications....is the return of antisemitism. I posted the following in September of 2018 under the title....A Natural Temptation....                                

               "As we all know the reparations demanded of Germany in the Treaty of Versailles were unbearable for the German population who were fiercely defensive of their homeland and German heritage. The Weimar Republic which came about at the end of World War I was weak....and hated. It wasn't going to last....but what would replace it? The future of Germany depended on its church which was unified in that the German people believed that the state needed its church....and the church needed its state....but there was little unity beyond that.
                A 'German Church' movement developed that entwined itself around the powerful ideology of National Socialism....a movement that was going to lead Germany back into prosperity and power. A 'Confessing Church' movement formed to stop in its tracks the state's intrusion into all church matters....but the Confessing Church itself was divided between those who just wanted the state out of the church....and those who knew that there were big problems with National Socialism.
                Martin Niemoller....you may have heard about him....represented those who at first thought that National Socialism was a great thing if kept in its place. Dietrich Bonhoeffer....you certainly have heard of him....saw the horrors of where this extreme nationalism could go. Niemoller spent years in prison and concentration camps before finally seeing the mistakes that he made before the war. Bonhoeffer paid for his discernment with his life.....we are getting too close to having an 'American Church movement'....and we are not...."one glorious nation under God....it is a very natural temptation......especially in times like this as America is being pillaged and plundered....to confuse a return to greatness with a return to God. Patriotism can be devotion to justice or it can be devotion to just us. Capitalism can be a God-send....or a god in itself. We are already compromising the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to accommodate 'Make America Great Again'....and it can only get worse as we will seek to be more inclusive of policy that opposes God's Word and exclusive of dictates in His Word....all so that this glorious 'revolution' can continue.

The following are two songs from the film. The first is haunting....the second indicting....the first a warning of where we do not want to go....and the second an indictment of where we are already....

           

We Are Incapable Of Discerning The Vanity Fair That We Live In

Preface: It's been a wild year....starting off with the Super Bowl and the college football championship. The World Cup took two months of our time....the NFL Draft was in Pittsburgh this year....and then there was the....World Baseball Classic....which was a ridiculous concept to begin with. We had the 250th anniversary that kept going on and on....with very patriotic things like a Grand Prix race in D. C.....and a cage fighting match right on the White House Lawn! The attack on the reflecting pool....well maybe it wasn't an attack after all....kept us spellbound for a week or so. Caitlyn Clark kept us white folks interested in the WNBA....and March Madness was stuck in there somewhere. Scottie Scheffler kept us Christians rooting for him just about every Lord's Day. The Winter Olympics were held in February....and to be honest....with all the excitement going on....I can't even remember them! I don't remember who won the NBA or the NHL championships. We've already had all four golf majors....and I believe we are right now on the last of the tennis grand slams? We have been in a war since February. We just finished up a long trial....where a mother strangled her three kids....but in a hung jury...only one juror voted for conviction? I guess we already had the Oscars and the Emmys. The new ballroom and the arch and the Smithsonian and Lake America keep us occupied...and now we have a...mid-term Republican Convention? I know that I probably forgot about a dozen events that occupy our minds....but a new year....within the year has started....with football! It was probably never really said by the Duke of Wellington...."The battle of Waterloo was won on the playing field of Eton"....insinuating that the discipline and fraternity and loyalty learned on college athletic fields built the character of the nation's self-defense....but such would have been the case here in America....before college sports were torn apart by greed and vanity.  The thing is....we are today utterly incapable of discerning the Vanity Fair that we live in! In Bunyan's classic....he wanted to get out of there as fast as he could....and Faithful didn't even make it out. Here is an anecdote for you to consider....Charles Spurgeon....the Prince of Preachers....wrote that he had read Bunyan's Pilgrim Progress....100 times in his life! The book was once the biggest selling book....other than the Bible....in the world! Do you think that maybe we today ought to go back that book....in humility and repentance maybe....for what we have become? The following post is from July of 2020 and is on my humor page:

Come Lord Jesus......Just Not Right Now!

Lord Jesus 

As you know....for this blessing is from you....
        our son Kyle has a full football scholarship....
        at an SEC school....GO DOGS!
        and you have also blessed us with a beautiful daughter....
        whose wedding is planned for next year....
        and we need every minute of this year to prepare for it....
        so yes Lord Jesus....come....just not right now.

I know that America has strayed far from you...
        but that's really the Democrats Lord...
        I was just talking to the pastor the other day...
        at the pot luck after the service....before the game
        and he says that we are going to get the House back....
        and then we are going to throw Hunter Biden in Jail...

They're making us wear masks Lord....
        just like they put a crown of thorns on your head!
        our wonderful freedoms are being taken away....
        bless Donald Trump Lord....and Ron DeSantis....
            and Matt Gaetz...and Marjorie Taylor....I can't remember her last name....
                and the My Pillow Guy.

May I ask one more thing Lord....
        when you do come....
        can you call first...and leave a message
        to see if we are home....
        what with Bible studies and pickle ball and all
        a grandkid on the way....
        it's going to be a busy decade or so.

So all praise to you Lord....
        Come Lord Jesus....
        With all your mighty angels....
        In Power and glory....
        And righteous judgment....(on the Democrats)....
        Just not right now.

Just one last very personal request Lord...
        just in case Billy Graham was right
        and you are indeed coming real soon....
        could you possibly schedule the rapture....
        in early April.....
        just after March Madness if possible
        so I don't have to break my back...
        unnecessarily spreading all that mulch....
        and fertilizer?

        (I missed the first week of last year's
        church golf league because of it....
        because I couldn't bend over to putt)

           No....this is definitely not an optimum year for evangelicals for the tribulation....or is it? To me it seems just like what God's prophetic word says it will be like....will the Son of Man find faith on the earth when He returns? We've got enough oil for a tiki torch but none for our lamps. Delusion is everywhere....along with false prophets....the chief of whom evangelicalism fell for hook, line and sinker.

THIS IS NOT A TEST!

                We are a land and a people of idols....personal idols. I am a man of idols. This is not a small thing. The idols are different than those that we read of in God's Word....but are nonetheless god's that we have crafted. They could be sports or entertainments of any kind....or money or vanity. They kill discernment and set up enmity to God. They are hard to detect....and harder to decide to deal with if detected. The pulpits should be warning us all the time of idols....but that is a habit of a day that is long gone in American pulpits.
                 This very second....as I typed....in the last paragraph....the period after the word...."pulpits"....my iPhone....sitting right here on the table....blared an annual test....repeating itself...."TEST ONLY"....for the local nuclear power station....and right now...as I type this....I can hear the siren....an odd siren....different from the regular fire alarms that we often hear. And now it is over....until next year....nothing to worry about.
                  This that I'm putting forth in this post....is not a test....THIS IS NOT A TEST! We in the church are no longer a "peculiar  people".....and hardly a "holy nation." The only thing that sets us apart from anyone else in America is our conservative politics....social issues primarily.
                   I could list my own idols....and maybe I will do that....but I have wanted to broach this topic for quite a while. At my age....76....and with a strong background in books....from working my way through college at the library....to meeting my future wife in that library....and her becoming a librarian....to our owning a bookstore for a while thirty years ago....to haunting Barnes & Noble almost every Tuesday to scan the new arrivals....I witness women....most of them older women....reading their books.....and loving their reading....to a passionate degree that rivals any sport that a man might be attached to.
                   They are passing books to one another all the time....and recommending books....and talking about their book clubs...seemingly every time that I am around them. Now as I mentioned....I read all the time....more than half of them Christian books....and the rest done for research....on the culture....or on history as it relates to day that we live in. Rarely do I read a book simply for enjoyment....for I have my own idols
                   From what I have witnessed....and this going back decades....the books that these....wonderful ladies....devour literally all the time....are books that take them directly away from the faith that they will so joyfully tell you that they have. They do not know what is happening here. No one warns them....their pulpits do not warn them....and life passes ever so quickly....as the nation crumbles....and the church languishes!
                   My idols are many and varied. I spent an hour the other day researching the extraordinary music and personal relationships of possibly the best rock n' roll band of the late 60s....CCR....Credence Clearwater Revival. Oh yes I subjected much of what I read to God's Word....as I lamented the fact that these men had the whole world....so to speak....but missed the greatest thing in that whole world....Jesus Christ. I can try to excuse my research....but I know that something like this extends into my own fascination....if not memory of love....to the 60s generation.
                   It is a daily struggle....against a fierce and powerful opponent. I may lose as often as I win. I am at times but a wandering lamb....straying over to an intriguing thicket that hides predators....but there is hope even in all of this....for we are about to lose many if not all of those idols. God's winds are blowing right now....sifting and threshing and winnowing....and His angels are waiting....mounted....swords not yet unsheathed....but as though waiting with baited-breath for the command of the Lord of the armies....the LORD of Hosts!

"....A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, or under a bed, is it? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand?" Mark 4:21 NASB

" (Jesus)....Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. For whoever has, to him will more be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him." Mark 4:24,25 NASB 

                   Folks....this is telling you to be careful where you have all your attention. If you show little interest in the things of eternity....(reading and playing all the time)....then the little discernment you have will be taken away....(and that is much of this political church today)....but the more you pay attention to God's Word....the more discernment you will be given!
              

Ten Verses...On A Very Dark And Painful Time

                All different kinds of people come in to read these posts....and at times I try to focus on one type of person....which means that other readers might be left out as far as interest goes. In this post I want to focus on those who are relatively new to studying Bible end-times prophecy..
                First of all...end-times....second coming....tribulation.....antichrist prophecy is literally all through the Bible. There is plenty of it in the Psalms from the Old Testament....and all of the epistles from the New Testament.
                In this post I only want to refer to ten verses....from the book of Daniel chapter 11....verses 36 through 45.
                These ten verses are a somewhat detailed summary of everything that will happen from right now....today....to the most violent judgments at the very end of the end of times! That is not to say that it describes everything that will happen....because these ten verses focus on the Antichrist....and only on one aspect of what the Antichrist will be doing....but it is a significant synopsis on what we are about to experience!
                How long would it take you to read ten verses? Well you can read them....and then meditate upon them....and see if you think you can come up with some thoughts on the Antichrist....but know this....wonderful Bible scholars have been reading these ten verses for centuries....and are not a whole lot closer than at the beginning of the studying. On the other hand....although we may not know a lot of the specifics....we do have a significant outline....so from now on in it will be adding filler to that outline....and this only as God....in his perfect timing....according to our need to know....reveals them....for we can know absolutely nothing on our own! Here are those ten verses from the NASB....

36..."Then the king will do as he pleases, and he will exalt himself and boast against every god and will speak dreadful things against the God of gods; and he will be successful until the indignation is finished, because that which is determined will be done." 37...."And he will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or the for the desire of women, nor will he show regard for any other god; for he will boast against them all." 38...."But instead he will honor a god of fortresses, a god whom his fathers did not know; he will honor him with gold, silver, precious stones, and treasures." 39...."And he will take action against the strongest of fortresses with the help of a foreign god; he will give great honor to those who acknowledge him and will make them rulers over the many, and will parcel out land for a price." 40...."And at the end time the king of the South will wage war with him, and the king of the North will storm against him with chariots, horsemen, and with many ships; and he will enter countries, overflow them, and pass through." 41...."He will also enter the Beautiful Land, and many countries will fall; but these will be rescued out of his hand; Edom, Moab, and the foremost of the sons of Ammon." 42...."Then he will reach out with his hand against other countries, and the land of Egypt will not escape." 43...."But he will gain control over the hidden treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and Libyans and Ethiopians will follow at this heals." 44...."But rumors from the East and from the North will terrify him, and he will go out with great wrath to eliminate and annihilate many." 45...."And he will pitch the tents of his royal pavilion between the seas and the beautiful Holy Mountain; yet he will come to his end, and no one will help him."

                There you have it! All you have to do is figure it all out! Well....we can't do that right now....but we can....from time to time....fairly regularly even....meditate on what we are told. There will be a king....which is really a leader of some sort...and he is going to go crazy in boasting....and he will succeed....for a good while. Now he doesn't do things the way his fathers did....this isn't a typical Judeo/Christian/Western Civ type of man....a laws of the nation and the world type of man....not at the end of his boasting anyway....but he does have a god of his own....a foreign god....whatever that turns out to be....and he in effect honors that god with gold and silver and precious stones and treasure? It is a god of....fortresses? Whatever these fortresses are....these towers of strength....he is going to go after the strongest of them....and manipulate them with....essentially bribes....giving to them some of the plunder.
                 Those are the first four verses....36 through 39....the next six verses tell of two enemies....one from the north and one from the south....that come against him....and we are given only hints of how that war proceeds....before that 'king' sees his final end.
                 So there you have it! We can't figure any of this out right now....but when it is in God's perfect time....we will understand...and hopefully react in a godly way to what is transpiring!. What God's method does in all of this....in all of prophecy....revealing things when we have that need to know....keeps us all animated....desiring to know more....building up patience and faith....and preparing.....hopefully....for when God does start to reveal specifics....it will be a very dark and painful time!

Addendum: I want to add a caveat and a recommendation here....to that person who is just developing an interest in Bible prophecy. There are literally hundreds of books out there by men who think that they have figured all of this out. You have to be very careful here! I will recommend one book....from a man who has been around for quite a while. I don't even agree with all of that which he puts in his book....but overall it is a sound treatment of the books of Daniel and Revelation....with a verse-by-verse structure....and very easy to navigate. The book by Ron Rhodes....God's Prophetic Blueprint in Daniel & Revelation....is a thick paperback and you can get it right now on Amazon for around $20. 

I thought that I might give some advice for those of you who are starting to be interested in Bible prophecy. I have done this for a long time and find it very useful. You would have a highlighter handy when you read your Bible....which is all the time right (?)...any color....but keep that color just for this.  And when you come to a verse that in any way seems to address the Christian at the Second Coming of our Lord And Savior.....highlight it. After time you will come to see that God's Word dealing with the last days is all over the place!

Lord's Day Post

              A man....any man....can enter a pulpit....and preach.  It might be eloquent....or it might be inarticulate. The greatest preacher in modern church history....Charles Haddon Spurgeon....1834-1892....was a fifteen year old unsaved youth....and he knew it....who had pastors going back at least two generations. He walked into a small Primitive Methodist church...."a dozen or fifteen people" was the way he described it....in a snowstorm....unable to make it to his family church....this on January 6, 1850....almost a hundred years to the day that I was born....and listened to a sermon by a man who was filling in for the regular pastor....and Spurgeon used a word in describing him....a word that in his day wasn't as harsh as it is today....Spurgeon said the man was...."really stupid"....meaning that he was untrained in preaching....and that young man was converted that day....and the world ever since has felt the reverberations of his conversion....from a sermon given by that...."really stupid" elder who was just filling in in an emergency!
              John Owen was a great Puritan pastor and teacher....renown then and now....who one day stood before King Charles II of England....and when questioned why he wasted his time listening to that uneducated "tinker"....preacher John Bunyan....said to the king...."Could I possess the tinker's ability for preaching, please your majesty, I would gladly relinquish all my learning."
              I was in conversation earlier today with a wonderful Christian woman....my age....who is married to a man who had a fine career as a major league baseball player....so I used this analogy in talking about the same thing that this post is about. I gave the example of a major league baseball team that may go twenty years without ever winding up with a win/loss record over 500. She knew what I meant. Well....that is the church today....for much longer than twenty years....we have had losing seasons in the our pulpits!
              Now we do not know this....for this isn't baseball....and we do not have win/loss records....as a matter of fact....we may be losing them all....and think that we are winning them all! We think....just about all of us....if the conversations that I have had over the past forty years are indicative....we think that our pastors preach just fine....maybe really good. Meanwhile....our lives are as trivial as any unsaved person....and we are uneducated in the deeper doctrines of the faith....and we would never as if need oxygen after a sermon....because of the power that the Holy Spirit laid on the words of a preacher....(Thirty years ago I would just sit in the pew after a sermon....catching my breath at the power of the words glorifying our Savior that I had just heard!)
               Oh they are indeed around....preachers today who preach like preachers of the past....but they are hard to find....because the glory has departed from the church....and we have thus lost all discernment on preaching! That man....that pastor that I described in the paragraph just above this....left his church....because save for a few of us....no one in the pews realized that they had a genuine Puritan in their pulpit. They were not receptive....but only wanted their ears tickled.
              I commend you if you have read this far....for these are not easy thoughts to consider....especially from a tinker like me....but I don't care what other people think.....do you? Every one of us has to break that peer pressure bondage....and trust God that we will hear the voice of our Good Shepherd! 
              So....tomorrow is yet another Lord's Day. The world is crumbling but the people will enter the sanctuary happy as a lark....and smile through a sermon with no power....and then exit church....again....happy as a lark? You have got some work to do. I can't do it for you....but if you put your mind to it....and reach out as if to touch the garment of Jesus....just as that woman with the issue of blood reached out to touch His cloak....He will surely....for He has promised....turn to you....and feed you....and lead you....and give you a joy in the glorious gospel....of a glorious Savior.... and majestic and powerful....'coming'....Kings of kings....a joy that you may not have felt since that first day when you believed!
               We....each and every one of us....need the food of the power of the preached Word of God! We may enter heaven without it....emaciated....but we would have run a poor race....and been a poor soldier.

Addendum: That great and wonderful ministry of Ligonier....ligonier.org....has gone through a lot of turmoil since R.C. Sproul was called home. Even R.C. stumbled in his last year....as his 30th annual Ligonier Conference....this back in early 2017....the 500th anniversary of Luther starting the Reformation....chose for its conference title....The Next 500 Years....which was a very poor choice....considering that a better title would have been....The Next 500 Weeks. John MacArthur stumbled greatly in his last few years....where only God could have permitted this to happen....as Pastor John....that great defender of the faith....fell for a genuine false prophet in Trump....and championed keeping church doors open in the pandemic....a pandemic which I heard with my own ears....when he denied its existence...."There is no pandemic." Alistair Begg's wonderful ministry collapsed in one episode of his radio ministry....and the next thing you know....he retired from the pulpit. Billy Graham's Evangelistic Association....led by his son Franklin after Billy was called home....although it retains its founder's extreme evangelistic zeal....and although Franklin does have a wonderful charitable ministry....he has been one of the biggest voices in supporting the false prophet that is destroying the very evangelicalism that his father was used in building. Pat Robertson's 700 Club....is now led by his son...who totally sincere as he is....is nowhere near the help that his father was in times of decision. God has permitted all of this to happen....maybe to show us that we got too big for our britches. Whatever the reason....God had had enough of us....and the glory has departed from the church....and no more evident than in its pulpits.

DISPATCHES

In God's providence....forty years ago....I came into the church with a passion for apologetics. I learned this right away....that you have to know the genuine....before you can identify the fake. I have a very uneasy feeling for what we in the church may be about to experience....and we are not grounded nearly as much as we were forty years ago....and even then we were ripe for false teachers in the church! We have already fallen for the fake in politics....in Christian nationalism....but "another" gospel may be coming that will seem uniting....a gospel more of the image than the word....but the only thing it will unite are the modified and compromised doctrines of salvation already out there.... gospels of salvation....that do not save!

Donald Trump yesterday told his supporters....(surely that base must be shrinking!)....don't...."kill the golden goose!" He also called concerns over AI...."Sick"....and said that we do not need guardrails....that all we need is a...."strong and smart president." We evangelicals gave America this man as president. It is irony upon irony that our falling away is responsible for what evangelicalism had warned of for over a half century. Trump was originally against AI....and then he saw the money that could be made....so he was then for it....and indeed made a lot of money....and now he calls long overdue concerns of AI....a sick conspiracy!

Rosh Hashanna will begin on September 11....and Yom Kippur on September 20. I always have the Jewish lunar calendar in the back of my mind. I have long since been convinced that God uses signs in the sky....and....Jewish holidays. These things just serve as alerts....reminders....that God has used them in the past....and will certainly do so in the future."

I am so often....so very sad....in that many nations....that were once strong allies....for example where a Canadian was almost as a brother...have become almost enemies to us....because of one man....whose bloodlust for greed and personal glory....destroyed that trust and friendship! May God have mercy upon us....for seeking our glory....and not God's!

The idiom has been around for a long time....between a rock ad a hard place....but it is as if imagined for us today. If the Democrats win the House and/or the Senate....to use another idiom....there will be the devil to pay....but if Trump keeps his congress Praetorian Guard in place....can you imagine....can you even imagine....where his political and egomaniacal bloodlust will take him? 

Jonah and the whale....and Nineveh....and us: There is a new movie scheduled for an October 16 release. We do not what a single day brings. I do not know what the next hour may bring....but I will look forward....Lord willing....to seeing the Josh Brolin film....Whalefall....where a scuba diver is swallowed by a sperm whale....and has an hour of air to escape. Now I would expect that neither the movie....or any of the reviews forthcoming....would give any credence to Jonah....but I don't care....for the concept alone of a man swallowed by a great fish....at this biblical time in history....put before the American public....is encouraging. May God if it be in His perfect will....make us think through this film....no matter what it might try to say!

There are thirteen friends and former fellow workers and family that I know of....that died because of Covid. Fauci and Redfield and Deborah Birx are professionals at the top of their field....and did yeoman's work in a most difficult situation. They wanted testing....Trump did not.....the professional's opinion vs the politician's need. What we are viewing with Fauci is a show trial....just one of many things to be ashamed of in America today. Trump took the fifth more than 400 times in his civil fraud investigation....but our taking the fifth....and our whistleblowers....are good things.

Europe....Ten....(10)....countries joined together on Monday.....July 13....2026....and formally established what they call the....Integrated Anti-Ballistic Missile Coalition. Those ten....(10)....countries are Denmark and France and Germany and Italy and Netherlands and Sweden and Norway and Spain and Ukraine and Britain.

Paul Washer gave the Session 10 talk at John MacArthur's....Shepherd's Conference....back in March of this year. He raised some eyebrows of the 5,000 plus men in attendance when he somberly but matter-of-factly said...."John MacArthur is dead." He then paused and repeated that statement...."John MacArthur is dead." You might just be eternally blessed if you listen to that message. Just Google....2026 Shepherd's Conference Session 10, Paul Washer. On second thought....I'll add it here for you...

                                                                    

If Trump had the ability to stand before a microphone....and give an honest answer....without feeling that the entire world was ready to pounce on him....he might have been able to answer questions that would at least leave detractors without anything to say....but he was never capable of that. In one recent instance....in response to a question about the record-setting deployment of the USS Abraham Lincon....instead of answering with something simple like....."We appreciate everything that these men and women are doing"....he blurts out...."Not nearly long enough" Even within the last few days he described the war in Iran as...."small potatoes?" 

If there were once want ads put out for any nation who wanted to lead the free world....it would say something like....'there are perks....reserve currency.....things like that....but there are also sacrifices that will have to be made.' We answered that ad long ago....we got some perks....and we also made some sacrifices....but Trump acts like...since he didn't sign the initial agreement....it means nothing! He wants the perks....but with no sacrifices.

The Trump/Musk show at the beginning of his second term was a political con....trying to make it seem like they were cutting significant debt....when all they were doing was firing civil service employees and taking benefits away from people who needed them. It was reported....by what we were always told was the 'fake news'....that in Trump's first term he carried around with him an official looking box. In it were not important documents....briefing notes....or anything like that....but news clippings of himself! His first ghostwriter once said that when he first met Trump...Trump's desk was stacked high with various magazines....all with Trump's picture on the cover.

If someone wrote a novel about a president that does the things that Trump does....putting his name and his picture on everything that he can....it wouldn't be a believable book....instead it might be read like one would read....1984....or Brave New World....something that might be titilating....but could never really happen.

In 2015 or thereabouts....our intelligence agencies did not have a political view on Donald Trump one way or the other. They only knew that he had been under observation for many years because he was....through his celebrity and his reputation....and his trips to Russia....prime kompromat materiel. When it appeared that Trump actually might get the republican nomination for president....the intelligence agencies became very interested. Trump eventually won that battle...and wound up purging all of our experienced intelligence officers who at one time or another....did what they were supposed to do....and did what if they had not done....they would have been guilty of criminal neglect of their duties. So today....the primary duties of our intelligence agencies seem to be in preventing investigations of the man who was once prime kompromat materiel....and purging and prosecuting any who previously fulfilled their responsibilities....in investigating possible threats to our nation.

I remember the video....seeing it on the day that it was in the news....it was 1995....the scene was a beauty parlor....and when the radio announced that OJ Simpson was found not guilty....the ladies under the hair dryers cheered. Today we have been witnessing another high profile trial....and it seems as if again....we are calling what is evil....good....and what is good evil. That phrase is from the fifth chapter of Isaiah....and the essence of the chapter was on the coming judgment of the people....the actual verse....verse 20...."Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil....who substitute darkness for light....and light for darkness."

What Do You Think That The Steelers Will Do This Year?

Preface: I published posts on Daniel chapter nine a few times since February of 2019. The point I was and am trying to make is that Daniel....as an old man....knowing that Israel's time of captivity in Babylon was coming to an end....because of Jeremiah's prophecy of seventy years....pleaded to God with prayer and supplications and fasting and sackcloth and ashes....laying before God the guilt of all of Israel that brought them to where they were.....and as soon as he did this...."While I was still speaking"....God sent Gabriel with a detailed prophecy....."Seventy weeks have been decreed"....on what was going to happen....over time....right up to the end. Today....there is no mortification in us as there was in Daniel's prayer....for just as with Judah and Jerusalem....we brought upon ourselves....the collapse of our beloved country. In the Billy Graham era....our pulpits did warn us of what we were becoming....but then along came Trump....and that was the end of any chance that we might repent of what we had become. The hope is still there that God might have mercy upon our pulpits....and awaken them....and thus have mercy upon us in the pews....but as of today there is no evidence that I can see that these pastors even know where their staffs and their rods might be stored. This may....and hopefully will....change in due time....as our judgments increase in severity.

            Earlier....Daniel had just had a vision of a ram and a goat....and a little horn....and an angel appeared to him....identified as Gabriel....who said...."Behold, I am going to inform you of what will occur at the final period of the indignation, because it pertains to the appointed time of the end." 

"A king will arise
 insolent and skilled in intrigue
 and his power will be mighty
 but not by his own power,
 And he will destroy to an
 extraordinary degree,
 And be successful and do as he pleases;
 He will destroy mighty men
 and the holy people,
 And through his shrewdness
 He will make deceit a success
 by his influence
 And he will make himself
 great in his own mind,
 And he will destroy many while they are at ease."

           Folks....pastors....don't you think that we ought to have been studying this passage....not going over it once every few years....as we go through the Bible.....but having it brought to our attention fairly regularly? I mean....it's a pretty clear description. This was the culmination of a different vision that Daniel had....and it was so intense....that Daniel wrote that he was sick for days because of it. Don't you think that all of this might be a clue to us....at the...."appointed time of the end"....that there will be a lot of chaos and confusion at the end? Are we not in chaos and confusion right now....vexed....and at times even ill with what we see happening?
           So anyway....Daniel noticed that Jeremiah had written about seventy years....and the end of the captivity. Folks....that is how God does it! In His perfect time....he reveals things....prophecies....to us....and I submit to you that the past half-century....actually a lot longer than that....has been His perfect times....and He has been revealing....as a time release capsule....what is about to happen.
            So Daniel now understands that the time of captivity in Babylon is about to end....and he prays....a long prayer....beginning with...."We have sinned and done wrong....and acted wickedly and rebelled....even turning aside from Your commandments and ordinances." This isn't a....'the Democrats did it"....type of prayer....but a....we did it....I did it....prayer!
            "Moreover....we have not listened to Your servants the prophets....who spoke in Your name to our kings....our leaders....our fathers....and all the people of the land." That is the Grahams and the MacArthurs and the Sprouls....and so many others.....great and small....who actually warned us.
            "Open shame belongs to us....because we have sinned against You....we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God." We have talked ourselves into believing that God has blessed us in America....that we can have our games....and our personal goals....whereas in reality we as a people and a church have set idols before us in almost every area of our lives!
            "Just as it is written in the Law of Moses....all this disaster has come upon us....yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord or God by turning from our wrongdoing and giving attention to Your truth." We have not sought God in the past ten years....nor God's glory....but we sought personal glory!
             America is not....nor ever has been....a Christian nation....others have mislead us in this area....but we had been a God-fearing nation....humbled at times....and chastised at times....but that is all gone....for we today have no humility....and there is no mortification in us. This prayer of Daniels concerned God's people. We as a nation are not God's people....and neither is Israel today God's people....but we believers....if we indeed be blood-bought....redeemed....born again....believers....have this messaage....this warning....and this description of the coming Antichrist....before us....every bit as much as did the returning Jews to Jerusalem and Judah!
             Gabriel appeared to Daniel....as mentioned above...."While I was still speaking"....with that prophecy of the seventy weeks. There would be sixty-two plus seven weeks....sixty-nine weeks....483 days....which very clearly....the way that God's Word often does....would be 483 years. I cannot go into all of the calculations.....but if you do due diligence....and research it for yourself....you will see that....right on schedule....the Messiah would be cut off....the people would reject their Messiah. That leaves one week....seven days....or in reality.....seven years....with a betrayal in the middle of those seven years. Folks....the evidence is all over the place that this day and age in which we live....will usher in....if it hasn't already....that last week. So....let me digress for a moment....what do you think that the Steelers will do this year? The implication being....if we knew what God's Word was saying to us today....if we even slightly understood the...."signs of the times"....(Matthew 16:3)....it would be evidenced in where our passions and our interests would be. My intent in the title of this post is not to say that we cannot enjoy a sport...or a vacation....or other pleasures and pastimes in life....but to stir us to examine ourselves....for me to examine myself....as to our meaning in life....and where we have set our priorities....and to what King we are seeking to exalt?

Annie Get Your Crown

The following was first posted in April of 2017:                

             Consider two women if you would. I'll call one Anne....and the other Annie. They are both 70 years old. Anne was born into money....private schools....a debutante ball.....Sarah Lawrence College....all of that. Her net worth has been in the billions....or today's equivalent of it....all of her life. Anne was physically beautiful...and still is as she had all that money could buy for various expensive cosmetic surgeries and beauty products to keep her skin soft and wrinkle free. She also is very healthy....as every sign of illness was addressed immediately by the best doctors in the world.
             Annie was born in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not far from the steel mills. She started smoking at fourteen because she didn't know any better. She began working as a cleaning woman at the historic Westinghouse Air Brake when she graduated from high school at 18 years of age. She has never had a thousand dollars to spare in her entire life. She still cleans banks and schools at 70 years old. There is no discernible shape or style whatsoever to her hair. Her skin is wrinkled and pasty....and she is not well although she really has no personal doctor to diagnose anything.....rather she will go to the emergency room when necessary.....which had been two or three times in her life. There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of fairness to life as it concerns Anne and Annie.
             God had humbled Annie early in life as she made a mess of it with men....and never married. There was a large yellow brick church on a hill that Annie would always admire when she was on that hill. One particular Sunday while in her thirties, she bundled up on a cold winter day, walked through the red doors, and sat in the last pew. It was as if God dragged her out of bed that day and pulled her up that hill. She heard something from that old man in the pulpit that she had never heard before. It was like water that starts to boil and then one has to hurry and turn the heat down on the stove to keep the water from boiling over the top of the pot.....as if Annie reached out that morning to grab the robe of Jesus....and been raised to life from the spiritually dead.....and has ever since echoed praises to her Savior and her Lord off of those cold bank marble and tiled cafeteria floors. Her body may often ache but her soul is comforted in the pure joy of grace bestowed....and of knowing that a crown awaits her!
               Anne married the perfect man....handsome and richer than her. Her children are all highly successful and have provided a dozen beautiful grandchildren. Anne attends a majestic glass and steel church but she has never once heard the words that changed Annie's life. They were similar words that she heard but sterile....lacking power....and she has no idea that something is even missing. Anne gives more money to the church every Sunday than Annie makes in a whole year....but knows only a name....and not a reigning King. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of fairness here either....for God had humbled Annie....but never Anne.
               Granted, there have been many examples that are the exact opposite where the poor woman had a chip on her shoulder against God her whole life....while the rich woman's sole purpose was in using her wealth to help others and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My point here as it concerns riches and a life of ease....or poverty....is that both are temporary.....with an eternity to follow! Surely there is someone within fifty yards of where I sit right now who is an Annie......and who has been blessed so as to make all the wealth of the richest man in the world appear as nothing but a gilded dung hill.
               What is of everlasting importance is whether Anne or Annie.....who having been born either in riches or poverty....had also since been born anew.....born from above.....or as we hear most often.....born again.....adopted into God's family.....forgiven.....made heirs of an eternal inheritance.....and given God's Holy Spirit to know all these things.....and to rejoice in them.....and to have faith in that which cannot be seen....and strength to persevere.....and if it applies.....to discern the dangers that lurk within riches. This highlighting here of the temporal in no way lessens our concern for the Annies of the world....it rather does the opposite.....for whether one is born into money or not....they are both born into a spiritual deadness......and to be raised from this to life.....makes one almost immediately reach for the one not yet raised.....as if to pull them up also.....whether it be an Annie....or an Anne.

   

It Is A Sad Situation....And Most Of Us Have Seen It In Someone Else....Some Other Time In Our Life

             Some of us....maybe most of us....have at some point or other in our lives....known or been associated in some way with a person who....could never make a single statement....that would automatically be believed. Even a simple statement such as....'it's raining outside'....or 'it's cold out there'....would come with a caveat that that statement has to be held in abeyance until it can be personally proven....or someone else who could be believed....would say the same thing. Normal business of the day just could never be done with them unless their words and statements could in some way be verified. It's sad. There is nothing you can do about something like this....except deal with it the best that you can....and over time....it becomes almost normal....the concerns and protections that have to be put in place when dealing with this person. And it doesn't have to be a person....for there have been and are companies that you would absolutely never believe them on anything they say or promise at face value....such is their reputation to lie.
              To those of us....all around America....in both political parties....or in no particular political party....who over time and through research and/or experience....have come to know Donald Trump....this is one such man. The psychologists can describe a person like this in their terms....what the problem might be....and the theologians can describe someone like this also....and they may both be right....but the basic situation exists that this person just does not have the capability to put any importance on truth....nor the ability to even discern or identify what truth might be....nor even any desire to know anything about the importance of truth.
              The typical MAGA person....evangelical or atheist or in between....cannot see any of this.....nor would they accept it even if they could see it.....so they look at us and wonder why we cannot trust in what this man is saying....and we look at them and wonder why they cannot see the lies....for they have been almost a daily thing for over a decade....some in boldface print....and others through deceptive means.

Jonathan Cahn's New Book......And An Emergency Landing Of An American Airlines Flight

 Note: Update at the bottom of this post.                

                 Jonathan Cahn's newest book....The Altar of Pergamon....The Mystery of the Dark Angel & the Future of the World....was released today. I was at Barnes & Noble early....and finished the book a little bit ago....and here is the review. On a release like this....where the book is going to be a best-seller.....they should have had a small table up front for the stacks of books....but they didn't.....not only that....but the books were not in the general Christian books section. I had to ask where they were....and indeed there they were....in with the novels? Now....technically....it is a novel.....that's the way that Jonathan Cahn has done some of his books....but this is a prophecy book. I mentioned it nicely to one of the employees....and was told that I would have to appeal to the corporate headquarters? I just thought I would help....for a lot of people are going to be going up to them....and asking them where the book is. (there is an update on this at the bottom)
                 So....Jonathan Cahn's latest.....The Altar of Pergamon? I highlighted throughout the entire book....all the pertinent information that Cahn gives....historical facts....and prophetic implications....would fill a forty or fifty page pamphlet....thus it was published in novel form....to make a book out of it....the storyline of which did not interest me.
                 Rabbi Cahn's many bestsellers went downhill fast after this 2011 blockbuster bestseller....The Harbinger....The Ancient Mystery that Holds the Secret of America's Future. Fortunately in this his newest book....it lacked the nonsensical speculation such as Donald Trump being another Jehu. 
                  The book is a rather straightforward historical/philosophical/political journey of Hegel's and Hitler's Germany....and Marx's communism....and Lenin's Bolshevism....and Stalin's Soviet Union....right up to the present European Union....all as it relates to the actual Altar of Pergamon....discovered in Turkey....and moved piecemeal to Germany....the prophetic theory being that wherever this....Satan's Throne goes.....evil and disaster follow.
                   Well....that is his opinion....but the reason that I recommend the book....is that we could use the history of the development of Bolshevism....and Nazi Germany....to possibly see what has happened to the Left in our country over the past thirty-five years....and where we are heading right now under Trump....whose methods are so similar to that of National Socialism....particularly through purging....which is also threatening others who may not totally toe the line....and controlling the media.
                   Really.....other than a lot of....connect-the-dots....there wasn't a whole lot of discovery in the book. I've posted a few years ago....just about the same sequence of events from Hitler's Germany.....(most recent post....July 18...."Hitler 1919 to 1939)...and Lenin's Russia....and I posted years ago on the strange similarity of the convention stage that Barack Obama accepted his first nomination....to the actual Altar of Pergamon that is today in a museum in Germany.
                    Jonathan Cahn does have a fair amount of research that I had never heard before....so I recommend the book....with the caveat not to run wild with the author's speculation.

Update....Did you read or hear in the news about an American Airlines flight from Texas to New Jersey that had to make an emergency landing in Baltimore? The man who caused the trouble had been duct taped to his seat. I read the story and saw the picture of the duct taped man. Well....it was two days after The Altar of Pergamum had just come out....and Jonathan Cahn was on that flight....returning from a speaking engagement on his new book....and....are you ready for this....he was the man sitting next to the man who caused the disturbance! In fact....he was the reason for it....or as he describes it....his book....The Altar of Pergamum....was the reason the plane had to make that emergency landing. You can Google his forty-minute description of what went on.....but to summarize here....the two men were having a congenial talk....two hours into the flight....when the topic turned to the gospel. The man had no interest....a typical response today....but Cahn had his computer open on his lap....and when the man saw the graphic of the new book cover....the altar of Pergamum....he changed....first just angry shouts....and then it became violent....so much so that passengers and flight attendants had to duct tape him in his seat....and the pilot requested an emergency landing airport.

Update on the Barnes & Noble episode....so tonight I was in a different B&N....and picked up a new biography on Trump's old lawyer....Roy Cohn....(Trump quote from his first term...."Where's my Roy Cohn?")....and to this employee I mentioned the episode in another B&N about the Jonathan Cahn book being shelved in the wrong place....and he told me that the first day someone asked him for the book....and he immediately went over to the 'Christian' section.....and it took him 30 minutes to find it in with the novels! He immediately.....on his own....took most of the books over to the regular Christian section where they should be!

"Puff Graham"

                They put six large circus tents together....in downtown Los Angeles....this in the fall of 1949. The crusade was supposed to last for three weeks...and after the first few nights....although well attended....it looked like it might end on schedule....but William Randolph Hearst sent out a directive to all of his newspapers to...."Puff Graham"....which was newspaper lingo for....'put him on the front page and make him look good.' It was like a king's decree....almost knighting Billy Graham. The crusade was extended to a full eight weeks...with 350,000 people attending.
               The London crusade lasted 12 weeks in 1954....with the last evening filling Wembley Stadium with 120,000 people....and then there was 16 weeks at Madison Square Garden in 1957. The crusades went on and on over many decades....all over the world....417 crusades in all....226 here at home....one of which....in 1968 at Pitt Stadium....my future wife and her two friends went forward.
                In the early 80s we only had three major commercial TV networks....and PBS which was usually on a UHF channel. So with four stations....it seemed like Billy Graham crusades were on all the time....and when we weren't running into a crusade....it would Pat Robertson's The 700 Club. There were six Christian bookstores within a twenty minute drive from our home....and I hit them all....regularly. It seemed like I was going to three or four conferences every year....some relatively major....and others maybe a weekend at a local church. I handled the book table at the monthly Full Gospel Businessmen's dinner. Twice we had conference speakers stay at our home....once a newspaper editor from Romania....and once a visiting Baptist pastor from Australia. This was normal stuff for an evangelical in the 80s!
                Reagan was president....Tip O'Neal was the Democrat Speaker of the House. Canadians were like family. My wife and I were kept awake one night by young Londoners singing.....over and over and over again below our hotel window....Don McLean's....American Pie. Television news was great....as were newspapers....of which I read three a day. It was during this period that Trump began his Atlantic City casino adventures....which turned out to be a disaster that almost brought him to personal bankruptcy. I have always had a question about his owning casinos....if they had not failed he would still proudly own them. Have evangelicals ever faced the fact that this is a man who wanted to make a fortune in casinos....gambling....that ruins so many people's lives?
                  Billy Graham....according to his son Franklin....voted for Trump in 2016....but so did I. Trump took office on January 20, 2017. Billy Graham went home on February 21, 2018....13 months or 397 days later....and Franklin has said that his father did not even speak much in his last year.
                                                                  

                 The above commercial for a brokerage firm is from the 70s...."When E. F. Hutton talks.....people listen." To you young folks....believe me....this commercial was a big as any of the popular insurance commercials of today. For decades we in the church had a handful of men who spoke with gravitas. When they said something....we listened....Billy Graham who was constantly warning of coming judgment....and John MacArthur warning of false prophets....and R. C. Sproul....and Tim Keller....and Voddie Baucham....and David Wilkerson....and Pat Robertson....some of them significantly theologically different from each other....but all of them with an obvious sense of discernment on the day and the age that we live....and they are all gone. God has called them all home. Add to this a collapse of some other very well-known reformed ministers....either through scandal or other human frailties....and with a few exceptions such as John Piper and David Jeremiah....we are today essentially leaderless....with no one there who when they would speak....we would listen....not only in the church but in the media. To compound the problem....there are many others who we listen to today....MAGA podcasters and Internet news sites and Fox prime time cable hosts....that not only do not warn us....but they are the purveyors of the things that Billy Graham and others would be warning us about!
                    The younger generations are the ones that are particularly vulnerable.....because they do not know what the church was like forty years ago....let alone in ages past. Most of them never experienced a Christian bookstore. I travel a lot....and always look for Christian bookstores....and have a hard time finding them. Pentecostals probably never heard David Wilkerson preach. They think that podcasts are normal....or that youth political conferences under the guise of the gospel are normal?
                     There may come a tipping point....where Trump does something that just cannot be ignored in our pulpits? Or maybe someone in the church will rise....or the Ligonier conferences or MacArthur's Shepherd's Conferences will make national news? Maybe the media will essentially do what the famed William Randolph Hearst did back in 1949....'Puff Piper....or Puff Jeremiah....or Puff Paul Washer? Who is Paul Washer? Back in March of this year....at John MacArthur's Shepherd's Conference....the first conference since he went home....Paul Washer gave the message in Session Ten....and he actually addressed the issue of ministers like John MacArthur being gone....what do we do now! Here is that message that I have posted before....

 

                                                                              

                                                                                

"Something We Couldn't Predict."

              Tomorrow....Sunday....August 30, 2026....NASA will launch a new telescope into space....called the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope...after NASA's first chief astronomer. To say that scientists are excited would be a gross understatement as they are hoping to find possibly explosive answers on things like dark matter and dark energy. One scientist said that the telescope may lead to a new atlas of the universe. Another was quoted in an article that I read...."I very much hope....and in fact expect....that the most exciting science from Roman will be a surprise....something we couldn't predict.
                Another quote from the article is that it may prove a serious flaw in the standard model of cosmology....the current understanding of how the universe....and everything in it....has evolved. It might even indicate dark energy is not the constant force it is thought to be....but might change over time."
                Folks....I'm interested in astronomy....but it would have to have biblical implications before I would write a post on it. Such is the case with blood moons and solar eclipses. So....what these scientists are essentially saying is something that I have pointed out ever since I began to study biblical apologetics. They are admitting....(it's easy to admit something when they are behind the new discoveries)....they are admitting that things that they tell us now that are constants....may in fact turn out not to be constants! Right now....for example....we just absolutely believe that radiocarbon dating is a constant....therefore...such and such a thing....is this old or that old. Well...maybe and maybe not. We may find out some day that the period of decay in the sample is not a constant as we believe now.
                Another interesting thing....to me anyway....about the launch of this new telescope....is that after it is set up and synced in....three or four months maybe....and it sees much farther into the universe....and in much greater detail....that scientists may see a strange phenomenon....that I speculated about in the following post....from 2017....

Keep Looking To The Skies

        The scientists remained busy in their work as chaos enveloped the entire world. Their mission had been to find life in the outer reaches of the universe and then communicate with them. It was a project that was given every conceivable help in its mission. There were no budgets, no rules and no hindrances of any kind. Mankind, science to be more exact, was certain of two things....the human race is self-destructing and if there was to be any help it would have to come from intelligent life outside of our own.

         A nuclear war had devastated most of the inhabited world. Over-population would no longer be a concern....for most of humanity had either died in the war or through starvation and disease. There were factions posing as governments who still struggled to control what little resources were left on earth. The scientists at this super telescope had not found any help in time to avert nuclear war but they were permitted to continue for there was progress of sorts being made.

          A very special code was developed and sent into space in every direction. This code was so advanced that even its creators could not fully understand it. The hope and expectation of the scientists was that any intelligent life outside of the earth that would pick up such signals must therefore be more advanced than ours and would be able to explain our own code to us, understand our primitive attempts, and discern our objectives even in the midst of our own confusion.

          As if wars would not have been enough, the cosmos picked a terrible time to erupt upon earth. Asteroids appeared only at the last moment before striking our planet. The earth itself remained on its axis but every people group in the world was in a tailspin. The combination of nuclear explosions and asteroids striking the planet caused many earthquakes but they did something even more devastating, as the earth's tectonic plates began to move once again over the earth's mantle. It had always been assumed that the first continental drift took long periods of time but here one could measure the movement every day. The Americas were heading back to Europe and Africa. Greenland was returning to its original position as was Australia. Even Antarctica was drifting northward.

         There were tyrants and dictators and mass murderers in the aftermath of war but there was one particular man who had success assuming power over much of the world's people....but he himself was now almost ignored in the sulfur filled atmosphere and little light on earth.

         Remarkably, the scientists kept to their work. Had they made no progress they too might have panicked and their work abandoned but something was happening. They were picking up signals that were not chaotic or coincidence and were placing these signals over the grid of the code they had constructed even though they had no specific formula for decoding them, for they were depending upon the aliens for this.

         Word was leaked to what remained of humanity that distinct signals were picked up from outer space and this was received with great joy and expectation with no fear whatsoever. All were now focusing on a future once again and not the cataclysms they had been experiencing for a few years. One person was not enthused about this...that was the man who had assumed control over most of the world's people. His time had come to rule and he wanted no help from any other intelligent life. In fact he alone showed fear at the reports of the scientists.

         The signals coming back to earth were distinct and powerful. Scientists determined that the first signal received was the letter 'I.' They put forth the possibility that it could be a pronoun. The same message came in every three hours. Computers and scientists worked on the decoding. There seemed to be three words and then a pause and then another word. The second word was deciphered as....'am.' Scientists were now sure that the 'I' was a pronoun and that the message was beginning with 'I am,' with two more words to be decoded.

         Those on the telescope had discovered a cloud formation....(from the new Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope?)....coming from the direction of the signals and it was becoming clearer the closer it came. The determination of everyone involved was that aliens not only were responding with signals but they were approaching also. The information was leaked to the listening world. Panic was decreasing as hope was spreading. The only exception to this, once again, was the leader who continued to demand that all eyes be on him. This leader had prohibited scientists from giving out news but others set up a continuous broadcast from the telescope and laboratories.

         Who would these aliens be who were coming to help? What would they look like and just how would they help? Surely they were the long-expected rescuers! Man would survive after all! He had determined long ago that he was the measure of all things and now he was to be rewarded.

         Scientists were decoding the last two words. The first was 'coming.' "I am coming'  was the message followed by a pause. The fourth word was more difficult. Its letters made no sense. Perhaps it was a name of the approaching alien but such a powerful intellect would have known that we could not decipher its meaning.

         The cloud formation became even more clear in its approach. It appeared to be spaceships. The form of spaceships could not be seen but what else could they be? It now could no longer be described as a cloud. Light was all around it with an intensity that seemed to be brighter than the sun itself.

         Peoples all over the earth, when told of the sightings, began to make images of the approaching aliens and pay homage to them. The earth still stank of sulfur as cosmic bodies still pummeled it. Winds and hail tormented many parts of the earth but the people shouted joyfully to the skies that previously frightened them.

         Scientists all over the world were put to the task of decoding the last word. An answer seemed to have been discovered but this was not leaked to the people. There was great disagreement within the science community. Some scientists were seen leaving the laboratories in a panic and this panic began to spread to the people.

         One pale-faced scientist appeared before the microphones and described the lights as they were getting nearer the earth. He described them as looking like horses! The world was dumbfounded. Then word came from the decoders who were closing the laboratories and hastily leaving. The last word was from an old language of the Middle East. It was actually many words within one. The final interpretation was....'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.'

          

Lord's Day Post

           The Lord is coming back to a church that wants America to become great again....more than it wants Him to return. He is coming back to a church that is excited because football season is starting again. He is coming back to a church that has lost its first love....with little compassion left for anyone. He is coming back in the midst of a great falling away. He is coming back to a church that has followed a false prophet....that promised a....golden age....of prosperity and peace and power and respect.
           In the parable of the unjust judge....Jesus tells of a woman who keeps nagging an unrighteous judge to avenge the wrong that was done to her....but the judge keeps ignoring her....until he just wants her out of his hair. The point is that we are to keep praying and praying and praying.
           So what was this widow praying for....and what is it that is inferred that we should be praying for?  Jesus said this....after instructing those before Him...."Listen"....(did you catch that? Listen!)...."Listen to what the unrighteous judge says....now....will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry out to Him day and night?"
           "Cry out to Him day and night?" Does that sound like MAGA to you? They're not crying out to God. They're just shouting out accusations. I'll tell you who is crying out day and night....those who know that judgment is coming....and has already started....those who are vexed by this false prophet!
            The verse in Luke 18 continues...."and will He delay long for them?" That is the return of Jesus folks! The parable concludes with this...."I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However....when the Son of Man comes....will He find faith on the earth?"
             It doesn't look like it now. No one even has to be born again anymore. The scarlet cord of the blood of Jesus has become the red....white....and blue cord of patriotism....but this will surely change....for God is merciful and slow to anger....that is the prayers that we are crying out for day and night....that God might wake us....His church....His bride....out of our deep sleep....and open our eyes to what is going on around us.
             May if it be God's will begin tomorrow. May this night witness pastors everywhere tossing and turning in bed....and getting up to pace around....running their fingers through their hair....and finally collapsing to their knees....as the Holy Spirit tells them to go up into their pulpits....or more likely behind their plexiglass lecterns....and warn us....the sheep....to prepare...and to fill our lamps....and bring extra oil!