Perspicuity

Preface: I'm on the road today to a college campus....and thought that I would bring up this older post from December of 2017:

I expected it to be Billy Graham. Living in his 100th year, I expected news to come that he had gone on to be with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I was preparing myself for it. Instead it turned out to be R. C. Sproul. Only minutes ago my son texted me with the news that R. C. had gone first to be with his and our Lord and Savior. I wasn't prepared for that.

            I have a stack of Tabletalk monthly devotional magazines two feet high in my basement. Our last Tabletalk came Saturday. I have an old VHS capable television set up in a spare room, the only purpose of which is to watch R. C. Sproul's old teaching tapes. R. C. has meant more to me in my Christian walk than any other minister. I just checked my past posts and have referenced him dozens of times....just about always giving the Ligonier web address at the end. 
            R. C. was born and raised here in Pittsburgh, a few miles from where I was raised. Educated in America and in Europe, many Christians in Pittsburgh do not know that he first went to Westminster College just north of here. I don't even think that Westminster College realizes that the greatest teacher of Christianity in the entire world for the last fifty years is an alumnus. (This is opinion of course. The basis of my believing this is the clarity in explanation with which R. C. was gifted. R. C. would use the word....'perspicuity')
            If by chance you have never heard R. C. Sproul preach or teach or read any of his books....please take advantage of this sad news and visit Ligonier Ministries even right now at ligonier.org. I picked just one of the posts where I mentioned R. C. to add here. It's from earlier this summer. (this would be the summer of 2017)

Count The Cost

            One of the failures of today's evangelicalism is that we fail to mention the cost of discipleship when we evangelize and I have been guilty of this as much as anyone. I put a couple thousand miles on our vehicle recently and that usually means listening to a few more sermons from R. C. Sproul than I usually do. I had to go back into his archives a little bit to find one that I had not heard. I'll recommend two of R. C.'s teachings on this topic at the end of this post. Need I add that what you will hear will be eons in wisdom and knowledge beyond what I can type out? I'll write this post as if addressed to someone who is seriously inquiring about his eternal soul and the gospel of Jesus Christ and I'm only going to address the issue at hand.
            You have close friends....maybe you have a wife and children....maybe even grown children. If your plans are in just joining into fellowship of a church because it's something that you think that you should probably do...don't worry about the cost of discipleship. You may annoy a person or two, and you may even offend someone, but you probably won't find that there is a quantifiable cost to you involved in your decision to become a Christian.
            Your parents....whom you deeply love...may show deep disappointment in you. R. C. had this happen to him with his mother, and I experienced the same thing. It's very difficult and in my case it turned out to be decades of praying for wisdom in presenting the gospel to her and asking for forgiveness for the times that I felt that I failed miserably.
            A good friend will stay your friend but you will either let him alone in his life without Christ or you will try again and again to present the gospel to him and find that although you are still friends you really don't have much to talk about anymore. Still, unless your parents disown you and all your friends avoid you like the plague then this also does not appear on the cost ledger.
            Doctrine does come with a cost. The word doctrine is simply a biblical truth that often is not simple! If you stay with the basics then there will be little to no cost to you. Do you have a serious hobby? Most people do. Is there something you have worked at for years and you excel at? Maybe you are a scratch golfer? I was a scratch golfer....I'd hit the ball and have to scratch my head but maybe you actually know how to play the game? If you apply yourself to the Word of God in like manner then it will most likely cost you. You may have to leave the church that you love. Other Christians may consider you divisive.
            These are really minor costs compared to what others have paid. Your wife may wind up leaving you. Your kids may hardly ever bring the grand kids over.  I've witnessed these things with friends.  We have all read stories in the news where Christians lost their business or their livelihood because of their Christian faith while every one of us should never allow much time to pass without thinking about and praying for Christians around this world whose cost to them was their lives or their families.
           These words were brief and not very profound. My intention was not to make a list of things that will cost you but rather to point out that we fail to mention any costs at all as we ....'share the gospel.' This sets the person in question up for some rude awakenings that may result in their abandoning their faith. This also adds enormously to an American church filled with people who stop short of even considering the cost of discipleship.
           I really cannot just give directions to R. C. Sproul as a post. I have to at least describe what I'm trying to lead you to. And I've done that....so please consider listening to this message to straighten out what I may have brought confusion to. Just Google....R. C. Sproul....The Cost Of Discipleship....parts one and two. You also may want to listen to his very last sermon. This can be done by Googling just that....R. C. Sproul's Last Sermon.

The Shaking of Our Pedestrian Lives

               It is early in the morning as I begin this Lord's Day post. Here in Western Pennsylvania is it 37 degrees and sunny. The birds are taking turns at their feeder....the robins having had a good day yesterday with the rain. There are sticks and a few larger branches strewn across the yard from the high winds of yesterday....my American flag and holder ripped from the wood from those high winds. The forsythia bushes are in bloom but the maple trees have not started to bud yet.
               The visits to these web pages always slack off on Saturdays....and are even less on these the Lord's Days. Weekends tend to take our attention away from the concerns in the world....and even from God. Our next three hours.....evangelicals I'm referring to here....will give to preparation and travel to and from church. We will laugh and chatter at the entrance of the church....and even in the pews....sing a few hymns....listen to a sermon that tells us how much God loves us....then laugh and chatter our way to the car. The men will settle in later to the NCAA basketball games.....and the women will prepare for the events of the coming week.
               All this as the Babylonians are returning....or the barbarians....or the Vandals....marching quickly from the north or the east. There isn't much left to sack. Jeremiah is in a pit somewhere....and Daniel has already been hauled off to Babylon.
               What it boils down to is that the church today....much of it....utterly refuses to pay attention to what God designed as a day that was for us only in that it is the day that we are to take joy in that God is to be given the glory due only to Him. We benefit....we are to be blessed....we are to be protected....by putting aside the things of this world....and giving Him that glory....and rejoicing in that glory!
               We found a way out of all of this. A little tweak here on Scripture....and a little fudging there on history....and lo and behold....we have our Sunday....and thus we have our America. Oh there is still a remnant....there is always a remnant. I did read the words of a woman in an EF-4 tornado devastated Mississippi town....(along with other heart-breaking articles)...."I don't care if I don't have shoes or a hat, I'm going to go to church in the morning." Another lady shielded her grandchildren in a hallway and prayed...."Lord....please take care of us."

               I'll bring back this anecdote from a post of years ago....we were on a cruise to Bermuda. I was passing time in our room waiting for my wife to get ready to go to dinner....and turned on the ship's limited television. The 1953 film Titanic with Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb came on. I found it odd....on a cruise....that this film was being broadcast....but after about ten minutes the screen went blank....and another film replaced it....a comedy I believe. The ship administrators may have believed that people on a cruise would not want to think about any emergencies. If this were the case....they were right.
             We went to dinner and sat with three other couples....and two ladies from London....and as everyone was talking about the upcoming port-o-call....I attempted to start some serious conversation on the condition of the world today....(this was eight or ten years ago.) I mentioned....particularly because of the two English ladies....the highest grossing film of war-torn 1942....and Academy Award winner for Best Picture and Best Actress and Best Director and Best Supporting Actress....Mrs. Miniver. The film revolved around a well-to-do English family with a cottage on the Themes. It began with a church service....this before the war reached England....and everyone present was interested in anything but worshiping God. At the end of the film....with a hole in the roof of the church from the bombs....and some of the main characters killed in the war....there was another church service.....only now....after the devastation of the war....the people were concentrating on their God. There was a pause at the dinner table....and then one of the English ladies started talking about what excursion she was going to go on in Bermuda.
              May God awaken us in these storms....both atmospheric and societal....that are increasingly shaking our pedestrian lives.

"Open The POD Bay Doors HAL....HAL?"

Preface:  Let me jump from a futuristic space scene to Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid. There is a scene where Butch and Sundance are trapped....with only one possible escape....jumping off the cliff into the water. Sundance doesn't want to do it....but Butch keeps pressing him. Sundance finally admits that he can't swim....upon which Butch laughs....and says....."Can't swim? Are you crazy? The fall will probably kill you!" So you do not want Jesus to return right now....tribulation and everything like that?  To paraphrase Butch...."You don't want to see the Tribulation?  AI alone will probably kill you!" Right now we have our head stuck in the sand. If we could really see where this world was headed....instead of just living a life of talking points....we would all look up and say as in the end of the following post from October of 2017........'Maranatha....Lord Jesus, Come!'

"Open The POD Bay Doors HAL....HAL"

                  A futurist is a person....usually a professional of some sort.....who applies their skills in studying just where society and culture are going. I remember reading Charles A. Reich's The Greening Of America and Alvin Toffler's Future Shock while in College at Pitt in the early 70s when I should have been reading textbooks. Futurists or futurologists can be great novelists...science fiction writers...architects....economists....pretty much anything really if their work is primarily focused on where we are going rather than where we were.
                 Dan Brown.....mega best-selling author of the Da Vinci Code series....has a new novel out.....Origin. Now I never read any of these books of his nor saw the movies but I have read numerous articles on them and at least one book on the subject.
                 Drudge has a Reuters news link out right now titled Collective Consciousness To Replace God: Author Dan Brown....the first sentence of which is..."Humanity no longer needs God but may with the help of artificial intelligence develop a new form of collective consciousness that fulfills the role of religion, U.S. author Dan Brown said on Thursday..."  The last sentence in the rather short article is another quote by Dan Brown...."Our need for that exterior god, that sits up there and judges....will diminish and eventually disappear. "
                Voltaire wasn't a particular good futurologist in that he predicted that within a hundred years the Bible would become extinct. On the other hand, Jesus Christ who wrote the future said as recorded in the Gospel of Luke..."....when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?'
                The futurist of today can hardly keep up with technological advances and the news events of the day.  Artificial intelligence is not science fiction. Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey revolved around a computer that started killing off the astronauts. What author Arthur C. Clarke's and Kubrick's intention was with HAL we will never know for sure but I prefer to do what Kubrick said and offer my own interpretation....not necessarily on the film but on where artificial intelligence may very well go.....which is.... an impersonal algorithmic 'thinking' device taken over by a personal outside entity.
                I haven't even really touched upon the reason that I started this post. We no longer have the luxury of living our lives and paying attention to new giant developments every few years or so. Those developments are coming about every month and even every week....and increasing in the intensity of concern to the discerning. Dan Brown's prediction that God will "diminish and eventually disappear" is not his alone. For many....it's not only a prediction....it's a goal. As dangerous as artificial intelligence is....it is only one....only one area where we are sending mankind into an ultimate slavery while in the process potentially killing off the dead weight and defenseless. All this in this post to ask this one rhetorical question......to make this one point.....knowing what is ahead.....and how evil a society (and the world) can be when God lifts His hand off of it.....which is what is happening.....how can we say and desire anything but......Maranatha....Lord Jesus Come!

Living Life To The Fullest

                Two very well-known movie stars....one who died relatively young a few years ago....the other still going strong today. They had worked together on on a film thirty years ago. I came across this comment from the one actor of his friend...."He wanted to live life to the fullest." It's a phrase that we hear fairly often.
                Without getting into specifics....I have the opportunity....not rarely but not infrequently either....to watch over an elderly person. It's somewhat odd using that phrase....'elderly person'....with him because he is only sixteen years older than I am. I spent a few hours yesterday literally pounding the weights in a Planet Fitness....and then walking for a few miles....and this person cannot walk across the room without assistance of some kind....sixteen years difference! We do not know what a day brings....and our life as it pertains to our physical bodies is not linear....in other words.....our bodies do not degenerate as if on a straight line on a graph. I do not know if I will need assistance a year from now....or months from now....or tomorrow!
                 My wife and I have had similar caregiving opportunities with the elderly for many decades....and the story is always the same. Maybe these folks had....'lived their lives to the fullest'.....as the saying goes.....until age overtook them....but their lives near the end were similar.....television all day....in the background....the Wheel of Fortune....or whoever the latest daytime talk or game show host may be....maybe a movie....maybe a soap.....maybe a game of cards? 
                 So did this famous actor really live life to the fullest? In reading his biography it surely seems like a life lived to the fullest....movie stardom...flying planes....jumping out of them! The other actor keeps making films....and making the news. Has he lived life to the fullest? The answer is that neither of these men lived or are living life to the fullest.....nor have any of these talk show hosts....or the audiences that fill the television studios....cheering on cue the inanities presented to them as entertainment.
                 So I'm sitting here listening to the game show host....this from another room....say something about....'curtain number one'....and it's as if I want to cry. The glories of Jesus Christ are on the other side of a threshold….but they cannot turn their gaze away from the pixelated screen.
                 Living life to the fullest? We all will be aware of the full extent of what that means the moment after we die. As it stands right now with me....living life to the fullest involves in part almost breaking down in tears watching people that are lost....but do not even know it. Living life to the fullest also involves rejoicing....for it is a pilgrimage that we are on....always moving....meeting new people....crying at times....petitioning God always....laughing....struggling....repenting....always vigilant....and praising God for the mercies of just letting this pilgrimage go on!
                   

Prophecy And The Psalms

                 It took me around three decades after I was.....born again....and after I had at first spent at least a decade focusing on Christian apologetics....to discover the Psalms. Oh I read them....but I had no idea the majesty of what was contained in them.  It took a pastor dying from ALS....no  longer able to speak....only peck out messages on an eye-coordinated keyboard....to challenge my thinking on the importance of the Psalms....not with words directed to me....but devotions directed to God.
                Two books helped immensely....one a somewhat spurious book on prophecy....and the other a scholarly and groundbreaking book on theory. The following post is from March of 2020....and after it I'll continue with this post....
             

                 Well....I turned seventy. I've never paid much attention to birthday numbers before....not fifty or sixty....but seventy years old is more a milestone...."As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years, or if due to strength, eighty years..." (Psalm 90:10)
                 That Psalm....the 90th.....begins book four of five books contained in the Psalms....I cannot recommend too highly a book on just this subject....The Flow Of The Psalms....Discovering Their Structure And Theology....by O. Palmer Robertson!
                  In this book he describes Book Four of Psalms as.... "a resurgence of hope in the kingdom of the Davidic Messiah" Psalm 90:12....two verses later is...."So teach us to number our days, that we may present to Thee a heart of wisdom." We are to realize that there is a limit to our days....so let us use them wisely.
                  How long our life will be is a fair question for anyone to ponder upon....but how long will it be until the Lord returns in power and glory....how long until every tear is dried....until wars end....how long until the lamb lay down with the lion.....(to choose that phrase)....how long until the blood of the martyred saints is avenged....how long until our bodies are raised imperishable....how long until the Jewish people see and rejoice in their Messiah....how long until every knee shall bow....and every tongue give praise to God? I don't know the exact answer to these questions....other than....soon....but I know this....as of today....these answers will be seventy years less than they were the day that I was born....and I thank God for these three score and ten years....and the many blessings He has given....and many mercies He has shown!

                 J. R. Church was a well-known....and typical....teacher and author on prophecy. In 1986 he wrote a book titled....Hidden Prophecy In The Psalms....based on Psalm 49:4...."I will open my dark saying upon the harp." He interpreted this as there being prophecies in the Psalms...."dark saying." He went further and theorized....that the number of the Psalm corresponded with twentieth century dates....For example....Psalm 1 would be 1901....Psalm 40 would be 1940 and down the line. This led him to believe that the Tribulation would begin in 1988. He was wrong in this....but in spite of being incorrect....he was on to something. He went to be with the Lord in 2011. There are definitely prophecies in the Psalms....on both the Lord's first advent and His second coming.          
                 The second book is scholarly and reformed in theology. I mention it in the above post from 2020. I gave this book to the pastor that I also mentioned....and he seemed very appreciative after reading it. O. Palmer Robertson...(he has some wonderful sermons on the web by the way)....conjectured that the five distinct books within the Psalms were a chronology of sorts....as he labelled them....Book One....Psalms 1-41....Confrontation....Book Two....Psalms 41-72....Communication....Book Three....Psalms 73-89....Devastation....Book Four....Psalms 90-106....Maturation....and Book Five....Psalms 107-150....Consummation.
                 All I'm attempting to do here is encourage you to....first....read the Psalms regularly....and with patient meditation....taking joy in what you will read....but also keeping in mind the day that we live in....particularly alongside of books four and five. The Psalms do seem to build to a crescendo as they progress....and the intensity of the Lord's return....in Messianic verse....is increasingly present.  

                

We Will Look Back And......

                I'm stuck in the house today....to use that aphorism....so I'll use the time for a little ruminating. Here is the understatement of this new century.....'these are not normal times!' Like it or not....you are the generation....and I am of the generation.....that will usher in the Second Coming.....and everything associated with it. This is our December 7, 1941 moment....in spades! We cannot just say....as we always do....'just trust in God'....when we not only are not fully aware of what the Lord's coming entails....but are not even particularly interested. The prophesied delusion alone should send chills down our spine. Whatever we 'expect' to happen....we can just throw out the window....because God's normal way is to demonstrate to us just how unaware we really are....if we do not pay attention to His warnings....which is why we need this time right now to prepare and change.
                We are anything but a peculiar people....no more than the progressive liberals are a peculiar people. We are more tribal than set apart for the glory of God. We are more in transition than on pilgrimage. We are more patriot than Christian. We are in slumber mode....when everything around us should be flashing red lights and alarms.
                 I have been an observer and commentator of sorts on life in America and politics in general for almost a half century. This that we live in today is the quintessential perfect storm. AI alone is a potential monster villain. The Cuban Missile crisis was a cakewalk compared to what is happening now.....and we are a nation unprepared....and from all accounts....with possibly nothing in reserve when we will need it....with a division right out of the warnings of Jesus that that house cannot stand. Every area of life is volatile....all seemingly hitting at once....natural disasters are intense and increasing.
                 Yet with all of this....we in the church refuse to change. A little introspection would show that we are also our own enemy. The bible studies need to reform....and the sermons need the gravitas of God's glory....which should be normal....but is long gone in America. We should be in the Old Testament prophets every day....and the Psalms....and searching out every clue in the New Testament on how we should be looking to the Lord's return.
                 All of this will come....for God's mercies are as sure as His judgments....but we will look back and realize that we should have seen this coming.....we should have prepared better....we should have jettisoned the trivialities of life....we should have sought the glory of God instead of our own glory.....and we should have been in one perpetual mode of examining ourselves....not only making sure that we indeed have been born again....but praising God for giving us this new life....this new heart....and this new mind that every day sees His glory more and more! We should of....we should of....we should of.

Addendum: Folks....did Paul and the other apostles desire the imminent return of the Lord....or not? Read their words. How do you interpret these passages if such would not be the case? I think that if you look closely you can see even in men like Billy Graham and John MacArthur....and Piper and a growing majority of these men that we have come to trust....that they know that the Lord may be at the very door. Billy Graham was a couple of decades into a heightened awareness when he passed away.....as I believe was R. C. Sproul. MacArthur is pushing the envelope. Piper is downright focusing on the return of the Lord. This isn't the fringe folks. There is hyperactivity today in the demonic....as there was at the first advent of Christ....which you can see all over the news....and was present in the actions of Stalin and Hitler. It is the same with the heightened expectation and the hope of the Jesus returning in power and righteousness judgment and glory.

        
                   

"What Do You Mean....'Wake Up'....We Are Already 'woke' "

Preface to the Preface....March 19....The topic of the following post is certainly controversial....but it is not negotiable. This is not something such as whether we baptize infants or only adults upon confession of faith. This is part of the essential doctrine of the faith....but not of salvation. I know multiple people who have not only missed this.....but are part of the abuse of scripture. I'll only point to two particular....women....that I know very well. They are mature Christians! I talk to them all the time and this issue never comes up....(more accurately....hardly ever comes up). This is because the fellowship is so strong....I'm not looking at someone here whose faith is in jeopardy at all....so I do not bring it up.....but....they have missed discernment on other important matters....and this may very well be the primary reason. Bringing this up only invites criticism....and endangers friendships and fellowship....but it has to be seriously addressed. These two friends of mine....and others obviously....the entire church really....has to make an informed and decisive and overt decision on this....and not back into it by avoiding the issue. There will be a winnowing....but that winnowing is coming anyway in this modern church that has lost the essence and efficacy of the gospel....this issue being both a symptom....and a cause....of that loss.

Preface: We hear the phrase literally all the time....we just no longer take note of it. Just watch ten minutes of the local news....someone will be interviewed....and in the course of the interview exclaim something like....'Oh my God.....there was this noise!' Sit around the dinner table with extended family and you will hear it. Watch a sitcom and it will be there. Right now....OMG means absolutely nothing...it's just an exclamation....."Oh my God....I'm so excited!" This will change in a single day. We have had over three years now....where had we any discernment whatsoever....we would instead have been crying out....'O God....have mercy upon us.' Men in our pulpits would have been shedding literal...wet...salty tears.  A pandemic wasn't nearly enough to wake us up. We blew that off like Pharoah blew off the blood and the frogs and the gnats and everything else. The post below points to just one example where....in the church today....concerning God's word to us....there is no....'work out you own salvation with fear and trembling'....but rather....'OMG....this is so exciting!'

"Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light." Ephesians 5:14 

"Wake up..." Revelation 3:2

"So then let us not sleep. as others do, but let us keep" awake and be sober." 1 Thess. 5:6 

               The Southern Baptist Convention is in the news again....this time because it ejected five churches that hired female pastors. Why on earth am I bringing this up? It can only cause more people to be upset with me because of what I write. There are churches all over America ordaining 'gay' pastors. Probably three-quarters of all the churches in America haven't even a faint clue as to the gospel of Jesus Christ. So why the women in the pulpit thing?
               Well for one thing....if the reader should consider this....and come to see that women are not to be pastors....and not only see this but come to wonder how they could ever have gotten this wrong to begin with....for it is so scripturally obvious....then they might just then get a real glimpse of the trouble that the American church is in. If the church gets it wrong on a simple 1+1=2 equation....what else could it be wrong on? The answer would be....all kinds of things.

              "Still....Special Dog....you are barely hanging on. Your friends don't even want to talk to you anymore? Give it a break. Lay off this one....but OK....if you are going to do it....then go ahead and start off with your biblical evidence. Where does it say that women cannot be pastors.....or where does it say that only men can be pastors?"

              I'm not trying to change your mind on this one. If you cannot see this....it's not because of lack of scriptural evidence....it is because of personal bias....or pride.  This is somewhat similar to some who on the topic of 'the Lord's Day' demand to know where the Bible specifically says that the first day of the week is now the sabbath day. They are not giving up their Sundays....and unless you can show them chapter/verse....'the Sabbath is now the first day of the week'....they will continue to believe what they have wanted to believe all along. There are Christians who may not even believe in demons....that are everywhere in the Bible....but they believe in UFOs....that God's Word gives no possibility to at all. There are clear warnings on men with men and women with women....but if the personal bias is there....scripture verses mean nothing. 
             This issue of the pulpit has feminism written all over it. This is a 'progressivism' issue folks! It is also a 'woke' issue. The 'woke' evangelical demands that women can be pastors. We are also seeing....'wokeness'....in our politics.....'masks are bad for our children's psyche'....that's 'woke'....tell this complaint to the parents in the Ukraine or Syria or Armenia....and see how much sympathy you get.
              The men in our pulpits are our weak link today. They comfort....and give no warnings....as women have been a strength in the church for many years now....and it is time for these men in our pulpits to do what they were called to do....feed the sheep....protect the sheep from wolves....warn the church of coming judgment....a judgment of which we all share culpability....take us off the pedestal and lead us through example on rejoicing in the glory that is Christ's alone....relying only upon Him....and not politics....trusting only in Him....and looking to His return.....saying as will the angels around the throne...."Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen." Revelation 7:12              

A Post On....Rapture....(It's Not What You Might Think)

                I used this anecdote only a few months ago.....but I'm using it here again....only with a slightly different twist to it. It was the late 80s. I have to digress here a little bit as I was on a Christian college campus again today....so the newest visitors to these web pages should be primarily college age people....and when they read....'It was the late 80s'....they probably think that this guy must be really old.....and they would be correct....sort of....but to me the late 80s are almost like yesterday.
            Anyway....back to the late 80s....I walked into a Christian bookstore....(they were everywhere back then....and we today are the less for not having them anymore)....I walked in and a book caught my eye because the cover was a bright neon orange. So I picked it up....The Christian In Complete Armor....by the mid-17th century English Puritan William Gurnall. I looked at the blurbs on the back which was then....and still is my habit. I was Pentecostal at the time.....(I do still thank the Lord for those first days)....and I did not recognize the name of Charles Spurgeon.....but I did recognize the name David Wilkerson. In the introduction to the book he said that he was initially skeptical of the book given to him....but according to him....he scanned the first twenty-five pages...and it brought him to his knees. I myself wrote way back then....that I was....I think it was 15 or 17 pages into it....and I was brought to my knees!
           So why this anecdote? I am not as up-to-date on Christian books as when we owned our own Christian bookstore....and I was reading book reviews all the time....this back in....the late 90s. So I just came across a book today....and the blurbs were excellent....by people I could trust....so I bought it....and I kid you not.....I am on page five....so include the Forward and the Introduction....and it would still only be page ten....and I may not be on my knees....(it's tough to get on my knees anymore)....but I found an answer to a question that I have had for a long time....as I would contemplate the Apostle John....who leaned on the Lord at the table. I thought that this must just be John's personality....he was just a sentimental sort.
            I don't think that anymore. I think that John....recognized more the glories of Christ....at that time....than the other Apostles....therefore he could do nothing else but lean on Jesus. That's not the only evidence that I have. In my own life....as the decades roll on by....I am increasingly more astonished at the increasing majestic glories of Jesus Christ!
            I was driving home today from that visit to a college campus....listening to a Charles Spurgeon sermon from 1871....the title of it was simply....More And More. I had picked out that sermon to listen to because of the title. Spurgeon was wonderfully preaching on the essence of what I am writing on here....how can we do anything but desire to know this Jesus....more and more!
            As I was listening....the word 'rapture' came repeatedly to my mind....not the eschatological rapture where we will be taken up....but rapture in terms of....as Merriam-Webster describes the word...."An expression or manifestation of ecstasy or passion." It would apply to the Apostle John at the table....and it should apply to us today....unless we are not seeking to know Jesus....more and more.
            Oh....you want to know the book title....well it's....Knowing Christ....by Mark Jones....with the forward by none other than J. I. Packer....(it is a 2015 book....and J. I. Packer went to be with his Lord in 2020.) I know that they must have done this purposely....but the cover of the book....and the feel to it....are so similar to J. I. Packer's 1973 classic....Knowing God!

Fox in The Hen House

               Right now concerning Dr. Anthony Fauci....we are penning....more accurately acting out....certainly at least witnessing....a Shakespearean tragedy. We have already detoxed the church from all 'harmful' effects of the Fourth Commandment. How were the Academy Awards last evening? The Ten Commandments are now like an air-brushed photo of Stalin....where in one photo he is standing next a certain individual....and in the next....very same photo....that individual is no longer there....only it is an air-brushed photo of the Decalogue. In this photo you cannot read the marred letters of the fourth and the ninth commandments.
               Our heroes today are people like Rand Paul. Our top theologian is Ayn Rand. Fox News was put in charge of guarding the hen house....but the temptation became too great....and now they are in the hen house....and will devour until they begin to vomit.
               Very real signs of a very real pandemic began to appear....but the President of the United States....a man who had shown little empathy for anyone his entire life....including his own brother....and what little empathy he had displayed.....was meant to benefit him in the long run....this man....this president....tried his very best to ignore this possible pandemic....because it might very well be a death-knell to his reelection campaign. 
              Dr. Fauci....and those around him....showed him complete deference.....respect. They listened to him butcher the scenario being played out....and then tried to explain what really happened....without making the President of the United States appear as an idiot.
              Time passed....and the pandemic did indeed put Joe Biden in office....more time passed....and Donald Trump just became as a criminal trying to hide all the evidence. By this time....on our side....there was no longer any respect at all left for truth. Everything was weaponized.
               Fauci has to be destroyed....a scientist....in a pandemic....like a general in a war....only there is no decency or fairness in us anymore. We are greedy and bloodthirsty....except for the blood of Jesus....which no longer means anything to us.
               This will be turned back upon us. We will cry as the immigrant for compassion. We will see our mistakes and demand simple fairness. We demand justice right now....but will seek mercy later on. We will cry out to God....but He may say....as He said in times past to Israel....'where are your gods....go to them and see if they will save you.'

             

A Greater Danger......Redux

Preface: John MacArthur's church just wrapped up their 2023 Shepherds Conference. I posted the following....A Greater Danger....on February 2....a month it turns out....after Pastor MacArthur sounded very ill during a morning Lord's Day service....and was taken to the hospital....and out of sight until two nights ago....the first day of the Shepherds Conference....where he did a short Q&A. He did not sound good in that Q&A....and he sounded worse tonight....(I was streaming)....as he did a full message to conclude the conference. I was praying that he could just get through the message. It is definitely going to take him a while....Lord willing....to recover to anywhere near what he was at the end of last year. In his message tonight he began by saying that there was a time in his ministry when he took on the Charismatic Movement....which he most certainly did.....powerfully and convincingly....(he convinced me)....and then there was a time when he gave his all to the debate on the Lordship Controversy.....and then there was the time when he took on....what he called....the Pragmatic Movement. I remember all of this. Pastor John then said that he has at least one more fight in him.....(my words)....and he was going to speak on that tonight. He began by taking on John Piper. Although he did not mention Piper's name....probably every one of the 4000 in attendance knew who wrote the book that appeared on John MacArthur's desk. I referenced the book in two February posts. It's a wonderful eschatological devotion....Come, Lord Jesus. John MacArthur criticized the theology behind it rather harshly. Then he got down to business....slowly....and hesitatingly....taking on amillennialism. This certainly isn't new because John MacArthur has entered this debate often....on the side of premillennialism....but to me it was odd because there must have been many amillennialists in the audience. My habit is to pray every day....for God's faithful shepherds....whether I disagree with them on some issues or not....and that certainly includes this wonderful pastor/author/teacher for so many years....from Southern California....of whom I have dozens of his cassettes....and many of his books.....in my basement.

A Greater Danger

               In late 2017 R. C. Sproul developed a case of the flu….and on December 17 went to be with the Lord that he had served for a half century. You can easily Google....R. C. Sproul's Last Sermon. It's a wonderful sermon and I highly recommend that you listen to it....but in it he sounded very raspy....not very healthy at all. I was reminded of that today when I listened to that sermon that John MacArthur preached in a morning service a few weeks ago. He also did not sound good....as his voice is always strong and confident. Hopefully....Lord willing....he will soon continue his ministry....in good health and with his strong voice.
               Billy Graham went to be with the Lord of Glory that he had proclaimed for seventy years....in February of 2018....only a few short months after R. C. Sproul. According to his son Franklin....he hardly spoke at all in his last year.
               I have stacks of R. C.'s monthly Tabletalk magazine going back to the early 1990s....and I have read most of the books that he has written....and I have many CDs of his teaching. He has meant as much to me as any evangelical parachurch minister....but I was critical of him on....probably two occasion in these posts. Is that OK to do? I have been critical of John MacArthur on maybe three or four occasions....and they were all related to Donald Trump. Once again....is that OK to do?
               My opinion here of course.....there is a danger to someone like myself....along the lines of pride....in giving a critical opinion on a great minister like John MacArthur. I have to realize that....and be very careful with it....but there is a greater danger....when a minister has such a following that nothing could ever be said that was in any way critical. This unfortunately happens all the time. Charismatics have said to me that one is never to be critical of God's....anointed.....(their minister always being....the God's anointed in question.)
               I doubt very much that Billy Graham or R. C. Sproul or John MacArthur would ever entertain the thought that they were above criticism. On a political side note....this was one of the problems concerning President Trump. Rush was never critical. Mark Levin and Sean Hannity would speak their mind early on in 2017....but the time came when it became nothing but defending Trump....100% of the time....and taking extreme and even absurd liberties in doing it....and it was all downhill since then!

               To hear the sermon by John MacArthur in question....you can either go to gty.org....and it is right there....or you can Google....John MacArthur....Facing A Tolerant World, With Intolerant Truth.

Addendum....March 17: I recently had a conversation with a Christian brother...a friend for close to forty years. Looking back....and looking around me....he is one of the most intelligent people that I have known....with knowledge of the Christian Faith and with wisdom for life. He is highly educated and worked in one of America's most prestigious corporations. He was downsized in the early 90s....at fifty years old....and at that time there were no jobs in our area. I imagine that his finances were good anyway....and he eventually took on the job as his church's janitor....therefore continuing to work....at an honorable job. His church is in need of wisdom in a lot of areas....and has been in need of such for many years. I asked my friend if the church had ever asked him to be in a position of leadership....I believe they call it a board member in his church. He is a mature Christian....pushing 80 right now....very capable in many areas....morally sound....who raised a fine family....and they never....in thirty years.....asked of him to serve. I don't think that the congregation even knows much about him. He doesn't even think that the pastor knows much about him....other than he is the church janitor. The people who like to talk are the ones who the church notices and nominates for leadership positions....even though they may be very young....and not very knowledgeable of the faith at all. Pastors....look around in your church....and see if a similar thing may be happening.

Will There Be Golf Courses In The Millennium....And Will I Be Able To Shoot Championship Caliber Golf?

                The title of this post is not a joke. I could have asked.....will I be a virtuoso at any or even all musical instruments. Will I be able to run a 2 hour marathon? In other words....will I....and all of us....be able to do anything....and everything....whatever our heart's desire....to absolute perfection? Or will I say...'Oh this is great....I'm kind of in charge of everything....but I still can't putt.' I don't....nor have I ever....think on any of that....for the real question is....'Is there a real thousand year millennium?.'
                 One could literally and easily buy a stack of books promoting amillennialism and put them to the one side of you.....and then buy a stack of books promoting premillennialism and put them to the other side of you. John MacArthur....in his conference talk mentioned in the above post....made the statement that the book of Zechariah...."is the amillennialist's nightmare." Many in the auditorium laughed. It wasn't that long ago....for I hear this fairly often....an 'amillennialist' pastor used the same phrase on his verses....that were....'a nightmare to the premillennialist.'
                On issues such as this....that have been debated for centuries....and there are good men on both sides of the issue....I tend not to add my 'bucket of water in the ocean' to it....although I do often come at the issue from a different perspective.
                I guess that I was a premillennialist for a couple of decades. I say....'I guess'....because it probably takes a couple of decades to just settle into the issue. In my opinion....like many other issues....(I'm using the word 'issue' a lot. I hope you don't have an issue with that)....I do not believe that either side can absolutely prove their point. And I believe that this is God's perfect design....for reasons that we all will have to wait to hear.
                So speaking as if just sitting around a table....putting our thoughts out there....I do not see how there can be a literal thousand year millennium. Yes....the verses are there....but the verses are on the other side also! There are enough biblical verses....on both sides....for anyone from either side to come to a personal conclusion....if they want that much to come to a personal conclusion. It seems that the dueling verses are somehow God's plan.
                John MacArthur laid out in great detail that thousand year millennium. If his teaching turns out to be true....then that would be God's perfect will....and I would see why....and be thankful.....but in my current state of seeing as though darkly through a glass....acknowledging my frailties....I would not look forward to a thousand year millennium. I don't want to live here for ten more centuries....I want to be in heaven with Jesus. I don't want to rule over anyone....or still see others who do not believe.
                I have come to believe that numbers have meanings....(in Scripture!)....but you have to be very careful with that! The number 'seven' definitely denotes something particular....as do the numbers....'three' and 'twelve'....and you name the number. So...one thousand means something. In this case....I lean to the belief....that it does not mean the mathematical figure of one thousand. Hey....that's the best that I can do. You do the best that you can do! It appears that God wants us doing that.
               It may be that as Jesus is actually returning....and we all see things so very clear....that the amillennialist may say....'Oh....the premillennialist was right....praise God!' Or the premillennialist may say....'Oh....the amillennialist was right....praise God!."
                

I Have A Sure-Fire Way For You To Get That Thirst....It Cannot Fail!

                Here's an odd analogy for you....a typical election in a Democrat urban city....the precinct workers have an unction....they are constantly working and constantly thinking on how to get their people out to vote....or how to just get their votes. It's not good....the issues they promote are wrong....and their candidates are often off-the chart whacko....but they are dedicated to their cause.

               We evangelicals can also be on a mission....with an unction....but that unction is no longer for the salvation of souls....but rather to take back the Congress or the White House or a governor's mansion or a state house. We might be persistent in condemning masks or vaccines....but we don't even have an unction to make sure that we  are the redeemed of the Lord. Oh we want 'revival'....but we don't see any need for being revived ourselves. We just want to celebrate a revival....in between celebrating election wins.
               Back in the days of Billy Graham Crusades....even the weaker churches would be training people to be volunteers....this could go on for months....and we would be tacking up crusade handbills and trying to get the unchurched to attend even for one message by Billy Graham. I suspect that if God does give us 'revival'....that the word won't even be used...for we will be too busy praising Him for the forgiveness and mercy and grace extended towards us.
               For anyone who may be interested....who may want that unction....or that unction back....that they may have had when they first came to faith in Jesus Christ....I have a sure-fire way to get it. It cannot fail! This works for mature Christians....and pastors too!
               Before I tell you what it is....let me explain why it is....sure-fire. When God converts a person....saves a soul....He first makes a dead heart beat again. That person is regenerated....before they are saved! The mistake that the modern church has made is that it believes that a person must first have faith....and then they are regenerated! The theological word for this is.....Arminianism. Just about everyone today is Arminian.....because the church no longer understands what it once understood.
               So what I am about to tell you....that sure-fire method....if with it you start to earnestly seek this unction....if it dominates your desires....then guess what? God has already started renewing your mind! Praise Him for this! Leap with joy!  
               It is not in praying....although you will do that....rejoicing...and it is not in reading your Bible....although you will do that....devouring it. It is in hearing the preached Word of God....with power. You may now wonder....you already hear the preached Word of God? Correct....but you may be hearing that preaching by men....who need themselves to be hearing the preached Word of God.....with power.
               We have that great resource available to us.....no matter where we are....if we but have a simple computer....or an iPhone. A Samsung will not work. I'm kidding here folks! On the very first day that an iPhone was put on the market....I bought one....not even knowing what it was.....so I always just use that brand name.
               You can listen to a man preach the Word of God....with power....anytime that you want....either a great preacher of the past....like Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones or J. C. Ryle or George Whitefield....or you can listen to men today.....who preach like men from the past....men like John Piper....or R. C. Sproul....or John MacArthur....or Alistair Begg....Or Sinclair Ferguson....Or Stephen Lawson....or Tim Keller....or Michael Horton....or Ken Jones....or Michael Reeves? I could go on and on. The question is....will you do this? Will you do this with an overwhelming desire and persistence....as if tugging on the cloak of Jesus?
               I have to add a caveat here. There are some who will say that they have heard many sermons by men like this....maybe even these very men....but when they did this they were not as a deer....panting for water....nor apparently were they even thirsty! But if you read of these men....and must now hear what they have to say....then you have that thirst....and God has given it to you....and He will provide the stream of living water! God has already begun His work! That is why this is sure-fire!                 

                        

Bewitched

                There have been many times....a speech of some sort usually....or an event of some kind....when I had to type in....real time....in short phrases....almost shorthand....my plan being to return to it later to fashion a post. That's what I was doing in these two examples that follow. The first was....as it states within....11:30 in the morning on January 6, 2021. 

This is what I typed on that Wednesday morning....

"Wednesday morning at 11:30....The melody is beautiful.....there's no denying that....and it gives me chills....but the wrong kind of chills. I'm talking about Leonard Cohen's....Hallelujah. The word 'hallelujah' is special......for in essence it means....'praise Yahweh'.....or....'praise Yah.' I cringe when I hear in used other than where it should be used....and that includes Neil Diamond's.....Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show. So I booted up the computer a few minutes ago to hear what President Trump was going to say in his appearance at the Washington protest/rally.....and Cohen's song was playing. The chills were there.....and I didn't like it....but to make matters worse.....as the video feed showed from the rear of the first twenty or so rows of people....I saw a few raised hands....swaying back and forth to the song.....as if in a charismatic church. What were they praising...for it's hopefully not the object of the Cohen song? Trump eventually came on.....he is speaking now....and I had to turn him off....because folks it is unnerving....the sway he has....as this very large crowd chanted.....fight for Trump....fight for Trump....fight for Trump!

                There probably were other occasions in my life when I just had to turn the television off because what was on it was just too disturbing. I'm sure there were other occasions....but that morning of January 6, 2021 was one of them. I felt a great foreboding....from the music....the crowd's reaction to the music...and the ominous words....that sent the crowd on it way....resulting in deaths....and the destroyed lives of many of those who could not contain themselves under the sway of such malevolent leadership.

               This second example is from a Trump rally in Phoenix in August of 2017. In the midst of the blaring music from the sound system....Franklin Graham came out and gave a prayer that was just what America needed. What you read below is the best that I could do in typing that speech....as he spoke....as I was never able to get the actual transcript. The arena was stone cold silent as Graham prayed....and I was praying thanksgiving for it....but no sooner had Franklin Graham left the podium....then the crowd was again yelling out USA USA USA!  As I wrote about a month later in describing the scene...."the power of that prayer was gone.....but many had heard it......and will offer that same prayer some day in the future....only it will be as chaos reigns....and maybe war.....and not beforehand.....where we could have petitioned God for discernment and vision for what was ahead of us." The following was the best that I could do on Franklin Graham's prayer....

"Our Heavenly  Father.....you've blessed our country more than any nation on earth and we acknowledge that apart for you we have no hope....we come tonight....as a troubled nation....we're broken spiritually....were divided politically....we're divided racially....we are adrift morally..... following whatever direction the wind of popular culture blows....with no regard for your word or the consequences of our disobedience....we ask tonight for your help....our sins have paralyzed us....as a country we have seemed to have forgotten right from wrong.... you warned us in your Holy Word the Bible that there would come a time when truth would become a lie....and lies would become truth....we come to you this evening confessing our sins as a nation.....we confess the sins of our past.....of injustice....of pride.....of self-indulgence.....we have failed to protect our young and our innocent.....and we ask for your forgiveness.....we ask that you would unite this country for your glory.....Father we need a shepherd.....I pray that you would be the shepherd of our nation.....you are the God who restores our souls.....your rod and your staff they comfort us....and I pray this all in the name...the powerful name....the name of your son....the Lord Jesus Christ."

        
       

'We Shall Celebrate A Risen......Party'

"Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered." Proverbs 21:13                                

                I was on the Tea Party side....or the real conservatives side....Oliver Cromwell's modern day round heads if you will. The other side was the Establishment....or the Uni-Party as one professor labelled the unification of our two party system. The following is part of a 2014 post that I titled....The Republican Party And Its Discontents.

               "Mr. Boehner...and Mr. McCain...and Mr. Mitchell....and Mr. Graham....and Mr. Rove...and Mr. Bush.....we are not alone. We are Americans who trust in their God and recognize His hand in all of creation, His omniscience and omnipotence in forming this people, His power in sustaining us though we often strayed far away, and also His warnings to us after years and years and years of our increasingly ignoring Him..... the continuance of which you are advocating..... your third and most egregious mistake. You have become impervious to common sense, to wisdom or to any light in your darkened halls of power.
               America's future does not lie in these elections that the Republican Party is selling more than its birthright for; and the winners of these elections will have no power that God does not permit and no wisdom that God does not give, for His purposes and to His glory! Our duty is to elect God-fearing leaders and pray for God's mercy knowing that His will is perfect, and that it may or may not include the United States of America as a source of stability in the world or even an entity in itself.
              Celebrate your polling figures all that you want. We'll celebrate a risen Savior and a returning King. Yes, we'll follow Luther's advice to 'plant a tree,' to continue to work, even if we knew for certain that Jesus was returning the very next day, but you might want to take notice of Oliver Cromwell's words to the 'establishment' of his day in:
     
'I had rather a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that you call a Gentleman and is nothing else'."

           These sound like words of a true conservative do they not? Well I listen to the same men today who were our heroes back then.....Ted Cruz being one.....I read some of his comments at the recent CPAC....and I shudder at what we have become....the horror in some cases of what we have become. I tell myself....'These are not the same people.....they can't be!' But I know that they are....and I know what happened to them.
           There is a viciousness that has come over us. We used to occupy the high ground on ethics.....but charged down it in 2016....passing the establishment on our charge downhill....they at least staying on level ground....as we descended into a pit! We don't care one iota for truth for truth's sake....but rather we pick up small stones of truth....to add to a sack of rocks....to crush skulls with. 

           The controversy over the origins of Covid-19 concerns me greatly. It seems to have become our....Reichstag fire....that we are using to stir up hate and win an election.....(that fire was 1933...ninety years ago last week.) We have to have a Reichstag Fire....something to  blame the other side on....to keep our side angry and non-thinking....to keep this revolution going! Prominent evangelical leaders let their guard down....beginning with the ascendance of the false prophet Trump....and they....because of that....are hurting today for discernment on many issues.
            Assyria was in somewhat a state of temporary decline....this was about four or five decades before they invaded Israel and took the ten tribes captive. History records two plagues within a few years of each other. Some of the Assyrians on the outskirts were rebelling....and then came a total solar eclipse....which would really have shook every one up. And then came Jonah....out of the belly of a fish....one of their gods. It seems that they as a people may have been ripe for repentance....and it also seems that it didn't last long.
               Well we have had one plague....and if we have another we probably won't do anything to protect anyone....for we on the 'right' have planted our flag....no masks anymore....no vaccinations ever again. We have one thing and one thing only as our goal....Joe Biden and the Democrats have to be defeated....and no ethics shall hold us back....no repenting shall slow us down....and no reputations are safe from destroying. We shall no longer...."celebrate a risen Savior"....but celebrate a risen political party....we shall give no quarter to the defeated....display no compassion....and show no mercy....even though we had been forgiven so much ourselves. 

"We Don't Have Time...."

Preface: I have bringing this verse to mind every day....Psalm 92: 14,15 NKJV...

"They shall bear fruit in old age;
 They shall be fresh and flourishing,
 To declare that the LORD is upright;
 He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him."            

         I came home yesterday from a trip to one of the few Christian bookstores remaining....this one in Ohio....and I had a new children's Bible for our grandson. I told my wife that I would have it in the mail the next day....(that being today....and it has been mailed....it should get to him this coming Wednesday) She thought that I might save it for when we visit next. My response was typical....as I told her that we do not have time to wait for things like giving a person a Bible. I also stopped at an Ohio Barnes & Noble and bought a Lego City for him. Now that can wait until we visit next. While in that B&N I picked up a copy of the latest issue of Christianity Today. In it was an article where I found out about a new book by David Platt....Don't Hold Back....Leaving Behind the American Gospel to follow Jesus Fully. I called around....and travelled again this morning to a B&N to get it. I'm only half-way through it....but recommending it....you see....you need to hear about this book....and we don't have time to wait for me to finish it first! I'm not highlighting this phrase...."We don't have time"....because of the day or the month or the year that we live in....but to point out that it would only be logical....to prioritize the gospel....and to pray now and not later.

"And It Can Only Get Worse"......And It Has

1 Samuel 8:7...."The Lord said to Samuel, 'Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them." The following was first posted on October 2, 2018:

A Very Natural Temptation

            As we all know the reparations demanded of Germany in the Treaty of Versailles were unbearable for the German population who were fiercely defensive of their homeland and German heritage. The Weimar Republic which came about at the end of World War I was weak....and hated. It wasn't going to last....but what would replace it? The future of Germany depended on its church which was unified in that the German people believed that the state needed its church....and the church needed its state....but there was little unity beyond that.
             A 'German Church' movement developed that entwined itself around the powerful ideology of National Socialism....a movement that was going to lead Germany back into prosperity and power. A 'Confessing Church' movement formed to stop in its tracks the state's intrusion into all church matters....but the Confessing Church itself was divided between those who just wanted the state out of the church....and those who knew that there were big problems with National Socialism.
             Martin Niemoller....you may have heard about him....represented those who at first thought that National Socialism was a great thing if kept in its place. Dietrich Bonhoeffer....you certainly have heard of him....saw the horrors of where this extreme nationalism could go. Niemoller spent years in prison and concentration camps before finally seeing the mistakes that he made before the war. Bonhoeffer paid for his discernment with his life.
             We are getting too close to having an 'American Church' movement.' President Trump again....this time at a West Virginia rally.....used the phrase "One glorious nation under God." We are not one glorious nation under God....and Donald Trump's god is not our God. I've written various themes on how I love this country for decades....but they will never take the place of or become equal with the gospel of Jesus Christ....and in this we must be vigilant.
              It is a very natural temptation......especially in times like this as America is being pillaged and plundered....to confuse a return to greatness with a return to God. Patriotism can be devotion to justice or it can be devotion to just us. Capitalism can be a God-send....or a god in itself. We are already compromising the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to accommodate 'Make America Great Again'....and it can only get worse as we will seek to be more inclusive of policy that opposes God's Word and exclusive of dictates in His Word....all so that this glorious 'revolution' can continue.

"Four Disastrous Acts Of Judgment"

   “For thus says the Lord GOD: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!"

               The above verse....Ezekiel 14:21....is from the ESV. Whatever translation you go to it will be the same....four judgments.  Jeremiah put it this way concerning those from Judah who rather than staying....

"So the men who set their mind to go to Egypt to reside there will die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence." 42:17

               Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah repeat these four judgments a few times....death and the sword and pestilence and famine....but we are more familiar with how the Apostle John described it in Revelation.....with the opening of the seal judgments.....the four horses....white and red and black and pale....and their riders.
               Prophecies...warnings like this....to the evangelical....are too often the stuff that fairy tails are made of. We do not come right out and deny God's judgments....and we can actually take them seriously.....but they are for sometime in the future....and therefore not taken as seriously as God intends them to be.
               So I am in this post....trying to wake us up....once again....as I've done in other posts....in an attempt to make God's warnings to us real. I want to do so by posing a hypothetical.....but a hypothetical that might in fact be happening right now

               Are we in what the Bible describes as....the Tribulation....right now? That would wake you up would it not? Everyone reading this would immediately reject that possibility....because prophecy teachers have told us exactly how the tribulation starts. The problem is that they cannot possibly know this for sure. The result of all this being that we are in effect....as if sleeping....it's life as usual.....pass the potatoes....and let's eat before the big game starts!
              The sword is war.....we know that. We know what famine means....and we know what death is....but how does pestilence come into it as far as the four horses of the apocalypse is concerned? My own theological tradition tends to believe that the rider on the white horse is Jesus Himself....coming to take charge of what is about to happen. Maybe this is it....but I do not see it....this theory does not fit into God's continuing warnings of four very literal judgments.
               Try this on for size. The rider on the white horse is given a crown....not a sword....and not a set of scales....a crown. As I type this....the world had just experienced the greatest disaster since World War II....the coronavirus pandemic....'corona' obviously meaning....'crown.' So what about the bow. We generally think that this is a man coming to power by proclaiming peace....because arrows are not mentioned....just a bow. This is a stretch by any means. Consider this....in these words from a previous post....

"The ancient Greek fighters would put poison on their arrows. They called this....toxikon pharmakon....the archery drug. The evolution of this whole thing has given us the word....toxic. Oxford's Word of the Year for 2018....before the pandemic....was....toxic. According to the Oxford website....'the Latin word itself....(toxicus)....came from the Greek term....toxon....meaning....bow.' So....coronavirus revolves around the word....crown....and the word....bow....basically means poison."

              If we are in the tribulation right now....then it would probably have started in either late 2019 or early 2020. The mid-point of the seven years would be roughly mid-2023. War would be next in line. Does anyone read any talk of war in the near future in the news? As to when the other two horses would come.....we do not know. Speculation is fine. That is in fact what we are to do....but we do not want to speculate as if we know for sure....for we surely....do not.

White Privilege

Preface: We don't even like to think about it. People were kidnapped from their homes....shipped like lobsters across the ocean....and forced into slavery....so that a part of our society could become rich....and the nation as a whole could prosper. OK....we put an end to that....but paid little attention to the same people....now 'freed'....with few skills and fewer educational opportunities. We can't understand it. Why didn't they develop like us....they don't even seem to enjoy walking around at a good car cruise? The answers are not easy folks....and there are a plethora of bad answers and fake answers out there....only Christ can heal....but we freed ourselves from His diagnosis and treatment long ago.

               There is a white privilege of sorts in America....I am testimony to it. My mother and I moved to Pittsburgh in 1963. She looked around for a place for us to live....and found a modest apartment on a middle class street....maybe the only apartment on that street....with a number of young boys that would become friends for life. Three of those young friends went on to be PHDs....all were successful. I went on to the attend a distinguished parochial high school....probably because they dragged me along with them. Had my mother found an apartment a mile in either direction....I would not have had anyone to drag me along. Had I been an exceptionally bright and determined young man....this would not have been the case....but I wasn't. I needed help. I needed to be lifted up by the community that I lived in. 
                A young black man today is most likely not going to be dragged along by future PHDs all around him. Yes some will have an advantage possibly in getting into a good college....but they still need that determination....and as few societal and cultural obstacles as possible. If there are shots fired in your neighborhood often....it would be hard to remain focused on goals. If putting food on the table and keeping the house warm are the chief time consuming goals....it would be hard to concentrate on studying. I know this from experience. Without the G. I. Bill I would not have attended college.
               The answers to these cultural problems are not easy to find....and white privilege is often taken to a grossly distorted extreme....for political purposes only....and not compassion....but the Christian should not be deterred by this....for God is very sensitive in how the 'haves' treat the 'have-nots.' We should keep in mind that Peter told the household of the centurion Cornelius....a household of the 'have-nots'....in that they were not Jews...

"In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him." Acts 10:34,35 

                  And we should not forget that we ourselves were once....'have-nots'...."enemies of God"....Romans 5:10....until mercy and grace were extended towards us!

We Are A Church Of Moderate Affections...."Thanks For The Salvation....Dying On The Cross....All That Stuff"

                  I have always been analytical. That doesn't guarantee anything other than I try to make decisions on a flat playing field rather than an obstacle course. Isaiah....through God's words....was in the middle of telling Judah and Jerusalem how wicked they were when he penned this...."Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." Isaiah 1: 18-20

                This seems pretty straightforward to me. There are many parts of Revelation where reason and analysis and logic do not come into play....at this time....but the third verse in the book seems plain enough right now...."Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near." Revelation 1:3
                The cults within Christianity do not think this way....for there is no room for reason or logic or analysis. If they did....no one would believe the Mormon church or the Watchtower. The Word/Faith movement is gnosticism....where God supposedly gives special people special revelation...where they do not need reason....they only need inspiration....no matter where it might come from.
                A couple of months into President Trump's term I could see that something was terribly wrong. The rationalization of voting for him over Hillary could only go so far. I did not trade in a pen and a highlighter and a pair of reading glasses for a saffron robe and tamborine.
                I have looked for a long time now at what evangelicalism has become. A soul....a person....is going to a real hell....but yanked out....because God Himself....subjected Himself....to torture and shame and physical death....to pay a debt that was impossible for us to pay...but that same soul....that person....in response....in as much as just throws God a bone and says.....'Thanks.' 
               There is no logic here. John Piper....in his new book....Come, Lord Jesus....used the term....moderate affections. We are a church and a movement of moderate affections! What kind of God would this even be? Where would be the meaning in life with a God that could get pushed around by the likes of us? How could the righteous and fearsome God of the Old Testament....who would bring the rod when necessary....become the doting grandfather who spoils rotten the brattish kid?
               How does one square Joel Osteen with William Tyndale? Did John Bunyan spend years in jail....so that church doors could remain open....or that whoever walked through the doors could hear the gospel?
               Let me get this straight....just a hypothetical....a Christian shouts and cheers because a multi-millionaire does something considered special....with a ball or an object of some sort....and that same Christian dies of a heart-attack....or by some other means....coming home from the contest....and then according to the new narrative finds himself immediately at the foot of Jesus Christ....but now shouting out....Holy Holy Holy? There's got to be a smell test here folks.
              Speaking of tests....most standardized tests want to know....what you know....so they might penalize you for wrong answers....thinking you were just guessing. The LSAT wants to know how you analyze....so it does not penalize for wrong answers. 
              So you are a Christian. You have a certain amount of knowledge on the Christian Faith...."Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ....and you shall be saved." You also know that God's Word says that He is holy....two facts. These and other things you know....but nothing has to jive with anything else.
              Yet another also accepts...."Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ....and you shall be saved."....and also knows that God is...."holy"....but he considers how the two can exist together. He comes up with an answer....with the help of other scriptures....it turns out to be the correct answer....to a question that the first person chose not to answer.

"Therefore God Sends Them Strong Delusion"

"But even if we or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let them be accursed.....As we have said before, so now I say again; if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed." (Galatians 1:8,9) Sounds pretty serious doesn't it....to double-down like Paul just did? Alien life....anywhere in the universe....is another gospel. Now....without a doubt....a lot of Christian readers are going to take issue with that. To man today....it just seems right....common sense....that there would in this universe be beings other than man or angels. "There is a way that seems right to man, But its end is the way to death." (Proverbs 14:12) Sound biblical churches need to address this issue in the congregation....even if only once....to make sure that everyone knows that whatever pilots are reporting on....that there are a few possibilities....none of which are alien life. A definitive statement like this might be problematic to some in the congregation....so it would also be an flashing alarm....that the people need a refresher on what God's Word....not man's....and what it says about creation....and God....and the fall....and the cross....and hell....and heaven.

"Therefore God Sends Them Strong Delusion"

               Neither the commander of the ballistic missile base....nor any of his officers....nor any of the scientists stationed there....had any idea of the test....for they were conducting their own test. Washington D. C. seemed more interested than usual in the results.....but that was good right?

               The test-firing of a ballistic missile was as secret and security conscious as it gets. The test was in the planning for over a year....and dry-run conducted multiple times in the previous month.
               The day had come....and the public had been told about the upcoming test....at 8 am on that Friday morning. There were no mistakes made....and no unforeseen problems developed....and the test went off perfectly as planned....until the missile was a few miles off the launchpad. The radio reports coming in from aerial observers....flying close enough to photograph the launch and make observations....were chaotic. 
               There was one new observer from Washington....a colonel....very friendly....but also very serious. He technically had total authority over the launch....if something unplanned might come up.....which it now had. He ordered everyone to absolute secrecy until an investigation could be made....no one knew at the time that the results of that investigation would never be revealed to them.

(A little personal note here. I know a little about top secret clearances in the military....for I had one....and I posted once on how we worked in a quonset hut....and every piece of scrap paper thrown into the trash....had to be burned.....even if you blew your nose....the tissue would get burned. Back to my fictional essay)

                Years had passed....and a few of the officers and scientists that witnessed the events of that day were getting impatient at never hearing anything at all....and you could not blame them....for what they witnessed was an unidentified....oval.....flying object....that had somehow destroyed the controls in the ballistic missile....aborting the mission and the test.
                Many more years passed....and the government declassified what had happened. There were two tests that day....the one that the military knew about and conducted....the launch of a ballistic missile.....but the second test was kept from everyone in the world.....the flight of disc-shaped flying object....designed to shoot down incoming ballistic missiles. Some believed the explanation....others called the explanation a hoax.

Folks....I'm not saying that this is what happened concerning recent reports of a similar situation many years ago. I don't believe that is what happened. I'm am though saying two things. On any conspiracy theory....UFOs or vaccines or JFK or whatever....every possible avenue of explanation has to be explored. Today we take radioactive decay as gospel in determining how how old an object might be....but there is no experiment where this can be proven. We may find out in the future that the rate of decay is not as we think that it is.....just a possibility folks. The second point is that if one is a Christian of any maturity.....God's Word to them is very clear....there is no possibility of life anywhere in the entire universe. Why would a secularist believe this? I don't blame them for thinking there must be life elsewhere....but to the one who knows God's Word....it is very clear....we are it. 

Scriptural verses to ponder:

"And as they still went on and talked, behold, chariots of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven." 2 Kings 2:11 ESV

"Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false." 2 Thessalonians 2:11 ESV

"For false christs and false prophets will arise, and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect," Matthew 24:24 ESV

                
                 

                

             

"This Box Must Be Checked....'Are These Things Real....Or Are They Not' "

                 Paul had just written these words to the Thessalonians....speaking of the...."day of the Lord.....for when they say....'Peace and safety'....then sudden destruction comes upon them....but you brethren....are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep....as other do....but let us watch and be sober." In his summation he told us to...."Rejoice always...pray without ceasing....and in everything give thanks...Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil....now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless....at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ..."

                "Pray without ceasing"....that is what our life is to be. We are every day at no loss for things of which to pray....friends are in need....we may be in need....the news of the day alone gives us ample needs for prayer. We wake up and a prayer should be right on our lips or in our mind. We have tasks to do....our livelihood in many if not most cases....Christ should be there in our minds at all times....thanking Him....praising Him....asking of Him.
                 Folks...this is what we do....is it not...this is who we are. I'm praying as I type this. I hope you are praying as you read it. This is a great and awesome gift and blessing given us....to have the God of righteousness...and He who will judge righteously...and He who is coming....right there hearing our thoughts and prayers...as we utter them! 
                 A couple of things about these early and short letters to the Thessalonians....in retrospect...with almost two-thousand years in between....and aware of the day that we live in....these letters are particularly for us! These are letters to the church just before the Lord returns. In Paul's follow-up letter....he continued with the message...."Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed....the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception....and for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie..."
                "Pray without ceasing"....how can it be any other way? There are brothers and sisters in great right now. There are brothers and sisters being persecuted....right now. There are those all around us....loved ones....friends....acquaintances....who need what God has given to us....who had done nothing to deserve it....and had no will to even seek it....that being nothing less than our heart regenerated....and our names written in the Lamb's Book of Life! This also is a great gift...to pray that God would give the same mercy to others that He had given to us....just as others had prayed for us before we were taken from the jaws of hell!
                 It may be an absurd analogy. I'll let you decide....the believers in the Ukraine right now....or Syria....or in the heart of China....take your pick....do you think that they might be complaining that the husband didn't fix the squeak in the door....or that the wife didn't add onions to the pasta....or that the kids didn't wipe their feet....or that the supermarket didn't separate the soaps from the meat?
                Is this a true salvation that we have....with a real hell....and real "gnashing of teeth"....or isn't it....and do we not have real bodies with no guarantee that the heart might not stop at any minute? Will not our regret in heaven be that we did not every minute since our salvation....in some way....show and give and shout praises to this most majestic and glorious mighty Lord and Savior who....once again....chose us for redemption? 
                "This box must be checked!" Surely you have had this appear at various times on your computer. Everything else was fine....but one box had not been checked. That box to us is...."Is this salvation real or is it not?" And then we should read...."If you checked that it is real....then should you not be overcome with rejoicing and praises....and should you not 'pray without ceasing'.....as one who believes that prayer is real....and that God answers prayer?"