"But Who Are You?"

                "The assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not even know why they had come together." That could be a description of what happened in our capital on January 6 of 2021....but those words are from Acts 19:32. Demetrius the silversmith had stirred everyone up because the economy of Ephesus was in jeopardy....more precisely....the silversmith trade of Demetrius. All the people started shouting....."Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"....kind of like our shouts of.....USA...USA...USA! A clear-headed official eventually calmed them down by telling them that they were in..."danger of being charged with rioting."
                I have posted the following many times. On the morning of January 6, 2021....around 11:30 as I remember it....I turned on the television just to see what was going in our capital. The scene was the ellipse.....and Leonard Cohen's famous trance-like composition....Hallelujah....was blaring over the crowd. I was just typing down my impressions....not posting at the time....."the chills were there....(mine)....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 Cohen's 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'!"
               We are all familiar with the passage in the 19th chapter of Acts on the....Seven sons of Sceva. The Apostle Paul was doing miracles and casting out demons in the name of Jesus. These seven sons of a Jewish high priest thought that surely they could do the same thing....but the evil spirit said...."Jesus I know....and Paul I recognize....but who are you?"....and then overpowered them...wounding them as they ran out into the night. Well that in effect is what we have done....as we used....God bless America....as our talisman....thinking we could cast the evil out of America....for our own self-serving reasons....and if we now had eyes to see....which we no longer have....we would know that we also are wounded....as if running out into the night.
               There was a day in the church where we were constantly reminded that the archenemy of God has an intellect much greater than ours....and that we were to be constantly vigilant....depending upon the Holy Spirit to give us wisdom and discernment. Well we forgot those admonitions and warnings. I'm speaking here to God's redeemed and his shepherds....who have known for a long time that Trump was no Cyrus or Nebuchadnezzar whom God would use to free His people. We knew Trump was vile with no good intentions. We knew that a man like this was not going to recognize the holiness or sovereignty of God....so we waited for him to just go away....and therein was our mistake!
                With good reasons and intentions....for it seemed certain and even imminent....that Trump would in no uncertain terms be given his walking papers....either through polling or the legal system....but it never happened....and that is the spiritual aspect of  this....as this is God indeed keeping Trump there....not as a Cyrus....but as a judgment on our failure to trust and obey. We have six years of impeachments and indictments....and one egregious and abnormal and destructive egomaniacal boast and lie after another....and each time we....the redeemed and not the deceived evangelical....each time we assumed that surely Trump would be relegated to the ash heap of history....but in our hesitation to stand up....and our failure to identify a false prophet.....for his grand prophecies of...."the best is yet to come"....the opposite of what God's Word tells us....were surely all lies....each time Trump came out stronger....and now we have the situation before us!
                I have two more scriptural messages. After the debacle of the sons of Sceva....which is where we are now and where we are headed....this from Acts...."Then fear fell on them....and the name of Jesus was magnified." Then there is the passage in Matthew when Jesus tells of an evil spirit....that leaves a man....only later to return to an empty house with...."seven other spirits more evil than itself"....and as I posted on earlier...."as Matthew Henry wrote in his commentary....'where Christ is not there to keep them out'." That is evangelicalism right now....for if we do not regret our failures to remain vigilant....and return to trust in Christ....and Trump were to return to the White House....he will bring with him even more turmoil and chaos than he did the first time!