"More Food Sir?"

        
         The single most correctable problem that our nation faces is the Sunday sermon... or the failure to preach Christ when we gather together for worship on the Lord's Day! We are overall a malnourished church and the nation reflects our feebleness. Most readers would probably disagree, "Our pastor preaches Jesus Christ every week" they might say, but is it because they have experienced one and only one paradigm for the Sunday sermon from today's evangelicalism and consequently judge everything upon this grid. Should God move upon the shepherds in these pulpits... then the news media, atheists, liberals and all those who cringe at the name of Jesus Christ will have no recourse but to sit and watch as a nation reverts in an awesome display of humility and reverence to the One who blessed it from before its very beginning. The following are parts of two  posts from the past on this topic:

More Food Sir.....November 15, 2009

         The following is a paragraph from Charles Dickens Oliver Twist where the boys who lived at the workhouse were issued three meals of thin gruel a day, with an onion twice a week, and a half a roll on Sundays. The boys cast lots and Oliver was chosen to ask for a second portion of food. Here are Dickens words: The evening arrived; the boys took their place. The master, in his cook's uniform stationed himself at the copper; his pauper assistants ranged themselves behind him; the gruel was served out; and a long grace was said over the short commons. The gruel disappeared; the boys whispered themselves, and winked at Oliver; while his neighbors nudged him. Child as he was, he was desperate with hunger, and reckless with misery. He rose from the table; and advancing to the master, basin and spoon in hand, said: somewhat alarmed at his own temerity: 'Please sir, I want some more food.' There have been times, in the past, when I have gone up to a pastor after the sermon and essentially said the same thing, More food sir?

Take The Grapefruit Test......June 19, 2011

         I'm a person of habits....to an alarming degree. I would never put my right boot on first! What kind of crazy lunatic would do that? I was in a quandary the other day after work. My routine is to take my seat behind the wheel and peel an orange while offering some thoughts of thanksgiving after the days work. I enjoy an orange every day on my ride home. This particular day, Wednesday I believe it was, I reached in my bag only to find a grapefruit! I had mistaken the orange...orange, for the orange grapefruit in the fridge. What to do? Do I drive for twenty minutes in disarray having no orange slices to put in my mouth.....or do I peel the grapefruit and put the grapefruit slices in my mouth? I opt for the latter for both oranges and grapefruits are citrus fruits. Technically I was in keeping with my habit but my face was contorted, and eyes watering the entire trip home.
         Are you a person of habits also. You may have gone to this particular church you belong to for so long that every hymnbook in the sanctuary must have your DNA on it. You sit in this certain pew and say hello to the same six people and give a thirteen word statement about the weather to the pastor on the way out every week. Why would anyone leave a church where everything is so.....non-threatening? What I am insinuating here is that you MAY need to look for another church. Try this test. Take a Tupperware container of grapefruit slices to church with you and eat one every time our redemption through the blood of Christ is mentioned. If you leave with a full container it may be time to reassess your church membership. If someone calls for the EMTs during the service....well, as Roseanne Rosannadanna would say..."Never Mind."

Ponder For A Moment If You Will

         I'd like to challenge you in this post. I hope that it makes you a little uncomfortable. I hope also that as I type that it makes me uncomfortable because something is amiss in the American church. Are we really looking forward to...even yearning for the return of Jesus Christ in power and glory? What is your answer? I submit to you that just about all of us would hesitatingly say yes but quickly follow that up with well thought-out reasoning on why twenty or thirty years from now is a more likely scenario.
         Surely the church of the first few centuries would not hesitate and would be disappointed if twenty or thirty years seemed to be a possibility. I submit to you also that many persecuted Christians around this world are closing their eyes and hoping that our coming King returns even before morning.
         Our very human nature certainly comes into play here for we are surely frail in many things and the topic of this post is one of them. For that young mother and even that first time grandfather or grandmother it is hard to disassociate for even a moment with the joys that God has given in the births of these children. This also is natural and good and wonderful! I am not saying or even inferring that God is sorely displeased as we enjoy the fruits he has bestowed upon us.  I'm saying that it would be for our greater benefit and a future joy unimaginable to us if we saw more clearly the spirit engulfing this age and what may lie ahead...very near ahead.
         So it might make one uncomfortable to ponder upon what is happening right now to multitudes of our brothers and sisters in Christ? Secure as we might be in America, and that security is eroding every day, we are not alone in this world. Christianity is under assault almost everywhere in one form or another. Even as I type, the horrors of severe and even mortal persecution are testing these children of God to the very limits.
         Meditating on this question will not be easy, particularly if studying God's Word is added to it, for what one would find is that if our King is indeed at the very doorstep then what would precede His return here on earth was enough to make prophets of old weep and become sick as they were given glimpses of those days.
         Ultimately, God wants us to be aware of these things and he Has promised to be with those who go through them. Indeed, He has warned us through his Word not to be taken unawares. My inferences here in these posts are simply that we all should incorporate this part of Scripture into our memory banks, and study enough so that we are not taken by surprise....should.....this world soon meet face-to face....its Creator and Judge!
        

Maranatha

         I'm going to begin this post with an anecdote that is totally unrelated to the topic but hopefully will show a clear analogy to that topic.
        Like many other people, I have been more than interested in the assassination of JFK. I was sitting in my 8th grade classroom when Sister Alfreda came in crying with the news and then we were all sent home. I've read many of the various books that have come out and consider each and every theory. It usually happens like this....I'll see something in the news and then that sets me off on a period of a few days to a week where I can't get it off of my mind. Actually I'm surprised that I never took the trip to Dallas to walk Dealey Plaza. Here's my point...after decades of researching this and with no particular biases to cloud my thinking, I have come to the point where I tell people somewhat euphemistically that I know only two things for certain....one that John Fitzgerald Kennedy was killed that day....and two that Lee Harvey Oswald did not do it.
         The topic that this leads into is Biblical prophesy. I haven't read as long on this topic, 30 years to 45 years, but I've put much more time into it. In fact it's not even close, for God's Word is a daily endeavor and prophesy is throughout that Word. I have strong inclinations on many things as they pertain to end-times prophesy but as with that terrible day in November of 1963 there are two things I personally have come to be sure of. One, that most of Scripture, from Genesis on, either alludes to or is a direct reference to the days of the Book of Revelation; and two, that God removes veils according to His own schedule!
         I appreciate many of the men who have spent their life studying and writing about end-times prophesy. They served a purpose. They may see their findings as certainties whereas I see them merely as helps but as time passes and God removes veils, the last fifty years or so seem to have been God's doing, with a purpose, and are a foundation for what is ahead. If one is not reading prophesy right now at an accelerated and elevated rate and purpose, with the news of this world right in front of us, then something has impeded the desire to do so. It might be something banal such as the cares of this world or it might be something intensely personal such as a fear to admit that something new might be required of one who is set and confident in their ways. In either case, should our returning King be at the very doorstep, this will change, for every redeemed child of God will surely rush to open these pages of prophesy, and we will all together see what is under those veils as God continues to lift them.
        To my brothers and sisters in Christ who tend to shy away from end-times prophesy, you see the world that is coming to be and where the various sciences are taking us. You see the violence overcoming peace and chaos overcoming order. You also see the burgeoning hatred of God. We are nearing the apex of this modern Tower of Babel. Lord Jesus come!
          
          
         

Evil Days

The following two posts are a few  months old:

Evil Days

        Paul Kengor is on a mission for he is exposing Communism and Marxism in America more than anyone else on the national scene. I previously his reviewed his book Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives For A Century. Well, he's done it again in his latest Takedown: From Communists To Progressives, How the Left Has Sabotaged Family and Marriage. What words can I use to encourage you to read this? I was glad to see that it came out in paper rather than hardcover for as a book purchaser myself I know that when you buy so many it's a lot easier to grab that paperback and head to the checkout counter.
         The cover has a wedding cake on it that is cut in two and separated with the groom on one piece and the bride on the other; the implication of course that marriage is being destroyed. The knife  that cut that cake is in the shape of the communist symbol of the sickle! The same-sex marriage agenda is indeed the topic within but time and again the author had to remind his readers of it for Communism and Progressivism are dissected throughout....for these lead up to the literal upheaval in the thinking of Americans on this issue that has taken place in little more than a decade.
         This post will be short. It's not a book review for that will not suffice. You need to read read this entire book, for we have a tendency to read but a little on this or that and somehow satisfy the angst within us on a decaying culture. Friends... this is not politics, nor is this the future, for we are already undone as a nation!
         Paul Kengor points out on a number of occasions that Communism has evolved on this issue whereas it formally opposed the homosexual life style but now, as he writes ...."Marx's and Engels's economic-based communism (has been redirected) to cultural adaptations, from income/class equality to sexual adaptations." He places the Democrat Party right there in the same metamorphosis .... "The entire Democratic Party and both Bill and Hillary Clinton were on board for the Defense of Marriage Act just a decade or two ago." He delves once again into Barack Obama's mentor Frank Marshall Davis. We visit the SDS community of the 60s, Margaret Mead, Margaret Sanger, Herbert Marcuse and many more who were the rage of the college campus back then.
         Kengor's writing is explicit when it has to be. You will put the book down at times to catch your breath. You may very well even stop to utter the prayer.....'God help us.' These are not merely 'difficult times' that we live in, nor are they ...'the times that try men's souls' as Thomas Paine, an atheist, penned. They are 'evil days' as the Apostle Paul wrote about in the book of Ephesians. We are living in....tribulation....and may even be entering what the Bible calls....'the' Tribulation.
         The book is 206 pages and fully footnoted. If you are a Christian anywhere near my age (65) you may very well remember Christian books that came out in early 1980s on Secular Humanism. If so it would surprise me if reading them did not focus the direction of your thinking and motivate you at the time. This book by Paul Kengor will do the same. It will leave no reader in doubt as to what has happened to us and what we are up against....the effort to, as the back cover describes... "take down the natural, traditional biblical family and attack religion in the process."
        

Isaac Crockett And Me

        The following is a synopsis of a short novel that I wrote prior to 9/11, the link for which is to your left on this page.

Isaac Crockett And Me.........April 12, 2014

          Isaac Crockett is the lead singer of one of America's top bands. He is also a Christian. On a visit back home, Ocean City New Jersey, he meets a young lady who is in distress... helps her, and never expects to see her again. Successful and well thought of as he is, Isaac then leaves Rock and Roll behind.
          Anne Wiskovitz is Roman Catholic with a very devout father named Casimer. Surprise, Isaac and Anne do meet again in another short...chance....encounter! Isaac pursues what he believes is God's call on his life as he struggles with his new found love for this beautiful Catholic girl with a very protective father. During the course of these thirty two short chapters Isaac meets Casimer in his home in Easton, Pennsylvania, makes a visit to an awards ceremony in New York City, is mugged in his hometown, assaulted by the owner of the local professional hockey team, walks the battlefields of Gettysburg as he ponders the courage of these Americans and...well I can't tell everything but Roman Catholicism is the main reason that I attempted this novel and I hope that you might give it a try.

          Both sides of my family, mother's and father's, were and are Roman Catholic and I love them dearly but there is a chasm between the two faiths on many beliefs and particularly on what salvation is. My mother and I had many, many....many talks over the years and prayed through David's beautiful 23rd Psalm only days before she died in March of 2014. As I wrote at the end of the above post my short novel was written to address this great salvation through story telling and dialogue.
          I haven't addressed Roman Catholicism much if at all in the five years of these posts. Rather I emphasized the Five Solas from the Reformation of the 16th century. Those five solas are: Sola Fide or Faith Alone, Sola Gratia or Grace Alone, Solus Christus or Christ Alone. Sola Scriptura or Scripture Alone and Soli Deo Gloria or Glory To God Alone.
          The issues of the Reformation can obviously be researched in books and elsewhere but my recommendation for someone that wants to cut to the quick would be to listen as often as one can to a unique Internet/radio ministry at www.refnet.fm

What Have I Done

What Have I Done.........November 2013
'
          The beginning of the Space Age is said to have been October 4, 1957 when the Soviet Union successfully launched Sputnik I. It was the first man-made satellite and its success shook the American science community to its core. Over 69,000 Americans were in Yankee stadium watching the first game of the World Series while that satellite was put into orbit. I was probably watching Leave It To Beaver that evening but the possibility exists that I was at the movies watching Bridge On The River Kwai for it was released two days previous to the Sputnik launch and I do remember my father taking me to see it.
          Kwai was a great film. Directed by David Lean and starring William Holden, Alec Guinness, Sessue Hayakawa and Jack Hawkins it won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture. There have been times over the years when that theme song, that also took the Academy Award, comes into my mind and I can't get it out, but it's the ending of the film that I have written about a few times over the years in this blog.
          To fill you in...British Colonel Nicholson played by Alec Guinness was a fine soldier and certainly loved his country but something ran amok in his thinking process that turned him into a willing dupe...even a traitor to the profession that he loved. Maybe it was delirium caused by his punishment in the hotbox torture chamber in the Japanese POW camp, but whatever it was, his view of himself as a soldier became that which must at all costs be protected....over everything else!
He was building a bridge that would help the enemy and was totally oblivious to the ramifications of what he was doing. With his bridge project complete, the American who earlier had escaped the camp returned. Played by William Holden, this character of Commander Shears was the goldbrick, the opposite of what Colonel Nicholson deemed to be a soldier but Nicholson suddenly realized that Shears had come back with help.... to blow up the bridge! He is visibly shaken as he begins to see that he, not Shears, had failed his profession. As Colonel Nicholson's world collapsed around him and he realized that he had aided the enemy, he could only utter the words......"What have I done?"
          The day may be fast approaching when many Americans, those who are honest anyway, may utter those same words. This isn't just being on the wrong side politically nor is it an ideological issue in supporting Barack Obama. There really is no legitimate excuse for not seeing him for who he is. With no experience, no paper trail of accomplishments, communist mentors and dubious friends, and not even a hint of abilities to have been given the reins of a small company let alone our government, he swaggered into the Oval Office and abused his authority from day one while usurping powers of other branches of our government. He played golf and partied while our enemies smiled to his face while taking advantage of his incompetence in domestic and foreign affairs. All the while Barack Obama chipped away at our liberties while putting his people in positions of power and influence to further the grand hoax.
          Where were the protectors of our constitution during all of this? Whether they were in the Congress, or bureaucrats just taking orders, or teaching in our colleges and universities, or in our courts, or editing the 'news' to their own benefit.... they failed us....more than failed us as they actively worked against the American people who did recognize the warning signs and red flags. As you watch the YouTube that follows you may see in Colonel Nicholson what will be their own expressions in the future as they realize ......what they had done.

The video may not come up on your iPhone but can be easily viewed by searching 'Bridge On The River Kwai, What Have I Done' on YouTube.

"I Do Solemnly Swear....."

         Former Senator from Virginia Jim Webb announced today that he is withdrawing from the Democrat primaries as a candidate for president. I'd like to weigh in on this but first, as I often do before commenting on politics, I want to give these thoughts. The America of almost 240 years, and much longer if you go back to the first colonies, is gone....and there is no bringing it back. It's people have changed. Our military members and remnants of a few professions are the only vestiges of what was known as American Exceptionalism. Its Christian church on the whole, but certainly not totally, is weak and has lost confidence...as Paul proclaimed "through Christ toward God," and fails to warn its sheep for fear of being seen as too much of a peculiar people.
         America's one major political party is no more than a Marxist cabal while the second major party considers a bull market on Wall Street more valuable than our Constitution, and cheap labor more important than the Bible. Our only hope at this time, should Jesus tarry in His return in judgement on the entire world, is for mercy in the struggles ahead and a healing of our minds before our divisions, our hearts before our economy and our souls before even our churches.
         Politics is like snow covered streets throughout the winter, they have to be plowed if the city is to function. No President or Congress or Supreme Court can undo what has been done even if they sincerely wanted to, providing that they even fully understood the severity of our collapse as a nation, which they don't. The streets have to be plowed but all that does is open up an avenue. It doesn't tell you where you have to go or what you have to do.
        I hope that Jim Webb continues his campaign as an independent which he is considering and I'll use these few paragraphs taken from older posts in 2011 and 2012 to explain my position, for I believe that he would fill that bill described:

"I Do Solemnly Swear...."

        The Declaration of Independence ends with these words, "And for the support of the Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." Have we strayed as a nation from valuing our honor above our lifestyles, our personal security and even our futures? I do not doubt that these fifty-six men meant what they signed onto in this document.
         Christianity itself is grounded on an oath...an oath taken by God alone. He led men of Old Testament times to know the importance of a covenant in order to covenant with them. Today we often witness the repercussions of a broken oath in a courtroom or before Congress, the result being an indictment of perjury, but even here do we look beyond the legal ramifications to what the signers of the Declaration of Independence referred to as... sacred honor?
            God knows us more than we know ourselves. Therein is the key. To the politician, to the lawyer, to the juror or witness....whether it be an oath or just a statement to another person, we should know that God records our words. Our elected members of Congress take this oath..."I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same..." Herein would be but one step in America's recovery, that our elected and appointed leaders take that oath very seriously, and also in the vein that it was meant, for how can one consider the Constitution to be a 'living document'  where its meaning would be subject to change through time and personal preferences, and then take that oath?

The Prize

The following is the last section of a rather long post from this past May 24th:

         I just viewed a short clip from the PBS program The McLaughlin Group which has rapid fire, almost sound-bite, debate with four mostly regular guests holding differing political viewpoints. No sooner had I tuned in and one of those guests, a National Review columnist no less, had this to say about same-sex marriage...."...that younger conservative voters-people more like myself, even if we're not gay- -you know, we've grew up with gay people and we don't have a problem with them having the same rights." Now I'm not familiar with this columnist but would have this to say in response.....you also grew up without the benefits of a God-fearing country young man....that's why you don't have a problem with it, and I think it a little presumptuous to say that all younger conservative voters feel the way that you do, but your testimony supports what I wrote about a few days ago in the following post that the ultimate 'prize' in this war on America and its heritage of the Christian faith has been to conquer the minds of the youth. You are part of that prize! Lastly, the 'right' that you mentioned is for a man and a woman to marry. Same-sex marriage is an extension or expanding of that 'right' to the extent of fundamental deconstruction and wholesale revision of it, not simply a securing or protecting of it.

The Prize

         Tonight's post is the third on the topic of same-sex marriage and it focuses on God's judgement upon America. Several individual states have a ban on same-sex marriage at the present time and the Supreme Court may rule that those bans are unconstitutional. If this happens America will have officially sanctioned these unions.
         For an individual such as myself, an adult Christian, it is only the latest of our culture's and our nation's rejection of God, and my subjugation is not part of the prize that those who are attempting to force this upon us are disparately seeking, for they want the children, and they want them for a purpose. Imagine if you will where the tentacles will reach if America loses this court decision. Eventually all of our children's education, even in the private sector, will not only have to condone but advance homosexuality. These people are not the type that rely on reason or persuasion, and they could care less about ethics or tolerance. They haven't invented this characteristic....they've been taught it by the very best.
         Yes, many families will protect their children in such a culture but an overwhelming majority of this nation's children will be guided, taught and coerced into either ignoring God, for it would be obvious to the children that the Bible is meaningless, or many of the others will follow their parents into this new and accepted Christianity which is a false Christianity that authors of the New Testament predicted for the end times and repeatedly warned against. America would be Godless, childless and utterly defenseless, the last of which being the much sought after prize by our enemies.
        This is by no means the only attack on Christianity in America....only the latest, definitely the greatest and probably the last. We will have offered up our children on a sacrificial altar every bit as much as various pagan peoples that we have only read about in history books. From what I have gleaned from the Old Testament prophets on God's judgements upon peoples such as this, such as we have become... He warns over a period of time, details the judgements, and fulfills His promise. He has warned us very specifically now for over forty years and those judgements have already begun. We as a people are totally devoid of wisdom. You can see this in our government, you can feel it in the mayhem prevalent on our urban streets, and you can view the intellectual carnage everywhere emanating from the many entertainment mediums that have become our gods. If you haven't trembled...if you haven't wept....then you will at that time of our judgement have no idea from whence our troubles came nor why our distress was inflicted upon us and therefore no where to turn and no concept of a mercy to be sought nor the One to seek it from.

On Communism

The following post is one of the many that I've written on the topic. Ignore Communism if you wish......but know that that's exactly what they want you to do:        

         As best as I can recall, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn tells this story of his conversion. He was a prisoner in the gulag system that he would eventually expose. He became ill and a doctor, a fellow prisoner, worked on him throughout the night. That doctor openly talked about his Christian faith while he worked on the future Nobel Prize winner in Literature. A guard came by and warned him to stop. When Solzhenitsyn awoke in the morning he asked for the doctor but was told that he was dead, killed for his testimonies of Jesus Christ. This was the beginning of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's gift of literature to the world from the eyes of a Christian. He later wrote the following on the condition of his country...Russia.
         Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened." Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat : "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.

         Communism is not just a political and socioeconomic system. It's a cancerous cell inflicted upon the human race for a purpose. Is this an outrageous statement made without warrant? Are100 million lives and counting not enough to warrant such a statement? Communism instigates hate and violence for the sole purpose of societal upheaval so that it can take power. It works tirelessly and patiently to perpetuate ignorance upon which it thrives. It leads decent people into committing crimes. It plays upon the weaknesses of societies, not too help them but to subjugate them. It lures the poor and the rich alike. It sets first the focus of its attack on whole professions.....professions that in turn can protect it through naivete' and vainglory (journalism) prevent it from having to deal with a God-fearing people (higher education) and propagandize and tranquilize the rest (entertainments industries) while it only has to send a relatively small contingent, in comparison to the entire population, of trained and professional operatives to help set up a shadow government ready to take power when all government and law collapses.
          It's been written that the Devil loves it when people laugh at the very thought of a Devil. In like manner Communism flourishes in its mission precisely when people consider it a toothless old bogeyman. They, the Communists, are more than thrilled knowing that the great American circus of electing a president has started as this endgame progresses. The last thing they want is for they themselves to become the focus of attention. Slowly but surely that is just what is happening!

The following post is from this past May:

The Road Most Travelled

        Their system was very effective. They were seen almost as heroes, dashing revolutionaries who would stop at nothing to eliminate the inequalities in society. They played Pan's flute and were followed by college students, malcontents, the idle rich and many connected with Hollywood.....all the usual suspects really. If one has no moorings in life, no country that they love and no God, then they are perfect specimens to be molded and further brainwashed into communist operatives and dupes.
         That was the situation in America in the 20s, 30s and even the 40s. The communist underground was extensive, ultra secretive and very successful. All of this came to light through Whittaker Chambers and others in our Congress but the America outside of this revolutionary underground had also changed. When did it change? I don't know. Maybe it was during the Korean War or maybe even before that. We didn't want to hear about communists we wanted to hear about television and Disneyland and Buddy Holly.
         Sputnik changed a few things...."Maybe we should pay attention to what's going on in the Kremlin?" The line was drawn in Vietnam but that nasty system of dashing revolutionaries, this time emblemized by Che Guevara, were busy again in the colleges. In what to me to this day seems almost  inconceivable, Viet Cong flags were flown on college campuses and Jane Fonda travelled to North Vietnam to have her picture taken on an anti-aircraft battery. The Tet Offensive came along in early 1968 and what with assassinations, riots, Charles Manson and the Democrat Convention in Chicago, we gave in.....'get the boys back, make a peace treaty that we have no intention of keeping as far as defending the South Vietnamese government and get back to the business at hand....doing nothing of substance.'
         Then along came a cowboy named Reagan coinciding with a spiritual renewal in the form of the evangelical. The Soviet Union, the Evil Empire, was taken on and eventually came crashing down. The celebration was on but Reagan was gone, replaced by a New World Order devotee. But that wasn't good enough for us for we wanted a few more bucks in our wallet and Bill and Hillary promised that.
         You have to know something about the communist mind to even have a clue as to what became of them. One doesn't say "Oh well, communism is done...guess I'll see if I can get a McDonald's franchise." One goes underground in his own country and waits for their day to come back, under a new name if necessary and with a new plan but with the same tactics and goals.
          Once again they had to infiltrate but this time they had a head start for so many of the 60s college alumni who were never educated in American freedoms or communist atrocities settled in the universities and media. They weren't looking for a communist to lead them, they were looking for an excuse, and they found one in Barack Hussein Obama. If he succeeded then all their guilt of having no foundations, not even a post to tie their ideological horse to, would be assuaged. And that's were we are today only something as insidious as Nazism has arisen in radical Islamic fundamentalism. Just as Uncle Joe was appeased....so are they.
          Today the revolution is not in this band of intellectual lost souls but in the grassroots of America. They are the ones shouting 'no taxation without representation.' They are the ones pamphleteering now. They are the new Minutemen. They are the ones with intellects like Jefferson on  their side. They are the ones going head to head with the Tories (a.k.a. RINOs) in their midst. The real question is whether or not God is looking for a revival of this play, but God is not a Broadway producer looking for another hit and we ourselves are not totally sold on the idea that God is even necessary.
          If you are a college student then I have some, what should be alarming, news for you. A would-be king has torn up our Constitution and demands that you bow before him. You may be allotted a fancy car and a condo if you tow the line but you won't have a lick of freedom or liberty to go along with it. Furthermore, should Jesus Christ tarry in His return and should He he even permit us to continue as a nation, your generation, along with mine, will have let down all of the other generations who sacrificed so much. We are in need of mercy from He who gave to us all of the blessings and freedoms and liberties that we had enjoyed and then abused. We are in need of a reformation more than a revolution, a George Whitfield more than a Benjamin Franklin and an open Bible even more than a constitution.

Witness by Whittaker Chambers is an extraordinary book that cannot but open the eyes of even the most skeptical on Communist involvement in our government in the first half of the 20th century.
      

A Wake-up Call

          This blog is unusual under anybody's standards. There is no 'comments' section and no identity attached to it. Is it a Christian blog or a politics blog or what. Well, Blogger placed it in the category of Christianity. If you hit the 'Next Blog' link at the top you will be taken to another 'Christian' blog. That's how many people visit this blog and probably how you arrived. I tried this method and viewed about twenty-five or thirty Christian blogs this evening and it's not the first time that I have done this. None are even remotely similar.
          That's why I rely more on my bumper stickers and Special Dog pens that I leave around. Take the bumper stickers for instance. On the trunk of my car, in three inch red and blue letters, is the URL for these posts and above that is a short message that I can change every day. The benefit of this method is that if someone decides to check out my blog because they read MAYDAY, or some such message, on my trunk, they might already be concerned about the future of America and their children.
          What kind of credentials do I have to write such a blog? Would it impress you if I was a university professor? It's said that William F. Buckley once commented "I would rather be governed by the first 2000 names in the Boston phone book than by the 2000 members of the faculty of Harvard University." How about a pastor of 20,000 member church and the author of many best-selling books. What if I said that I had visions and was transported to heaven and returned with a message? 
           Well, I'm none of these things, although I would like to have 100 'skulls full of mush' seated in front of me....to explain to them what a Marxist is.....while they took notes in order to get an A. Yes, I'd be a Professor Charles W. Kingsfield...."Mr......Hart......forgive me for rudely entering your daydream.....please feel free to stretch your arms in the air and yawn if you must, and then give me your learned opinion on how many of the Ten Planks of the Communist Manifesto this administration has successfully incorporated into our government so far......either that or tweeter or twitter your parents to kindly retrieve their lost child so you could waste your own time on Facebook and not mine in this classroom."
          The credentials for writing these posts is that I am an American; and we still......as of today anyway.....have freedom of expression and freedom of religion. Read what I offer, read what others offer........but most importantly........read! And maybe consider passing this web site on. The following example of these posts is from last November:

A Wake-up Call

           Have you read the recent news story about the economics professor from MIT, the man known as one of the key architects of both Romneycare in Massachusetts and Obamacare in the former constitutional republic of the United States of America, who just happened to mention in a panel discussion that the facts being given at the time on Obamacare were purposely obscured in order to insure its passage? And just how did the American public fall for this? According to this same architect, it must have been because of the "stupidity of the American voter." You can read this for yourself or see the actual video of his comments. Just Google 'Jonathan Gruber.'
         If you buy into global warming, well you've been had again, for it is an economic agenda in play here, and an ideological issue, capitalizing once again on the perceived 'stupidity of the American voter' while using dupes , miscreants and 'useful idiots.'
         One of Thomas Jefferson's famous quotes was "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be....The people cannot be safe without information. When the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe." What our third president wasn't looking for at the time was a free press more than capable of disseminating false information if it itself cares nothing about truth or law and is uninterested in fulfilling its calling in favor of revelling in its own delusions of grandeur.
          I'd like to reiterate for the sake of the college student that may be reading this.  If these statements by an MIT professor and architect of Obamacare do not cause you to question your significance as a citizen, if they do not bring you face to face with the tyranny that has at least temporarily overthrown a once potent force for freedom and liberty in the world, a freedom and liberty that was the conduit for the propagation of gospel of Jesus Christ throughout this world, then what kind of student are you?
          Higher education, by and large, has lost its purpose in America. In some cases it is nothing more than grades 13 through 16, in other cases it either indoctrinates or lobotomizes, in most cases it has turned a silk purse of what once was the honorable profession of teaching into the sow's ear of profiteering, pampering and proselytizing.
          Ponder at length, if you will, the prodigious significance of what this MIT professor so insouciantly, even effervescently proclaimed, and possibly you might come to see that maybe these conservative radio talk show hosts know more than you gave them credit for.

Nah....Just Coincidence

         Numerous news sources are carrying the story and it would be very easy for you to find. Archaeologists believe that they have discovered the ruins of the ancient city of Sodom in Southern Jordan, south of the Dead Sea.
         There have been no name plates or such found to identify the city but the descriptions of he dig match the Biblical descriptions of Sodom. It appears to these archaeological scientists that life in the city disappeared rather mysteriously and the city was uninhabited for roughly 700 years. The walls and fortifications were higher and stronger than previous thought to be. It thus is much larger than other cities of the plain which leads them to, at this time, conclude that it must have been Sodom, but the verdict is not nearly in on this yet.
        Sodom most definitely lay covered and undiscovered for thousands of years, since the Middle Bronze Age, so what I find more remarkable than finding it is in the timing of archaeologists finding it. You can read the account of God's destruction of Sodom in the 19th chapter of Genesis and you can read of Jesus reference to it in Matthew 10:15. There are many other references of Sodom, these being a few...Matthew 11:24, Mark 6:11, Luke 10:12 and 17:29, Romans 9:29, 2 Peter 2:6 and Jude 1:7. I encourage you to do so and to read it in different translations. I usually use biblehub.com for such purposes.
         Billy Graham has referenced Sodom on many occasions over many decades and usually in an analogy with America. Finding this city in 2015 is much more than just fitting, for it may have strong prophetic overtones to it. Israel is nearing its 70th anniversary in its rebirth as a nation. The 49th anniversary of Israel capturing Jerusalem's Old City is even nearer. We are 2000 years from when Jesus walked this earth and roughly 6000 years from God's creation of Adam. Nah....just pure coincidence....I wouldn't worry about it!

Hear No Evil

       The following post is from this past August.

       What you see happening on the streets of many of our metropolitan areas in the form of violent protests is Communism at work.  I submit to you that there is no concern whatsoever for individual lives or racial prejudices from the orchestrators of this chaos. This is not only a communist tactic....it is communist DNA.....instigate unrest that will lead to chaos that will result in an emergency situation where governmental powers must be 'temporarily' incorporated under one authority....all for the good of the nation of course!
        The Bolsheviks played their cards well in the unrest against the Tsar and when the day that they waited for came... they seized it.....and then banished all other opponents of that Tsar. Tens upon tens of millions of deaths later and Communism is not only on the move again, it has succeeded remarkably well in none other than the world's bastion of freedom and liberty...the United States of America! Communism is a dialectic, and if pressed, it will outwardly change but never inwardly.
        Cadres of communists infiltrated America in the early 20th century under the banner of Progressivism (of which Hillary proudly proclaimed to be last night in the....debate) in what they knew would be a long struggle. They accomplished much, so much that one United States Senator saw their presence and did the best that he could to warn America. He was right and proven right when documents were released after the fall of the Soviet Union but it was decades too late to help him, and even today the name Joe McCarthy is used to bully those who continue to warn against Communism.
        Barack Obama was the picture perfect Manchurian Candidate, mentored by a communist and used by the most radical opponents of freedom and liberty that our country of 300 million could muster. He is a destroyer of the first rank! Is our mainstream media communist? No, but they are dupes of the lowest order, oblivious to who pulls their strings. Communists in America, operating often under the nom de guerre of Progressives, escape scrutiny under the protective umbrella of... fairness and equality...an umbrella ribbed with gross distortions of those honorable concepts. Our youth have not been educated in the horrors of Communism let alone the tactics and origins.of it. America was once more noble than corrupt and we were taught as such, but today we are far more corrupt than noble but the corruption of today is presented as noble and the remnants of that which was noble is viewed as corruption! These are all part of Communism's insidious planning.
        To those Americans who ride whatever hobbyhorse gives them a few extra dollars in their wallet or pension at the expense of others, these people are not your friends and once you have helped them achieve power you will be no better off than the Soviet worker laboring on a five-year plan...and don't even think about expressing an opposing opinion then.
        Should America humble itself before God, should it hear the trumpet of the approaching King of Kings and seek forgiveness for being taken in by the most base and vile impostors ever to tear at the fabric of America, then Communism will crumble under the weight of its own lies and deception. The Gospel of Jesus Christ must needs have returned to our pulpits for therein is the only hope for this presently disenfranchised, dismembered and disoriented people awash in narcissistic and trivial pursuits.

Note: For a far more erudite description of Communism in America please pick up a copy of Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century by Grove City College Professor Paul Kengor. This book is usually on the shelves at Barnes and Noble and can be found in many libraries, and my review of it was last posted on July 24th.  Professor's Kengor's most recent book, Takedown, is even more unsettling, and there is a review of it on the same day.

Who Is Jim Webb

        Who is Jim Webb?  We found out a little tonight in the Democrat debate. Wow it's hard to even listen to Hillary Clinton and I wouldn't have come close to the radio tonight had not Jim Webb been on the platform. Bernie Sanders had command of his thoughts, I'll give him that, while Hillary had command of her lies that played well with her Dancing With The Stars crowd that really turned the evening into a farce.
        Back to Jim Webb, it's really rather remarkable. In those few moments that the game show host gave him to speak, one could, if one were at least fifty years of age, rekindle thoughts of a Democratic Party before its Communist tail wagged it senseless. Webb was intelligent, serious and probably the only one on the stage, and maybe in the entire building, that bears any resemblance to an America we once knew. The following post is from this past July:

        Who is Jim Webb? Well, he's a good ole' Southern boy who traveled extensively as his father had a distinguished career in the United States Air Force. He was an accomplished amateur boxer, a lefty, who, unless I dreamed this, I saw him box on television many, many years ago. If I ever meet him, I'll ask him if my memory could be correct. He was a genuine decorated hero in Vietnam. He served as an Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs and United States Secretary of the Navy... both under Ronald Reagan. He's an author of many best selling books, a number of which I read, including his latest I Heard My Country Calling, a memoir centering on his father which I highly recommend.
        Quite some time ago I had hoped that he would seek political office on a national stage and he did....and I was then disappointed...for he ran as a Democrat against George Allen for the Senate seat from Virginia. I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning that election night and watched Allen's lead disappear. Jim Webb was to be Virginia's new Senator and I got two hours of sleep before going to work.
         How he managed to serve as a Senator in the same party of Barack Obama as president...I'll probably never know. He served only one term of six years in the Senate before announcing that he would not seek a second term and I had hoped that it was because he could not take it anymore. Maybe someone will ask him that question for he recently announced that he was throwing his hat into the ring for President of the United States.
       Under normal circumstances I could never support him because of a couple of his political stances but these are not normal times. Does he even have a chance to get that nomination? Well, I think that there's more of a chance of him getting the nomination than there is of America surviving as a nation to even get to a convention and election.
       Here is my assessment of his possibilities....should God give us more time. This is not the Democrat Party that either he or I grew up in. Rather it is now nothing but a consortium of special interest groups... each passionate and each caring only of their own issues. Jim Webb is one of the very very few Democrats from the past......so it would be unlikely that he could win the nomination......unless......conservatives determined that the fix is in once again on the Republican side and supported him, and that enough Democrats suddenly realized that this is no longer a Democrat Party but a Marxist cabal. Does that mean that they would also have to like the Republican Party? I don't even like the Republican Party as it now is!
        One doesn't hear Jim Webb's candidacy mentioned much in the news and there is good reason for this....the media knows that he is not really one of them. Yes they needed an additional Senator from the Party at the time but they know very well that an administration led by him could very well take the Party back to the days of John, Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey, Scoop Jackson and Zell Miller. It might prove to be retrogressive, unprogressive and possibly even American! Perish the thought!
       I am a Christian and a Conservative and a member of a political party, the Republican Party, that once relied on both but now has need of neither....or more accurately 'thinks' it has no need of either. This Republican Party will increasingly lie to us, condescend to us, threaten us and then attempt to scare us with Hillary. They admit that we would not be passionate for the Dauphin prince Jeb Bush, or any of the other stand-ins but are confident that we will at least show up. This is a big.....big.....mistake! They have lied to us so often and delivered so rarely that we would not 'show up,' or at least show up in such low numbers that they would be hard pressed to beat even Joe Biden. And it gets worse, and that is where Jim Webb comes in.
       So just who is Jim Webb and what would we want from him? The courage that he had in Vietnam, translated to the political sphere, would be one thing, for then he surely would rather lose and even be humiliated than cave in to who are essentially America's enemies. An originalist on the Supreme Court would be another. That would be someone who actually would interpret according to what the authors of the Constitution wrote, and not according to their own biases.
        If Jim Webb is anything like what I once knew him to be, the Republican Party should start shaking in their boots; and as for the Democrats, if Jim Webb challenges the 'special interest' make-up of his party and does not compromise, and conservatives indicate that they would rather have him than an 'establishment' Republican, then the Babylonian Captivity of the Democratic Party may be over.
         Oliver North is another genuine hero from Vietnam who has a lot of experience in the higher echelons of government. He and Jim Webb know each other very well. The heavily favored midshipman Jim Webb lost the 147 pound boxing championship in 1967 to Oliver North. North was asked a year ago what he thought of Jim Webb running for president. Now he hem-hawed a bit to make it known that he wanted a Republican president but did then say...."Jim Webb would make a great president..."
        Ted Cruz is extraordinary in both intellect and courage. (And I would put Ben Carson in this category also) I wouldn't be voting for Jim Webb in such a match-up but in either outcome we would have a president once again!

America.....Free.....Free Fallin'

          The following was first posted in January of 2012. I have republished it over a dozen times and even as I read it today my hands comes up to my eyes as if to suppress the forming of a tear. Not because of the words but of what they describe. This great country, this bastion of freedom and liberty, this defender of the weak whose people over centuries openly proclaimed the glory of God and total sovereignty of His very being over all of creation......this country has been ransacked and pillaged....its heritage plundered and mocked.....and much too high of a percentage of its people dulled and defenseless in their lack of discernment and wisdom.     

America.....Free.....Free Fallin'

          Dawn breaks and pull by pull the flag rises until its stars and stripes blend into the red sky. The 21st century America cold front collides with the warm heritage of American liberty. Dark clouds form above the eagle perched atop the pole and the flag snaps as the winds begin another day of adding to the tatters and waiting for the rain that month by month fades the blue and red hues that Americans have savored as the taste of freedom for so long.

          An icy chill settles in the bones of the one raising the flag for he knows that its stars and stripes will be indiscernible before long. He looks down to see if the cracks in the foundation supporting the pole have widened from the tremors that increasingly shake America...they have. He steps back, standing as erect as he can under the burden of seeing his nation collapse, and salutes; a tear forming as he knows that he may be the last to perform this duty. His mind wanders from, first... the drum and piper escorting the newly created flag, to the inspiration for Francis Scott Key's poem, to the charging Union soldier picking up the banner dropped by a fallen comrade in arms, to the lifting of the flagpole on Mt. Suribachi, to the camo flag on the fatigues of the grunt in Vietnam, to the brilliant contrast of red, white and blue with the gray mountain of fallen steel, brick and mortar of the World Trade Center, to the lone flag now raised in the Green Zone of Baghdad.

          In only a few hours cheers and shouts will be heard off in the distance, not for returning heroes, not as a President passes by, not as a war ends in victory but for the beginning of a football game. The   Star Spangled Banner will play and be sung by the latest celebrity seeking a national spotlight but not a word of its lyrics will resonate with the power it had since Fort McHenry. 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. God's hand is being lifted and the exhilaration of choosing our own destiny emboldens us to stare into the eyes of Caesar and say not, "Give me liberty or give me death" but "Give me liberty to choose my own death." All the while the remaining Christians gather in their catacombs wondering if God's mercies on America are over; imploring of Him one more time for America to be a beacon to the nations, a people that not only openly proclaim Jesus Christ as the Savior of mankind but evidence the beneficence, mercy, majesty, power and glory of Him who created the universe and without whom not one molecule would continue to exist.

          It was a marvel and a wonder while it existed in its original form....these United States of America, but now they are afflicted for lack of a shepherd (Zech 10:2.) They are a people once different as night and day in their habits and their speech that bonded together as a new entity...Americans, freed from the tyranny of kings, freed from serfdom and most importantly freed from the lie that man is the master of his fate, the captain of his soul, but that freedom, once defended, is now merely petted in the lap of luxury, "Free" as the famous rocker penned..."Free Fallin'." The American Creed, never spoken but always evident, is now but a liberal screed against God, against tradition, and against history itself.

          The sun, obscured throughout the day by clouds, sets in the West. The rain that would normally give life to the fields, runs off of the frozen, barren and lifeless ground. The flag is lowered and gently folded into the shape of a tri-cornered hat, one of the last vestiges that remain of the fight for independence. No Taps is heard, only the music of the night coming from wherever the revelers gather after the game. The winds die down, no longer needed, for the flag has been taken down, while angels sent by God prepare to blow their trumpets.

Goodbye Columbus

         The enemies of our nation study the workings of our government, its political scene  and our culture with more insight than we do in all of our universities, and their findings are much more accurate for we fail to fully scrutinize ourselves due to inherent biases of Higher Education. They are ecstatic in that the American patriot is but a remnant today, albeit a large one, and that the American mind has been unexercised for so long that it is easily bamboozled, the evidences being Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and the Republican Party elite leadership....the supposed defenders of this republic! They know that they have a window of opportunity, and friends...in no way will they not take advantage of it. The following post is from Columbus Day of last year:
      

         The aggregate of all temptations thrown at America since the end of World War II proved too much for us to handle. The plan was ingenious in that it was patient. Whether it was television, or the film industry, or the wide world of sports, or the computer, or the narcissism of social media, we were boiled as the proverbial frog in the kettle. I'm writing here about the workings of one particular fallen angel who conscripts mankind into his army of radicals.
         Saul Alinsky, who had such an influence on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, acknowledged this fallen angel at the beginning of his 1971 primer Rules For Radicals in this dedication, Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgement to the very first radical; from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins- or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom-Lucifer.
        Our thinking patterns are chaotic right now. Major functional building blocks were purposely left out of our education, for we were to be malleable citizens, not rigorous thinkers and certainly not vigilant patriots. Students were still students and the teachers were still teachers and the curriculum seemed similar on paper but the essence and the direction of learning changed. We hoped to succeed as well or better than the rest of the world, but most importantly.... we were to become as the rest of the world! We were rendered helpless, save for the remnant who saw this coming and either taught their own children or strictly monitored what their children were taught or actively entered into the 'system' to salvage as much of our heritage as they could.
       History, like the news of today, can be filtered to say what the administrator wants it to say. We can still engineer a bridge but we have placed more of an emphasis on social engineering and have thus engineered a society without God, without law, without ethics or logic, and without even a conscience to be sorry for what we created. Technology and greed merged to form social media, and now both young and old stare incessantly into the pixelated eyes of this Trojan Horse of Facebook dragged into the home, oblivious to what is inside the belly of this beast.
         The biblical blessing and indeed command....fear of God ....had to be destroyed and the latest and most insidious strategy has been the blitzkrieg or lightening war that we are experiencing against traditional marriage, for the results of this will be that children, in just about every area of their lives and upbringing, will be indoctrinated with a complacency towards God or a no fear of God. Is this not sacrificing the children of this nation upon pagan altars for political expediency, and might not this attack on the impressionable minds of all children be the final nail in America's coffin, hammered in by many of the very people that we are now praying get returned to our Congress?
          It was God who set Christopher Columbus out on his journey, He that gave the Pilgrims the strength, stamina and faith to launch out to a new frontier, He that guided our Founding Fathers, He that provided us a lesson to be learned in our Civil War, He that brought world wars to an end to further His plan and it is He right now who will either move upon our hearts and our minds one more time for His purposes and for His glory alone, or it will be He who will watch as we stumble into the abyss while seeking autonomy from Him and from any laws given us as a hedge of protection.
       

Handle With Care

 This is my Lord's Day offering and it's from October of 2010:


         At my first holy communion in the second grade the custom was to receive a Bible. It was my uncle who provided me with one and I remember being somewhat disappointed for it was pocket size and very unreadable. I can't remember why it was that I desired a regular Bible but the desire was real. In grades three through six we would attend Mass every morning and I did have a missal that was a prized possession. I liked its smell and the thin pages and was particularly impressed by the Latin that was recited from the altar and repeated by us in the pews. In high school. we were given two paperback textbooks, one was the Old Testament and the other the New Testament and we studied them for their literary content. I still had no concept of the Bible and no personal Bible of my own.      
         Scan ahead to about 23 years of age when I had come out of the army and started at Pitt. My habit was to stop in the National Record Mart on Forbes Avenue in Oakland and browse their books before catching the bus home. I often came out with a purchase and one day it was a modern language paraphrase of the New Testament. I have this paperback in my hand now and can remember the feeling then of holding something special but not really knowing what that was....
         I've told this story before....my wife and I were on a Caribbean cruise and a severe storm rocked the ship as we rounded the western end of Cuba. We even had difficulty retreating to our staterooms. Things were sliding off of the table. I opened the drawer in the table next to the bed and there was the ubiquitous motel room Gideon Bible. Opening it up and reading from where my finger had wound up, I read from the 93rd Psalm,

The floods have lifted up, O Lord,
The floods have lifted up their voice;
The floods lift up their waves.
The Lord on high is mightier
Than the noise of many waters,
Than the mighty waves of the sea.

         As a new Christian, God was gracious to give me this glimpse of His Word through an unorthodox method, a method that I would not presume upon now for I no longer pick up his Word without knowing that it is not a mere book but God breathed words to his people.....please consider these words from Hebrews 4:12 For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
         If one wants to remain in rebellion to God one would do well to not pick up His Word, for, should God will it, it will make very clear the folly and repercussions of holding on to our own autonomy. It will convict the conscience. On the other hand, if one desires to see just what is in this perceived time capsule, as I had for so many of my early years, it will be an illumination that is easy on the eyes, sweet to the pallet, exhilarating to the touch, soothing to the ears and of a pure aroma of cleanliness. It is powerful and will remain powerful even into old age. It is provision for all that we will need on this journey. It is nourishment. It is radiation to kill cancer cells and minerals to build bones. It is exercise, laughter and fulfillment. It is knowledge and understanding, intellect and emotion, humility and motivation. It is oxygen itself to the Christian life but it is kryptonite to Nietzsche's uberman. It will not only cause you to love but define love itself. Its unity will bring division. Discerning its division will bring unity to the mind. So, the next time that you pick up a Bible, please know that if you are not careful, an ax may be laid at the root of your paradigm of life.

Many See....Most Don't.....But All Will.........July 12, 2015

        Vadim Borisov was an historian in Russia who coordinated efforts to protect and restore Alexander Solzhenitsyn's literary works in his own country. He was also one of the contributors to From Under This Rubble (1973) edited by Solzhenitsyn. His contribution to the book revolved around the concept of an inherited "national consciousness" as opposed to individuals and whole nation's peoples being born with a clean slate and therefore subject in their development to the state.
         He quotes a "famous dictum" of V. I. Lenin's in " Socialism's aim is not only to abolish the fragmentation of humanity into small states and to end all distinctions between nations, not only to bring nations closer together, but to bring about their fusion." A large sign at a Leftist inspired protest of a Donald Trump event the other day read "crossing borders is not illegal...borders are illegal." Borisov writes that this new society... "intends to destroy historical memory and make history nonexistent." Our American heritage is becoming less and less valued, slandered and viciously attacked.....and that's exactly what the Communist wanted, instigated and now rejoices in.
         Returning to Vadim Borisov....he referenced the Bible and the words of Jesus in "go ye therefore and teach all nations" and Psalm 86 in " All nations whom thou hast made." His writing is a defense against the Communist view of the individual being soulless and subject to design of the state. This is much more than a political discourse that he presents. He, and other writers in Solzhenitsyn's editing, pleaded for a restored Russian people...one of a "plurality of personalities of a single mankind" and with all glory...."laid at Christ's feet."
         The author references our Founding Fathers in America who propounded the "eternal rights of man and the citizen," and writes that that has disappeared as "rationalism, positivism and materialism, developing in opposition to religion, successfully destroyed the memory of this absolute source of human rights."  He does admit that some culpability also belongs to the church itself and takes culpability back as far as Peter the Great, then states that the nation (Russia) ultimately "degenerated into Marxism with its theory of class hatred." Marxism, he writes "became the pure embodiment of national nihilism" with banners such as "the proletariat has no fatherland."
         I'm writing this post because the Leftists in America are taking us where Russia has been. They don't want us cognizant of who we once were. Borisov writes: "Within a short time the Russian people had been brought to a state of almost total ignorance of their own history, deprived of their national culture, almost deprived of their reviled and persecuted church..." The author was also prescient in his concern that many saw science and technology as the answer to the ills of mankind and asked this question..."What guarantees are there that men will display reason and goodwill?" The answer, as we have found out, is that they will more often not display reason and goodwill. Thus we have the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, the scams of global warming and the personality-less, mind and culture-numbing narcissism of social media.
         This "new society" that is envisioned by these theorists seeks a "reconstruction of the world".. and a "universal man." Look closely folks......these thoughts are in the news often. Vadim Borisov wanted to make sure that "nationalism" is not confused with a "national feeling" or a national consciousness....nationalism being something that is "antipersonel," whose adherent "acknowledges such a value only in the nation on whose bosom he happened to be born.."   This 'nationalism,' in Borisov's description, is an "ideology" and a "tool" with great destructive potential as history has so often shown.
           America is in a very similar situation today to the predicament that Borisov wrote of Russia in 1973. We once had a national consciousness only we refer to it more as the American Creed. It defined us. The people that we once were, who were of this American creed, would not have fallen for the inane politically correct mantras that have ravaged our intellect and turned us into a genderless, leaderless, Socialist and godless society. Many see and recognize the horror of this....most don't....but all will....and in the not-too-distant future.

Post-Modlobodomized

        Jeff Sessions from Alabama is a very good senator, a man who has not been post-modlobodomized. He just tells the truth as he sees it and you can do with it want you want. I encourage you to Google his name on the news link and read his answers to the few questions put to him on immigration and Pope Francis. Personally, I'm so sick of standard politician lingo where every word seems to be placed on a grid before being spoken so as not to offend someone, somewhere somehow. But with Sessions....simple logic and common sense.....how sweet even the tone.
       Senator Sessions made one comment that particularly caught my attention. He mentioned Nehemiah restoring the wall around Jerusalem after the Babylonian Captivity. I had just spent a few hours meditating over the Book of Nehemiah yesterday and I also encourage you to not only read it but to read regularly in the Old Testament prophets, and when you do just transpose America in place of Israel and Judah, or Nineveh. What you'll find might amaze you in that our rebellion against God is so very similar. Having made the correlation, then consider the judgements upon them. This is what we are looking at today in America. Judgement is coming, in fact has already started, on America and the entire world.
       God had given Nehemiah great abilities as he served the Persian king after the downfall of the Babylonians. It's reported to Nehemiah that Jerusalem lies in ruins and the people that were still there had strayed from God. God gave Nehemiah strength as he asked of Artaxerxes to be permitted to return to Jerusalem and rebuild it. He was not only given permission but protection on his journey. The peoples who had moved in after the Jews were taken in captivity were not happy about this at all! We then see in this short book the making of an incredibly wise and strong leader in Nehemiah.
       It was here that my mind shifted to America. Our walls are broken down and our country essentially lies in ruins. I fully admit that you may not see this. We not only need leaders like Nehemiah but we need the determination that the Jews had when challenged by Nehemiah. These things can only come from God's hand. The opposition in America right now to anyone who wants our nation to once again humble itself before God is strikingly similar to what Nehemiah faced, but then, and once again, should God will this to happen their efforts against us would crumble like a sand castle against the rushing surf.
         Should you read this book, anew hopefully, don't be discouraged by the  many names and statistics given but rather be amazed at the precision of God's Word in recording all of this. Pay particular attention to when Nehemiah publicly reads the law to the Jews, who most may have never heard it before. Picture America once again, her people reading His Word...devouring His Word... and tearing down the idols half forced upon us and half sold to us in this gullible and weak age. Take note, and read carefully Nehemiah's public confession of national sin,, for Christians and those who fear God are slaves in America....slaves to this Socialist government....slaves to the media.....slaves to political correctness and slaves to our own entertainments conjured up in our post-modlobotomized culture.
Here we are today,
slaves in the land you gave our ancestors
so that they could enjoy its fruit and its goodness.
Here we are-slaves in it!
Its abundant harvest goes to the kings
you have set over us.
They rule over our bodies and our livestock as they please.
We are in great distress.

It's A Beginning Anyway

         Well, did you hear this bit of news today? Actually it was in the form of a joke but to me it was more of news. No, I'm not talking about John Boehner resigning his speakership. This man actively sought to be a United States Congressman and then actively sought the leadership of his party in the House of Representatives. He took upon himself a great responsibility in the defense of our nation, its people and their constitution, and he utterly and totally failed those responsibilities; worse than that he impeded many things that should have been done, primary of which should have been impeachment proceedings against Barack Obama when it first became evident that his intention was to ignore our laws and institute his own.
          The news concerns Ted Cruz and it came in the form of a joke. He was speaking to a conservative group and said this: "Today, the President of China, President Xi is in town. Media all across the world are reporting on this historic meeting between the world's most powerful communist......and the president of China."
          This is news in that this nation of ours needs a crash course, an in-depth tutorial at the very least, on what Communism was......and is! It's a beginning anyway. Communism did not collapse in 1991.....the Soviet Union did. Soviet bloc nations were freed but Communism transmogrified into a smiley faced, quasi-capitalist Trojan Horse on the world's scene. Communism is a dialectic in that it will change appearance when needed in pursuit of its goals, and without compromising its methods of deception and reliance on force, both of which are evident in the administration of Barack Hussein Obama.
         You don't have to go back very far in these posts to read about Communism but this post is about someone in the political limelight actually equating communism with Barack Obama. Was it only a joke? If one can pry oneself away from the SimCity News (A.K.A. mainstream media) and even sample for a short time legitimate news sources such as Drudge and Breitbart, then one would see that we are not in Kansas anymore.....we are in Petrograd 1917!

Last Train To Smyrna

         I'm inclined to believe that should God will it to have mercy upon America that it will begin on a Sunday....on The Lord's Day, and it will begin in His pulpits through His shepherds. My hope is that this very Lord's Day a pall enters the sanctuaries, a soberness at what our nation has become, at who we have become as a people, at who our leaders are; but we have become acclimated, capable only of voicing displeasure, feigning outrage, unsure of what to do.
         Our discernment skills are at low ebb and only God's Word, either read or primarily preached, can awaken us. So once again I'll listen intently in the coming week for comments from brothers and sisters in Christ that something strange happened in their worship services.... not a frivolous invented miracle that only titillates but a power that causes us to cry out as Peter did in "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.".
         I'll look in the mirror more intently to see if I have changed. And my prayer, as always, will be....... Lord give us one more move of your Spirit, one more generation where the Gospel scatters your enemies and dispels the zeitgeist that bewitches us. Give us leaders Lord, who know that only you can protect us and that only you can fulfill us. We have let down our guard Lord, our children's futures have been mortgaged, our wisdom has dried up but you are able to restore us and to use us.....do this O Lord, if it be thy will and only if it be to thy glory! 

Last Train To Smyrna....February, 2013

         The third verse in the Book of Revelation reads "Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of this prophesy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near." (ESV) A fair amount of my reading in the Bible is in this book along with the Old Testament prophets. These books have been for every believer in every age since they were written but one would be especially unwise to ignore them today. The second and third chapters of Revelation are seven letters written to seven churches. They were real churches that existed. Some Christians believe that these churches describe seven church ages. I have never been convinced of that theory. Other Christians believe that those seven churches exist today according to the descriptions given. I do ascribe to this theory. There is an Ephesus church today, and a Smyrna church, and a Pergamum church, and a Thyatira church, and a Sardis church, and a Philadelphia church and a Laodicea church. I'm not talking about denominations or even continents where these churches might be located, rather a mindset for each church that could be located anywhere.
         I really don't go any further with this other than to say that it would behoove all Christians to meditate on the warnings given to see where our churches and we as individuals might fit in. It seems to me that this is the purpose of this part of Scripture. I can see myself described in all of these churches excluding only Smyrna and Philadelphia and stand in dire need to hear these warnings.
         Yesterday I just happened across a church website of a fairly large church in a very large denomination. There must have been thirty or forty pages listing every ministry imaginable and their calendar was filled with activities that involved the community. Although I didn't listen to any of the sermons, the topics were generic and non-offensive. Most troubling of all was the mission statement and beliefs links which were far less words in total than I have written so far in this particular blog entry.
         This type of church is in every city of America, maybe in every community of America and we are what we are today in no small part because of it. No...Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of this prophesy..!. The warnings given in these words of Revelation are never far from my mind and from my own self-examination. Although all seven of these churches are probably within America somewhere, we seem to be mostly Laodicean. This last statement would probably upset many pew sitters, ministry leaders and pastors but such is to be expected. I, for one, take these warnings very seriously and encourage any readers to this blog to do the same thing....for the time is near!