Marathon Man

                It's hot here in Western Pennsylvania just as is in so many other areas of the country. Today was a day that I had to do lawn work....and then walk a considerable distance to pick my truck up after its annual inspection. The heat got to me at one point and that reminded me of my one and only marathon. I was a runner back then....forty years ago....but not a....'runner'....if you know what I mean. I ran enough to take great pleasure in it....but not enough to run a marathon.
                The Apostle Paul tells us to run the race as if to win....but I don't think that he had in mind that if there are six in the race....or thousands as in my marathon....that one had to come in first.....or they were a loser. No....Dave Wottle came in first in his famous Olympic race.....but Steve Prefontaine did not....but both men 'won' in that they trained....and they raced. They were runners....and race runners....and they ran....mission complete. Whether one does not come in first....or even win a medal at all....does not make one a 'loser'....as that word is so often used today.
               So anyway....I still should have been able to at least run that 26 miles without having EMTs run out to check on me....which they did. Some unexpected things happened.....the weather being one....and getting some kind of bug in the hotel room the night before the race was another....but the die was cast and I was going to run the race. I felt pretty good in the cooler morning.....and the first eight miles went faster than I even planned.....but from that point on I could get no water down. I would grab a cup and try to swallow...but it would come back up.
               At the halfway point I knew that I was done.....but this was an out and back course....in a day before cell phones....and I had no other choice but to keep on going. As happens to many people....when adrenaline comes into play....it happened to me....as I was about a quarter mile from the finish....and that adrenaline must have kicked in....and I could have crossed the finish line looking like an actual runner....but there was this old couple....older than dirt....(but possibly younger than I am today).....and holding hands....almost waddling towards the finish line....and people were cheering them. If I had passed them in a blur with this rush of adrenaline.....what would that have looked like....like I thought the cheers were for me?   Or maybe there would have been some boos for passing them. Anyway that was my marathon. I came in second to the last. When I remind my wife today of this she always asks me....well what about those who did not finish? OK....so maybe I was fortieth from last?
              I'm not going to tell you how to run this Christian race. I'll let others who run theirs much better than I tell you that....but I can tell you what to prepare for. First you have to know that this is indeed as a race. This isn't a stroll through the park. And it is a marathon....not a sprint. You are going to get tired....and that fatigue is going to build....and there are times when you will wonder what you are doing in this race....and there even may be times when you consider quitting. There's not always going to be someone right in front of you to follow....so watch for the directions.....and warning signs. Keep praying the whole way. Keep drinking the pure milk of the Word. Forget that chronometer on your arm. If someone offers help....take it. If the spectators boo you....consider it a compliment. Don't ever look back....there's probably nothing back there but empty discarded water cups....as it was in my race. If you come up to someone bent over and heaving....stop to offer help....even if nothing more than encouragement. And when you see that finish line....even if it is still miles away....praise God that He will take you there even if He has to have an angel pick you up under his wings.
               I reckon that there are multiple millions who have finished already. John Bunyan finished in a time of 59 years....Spurgeon in 57 years....Jonathan Edwards 54....Eric Liddell 43....and David Brainerd only 29 years. Billy Graham stopped often along the way to give crusades....and it took him 99 years. I'll probably come in second to the last again....but if you are in front of me....I'll slow down so that you can get the cheers.

Mini Dark Age

                  Director Quentin Tarantino apparently has made ten films.....of which I have seen none.....although it would be near impossible not to have stumbled across a scene or two from Pulp Fiction.  Anyway he says that he is going to retire from filmmaking soon....and added that he knows film....and that directors go downhill from here on in.     
                 We are definitely in a mini dark age of some sort. J. Gresham Machen commented on this a hundred years ago when socialism was first making inroads in America. His point was that when individuality is taken away....then there goes the essence of the human mind that God had created. 
                  I watched the Ohio Trump rally on Saturday evening....and there was nothing changed from every other rally over the past five years. Trump even ended his speech with the same....."and we are one glorious nation under God." There is little difference between a Trump rally and what were....in their heyday....Grateful Dead concerts....in that fans.....many of whom travel from all over America....and maybe are at their fiftieth rally.....come to hear the music of the night....where the Phantom sings to puts his prey into a trance.
                 It seems that every area of our culture is stuck in the mud. Thirty years ago....twenty years ago....there were some wonderful Christian books published....many intellectual and profound. Most of these author ministers are still around....and still in ministry....but the books are not coming out. Sports....education....politics of course....what area of life has not been affected by this malaise.....or rather....infected.....by the plagues of the mind? 
                 As former President Trump uttered the words above....followed by...."And we will make America.....great....again"....I wondered what the people thought. Surely there could not have been the same....optimism....that was at all the pre-election and pre-insurrection rallies. The cheers were there.....but were they toned down a little....or was that my imagination?
                How could anyone really think that we are...."one glorious nation under God?" Half of us are happy with killing pre-born babies if their arrival would be inconvenient. On our side we are displaying more and more racist tendencies all the time.,,,pushed in this direction actually....for political expediency. You could see this clearly during the last election as Trump kept playing to 'suburban mothers'....who love him....because he promised them that he would keep low-income people away from their neighborhoods. This was an overtly racist  proclamation....repeated all the time....and we said....nothing!
               The Gay choice has literally taken over America....but what is new here....is that children are encouraged to experiment.....to see what they like best....and even to see what gender they would prefer to be. To the Christian who either has no interest in Christ's return....won't even consider the evidence....or even who simply do not want Christ to return at this time....even you must admit that this is an issue....the children....that God kind of drew a line in the sand on. 
                One might say that our minds today are vibrant in technological progress....what with AI and robots and rocketry and quantum physics and everything else....but these are mechanical results from the workings of the mind....and when you place this 'progress' alongside of wisdom....and ethics....and common sense....it's like the creation of monsters. 
                Last but certainly not least....the pulpits are as disinterested in God's judgments as everyone else. Had anyone yesterday....the Lord's Day....noticed a stirring of any sort from their pulpits....even a hint of awareness that the very near future might be one of exponentially increasing tumult and eruptions? Probably not....but next week is another Lord's Day.....and God might will it to begin to have mercy upon us.....at least this should be our continual and fervent prayer!

Straw And Rebar

 Preface: With the collapse of the residential tower near Miami on our minds and in our prayers....I thought that I might bring this post back from December of 2009. I wrote it after watching a segment of the Christian television program Origins...the title of which was God's Handiwork In The Designing Of Bones....and the guest lecturer was Dr. David Menton of answersingenesis.org. In reviewing today this twelve year old post....I was taken back a little in that I also commented on the issue of race that is now tearing us even further apart. We do need the Christlikeness taught in our Bible studies today....but without the rebar of God's severe and often repeated warnings to be vigilant of false teachers and false prophets.....and commands to be sober-minded and on our guard....and without the hope and desire for our Lord's return....and recognizing the signs pointing to the nearness off His return....and without having our total dependence on Christ.....as opposed to dependence our own powers and might....then that strength of our foundation will collapse when the winds blow....which is what we see happening today in evangelicalism.

Straw And Rebar

                Dr. Menton of Answers In Genesis gave two analogies in God's design of bones....one of straw used in the making of bricks in Old Testament times....and the other of rebar used today in reinforced concrete. Concrete by itself would be too brittle.....subject to breaking up....while rebar by itself would bend. The two materials need each other....as straw was needed in Egypt for the making of brick.
               My thoughts turned to the church....where we all have a tendency to give critical glances to each other as if to say....Come over here and give help where it is really needed. In reality....we all would collapse if not melded together and bonded together as brothers and sisters in Christ. If only we could lift up the work of each other. We cannot be so doctrinal minded that our salt has lost its savor....nor can we be so consumed with salting the earth that there is no firm ground for a foundation to build upon....and I realize that it is my duty to examine myself daily on this issue.
               There's a tendency for some of us to go back to 1776.....and for me the tendency is to go back further to at least the Plymouth Colony....but there is one big difference in the Plymouth society....and also a structural difference with that of the Founders. We are no longer a caucasian society. Ayn Rand's words do not help in building a nation of equals....nor even do the words of Adam Smith. (It is Ayn Rand's philosophy that we are following today....more than the Founders) The Republican Party waved this banner of equality at one time....as the Democrat Party sought to tear it down....and the Democratic Party would later wave it....as the Republican Party ignored it.
               Today the Democrats wave the banner of equality but it is so enmeshed with political gain that it actually worsens the situation. I won't be so arrogant as to give an answer to this when others have labored their whole life on this concern....but I will give my opinion that if the Christian church were strengthened....if it proclaimed Christ....and His cross....then we all would be so humbled that our views of what success is would not send us off in search of riches.....and the realization of our pride would so prostrate us that we could not possibly look down on anyone.

\

The Definition Of Insanity

Preface: All over America the Republican Party is entrenching....Trump candidates....and attempting to purge all others. How does this not send shivers down the spine....at least in Christians....knowing the dangers of exalting a man....and a deceiving and power hungry and threatening and profane man at that? Why a man anyway? I thought this was supposed to be a conservative movement?  In Exodus 8....as God was bringing the ten plagues upon Egypt..."The magicians said to Pharaoh, 'This is the finger of God'. But Pharaoh's heart was hardened." On September 8, 2019....as Trump was riding high....Breitbart led with this headline...."MAGA 4 E V A....PARSCALE: TRUMP FAMILY WILL BE POLITICAL 'DYNASTY' FOR DECADES.....TRANSFORM GOP INTO 'NEW PARTY' "....but within weeks of this the "finger of God" would bring a plague upon the world. J. C. Ryle once titled a message...."The Finger Of God".....as  the great cattle plague devastated England. Spurgeon said of the cholera epidemic...."we conceive as ministers of God, to call the people's attention to God in the disease, and teach them the lesson which God would have them learn." To say that our pulpits slumber would be generous. Woe to them who do not warn the flock entrusted to their care.

The Definition OF Insanity

                Donald Trump may be the worst thing ever to happen to America. There are those who believe just the opposite....many of whom are evangelicals....which in my mind is just more evidence for my supposition.
                The criteria I use comes from eighty books and counting on Donald Trump....including every part of his life....and watching him.....for four solid years now....and as one who not only voted for him in 2016 but initially celebrated the result of that election.
                 Imagine this....it is early in 2020....and President Donald Trump announces that he will not seek a second term so that the Republican Party can have a solid front....with the fewest distractions....to keep the White House and retake the House. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are nominated and quite naturally with such a ticket the whole election cycle turns out to be a disaster to the socialist Democrats. Alas this could never happen with Donald Trump with whom there is only one star on this show....and over seven billion viewers on this planet that should recognize his greatness.
                 So many of us truly thought....or at least hoped....that in 2017 we would see that he wasn't just 'an empty suit'....as the term goes....upon seeing the seriousness of what he got himself into.....as the leader of the free world....and indeed as it turned out he wasn't an empty suit....for a seriously ill megalomaniac was inside that suit....so instead of inauguration day being a new beginning....it was the opening credits for Nightmare On Pennsylvania Avenue....with absurdities of his lying and bullying over the inauguration crowd size....this only hours after he took the oath....(the word 'oath' used with Donald Trump....being an absurdity in itself)....and he went progressively downhill every month after that....resulting in two impeachments.....and an insurrection....with men and women crashing to the ground all around him....either from him personally choreographing their professional demise....or others burning and crashing simply by flying too close to his flame. All this produced what we have today....a once formidable but now utterly disreputable Republican Party....and a decimated evangelicalism where Christians fell head over heels for a genuine biblical false prophet and enemy of their professed Lord and Savior....and a compassionate conservatism that today is nothing but a joke....if not turning into outright racism.....with its constant barrage of cell phone videos that is meant to portray an entire American ethnic community as nothing but raging hedonists or criminals.
                 What President Trump presided over in his four years in the White House that was good....and there was precious little of it.....was what conservatives had fought for over decades.....during which time Trump was nothing but fodder for supermarket tabloids. He had to give conservative judges or even Limbaugh would be calling for his head. There seemed to be a month or so of concern for what was transpiring at the beginning of his administration....but they decided to just....let Trump be Trump. Lindsey Graham and Ann Coulter went back and forth on this so often that they could put their name on a brand of Ping Pong tables. They all thought that they could keep him under control.....which unfortunately is as absurd as Trump's thoughts that he could keep the coronavirus under control by ignoring it.
                 To cover their tracks....they are attempting to destroy Anthony Fauci....who considering what he was dealing with did an admirable job....for the hit list is posted for anyone on our side who at the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, psaltery, dulcimer and all kinds of music....(in actuality the rally music of the Village People, the Stones, Queen, The Who, AC/DC, Lee Greenwood etc.)....does not fall down and worship the image of the golden-haired calf....shall be cast into the fiery furnace of prime time Fox cable news!
                 Who was it that first described the definition of insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? Well that is exactly what these Republicans are doing.....as they despised him but thought they could control him....and they thought that they needed him....but he only dragged them down into the slimiest swamp of all....and they are doing it again....making the very same mistake....because they think that they cannot survive without him!

Note: There was a day when conservative talk radio and Fox evening shows were invaluable to us....in giving us the news that the mainstream media would not....and if Trump ever leaves they may return somewhat to what they once were.....but for now that is all gone....as this media is in total bondage to him. They must turn all attention away from the horrors of this man.....even if they have to distort just about everything they broadcast. My warning here is to Christians....flee these people as Lot fled Sodom. Flee them and return to God's Word!!! I talk to so many today....professing Christians.....who have no powers of thinking left whatsoever.....as they simply sit by the radio or television....and believe everything that they hear without so much as a moment of examination....as if Satan and his minions would never think of using a demagogue to lead the church away from Christ.

A Drudge news item led me to view Tucker Carlson laughing and calling the Chairman of our Joint Chiefs of Staff...." a pig."  Folks....that is what we have devolved into.

And also this from today....Saturday....June 26....Fox's main headline right now is...."Fauci Caught  Lying."
The Washington Post claims to have documented Trump's lies over four years.....30,000 of them....or an average of 21 a day. Now I don't know anything about what Fox is talking about here with Fauci....but I personally have witnessed daily lying from Trump over those four years....many small lies....some medium lies.....and some seriously important lies.....for the man has absolutely no concept of truth at all....but here is my point....I do not remember Fox prime time  cable or Internet news ever....ever.....mentioning one of those literal thousands of lies! This my friends is the malignant bias of the so-called patriotic news we are given every day....and have been given every day for four years of covering for Trump.....and this to go along with the distortion of the news and malignant bias from CNN type of sources. We need to back away from these people on both sides and begin once again to think for ourselves.

Just three examples...to give you an idea....does this bother anybody....anybody? Candidate Trump promised to release his tax returns....then for years said that he couldn't do it because they were under audit....then just came out and admitted he wasn't going to release them. How about this....Candidate Trump severely criticized Obama for golfing so much....and said that he wasn't going to golf....that he was going to work....then he golfed almost twice as much as Obama....anybody....or this.....at every rally Trump told the crowd that he got rid of the Johnson Amendment....and the crowd cheered....but he never got rid of the amendment....it would have had to be legislated out....and he never tried. This was the norm folks. If he lies like this all the time…for has his whole life….what makes you think that he is not lying to you on everything else?

"Every Man Must Decide...."

                The book was originally published in 1923....J. Gresham Machen's Christianity And Liberalism....and it was considered a tour de force even by many of the anti-Christian pundits in American journalism. We opened a Christian bookstore in our town over two decades ago....and I had an idea....that I would only sell the very best of Christian books that were published at the time....and classic Christian literature from the past. Machen's book was one of them. I did a commercial on the local Christian radio station....it began with the sound of a nail being hammered into wood....and I commented on Martin Luther's posting his 95 Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517. People did come from all around Pittsburgh....but generally the local church was not interested in Christian books that were not of the popular encouragement type.
                Machen wrote....and this almost a century ago....on how socialism was an attack on individualism....and on education....and how the mind that God had given man was then and would continue to atrophy from lack of use....these are my words....in other words he saw well in advance the America that we are today....but he saw and wrote of an even greater problem....the collapse of the church....and of preaching....and the rejection of dependence upon Christ. He gives us some advice at the end of the book....and poses a question....is it the Word of God that we will follow....or some angel from heaven that brings a gospel....but not the gospel of the Cross? The following is near the end of Machen's book:

               "If the Word of God be heeded, the Christian battle will be fought both with love and faithfulness. Party passions and personal animosities will be put away, but on the other hand, even angels from heaven will be rejected if they preach a gospel different from the blessed gospel of the Cross. Every man must decide upon which side he will stand. God grant that we may decide right!

Note: The novella.....Isaac Crockett....the link of which is to your left on this page.....was written about the time that we had our bookstore....and the main plot revolves around a Christian Bookstore.....if you are interested.
               

"Lord I Believe; Help Thou My Unbelief"

"Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name's sake....and a person's enemies shall be those of his own household" (Matthew 10: 21 22a, and 36)

                The Christian of many years has read this passage many times....and passages similar to it in Mark and Luke....and unless I am mistaken....we tend to place this at a time in the future when even our friends and family have become so pagan that they put to death Christians as readily as did the Roman citizens send the Christians to the lions. This interpretation in itself by necessity looks at least decades to the future because we are not quite like that today....but that interpretation is by no means binding....because perfect storms....and possible sudden unexpected circumstances....can in effect bring imminence to this horrid situation described in these verses.
                 The vast majority of professing Christians today in America may be god-fearing.....and certainly assent to gospel truths.....but have never been born again.....only enlisted....either in the liberal false Christian church of the day....or the political and nationalist church developing right now on the Republican side. This being the case....should extraordinary turns of events come about....they may not see the deception....because the Spirit of God does not dwell within them....and they will thus be so certain that they are right in whatever these 'sudden unexpected circumstances' demand.....and that they are the ones that are doing God's will....that they will consider any and all others to be hopelessly fanatical if they refuse to follow the leader....or the agenda...and therefore....difficult as it may be.....those who rock the lifeboat will have sealed their own fate by their fanaticism....and whatever the punishment determined may be....they will have to suffer it....for the good of the whole. 
                  My point is that the fulfillment of these verses in Matthew and Mark and Luke....and all the other verses that fill God's Word on our Lord's return in glory and power and righteous judgment....are not to be scheduled by our personal predilections on timing....and therefore we should make every effort to be vigilant....double-check the 'oil' that we have available for our lamps....never permit the temporal to overtake the eternal as our focus....rightly fear arrogance....and seek humility....in pleading along with the father of the convulsed child...."Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief."

It would help to revisit what the Bible says about....few being saved....for one cannot really understand the reality of what these verses tell us unless one realizes that....comparatively speaking....few shall be saved. J. C. Ryle addressed this and you might want to Google up and listen to.....Few Saved: Old Paths)

               

"The American People Want Someone To Articulate Their Rage For Them"

               It is a rough movie....both in the language and in the concepts. I had not watched the 1976 film....(1977 Academy Awards)....since it was released about a month after my wife and my wedding. I picked the DVD up at flea market....as it turned out about a week before actor Ned Beatty died....and put it in the machine a few nights ago.
               Filmwise it was extraordinary in that it had a half dozen characters with powerful roles....and each actor was up to the task. Peter Finch of course was the highlight.....as Howard Beale. ("I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore") The film as you know by now was Network.
               William Holden would pass away only a couple of years after receiving a Best Actor nomination. Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky would pass away a short while after Holden.
               It was said in the film of Beale...."The American people want someone to articulate their rage for them." He ranted on television....and at his direction had the public shouting out their windows....that they also were mad as hell and were not going to take it anymore.
               For those not familiar with Network....an aging.....formerly popular nightly news host....now about to be let go because of poor ratings....announces that he is going to kill himself on the air....is fired.....but requests that he be given one last time in front of the camera to leave in a better way....but decides in that moment to rant and rage using profanity....on the air.....which had a wildly popular effect on the American public...(who....once again....were mad as hell....and weren't going to take it anymore)....so he is given his own television show....and that's only the beginning!
              Chayefsky gives Beale some chilling lines....in retrospect...."Right now there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube. This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation; this tube can make or break presidents....and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people"....and...."We'll tell you anything you want to hear, we lie like hell"....and...."You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here...."
              Faye Dunaway's character is described as a "humanoid"....by William Holden's character....who is love with her. Robert Duval's character is power and greed crazy in the film....Ned Beatty's is demonic....and Peter Finch's is described as a "mad prophet".....but seems more just 'possessed' by his own demons.
              Beale was described at one point as...."processed, instant god."  Chayefsky won the Best Screenplay Oscar. The character of Howard Beale gained instant stardom....and that popularity lasted a short while.....but even as the concept of ranting was getting old.....he still had those who were cheering him on at the sudden and shocking end of the film.
              I hardly remembered anything about the movie other than the...."I'm mad as hell....and I'm not going to take it anymore." In fact I don't even think that I liked it back in 1976....and I'm not sure why I went out of my way to ask the vender at the flea market if he had it.
              I'm in the habit of microwaving popcorn before putting a DVD in the machine....but did not pop any this time....and that was good....for this is not a 'popcorn at the theater' type of evening. It's more of a....'sign the guestbook and walk slowly by the casket'....kind of film....a 'pay your respects to America' type of viewing.

                

Father's Day

                It never fails....and it always takes me by surprise. Today (Saturday) is Father's Day.....for in our house Father's Day has always been 'celebrated' on the day before.  It would have been 1963....well that's my guess anyway....probably in the fall. I took the Port Authority bus for the eight mile trip to downtown Pittsburgh....(I would have been 13 years old)....to buy a copy of Gary Player's book....Gary Player's Golf Secrets....and have him autograph it. The venue was the old Hughes & Hatcher men's clothing store. Whatever the date....I remember him sitting behind the table....and smiling up as he asked for the name of the person requesting the autograph....and thanking them for buying his book. It would have been one of the first hardcover books that I ever read....cover to cover.
                 I know that I watched more golf on television today (Saturday) than I had in the past forty years. I just came in the house and plopped down in the chair.....expecting only a few minute rest.....but I clicked on the tube.....and the U. S. Open mesmerized me. Maybe it was the incredible graphics or the drone camera or the course itself....or maybe the intensity of watching the golfers in this third round playing out of sand traps and missing fairways or making long putts to make par....or maybe it was the making of eagle putts?
                 Who were these golfers....particularly this weight lifting guy that out-drives everyone else. I remember the name Oosterhuis from way back when.....but who is this Oosthuizen. I don't even know how to pronounce this Koepka's name.
                 So why am I writing this? Well you're not going to like the answer but here it is. It interested me enough today that I would like very much to plop down on that chair again tomorrow and see how this turns out.....but instead I won't find out until Monday morning.....because tomorrow is the Lord's Day! That partially explains why Father's Day is always celebrated in our home the day before.
                 Back to...."It never fails".....yesterday my wife put a card and a gift before me....and I had forgotten as I always do....it's Father's Day....and as our whole family went out to dinner our son said that this was his Father's Day gift....another surprise....and we all visited my father-in-law....our son's grandfather....(and we will do so again today).....because the whole family is giving him 24/7 care at this point in his his life....and I never once said to him....Happy Father's Day....because it never entered my mind. Why?
                 The chief responsibility of fathers....in my mind anyway....is raising the children in the grace and admonition of the Lord. The eternal souls of their children are in their hands. This should be front and center in their minds every day of their lives....that their children know and love Jesus Christ. With this ingrained in me so much....it apparently is impossible for me to let our modern concept of Father's Day enter my mind without having to be reminded.
                  The Winslow Boy....the 1999 David Mamet film....is my second favorite film of all time. It is the story of a father's defense of his son who had been wrongly accused of a petty crime while at school....this being London in the early 20th century...and the school a prestigious one....and the punishment expulsion.....but as much as I love this movie for the portrayal of a father's love for his son....it was never a joyful movie to me....maybe happy in a way....but never joyful....for the Christian faith of the Winslow family was borderline at best.....and the father who sacrificed greatly to clear his son......nevertheless failed him utterly in the most important thing of all....placing Christ before him every day of his life.
                  These things can be separated....American patriotism and our Christian faith can be separated.....but we in the church in America have failed here also. So yes tomorrow is indeed Father's Day in a way...but that father is God the Father. If the current popular opinion on the Fourth Commandment is correct....then I have missed a lot of good golf and NFL football....but if it is not correct.....the implications being that by not honoring the Lord's Day we have in our nation effectively cut down a hedge of protection that God had graciously given us....then America is what it is today in no small part because we ourselves failed.....we failed to be vigilant in our Christian faith....and thus we failed our families. The same thing applies to being 'born again'....for are in essence gamblers....we are confident that we are probably good on the cards that we are holding. We don't really even listen to what those old time Christians tell us about having to be regenerated....for we looked at our cards....two kings....good works and fair to other people....they look like probable winners.....so we'll go with them....and thus we go with them for our children also....only to find that God requires perfection....not just two kings....and perfection comes only in the righteousness imputed to the one who has been.....'born again.'
                 

          

Only 'One In Ten'....Could Be The Reason That We Do Not Know Where Lies Our Only Hope

          

              Jesus answered the question of the pharisees on when the kingdom of God would come by pointing out to them that it would be as in the days of Noah building the ark.....and as when Lot was taken out of Sodom....in other words no one was concerned about God's judgment coming....which is where we are today....even in the church. Jesus also told them....and us ....to "Remember Lot's wife." So I think that we should remember her....should we not? She was attached to the world of her day....just like we are attached to the world of our day....but there was yet more that Jesus would say as he told the parable of the the persistent widow....where the unrighteous judge finally listened to her just to get her our of his hair. If this was the case....how much more will our righteous judge consider our pleas if we continue to pray? And there was this....as Jesus said...."I tell you he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?"
              Right now....evangelicalism is collapsing in front of our eyes.....as we are all politics today....which we believe to be our savior. I've described it often in these posts in how...."our supply lines have been cut." The loss of the Christian bookstore is key here....for these were all over America....you would almost stumble over them as you simply walked a shopping center concourse. Many unbelievers and inquirers and new Christians may not have exactly had a banquet ahead of them in every book....or even the majority of books....but they did present a buffet in which God could tempt with delicious morsels.....as He did to me forty years ago. The loss of Billy Graham also set us adrift....for he was always present on the television in one way or another....his words pricking the conscience of someone who was merely surfing the channels. Our pulpits today do no more than sell war bonds.....to build a bigger sanctuary....or for televangelists to build a bigger studio.
              Jesus had also warned in these passages that there would be those who pronounce.....'here is what you were looking for!'....but that we were not to follow them.....which of course is exactly what we have done with first Donald Trump....and continue to do so with this monstrosity that talk radio and cable broadcasting  has become....that claims to speak for us....but they neither know us or our Lord and King.....for if they did they would proclaim His kingship.

Note: The verses referenced here are in Luke 17:12 to 18:8....but they began with this....

"And as he entered into a certain village, there were met him ten men who were lepers, which stood afar off; And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy upon us. And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks; And he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said,  Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine? There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger, And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way, thy faith hath healed thee whole."

Only one of ten....and that could possibly be the percentage of evangelicals today who remember of Whom they were healed. 

           

Lord's Day Post

               Charles Spurgeon the Baptist and J. C. Ryle the Anglican were like Peter and Paul to London in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The names of the enemies of what these two men were doing in their pulpits....and with their writings....are long forgotten today....but Spurgeon's ministry and Ryle's ministry are still being used by God in a mighty way.
               The church in England was heading downhill fast by the late 1880s....and these two men stood up in defense of the gospel.....particularly Spurgeon....England's greatest light.....who was censured by his own denomination.....and that fight....that censure....contributed to his early death at the age of 57....a few years after this fight began. Jonathan Edwards had also died relatively young....(54)....in no small way because the rejection from his own congregation of 23 years set him on the move....placing him in an area experiencing a smallpox outbreak......and J. Gresham Machen....the great Presbyterian defender of the gospel in America in post-WWI America.....who was defrocked by his congregation....also died young....(55)....while traveling a long distance to give aid and encouragement to congregations in need.
              Spurgeon's battle in defense of the gospel lasted a few years....and he wrote these words in summary while the battle was still hot and heavy....

             "We believe in prayer....LET US PRAY LIKE ELIJAHS....May the Lord himself direct his people! Meanwhile, to redouble our prayers, and to seek a revival in all our churches, cannot possibly be a mistake. Prayer, mighty prayer, can do wonders. This is the work of the present hour. Pray without ceasing, and preach the faithful Word in clearer terms than ever before. Such a course of conduct may seem to some to be a sort of standing still and doing nothing, but in very truth it is bringing God into the battle; and when HE comes to avenge the quarrel of his covenant, he will make short work of it. 'Arise, O Lord, plead thine own cause!" (PS 74:22)

             We in America are where Spurgeon was at the time of this writing....where the battle is essentially lost....as our supply lines are cut....and our only alternative is to rely on prayer....but O....do not consider this a plan B....for this is where we should have made our base camp from the very beginning. God did answer Spurgeon's pleading to "Arise!"....only not in the way that Spurgeon had hoped in his limited vision....and our prayers will be answered....but also in a way that we might not expect.

 

Short-Time Calendars......Subject To Change

                I was up early Thursday morning....and in the car heading to a higher elevation in order to see what I could of the solar eclipse. As it turned out the higher elevation was worse because a low hanging fog covered the flattened mall parking lot....so I headed back down....and was able....for a few seconds at most....and with the help of some eye protection....to clearly see the sliver of moon invade the rising disk in the morning sky.
                I've been in the habit of posting on various events such as solar and lunar eclipses. I posted only a few words on August 21, 2017....on the...."first continent-wide eclipse to be visible only from the United States States since 1776"....and the following is part of a May 20, 2012 post....(a few weeks before the London Olympics)....titled....An Eclipse Of Christ...." As I write this an annular eclipse is in the western sky. The moon, at its furthest point from earth, blocks the sun, only leaving a ring of fire around the edge. Americans, most of us anyway, are no different than other peoples and cultures that decayed and disappeared. Christ has only been partially blocked from the American public....[and]....many look to Him only through a filtered lens.....[but]....as sure as the moon will quickly pass out of the way, His full-orbed glory will be evident, either in judgment or a glorious awakening."
                When I joined the army in 1969....it was supposedly for four years....but as the beginning of that fourth year neared the part of the army that I was in suddenly found itself overstaffed....and offered us a year 'drop'....of which most of us took. At one moment I was looking at about a year and a half left in the army....and then the next....only six months left....so I could start my short-time calendar. When I talk to young college students today I often hear...."I have two years left"....or....."I have three years left"....or...."I only have one semester left!" It always helps to know how much time there is left to a task.
               As far as the Tribulation is concerned.....we may not know when there are exactly seven years to the return of our Lord and Savior and King.....but whoever is here.....and has had ears to hear.....will know at the Abomination of Desolation....that there are three and a half years left. In one way one might say...."Oh my...three and a half years left!"....but then that one might say...."Praise God....only three and a half years left!"
              We know of a rider on a white horse....with a bow in his hands....and he was given a "crown"....and was...."bent on conquest"....(NIV)....not a whole lot there on the beginning of the Tribulation....unless your looking at it in the past tense. There are numerous signs about the nearness of the Tribulation....some as plain as the nose on your face.....such as May of 1948. We may see this world ruler coming....or we may have to look back....and say...."Oh....or even"Uh-oh!"
              If you think that God wants you to be totally clueless....all I have to say is....'hey.....you gotta be what you gotta be'....but God deals with our frailties....pulling us in with His staff when we stray....as a shepherd with his sheep.  Only a few years ago....2017 to be exact....at the 500th anniversary of Luther's igniting the Reformation....one of the best Christian ministries that God has blessed us with....held a conference and titled it....The Next 500 Years! I could hardly believe this poorly chosen title.....and I think I said to myself...."500 years! How about the next 500 days!" As in so many other things....we tend to go too far one way or the other.....so we either set dates....or we are so afraid of being criticized that we won't even dare set centuries.....or millenniums! 

                

"Where Have We Gone After The Baals?"

Preface: I posted this for the first time on December 17, 2019. the very next day the House of Representatives would impeach President Donald Trump. Seven weeks later on February 4, 2020....President Trump would give a State of the Union address and bask in the glory that he was proclaiming of himself....for he was riding high and his reelection seemed certain....the very next day the Republican majority Senate rubber-stamped his acquittal in his impeachment trial.....(I should say first impeachment trial)....but God's latest judgment upon us and upon the world was just being unleashed....a tiny virus. Regardless of where and how it originated.....or who made what mistakes....the deaths and the political chaos and the monstrous debt accrued and the further dividing of an already mortal wound of division in our society....regardless of all this.....and anything else you can think of....and the aggregate of it all...and all future misery and possibly war that comes from it....it was and is pure judgment from God.....because we had forsaken Him who was the source of every blessing and every protection that we ever had....and because we had gone after other gods....and when confronted with this we say...."What? Where have we gone after other gods?"

"Where Have We Gone After The Baals?"

             "For my people have committed two evils:
             They have forsaken Me,
             The fountain of living waters,
             To hew for themselves cisterns,
             Broken cisterns,
             That can hold no water."

These are words from near the beginning of the book of Jeremiah. Israel....the northern tribes....had long since fallen...and been taken captive....just like half of our nation had been taken captive by communist and suicidal ideologies....and now it's our turn....selfish and arrogant and spiteful. We thought we had a more practical way....might and power....rather than relying on the spirit of the LORD of hosts.

             "Have you not done this to yourself,
              By your forsaking the Lord your God,
              When He led you in the way?"

Yet we still picture ourselves as some kind of remnant....why we're the remnant of the pilgrims don't you know...."A shining city on a hill..."....and the intellectual heirs of Washington and Jefferson and Lincoln!" No we're not....we don't bear any resemblance to the pilgrims and Puritans....and we're the heirs of Hamilton and Andrew Jackson and Teddy Roosevelt at best.

              "And my inheritance you made an abomination.
               The priests did not say, 'Where is the LORD?'
               And those who handle the law did not know Me,
               And the prophets prophesied by Baal
               And walked after things that did not profit."

God is not angry with us....maybe them....but not us!

               "How can you say, 'I am not defiled,
                I have not gone after the Baals'?"

Yet we utterly refuse to bow down.....to trust only in Him....or to honor the Word of God. If things get rough....we'll have some national prayer day or something....'God bless America!"

               "But in the time of their trouble they will say,
                'Arise and save us.'
                But where are your gods
                Which you made for yourself."

O God....what have we possibly done that you could be angry with? We can say Merry Christmas again!

                "Yet you said, 'I am innocent;
                 Surely His anger is turned away from me.'
                 Behold, I will enter into judgment with you
                 Because you say, 'I have not sinned'."

                 "For the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust,
                  And you shall not prosper with them."

Addendum: Take this survey on your own....and it's a survey where you don't have to ask any questions....just observe. As you are in conversation with other Christians....and let's limit it to the finest Christians that you know....even add your pastors into it....think back as far as you can on this also....and there will not be one instance where any of our brothers and sisters in Christ actually made a comment on Jesus coming back right now....because it would be the furthest thing from their minds. They can surely count the days before the 2022 mid-terms and 2024 general elections....and they obviously read the same news on the absolute horrors of where we are heading....and the real threats of persecution for those who do not compromise their Christian beliefs.....and keep in mind what is happening to our children's minds....and the words of Jesus concerning leading children away from Him....(a recent poll found that 43% of millennials do not even believe in God)....but the actual hoping for the imminent return of Jesus Christ with His mighty angels....is pure fanaticism to them. They would rather believe an alien step off an interstellar spacecraft....than Jesus Christ return right now in judgment! One last thing....forget the pre-trib rapture in this equation....for it is not only incorrect.....but has turned out to be a negative influence on us where we use it to claim belief in the possible-near return of Christ....but have absolutely no passion for it....nor so we spend any time even thinking about our Savior's return to this violent and profane world.
              

Lord's Day Morning

                It is the Lord's Day morning and as I speak in the Eastern time zone pastors are right now probably leaving for church....their sermon prepared at the latest last evening. My prayer for years now is that as they step behind the pulpit that God might bring a heaviness upon them....a conviction that in spite of all their efforts and their own prayers.....they have failed in their calling to continue to reform when necessary....and to listen to the leading of God's Spirit....and that we in the pews might collapse in conviction as did those who were present for Jonathan Edward's famous sermon.
                These are good men that I'm referring to.....not the many who are ministers of the gospel in name only. They have never been lacking in passion for souls. It's not that they would not be willing to give up their positions in their churches.....for they would....but they are human like the rest of us....and susceptible to the tremendous sway that this culture....the Bible would call it the world.....has upon even the elect.
                There are probably few evangelical churches in America at this time....where if the pastor was to warn the congregation of this man Donald Trump....that at the very least a portion of the congregation would either leave or cause problems of some sort. The tendency it appears has been to attempt to avoid the issue....and hope that it goes away.....but in reality it only gets worse.....much worse.
                I have never advocated bringing politics into the pulpit....in fact I've warned that it must be kept out.....but this is not politics. Trump's name never even need be uttered from the pulpit.....only a clear and distinct warning about false prophets who come in among us.....pretending to be our friends....friends of the gospel....but who never were part of us....who in effect prophesy peace and security.....when the opposite is true....as they flatter us as if we need no self-examination....for we obviously are doing God's work.
                 These pastors really need do no more than read Paul's warnings of those who are...."lovers of self".....or Jude's warnings of...."brute beasts"....or John's of...."antichrists"....or Peter's to be vigilant.....or our Lord's command to...."beware." We need the whole Word of God....and this is a time when 'warnings' are of the utmost importance to us.

Try Praying First......It Might Bring Back Some Blessed Memories

Preface and update: Donald Trump gave his speech tonight at the North Carolina GOP convention. Lara Trump announced that she will....not be a candidate for the senate....and minutes later Trump endorsed his candidate.....this was all a surprise....meanwhile another candidate already in the race was in the crowd.....blindsided by all of this.....and Trump dumped on him. In Georgia's GOP convention.....the governor was loudly booed.....and the secretary of state censured. Romney had previously been booed in his state. Folks....you cannot see what you are unleashing. I had a promising  experience the other day in a conversation with a friend. We talked for only a few minutes about the danger of Trump.....and here she said that she had already sent letters to two Republican committees on what Trump is doing. This is what we need!

(NOTE....JUNE 15.....we have reached 600,000 deaths from the virus....and folks....I listen to these our own people every day on broadcasts of one sort or another....literally attempting to destroy Dr, Fauci as if he were Josef Mengele.....(for we are nothing but political animals now.....there is no gospel in us anymore...and no Christian witness....only Trumpian personal attacks on anything that moves but does not bow down in homage.) We thus demonstrate to any clear observer how we have absolutely no compassion for human life or empathy anymore! If you cannot see this....I pity you.....for it is so very obvious.....how he has changed us....into the image of himself.)         

                The greatest generation....that's what many call them.....in how they responded to Pearl Harbor. What would they call us....in how we responded to a pandemic? It has been a remarkable career...that of Dr. Anthony Fauci.....at least from I read on Wikipedia. He along with Ben Carson was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush in 2008. There are a couple of ways to look at what transpired around the coronavirus pandemic over the past year and a half. You could read only mainstream liberal sources....or you could read only the Trump sources.....or you could rely more on what I have.....and that is a week-to-week- almost day-to-day personal recollection....and in that recollection I saw this man do yeoman's work....in almost impossible odds....with personal attacks on him all the time because his evaluations did not sit well with those running the Trump 2020 campaign.
                 Can you even imagine what it would be like to have every memo....almost every conversation of General Eisenhower's during World War II? From what I have seen so far....Fauci was personally answering just about every email he received.....even from people in the public. The real question is not in how many times he was right....for who in a war of any kind could stand up to that examination.....particularly in this case by people who have left the arena of public health....and operate solely in the arena of crass....win at absolutely any cost....politics.....but in how the course of events followed the prognostications of the main decision makers of our government's health scientists. They were telling us that this could last well into 2021....and that it did....and it's not over. We are nearing 600,000 deaths. Just a little over a year ago President Trump was predicting about 50,000 deaths. Some of his statements were typical Trump absurdities....and you easily could Google this for yourself to see what there were and the evolution of his predictions.
                 All of this is neither here nor there compared to what is happening today. If you.....Christians....are part of this....then you should be very concerned for what happened to you over the past four years.....for this is nothing short of a blood lust attempt to destroy a person's good reputation...after fifty years of service.....and if you know your Bible....then you know that this is one of the big things that you do not want to do. So when you get the text or email with an article from the 'America Only' base of this new Republican Party....consider praying over this whole thing first....you might be surprised at how your mind begins to work a little bit differently than it has over the last few years....and you might recall how it once functioned independently of domineering pundits....and how free that feeling was....and how strong and grounded on God's Word that you felt....and how you knew that at least you were on the right path in dealing with pride and self-righteousness.

              

What (Was) Our Trust Centered Upon

The following is a preface from October of 2018 to a post two and a half years earlier....and now it's about two and a half years later. There is no stopping where this world is headed....but we Christians can halt our own slide if we but realize that we had long ago cut our moorings to Christ and tethered up to one false political hope after another. I remember it vividly....it was basic training in 1969....and they transported us to the firing range in large trailer trucks with horizontal wooden slats allowing the air to pass through. I don't recall who started it....it may have been me....as we loudly began 'mooing!' It must have been quite a sight. They are moving us now....as cattle....rounding us up....putting us in one large pen for their own purposes....Tucker Carlson and talk radio hosts riding herd. We are sheep among the cattle....our faith being trampled on by the agitated and volatile bovine herd. It also is quite a sight....evangelicals kicking the wooden slats....waiting for a chance to stampede....stomping to death anyone that they direct us over (Fauci.) We need winnowed out out of the herd by faithful shepherds...to once again hear the voice of the Good Shepherd.

Preface: One might expect it from those whose primary allegiance is to conservatism....but not from those whose primary allegiance is to Christ.. We put all of our trust in a man....a prince as the Bible would refer to him....not only a fallible man but one with serious character disorders....a few even pathologies that lead to the inability to discern fact from fiction....and we gave nothing but lip service to the Prince of Peace and the King of Kings....ignoring His warnings as we planned our own rescue. We are now paying for our total lack of discernment....and utter refusal to admit that we are part of the problem....with a rapidly collapsing nation. The following post is from February of 2016.... few days after the death of Antonin Scalia:

What Is Our Trust Centered Upon.

         The plan was to put a conservative in the White House (that didn't happen) and then add two or more originalists to the Supreme Court (that may happen) and take back America (that won't happen.) It was a good plan as far as plans go. It's putting our trust in those our own plans where we depart from God's will.
         Saturday we lost one of America's greatest jurists of all time. We had plans but those plans have suddenly been abridged. We are reeling once again but nine Antonin Scalias could not pull us out of this pit if God did not will it. Should God desire to have mercy upon us for His purposes there is no force on earth that could stop those mercies from being extended....(not even nine ultra-liberal Supreme Court judges).....and all the power of hell could not destroy us if God did not permit it.
          Do you the reader recall the Biblical text from Exodus 17 where when Moses raised his arms with the staff that parted the sea in his hands....or that later the Israelites prevailed on the fields of Rephidim when he raised that same staff....and when he lowered it the Amalekites in the battle when he lowered itprevailed in the battle? It was also at Rephidim where Moses at first feared for his life and then rebuked the Israelites for not trusting God to provide water! Surely you remember God limiting Gideon to just three hundred men to rout the Midianites. Have not these messages set in? Have we forgotten the word to Zerubbabel...."Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts."? We have departed from God with disastrous results, planned our own rescue, and then found out how brittle man's plans can be.
          The tectonics are shifting friends, the magma chamber has been breached! Trust now in God and in Him alone for as even Nahum in his taunting oracles to Nineveh wrote..."The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows them that trust in Him."       

Flee Them....Run To The Voice That Originally Called You!

Preface....June 15: We evangelicals think that we are doing God's work in the political arena of issues flash mobs....and talk radio show trials....and mass purgings.....but we are not. We are worse than just being taken in....for we are now disciples of whatever talk radio host or cable news star or podcast guru is our own personal guru. No longer thinking for ourselves....with no compassion anymore....we will crush anyone that we are told to crush.....and do so with a smile on our face.

                Folks.....I had been a conservative radio talk show listener for a long...long time....back when the most important thing in Donald Trump's life was beauty pageants and gambling casinos.  Well....actually that's not that long ago...and there was a report out last week that he might be interested in another gambling venture.....this time in South Florida....(don't worry Christians....he's God's Jehu given to us...he's allowed to do anything.....don't worry about those warnings in the Bible.....that's probably a hoax too!)
                 Talk radio was so very valuable to us not that many years ago....but Donald Trump has changed these hosts. Think about this....we know who the Democrats are.....we've known all this while Trump was buddy-buddy with them.....but talk radio literally hammers us every hour of every show. This isn't to inform us. Who of us needs to know the absurdities and dangers of the Left? They don't think that we are smart as they always so flatter us. They think that we are stupid....so stupid that we must be kept in a rage....so that we do not have a minute to think and consider that our man might very well be just as much a complete disaster as Biden....with more malignant psychological disorders than Joe Biden has pairs of sunglasses. At best they think that they can control him! You would think that they learned by now that it had been the other way around....Trump controlled them....right up to January 6th....like a cult leader his mass of glassy eyes followers.
                 Flee these so-called experts....who drop God's name all the time....but have no concept at all of the gospel of Jesus Christ.....and flee these podcasts....and these new MAGA news outlets that claim that they give you the truth! They are using you.....as unbeknownst to them....they are being used by this world's biggest con man! Return to Christ! This isn't....one glorious nation under God.....our best days are not ahead of us....very difficult days are ahead of us! Would you not want to know this? Christ's return is ahead of us!! Praise Him for this!!!
                 If your pastor will not wake up.....flee him.....and find one who trusts not only in God.....as they all say....but trusts in God's warnings! If he cannot see the problem with Donald Trump....and his malignant megalomania....and his disastrous effect on the church.....especially after the past six months.....flee him....or at least stand your ground on what you know to be true as you pray for him....and tell him that God will hold him to account for not warning the sheep of a false prophet who came onto the sheepfold not through the gate....but down the escalator.

Life Is Not A Cabaret.....Old Chum

Preface:  Folks....I don't know what to tell you.....you read the same news that I do. You don't have a say in what this new Republican Party is going to do. Talk radio is set up so that it appears that we all agree with the host and the party....but they carefully screen those calls....and there is no conversation at all that calls out Trump for what he is. Pressure is put on everywhere....get with the program or you are out. Trump was an absolute disaster as president....never should have run a second time considering that in spite of his following he is probably the most despised man in the history of American politics. He had that election snatched out from under him yes....just as the 2016 election was snatched out from under Hillary.....this because of Putin's interference. He orchestrated that violent insurrection....it wasn't just the words from that day....but four years of inciting anger. I posted before the violence started....as Trump was still firing up the fringe....that I had to turn it off because what I saw unnerved me so.....and yet these cult leaders today not only deny what went on....they won't even permit an investigation! Stalin would be proud of this and all the purging!          

               As of today.....May 27, 2021.....we....not only conservatives....but evangelicals....are totally under their control. "They'....being those in power.....(which turns out to be a carefully delegated and controlled power....for it is not their own)....who are under the sway.....spell....(either word fits)....of Donald Trump....who incredibly as of now has been resurrected.

               I'm trying to write here as an outside observer. It's possible because Christians should be outside of this new power movement....for what we are seeing occurring in this that still calls itself the Republican Party....is ungodly. It may yet carry a pro-life banner but ultimately everything here is transactional....for we have proven in the coronavirus debate....as we demanded that the cabaret and churches be reopened....that we care little about human life if it does not politically benefit us....or validate our....as more than a few have described....Christless Christianity. What we did not realize concerning the economy is that that because of its mind-blowing debt....and because of approaching war....that at best gold and silver will mean little as God's judgments continue....lockdowns or no lockdowns.
               We....whatever the size of this remnant that has not fallen for a false prophet....we watch this power grab....blatant as it is....not even caring what it looks like....and we for the most part are vexed....as we watch the news....and see two ungodly forces going at it against each other....in this once at least God-fearing United States of America.
               Talk radio will continue to dominate our souls....giving us spoonfuls of truth....mixed in a drink concoction that would have made H. G. Wells and Aldous Huxley sit up and take notice. History....from a hundred years ago....is  being repeated....and we conservatives who probably have often quoted George Santayana in...."those who forget history....are doomed to repeat it'....(a slight variance on the original quote)....have....forgotten history....as we are right now repeating it.
                I posted this last August under the post title....A Very Natural Temptation....if you are interested...."Martin Niemoller....you may have heard about him....represented those who at first thought that National Socialism was a great thing if kept in its place. Dietrich Bonhoeffer....you certainly have heard of him....saw the horrors of where this extreme nationalism could go. Niemoller spent years in prison and concentration camps before finally seeing the mistakes that he made before the war. Bonhoeffer paid for his discernment with his life....We are getting too close to having an 'American Church' movement'."
                I can tell you that over the decades.....particularly in the 80s....we in the church warned that delusion was coming....but I can tell you this also....we had no idea that the evangelical church would fall for that delusion. You see....we were warning others....but not aware that if we were not vigilant....that we ourselves would be vulnerable to a false governmental system.
                God may awaken our pulpits....(they're sound asleep)....and He may not....but even if He does it would only be mercy upon many as we go through what is ahead....a mercy that at least would see multitudes brought to salvation....so that we all could sing in unison...."Now to the King eternal....immortal....invisible....the only God....be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen"

THE GREAT FAILURE OF THE AMERICAN PULPIT

 Preface: I wanted to bring this recent post closer to the top....as this world continues to disintegrate....and we continue to ignore God's warnings to us. As I walked in the hot sun today.....and part of the walk was through our cemetery....one of those old cemeteries where some headstones are of Civil War soldiers who lost their life in battle....and I read many of the headstones....I felt some pangs of joy....for I know that the souls of many of the bodies buried here are now with their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I have walked more modern cemeteries and do not get that feeling. Pastors....God will ask of you why you did not warn the sheep. You don't think that you get a free pass on self-examination do you? 

             Whether it be a tiny congregation or one of thousands....the pastor is to be a shepherd....taking care of the spiritual lives of the sheep under his care. Spurgeon once told a story of how a contemporary of his....a pastor of a few hundred souls....was wearied in his nonstop service to the congregation....not wanting a single soul to be lost for his lack of prayer and effort and warnings. Spurgeon's response was essentially....'a few hundred.....I have a thousands to care for'....and having read and listened to many dozens of Spurgeon sermons from the first days in the fifth decade of the ninteenth century.....up to his last years in the beginning of the 1890s.....he stayed true to his responsibility....and having died young at 57 years old....his wife thought that his defense of the gospel itself in what was known as....The Downgrade Controversy....contributed to his ill health and death.

              We left a church early on when an old and dedicated pastor retired....and discernment from the pulpit retired along with him.....as faddish doctrines moved in....and another time when a pastor moved away....and was replaced by a young man whose main interest seem to be the size of the manse that the congregation would provide for him.
              I once had a pastor who died from Lou Gehrig's Disease....who made every effort for as long as humanly possible to enter that pulpit as a shepherd to his congregation....and when ALS  confined him to a chair in his home....he tried his hand reaching people through the Internet...and when he could no longer even speak....or make any movements at all.....other than movement of his eyes....through the wonder of modern technology....he eye pecked out encouragements and wisdom on his special computer for those around him.
               I'll give two anecdotes here....in the first....Pentecostal preacher David Wilkerson once attended out of interest a concert from Christian music's most popular singer of the day.....(I had attended one of these concerts also....and can attest to the description of what Wilkerson witnessed)....he was so distressed because of the worldliness of what thousands of young Christians were subjected to in that arena.....that he ran up the aisle yelling...."Ichabod....Ichabod".....the glory has departed....for he claimed that he could see demons on the stage.
                The second anecdote concerns John MacArthur......where in it he was told that one of the young people in his church had fallen sway to the efforts of one of the 'Christian cults' out there in America....(Christian cult being a sect that claims to be Christian but denies the essential doctrines of Christianity)....when told that the young person was about to move away to be with this cult.....he showed up at their home.....and although many of the specifics are gone from my memory....he took the keys out of the young person's car.....and threw them into the lake. He was fighting for this sheep whom the wolves were trying to devour.
                Five years ago when a false prophet appeared in America implying strongly that he was going to defend God....our pulpits did nothing.....worse than nothing as they celebrated the man they knew nothing about....nor desired to take the time to learn anything about. They still refused to warn their sheep even as it became obvious that he was now a demagogue. They could have at least pointed out that as this man told us incessantly that our best was yet to come....and that God's grace shined on us....that God's Word tells us the exact opposite....the exact opposite! Because of this failure to warn....this man continues to divide and destroy and turn us into people just like him.
                 The reasons for the demise of preaching in America are surely myriad.....and touch on many different areas....but the result is that the pastor of today seems to think that his prime responsibility is to protect the congregation from the gospel of Jesus Christ....or at least becoming too fanatical about it. If there are to be any warnings coming from their pulpits....those warnings would be....not to look to the past of the church....but the future. Whether it was postmodernism or the entertainment culture....or the church growth movement....or today politics....one attends there on Sundays....essentially to spiritually die....as they are entertained or as Neil Postman once put it....amused to death.
                  It's no longer an altar...but a stage....and the key word is no longer vigilance...but involvement. Mortification has been cancelled. An open-collared shirt over khakis is the new de rigueur for the pastor's attire....and Make Jesus Great Again....the new benediction.
                  'American exceptionalism' has replaced....'a peculiar people.' We are so cool. If an unbeliever does not believe that....all they have to do is enter one of our megachurch buildings. There is no threat there.....for it is a safe space for the evangelical. One does not have to be 'born again' anymore....only redirected....not converted....but rather recruited! This Easter week the resurrection will be highlighted and celebrated....then the blood being cleaned up....safely put away for another year.
                   We like to rail on how journalism has failed us....and our government has failed us....and our educational system....and just about every other institution.....but it is our pulpits that have failed us the most. We said.....we are going to rebuild.....not the church but America....but America.....and God said....go ahead....and I will tear down again....and He did! When these pastors see that maybe comforting us might not be what they should be preoccupied with....that calling us to account for our part in this societal collapse....and warning us of what is ahead....might be closer to what God called them to do....(hint: it's not...."our best is yet to come")....and when they begin to preach the cross once again....and the straight gate and the narrow way....and that few take them....and the cost of discipleship....and that the 'old paths' are better than the new ideas....then we might be able to take comfort in recognizing God's hand upon these men....and therefore also upon us.

              
            

Mind Control......GOP Style

Preface: Forget for a few moments worship of Trump and the hatred of Fauci. Don't think of masks or vaccinations or social distancing or statistics. This is not about testing or trends or hotspots. It has nothing to do with sparring pundits or demographics or hospitalizations. There is no China or Wuhan or Rand Paul or Marjorie whatever her name is or Tucker Carlson or DeSantis or anyone. There is only loss of life....and loss of employment....and division literally everywhere including jobs and churches and families....and physical violence on the streets....and trillions upon trillions of new debt....which means....'it's all over'....and handouts that make a mockery of even having to work. No matter what side you are on....if you are a Christian....you must at least admit that everything about this pandemic....once again no matter what side you are on....has been a judgment from God of biblical proportions.....yet....yet....it's as if we say to God....as did Pharaoh....or as did the rebellious Israelites....'you'll have to do better than that to get our attention.'......and He will.         

              Folks...I need to ask you to look at this from a different perspective. We all know that Democrat rule in the Congress and White House is bad news. Are you an adult or do you need the warnings of something like socialism....and Joe Biden....and A.O.C....force-fed to you every day of your lives?  That's what talk radio is doing....and has done for four years....not to inform you....you already know this....but to keep control of your mind. What is happening in the GOP is obvious as it believes that it needs the 30% or whatever the figure it is....of the pure Trump supporters....to win back the Congress in the mid-terms....18 months away. So the decision was made to let Trump....continue to be Trump....in spite of what we experienced in the past four years. I doubt if McCarthy or Graham or any one of them like or respect this man at all. They know that there will be a lot of collateral damage within the party....but the decision stands.

               Now.....here's what I would ask you to think about. It's not whether or not the decision to back Trump was right or wrong that I'm asking you to consider. I want to put something else before you.....and here it is. Any normal decent mentally stable politician today.....under any even just similar circumstances.....seeing turmoil and division surrounding them....turmoil and division not one-hundredth of what Donald Trump brings to the table....would long ago have taken themselves out of the picture.....for the good of the country.
              Please....please....think about this. Donald Trump would never do this.....not for the good of the country....not for anything. Surely you can see this. I posted two years ago.....asking just that....that for the good of the nation Trump would decide not to run for a second term. Had he not run....any candidate the Republican Party put up against a Biden/Harris ticket....would very likely have won that election....in spite of the ballot box stuffing....but Trump motivates the opposition.
               Flee these people on talk radio and Fox primetime cable....or at least moderate considerably their input....and utilize the mind that God gave you. This is serious psychological manipulation that they are involved with. Donald Trump changed them into his mold....as we now call everything a fake....suppress evidence....purge those who will not follow....and deny anything that we do not want to face up to. We use the devil's tools today and think nothing of it. This is the exact opposite of edification! Go back to your Bible...to your prayer time....to common sense thinking.....to humility.....to depending on God alone....before what you have enlisted in shows an even deeper and darker plan for you.

I would ask you to consider this also....we all should know that this Democrat Party of today is God's judgment upon a rebellious America....every bit as rebellious as was ancient Israel. We should know this. What we do not know....is that Donald Trump is every bit God's judgment upon us....Judah if you will.....but we say....."What! What have we done that displeases God.....we have three new Supreme Court justices....and can say "Merry Christmas" again....but God in effect tells us that our praises are hollow....our trust is not in Him....get rid of our gods....our efforts are wasted....and our sense of security in Him is false. Please consider the implications of this. We think we are the good guys....doing God's work....but are totally oblivious to the whole Trump MAGA phenomenon....not to mention QAnon.....being direct judgments upon....us!

I'll add a third concept for you to consider. Candidate Trump had considerable support from evangelicals. He in essence moved right into the middle of evangelicalism....right into our pulpits....with well-known ministers....and all kinds of prophesies given over him....by some of the most egregious horrendous false prophets out there. He himself prophesied.....(that is what it is....do you deny it)....at every single rally over five years now....very clearly.....telling us that our best was yet to come....and that we were going to keep on winning winning winning....that we were one glorious nation under God. Brothers and sisters in Christ....is this what you see in America? Or do you see Samaria? Donald Trump is the very biblical definition of a.....false prophet! You have not only fallen for....you are paving the way.....almost as if throwing palm branches....for a false prophet to return to the fold!  

Are these issues not at least worthy of bringing up at your Bible Study?                    

And yet I'll add something else....The Democrats had worked for four years to find ways to amass a treasure trove of votes....if needed....for their 2020 candidate. The votes were needed....and the treasure chest opened when the election was in doubt. On our part....in the run-up to the 2016 election....leaks were coming out on Hillary Clinton that to me....at the time....seemed that it would surely be devastating to her. That's one reason that I was very confident of Trump winning. We later found out that Putin operatives were very busy here trying to secure our election for their candidate. Donald Trump claims and disseminates outrage at the former assault on our electoral system....but not the latter. Believers....put the politics aside for a minute. There is no truth in this man....no concern for anything that is right.....and you must see this unless you purposely lay aside your Christian faith.

Is Jude's Letter Meant To Warn About Someone Like Donald Trump

                Jude felt it absolutely necessary to specifically warn the church to contend for the faith! We're not too big on warnings today....(unless it's on the evil Dr. Fauci) We're told that men....(and women can be assumed)....will have crept in....turning the "grace of our God"....into something else. What else can explain how so many churches today have become more of anti-mask protest rallies....glorying as if they are John Bunyan meeting in the forests? This is part of what Donald Trump has done....for salvation today in the mind of the majority of evangelicalism has been intertwined with patriotism....and not even a real patriotism....but a coarse MAGA power show of America First patriotism....a similitude of the gospel being somewhere after that.....maybe.

               These  men who have crept in are dreamers...."troublemakers....posing as prophets or teachers"....as the Reformation Study Bible puts it....despising authority. I can imagine Trump telling the Devil that his button is bigger....or words to that effect. Jude describes them as "brute beasts"....which would be Trump....who have "gone greedily after the error of Balaam for reward." Please take the time....a minute...and view President Trump's spiritual adviser pray against demonic forces. Just Google....Paula White prays for Trump, YouTube!
                Brothers and sisters in Christ....we are told that these today are...."hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear"...."waterless clouds....swept along by the winds....fruitless trees....twice dead....wild waves of the sea." These are...."grumblers....malcontents....following their own sinful desires....loudmouth boasters....showing favoritism to gain advantage." Folks....this is a resume of Donald Trump.
                Have we forgotten Paul's words to Timothy...."But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self (Donald Trump), lovers of money, (Donald Trump) proud, (Donald Trump) arrogant, (Donald Trump) abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, (Donald Trump) unappeasable, (Donald Trump) slanderous, (Donald Trump) without self-control, (Donald Trump) brutal,  (Donald Trump) not loving good, (Donald Trump) swollen with conceit, (Donald Trump) lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, (Donald Trump) having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people." (2 Tim 3:1-5) How much evidence do we need?
                 We are told elsewhere to "take heed that no man deceive you"....which we have not done.....that God sends "strong delusion....that they may believe what is false"....President Trump's great successes were a delusion. We are told to beware....that we shall know these men by their fruits. Look at the fruits of Donald Trump....we have lost compassion....discernment....and wisdom....and will attempt to destroy anyone who dares to disagree with us. We're told to "believe not every spirit....but try the spirits".....but we won't even read about Donald Trump. We do remember....do we not...how he bragged...."I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters."
                 Paul also warned...."And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many" (Matthew 24:11)....and...."for by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple" (Romans 16:18)....and to us...."but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears"....Joel Osteen being but one. (2 Timothy 4:3)....and...."For there shall be false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect." (Matthew 24:24) ....and let us not forget this...."For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace..." (1 Corinthians 14:33)....whereas Trump is quoted in one of Bob Woodward's books...."fear is power"..."I bring out rage. I always have."
                "For when they say 'Peace and safety' then sudden destruction comes upon them..." 1 Thessalonians 5:3. I had sat and watched most of President Trump's campaign rallies over the past year.....and I as well as everyone present at the rallies could repeat right along with him if we wanted...."we are going to keep....."winning......winning....winning"....and...."our best is yet to come".....but in reality....'our beast is yet to come!" So....is Jude's letter meant to warn us about someone like Donald Trump? The answer is a resounding....Yes!

Somewhere today there is probably a video going viral of a dog playing the piano....(update...May 21 on ABCnews.com...viral video titled...."Rhino plays keyboard on his birthday").....or a brawl on an airplane....with millions of viewers....while I pray over every visitor to these warnings that I am so very feebly trying to disperse. I prayed within the past hour for visitors from France and Germany and here in America. Every once in a while I ask if you might share these posts with other Christians....and give them the opportunity to consider what I am saying.

 

After Each Judgment......It Seems Our Hearts Were Hardened More

                 The judgments on America started in this last progression with the assassination of a president in 1963....and may have been God's response to our taking prayer out of our schools....denying the knowledge of their Creator....to children He so dearly loves. American youth....of which I was one....were used....by the capitalist side to make money....and communists to eventually bring down the nation. The culture fell....never to fully recover. There was a meeting of communists just south of Saigon....this after the Tet disaster for the Viet Cong....and they were discussing suing for peace....in other words admitting failure....but someone stood up in that meeting and reminded them of what was happening on the streets of America....the protests....so they decided to have patience.....we eventually buckled at home....and they won.

                The judgments continued....our President went beyond his authority....the nation held him accountable....(something we do not do anymore....a judgment in itself)....and he subsequently resigned. Terrorism was ramping up....at the Olympics....and in the Middle East....and home grown. The space shuttle Challenger had a multi-cultural crew....male and female...scientist, military and civilian...Caucasian, Asian, African-American....Christian, Jewish and Buddhist. Those iconic pictures of the explosion should have given us pause as to the confidence that we displayed of our powers. We had a serious stock market meltdown....then came Kuwait....and 9/11....and Abu Ghraib....and an even more serious economic meltdown....followed by a Marxist President.
               We were like Pharaoh where one plague after another came....but after each judgment it seemed our hearts were hardened. How many judgments have there been...How many plagues? I'm not going to attempt to count them....but one was a worldwide pandemic. That even sounds like a Pharaoh plague....but God was completely out of the picture by now....for this was not judgment from Him....for it was from China. Another judgment was a genuine insurrection. Evangelicalism on the whole shed the armor of God behind a shield of faith....for casual attire behind an acrylic lectern. Conservatism died a slow death....and the Republican Party has the motor turned on....and garage door shut. 
               So that is where we are at.....a world about to explode....with horror in the news all the time....and no leadership. We gave our children up long before 'woke' came along....to television and entertainment and sports....and this is but the final nail. We are a people....from the Right and the Left....but as the Ninevites....not knowing their right hand from their left. Jonah's warning long ago expired. The message to us now is the same as that which Amos was given for Israel after they continuously ignored God's judgments...."Prepare to meet thy God."

Quick Reference On Donald Trump

 VOTED FOR HIM.....CELEBRATED.....NEVER AGAIN!

What I'm attempting to do here is bring the issues back one-by-one....update this post with those issues....probably very slowly....keep it somewhere up front....at least on the front page....(all this Lord willing of course.....for it is the last thing I want to do........and I'm not even sure that it's the best way to spend my time)....and have something available for those republican candidates who are being attacked for exercising their freedom of speech. This has to be settled quickly....for his hammer is coming down every day as he purges more people....and he establishes more sycophants to do his bidding. 

To the Lindsey Grahams and Ron DeSantis's of the Republican Party that you turned over to Donald Trump....we're not leaving....(should the Lord will it)....you are going to have to go through us....(and you may very well do that....but even beaten we will not support this severely disturbed and dangerously divisive man)....and we are not blind and uninformed on Trump as we were in 2016....(I've read 80 books on him since then)....nor alone as we were during this past fake primary season. Your threats of the Democrats in power mean nothing.....for both the Democrats and the Trump are judgments from God....on all of us....for in this man Donald Trump there is no righteousness....no honor....no trustworthiness....and no empathy for any living thing....in fact he is a false prophet come in among us. He uses God's name....(often with 'damn' after it)....but as we have witnessed recently on the ellipse....the enemy has said to Trump...."Jesus I know....and Paul I know of....but who are you."

The history of Fred Trump....and even his father....and a young Donald Trump....can help one understand just who came down that escalator in 2015. Without this understanding one will not see the scam materialize. With this understanding....one can see every move that candidate Trump made....and recognize the 'fake' and the 'hoax' that his candidacy was. American Oligarchs....The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power....by Andrea Bernstein....might be a good place to start reading. What you will find is a man who had never held to any real beliefs....other than those that might benefit him....and this itself is transactional....for he can easily espouse one cause in one decade....and another in the next decade....and even return to the original if he has to. Find and read on your own what happened concerning his father's will....and Fred's son Fred Jr....and his two children....and even their infant child....then tell me that this is who God gave us evangelicals to protect the faith.

The Bible describes Trump in one way or another from Genesis to Proverbs to the Prophets to Revelation..."...you have some there (yes we certainly do....and his name is Trump) who hold the teaching of Balaam"....(Revelation 2:14)...."They have followed the way of Balaam....who loved gain from wrongdoing." (2 Peter 2:15)

"THAT'S JUST TRUMP"....won't work anymore. I remember distinctly when Rush and Mark Levin and Sean Hannity admitted each in their own way that Donald Trump lies. Essentially it was...."Hey, that's just Trump." What the Trump supporter does not realize is that if he lies to us....and everyone else.....then why would he not be lying to you also?

JUST ONE LIE.....OUT OF MULTIPLE THOUSANDS....How many times have you heard Trump say at rallies that he got rid of the Johnson Amendment? I've heard him say it dozens of times. He never 'got rid of' the amendment.....something like that has to be legislated out. What he did was sign an executive order essentially for his people to ignore it....but what's a little exaggeration between guru and devotees?

YOU GAVE US NOTHING MR. TRUMP....YOU APPLIED TO OUR AD.....AND WE HIRED YOU. President Trump bragged at every rally about the Supreme Court judges he nominated and federal judges that he put on the bench. There is no lie here....the problem is that we have been working for this for decades while Donald Trump was changing wives and firing people on The Apprentice. We hired him for this.....and any conservative candidate in 2016 would have done the exact same thing! And it is the same with regulatory reform. I believe that Cruz wanted the corporate tax dropped to 13%! That President Trump would outrageously brag about what....he....did....and how....he gave....judges to us....as if we just sat there saying...."gee...conservative Supreme Court judges.....that's a good idea....thanks for thinking about that....you're a genius." Republicans in congress should have called him on this long ago....and told him to come back to reality....but they didn't.....and the problem only grew....until the voter actually believed that as he said....he gave us these things.

THEY GOT TO KNOW HIM.....AND COULD NOT BELIEVE HOW BAD HE WAS.....General John Kelly....Trump's first Chief of Staff....said that Trump is....."the most flawed person"....that he ever met. His third Chief of Staff....after abruptly resigning in protest.....after the Capitol insurgency....said...."we didn't sign up for what you saw last night." His Secretary of State famously called him a moron. His Secretary of Defense said he was a "threat to the constitution." His first National Security Adviser has said of Trump...."He's aiding and abetting Putin's efforts..." His second called him..."naive and dangerous"....and wrote a whole book on how bad he is! His Secretary of Health and Human Services said his rhetoric on January 6 was "unacceptable" and when questioned about Trump and the 25th Amendment....twice declined to say that President Trump was capable of performing his duties. What do you think his first....or second Attorney Generals think of him.....or the heads of the FBI or the CIA? The list could go on for a long time. How is one to look at this? If you listen to Trump....these were all bad and stupid men who he made the mistake of appointing. If you use common sense then you have to admit that there may be a serious problem here.

FALSE PROPHET: President Trump's State of the Union address from February 4, 2020 contained this proclamation...."This nation is our canvas, and this country is our masterpiece. We look at tomorrow and see unlimited frontiers just waiting to be explored. Our brightest discoveries are not yet known. Our most thrilling stories are not yet told. Our grandest journeys are not yet made. The American Epic, the American Adventure, has only just begun. Our spirit is still young; the sun is still rising; God's grace is still shining; and my fellow Americans, the best is yet to come. Thank you, God bless you. God bless America." We did not know that we truly were...."wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked." (Rev. 3:17) God immediately began to bring Donald Trump down....which culminated in the horror of January 6, 2021...which is similar in a way to something described in Ephesians....where Demetrius summoned all the craftsmen together and stirred them up....because their 401s were in jeopardy....so much so that they began shouting...."Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" And they all rushed off to the amphitheater....but as Luke records in Acts 19:32...."the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not even know why they had come together." Incredibly....almost two-thousand years ago....in a pagan city....an official calmed them down....and warned them that they were in...."danger of being charged with rioting"....and they listened and dispersed.

ON RUSSIA.....
           Donald Trump had extensive dealings in Russia and with Russians since the 1980s
           The Soviet KGB is infamous.....it's part of their DNA.....that they gather kompromat on anyone and everyone that may in the future be useful.
           It would have grossly incompetent HAD NOT our intelligence agencies paid particular attention to any man running for our Congress let alone the White House....that had Trump's ties to Russia and Russian money.
           Add to this Eric Trump is quoted as saying...."We have all the funding we need out of Russia."
           A number of KGB defectors said that Donald Trump would have been a prime target. (This from Craig Unger's new book....American Kompromat)
           Seventeen of our . agencies...(a lesser number if you combine some).....determined that Russia meddled in the election....in favor of Trump....and yet Trump took Putin's side!
           Some of President Trump's policies were conspicuously favorable to Putin's overall aims...NATO bashing being one.
           President Trump met Putin.....ALONE.....in Helsinki....which flabbergasted his people.....we still don't know what was said....and our interpreter was told by Trump to burn his notes! And there were other similar meetings.
           Trump made a lot of money selling tower properties to newly rich oligarchs....with no questions asked.
           There is more....but for now....the Mueller probe was not a witch hunt....and Mueller's findings were very generous to Trump....(even though Mueller was limited in his scope)....passing on conspiracy....but almost begging for charges on obstruction.

CORONAVIRUS.....We no longer consider statistics and data today.....what we do is choose which statistics and data which we want to believe.....for there is surely going to be someone out there with statistics and data to support whatever we want to be true....but there are other things to look at. From day one on this virus.....Donald Trump has ridiculed it....and made it so much more difficult for health experts to deal with it. You don't need statistics to see that....this because the single most important thing in the universe at the time was his reelection campaign. He needed that economy! His people jumped right on board with him....as Rush called it nothing more that a cold....and John MacArthur looked his congregation in the eye and said...."there is no pandemic." Tens of thousands more have died.....(it's been a half a millions so far)....because we tried to help Trump win. They say that the WWII generation was 'the greatest generation'.....for what they were willing to sacrifice....but we so far are the worst generation....for we won't even wear a mask. What is going to happen when this country in some way requires even more of us?

AN OUTSIDER....it is a simplistic argument....Trump is an outsider....he's not one of the globalists....no secret society membership....that's why they hate him. Folks....Trump would be an outsider at one of his family reunions. There were days when he loved Xi Jinping....and Putin....and Epstein....and even Kim Jong-un! I can almost picture a movie where a dozen old Mafia Dons are seated around a table. They all take the same oath....and protect each other....and divi-up the sections of the city.....then some brash young mafioso type comes in and tells them he's going to take whatever he wants. That Trump doesn't hobnob with some of these frozen EU special secretaries to the this and that and the other doesn't make him automatically a hero. It just makes him more likely a Goldfinger.

WHY DO VETERANS SUPPORT HIM? Donald Trump successfully avoided the draft for a long time during Vietnam. As he once said on a shock radio show....his 'Vietnam' was in avoiding STDs. As I wrote in an earlier post...."He doesn't seem to have any concept of the horror of war....or the value of human life....in spite of all his rhetoric about bringing our troops home. For if this were truly the case....how could he have uttered the absurd comment that invading Venezuela would be....'cool'.....as one book reported......or from a different book....again on Venezuela.....'That's the country we should be going to war with. They have all that oil....and they are right on our backdoor.".....or on John McCain.....'He's not a war hero.....he's a war hero because he was captured.....I like people who weren't captured.' 

....and this from February of 2019...."Here is but one of President Trump's tweets over the past twelve hours...."How does Da Nang Dick (Blumenthal) serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee when he defrauded the American people about his so called War Hero status in Vietnam, only to later admit, with tears pouring down his face that he was never in Vietnam. An embarrassment to our Country."  First of all there isn't any evidence that the Democrat Senator claimed to be a hero.....or that he cried. It's interesting that the President referenced the Vietnamese city of Da Nang....for in November of 2017 it upset me to see a picture of him....in Da Nang....smiling broadly under a statue of Ho Chi Minh. Unsettling also was his endorsement of Luther Strange against Roy Moore.....who commanded a military police company in Da Nang. And now the second Trump/Kim Jong-un reality show is most likely going to be in Vietnam....possibly Da Nang. Where is the real embarrassment to our country?"

ON CHINA......Trump has no concerns whatsoever on human rights or freedom or liberty or intellectual piracy. His concern on China was twofold.....one....he made campaign promises on the trade imbalance.....so he was going to have to make an effort here.....and two....he needed our economy to sizzle.....so trade would have to be evened out somewhat anyway. In his total lack of wisdom and ignorance.....he picked people who represented various opinions on China.....Mnuchin and Cohn to make sure we made money dealing with China.....and Navarro in case we had to tighten the screws with tariffs.....and Bolton and Mattis to make it seem like we cared about stopping communism....and Bannon just to get reelected to a second term. Meanwhile Kushner and Ivanka were trying to make as much profit as they could. Trump loved Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago.....but was warned that the communist leader was making him look bad.....so he limited Mnuchin on the time that he had to make a deal. When that didn't happen....Trump's psychological disorders took over.....things weren't going his way.....so he would strike out big time with tariffs via Navarro.

Trump's lawyers sent letters to various republican committees telling them to stop making money on his name. He wants to be the one making the money....but Cheney had to go....because she wasn't a team player.

Trump finished his term in office by firing firing five cabinet IGs in a space of six weeks back in early 2020. Yeah...this is the way we want to do government.

ABORTION.....I doubt if Donald Trump has ever given five minutes to contemplating the ethics of abortion. He ran as pro-life because that is where the votes were....and if evangelicals eventually depart from supporting him.....which we may.....Trump will turn on us...and we be but the latest....dumbest losers.....like everyone else who eventually found out who he is. Ivanka....(we should have yelled "Katie...bar the door" when she was brought into the Oval Office)....anyway she announced a few days....a few days before the November election.....that she was "proudly.....pro-life." She said motherhood did this to her. She had a nine year and two other children.....but all of a sudden....a few days before an election.....she figures out from being a mother.....that abortion is wrong? In 2017 she famously met with the president of Planned Parenthood.....with her husband.....in a secret Texas meeting.....and thought she could pull one off.....as she brought up that PP could split....and one part could do abortions....while the other did not....and it could get federal money.....and do you think that President Trump did not know about that meeting?

NATO....this from a December 2019 DISPATCHES post...."THE NATO SUMMIT DISASTER: Not a day seems to pass without more chaos. NATO is in disarray. Putin has to be laughing. Why is this happening. President Trump has acted as if NATO is nothing but a burden upon America....as if what happens in Europe is of no consequence to Americans. Therefore....it's only the money....'pay up....or you may be on your own',"

NATIONAL DEBT.....This from a July 2019 DISPATCHES post. The quote has also been reported in a couple of books...."President Trump's economic advisers once early on sat him down with charts and graphs and told him how the debt bomb should explode just about the time that he....President Trump....would be ending his second term? What was the President's response? "Yeah, but I won't be here." I've repeated this anecdote before....and always end it with....'there's your champion!' "

This from an October 2019 DISPATCHES....Donald Trump bragged to us on numerous occasions....."I gave you two great Supreme Court judges!"  No you didn't Mr. Trump. We were sweating this out for decades while what was important to you was things like access to backstage at Miss Universe pageants. Any one of the candidates on the primaries debate stage would have given us the equivalent....or maybe even better....and lowered corporate taxes....and eliminated stifling regulations. You gave us nothing....we gave you the job to do what you said you would do....and in these areas you came through....because conservative judges and a better business environment benefit you personally as much as America.

This also from that October 2019 DISPATCHES....I've posted on it often over the past few years. By all rights.....if it were any decent individual....a president so vehemently opposed by half of America....who not only will see constant protests and possibly insurrection....and even more impeachments in a second term....would have bowed out....to spare the country....but a sociopath narcissist would never do that....for they care nothing about the country....only themselves. Donald Trump would not blink an eye in bringing us all down if he was to go down.  

ISRAEL....Trump had a habit of keeping back decisions on promises until he needed help in the polls. The embassy was the big one. He could not care less where this embassy was located.....but it made him a hero. Jared Kushner and Ivanka should never have even been given clearances....let alone responsibilities....and positions as 'senior advisors.' By the way.....in December of 2016 when asked by Leslie Stahl about conservative's concern about her with her father in the White House.....she said.....in true Trumpian fashion....."Oh.....I'm just going to be a daughter." Yeah right.

Jared's grand peace plan was going nowhere....I posted the following in May of 2018....two and a half years before the 2020 election! "....the Middle East peace plan that Jared Kushner has supposedly been working on for many months. We expected to hear something much sooner but are told that they are getting very close. ".....2 1/2 years later and they needed something for the election......so plan b was to pay off countries to sign peace agreements.....some got promises to be able to buy the same jets that only Israel had. 

The agenda right now is that anyone wishes to run for Congress as a Republican had better get on board with Trump....for the plan is to have only Trump people win. We on our side have no voice anymore.....and purging is going on everywhere. The 2024 primaries.....should we get that far....would be fixed in advance. Talk Radio and podcasts have a just about complete hold on our minds. This is a very powerful force. Evangelicals right now think that they are doing God's work....but are propping up and serving a genuine biblical false prophet.