It was part trip down memory lane....and part meditation.....as I was on a college campus today....only for a few minutes.....leaving my books of the bible book markers....hoping that they will be picked up and a few students will wind up visiting these posts. This is the first warm day we have had in a while in this second year in a row of chilly to cold springs. I only had to walk a hundred yards through the campus....and a hundred yards back to my truck....but oh the memory as I thought back fifty some odd years where I was the same as these young people that were sprawled out all over the grass....catching some sun....with an open laptop or book next to them....(only in my case without the laptop....and possibly without the open book.)

                Life was so good back then....not in reality because the Vietnam War was still going on....and Watergate was roaring....and the job market for new graduates was not good....but to a young man as I was....(I was a little older than the average student because I had just got out of the army)....with nothing to do but get adequate grades and head off to the Wooden Keg to drink pitchers of beer while talking philosophy to other guys also missing the real point of higher education....it was idyllic....or so it seemed at the time.
                At 76 years old....walking slow....with papers in my hand....I sometimes wondered if students think that I might be one of the professors. I liked it....as fake as it was. One of the students on the grass studying for finals called out my name....and I went over to tell them that I hoped that God would give them the calm and the ability to do well in their finals.
                 As I looked around at all the students enjoying the sun....If I took a snapshot....(and actually turned it into a glossy photo)....and compared it to one of the photos that I might have of my days on Pitt's campus....I don't think that one could readily tell which photo was 2026....and which photo was 1973! The grass and the walkways would be the same....as would students in t-shirts and shirts. OK....if you looked closer the computers might be a giveaway....and there surely were not as many guys with shoulder-length hair....(even I....only months out of the army....had hair to my shoulders)....and for those walking to and fro....the backpacks might be a giveaway....for we tended to just carry our load of books around campus....or stuff them in a bag.      .
                   So it was a bittersweet jaunt....across the campus. I felt happy for those students....enjoying what I still remember as a really pleasant way to spend time between classes....(although today was in-between finals....so much for a pleasant experience)....but knowing what I know about the day and the age that we live in....a day and an age far more dangerous than even when I was young....there was a bit of heartbreak in that short walk.
                   The most simple logic should tell all of us that when Jesus is at the very door in His glorious return in power and righteous judgment....and from what we read from God's Word....there will be just as many young people....with all their dreams. There will be that generation....of young families....and college students....with a new and exciting life just ahead of them. It wasn't my generation...and it wasn't some of the alphabet generations that we have had in the past thirty years....(Gen X and Gen Z etc.)....but it looks to be this  generation....whatever the current title might be.
                    If we only look at this as I have described in these few paragraphs....then it might very well be considered sad....but if we look at it as Christians should....whether as old as me or as young as these students....there is a glory ahead....a glory beyond anything we can imagine....even with all that God's Word tells us! 
                    I will....Lord willing.....after I publish this post....go out and mow my grass. God's word is very clear in this....keep working....and even keep planning....and yes even keep dreaming....but all of that work....and those plans....and even those dreams.....are baseless if the glory of our Savior is not front and center! Even the dream of a family....should be in raising that child or those children to know and love Jesus! If we stay centered on Jesus....keeping oil in our lamps....with some to spare....and stay vigilant and awake....we can do our everyday tasks....and make plans....and dream dreams....secure and confident in the design of our God....to give us at times both pleasant meadows....and dark valleys....knowing that He is with us....and His way is perfect!

        
           

Special Dog's Commencement Address

Preface: I posted the following in May of 2014....and have been bringing it back every year since then!

Special Dog's Commencement Speech 

               Once again another year has passed and I wasn't invited by any college or university to be their commencement speaker! So I dreamed a dream and in that dream a very fantastical thing happened. Joe Biden....(Vice President at the time)....was to be the commencement speaker at Harvard University but a couple of his hair plugs fell out at the last minute and he refused to go on stage.  The Ivy League school administrators were frantic in trying to find a replacement. When they heard my name....Special Dog....they thought I must be a rap singer and thus eminently qualified to a give a commencement speech....then I woke up. So I sat down and penned the speech that I would have given had I in fact been invited by Harvard to give their commencement speech. Maybe next year! Here is that speech.... 

               

"A little bit of trivia.....President John Kennedy would be 97 years old today....(he would be nearing 106 today)....if he were still alive....but his 46 year old face in the last year of his presidency is what we remember. I had the privilege of seeing him in person as Senator Kennedy and then presidential candidate Kennedy passed by our Catholic grade school....as they herded us all out to wave to him. (This is 1960)

I recently viewed an old interview with then Governor Ronald Reagan that was taped on June 5th of 1971. The interviewer asked Governor Reagan if he was going to run for president in 1972. Reagan replied....'No....Lord willing I'll complete my second term as governor.' That would make two United States presidents....in a row....Carter and Reagan.....who could naturally use the phrase....'Lord willing.' Abraham Lincoln spoke a very similar phrase in his second inaugural address. No surprise there. 

(Today we tell God what we are going to do....'We're going to keep on winning....winning....winning!')
           
Your parents would remember this....well maybe your grandparents....that magazine sized book....Four Days, The Historical Record Of The Death of President Kennedy. I think that just about everyone had it back in the months and years following that tragic day in November of 1963. In that book the editors reveal what were....'President Kennedy's last official words-the conclusion of the speech he was to have delivered in Dallas.' John Kennedy was to give this speech but never did... for assassins (plural) ended his life.....SPOILER....it wasn't Oswald.

That speech never given by our 35th President concluded with these words....the last official words of President Kennedy....The righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. That Bible excerpt is the last half of the 1st verse of Psalm 127... from the King James Version, which begins with this....Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it. So the full verse is:

Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was nominally religious as was I. He would have respected the Bible and believed those words....but he could not have truly understood their significance,....nor timeliness....nor even seen his own part in attempting to build a city (a country) without the LORD. The 60s were an absolute disaster....the effects of which nearly brought my own life to an end. They produced college professors for the next few decades who gave us many of our problems today. They gave us Barack Obama and the Clintons....two Bush presidents.

(and Donald Trump....Joe Biden....and now Trump again)

It was drizzling and a bit chilly as my wife and son and I walked Cambridge University back in the spring of 2001. I wanted to see where many of the Puritans were educated....one of them was John Harvard....and I wanted to see some of the places where scenes from the Academy Award winning Chariots Of Fire were filmed. The building that housed the White Horse Inn on the grounds of Cambridge was long gone but a small blue plaque hung in the nearest spot possible to that location. That inn was a 16th century English pub where students, Dons and travelers discussed the works of Martin Luther, and out of this discussion came a passion for the hearing of the Word of God which resulted in the English Reformation. 

Young people...find your own White Horse Inn!

(hint...try....whitehorseinn.org)
            

Surely somewhere in America on that bleak or snowy Saturday in early December 1941....a young man sat looking out of a restaurant window....or maybe a coffee shop....with a young lady at his side who was his new bride. They had the world at their fingertips as he was just awarded that treasured college diploma he worked so long and hard for....and she wore the wedding band she had dreamed about since they first met in grade school. They looked into each other's eyes with hardly a care in the world. Oh, the plans they had so much fun making....a small cottage with a white picket fence that someday would keep little ones and maybe a puppy dog from straying as they play.
             

And then the morning came and as they walked into church the somber faces took their joy away for they had not heard the news from that group of islands where the sun shown year round and warm surf slapped the white beaches. America was in the war against evil that they had only given themselves minutes a day to reflect upon. The young bride knew immediately that their dreams would now be put on hold....if they would ever come true. Surely the prayers of all present in that worship service were salted with tears.
             

Not every generation has its hopes interrupted as this generation did on December 7th, 1941....but your generation today may indeed be another one. Love is disappearing in the world....no....worse than that....it has been hijacked by greed....tortured by pride....and what is left is directed to ourselves....and we in America are paying dearly for our dalliances.
           

Do you sometimes feel a void of passion in your life...a meaninglessness that cannot be satisfied by the picture that you paint on your Facebook page? Well, a river of passion flows right by you! Cup your hands and drink from it. Let mercy and peace pass over your palate. A political election will give but one night of elation but the coronation of the King of Kings provides every morning and every evening with a ceaseless ardor that will make you forever thankful. 

If you happen to really see the trouble that we are in here in America....that vision is from God....and He will also give the balm....supply the strength and provide the wisdom to see the joy of redemption even in the darkest hours of this world....and to plan ahead with the full trust that if it be His will it will happen....and if it not be His will you would not want it to happen! Here is the only true hope and change...... "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." 2 Corinthians 5:17." (end of the address)

One does not have to be a PHD, or a celebrity, a statesman, general or financial wizard to relay God's wisdom to graduates. I certainly didn't plan it this way but my later adult life....whether while working or in personal relationships....has been one of taking joy in training or teaching when I was able. The greatest joy of a father is in conversations with....in my case....a son....passing on what I have learned....taking advantage of so much experience and so many mistakes....and most of all pointing him to the most blessed and beautiful majesty and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ!


"Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

Animal Farm

                 It had been sixty years since I had to read George Orwell's....Animal Farm....in high school....and other than a recurring quote from the book that would come up now and then....I had not thought that much about it....not as much as his other classic....1984. Today I saw the new animated film....Animal Farm....at the theater....so this very short review....is on the movie alone....and not how it relates to Orwell's book. Having said that here goes....

                The reader here is probably more familiar with the director than I am....actor turned director Andy Serkis. The voice cast was impressive....with Glenn Close and Woody Harrelson....and Seth Rogan....who I am also not very familiar with.
                The reviews that I have read so far have not been that good....but not only does that not influence me here....a terrible review at times might make me want to see a film. It depends on what the subject matter might be....for liberal Hollywood tends to pick apart conservative movies.
                 I thought this Animal Farm was a terrific animated movie....and highly I recommend it....but here is what you might think odd....idolatry was more the message than ideology! As I watched the film....neither the Bolshevik Revolution nor Stalin nor anything really that Orwell was commenting on in his book....came to my mind.....for all I saw in my mind was the world today....and leaders and greed and ignorance on both sides!

Update: One major MAGA reviewer wrote this in his review...."God bless America....it was humiliated at the box office." He called the film...."anti-capitalist"....I don't see it that way. I saw it as anti-grift and anti-greed. I could give more opinion on the possible intent of the film but I won't. See it for yourself.

Shavuot......Or Pentecost

                 It's an old joke that I first heard maybe thirty years ago.....there is a community ministerium meeting in an auditorium....and a number of denominations are represented. A fire breaks out in the kitchen.....and a Baptist minister jumps up and yells...."Fire!"....followed up by a Methodist minister who jumps up and yells...."Water!"....followed by a Presbyterian minister who jumps up and yells...."Order!"

                We Presbyterians like to maintain order in everything.....especially Reformed Presbyterians. So we have confessions and catechisms and protocols and rules for this and rules for that. They work out very well....but they have limitations with God who is not confined to everything that we write down. One of those things is with prophecy....and the Jews....and Israel....not to mention blood moons and solar eclipses and Jewish feasts!
                 God uses Jewish feasts and fasts....more after-the-fact than to predict anything. Both Jewish temples were destroyed on the ninth of the Jewish lunar month Av....therefore known as the...Ninth of Av....or Tisha B'Av.....and a lot of other disasters happened on that Jewish date over the centuries and millennia.....and this emphasis on Jewish feasts by God continues....as the massacre in Israel leading to upheaval in the world....happened on the feast of Sukkot. Even this war going on now....which is also bringing turmoil to the world....began only hours after Passover.
                  Donald Trump....was born on a blood moon....and he famously came down that golden escalator into evangelicalism....in the middle of that equally famous tetrad of blood moons on Jewish feasts in 2014/2015. So....scoff if you want....and jump up and yell...."Order!"....but God will continue with His perfect order of things.
                  So having laid the groundwork here....which I do fairly often....the next Jewish major feast begins on Thursday....May 21....it is a one-day feast.....and ends on Saturday....May 23 at nightfall. The feast is commonly called Shavuot in the Hebrew....(three syllables)....or Weeks....the Festival of Weeks.....celebrating two things....the giving of the Torah....or the law....on Mount Sinai....and also the first issues of wheat. The term 'weeks' comes from the feast being fifty days from the sabbath after Passover. It is therefore fifty days. Is this beginning to sound familiar? It is celebrated as Pentecost to Christians....when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in the upper room!
                   Jerusalem at the time was filled with Jews from all over.....celebrating Shavuot....but many of them would go home different.....first fruits of redemption! Whether God uses this Jewish feast in prophecy or not....may He....if it be His will....and to His glory alone....move in our pulpits....and all of us in the pews....to His glory....and our benefit as a people in need of His mercies and graces and discernment!

  

Tuesdays With Special Dog

 

In the Fall of 2016 I had the idea of having two Christian men meeting occasionally at a Starbucks in Manhattan....just getting together for conversation and fellowship. I planned on possibly writing this post as a series but have only done a half dozen or so....always under the title....Tuesdays With Special Dog....a take on the popular 1997 book....Tuesdays With Morrie. What I am doing here is using an older beginning....with a new subject....the timing of the rapture of the church. I'm doing this because I wanted more of a conversational than doctrinal tone on this topic:

Tuesdays With Special Dog

Special Dog already had his latte and was sitting at their favorite table by the window of the Starbucks. John had texted that he was running a few minutes late because there was a big brawl on the subway. A few minutes later Special Dog could see him turning the corner....

John gave a hand signal of some kind to the barista after sitting down and turned back to Special Dog.

John......"So....how you been?"
S.D......."Well....I don't like this retirement."
John....."Still"
S.D......."Yeah still. I wake up at six and write on the computer till about ten....then eat breakfast....and take an hour nap.....and it's already the afternoon." (I actually do this folks)
John......."How's the blog going?"
S. D......."Tough. It seems that every other one I do.....which is every other day....I finish and just ask the Lord if that was the last one. It occupies almost every minute of my day....it's in my mind all the time anyway....and then I check the news and some dog does something funny....they put it on Tik Tok....and it gets a million hits....while I pray over every visitor I get." (and I experience this also)
John......"Well I still read it....and so does Laura."
S. D......"And you're not mad at me yet?"
John......"Oh yeah.....I get mad at you about once a week.....but not Laura.....she thinks you are smart."

Special Dog laughs. 

S.D......"Only one other person in my life told me that I was smart. I was working at the Pitt library while in school....along with another library page....that's what they called us....we had to work at the Pittsburgh Playhouse for a few weeks....sorting material that was donated.

Special Dog took a sip of his latte as John said....

John......"I can't wait to hear this...."
S.D......."Anyway....they had this giant original mural on the wall done by Al Hirschfeld....and were very proud of it! Typical of his work....there were about twenty different caricatures of famous people. The Playhouse director was showing us around and told us a little about the mural that had been there for decades. Every celebrity figure was identified.....except the one in the middle of the top row.....no one could ever figure out who that might be. I looked at it.....and to me it was either Dagwood Bumstead or King Edward VIII.....the king who abdicated. I opted for the king....and the director's jaw dropped upon seeing it clearly. Then the girl I was working with looks at me and said....."You're smart! She went on to be a university professor and author while I went on to work in a coal-fired power plant!" (That is a true story....and I wouldn't have it any other way)

The barista came to take their orders. Three Frappuccinos and two lattes later John and Special Dog had covered about everything in their lives and families....laughed an awful lot....until John said....

John....."OK.....it's time for my Bible lesson."

John knew that their conversations were always going to start easy and then hit the heavy stuff at the end. Special Dog knew it two.

John....."I'll start it out.....question....'Are you pre or mid or post trib'?"

Special Dog looks out the window while trying to get serious and gather his thoughts....which weren't helped by what he saw....as two women walked by....

S.D....."John....are they in their underwear?"
John......"It's the style S. D....I don't know if it's underwear or not."

Special Dog looked up at the church spires across the street....and then back to John.

S.D....."I think that it is important that the Christian does not hold to a pre-trib rapture....because in doing so...it becomes problematic for much of the rest of Scripture. For thirty-five years I had held to what is called a....pre-wrath rapture....which means the rapture is sometime later than the mid-point of the tribulation."

John..."Is this stuff all that important?"
S.D....."Yes and no. Let me try to explain it this way. I had believed for quite some time....that as the Second Coming nears....God will reveal the meaning in a lot of end-times prophecy. Another way of putting it would be that He will remove layers of veils....making it easier to see what God's Word says....kind of like that Playhouse director all of a sudden seeing King Edward VIII."

A man came into the Starbucks wearing a neon vest and a harness and a sign on his chest and on his back that read....'SERVICE PERSON....DO NOT TALK TO HIM'....as he had a dog on a leash. Special Dog....used to these off things by now....just looked back at John....and continued....

S.D......"What I am not saying is that we necessarily will understand and know all the answers....but rather that we will have more faith because things are becoming more clear!"

They both took a sip of their drinks and Special Dog continued....

S.D....."So John..., after forty years of studying this....I have come to believe more in a mid-trib rapture of God's church. In this mid-trib rapture....the church goes through a lot....but then the church is gone....and what remains is another three and a half years where....all hell breaks loose."

John....."You know I've thought about the church being raptured....and I've watched movies....but I don't see how the rest of the world just goes on with business?"

S.D....."I would agree if there were as many Christians in America as everyone says....that would be a lot of people all of a sudden gone....but what might confuse you more is if you think about what Jesus and Paul and the others said about giving up everything to follow Jesus...and then look around at America....and the church....and think about how few in comparison might disappear? It might not be as big a deal to the world?"

Both John and Special Dog could hear the name 'Jesus' shouted.....and the word 'Bible?' They looked out the window....and a man....very shabbily dressed....was holding up a Bible and apparently trying to street preach....and being laughed at primarily because of his appearance. A young man came up behind him and flipped his old beat up hat off. Special Dog and John both could hear the words he was saying....and they were sound....but the more he said....the more the people laughed. It angered Special Dog....and he went out.....pulled out his own pocket Bible....stood shoulder to shoulder with the man....and shouted at the top of his voice....

S.D....."Awaken you sluggards! How long will you mock God? If you do not repent....then you will later look at this man in the bosom of Abraham....and plead that he be sent to you with but a sip of water!"

The scoffers were no longer laughing....just growling their words....and then they dispersed. The street preacher and Special Dog shook hands....and then hugged....and then parted....and Special Dog came back in the Starbucks....sat down with John....and simply started again from where he had left off

S.D......"Everyone has Bible verses....to....prove their point....but God wants the heart first. He wants our desire to see Him....even though we will stand before Him and answer for everything that we have done. That being the case....we won't be looking for a pre-trib rapture in the middle of a Steeler game....on a Lord's Day....and we won't be experiencing His wrath on the world at the end....surely man's wrath towards us we will have....but not God's wrath....that's what finally got me on this John."

As happens every time that they met at Starbucks....they laughed for an hour....and then talked softly for an hour....and then prayed....embraced each other....pointed up to the sky....and parted.

      

Woe Are Us

                 I don't know that the American evangelical ever actually desired to see Jesus return....but we definitely do not look at it as a serious possibility at this time. It is really right now just a catechism question....and answer....an assent to a doctrinal truth....with no emotion or passion or even personal preference involved.

                Salvation itself to the evangelical today is really just being a good person. God will find a way to save that good person. All of that which is written in God's Word about being born again is subjective.....and all the commands about abiding in Christ and separating from the world and everyone experiencing persecution is just part of a narrative meant more to reflect upon than to actually interpret as God's real no-nonsense directions.
                God's holiness....of which back in the 1980s we would sit in awe as we listened to a sermon or a teaching on it....is long gone. That is why we today went the way of Balaam....and have no discernment of our own guilt in this culture and society....and why pride and greed and even hate guides us as we want for America what is ours.....for we are tired of not getting what is ours.....and if anyone disagrees.....we will in one way or another.....destroy them....with our great military might if necessary! We no longer care about anyone else.
                 Folks....this is a falling away from the gospel. This is God having judged His church....first. We are as was Israel....and Judah her treacherous sister. Our pulpits only warn slightly. Our itching ears have chosen the false prophets that tell us what we want to hear. Our churches....far too many of them....are white-washed sepulchers. Our own personal idols litter our homes and our minds. Woe are us....for we have been destroyed for lack of knowledge....trusting in broken cisterns....and in our distress not looking to God for our help.

A Foray Into The Eleventh Chapter Of Daniel

                As one reads through all of the marvelous words of the book of Daniel....of the beginning of the Babylonian captivity....and the visions and the lion's den and the fiery furnace....and Greece and Persia and the prophesies of what was going to happen in the future....there is always that eleventh chapter that must be dealt with. Although some of the chronology is hazy....time passes and different Seleucid and Ptolemaic kings come and go and do this and do that.

               It seems that history books alone can identify much of what is happening....but where is it all going. Is it as easy as at times it seems? It does seem so right up until the arrival on the scene of one of the Seleucids from the 'North'....one called....Antiochus IV Epiphanes....this roughly 175 to 164. 
               This man is called "vile" by Daniel. From the time that he gained the throne it had been all "intrigue." He goes to war against the Ptolemys of Egypt a couple of times....victorious mostly.....(which can help us if we look at Egypt as the world in general)....and then each time he has to pass through the "glorious land" on his way home ....and deal with the Jews in Jerusalem....and he seems to win some of them over to his Hellenistic ways....flattering and bribing them....and leading them away from their own Jewishness.
                I think that we have all heard the story of how Rome at one point had had enough of Antiochus IV fooling around in Egypt.....and sent a representative....(remember this is the power of Rome we are speaking of).....and that representative lays down the law to Antiochus....'go home'....and Antiochus tells him that he wants to think about it....of which the representative then draws a circle in the sand around Antiochus....and tells him to make up his mind before he leaves the circle. It's an awesome display of the power of Rome....and the humiliation of Antiochus IV Epiphanes....who is now already mad as he passes by Jerusalem again....where some of the Jews rebel against him....which leads to.....as we all know of....that which God's Word calls the....Abomination of Desolation!
               And that is it with Antiochus IV Epiphanes....for he has served his purpose....and thus in God's perfect design....gives all of us today....a glimpse through Antiochus IV Epiphanes of another that would come.....at the end of time....(this beginning in verse 36)....of which Antiochus IV was but a type!
               It is odd in that not much is said about the Antichrist in what is left of Daniel. It's as if God in the book of Daniel....wanted us to see what this Antichrist would be like....more than what he would do....for Scripture elsewhere tells us more of that. So what do we know? Well we know that the man will be...."vile"....that he will sit down at a table with another leader....and they will both tell lies....as he is that type of man....and that he will flatter and bribe....and if you cross him he will....if he can....even if you are an ally....utterly desecrate your religion and humiliate you!

Addendum: We know one more thing....that he will be successful....in that no matter what conflict surrounds him....no matter how vile he might be....and how mystifying it might be that he can retain his power....he will continue!

DISPATCHES

The six 'conservatives' justices on the Supreme Court nullified the Voting Rights Act that was a successful attempt to ensure that Blacks primarily would have ethnic representation in Congress. Technically....I'm sure they were correct in their ruling. Morally....it may be a different story. It took less than a day for Republicans to start planning new districts in time for the mid-terms. In the mid-twentieth century we as a people had somewhat come to grips with what we....(our ethnic forefathers)....did to an entire race of people. The answers we came up with were not perfect....and in some cases pretty bad....but at least they were an attempt to help an ethnic minority that we....(we can't get away from it folks....we enjoy white privilege....please....please read my post on this that is down at the bottom of this page titled....White Like Me)....an ethnic minority that we sentenced to seemingly everlasting lower class status at best. We are doing the same thing with the immigration deportation debate. Technically....many are here illegally. Morally....we let those who want to use racial hatred to stay in power in Congress....and the White House....incite us into doing things that we as conservatives would not have done decades ago. There was a better way to address these issues....but we chose the drumbeat with no compassion. 

The ballroom was initially to cost $100 million.....then ballooned to$400 million....but supposedly paid for with donations. After the events of this past week....Trump.....through Lindsey Graham's advancing the issue....wants the government to pay for it now....because an underground military bunker and communications center is needed to protect against....as Trump mentioned...drones. Forget the ballroom....and give them the money to build the bunker. As for drones....I have warned for years now that the drone problem could only get worse....and Trump apparently seconded that warning. There is no limit to what evil minds can think of to do with a drone! 

So there was yet another attempt on the president's life....and/or some of his high-profile cabinet members. The history of the Caesars of Rome is replete with one emperor being murdered....and replaced by the murderer......who then shortly after is murdered himself.

(I posted these words in January of 2012...."We are not as the Roman Empire falling, we are as the Roman Empire beginning, whose gods are numerous, whose Caesars consolidate powers given by a populace that only wants another day at the Coliseum.")

Other ancient empires experienced the same thing....and even Israel. The fringe has taken over in America....and these type of acts come from the fringe. What would one call a fringe....when it is no longer by definition....a fringe? Are we conservatives now becoming part of the new fringe? Donald Trump will need his rallies prior to the mid-terms....flying here and there and everywhere in support of Republican candidates....for that is a basic building block on who he is....but this comes at a time when for the above reasons he needs less interaction with rallies and other public events. 

Three things are astonishing as they relate to the above....one that Donald Trump....whose whole existence is based on attacking others....would actually be bold enough to blame only the other side....the second astonishing thing is that when he does that....some people actually believe it....and the third thing is that evangelicals are among those who cannot see where all of this intense division began!

It was announced today that in coordination with the America 250 celebration....Donald Trump's picture will be added to the inside of passports. Buildings in the capitol are being renamed....banners with Trump's image abound....a new ballroom is being built where the world's elites and the rich and famous can feast down while the common people can but peek inside....an arch is in the planning at the foot of Arlington Cemetery.....that would dwarf the nearby Lincoln Memorial....he has two giant golden statues of himself planned for his future library....it is now the Gulf of America....and a media and Republican strategist today urged....(while the King of England was in the capitol)....that the official English language be changed to the American language. America is being rebranded into the Trump brand.

Have you read James Comey's book....or Andrew McCabe's account....or Christopher Steele's....or any of the other first account books on the....'Russia hoax'? Probably not....for we have been good cult members in not reading what our own personal Watchtower tells us is fake news. These men....did what they were required to do when an American celebrity becomes a prime candidate for Soviet or now Russian kompromat. Trump today brought new charges against James Comey. This is a sick illness of revenge....unequaled as far as I know short of Soviet show trials....and evangelicals do not just ignore this assault on truth and justice....they....far too many of them....celebrate it!

Trump's whole life has been one of threats and power bonds and litigation. MAGA fits nicely into this constant animosity that he thrives on....but to the rest of America it is a constant churning vexation of the spirit.

Surely you have heard or read of these famous words from a poem by Martin Niemöller...."First they came for the socialists....and I did not speak out....because I was not a socialist....then they came for the trade unionists....and I did not speak out.....because I was  not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews....and I did not speak out....because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me."

Hitler Derangement Syndrome....Winston Churchill had it....and England should thank God that he did.

God's Perfect Design.....With His Imperfect Church

             I don't usually use the word but I have always had heroes....and the most long-standing of those may be Joni Eareckson Tada....that wonderful Christian woman about my age who at 17 years old became quadriplegic from a diving accident. I am always in awe at her faithfulness and her testimony. Probably next to her would be more recent....in the former Senator from Nebraska....Ben Sasse....who has a terminal cancer diagnosis....and has since given a testimony of faith that should humble all of us!
             Ben Sasse speaks with an intellect and wisdom that is more than rare in American government. He would be the top candidate for the next Republican nomination were it not for his illness. If you listen to the recent 60 Minutes interview you will hear strong opinion on AI and other issues that need to be tackled in the Senate.....but are not.
             This isn't a political post....for as strong as Ben Sasse is in what would be the leadership that we desperately need....he does have an area where he is lacking....for his theological foundations....which are the same as mine....is unable to see that the Second Coming....is now. He....we....are generally blinded to it....but there is a reason for this.....for God's design is perfect....and in amongst that design there are discrepancies and even doctrinal disputes.
              I have understood this for a long time....not perfectly....but rather that God must have a reason that we have these differences....and permits us to continue to defend that which we believe.....without compromising this gospel! We....all of us who still hold the gospel of Jesus Christ and the absolute need to be born again as central....we may push against each other in some areas....but ultimately we balance each other out....and constantly challenge each other....forcing each other to have some humility.....and not letting any of us get too arrogant.
               So some of us know that the church is under judgment....that delusion and end-times deception is everywhere...and that 1948 set things in motion without a turning back....and some of us do not know that.....even deny it....but those others have their own strengths! This may not be perfect theology for anyone.....but it is perfect in that God will bring us all together at the perfect time....which is not far away. Maranatha....Lord Jesus Come!

The following is a breathtakingly beautiful interview with Ben Sasse and Michael Horton:

                                                                           

"How Do You Turn This Thing On?"

Preface: I remember typing the following post....it was early October....a few months ago....the day after my wife and my 49th anniversary....and it was in a hotel room in Virginia Beach....right on the concrete boardwalk....only thirty yards or so from the famous boardwalk statue of Neptune.....the god of the sea. My wife was sleeping while I was working under a desk light....covered up with a shirt or something....to keep the room dark. What should I write about. The following is what came out...

"How Do You Turn This Thing On?"

The crowd applauded as John Rigby left the microphone and moved to his seat to the left of the podium. Micah Taylor stepped back up to the mic and said this....

"Thank you Mr. Rigby. And now let us hear from"....he looked closer at the paper before him...."Let us hear from.....Special.....Dog?"

The crowd laughed....as Special Dog walked up....and kind of looked at the mic from both sides....as if he had never held one of these before.

"I never talked into a microphone before...."

The crowd giggle

"That was a very nice presentation by Mr. Rigby....on the....positives....of Donald Trump. I disagree with just about everything that he said though. So here is my resume. I'm 75 years old....(76 now). I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh back in 1976....that would be the football team's national championship year. I spent three years in the army....half of that in Vietnam in signal intelligence....and I did some graduate work when I was fifty years old. I voted for Donald Trump in 2016....and celebrated when he won. About two or three months into his term I could tell that there was something wrong....seriously wrong....terribly wrong....so I started reading about who this Donald Trump was....other than that which we all knew....the comical supermarket tabloid character....and TV show host....of which I never saw a single episode. I just started the 108th book on him.....(I just finished book 109....STOP In The Name Of GOD....Why Honoring The Sabbath Will Transform Your Life....Charlie Kirk's last book)....books for him and against him....and supposedly by him.....books on every decade of his life....and books on single topics like Mar-a-Lago and golf and of course.....Russia.....lots of books on Russia! So that's my resume....not a whole lot of letters after my name....and no experience at all in speaking before people."

Someone from the back shouted out...."Get closer to the microphone!"

Special Dog looked at his watch.....

"Well....I have thirteen minutes left so let me get right to the topic a hand. I do not think that Donald John Trump has changed an iota in the past....seventy years....he is someone with no compassion for anyone....and who cares only about one person....himself....it is all lies and flattery and threats."

Someone again from the back shouted out...."You're a communist!"

"Hey....that's an interesting comment. I have studied for fifty years now on communism....and saw first hand....in Vietnam....how communists come in and brutally murder people....before taking over the country and turning it into a capitalist resort. I've been warning Americans about communism for a long time. No....I'm not a communist. That is my opinion on Trump from what I have gleaned in the past 8 1/2 years....(now 9 years)....of reading and observing and researching in any way that I could....watching just about all of his rallies....(the latest being today's TPUSA rally in Phoenix)....which were the exact same...methodology....that that German Fuhrer used to get power in the early 1930s. 

The Donald Trump show is the greatest show on earth. In a fifteen minute talk I have to pick and choose what to point out. In his first term he picked some pretty good people for his cabinet....and then alienated most of them. They know today all too well who he really is. Yes....the pandemic did him in in the 2020 election....without that he would have won....but he lost. I watched television that morning of January 6....2021....and had to turn the set off because the rhetoric was too disturbing....and unsettling. He did nothing to stop what was going on.....in spite of his people begging him to do something....and then almost immediately....even before the dust settled....began a campaign to turn history upside down....so that it appeared that he did nothing wrong on that day....and that Anthony Fauci and others were the truly bad people. In retrospect....all of this is kind of unbelieveable....but what was truly mind-boggling was that intelligent people....evangelicals....seminary trained pastors even....actually believed the lies they were being told." 

Special Dog used the few cat calls to take a deep breath

"Trump then began to brow beat everyone in the Republican Party into supporting him. The approximately 30% or so of true believers behind him were enough to beat off all of the opposition. He didn't even debate in the primaries....lying as usual....saying that legal matters prevented him from doing so. So he won....and formed the worst cabinet in American history....filled with loyalists....and a couple of nut-cases who needed paid back for their support....and the usual suspects of attractive women who has always liked to keep close by.

So here we are today. The Republican Party is gone....replaced by the Trump Party. Evangelicalism is gone....replaced by Christian nationalism. What exactly happened to Donald Trump from November of 2020....to January of 2025....when he was inaugurated for a second time....I really don't know. Some people say that he learned his lesson from his first term. Others say that the radical right finally convinced him to be bold. I lean to something more supernatural....for this is a new man that has come out in the second term...."conquering...and to conquer"....as Revelation puts it in the sixth chapter....concerning the rider on the white house....excuse me...white horse.

I would ask you....especially evangelicals....and very especially pastors....do you really think that a golden age is coming? Hey....maybe you do? Maybe you think that Jesus is behind all of this....and that men like Jonathan Cahn are correct? Well....that view is going to be severely tested in the days to come....thank you."

Note: An hour ago I watched a few minutes of the last day of TPUSA in Phoenix. I watched a few minutes here and there over the past few days. Vice President Vance was the speaker....and I thought about all of the evangelical youth that must be in the audience. Please excuse my naivety....but Nicki Minaj was the previous speaker....and I do not know anything about who she is....but I listened...and this was a compromised and very modern testimony....but everyone seemed to love it. Anyway....I listened to JD Vance finish. This is truly scary stuff....that evangelical youth can be taken in like this. Personally....the Vice President has been the biggest disappointment that I have ever experienced in politics.....(and I have had some big disappointments)....everything pointed to this being a man of integrity....who would tell it like it is....and not be drawn into the web of personal advancement....but it turned out to be the opposite.

Update: Today....Friday....April 17....2026....I watched Trump speak at the latest TPUSA rally....again in Phoenix! As Trump ridiculed NATO....these young people....many of them evangelicals....booed NATO....which means that they booed the people of England....and France....and Italy...and Poland....and Canada! These member nations....and many others....were our allies and our friends....before Trump changed all of that!

Addendum: I have an interesting....and personal....anecdote for you. It was November 4 of 1979....and I sat at my father's bedside as he died. The 2012 Academy Award winning Best Picture....ARGO....a Ben Affleck film....began on that day....in Tehran...as Iranian students took 52 American hostages at the American Embassy....but six American employees slipped into the city. The film is about the successful rescue of those six Americans. That rescue could not have come about had not Canada made a very dangerous decision to hide those Americans....and then help them escape!              

Lord's Day Post

Preface: The following post is from June 2, 2022:

                "You heard the phrase a lot in basic training....way back when anyway....smoke 'em if you got 'em. The drill or the march or whatever had stopped for a rest....and the Drill Sergeant would just say....smoke 'em if you got 'em. Well I have a phrase for the pastors in their pulpits today....it's about tears....the phrase is....shed 'em if you got 'em. Give us some kind of unction fellas....some emotion....some clue that you know the intensity of the evilness of the day....some passion for the souls in your own congregation....some hope for the return of our Lord where....'He will wipe away every tear from their eyes....' Revelation 21:4

Psalm 126:5...."Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of Joy!" 

At least remind us every Lord's Day....the words beginning the very next Psalm....

Psalm 127:1.... "Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

"Keep Your Lamp Full!"

                Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died within hours of each our on July 4....1826....fifty years to the day after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We all.....most of us anyway....know this. Neither man was a Christian. The best description of what Thomas Jefferson was came from his own writing.....saying that he...."was a sect by himself"....in other words....he held his beliefs but there was no sect or denomination that he would fit into. Adams was Unitarian. Both men denied the divinity of Christ. Both men also thought that institutional Christianity was the culprit. Only one week ago I had two men separately come over the house to do some work. As I always try to do....I  started a conversation on Christianity....and both men....very politely.....in fact they accepted recommendations and a book from me.....but both men said very clearly that the problem they have is with organized religion!
                What were Jefferson and Adams thinking as the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence drew near? It seems that in their letters to each other....Adams wanted to talk about the old days.....but Jefferson wasn't that interested. I have something to offer on this although it may hold no importance at all.....and it is this....
                Fifty years? How much do we retain after a half century? How much might Jefferson and Adams have retained? I have one possible clue....in my own experience. Fifty years ago....it will be to the day in a few months....was my wife and my wedding day. Now that is pretty important....but probably not as important as Independence Day was to these two men. The war itself was roughly in this time span....and I was in the army and in Vietnam....in roughly the same fifty year time span. 
                 I can remember as if it were today....our wedding....and much of my time in signal intelligence in Vietnam....so I would assume that Jefferson and Adams would have roughly the same recall and feeling of their days at the time of the revolution....and even moreso as the constitution came about....and even more than that....their own terms in the White House! 
                 Somebody today who is only about thirty or forty years old....not to even mention college students....might not be able to see this? Young people probably think that 1976 or the Vietnam War were ages ago....instead of only decades ago. I think of JFK as a real man....who died when I was a real boy....but others today may see only a mythological figure? They might even think that about Reagan....but Reagan to others even near my age was as real as Bill Clinton....who is still walking around.
                 It is appearing more and more certain that they have finally found the remains of Noah's Ark. There have only been sixty....60.....centuries since God created Adam and Eve. A little calculation and....there have only been 120 of those fifty year periods since the Garden of Eden! This isn't lotto odds folks....in that this is the generation that will live through the tribulation described in the book of Revelation.
                  Fifty years ago was our bicentennial. I remember quite well the tall ships and the celebrations. There is not going to be a tricentennial....or tercentenary. Scripture is very clear on this....but one has to have eyes to see and ears to hear.....and one also has to have a desire to see Jesus return....nor would anyone thinking logically and rationally....want this time to pass....for where the world and society are going at....full-speed-ahead....is not a time period that anyone should look forward to or even want to live through.
                 We have run our course. The situation alone that Israel is in should show us this. There is no peace coming to this world. AI and the potential horrors of drone warfare....let alone drone terrorism....and the proliferation of Nuclear weapons....including small transportable weapons....and add to this a geological and cosmic increasing turbulence and volatility should tell us to....as a Christian neighbor passing by the house today....stopping only long enough to comment on the news of the day....smiled a hopeful smile up to me and said...."Keep your lamps full of oil".....(a reference to the Parable of the Ten Virgins from Matthew's version of the Olivet Discourse)....of which I then said....and some extra to take along!"

Addendum: 'Tippecanoe and Tyler too.' We learned that presidential campaign slogan in grade school. William Henry Harrison....(Tippecanoe)....became our ninth president....and John Tyler....his vice president....later our tenth president....this in 1841. As governor of Virginia....Tyler gave the funeral eulogy for Thomas Jefferson. Here is a rather astounding genealogical trivia. President Tyler's grandson....not great-great-great grandson or something like that.....but his grandson....died....last year.....last year....in May 2025!

Mike Pence Would Be One Of Them

               I had the opportunity today to meet Vice President Mike Pence....well that's embellishing what happened....for it was no more than shaking hands and making a few comments of which he replied....and I was nervous. It was a luncheon in his honor.....billed as....God and Mike Pence....A Spiritual Life. I'm not going to give a summary of his testimony for you can read the full story in his 2022 autobiography....So Help Me God.
               What I would like to do is relate one question given to him afterards....and his answer. The question was....'What word of advice would he give to pastors?'. He paused.....and I'm glad that he did.....for the question even threw me.....as I thought to myself....that what is really important was....what word would they have for him.
                Sure enough....the former Vice President gave almost that same answer.....for after pausing....and maybe struggling a little with question himself....he quoted Scripture....a concise summary of....2 Timothy 4:2...."preach the word.....in season and out of season."
                There was a comment in the middle of his talk that touched me....I wish that I could remember the exact word that he used....it probably wasn't as strong as this...but the implication was the same....that when he was a young man....just getting interested in the workings of government....and reading of past presidents....and a Democrat at the time....that he loved JFK. I know where he is coming from....for as an 18 year old at the time I surely loved RFK.
                 My comment to Mike Pence in the receiving line....was that I once shook Jimmy Carter's hand....so in a long life....it was just he....and Jimmy Carter....and that I was satisfied and honored with that. He said something nice about our 39th president....and acknowledged some differences in the two of them....and that was it.
                 There were some leaders in our past.....that fallible as they were....(and Mike Pence acknowledged in his talk that he was also fallible)....they could actually draw out love from us. Reagan was one of them. One felt that no matter where they would lead....or what would lie ahead....that one could follow them.
                 Mike Pence is one of those men....(or it could be women.....for I would have felt that about Margaret Thatcher had I lived in England)....and I think that there may be a few others out there today. Difficult times are ahead....more difficult than any political science professor  or political commentator can describe or even imagine. These leaders out there are all fallible men....(women)....as all pastors are fallible men.....as we all are all fallible....and no one it seems more than me....but when it is obvious that they know that their abilities come from God....and that God alone raises leaders....for His purposes....or brings them down....for His purposes....then one can put their trust fully in Christ....and look at these leaders....not as one strong enough and wise enough to lead....but one humble enough and therefore deserving enough to lead....and for us to give them their due respect and follow.
                 
      

We Think That God's Prophetic Warnings In His Word......Are Fake News!

                One of the powerful cinematic moments in the new film....A Great Awakening....is when George Whitefield is perched up on portico of the courthouse in Philadelphia....with citizens lined up all the way to the dock.....as he bellows out...."Awake, O Sleeper!" He took those words from Scripture....as Isaiah wrote at the Holy Spirit's direction...."Awake, Awake!'.....and Paul wrote in Ephesians...."Awake, O sleeper....and arise from the dead....and Christ will shine on you."
                Those 1740s were God's time for that Great Awakening. Everything is in God's perfect timing. John MacArthur bellowed out similar commands....as did R. C. Sproul....and many others actually....but it was only Billy Graham who had that prominent perch for the American citizen to see him....and we did respond to his words....for a while....but no single man was needed by God.....and no single man could claim the victory in any of the revivals in America.
                 O we are indeed sleeping in America right now. None of these show events like national days of prayer or Bible reading marathons or college baptism rallies are related to what happened in the colonies at the time of Whitefield and Edwards and others. 
                  Pittsburgh is going to be overrun by.....I don't know....what are they....fans....in the next few days for the NFL draft. The Penguins are in the playoofs.....and the Pirates are doing well....we have all kinds of excitement scheduled for the summer. That is what we want. We are happy somnambulists.....performing complicated tasks while in a deep sleep.
                  There is no one in the American church right now with enough gravitas to even gather us together to hear the words....Awake....O Sleeper!
                  We will have to hit rock bottom.....with a thud....to wake up....and for God to wake us up....and that is surely coming. The evidence of our coming demise is literally everywhere.....as AI alone is a resounding death knell.....but to all of us.....it is all....fake news!
                  
                   

Evangelicals Do Not Know Who Donald Trump Is...."My People Are Destroyed For Lack Of Knowledge...."

             I need to remind myself from time to time that evangelicals do not know much about Donald Trump's earlier life at all....at all! If they did....if they had read 110 books on the life of Trump as I have read....the situation would be completed reversed....and they would flee as fast as they could from the influence of this man.
             Donald John Trump was born on a blood moon on June 14, 1946....so he has an 80th birthday coming up. He started in business with his father....and then his higher ambitions for building in Manhattan sent him off....sort of....on his own. Generally he would find the spot that he wanted to build....see what the city officials would demand for a permit to build....and then if he had to....lie to them until they signed onto the permit.
              This is kind of what is happening at the White House as Trump said that he would not touch the East Wing....got an OK....and then began immediately to tear it down. There was one instance in the past where Trump was buying a famous old hotel....and they would sell it to him but did not want the famous front fresco to be destroyed....so he promised to take it down and then put it back up somewhere else....but as soon as he started the project....they came in and destroyed the fresco....oops!
              It has been a lifetime of this. He builds....and maybe his name goes on the building or not....and maybe he keeps the building or not....and maybe it is a success....or not! And when it is not a success....which happened often....he gets out as quick as he can....and lets others pick up the pieces! So over time he has some impressive successes and some terrible failures....but his name stays on the successes....while the failures and catastrophes are soon forgotten.
              His involvement in casinos was one of the disasters....but if it wasn't....he would still have them today....and I have often wondered.....would Christians still have voted for him for president....or even voted to give him the nomination....if he was making money in a profession....gambling....that destroys lives. I personally know men....and a few women....who had been gambling addicts their whole lives.....and today....as I turn on FRNDLY....television....(that is a cable TV station that I subscribe to so that I can get the Weather Channel)....the fanciest commercials are for online or gambling on TV! It saddens me every time I see one....which is just about every day!
              So Venezuela is a project....nothing more....and he wants Cuba to be another project....and Iran is a big project....and he has high hopes for Gaza. With Iran or the Ukraine....he will complain that the project was dumped on him. Surely you have heard that....probably as recently as this morning or last night. Everything is a project....and as with his former life....he knows that some projects will fail....that's just how it is in big business. The crypto stuff is a big-time money-making project....as is AI....whereas at first....on both of them....they didn't show great promise to make a fortune....but then things changed!
                As I said at the top of this post....I need to remind myself that....probably you the reader here.....never heard any of these things....and if you did....you were told immediately that it was fake news! Well it isn't. The thing is that in the past....when Trump abandoned or sold a failing venture....that the people he drew in with him....that could not just cut-and -run to another project.....remember him later....and there are a lot of those people out there....and most likely Evangelicals will be like that....sitting there....wondering how they could have possibly been naive enough to have bought into this grand business plan of his for America?

Note: Title....Hosea 4:6 KJV
             

The Sixth Chapter Of Jeremiah

It was towards the end of Jeremiah's long ministry of warning Judah and Jerusalem. Zedekiah was the king....a fairly young man....doing evil like his forefathers....and he ultimately rejected Jeremiah's warnings....in favor of a false prophet named Hananiah....who promised to make Jerusalem great again. Folks....Judah and Jerusalem back then was us today....and as Jeremiah wrote in the chapter that I reference below...."

"Because from the least of them
 even to the greatest of them,
 everyone is given to covetousness...

 That is us also folks and the basis for....America first. That verse continues...

"And from the prophet
  even to the priest
  everyone deals falsely
  saying....'Peace....peace'
  When there is no peace

 So there are six more verses from that sixth chapter that I want to focus on....

"Thus says the LORD:

Stand in the ways and see,
and ask for the Old Paths,
    and where the good way is,
And walk in it;
Then you will find rest for your souls"

"But they said, 'We will not walk in it."

That is us today! We're not going back to those old paths....and all that 'born again' stuff. Our church is prospering! Everyone loves it there! We've got work to do....get this country back on track! Folks....it was forty years ago when God's messengers....men like Billy Graham....were warning us of God's judgment on what America had become....and that is what we want to go back to? 

"Also I set watchmen over you saying,
'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!'
But they said, 'We will not listen.'

God has taken home just about all of the men who were standing in the gap. We are actually following a false prophet now like Hananiah who tells us that a golden age is coming!

Therefore hear, you nations
And know, O Congregation,
      What is among them.
Hear, O earth!
Behold, I will certainly bring calamity
      on this people,

But we said...."I don't think so. This is America...God's chosen people!"

Even the fruits of their thoughts,

Do you know what 'fruits of their thoughts' might be? MAGA...that is the fruit of our thoughts!

"Because they have not heeded My words
 Nor My law,  but rejected it.
 For what purpose to Me
 Comes frankincense from Sheba
 And sweet cane from a far country"
 Your burnt offerings are not acceptable.
 Nor your sacrifices sweet to me."

We wanted nothing to do with the Lord's Day....or separating ourselves from the world. Instead we plan National Days of Prayer....and....National Prayer Breakfasts....and....Easter Prayer Luncheons....and....Bible Marathon Readings...."We kept the church doors open in a pandemic! Have you not noticed all the crosses worn around the neck in the White House? Have you not heard all the God talk?" This is all a stench in God's nostrils!

Therefore thus says the LORD

Behold I will lay stumbling blocks
      before this people

"And the fathers and the sons together
     shall fall upon them
The neighbor and his friend
     shall perish."

These judgments will bring us down....as we will eventually stumble upon them. 

Lord's Day Post

Preface: I sent out an email yesterday....and in that email my advice was to ...."stay in your church....and pray for your pastor....but do not die of malnourishment in the process." The implication was that today's preaching leaves us malnourished....and we need to supplement that preaching with preaching from the past. Modern sermons....and fellowship....can be a comfort....but only the preached Word of God can cut deep....and show us what we need to see about ourselves! Everything else is going to be too kind. Yet as kind and loving as a friend can be....the comfort cannot come near matching the balm that God's Word applies....after the incision has been made! This morning....upon rereading that email....I remembered a past post from two years ago that basically said the same thing....

               Babylon was going to rule over Judah and all the lands surrounding them. That was the proclamation that Jeremiah had given to all the priests and prophets and princes and people. Judah had brought it all upon itself. Jeremiah had been warning everyone for decades. None of the aforementioned wanted to hear anything of the sort. Jeremiah's message went further....if the people accepted that which God said through His prophet was going to happen ....then they would get to live in peace in their own land and till their own soil....this being after Daniel and others....and some temple vessels....had previously been taken off to Babylon. If they did not accept this then everyone was going to be dragged off to Babylon....and the temple and the city and the walls....destroyed.
                One false prophet....Hananiah....was incensed....and prophesied..."In the name of the LORD"....that within two years the yoke of Babylon would be broken....and all the temple vessels and the people would be returned to Jerusalem. Jeremiah walked away but God told him to go back and tell Hananiah that he would be dead within the year....and that indeed happened a few months later.
                The America that we once knew is gone. I'm old enough to have lived in both. It is a different country today. We brought it upon ourselves.....and I was a contributor as much as anyone else. Trump is telling us....indeed he has been telling us since he came down that escalator in 2015....essentially....that the yoke of Babylon is going to be broken....and we are going to be greater than we ever were.
                The power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God preached in our pulpits once sustained us....just as the preaching of the Puritans sustained England and early America. Each and every believer needs the power of the preached Word of God. If we don't have it then we become malnourished and weak with no discernment. Today we have preachers in pulpits everywhere....new fangled churches with smiling faces and bigger buildings....with a ministry for literally everyone if they want one....but Ichabod....the glory had departed.
                 These posts exist for one reason. Oh yes I expound on politics....and there is humor in my life so there is humor in these posts....and I warn the best that I know how to warn....and I present the gospel in an evangelistic way that is representative of the way that my mind operates....but my main goal is that I might help the reader see that the high probability is that they are not hearing the power of the Word preached in their churches....that they are not...are not....hearing what they need to hear to humble themselves in this Babylon that we live in....but that there is a way if they would only but go there.
                 God gave the Baptist Charles Spurgeon to London in the latter half of the 1800s....and then He gave the Presbyterian Martyn Lloyd-Jones to the same city from the 1930s to roughly 1980. They....along with Anglican J. C. Ryle....and some others....kept the flame alive....and the remnant fed. When I was relatively young....Billy Graham crusades were  on one of the four....that's right....four television stations....as his crusades were on TV all the time. Some quite remarkable preacher/pastor/teachers were given to us....R. C. Sproul and John MacArthur and John Piper to name but three. We were revived for a time.
                 Dear reader....you absolutely need this nourishment! Stay in your church....pray for your pastor....he needs it more than you or he knows....but add....add these men to your life who still preach the power of the Word of God! Show up on the Lord's Day....but get fed every day if you can from other sources! All you would have to do is Google....'Spurgeon sermons YouTube'....or....'Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermons YouTube"....or...."J.C. Ryle YouTube"....or go to....ligonier.org....or....gty.org...or....desiringgod.org.

Note: I would like to add Paul Washer's sermon to that list....and if you do go to John Piper's....desiringgod.org....look for articles written and read by Greg Morse....and this....I would to highly recommend a film to you....which I have watched at least a dozen times....it is part documentary and part drama....and very easy to boot up and watch....at....C.H. Spurgeon....The People's Preacher.

                   I watched the preliminaries to the White House Correspondents Association dinner for about an hour....as the people slowly entered the foyer of the Hilton....and then mulled around the tables inside. It was all laughter....at times raucous guffaws. As the dinner was starting....a famous....'mentalist'....whatever that is....(a modern day soothsayer?)....was plying his craft on the dais to both the president and first lady....as the president of the White House Correspondents Association....in overhearing his words....seemed amazed at what he was telling him....and then....in a manner of speaking....the handwriting appeared on the wall....and what followed was tense chaos....a horror scene that we are becoming all too familiar with. The annual State of the Union Address.....and this White House Correspondent's Dinner....and there are a number of other events....serve no purpose in the combative climate that we live in today. At least the upcoming UFC fight night on the White House lawn fits in with the absurdities that are everywhere else. There is talk that they want to reschedule this dinner within the next 30 days.....which is beyond absurd....into lunacy. 

I want to reiterate what I mention in the January 2025 post below....in that this host website does not support a photo of the oil painting below as it can be displayed....so please....follow the directions to see this great oil painting as it should be viewed:

The Handwriting On The Wall

                                  

               The above is a photo of an oil painting by 19th century....(the period of Romanticism)....English painter John Martin....who was known for his epic religious themes. If the grainy photo piqued your interest....please Google....John Martin...Belshazzar's Feast...Yale University....where the image that will appear is not grainy....and you can expand it to see just how incredible the oil painting is!
               In a few days we will begin a four day inauguration celebration....Saturday through Tuesday. There will be three balls....Carrie Underwood and Lee Greenwood and the Village People will sing. Franklin Graham will pray. There will be a....Make America Great Again Rally....on the Lord's Day at 3:00 PM in the sports arena. Evangelicals are primed for the "feast".

               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 is the decades long judgements....one after another....building to a crescendo....only the latest being Los Angeles....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. 

DISPATCHES

Donald Trump was nominated and elected primarily because his opponent was Hillary Clinton. He was nominated a second time primarily because his opponent was Joe Biden. Trump is not being rejected by evangelicals today primarily for the same reason....our propaganda news sources direct our attention at all times on the wild progressives on the other side. In reality....godly ministers were warning back in the early 80s of God's coming judgment on America....and we in America today are ten times worse....(100 times worse?)....than we ever were. Judgment has come in the form of....first Joe Biden....and then Donald Trump. There was no....lesser of two evils....only different evils. The man who evangelicals continue to defend in spite of the fact that he has mocked God for a decade now....is God's judgment on the church!

Hamas attacked Israel on the last day of the Jewish feast of Sukkot....and the world has not been the same since. Jewish feasts and blood moons and solar eclipses are not predictive in that we can say that something will happen at those times....but they are definitely reflective in that we can see God's hand after-the-fact in the events of Israel and in this entire world. Trump was born right on a blood moon....which is astonishing in itself. A little over a decade ago there were books written and much reporting on an extremely rare tetrad of blood moons on Jewish feasts coming in 2014/2015. That tetrad came and went....and people seemed disappointed in that nothing seemed to happen. Well....something did happen....as Donald Trump came down that golden escalator....right smack dab in the middle of evangelicalism....in the middle of that tetrad.....and there has been nothing but torment and disturbances and division ever since. This current war with Iran started on February 28....only hours later really was what NASA called a...."spectacular blood moon." I took a screen shot of one headline at the time of the blood moon. It read....WAR SPIRALS. The next total solar eclipse will be August 12....viewable only in parts of the earth. The next blood moon will not be until December 31, 2028. 

I just now came home from the movies after watching for the second time....A Great Awakening. I took a friend this time and he loved it....which I knew that he would. The theater was filled the first time....two weeks ago....but only four were in attendance today....so it is running its course.....but there is still time for you. A short summary on the film is on the relationship between George Whitefield and Benjamin Franklin....with vignettes of both men in their youth. The film will go back and forth from The Great Awakening itself....to the debates which led to the drafting of the constitution in 1787. The gospel message strong and powerful....and I hope that you go and see it. It will surely be streaming sometime in the future...and there will be a DVD....but don't wait....break the habit of waiting to do things....for this age that we live in does not give us that luxury.

I do not know if the bombing will resume in Iran....or if some sort of peace agreement will be signed.....nor do I know the outcome of the war in the Ukraine....but I do know this....on Iran or Lebanon or the Ukraine or Venezuela or Cuba....Trump will do what he believes will benefit him....in the short run. It has nothing to do with the people in any of these places....or even with Israel. He needs his poll numbers....or at least the projections for the Republican Party....to go up before the mid-terms....and even before the planned celebrations around July 4th. I know this after ten years of studying him....after voting for him in 2016....and celebrating....but shortly afterwards seeing a big problem....that has since then taken captive just about all of evangelicalism....taken our eyes and our hopes and our trust off of Christ....and onto our own powers.

We have been informed that an asteroid the size of three football fields will pass by the earth....within 20,000 miles....on April 13, 2029. This is an extraordinary event even though astronomers are confident that it not affect the earth....with "zero risk"....a "once in a 1,000 year" event....observable with the naked eye for some. I point it out because when reading....hopefully studying the book of Revelation....that we are fully aware that some of the cosmic scenes depicted....are not unimaginable....but might even in due time be predicted!

I did watch Trump's remarks at a 'roundtable discussion' in Las Vegas.....where he described the war in Iran as...."a little diversion."  The longer it goes....fewer people can say that they followed the lives of politicians more than I have....for it is about 58 years....but to watch something like Trump tonight....which is really no different than the other fifty or so rallies where I studied him....is to watch history in the making....'real time'....as some like to say today....not everyday history.....but such as only when the Bolsheviks or the National Socialists took over....and tried and true mind control techniques deceived multiple-millions....even tens of millions. The biblical aspect of this is that even as of today....evangelicals that I not only know....and have known for decades.....and respect their basic discernments on so many things....they have fulfilled....for now.....for it will in due time change....Matthew 24:24...."so as to mislead....if possible....even the elect."

The following three paragraphs are from different DISPATCHES posts within the past few months. Friends....brothers and sisters in Christ....you have been duped. We....all of us....brought all of this upon ourselves. Every one of us should be shedding tears....it is that bad. What we are seeing with Trump is not peace....it's not good....it is lies.....illusions....blasphemy....mockery and horror. Oh but you will say...."Just trust in God"....but then you steadfastly refuse to trust in the very clear warnings He has given us! 

"Donald Trump's....rise...fall....and rise....demonstrated for all with eyes to see....one colossal weakness in man. With all the intellect....and zeroing in closer....even among many of those who have actually been....born again....with all that....we can look at Trump....at eleven years of the....'let Trump be Trump'....and not fall to our knees in repentance for one of the most egregious mistakes that Christians have made since Jesus ascended to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit! It just has to be end-times related. It just has to be part of the great end-times delusion. It is so extraordinary in weakness....that when we finally see what we have done....it may separate the chaff from the wheat....and beckon the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior and King."

We knew there would be a falling away....we just didn't know that we would be part of  It......The following is from an October 2025 post...."OK.... we know this.... that before the Lord returns.... there will be a falling away.... (1 Thess 2:3).... that is the church folks..... us.... there will be a falling away.... in the church! Matthew tells us the same thing.... in the words of Jesus.... in the Olivet Discourse.... 24:10...."at that time many will fall away." I submit to you that what we see in the church right now..... with Christian nationalism reigning over the gospel of salvation.... is part of the falling away".

"And If Any Man Shall Take Away From The Words Of The Book Of This Prophecy......The following is from a January 2026 post....What about...."Not by might or by power but by My Spirit?" (Zechariah 4:6) What about "come out from among them and be separate?" (2 Corinthians 6:7) What about all the admonitions to stay vigilant and awake and alert? What about all the warnings of false miracles and false prophets and a great delusion and a falling away that is coming.... so strong of a delusion that even the elect.... that is you and me folks.... that even we can be taken in.... if it were possible.... which means temporarily.... which is already what has happened to so many!"