A Better Conference Title Would Be.....'Batten The Hatches....Foul Weather Ahead....A Tempest....Lord Be Our Compass!'

                Today is the Jewish Yom Kippur....or the Day of Atonement. It began last evening....the 4th....and will end at sunset this evening....only a few hours after I am typing this....Israel being seven hours ahead of us in the eastern time zone. Today also begins the Puritan Conference at John MacArthur's Grace Community Church in the suburbs of Los Angeles. The three day conference is beginning in about an hour....as they are three hours behind us in Pittsburgh.....and it can be streamed from the church website.
                One might think that I am thrilled at such a conference....being that I have posted quite a bit on the Puritans over the years of these posts.....and even a few decades before I began these posts. We owned a Christian bookstore a little over twenty years ago....and the foundation of it was the great Puritan literature that is available to Christians....if they know what to look for and where to look for it.
               The speakers at the conference are wonderful proclaimers of the gospel of Jesus Christ....most of them I have recommended in these posts....particularly John Piper....but thrilled is not how I would describe my feelings. It is not only the topic of this conference....and most other conferences....but the themes of most denominational synods that I have observed over many years....for what is needed most today is a discussion....a deep and serious discussion....even a debate if necessary....on where this world is at....and where the church is at....and particularly how a genuine biblical false prophet....Donald Trump....came into the church....changed us for the worse.....and is still there....wreaking havoc.
               Pastor MacArthur....who I continue to highly recommend.....gty.org....and whose ministry meant so much to me when I first came into the Reformation....his Grace To You program broadcast on May 8, 2015....was.....Beware Of False Prophets. (you can easily Google this....see for yourself if it does not describe Trump) That radio program....which was a rebroadcast....was forty days before Donald Trump came down the escalator....dressed as a shepherd.....into the middle of evangelicalism....where he proceeded to devour. Fat with the flesh of the saints....purposely belching in front of us to his glee.....he continues to devour today. So no....as wonderful as these messages will be.....the walls have been breached.....the sanctuary invaded.....the dining hall taken over.....and we need hard discussions on hard issues.....and we need them yesterday.