When There Is Little To No Water To Drink......Go To Where There Is Water!

               I'm sure that most parents would rather have their adult children live close by....but if they do not....then those times of the year when they are together can be special times....as opposed to seeing your son or daughter every day....and just saying...."Hey....what's up?" Our son knows that when we do get together for a day or more....that in that time....I will at some point strongly give the same advice. I say it to our son so often that it is down to three words...."Remember son....incorporate!"....and he will know exactly what I mean.
             As a matter of fact....I do not personally know a single brother or sister in the Lord that I would not give this advice to. Let me explain that advice....just about all of us that I know have wonderful pastors.....good men who sincerely desire to serve the Lord in the best ways that they know how to. The problem is in what they do not know.....because of the church day and age that we live in.
             As spiritual children of God....we need spiritual food....nourishment. I imagine that a man can live for months without food before he would die.....but spiritually we can live most of our lives without this spiritual food....and maybe not die....we might physically even be a perfectly healthy person....but we would be susceptible to all of the wiles of the enemy....and have little to no discernment....and be easy prey for wolves in sheep's clothing!
             Bible reading is spiritual food....certainly....sufficient for all of our needs....but God designed it that there is one primary and indispensable food....and that is the preached Word! They call it a means of grace....but we tend to accept that and pass over it without really knowing what it means....or the importance of it! There is a needed power in hearing God's Word preached that is greater even than reading the Bible. If this were not so then we would not even need preachers....for we could just stay home and read God's Word for ourselves.
              That being said....it is not a contradiction that we go to God's Word to verify what the preacher is telling us....but this man...this shepherd (hopefully) is given a gift....in preaching with power! To a certain extent we all are in our own way to seek this gift...."Pursue love....and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts....especially that you may prophesy...." (1 Corinthians 14:1 ESV) When I am doing what I do....and when you are doing with others what you do....hopefully we are partaking in the commands of that Bible verse from Corinthians!
              This post is getting a little bit too long....so to summarize....when there is little or no water to drink....go to where there is water! Incorporate into your weekly and even if possible your daily routine....preaching from....(a phrase that I have used so often over so many years)....preaching from preachers of the past....or those preachers today who preach like preachers of the past. Spurgeom sermons on YouTube and other venues....and sermons from Martyn Lloyd Jones....and John MacArthur....and John Piper....and Michael Horton....and Sinclair Ferguson....and Derek Thomas....and Paul Washer....there are so many....are easy to find and listen to....and if you do the work....and search for them....you will find them. INCORPORATE their sermons into you spiritual life! 

Also...go to ministries such as....ligonier.org and gty.org and whitehorseinn.org and refnet.fm....and park yourself there....for sermons from....preachers of the past....and preachers today who preach like preachers from the past....would eventually give you the discernment to go to ministries like this anyway! 

DISPATCHES

Most of the readers here....not all....would not be familiar with a major television event that happened in November of 1983....a two hour film called....The Day After....that depicted a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States. The film centers around families in Lawrence, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri....and the farmland around those cities. The TV event was a really big deal....and we all....just about....sat around the television that evening. The film was brutal....and stark....and at times numbing....but necessary for Americans to at least consider. President Reagan watched it....as did just everyone else in Congress. The USSR even broadcast it. Lamentations gives a similar depiction in just what it looked like in the dystopian aftermath of the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem. You can boot this up on your computer in a minute....and watch it if you so desire.

The phrase....rock and a hard place....doesn't do this situation justice. The fringe left of the Democrat Party is slowly becoming the mainstream. This is having a terrifying affect on Republican voters....for as bad as they know Trump to be....they cannot completely tear themselves away from him. So what came first? Did the radical Dems....out of fear....produce Trump....or did Trump....out of pure disgust for him....produce the radical Dems of the past decade?

Trump likes to point out that....in his opinion....if the Dems did not cheat him out of a victory in 2020....that he would be gone by now. There is another way to use the same principle....if we had not been taken in by Trump in 2016....maybe Hillary would have won....and then she would be gone by now....maybe even....because of Covid....served only one term?

So the reflecting pool....the Fourth of July celebrations in general....was one of those things important to Trump....along with the Ukraine and Iran....but it turned out to be PR disaster. Someone other than Trump had to get the blame....so that blame went immediately to vandalism. Interior secretary Burgum made the charges...and DC US Attorney Pirro....a longtime Trump worshiper....brought indictments....and Trump was happy in his element of righteous rage. MAGA was fed the raw meat....and resting in the sun on the Ellipse....but then Pirro looked over the evidence....and saw that there was none....and whatever the real motivation might be....to her credit....she came out and admitted that the whole thing was botched....and dropped the charges....on the man....the enemy....raked over the coals for a month. Trump predictably hit the ceiling on hearing this....but Pirro showed up with proof of the botch...and who knows if Trump will fire Pirro or Burgum or find another way to get at the 'vandal?'

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.

The latest absurdity....apparently there is a public golf course in D. C. where the average golfer can go for as little as $17 a round. Trump wants to turn it into a world class golf course....and he wants to start soon. He has done things like this his whole life....as when he said that the East Wing would not be touched by construction on the new ballroom....and then the bulldozers showed up. The bicyclers are angry also because the new course would take their bike path. Folks....it's not only on things like construction....for this quick maneuver before anyone gets the chance to complain is pure Trump. 

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.

The following is the past paragraph from a July 5 post...."There will be a solar eclipse on August 12,,,,cutting a thin swath from Greenland ....to Iceland....and then northern Spain....but before that will come the Jewish fast day that looks back on nothing but tragedies to the Jewish people....this called the Ninth of Av....(Av being the Jewish month)....or as it is also known....Tisha B'Av....and this year the date is July 22. Considering the extraordinary turn of events in an already evolving maelstrom....it's a date to at least give us a solemn awareness of the times in which we live."

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...

                                                                    

 

Regime Change

 Let me start with this from a July 5th post....

 "This current conflict (with Iran) started on February 28....just before the Purim holiday that began two days later. What followed was a month of....shock and awe....and then came Passover....April 1-9....coinciding with Easter.....Sunday....April 5.....and texts from Trump that should have cast doubts by everyone on his sanity...."48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to God." This was an Easter message....the second is too vulgar to put up here but it does end with an odd mockery...."Praise be to Allah." Something happened somewhere! Maybe powers that be....whoever or whatever those powers might be....got a hold of him and said....act like you are sane or leave now? At one moment he was threatening the entire population of Iran with extinction....a population....half of which probably supported him....and the next moment....right up to today....he was just trying to get out of this conflict?"

               In another post I wondered how it could happen that after a month of shock and awe....where at one moment the Iranian leaders were as if crawling around under the rubble looking for pockets of air to breath....and almost the next moment....those same leaders were controlling the narrative and events? It haunted me. What had happened that this war would change course so abruptly?
               Maggie Habeman is definitely one of the best Trump biographers out there....although there are a couple of others. In her new book....Regime Change....she gives a day-by-day account of Trump's second term....beginning in the transition period....and ending at publication....just as the current war with Iran began.
               It doesn't appear that she has missed much since the day of the second inauguration. If I didn't already know who Donald Trump was.....after ten years of intense observation and well over a hundred books on his life....I would think that for the uninitiated....reading this book straight through with no time to come up for air....that they would become totally discouraged and disillusioned with the state of our government. This man that leads the former free world is that bad....every day of his life is one misanthropic and megalomaniacal adventure after another. There is no break in the absurdities. I wonder how long the few relatively normal cabinet members and advisers from his administration can last....without succumbing to severe depression over what they had gotten themselves into?
                So does Haberman's book give any hint as to what happened on that Easter weekend....even though the book essentially stops there? I think that it may. From the way that Haberman presents it....most of the people involved in the decision making in that situation room....were very concerned about the potential problems with a war....but Trump....possibly emboldened by the successful Maduro capture....and Benjamin Netanyahu's optimism....made the call to go for it.....and it was by all estimates going very well....until Trump went off the deep end that Easter weekend. It appears possible that he was more than ready to blow boats out of the water....and send bombers....but nothing more than that?
                   He went from shock and awe to not only diplomacy....but absurd.....back and forth diplomacy of....'they're agreeing to peace/we're going to blow them to hell'....all the while compromising more and more of his initial demands....and giving the Mullahs more and more breathing room....and probably causing great concern to Israel over all of this?
                   So here he is....right back where he started....only in a worse position....as this Iranian regime has proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that it will be as murderous as it ever was!

They Want Ideas......Here Is One

                There are reports out that our military has asked analysts and even military personnel for creative ideas to pressure and punish Iran. I don't have my top secret clearance anymore....it probably expired fifty-four years ago....but I have an idea. Here is where you have to get creative because Trump will never do it. Go to Nato and Europe and admit that a great mistake was made in calling Europe every name in the book....over years....purposely tearing apart a strong alliance that had lasted for seventy-seven years....and then come together in this effort! Trump threatened them and hammered and tried to humiliate them every chance that he got....but things were good for him then....and he could never see more than a few months down the line....nor does he care what happens after he is out of office. So figure out a way for Trump to apologize....without looking like he is apologizing....and maybe they can do a little apologizing themselves....because they have made as many mistakes as we have.

                    I thought this a good time to bring back a post from August of 2019:

Good-bye Langley

              You are an analyst for the CIA. You're 64 years old and set to retire at the end of the year so you have seen a lot in your career....and developed a sense of spotting trouble when something is not right. Today Putin is being pushed in Russia....and he has a nasty habit of pushing back. Hong Kong may explode. The trade wars may back the Communist Party of China into a corner that they will have to fight their way out of. Both Russia and China have fiercely been stocking up on gold. The Mullahs in Iran are more than willing to go to war....along with their surrogates....provided there are other wars going on. Meanwhile.....Kim Jong-un just commissioned his newest submarine and is testing ballistic rocket systems right and left.
              You've got a memo already typed up and ready to push the send button....a worst-case scenario....but no one to send it to....for everybody above you is focusing on Venezuela....on the possibility of a blockade.....for 'humanitarian purposes' of course....certainly not oil. You wonder if you should have included Venezuela to get their attention. You delete the memo from the computer and roll up the printed copy....tossing it the waste can....to be burned later. You decide to vacation out instead of waiting until the end of the year.
             They all shake your hand on your last day. You buy a comfortable cabin in the remotest section of Cook Forest, Pennsylvania where there is no WiFi or cable television. You bring a book that you've always meant to read.....page one....by the time that you have read through the book of Daniel you wish that you had sent that memo....by the time you've finished Revelation you think about....and utter the words out loud of the second thief on the cross....from the Gospel of Luke you believe....for you know no other way to put it...."Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
i

Lord's Day Post

                I recently had the blessing of spending significant time with a believer from another country. I had always known this person to be a praying Christian....but after getting to know her....it became apparent to me that there was a gift of intercession here. The words were simple....unadorned by elocution or vocabulary....but trusting and believing....in a sense that I don't ever recall hearing before....not even by preachers of the past....or preachers today who preach like preachers of the past....although I have read of such blessed believers. This person's prayers had been answered a number of times in her life....in extraordinary though very basic ways....in maybe a healing....or in the basic needs of life. This has a special meaning to me....because I know that she is praying for me....and I wish that I could pray for her with the same gift!
                I have witnessed in the past a believer....believers actually....with an obvious gift of service. R. C. Sproul....had an obvious and extraordinary gift for teaching.....and Spurgeon for preaching. I'm being very particular here....because in my life I've witnessed many more pretensions and pretenders to spiritual gifts.
                Corrie ten Boom had a specific gift. Joni Eareckson Tada has a gift of faith that is too humbling for me to even attempt to expound upon.
                The spiritual gifts are for the church....this I have had read....and understand and believe. I cannot expound much on the gifts because I do not have a gift of teaching that it would require.
                 I do know this....few preachers today have a gift of preaching God's Word. I know this also....they cannot see that they have no gift....so they are not burning the midnight oil on their knees imploring of God enough of the gift to be of any help to the people that will sit before them on a Lord's Day morning....trusting them.
                 I know this also....everything good begins with introspection. You....I....anyone....cannot look outward....before looking inward. The pride has to be found and taken out of the house....as in the ancient Passover....when the night before....in this case the night before they would enter their pulpits....a search has to be made....and the leaven....if there be any....particularly of pride....found and disposed of.
                 So this day that I am writing and posting this....is the day before the Lord's Day. And I will as I always try to do....pray for my pastor....and our son's pastor....and the pastors of many friends....and plead with God that if it be His will....and in his perfect timing....that this might be the day that He has mercy upon these pastors....faithful though in many cases sleeping men....and thus have mercy upon all of us who will sit before them....expecting and hoping to be fed....that which we so disparately need!

It All Began With A Blood Moon

Preface: The first paragraph below is from January of 2025....just prior to Trump's second inauguration. At 76 years old....I've witnessed conservative revolutions....1980 with Reagan....and the 1994 Republican Contract with America....and the great Tea Party success of 2010....and on the other side....Bill and Hillary in 1992 and Barack in 2008. I saw John Kennedy in person....and was one of a multitude of young people who loved Bobby. All of it combined....cannot match the rise....and fall....and rise again....of Donald John Trump....born on a blood moon in June of 1946. It all began in that 2014/2015 grand tetrad of blood moons....when he came down that golden escalator to a group of cheering paid actors....and staff....and bystanders and tourists. A pandemic brought him down....and he brought others down with him....in a fiery crash on January 6 of 2021....gone....a sad spectacle....but he almost immediately rose from the ashes....and it isn't politics this time....but something more....something demonic....to have so much biblical evidence that this movement is not of God....and not see it....nor is his purported defense of Israel sincere....nor his concern for freedom of religion....or the press....or anything. The additional paragraphs are from February of this year:

              We believe that great things are about to happen because Donald Trump will be back in the White House. All gone...is God's fifty years plus warnings to us that judgment was coming....all because we have Trump and a Republican Congress....and new cabinet members. All forgotten are the decades long judgements....one after another....building to a crescendo....as we are about to celebrate the dawn of a new....Golden Age in America! We in effect....blew off God's warnings. We are far more godless of a people....both on the left and on the right....than we ever were. On the right....including evangelicals....we are drunk with the promise of economic gain....and national glory....and have been steered away from Jesus Christ....but God will not be mocked.            

               We are not sure of the exact relationship between Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar although the terminology in the fifth chapter of Daniel used the word...."father"....for Nebuchadnezzar. Babylon was under siege from the Medes and Persians....but apparently Belshazzar felt secure enough to hold a great feast....in Nebuchadnezzar's South Palace....only a short walk away from where Nebuchadnezzar....(and later Belshazzar).....lived.  A thousand of Belshazzar's lords were invited....about the same number that Trump said would be full-capacity for his new ballroom. The square footage of Nebuchadnezzar's South Palace ballroom was about half that of Trump's new ballroom....but they also probably used the adjoining palace courtyard....of approximately the same size.
               Well you all know the story....Belshazzar brought in the vessels that Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem....that were apparently stored away.....and they drank from the vessels....and partied. Fingers of a hand then appeared on the wall of the ballroom....and Daniel....who was probably in his eighties by then....interpreted the words....and that very night....believe it or not....the Medes and Persians came in under the city walls....because they had diverted the waters....and historians descriptions of what the conquerors did to the Babylonians....was graphic....and terrible.
               We do not know what a day brings....which is why we should always try to preface remarks on the future....even if it is just a day....with...."Lord willing"....or...."if God wills it"....but if Trump eventually gets the new and glorious ballroom that he wants....and he holds his first feast for a thousand or so dignitaries....some present might want to keep an eye on the walls....for fingers of a hand....writing something....might appear....telling those in the feast....(and all of us really)....that after a half century of intense warnings by many men......not the least of which was Billy Graham....that our days also have been numbered....and we also have been found wanting....and our kingdom also....has been divided and given away!

No....But He Is Nearly Perfect....The Other Way

                  It was forty years ago. I had been saved within Pentecostalism....and there were some outside Charismatic influences. We were attending a Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship....dinner with a speaker. These were enjoyable and edifying times....most of them....some were not. In this one particular dinner....the speaker asked if there was anyone who wished to come forward to have hands laid upon them....and to be....Slain in the Spirit. I had witnessed quite a bit of this back then....was merely inquisitive....and decided to go forward. The speaker....put his hands on foreheads and the people would gently fall backwards into the waiting arms of someone prepared for just that. He came to me....and put his hand on my forehead....and nothing happened....so he pushed a little....and still nothing....then he pushed harder....appeared frustrated....and moved on to the next person.
                  The Charismatic church in the 1990s was awash with this kind of nonsense....as people in American churches were laughing and barking and moving spasmodically in the mere presence of someone that they believed to be anointed by the Holy Spirit. The chief anointed 'minister' in what was known as the Laughing Revival....was one of those seventeen ministers laying hands on President Trump in the Oval Office in 2017. If you have never watched the video of....Trump's pastor....or so they call her....Paula White....praying....this after the 2020 election loss....but before January 6....praying for angels to come to help Trump....then you certainly should take the time....for it shows the horror of the charismatic presence around Trump....who uses it as it benefits him. Just Google....'Paula White....angels video.'
                 There is a female minister in Los Angeles....who calls herself an apostle....(many call themselves such)....and she is in the news because when she speaks....people shake uncontrollably....and then may fall to the ground. The news editors must have a short memory....for this kind of stuff had been old news....a long time ago.
                  Why does someone fall down....or begin to laugh uncontrollably....or shake....when in the presence of one of these 'ministers?' Well for one thing....they want to experience whatever the experience of the moment might be. They think that it must be a good thing.....the Holy Spirit descending upon those affected. There would have been no warnings to these people....and if there were any warnings....they would have been willfully ignored.
                  The principle is also the same....or at least very similar....to evangelicals and Trump. They wanted something so very bad....they wanted their country back....and he promised it to them....but it has been ten years of false prophecies of glory! They don't shake or laugh out loud or fall over....as they just stare and smile into the eyes of the man with the gift....and believe what he says. They think that they are honoring God....and it is very hard to get through to them. They will in defense of Trump....admit that he is not perfect....but what they do not realize is that he is almost perfect....in that for at least sixty of his eighty  years....he has as if lived a life as a single-cell organism....with no concern for or connection to anything else in existence....other than himself....and that which benefits him....able to change shape at will. Take today for instance....at the funeral service for a departed statesman....the words may have been there at times....for he knows what must be included in his eulogy....but the only importance of those few hours was in how it affected his own political future.
                   How can I be so sure of what I'm saying? After knowing almost nothing about him before the 2016 election....other than his money and his comical celebrity....and immediately after seeing him begin to change shape upon entering the Oval Office....as if he had no real ideology at all....I began to study his life....through as of today 115 books about that life....and after fifty or so rallies....and hearing literally....literally....thousand of lies....and observing his actions almost every day for the last decade....as if there was no such thing as objective truth....or common decency....I can easily recognize that which God's Word warns us of....and commands us to have nothing to do with....and to even flee from! 
                   His psychological disorders are numbing....considering his position as President of the United States. It is not just an ego....but a metastasized illness that affects every waking moment. No....this man's traits are nearly perfect....perfect in their self-servitude....and disastrous to the evangelical that is has been blinded to who he really is. 
                   One last thing as I just finished watching the funeral service of that departed government leader.....in what is called....our National Cathedral....which in reality is nothing but a pagan temple. There were hymns....and clerics in robes....and many Scripture readings....and testimonies....but what it was....was a temple ceremony for a false worldly religion....with a false gospel....and a false hope in salvation. May God have mercy upon us...for we have ignorantly yet willfully....drifted with the current....seeking our will....and conforming God's will to ours....while relying for change on might and power....not the Holy Spirit....and becoming in essence....the Church of the Lowest Common Denominator.
                    When we as God's children....are dealing with a genuine biblical false prophet....a man whose very career is based on greed and threats and lies and ego....an enemy of the gospel....not a friend....and who leads God's children away from trust in Christ....to trust in ourselves....we then do not have the right....nor can we if we seek God's glory alone....use frivolous statements of defense....such as....'well he's not perfect.'

      

Doeg And Musk

                There are names in the Bible that are very poetic....Mephibosheth has always struck me that way....and other names are just difficult to pronounce....Zerubbabel might be one. Some are comically simple such as Lot or Job. Some names have a grandeur about them such as....Solomon....and others....to me anyway....are ugly. Doeg would be one of those....pronounced...dough-egg. Doeg? I just don't like it.
                 Well the name fit the man Doeg. He wasn't an Israelite.....as a matter of fact....he was an Edomite....the people that came from Jacob's brother Esau....and were usually enemies of the Israelites.
                 Israel wanted a king....and would not take no for an answer....(just like wanted a powerful leader)....so God gave them one....Saul....who started off Ok but eventually descended into the pit of hate and revenge towards....David....a man after God's own heart.
                  Segue to David fleeing Saul....to Ahimelech....the High Priest....at Nob....seeking provisions for his men. Ahimelech may not have been aware of the whole situation....and provided David with those provisions. 
                   Doeg was Saul's chief herdsman.....apparently a high profile position....and he was at Nob the day that David arrived. David knew he was there and was concerned....and true enough....Doeg went back to Saul and reported on Ahimelech giving provisions to him....apparently without telling Saul that Ahimelech may not have known the whole story between Saul and David.
                   King Saul ordered his men to go and kill the priests at Nob....but they refused such a horrible command....(oh that some today would refuse such orders in this administration)....so Saul turned to Doeg and ordered him to go and kill Ahimelech and everyone else that was there.....of which Doeg did do just that....everyone....women and children and all.... a slaughter! David was told of what happened and blamed himself. Psalm 52 speaks of Doeg. I was reading that Psalm last night....and that is what precipitated this post. Here are a couple of verses from that short Psalm...

"Why do you boast in evil....O mighty man....Your tongue devises destruction....like a sharp razor....working deceitfully....You love evil more than good....and lying rather than speaking righteousness You love all devouring words....You deceitful tongue....here is the man who did not make God his strength....but trusted in the abundance of his riches....and strengthened himself in his wickedness." (1a, 2, 3, 4, 7 NKJV)

                    Doeg is an odd name....flip a couple of letters and it would be doge. That's what came to my mind anyway....doge....a medieval ruler in parts of Italy....or from what I read....a meme of some sort from a while back....or maybe a computer game....or then maybe the insidious creation of Elon Musk....that went out at the command of the president....for probably no one else would have or could have done such a task....and under the claim of government efficiency....brought a lot of pain to a lot people who lost their jobs....and also pain to people around the world who lost vital health benefits because of the....in some cases....slaughter such as at USAID!
                     Yes there are changes that need to be made in many of our government policies....foreign aid and immigration are but two....but you do not do surgery with a  chainsaw....and if your own leaders would defy or even question your commands....it might be a good thing to at least take seriously their hesitations.

                 

The Difference Between The Noun....'Awe'....And The Adjective....'Awesome'

                The church has lost the awe of what it means to be born again. You may still hear the phrase from time to time....and you may even hear the story in a sermon of Nicodemus's late night secret visit to see Jesus....but somewhat as with a grade school student when called upon for an answer to a question that they do not know....he or she may be able to string enough words together....well enough that the teacher has to accept the answer....but it is only head knowledge at best.
                 If we realized what the word 'lost' means....and what the word 'saved' means...along with the incalculable and eternal difference.....and consequently realized that it was us that was once lost....and us that are now saved....it would by every rule of logic and common sense....turn us into what the world calls....fanatical Christians....who want nothing to do with this world....but only to live truly as a pilgrim in a world headed to destruction....but you see....that is not us!
                 We have over time....talked ourselves into believing....or let ourselves be led into believing....that this salvation thing was just an everyday occurrence....made so easy....that all one has to do is believe.....(a simple act with no corresponding emphasis on just what the word 'believe' might mean)....and then they can sit back and expect all the blessings to begin!  
                  Charles Spurgeon and J. C. Ryle both....circa 1850 to 1900....lamented....and preached on....and warned with a passion....that the gospel was being lost in the church at the time....and the gospel was indeed disappearing in the church at end of their long ministries. Spurgeon called it....The Downgrade.' 
                   The church underwent a resurgence of the proclamation of the true gospel in the latter half of the last century....led by men like Martyn Lloyd-Jones and MacArthur and Sproul and Billy Graham and others....call it a minor awakening or a generational revival or whatever you might want to describe it as....but it faded as revivals always do...and these men were taken home....almost to a man!
                    Thirty years ago an alarm was sounded with the growing popularity of the megachurch and the user-friendly gospel....John MacArthur especially defended the gospel....but we lost that battle! We were hit in short order by 9/11....a disastrous economic collapse....then a pandemic....and each one shifted our emphasis away from defending the gospel to defending the constitution and protecting our way of life. Trump weakened what was left of evangelicalism....as we are essentially today the....Trump evangelical....which is no evangelical at all! 
                     No one has to be born again....they only have to be recruited....and then sign on the dotted line. There is no power in the pulpits. You can literally skip over any verse or passage or whole book in God's word if you want to. The Sunday worship service is a pleasant time....and if it's not a pleasant time....then we will go somewhere else where it offers a pleasant time!
                     So what is next on the biblical agenda? Surprises are next. The unexpected is next! That may sound odd coming from someone who 'expects' that Jesus is at the very door....and can recite one fulfilled sign after another fulfilled sign of His return....but we will need real faith in the real near future....and real warnings....of a real holy God.
                      There is a difference between the noun....'awe'....implying an almost paralysis before a holy God....'that sermon had me in awe of a holy God'.....and the adjective....'awesome'....which is how the church of today looks at God....'that was an awesome sermon.'

We Underestimated The Wiles Of The Devil

                It was 2015....and Hillary was most likely going to succeed Barack Obama as president. We conservatives had been stoked to a fever pitch by Rush and Mark Levin and Hannity. I was there. As some of you reading this were. This is a first-hand account. We had plenty of decent candidates but they were either milquetoast or perceived to be milquetoast candidates....then along came a man who poured blood into the already shark infested water.
                He was vile....and comical as we always had perceived him. In one instance he appeared to mock a reporter with a disability that gave him spastic movements of his hands. This was only one incident of many....in another he said this about another candidate Carly Fiorina...."Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that....the face of our next president?" He later just denied having done these things. That is what he has done for eleven years now....just lie and deny. There came a week....I remember it well....when Rush and then Sean and then Mark....were forced to admit that....yes.....he does lie. So the lies of the man were just openly put aside....for the greater glory or the goal at hand.
                 This was the beginning of the final collapse of evangelicalism. As did Thomas Jefferson in his own personal bible....we just cut out all of everything God told us about people to flee from. We were a people of the book. We no longer are. Everything about holiness and separating from the world is gone. This falling away began long before Trump. The two top Christian female singers in the world had divorced their husbands....and we as if just said....'aw....that's so sad....but we still love your music that brings glory to God!'
                 So we were ripe for the advent of a man who bold-face lied every day of his life if not every hour of his life. The liberals were as the Northern tribes of Israel after the divide. They burned their sacrifices to Molech....abortion....and set up idols everywhere in the land....and God later judged that nation....and that political party....but we followed....just as the Southern tribes later fell into their own idolatrous worship....and now God has judged us.
                 We are a shell of what we once were....and even then we were a shell of what we should have been. The glory has departed from the evangelical church in America....in spite of all the big churches and the constant Bible studies. It is the preaching today that is milquetoast! The evangelical church today that continues to support this man who has given one false prophecy of peace and prosperity after another for a decade....has fulfilled the prophecy in Revelation of the Laodicean church. It at least partially fulfilled the prophecy of a falling away that would come.
                  It is a difficult concept to come to grips with....when we....you and I and all of us....who may have decades of legitimate Christian worship and even sound teaching behind us....when we...ourselves....turn away from our own past! There was no vigilance in us to catch what was happening to us! We underestimated the wiles of the Devil. We overestimated our own strengths.
                   So here we sit....fully ensconced into a false hope....following a false prophet....unable in spite of the overwhelming evidence that this is a man such as God's Word....throughout....warns us....even commands us....to turn away from and have nothing to do with!
                    Woe are us....but somewhere in the confines of our memory....is the knowledge that God is not only a God of righteous judgment....but a God of mercy that continues to call us back to Him. Rock Bottom? How many times have I thought that we were at rock bottom....only to slide off and continue to fall? But that real rock bottom is coming. May our merciful God then display a mercy that we do not deserve! May He not only open our eys....but apply a balm so that we do not collapse into total despondency at the realization of what we had done! May we be tossed up...and the wind take away the chaff that suffocates us....and may we then fall as grain that will spring to life....a repentant and encouraged people....free from the delusion that is right now all around us....free to worship in spirit and in truth....finally free to admit our part in what this nation has become....and turn for salvation to the Captain of our souls....and the coming King of all Kings!

Addendum: I pulled up an old sermon by David Wilkerson to listen to tonight. that's right....in amongst Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones and MacArthur and John Piper and even Michael Horton....I listen to David Wilkerson sermons occasionally. I have a hundred sermons by him on cassette in my basement....that I listened to....probably forty years ago. What the Reformed may not know is that David Wilkerson probably has more Puritan in him than they do. Let me give you an anecdote about the author of....The Cross And The Switchblade....that I have related in these posts a number of times. It took place in the mid-80s....and Wilkerson decided to go to see for himself the most popular Christian singer in America....a female....and as he watched her and her band....he described the scene as her husband played his guitar....with the stem of a rose in between his teeth. David Wilkerson said that he saw demons on the stage....and he ran up the aisle.....shouting to the people...."Ichabod....Ichabod....the glory has departed." I knew that he was at that concert....because I saw the same concert....with the same man playing his guitar with a rose between his teeth....but I thought that it was great! I later came to find out that David Wilkerson....on that day anyway....was right. If David Wilkerson were alive today....there would be no holding him back in warning the church. I'll choose a sermon of his from 1999 to add to this post. David died and went to be with his Lord in 2011.

                                                                        

Amazing....Burnt Timbers From Nebuchadnezzar's Destruction of Jerusalem And The First Temple!

                     It was over a few year period....roughly thirty-five years ago....that my wife and I and our son would get in the car and drive for about forty-five minutes to what was then....Borders Bookstore....in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh. Barnes & Noble grew after the liquidation of Borders. I might return with a Christian book or a current events book....but every time I would come home with a newspaper copy of the Jerusalem Post....which sold for $5 at the time. Today I visit the Jerusalem Post Internet site multiple times every day!
                   So today the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz and The Times Of Israel are all reporting on an archaeologist find....in an on-going dig in the City of David....of large timbers that were burned in the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C.! This is really pretty amazing....for these burnt timbers....probably from a roof they say....to have survived. The reason given is that plaster in the house may have melted over the timbers....preserving them....but what is really amazing is that this find came days before the solemn fast known as the....Ninth of Av....(the Jewish month of AV)....or Tisha B'Av!
                   On this day in history....the first temple was destroyed....and the second temple was destroyed....and before that....it was the day that the twelve spies returned to report to Moses....and told him that that people they saw were much too strong to go against. The people heard this....and panicked....and regretted ever leaving Egypt. God was not happy....to say the very least....and the Jews were condemned to wander around the wilderness for the next forty years!
                   So this day....the Ninth of Av....is a most solemn day! Those who honor that day....(not all Jews do so)....as part of the tradition....are not even to exchange pleasantries with each other! Well....this discovery came days before the Ninth of Av....or....Tisha B'Av!
                    The following paragraph from a July 2020 post describes my feelings on this...."The dates of the future feasts of Israel are always only a click away for me or anyone who feels that surely major prophetic events will occur on these days. This isn't date setting for we do not know the years....but we do know that God's future plans for the Jewish people will most likely revolve around their feasts. To  prognosticate on this is more than problematic....but to ignore it is being careless to God's warnings to us." On another occasion I described it this way...."This is not date setting! This is....mind setting....Set your minds on things that are above, not the things of earth." (Colossians 3:2 ESV)"

                      Tisha B'Av 2026 begins about forty eight hours from now....Wednesday at sundown....July 22....and ends at nightfall the next evening....Thursday....July 23. Jerusalem time is seven hours ahead of us....so sunset on Wednesday is 7:43 PM....or 12:43 PM our time in Pittsburgh.

                   

Put It All On The Grid

                The video was about 50 minutes as I remember. It began with some well-known celebrities telling the viewer to watch the video before the government forced it off the air. Then it went to Bill Gates....right there before you...looking right into the camera....talking about how he had wished that he found this discovery before his father had died. The video then for the next thirty minutes or so was more scientific....as it took you into state-of-the-art labs....and introduced you to prominent doctors. The real problem of Alzheimers was discovered....and Big Pharma was doing everything it could to keep you from knowing about it. The video then takes you to an island and a certain honey only found on that island....and streams of water on that island with a certain kind of chemical.....that when mixed....as all the island's inhabitants did....it cleaned up the brain! Wow! Then the pill was introduced into the video. His research team had through great expense of his own....developed a pill....and once again with Bill Gates paying for most of it....you can order it for about $249 for a six month supply! The problem was....the whole thing was AI generated....fake! That wasn't Bill Gates. I had watched similar videos before with different celebrities....and different miracle cures....and they also were all fake.
                 Now this is not new to us....as almost weekly we see or hear about some AI generated singer or actor or song or some such thing. We are astounded....and shocked numb at times....but as outraged and disgusted as we may be....I do not think that we are anywhere near considering the potential disasters of where this is going.
                 There were clues as I watched that video....that this video was defying logic and common sense.  If Bill Gates can promise to give a hundred billion dollars away....why would he still be charging $49 a bottle for a month supply of this miracle cure? And if only this one small island produced this certain honey....that could not be synthesized....then how could he plan on selling millions of bottles of this....supposedly from now on in? But forget all those nagging questions because there was Bill Gates right before you....what more proof do you need?
                  The latest Time magazine has a two-page article on AI. One statement in the article I have heard before...."AI systems were created by people. But our ability to create them does not mean we know how they work." The jest of the article was whether or not AI can have emotions. That was uncertain....but....they have found that when AI is given a task that it cannot solve....it can show signs of frustration!
                  The Type A....(I just made that up)....Bible prophesy student....can make statements such as....."Jesus might not return for another hundred years." The Type B....Bible prophecy student....me....knows that it is time right now to prepare. We know this....there are going to be false miracles....and great delusion....so much so....that even Billy Graham....if he were still with us....the elect....if possible....could be totally taken in by the deception. 
                  We need to know this! We need....desperately....to begin to put every single seeming miracle....every hero....every movie script...every new prophecy book.....every political platform and every politician's promise and every new Bible teaching....on the grid of God's Word to us....and we need to be praying fervently throughout the whole process....for does not God's Word tell us that Satan can appear as....an angel of light....and that the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion....looking for someone to devour!
                  So Trump says that our best is yet to come? Put that prophecy on the grid of God's Word! What does God's Word say about that?  We are one glorious nation under God? Are We? Put it on the grid! Are we being given a narrative that stirs our anger? Put that on the grid also. Are we being told how rich and powerful we are to become....glory be to God? Check that boasting out with God's Word!
                  Is someone like me who is saying...."Ichabod....the glory has departed"....seeing similarities of American religion....even evangelcalism....with the idolatry of both Israel in the North and Judah in the South....am I the one that is delusional? Put down the trivial and the fun and the games....and set out to find these things out for yourself....keeping in mind the last words to us from God's Word....Revelation 22:20, 21 ESV...."He who testifies to these things says....'Surely I am coming soon'....Amen....Come...Lord Jesus!' The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all....Amen."

Who Would Want A friend Like Me.......I Wouldn't....

               Like any teenager.... I played all the sports that young boys play.... but I have only had two that stayed with me my entire life. One of them was running. I loved to go running. I could fantasize right now if I wanted to.... on this hot and humid day.... going over to our local high school track.... with a bottle of Gatorade.... and a plastic counter around my neck.... to count the laps.... and headphones or earbuds to listen to a sermon. The steam right now is surely coming up off of the rubber track. I could do laps.... maybe twenty or so.... sweating and getting this exercise that I loved.... and hear the glories of God proclaimed at the same time.... from either....'preachers of the past.... or preachers today who preached like preachers of the past.'
               My other athletic endeavor was lifting weights. It was Christmas 1964....and my mother and I were Christmas shopping in downtown Pittsburgh. Petula Clark's....Downtown....was a big song at the time.... but it was the Beatles 45....I Want To Hold Your Hand.... that I wanted for a Christmas present.... along with a Robert's 110 lb barbell set.... which we loaded into a cab for the ride home. I used that same bar and about 65 lbs. last night in my basement. So it has been over sixty years of loving lifting weights! Occasionally I will go to Planet Fitness to work on machines.... and I use that plastic counter around my neck to keep track of the sets.... and on my head.... every single time.... are headphones..... to listen to some wonderful sermon.
               So why am I telling you this? Am I trying to brag? You don't even know me.... and those who do know me don't want to be around me too much anyway.... because this type of stuff is all that I love to talk about. Who wants a friend who is always talking about the Antichrist... and is constantly trying to get them to listen to sermons from....'preachers of the past.... and preachers today who preach like preachers of the past?' Who wants a friend that thinks that he absolutely knows that Jesus is so close that if you close your eyes you might actually hear the sound of the approaching hoofbeats? As a side.... you might want to think about ordering Billy Graham's 1983 book.... Approaching Hoofbeats... The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse? Who wants a friend who is always trying to get you to put away the mystery novel and read books like this.... or stop your daily playing Wordle.... and start trying to calculate the number of the Beast?
                Who wants a friend like this? I wouldn't.... until I started.... years ago.... listening every day.... at times two and three times a day.... to sermons.... supposedly.... means of grace..... (and I can assure you that they are).... from....'preachers from the past.... or.... preachers today who preach like preachers of the past'.... and then.... after being saturated with Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones and Sproul and MacArthur and Horton and Paul Washer.... and many others... I started seeing things a little clearer than I did before.... and my own sins a lot clearer than I did before!
                 So.... if you want the status quo.... if you certainly do not want to become like me.... do not experiment with....'preachers from the past.... and preachers today who preach like preachers from the past!'

                   

                      

Hitler......1919......to......1939

The Confessing Church in Germany unsuccessfully tried to warn the people. The 'confessing church' is not even warning the people today. The following three posts were from the summer of 2025....and I only plan on keeping it up front for a little while....for we need reminded from time to time on how things like this take shape before we even know it....and then we become the frog boiled in the pot:

Hitler....Up To 1934             

                 My disgust with the historical memory of Hitler is such that when I have referenced him a few times in these posts of almost seventeen years I would refer to him as....the German Fuhrer....but I will use his name since this post is about him.
                 The world looked at him as a comical figure...with his little mustache. When he came on the scene in 1919 Germany was falling apart. Hitler wanted a racially pure Germany....and he hated the Jews and the Socialists. He joined the fledgling German Workers Party....and became a prominent member....raging in his speeches. There was something about his speeches that mesmerized....and people just wanted to follow him. He demanded that he was to be the sole leader of the now newly named Nazi Party. If someone didn't get on board they were taken aside and....'urged to reconsider'....but Hitler and others moved too quickly and what followed was the infamous....Munich Beer Hall Putsch in November of 1923....a rally meant to be a coup in Bavaria that would then march to Berlin. The coup failed and Hitler wound up in prison for nine months. His sentence was longer than that but he knew people high up and he was pardoned. He started writing Mein Kampf while in prison.
                  As the 1920s wore on...the Nazi Party fizzled in the elections because things were looking a little better economically....what with the United States and others providing low interest loans. And then came the crash of 1929....the best thing that could have happened to Hitler....or so he thought at the time.
                 The army of Brownshirts was now large and strong and brutal....and Hitler would then form what would be the SS as personal guardians.....and then the secret police....the Gestapo.
                  Everyone higher up who also hated the Weimar regime....disliked this raging former corporal....but they thought that they needed him to stop the violence in the streets....and they thought that they could control him....so they gave him power...and he was appointed as Chancellor. By this time though everyone except his growing group of rabid worship followers knew that there might be a problem.
                  Hitler wasn't even a citizen....being Austrian....and he needed that citizenship in order to run for office. The second time around was a whole new ballgame. The people from all areas of society flocked to him as the savior who promised to make Germany great again.
                  This new Third Reich was forming now....and Hitler flew from city to city to rallies....promising a 1000 year reign that turned out to be only twelve years. That's when he made his biggest decision yet....and the first in his incarnation as savior. It was time for paybacks. His forces rounded up all of his old opponents and others who could not be trusted....hundreds died....many of whom were executed....including his long time closest ally....the leader of the Brownshirts....who worried that Hitler was betraying the movement. Rohm was thrown in jail....given a gun with one bullet to kill himself....and then shot in his cell when he refused to kill himself. This night that extended over a couple of days and nights came to be known as....the Night of the Long Knives. Would the Brownshirts accept him after he had their leader killed? Hitler gave one of his patented speeches on protecting the country....and wallah....they were all back in the fold.
                   Most of the Christian church came on board....believing the promises that were made....that the church was too much of an important German institution to do anything to. Of course that promise went by the wayside.
                   It was too late now. The popular Hindenburg....elected again as president....who was talked into naming Hitler as Chancelor....was now only an old-man figurehead....and died shortly afterwards....as he could only watch the change in the country and its people. It was only 1934.

Afterthought: We need to be aware of history. Germany after World War I was divided as we are today. They were susceptible to the rantings of a man who promised to restore nationalism and greatness. He used fear and hatred to push all the opposition out of the way. Even the church fell for the promise of prosperity and greatness. Paul asked of the Galatians....who had bewitched them? Were they so foolish to begin in the Spirit....but go on to perfection in the flesh?

Hitler Up To 1938

                One of the problems we face....those of us who know there are multiple serious problems with who Donald Trump is....primary mental and psychological....is that when Hitler is mentioned then Trump supporters fly off the handle....outraged that he would be compared to such an evil man. It's a deterrent to even bring up the subject....and a win for Trump....but the issue is with the methods that the German Fuhrer used to captivate the German public....the promises and gifts and threats and intimidations and instilling fear and anger....and their similarity with the rise of Donald Trump.
                 During the 2016 election reports came out that Ivana....Trump's first wife....told her lawyer that Trump kept a copy of Hitler's speeches by his bedside. Trump called that fake news....as he calls everything negative on him fake news. Reports continued and Trump then said that he didn't have such a book but if he did have such a book he would not have read it. That absurd statement is typical Trump that just makes you roll your eyes. Reports continued and Trump then was forced to say that a Jewish friend of his gave him the book. Reports continued and then it was reported that the friend was identified....and that friend said that he is not Jewish. This is Donald Trump. This is a man whose social is called....Truth....but he himself cannot now nor could he ever in his life....distinguish between truth and lies....but the point remains that he....a man who is famous for not being a reader....apparently was interested in why Hitler's speeches were so effective!
                    A couple of posts below this is a narrative on Hitler's rise up until 1934. This post takes it a few years later. After He had purged all of his enemies and potential enemies....the work towards building the broken economy started. Hitler expanded the autobahn and provided an opportunity of German cars for the people to drive on the autobahn. He was building everywhere which put people to work. Pensions were increased and many and various benefits were awarded to the people such as paid vacations and child care benefits. The army doubled in numbers almost immediately and work started on building a powerful Luftwaffe. Submarine building took off. The Nazis confiscated a lot of money from the Jews to finance their projects. They just took their money! As all these other projects were being built....so were concentration camps!
                  Germany had previously been awarded the 1936 summer Olympic games....and Hitler was determined to show the world the greatness of Germany. We get the term....Olympic village....from the changes that he made in hosting the athletes. The stadium was....state-of-the-art. Everything went almost perfectly and the games were a great success.
                   Young people were mobilized to grow into patriotic and physically fit adults...ready and willing to serve in the army. Propaganda was one of the keys....particularly through radio and the film industry and newspapers and posters!
                   Hitler began to expand the territory. They just sashayed into the Rhineland and no one said a thing. The Austrian government....'requested'....that the German army enter the country for stabilization. The people cheered them....and then Austria became part of the German Reich. Hitler then occupied the Sudetenland....and again England and France said nothing. It was now only 1938.
                    The point here is that the destitute economy was now expanding....and the people were told to take pride....and they were rewarded....propaganda was now the key to win over the hearts and minds....territories were being added....all opposition was being silenced....they were celebrating Hitler's birthday every year. Germany was great again and he was the reason.
                     We in America are between a rock and a hard place....in that the very issues that should be brought up along with Trump's rise....Trump uses to 'prove' that there is a Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Note: There are a number of excellent movies out there on Corrie ten Boom....the most well-known of course being....The Hiding Place....but....Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace....should also be watched.

Hitler Up To 1939

                In 1938....Hitler demanded a return of a part of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland....that had a heavily German speaking population. He claimed that the German speaking people were being persecuted....that was his excuse. England and France and Italy gave him what he wanted in what was called....the Munich Agreement. Czechoslovakia was not represented in the talks that ceded the Sudetenland to Hitler. British prime minister Neville Chamberlain famously returned to London with Hitler's signature....holding the paper over his head....where Hitler promised to stop his aggression in Czechoslovakia....but one week later the German Fuhrer proceeded to occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia's Moravian and Bohemian areas. Hitler had already purged most of the Prussian military generals who might not have gone along with his plans of conquest. Although outraged....all that Britain and France did was to guarantee protection for Poland if they were invaded. Does this sound familiar? Putin wants areas of the Ukraine with Russian speaking people. He already was essentially given the Crimea....although he only annexed it....and that didn't stop him.
                Hitler next wanted the free city of Danzig....which today is Gdansk. He then signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union with secretive elements to it....which would free him to invade the western areas of Poland....while Stalin could take other parts of Poland that he wanted. Hitler did invade Poland....and England and France declared war on Germany. Stalin then invaded eastern areas of Poland....but England and France were not ready for another declaration of war....this time on the Soviet Union.
                On the home front in Germany. Hitler always wanted an excuse for his aggression....(the Reichstag fire of 1933 started it all)....and he got it on November 9, 1938 with the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a German-Polish Jewish man. Brownshirts and the SS and even some German youth and citizens then tore through German towns....ransacking Jewish stores and synagogues....in what has become known as Kristallnacht....or The Night Of Broken Glass.
                On the home front today in America........Lindsey Graham thinks that Putin should be given some of what he wants but that European boots should then be placed on the ground in the Ukraine....which would deter Putin from any further invasions of the Ukraine!

Stay Inside Today Because Of The Bad Air Quality!....And Since You Will Be Stuck Inside....Stream This Wonderful Film!

               There is an anecdote that I remember from the past about George Whitefield. It would be hard to describe the popularity that he had at the time. He arrived in Philadelphia for the first time in 1739. Here is the anecdote....when Whitefield had arrived at a certain town or area....word of it spread literally like wildfire....and the population also literally dropped whatever they were doing....got on their horse or their wagon....and literally once again....sped to see him! The anecdote described what appeared to be dust storms along the countryside....as men and women and families would almost race each other....similar to what it must have been like in the Oklahoma Land Rush!
                 What are you doing this evening....as the smoke from Canada wildfires makes it hard to breath here in Western Pennsylvania? Well....you have the opportunity to be blessed....maybe even eternally blessed....by sitting down with your family to stream that wonderful recent film....A Great Awakening!
                 It looks like the film is now available on a number of streaming platforms. My plan....Lord willing....is to order the movie right now on DVD.....so that I can watch it again and again and again....which I have done on so many other movies....such as Amazing Grace....and Chariots of Fire....and C. H. Spurgeon, The People's Preacher....and Jeremiah....and Risen....and so many other Christian films!

We Are Going To Be Wrong....Until In God's Timing We Are Right....But In The Meantime....This Is What We Must Be Thinking And Meditating And Praying About

                Prophecy all through God's Word is and always has been for us to meditate upon. For the past two-thousand years it sat in the background of our minds....because it was not God's timing....but was never forgotten or ignored....not by the Puritans or Whitefield or Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones or anyone....but today it should no longer be on the back burner....because in the past hundred years-plus those prophecies have exploded in their fulfillment....slowly at first but expanding exponentially now.
                  There are dozens of avenues to go down....whole books such as Daniel and Revelation and all of the Old Testament prophets....but also passages somewhere in just about every book in God's Word....Old Testament and New Testament.
                   In this post I want to bring up one obscure passage....well the passage is anything but obscure but the reference to an exact number of fish....153....is rather obscure. This was in the last chapter of the Gospel of John....and Jesus had shown himself to the disciples for the third time since His resurrection. They were in the boat....unsuccessful in catching any fish....and Jesus appeared in disguise on the shore telling them to cast their net off the right side of the boat....which they did....and immediately caught that large number of fish....153 to be exact!
                    It has always been obvious that Jesus meant to relay something to us in that 153 fish were mentioned....and scholars have forever thought this question over....coming up only with a few not very convincing ideas....and that is all that I have....and I've had this thought for many years....a couple of decades at least.
                    The entire twentieth century had been one of fulfilled prophesies on the end-times....and May of 1948 may have been the most important of all.....but in my mind....the period....give or take a year....of 1980....had been a time of paradigm change in the world.....beginning with an extraordinarily political influential pope in John Paul II....and then came Reagan....and Gorbachev was beginning to assume real power just at that time....and you can throw Margaret Thatcher into the mix. 
                     The world was changing....and it is only now....with Trump....changing again. The thought that had been in my mind for so long was that the United Nations accepted its 153rd member right at that time....1980....it was as if in that....with the 153 fishes....or 153 nations....God's Word was telling us that the stage was now set?
                      These thoughts and this concept very well may be wrong....but that is not the real point....which is that we Christians need to be thinking and meditating and praying upon God's prophetic end-times Word....all the time....at least it being in our minds every day. So....right or wrong....correct or incorrect....we are showing that we desire our Savior to return to this corrupt and violent world!
                       One more thing....related to this....in the seventeenth chapter of Revelation....concerning the Beast....this odd statement is made...."Here is the mind that has wisdom...the seven heads are the seven mountains on which the woman sits.....there are also seven kings....five have fallen....one is....and the other has not yet come....and when he comes he must continue a short time....and the beast that was....and is not....is himself also the eighth....and is of the seven....and is going to perdition." Revelation17:9-11 NKJV
                       So one can come up with all kinds of thoughts on this.....here's one....1980....or thereabouts was the beginning of the paradigm change....Reagan and H.W. and Clinton And W and Obama....were the five kings that were kings no more. That means that Trump was the king at the epicenter of this verse...."one is"....and Biden was the king that was there for a short time....and then comes the eighth....who was also of the seven. 
                     Just a thought....probably wrong....hopefully wrong....but this is an example of where our minds and our hopes and our attention should be right now....for did not Jesus tell us a little earlier in Revelation....13:18...."Here is wisdom....let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast....for it is the number of a man....his number is....666."?

        

This Was An Important Telecommunications Event!

              If you watched Trump on TV this evening.....then you witnessed an extraordinary and possibly even an historic propaganda speech. In other words....you lived history this evening! You saw a president....make allegations that point to speculations. He referred time and again to CIA and FBI and other national intelligence agencies....people who are now all his own.....working at his microscopic direction. It wasn't thirty seconds into the speech that I was rolling my eyes at the gross exaggeration. President Trump needed this attempt....in spite of the great risk involved....because he needs the passage of this bill in congress....to greatly limit voter participation from millions of people who would have difficulty putting any required government document into motion....or else after the mid-terms....he may be in very big legal trouble.

Note: Any voter eligibility laws....changes....to be enacted....to protect the integrity of our electoral system....need also....every bit as much....to protect the voting rights of all Americans. This would be a difficult task....and it would take a lot of time....and under no circumstances should be done with this present bill....which is political and not fairness legislation. The 2028 election would be the earliest date for which to set a goal.

Irreconcilable Differences

                    I am going to try to make this as opaque as possible. A Christian celebrity today announced that she filed for divorce after a ten year marriage. She came to this decision through much prayer....and is thankful for all the support that she is being given. Normally that story would go in one ear and out the other because we hear things like this all the time....but it was less than a week ago that I went to a Southern Gospel concert....of a group that I really liked....and during the concert I learned that two of the ladies had been divorced from their Christian husbands. One of these ladies made this comment in explaining how hard it was to get divorced....she was most sad because she had broken God's heart by getting divorced? 

                   It was Wednesday morning....January 6.....2021. I....along with most everyone else in America....knew that there was going to be a protest gathering on the Ellipse in our capital....so I clicked on the television. I've done this many times....I might be watching something....maybe a Trump rally....or a prayer rally....and I knew that I was going to want to post on what was being said....and had no time to attempt to record it....so I....as I heard it....shorthanded the words the best that I could. On this particular Wednesday morning I just wanted to type my thoughts on what I was watching....and post them later. I did not know that that day would be one of the worst days in the history of our country.....and I was describing the beginning of that day. Here are the exact words that I typed and saved as I watched....
                     
                    "Wednesday morning at 11:30....The melody is beautiful.....there's no denying that....and it gives me chills....but the wrong kind of chills. I'm talking about Leonard Cohen's....Hallelujah. The word 'hallelujah' is special......for in essence it means....'praise Yahweh'.....or....'praise Yah.' I cringe when I hear in used other than where it should be used....and that includes Neil Diamond's.....Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show. So I booted up the computer a few minutes ago to hear what President Trump was going to say in his appearance at the Washington protest/rally.....and Cohen's song was playing. The chills were there.....and I didn't like it....but to make matters worse.....as the video feed showed from the rear of the first twenty or so rows of people....I saw a few raised hands....swaying back and forth to the song.....as if in a charismatic church. What were they praising...for it's hopefully not the object of the Cohen song? Trump eventually came on.....he is speaking now....and I had to turn him off....because folks it is unnerving....the sway he has....as this very large crowd chanted.....fight for Trump....fight for Trump....fight for Trump!"

(I need to repeat that....I was so unnerved by what I was witnessing....that I actually had to turn the television off!)

                    Back to that Southern Gospel concert that I mentioned above....at one point the up-tempo music slowed....and the female singer began a riff on the chords to Hallelujah....only it was not the chords from their own beautiful Halleluyah....but Cohen's famous chords for his....Hallelujah....the same chords that had people raising their hands on January 6 before the violence would begin.
                    January 6th wasn't the beginning of the collapse of evangelicalism....far from it....nor was June 16 of 2015 the beginning....when Trump came down that golden escalator...a false prophet/wolf into the middle of evangelicalism. Maybe there was no beginning? Whatever the answer to that....we today are cheering the footage of human beings blown away as missiles hit their targets....booting up Fox to see what new video they might have of blacks fighting each other....or what new story of an illegal who committed a violent crime....or licking our lips as indictments of some sort are brought by Trump's Justice Department....against his personal enemies.
             It should therefore be no surprise that we have no discernment at all on the nearness of the Lord's coming in glory and righteous judgment....nor do we really want Him to return....for first and foremost....we want our country back....as we have turned out backs on a scriptural truth that we once memorized...."Not by power....nor by might....but by My Spirit....says the LORD of hosts. (Zechariah 4:6 ESV)
           
             ICHABOD....the glory has long since departed evangelicalism....a divorce so to speak....irreconcilable differences....between God's Word....and the church.

Addendum: It's not the divorce....or the lifestyles....or the idols....I have my own idols....it is a general falling away that we have had from God's Word....as we over time choose what verses of Scripture that we want....and ignore the vast majority that are problematic to things like divorce....and lifestyles....and idolatry....and someone like trump! God has taken home R. C. Sproul and John MacArthur....earlier than He might have....and these were the men who reminded us of the....Holiness of God. We have no one of stature left! They are all out there telling us that we have to protect our rights to preach the lifestyles and the idolatries and the freedoms that we hold dear! If there is ever to be a last days revival....it would have to begin with us....with our faces flush to the ground asking forgiveness for going to 'Egypt' for our help!

War....The Gods....And Morality

                   We recently gave as a present to a nephew....the LEGO blocks of NASA's Artemis rocket to the moon. Artemis was the Greek god worshiped by the Ephesians. The Temple of Artemis in Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. NASA leaned more to Greek deities....the Apollo and Mercury missions etc....while the planets were named after Roman deities.
                    We may not worship Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln....but the memorials in our capital to them are not totally dissimilar to the temples that Paul commented on while in Athens.
                    I was at the movies this morning for a nine AM showing of The Odyssey. I wasn't looking forward to seeing the latest blockbuster to come out of Hollywood....an idol factory in its own right....but if it was that popular....and if I spend so much time commenting on our culture....then I just had to go and see the film.
                    This isn't a movie review....other than to say....OK....it was epic alright....of war and the gods and morality....where the Greek gods are the main protagonists. Everyone except Matt Damon's character was concerned about offending Zeus.....and Poseidon....although Odysseus had a personal relationship with Athena....while Calypso had a big sway over him.
                     We are familiar with how David wanted to build a house for God....but God said that he was too much a man of war....so the task of building the temple went to his son Solomon. Well Matt Damon's Odysseus wanted a decent civilization to return to Ithaca after all of the corruption....but that task would have to be for his son Telemachus.
                     The narrative of the movie is a morality play. I know that I have watched Jimmy Stewert's 1946 classic....It's A Wonderful Life....almost every year as Christmas approached....but that also was a non-Christian morality play! Not only is American culture a morality play....but evangelicalism is heading that way very fast is....a morality play on a Christian stage.
                      So who are these Greek gods anyway...or the Roman gods? For that matter....who is Krishna and Kali in Hinduism? Well you can start with the Baals and all of the Canaanite gods....and then take one more step backward....and the circle is complete....fallen angels....also known as demons....starting with Lucifer.
                       If AI eventually gives us a god....which I believe that it will....it in essence will not be any different than Zeus or Jupiter or Molech or Dagon!
                      

It Is A Mystery....And Right Now We Should Leave It At That

                  How does the nation-state of Israel fit into God's Word? That is a major controversy in the church today. Classical Dispensationalism....classical but really not that old...says that God is working through history with a number of different plans....and one would be that the Jews of the Old Testament were part of one plan....they forfeited that as they rejected their Messiah....but....that same plan for them will be reestablished at the end of time. Others say that....no....there were no alternate plans....but that the church today fulfilled the original plan....and that any Jewish nation that might come back into existence is no more and no less than any other nation state in the world.
                    These new Dispensationalists at the time....saw a number of passages in God's Word that determined their theology towards Israel....and indeed there are many passages about Israel that are difficult to interpret. The problem is that Paul in Romans called all of this a mystery....a mystery that he described....but did not explain. The Dispensationalists believe that they solved the mystery! They did not solve the mystery.
                     The other side of this is not without problems of their own. They know that they cannot solve the mystery....so they just ignore it. Consequently....all of those verses in God's Word that tell of a reestablished Jewish nation of Israel....and the eschatological importance of it....are of no help to them today. Worse than that....the possibility exists that they can wind up actually working against God's plan for these branches that were previously cut off of the vine!
                      Spurgeon saw through this. He let the mystery stand as a mystery....and saw that the Jews would one day return to the Holy Land....and Martyn Lloyd-Jones acknowledged the same thing. Is it any wonder then that these two men of great discernment were the greatest preachers that the church has had over the past 170 years?
                      So....over time....big words like....replacement theology....have come up....and only muddled the situation more. It is a mystery! There is only one gospel of salvation. This fairly new nation of Israel....May of 1948....is not the same nation of the Old Testament....but they are also not just another nation. It's a mystery....and we are about to find out more on how that mystery plays out in the world.

The Church Is Without Leaders of Great Stature....And So Is Our Government

                When an unfavorable Supreme Court ruling comes down....there are options in an attempt to mitigate....and/or options to attack the judges. If nothing else....a PR campaign can be initiated to stir up the base....but when someone like Lindsey Graham just drops dead....there are no options....and no one to attack. There are no appeals....no threats....and no legal action to reverse what transpired....and one cannot call what happened....fake news. God causes nations to rise and to fall....we all know how Scripture tells us that....and he causes kings to rise and kings to fall.
                America has rightfully been under judgment for at least....over sixty years....since JFK. It was in 1965....and Billy Graham had just completed a manuscript for a new book. His wife Ruth was reading that manuscript....and after one particular chapter on America's move away from God....she reportedly told her husband...."Billy....if God doesn't come soon and bring judgment upon the United States....he's going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah."
                There is a passage in the 10th chapter of Matthew....(also addressed in Mark 6 and Luke 9)....that some scholars put right up there with the Olivet Discourse. Jesus is sending out the twelve disciples...."to the lost sheep of the house of Israel"....to heal and to cleanse and to cast out demons and even to raise from the dead....and to preach that...."the kingdom of heaven is at hand." What follows in the discourse of Jesus is a description of the persecution that is so similar to that which is described in the Olivet Discourse....and some other commands that are....hard sayings....as words like this are sometimes called...as hard to understand as anything that Jesus ever said! Please read over the tenth chapter of Matthew. 
                 Before the disciples were sent out....Jesus gives instructions that even Paul later was not given....as they were not even to take money with them! This is not normal instruction to missionaries. It implies an extreme situation! That situation is such that we may be facing in the near future....preach the word....and if they want no part of it....then go on to preach the word to others...and shake the dust off of your feet! It is here when Jesus also said...."Assuredly....I say to you....it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city." (verse 15)
                  In the past we had more time to have patience with people that lollygagged...or dillydallied....as one dictionary puts it...."wasting time by dawdling....lingering....or engaging in aimless....non-serious activity." I'm not saying that we no longer have patience....but rather that we have a task to do....kind of like taking the tarps off of the lifeboats after an iceberg is hit. That is part of the reason that I put out these posts that I do....warning of Trump...warning evangelism that the glory has departed....and warning that we are in the last of the last days! I don't take comments or questions. I only want these thoughts to be as disseminated as far as possible....and let people make up their own minds.
                   Lindsey Graham's death is a great loss for sanity in our government. I've posted quite a bit lately on how God has taken home all the men who over the past half century had warned us of the judgment that surely lies ahead....men like Billy Graham and MacArthur and Sproul and Keller and Voddie Baucham and David Wilkerson and Pat Robertson. These were men that would have seen what is happening right now....and would be warning us with all that they were worth! Those in our government....who had gravitas enough to get our attention....have either died or have been purged! The church is without leaders of this stature....and so is our government!