Origins

       Boston University professor emeritus of international relations Angelo Codevilla labelled the Republican Party the junior member of the UniParty, the Democrat Party being the senior member. He is absolutely correct in this. They share combined goals, those being that the government shall control the minds and the will and the privileges of the people, that the ruling class shall dictate everything that the government does, and that they will make good sport of vying for the leadership positions of the UniParty, attempting to ensure that even though they may lose in an election cycle here and there that no outsiders move in on their territory. Ted Cruz and others have found this out the hard way.
        One thing has to be said about Professor Codevilla's thesis and that is that it was not always a UniParty. This is the essence of Dinesh D'Souza's new documentary film now showing in theaters Hillary's America, the Secret History of the Democratic Party, a film that I viewed for the second time tonight. The Republican Party from Lincoln to Goldwater, and from Reagan to Ted Cruz emblemized a constitutional republic. It was only recently that it forfeited all of its past ideals and belly flopped into the muck and the mire of a UniParty that lords it over its combined constituents.
         The charisma, the family aura, the Ivy League flair and the 'best and the brightest' mystique of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and his brother Robert along with other notables such as Mo Udall, Hubert Humphrey, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, George McGovern, and Jimmy Carter, really the list is a lot longer, these men did attempt a new frontier but its rotting foundation stank of the racism, the eugenics and the socialism Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt in that order, thus collapsing in failure. The euphoria had only lasted a few short years but enough that the multitudes of baby boomers would cling to a painted picture that began to fade even as early as the Johnson administration. I, a bona fide baby boomer, grew up with The Shaggy Dog but soon found myself in The Last Picture Show. John Kennedy was of the greatest generation but younger sibling Ted was a bad omen for things to come.
         As for Bill and Hillary....and Barack Obama? Dinesh D'Souza's documentary should be out on DVD before too long. The segment on Saul Alinsky alone....that segment alone....should be enough to make any baby boomer democrat weep over who has taken over their party! We have rejected God and He has given us over to the 'desires of (our) hearts..." and all this for the mess of pottage that was on display these past few days at the Democrat National Convention.
          Hillary's America is a tour de' force as is Breitbart's Clinton Cash!  Dinesh D'Souza gives you half of the story of the UniParty in his new film. Maybe he'll do the Republican establishment next.....if God should even give us time.

Siri and Mike Huckabee

         You have heard the phrase people groups before I'm sure. It's mostly used among Christians and it pertains to small indigenous ethnic peoples usually somewhere in the remotest areas of a continent. Last evening I watched a presentation by two missionary friends home on furlough. They could hardly contain their excitement as they walked me through the video. This particular 'people group' had no alphabet, therefore no written language just a short 40 years ago. Missionaries set to work on developing an alphabet for them and then teaching them how to read what they were speaking. Once that was done this new written language was used in translating the New Testament. I watched in awe, and in wonder, and in admiration as these people celebrated the boxes of New Testaments, balanced upon the heads of believers, being delivered for the first time. I had heard such stories before and rejoiced in them, but knowing the missionaries and hearing their narration was something to remember, rejoice in every time it comes back to my mind, and to learn from, and most importantly to humble myself again and again in remembrance of these people who literally celebrated receiving the written Word of God!
         As usual, my mind is drawn to an analogy, and also as usual it references America. We are two distinct people groups in America, living at times only feet away from each other if not living in the same home. One group has retained the tradition of its Founding Fathers. Its language is strikingly similar to its beginnings, and it worships the same God and reads the same Holy Scriptures with the same precision as did a dozen generations past. The other people group utilizes the older language, and the alphabet is the same, but key words often have different meanings, and the God they worship bears little resemblance to the God of the first people group for it is amorphous depending on what person is describing him and possibly what mood they are in. The disaster of Progressive Education is evident in this second people group for they often can struggle with simple concepts and throw tantrums if they are challenged in any way. I'm going to digress for a few moments:

I had a very difficult conversation with Siri this morning. I had an idea for a post and just wanted to put a note on my iPhone to help me remember. The conversation went 'something' like this...maybe I exaggerate just a little:

Siri:    "What can I help you with?"
Me:     "Note...Trump and The Apprentice."
Siri:    "Where do you want to put it?" She then started to read all my note titles which would taken about a half hour. Thinking quickly which is not my forte, I continued...
Me      "Siri, hold up."
Siri:    "Hold up what?"
Me:     "Stop!"
Siri:    "Where do you want to put it?" I felt like telling her where to put it. I paused and tried gain.
Me:     "Siri.... new...note."
Siri:     "New note what?"
ME:     "Never mind."
Siri:     "Where do you want to put it?"

         Previous to yesterday I had never actually seen Megyn Kelly doing her thing on whatever program she has for we do not have extended cable television but I have read an awful lot concerning her work . The article I came across described a confrontation she had with Mike Huckabee and it piqued my interest so I watched the video. The two faces, in different studios, stared back at me. The topic was the speech by the father of a Muslim American soldier, a hero, who had died saving his team members! The father was irate at Donald Trump's "proposed temporary ban on Muslim refugees." His reasoning was that if the ban had previously been in place his son would not have been able to save his team members.
         For a father to take such a position is understandable, and the story of this courageous young American is heartrending, but Megyn Kelly, a member of that other people group...the newer people group, did what she does best....pose like a model while at times torturing common sense and reasoning. It's a simple concept! There are many bad guys trying to into the United States. They are posing as refugees to do it. Stop it for now until a verifiable and safe system can be installed. Like a child who could not get their way, she interrupted without even considering what Mike Huckabee had to say. To his credit, he knew who he was talking to and made his sentences short amidst the interruptions in order for the viewing audience to be able to apply simple common sense to the issue.

Reviled And Maligned

      

The following was posted last December. People like Ted Cruz, Dinesh D'Souza, Donald Trump, and Sarah Palin have to be torn down by the Left in this country who cannot win elections based on facts, reason or common sense...or even fair elections. Much of the American public is an easy mark to these nefarious strategies that have also been put in play now by the Ruling Class...Republican Establishment Branch.

       This once great country, this long-time 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.     
       The following vignette of a post was written in 2012. It depicts a man raising our flag and later lowering it. Donald Trump would not be my choice for the Republican nomination....it would be Ted Cruz.....but I feel compelled to describe the people whose choice he would be, the vast majority of which anyway who are tired of being lied to, deceived, used and discarded as trash if they so much as question the ruling class of this nation or the party elites; and the man I imagined in this post titled America.... Free.... Free Fallin' might fit that bill perfectly. So please indulge me for a few more paragraphs:
        The gentleman in question is about 70 years old. He got his drivers license on the day that John Kennedy was inaugurated our 35th president. He enlisted in the army when Americans were first learning how to pronounce the word Saigon. He marched with wet boots in rice paddies and swatted bamboo from his face in the sweltering heat, firing on the communist butchers when he saw them and taking fire himself, and walks with a distinct limp from that enemy fire to this day. He served two tours in this land of beautiful people who were fighting for their lives. It's he that a Fox News commentator today alluded to along with Donald Trump as....."representing the worst, darkest part of all that is America."
        That limp didn't stop him from delivering mail in urban American cities for 40 years, calling all the kids by their first names, checking on the elderly if their mail was not picked up and delivering letters mailed by himself on occasion, envelops with a few twenties in them....anonymously...to people who he could see were needy. It's he that the great pretender of a statesman Lindsey Graham says has "an appetite for bigotry and exclusion.
         This man has raised five children in a God fearing home, all of whom love their country, work hard and obey the laws of the land yet he is being stripped of dignity by those who have none for themselves, dragged into the public square and accused of that which he worked his whole life to eradicate....intolerance, injustice and hate.

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.

A Sifting And Winnowing May Be Ahead

       The following is yesterday's post. I wasn't very satisfied with it for it's a difficult concept to get across. Today a friend texted me an article about a story of a prophesy that apparently has been circulating in circles.....where stories about prophesies tend to circulate. A man had a visitation from the Lord back in 2006 which led to something else and then something else and finally a prophesy in 2011 where God would use Donald Trump to restore America's good fortunes. I then watched a small video of this story. I'm still unsatisfied with my feeble attempt in this post but more confident in my having chosen 1 Thessalonians 5:3 to conclude it,

A Sifting And Winnowing May Be Ahead  

        Author and pastor Tim LaHaye died today, July 25, after suffering a stroke. I have a personal message in this post that I expect will be hard to convey but I have to try because it pertains to what may be in the very near future. Please bear with me.
        Mr. LaHaye is best known for his series of apocalyptic novels, the Left Behind series, which portray a 'tribulation' society after Christians have been raptured, but his ministerial and literary career has been much more than that for he was very active in politics since at least the 1970s and wrote often on marriage and the family. I haven't read many of his books and none of the Left Behind series but his 1980 The Battle For The Mind had a big influence on me when I read it as a new Christian a few years after its publication. Other than the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, Mr. Lahaye and I might have only agreed on 50% of his ideas and teachings over the years. This is why I use this faithful man as an example in this post.
        We Christians differ on many doctrines. This is obviously a well known fact and is often criticized, but could it be any other way?  Would we rather have had a universal church where if the wrong leadership should take its turn at the helm then.....well then we would have what may very well be in the near future....the Antichrist. No, we differ.....but.....on that day of the glorious appearing of our Lord and Savior....we will be overwhelmed with unity as we gaze upon our coming King.
        Now to my main point in this post, and I use this election only as an example. Here is what we are seeing in the 'Trump/Cruz Feud' as I labelled it in my last post. Theologically, Ted Cruz and I differ on some important matters but he is obviously a profoundly devout Christian, and blood bought born again Christians realize that. They share the Texas Senator's concerns that America has rejected God and only a return to Him can give America any hope at all.
         Now, most of evangelicalism believes that a good president and a Republican congress can, in effect, save us. Those of us on the other side not only know that it cannot save us without national repentance but that our rebellion to God has been so great that it is a wonder of His mercy that we have existed this long.
          It has been easy to be a Christian in these United States of America but that may change, and in fact is changing as I write. You see the easy-believism of modern Christianity translates very well into the political arena....save the Constitution, strengthen the military and secure our 401s first..... mere 'social issues' like abortion and gay marriage are negotiable.
         This election is.... insignificant....compared to the wrath of Almighty God that is promised upon those who reject Him....as we as a nation have done. Without a national repentance a sifting or a winnowing would appear to be ahead! Being ostracized by the Republican Party is nothing....this we know may be coming. Being condemned by a very confident, very practical, very mislead, and very political 'Christian' church is another thing altogether. This would be a very difficult time....confusion would necessarily be everywhere...maybe even "strong delusion." We should therefore heed Paul's warning to us to be watchful and sober....for as he wrote to the Thessalonians..."...the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say 'Peace and safety!' then a sudden destruction comes upon them."

Stolen Valor

The following post and preface are from earlier this summer:
       
          May God have mercy upon these people who took upon themselves the responsibility of strengthening and protecting our constitutional republic by keeping the citizenry informed yet have failed so miserably that enemies of America actually consider them to be allies. May He have mercy upon those who consider themselves too dignified and righteous to call out their own side on mob violence. May He have mercy upon the rest of us who bear no small responsibility in our nation's demise through years and in my case decades of enjoying freedoms and liberty yet too enmeshed in in the benefits to be vigilant to understand and defend them.

Stolen Valor

         We have legally aborted 55 million lives since 1973....yet we still proclaim over and over when involved in polemics that America is the greatest nation on earth. There is a major disjuncture here between the statement and reality. It's not denial, for we admit the figures. We just blame others in order to keep the title.
         We have turned our children's schooling over to anyone with a few academic letters after their name. We can't mention our Creator in school, we have to teach what the government wants or they take monies away, they drug our children while predators in the entertainment industry fill their young minds with the violence that makes the experts prescribe the drugs to begin with. These same predators have built a music industry where it is virtually impossible to to keep our children away from the pied pipers. We bought into the Progressive's schemes a century ago and since then we have taught our children how to read with methods that were designed to subjugate them rather than enhance their individuality. And once again...we do all this and continue to call ourselves the greatest nation on earth!
        Violence is overtaking us and mobs rule. Laws mean little to nothing....truth means even less. Freedom of speech is gone if it offends anyone but the Christian. Freedom of religion applies only to those who are not Christian. Hold on to your money for the government will tax and regulate anything it wants to pay for their mistakes. And in all of this we call ourselves the greatest nation on earth!
        Pensions in the public sector are often so high as to bankrupt communities. Try to get those pensions back down to a reasonable rate and you would think by the protests that you are stealing their money.
        We have no borders to protect us. Our military is being downsized and social engineered to death. Our corporations long ago divorced the employees who built the corporations and then married stockholders who will bink them in a second if a better deal comes along. Those who can, give themselves huge bonuses for profits made by taking away the benefits of those who produced the profits. And this is a great country?
        We have a Marxist president...who we know nothing about that wasn't scripted in Saul Alinsky's playbook for professional radicals. Our Congress is feeble at best. Our Supreme Court has been half-stacked with minds that Thomas Jefferson couldn't even communicate with. As a people we are drunk with our entertainments. Our youth won't read a book if it doesn't have pictures in it.  Our churches think that they are Christian simply because they have a passion play and a nativity scene.
       It's considered fraud to falsely claim to have earned military medals and decorations but that is what we do when we boast that our nation is the greatest country on earth. Others earned that distinction but it no longer applies. As pertaining to us... it's as bogus as Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize. Is there yet a remnant of that nation once highly favored by God? As sure as our military's courage and valor there is! As certain as millions of other Americans who are fighting tooth and nail to restore some semblance of sanity and honor to our country there is! If you would poll them I would expect most to say that we are not a great nation anymore. They shed the same tears that I shed. Their prayers are similar to mine. Their anger is palpable at what we have become.
         If we do not accept the fact that we are no longer the America of our predecessors we will in no way be able to discern God's judgments that are on our very doorstep, and will feel no great compulsion to fall on our knees seeking mercy of Him who birthed, blessed and sustained us before this our great rebellion.

The Trump/Cruz Feud

         The common weed wacker...so handy and so easy to use! The lawn mower....that noisy, smelly, toilsome to use instrument of torture! But not all is sunshine and roses with the weed wacker, at least the weed wacker that has a string spool that often jams up and when you attempt to free it it unravels so fast all you can do is watch the emancipated nylon sprint for freedom.
         I first used the word 'unravelling' six years ago as it pertains to what is happening to America. Since then I've noticed the same descriptive many times in op-ed pieces from newspapers across the nation. It seems as if all that we can do is sit and watch. In a way that is all we can do because God has lifted His protective hand from upon us. We have a Republican candidate and in normal circumstances his leadership would at least stop the Progressive, Communist, Globalist agendas that are now in full force, the Supreme Court would move back towards our Constitution, and our military would be strengthened.
        In reality these are in no way, shape or form, normal days. What is indeed normal is that in extraordinarily perilous times such as we live in there will be those who recognize them as such and those who do not. Churchill knew that Hitler would have to be contended with....most of his contemporaries in the Parliament did not. Charles Haddon Spurgeon knew that the Christian church was in a downward spiral, a 'downgrade' as he called it, most others in the English churches did not. England paid a heavy price and Christianity in England collapsed. Some, more than some... many in the Christian church of today know that America has in effect cumulatively and officially rejected Almighty God, that the die has been cast, and that His judgements have begun and will continue increasingly until we can only come to the realization on what had happened.
        There is a brewing brouhaha within the ranks of Republicans over the controversy surrounding the speech given by Ted Cruz at the Republican convention, a speech where the Senator from Texas did not 'endorse' Donald Trump. As usual when it concerns Christianity or the Bible, commentators get it either completely wrong or they miss the key elements. I'll try here to explain a few things.
         One side...I won't give any labels....sees this as a cut and dried case. Donald Trump won....Ted Cruz had promised to endorse if he lost but he didn't. What is at stake is a President Hillary Clinton! They are chomping at the bit to let this battle between Trump and Clinton commence and do not take lightly to any Ted Cruz supporters who do not meekly just get in line to support Donald Trump.
         The other side sees things a little bit differently. Attacks on Ted Cruz and his family during the campaign were beyond the pale, and Donald Trump in his victory has the magnanimity of a cheetah that just ran down its prey. They're not attacking Donald Trump...their just defending Ted Cruz... but this is unacceptable to the Trump people. They want submission....and they want it now!
         But there is a third party in this brouhaha and they are who I alluded to when I mentioned Christianity and the Bible....and I am included in that group. Hillary Clinton is every bit as evil in our eyes as with the first group. Donald Trump is the only choice....if you are going to vote. It is the 'if you are going to vote' that distinguishes us from the others. Let me explain.....
         Let's start with this.....as conservatives we all believe in freedom of speech and freedom of religious belief, do we not? You may have to remember this as I explain. You see to us....and there are millions of us....in fact the Founding Fathers of our nation held the same belief.....we look first to our God....we know that God established this people and this government from the beginning for His purposes.....We know that having rebelled against Him and having witnessed the increasing collapse of our beloved nation, that we in ourselves cannot save ourselves. We know that in these 'extraordinarily perilous times' that we must look first to God or we will contend with His wrath.Therein is the difference!
         Donald Trump shares none of these beliefs. That is his right. We do not demand that he believe as we do....God will address that issue. We do retain the right to look to our God first. That discernment tells us that we as a nation and as a people have failed Him miserably...and we can feel His absence more....more...than we fear a Hillary Clinton administration!
         On a practical note....to the first group....the Trump people....if you would just direct your attention to Hillary and not to us....and if Donald Trump can come up with even a modicum of humility and display a smidgen of wisdom to go along with his common sense....you will probably find us at that voting booth.....maybe not with the same Trump button on our shirt....but with the same dedication to our nation...and even more....for we know who birthed our nation....who blessed our hills, our valleys, and our rivers, and who drew our boundaries....before we even came into existence, and we know who sustained us up until the time that we rejected His counsel.
    

A Benighted People

The following post is from July 5th, written just after Hillary Clinton was essentially cleared by the FBI:       

         A warm and pleasant wind rushed in my driver's side window on the way home from work and dried the sweat from my hair after working in a temperature of well over 100 degrees. I didn't feel like listening to Sean Hannity's take on the FBI being the latest institution to collapse in our country, so 60s music was playing softly on my XM....the Kinks. The thrice repeated refrain stuck in my mind as I drove along the river with a couple of pleasure boats frolicking alongside in the muddy Ohio.
         Help me, help me, help me sail away
         Well give me two good reasons why I oughta stay
          'Cause I love to live so pleasantly
            Live this life of luxury
             Lazing on a sunny afternoon
              In the summertime
               In the summertime
                In the summertime

        After doing chores and showering... I'm sitting on my patio with birds calling out to one another all around me, and tiger lilies and marigolds, chrysanthemums and various other flowers drinking in the cool water I replenished them with. The calmness could be intoxicating if I let it but the serenity is misleading to the point of calamity, for our country has fallen sway to its own reflection on a black laptop screen as it ponders what trivial nonsense to boot up.
        Would I expect anything different under the circumstances. Should the boaters have yelled out a Mayday, should the volume on my radio suddenly pierced my quiet and pleasant ride home, should the trees have billowed an alarm by lowering their branches into the path of my truck? Should the young dogwood in front of me have shrivelled up and died before my eyes as the fig tree in front of Jesus and His disciples? This is not how it's done, for one has to be vigilant and cannot mentally fall asleep on a sunny afternoon merely demanding everything to remain as it was when one wakes.
        Today presented us with only the latest depredation upon law and order in our once favored nation for we are now a benighted people lazing in the summertime of our rebellion against God. Storm clouds are just beyond the towering redwoods and majestic sequoias, lightning in the distance threatens to interfere with our Facebook life and tornado force winds dart back and forth as they make their way to our communities and our workplaces and the arenas of our favorite entertainments.
        We fell asleep in Delilah's lap and will wake up to find that we are in chains. We think that all our troubles will eventually be shown as nothing but a big friendly giant (BFG) but we'll soon find out that the real giants "is all cannybully and murdeful" with names like Commymonster, Hillaryhate and Globeguzzler. 
         No, we have bought this parcel of land, paid for it with the silver given to us for evicting God from our classrooms, integrity from our lives, and honor from our professions, thus we will someday cast ourselves upon the craggy ground and call for the rocks to fall upon us when we see what we have done.

Read....And Maybe Weep

          The following proclamation, taken from abrahamlincolnonline.org, was written by our Senate in 1863, and placed on the desk of President Lincoln to sign. I first posted it last July. Ted Cruz and maybe three or four other Senators might be able to pen such a proclamation today but it would evoke hoots and howls of derision if placed on our president's desk and the media would unmercifully castigate its authors.
           Each and every thought in this proclamation may have you ask...who were these people? The answer is that they were Americans....we are no longer America! Maybe you read the news bulletin of a few weeks ago where we were informed that 53 of 76 highly ranked colleges and universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, do not even require history majors to study American history....and we often wonder why Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton can get away with the things that they do!
           Read every sentence.....please.....the game doesn't start for another ten minutes....and The Bachelorette has probably been preempted by news on the latest terror attack. Read and maybe weep as I do, for this was America. We are now a nation of prodigals, mesmerized by the image on our Facebook page, our intellects hamstrung by Groupthink, and our individualism purposely eroded by a century of 'Progressive' education. May God have mercy on this nation that historically must rank no higher than the first quartile in its ability to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and discern God's warnings in His Word and the signs of the times, yet considers its church services rather spiffy and its discernment fine and dandy in God's eyes.
         

Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day

Washington, D.C.
March 30, 1863 Senator James Harlan of Iowa, whose daughter later married President Lincoln's son Robert, introduced this Resolution in the Senate on March 2, 1863. The Resolution asked President Lincoln to proclaim a national day of prayer and fasting. The Resolution was adopted on March 3, and signed by Lincoln on March 30, one month before the fast day was observed. 

By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation. And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion. All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh. By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.

Speaker Of The Establishment

            The television has been on and tuned into the Republican convention for the last three days but it was muted as I either read or worked on this laptop. I'd glance up every now and then and turn the sound on when the speaker was someone that I wanted to hear....and there were a number of such speakers....some of them wonderful, such as Marcus Lattrell.
            Tonight was a spectacle and a disgrace. An hour ago I listened to a very good speech by Ted Cruz. As he was nearing a conclusion to his speech Donald Trump made an entrance in the arena. Has this man one functioning brain cell left? Just stay out and let the Texas Senator speak....whether he officially endorses you or not....then come in!  To make matters worse...Vice President nominee Mike Pence followed, introduced by none other than Speaker of the Establishment Paul Ryan whom Pence actually called a 'great American leader." Where has this man been for the last year?
            The first presidential nominating convention that I watched was when the Democrats nominated John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson in July of 1960. That was back when the Democrats were led by real Democrats and not Progressives/Marxists/Communists. Anyway, as a ten year old I enjoyed the gaiety and the laughter and the balloons. Considering our nation's predicament, this Republican convention 2016 has had far too much of that gaiety, laughter, and jubilance. Who are these people dancing like it's 1960? Is this the Tea Party who has been fighting this battle as an underdog for years while Donald Trump was still firing people on The Apprentice.....a show I have never watched nor care to even think about? I don't think so.
             Cheer, dance and shout USA USA USA all you want, O ye of faint recollection on who the Republican establishment is and how they lie smoother than a Persian rug. I heard enough hollow 'God bless Americas' tonight to make David Barton plead for separation of church and state. Take your red, white and blue Elton John glasses off and hold these speakers to the same test that you did before Trump's new professional strategists spiked the Quicken Loans Arena punch bowls.

The following post is from May 5th of this year:

Bittersweet

            I had retired for the evening at 9:00, heard a text come in from our son and it was concerning Ted Cruz dropping out of the race.  I thought that I would get up and write my initial impressions in this post.
            Despite his billions, Donald Trump thinks like an everyday American (traditional American) on many matters. He may be very smart in business but that intellectual acumen seems restricted to making money. He happened to be the only candidate who repeated the concerns of millions of Americans who had watched America collapse around the world and within what used to be our borders. Republicans then rallied to the clarion call he was shouting out at the top of his lungs.
            Donald Trump needs prayer for wisdom for he has practically none. Discerning our border situation and bad deals with other nations does not constitute wisdom, it is simple common sense. Mr. Trump needs some semblance of statesmanship of which he also has none.
            I am not thinking of politics, for neither Senator Ted Cruz or Donald Trump could undue the collapse that we have already sustained as a nation and society. As I mentioned in an earlier post, Ted Cruz would at least have given us a Christian president in what may be our most difficult hour, but completing the thought of what I had also written earlier, I'm glad that he will not be subject to the taunts and insults of this terribly flawed American public when these things occur, for he would have had no part in causing it.
            God's judgments upon America which have already begun and are rapidly increasing include an almost total lack of discernment by Americans on both the imminence of catastrophe and the reasons for it. If this were not he case we would not be wasting our time on the trivialities of life, a pastime which we have made an art form of.
            Barack Obama has less than a year left in office and it would be more than highly unlikely, almost inconceivable, that the many enemies of this nation would not act within that time period. Should that happen we will have Barack Obama and John Kerry and Joe Biden and Valerie Jarrett and Susan Rice and Samantha Power and Ashton Carter and the rest of the cast of Barack Obama, International Man of Mystery making decisions....or not.
            Should God give our nation more time even though it is very obvious that we are seeking answers from anywhere and anyone but Him, and should Donald Trump become our 45th president, he will have ample opportunity to fall to his knees in prayer for guidance as our first president had done so many times. Whether he would do so or not would remain to be seen. He has shown from his many statements on religion that he knows not the power nor the holiness of God. We need to resolve to offer fervent and continual prayer that this man comes to realize that the art of the deal is temporal and fleeting but "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Proverbs 9:10)

The Cauldron Awaiting Us

The following post is from this past January:       

          The political upheaval today is similar in principle to what happened in the American colonies in the first half of the eighteenth century during the Great Awakening. There was the ruling class of sorts, those who held all the power.....the establishment if you will....some in the church and the rest in the government, who thought that they knew everything that there was to know. They would therefore quite naturally lead, and everyone would quite naturally follow, for they had been ordained as God's ministers....fair and square....and would in no way relinquish that power over the souls of men; as for the people, well their job was simply to listen and obey.

          As always happens, and always will until Jesus Christ returns, the people had once again failed to remain vigilant in their faith and colonial America's light had dimmed, but once again God had mercy on a wayward people as He raised up men like Jonathon Edwards, George Whitefield and Samuel Davies who would, through much opposition, proclaim the glories of the gospel of Jesus Christ to a fallen world. The religious tyranny would end as would decades later the tyranny of the king.

         That colonial American had a pedigree, forged in the cauldron of persecution of the religious tyranny of 17th century England, for Puritans and Dissenters who had known their God did not recognize the voice then emanating from the pulpits. These people who were well versed in the scriptures that God had given them thus recognized wolves in bishop's clothing. They rebelled against the religious darkness of the pulpit elites but were legislated against with their light then being confined to meeting in the meadows and forests. Ultimately many came to America where they would build a city set on a hill whose light could not be hidden.      

         That city is today but an archaeological ruin or at best a homestead to be visited occasionally as is Mount Vernon or Monticello.  The hubbub in Iowa and New Hampshire which is only the beginnings of a spring and summer of political frenzy exhibit the pedigree of 1776 but the results of this election cycle, necessary as it may be, will be inconsequential as to the immediate future of America, for there is yet another cauldron awaiting us which will either prove to be a witch's brew or a purification process where we will be refined as a people who once again call out to their God. The candidates elected, should God give us time to do so, will be but some of the ingredients in this cauldron. Therefore, and for this reason alone, we must choose wisely.

"This Present Fire..."

          Pittsburgh Post-Gazette columnist Ruth Ann Dailey titled her piece in today's paper The fire, this time, is man-made. Her college matriculated daughter solemnly commented on the horror in Nice and wondered aloud if the world has always been this way. Her mother was accurate in responding that....."these times seem unusually terrifying, everywhere."
          Ruth Ann Dailey's opinion piece came out of that conversation with her daughter, and it was interesting to reflect on her thoughts that could be summed up with her comment..."My daughter's world is a tyranny of dread," but I knew that I would attempt a post on her column after reading her last sentence, for she got this thought wrong. After commenting on "Every ancient culture ('s)..."great, world destroying flood," she added the opinion..."This present fire is not divine wrath; it's human wrath..."

          The following preface and post from April of 2015 contains my thoughts on "this present fire":

          The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in its November issue of Decision Magazine brought back a warning from Reverend Graham from 1957 to American Christians. I'll give just one phrase from that article and it is pertaining to reading God's Word..."Begin reading....as never before." Those words jumped out at me....."as never before."  The entire article can be read on the ministry website. 
         I have never sought to have readers come back again and again to read what I have to say. I have only wanted them to read enough to see that our nation is in deep trouble, that its very existence is in peril, and that if our enemies succeed, which they are doing, they will have been commissioned by God as judgements upon us. Once anyone becomes aware of this then it is God's Word where our eyes should be affixed... everyday...throughout everyday. Thus I often bring back older posts because of new visitors. I will add this though...if you are coming to see that the dangers of these days are like no others and that God has been specifically warning us for well over fifty years then please consider passing this web address on.

...Nor Should We Want It To

          In my opinion this great American Experiment, as it has been called, has ended. That which we once possessed we no longer possess. The reasons of which are for other posts but we, as a people, no longer have the ability to think with discernment and wisdom or even at most times with common sense. In spiritual terminology... God had blinded our eyes. We will never return to the global hegemony that we once had nor should we want to.... if such a nation parcels out baby parts as if we were a human butcher shop and sacrifices many of those who do survive pregnancy to our own goals and desires for personal autonomy regardless of God's laws.
          Our hope is actually much greater than returning to what we were! God's judgement upon America has long since begun, the primary instrument being Barack Obama. We have already been greatly humbled, we just don't realize it yet. If we do continue on as a nation, and if Jesus Christ tarries in His return, we will of necessity be a God-fearing people once again. Our entertainments will  have been greatly moderated, our riches dispersed by the winds of war and economic collapse, our arrogance deflated and our reverence for He who blessed and sustained us as a people for over four centuries.....renewed.
          Nonetheless, those of us who realize that we have brought this all upon ourselves must carry on. We cannot quit. Whatever time God gives this nation that is in the throes of a suicide attempt must be used in sober-mindedness, seeking to rebuild walls, restoring pillars and shoring up foundations, uncertain if God will bless the effort but assured that His will is perfect whether it be accomplished with a rod or a staff.

It's Communism....Not Race

          I changed the title of this post from 'Manufactured In The USSR' to 'It's Communism...Not Race' because, as I mention below, we are pouring oil on the fire by emphasizing the issue of race. America cannot fight the communist influence upon inner city turmoil if it does not know that it exists. Please pass this post on for others...your pastor...your college age children...even your favorite radio talk show host...so that they can at least consider this warning on Communism!

         The issue that needs addressed, that has been crying out for attention, is the communist influences on urban American protests that lead to violence, but because of the myth of McCarthyism most politicians are afraid to even consider it. Conservative radio talk show hosts are using the word communism more and more as Barack Obama's playbook was found a few years ago with V. I. Lenin's fingerprints all over it, but even they still hold back.
         We are addressing the wrong issue, a mistake of ours which is essential to the communist plan. This is not nor ever was a race issue, nor is it a gun issue, for it is a Communism issue! We are being torn apart whereas we were once one. The rift in racial relations was manufactured.... in the USSR. The number of true and dedicated communists in America is relatively small but is much more effective than 1000 times as many communists would be who were not thoroughly trained in communist doctrine and tactics. They'll probably never admit to being communist but on the other hand there is usually someone or something in their background that gives them away. Such is the case with Barack Obama.
         Once these comrades were well placed, communism only had to choose the right time to make their move. Barack Obama was the right time but even here they had to wait and probably would not have ordered the final blitzkrieg on our republic itself which we have witnessed in the past few years had not he been given a second term; but now the time is perfect, for society is collapsing (they worked long and hard for this), we have no media to speak of.... law is a joke and disorder the laughter mocking it.
          Revolution needed a spark and race is the perfect ignition today whereas in the past it actually backfired on the communist because we are not a racist people. Communism needs an impoverished black urban community... for it must have a conduit for its lies leading to division and chaos. The Democrats were more than happy to help them out with this.  It needed other things, a God-despising media and academia, a dumbed-down populace who didn't even know their own history let alone communism's; it needed Facebook and Air Jordans  and the iPhone and Modern Family and Lady Gaga and each and every other diversion that would keep Americans occupied. Black Lives Matter and 'Hands up, don't shoot' were inspired.       
         Who in Congress is going to take this bull by the horns, for everyone knows what happened to Senator Joe McCarthy, and besides there would go their cruise to Cuba. We're pouring oil on this fire by focusing on race. We are indeed divided in America but the primary divisions are between those who remember what the American creed was and those who haven't a clue, between those who buy into just about every lie of Marxism and those who may not understand the details but realize that what is going on in Washington is a complete rejection of our heritage, and between those who know at the very least that God has been the source of all our blessings and those who either have no interest at all or have constructed a god of the same name who is more amenable to their requirements of a god.          

The following post is from August of 2015. A recent poll showed that many Americans have no idea what happened on July 4th of 1776, so they surely are oblivious also to what happened during the last century in Russia, China, Korea, Vietnam, Eastern Europe and Cuba. Our Progressive education has failed us and set us up to be totalitarianism's latest mistress.

Hear No Evil

         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 any individuals or racial equality 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.... 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... for 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 in what they knew would be a long struggle. They accomplished much, so much that one United States Senator saw their presence in our government and did the best that he could to warn us. 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 radical opponents of freedom and liberty. He has turned out to be a destroyer of the first rank! Is our mainstream media communist? No, but they are dupes sui generis, 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, where the corruption of today is presented as noble.. and what is noble viewed as corruption! This 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.
        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 would then 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 24, 2015.  Professor's Kengor's most recent book, Takedown, is even more unsettling, and there is a review of it on the same day.

How To Use 'Maybe' Four times In One Sentence

         Well, the conversation today was on science and the Bible. You've probably already read about the opening of a life sized Noah's Ark in Kentucky. My friend brought it up and the conversation expanded from there. Essentially his reasoning for not even considering the Gospel is his belief that science disproves the Bible.
         I've worked in a power plant for over thirty-six years now and roughly thirty years ago, after coming to that most wonderful faith in Jesus Christ, I did a little bit of research on many of those scientists and inventors of the past whose discoveries made possible an electricity producing power plant. Unfortunately I no longer have that paper but I remember that just about all of the inventors and scientists had a strong belief in God and most a faith in Jesus Christ.
         My point is that science was made up of individuals such as Isaac Newton who sought to discover the physical evidence of the glorious mysteries of their creator. Today we have gone the other way. Most scientists consider themselves to be the sole proprietors of their very own realm, as if many other scientists such as Newton didn't first set them up. This mystifies me. It would seem that even a modicum of humility and intellectual integrity would cause those today to acknowledge past contributions of scientists who believed in God and the Bible.....but that does not seem to be the case.
        Every so often I kick myself......ouch.....I just did it gain.....for not compiling newspaper articles over the past thirty years, and there were and still are many of them, where something new is discovered that contradicts a previously held belief that was up till that point confidently proclaimed as truth. The news article might begin....the textbooks will have to be changed with this new discovery. The scientists involved are invariably excited about this new discovery but oblivious to the corresponding fact that what they believed the day before....was....wrong. Once again I'm mystified, for even a modicum of humility and intellectual integrity should cause the honest observer to admit that maybe....just maybe...OK maybe not maybe... possibly they might be proved wrong in the future about some things that they would bet their life savings on today.
         Science cannot only be wrong, it can be corrupted, as the global warming scam has occasionally proven. What's needed is honest inquiry but one cannot live within this postmodern, narcissistic age and be entirely free of the corruption that literally plagues whole professions and most of our government. Creation scientists, many of whom are as brilliant as any secular scientist, are often not only ignored but discriminated against in the university.
        Ken Ham is the president of the Christian apologetics organization Answers in Genesis and chief motivation for the Creation Museum which we thoroughly enjoyed during a visit a number of years ago, and the newly opened Ark Encounter. I have been looking forward to visiting this life sized Ark and, Lord Willing, my wife and I will in the very near future, for the real Ark rested one day long ago on the mountains of Ararat, and I want to look up at that structure and picture anew in my mind God's omniscient power mixed with grace and mercy freely given if only one desires to know their creator!
   

"Next Lord's Day At The Foot Of The Cross"

         "Next year in Jerusalem!" It may have been a rallying cry at one time but today its meaning  depends on what Jewish person you poll on the subject. The phrase is still repeated in ceremony two times a year at Passover and Yom Kippur. Even after researching it I still don't have a handle on the importance of these words to the Jewish community. I bring this up because I do understand incorporating a saying into your life that has great meaning....even if only to you.
          If the American people are ever to awaken to our predicament and our culpability I would think that it would have to begin on a certain day. Even if it would turn out to be a long process it would still have to have a beginning. Would it be in response to an event? Would the American people be shocked into submission to the God they acknowledge but keep at arms length? If so it should not be a day that we would forward to.
          Or would God have mercy upon us and awaken our pulpits that have lain dormant for so long? Would pastors put aside the church growth mentality and preach the Christ of the book of Hebrews, and the salvation of the book of Romans, and the worship of the Psalms, and the judgment of Revelation? Would the Holy Spirit then work through these pastors on our cold hearts? Would we then respond? Would I then respond?
          As this world hurries to judgment and another Lord's Day passes with no sign of a quickening of the church I sometimes say to myself.....maybe....maybe it will be....next Lord's Day at the foot of the cross.

"...The Axe Is Laid To The Root..."

         I should have known better, but...I tell myself... it was thirty years ago. Everyone knew that Chuck was a prankster par excellence. The brass horn was coiled two times and resembled a French horn, only the frayed bell curved a little further so that its sound would almost be directed into the face of the one playing it. It was definitely an interesting object lying there on the table with tubes crisscrossing and no valves to press. Everyone else was ignoring it. I figured that they already inspected it. I picked it up, wiped off the mouthpiece, and blew gently into it just to hear its tone....nothing. So I gave it a much bigger puff and talcum powder blew out at me, covering my face and hair.
         So I'm not going to actually perform this experiment because I would probably be washing egg yoke out of my hair but you are probably familiar with the directions. Take and egg, put it in the palm of your hand and wrap your fingers all around it. Then try to crush it. Most people cannot. The curvature of the egg directs the pressure inwards instead of across the shell. A similar principle comes into play in the construction of the Arch of Titus and the Roman aqueducts. If you yourself are a prankster, demonstrate the experiment to a willing subject, like I was, but make sure that he is wearing a ring. The pressure from the ring will be directed to the length of the shell and the egg will easily break and splatter. I'm still not trying it.
         Our republic was designed with such extreme precision that it would not collapse as long as its three branches applied equal pressure to each other. The geometric shape of a triangle gives it more strength than the other shapes. Add a fourth angle here or there and its strength diminishes. Vary the materials and its strength weakens. Make one side stronger than the other two and its strength will weaken.
        An elm tree proudly stood alone in the center of Boston, Massachusetts from roughly 1646 to 1775. Patriots who would become known the Sons of Liberty would meet under that tree as a rallying point in their resistance to the Stamp Act and other offenses against the colonists. The loyalists to the king knew of the significance of the tree and cut it down.
       The Founding Fathers of our nation knew very well that if one branch of our government far outweighed the other two, or if the designed triangle of equilateral strength would become a polygon of multiple sides and varying strengths, that the republic would be no more. The wood of an elm tree is known for its resistance to splitting but chop at it enough times with an iron ax and it will, and that is exactly what this present administration has done. It knows the power of Liberty. Dragoons have therefore been sent forth to fell that tree. The Director of the FBI was only the latest to lay axe to the root.
        We have brought these calamities upon ourselves for we bear little good fruit today with little to no repentance. Matthew 3:10 warns us...."Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire."

Who Is The Evangelical

        The following post is from August of 2011. Little of my opinion has changed since writing this. Lord willing I will comfortably vote for Donald Trump but his candidacy has highlighted one serious weakness in the evangelical community, that being that we still, in spite of the spiraling collapse of our nation, trust in princes instead of casting all of our hope on the mercy of He who planned this nation and sustained us even with our wayward behavior.

         So just who, and what, is the Evangelical that we hear about so often in the mainstream media? Today the term is used as a pejorative, and if it were possible to do, would flash red to alert the reader to pay particular attention to what they are up to. Evangelicalism is a very big tent, a revival tent of sorts, with room enough for many diverse church goers. At times, most recently at the Iowa straw poll, it's more like a huge tailgate party. I was an Evangelical for the better part of the 1980s, my high water mark when I went to a fundraiser for Pat Robertson's 1988 bid for the presidency. We needed a Christian president, I thought, who was also informed and intelligent and Pat filled that bill.
         Contrary to the accepted opinion on the Left, Evangelicals do not merely march in lock-step to the commands of their favorite televangelist. They all hold to the same social issues because those issues are very clear in God's Word. They tend to back candidates that openly admit to going first to the Bible. They are generally model citizens. They, generally once again, pay their taxes, give generously to charities and proudly send their sons and daughters off to the military making our armed forces America's most distinguished and honorable group!
         The Evangelical ushered in Ronald Reagan while keeping Al Gore and John Kerry out of the White House although it obviously failed with Bill and Hillary Clinton, and with Barack Hussein Obama. Evangelicals are red state, or would it be more apropos to say red states are evangelical? Without the evangelical community from the 1970s to today, America might be already past tense as I write this.
         As if at a state fair, they can easily move from the Evangelical tent to the Tea Party tent and mingle without any questions. When they enter the Libertarian tent, they can be viewed suspiciously even though they tend to feel at home. On Saturdays in the fall they fill Ohio Stadium, Notre Dame Stadium, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Bryant-Denny Stadium and Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. They fly the Stars and Stripes (as I do) in front of their homes. They often have blended, interracial families. They coach youth athletics and swarm to coastal beaches (when they're not repairing homes in Appalachia) without littering the sand with bear cans. They read, read, read and are more at home, in politics anyway, listening to the spoken word on talk radio rather than watching carefully crafted television news reports. They hunt, they fish and they vote. Their children tend to be polite and respectful of their elders. For all of this, they are feared and ridiculed.
         The other day, while watering the flowers, my cell phone rang. I rarely get calls on my cell phone for to me it is more of a constant conduit of news with a quaint app that lets you make phone calls in an emergency. It was a Gallop/USA Today pollster and I was as excited as a Democrat chief-of-elections 'finding' a box of votes under the ice cream maker in the back of the hall. One question asked of me was if I were an Evangelical. Futilely, I attempted to explain the problem with the concept of Evangelical but had no other choice than to answer...yes. Such is it with much of America. All who are part of "Christianity," who apply Biblical truth to social issues, are labeled...Evangelicals.
         C. S. Lewis once said "The problem is not so much the de-Christianization of England, as the de-Christianization of the church." This is the problem with much of Evangelicalism today. The American pulpit, to a great degree, has failed the church. Christianity and Christendom have become united. The cross of Calvary is seldom preached, rather the felt needs of the congregation. The name of Jesus is ever-present but the person of Jesus Christ is unknown, the blood shed on Calvary for our sins ignored. One glaring example of our lack of discernment is Glenn Beck. Here is a man who saturates his broadcasts with biblical terminology and a near worship of the state of Israel but exalts a false Christ of Mormonism but this doesn't seem very important to the Evangelical. In fairness, if they were properly discipled in their churches they might still respect Glen Beck the citizen but not be so enamored with the evangelist Glenn Beck. The Evangelical is weak on doctrine and thus we have a weak church They come too close to thinking of America as God's nation thus failing to separate the declaration of our redemption in the birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ from the Declaration of Independence. Politically the Evangelical can be naive, as I was with Pat Robertson.
         The media often points to the belief in a Pre-Tribulation Rapture where the Christians are taken away, leaving the unbeliever to face the Antichrist. This false doctrine permits the Christian to adopt the attitude expressed on a t-shirt I saw in a Christian bookstore where a pair of sneakers was all that was left as the basketball fan was taken up and out of his seat at a basketball game. Prophesy can be a best seller but it often excites for the wrong reason. It can warn others but fails to adequately turn the warning inwards, something which Christians, and I as much as anyone, are in need of doing! The Evangelical voter can all too easily be taken in by the evangelical rhetoric of a run-of-the-mill establishment politician whose evangelical words are so strong that vetting of their history is not necessary.
         Still, the Evangelical has been a blessing to America as they are citizens who still have their heads above water in a culture that is drowning. Unfortunately, because of the confusion enhanced by the media and the failure of our pulpits to consistently preach the cross, the unbeliever thinks that he /she must necessarily enter that Evangelical tent (become an Evangelical) if he were ever to consider his/her fallen condition before God.
         Should God have mercy on us as a nation and should His Spirit move over this land with His convicting power of irresistible grace, that Evangelical tent, as the word 'evangelical' has come to be known in the last 40 years, will not even be noticeable in the mass of humanity seeking the mercy of forgiveness through faith in the name that is above every name.

"Study To Show Thyself Approved..."

         Talk about bad luck....you work for fifty years and as soon as you're ready to retire...your country collapses! A pension is only as good as the company who holds the money in reserve. Social Security is only as reliable as the government that handles the details. A 401K....well, it could drop 50% in a day or two....and that's not nearly the worst scenario. Try to buy a loaf of bread or a gallon of water in an eastern seaboard town when a hurricane is barrelling in, and then consider the entire country during an emergency. Venezuela is on track to see 720% inflation this year...and the world's crises haven't even really started yet compared to what may very well be just ahead!
          OK OK....you don't want to hear this stuff. Let's see, what can I write about? Don't you just hate it when all the sitcoms are in rerun? Actually I've never seen an episode of Modern Family. That probably has something to do with my being able to so often conceptualize the problems that are ahead for America and the world.
         If I just sit down and put out posts with opinion and information then I might as well find a good hobby, for the information is out there if the effort is put in, and it's done a lot better. No, I have to be able to explain an issue in ways that people will not find elsewhere. I have to be able to get your attention even if it sometimes goes beyond the pale in the lack of decorum. That's what I did in the second paragraph of this post. On the surface it reeks of legalism. Beneath the surface is an unpleasant truth...our problems need your full attention! Your children's futures are at stake. Ignore it or laugh it off all you want but you will soon find yourself in the middle of this maelstrom.
         Here's another unsettling fact that you should know of. Much of America knows the seriousness of the situation that we are in. Yes, most of them are common everyday folk that couldn't tell you the ingredients of a latte or how it's made, but others represent every profession....well, maybe except the oldest profession. Some of the finest university and college professors in America write books on the collapse of higher education. Some of the very best constitutional lawyers decry the coup within our courts. Some of the finest intellectuals regularly make mincemeat of the supposed journalism that pretends to disseminate all the news that's fit to print.
        There is more incisive information out there than you could handle but you have to be willing to find it and put the time in to analyze it. Drudge and Breitbart alone can get you up to speed. If you are not the biggest reader then there is conservative radio available every hour of the day. Spend a half hour at the current events bookshelves the next time that you are in a Barnes and Noble. Read the blurbs of fifteen or twenty books and take one home.....you should probably pay for it first.
        Far beyond the temporal problems that we face is the veracity of evangelicalism that we have come to accept today without having anything to compare it to. Here again we need to put some time in and here again there are many wonderful resources but they are much harder to find then answers to the problems our nation faces. We owned a Christian bookstore at one time. I opened that up for one reason...to get quality Christian books into the hands of as many believers and seekers that I could. Rather than list resources in this area, I would ask you to consider reading the short novel linked to from this page titled Isaac Crockett. Please don't expect anything professional but it is a running narrative on Christian books in the believers life.

It Is All A Charade

The following post is one year old:

          It wasn't signed on July 4th, 1776 as most may have presumed. It was adopted by the Continental Congress on that day but actually signed a month or so later. It's assumed that John Hancock was the first signature on the document, our Declaration of Independence, so one might argue that Hancock's signature began the United States of America. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy's signature on the decision designating same-sex marriage a "fundamental right" ended that great American Experiment almost 239 years later, for everything is a charade from now on.
         President Reagan nominated Robert Bork, who may have had the greatest legal mind in the nation, to the Supreme Court in 1987, but his nominee was 'Borked' as the word came to be known by Edward Kennedy in his speech on the Senate floor..."Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizen's doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens." Robert Bork was rejected and two nominees later Anthony Kennedy's nomination was approved. Society did eventually totally collapse, only ironically it was under Edward Kennedy's tutelage and with Anthony Kennedy's signature!
         This decision announced today federalizes the war on Christianity, it officially rejects Jesus Christ and annuls the relationship of benefactee and benefactor, and takes aim at the children in this once great country, for they will be brutalized by the educational system on this.
         The silver lining is that surely the Second Coming of Jesus Christ must be near. We have been in chaos for many years now but that mere chaos has devolved into orgiastic mayhem. No sane observer can be anything but shaken by the amount of violence in so many places in the world at one time. In all of Scripture only the Prophet Jeremiah weeps as violently as we should be weeping today, although Daniel's vision of the "latter time" did have this chilling effect on him..."And I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for several days." 
        The angel Gabriel had just expounded on that vision with..."And at the latter end of their kingdom, when the transgressors have reached their limit, a king of bold face, one who understands riddles, shall arise. His power shall be great-but not by his own power; and he shall cause fearful destruction and shall succeed in what he does, and destroy mighty men and the people who are the saints. By his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall become great. Without warning he shall destroy many. And he shall even rise up against the Prince of Princes, and he shall be broken-but by no human hand. (Daniel chapter 8, ESV)
           We have all, in one way or another, brought this catastrophe upon ourselves. The fact that many today see clearly what is happening does not absolve us. I volunteered for the man who was later to attempt to destroy the reputation of Robert Bork. I spent decades in a narcissistic stupor and even my efforts of late fall grossly short of what would be expected from someone who has come to see the glory and majesty, though dimly, of the risen Jesus Christ.
           We as a nation have taken our rebellion against God to a new low. We sold our birthright for a mess of pottage. And we shall reap the whirlwind that we have sown.
      

'O' Canada

         A de facto coup may be taking place in the government of the United States of America. In only its latest egregious failure to perform the duties expected of it, the Department of Justice filed a motion in federal court seeking a delay of 27 months in releasing correspondence within the Clinton Foundation that may be have been decisive in whether Hillary Clinton steps foot again into the Oval Office. Why is the head of the FBI delaying in recommending charges against Hillary Clinton in its public corruption investigation? We learned yesterday that our Attorney General met privately, and secretly, with former president Bill Clinton earlier this week. Folks, this isn't the stuff that spy novels are made of...it's the stuff that history books are full of as historians look back at the root causes of wars and revolutions.
         I have had special feelings of endearment for the Canadian people since I was very young because I was raised only miles from Niagara Falls and each year we crossed over the Peace Bridge for a wonderful day at Crystal Beach Amusement Park. I had read quite a bit about the man who is now their Prime Minister and was saddened beyond words when he was elected to office for I saw all of the mistakes we have made and are now paying for being birthed anew...from below...in Canada. A few days ago our president...The Great Usurper...spoke in their House of Commons and not only received a "rapturous" greeting but many of those in attendance erupted in shouts of "four more years" when it was over! Canada now is two peoples every bit as we are. Many if not most nations in the West are now two peoples.....all headed for a fall.
         I bring this up because if given the proper emergency Barack Obama could very well, on his own as has been his penchant, delay this coming election in America and remain in office....for the well-being of America of course. If he cannot do that I would expect him to pursue a world leadership position of some sort. How does president of the European Federation sound?
        If you think this absurd may I submit for your approval in this Twilight Zone we live in, that what is truly absurd is blissfully living as adults in the left hemisphere of our political brains as the right hemisphere continually sends messages that a red, festering, malignant growth threatens the functional liberty of both.