Judgment Deniers

“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.” Zechariah 4:5b

"Thus says the LORD of Hosts:
  Show mercy and compassion
  Everyone to his brother.
  Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless,
  The alien or the poor.
  Let none of you plan evil in his heart
  Against his brother.
  But they refused to heed, shrugged their shoulders and stopped their ears so that they could not hear."     
  Zechariah 7:9-11

Come out from among them folks. God's Word tells us that few are saved....(Google 'J. C. Ryle' sometime....along with 'few are saved'....or 'freedom' along with his name)....and we might just agree with that....as it pertains to the rest of the world....but here in America....we evangelicals think that maybe thirty or forty percent of the people are Christian. There is an eternity of difference between 'Christianity' and 'Christendom.' There are men and women literally all over conservative broadcasting who use God's name all the time....and fight for Judeo/Christian values in America....but have absolutely no idea what the gospel of salvation is....and they are the driving force right now in tearing this nation apart....but they will later on be the first to put their hands up saying...."What....what did I do?" If there are 10% in America who are redeemed....then that would be wonderful. There is a winnowing coming in evangelicalism.....and it will revolve around this question....'what is a Christian?" I have witnessed once pious and devout Christians....truly redeemed Christians....become raving maniacs after listening to people like Rand Paul and Tucker Carlson and others like them. Brothers and sisters....flee these people.  The following was first posted on October 13:               

               How does one deny the effects of the pandemic....the seriousness of the situation? How does one have the statistics before him and somehow turn them into meaningless numbers? How can the human mind follow this path? Well....we really have to look no further than those who have denied the Holocaust. If someone wants to come up with a conclusion that they want to come up with....they will find a way.

                It's 6:30 in the morning.....Monday....China is ratcheting up tensions big time with Taiwan but the big news story over the weekend in America was would Tom Brady beat Bill Belichick....and I've already heard the Breitbart radio talk show host refer to Anthony Fauci as Dr. Doom and Dr. Frankenstein. The 700,000 deaths are now....the allegid 700,000 deaths....who died....with Covid....not necessarily from Covid. The host....in a rambling absurd rant said...."I'm blaming Biden for death....and I'm of course I'm blaming Fauci for death." 
                This is politics....not medicine....and not science....and it is all part and parcel of what Donald Trump has turned us into....but the problem actually transcends the pandemic....as bad as that is....for this pandemic was and is judgment from God.....on us. God's Word is very clear in the Old Testament that God sent plagues as judgment....a number of times....and that is what this is in the world today....and guess who are the primary deniers? Us....conservatives....evangelicals! 
                Where the virus originated....and how our response was handled....and how accurate Anthony Fauci's determinations may or may not have been...all these things may play out in the future....but what we have done is essentially tell God....'You're going to have to send a bigger judgment than a pandemic to get our attention'....and He will....and how are we then going to react.....being that everything today is put on the grid of Trump vs Biden politics.....which.....folks....is a judgment in itself.....delusion.....that we are fully under at this time.

Note: It was the latest epidemic of Cholera in London in 1866....but Charles Spurgeon preached on it.....and it might be good for us to hear his thoughts.....from his sermon.....The Voice Of The Cholera....which can easily be Googled.
               
                

                
                 

Hallelujah Flash Mob

                 Is there a greater piece of music than Handel's Messiah Hallelujah Chorus? No! There never was....and there never will be....unless it is something sung by God's mighty angels when they return with the King of Kings....and it may turn out that it will be the same chorus. Whatever it is...we do not have long to wait.

              It is 11:45 PM as I type.....a few minutes to the new year.....Eastern Standard Time. O Lord....let this year bring out in America a flash mob....unchoreographed.....all singing praises to Thee! Let us in one part of America stand up to the surprise of everyone and sing in soprano....

"Hal...lelujah....Hal...lelujah....Hallelujah....Hallelujah....Halle...lu...Jah...."

and others stand and sing base in another part of America....

"Hal...lelujah....Hal...lelujah....Hallelujah....Hallelujah....Halle...lu...Jah...."

Let the world know O Lord that our God has risen from His place.....and is coming with righteous judgment....that He will not be mocked....so that we all may sing out....


"And He shall reign for ever and ever

  And He shall reign for ever and ever

 

  Hal...lelujah.....Hal...lelujah....Hallelujah....Hallelujah....Halle...lu...Jah....

  Hal...lelujah.....Hal...lelujah....Hallelujah....Hallelujah....Hal...le...lu...Jah...."

Do You Understand Why You Need To Be ....Born Again?

                  The sermon that I am going to recommend to you here is so important that it needs its own post. You are a Christian....you are confident of that....you go to church regularly and pray and believe....but you dismiss what you might hear from other Christians on the necessity of being....born again. It's just a phrase that some denominations use....you tell yourself....and you may even be irritated if you hear of this....'necessity'....too often. If this is you then you need to find some resolution to this problem....thus this sermon by John Piper. If you are born again....and know what it is....and rejoice in hearing this....'necessity'....being preached....like I do....because you know that it is so important that everyone understands it....if nothing else you will be able to explain it to others....and this message will bless you also. It's easy to bring up on you computer or iPhone....just Google....'John Piper sermon....Why Do We Need To Be Born Again....Part One'

Also:

               The small town of Ligonier, Pennsylvania has historical significance in the French and Indian War....and in modern times the Mellon banking family settled in the area. My wife and I are basically beach people....as we head to the beach at least once a year....but in my youth there were no beach vacations....so this one year was most memorable when my mother found enough money for us to go to a motel court with a pool in the mountains of Ligonier....and in that pool I learned how to swim.
                Hardly anyone knows this but that small community was part of one of the greatest efforts in modern times in the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ....as a young R. C. Sproul picked that same mountainous area to found his....Ligonier Valley Study Center....which has led to the worldwide ministry that you can visit at ligonier.org....or renewingyourmind.org....where today you can listen to a broadcast that explains the ministry of R. C. Sproul....and answers the question posed by the host of the broadcast...."What is a Ligonier?" Note: this is no longer the Daily Audio but you can easily listen to it by clicking on the archives link.

Lord's Day Post....Reading The Fine Print

                   It's in the news as I type....a professor at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga wondered if students even read the class syllabus anymore....so he tried an experiment. As he passed out the syllabus to his seventy-one students in the class....he emphasized to them that there were changes and that they should carefully read it. In the middle of the syllabus.....along with information on things like what would happen if they had to make up classes.....he added this....(free to the first who claims; locker one hundred forty-seven; combination fifteen, twenty-five, thirty-five.) Inside the locker was a pen and legal pad....written on it was...."Congrats! Please leave your name and date so I know who found it." At the end of the semester he looked in the locker....and no one had claimed the fifty dollar bill that the professor left for the first person to open the locker.  

                 I tried an experiment of my own a number of years ago....as on the tailgate of my truck....in bold stickers.....just below.....SPECIALDOGG.BLOGSPOT.COM.....was this.....DO NOT READ 'LIBERTY AND TYRANNY!' (Mark Levin's 2009 best-seller) Sure enough I got an email from someone at work who read the message in the parking lot....and informed me that they were going to read the book....because I said not to read the book. I've done this experiment more recently with stickers on my truck that read....DO NOT READ 'AMERICAN OLIGARCHS!'
               
               Revelation 1:3 has a similar clue to the one that the professor gave....but the reward is infinity better than fifty dollars....and may even be eternally better.....as it reads...."Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophesy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near"....and then continues with...."John, to the seven churches which are in Asia...." There are countless books and commentaries available on Revelation.....and many more sermon series preached throughout on it....but from what I have read and heard....they do not emphasize that God is here giving us a "heads-up" in that this is not just book of wild images where we are not even sure what they mean.....as we begin by scanning over seven seemingly insignificant letters to seven churches....almost considering them as merely the 'fine print' of Revelation to get to the real wild stuff.
               The seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation are one of the more important parts of the last book of God's Word....and right now....before the events foretold within the book begin to take place....it may be the most important part....for we....you and I....and your church and my church....are somewhere in those seven churches. For me personally....and my denomination of presbyterianism....the letter to Ephesus seems to speak the loudest....as we have our church polity down pat....and our doctrine is precise and as true as can be interpreted....and 'missions' are strong....and we are experts at discipline....but have we in at least a small way.....'lost our first love?' Are we more afraid of making a mistake in polity....than letting God use us in mightier ways? I recall an old piece of humor in the church where in a meeting of ministerium pastors a fire broke out....and a Methodist pastor jumped up and yelled....FIRE!.....and then a Baptist pastor jumped up and yelled....WATER!.....and a Presbyterian pastor jumped up and yelled....ORDER!
               I know that I personally can read a couple of these church letters and see in myself critique that is difficult to read....and I do not see in myself any of the praise that is offered to other churches....but I continue to dwell on this portion of Revelation....and read through the entire book often....hoping to gain discernment as God permits it....for although to every Christian in every age....they were to see the time of Christ's return as "near"....it has never so much the case as this very day that we live in!
             

Time Is Short

 Preface: When was the last time that you remember your pastor preaching on the return of our Lord and Savior and King Jesus Christ? I don't mean the perfunctory sermon preached once a year where it has the unction of what pair of socks to choose in the morning.....but a heartfelt hope and a warning along with it? You would probably have to associate the time with a the age of a child....'Let's see....little Jimmy was probably in grade school at the time?" Except of course many old time Pentecostal and Fundamentalist churches who do preach on our Lord's return....churches who we criticize for not having appropriate doctrine....but at least they have not left their first love!                

             There have been a handful of occasions in the past where a preacher that I either knew or knew of was working on a doctorate degree. I never spent a lot of time thinking about this but my initial observation was....why....for that's a lot of work on one topic....just to be called Doctor?
              I went back to college at fifty years old....in a masters program on Higher Education....and this because our son was a couple of years away from going to college.....and I wanted to know as much about our higher education system as I could so that I could advise him....and guide him. I went through the entire curriculum except a one week get-a-way at the end for the cohort where three short classes would be included....and then of course a final paper. I guess I would have liked the degree...but I didn't need it.
             Billy Graham gave a lecture almost forty years ago....I remember this because he mentioned that George Orwell's 1984 was only a year or two away. In this lecture he added some humor....it seems a man went down south for his annual hunting vacation.....and asked the proprietor of the hunting lodge if they had a dog called Preacher that he could use. The man said...'Preacher....Preacher....no we don't have a dog called Preacher." The visitor then said...."Surely you do for a lot of people told me of how good he was?" The proprietor then said...."Oh yes.....we did have a good dog called Preacher....then somebody came down here and called him Doctor....and he hasn't been a lick of good since."
              I never had the honor of meeting R. C. Sproul....but if I had....I sure wouldn't have addressed him as Dr. Sproul....for that just would never have come to mind. Billy Graham has numerous honorary doctorates given him....but that would be last thing on my mind to call him if I had ever met him.
              I write all this to pastors....because in the short time that you have on this earth....it needs to be spent on the gospel....and that your learning and seeking wisdom and discernment should never come to end....and the man who picks up your garbage every Tuesday morning....might be the man who God sent to wake you up....and I don't mean by the clanging of the garbage can lids. Oh...the title of that Billy Graham lecture was....Time Is Short.

David.....The Census....And The Plague

                  I wonder how familiar we are with David and the census and the plague? You can read about it in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21. For whatever reason....pride probably....David wanted a census to be taken....'pride'....because it would show how strong Israel was. His commander Joab questioned him about it but David gave the order anyway for the census to be taken.

               The results of the census are given in 1 Samuel as Israel having 800,000 men able to use a sword....and Judah 500,000.....but Chronicles lists Israel as 1.1 million men.....and Judah with 470,000. It appears that Chronicles listed more than just men trained for battle. Whatever the explanation David knew right away that he had 'greatly sinned' by conducting the census.
               God gave him three options on the judgment to be handed down to him....and David took the third option.....pestilence. You need to read both accounts with a little bit of help from a study bible because this isn't something that God offered every day....and there is more than one area here that we need help on. 70,000 people died of the plague the first day....and God stopped it....even before the plague reached all areas of the nation.
               We have over ten times the number of deaths in America in this pandemic....but probably a hundred times the population of Israel and Judah at the time. God's methods in this may have been unusual....but bringing a plague as judgment was not.
               Now the world certainly doesn't see this pandemic as judgment from God....but I don't know if the church even considers it as judgment....and if it does....the judgment is probably on the unbelieving world and the evil Democrat Party and not us.
               From day one of our part in this pandemic....that which was most on our mind was the 2020 election. Had our pulpits spoken up it might have been different....but they did not. Add to this the roar of the lion....where Donald Trump was a no-show in the pandemic at first....then reluctantly agreed to some of the restrictions he was advised to give....and then got tired of that and began to harp on Fauci and others....then came the unsuccessful election....and all hell broke loose....and I'm not just being figurative in that assessment.
               Today....not only do we not even come close to thinking about God's judgment....we ridicule the entire matter. Good men and women.....dedicated men and women in the field of science....have had their reputations destroyed. I am 71 years old.....and have followed politics for over a half century....and have been a flag waving radical conservative evangelical for decades.....but this before me every day in the form of talk radio and Fox and MAGA and January 6 and purging and destroying is no more what we were at one time than how the Democrat Party today is nothing even similar to what it had once been!
               The pandemic was not the first of judgments on us....and it won't be the last....but you see....evangelicalism today wants to make America great again....it doesn't want to hear anything about Jesus coming back in judgment....for we have plans....and there is no place in those plans for any tribulation or Antichrist or Jesus returning.

              

                      

    

Prepare To Be Unpopular....12/1

                Over the years....forty that I have observed directly but it extends further back....there has been quite a number of serious....negative 'events'....in American Christianity. I could probably think for a while and come with at least twenty times that some news within the church overall was discouraging....at times seemingly overwhelmingly discouraging. It might involve a personality or a movement....sometimes involving a cult....or something related to end-times prophesy....or something in the entertainment field....a new film on Christianity for example that may have strayed far beyond the Bible....but time passed and there was no serious damage done. Or was there serious damage done....because as that time passed....and generations changed....the whole country began to process facts differently....actually using their brains in a different way....at times in a direct rejection of ethical norms and values and sound reasoning that had stood the test of time for thousands of years.

              In other words....the individual events....in retrospect.....did not simply pass on....but over time there has been a cumulative effect....as biblical Christianity seems to have fallen to the status of a remnant today. The Reformation distinctives were clearly visible twenty years ago....so much so that major battles were taking place....but where are those battles today? 
              This paradigm change in the way that we process information would normally cause me great distress....but there is something that transcends even what is happening today.....and that is that what is happening should be expected as the Lord Jesus is about to return in judgment. The demonic that is so prevalent in society today should be expected....as well as the violence....and the disdain for truth for truth's sake....and the overall lack of love....replaced by caring primarily for the self.
              We really should have to look no further than our own pilgrimage....if you are anything like me....where more than once we may have had to escape from Giant Despair....recognizing our own sin....and then cling to Jeremiah's Spirit breathed words in Lamentations 3:22-23...."The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."
              We believers do not readily or easily recognize each other anymore....but that will surely change if things continue as they are going....and although the difficulty of what would be ahead is something that we should not dwell upon....the fog that we live in today will surely dissipate in the heat of the fires coming upon us all. A simpler way to put it is that a winnowing must be ahead. So prepare to be unpopular....but at the same time have a truer fellowship with other believers....or as Billy Graham wrote to America as a rebellious people almost thirty years ago in his book....Storm Warning...."Trouble ahead....prepare to meet thy God."

  

You And I Will Be United.....Ugh.....That Doesn't Sound Too Good To You Right Now Does It

The following post is from November of 2017....the preface from earlier this year:

Preface: I have lived sixty-eight years and some odd months. (lest than a month shy of seventy-two now) I was able to partake in the America of our heritage.....before that America succumbed to the same temptations that ancient Israel succumbed to before they were judged by God. I remember that heritage....and weep at what we have replaced it with. I have given nothing to stop the downward spiral....in fact I added to it. I am but one person....one of many....who God for some unknown reason had mercy upon. Even my warnings are tinged with pride and arrogance....but I continue to warn....for if Jesus felt it to our benefit to warn us....and if Peter warned us....and Paul warned us....and John warned us....and Christians ministers such as Billy Graham.....just to name one.....of whom I have no right to even stand beside....if they felt....and feel it necessary to warn those that God gave them to minister to.....then we all have no choice but to do the same thing....to at least warn our neighbors and friends....which in reality is all that these posts are....words to neighbors and hopefully friends....wherever they may live!

              How was your church service yesterday? Fine you say? Did you find yourself praying for your pastor during the sermon because the burden weighing him down seemed so great? If not then maybe the service was not so fine after all.
              Our pulpits in America have let us down.....they have let Christian believers down......and most important of all they have let their Lord and Savior down! Did they do this out of malice to the Gospel of Jesus Christ? No.....they did it out of ignorance. The worst that can be said about them is that they became lazy....(or else they thought they knew it all)....and that when finally apprised of what is going on they...many of them...still refused to sound a clarion call.
              Now maybe you are angry with me......'how dare I'....you say! Folks....in a world as you perceive it to be at this time.....I might agree with you. In the actual world that we live in.....it's time to throw the passions of football and exercise out the window and get to work and prepare....
              Is there any good news? The good news is so overwhelming that when one understands it one must fall before the majesty and the power and the glory of Jesus Christ. One must then have His hand put on them hearing..."Stand....fear not....for I am with you." He's coming back folks. Every child's tears throughout this world will be dried. Every mother's cries are heard and will end. Every Christian father's prayer for their children will be answered. Every war will end. Every crushing the skull of a beautiful pre-born baby will cease. Every abomination will be seen for what it is. Every slaughter of God's wonderful animal kingdom will stop. There is a cost to discipleship and we....in America....but not everywhere.... are about $20 trillion in arrears. ($28 trillion now...and....'it was over'....at $20 trillion)

              Difficult times are at our doorstep with a foot already in over the threshold. If you don't see this then you are not looking. There are multitudes of pastors out there who would express the same thoughts that I have given in this post. There is a winnowing ahead. Possibly the hardest thing will be multitudes....in the church....who will dig and dig until they come up with an excuse...not to defend the gospel of Jesus Christ! The rest of us will be united in the love of Jesus Christ. You may not feel so united with me right now but we're coming together....may God add multitudes to us! Maranatha....Come Lord Jesus!!