"But Even If We....Or An Angel From Heaven.....Preach Any Other Gospel To You...."

Preface: The following post is from October 16, 2025. In bringing it back I added underlining to two sentences. Within the past few days the Trump administration registered two government domain websites....alien.gov and....aliens.gov. They exist now as titles with no content. The official response to media questions about this is...."Stay Tuned"....with the following emoji.....👽. The first sentence that I underlined is that the church needs to address this issue of aliens now. Actually it should have been discussed in detail decades ago.  I probably have a dozen posts on this over the years. The second underlined sentence is that for a Christian....if they even assent to the possibility that there are....what we call aliens....out there in the universe....then they do not even understand the gospel that they profess. Now...some will take great umbrage with my saying that....which is why....we need to bring this whole issue out in the open....for if nothing else....after the debate....many but not all....will understand the gospel of Jesus Christ.....and creation....as they should....and that alone can only bless the church greatly! Had this been an issue 125 years ago....Charles Spurgeon would have preached a wonderful sermon on it. Martyn Lloyd-Jones....75 years ago or thereabouts....did warn of great deception and delusion and the demonic! Here is that post from last October....

"But Even If We......Or An Angel From Heaven....Preach Any Other Gospel To You

"I am  leaving soon...and you will forgive me if I speak bluntly....'the universe grows smaller every day....and the threats of aggression....by any group....anywhere....can no longer be tolerated....there must be security for all....or no one is secure....now this does not mean giving up any freedom....except the freedom to act irresponsibly....your ancestors knew this when they made laws to govern themselves....and hired policemen to enforce them....we of the other planets have long accepted this principle....we have an organization for the mutual protection of all planets....and for the complete elimination of aggression....the test of any such higher authority is of course the police force that supports it....for our policemen we created a race of robots....their function is to patrol the planets in spaceships like this one....and preserve the peace....in matters of aggression....we have given them absolute power over us....this power cannot be revoked....at the first sign of violence they act automatically against the aggressor....the penalty for provoking their actions is too terrible to risk....the result is....we live in peace....without arms or armies....secure in the knowledge that we are free from aggression and war....free to pursue more profitable enterprises....now we do not pretend to achieved perfection....but we do have a system....and it works....I came here to give you these facts....it is no concern of ours how you run your own planet....but if you threaten to extend your violence....this earth of yours will be reduced to a burned out cinder....your choice is to join us and live in peace....or to pursue your present course and face obliteration....we shall be waiting for your answer....for the decision rests with you." 

              The above speech from the 1951 classic film....The Day The Earth Stood Still....is from Klaatu....the alien. The robot would be Gort....the artificial intelligence that they created to protect them. There was a remake of this movie in 2008....with Klaatu Reeves....excuse me....Keanu Reeves....but I have no idea the storyline or narrative of that film. I do know that in the first film the spaceship lands....on the ellispse....between the White House and the Washington Monument....similar to the other seemingly now supernatural being who appeared on that same ellipse on January 6, 2021....seventy years later....giving a warning.
               I think the church needs to address this issue beforehand. There is a documentary coming out in late November on the many verified sightings of what today they call....UAPs....unidentified flying phenomena....formerly referred to as UFOs. It appears to be a credible documentary with Rubio and other government people being extensively interviewed.
               Let me lay the groundwork. God created man in His image....and there are no other "beings" anywhere.  This is vital to the Christian Faith to understand this! You cannot even understand the gospel if you cannot see this!!! If one wants to balk then that is their prerogative....we have seventy to eighty years....using biblical terminology....seventy to eighty years on average to our lives. Waste it if you want on speculation....speculation that the Apostle Paul warned us about.
               The more important issue is the turmoil and tribulation that lies ahead....for we need to be grounded securely in Christ....because of the deception and delusion and signs and wonders and false miracles that are ahead....and not wandering off on tangents about extraterrestrial life and ancient gods returning to earth as Jonathan Cahn more than speculates in his many bestselling books that lead evangelicals into idle speculations.
               So what about all the reports about flying objects that can do maneuvers that no human designed aircrafts can do? Satan took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple. Demon possession apparently was rampant during the incarnation of our Lord and Savior. It appears that that the demonic world was stirred up....and in retrospect....rightfully so....for their judgment was in sight with the incarnation of the Son of Man! It is not surprising therefore that it is being stirred up again as Jesus is near in his return....with His mighty angels....who will fight these demonic angels!
               There have been thousands of apparitions over the millennia...'And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light." (2 Corinthians 11:14 ESV)  So let's prepare ourselves and talk about these things....particularly with this highly anticipated documentary film that is soon to be released to theaters. Bring it up in your cell groups....and if someone hedges on the truth from God's Word....don't let it slide.....but challenge the lack of vigilance in a brother or sister in Christ!

title: Galatians 1:8 NKJV

Special Dog's Idol Factory....Downsized....But Still In Business

                The average idol that a family might have in their house in ancient Israel would have been about 4 to 6 inches tall....small enough to fit into the palm of the hand. The Oscar....is 13.5 inches tall....with eyes that cannot see....and ears that cannot hear....and a mouth that cannot speak....holding a sword that cannot cut.
                I have had many and various idols over my long life....and still do. They are hard to do away with....and I will never be totally free of them. Some of them I try to hide from God....some of them I try to tell God that they can be of use to the spread of the gospel. Some of them I keep and congratulate myself because they used be twice or ten times as big.
                Calvin described man's mind as an idol factory. My son was an idol at one time....now he's just a hero....(yes our children can be powerful idols)....as was my physical fitness....my hair....(believe it or not)....and even my smile....before God marred its appearance....thankfully.
                 We need the preached Word to identify the idols in our life....for therein is the two-edged sword that can cut...."living and active"....(unlike Oscar or a gold medal or a house or a car or an ounce of gold)....that pierces....continuing in Hebrews 4:12.....of the ESV...."to the division of soul and of spirit....of joints and of marrow....and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
                  We need that preaching as a lamb needs a shepherd....but as Jesus warned the people....they had "grown dull....their ears hard of hearing....and their eyes they have closed" ....(Matthew 13:15 NKJV)....they didn't....nor do we....desire to hear any more than we do....for if we did....we would be healed....little by little....of the idols that we collect....as a dog might collect fleas.
                  

Burger King Church...."Have It Your Way"

                I am one of those people who feed the birds and the squirrels. If I see a bird out there in the winter I might throw some bread out.....but I spread some peanut butter on it because the white bread alone might fill their stomach but provided few if any of the nutrients that they need. In other words....bread alone may do more harm than good.
               We all are familiar with when Jesus mysteriously told Peter three times to feed His lambs and feed His sheep. We sheep....we lambs....are to be fed primarily by the preached Word of God. It is meant to be a....means of grace. It is an absolute necessity....or else we can spiritually die.
                Just by the nature of the way I spend my time....and it's been pretty much the same for over forty years now....I have become very familiar with the average preached sermon in America today....and folks it is white bread.....with an occasional spread of peanut butter on it.
                Look for yourself....visit the websites of some of the bigger churches in your area....and more likely than not you will not even find a link to the sermons....and if you do....those sermons are by and large either Bible studies....where the pastor preaches what we should be learning for ourselves....or they are therapeutic....alleviating pain and encouraging.  
                This lack of preaching does not show up in sunken facial features or bones showing through the skin....but quite the opposite actually as without the needed mortification in the sermons....we might very well spend all of our free time at Planet Fitness....building as I called it over thirty years ago....the Church of the Fit and Buff.
                The church today treats the epidermis....that protective layer of skin that has no blood vessels to provide nutrients....and ignores what is below....but it is what is below that provides the nutrients. So our sermons today address only that which appears bothersome on the surface. I'll give one example of a plethora of areas of which we constantly need self-examination....that example is this....we look at this world and we identify the evils....fair enough....but we need also to identify the evils that we have added to the situation. Yes....Trump is a cluster of evils....but we built the culture that gave us Trump. What evils lurk within us? We are blind because our spiritual eyes lack the nutrients that the preached Word provides!
                 Does Burger King still use the phrase? I don't know....but the popular commercial a half century ago centered around the words....'Have It Your Way.' If you didn't want tomatoes or pickles on your burger....then they were taken off....so in today's church....if we don't want this or that....or we ain't coming to church....then they are taken out.
                 Church attendance and personal ministries and even being generous and helping others....and even evangelizing....can be nothing but a clear skin....even a beautiful skin....protecting a diseased body....with a spiritual heart may not even be beating.
                 I'm not advising people to leave their church because they probably would not be able to find a pastor who can preach as men of the past....but I am....and always have in these posts....strongly recommended....even pleaded for....literally begged in some cases....Christians to supplement their brick and mortar churches with CDs or Internet sermons from....as I have always labelled it....preachers from the past....men like Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones and Ryle and Bunyan and Whitefield and Edwards and so many more....and Preachers today who preach like preachers from the past...men like MacArthur and Sproul and Piper and Paul Washer and Michael Horton....and so many more.....spread thinly across America.
                 These posts are littered with sermon links that you can easily go to. Please consider listening....which may include watching....one or two of these each week. If you do....you will see what the fuss had always been about concerning the weak preaching age that we live in.
               

A False Prophet....Giving A False Prophecy....About Another False Prophet

                   The video below is from the inaugural National Faith Summit in Atlanta in October of 2024....shortly before the election. According to Jonathan Cahn who speaks in the video....there were 3,000 "faith leaders" present.....and that the administrators put Cahn last in line to speak to ensure that Donald Trump would be in the sanctuary and seated by then.

                   In the message....the author of numerous prophecy best-sellers over the past decade....gave what he himself has said was a 'Word from the Lord." So in effect....this was a false prophet....(Cahn)....giving a false prophecy....about another false prophet of a coming golden age for America....(Trump)....in an event hosted by yet another false prophet in Paula White....Donald Trump's chief spiritual advisor! (Please....please....at some point....Google and view Paula White calling on angels from Africa and South America to aid Trump in the election....this on November 5, 2020)
                   Please watch the video below and take note of the method that Jonathan Cahn employs as a crescendo builds to a level of screaming the prophecy....as he points to June 14, 1946 and Trump's birth as the "beginning of a mystery"....(although that specific date was also a blood moon but was this not mentioned)....and his "destiny"....as a...."trumpet of God"....and a "warrior king"....and looking at Trump sitting in the front row....Jonathan Cahn prophesied...."The glory of the Lord has risen upon you!"
                    Brothers and sisters in Christ....this is what we have brought to the White House. This is what we proclaim as the work of the Holy Spirit. These are our shepherds.
                   

Playing With Evil

Preface: I watched part of yet another Trump rally yesterday....with its concert theme....as the entire time his eyes move from the teleprompter on the left to the one on the right....words written by Stephen Miller and others....carefully crafted exaggerations and outright lies mixed in with a portion of truth. Take away the teleprompter and Trump's speech is awkward....even juvenile....often disjointed....even flailing....as was the time four or five years ago when at the end he tried to add his own words in the benediction....what came out was...."And we pray for God." The people in the back....behind him on the television screen....always appear the same....chosen for their looks or what they are wearing....cheering things that could not be proven....nor would they have any inclination to ask for proof anyway....for this is a mass psychological movement....aimed primarily at evangelicals....who demanded a king as other nations had....instead of looking to the King of Kings!            

                 I've used a lot of different words to describe Trump over the years....despicable and vile....destroyer and deceiver....and he is a genuine biblical false prophet and as the Apostle John described those who are always out there....an antichrist....but I don't think that I've used this yet....evil. We in evangelicalism....in the church....even in leadership of denominations....and some Christian colleges....are playing with evil.
                 His megalomania is like nothing that I have ever witnessed....or hardly even read about....it actually seems worse than Nebuchadnezzar at his worst. He is a sociopath....driven by seeking revenge on those who do not give him the obeisance that he demands be given to him. He actually thrives on hate. That which has vexed and tormented the remnant in the church over the past decade....he thrives on!
                 This appears to be the falling away in the church that God's Word warned us about....or at least the beginning of it. Trump used to spout all the time about draining the swamp....which in retrospect is almost surreal....for as it turned out....the Trump family swamp is the most fetid of all the swamps....and Christians have been lured and dragged and tricked into wading in....and as of today....not coming back out.
                  Discernment is all gone....as we started out thinking that we were protecting the freedom to proclaim the gospel....an honorable goal....but eventually we fell in love with the greed and the pride that was hand-fed us by Fox and talk radio....once proud media that was led to contravene the implied laws of journalism....and reported only that which aided the leviathan that was born on a blood moon....and appeared out of nowhere in the 2014/2015 tetrad of blood moons.
                  Trump's god....by definition a being that neither depends on anything....while everything depends on it....is riches....money....and the power that goes with it. That is the god that we evangelicals have latched onto....unawares of it of course....but without excuse.....because the evidence is and has been all around us....but we chose to rely solely on Trump's narrative....and block out that which we were told was....fake news.
                   A couple of years ago I posted on a comment that Trump's former Chief of Staff General John Kelly had made at the time. That comment sums everything up. General John Kelly....after answering a question about his time with Trump....finished with this...."What can I add that has not already been said....There is nothing more to be said....God help us." We in America should be saying just that....'God help us'....instead of the overused and abused....'God bless America.' There are ten years of very clear evidence that Trump is a terribly troubled man....and of his many grotesque antics and comments....the latest would only have been from yesterday....as he spoke to a Republican conference and boasted...."Only I can do this S#%T."
                   This has never been....as the reason always given to us to vote for Trump....that he was the lesser or two evils. These past ten years....Trump.....and Biden....and now this new Trump....have been ten years of God's judgment on not only America....and not only the entire world....and not only on evangelicalism....but on Christians. God's judgment came to the church first....just as His Word tells us that it would do. 
                   One of my prayers for Christian friends who have been totally taken in by Trump....is that God....as He lifts the veils....which He is doing right now....and shows us what we have done....and who we have put in power....that He would also supply and apply a great balm....for it will be a bitter pill to swallow that will come with the revelation.....for we all are responsible for what we are....and all in need of that balm....some sooner than others.

The Shepherds Conference....I Think That The Pillars Were Shaken During That Sermon

                For the better part of the last half of every year I look forward to this Shepherd's Conference.....that should God will it....pillars might be shaken during that conference! So I waited especially for tonight....Friday.....March 6....where Paul Washer to preach.....because he has a tendency to preach to believers as if they were in trouble....and in need of some stern thoughts. Let me segue to yesterday....and my wife asked me if I would like to go out to dinner tonight....at one of her favorite places....and  I immediately said yes....and she immediately made reservations....and then I remembered that just as the dinner would be served....Paul Washer would take the podium....or in this case the pulpit. I said nothing....and we enjoyed our meal....and as we finished I told her in detail about Paul Washer speaking right then....and smiled....and started the live-stream as soon as we got into the car.....and those pillars must have shaken during that sermon! Thank you Lord for all of these faithful men....bless them....and send them out that they might bless us through the blessing that they received tonight!

UPDATE: Well the video is up....and here it is....the video provided includes the hymns sung before Paul Washer speaks....as beautiful as they are....please slide the bar over to '14:00 minutes into the video where Paul Washer begins...that is if you like....

                                                                       

'Donald Trump, Please Go Home'

                       It's a movie that you have probably never seen....because it was involved in law suits that delayed the normal release and handling of the film....but if you are as old as me....you may have read the best-seller that it was based on by William Peter Blatty....(author of The Exorcist)....but this book was part satire/part spoof....and the film is a comedy.....so that is strange to begin with. It stars Shirley Maclaine....and Peter Ustinov....and Richard Crenna.
                       His nickname was....Wrong-Way....Goldfarb....because in college he ran the wrong way with the football for 95 yards....then he became an Air force U-2 pilot....and flew the wrong way....was supposed to be over the Soviet Union....but crashed in a fictional Arab country....which started an international incident. The 1965 film is....John Goldfarb, Please Come Home.
                       The king of the Arab country....(Ustinov)....is kind of like what Trump was like at one time....who just spends all his money on toys....and big ideas....the idea that the movie revolves around is that the king wants the now hostage Goldfarb to form and coach an Arab football team....and then blackmails the United States Secretary of Defense....(Richard Deacon....or Mel Cooley from the Dick Van Dyke Show)....to have Notre Dame come over and play the Arab football team that doesn't appear to even know what a football is.....another tie into the Trump administration....that doesn't appear to know much about anything.
                       This Trump administration is totally different from his first administration. In fact Trump appears to be a different man....under a different power even....as he has come out from day one...."conquering....and to conquer"....as the rider on the white horse is described in Revelation six. 
                       Trump is still planning a UFC 'cage fight' on the White House lawn....
(can you even believe that?).....maybe next year a televised exorcism might be planned on the Ellipse....(bring your Trump bible)....where all the demonic activity of the past five years began? As an odd piece of trivia....in the 1951 classic sci-fi film....The Day The Earth Stood Still.....The alien spacecraft lands right smack dab on the Ellipse next to the White House!

JOHN PIPER HAS A WONSERFUL TEACHING ON TODAY'S....(MARCH 9).....EPISODE OF DESIRINGGOD.ORG....TITLED....YOUR MAIN CALLING IN THE END TIMES. PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS TWELVE MINUTE VIDEO!

                                                                           

And Along Came Anna

                Simeon....from the second chapter of Luke....was a devout man....who did not just sit there....and tell everyone that the Messiah will come in God's timing....and go about his business as if the coming of the Messiah could be hundreds of years away....for as Luke wrote.....it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would see the coming of the Messiah before he died. The Holy Spirit led Simeon into the temple on that day just when Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the temple. He would have had to have been old....and waiting a long time. Maybe the people tried to discourage him....maybe he heard a lot...."Oh Simeon....you have been saying that the Messiah was coming for a long time. You're wasting your life away!"
                So as Simeon gave his prophecy....along came Anna....who was a prophetess....and she was really old....older than me....and she spent all of her time her whole life in the temple....fasting and praying every day and every night. It's impossible to perfectly interpret the description of her age that Luke gives....but she might have been over a hundred years old! And there had been no prophets in hundreds of years....so why is Anna called a prophetess....and why did Simeon give that prophecy about the child Jesus? Well I think it was because during both of their long lives....the Messiah was getting nearer and nearer....and God was speaking again....and the demons were becoming more active....just like they are today.
               The Holy Spirit leads Anna to that part of the temple just as Simeon finishes prophesying....and she starts telling all the people about this child....all the people who also were also waiting for their Messiah.... or as God's Word puts it...."the redemption of Jerusalem.
               Somehow today....we have been led to believe that it's not a good thing to always be looking for Jesus to return! It's even worse than that because we are told that there is no way that we could know even if we wanted to know! There is no indication that Simeon was more than just a devout and just man living in Jerusalem who wanted the Messiah to come.

              Expect to see this friends....as the horrors of AI begin to unfold....and the new world order.....whatever it turns out to be....begins to take shape....and love grows ever colder and colder....and the rule of law more and more rare....and even greater delusions appear than what we are subject to now....expect more Christians to become as Simeon and Anna....in that they....as was the case with Simeon....wanted only to see the Messiah return to restore righteousness.....and as in the case of Anna....told everyone how that redemption of....'Jerusalem'....was nigh! 
               May God....should it be in his good and perfect will....have mercy upon our shepherds tonight even as they sleep....for if they do not begin to speak out that our Lord and Savior and King is near....then as Luke reported later that the stones would cry out.....the sheep may cry out from the pews! I've read that sheep do not make many noises....and usually only when they are in danger or not being fed.

Moderation In Everything.....Except.....Seeking Glory For One To Whom All Glory Belongs!

"Only one life....'twill soon be past....Only what's done for Christ will last." C.T. Studd                

                 It is by anyone's estimation a beautiful day in Western Pennsylvania....73 degrees....as a break from a brutal winter....with storms coming in later in the day. My wife is on the patio on a lounge chair....and I am fighting the temptation to do the same thing. 
                Those 5,000 plus men left the Shepherd's Conference last night....one last sleepover probably and then the trip home....and I was praying for travel mercies for them....and that this would not turn out like a typical Christian conference....where the vacation is over and it's time to get back to the grind of scheduling and sermon preparation....but that there would be a new unction....clinging to the mind like the demon of laziness....that hopefully last night was cast out into the outer darkness!
                This is part of our fight....a gut-wrenching struggle to tell ourselves....and believe....and act on it....that the world....as the Beast from the Sea....even as I type and you read this....is not resting....that the world can have these poppy fields....sleep-inducing days....but I will struggle with this post....trying to draw something out of nothing....putting one ragged 76 year old step after another.
                 All I have is this....a sermon of Charles Spurgeon....from 1886....read by who-knows-who....on a topic related to the above. How much time do you have left before you stand before the Lord of Glory? How much time do I have left....a year....a month....a day....an hour? How much time before this life of delusion and greed and pride and ignorance that America....and the church....are drowning in.....how much time until....well God's Word puts it this way...."Now when these things begin to take place....straighten up and raise your heads....because your redemption is drawing near." (Luke 21:28 ESV)

                                                           

                

Mind Setting

Preface: I thought That I would bring back this August 15 of 2023 post...seven weeks before the October Sukkot attacks in Israel. Any Christian....reading his or her Bible as if they really believed that it was the very Word of God....would have known....or should have known....many years ago....that war was coming....and that a false peace was coming. "For you will hear of wars and rumors of wars..."....we don't know how many wars....or even how many times they will falsely say "peace." There are at least a hundred very specific verses in God's Word that identify the day and the age that you and I live in. John MacArthur....who is mentioned many times in the posts preceding this post....once said that in May of 1948...."God put the world on notice." 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)

For Whom The Death Knell Tolls            

               Many of us....possibly most of us.....but certainly not all of us....have some kind of defining characteristic on how we lead our daily lives. My wife's would be in that she is always making a note of something that she has to do. She is famous for it....and it works out very well. Jonathan Edwards was famous for that also as he would take long horseback rides....to meditate...and when he returned it looked like it had snowed....for all of the white pieces of paper that he had pinned all over his clothing.
               Well I also have a very strong characteristic. I need to at all times have a constantly updated view on the big picture of things. I need to more than occasionally go over the many possible changes that life can present. For example....there may not be any imminent household expenses....a new furnace....or a new roof....but provision has to be made anyway for those possible emergencies. That characteristic dominates these posts.
               There is war ahead. One has to be able to step back to see this. It can't be stopped. The dies have been cast. If there is another virus....we have already shot ourselves in the foot....vaccinations are bad....scientists are bad.
               When Jesus said that...."If a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand"....He was letting us know what it was going to look like at the end. When He said...."Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth"....He was describing this world today....for as much as we say....'God bless this' and 'God bless that'....our faith has dwindled down to nothing more than those trite phrases. The carnival barkers have our attention today.....pointing to the clowns....or the bearded woman....or the world's strongest man....or the world's smallest man.
               AI alone....is a death knell! Drone warfare is a death knell! Our division is a death knell! Hemingway's famous words were...."For whom the bell tolls....it tolls for thee." Only God's Word gives us hope...."Jesus said to her....(Martha).... 'I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die."

Annie Get Your Crown

The following was first posted in April of 2017:                

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

'I Know Him......You Don't......Stay Away From Him'......What else Can I Do?

                 The person reading this might be too young to have heard a story like this.....but at my age it has come up occasionally over the years....maybe in a movie or on TV or in a book or even in real life. It's a story of two brothers....(in fact I did a post on this once.....maybe I can find it)....where one brother is a normal young man....but his brother has been bad his whole life....always telling lies....caring only about himself....hurting people and laughing at other's misfortune.....with absolutely no compassion at all. Well they grow up....and the first brother is the only one who really knows what the other brother is like. They live in the same community....and the second brother has become 'successful'....and has deceived just about everyone in that they have been taken in by his outgoing and confident personality....and they begin to be friends with him....and even admire him....as he takes on positions of authority in the community or even in church. All this time the first brother can only sit back and watch his friends and/or the community and the church be taken in....for he cannot come out and tell people to stay away from his brother....for who would believe him anyway?
                  In that post that I wrote some time ago....Trump is that second brother....and I am as the brother who knows him.....because I spent the last ten years reading about his whole life....(110 books)....and his relationships with his family....and watching maybe fifty of his rallies....and checking just about everything that he said over that ten years....and applying everything to my extensive knowledge of cults. In reality it is not just me that knows who Trump is....but multitudes across America....even across the political spectrum. The older Democrats know Trump very well because they both came from the same culture....the liberal....Studio 54....tabloid celebrity culture. This is why they so often ask how it is possible that evangelicals can accept this man? They do not hold to our religious beliefs....but they know what they are....because we have told them all the time.
                   So I ask the same question....only I know the answer. What the average Democrat or the liberal 'Christian' does not realize is that the Christian is on a very perilous journey. There was....(and is)....a children's book from maybe thirty years ago with the title....Dangerous Journey. I gave it to our young son....and our son later gave it to his young son. This pilgrimage that we are on is fraught with dangers....to the left and to the right....and if we do not stay on the straight path....then we will pay for it. Bunyan told about this gloriously in Pilgrim's Progress. We might wind up in a legalist bondage....or taken in a trap....or decide to take and easier path and wind up in total depression....that can even be a fatal depression. We may have to go through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.....and we definitely have to go through Vanity Fair....in fact we live in Vanity Fair. We in the church had few shepherds to protect us....and little to no preaching to strengthen us....and no warnings of Trump whatsoever! Thus Trump came in....a wolf in sheep's clothing....and today our bodies are strewn all over the place. 
                     So that young person today....for example....has absolutely no way to discern the dangers of Trump. The church grid that they may have been raised on is not a sound biblical grid. The talk radio grid today is not the same that it was thirty years ago....nor is FOX NEWS the same....'fair and balanced'....news media that it once was. 
                     When Trump talks of a golden age....or "winning....winning....winning"....or getting what is rightly ours through tariffs....or telling us how all illegal aliens must go....(except those maybe whose IT skills make them useful to us getting richer)....we suck it up like a stray dog at a fishing hole on a hot summer day. We think that this is great....making America great again....even though we know little to nothing about what greatness is. And we think that we are not only patriots....but valiant Christians....fighting the good fight....against the evil darkness of progressives and wokism. We actually think that what we are doing is part of revival!
                     We brought all of this upon ourselves.....as we played around with our entertainments and our sports. We passed through Vanity Fair....and bought properity.....and built our home on it. We hired the pastors and the teachers that we wanted. We put a carving knife to the gospel....getting rid of everything that we did not like....and thus we are where we are....cheering a man....who the Apostle John described as an....antichrist....an enemy of the gospel!
                      Here is an axiom....a tyrant cannot help but do some things right....but he is still a tyrant. To some of us on our side of this mess....we know who Trump is....and what he is....so when he does something that should be done....we see it like it is....pouring a tablespoon of honey into a glass of tainted water....it doesn't change the water that will make the one who drinks it sick....but all that the rest of us see is the honey! 

DISPATCHES

A picture-perfect example of someone that Trump would nominate for Secretary of Homeland Security.....MarkWayne Mullin is a disaster waiting to happen.

Voter ID Bill....You had better believe that Trump will pull out all stops for this voter ID bill to pass because if the House goes to the Democrats he will face numerous impeachment charges....and have to deal with a number of congressional investigations and probably special prosecutors on a number of issues....the first of which might be how he made so much money since his second term began. As for the bill itself....in theory it would make sense....if you want to vote then you have to at least show identification on who you are....in reality today....to immediately implement such a bill would disenfranchise millions of Americans....and possibly secure a Republican House of Representatives.....(if we still have elections by then?) Believe it or not folks....people whose family history....extending over generations....is one of little money....with the priority of living day to day....with little if any knowledge of the necessity....or the know-how to....or even the energy due to a life of daily financial emergencies....to take a test for....fill out an application for....a Real ID....for a passport....or anything not absolutely necessary to daily life....well....these things are not a priority. There are a lot of changes that need to be made in our elections....but they have to be done correctly more than quickly.

He Or She Has Gone Mad....It's still an idiom although archaic in its psychological use....but it appears possible that Trump has for some time now....gone mad....most likely around the interim between the 2020 election and the horror of January 6. The alternative is severe demonic influence. A leader need not be loved....but he or she would have to have some level of respect by the majority of the citizenry....but half of America has absolutely no respect for him at all. The world may tremble at his threats.....but they also have no respect for him as a leader. This in itself....whether the premise is accurate or not....is an extremely serious situation. If the reader here only gets their news from Fox or talk radio or like podcasts....then they will not hear of the almost daily mad rantings....one recent one of which was that he might continue to bomb Iran...."just for fun"....a statement of madness if there ever was one.

Whatever side of the policy debate you fall on....you must surely at least agree with this....nearly everything that Donald Trump touches....he divides....families....friendships.....churches....whole denominations....countries....alliances....even within NATO....the CIA....the FBI....ideologies....(conservatives for example)....sports teams....the entertainment industry....the news media....even within major news corporations....the Justice Department....the State Department....the Department of....Defense to War....the medical industry....the armed services....generals....Supreme Court justices....and he thrives on every minute of it....and yet....extraordinary and astonishing as it is to hear when he says it....he claims to be....a unifier....and even more extraordinary and astonishing to hear....evangelicals....believe it!

'Be Careful What You Wish For....You Might Just Get It'....So your technology identifies a target....and then someone far away pushes a button....(if AI isn't doing it)....and an unmanned projectile is sent to destroy the target....while technology again films the target and then the explosion....and everyone cheers just like when a touchdown is scored....but before we cheer too loud we should consider that it is just a matter of time....until those unmanned and unstoppable projectiles are used against us. The lesson is that we must have....humility....and the fear of the wrath of God!

NATO....Here is but one example....only one....example of the spiritual blindness that God has brought down upon evangelicals in America: There was an alliance....a vital alliance....NATO....not perfect but it served its purpose for three-quarters of a century....an alliance that Putin hated with a passion. Trump has attacked that alliance....and those allies....in one way or another for decades....and has finally effectively destroyed it. A war came....Trump attacked those allies for not doing enough or doing it fast enough....as if none of the aforementioned Trump attacks on Nato and economic threats on member states ever happened! Only a man like Trump....who has his whole life....had no capacity whatsoever....to deal with or even identify truth....only a man like this could actually make an accusatory statement like that....and only a church under the judgment of God....could accept it without at least seeing the absurdity of it. 

My take is that it is not that Europe would not immediately help....under normal circumstances....to keep the Strait of Hormuz open....but rather that after decades of personal abuse and threats....and appearing as an ally of Putin....that Trump just decided to start a war....and then commanded Europe to come to attention and obey him?

Fear of Offending The King....Please do not laugh at this....for it is sad....and important....not funny. A number of news sources have reported that Trump did not think that his male cabinet members and others in the White House wore dress shoes that were classy enough....so he bought and distributed Florsheim Oxfords to everyone....without asking for sizes. I have not worn a pair of dress shoes since our son's wedding fifteen years ago....for I wear western boots....but in my youth....say fifteen years old....I thought it a big deal to go downtown Pittsburgh and buy a pair of Florsheim Oxfords. Buying the shoes for these men means absolutely nothing at all....but apparently these men are afraid not to wear the shoes around him. Here is one quote on the situation...."All the boys have them," said one unnamed White House official, while another told the Journal, "It's hysterical because everybody's afraid not to wear them." You cannot automatically trust photos anymore but Marco Rubio is shown in a photograph wearing shoes that make him look like a child trying on his father's shoes....for they are too big for him. If this story is true.....and we will probably find out pretty quickly....then it should make the American citizen shudder....for if cabinet members are afraid to say no to a pair of shoes....then how would they make their own decisions on anything in their positions?

This Is the Generation....Whatever A Generation Turns Out To Be....We just do not know how many years there are in a biblical generation. It may be 40 years....as in the approximate time from the ministry of Jesus to Rome's burning of Jerusalem....or it may be seventy years as in the time on the Babylonian captivity....or it may be something else altogether....but for this example let me just use a 50 year jubilee cycle. We know that it has been just a little over 6,000 since Adam was created....6,000 years divided by....say 50....is 120. There have been 60 centuries since man was created....and anywhere from 150 to 120 'generations.' Where am I going with this? Do you play the Lotto....with a couple-of-million-to-one chances to win? Or maybe you take on a chance at the fire hall to win an automobile....and there will be thousands of tickets sold? Well....speaking in terms of generations....the 'chances'....(although there is no such thing as 'chance')....the chances of your generation being the one that sees the coming of the Son of Man...are only about 120 to 150 to one. Do you know what I'm trying to say? To hope to win a lotto is unreasonable....but we do it. To hope that this is that generation....is reasonable....but we laughingly ignore it?

The 5 pound English banknote has the Monarchs picture on the front....and a picture of Churchill on the back. All the notes have the Monarch on the front and an historical picture or graphic on the back....but they had a public survey and found out that English citizens would most like some kind of animal on the back....so the new notes will do away with Churchill and others.....for.....animals. In the late 1880s Charles Spurgeon fought tooth and nail against a creeping liberalism in the church. His wife said that Charles's prolonged and tedious fight probably cost him his life in 1892. The downgrade in all of England began long ago....but it took about a century and a quarter for England to become almost unrecognizable.

God....Signs In The Sky....And Jewish Feasts....I touch on this topic below....but readers here know that I not only pay attention during Jewish feasts and blood moons and solar eclipses.....but that I actually believe that God often....and regularly....uses these means to act....and to warn us of His acts....or that we can look back at them in retrospect to learn. For Example....Donald Trump....who was born on a blood moon....came down that golden escalator right smack dab in the middle of evangelicalism....(only to proceed to decimate it)....he came down that escalator in the middle of the famous 2014/2015 blood moon tetrad. More recently....Hamas attacked Israel at the end of the Jewish feast of Sukkot....or the Feast of Tabernacles. Well we just had a rare blood moon....and a Jewish feast....Purim...as this current war started! I took screen shots of the headlines on news media sources just as the blood was in totality....one headline was...."WAR SPIRALS." These things are not even surprising anymore.

It appears that literally all of the warnings from God's Word about depending on princes and men and horses and armies.....are gone! It's really astonishing how exactly we follow the script. If one has eyes to see....then the weakness of man appears in glorious horror....and that alone should send us to our knees in a renewed fear of the wrath of God.

Surely....beforehand....as they sat at their strategy table....the question was brought up....what to do if Russia says that military transports are on the way with supplies?

Either Humble Ourselves....Or Be Humbled By Others.....It might be wise if we all did some thinking on what could happen to a person....or a government....when it came to the point that all you had to do was put coordinates into a computer....and then push a button....even from hundreds or thousands of miles away....and send off a ballistic missile. We are getting in the habit of doing that...and then posting the video for everyone to enjoy. One problem is that the person pushing the button never sees the blood and mangled body parts. Another problem....for the man at the head of the government....is that he might begin to feel like God. Another problem might be over-confidence....for you can easily take out a naval vessel....and even a nuclear research site....but a biological warfare research site is another story. If we do not humble ourselves....then it will be much worse when we are humbled by others.

The Great Failure Of The American Pulpit....There is an unsettling lack of humility or dependence upon God in the decisions made in this war.....in immigration and tariffs....and in just about everything that our government does these days. It is an ungodly braggadocio...and I know why....and where this comes from. Meanwhile our pastors say nothing.....for they hardly have a clue anymore on what God had called them to do. Here is a theorem that they might want to just consider....when they are in the pulpit....and the people are pouring into the pews....laughing surely as they always do....even in a medium size church....there will be some...maybe many....who are as at the end of their rope....and some who have actually...."come out from among them"....and are struggling not having many with them. Forget about all the people laughing and enjoying the fellowship....and concentrate on those who surely are present who need a shepherd to gloriously bring God's Word to them....the good and the bad and the ugly. Why are you wasting your time encouraging all those who are laughing....for they appear to not need anything?

OpenAI vs Anthropic....I am only a quarter of the way through Karen Hao's 2025....Empire Of AI...so I am right now limited in my knowledge of this particular corporate relationship. This whole issue of the safety....or extreme lack of it....of artificial intelligence....is complicated and delicate. I've been reading and warning on AI a decade....as it has definite biblical prophecy end-times implications. The book focuses on Sam Altman and OpenAI. What is immediate is that our Department of War took the side of one of those competing companies....OpenAI. Anthropic CEO and co-founder Dario Amodei is sticking to his proclaimed fundamental demand that if he deals with our government then they will agree not to use AI in surveillance of our people or give AI a free hand in military use. The government says that it cannot agree to that.....and that the safety of America comes first. Hegseth also ordered that companies that deal with the government cannot also deal with Anthropic!  

Department of War Secretary Hegseth also ordered that military personnel within the Department of War are not permitted to attend "elite" universities! His position is that there is a good reason for officers to go to graduate school....and that reason is not what most people would go to graduate school for....and there are bad consequences if the officers go to universities that are not....patriotic. The somewhat hidden problem here is that therefore....there must be universities that agree with the policies and ideologies....(politics).... of the Department of War. We are seeing this same heavy-handedness in education and the news media and entertainment and in Corporate America! If you do not believe and act and influence.....as you should believe and act and influence....then the powers of the government will be against you.

Thirteen Years Is A Long Time.....In February of 2010 I had a long post on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announcing that Iran had achieved....breakout capability....where they had supposedly produced their first product of 20% enriched uranium.....in effect on their way to producing a bomb. I stated at the time that our intelligence agencies estimated that the earliest that Iran could produce a nuclear bomb was around 2013....while some 'experts' believed that they had one already. That's thirteen years ago folks. Israel is roughly the same distance to Iran as Boston is from Pittsburgh. I researched at the time how long it took countries like North Korea to finally get their bomb. With all the help that Iran had available to them....thirteen years is a long time.

The Art Of War...and....The Art Of The Deal....Trump....during his first campaign....listed Sun Tsu's....The Art Of War.....as one of the books that he had read. Whether or not that is true....one of the axioms that Sun Tsu warned of in his book was never to back an enemy into a corner.

I Can't Imagine Why?

                I can only imagine....(I actually typed that before realizing that it was the title of the film)....I can only imagine that many readers....particularly some of the college students who visit these posts....will be flabbergasted to read that before yesterday I do not even remember hearing of the Christian music group....MercyMe. In the early days of our Christian walk.....the 80s....maybe into the 90s....we went to dozens of Christian concerts....seeing many of those well-known singers and groups even a couple of times.....but as time moved on....contemporary Christian music concerts became less and less. 
                So this afternoon we went to see the newly released Christian film....I Can Only Imagine 2....implying that there was an....I Can Only Imagine...1. There were actually some great elements to this story....and it was to me a big surprise how much we were moved by the film.
                There were six people in the theater....my wife and I included....and I just scanned through the showings tomorrow and Saturday.....and there were only six seats total reserved? Maybe there is something that I am missing here....as I thought that it would be the opposite....with everyone going....and me being disappointed in a movie about a Christian musical band?
                 Oh well....maybe last week....the first week....was well-attended. Either way I give my recommendation to see the film....for there were a lot of edifying moments....in a church age....that is starving for such  edification.

You Don't....Really Know How It Can Be Done....Until You Have Lived Through It

               I remember the diligence that I paid in class....listening to Professor J. J. Zasloff at Pitt in 1973....for he was a world renown expert on Southeast Asia. Just last night I ordered on Amazon a particular book that I wanted....on Southeast Asia! So it has been over fifty years of interest in and studying not only Vietnam....but Russia and Germany and England and Israel and the world actually.
               I had....previously to a few years ago....thought that I had at least a handle on how a Generalissimo or a Fuhrer or a Comrade Chairman could come into power....but in retrospect since Trump....it was only theory. In Trump I have witnessed first hand....since he took office in his second term a little over a year ago....how it takes a daily....morning....noon and evening....every day of the year....barrage or blitzkrieg of in essence purging....of everyone and everything and every symbol and every picture and every remembrance of whatever it was that came before.
               I just started book number 110 on Trump....an oral history of January 6.....2021....in fact that is the subtitle of the book.....Storm The Capitol. Whether you call them the proletariat or the patriots....or Les Misérables....their minds have to be kept occupied all the time! That is why Trump is tweeting....or whatever it is called today....everyday....and almost every hour of the day!
               I could go on in my description of this....but to my evangelical friends....who have been totally taken in by this tried and true combination of intimidation and agitation and flattery and distraction....do you at times have trouble even recognizing yourself anymore? I talk to you and hardly recognize the person I once knew. Your compassion is muted....and you are constantly trying to find excuses for a false prophet....an actual enemy to the Lord  you once served with passion as you now serve princes and power.  Does that sweet love of Jesus....that first love of the gospel....seem only a distant memory....replaced by demands for what is yours....and anger....and laughter at ridicule directed others? If you but decide to renew your mind....and turn it to Christ....this bondage will be broken....should God will it....and vision and discernment will return....along with hearing to recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd....and identify the wolf in sheep's clothing!

Yes.....What You Saw Last Evening....Was Indeed....The State Of The Union!

Preface:  It's 9 in the morning....and after all is said and done concerning the State of the Union....those who watched the shameless demonstration....witnessed a severely psychologically ill man....yet a potent manipulator....do what ultimately he does best....and that is destroy. The Democrats....for roughly forty years now.....since they no longer became Democrats as those my age grew up to know....a party that visibly rejects the God of the Bible....they seem to sit there in shock more than anything else. They played a game for decades....and were devoured by a spiritual force that actually gave them their power to begin with. As for the Republicans......"Faithless Israel has proved herself to be more righteous than treacherous Judah....(Jeremiah 3:11)....for as bad as the Democrats turned out to be over the past few decades....it was us that went beyond mere idolatry....to an idolatry of greed and power that uses God as its banner. We went beyond abortion and LGBTQ....to in some cases....'worshiping'....a blatant false prophet....who tells us exactly what we want to hear....and laughs his way through the deception and delusion. The following....preface and paragraph from a 2023 post....were posted last evening about 9:30:

                 Preface: I wanted to post the following paragraph from May of 2023 right now as I sit with the television on in front of me.....muted....and Trump about twenty minutes into his speech. I've been in the exact same situation before....many times....mostly over the past ten years....when I watched our president.....whether it was Trump or Biden....or Trump again....enter this hall....and witnessed one standing ovation after another....and felt....deep in my heart.....disillusionment....at how far a nation can lose its way. I'm looking now at the  woodwork on the walls of the first level....and the gray wall-papered balcony....and wondered on which one....should Almighty God command it....would fingers of a hand appear....writing...."Mene....Mene....Tekel....Upharsin?" Woe are us....who in almost unimaginable pride....especially considering the circumstance of a nation either in utter rebellion to God....or blasphemous presumption....to act like this....and celebrate like this....and cheer as a kingly speaker claims that we have entered a golden age....when the King of Kings has made it clear for anyone with eyes to see.....and ears to hear....that before this judgment is over we will throw our worthless gold and silver into the street! Later tonight....Lord willing....I will go over the transcript....and read the commentary....and probably fast forward through a recording of the speech.....but for now....I can only pray for God's mercy on us.

From a post titled...."Thank You God....For The Winds That Warn Us"

                    "Our pastor began his sermon as he stepped into the pulpit by thanking God for the gorgeous day. Probably nine out of ten pastors in Western Pennsylvania began their message with that comment. There is nothing wrong with it....in fact thanking God for his blessing in the weather is wonderful....and I have said the same thing many times....but today the words hit me a little bit differently. My thought was that I would rather have had a windy day....with cloud cover....and ominous darker clouds on the horizon. I would rather see the brothers and sisters in Christ hurrying from car to church....grasping more firmly the hands of their children and anything they might be carrying....and only upon coming through the door of the sanctuary breathing a sigh of relief and thanking God for the reprieve of being in the church. The 'gorgeous' day....with the Antichrist....[whoever or whatever or wherever he might be]....plotting even as I type....and the world barely holding sway against world war....and the church of Jesus Christ....so many of us....thinking about their day's activities as they sit in the pew....in these troublesome times we do not benefit from a....'gorgeous' day. I would rather the pastor have the opportunity to  begin with....'Thank you Lord for the winds that warn us of the approaching storm....and the reminder that only in Christ is their shelter from that storm.' " 

Addendum: Trump added this in his concluding remarks...."and when God needs a nation to work his miracles....he knows exactly who to ask." This blasphemous comment alone....should send the Christian to his and her knees....seeking mercy and forgiveness. 

Professional Idolatry

                  "It's been a brutal winter so far in Western Pennsylvania....-5 degrees as I type at 4 in the early hours of Monday morning....after tossing and turning for hours over the condition of the American church....but then it has been a particularly rough weekend....as the Olympics began....in Italy....and people rushed home from church to sit in front of the TV....until the Super Bowl began....and here it is 4 AM....but 10 AM in Milan....so we can turn on the TV as soon as we wake up to see what skier or skater is making news! So It's like a lost weekend."

The above paragraph is two weeks old. The Winter Olympics closing ceremony is going on as I type. From what I read....the gold medal hockey game was one of those classics....an overtime win for the USA....and I'm guessing a little bit here....but that game winning goal was probably scored....with millions of American evangelicals at home literally jumping out of their seat in joy....just as tens of thousands of pastors were in their pulpits giving a benediction....something like this...."The Lord bless you and keep you...the Lord make His grace to shine upon you and be gracious to you...the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace."

I take it also that Spring Training games started two days ago....with opening day in late March. March Madness starts in a few weeks...and the Masters kicks off the 2026 golf majors in early April. The Stanley Cup playoffs take up most of March and April...and on into May....and we will start hearing about the Summer Olympics about that time. Sport itself is good. It can be restful.....or character building....but this isn't sport in America anymore. It is professional idolatry....if I might attempt to coin that term....and it has reached this peak just as Jesus is about to return in righteous judgment. There is nothing new under the sun. We didn't invent this ignoring of God's warnings....but we are definitely an inductee nominated for the Hall of Shame.

Tens of thousands of our American service members are in the vicinity of Iran right now....kept busy with PT and meetings throughout the days....to keep their minds active...and quell the natural fears that come as they wait anxiously for the call to fight....or to go home. Just yesterday....while weeding out my books....I pulled a copy of Edward Gibbon's two volume The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire....to give to a library's book sale....for there's nothing more to learn from it....or to put it more succinctly....we never learned anything from books like this....nor from Isaiah nor Jeremiah nor Daniel nor Revelation....nor anywhere else in God's Word.
                 
The word is....ICHABOD....the glory has departed. I used it many times as titles to posts. Evangelicals do not want Jesus to return. They want their country back! They are ignorant of....and it wouldn't matter anyway....that that country they want back....is the same one that God's faithful shepherds had given warnings to for the best part of the twentieth century. Let me say that again....in a different way....to try to make it understandable....when we say that we want to make America great again....that same country that we want to go back to....was under God's judgment! We have been on a....fool's errand....sent off to bring something back....a 'Christian nation'....that did not exist....and if it were possible to go back to an America when there was legitimate revival....and a genuine holy reverence to a God that we would prostrate ourselves in the presence of....or collapse in fear of His holiness....we wouldn't want to go back to that....for that was an old outdated gospel....before we became so enlightened!

The following is the end of that post from two weeks ago....a paragraph from that I began this post"

                  "We lost our power for a little while over the weekend....and I have a solar-battery generator.....but we did not have to use it. Folks....brothers and sisters in Christ....God's Word speaks of the battery power more as oil in a lamp. How is your oil? Maybe you had better go and get some more....or when things start to unwind....as Jesus is returning....you may find yourself in a pickle....or on a pickleball court?  Here below is where you can go to get some oil! This is only one of six parts of this series. You can easily find the other five parts. This teaching series by R. C. Sproul was listened to or watched by just about all evangelicals back in the 80s....and that is one reason why there was as strong movement of God at the time."                                             

DISPATCHES

Preface to DISPATCHES....If you are interested in reading a good book on the Russian Revolution....then I highly recommend a 2016 book by Helen Rappaport....Caught In The Revolution....Witnesses To The Fall Of Imperial Russia. I'm sure that you can get it through any library. I started titling these posts as....DISPATCHES....after reading it.....because the author's main sources were dispatches from journalists....from Russia. I consider these posts to be dispatches of sorts....as I am out there in the middle of what is going on....through my constant reading and researching and observing....and simply sending back those observations as dispatches. ave Israel if they want to. Canada and Australia also started to remove their diplomats.

Anitsemitism.....It was totally expected that antisemitism would rear its ugly head in these last days.....but what was unexpected....is that antisemitism has appeared in evangelicalism....and in some cases right in the middle of the church....right along with racism! So one question might be....why? Well....when you give up all integrity and ethics in order to put a man into office....then this is one of the results.

If He Walks Like A Duck....When someone wields absolute authority.....whether it be the head of a family....or as a CEO or the leader of a country....and there are signs of mental illness....but there is no recourse to examine that person....then that is big....big....trouble....and that is what we have in America today. There was a prominent Democrat union leader back in the 1950s....who in testimony admitted that he could not prove that a certain person was a communist....but famously said something like this...."If it walks like a duck....and talks like a duck....and hangs around with other ducks....then I assume it is a duck." It is true....Trump has not been clinically tested as to whether he has severe mental illnesses....but then...."If he walks like a duck...."

Fiery Red Horses....You probably saw the news of all the celebrations of the Chinese lunar new year.  So what is the animal this year? Well it's the horse....but a little more detailed than that....for it is the year of the fire horse....thus the celebrations all had some sort of fiery red horse. It's the first time in 60 years for this fire horse. The Chinese Zodiac has only twelve animals....but each animal has five modifiers....so every animal comes along every 12 years....but every animal with a certain modifier....every 60 years! Of course God's Word speaks of a red horse also....in Revelation chapter 6....as the red horse follows the white horse that came out...."Conquering and to conquer." Revelation 6:4 NKJV...."Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted on the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword."

Signs In The Heavens....A 'Ring of Fire' eclipse occurred early this morning primarily in Antarctica. Only about 2% of the world's population saw it. There will be a....'spectacular'....as NASA has labelled it....Blood Moon on March 2/3....and there will be a total solar eclipse on August 12.....visible primarily in Greenland and Iceland and Northern Spain.

Aliens Are Not Real....Here Are What Is Real!   They asked former president Obama if aliens were real.... and he said...."They're real." Here is what is real...... Demons are real!..... Bible prophecy is real!...... End-times...."signs and wonders so as to deceive.... if possible.... even the elect".... are real!

Trump is and has always been....a destroyer..... He is either purposely destroying others in revenge....or they are destroyed just by flying too close to his flame. Much of it is collateral. He moves on....and when he moves on....there is always someone new lured by the promises of golden goblets and silver stick pins.

Voter ID and White Privilege..... theoretically.... requiring every voter to produce identification.... would make for the fairest election. There would be less voter fraud. It would also disenfranchise low-income voters and minorities. Trump will claim that he is for fair elections.... but disenfranchising many voters is just another way of not having a fair election. Many of us have no idea.... or have forgotten.... what life in poverty or near-poverty is like. I come from the latter.... and I remember. We had trouble paying the rent and every utility bill. I cannot pinpoint the reason for the lack of mental acuity.... or a healthy situational awareness. I just know that it exists.... because I lived it. I am a benefactee of white privilege. I would not have escaped had my mother not found.... (I continue to praise God for His mercies).... a cheap apartment right smack-dab in the middle.... of middle America. Of my friends.... (their houses no further than thirty yards from our duplex).... three became university professors.... (Pitt, Carnegie Mellon and Clemson).... another was an economist... another an architect.... another a child psychologist.... and another a government official. I came in on their coattails. From what I have observed.... when evangelicals.... (friends of mine who for decades have been the most loving and compassionate of Christians).... when evangelicals are presented with problems like this today.... amazingly they seemed to have lost all compassion. They see no further than the first sentence in this paragraph.... because Trump's world that they live in.... has told them to go no further.... and they obey. Much of Christian Nationalism today is that church in Ephesus from the second chapter of Revelation.... who "cannot bear those who are evil".... but have...."left [their] first love." Revelation 2:5a...."Remember.... therefore from where you have fallen.... repent.... and do the works you did at first..."

Trump promises another executive order to force voter ID if the congress doesn't. There was a day.... long ago.... and in a different country..... when conservatives would rightly be against something like this.

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 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 15 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!

Love has grown cold on our side.... and lawlessness abounds!

The 1933.... Enabling Act....allowed the Fuhrer to make laws without the Parliament.... and Germany was transformed.

Veils Are Being Lifted.....Like Pages Blown By The Wind Of An Open Book....If an interviewer would ask of a research scientist....in any field of science....if after say fifty or sixty years of research....and numerous accolades from the scientific community....maybe even a Noble....if  the interviewer would ask if everything has been discovered that can be discovered....that scientist would obviously be taken aback....and probably say that only the surface has been scratched. The Christian's study into biblical prophecy would be similar to that. In both science and prophecy.....God removes veils according to His perfect timing....for His perfect purposes. There were many times when scientists had to admit that the textbooks would have to be revised. I've seen that quote numerous times over the decades....and with prophecy....speaking from my own experience....there have been times when I had to change an opinion and admit to it....and there will be more times like that. That is not necessarily bad....but a glorious reality....as the revision is usually seen to be much clearer....and therefore much more glorious. Veils were lifted slowly over the centuries.....even millennia.....but they are flying away today like pages blown by the wind of an open book.

I posted the following on October 2, 2018: "United States dollar became the world's chief currency after the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 and it developed into the world's reserve currency after President Nixon made a deal with Saudi Arabia on its oil sales. Being the world's reserve currency enables the United States to more freely print money. It is therefore an advantage the world gives to the United States. President Trump's hard line approach with everyone over trade disparities...unpaid bills....and unfulfilled promises....has many of these countries saying....'wait a second....he's complaining that we have an advantage on trade but they have a greater advantage on having the chief reserve currency." There is definitely a move on to replace the dollar as that reserve currency. This movement has been making slow but steady progress where it would take years to replace the dollar....but there are plans in the making that could upend United States hegemony with a quick succession of moves."

Update on the above: China has made some very real moves recently in an attempt to replace the dollar as the world's reserve currency. (Trump never mentioned to us that the world's making the dollar the chief reserve currency was a great benefit for us....as he told us every hour of every day how the rest of the world was stealing from us) This we saw coming for a long time....but what is new is that Trump is working against the dollar now. You see....whether it is the dollar....or crypto....or gold....or oil....or AI....if Trump sees a way to manipulate....and make a bundle....he will do it....and it doesn't matter what the collateral damage might be to us or anyone. This is but one of the areas of Trump's character that evangelicals are not aware of....but they need to be aware of....to make a decision on whether or not to support him.

Three Mile Island....The Trump administration is helping those who want to restart the nuclear powerhouse....Three Mile Island....not because of how supportive they are for nuclear power....but because of AI....which is more important....and will need the monster-loads of power.

 

O Say......Can You Hear....

              Preface: God gave Daniel visions of things that would happen in the end times....and they made him physically ill....even incapacitated for a while....but God strengthened him. Few today have experienced that temporary incapacitation....because not many have any idea of what is ahead....because even less have desired to know what was ahead. The following post is from last November:                  

                   For what it is worth....my forty-three years of hearing sermons have produced this opinion. Expository sermons....explaining the true meaning of the text....necessary and helpful and a blessing as they can be....is like basic training. When the LST is loaded with troops and tanks....and the command to weigh anchor is given....and the secret destination is heard by those on board....then the Holy Spirit must guide the chaplain....or in our case the pastor....on what to preach. I've found that a rigid schedule for preaching months at a time....on one book....inhibits that guidance....and in the case of the church in America....prevents us from hearing the warnings that are needed to hear....in our particular time and in our particular place.

                   Charles Spurgeon's primarily topical preaching enabled him to listen to the Holy Spirit on what to preach....and hence he became known as the Prince of Preachers. The blessing of his preaching is as strong today as it was in the latter half of the nineteenth century....as pastors and believers everywhere still read his sermons....and as I just this morning....before our own church service began....listened to a sermon of his from 1877.
                   Ready or not....we are out of basic training. We are on that LST....and we have to know what is ahead. My father was on a ship like that in 1944....on the way to Okinawa....when kamikazes attacked....and he was seriously wounded and spent months in the hospital. We can and usually are....'green'....as the inexperienced are described on something like this....on a spiritual beachhead so to speak. I personally know a few Christians....usually missionaries....who are no longer 'green'....because of what they have already been through....but not me.....I'm still green....and I need this preaching....and these warnings....and this preparation for that spiritual beachhead that I know to be just ahead....for word got out....for anyone with ears to hear! (O Say....Can You Hear)
                   In 1969....after my basic training in the army was completed....and in the midst of my training in signal intelligence....they gave us what was called a....dream sheet....to fill out.....asking us what our preference would be for our first duty station. We all laughed but filled it out anyway. I think that I may have written in....Germany. That sounded good. I'd like to go to Germany. They sent us all to Vietnam. We may put one thing on our Christian dream sheet....but word has gotten out for those who have ears to hear!
                   So there is a pastor out there who is on....oh say....week nine....of an....oh say....thirty two week series from....oh say....Ecclesiastes....or 1 Samuel....or Philippians....if they would but just put down that schedule that they made that fit in nicely....between the end of summer and the beginning of the new year....and plead with God for words and warnings that their sheep need....they might just winding up preaching on....oh say....the ninth chapter of Daniel....and Daniel's prayer....which is a prayer that we in America need to pray....right now!

 "Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession saying, 'O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you, To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the LORD our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity...." 

Daniel 9:3-12a

Addendum: My habit is to Google a Spurgeon sermon....and scroll down the offerings until I come to a sermon that I had not already heard....which is taking longer and longer since I have heard so many. So a few days ago I was doing this and clicked on an 1877 sermon titled....Remember Lot's Wife....only for some reason that particular YouTube had no volume? I tried it again a few days later and still no sound....but by now I really wanted to hear that sermon. So early this morning I found a different offering of the same sermon....with a different man reading Spurgeon's sermon....and this one worked fine. The sermon was so good that I'm adding it hear if you are interested....

Note: Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached sermons often in a series....and he was an expository preacher....but I noticed that he would often deviate from that schedule when he felt the

 necessity to preach on urgent matters.