The Man Who Would Be King

             He came down that golden escalator on a white horse....wearing a mask....a lone ranger....lone only because he cared for no one other than himself. He was answering an ad for a new sheriff....with a resume composed by the artificial intelligence of the day....Donald Trump himself. He surprised even himself and was given the job....didn't have a clue who to hire....and wound up getting rid of them later anyway. He became the hero of Jerusalem when he....in a down period at the polls....moved Israel's capitol....and lo and behold....the most vile wolf in sheep's clothing....became the good shepherd of the all the sheep!
            It was a good ride....but it was over....only he refused to get off the horse....and was banished for four years from the kingdom. The first term was an inauguration....the second a coronation. The first was a cabinet....the second a round table of knights who had taken an oath for him. He came out...."conquering....and to conquer"....on a crusade to the Holy Land....and the battles were shock and awe...until they weren't. No one seems to know the reason for the change....maybe he just got bored....or maybe some child began telling everyone that the emperor had no clothes....whatever the reason....his crusade to free the Holy Land....had turned into a crusade to rebuild the Middle East....according to his liking....irrespective of petty annoyances such as thousand year old hatreds....and utilizing the love of money as a tool of bribery to bring peace....temporary peace of course! He might do this today....or he might do that....nobody really knows.

Note: The title alludes to an 1888 Rudyard Kipling short story. Interestingly....to me anyway....Kipling spent a few weeks in the summer of 1889 visiting a friend only a few hundred yards from where I type.
             

Does Soccer Still Explain The World

              It was twenty-two years ago that Franklin Foer's bestseller came out....How Soccer Explains The World. I was only mildly interested at the time....and cannot remember much of the book....except when it tied soccer into globalization.....because globalization was a big topic back then....big tech having since then taken over as kingpin in this digital world.
              I used to add a little bit of humor on this topic....but as far I knew it was true....that I had on-and-off watched soccer over my whole life....and never saw a goal. Obviously I would have only watched five minutes here or ten minutes there. The soccer team was not an option when our son was in high school because at the time it was a Sunday practice team sport....but today....'soccer mom'....is a commonly used term.
              This present World Cup....even before Trump made another big mistake....has been dominating the news. I don't think that I have seen anything in the national news on baseball in the past few weeks. I've taken notice of the Norway team sitting down on the field....or pitch as they call it....and simulate rowing....and various special celebrations that teams and fans do....but what really is this sport....and this World Cup....and how does it affect the world?
              Does it strengthen nationalism? Would the average English soccer fan rather have his home club win the Premier League championship....which lasts most of each and every year...or the World Cup which is a month and a half every four years? It seems that these local clubs are loaded with international players....and might even be owned by some oil nation billionaire.
                This whole topic is just a passing thing with me....the sooner it ends the better....but today I saw in the news on my iPhone that Argentina was down 2 nothing....late in the match....oh well....so much for Messi....and fifteen minutes later....while checking the same headline news....saw that they were up 3 to 2! I turned on the television and witnessed the celebration....which had more passion in the players than I have ever witnessed in our own sports....and this wasn't even the final!
                  Ultimately....where does all of this fit into the problem of idolatry that America and the world and even Christians struggles with....and how might it fit into the cataclysmic dystopia that the world is heading into?
                  Two days ago I might have thought that after this World Cup....soccer would gain a much greater foothold in American culture....but after the Trump blunder....I would think the opposite....that the sport might take a hit....and we Americans might become even more isolated.
                  I would think that a month from now....baseball would take over again....and our football would be picking up where it left off in February. The most important thing that might result from this World Cup might be that Trump seriously blundered....again.....and that this blunder might hasten Europe's independence from the United States....and its own necessary uniting in order to defend itself against countries like Russia and China....who are non-entities in this World Cup....and it might further weaken Trump's poll numbers....and it might even wake up some of us in evangelicalism?

"For This Reason I will Not Be Negligent To Remind You Always Of These Things...."

               Writing a post like this is....rehashing....what I have put in so many past posts. The words are arranged different....and there will be a new thought or two....but essentially it is the same thing....the same warning....summed up by what John MacArthur said many years ago....that when Israel became a nation in 1948....God put the world on notice!
                It is really as simple as that. It didn't give us any specifics....and it didn't even stop us from at times going off into wild speculation....but it set in motion a learning curve that goes up....and then may flatten out before it goes up again....and here in the last of the last days....is rising almost exponentially!
                In the 70s and 80s they talked about the mark of the beast....and new technologies....and most everyone laughed. They pointed out a new and unified Europe would be formed....centering around ten nations....but that didn't make sense in a NATO-driven Western Civilization. They talked about earthquakes and pandemics and geological and meteorological and cosmic disasters....and everyone went...."Yawn." 
                Well....one would really have to be blind....particularly spiritually blind....way too involved in our own plans and goals....with literally no help from shepherds in our pulpits....to miss the technological and financial and nation-state dystopia that has already been unleashed!
                I'm not trying to convince anyone of some future deception and delusion and chaos and falling away in the church. It's too late for that. I'm trying to prepare the reader....so that we are not totally shocked by future events....and that whether we picked up on them or not....the fact....in retrospect....that God clearly warned us....and described events that will come....in detail....well beforehand....that that alone should renew our faith and our hope in He of whom not a single molecule in this universe can stay together unless He wills it to be so!
                And we can look at this from a totally different perspective. It is natural....and it is not evil....and it can even be good....to simply want to live a long life in peace and watch families grow....but if we more fully understood just how bad....artificial intelligence is for example....or transhumanism....or even drone warfare....pushing a button here in America....a couple miles away from a KFC or a Kroger....and killing a hundred people on the other side of the world...or the horror of mind manipulation through some new digital gadget or social media scheme....then we not only would not be depending on personal goals leading to retirement....but we would be....as they did in the days when the New Testament was written....look to....and yearn for....the coming back of the Lord Jesus Christ....in power and righteous judgment and glory....along with His mighty angels!
                So yes this is a rehashing....but then I have often thought of and taken to heart Peter's words....(2 Peter 1:12 NKJV)...."For this reason I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things....though you know and are established in the present truth."

Prophecy Verses

I transferred that long list of 'end times'....'last days'....prophecy verses to a link of its own....off to your left!

Did They Tremble?

               It is 3 AM....and I was tossing and turning. A few minutes ago I reached for my iPhone....just to check the headlines....for it had been six hours. Trump apparently had finished speaking three hours ago....a little late because of the storms....the one headline had it that lightning had struck the Washington Monument. I had been praying all yesterday....and this is normal for Saturdays....that should it be God's will....that He would have mercy upon these men in our pulpits....and that the Holy Spirit would awaken them....in that they have not fulfilled their responsibilities to strengthen and warn the sheep of wolves in sheep's clothing! Had they heard or read Trump's words....in that this nation is the...."crowning achievement of human history?" If so....did they tremble?

Lord's Day Post

"I don't usually use the word but I have always had heroes....and one of the most long-standing of those may be Joni Eareckson Tada....that wonderful Christian woman about my age who at 17 years old became quadriplegic from a diving accident. I am always in awe at her faithfulness and her testimony." 

             The above paragraph is from a very recent post. I once asked a question in these posts...."Who will have more crowns in heaven....the Apostle Paul or Joni Eareckson Tada?". 
              As a brand new Christian....back in late 1982 to early 1983....and about to embark upon a near decade long study in apologetics and the cults....it was the devotional writing of Corrie ten Boom that captivated my newly beating heart the most....and in my forty-plus years now....it is probably Christian women friends that would come to mind when I think of praying Christians. So how do we reconcile Paul's words about women....particularly of some widows who...."cast off their first faith....and besides they learn to be idle....wandering about from house to house....and not only idle but gossips and busy-bodies....saying things which they ought not," (1 Timothy 5: 13,14 NKJV) Paul wrote glowingly about other women in the church and partners in his work....so why these comments?

              I'll give you three examples from my experience. In the first....this wonderful Christian woman....whose main desire to serve God was in spreading the good news of His salvation....had through the influence of others....primarily from charismatic women's cell groups....become as she thought....a leader and teacher in spiritual warfare. Everything was in the casting out of demons. I witnessed her and friends of hers literally march around a coffee table....casting out the demon of alcohol from some one not present....and they regularly marched around communities....casting out the demons in the air. 
                A second woman that I knew was from our church....a sweet children's Sunday School teacher....who when I met her years later....again after she moved to a charismatic church....it seemed that she could not say one paragraph without quoting something that the Holy Spirit had personally told her. Whatever it was....it could not be called a conversation that we had that day that I met her again.
                And a third....a seeming prayer warrior if there ever was one....who could not go a paragraph without offerings something up in prayer....and this over a few years....but she had no interest in finding a church....or listening to a sermon....or reading a book. Everything was prayer....the contents of which were developed from praise music....which was her only source of instruction in the faith. There came a day when added to her praying....was strong Christian advice for someone....instruction as if from God....the only problem was that it was bad advice....for she never had genuine instruction in the faith....only music induced emotion.
                  Paul gave more specific concerns about men....but in this culture today....they do not raise a red flag as comments on women might. I have more concerns about myself....and my own faithfulness....than these comments on wayward Christian women in the faith....but I feel that I need to at least address this issue....as I see many Christian women today....captivated and taken by the most anti-woman false prophet that one might even imagine....and this because music or some other alternative to steady sound doctrinal teaching....lured these women off of solid ground....into a swampy quagmire of doctrinal compromise and misplaced passions.

Note: I'll add here an anecdote on the very best Sunday School that I ever attended....this back in the early-to-mid-90s. She was elderly....probably 80 years old at least....and she waddled instead of walked. The church had a wonderful pastor....the best preacher that I have ever sat before....but there was a mixture of newly reformed and general evangelicals in the session of elders. So it was hard to find Sunday School teacher for the adults....but this lady stood up and said....'ley me try.' So each Lord's Day morning....as the dozen or so of us were already seated....she waddled into the basement Sunday School class.....set her little cassette tape player on the table....inserted a teaching by R. C. Sproul....and we all were greatly blessed!

Young George Washington

Preface: I had called every Barnes & Noble around....one was an hour away....to see if they had a copy of Maggie Haberman's (along with Jonathan Swan) new book....Regime Change....but all of them had sold out. It's not like me. I'm usually at the book store the very day a new book comes out that I want. It's the same with movies....and today was the first day for....Young Washington....and my wife and I were there. I thought it a very good film....on a subject that even when I was young....the schools did not do justice to the importance of the battle. I don't think that there was any political message in the film. One side might say that the film proves that we have to fight for our liberties and freedoms.....and the other side might say that before we fight....we need good and decent and honest men like George Washington. The film began at the Battle of the Monongahela....(and then looked backwards)....fought in what is now Braddock, Pennsylvania....the very field on which my father was born....and just over the hill from where I was raised. The following was first posted on April 2, 2015....74 days before Donald Trump famously came down that escalator in the atrium of the Trump Tower....which I find interesting:

The Battle Of The Monongahela

                 My father was raised in a small community in Western Pennsylvania called North Braddock, which is on the Monongahela River only a few miles from Pittsburgh. The house that he was raised in was on the site of one of the most important battles ever fought on American soil. Never heard of it? Don't worry, most people living in that area never heard of it either, at least they aren't aware of the significance of it. The battle really doesn't even have a name but is generally known as the Battle Of The Monongahela. George Washington was an aide to General Edward Braddock who was the 'Generalissimo' of all British and American forces in Colonial America, and who was mortally wounded in the battle. Daniel Boone, before he became famous, drove a wagon in service to the British soldiers in the campaign, and many in the campaign fought a few years later on both sides of the American war for independence!
         In the 1750s the French had their sights on the territory west of the Allegheny mountain ranges. The forks of the Ohio River which is Pittsburgh today was a key focal point for their strategy. The British knew this and assembled what would be the largest British military force ever gathered in the colonies, over 2000 British and American soldiers, and put them under General Braddock to drive the French from Fort Duquesne. They, the Braddock Expedition as the force was called, were to hack their way over the mountains and up the Monongahela River. It would turn out to be more than a disaster. The British in their bright red uniforms and the Americans in their blue uniforms crossed the Mon (as we know it in Pittsburgh) just past Turtle Creek and then shortly after that, to the cadence of the drums, they marched back across the river (it was only knee deep at the time). It was here on the east banks of the river that they were ambushed by the French and Indians.
         Thomas E. Crocker, author of Braddock's March, How The Man Sent To Seize A Continent Changed American History, described the battle as pure pandemonium among the British and Americans, almost 500 of whom died in the battle. The enemy lost only 11! The British would like to forget this battle... one of the worst defeats in their history.... and Americans were not that interested in remembering it either.... but the importance of what happened in that battle cannot be overestimated.
         As a child my father had played on those streets below the bluffs from which the French and Indians had descended upon the British and Americans. My mother went to dances on what was at one time a battlefield, and later met my father at Braddock Hospital where he was recovering from injuries sustained in the Pacific in World War II? She passed away last year but only a few years ago we visited the house that she grew up in which was only yards away from the bluff where one could see most of what had been the battlefield.
         George Washington's reputation as being invincible began at the Battle Of The Monongahela as he survived with bullet holes in his coat and horses shot out from under him, but this post isn't really about George Washington...or the battle itself as history....but rather the battle as a study in chaos and pandemonium. The British and Virginia officers stood their ground but could not bring order to the men who could not see their enemy who hid behind the trees. Many were killed by friendly fire. The British had all the skills and all the knowledge and more than enough firepower but were decimated because chaos was all around them. That is the reason for this post. Christians will one day experience such chaos and pandemonium....and that day may be in the very near future. We need to know this...and we are not being told!
           Mankind hasn't changed. As brilliant as he can be, he can be just as foolish. We read in Scripture about the very last of the last days and think that we have it all down pat. An evil man arises and takes over the world....he demands that everyone have a mark placed on them in order to buy or sell anything.....Christians say no....he kills many of them....and then Jesus Returns. Only it is not going to be as easy as just recognizing the Antichrist and saying no, for just as the British and Americans experienced chaos and pandemonium on the banks of the Monongahela, so will Christians in the great delusion of the last days. Family and friends will be taken in...making it much harder! "This...mark... is just technological progress in a digital age" they'll be told. 'friendly fire' will be everywhere. Confusion will reign supreme. Friends....we fall for just about anything now...and this deception is minor compared to what the church will one day experience!
          From personal observation of end-times conversations over the past thirty years, and even recollections of my own thoughts when I held to a Pre-Trib Rapture, I don't remember the topic of the Christian experiencing chaos and pandemonium being at or even near the top of the list. That's probably because the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Theory tends to make Christians a little less worried about something they won't even be around to experience. That's the short message of this post...if our Lord's return is near, the pandemonium and confusion ahead may be so great that we may even question our own decisions! Whatever generation experiences this will need to know....beforehand.... what God has written to us about those days.... and discernment does not readily come while one's main interests and passions are on the baubles of this world and not on God's Word.

Note: If you are in a reading mood....two older books that you might consider are....

George Washington's Sacred Fire....2006....by Peter A. Lillback....and....as mentioned in the post...

Braddock's March....2009....by Thomas E. Crocker

By the way....streaming....A Great Awakening....is now available on Prime....and a few other streaming sources that I am not familiar with.

"Easy To Do Justice....Very Hard To Do Right"

                       Even an infant needs a passport to travel outside of the United States or its territories. If a South American woman gives birth while here....she does not need a passport to take her child home....but if she stays and claims the child to be a United States citizen....and later wants to travel back to South America....she would need a passport for the child. I believe that would be the case anyway. I always....going way back....looked at the 'birthright' issue to be indicative of the greatness of America. This was such a special place that even if one is just born here....they have the right to be a citizen. I don't have an opinion as to the actual constitutionality of the birthright issue....in spite of all that is written about it in the news....because I haven't been able to fully understand all the particulars....but I know this from God's Word....because I do understand the particulars....if a widow needs help....give it to her. If the poor need help....give it to them. If a child needs help....give it to him or her. We know that if the government tells us to do something against God's Word....then we should not do it....but in this case....are we not demanding of the government that it does something against God's Word? God's Word says in effect that if a man asks for a loaf of bread....give it to him....but Paul said that if a man does not work.....do not give him a loaf of bread? These are not contradictory statements. The Christian has the mind of Christ to see this. We need the mind of Christ to deal with this birthright issue....not the mind of Donald Trump. There was a movie about thirty years ago....based on a play of about a hundred years ago....where the chief protagonist on the legal issue of the plot.....made this statement...."Easy to do justice....very hard to do right." It might possibly be easy to do justice on this issue of birthright citizenship....but it is very hard to do right....yet that is what we have to endeavor to do!

I Have Seen The Elderly......And They Ain't Me

                   I have heard this plea numerous times from elderly people....hmm....before I continue....I probably should define or at least categorize the word elderly. I just put the word into Google....and AI said that it generally means people over 65 years old! I'm 76....and write about elderly people in a fair number of these posts....and they ain't me! Even Donald Trump is not elderly....a demented sot....paranoia-plagued and forgetful that he told the very same lie five minutes before....but not elderly. Joe Biden is elderly.
                   Now that we got that straight....I have sat and talked to real elderly people many times....and there is either a great sadness there....if they are not Christian....or a great joy....if they are. Some have been kind and gentle.....others irascible. Martyn Lloyd-Jones said once from his pulpit....later in life....that he had found that people generally died the way they lived. That is mostly what I have seen also.
                   He lived to 81 years of age....and I guess that you could say that he was elderly when he died....but he still powerfully preached the Word of God! John MacArthur was not....elderly....at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020....but he appeared elderly in his last few years in the pulpit....and preached a couple of his most powerful sermons while speaking softly and pausing often between sentences.
                    It appears that being elderly is not just phyical....but a state of mind. My state of mind wants to help a 65 year old carry her groceries....because I may need that help some day....when I get to be that age?  I finally....a few years ago....accepted the fact that I will never go back into the army. I would like to know about two or three languages...."Te puedo hablar de Jesucristo?" I've been saying that for 55 years now. I should probably start with English.....but I ain't even going to do that!
                     I obviously digress....please bear with me....that plea that I have often heard....from a real elderly person....who might be in pain....and lack any mobility....or any physical strength at all....is....'Why is God waiting to take me?'

                     Forty years ago I ran a marathon. There were probably 8,000 to 10,000 other runners in it. I finished second to the last. I could have finished fourth to the last....but there was an elderly white-haired couple before me at the end....a real elderly couple....at least 76....and they were holding hands as they waddled towards the finish line. Had I....a 35 year old....passed them at the last minute....I would probably have been booed. I ran a lot at the time....and the first eight miles went real well....but I was not ready for a marathon!
                      Most of the elderly that I talk to....and hear them give that plea....on why God does not take them....are not Christian.....maybe outwardly they proclaimed their whole life to be Christian.....but they also....their whole long life....have shown absolutely no signs of being born again at all! They were just church-goers....that prayed before a Thanksgiving meal.
                       So I'll look at them....and try my best....recently as a matter of fact...and explain to them that the answer to that plea that Jesus Christ might give to them....is a merciful answer....that they are not ready to stand before Him in judgment!
                       Do you know a better answer to give them? That's the best that I can do....but I am thankful that they asked that sad question....for it is at least an opportunity. Just asking an elderly person who is about to die...."Would you like to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior" is not enough! That would be like me saying to an elderly person on the way to a  regular doctor checkup....'I think I'll bring an umbrella....just in case." 
                       They need to know....you need to know....I need to know....that upon leaving this life....all the excuses are gone. Everything will be blindingly obvious from the power of the righteous King of Kings before us! So if anyone is going to pray...."Lord....why don't you take me right now?"....they might want to change that a little to...."Lord....if you are going to take me....make me acceptable in your presence....and if I am not acceptable in your presence....if my belief in you is no different than the belief that devils have....then please do not take me...."I believe....help my unbelief!" Mk 9:24 ESV

"I could Be Wrong......But I Don't Think So".........Monk

                "A courageous and thought-provoking proposal to read the Psalter afresh." That is a blurb on the back cover of O. Palmer Robertson's 2015....The Flow Of The Psalms....Discovering Their Structure And Theology.
                Oh it is courageous all right....for the author is asking the reader to consider something in the book of Psalms that had never been explored before. We Reformed consider....Semper Reformanda....always reforming....to be a banner of sorts....but reform....or change....or anything new....is not always as easy as it sounds. The book is certainly thought-provoking....and it is a systematic proposal ordered enough to be considered.
                 I could not possibly recommend it more highly. The jest of the 'thought-provoking' part is that there is a structured chronology to the Psalms....in other words...the five books of the Psalms....trace the chronological history of the children of Abraham....so what happened in book one is followed by what happened in book two....right up to book five....and I will speak here on my own....book five is us today!
                J. R. Church....(1938-2011)....was a Baptist pastor and a typical prophecy teacher during the revival years of the 70s and 80s....but he was one of the better ones....my personal opinion of course. Maybe he thought a little too much....I don't know....but he got those of us out here thinking....and I would rather be thinking....and reforming when necessary....than not really thinking at all....only repeating.
                I'm not going to spend time on this....only a summary on one of J.R. Church's books....the title was....Prophecy In The Psalms....and I'm going to make this sound as bad as I can....because you're not going to believe it anyway....but he saw a connection between the number of the Psalm....and the year....beginning in 1901. I read that book back then....1986...in the waning years of my Pentecostal/Charismatic days....was not convinced....but kept the concept somewhere in the back of my mind....only to start thinking about it again around 2017.
                 Back to O. Palmer Robertson's book. He states a couple of times that something changed....he called it a "dividing point"....in that Book Five of Psalms around Psalm 118....a messianic Psalm....just like Psalm 18 was a messianic Psalm....and Psalm 119....a Torah Psalm....just like Psalm 19 was a Torah Psalm. Both are necessary....Torah and messianic....law and gospel! He states this....and I already knew it. He places the writing of this 119th Psalm....with uncertainty....at the time of the Babylonian exile....or shortly thereafter....where there was no temple....only the Torah. As for me and this odd concept of Psalm numbers correlating with years....something did happened in 2018/2019....it also was a dividing point....and this second term of this president is the most astonishing departure from American tradition and heritage that I have ever experienced or even read about. 
                  I do want to say this....in fact this whole post is just to be able to say this....Psalm 119 is a glorious 176 verses into the joy and utter importance of reading and digesting and even memorizing God's Word....in His law and His statutes and His precepts and His commandments! Every verse is uplifting in one way or in a different way! There must be a purpose in this Psalm for today....where in the church....Ichabod....the glory....in preaching....has departed....is so similar to the Jews losing their temple worship. This was a writer....(of the 119th Psalm)....who clung to God's written Word....as a drowning man would cling to a life vest! So maybe I am wrong on the correlation of the number of the Psalm to the year....but I am not wrong on the power for difficult times of that longest Psalm in the Psalter!

I Can't Complain....I Asked For It....

                I have no one to blame but myself. I wanted to know this stuff. I dedicated a good part of my life to it over the past forty years...and particularly over the past ten years. The Second Coming is upon us right now! There is none of this...'oh possibly fifty years from now"....or even....'oh possibly twenty years from now'.... nonsense that all of us hear all of the time when the subject of the Second Coming might come up....which it seldom does anyway....because....bless those old-time religion folks from times past....but we're just a little bit smarter than them today.
                In actuality....I would want it no other way....and I thank God for his mercies in letting such a plain and unadorned vessel as myself know these things. It's just that it is difficult to go day after day....and deal with friends particularly....and become somewhat of a pariah at times.....for who today wants to be confronted all the time with the 'bad news' that a hurricane and an earthquake of.....well biblical proportions...are just ahead?
                Jeremiah tried to warn God that he was just a youth....but Isaiah said...."send me Lord"....and Gideon asked for proof after proof....and Jonah tried to go from one side of the Mediterranean to the other to get away from the responsibility. There are no Jeremiahs or Isaiahs or Gideons or Jonahs today....but there are....or were....MacArthurs and Sprouls and Billy Grahams and David Wilkersons and others who tried their very best to warn the church....but completed their tasks and were called home before the barometer dropped and the earth shook violently!
                There was a little bit of Jonah in these men....but with me and plenty of others....and maybe even in the near future with you....we are just believers who read the Bible....for what it actually is....God's gloriously dictated letters of instructions to us! We are no more enlightened than Puritans in England who were kicked out of their churches rather than play the game....or the congregants in the pews in front of Jonathan Edward's who were so overcome by what they heard from the pulpit that they could hardly keep seated without sliding off onto the floor....or those that sat in Spurgeon's Metropolitical Tabernacle for forty years praising God....or those who went night after night to hear Martyn Lloyd-Jones preach the glories of God's gospel....or for that matter....the great multitude typified by the little old washer lady who scrubbed floors her whole life...maybe in aches and pain but also in joy....for she had also read and gloried in God's Word for what it is!
                   It is not as much the specific Bible prophecies that drive us....for multitudes today take those prophecies and run with them....many becoming national and international prophecy teachers....not because they see their own guilt and responsibility in all of what is happening....but rather that it is exciting to them! Well it is more that....for just as Jeremiah saw what the 'church' of that time had become....and he wept and wept....and warned and warned....for forty years....and then wrote in Lamentations on how it all came down....and just as Daniel saw the vision of what we ourselves are going to experience....much of it anyway....and he became seriously physically ill for a time....we see what God is telling us....about who we are....and it drives us to our knees!
                    There is also the timing aspect in all of this....for many studied and pleaded with God over the many centuries....but they were not the generations....but we are! We are seeing things....that their eyes were not opened to. They could never have envisioned the very real potential horror such as AI....nor atomic detonations....nor one man who could conceivably rule with anger and arrogance and a mesmerizing power....the entire earth! They could not see a chip under the skin....or electrodes and neural sensors hooked up to a human brain....nor pixels on a screen that can overpower words on a page!
                    Just as in the days of Jeremiah or Isaiah....we cannot see how far we have fallen. We cannot see how bad it really is. My iPhone received a weather alert early this morning....extreme fog conditions! That is somewhat the warning that I am giving to you. With your mind and your interests all over the map....you cannot see....(because of the fog)....what God's Word is telling you....but you will....as I will see many things to disturb and perplex. 
                    If you are secure in the grace that God gives....to those who love him....(not those who love this world and all of it baubles....like World Cup soccer)....then you and I will be praising God in the same storm that is ahead. Yeah it is difficult even writing these things....but that is because I have multiple weaknesses.....we all do....or the church would not be what it is today.

I Cannot Try To Please Men

                 They signed what was labeled a....framework....for dismantling Hezbollah in Lebanon. Framework is just code for....get this thing off the front pages until after the mid-terms. Everything in this entire Iran peace deal is just a 'framework.' The mid-terms are only four months away. If the Democrats take power then Trump is done. No matter what he might say....he knows that....so he will be giving away as much as he can in the next few months....to whoever has a vote. He'll be trying to do his Jehu impersonation for evangelicals....although the second time around will be tough....and Stephen Miller will be crafting rally speeches for the evangelicals in the audience....while the fear and the rage machines will be oiled up and ready to go. There absolutely has to be the appearance at least of a major success....not too early....but then not too close to the election itself.
                 God judged the....'left'....of this country with a despicable wokism....and then He judged the....'right'.....us....with MAGA. This is all judgement folks. Evangelicalism has been totally blinded as to who and what Trump is. Right now in the American church we are rudderless I have to explain that. Over the past sixty years or so....beginning with the rise of Billy Graham....we had a compass point to follow in a small group of men that God has used in various and mighty ways. Agree with him or not....Pat Robertson was a force. His ministry was giant and it was effective. If I had to point to one person that God used in my conversion it would be that founder of the 700 Club.
                    I could not do justice in describing the influence that John MacArthur....gty.org....had on the church. I may not have agreed with him on some doctrines....particularly eschatology....but his ministry was a rock. And then there was R. C. Sproul....whose ministry....ligonier.org....transformed the more traditional side of Billy Graham's evangelicalism. R. C.'s work on....The Holiness of God....spawned numerous other ministries....and is still alive today in the remnant that remains.
                     Again....agree with David Wilkerson or not....his ministry had an enormous effect on the hearts and minds of many of those within Pentecostalism and even the Charismatic Movement! There are a few other names of major importance....but here is the kicker....they are all gone! God had taken them all home....(save for a very few who have not as of yet stood up to warn of the storm and deception)....MacArthur and Sproul and Keller could easily be with us today but they are not! These were our rudders in what was the coming storm....(a title of one of Billy Graham's books by the way)....and that rudder is either frozen or gone. Ichabod....the glory has departed from the American church!
                       So raise those sails all you want....we are only going where the prevailing culture will take us...and right now that is in the error of Christian Nationalism...led by a false prophet. Even if we had a radio on our boat...,(these ministries)....telling us to head to shelter immediatly.....we have no rudder to get us there.
                       I took a break at the last sentence....and went down to our basement....and there on the ping pong table are hundreds of old photographs that I have been trying to sort out for a couple of weeks....and off to the left was an old....yellowed....jagged-edged clipping from our local newspaper.....this back in 1993....thirty-three years ago folks! It was a letter-to-the-editor that I had sent in....of which the editors had added a title to it....Only God Can Save America....not a whole lot under 300 words....but I'm adding to this post one paragraph from the letter. Looking back on it....I have to wonder how the Christian readers....and my friends....may have reacted....but it matters not....because I cannot try to please men....here is that paragraph....

"And to the churchgoers who meet in their Bible studies once a week with a pencil in one hand and plenty of doughnuts handy....I recommend that they put down the pencil and pick up a Kleenex....for as they meditate in Scripture surely tears should be produced by what they read. If they are mad at me for saying this....it's because they know that I'm talking to them. For the ones who are on their knees over what is happening are saying....'tell it like it is.' "

Addendum: Back in 2009 I had just read Mark Levin's bestselling....Liberty And Tyranny....and I put a bumper sticker on my truck that read.....LIBERTY & TYRANNY....DO NOT READ THIS BOOK! A few days later I received an email on my company email. A lady whom I never met....very politely told me that she took offense at my bumper sticker....and that she was therefore going to go out and buy that book! That is somewhat what I am trying to do with these posts....as I would like one person who might so utterly disagree with what I write.....that they show others how terrible it is! I have confidence that if ten people read these posts....the warnings will resonate with at least one. I pray at times that if it be God's will....that he would shake timbers in our meetings....to if nothing else get us to start talking about things that need to be talked about!

Here Is Where You Start

                It is known as the....Olivet Discourse....Matthew chapters 24 & 25....and Mark 13....and Luke 21. In my opinion it is the first place that a Christian should go in studying end-times prophecy. It is succinct....and perspicuous to a great extent....and relatively short of the symbolism that dominates Revelation. It's quite simple in that a disciple....upon leaving the Temple....remarks on how grand were the buildings of the temple mount. Jesus takes that opportunity to tell that disciple that there would not be one stone on that temple mount that would not be thrown down. That apparently shook the disciples up....so they asked Jesus when this would happen...and what would be the sign when these things began to happen? Well there it is folks....that in itself should be a sign to us to sit down in great solemnity to read exactly what Jesus would tell them.

                This passage is in all three of the synoptic gospels. It is important stuff...and the first thing that Jesus tells the disciples is to take heed....and not be deceived....for many would come after Him....giving some great storyline....Jonathan Cahn would be of these storytellers.

                 My posts are always short. The other day I was walking down memory lane at my old high school....and there is a wooded area that the cross country team used for their home course....and as other cross country teams came....they needed guidance along the course on which way to go....so someone would be there to point out the correct path. That is what I want to do in these posts....point....that you need to go this way....or.....do not go that way. So in this post....all I want to do is to point out specifics....and then let you do what you should be doing....reading and meditating and praying over these things.
 
                 I'll use the Matthew Olivet Discourse....there are going to be wars and rumors of wars....whatever that might mean. There were two world wars in the twentieth century....many in-between wars....and we have wars today....possibly the beginnings of a third world war?

                 There will also be famines and pestilences....(pandemics)....and earthquakes. I think that I read where there are on an average of 15....7.0 or higher earthquakes around the world every year. A few days ago....in a 24 hour span....we saw two 7s....and a 6.9 in Japan....and although only a 5.9 in northern California....the location of it near the San Andreas Fault was a concern.

                  Jesus then mentions that all these things are the beginnings of sorrows. There are going to all kinds of false prophets around....and today we are a nation of false prophets everywhere. The following underlined paragraph is Trump in his February 2020 State of the Union....given just as the coronavirus was about to devastate the world. This is the rantings of a false prophet....including that which Trump ended his rallies with over eight years...."We are one glorious nation under God." (We are not....one glorious nation under God)

"This nation is our canvas, and this country is our masterpiece. We look at tomorrow and see unlimited frontiers just waiting to be explored. Our brightest discoveries are not yet known. Our most thrilling stories are not yet told. Our grandest journeys are not yet made. The American Age, the American epic, The American adventure has only just begun. Our spirit is still young. The sun is still rising, God's grace is still shining, and my fellow Americans, the best is yet to come."

                  There is going to be lawlessness....and love will grow cold....and folks....right now....in our nation....law is a weapon....and there is little love anywhere! We in the church for example have no....love....for people trying to come here to have even a similar life that we do....which we do not deserve anyway.

                   At this time....somewhere in the seven year period at the end....there is going to be severe persecution of Christians....and even worse than that....many of us are going to turn on each other....even within families!

                  One last thing in this post....there is a difference of opinion among scholars on the statement made about there being....not one stone upon another. Most say that the temple....and the buildings on the temple mount....are being referenced here....and that is past history....for all of the stones had been thrown down. You can easily Google a live webcam of the Western Wall....or the Wailing Wall....which was a retaining wall of the temple mount. Real excavations only began on these stones after the Six Day War of 1967. Others believe....and after forty years of being aware of this controversy....I am one of them....that those stones on that Western Wall....were part of the temple mount....and therefore are part of the prophecy that Jesus gave. That indeed may not be the case....but then....it might....and if so those stones would at some future time....have to come down.

                   

          

'Being Born Again....Oh It's No Big Deal'

                      "It's no big deal." That is how we think about salvation today. It's good.....you kind of need it....but it's no big deal. It's not that it is really discernable. One minute a person might be very liberal.....probably Democrat....and they don't have any problem with the gay lifestyle or abortion....things like that....and then they become....through whatever means....a Christian.....and now they aren't liberal anymore....probably at least vote MAGA....and all of a sudden become very patriotic....and of course they find the closest mega-church to go to which will rubber stamp their belief that they are now a Christian. So you see....salvation....is good....there is a healthy family feeling about it....and I guess it is necessary even though no one really believes in an actual hell....all that stuff....such as judgment and the Second Coming....because they are so abstract and unknowable and not to be dwelled upon. As for Jesus words that one must be....born again....that's kind of like Bible word salad....that had a great effect in times past....with a less enlightened people....but doesn't have much relevance anymore. So you see....being born again is only a metaphor! In a way....yes....one is so to speak....a new person....but that's really no more evidential than say....voting for Biden in 2020 and then seeing the truth and voting for Trump in 2024. That's real repentance!
                       The above is part of the falling away today. In reality....there is a hell....with weeping and gnashing of teeth. That in itself should be enough for anyone....but we want more. We want to know how a soul can supposedly suffer in a hell for a million years times a million years....because they were a rebellious jackass for twenty or thirty years on earth? In the 38th & 39th chapter of Job....God laid it out plain....in as much as saying....'Hey....did you create this universe....did you form the mountains and stop the oceans at their borders....and do you control the lightning bolts and the thunder.? No? Then sit quiet and listen....for you will find out all these answers in a moment of what used to be time....for there won't be any thing called....time....anymore....and that million years nonsense will be seen for what it is.....your excuse just not to believe and trust!'
                       A person is born on this earth.....fallen....with absolutely no hope of avoiding hell....with a dead heart....and no understanding....and can read the Bible a hundred times....but without the Holy Spirit it will be just a book. That is the prior state to being born again....born a second time.....from above! The dead heart....all of a sudden....in that present moment of time....begins to beat....regenerated....and all of sudden one can see oneself for what we truly are....hopelessly and rightfully and deservedly....lost! And the words in that Bible....from God's Holy Spirit....float around your head.....and are drawn through your eyes into your soul....and a man can preach....and those words thunder with authority and truth....and POWER! 'Oh my....what is happening to me'....where can I go....what can I do?' But what has happened is that you have been born again! Faith is coming! You can clearly see how the Son of Man shed His blood to pay for what you could never pay for! You are in His hand! All is well....for He is glorious and wonderful and trustworthy!
                        You are given that faith....and you are adopted....His child....never to be abandoned....an heir of what is to come....and a brother....to Jesus Christ of Nazareth....the Son of God....true God of true God....who entered your world....and defeated it....and had nails driven through His wrists....so that you can say....'gee what about that thousand years times thousand years thing'....no....but so that you can say....I am the very chief of sinners.....deserving of rejection....but given mercy....and therefore praise God each and every morning....and each and every evening....and devour....throughout life no matter how long it may be....that blessed and powerful Word....that was once just sugar candy....with no life-saving nutrients....and no strength for the brain....nor spiritual energy....but now....after being born anew....increases faith....empowers and enlivens!
                          Being born again is not just a....big deal....it is a thunderous and tortuous ripping of a soul from the clutches of death itself....a newly pounding heart heard in the heavens....where even angles rejoice! Have you been born again? If you have to ask yourself that question....then there is a very big problem....that must be addressed immediately....and the best way is to go to God....and as if grab the hem of His robe....and refuse to let go....until He has pity upon whom you admit is the least deserving of it!
                          There is more....He will not reject you! This isn't my promise....my promise isn't worth the pixels it is printed on....it is His promise!                     

"Then he....(the Philippian jailor)....brought them out and said....'Sirs....what must I do to be saved?'....and they said....(Paul and Silas)....'Believe in the Lord Jesus....and you will be saved"....and if you love your family as we all say we do...."you and your household." (Acts 16:30, 31)....for they then preached the gospel to the jailor's household....and that promise was to all of them!

                        

DISPATCHES

The World Cup red card fiasco is vintage Trump....threatening to get what he wants....and not caring what anyone says....for he just puts out a ridiculous statement of some kind....knowing that his followers will automatically believe it.....("I could shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue....and would not lose any votes"....famous 2015 Trump quote) Trump said that it wasn't a foul....but he knows as much about soccer as I do....which is nothing. He made a personal attack on the ref...(normal)....and said that if the decision was not reversed it would appear that the next game with Belgium was...'rigged'....another one of his favorite words. The decision was reversed....and Trump says that the FIFA head has a great future ahead of him. Whatever happens now....there is a cloud over everything! Trump is....and always has been....a destroyer.

Imperfections and all...NATO was once a formidable....(understatement)....roadblock to Putin. The Russia Hoax fiasco revolved around Trump being too friendly with Putin....and a number1 kompromat candidate. Our intelligence agencies were worried....and rightfully so. Meanwhile...since then....Putin got what he wanted....and no one in intelligence anymore dare even mention problems of Putin and Trump.

Previous to last night's teleprompter speech from Mt. Rushmore....the February 2020 State of the Union speech was the grossest exploitation of the Christian Faith and patriotism....but last night exceeded that. Whoever wrote that has no shame in exploiting people already under knowledge and information depravation....and a severe mental domination by a modern day Rasputin. 

I was a devoted fan of Fox News from its inception. Oh my....it was good at one time....but I also watched its slow but sure demise in integrity and journalism in this Trump era. It was once a cool lemonade in a sweltering culture....until poison entered into the recipe. You should make haste to avoid all of the....America only....type of news sources out there. There is the possibility that Fox might come back....but a spell has to be broken first....and this might happen if we would pray that God might have mercy upon us....and therefore begin to take the veils off of our eyes....veils that filter out who the real Donald Trump is.

Trump was totally against crypto in 2021....and then did a 180....invested big time....and made a billion....part of that being on tokens of which those he lured down that path lost money. This is not an isolated incident...it has been Trump for 60 years now. Israel is finding that out now....and evangelicals will in the future.

The birthright decision came down and Trump was ringing the panic bell....until the Slaughter decision came down. Now he is happy....because having the right to fire people who are on the payroll....but not loyal....is much more important than anything like birthright that effects America after he leaves office!

No matter what Trump might say....he would not mind it if Alito and Thomas both would retire....because right now he needs....more than anything else....the....Reichstag Fire Effect....and the possibility of two more court justices anything like Kagan or Sotomayor or Jackson or Roberts or Amy Coney Barrett....would probably give him that outrage that he needs in the voting booth.

Overnight....Trump....the godless capitalist....called those on the other side...."godless communists." Trump has destroyed evangelicalism...destroyed the Republican Party....and destroyed conservatism. I continue to watch him speak at his teleprompter rallies....and it is classic cultism....of which I have close friends who are members....some of them Christian for decades. My prayer continues to be that God....if it be in His perfect will and timing....would begin to remove the veils off of the eyes of evangelicals on who and what this man is....and that God might also....apply a balm....for when they recognize the error that they have made....it will be very difficult to come to grips with.

Note on the above.....Trump references God literally all the time....and has since that day eleven years ago when he came down that golden escalator. I am on the 115th book on Donald Trump....his entire life.....and every aspect of his life.....and he has no concept or interest whatsoever of God....other than leading evangelicals to their theological slaughter....which has been a very successful tactic

Granted....soccer is popular in the U.S.....and increasing in popularity....but it is still an....exosport....to coin a term....a sport whose dominance is outside of the United States. The World Cup is being held over 38 days from June 11 to July 19....but its headline news here in America is even longer than that. I got tired of it a week ago. What this is....is a....foreign god....(meaning a god in the idolatry of it all)....seeking a greater foothold in America.

Trump's first term was bad....but nothing....nothing compared to the first year and a half of his second term. This Iran war had goals and displayed shock and awe from February 28 to April 1....when it turned into a disaster....the turnaround being inexplicable. Presumable....Trump's first two marriages started off OK....then they went south. He had a lot of business ventures that were successful at the start....only to turn into bankruptcies or selling it off. He seems to be man of two halves....the first of promises....and the second of contempt. 

I don't think that the MAGA person will realize this....but the rise of Mamdani in the Democrat Party is similar to the rise of Trump in the Republican Party. So when they look with disgust at Mamdani....and see the destructive force....and wonder how Democrats can actually follow him....they would need look no further than themselves...and how they followed the destructive force of Donald Trump.

Anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear knows very well how Trump almost pathologically....without letup....and without mercy....sics his law enforcement people on present and past political opponents. We can through this gets some help in understanding history....for we should be able to better understand how both the Bolsheviks and the National Socialists overcame their minority status to rule with absolute power.

Jesus had just spoken in parables on the final judgment....and the tares and the wheat....and He then told the disciples how he would have to go to Jerusalem to die....(and be risen)....but Peter was not going to accept that. God's Word....if you can see it....is speaking to us in America today. Judgment is coming....but we like Peter will not accept that. We should read again the admonition that Jesus said to Peter....for it is to us also with the politics of the day that has pushed the gospel to the rear........"for you are not setting your mind on God's interests....but man's. (Matthew 16:23b NASB) This Christian Nationalism....and all the politics and the power....including the false messiah....or wolf in sheep's clothing....or false prophet....championed by so many....is not in God's interests....but our own!

AI is a genie that cannot be put back into the bottle. It is a done deal....and a death knell. Christian ministries are still debating the pros and the cons. If they knew the nearness of the Second Coming....they wouldn't be playing this little game. This is Bible prophecy on display for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear.

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.

A Dose Of Reality

                It was just a day trip.....going back in time fifty years to 1976....and the Pitt campus....and our wedding at the Heinz Chapel. We walked along and pointed out where we took these classes or those classes....but most of all we went back to see what Hillman Library looked like after a seven year renovation....that included a major glass addition.
                I had gone to high school only two blocks from the Pitt campus....so that is almost eight years in Oakland....and I have a photo from 1966.....as a high school sophomore....where on a snowy winter day....my buddies and I were waiting for the Port Authority bus....(we all commuted)....and someone had a Polaroid....so the photo is of us standing before construction fencing....as they were building the Hillman Library! Less than ten years later....after the army....I met my future wife in that library....(where we both worked part-time as students)....that was just being built! So I took a similar photo today.
                We started on the fourth floor of Hillman....half of which contained the periodicals back in 1976....and probably much later....but periodicals in paper form must be outmoded....for there was only three aisles! I used to spend whole days shelving volumes of Time and Life and all the rest! So we walked down to the third floor....where there once was a little office....to get out instructions on what to do....but all of that was gone.....replaced by glass walls and comfortable chairs....comfortably spaced....everywhere....throughout the whole library of four floors and a ground floor!
                  Where were the books? We did find a few tucked away here and there! It was beautiful....no doubt about that....but it looked more like a grand student union than a library.
                  We also visited probably the grandest university building in the world....the Cathedral of Learning....a 42 story....535 foot tall Gothic structure....(check the images out on Google sometime)....and there didn't appear to be an iota of change from when I would choose a nook to study....yeah study....right....I spent half the time watching the girls walk by....and the other half reading some current event book that I picked up at the National Record Mart just up Forbes Avenue a block!
                   Still....it was a bit of culture shock. I guess that everything is online today....I even recommended Google which obviously we did not have back then. Is this good or bad? Well I've been a defender of the written word over the image for a long time. One question does come to mind....what if we do not have the Internet someday? How would we research anything?
                 

Lord's Day Post......This Is No Longer A Drill!

                I know that you are probably tired of hearing about things like this....forty years ago....prayers were often offered in the church for Israel....but then....we also talked about the cults....and prophecy and the Second Coming....and the holiness of God....the majesty of Christ....and most of all the need for one to be born again. Apologetics....the defense of the faith....was in many of the books that we read....and local churches often had a revival or a weekend conference on any of the above. Those things are not the....talking points....of today....for we now talk mostly about family and freedom and patriotism and politics and blessings that God gives....and will continue to give us.
                One might think....considering the extremely existential seriousness of the situation for Israel and the world....that churches would be praying without ceasing.....but that does not appear to be the case. Even in my own church there was no mention today of Israel in our worship service. There was back then....forty years ago and thereabouts....a great concern. There was a concern for the people....for their salvation. If the state of that nation was important to God....which it obviously is....one would think that it should be important to us....but today we are more into confident smiles than concern of judgment...."Praise God for this beautiful day!"....but the joy in the Lord....that we once had....has transitioned into....the joy that the Lord gives us....a subtle but distinct difference!
                My wife and I attended a Southern Gospel concert last evening....for we like Southern Gospel music....and do this fairly often. The particular concert was in a church that I have known about for forty years....and had been in attendance there for various things over the years. Probably 90% of the people there were our age or older. We arrived early and I had the opportunity to look at these blessed....(two syllables)....people as they by design entered the only door to the sanctuary available to them. And I prayed for many of them....one family with a Down syndrome son....(I kept praying for them)....and others in wheelchairs....with a lifetime of worship in that church behind them....and I prayed for the family singing group....and the pastor and the elders.
               Outside in the parking lot was my vehicle with this website URL bumper stickers on the back. I had about thirty minutes before the concert to think about the people....mostly older saints....and the message that I am always trying to get to anyone....that a maelstrom is just about upon us....and great sadness and grief along with it. 
               I closed my eyes a couple of times....purposely examining what I was doing....or attempting to do with these posts....in essence.....rock their worlds....with that which my life was once rocked not all that may years ago....the end of a pleasant and even idyllic American life....of two vehicles.....and vacations....and dreams and goals...retirements.....and the extended future of the families of children....their children.....and their children after that.
                That life is America is a thing of the past....and it wasn't what we bragged it to be anyway. It took many decades....but in this modern life....we kept compiling idol after idol....inventing idols that were never available before....professional sports being them most obvious. I know many men....Christian men....whose entire life has essentially revolved around one particular sport....and maybe one particular team in that sport....and they have talked themselves into believing that it is blessing from God? Today you can gamble from your La-Z-Boy. We have literally hundreds of television channels with which to worship an idol. It is not the same America. Much of the technology today that we are so excited about....is killing us softly with its hum.
                So I come to grips with what I have to do....what anyone would have to do.....knowing what they know....knowing what I know....what God's Word so very plainly tells those who have not cluttered the windshield of their lives with little rubber ducks given to them by those who admire their vehicle. It's certainly not what they want to hear....and it is not in line with an edifying evening of Southern Gospel....but it is what they have to hear....Jesus is near....and that this is no longer a drill....to at least give them a chance to weep at what we have become....pack up and leave Vanity Fair....and look around to see who we might be traveling with?

                 
            

In God's Perefect Design....Some Of Our Theology....Is Imperfect

I would like here to repeat a humorous story that Billy Graham once told to seminary students and faculty and guests....as he was receiving an honorary doctorate.  A man heads south for his annual hunting trip....and he asks of the proprietor of the lodge he was staying at if they had a hunting dog named....Preacher....that he could use. The owner said...."No.....I don't believe that we have a dog named....Preacher"....to which the man said...."Oh but I heard that you had an excellent hunting dog named....Preacher"....of which the owner then said...."Oh yes....come to think of it....we did have a good dog named Preacher.....but then someone came down here and called him....Doctor....and he ain't been a lick of good since."          

               You have heard the lament I'm sure....that there are so many denominations. We will say that the church is supposed to be united....one....and we have messed that up.....but I believe the issue is much more complex than that.....for example....if we had a situation today....protestant or any church...such as it was with Rome....then just as with any governing power throughout history that had absolute power....including our current president....that absolute power would be corrupted. In God's perfect design....in paradoxical form....some of our theology....a little or a lot in everyone....is imperfect.
                On Israel and the church for instance....the truths seem to be very plain in God's Word....in that Israel as a people will be redeemed at the time of the end....and that miraculously....Israel as a state will once again come into being before this happens. Now here is where the Billy Graham humor comes in....as some of the....not all....'doctors'....of the church take these simple and plain truths....and theologize them into all sorts of catechetical and confessional doctrines....that replace the perspicuity with perspiration....literal perspiration as we try to figure out what they are talking about.
                 Yes....the same covenant of grace that saves us....saved the Jews with faith in the Old Testament. No....the church did not replace them....and also no....we did not just fulfill God's promises to them. Yes the Jews were "grafted out" because of their unbelief....but we had better be careful....because God still has a redemptive purpose for them. Many Christian scholars knew of these things long before May 14 of 1948.
                 The world will turn on Israel in the end-times....and that is happening right now....and it will appear to be the end of Israel....but then God Himself will intervene....not through any ally....as all these armies coming to Jerusalem....will be supernaturally destroyed....and the world will be amazed! A number of the Old Testament prophets described these coming events.
                 Here is something else that is very plain in God's Word....and very basic....and also ignored or obfuscated on our side. If a nation....any nation.....blesses these people....it will be blessed....and if it curses these people...it will itself be cursed. Russia is a prime example....as it cursed the Jewish people for a long time....centuries actually....prior to and after the Bolshevik Revolution....and that nation and its people have been cursed for well over a hundred years now. Germany? Germany was destroyed for what it did. America? 
                 George Washington had empathy for the Jewish people....as did Abraham Lincon....as did Harry Truman....and many American Christians. We will be celebrating 250 years shortly....Lord willing....but the tide has turned....and we are in danger of cursing Israel. God's Word told us that Jerusalem would be a stumbling block to the whole world....but instead of seeing this as a prophecy being fulfilled....we double-down on Israel today as to having any biblical significance?
                 There are not and never were any permanent answers for the Middle East. The best that we could hope for was longer stretches of no war....but this whole paradigm shift in culture and governments and the financial system....threatens to void that empathy for Israel. The prophets had an answer for that too....in that God will hold those nations responsible for either ignoring the plight of Israel....or worse yet....laughing at....(taking satisfaction in their woes)....or even worse yet....taking part in their demise!

Addendum: Maybe you have seen the 2000 disaster film....The Perfect Storm. On October 28, 1991....a low pressure system developed suddenly off of Nova Scotia....while Hurricane Grace was forming off of Bermuda....and a high pressure system was forming over the Great Lakes. This took meteorologists by surprise....and the result was that a hurricane was formed that was never given a name....other than....The Perfect Storm. On the same day that the storm smashed into New England....President George H. W. Bush officially started the Madrid Peace Conference....pressuring Israel to attend....which began a series of peace conferences based around Israel's ceding land to the Palestinians....and on that same day....The Perfect Storm's seawall slammed into President Bush's vacation home in Kennebunkport, Maine....smashing windows and flooding the entire first floor....causing significant damage. That conference continued....and moved to Washington D. C. on August 24, 1992....the same day that Hurricane Andrew made landfall in Florida! There are just too many of these....coincidences....to ignore....and you can read about them in more detail in a 2006 book by John P. McTernan....As America Has done To Israel. You can order the paperback from Amazon for $9.

From The Golden Books....To TikTok....And The Loss Of Literacy

The photo below is of volume 1 of the Golden Book Encyclopedia from 1959. It was sold in grocery stores....up by the check-outs....and as a nine year old I would wait impatiently for the release of every new volume....there were sixteen volumes. It was a simple pleasure for young kids....and very popular....ask anyone about my age....76. I have the whole set today....a gift from our son. I would pour over those pages back then....thrilled by the drawings.....for there weren't even any actual photos. Today is that God-forsaken smart phone that our children were turned over to....along with the iPad or some similar computer. I don't know that I have ever actually seen TikTok....I might have once....but there are similarly designed video schemes out there that I have viewed....and they are absolutely mesmerizing.....one video after another....seemingly forever....and each one captivating for one reason or another.....maybe two people on a boat in the South Seas....with a drone and underwater cameras....or maybe something funny that a dog does....or a person....or worse. Just like with AI....there is no turning back on these things....our goose is cooked....that's probably one of the videos. May God open our eyes to the evil of the days that we live in.

We Wanted A Businessman To Be Our President

                  Friedrich....later Frederick Trump was born in Germany. He came to America and then to the Klondike Gold Rush....with thousands of others....to make his fortune....which he did....only he didn't mine gold....but served the miners with a restaurant and a brothel. He returned to New York....and then went back to Germany with the intent of applying for permanent residency....but they kicked him out....because he had originally left Germany to avoid their draft. He met and married Elizabeth Christ....and returned to New York....and established a real estate business. In 1918....a hundred years before the covid pandemic....he collapsed on a New York street and died from the Spanish Flu pandemic. A hundred years later....while dilly-dallying for months in the beginning of the coronavirus....Donald did not even know that his own grandfather died in a pandemic.
                  Frederick and Elizabeth had Fred Trump....who when his father died....he partnered with his mother in running the real estate business....and then she became chairman of the board....as he became the president of the company. Over the many years....Fred....in a shady manner....took advantage of any loophole that he could. He was investigated in 1954 by a senate committee for profiteering on the many programs designed to help returning WW II veterans....and was investigated again in 1961 by the state of New York for the same reasons. There were no charges brought. In 1971 he and Donald were accused of discrimination in their many rental units by not renting to blacks. This issue was settled.
                   Over his entire adult life....Donald would con you if he had to....or schmooze you....or threaten or buy you off. He had multiple failures but would cut his losses and leave others holding the bag. He was not successful when they designed the TV show The Apprentice....but they chose Donald because of his celebrity name. Both father and son would underestimate financial figures if it benefitted them....or overestimate them if they needed a loan. That is exactly how President Trump runs his administration. We conservatives wanted a businessman for a change to be our president......well we got one.

The Wrong Communion

               I had never read....Hillbilly Elegy....possibly because of what I knew it to be....that it might hit a little too close to home....but I had a high opinion of it from what people told me....and therefore of J. D. Vance. I thought he did well in his debate with Tim Walz....in fact the whole debate was a welcome relief in this attack age. My wife and I reserved seats to hear Vance speak at a Black church....and were in the line.....about twenty people from the door....when someone came out and said that they had miscalculated the numbers as they relate to the fire codes....so we did not get in.
               I just finished.....(7AM Wednesday morning).....Vance's autobiographical new book....just released yesterday....Communion....Finding my Way back To Faith....but my opinion of our Vice President had changed quite a while ago. His temper tantrum in the golden Oval Office with Zelensky is not addressed but explained by his life. The book is maybe 50% his personal family life and religious history....30% various social issues....and 20% tops....anything related to politics. 
               I knew what to expect on his conversion to Rome....for it is a normal passage for people who are searching in all the wrong places....and I'll comment on that....but what hit me out of the blue....that I had not considered before....was that ten years ago this was a man that was still trying to mature...who had decided that being a lawyer....after Yale law school and two years of practice....was not for him....and he had made a lot of money through investing in a short period of time.....who within 17 pages of the book....where he was not forthcoming at all about the details on who helped him and how all of this happened....he went from being an investor to a candidate for the Senate....to a Senator....to on the short list for Trump's VP.....to being the Vice President! And now he is on the short list for Republican nominees for president....all in ten years? It is a sobering thought.
                 As for his religious conversion....he had a typical evangelical youth experience at various churches and youth gatherings....with no sound teaching in his life at all....except possibly a sermon here or there....and a little bit of the normal Left Behind hysteria....abandoned while in the army what little of evangelicalism he had in his system....took that emptiness into college and law school....and then....picked a religion that suited his high opinion and confidence in his own intellectual abilities and capabilities. It....(Rome)....was intellectually challenging....(that was necessary)....very tradition oriented....(something he wanted in  his life)....and he had plenty of friends and acquaintances who could encourage him in this area....but it seems none....to give him the biblical gospel of salvation.
                He apparently reads a lot....but once again....not the right books. He made this comment...."I found Lewis (C.S. Lewis)....(whom he read and quoted often)....thoughtful and compelling. But his books weren't the Christianity I'd been exposed to at him." That is an understatement about the great Oxford apologist. His books can stir the mind....but by themselves they are a soup or a casserole without all the ingredients. In another place he wrote...."As a child, I learned that the devil perfected the art of deception." Next to that sentence I put a note in the book....DJT....meaning he knew of deception....but was taken in by the greatest con man of all. I wound up putting that....DJT....for Donald John Trump....in quite a few places in the book....in areas that Vance had contradicted his own beliefs in binding himself to Trump.
                 He gives a very weak explanation on how he can go from thinking that Trump is bad....to thinking that Trump is good. So much of the book was about his wonderful and brilliant wife....so much that I once thought...."enough already".....but does he care about his wife's eternal soul?  I think that the answer to that is probably....yes....but the problem is that he knows how to be devout....and say many of the correct truths and superlatives about God....but chose a convenient method of salvation of faith and works....that does not save.
                  This is a very easy book to read. J. D. Vance does write well....maybe that should have been his primary calling. I address this issue of Roman Catholicism through novel form....and in detail....in my novella....Isaac Crockett....which can be read in a couple of hours if you are ever interested.

Addendum: Back in the 80s and 90s the debate....at times contentious and always lively....between evangelical protestants and Roman Catholics....was literally everywhere. We were all familiar with what was going on....for it was in the news often. John MacArthur and R. C. Sproul led the way with their ministries. Both are gone home now. Will the church today continue to...."Contend for the faith"....(Jude 3)....or will the current....falling away....extend even to the defense of the gospel itself?

Here is an example from this tech age that we live in....of the differences on the two gospels of salvation. You have an IT device....a thermostat maybe....with a few controls....in one set you put the desired temperature....and then there is a delete button....and then there is a save button. The instructions are to put in the temp that you want....and then save it....(faith in Jesus Christ alone)....but the instructions from Rome are that you put in the desired temp....but then you push the delete button....(adding works of various kinds)....and then push the save button! Nothing is saved....neither is anyone saved by these instructions! Fortunately....and praise God for His mercies upon us....many in Rome do not follow the instructions given them....for they just put in the temp....and then save it.

Here is a very short historical primer....The first two centuries of the church were persecution. The reign of Constantine....circa 325....enabled the church to operate freely....this resulted in the Nicene Creed which was formulated and finalized in the fourth century. Two hundred years later saw the beginnings of the power of what would be the church of Rome. There was a remnant over the next thousand years but it was a downward spiral until the Reformation which began in 1517 where scripture and the gospel were returned to the church. A number of 'protestant; denominations and even beliefs devoloped....but this was a necessary thing. The Roman church had split by then. Liberal Protestantism....emanating from Europe....destroyed the gospel once again....but as always....there is always a remnant. Just as the Great Awakening had come and then waned....there was a legitimate and strong movement in and around evangelicalism beginning in the mid-1900s....but it also has waned. Today....Christian Nationalism is the dominant force....with a return by many to Rome....and to Orthodox (or Eastern)....Christianity....but then.....there is always that remnant.....even within the billion people within Rome itself.

Here is one sign....if you will....God's Word....the Bible....is alive in those that have truly been redeemed and born again....whether they use the term or not....but to the others it is no more alive than the Bhagavad Gita is to Tulsi Gabbard. J. D, Vance says in his book that he read the bible....twice....and the New Testament many times. I had quite a few people over the years tell me that they read the bible....maybe twice....or three times.....from beginning to end....but without that personal redemption....with faith in Christ....alone....someone who brings their sin and nothing else to the cross....no sacraments or good works of any kind....to them it is just a book....maybe their favorite book....but still just a book.

Are There Any Men Out There In The Pulpits....Men Who Have Attained Some Sort Of Gravitas....Who Will Tell The Church What It Needs To Hear?

              I feel that I need to return to this topic.....but let me expand a little on the recollections. We can go back ten years to get but a glimpse....but let's go back thirty years instead....to get more of a full-orbed view of the blessing.
              My wife and I owned and operated a Christian bookstore....about a quarter mile from our home where I am typing this...and there were at least six other Christian bookstores within a twenty minute drive. The Christian bookstore in America was a great supply line....and evangelistic tool....(I was one of its captives)....in the wonderful movement of mercy and blessing that God had given America in the 70s and 80s and 90s. There may be a few of those bookstores left....a very few....and I would now have to travel two hours to visit one....but effectively the concept is dead.....and consequently that supply line....cut off!
              We have no real effective information Christian theology source today for the uninitiated....or the seeker. No one is going to be wandering through a mall and possibly stop in a store where God's glorious truths will catch them. Christians today are no longer able to walk into a Christian bookstore....looking for a religious birthday or anniversary or sympathy card....and walk out with John MacArthur's....Ashamed Of The Gospel....or R. C. Sproul's....Knowing Scripture....or Josh McDowell's....Evidence That Demands A Verdict....or a book by David Wells or Iain Murray or Hank Hanegraaff....or a hundred others.
               Thirty years ago Billy Graham was still saturating America with his crusades...and writing his books that warned us. John MacArthur was at the peak of his influence. R. C. Sproul and his Ligonier Ministries were a solid store of knowledge. Pat Robertson's voice was strong....still shouting from the rooftops.....probably to more believers than MacArthur and Sproul combined. David Wilkerson was there for those who already knew that God's judgment was absolutely imminent. Tim Keller was there for balance. These were tried and true generals in this war. They had gravitas....and the courage to address the issues....and now they are all gone! God has....in His perfect design....removed them all....leaving us temporarily alone. There are others out there....but will they stand up?
                Christian Nationalism has devoured the church. We defend the constitution more than God's Word. Biblical illiteracy is rampant. We are recruited today without being converted....and if converted....are hardly able to share the need to be born again. Maranatha was once a Christian household word. Does anyone today even know what it means? We are an idolatrous people....and the church is not immune. False prophets are literally everywhere....one is even in the White House. We do not want Jesus to return in judgment....in fact we close our ears and run from the prophetic voice....that this generation so greatly blessed in those 70s and 80s and 90s....is the generation that will see His coming!
                 A sifting of the grain from the chaff is ahead....and it will be unpleasant....but then finally having a unity even with our theological differences will be a blessing that we have never really had....the closest being that time period of the 70s and 80s and 90s.
                  My prayer....as always....is that God will....shake the timbers....in our synods and conferences and worship services....and even our Bible studies....that veils will fall off of our eyes as when...."something like scales fell from Saul's eyes"....(Acts 9:18)....that we will see the idolatry that has us in bondage....that I will see the idolatry that weakens my already feeble efforts! May all of this be to God's glory alone! Maranatha...Come Lord Jesus!