BOTS....The Elon Musk purchase of Twitter is being held up over the issue of 'bots.' Drudge is headlining it right now. Bots are automated 'hits' to websites.....used for various purposes....among them could be giving the appearance of more interest in a website than actually exists.....and it can be used in political elections as it was by Russian operatives in 2016. In my own case....I do not have a 'counter' on this website precisely because bots distort the figure....whereas as of today I have 168,000 supposed hits.....I know that the real number is far less.....but I do not know what the real number is....so I do not display it. I rather look at the number of people who view my profile.....for there are no bots here....and it tells me how many new people visit these posts.
Dr. Fauci was quoted yesterday in the following...."the idea of 1 million deaths in an outbreak, that is historic in nature. We have had nothing like this is well over 104 years.....It's estimated that, if people had been vaccinated to a much greater extent right now, that vaccines would have avoided at least a quarter of those deaths, namely about 250,000"....but much of evangelicalism bought into the conspiracy theories that Dr. Fauci is evil....and all this was done to control us. Those days of control are indeed here....and will get much worse.....but this was not one of them....and there are surely those out there who wanted to take advantage of the pandemic....but Dr. Fauci was not one of them. What we have done in much of the evangelical community is attempt to destroy a man's reputation....where the issues are greatly disputed....and politically biased....but we do not care.
I quoted in a post a few below this....John Murray....Scottish-born theologian from the last century...."Would God the Father have sent his only-begotten Son into this world, would he have given him to the agony of Gethsemane and the abandonment of Calvary, if common decency were the passport to glory?" This question is important enough to mention in this DISPATCHES post. It is paramount that we address this issue today....in the church....from the pulpits. John Murray addressed the issue from a common sense perspective....would God have his Son suffer as He did.....so that one today might show no particularly excessive devotion....and be 'saved' just because.....well because he or she is a nice person? That is where we are at. I addressed the issue from the concept of love.....and John Piper's ministry is to a great degree built on this....you say you love your....parent....your child....your spouse....but as for their....eternal destiny....you are unwilling to put in the time to understand what scripture means by....born again....therefore putting the eternal destiny of the person that you....'love'....to chance. What kind of love is this? Might I suggest that the love is indeed there...but to investigate what Jesus meant when He said...."unless one is born again"....means that our own salvation might be examined....and we might find out that the direction of our entire life might have to change?
It has been my advice many times in these posts for the Christian to incorporate the Old Testament prophets into their daily Bible reading. Throw the read the Bible in a year plans away. They were useful in the past.....but not today....when God is slowly but surely removing veils on His prophetic word in scripture. You might try this sometime....choose one color of highlighter....and as you read through the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and Luke 21....and Paul's epistles....and John's letters....and Jude....and even Hebrews and James....highlight any and all verses that pertain in any way to end-times prophesy and waiting for the Lord's return. It will help to show you just how important it was and is to always be vigilant as to the nearness of the Lord's return. The Old Testament prophets are more challenging....and the reader generally needs help from a good Study Bible....but it is even more difficult with Jeremiah....which I want to emphasize here....for it was not compiled chronologically....so if in the past you have done nothing but read through all 52 chapters from your read the Bible in a year plan....and then said....'gee that was fun....I wasn't able to make any sense of that'....try this....to get a taste of Jeremiah....spend time on chapters 4-9....and concentrate on every verse....and try to discern how the warnings might apply to us today. These are just just some personal suggestions....nothing more.
