Preface: Those of us who do not want to see a second term for President Trump know as well as anyone on the Trump team that the Democrat candidates.....with one or two exceptions....and they are at the bottom....are nothing but 'useful idiots' for Communism. The difference is that four more years of Donald Trump....with an entirely different set of problems....is disturbing in itself as he seems to thrive on setting fire to people's emotions....only to meekly back off as the fire rages out of control....and his radio hosts rush in with hoses. Evangelicals believe that Donald Trump is the only answer....but he is a continuing judgment on this political divide in America that utterly refuses to humble itself before God....who is telling America to repent and turn to Him....yet we are saying.....'but O God....we are going to make America great again'.....only to hear God respond...."They may build, but I will tear down." (Malachi 1:4)
"It is better to take refuge in the Lord
Than to trust in man.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
Than to trust in princes." (Psalms 118:8,9)
It is a myth that we absolutely have to have Donald Trump as the 2020 nominee in order to keep a radical Democrat out of the White House. Not only is that not the case but given Donald Trump's propensity to blunder unmercifully it is more probable that he would either stumble or that some investigation would uncover something late in the campaign that blows it to smithereens. You want to keep a Biden or even worse out of the White House in the tumultuous days ahead? Then a solid conservative would certainly do that....so let's get some candidates....and have a vigorous debate.
It is a myth that Donald Trump is solely responsible for the recent economic statistics. A huge upturn was going to come with any Republican replacing the Obama era....and especially with someone who would free corporations from stifling regulations and lower the corporate tax rate. These are things conservatives had been fighting for for decades. We held out that ring and Donald Trump pushed everyone out of the way and grabbed it....and now in true Trump fashion....boasts....."Look what I have done.....your great president!" May God open our eyes to this man.
It is a myth that Donald Trump is a great president. In reality he is incompetent....lazy....reckless....and vile. We believe his claims of greatness because he and his radio generals....who were sucked into the Trump vortex like a dust bunny in the hose of a vacuum cleaner....constantly tell us that he is great.....hundreds of times....consistently over the past two years! Do you think that they mention economic statistics ad nauseam because there may be someone out there who may not have heard them? No. They do this because it is a psychological ploy....a tried and true tactic....repeat...repeat....repeat...repeat....until every listener is fully under control as to their thoughts. It thus indoctrinates us....and dumbs us down. We're not going to ask questions when we are totally convinced that Donald Trump is a great president whom we cannot possibly do without.
It is a myth that Donald Trump needs to be the nominee in order for the Congress not to go totally over to the other side. First of all we need the Congress more than we need the executive office. If we had to have one or the other....it would be the Congress. Secondly if the Donald Trump campaign goes south.....which it may very well do....it will take the Congress.....the candidates of which.....on the whole.....especially in the House.....are afraid to oppose Trump......lest they be tortured on talk radio with it. Thirdly it would be impossible to ever influence Donald Trump to actually be a conservative....he's hasn't changed in sixty years....lied to us since he first announced his candidacy....and is not going to fundamentally change now.....but if the conservative movement were to intrinsically revive it could turn out a legitimate conservative Congress....finally humbled before God....free from anything President Trump may or may not do....and then either keep a second term President Trump in line if he is still in office......support a conservative president if one should replace Trump.....or stymie any radical Democrat who would become president.
This could only happen if God willed it.....and awakened our dormant pulpits.....this for His glory alone and not our own MAGA glory....and this also only to take us through the tempest ahead....which we have worked long and hard to bring about....and so richly deserve....and not to stop it or even delay it.
Finally it is a myth that Trump's conservative base is a strong and resilient army....standing for truth....rigorous thinkers....immovable....and vigilant. We disappeared like love letters in the sand after a gentle wave. We gave up Obamacare repeal....immigration...seeking wise counsel....hopes for a sound fiscal policy....ethics....transparency....vigilance....steadfastness....and we're going to totally give up the Bible before this is all over with. We gave it all up for a mess of pottage that you can slurp up in a year or two's Wall Street orgy but then barf it up all over red ink and foreclosures and collapse that this kind of insane spending....greed....and personal impulsive hotheadedness in foreign affairs can only bring.
LORD'S DAY RUMINATIONS
Preface: The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Director Francis Ford Coppola is about to embark on a new adventure....not a futuristic Mad Max type of movie....but his version of a futuristic utopia. The article ends with this quote from Mr. Coppola...."There is no hell.....But the other news is: This is heaven." It wasn't that long ago that the church knew that the Second Coming of Jesus Christ must be very near.....and even secular society was concerned about the direction of the world....but today....and this astonishes me....the evangelical church doesn't seem to be concerned one bit about the world being judged. It's as if we put Jesus' return on the schedule for at least twenty or thirty years down the road....but in the 24th chapter of Matthew....verses 37 to 39....Jesus said...."For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, they were marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." Surely we can on one hand plan and take joy in the blessings God gives....(I certainly do!)....but also see the pain and suffering in the world....and that rebellion to God is getting worse and worse....and particularly that the future that is painted in the news is not something to look forward to....and thus we....trusting in God....should pray fervently...."Maranatha....Lord Jesus come!" That phrase...."eating and drinking....marrying and giving in marriage"....although I've read it countless times before.....and even meditated upon it....seemed more recently to point directly....(to me anyway)...to an American evangelical church that is no longer worried about anything but socialism.
It appears to me anyway....that the Apostle John was closing in on 100 years old....and still preaching Jesus Christ. There would have been a prefect of the emperor or some such magistrate who may have had mercy on the old man....and just sent him to off to an island to die. (There are plenty of theories while the Bible is silent on the apostle's death) The magistrate was probably confident that at least there would be no more preaching this Jesus by this revered apostle....but John was given...and then penned....on that Island....a book that would be read millions of times over two thousand years. It was the capstone....or maybe just the culmination of God's Word to humanity. So much for sending the old man off to obscurity.
Billy Graham quite possibly would have labored in near-obscurity had not William Randolph Hearst put out a 'memo' to all his papers....to 'puff Graham.' (I wonder where he got that idea) Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones....(medical doctor)....frustrated....saw himself helping men get well so that they could continue to reject God....so he chose to attempt to heal their souls instead. I wonder where the Doctor got that idea?
Elijah had been in a spiritual battle his whole ministry.....and now he knew that he was going to die....oh well.....he tried. He once fretted that he was the only one standing up for God's truth....but along came Elisha....with a double portion of the spirit of Elijah....working twice as many miracles.....(that we know of)....than his teacher....but then God may not be done with Elijah?
It has been said often....phrased differently I'm sure....that if you are not experiencing opposition.....that maybe there is a problem somewhere. Surely....if you are causing problems with the enemy.....then you are getting problems back. How can it be any other way. Spurgeon and Luther....and many others.....had greats bouts of depression. J. Gresham Machen....(don't know who he is....you should find out)......was defrocked.....defrocked by his own denomination.....for being true to God's Word. Jonathan Edwards got kicked out of his own church! I could go on. This phrase comes to mind....'it comes with the territory.'
It was December of 1963. My mother took me Christmas shopping in downtown Pittsburgh. It was snowing as I remember. It would be a year until Petula Clark gave us that hit single Downtown. We bought my Christmas presents that night....a 45 rpm record....the Beatles'....I Want To Hold Your Hand.....and a hundred and ten pound weight set. (I still have that weight set....I don't throw anything away....much to my wife's chagrin) I have thoroughly enjoyed lifting weights since then.....almost 56 years now....and I go to the gym regularly....early in the morning. I often wake up mistakingly thinking that I'm the only one who sees some of the problems that we have today....but I force myself to the gym....and I walk the treadmill....and work the machines....all the time....all the time....with a headset on listening to great sermons from preachers of the last century....and so I wonder sometimes if the entire Christian life is not like continuous sets of ten repetitions....with breathers in between. I surely know this though....when I leave that gym....exercised out....and having just heard the glories and wisdom and power of Christ extolled so magnificently....I can imagine the end of that long line of Christian believers heading towards the Celestial City....and I hurry to pull up the rear once again....and the Apostle John's words from the end of that book can echo in my mind...."He who testifies to these things says. 'Yes, I am coming quickly.' Amen. Come, Lord Jesus."
A SONG OF REMEMBRANCE....AND A NEW SONG
The following post is from August of 2015....Barack Obama was President....Hillary was the favorite to succeed him....and Donald Trump had two months previous announced his candidacy. Billy Graham was a month away from publishing what I believe was the best book he had ever written....Where I Am. R. C. Sproul was still preaching strong. Conservatives were still vigilant on their turf....but evangelicals were not. Today Barack Obama is gone....along with Hillary....and one would think that we would be better off from those two facts alone....but we are even worse off than we were as our discernment had been shattered by greed....and as a genuine biblical false prophet altered the focus of the evangelical. Both Billy Graham and R. C. Sproul have gone on to be with their Lord and their Savior and their King.
With history as our witness, it is not an anomaly, nor is it inconsistent, nor is it even odd. When a nation or an empire is overrun, destroyed, or even just collapses, it often if not usually happens in what could be called a 'cabaret' or 'gladiator games' culture. Its entertainments had consumed it. In such a society, vigilance can be non-existent. That nation's or empire's discernment, not only as to its enemy's intentions but even the existence of an enemy, can also be non-existent. We are such a nation and such an empire.
Where did it begin and what precipitated our fall. It began roughly six-thousand years ago in a beautiful garden in what may now be the war torn and terror ravaged nation known as Iraq...or that garden could have been almost anywhere before the flood of Noah's day. We are fallen creatures capable of, over time, unlocking mysteries of the world around us. We can visit the moon. We've done it a few times and then we got bored with it. We can send a camera through arteries. We can replace a diseased heart with a mechanical pump....for a time anyway. We can carry almost all the information known to man...in our pocket. We can do everything accept make a spray starch aerosol can that won't plug up.....but the Artificial Intelligence that we are about to perfect will have their robots to do that.
You and I have a front row seat to the fall of the most powerful nation that ever was. Who needs Will Durant or Edward Gibbon or Charles Beard or Josephus? We can watch it on the telly, that is until the telly loses power. Or we can see it on stage. We've already sat through two acts. In Act One we jumped up on the throne with God and in Act Two we told Him to get off. We are though, going to want our price of admission back because we thought we were going to see a delightful comedy with a happy ending, but it is a tragedy.
The violence has overwhelmed us. It is now but a long list of nightly news stories that may or may not be read. Our intellects have atrophied. The mechanical functions well but we have no wisdom to speak of. Yet we are giddy. Our sports teams win and that's the only international relations that we care about. We are as children who when frightened the parent places a toy in their hands and the pop-up clown causes us to laugh, the rattle gets our attention and the spinning mobile above our heads puts us back to sleep. We retreat into our enclaves where there is only minimal violence but those enclaves are receding as the snow cover at winter's end.
Oh, but we had the finest minds at the beginning! They could reason. Their sentences, written with quill and ink, displayed a magnificent logic. Their conversation, as we read in their letters, was beautiful prose, flowing, didactic and profound. Though shorter on average in stature they towered above us. Amused by their clinging to something called honor, we place them under a microscope and label them worthless if any imperfection is found.
God has given us weak leaders and cunning enemies. The Song Of Moses from the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy was to be a witness against Israel. They would rebel....God would remind them of it. Moses wrote....."For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison; their clusters are bitter; their wine is the poison of serpents and the cruel venom of asps."
But all praise is to be given to Him who as the Psalmist in Psalm 40 sings...."He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord."
