The Worst......By A Landslide!

                It's my opinion that Donald Trump is the worst political leader....and certainly president....ever to rise in America....but he may only hold that title for a little while before Joe Biden takes it. Barack Obama is firmly in there at number three. The only possible challenger out there in the future to these men is Kamala Harris. This is God's judgment upon us over the past twelve years....giving us leaders that we wanted...and that we chose for ourselves....and that we deserved.
                Trump as president had to be watched every minute of every day by the more experienced advisors and cabinet members.....or he would have done exactly what Biden is doing....who does not have the capable advisers around him that Trump had.....(until he fired them one by one.) It's not the decisions that Trump made over four years that makes him the worst political influence ever on America....for he had people in place that kept him from following his terrible instincts. What makes him the worst is how he affected America....how he tore us apart....brought out the worst in us....hardened the evangelical voice....trampled upon the concept of honor.....threatened those who refused to pledge allegiance to MAGA....and disbanded the conservative base....while enabling and militarizing the fringe.
                Even today....when he should be long gone from the scene....he is a curse upon us. I voted for this man....and celebrated when he won....but when I saw Ivanka the Terrible as an advisor....and her husband given responsibility over so many areas....I had to find out who this man really was....for I basically knew nothing about him. Eighty-some books later.....which is probably a PHD volume of research....books on every decade and every aspect of his life....and I can only refer to the words of one of his Chiefs of Staff John Kelly.....in that he is the most flawed individual I have ever seen in American politics....by....a landslide!
                 Everyone who has even been around him gets either destroyed or muddied....while he walks away unscathed.....because no one has ever expected anything honest from him to begin with. There is not a word that can come out of his mouth that I could ever believe without some kind of verification. No one that I have even read about can even come close to such a complete disdain for truth. His viciousness in seeking revenge is a psychological malignancy. As far as maturity is concerned....he has a juvenile mind. His tweets and off-script comments were often astounding in their stupidity...."We want God"...."I know more than the generals."
                 Here is the kicker in all of this....evangelicals....could not care less! The church has been a battleground as people had proudly walked into church without masks....defiant....not caring at all about anyone else....with an in your face attitude. My best friend and his wife grimace when they enter their church....because of the defiant atmosphere. We evangelicals literally do not care how many people die of Covid-19! I heard with my own ears....the number one preacher in America.....laugh as he frivolously said....."Hey....We're all going to die anyway right?" We won't....way too many of us....get a vaccination.....because some crazy preacher or pundit told them that this had something to do with our liberty. 
                 Pastors should have from day one....warned their congregations about Donald Trump.....they should have pointed out his false prophesies....and that's what they were and are folks....prophesies.....prophesies from a genuine false prophet...."Our best being yet to come"....was a false prophesy....repeated at every one of his rallies....and our being "one glorious nation under God"....was an outright lie.....but they did nothing.....fearing confrontation!
                 Republican Party leaders also from day one failed to confront Trump. Limbaugh was under a severe delusion. No one in their right mind should not have been outraged by what Trump engineered on January 6 of this year. We spent years outraged at how liberals put up with Antifa....and yet we let this happen! Yes the election was rigged. We conservatives have for many decades known that in statewide and national elections we have to win by five percentage points to overcome the mysterious votes that somehow appear.....but Trump sees only himself in this....and this in spite of his winning in 2016 in no small measure because the leader of Russia....put him over the top!
                 I pleaded in these posts in early 2018....please do not run again....you became the 45th President of the United States...can you not be satisfied with this? He could have left without impeachments and without indictments....his business thriving....his family ensconced forever simply as a former president's family....but at the time I did not know the depth of the psychological disorders that ravage his mind.
                 Whoever the Republican Party would have nominated in 2020....Covid and election rigging and all....would have defeated....Joe Biden....and Kamala Harris! Even now the 2022 congressional elections are a lock for at least a Republican House majority....(should the Lord tarry....which is unlikely)....that is unless Trump stays around long enough to give the Democrats the impetus needed to get rid of him!              

"The LORD Has Mingled A Perverse Spirit In Her Midst..."

             God's Word depicts Egypt as a type of the world. Israel's relation to Egypt was similar to our....the churches in America....relation to the world and its systems today. Of all the references to Egypt in the bible....in this vein....chapter 19 of Isaiah seems to be the most comprehensive....for in it we see God's prophecy of what would happen to Egypt in the short term....and at the end of the ages.
             Please read if you will these twenty-five verses....with the help of a study bible for historical perspective....particularly the first seventeen verses that relate to today....and meditate on what you are reading.....for you will see an Egypt where....Egyptian will be set against Egyptian....."Everyone will fight against his brother".....and where all the idols that Egypt depended upon will "totter"....and...."the heart of Egypt will melt"....and that Pharaoh's "wise counselors"....will give "foolish counsel."
             Isaiah would ask..."Where are they.....Where are your wise men?"....for there were no wise princes anymore. Verse fourteen is particularly disturbing as we look at our country today...."The LORD has mingled a perverse spirit in her midst; and they have caused Egypt to err in all her work, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit."

Lord's Day Post...."Oh But It Does Matter.....How Strait The Gate"

"Together we will vanquish the virus and America will rise from the crisis to new and even greater heights.....(for) In America....we are the captains of our own fate."

         Those were words in a President Trump 2020 Memorial Day speech in Baltimore. I wonder who actually added those words to the speech...."We are the captains of our own fate"....for they were a very poorly chosen choice of words at best. William Ernest Henley's poem.....Invictus....(Latin for 'unconquerable).....published in 1875....has consistently since then kept Henley and that poem not only in the mind's eye of the world but America. A Clint Eastwood film was titled Invictus. Nelson Mandela recited it while in prison. And at least two mass killers referenced it. 

"Out of night that covers me,
         Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
         For my unconquerable soul

In the fell clutch of circumstance
         I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
         My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
         Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
         Finds and shall find me unafraid

It matters not how strait the gate,
         How charged with punishment the scroll,
I am master of my fate,
         I am captain of my soul."

         Hopefully you can easily see that these are not Christian thoughts....but this is essentially what we have become in the past five years....constructed from an Invictus mentality....and christened with Ayn Rand's view of life....but now floundering under the banner proclaiming that we were indeed the masters of our own fate. The following paragraph in red were my thoughts that were posted before the pandemic hit....and after the 2020 State of the Union....as we were bragging about how rich we were....and vainglory wafted through the chamber of the House of Representatives...."The most pressing issue is that God has....as of now....forsaken us....big fancy mega-churches and all....booming economic statistics notwithstanding....we are undone....woe to us....we tried to do it on our own....throwing God's name around as if it were a magic word....but are left as were Hophni and Phinehas who thought that the mere presence of the Ark of the Covenant would secure victory in battle....but who perished....the Ark being captured....and the news of which brought on the death of Eli....and led to the naming of a child....Ichabod...."the glory has departed!" 

The following is a recent post....July 21 of this year....and the title of it was the title of this post:

              In a very real sense we won....in that we accomplished what our rebellious minds wanted to accomplish. We fought the government on coronavirus restrictions just about every chance that we got.....almost every step of the way. We would use the Bible or the Constitution.....or anything that made half-sense to us.....we used it to cause as many problems as we could....because the banner raised behind it...'trying to save as many lives as possible'.....was not helpful to Donald Trump's reelection....so it must be opposed at every single opportunity. We didn't totally stop masks and all of the rest....but we caused enough trouble that they were not going to be able to bring about an early end to the pandemic.....and that's all we cared about....to make them look bad.
              So in a Tucker Carlson or Rand Paul world.....we kind of won....but in reality we not only lost our honor....we may have set the stage for something even more dangerous and revolutionary and demonic....for there are surely more serious challenges ahead of us in America....and whereas for decades as the liberals turned progressives turned communist useful idiots....where they challenged the rule of law and common sense every chance that they got....and we conservatives stood tall to hold the line as best we could.....we have now taken their playbook as our own....so if the government tells us to do something.....we just don't do it....for we are....in our own minds anyway....freedom fighters.....patriots....flag-draped Christians; and when those future difficult times come....whether it be an even more killing pandemic....or war....whatever it may be....no one....no one on their side or our side....has to listen or obey anymore. Congratulations to all whose heads that are proudly....unbowed....as the author of the poem Invictus described it....(where paraphrasing just a little here).....It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll. We....are the masters of our own fate....the captains of our own souls!

Addendum: In Chapter three of Jeremiah....God excoriated Judah because they had seen how their sister Israel had rebelled....and was punished because of it.....yet Judah.....knowing what happened....became every bit the idolatrous people that Israel had been. That's us folks! We saw for a half century how the liberals were rebelling against God....and how God had lifted His hand in punishment as America slid into oblivion. The evidence of God's judgment was all around us....but what did we do....conservative America.....or 'Judah' if you will....we became every bit the idolatrous people that Israel was....as our greed and our pride and our treachery and our lack of compassion became clearly evident. We became just as mercenary and idolatrous as the false prophet who had first bewitched us. We did not fear judgment from God....as we like Judah merely.....'feigned'....reverence towards Him....with our pious slogans and prayer marches. God may also say of us if we do not turn back to Him...."Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah." 

DISPATCHES

I've been on a couple of conservative college campuses recently....and I have a message for these young students who may visit these posts: There are those out there....as you know....who are heavily trying to recruit you....calling you to be patriots....but this is not patriotism....it is politics! Conservative podcasts today can be very problematic. Tucker Carlson and the other evening Fox commentators have only one mission....to keep the conservative in line....and ready for a fight....like a drill sergeant....barking out marching cadences. The King James puts 2 Timothy 2:15 this way...."Study to shew thyself approved unto God..." 'Study' seems to be the comprehensive word for you today....does it not? Do not stay here....as I'm just trying to point you in a direction. John Piper's ministry....desiringgod.org....and R. C. Sproul's ministry....ligonier.org....and Michael Horton's ministry....whitehorseinn.org....would be safe spaces....in the best usage of that term.....for you to go....and I have this for you....sometime during the week....as the classroom pressures are building up....take the time to Google up and listen to a Charles Spurgeon or J. C. Ryle sermon.

My wife an I spent a couple of days in Washington D. C. last week.The primary reason for these trips is to visit my father's grave in Arlington National Cemetery....but we always also play the tourist. According to my wife's pedometer we walked nineteen miles over the two days....while taking the Holocaust Memorial Museum....and the Museum of the Bible....and one of the Smithsonians. Our hotel was just off of Lafayette Square....so at night we would just pick a bench and look at the people looking at the White House. Something was missing this time....and I couldn't put my finger on what it was enough to even mention it to my wife....but I'll try here. I thought of the word....sadness....but that wasn't close enough....and then.....hollow....(not hallow....hollow)....came to my mind. It was a feeling of hollowness that I just couldn't shake.

There are reports of Special Ops men....on their own....and retired Green Beret and Seals....who smuggled themselves back into Afghanistan....and going out on their own....seek out and bring back Afghans that were faithful to the US.....back to the airport....smuggling them once again onto the airport....for their evacuation. This is so amazing that it almost stops my heart for a moment. Can you imagine if we had a president like this?  And if you think Trump would have been such a president....(for he surely will tell us that).....you are hopelessly confused about a man who never did anything his entire life that did not favor himself....and if you would have read about him for the past four years....instead of obeying his commands to us not to read the fake news....you would know this also!

ANN COULTER.....I've read most of her books.....and followed her in one way or another for many years....but she is now the poster girl for what is wrong with the conservative movement. It started with her 2016 book....In Trump We Trust....how convicting that title is today! This is obviously a smart woman but her mind began to unravel under Trump.....as she would call him names one day that I cannot even put in a post....but then the next day be critical of something the Democrats were doing.....without explaining to her reading public that this in no way vindicates Trump! The result of this was twofold....Trump's horrors were given a get out of jail free card by Coulter's inadvertent backdoor cover for him....while Ann Coulter's mind was no longer sharp....but contradictory and chaotic. As for today....check out her Tweets just about any time.....and if she cannot find a video of Black people doing something criminal to retweet....then it's an unsuccessful day for her. I don't know how you might view this....but I see one prevailing adjective describing her daily Tweets...and that is racism....a disguised racism....from a person who makes a big deal of her 'Christian' faith....every Easter anyway. 

Billy Graham's Personal Epistle To Us

Preface: You can probably find it on the shelf at Barnes & Noble....for the same copy is there every time I visit the two B&N locations that I frequent. The following post is from July of 2016....a year and a half before Billy Graham went to be with his Lord and Savior. I only bring back the part of the post that concerned Billy Graham's book....and I'm bringing it back now because we desperately need some guidance....and our pulpits are not giving it to us:
.
             We had passed by it at least thirty times over the years.....the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte......always hurrying to get to the beach or too tired to stop on the way home.....but we took the time this past week turning a fourteen hour drive into a sixteen hour drive.....but it was well worth it!
             A blurb on the back of the book (that I purchased while there)....reads this way..."When I die, tell others that I've gone to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ-that's where I am." Those last three words are the title of Billy Graham's Where I Am... subtitled Heaven, Eternity, And Our Life Beyond...his latest, and as he himself describes it, his last book. (I wrote in this 2016 post about that river.....from Pilgrim's Progress....that we will all cross....and here pick up from that which was left out) I see that river today and can faintly hear the rejoicing emanating from the beautiful city beyond; this simply because the more one walks toward the light of the Celestial City, the less one hears the barkers and minstrels of Vanity Fair.
            My descriptions (left out) are but feeble attempts so I plead with you to obtain a copy of Billy Graham's book....for he sent this epistle of sorts back for our encouragement....and with a strong warning....for it is obvious that he had met multitudes of people in his pilgrimage....many of whom gave woeful testimony of their self-destruction.
            Reverend Graham's ministry began in 1947. His book Where I Am, was published in 2015, sixty-eight years later. He seemed to write it as a last will and testament....with no holds barred. He has nearly seventy years of experience with presidents and kings, and movie stars and the working man to draw from. His outlook changed somewhat over the years. He, like Solomon from Ecclesiastes, looks back upon this life and can not only see more clearly the vanity but feel its heat and smell it odorous perfumes.
            Billy Graham's vision and hearing are impaired at his advanced age but his spiritual senses have only heightened. This book is in no way a theological treatise nor is it devotional or biography. It is more of a letter to the churches....a report on the enemy territory that he has passed through....with each and every book of the Bible visited for directions. Billy Graham stands at that river today....he turns and calls out to us for possibly the last time, both rejoicing and warning. Take advantage of his experiences friends....listen to every book of the Bible visited for directions. Billy Graham stands at that river today....he turns and calls out to us for possibly the last time....both rejoicing and warning. Take advantage of his experiences friends....listen to this elder brother....for God may have prepared him specifically for this book!

If We Are So Faithful In Trusting God.....Why Haven't We Trusted His Warnings

                Folks.....How many times have I posted here that we do not know the extent of the collapse of this world's systems....or words to that effect? We do not know....we do not realize the nearness of the Lord.....because we have not thirsted to know...."As a deer pants for flowing streams...." In fact we are not very thirsty for this type of knowledge at all....for as God told us through Amos...."Behold the days are coming, "declares the Lord GOD. 'when I will send a famine on the land-not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD'." That is where we are at now....but there is a remnant that does indeed thirst....may God grow that remnant...the more when we can see the ribs in our spiritual frame....and the sunken cheekbones in the mirror....and as our tongues swell in the dry mouth that makes it harder to call out to Him.
                It is more than understandable for Christians to be terribly concerned about what will happen as the time of Christ's return approaches....but it is less understandable to see how some just want to go on living what to them is the good life....but either way....the both horror and suffering in the world right now....or the forecast of a dystopian world that is surely ahead.....should give the Christian no alternative than to look up and say....Maranatha....Lord Jesus come! I have heard on more than one occasion....that we just have to trust God. I couldn't agree more....but my response is always this question....'so being so great on trust as you are....why haven't you trusted in God's very clear warnings for so many years on where we are going....and what we are not to depend upon?'
                I have heard expository preaching in one medium or another for forty years now.....pastors proud as can be on how they....explain....the meaning of a passage....which is something that every Christian of any time whatsoever should be able to do for themselves over candlelight at home....when the only thing demonstrated in this preaching was that they can read a commentary. I've seen one pastor preach on Genesis for almost an entire year....starving his congregation....withholding from them that which they most need in these perilous times. I have seen Reformed churches preach....with every T crossed....and every I dotted....but with absolutely no warnings on our part in America's demise....because apparently we in Reformed churches are not in need of that. 
                For twenty years or more I observed what goes on in general assemblies.....of the truer denominations....and I quit shaking my head years ago....for they gather everyone together to solve some problem that isn't worth beans compared to the problems facing every single Christian trying to have discernment in an age literally tearing them away from discernment of any kind. What with traveling and visiting churches for one reason or another....I have witnessed an almost entire evangelicalism of men who cannot preach....but they sure can speak for twenty-five minutes....giving no more needed wisdom than a Wikipedia article might give. We cannot even begin to defend the Gospel of Jesus Christ anymore.....but should someone be critical of a pastor....which in effect is being critical of us....and we become an army of great defenders.

After Each Judgment....It Seems Our Hearts Are Hardened Even More

Update.....August 25....           

                Fifteen years ago my posts were littered with negative commentaries on the Republican Party establishment....and even a diatribe or two....but that was a different time period....today Jeb Bush would be the sweetest breath of fresh air after the total demoralization of America during the Obama and Trump eras....and what we have now....Joe Biden's life of almost fifty years in the fantasy world of the United States Senate and as Vice President....all coming to fruition in this shell of man who should never even have sought an office such as the president to begin with.
               Having never had cable news in our home....vacations provide the only time to watch Hannity and the rest of the cast of talking heads from both sides of this mess we are in. Last week was such a time....so please consider that this is new to me every trip...and although my thoughts must appear so naive.....they at least are unencumbered by the tentacles that this polarized culture of ours has upon us....and what I see in Ingraham and the rest on our side....is a group that sat and watched and let Donald Trump for four years make a mockery of what conservatism once was....and destroy the Republican Party in the process.....and utterly de-Christianize evangelicalism....and now they can only yell and scream as the final result of their rejection of dependence on God plays out in the everyday news before us. 

Preface to the original post: One judgment after another....and increasing in intensity....Obama was a judgment.....as was Trump....as is Biden. Not only was the pandemic a judgment....but our response to it was and is a judgment. Similarly....the siege of the Capitol was a judgment....and the what is now Republican endorsement of the siege....(this through an utter failure to even investigate it)....is a judgment. And after each judgment from God....our hearts become even more hardened. The following post is recent....only a couple of months old:  

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 in our estimation…..for it was from Chi-na. 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 are as the Ninevites....not knowing their right hand from their left. Jonah's warning to us 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."

Mortification....The Missing Ingredient

Preface: The following was posted the day before one of the more recent prayer marches in Washington D. C.:              

                In March of 1863 when the Senate put a proclamation for a National Day of Prayer and Fasting on the desk of Abraham Lincoln....the words within it were of mortification at what America had become. There is no mortification today....not in the prayers that president's speech writers pen....nor proclamations put out....nor our national prayer days. Yes....genuine prayers seeking mercy will be said throughout the land tomorrow....and God will hear those prayers....but we do not schedule revival.....revivals schedule us. We cannot conjure up God's Holy Spirit.....for something else will appear instead....as did Donald Trump. God doesn't want our stages and our committees and our themes and agendas and press releases....MC'd by mega-church and mega-ministry leaders.....nor does He take pleasure in our contemporary praise music....with the CD that you can purchase through a secure payment system. He wants prayer for clemency...not piously constructed prayers....with a dash of humility....and a pinch of repentance....all seasoned to our own taste....but without even a smidgen of Mortification Salt....and all this prepared more for our taste buds than His anyway.

                 Maybe you have tried to read in the Old Testament prophets but it was too difficult to comprehend. I'd like to recommend three books to you....that if you read any one of them....it may be the opening that you need to make this part of God's Word easier to understand. The first is by popular author of today David Jeremiah....and the title is The Handwriting On The Wall. This is more of a primer on Daniel but so easy to read and so helpful for the initiate in the book of Daniel. The second book is much more speculative....but surely will open to you the book of Jeremiah. The title is....Decoding The Prophet Jeremiah....and the author Mark Blitz. The third book is not speculative at all....it is very short....and written by a fine biblical scholar in O. Palmer Robertson....and the title is....Prophet Of The Coming Day Of The LORD....The Message Of Joel.

                I'd like to add here a post from this past December. It relates to the comments in the first paragraph of this post....for in it is Daniel's prayer of mortification....if only we would approach God today in a similar way!

That Part Of The Book Of Daniel That We May Have Missed

               What comes to mind first when you think about the Old Testament book of Daniel....the lion's den.....or Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego in the furnace.....or Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a great image with a head of gold and breast and arms of silver and thighs and middle of bronze and legs of iron with the feet part iron and part clay....or his dream of the great tree that was him and was cut down....or maybe the fingers writing on the wall? If you were making a list you might add Daniel's vision of the four great beasts....and the ten horns with the little horn coming up.....or the cryptic prophesies of the king of the south and the king of the north?
                What a book this is! The Christian can and should read through this throughout his or her entire life....and that day will come when....and we most likely are nearing it....when piece by piece those words become even more clear....but there is one part of Daniel that may be the most important to us today.....of which most of us may not even recall.....and if we do we certainly do not dwell upon.
                 In chapter nine Daniel was given knowledge of Jeremiah's prophesy of the seventy weeks....this as he was nearing the end of his life....but he had first prayed and fasted in sackcloth and ashes....seeking mercy over the desolations that had come upon Jerusalem....and it is his prayer that we in America should contemplate greatly upon as our own country lies desolate. Here is that prayer
                "I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession saying, 'O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you, To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the LORD our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity...." 

Note: I disagree with a number of the prophetic interpretations in David Jeremiah's book....but I recommend it anyway because we are all in this together....on the same path of seeking God's wisdom for this day and age that we live in. David Jeremiah will be wrong in some things....and certainly I in other things....but God has it all under control.

I Saw This Horror Movie Before

                The camp that I lived in and worked on in Vietnam for eighteen months was barracks after barracks on dusty roads with an occasional basketball court. On the one side was a village....all the metal houses crammed against one another....and the only way you would know that they had electricity there was if a door might open at night with light emitting....and I saw precious few of those lights. On another side was an open area extending for hundreds of yards. On yet another side was the military airport....and finally was the beginnings of a beach that extended up the coast a few miles where the city sat....very typical of what you may have seen in photos of any city in South Vietnam. The beach was a strip of sand with one small restaurant....screened in as I remember. I would occasionally walk to it and sit and talk to the family that owned it.
                Today I can....and have....viewed the same area....and the same beach....through satellite photography that anyone can access. This resort area would rival any beach on the East Coast of Florida where I have vacationed. You see....the communists butchered their way to victory.....not for any ideological beliefs....but rather that they could make the capitalist money and have the power to insure that they stayed in charge of everything.
                The United Nations estimate is that between 200,000 and 400,000 Vietnamese boat people died trying to escape the conquering communists. I have often in the past wondered what happened to many of the people who I had known over there.....some of whom where friends. I did see one person that I remembered....this just about forty-five years ago....at a restaurant on our coast.....he worked in the kitchen....doing the exact same job he did in Vietnam. We just looked at each other for a few seconds....he maybe somewhat amazed....me both amazed....and thankful that he escaped.
                I had a 'hit' to these posts only an hour or so ago from South Korea. I've wondered how the people there....and in Taiwan....and the NATO countries.....and even in Israel.....view what is happening in Afghanistan? Trump wanted out right now....and only the people around him brought some sanity to the situation. Apparently Biden doesn't have those people around him.

Did Not Jesus Command Of Us To....."Be On Your Guard And Stay Alert"

Preface: This post and others have been critical of evangelicalism....and here is one reason why....what with all the warnings in God's Word about false prophets.....men who deceitfully take upon themselves some kind of mantle from God....and tell us that peace and security is ahead....leading us in the opposite direction that we should be going....and blinding us to what God is commanding us to do....evangelicalism not only fell head over heels for one such false prophet.....Donald Trump....but was instrumental in putting him in the top office in the land. All of us witnessed for four years a pathological narcissism....and a frightening vindictiveness that dominates his life....a gross inability to speak for even a few minutes without there being some lies present....and a macabre psychological hold on the minds and will of those who inordinately cling to every word and lie that he says....all this culminated by his summoning thousands to Washington....and the fringe element within to storm the Capitol Building....resulting in many deaths....and now seven months later....keeping a stranglehold on what is now the Trump Party so that it cannot unite to face an equally destructive force as Trump in the present administration....and most importantly binding evangelical pastors from warning their congregations of our own culpability in what has happened to America. Our mistake was in ignoring the obvious signs of a troubled and destructive man....and nominating Trump in 2016. Trump did not buy us time as some evangelical leaders tell us....but has been what he had been his whole life....a malignant force on anyone who comes in contact with him.

               We know that evangelicalism generally does not want Jesus to return right now....we within it have made that very clear....for we hardly ever mention it....other than a passing comment....possibly from the pulpit....not meant to be taken literally....as we still have a slim hope of making America great again....and going back to enjoying the good life....but I would ask everyone to think some things through. We do understand that forty years ago and thereabouts....on all of the gender and marriage and societal issues combined....Billy Graham and other faithful ministers were warning us of what we had become as a nation.....and telling us that judgment was coming......we know that right.....if we are old enough anyway. Well...we are so far worse today that yesterday looked tame in comparison. Folks....considering this we either have to acknowledge that our thinking is no longer consistent on this topic....or we have to outright in retrospect reject those messages of warning by Billy Graham and others....this to at least be honest.
               Our churches today primarily defend America....and not the gospel. If one is conservative....against abortion....pro-family.....and republican.....especially a Trump supporter.....then they are probably saved....although we don't really use the terminology 'saved' anymore.....we're kind of embarrassed by it. But beyond the social issues....just one example here....one example of many....how long will it be before these drones that are everywhere.....easy to buy and operate....how long until they are domestically weaponized...for this is how evil progresses? Spend a couple of minutes to think about the implications of something like this. It's mind-boggling where it could lead. Do we include this in our defense of the Second Amendment?
               My point has nothing to do with the right to bear arms....it has to do with the coming of the Lord Jesus. When will we finally say....and believe.....Maranatha....Lord Jesus Come! There is more than enough evidence for the Christian to say that surely Jesus must return to this world very soon....not to say it in such a way as the worthless comments that I alluded to above….meant more to quickly skim over the topic than to actually consider it….but in that His return should direct our thinking and decision making....and to sober us....and strengthen our discernment.
               Yes we still try to make wise decisions as to how they relate to the future.....even to the distant future....but we do this knowing that God's Word has expressly warned us that that day of His return will come....and we will either be vigilant and aware of the signs around us....or we will be totally caught unaware....surprised....confounded....running to 'Egypt'....or the world as it were....for protection.....and even falling for great delusion.

They Are As Quicksand....And We Are As...."Swept Along By The Winds"

Preface: Vaccinations and masks....people are going crazy over these common sense attempts to fight the pandemic....why....well one reason is the topic matter of the following post. The capitol building is now a 'literal' temple that needed to be cleansed....thus the January 6 insurrection....and Donald Trump was the good angel sent to do the cleansing. It's almost as if at their command and we put our two forefingers together to form a cross to keep the evil way. At the leading of these people we have become gullible....and credulous...."swept along by the winds" as Jude put it in his epistle....who in it exhorted us to instead...."contend for the faith....that was once for all delivered to the saints."

                I posted a week ago on mega-popular Christian author....(Messianic Rabbi)....Jonathan Cahn's methodology in interpreting prophetic scripture....in the process warning Christians that this is not leading you in a direction where you want to go....but there is worse than Jonathan Cahn out there....much worse.
               There are roughly a half dozen prophesy teachers whose books make it regularly to Barnes & Noble religious section. There are dozens more authors of this nature but only a handful that are popular enough for B&N to carry them....and I read them all.....for that seems to be what I have done for the past four decades....research everything from popular fads to cults.
               These authors tend to write blurbs for each other's books....but they are not all alike. In fact I actually recommend at least one.....Mark Biltz....who has written on the blood moons....but it is his....Decoding The Prophet Jeremiah....that I recommend to you....that is if you think that you are able to read....and possibly be able to examine some possibly valuable thoughts....without automatically believing everything that someone writes....including me.
                OK....here's the problem. Many of the prophesy teachers get their inspiration from the writings of the occult! You're not going to learn anything from occult sources! There has been.....(it's probably still on)....a midnight to six syndicated radio show.....very popular with the nocturnal minded....and it.....(and this for decades)....ventures into all kinds of occult subjects....keeping people probably on the edge of their seats....and I have heard Christian author/teachers interviewed on this show! This is at best an egregious error in discernment on their part. 
              Here is my main warning on all of this....stay away from the conspiracy 'experts'....when their writings use occult sources.....and this is very problematic with authors warning of a New World Order....(George Orwell may be interesting to read on a literary level....but he is going to have no truths for us to glean!)....this is not how God works in us! Utilizing this type of 'evidence' can actually lead one to the very dangers that they think they are warning others of! These writings are going to sound oh so compelling....but let me tell you something about compelling....the entire aggregate of these 'awesome conspiracy theories'....even the most fantastically compelling of these popular author's writings....when placed up against anything prophetic in God's Word....is nothing but one giant dung pile. You want excitement? You want compelling? Humble yourself before God and He will open up His Word to you....and it will be like a fresh vein of gold opening up to you....over your entire lifetime. I have forty years testimony to this.....as the only times when God's Word was not astonishing to me....was when I walked on my own....and even then His Word was as a shrill alarm....waking me up before a mortal infection set in.
               If you were to pile up every one of these gnostic occult influenced books ever published....and weighed them on an apothecary scale as to their worth....with the smallest book in the Bible....even the smallest chapter....on the other side of the scale....these gnostic sources would be catapulted into outer space....where many of their theories center on anyway! Oh these books indeed provide quick rapturous feelings....as would a drug....but they are also quicksand....that can be identified easily with discernment....if only we would be so vigilant....so that we might avoid the quicker path across....ByPath Meadow.....from John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.

"His Lightnings Light Up The World....The Earth Sees And Trembles"....(Psalm 97:4)

Let me start with this....a  post from May of 2014........

          I think that I was four years old, that would have been 1954, when my mother took me on the short trip from Baltimore, where we lived for a short time, to our nation's capitol. There was an elevator but for some reason we walked the 897 steps to the top of the Washington Monument. My only memory of the visit is stairs surrounded by walls, that memory bolstered somewhat by stories over the years of that excursion.
          Our government felt that it needed a 'federal city' back at the beginning of the 19th century, apart from the jurisdiction of the surrounding states. Ground was chosen and the commissioners named the city Washington, and Columbia was designated the name of the district.
          Construction on the marble and granite obelisk dedicated to our first president began in 1848 and after a long delay of some 23 years was completed in 1884. The partially built obelisk stood at about 150 ft during the Civil War and when construction resumed the marble used was a slightly different shade and the contrast can be seen in many pictures today. That height today is 555 feet and it was once the tallest building in the world.
          A rare earthquake measuring 5.8 hit the region on August 23rd of 2011....(that will be ten years to the day in a week or so)....that caused severe damage and over 150 cracks. Another historic Washington D. C. edifice, the Washington National Cathedral, which Congress had designated the "National House Of Prayer,"was damaged in the earthquake. The neo-gothic Episcopal church also had a delayed completion with construction starting in 1907 and the last ornamental finial put in place in 1990.

And this was posted in December of 2018....
       
          You may remember that the Washington National Cathedral and the Washington Monument were badly damaged in the Virginia earthquake of August 23, 2011. Three of the four grand pinnacles of the cathedral...each weighing 50 tons....collapsed. Gargoyles were damaged with one decapitated by falling debris. Today....seven years later....they are only half way finished with the repairs. That earthquake was a message to us from God.  The Washington Monument was closed for three years for repairs. It reopened but is closed again due to chronic elevator problems and not expected to be open to the public again until 2019. I wrote these words in a preface to this post a few years ago...."I love America and that sentiment is written throughout these posts but I love it as the gift that has been given to Americans and to the world. It is the Gift-Giver that deserves our adoration! God will either save America for His purposes or He will let us fall in our own delusion. He will not be mocked nor will He meet us halfway....nor can we convince Him to see it our way. We will either prostrate ourselves before Him or He will prostrate us before our enemies." 

The Washington Monument was struck by lightning shortly after midnight a few nights ago...the early morning of August 15.....the Lord's Day. There is a striking video of it with an easy Google....and as of today the monument is still closed down to repair some electrical damage. We have a short trip planned in a few weeks to our nation's capitol....only a couple of days....staying in a hotel at Lafayette Square....only a stones throw from the White House. We hope to visit a museum if possible....walk as a tourist....visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial....and Arlington National Cemetery where my father is buried. 

ICHABOD.....The Glory Has Departed

The preface below is from March.....the post itself from December of 2015. Google up sometime President Trump's 2020 State of the Union address....and watch the video....and you will see a Republican Party totally lost in their own perceived glory....or just read the transcript....and keep in mind as we crowed like roosters....that God let us crow....and then brought us down....and we still cannot fathom why He has not been pleased with us.

Preface: We in evangelicalism have no idea the trouble that we are in. We think it has something to do with socialism or communism. If that were the biggest problem then that would be good news....for God would be with us.....but the real problem is that God is no longer with us....Ichabod....the glory has departed. We need pastors that warn us....but instead they comfort us. The church knew back in the 1970s and early 80s that God was going to judge us. It's attributed usually to Billy Graham but it was actually his wife Ruth who said....probably in the 70s...."If God doesn't punish America. Hell have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah." We are 100 times worse today....with 100 times less discernment. 

        What kind of name is Special Dog? Well that's not my real name of course for my real name is....Straggler.....Private Straggler. I'll be the last one to enter the Celestial City.....and the least of those in line....and the greatest testament to God's love of the unlovable and mercy upon the least deserving of it. And if there is someone behind me I'll wait for them....for by rights I should witness every glory filled face before mine shines in the presence of the King of Glory.
         Friends....examine this concept of God that has taken hold in American religion. I don't blame the people for their pabulum reverence....for they....most of America....have never beheld His glory in a sermon....and never adequately understood what one is 'saved' from! Little is demanded from anyone and less is offered by us in the form of humility. No...I can hardly blame anyone for giving God no more than one percent of their thoughts. I realize this because before He hogtied me with the cords of His love and mercy....and before He branded me with the imprint of His Word upon my soul....I would have been far more excited to meet Elvis Presley than seek His face...let alone stand on holy ground!
         So it is no surprise that people do not recognize the extent of our pitiful state in this country today....nor are aware of the severity of judgments upon us which have only just begun. Politics is seen as the answer because few know what the real question was...."...who do you say that I am?" The answer of course is....."You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." If one truly understands that statement then one would have already beheld His glory, known very well what one was 'saved' from, and realized that we deserve His protective hand being lifted from us!
    
         

Lord's Day Post

If you return from church today and think something like....'That was nice"....and immediately your thoughts are turned to the weather...or the bean salad that you have to make for the picnic....or if you men are wondering what preseason NFL game to watch....or what to do until the U. S. Amateur Championship starts at 3 pm.....you might want to challenge yourself to listen to what pulpit sermons used to be like. The following was first posted on January 16, 2021

"One Thing You Lack...."

         I'm pleading with you to listen to this sermon by Charles Spurgeon. Tomorrow.....the Lord's Day....as you stay home and stream your church service....not having to fuss about getting clothes ready for church....or your hair or makeup....or wondering about the tire pressure on the way to church....or even going back and forth in your mind weather staying home during the pandemic is the right this to do....give yourself time and listen to this before your regular service begins.
        Spurgeon gave Oh Lord, Revive Thy Work...on a Wednesday evening....April 7, 1858. It was almost three years to the day before hostilities broke out in America's Civil War....but Spurgeon began his sermon with the great revival that had broken out in America....challenging his Great Britain to do as much and more.
        The title I chose for this post comes from a story that Spurgeon told about George Whitefield. How many times have we been in Whitefield's exact same situation....but more importantly....who among us today might the title be directed? It's 48 wonderful minutes....and easy to Google!

Note: I came across a YouTube on J. C. Ryle that I would like to add to this recommendation....just Google...J C Ryle...Give Me Your Heart

Caught In The Revolution

The following was first posted in 2017:

          They appeared on page 160....the most demonstrative and frightening words in the book. That book being Caught In The Revolution, Petrograd, Russia, 1917-A World On The Edge by Helen Rappaport, told primarily through the dispatches, diaries and correspondence of American, British, French and others who were present before during and after the February revolution right on through the October revolution to the end of 1917. The first eight chapters takes the reader through the extreme tension of a nation at war with Germany, and an imperial government almost at war with its own people. The violent February revolution had then taken place....huge crowds were in the streets of Petrograd.....a million man march to be specific....and they were now peaceful in the streets. Hymns were  actually sung....God was acknowledged.....but tremors of a greater revolution rumbled. The words that I alluded to above were these:
         "I say! There's an amazing fellow over there on the other side of the Troitsky Bridge, an excited English resident told Negley Farson one day in early April: He's talking rank anarchy! Immediate peace, no annexations, the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, world revolution! Never heard anything like it in my life!...Advocates the soldiers coming back from the front and overthrow of the Provisional Government....now! Doesn't he know there's a war on?"

         Lenin had returned.....the extreme radical "maximalist" who had been exiled in Europe......who few knew anything about.....but who had worked feverishly "sowing the seeds of discontent from a distance, via a network of underground archivists across Russia who illegally circulated his seditious political pamphlets...calling for a people's revolution led by a dedicated intellectual elite." All the French ambassador seemed to knew about Lenin was that he was instructing others to "kill all people who have property and refuse to divide." Russia had its revolution....a provisional government was in place....but the Bolsheviks were just beginning to be heard from. Blood-thirsty lyrics were now sung in the streets to the tunes of hymns..."We will pillage! We will cut throats! We will disembowel them!"
         One diary noted on Lenin..."Utopian dreamer and fanatic, prophet and metaphysician, blind to any idea of the impossible or the absurd, a stranger to all feelings of justice or mercy, violent, Machiavellian and crazy with vanity." Another observer noted as the Orthodox Easter approached..."the (church) bells were ringing" and it was as if "the Russia of old (were) rising again with Christ." This would not last. Yet another well-known French socialist observer noted that these..."...were not socialists at all but what we call in France Anarchists and Communards."
         Caught In The Revolution had taken the reader to the the very middle of numerous mobs and violent outburst in the streets during the February revolution. Peace only lasted for a short while before the Bolsheviks stirred up revolution once again, this time against the provisional socialist government. The terrors were returning with an even greater vengeance. One commentator could see the evil in the eyes of marching factory girls..."...placid Slav faces lighted with a look of perfect ecstasy"...and a huge black banner with a skull and crossbones on it as if...flaunting invitation to indulge in all sorts of beastliness."
          July had arrived and the Bolsheviks were looking for their opportunity to overthrow the Provisional Government. The second revolution was starting. One observer noted that unlike the February revolution there was no..."cheering, with people singing and shaking hands..." Evil was noted on the faces of soldiers and sailors lured into rebellion by the Bolsheviks. Satan had taken direct command. The tide turned against the Bolsheviks when it was learned that they were receiving funding from the hated German General Staff. A day of mourning for the dead was held, similar to the one after the February revolution, crosses and icons were seen throughout the throng of mourners. What was noted among the observers was that the new prime minister of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, was a strong orator but did not seem to have the fanatical devotion that Lenin displayed. An arrest warrant was out for Lenin.
           The Russian army was involved in a terrible war throughout both of these revolutions. The war on the German front had taken its toll when the tsar led them and now it was taking its toll when Kerenesky led them. Many journalists who were present at the beginning were deciding to leave, one commenting...."I see Russia going to hell, as no country never went before." Meanwhile the Tsar and his family, now prisoners, were moved by the Provisional Government to Western Siberia until they could figure out what to do with them. (when the Bolsheviks took over they knew what to do with them...they murdered the entire family. I recommend to you Helen Rappaport's earlier book The Romanov Sisters for an equally vivid and intoxicating account.)
           The various embassies knew that this coming revolution would not be as the last and were preparing evacuation scenarios. The world was now watching with intense interest and new journalists appeared in Petrograd including Somerset Maugham and the socialist American John Reed of whom Warren Beatty fashioned his film Reds. Reed thought that what he was experiencing was "thrilling" and wanted to meet Lenin. One journalist whose writings appeared throughout the book wrote that he was sickened by this American "playing revolutionary."
            Anarchy and misery were everywhere on the streets of Petrograd come October and people were buying revolvers for protection when they ventured out of their house. Peasants in the country were killing landowners. Lenin was plotting in Finland while Trotsky was rallying the Bolsheviks in Petrograd.
            Kerensky had many opportunities but was considered by all observers to be weak. The Bolsheviks simply took over the government in late October but Moscow did not fall as easily.  One observer wrote in November...."These crazy people are killing each other just like we swat flies at home." And yet another observer wrote..."I never knew of a place where human life is as cheap as it is now in Russia." Rappaport supplies this testimony from one of the witnesses..."....a typical example of the mindless, arbitrary violence ....two soldiers bargaining for apples with an old woman street vendor.....Deciding that the price was too high, one of them shot her in the head while the other ran her through with his bayonet. Naturally, nobody dared to do anything to the two soldier murderers who went quietly on their way watched by an indifferent crowd...." Anarchy, murder and hate were everywhere.
          Lenin's first order after taking full control of Russia was to abolish private ownership of land. Freedom of the Press came next. Everyone knew that Russia was lost.....its beauty marred by the empty faces. The embassies had one last Christmas celebration....but there was no joy....only remembrances of what once was.

Note: Helen Rappaport's latest book in this series is now out......The Race To Save The Romanov's. Her previous two books books were Caught In The Revolution and The Romanov Sisters. I highly recommend all three but especially Caught In The Revolution because we may be playing out this very same scenario today in America.

           

If You Preach Christ....They Will Come!

Preface: The following was posted the morning after the Major League Baseball game between the Yankees and the White Sox at a stadium constructed in a corn field in Iowa....all this of course pointing to the 1989 film Field Of Dreams. I saw the news clip of this....and from a Hollywood perspective.....seeing these players of today walk out of that cornfield....was as 'magical' as Hollywood ever gets.            I

                It was awe inspiring....only in America as the saying goes....but so sad....and a delusion of immense proportions. I have been a cinephile....a lover of movies....for most of my life. I was something of a latchkey child....and movies was what I resorted to for reality....and I think that I paid dearly for it in my youth and into my thirties.
                If you preach the gospel....if you preach Jesus Christ in all His glory....and His righteous judgment....and His coming again....they will come. This a play on words of course on the film Field Of Dreams. By 1989 when Kevin Costner's film came out....my life had changed. I still loved film....carefully chosen film....with Chariots Of Fire to this day my favorite. 
                I have yet to see Field Of Dreams....or The Natural....because I stayed away from those offerings....(an apt word I think....offerings)....where I had a nagging suspicion that there was something behind the film that....unbeknownst to those involved in it....was meant to lead people away from the God of creation. As far as I know....our son has never seen the film even though he loved baseball....for I never considered bringing it into the home. Am I wrong on this suspicion? I can't say for sure....but I know that our son loves the Lord....and chose a wife that loves the Lord. That's enough for me.
                The glory has departed in America....'Ichabod'....the word that God's Word uses....but the glory of America....was present for a few hours last night in that Iowa cornfield....only the two 'glories' are separate.....wherein one is of God's hand on this nation that began with pilgrims coming to America in hope of it becoming a....'shining city on a hill'.....the other a glory of its own making....and a glorying in itself....of which last night was a fading recollection.
                Oh....we had our moments.....our great film moments....and momentous sports moments....The Miracle On Ice...and we had Reagan's win.....and Obama's win....(for the other side).....and of course Trump's great win....all this mess of pottage that we exchanged the glory of God for....and look at our country now.....we can't even think anymore. Only one thing stand's firm....and that is God's Word....which has been telling us for quite some time now....to get our individual house's in order.....for He is coming.
    

Lawn Mowing Post

                I should call these posts my....Lawn Mowing Posts.....because often it seems that I am mowing the lawn....with my wireless headphones on.....listening to some sermon from a great preacher of the past....or someone today who preaches like the great men of the past....and I take a break to put out a quick post on what I have heard.  Today it was Charles Spurgeon....and the title of his sermon from 1866 I believe....The Voice Of The Cholera. 
               Is there no way in whatever you are doing today that you cannot Google Spurgeon, The Voice Of The Cholera and listen to it in the background? It may change the direction of your life....in fact so many of these older sermons from times past might have the same effect on your life as you view it today.
               In this sermon there has been an outbreak of cholera in London.....and Spurgeon asks his congregation...."Has not God done this?" At times it's as if Spurgeon is speaking to us today....as he advises the people not to be angry with the health profession for the harsh advice that they give to lessen the effect of the cholera. No....he is not speaking about masks or vaccines....but you may as well substitute the words.
               Spurgeon makes it clear that London has brought this upon themselves.....and he uses the rampant drinking at the time....and some other vices that were everywhere.....as to how they had brought out God's ire. Comparing London's grosser sins to ours today.....and you cannot but wonder why God has not brought these judgments upon us sooner.
              You might want to remember that London and all of England.....within only a few decades of Spurgeon's sermon....(and the many sermons of J. C. Ryle that had warned the church of the day every bit as much as did Spurgeon).....had abandoned just about all of the gospel....and....well you know Engalnd's history in the first half of the twentieth century.
              So once again....pleading with you....can you not find time for this Charles Spurgeon sermon....or any of his sermons really.....or any of Bishop Ryle's sermons and lectures? If not....then later this evening....might you not think back....on how you spent your time....and not have at least a pang of guilt over utterly refusing to step out of your 2021 Sunday sermon life and political passions.....to see if just possibly Jeremiah might have been talking to us today when he wrote...."Seek ye the old 'paths?"

We In Essence Added To The Bible....And Helped Put Donald Trump In Office....What Might Be Next?

               Jonathan Cahn is a Messianic Rabbi and author of numerous best-selling Christian books....of which I have read all but one. If an evangelical not familiar with him....were to listen to him lecture today....(unfortunately this is my belief).....they would likely be enthralled by the extraordinary compelling facts and figures....and buy into the overall message that he is putting forth.
             That message....or rather those messages....are built on what he calls....templates....where God's Word describes some part of Jewish Old Testament history....often in minute detail....and then this that we once read on a historical basis....albeit often with much for us to glean as to God's warnings to us today....becomes a precise template with which to interpret the Bible. 
            Many of you are more than familiar with Jonathan Cahn's books....so you know that according to one of these templates....Bill Clinton was Ahab....and Hillary was Jezebel....and Trump is Jehu.....(and there are others today where facts and figures tie together an Old Testament person to a modern day political figure.
            The problem is that God does not reveal truths to us in this way. God's Word....including prophesy....is for all of us....where he will reveal what He wants to reveal....when He wants to reveal it....by the normal means of reading....or preaching....with the Holy Spirit opening our eyes....not giving revelations to one man....primarily for as many followers as he can gain to himself. To paraphrase William Tyndale....'a boy driving a plough may interpret prophetic scripture better than the most famous of prophesy teachers.'
            Folks....I have been reading Jonathan Cahn's books since his 2011's The HARBINGER..the ANCIENT MYSTERY that holds the SECRET of AMERICA'S FUTURE....and he is getting increasingly and wildly more speculative....and whereas one result was in 2015 where he addressed members of Congress....in the Capitol....with a message of warning....the same thing that Billy Graham had done....not in person (possibly) but because of his worldwide fame....but Cahn has since moved beyond warnings and proven a major source of entry for Donald Trump....a genuine biblical false prophet....into evangelicalism!
            I reread last night all of the fifty or so times in God's Word that Jehu's name was mentioned....along with the corresponding historical text....and as I read I found myself quite a few times thinking.....'why didn't the author mention this'....the answer being that it does not fit the narrative....or....'that is speculative-not obvious.' In effect....one would never get these revelations unless another put it in their mind.
            I am not posting this to warn of Jonathan Cahn....or even of his backdoor bolstering of Trump within the evangelical community....(for without men like Cahn and Robert Jeffress and even Franklin Graham....Donald Trump would long ago have been rejected in evangelicalism....and therefore America....we may never have had impeachments or an insurrection or even open warfare on scientists trying to keep a pandemic in check....indeed Clinton may have won....proved a disaster....and we might have had a competent president today)....but to ask readers to look ahead....for if this nonsense....and that is what it is....if this almost gnostic methodology becomes accepted as a legitimate....then what might come next....when we no longer read the bible and let the Holy Spirit lead us....but read the books.....or listen to the lectures....and let the special teachers lead us? 
             
             
            
            
          

Lord's Day Post

               Much has been written over the centuries on revival. I have numerous books on revivals of the past and refer to them from time to time for encouragement....but not much has been written....as far as I can remember anyway....on the opposite of revival....for who wants to celebrate or even remember the times and the ages when deadness ruled over the church of the day?
               The Old Testament prophets did write of those times....and even Peter and Paul seemed to know towards the end that evil was about to take a premature victory lap....and that appears to be where we are today....death valley in spiritual terms....but in the distance....the "Delectable Mountains"...."Immanuel's land"...."within sight of His city"....the Celsestial City!"
               Oh.....revival is still talked about from time to time....I've even mused and posted on the possibilities of an awakening.....always tying it to our pulpits coming out of the doldrums....but revival requires mortification....and few preach that today....in a culture where there is not only a spiritual but an intellectual and an ethical deadness.
               There is something much more than just ominous in the air on our nation's response to this virus. Mistakes were made at the beginning....and valuable time lost....because Trump was worried about the election. It then became full-steam-ahead towards developing a vaccine....but Trump had to change the agenda again after that election....as it wasn't that confidence in our electoral system had to be restored....but Trump himself had to be restored...and anyone or anything that did not fight for him....became an enemy. Masks became an enemy....and vaccinations became an enemy....common sense became an enemy!
                A refiner's fire is being stoked right now....can you not feel the intense heat? Are you not vexed at....not only the abominations overtaking America....but the vigilantism and thuggery in our own ranks? Do you not at times look at politicians and conservatives and even evangelicals....as they throw the word 'God' around all the time....and wonder what Bible they read....if they even open one at all?
               We had our revival in America....even an awakening of sorts....from its embers in the late 1950s....through the headiness of people being born again all over the place in the 1970s.....tripping over ourselves in the early 1980s....but slowly as I described it in the past....the Billy Graham evangelical became the Ralph Reed evangelical.....that became the Karl Rove evangelical.....and is now the Donald Trump evangelical....which has no gospel in it at all.
               Tomorrow is yet another Lord's Day....may God bring mortification to the men in these pulpits of ours....and to us through a revived preaching of these men....a mortification at what we have become...and how we have changed....and who we have followed.. May we sink in the pews in dread of our predicament just as the hearers did when Jonathan Edwards preached his....Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God. Yes....may God bring many into His kingdom once again! May He work on dull inconsistent hearts like mine. Yes....may He bring revival....but not a false....photo op 'revival'....almost as if choreographed for political gain....but a self-effacing revival....where God alone is given glory.   

Addendum: Folks….I can’t write any better than this post….so if it’s not enough that you feel you have to share with loved ones and friends…then it may never be….and you are spending time here that might be put to better use.

               

'DEFUND THE SCIENTISTS!"

             
           

               For the longest time....decades.....we would observe what was happening in the Democrat Party....and wonder how they could think along the lines that they did....(am I not correct here)....at times just shaking our heads....for in so much of it there didn't seem to be any common sense. We called them....low-information voters....because they really didn't want to tax their minds to read....or to search for solutions....as they only wanted to sit back and listen to Hillary or Bernie or someone to tell them what to think. It was frustrating....wanting to dialog with them....and having them just repeat mantras and talking points. Well guess what? We became what they were! And on the Covid issue....they are the ones that are trying to think things through....while we are the low-information voters!
               I knew almost nothing about viruses prior to this pandemic....but like many other people I've been reading....and listening to the national debate....and on the one side I'll see laid out before me....the extreme difficulty of....and progress made....on research in communicable diseases. It's intellectually humbling to observe....and I come out of it thankful for God enabling these scientists in their work.....which is no different than in being thankful to God for enabling medical doctors to treat our illnesses.
               Folks....we know....do we not...how police departments have become the enemy in many of our cities....and we can hardly believe that this is happening....but out here in our part of the country....it's every bit as absurd...as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention....and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases are the new enemy. The other side screams....'defund the police!'....while it's as if we are screaming....'defund the scientists!'

DISPATCHES

Please consider Googlng....'John MacArthur....Beware Of False Prophets'....a Grace To You daily broadcast from May 8, 2015....which was forty days before Donald Trump came down that escalator at Trump Tower. If you don't see Trump in much of his warnings....then....God didn't make little green apples....and it don't rain in Indianapolis in the summertime.... 

We do know....do we not....that if the coronavirus gets totally out of control again....then talk radio might as well shut down and change the format to country music. And we should expect....that if the efforts by the CDC and others today are successful....that Rand Paul and the others will try to claim that all the restrictions were a waste of time....in spite of there already being over ten times the deaths than in the entire Vietnam War.

We need to realize a hard fact....that up to half of the American public is purely pagan....and half of the other half when surveyed show no concept of the essentials of the Gospel of truths of the Bible. We are in no way...."One glorious nation under God".....as one false prophet constantly tells us. Therefore even our grandest political goals....should they be accomplished....still leave us as a nation to be judged by God.

Paris is the next scheduled city for the Summer Olympics. The choosing of host cities has had some interesting twists and turns as Berlin was chosen for 1916 but cancelled because of World War I....and chosen again for 1936....with Hitler present. Tokyo was to be the host in 1940 but the games were not held....nor was London in 1944....(rescheduled for 1948)....but what interests me is that the Academy Award winning film....(Best Picture)....Chariots Of Fire....and my favorite film of all time....(I may watch it again today.....for the umpteenth time)....is the next scheduled city....2024....(only three years later this time because of this years delayed Tokyo Olympics due to the pandemic)....exactly 100 years after the last Paris Olympics. Folks....much of the problems....(an understatement if there ever was one)....that we have today....revolve around one of the dual main plots of Chariots Of Fire....(the other was that of the Jewish runner from England....Harold Abrahams.) Eric Liddell would not participate in sports on the Lord's Day. He went on to be a missionary to China.....and died in a concentration camp just months before he would have been liberated. The Lord"s Day was given to us...commanded of us....among other things....as a hedge of protection in this world.....a hedge of protection that we in the past 100 years have brush hogged and replaced with artificial turf.

I listened to....what do I call it....it's still the Rush Limbaugh show....for the first time since Rush's last program....with the exception of when his wife gave a eulogy. It has the same musical intro and various musical interludes. The two co-hosts laughed at and ridiculed masks. Folks....I've mentioned a number of times over the twelve years of these posts....how from the very beginning of my Christian walk that I focused on cults....particularly 'Christian cults'....that claimed to be Christian but denied the essentials thereof....and this that I see today....beginning with Trump and extending into the mass hysteria of talk radio...is cultic in nature. These folks that called the coronavirus nothing but the flu....this since the very beginning....and after all the added pain and suffering and death that had resulted since then.....they have nothing to stand on today....so they wind up putting their own children at risk....on the absurdity of fighting against wearing a mask. There was a day....we conservatives must surely remember it well....when we watched the burgeoning liberal nanny state fight for ridiculous things like safe spaces....and we just shrugged our shoulders. Well....as in so many areas....and I documented them here as they arose....we became as absurd as the liberals....this in our own causes. The latest absurdity that we have claimed for ourselves is that children wearing masks might inhibit their social development. This is a fallen world that we live in. Are wearing masks as harmful to a child as what Syrian children have lived through....or those in Nigeria....or the children of eastern Europe under communism....on London as the city was being bombed? Yet we seem to be putting masks right up there with those horrible experiences! Have we become the snowflakes that we for so long accused others of becoming?

You are young....in college maybe....and your family's roots are in conservatism....then you are probably being heavily recruited by political organizations that focuses on young people....flee from these groups with all of your strength. They are going to flatter you....and bring out not the best in you....but the worst in you. They will try to convince you that you are some kind of great patriot....when at twenty years old...trust me on this....you have a way to go to even begin to figure these things out. It's the same in your Christian walk. I became a Christian and thought that I immediately knew it all....and had to cross back over some bridges....(I thank God that I didn't burn them after crossing over the first time.) Be patient.

You are well into adulthood....you work hard all day....and spend the early evening getting the family settled....and then you tune into Tucker Carlson....or someone like him....flee from them with all your strength! These people need you....and they need you irritated....so their plan is to stir you up indefinitely....and at times it's difficult....so they have to imagine something....or exaggerate something....and if they have to destroy someone who is a decent human trying their best....Fauci for example....they will do it....and not have a pang of guilt about it. You may think that you are defending a Judeo/Christian America....and you may....but return to Christ Himself....because your fellowship right now is primarily with talk show hosts and cable news and podcast stars....who if you know anything about them....and understand the gospel of Jesus Christ....you should know that although they mention God a lot....they do not even have a beginning understanding of the gospel or the Word of God.

 

"What Has Been Is What Will Be......And What Has Been Done Is What Will Be Done"

                 Jeremiah had warned them for decades.....and as in all of God's warnings of judgment.....they came to pass. Jerusalem was desolate and burned. Nebuchadnezzar knew all about Jeremiah....who he gave a choice of doing whatever he wanted to do....and also left the few remaining poor to tend to whatever was left of the vineyards and fields. Some people who had been driven away into the wilderness....returned to what was left.

                The people knew all about Jeremiah also....for most of them ignored him over all those years....and now they saw that he was right. They....oh so very piously came to him and asked him to inquire of the Lord.....of what to do.....and they would then obey. Jeremiah did so....heard from the Lord....and told them to stay and live out their lives....and be submissive to the dictates of Nebuchadnezzar.....(remember...Daniel and so many others are now living in Babylon.)
                Well the people didn't like what they heard....and told Jeremiah that he was lying. Jeremiah laid out on the line to them what he heard from the Lord.....'stay and you will be OK'....'leave and you will all perish by the sword and by famine." Well they left....to Egypt....in effect leaving the Lord their God....to trust in the world.....God then sent Nebuchadnezzar to Egypt....and they all perished there. Meanwhile back in Jerusalem....seventy years passed....and as promised....many of the Jews came back from Babylon.

                We in the church have a very similar choice today. We brought all this upon ourselves....just like the people of Jerusalem and Judah brought upon themselves all their troubles....for we had our own idols that we worshiped....as only for instance....just one example of many....where college football became our passion for half the year....down in the South anyway....(I've heard so many....of even the better preachers....stop mid-sermon....and make a joke about their great football conference or team)....and as for the pros....we got out of church as fast as we could on the Lord's Day to worship at the stadium or in front of the television. We raised false teachers up all around us like Joel Osteen...and then fell hook line and sinker for a genuine biblical false prophet....an antichrist as John labeled these men who led the church astray....in Donald Trump....(even MacArthur got sucked in)....who told us for five years running the exact opposite that Billy Graham type ministers....(and MacArthur himself!)....were telling us that God was was telling us through His Word!
                 Look at America folks. We are right now....'desolate'....it's 'astonishing' for those of us older Americans to watch....we are so far from God....and clinging to politics as the answer....that we refuse to get a medical vaccination....a simple vaccination....of which many of us have had in our lives.....because that would be 'staying' and being submissive to Nebuchadnezzar. We're....as if....saying to God...."where's the deaths God.....all you got is a lot of infections....get out of the way....we got a mid-term to win!" We followed a man....a 'prince'....who to anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear....has totally discredited himself....but we....like those left in Jerusalem....are not going back to our Lord either.....we're going to Egypt....the world....with total dependence on ourselves....for that's where there is security.

STILLWATER

                 I think that Matt Damon's new film....Stillwater.....should be nominated for....Best Foreign Film. OK....a couple things about that. First....it's not a foreign film.....and second....they actually call it the....Best International Feature Film....even though it is more commonly known as....Best Foreign Language Film. Don't let it scare you away but subtitles are used....just a little here and a little there....throughout the film.
                 Damon's character is a very typical....I don't want to use the term redneck....which others will mostly use.....because he is more of an everyman....on what talk radioland used to be....before Trump turned us into automatons....performing human functions but no longer in possession of ethical standards or thinking on our own. He's me in a way....(my wife said he was me....hmm)....and you....if I know those who reads these posts.
                 He prays a lot....obviously raised in a Christian home....where he must have walked that aisle....and said that sinner's prayer....somewhere early in life....and showed up dutifully at revivals every few years....and Sunday School....all until he moved out of the house and got his first job. So what he learned about God as a youth.....stuck....and stuck big time....but there was little else that stuck other than praying over meals....and when trouble comes.
                 I'm not even going to take the chance of giving away the ending....but I can tell you this....it was reported that the audience at the Cannes Film Festival....gave a standing ovation at the end. It was reported that that ovation was for Matt Damon....but it would not have been simply for Damon's performance.....(even though that character as a somewhat typical Trump supporter was absolutely superb.) No....the standing ovation....from the Cannes Film Festival audience....was for the message in the ending....which I can't tell you about.
                I will say this.....two distinct cultures are on display....that of modern migrant Marseille....and Stillwater, Oklahoma.....or Pittsburgh....or Youngstown, Ohio....in this divisive society of ours. The liberal would normally love this film.....(opinion here)....except that the Damon's Trump supporter character is very likable.....so they will back off with praise. The conservative evangelical also would have problems.....not wanting to admit a lot of what is on display.
                I think that it is a great film....literally great. It's a film that takes you somewhere and lets you decide on what you have just seen. Maybe someday....Lord willing....I'll give my thoughts on the last few minutes of the film....but one major thing that I believe Stillwater does.....hopefully anyway....to all of us....all of us....Liberal and conservative....is take the wind out of our sails....and force us to sit on the still water and think things through....where hopefully when the winds pick up again....we will have better control of the rudder and the sails and the rigging.

Addendum: The viewership of these posts remains roughly 50 percent from outside the United States....so to these folks....Matt Damon's character is very true to a segment of American 'conservatism'....for he is a decent man....who cares for people....and does what he thinks is best for America....he just makes a lot of impetuous mistakes in his actions. To get a better overall picture of 'evangelicals' in America....please see the post near the bottom of this page titled....Bumpkins....Low-Information Voters....Racists....And Homophobes....a descriptive they are falsely accused of being.

Note: take note of the parent's guide for the film STILLWATER.
               

It's All Biblical.....If Only We Would Read It

Preface: This much is for sure....the rich are getting richer....and there are more of them. Drudge is carrying a Vanity Fair piece right now where residents of the Hamptons are complaining that there are too many new rich people there....with way too much money to spend....and consequently the atmosphere....where it has always been a haven for the rich....is no longer pleasant....(their conception of pleasant.)  I still can't wrap my mind around athlete's $100 million dollar contracts. There is definitely something wrong with a society that pays a man that kind of money to catch a ball. There is an existential problem here because a nation simply cannot sustain itself where the poor and the rich are getting further and further apart. The delirium over prosperity in 2019 shorted out something in our brains....for when the coronavirus issues came up in 2020....masks and vaccinations....our arguments began to make no sense at all....and we only converse over symbols today....not ideas....and there is no longer any compassion for people suffering....and what used to be 'determination' that described the conservative....is now more....'extermination'.....for we will exterminate you if you do not become submissive to us. This is all biblical....the information age....and the violence....and the lack of love....and the absolute uselessness of truth....all wrapped around a culture where we are still merrily eating and drinking....and giving in marriage....

                It was nearing the end of what some have called the....Jehu Dynasty. Jehu came in like a ball of fire....and before you knew it....Jezebel was being thrown out of a window. Jeroboam II was the fourth king in Jehu's line....and reigned for 41 years....about the same amount of time that we in America have had since Ronald Reagan became president.
                Under Jeroboam II the northern kingdom's borders were extended to where they had been under Solomon....and it was the greatest period of prosperity under all of the kings of the northern kingdom....period. Sounds good doesn't it....but it wasn't. Jonah and Amos and Hosea all were prophets to Israel during this time. Wikipedia....a secular source....puts it this way...."According to the prophet Amos....the triumphs of the king had engendered a haughty spirit of boastful overconfidence at home. Oppression and exploitation of the poor by the mighty, luxury in palaces of unheard-of splendor, and a craving for amusement were some of the internal fruits of the external triumphs." Pagan worship prospered in Israel's replacement cities for Jerusalem....and then towards the end of Jeroboam II's reign....came the earthquake....and it was very likely a big one. It was all downhill from there....and within a few decades the ten northern tribes were taken into captivity.
                 When you have a people who won't even put on a mask to help someone else....and won't get a simple vaccination....while the other side won't do anything if it comes from the traditions of white men....then how are you even going to draft for defense of the nation when war comes? 'Divide and conquer' is not a new tactic. Both Xi Jinping and Putin know the extent of our divisiveness....for they themselves have done their part to bring it about....but then those who are experts at analyzing things like this....are not to be trusted....for they are the deep state....another symbol with which we communicate. I've recommended this before....read through the Old Testament prophets....start with the shorter books....this can be done in an evening....and think of America every time either Israel or Judah are mentioned. If this doesn't drive the reader to their knees....then I don't know what would.