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." (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...much of the rest of Scripture can become very problematic. For thirty-five years now I have 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 also have believed this 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 vest and a harness and a sign on his chest and back that read...."SERVICE PERSON....DO NOT TALK TO HIM.....as he had a dog on a leash. Special Dog 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 Scripture John....to....prove their point....but God wants the heart. 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 as we are in the middle of a Steeler game....on a Lord's Day....and we won't be experiencing His wrath at the end....surely Man's wrath towards us we will have....but not God's....that's what finally got me on this John."

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

      

Woe Are Us

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

DISPATCHES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                                                                           

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

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

The Handwriting On The Wall

                                  

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

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

Lord's Day Post

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

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

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

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

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

"Keep Your Lamp Full!"

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

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

Mike Pence Would Be One Of Them

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Sixth Chapter Of Jeremiah

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

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

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

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

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

"Thus says the LORD:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Even the fruits of their thoughts,

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

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

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

Therefore thus says the LORD

Behold I will lay stumbling blocks
      before this people

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

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

Lord's Day Post

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

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

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

"How Do You Turn This Thing On?"

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

"How Do You Turn This Thing On?"

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

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

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

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

The crowd giggle

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

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

Special Dog looked at his watch.....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DISPATCHES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

               It was reported that in his first term....Trump while traveling....carried around with him a box....not of briefing materials....but news articles. This is in line with reports over decades of how on his desk at Trump Tower was stacks of magazine articles about himself. What this man does is stay up at night and read the news that mentions him....and then reacts. It is just one more symptom of a serious mental illness.
               Trump didn't like what the American Pope was saying about the war in Iran. This came after Trump threatened to obliterate an entire people. Much of the Iranian people were....(I'll use the past tense)....on Trump's side in the war.....but Trump threatened to destroy the entire country....bridges....electricity....and he had previously mentioned water. Pope Leo's remarks were about what one would expect from a pope....but the Pentagon called in some Catholic prelates....and....well you decide.....did they threaten the pope by bringing up the 14th century where the emperor essentially took over the entire papacy? I think that it is pretty obvious that it was a coded threat.
                It was the beginning of the 14th century....France was at war with England....and the French King wanted church finances to help with the war....the pope didn't like that and was going to excommunicate the French king....the pope was then arrested....mistreated....and died soon afterwards....another pope lived for a short time.....and then the French king made sure his own man was made the next pope.
                The next seven popes resided in Avignon....which is now France. I could easily picture Trump trying to threaten....or coerce in some way....Cardinals in a conclave....to get a pope that he wants. Evangelicals need to know that under the right circumstances....they would be told to speak along the accepted lines.....or keep their religion to themselves.

Two Whole Chapters In Revelation!

             Theoretically....I would think that Revelation is the most important book for the Christian today. Let me break that down....for the Christian in question would already have been immersed in the doctrines of salvation from Romans....and the Gospels....and the Acts of the Apostles....the beginning of the church....(and also possibly descriptive of the last days for the church)....and all of the truths from Paul and Peter and Jude....and the creation account....and the OT books describing the redemptive history of our covenant God....and the beauty and worship and truths of Psalms....and the warnings of all the OT prophets....in other words....everything else!
              To that Christian....I would think that Revelation is not only for them....but vital. The Pre-Trib believer would have to look at most of what happens in Revelation....almost as after the fact....for they would have been taken up to meet Jesus by then....but to us....hopefully you also....we know that there is a greater purpose to the believer in the book of Revelation....the third verse in it which reads...."Blessed is he who reads....(spacing mine)....and those who hear the words of this prophecy....and keep those things which are written in it....for the time is near." The time has always been...."near"....to every Christian....but to us it appears that it is near in a very special way.
               So what about the second and the third chapters of Revelation? These contain the seven letters....to the seven churches. We seem to pass these chapters almost....as I once wrote....as if they were nothing but historical filler....but that just makes no sense.
               As a Reformed....or Reformation Christian....for about thirty years now.....I had come to consider the letter to the church at Ephesus to be directed to us....sound in our doctrine....but having since lost something.....something that needs to be regained. It is amazing to me that this letter to Ephesus could only have been a short thirty years or so since Paul wrote to Timothy who was pastor in Ephesus....but then I only have to look back thirty years in evangelicalism to see how far and how fast we can stray.
                We know that over much of the world there is a persecuted church such as described in the letter to the church at Smyrna....although we do not know what that designation of "ten days" means.
                 We do not know how the church....(Pergamos)....located where "Satan's Throne" is....although many think that they do know. What we can glean from that letter is the warning about holding to the doctrines of Balaam...who taught them to Balak....and we can go to that passage of scripture to study and scrutinize....just as we can study and meditate upon the warnings to the church at Thyatira.
                  Sardis had the "works"....yet they were dead! Should that not stop all of us in our tracks....especially the part where if they are not vigilant....and do not watch....that judgment will come as a....thief.....not knowing the hour....or the time period....that this judgment will come?
                  There is no warning for Philadelphia....other than to...."hold fast." They will be kept from the trial coming upon the whole world! Folks....the beginnings of whatever the tribulation turns out to be....including the riders on the four horses....cannot be that final trial upon the whole world. Maybe it will be that....hopefully we all will be....as the church in Philadelphia by the time these things comes upon the earth?
                  And then there is Laodicea....a wealthy and what was considered a....'free city"....by Rome....known for its entertainments....and so metropolitan and international in its makeup....with many Christians and Jews....that even the persecution for not worshiping the Roman emperor was lax....because it was difficult to enforce in such a city! They thought that they were safe....just like we do here in America.
                  My hope in this post is simply that we might take these letters more seriously than we have in the past....for to reiterate what I said at first....God would not have put these chapters in such an important book relating to the end-times.....if they were not meant to speak to those at that time....which by all of the signs that God has given those who have "ears to hear"....is us today. Maranatha....Lord Jesus Come!

           

"Trouble Ahead: Prepare To Meet Thy God"

                I am in a Barnes & Noble at least fifty times a year....most of those visits are on Tuesdays....when the new releases come out. It only takes me ten minutes in the store....for I already know what is there in both the 'Current Events' section and what they now label the 'Religion' section....so I only have to walk slowly by....for it is easy to spot books that were put out that morning. 
                 The average B&N bookstore carries about 100,000 titles but some have a lot more. My wife and I have been bibliophiles our whole lives. We met in 1975 as students working at Pitt's Hillman Library....and she went on to be a wonderful....if I do say so myself....but I think that everyone would agree with....a wonderful librarian for 47 years before retiring. Together....thirty years ago....we owned a Christian bookstore.
                 From the moment that I walk in the door at B&N to when I make it to the 'Religion' section....I am almost overcome with sadness....as I pass by people browsing all the various sections....but mostly the fiction....for I know what is out there....and what is popular....and what they are wasting their lives away on.....nonsense fiction....maybe a little romance and a little crime....maybe a fluffy tale of a dog or a cat? I know what the bestseller lists look like....and I know what the children's books consist of.....and the teen sections....and the biographies and the history....and the various business and self-help....and psychology and technical reference sections. As for the Christian books....there are at least a thousand titles in the average B&N....all of them almost worthless....save a few classics from C. S. Lewis....and maybe once a month at most....a good critique on evangelicalism that slips in there....of which is what I am looking for.
                   I'll often look at the faces of the people....and more than once I felt like crying....for there is pure gold out there in the form of books....if you know where to mine for it.....but they don't.....and would have no interest in that kind of gold anyway.
                   The Christian bookstore in America is dead. The best authors are dying off almost on a monthly basis....with very few if any coming up to replace them. Christian television programs are a hundred times more in quantity than in the 80s....with one-hundredth of the quality.
                    No one has to be born again anymore to be a Christian.....for they only have to be conservative church-goers. Holiness is in not voting for Democrats. Preaching is therapy. Sermons are Bible studies....and Bible studies are the level of what should be given to children.
                    This is the church age that we live in.....but have no idea of. As for prayer....we are as if on a catamaran....heading swiftly for a hundred foot waterfall....praying that the boat might soon be paid off....or that grandma or grampa in the rear might be healed....or for another conservative Supreme Court judge....for our preachers told us that God's Word tells us that we will never know when the big waterfall is coming....even though God's Word actually gives a map of the river and the falls....a map of which we are told does not exist.
                     Newspapers are just about dead. Conservative talk radio is long gone. We have no trustworthy news media. Fox News....once 'fair and balances'....is now poison. Podcasts are like drone warfare. AI will strangle us before we know what's happening. In summary....evangelicalism has gone the way of Judah and Samaria....and we are witnessing the fall of the American Empire....along with Israel's final war....but few know any of these things....because we thought that we were invincible....and that God was on our side...."God bless America"....unaware that we were as Nineveh....given time to repent by Jonah....of which from time to time we did....but now we have a message from the prophet Amos....who no one reads....relayed to us by Billy Graham....who at least many of us read...."Trouble ahead....prepare to meet thy God!"

Lord's Day Post

Preface: The following post is from July of last year....and I'm bringing it back for this Lord's Day Post. It was titled....

We Need Each Other

               Economist Milton Friedman rather famously in 1980 gave a talk and produced a video....in which he held up a pencil and said that there is not...."a single person in the world who can make this pencil." He then went on to talk about the need for wood and steel for a saw and the compressed graphite and the rubber from the eraser and the yellow paint and the glue....all coming from different parts of the world. His point was that it takes everyone working together to make capitalism work.
               The Apostle Paul made a similar point many centuries before as he described....through the Holy Spirit....how believers are all part of the body. Some parts may have more glory than others but we all need each other.
               A friend was talking to me the other day about how divided the church was. He was really distraught. Some have more glory than others. John MacArthur had more glory than my friend who is the janitor in his small church....who has more glory than me.....because everyone has and deserves more glory than me....but we need each other. John MacArthur could not do it without the janitor in his church....for if there were no janitors in that megachurch....there would not have ever been a megachurch.
               Christians known as....Reformed....with their history of doctrinal soundness....have a glory deservingly unto themselves. Pentecostals in my experience with them....share the gospel with a passion more than anyone. Some in the church today know more than others that Jesus is coming back right now....because they have a passion for Jesus to return right now....and Jesus rewards that passion, There is a glory for the churches in Africa and Asia and Eastern Europe that we in the West can only read about. There is a glory for the common uneducated laborer that the genius billionaire will never know.
               There is a glory for the humble....and a glory for the servant.....and a glory for the minister of a small fundamentalist church that the megachurch pastor of tens of thousands will never know.....but the grandest glory of all....is the glory that any one of us....Jew or Greek....man or woman....master or bondservant.....can give to the only who deserves all the glory....the Son of Man who came to set us free....who ascended to the Father....and who pleads our case and gives us strength to persevere until He comes again....to receive from all creation the glory and honor that has always been His! Marantha.....Lord Jesus.....come!

Afterthought: It is easy to find through Google....a nine-minute YouTube testimony from Pete Maravich....given at a Billy Graham crusade. Please find and watch this and be blessed.....but in it....towards the end....he says this...."I want all of you here tonight to know this about Peter Maravich....you may never have heard of me....it makes no difference....I'm just one person on this earth....saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ...." Billy Graham was just one person on this earth....as was Pete Maravich....as am I....and as are you. Each one of us is given something to do. This is what I do. What it is that God has called you to do? If nothing else....please pray for me....and I will pray for you....as I pray for each visitor that comes to these posts!

This Is the Day......There Is No Guarantee You May Have Another One!

                You are troubled! You want God at one moment....and then you are mad at Him....and then you want Him again? This has been going on for a while. What more could God want? You came to Him and demanded of Him that if He was real then He should somehow make Himself known to you....but He never did. You even pleaded with Him....but nothing worked!
                 So you decide to get back at God. You tell anyone who might be listening in your mind...that you are done looking for this God. That will show Him! The responsibility is no longer yours....any sane person could see that....but you are as troubled as you ever were....and probably even more so.
                 Or....or....you do the opposite? Instead of telling God that He has to make Himself known to you....instead of being on the defensive....you tell Him that you have nothing....nothing to commend yourself....and nothing to offer....nothing within you with which to even make a promise! You lay there defeated....destitute....with no hope....you cannot even get up for your legs are useless....and then something happens!
                 A man speaks to you....from somewhere? Is there a pulpit there....or a TV....where is the voice coming from? You have heard this man before....and you never liked him....but this time....instead of looking for an exit.....or the remote....you cup your ears as if to hear better what he is saying. He says that every man has sinned against God....and lies there in defeat....destitute. You want to shout out...."Yes! That is me!" There is a shadowy figure there. He says....look to Jesus and you will be saved....run to the light and you will be healed. You listen to every word that he says....and then he disappears....but behind where he was is a light....and you run to it....shouting...."Life! Life! Eternal Life!

              The following is one of the last sermons that John MacArthur gave....before crossing the river....but it may be one of the best that he ever gave. In this instance....concerning you....he can be that shadowy figure....if you feel yourself destitute....if you are finally humbled....or....you can just 'X' out of this post....and regret that you ever came here.
              

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!

               

Charles I......Charles II......And Now Charles III

 Preface: The following post is from February of 2024. My surname is solidly English. That famous Tower of London is actually a group of individual towers....one of which has my last name. Although I do not take a great interest in it at all....(the only ancestor of mine that is an influence on me was Adam....and the only character trait....his sin)....I was told that my ancestors were Roundheads. It is hard for me not to think of him as Prince Charles.....since we are about the same age....but now he is King Charles III....(see the post below)....and I have always considered him to be New Age....and certainly no friend to Christianity or even Christendom. So at the end of this month he is scheduled to visit with our king. Nothing good can come of this. One thing that I do not mention in the following post is that the Great Plague of London started in 1665....and the Great Fire Of London was in September of 1666"

The Restoration   

              "England.....and Scotland and Ireland at the time....experienced what became known as its....Restoration....this in 1660. Charles I previously had been beheaded. Oliver Cromwell became the Lord Protector in 1653....but he died five years later....in 1658! Two years after that came the Stuart Restoration. If you think that there is division today....when Charles II became king....they dug up Cromwell's body and put his head on a pole. Anyway....it's not that the government in the Restoration closed the church doors....as in a pandemic....rather it just told the preachers how to run their churches. It was estimated that 2500 faithful ministers refused to do that! That became known as....The Great Ejection....and those who were essentially kicked out became known as....nonconformists!
                 America is facing a restoration of its own....in Donald Trump. We....the roundheads....are long gone. The blockheads are coming back. Puritan divines...(Sproul, MacArthur, Wilkerson, Keller, Boyce etc.)....are dying out one by one....replaced by Johann Tetzels who promise indulgences for a vote in the ballot box.
                 The pressure is on to support this king....the few royals and nobles around him....his own aristocracy....and the vast gentry notable for their pleasure craft and golf cart parades.
                 So where are the nonconformists that we so drastically need? Where are the men who would rather be removed from their pulpits than let a king dictate how they are to preach....and what they are not to say....and who they are not to offend? "

           

                
         

      

And along Came Anna

                 Simeon....from the second chapter of Luke....was a devout man....who did not just sit there....and tell everyone that the Messiah will come in God's timing....and go about his business as if the coming of the Messiah could be hundreds of years away....for as Luke wrote.....it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would see the coming of the Messiah before he died. The Holy Spirit led Simeon into the temple on that day just when Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the temple. He would have had to have been old....and waiting a long time. Maybe the people tried to discourage him....maybe he heard a lot...."Oh Simeon....you have been saying that the Messiah was coming for a long time. You're wasting your life away!"

                So as Simeon gave his prophecy....along came Anna....who was a prophetess....and she was really old....older than me....and she spent all of her time her whole life in the temple....fasting and praying every day and every night. It's impossible to perfectly interpret the description of her age that Luke gives....but she might have been over a hundred years old! And there had been no prophets in hundreds of years....so why is Anna called a prophetess....and why did Simeon give that prophecy about the child Jesus? Well I think it was because during both of their long lives....the Messiah was getting nearer and nearer....and God was speaking again....and the demons were becoming more active....just like they are today.
               The Holy Spirit leads Anna to that part of the temple just as Simeon finishes prophesying....and she starts telling all the people about this child....all the people who also were also waiting for their Messiah.... or as God's Word puts it...."the redemption of Jerusalem.
               Somehow today....we have been led to believe that it's not a good thing to always be looking for Jesus to return! It's even worse than that because we are told that there is no way that we could know even if we wanted to know! There is no indication that Simeon was more than just a devout and just man living in Jerusalem who wanted the Messiah to come.

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