First He Came For Those In Congress

What I want to do here is paraphrase German Pastor Martin Niemoller's famous poem....as it relates to this president. We evangelicals just sat back and watched as his purges and show trials and corporate boardroom takeovers and primarying eliminated all of those who had ever stood up to him....because this was going to make our country great again....just like Niemoller thought that das Vaterland was going to be great again....but now the veils are slowly being taken off of our eyes....and we are finally seeing who this man is....and when we begin to speak out against him....which will eventually happen....he will surely come after us....who thought that God had sent him to us!

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist.

First he came for those in Congress
And I did not speak out
Because I was not in Congress

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then he came for those in our intelligence agencies
And I did not speak out
Because I was not in the FBI or the CIA or the Justice Department

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did out speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then he came for the journalists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a journalist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then he came for the disadvantaged and underprivileged
And I did not speak out
Because I was not disadvantaged or underprivileged.

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

Then He came for the evangelicals
And there was no one left
To speak out for us.

Lord's Day Post On The Lord's Day

                I am wearing right now a watch that upon a quick glance might appear to be a vintage Rolex....'Pepsi'....watch of red and blue....that would sell for thousands of dollars....but I paid $69 for this cheap but reliable competitor's watch....with which I am very satisfied. Wearing this watch does not affect my spiritual life at all....it might very well even help it to wear a watch that costs less than a hundred dollars....rather than a couple of thousand.
                Whatever this is today that the vast majority of evangelicalism considers....the Lord's Day....it is a cheap knock-off on what the early followers of The Way considered the first day of the week to be. Folks....there are hundreds....at least hundreds of books written on the subject of the Christian Lord's Day....and I have a few dozen of them. Someone might be awarded a forensics trophy....after a debate....on what the Lord's Day is supposed to be.....but that is like my wearing this watch of mine....as it might satisfy me....and they might get the tournament cup....but in itself it is just not very valuable.
                 I'm not even going to touch on the debate using Bible verses. Neither side is going to win this....which should tell us something in itself....for God could have made it much more plain in His Word on what Christians should believe about what we know more today simply as Sunday....sometimes....Super Bowl Sunday.
                 I will say this though....to look at the Lord's Day as most evangelicals do today....in contrast to what the day had so often been over the two thousand years since the resurrection....it has fake written all over it. It just makes no sense....and the newer interpretation gives itself to horrific distortions....just one such example of which would be a professional athlete....say a PGA golfer....sinking a long put on the eighteenth green at Augusta.....to win the Master's....and thousands present....and millions worldwide....going bananas in their passion.....because a guy sank a put....and pocketed about 5 million....while leading those millions to live that day for their golf....while he after sinking that putt pointed to heaven....as if God orchestrated it?
                  Among other things....the Lord's Day is to be a hedge of protection....of our minds and our hearts....but we have brush hogged that hedge....ripped out the roots....and covered it with artificial turf.
                  Now the other side....which I obviously would be on....have our own problems....in that some have the used the Lord's Day as a hammer to beat other believers with....and others....like myself.....talk a good game.....but never quite live that day like it should be lived!
                  No....this is one of those things that we will just have to live with....until the Lord returns....but it may be....with some anyway....that those who at least attempt to honor the Lord's Day....may see more clearly the nearness of that day of our Lord's return?

God Uses 'Signs In The Heavens'....Always Has....Always Will

The next Jewish major feast begins next week....Thursday....May 21....and is a one-day feast.....ending 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!

The Jewish fast of The Three Weeks....begins this year on July 13....and ends on the Ninth of Av....August 3. This is to be three weeks of mourning in remembrance of catastrophes from the past.

Tetrads of total lunar eclipses are not all that rare....maybe a handful each century....at times going two and three centuries without any....but tetrads that happen exactly on Jewish feasts are an extreme rarity....and what makes it more amazing is that historic events concerning Israel have happened during those tetrads which usually occur in a time span of a year and a half. The 1967 Six Day War was during one of those tetrads....as was the establishment of Israel itself as a nation in 1948....and from 1492 to 1494 all of the Jews in Spain were forced to either convert....or leave.

The Great American Eclipse of April 8....2024....was surely a harbinger or an omen.

John MacArthur 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)

The following post is from June 21 of 2025:

I Always Keep An Eye On The Jewish Feasts And Fasts

               God fulfills prophetic events on the Jewish feasts....and He uses blood moons and solar eclipses and comets as signs. Donald Trump was born on a blood moon. It was an ominous....in retrospect....warning to us. In other words we did not know it at the time but we can look back at it. Do you remember all the fuss about the 2014-2015 tetrad of blood moons? They came and went....and naysayers said....'See....nothing happened during that time"....but once again looking back on them.....right in the middle of them....Donald Trump came down that escalator right smack dab into the middle of evangelicalism.....prophesying nothing but great things for America....only the latest being the coming Golden Age....all of these prophecies being the exact opposite of what God's Word tells us is going to happen!
               No one really cares about this....the reason being that God had judged His church first....and taken away our discernment....and given us what we really wanted. Nationally known ministers....including some of our best ministers....fell under the power of this false prophet. In five days it will be ten years to the day when Trump came down that escalator....and the last ten years has vexed and ripped evangelicalism to shreds. It's been like living the O. J. Simpson murder trial in the news every day for the last ten years! It has brought us down and sullied everything about us...so much so that when they have this military parade in a few days we will be cheering....as if tanks and planes and soldiers are our strength....oblivious that God told Gideon to get rid of all those soldiers....and trust in Him....and also oblivious to....Zechariah 4:6....which used to be a memory verse for us...."This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel....'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the  LORD of hosts'."
                 Returning to the Jewish feasts. The upheaval in the world today....began on October 7, 2023....the last day of the Feast of Sukkot. Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech to the United Nations on September 22, 2023....only a few weeks earlier....and I posted on it at the time that it was...."wildly overly-optimistic." He boasted about the plans for peace that were in the making....and I added...."Whatever the details are....and we do not know them now....they may on paper be sound....maybe even genius....but they will not succeed. This is like trying to build a house of cards with an oscillating fan that will eventually pass the house of cards and blow them all down." Two months before the Sukkot attacks I reviewed the new movie that was out on Golda Meir....on the 1973 Yom Kippur War....and posted that Israelis should take notice because things like this could happen in the near future.
                  Tisha B' Av....otherwise known as....the ninth of Av....the Jewish month Av....is a solemn day every year for Jews who observe their feasts. God has used that feast in the past to judge Israel....and He will (most likely) do it again. These things are just so obvious as to How God chooses to work. The Ninth of Av this year begins at sundown on Saturday....August 2.....and ends at nightfall on Sunday....August 3. (This year....2026....the Ninth of Av begins July 22)
                  The purpose of God using the Jewish feasts to fulfill prophecy is not for us to expect something on this particular feast or that particular feast....but to strengthen us at the time....such as after the Sukkot attacks....in knowing that God has every day in the future mapped out....which includes the tribulation....and the great delusion....and the rise of the antichrist....and the nations surrounding Jerusalem....and His taking His church up....and His return in judgment on the nations and those who did not believe in Him!

DISPATCHES

Saturday....11:30 PM....United States Senator from Louisiana Bill Cassidy came in third in the primary.....the other two....will go to a runoff. I have a hard time saying the word.....republicans.....anymore....so instead of that....MAGA is celebrating everywhere tonight....and well they should....for they have been victorious once again in getting revenge on republicans who in any way fell out of favor with Trump....and Cassidy fell out big time....for he voted to impeach in the insurrection impeachment.....and recommended that Trump should not run in 2024....and even declined to endorse him in the election! Conservatives....and evangelicals....should be concerned....even weeping....but they are not....because they have long ago.....ten years to be precise....abandoned their responsibilities to think for themselves....or believe and trust in God's Word.

America today is doing what so many of us wanted over so many decades....for our military to actually exert itself in the causes of protecting America and suppressing tyranny and extending liberty and freedom to those who do not have it....only it is not turning out as we might have expected....for instead of the driving force being honor and integrity and care for others around the world....it is greed and powermongers and a tyrant of our own....with little to no care about any collateral damage or what innocents might get in the way....and then it is all brought to us on video....so we can glory in the death and destruction.

The Trump administration may indict Raul Castro....which would clear the way....in their minds....for what is called a....snatch and grab....leading to a regime change. Trump needs a PR win in Cuba....not only before the mid-terms....but before the July 4th celebrations. This has nothing to do with freedom or the lives of people....maybe with Rubio but not with Trump. Everything is PR.

That Trump took tech billionaires to China is indicative of how with him....there is no professional experience and wisdom needed in things like the CIA or the FBI or the Justice Department. To him....anyone can do these jobs.....and he only wants loyal people there who will not investigate him.

Medicaid cuts....and foreign aid cuts....are taking its toll. I've been a conservative republican for forty-four years now....but we lied to the American people when we looked the other way....and in essence....played dumb....and said that there would be no cuts to Medicaid. The Trump administration....(can you even believe that someone like Elon Musk as given a role in this?)....the Trump administration went into USAID with a sledgehammer. These demolitionists didn't even know what USAID's responsibilities were. All that they knew was they had the support of Trump's base behind them to destroy as much of the hated civil service that they could.

Eventually....Trump money making schemes using the power of the presidency will catch up to him. As with this and everything else about how Trump has conducted himself in this second administration of going out...."conquering....and to conquer"....what is most incredible about it is that evangelicals threw away all of what they knew from God's Word to be warnings and admonitions....to go after money gold and silver and other things that perish.

Trump went into Iran with shock and awe....but then in his texts on Easter weekend....shocked even evangelicals....in how inhumanely he could think. Something happened at that time....and this thing is one royal mess....but surely there is a plan hidden from us....and maybe even hidden from Trump's military planners...for there is really only one goal....Trump succeeds above everyone else.

This paragraph is from a post earlier this year: "It is generally perceived by evangelicals that since America was once good....and since the Trump Party is trying to restore that goodness....that God's blessing upon America at this time.....economically and domestically in general and in its national security....is directly related to the success of this Trump administration. The irony and the incongruity here....is that the very Trump administration that they are trying to sustain and empower....is intent on making the poor and the disadvantaged fend for themselves....in order to increase the coffers of the treasury....so that more military might can be produced....in order to conquer more oil fields....and develop more resort areas....for even more profits....and all of this done as opulence is celebrated throughout the White House and now imperial environs of what was once the people's city.

Too Big To Fail?

                I received today a fund raising email from probably the most important ministry in America from a Reformed Theology perspective....which if you have read much in these posts.....you would know that I consider that a biblical perspective. I don't have to mention the name but it should be easy to guess. I have probably recommended it in these posts a couple hundred times over the years. The email offered a link for a reply.....which I did reply....both praising their efforts but also giving a personal opinion....of which I would hope that all ministries desire feedback.
                Most of the email was in describing all of the various resources that was offered. It also gave some statistics....one of which was in that it estimates that over the course of the ministry there had been 50 million visits to the main website!
                As I mentioned....I offered well-deserved praise in my reply....and as for the opinion....I posed a couple of questions on why most of our most effective ministries do not emphasize more the nearness of the Second Coming....and also why the sheep were not warned of a false prophet that has become dominant in not only America but in the church?
                I sent off the reply....and later the statistic of 50 million visitors came to me....millions a year....and thus another question....which I pose to  you but it will not go to them....'has the thought ever occurred to them that they have had fifty million opportunities....and a couple of million opportunities a year....to both....come out and tell the readers that from everything that God's Word tells us....including all of the caveats to keep working as normal....that the Second Coming is near as a major league baseball team rebuilding its team....if not a lot nearer....and that millions could have been warned strongly about the false prophet in our midst....with evidence on how he has changed evangelicalism to a pursuit of greed and power?
                All of us need strong challenging questions like this. I get them often....and I am thankful for that....for if we cannot handle the difficult questions....and still be confident in our beliefs....then there is yet another problem!
                I did mention this in my reply....that after forty some-odd years as a believer....I have witnessed many of our own ministries become what appears to be....too big! How can that even be possible.....for they proclaim the gospel....how can they become too big? Well....it can and has happened....as it appears that when they become so big....they also become too cautious....fearing that this great growth might stop or even collapse....ultimately they believe themselves to be too important to fail.
                 It seems like what Gideon was told to do by God is no longer relevant to us today? I also mentioned in my reply on how Facebook was a curse from day one....but instead of warning against it....it seems that all the churches use it....and there is this....this wonderful ministry that this post is all about....as they mentioned the many and various resources that they have and use....proudly stated on how AI....artificial intelligence....which may turn out to be directly related to the antichrist....is being used more and more in their ministry.
                 The first time that I heard about Martin Luther's odd and even awful thoughts on Jews....this later in his life.....I was more than sad.....even discouraged....for a short time....and the same thing about other great blessings from God in the form of preachers....and how they were not perfect. This continues even up to today....but I am no longer discouraged.....because all I Have to do is look at myself....and I see the failures.....and the stumbling....at times flat on my face....but then I see the mercy and the grace extended....and the great design of God in that all those that He chooses and calls may be truly frail...but ultimately it is that frailty that brings glory to Him!
                  So maybe....as wonderful as this ministry I am referring to in this post is....even if it missed opportunities....and even made mistakes....it is a great blessing to the church....even in its at times falling somewhat short! May it be that way with me....may the Deceiver see that even in one such as I....the lowest of the low.....God can hold on to....and use in some way....to bring all the glory to where it belongs....to the throne of God!

"Trouble Ahead....Prepare To Meet Thy God."

               My favorite class in high school was civics....and the teacher was a Brother Michael....probably senior year....and he had a requirement in that every student had to read one current event column from each of four weekly magazines....Time....Newsweek....U.S. News & World Report....and I can't remember the fourth....pick one column....and describe it in class. This was 1968 folks....and I have been regularly reading these type of columns ever since....and in a way....I write one now in these posts....only it is almost daily....for going on two decades. 
                I know that we are in a podcast age today....but I am stuck in the written word age. Picking one columnist.....at random....Ann Coulter....she may have written a couple of thousand columns over the decades....(and there are many other columnists)....(and I don't read her anymore because she went back and forth too many times)....but she might have a couple....many....excellent and needed columns every year....the problem as I see it is that these columnists have to give something new for the reader all the time....to keep their jobs.....and their very best and most needed columns get buried for no one to see again unless the columnist writes a book of their best columns....and even that book is a one time thing.
                For all I know....Coulter may have thirty thousand and ten regular readers....which would be about thirty thousand more than me. I am the most insignificant blogger....(and it really isn't a blog anyway)....of all bloggers. One thing that I do that is different is that I bring back topics and issues and old posts....ad nauseum....because I am not trying to impress anyone....but trying to warn as many as I can....as often as I can! There are thousands of readers here who may never come back a second time....but they have heard at least once....the warning that I try to give....and those type of warnings tend to stick somewhere in the back of the mind....that can be recalled at a later time....and they have heard the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ as least once...as I lead them....the readers....time and again....to the sermons of men like Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones and MacArthur and Sproul!
                 So here is a short summary for America....ALL IS LOST! It is over folks.....two-hundred and fifty years....just about on time. Every area of our society is damaged. This is not the America that I grew up in....nor is it the evangelicalism that I was saved in. We cannot analyze anymore....nor can we distinguish between propaganda and journalism....nor stammering and debate....nor even....good and evil!
                 We....each one of us almost....have a very good opinion of ourselves....or our churches and our pastors....and our discernments......and even our honesty....and that is the problem! In the secular world....we are never going to accumulate any wisdom....until we first seek truth over riding a hobby horse....seeking to learn first before we pontificate. In our Chrisitan life....we are never going to have any discernment....until we admit that we are starting with no discernment in or wisdom in ourselves at all....at all....and only God gives discernment according to His perfect will!
                  So here are some of those.....ad nauseum....comments from over the years. AI is a death knell. There is no stopping it. Drone warfare is horror. Joe Biden and Donald Trump were and are two judgments on us from God. There was no....lesser of two evils! The Democrat Party fell first....and just as the southern kingdom followed the northern kingdom in catastrophe and judgment in ancient Israel....so have we have become that...."treacherous sister"....that returned to God only "pretense." (Jeremiah 3:10)
                   There is no turning back! Jonah gave Nineveh a window of opportunity....and they repented....for a time....and so did we....for a time....but as I posted years ago....it is the prophet Amos....(who no one reads)....speaking to us....relayed to us by Billy Graham in one of his many books that warned us...."Trouble ahead....prepare to meet thy God!"

Note: I even used this title before!
                 

Special Plea

                Roughly six years ago....Blogger.com changed its Nav Bar....to the exclusion of its previous/next link. What that meant to me and these posts is that where at one moment people all around the world who were on Blogger Christian posts....might....and did....randomly come here....now that is all gone. So I have a plea here....for any readers who  might agree with the sentiments that I post....which may only be one in ten....I really do not know....but if you do....and you have some kind of communication with brothers and sisters in Christ.....or even certain churches....in other countries....would you consider passing the web address....specialdogg.blogspot.com....on to them? Thank you for considering this!

The Problem Is In Our Perceived Goodness!

               Tim Keller said that the problem that we Christians have is in our...."goodness"....more than our...."badness." What he was saying here is not that the badness is not there or is not a problem.....but that our perceived goodness....and our...."self-righteousness".....causes the badness! He said that it changed his ministry and his life when he saw this to be the case.
                I have posted a lot on the condition of the church today....on what many of the men in the pulpits mistakenly consider their vocation to be in this modern world....and on their preaching....and on us in the pews....particularly in our grand failure to have identified a false prophet....and consequently not fleeing from him and all that he is about.
                The preaching is not telling us the depth of the sin in our heart....because it is unable to....or the heights of the glory of God!  It's definitions may answer correctly a catechism question....but it cannot cut to the core....because it does not know how deep that core goes...or how high that height of God's glory is.
                 We therefore not only do not know the true condition of our heart....but we also do not know our outward condition....the true condition of our lives.....and of the church. Consequently we cannot see the mistakes that we have made. So when we read Old Testament prophecy....the few times we do that....maybe only once a year in a 'read the Bible in a year plan....we in no way see ourselves in ancient Judah or Jerusalem or Israel....or for that matter....Assyria or Babylon of Greece or Rome....but we should....because we are there....and those prophets are also speaking to us today....no....they are shouting to us today!
                  In Collin Hansen's 2023 book on the life and ministry of Tim Keller....Tim Keller....His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation....he added this that probably would not be picked up by the average reader....at least not as much as I picked up on it. I'll explain that in a minute....
                  The author was listing the men that played essential roles in the formation of Tim Keller's ministry. Among those names was Edmund Clowny and Jonathan Edwards and R. C. Sproul and Martyn Lloyd-Jones....but then he put particular emphasis on a man named Dick Lucas....who I am familiar with because he was at times back in the 1990s a guest on Michael Horton's radio program....The White Horse Inn. What I remember most about those radio episodes with Dick Lucas was the power of this man's thoughts on the glory of God. Anyway....Collin Hansen wrote this...."Keller listened to so many Dick Lucas sermons that Kathy....(Tim's wife)....told him to be careful....because Tim was going to sound like a parrot."
                  That in itself is a needed warning....but what hit me was that Tim Keller had listened to....as the author put it...."So many Dick Lucas sermons." In these posts of almost eighteen years....I time and time and time again....tried to encourage readers to incorporate into their lives....listening to sermon from....as I always put it...."preachers of the past....or preachers today who preach like preachers of the past!" It is therefore not surprising to me that Tim Keller also gleaned from preaching of the past....and apparently quite often!
                   One last thing....while typing this I remembered a radio interview....of only a year or so ago....on Pittsburgh's Christian radio station....with Kathy Keller....where she was asked if she looked forward to seeing Tim in Heaven....which would be a quite natural question....(I wrote a whole post on this at the time....in January of 2025)).....and her answer was profound....this is what I wrote....'It's not so much that I look forward to seeing Tim in heaven....but I want to see Jesus.' And then she repeated the sentiment."
                    You see....it is our perceived...."goodness"....that makes us think first of a loved one in heaven....before the King of Kings....before the one who took the punishment for us....or else we would not be in heaven to see anyone! This 'goodness' that we see in us....negatively affects our doctrine and even our evangelizing loved ones....because we see a "goodness' in them also....so surely....God would have mercy on them.
                     Preaching....on Christ and Him crucified....and on the holiness of God that even R, C. Sproul or J. C. Ryle could only touch on....and yet it sent us to our knees....regular throughout the year....year in and year out....can cut to our core....so that we might cast away any thoughts of self-righteousness....and look past the answer that the world gives to the problems in our country....and to turn our full-attention and affection to the Lamb! So please....consider incorporating the sermons of preachers from the past into your daily life!

Today's Wordle Is......HEART

                I have family and friends that religiously....every day....play the Internet game....Wordle....and they often forgetfully ask me how many times it took me to get that day's Wordle....of which I have to remind them that I do not do Wordle....but I do Revelation 13:18....and not every day because that would point to fanatically wanting Jesus to return....what with all the increasing violence and demonic activity in the world....and that all of our pastors warn us not to get too fanatical about wanting Jesus coming back....or in reading too much prophecy....because only they can explain to us how none of it really means anything anyway!
               
                That verse in Revelation reads....in the NKJV...."Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast....for it is the number of a man: His number is 666." It's funny how in God's Word....a verse like this can initially sound so simple in its meaning....I mean it can't get any more plain....but in reality have no practical significance whatsoever!

                So I give a few minutes to this....not every day....but just about every day. For instance....one day I might calculate that since the very first Apple computer in 1976 had a retail price of $666.66....and that maybe 666 had something to do with computers? It didn't hurt that the logo that the two Steves....(Jobs and Wozniak)....chose was an Apple with a bite taken out of it....pointing to maybe....Adam and Eve and the garden?
               
                Another day I might conjecture that computer technology at least would like to go the way of carbon nanotubes over silicon nanatudes....because so much energy would be saved...and energy is the big deal today with data centers....and also that carbon has 6 protons and 6 neutrons and 6 electrons?

                And yet another day I might point out that if the letter A is given the numerical value of 6....and the letter B is given the numerical value of 12....and the letter C is given the numerical value of 18....and so on done to the letter Z....then the word in English....COMPUTER....would equal 666?

               Or I might point out that King Solomon....at the height of his riches....was getting 666 talents of gold every year....(1 Kings 10:14)....and that his riches were so great that this seems to be the beginning of his downward spiral? And that maybe....maybe....riches and power and fame has something to do with the Antichrist?
               
               Well these things have no real meaning of course....I only use them to show what 'calculating' might mean in that Revelation 13:18 verse. We all know that God wants us totally in the dark as to when Jesus will return.

                In reality....AI is mind-boggling. If you Google even a subjective question....in a nanosecond it will have eliminated all of the incorrect nuances....and discern the intent of your question....and give you a fairly spot-on answer....and all of this is new technology....and in a month it will be all new again....as it speeds forward to infinity.....and beyond!

                As for Wordle....and other daily games like it....a crossword puzzle or some other mind game....they can be a healthy exercise for the mind....and maybe even help when studying prophecy....but only God gives the necessary wisdom to discern His Second Coming....and He does so only in His perfect timing....and only to hearts that are devoted to Him! So if one is devoted to games like Wordle....or Pickleball....or other such pastimes and ventures....at the expense of being interested at all in the glorious return of our Savoir and King....then don't expect too much discernment of what is happening in the world....or on Donald Trump....or anything really.

Lord's Day Post

Preface: We went today to see the movie....The Sheep Detectives....a week after going to see the animated....Animal Farm.....which gives you an idea of the type of films we enjoy. It was fun...definitely not Christian oriented....but it made the viewer love sheep. We listened to Chapter One of W. Philip Keller's 1970 classic....A Shepherd Looks At The 23rd Psalm on the ride home....so the film presented no Christian themes....but it inadvertently may lead the viewer to meditate upon our Good Shepherd....who gave Himself for His sheep...and is coming soon to take us home with Him....forever!

This is a post from July of 2024:

       It's really a magnificent book! First published in 1970....I think that by the mid-80s most Christians read it....W. Philip Keller's....A Shepherd Looks At The 23rd Psalm. Keller led....at the very least....an interesting life....as a scientist at times....a pastor at times....a photo- journalist....and a sheep rancher & shepherd! I would never question his qualifications to speak about sheep after reading that book of his. They were not only possessions.....which he points out that he owned them....he paid for them....he raised them....they knew him....but he loved them!
              This isn't a theological treatise....and I don't know how effective of a pastor the author was.....but he knew sheep....and he perfectly correlated this to us....and himself....fellow sheep....following The Good Shepherd.....and The Good Shepherd.....watching over us!
               Folks....this book is up there with John Bunyan's....The Pilgrim's Progress....not in the great doctrines of the church....along those lines A Shepherd Looks At The 23rd Psalm is no where near the level of Bunyan's masterpiece....but on that one topic....sheep....and shepherds....it is so encouraging and informative! So many times I wanted to just thank and praise God for this wonderful design of sheep and the Shepherd that loves them....stubborn and timid....and quite frankly....stupid....as they so often are. You can easily read it just by Googling it up.
              I could write much too long of a post on the many things that W. Philip Keller wrote about sheep. I won't for your sake....but I have to give an example or two. Keller writes on how the flock will be on the way to good water....but they will often run off to drink from muddy or fetid ponds. He tells of a beautiful....perfectly formed female sheep that he once owned....that was just a delight to look at....and of who He as a sheep rancher and shepherd loved....but that ewe just had it in her to run to the fences and try to get into other pastures....even though those pastures were not as good.....and other sheep would follow her! Well Keller had no other choice....to keep the other sheep from harm....how do I put this....they probably had lamb for dinner one evening. One last humorous example....a friend arrived by car one day....and her tiny Pekingese pup jumped out and barked....and the entire flock of sheep ran for the hills in fear. Well....I been there....how about you?

                                                                    

               

  

Out With The New......In With The Old

                 The church is in the middle of God's judgment against it. Roughly four decades ago the liberal church led the Democrat Party.....slowly but surely....into a woke and progressive oblivion. The Republican Party struggled for a while until 2015....when it began to die. The Billy Graham evangelical up until the 80s....had started to politicize and became the Ralph Reed evangelical....who later had morphed into the Karl Rove evangelical....and then....because of the threat of what the Democrats were offering....in fear and rage followed a false prophet to become the Trump evangelical....which is no evangelical at all!
                 One could look at this as when Solomon died....after having squandered all the wisdom that God gave him....returned to God in his old age....but who would replace him as king? This is so similar to the path that America had taken.
                 The tribes split....and the ten northern tribes chose Jeroboam....who pronounced to them...."Here are your gods....Israel....who brought you out of Egypt"....as he had fashioned for them two gold calves! (1 Kings 12:28)
                 That is half of America today folks....led by the Democrats.....but don't celebrate too soon....because the two southern tribes chose Rehoboam. How did that work out? 1 Kings 14:24 gives us the answer...."The people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites." We had gone the way of Balaam and politics. Later....Jeremiah....and other prophets....warned Judah.....just as Graham and MacArthur and others had warned us....Jeremiah telling them to seek the old paths....or the old ways....of which they wanted nothing to do with.....nor do we want the cross and the blood anymore....but rather the statue and the flag.
                  The gospel is unrecognizable in America today....for no one anymore has to be born again....and we in the church have no idea how far we have fallen in this....for we cannot see outside of our bubble! One by one....God took away the prominent ministers who faithfully proclaimed the gospel....and had warned us for a half century! There are serious problems in some of the few larger faithful churches that remain. This chaos is the result of an increased demonic activity in our country....predictable as the Second Coming is near....as the demonic was stirred up when Jesus came to His own in Bethlehem of Judea two thousand and some odd years ago!
                   We have megachurches....with every possible ministry that you could imagine....impressive state-of-the-art websites....family churches today....with no preaching....for the glory has long since departed.....ICHABOD. No one knows any of this....because no one remembers what the glory of preaching was like!
                    This false prophet....literally destroyed the Republican Party.....for there is a new party today....bearing little to no resemblance to conservatism of the past....and although they shout God's name all the time....they are more the seven sons of Sceva....than followers of the Lamb....for this false prophet played his flute....and we followed.
                    AI has already taken over. Birth pangs....leading to the tribulation....are literally everywhere. The antichrist is an adult....if not an eighty year old adult....but we are not looking for him! We want our entertainments! We do not want to hear anything about Jesus returning! We want a Republican congress! We want power! We want warm weather and smooth sailing....but a maelstrom is coming fast....and if we do not turn and search for those old paths....'out with the new....and in with the old'....we will be taken by surprise when the volcano....so to speak....blows its top.

           

"Only One Life....'Twill Soon Be Past....Only What's Done For Christ Will Last"

                    There are a couple of days a week that I have some duties to perform....and today was one of those days....and I was a little worn out as I got into my truck....and thought that I might just drive the twenty-five minutes home in quiet....and then I thought again.....for it has been my habit for many years now....maybe 90% of the time....to listen to a sermon on any ride of any length at all....from as I like to put it....either.....men from the past....such as Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones....or men today who preach like men from the past....such as John MacArthur or R. C. Sproul or John Piper. So...I Googled a sermon....let's see....maybe Jonathan Edwards today....and picked the first sermon on the list....and as I often do at times like this....I had to laugh.....for the sermon was on not wasting our precious time. Here is that sermon if you are interested....

                                                                            

Note: From a passion for the game....cricket....to a passion as a Missionary for Christ....the title is the last poetic stanza of his famous poem....One Life....C. T. Studd (19th century)

"All Is Vanity"....Is The Same As Saying...."All Is Idolatry"

"She tempts people by promising great power and wealth to those who serve her." Those are words from Ligonier Ministries on Mystery Babylon from Revelation 17.

                The two great lights in not only London and England....but by extension the whole of Christendom....this in the latter half of the 19th century....were the Baptist Charles Haddon Spurgeon....and the Anglican ....Bishop J.C. Ryle.
                 Ryle may be most well-known for his book....Holiness....but he also wrote and preached extensively on the Second Coming....not just in a scholarly textbook fashion....but with a passion....warning his listeners....and pleading with them to take 'end of times' prophecy seriously....or suffer the consequences of not knowing what to expect.
                 One thing that J.C. Ryle tried to instill in the reader and the hearer was that idolatry was the key ingredient in all of our sin. Everything that was not worship of God and His Christ....was idolatry. Now driving to the mall might not be thought to have anything to do with worship....but that car we drive to the mall might be worship and therefore idolatry....or that which we are going to purchase might be worship or therefore idolatry!
                 At one moment we tend to look at these examples as....'Gee....another thing that we cannot do'....whereas we should see them and ask...'Oh my....am I worshiping this thing as an idol?'
                 John Calvin said...."The human heart is a perpetual idol factory." Anything can be an idol....wonderful and good and blessed things can be turned into idols. This is no small thing....in fact it seems to be the essence of Mystery Babylon!
                 That which evangelicalism today has fallen for....as it pertains to Christian Nationalism....can be described as a....falling away....from the truths of the gospel and the gospel itself....and is centered around pride and greed. All of this America First stuff is ultimately idolatry....all of the...."Winning, winning, winning" and the new golden age we are promised....is idolatry! Everything about Trump's rise was based squarely on idolatry! We evangelicals were led in this direction....and we just followed the pied piper..
                   In that Mystery Babylon whose destruction will come in one day....it may entail all that we hold as idols today? I recall something else that J.C. Ryle wrote in one of his books....at a different time....on a different subject....that in his extensive experience at being with many older people at the time of their death.....he stated that...."Old people tend to die....as they lived." In other words....the nearness of death....and no longer the need for possessions....did not free people to look to God....for they now had possibly a new idol....pride....in their refusal to admit that they may have been wrong....their entire life!
                   Idolatry is our problem in America and the church today. Idolatry is my problem. These posts can be idolatry....and I am sure that at times they have been. It is an insidious sin within us.  J.C. Ryle was an extraordinary preacher and man. It is amazing to think that both he and Spurgeon preached to London at the same time. Another area that he is well-known for is his preaching on the...."Old Paths"....from Jeremiah 6:16

"Thus says the LORD: 'Stand by the roads....and look....and ask for the ancient paths....where the good way is....and walk in it....and find rest for your souls....but they said....(which is also us today)....'We will not walk in it'."

                        If you are a student driving home after the semester and the year has ended....may God give you traveling mercies....and may you consider listening to the words from J. C. Ryle...

                                                                         

                                                                             

   

Birds Of A Feather

             The saying goes....birds of a feather....flock together. Ted Turner and Pat Robertson were definitely birds of a feather....and may have flocked together so to speak in their youth....for both were raised in upper class households....had elite schooling....both fulfilled their military commitment....and then both went on to found literal empires....Turner in cable news....and Robertson in Christian cable television.
              Ted Turner gave a lot of money away as a philanthropist....but as far as I can tell....maintained his belief that leaned towards universalism to the end. He supposedly became a 'born again' Christian in school....through the preaching of Billy Graham....but like well over 80% of those who go forward at crusades....it was only a temporary moment of emotion..
              Pat Robertson on the other hand....shouted the gospel.....from the rooftops....until he went to be with his Lord in 2023 at the age of 93....Ted Turner died today at the age of 87.
              Here is something that might shock the reader here....and then again it might not. CNN is probably the most vilified by the Right....and by evangelicals....of all the news networks....and over the past decade or so I would have agreed with that vilification.....but in an odd quirk of fate....my opinion here only....it seems to be the best news network out there right now!

               I'll give you a few minutes to come to grips with that statement from a 44 year conservative....repubican....veteran....Tea Party....evangelical! 

               I didn't say that it was great....just that of all the rest....ABC and CBS and NBC and FOX Trump Network....it was the closest today to actual news....other than Drudge. What I don't like is that you have to subscribe to get a lot of it....(which I don't....but I may some day?) Fox news is sad because it was once the very best....and fair and balanced....but Trump did to it what he does to everything that gets too close to him....he destroyed it's integrity in telling the whole truth....and nothing but the truth!

The College Campus

                 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. We cannot discern the coming of the Lord....because we are more interested in our own lives! 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!