A Tale Of Two Heroes

                It is something that great movies are made of....but Hollywood missed this one....two men....heroes as Marines in Vietnam....and both become prominent in politics....on opposite sides. Brad Pitt could have played the one....and Matt Damon the other.
                The first that I'll describe was born and raised in a military family....went to Annapolis....graduated at the top of his class....went to Vietnam....was awarded a Silver Star....two Bronze Stars....two Purple Hearts....and the Navy Cross! Later in life he was an author and filmmaker and taught at the Naval Academy and at Harvard. He was a United States Senator....2007-2013....from Virginia...a Secretary of the Navy...and an Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. He has authored more than a half dozen books....mostly novels....and one bio....most of which I had read and also enjoyed....he was mentioned as a possible Vice-Presidential candidate for Barack Obama in 2008....and ran for President himself for a brief time in 2016. He got about 1% of the primary vote as I remember it. They say that Joe Lieberman who just died was the last of the moderate Democrats....but this man is still here.
                 OK....the second man....also born to a military family....and also attended Annapolis....at the same time....and went to Vietnam....and was awarded a Silver Star....a Bronze Star w/valor....and two Purple Hearts. He narrowly lost an election to the Senate from the same state of Virginia. He also was a prolific author and remained in government....being a staff member on President Reagan's National Security Council! He has been a radio talk show host....founded the Freedom Alliance....and was President of the NRA.
                  The first man is former Senator and presidential candidate James Webb....and the second man is conservative icon Oliver North. They are both heroes in an America of the past....from opposite sides of the political aisle....but not opposite sides in defense of America! I don't think that they liked each other....although that may have changed over the decades.
                  Here's an interesting anecdote....both men boxed in the ring for Annapolis....both were middleweights....and they fought each other in the brigade championship match! Webb was the heavy favorite! I have not been able to verify when this happened but I distinctly remember seeing Jim Webb box on television on a Saturday afternoon sometime in the mid-60s. He was a lefty....and he won....and he was very good....that is why I remember that match....but Oliver North somehow pulled off an upset when the two of them met in the ring.
                   There are so many anecdotes that I cannot list them all but I will add this....both were involved in controversies. As For Jim Webb....he wrote a magazine article in 1979....and in it he said that...."women can't fight".....and described the military academies as once being institutions that trained men for leadership....but with the addition of women were now just excellent educational institutions! Whoa....he is still having to defend himself on that!
                    Oliver North's controversy was known about all over the world as he was a key figure in the Iran-Contra scandal. Hollywood would love this....had it not turned out the way that it did. The Democrat House of Representatives called him in to testify and planned on skewering him all day....for days on end actually as his testimony lasted a while.....but lo and behold.....the American public watched this man in a Marine uniform with medals all over it....standing straight and tall....and as John Wayne or Jimmy Stewart would have done in film....win the day....and also win over the hearts of tens of millions of Americans!
                     So tell me....you don't think that this is blockbuster Hollywood stuff? And Oliver North is an evangelical. I deeply admire both of these men! How much more though than a Hollywood movie....I would that both men were representing us in the upper echelons of our government. 

Give Opportunity This Day To Be Redeemed By The Blood Of Jesus Christ

              John Piper is the preeminent preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ in America today....this from a national perspective. There are many faithful pastors preaching in congregations throughout America....although they are more the size of a remnant in amongst all the pulpits.
              John MacArthur has made a number of mistakes in the past four years....but his message from the pulpit is as strong or stronger than it ever was....and he is one-up on John Piper today in one particular area.....whereas John Piper's ministry....desiringgod.org....used to offer the listener full sermons every day.....full.....means of grace.....today he offers twenty-two minute.....'episodes'.....of sermons....even though he still labels these episodes....'sermons.' As for those episodes of sermons and teachings.....they are more than wonderful in themselves....and I post on them all the time....but the fact is that one now has to navigate his website to find a full sermon,
                John MacArthur used to primarily present teaching episodes that were also his daily....Grace To You.....radio ministry...gty.org....and that radio ministry is probably the same today.....but when you go to his ministry website there is right there the latest full sermon....prayer to prayer! 
                So this post today is to you who are more than inquiring of what the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about. You need a full sermon more than a teaching....wonderful as though they are....please then go to the website right now.....once again....gty.org....and listen to but the latest sermon of John MacArthur....False Praise To The True King....and give opportunity for a full means of grace....to convict you....and bring you into the glorious kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ!

The Reformed Pastor.....As Opposed To....The Political Pastor

                The pandemic has long since become a political hammer....used primarily to gain advantage for one particular political candidate or for particular platform. Some of the books out there are extremely hard to read....for they assemble and cherry-pick facts throughout that distort and embellish to the point that the 'facts' point to false conclusions. I'll give you one statistic....insignificant in that is from me....but very clear. I went for years with hardly any friends dying....and then lost 12 friends to covid or COVID related issues in a two year period. They are who I was aware of....and since the pandemic abated....even though we are older....it is back to normal. The pandemic was real....it was a message from God....but we had more important issues to deal with.
                 Americans always had a pretty positive view of vaccines. I can remember getting them when I was a child....but vaccine is a dirty word today. What are these politicos going to do in the next pandemic or epidemic? They have already in as much as labeled vaccines as the mark of the devil? Or will it be a different story if they are in charge?
                 Anyway....Richard Baxter (1615-1691) was a renowned Puritan pastor....his strength being the practicality of the reformed pastor. I have one large tome of his next to me now....Baxter's Practical Works....Volume 4....still in the cellophane....a remnant from the Christian bookstore that we once owned....but it was in his volume five that he addressed this question....and consider that he pastored through the The Great Plague and The Great Fire of London in 1666 and 1667. The following is a question he put to himself...and his answer:

Question 109

May we omit church assemblies on the Lord's Day if the magistrate forbid them?

Answer 1. It is one thing to forbid them for a time upon some special cause as infection by pestilence for war &c and another to forbid them stately or profanely.

(You can easily Google his entire answer...and the answer to Question 110 that pertains to it. For the sake of brevity I'm only highlighting the essence of his answer)

(1) If the magistrate for a greater good, (as the common safety,) forbid church assemblies in a time of pestilence, assault or enemies, or fire, or the like necessity, it is a duty to obey him."

               What Baxter is saying here is simply to use common sense! There are times when the...."magistrate"....has the right to close the church doors....and there are times when that magistrate has no right to close church doors. This pandemic was an emergency....people were dying right and left....mistakes were made....could you imagine it any other way....and politics surely did enter in to some decisions....but to use this as a political hammer today is neither honest nor right.
               Interestingly...the book sitting here next to me....has this single blurb on the front cover....

"For the man who takes his call to the ministry seriously, plumbing the depths of Richard Baxter' Reformed Pastor is a must." John MacArthur

Addendum: The large tome mentioned above retailed for $59....and did not sell at our store....but a smaller classic paperback of his did sell. That title is The Reformed Pastor....by which Baxter meant....the revived pastor.....something that the church drastically needs today! I remember this anecdote about Baxter.....it was his practice to visit every family in his large congregation at once every year. So to you or I this would mean that your pastor would have scheduled a visit with you.....proactive on his part....not putting the responsibility upon you....ten times in the past ten years. 

Invasion Of The Republican Snatchers

I don't know anything about the 1978 remake....so I'll only comment on the 1956 classic sci-fi film....The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. Seeds float down from space on the earth....and form giant pods....that duplicate humans....pretending to be someone else....telling lies through blank stares....essentially starting to take over the human race....eerily similar to what happened to the Democrat Party over the past thirty-two years. And now they are started on the Republican Party....Marco Rubio last week....Ben Shapiro this week. If Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger endorse Donald Trump then folks it's all over!

They're not fooling anyone! That's the phrase that comes to my mind first....but in reality....they are fooling everyone! Here is what happened folks....from that day that Donald Trump announced that he was running for reelection....(the first time....the day after he was inaugurated....it's sick!)....from that day Trump has worked most tirelessly on collecting chips....favors that people owe him....and looking for allies from those who have no substance....and other despicable people like Marjorie Taylor Greene....and others who may need a pardon sometime....and others already pardoned....and he used his MAGA influence to brow beat literally everyone into at least not being critical of him....and he set things in motion that would benefit him in future primaries....if there even any future primaries....he wasn't in any debates folks....he can't actually talk in a debate....unless it's against an elderly man who can hardly enunciate anymore....it's all a con! So these men who did nothing to protect the American conservative public....and that includes the evangelical pastors who also did absolutely nothing to protect their sheep....they find themselves today in a situation where there is only Trump to defeat Biden....all the others were dispatched....and they feel they have no alternative than to defend this man who probably makes them sick to their stomach! And when this man finally falls....for he is capable every minute of every hour of every day of his life....of finally making that comment that even his own people can't stand by....(I know....we were already there with the deaths and the horror of January...6....but it can even get worse than that!)....and when and if that happens....they will try their best to avoid any and all responsibility for what they sat back and let happen to us!

DISPATCHES

The Trump Bible....That is how a lot of the media reports the God Bless The USA Bible that Donald Trump and Lee Greenwood are advertising for about $60. My take on this is a little different. This is not a church sponsoring a Bible that includes the Constitution and Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights and Pledge of Allegiance but individuals. Yes it is political but surely some of the people buying this would have the Word of God in their hands for the first time.....and others might open God's Word for the first time in a long time so I try to focus on that.

I might as well be watching local news from L. A. or New York....Israeli citizens demanding the government make a deal to get the hostages back....as if such a deal or some law will end all imminent existential threats to the country and the world? They do know that their enemy wants to kill them all....do they not....deal or no deal? The reports right now are that the government is considering releasing about 800....terrorists...for forty hostages. Other reports within the past two days are that IDF forces just captured about five or six hundred combatants in Gaza. How does this make sense for Hamas....get 800....lose almost as many? Possibly the ones to be released are more important than the ones captured at this stage of the war? As for Israel....releasing 800 serious terrorists at first glance does not make sense....unless the government knows that as soon the hostages would be released that the war to eradicate Hamas would be taken to the next step....making 800 released terrorists neither here nor there.

Prime Minister Netanyahu's government is putting forth a law that would continue military deferments to the Haredi....(or the Ultra-Orthodox.) This obviously isn't going over well....to put it mildly....but Netanyahu needs those votes.   

The return to a military draft in America is a probability....but it's also the elephant in the room. No one wants to talk about it. Do we even know that it is already settled that there would no longer be any college deferments? Do college students know this? They would get to finish out their term. Who gets drafted? Women? No. Aliens? What do you think? There is no longer a homosexuality clause. I don't have any idea....nor do they....on transgenders. What a mess. And what would the wartime basic training be like? We can't really hurt anyone's feelings anymore can we?    

The following paragraph was posted in August of 2018! It is being reported in many places that Trump is considering bringing Paul Manafort back on the team.

So let's go over this again....Paul Manafort was recruited by a political party in the Ukraine because of his expertise in taking up the case of despots and oppressors....he was recruited to help the Ukraine's pro-Putin candidate....pro-Putin candidate....and Manafort had been in business as a lobbyist with longtime Donald Trump ally Roger Stone.....but President Trump says....hey....the guy worked for me 100 days and I fired him.....and we believe that to be a fair appraisal of what happened....to top it off....President Trump bashes NATO unmercifully.....which coincidentally Putin despises with a passion......and we conservatives still think that the Mueller investigation is a witch hunt.....and we're supposed to be the smart ones.....and conservative talk radio defends Paul Manafort as if he's Oliver North.....and they're supposed to be the honest ones? 

Franklin Graham tweeted or X'd or whatever the terminology is....a recommendation to read an article by Newt Gingrich titled....Seven Keys To President Trump's Triumph. I read it. Franklin's Graham's recommendation of this article is an endorsement of Trump. If asked who he will endorse I would expect he would say no one....maybe not....but either way you do not recommend an article like this without the purpose of it being a full-fledged endorsement. Billy Graham's son has been instrumental in Trump's continued bewitching of evangelicals. By the way....every one of those "Keys" that Newt Gingrich writes about can be challenged by anyone whose first priority is the need for truth and not the need for an election victory.

Ben Shapiro recently published his own list of positives of Donald Trump....and as with Franklin Graham....I can go over every one and challenge Shapiro....but what is odd is that Ben Shapiro is known for his intellectual abilities....how does a Shapiro or a Lindsey Graham or a Ted Cruz....so successfully play dumb? They must go home and just try to avoid looking in the mirror.

Marjorie Taylor Greene is our....A. O. C....how did she wind up in the hierarchy of the Republican Party? Well we know how....by the same spirit that just commandeered the RNC. MTG and Boebert and Mace are our squad. Voices of dissent are swiftly being dealt with. Consider this thought....'first they came for the establishment.'

Easter is an arbitrary date....settled long ago.....arbitrary in that someone picked the first Sunday after the first full moon of Spring. This year March 25 is that full moon....so March 31 is Easter. What about Passover?  The Jewish Passover is in the middle of the Hebrew month of Nisan every year. It could fall on any day of the week. Complicating the situation is that since the Jewish lunar cycle is only 360 days...it loses days every year compared to the 365 day Gregorian calendar. So....long ago....the Jewish calendar added a leap year....but in this leap year it adds an entire additional month. This happens every few years. This is a leap year. So there are two months of Adar....Adar I and Adar II. Purim celebrates the events in the book of Esther. In a leap year....with two months of Adar....it is celebrated in Adar II. Purim this year is March 23.

My own denomination doesn't think much of Israel one way or the other. They are locked into that thinking because of their tradition. They get most things right....but not this. The treacherous recent attack from this past October.....as Sukkot was concluding....was prophetic....as God often uses events on the Jewish holidays as signs. Jesus had this to say in Matthew 16:2,3...."He answered them, 'When it is evening you say, 'it will be fair weather, for the sky is red.' And in the morning, 'it will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening,' You know how to interpret the weather signs in the sky, but you don't know how to interpret the signs of the times!"

I am usually outside with my camera and monocular for every blood moon....(I missed the blood moon that Trump was born on....June 14, 1946....because I wasn't born yet....but I did see all four of the 2014/2015 tetrad blood moons within which Trump came down that escalator)....and eclipse and asteroid shower and rare planetary alignment....a couple of times at the highest point in our area....alone....in the middle of the night. In 1997 I was on a special job assignment....outdoors....and for months on end watched Comet Hale-Bopp gloriously inch across the northern sky. Well this latest solar eclipse is set for April 8....a little over a month away. Could this possibly be a sign of some sort from God to man? Yeah...I think that it probably is....because of the timing with other events....but I would be outside trying to view it even if it were not. We thought about taking a short trip to Erie....(we do that on occasion anyway)....for an overnight....but the motel prices....around $200 a couple of days earlier than the eclipse....jumped to $1000 to $2000 for the night before and after the eclipse.

The Devil's Comet....there is a comet in the sky right now that supposedly can be seen with a telescope or even binoculars. A photo was taken of it where some of the gases escaped and it appeared as a devil's horns....thus the nickname. It may be visible at the same time as the April 8 solar eclipse.

I go into more depth in the post below this....but I want to add here that Donald Trump's mind and character never developed. He cannot conduct a normal conversation because he does not possess the ability. In all of these years of studying him I have never heard an interview where he appeared to be a normal....analytical human being. Let me give you one example. His constant comments on the importance of loyalty. This is interpreted in the media as his need for his people to obey without considering if the command were right or wrong. I believe that to the case but Trump is supposed to be so smart politically. If he were then in an interview he could simply say that we hold loyalty to friends...there may be two friends for life...and one might have an important job....and the other in need of a job....so the former simply does a favor for a friend and hires him....but Trump's mind is utterly incapable of expanding upon any concepts! He has since his early twenties only been able to see himself as the most important person in any situation. The computer of his mind stores only data pertaining to or supporting that concept. All criticism of him....the loyalty....or revenge....or lack of ethics....does not compute! It frustrates him....and unable to navigate a simple conversation....he lashes out by doubling down on the comments that drew the criticism to begin with. That is half of the problem....the other half being our inability to spot the problem....and deal with it.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder....."Exaggerated feelings of self-importance, excessive craving for admiration, reduced levels of empathy....usual onset....early adulthood....duration....long term." This is from Wikipedia.

         

A Fairy Tale......As Best As I Remember It

                    OK....the fairy tale goes something like this....a man brags that his daughter can weave gold from straw. The king hears about it and demands that the daughter weave some gold for him....or die. The daughter has no idea what to do but an imp....a devilish or demonic type of character.....comes out of nowhere and appears to her....and in exchange for something of value of hers....a quid pro quo....you scratch my back I'll scratch yours type of thing....he weaves the gold. The king is thrilled for the riches but wants more....(don't we all?) He demands of the daughter that she weave even more straw into gold....and the imp appears again....and again the daughter gives up another valuable possession....and the imp again weaves the straw into gold. Now the king is delirious in his greed....kind of like us not that long ago....before the pandemic.....and demands even more straw woven into gold.....but this time he says that if she does weave the gold that he will make her his queen. Well....the imp appears again but the daughter has nothing more of value to give....kinda like Marco Rubio who gave up everything he had of value....so the imp demands the first child after marrying the king....or maybe a job in the King's cabinet. He weaves the gold....the daughter and the king marry....there is a child....the imp returns and wants the child....the daughter does not want to give the child up....the imp gives her three days....and an offer.....if she can find out what his....the imp's....name is....he will let her out of the deal. The queen assigns a messenger to travel everywhere in the land to find out the imps name but cannot find out what it is.....then finally he stumbles across the imp himself....doing his thing and bragging and singing a song....and in that song he mentions his own name which the messenger hears and tells the queen the imp's name....Trumpelstiltskin....or something like that. Then the imp is furious and blames the devil for telling her his name....and stomps out but in his anger he stumbles and that is the end of him.

We've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'

               The Duke of Wellington had been quoted by one contemporary of his as having said after Napoleon's defeat, "the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton." The meaning being that the character, discipline and determination forged on the playing fields of England's premier prep school of the day was on display as Napoleon's army was stopped at Waterloo. Some have challenged the authenticity of this quote but if there is truth in it then it bodes very ominous for us today for we have lost the magnanimity in the "thrill of victory"....and cast blame for the "agony of defeat." We do this because winning has become more an entitlement than an accomplishment....and there is no longer any honor in a losing effort. There was a touching scene at the surrender of Appomattox....chronicled by none other than Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain....where the defeated army of Robert E. Lee were downcast and in despair as they approached Chamberlain's Third....Second and First Brigades to lay down their weapons and banners. Seeing this....Chamberlain ordered his officers and men to come to a...."position of salute".....as he termed it....and a bugle blown as the whole army came to attention. The beaten confederate General Gordon immediately recognized the offer of respect and ordered his entire line to return the position of salute.

In My Weakness I Call This A Hard Thing To Do

             It's hard. There is no physical pain involved. It's not a lot of hours. I can do anything that I want.....like right now as I am typing this post....but I want to cry. There are so many stories out there on a daily basis infinitely more pressing than what I go through.....for instance the women who left her infant in a crib and then went of a ten day vacation....or the man in Ohio who chased down his three young sons on his property....shooting them one after another. These....are.....mind....numbing....horrors.
              No....it's nothing like that. As a matter of fact if someone were to be here watching over this they might think....oh that's nice. On occasion I watch an elderly loved one....in their home.....that's it....and it tears me apart....to know the glories of Jesus Christ....and the nearness of His coming....and to see so many blinded by the baubles of this world!
              Now you are probably not going to agree with this. I don't know....you might even think my thoughts on this disgusting....but you know what....we each....you and I....have roughly seventy years on this earth....it may turn out to be only twenty or so for some....and it may turn out to be a hundred for others....but  you can't get around it....you have a decision to make....and so do I....time passes....and then it will be over....on this earth....and then all will find out.
               All this needs further explanation so here it is. There is....in this case....an eternal soul. This loved on has attended a mainstream church for probably sixty years....the same church....and immobile as she is today....she regularly sends a check to that church. It is entirely possible that in those sixty years she has never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh the words on occasion were there....I've been there and heard the words....lifeless....with absolutely no definition behind them....and no power of conviction unless God chose....which He does at times....to use the unsaved....to spout out words with no conviction....to convict and call unto salvation.
               What can I do? I have the opportunity to say prayers before meals....and I pray beforehand for words....and try to make the most of it. We are talking years folks....even decades! I have talked until I feel that they have had enough. I sneak Christian movies in occasionally....and even a sermon when I think that I can do it....but the power of this world is as strong as a steel wall.....impenetrable.
                 Many of you reading this know exactly what I am talking about....for you have an adult child....or a rascal husband.....or a flippant wife.....or as in this case.....elderly parents. You have prayed with tears and wonder why God will not call this loved one to Him?
                 I have no control on what goes on in the house as I take my turn in watching this elderly loved one. If I said something there would be trouble. So I come and I smile....and I make light conversation.....and laugh when I can....and sneak in prayers or stories when I can....but I have to listen to the horrors of daytime television. That's it folks.....the absolutely horrors of listening as this lost generation....fills studio audiences...and tens of millions of homes....leading astray millions of mostly women but many elderly....feeding them lies....jumping and shouting and singing and dancing....anything to keep the audience away from the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. They even at times....package up a false gospel....using the name of Jesus!
                Well  I'm back down in reality after typing these few paragraphs. This is nothing new. I know the condition of this world...and that only few will be saved. And I know very well....and praise God for His mercies....in that this would be me.....I know that it would be me....only watching sports and playing games....and not concerned one iota of my eternal soul....had not God long ago chose the most unlikely.....the most unloving....and in effect said...."I will have mercy on him....and the powers of hell will be dumbfounded at such mercy!"
                 Oh I won't quit....Lord willing that is....for He has promised this. I went through this with my mother....for thirty-five years....and saw her heart soften....(only God knows how much)....in her last months. So in my weakness I call this a hard thing to do....but I know that it is a great blessing....given by God....to cry for the salvation of others! How could it be any other way....if we truly know that conversion is a real thing....and it involves being born again?

I Prefer The First Bedford Incident

                Fox News has a story headlined today where Bill Hemmer....one of the co-anchors on its cable news....was embedded with the United States Navy on a mission to the Arctic. It reminded me of a 1965 film based on a journalist embedded on a nuclear armed destroyer in the Arctic....The Bedford Incident....that starred Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier. I watched it again this evening on my laptop.
                Hey it has been fifty-nine years. If you haven't seen this film by now I'm not that worried about a spoiler....and most people that went to the movies back then probably knew how it was going to end anyway....but....if you don't want to know then don't read on.
                Widmark is the captain of the nuclear-armed destroyer....the USS Bedford....the name of the town in which John Bunyan pastored....but the main character in Pilgrim's Progress lived in the....City Of Destruction. The screenplay of the film was written by an accomplished screenwriter with the surname Poe....and there is a bit of the macabre in this film.
                Here it is....Widmark's character is a highly respected veteran captain where all the men on his ship requested to serve with him. Sidney Poitier is the journalist helicoptered to the ship.....up in the Arctic....to observe and write an article. It just so happens that at the time....Widmark is tailing a Russian nuclear-armed submarine....and his reputation is that of real hardliner with the Soviets in this the Cold War. There are plenty of other characters and very compelling story lines! James MacArthur has a key role....and Donald Sutherland has a bit role.
                There is chaos on the bridge of the ship at the end of the film. It's been commented on that Widmark's pursuing the Russian sub was just like Captain Ahab pursuing the white whale. Although the men serving under him view him as a hero....he also terrifies them. Is the Soviet ship going to fire on them....is he going to fire on the Russian ship? People are shouting....the background sounds are jarring....the officer at the control of the missiles misunderstands a command and fires a parachute torpedo at the Russian sub. Everyone on the bridge and the entire ship is in shock....that turns to horror as the Russian sub fired nuclear-tipped torpedoes at them before they themselves were vaporized. The torpedoes approach the destroyer....the entire crew has about sixty seconds to two minutes to ponder the end of life before their images on the screen are vaporized also. The End. Please throw your popcorn bags and paper cups in the trash can on your way out!
              The film did not do that well....and there were no Academy Award nominations....but the acting was great....just as with Gregory Peck's 1959 On The Beach....where everyone in the world dies in the end by radiation. It seems that we in America just don't like these type of outcomes in movies....an exception being 1983's television movie....The Day After....meaning the day after a nuclear war....where it was estimated that 100 million people tuned in. ABC even had counseling hotlines available....and Ted Koppel's Nightline followed it with a panel discussion that included Carl Sagan and Elie Wiesel and Robert McNamara and William F. Buckley and Henry Kissinger. There were no commercials after the nuclear missile detonates in the American Midwest midway through the television movie.
              Richard Widmark's character....hero that he was perceived to be....must have shown signs that set of some alarms....for they had passed him over for admiral. In fact that is why Sidney Poitier's journalist character was so intent....(he was lowered from a helicopter in the Arctic Sea)....on observing him and writing about him. Others saw the problem but his own crew did not. He led partially by fear....that could breed mistakes....one of which led to each ship vaporizing the other.
             
              I prefer the first Bedford incident....in Bedford jail....where John Bunyan wrote Part One of The Pilgrim's Progress....where Christian sees the city being destroyed....and he perishing in his sins....and after being told to flee the wrath to come....he runs out shouting...."Life! Life! Eternal Life!" The characters didn't have time to flee in this movie. They had about two minutes to say their prayers.

“For when they say ‘Peace and safety!' then sudden destruction comes up on them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, And they shall not escape" 1 Thessalonians 5:3

Addendum: It probably comes as no surprise....but I see Trump in the chaos of this movie....as he is chasing his own white whale. We are all aware that Mike Pence is not endorsing Trump....reportedly the first time ever that a president's own VP....who should know him....will not endorse a reelection. Trump is like the captain on the Bedford....rejecting the pleas for sanity from those around him....for they to him are weak. Trump said this yesterday in response to a question on his former vice president...."I couldn't care less"....(an obvious untruth)....We need patriots. We need strong people in our country....we don't need weak people." 

Update....Wednesday at 1:30 pm: Pertaining to the Bible verse above....1 Thessalonians 5:3....the headline on Breitbart right now is

EXCLUSIVE-Donald Trump: 'Safety And Security' Driving Women, Minority Voters To Me And GOP."

               

The Difference Between Purim....And Shushan Purim

                  We all....hopefully....know the story of Purim. Esther becomes queen....and says...."If I perish...I perish"....as she approached the king to save her people. The king gave the Jews a day to defeat their enemies. Queen Esther dedicated the day after the victory as a day of celebration....observed right up to today....Purim! If only it were that simple?
                  The Jewish holiday of Purim begins in Israel this Saturday....March 23....at sundown. Six hours ahead of our Eastern time....and sundown being about 6 PM....the holiday will start our time about noon this Saturday....and last until their sundown the following day....but it gets a little complicated in that they have something called....Shushan Purim.
                  So Purim is celebrated on the 14th of the month of Adar....but since this is a leap year in the Jewish lunar cycle to make up for lost days....they have two consecutive months of Adar....Adar I and Adar II. Are you still with me. I'm not sure I'm with me. So Purim this year is on Adar II...beginning on the fourteenth day....this Saturday.
                  Purim is a day of rejoicing. The Jews defended themselves on Adar 13....one day....so the celebration was to be Adar 14....with an exception....that being in walled cities....where the day is celebrated on the 15th! You see....the king allowed the Jews to defend themselves for two days in the city of Shushan....so the day of rejoicing is a day later. Today Shushan Purim is applied to Jerusalem....the walled city....so the day after is the 15th of Adar....not the 14th. Thus Purim in Israel is celebrated on two different days....the 14th in most of Israel....(and the world)....but Shushan Purim on the 15th in the walled city of Jerusalem.
                 Going back to last year....the officials in Jerusalem had planned ahead on a big celebration....including a parade....with about thirty floats....this on Shushan Purim 2024....but they planned this before the horrific attacks at the end of the October 2023 week-long celebration of Sukkot. So do they cancel the plans...or go ahead with them? Well they decided to go through with the major celebration anyway....(it had been over forty years since they had a parade.) 
                 This is a holiday of dressing up in costumes...and giving gifts...and doing charitable works. How they handle the celebration along with the war and the sadness we will have to find out.
                  As for us....we are to pray for the peace of Jerusalem....and If we in any way gave our word to Israel....we had better keep it!

McGuinn And McGuire......Now A-Lookin' Higher

                 It's an iconic song from the 1960s....1967 to be precise....and it is purely biographic as John and Michelle Phillips sat down and described the hard times before the Mamas and the Papas took off....this in an area of the Virgin islands known as Creeque Alley. It went to number 5 on the charts....and might have topped the charts if it had a name that you could pronounce just by looking at it.....Creeque Alley....pronounced....Creaky Alley. That the name didn't appear in the song itself didn't help.

               It was probably forty years ago....pre-computers....when I did some research on where the rock stars were after their heyday....and this was only ten or fifteen years after that heyday. The Who and the Beatles and the Stones and the Beach Boys had all lost a member by then. It's a long list. Even Karen Carpenter had died.
               Back to....Creaky Alley....there is a line that is repeated a few times.....that you will surely remember if you are familiar with the Mamas and the Papas song....

"McGuinn and McGuire....just a-gettin' higher....in L.A. you know where that's at."

                It's repeated four times....with a little change each time....ending with....

"McGuinn and McGuire....just a-catchin' fire....in L.A. you know where that's at."

                McGuinn and McGuire....Roger McGuinn....leader of the Byrds....typical rock star for a while....Eastern religion.....all that nonsense...and then God has mercy on him....just like He had mercy on me....and hopefully you.
                Barry McGuire....The Eve Of Destruction. I find it interesting that he put out that hit song just as we were entering....the eve of destruction. God had mercy on him also. He put out some Christian albums and did absolutely wonderful work with Christian songs for children. One of which....Bullfrogs And Butterflies....is on YouTube below....I have to laugh....this is the same guy who sings....Eve Of Destruction....but then it isn't the same guy....for he'd been....Born Again!
                The last line in Creeque Alley is...."And California dreamin' is becoming a reality"....referring of course to another iconic harmonic hit....California Dreamin'....that was actually recorded first by Barry McGuire....with a few lines that went....

"Stopped into a church
 I passed along the way
 Well I got down on my knees
 And I pretend to pray

                  My point here in this post is that whether it is McGuinn or McGuire....or B.J. Thomas or Pat Boone....or Alice Cooper....God has mercy on whom He will have mercy!

Movie And A Hankerchief

                Well we have tickets today for a first showing of the Anthony Hopkins film....One Life....an adaptation of the life of a British citizen....Nicholas Winton....filmed as flashbacks....as he attempts to rescue children out of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia prior to the start of World War II.
                Last evening I watched....via my computer....a film adaptation of the Broadway play and 1972 Hollywood film....Cabaret. The first time I had seen this play was on the Pitt campus in 1973. I was on a date....and I can't remember just who my date was....but the theme of the play itself has haunted me ever since then.
                I have next to me as I type a book that I reviewed in these posts sometime in the past....Hitler's First Hundred Days....by Peter Fritzsche....2020. I just felt that I needed to read it again. I am adding blue highlighter over and around the green highlighter from my first reading of the book.
                We in America are so close to the Weimar/cabaret culture of Germany of the 1930s where the communists were physically battling the national socialists in the streets. The book details an evening....a quarter past eleven actually....on January 30, 1933 when a startling behind-closed-doors decision was made in the upper echelons of the German government....where Hitler was settled upon as a compromise to replace the despised Weimar regime.
                 It's difficult to compare Donald Trump to this time period because one immediately wants to think about concentration camps and gas chambers. We are not budding national socialists....but the similarities of one man....vain and vile....coming out of nowhere....and bewitching a large portion of the populace....and then assuming total control of everything....is just too hard to ignore.
                 Nazi was a syllabic anagram for national socialists. The system was that which had to be deposed....the socialist/communists were the enemy....and the Jews were the lightning rod used to start the fire. In our case it's the establishment and the liberal/progressives and the illegals. They had their own paramilitary force....and their own press.
                 "Better Hitler than Weimar" was the reasoning....just as 'better Trump than Biden' is our excuse. We definitely have our own press. I am on news websites dozens of times a day....and Fox and Breitbart....are our propaganda tools just as NBC and others are the other side's propaganda tools....and that is only the major media....for when you take in all the podcasters out there....and the smaller news sources....they are a potent tool for giving only half the information to their side....and that often embellished and distorted. German ministers and preachers were taken in....defending the fatherland more that the gospel of Jesus Christ....and that unfortunately is too often what we have today.

                  My wife does the Wordle puzzle every morning....and she just came up to me to show me how she solved it in three tries. Now if you work this daily puzzle....and have not done so yet today....this is a SPOILER....do not read! The word for today is....toxin.  The Oxford Dictionary chooses every year a....Word Of The Year....and in 2018 they chose the word....toxic. I have an extended post on this....last posted October 17 of 2023 if you are interested....the word originated from the Greek....toxon....which gives us toxic and toxin. This naming of the Word of the Year was before the pandemic....almost pointing to to the poison....another meaning of the word....that savaged the world and America beginning in 2020.
                  Donald Trump is toxic....a poison....that came out of nowhere. If you are a registered Republican....you're not under the assumption that we have a political party anymore where its members choose a nominee are you? That is gone folks. This today is a super-organized....tightly-controlled....retribution-alarmed....demagogue-affixed....spiritual movement....(not Christianity)....looking to a similar millennium.

                  OK....I didn't get this posted in time and thus I just returned from the theater. It was one of the smaller theaters....65 seats....just about all filled....and we were in those front rows where you have to look up at the screen.
                  I kind of knew what to expect....and being up front somewhat separated from the regular seating....I made no effort to wipe the few tears crawling down my cheeks at the end. When I watch these films on Nazi Germany....and put them next to Bible prophecy....I'm not considering concentration camps for Jewish people or any of us. Rather I'm continually....what's the word....it has to be greater than astounded....not so much as how the people were deceived....but how the Christians were deceived. It's not the potential of the movement itself....people who know the destructive power of progressive wokism....but the potential of the man consolidating power in the name of that movement! It's not like we haven't been warned of deception and delusion in God's Word....it's more that the warnings do not line up with what we want. We want America to be....great again....and the 80s would be a good place to start....even if that is when Billy Graham was starting to get fanatical about warnings us that judgment was ahead.
                   Oh....the movie? See it. Hopkin's performance was compelling....as were that of all the others....and take a tissue.

This Is How My Days Generally Transpire

                I'd like to recommend a Steve Lawson talk to you. It's directed to young people I believe but it also speaks to me at seventy-four years old. In it he mentioned playing golf with his boys. I didn't do a lot of golfing with my son. We never went fishing. I wish that I had done more of these things....for as I remember it from back in the 60s....(that's how we refer to the 1960s....the 60s....but it might confuse you)....as a seven year old....watching the Pirates in old Forbes Field....with a scorecard and pencil in my hand....and maybe a newly bought Pirate hat on my head....while looking around every once in a while for the hot dog vender....as I remember it....it was a wonderful time. Oh I got on the basketball court and throw the football or the baseball around a lot....it's more that I concentrated on other areas. Thinking back of my son listening to Pilgrim's Progress tapes every Lord's Day on the thirty-five minute drive to church....or sitting down in the living room and listening to the whitehorseinn.org....or R. C. Sproul's radio show....renewingyourmind.org....or taking him to a Barry McGuire concert for kids....Bullfrogs and Butterflies....or just talking about the events of the day or the future....this is what I thought most valuable. Today our son knows his Lord and his Savior....and in a lifetime of probably more than my share of failures I can look back on this and thank God for His mercies. An hour and twenty minutes ago I grabbed my keys and was almost ready to head out the door....but while fixing a coffee I turned on my iPhone to listen to a hymn....O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing My Great Redeemer's Praise....I just picked it at random....but after it was over this Steve Lawson conference talk started playing randomly....and an hour later I'm recommending it to you....this is how my days usually go...and now I hope to grab those keys and finally walk out the door. You can just Google....Steve Lawson, Jonathan Edwards, The Use Of Your Time.

Just Take A Walk....And All Cares Will Drift Away

                   The small and delicate Jewish mother had her baby secure in a cloth cradle draped across her chest as she balanced a wicker basket on her head filled with turnips and leeks and and olives and onions and barley for bread and a few fish. She was leaving the market on the southwest wall of Jerusalem only a few hundred cubits from the temple....but through the Essene Gate could be seen a giant statue of Moloch. The market was crowded....and the fruits and vegetables for sale or barter were in abundance. The day was warm and the aromas of cooking fish and roasting lamb were wafting across the entire city. She passed the many booths with small idols of pagan gods....not in need of any....for they had two of them prominently placed in their home.

                   It was a loud cacophony of voices.....and laughter....and shouts proclaiming all the various wares that the marketeers were selling. She walked north at first....passed 'the Temple....the Temple....the Temple'...that was presumed by its mere presence to guarantee safety and prosperity for the city. On the steps of the golden edifice were temple prostitutes awaiting men to take them and offer a lustful sacrifice to the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. She then turned towards home on the Western Hill....an expanded area meant to handle the refugees from the northern tribes conquered by Assyria. She would often walk about and smell the flowers....or just sit in the security that the great city of Jerusalem always provides.
                  With the sounds of the marketplace growing dim....she could hear the shouts of the prophet....as he walked about....hands raised.....proclaiming destruction upon the city....where laughter would be taken away....and there would be no more marriages or feasts....as an enemy from the north would be setting up siege mounds outside the barred gates. A few men walked along side of him in prayer but no was listening to the madman who had been shouting this warning for many days.
                  The prophets voice was now gone as she entered their humble home....and laid her baby comfortably in her little cradle. They had a son who was sacrificed in the fiery arms of that Moloch statue....but God....the pagan god Moloch presumably....had provided another child....with another on the way. Their life....that of her and her husband and their infant daughter.....was idyllic....barring the sacrifice of their first child....and now if she could only get the ramblings of that prophet Jeremiah our of her memory!
                   
                  Folks....if you....on a warm spring day like we had today in Western Pennsylvania....or nearly any day in the South....if you simply leave your home and walk either the town square or along a country road with wheat blowing gently in the wind....and the smell of lilacs possibly causing you to breath deeply through your nose....and if you expel from your mind any news of the day....all elections....and everything not within eyesight....then there will be.....as there was with this woman of Judah....no cares in the world!
                   Yes there are exceptions but generally all we have to do in America is take a walk....consider only that which we can see with our eyes or hear with our ears or experience directly with any of our senses....and today will be pleasurable....and tomorrow even better. Surely all the rantings of ministers of the gospel come from the fears within man. Nothing of the sort can directly be seen....no murders or wars....no starvation or plagues....no devils or cosmic mountains flying to earth.
                   That mother would raise her child....and maybe the next one....until the watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem blew the shofar....for the banners of the Lion of Babylon could seen in the distance....and the shouting of the name of their God Marduk faintly heard over the bleating of goats. The people of Jerusalem would be eating their children before all the prophecies of the still shouting prophet Jeremiah would be fulfilled.
                    We in our culture....even in the church....want no part in warnings that might unsettle us or threaten our goals. We see no wars in our little town....no people dying in the streets....no children gaunt and thin as rails....no longer anyway people wearing masks....no devils ripping men's flesh with chards of glass....and no asteroids darkening the sun....and until we do....we shall go on living as we are....sacrificing babies....engaging in spiritual adultery....worshiping our sports idols on the Lord's Day....making merry and feasting....while going to our temple....the corner church....to assuage any guilt that the prophets of doom might bring.
        
                   

DISPATCHES

Ides of March....Do they still teach of Julius Caesar in grade school? I Don't know....I thought that maybe nowadays the history of Rome might have been replaced with the history of PBS or NPR or something like that....and Shakespeare with Beatles' lyrics? If not then you know that today....March 15....is known as the Ides of March. The Romans couldn't just number their calendar days....1...2....3....4 etc....they had to give you directions....'go to the middle of the month....and then count backwards'....or something like that. So their pivot points were the nones....and the ides....and the....kalends. A soothsayer warned Julius Caesar not to go to the Senate on the Ides of March....and well you know what happened there. It started a civil war. Four years later on the same Ides of March....Octavian....or Octavius depending on how well you knew him....after a victory....executed hundreds of political enemies. After consolidating all powers in 27 BC he changed his name to Caesar Augustus. Halley's Comet....(Not to be confused with the bright light of Nikki Haley that just passed by)....Halley's Comet zipped through space and Octavian said that that was Julius going to heaven as a god....so he must be a god too. Not a whole lot has changed in Republican politics.....from the Roman Republic to today's Caesar Augustus Republican Party.

OK....the first reviews are out on the new blockbuster movie set to be released on Friday April 12....four days after the solar eclipse. It had a one day-one theater opening yesterday. The movie is....Civil War. What we knew about it before yesterday was that 19 states secede from the union and civil war breaks out. We don't know all that much yet even though I read four or five reviews that said the film tried to downplay the reason for the states seceding....instead focusing on the war journalists. You can Google this to see if there were any reviews with a little more analysis. Aside from that....the exit interviews....all of them that I read....were moviegoers that were stunned by what they saw and experienced. We don't know what a day brings....or an hour....or a minute....but my habit on a film like this is to reserve the tickets the first day they are available....and be in the theater on the first day of the release.

I had been praying and posting for six weeks for John MacArthur's Shepherd's Conference that on Friday concluded three days of talks and general sessions. After the first two days it looked like it would be a normal conference....blessings although they are to those in attendance....but the conference concluded with two needed and powerful talks that were also live streamed. Virginia pastor Jesse Johnson spoke on the dangers of Christian Nationalism. Five thousand pastors will be going home with the strong warning not to mix Christianity and politics....for when politics dominates the mind....the Christian tends to lose his/her first love! And Steven Lawson completed his talk on Jesus coming back in judgement with this....spoken very slowly for emphasis....I may get a word or two out of place...."I...don't...see...how...it....would be possible....to read the Bible....and not realize that Jesus....is about....to return."  

I have been writing in one capacity or another for about thirty-five years....first in letters-to-editor....and then a newsletter that I sent out to about 125 people...and with a small novella....and now with these 3000+ posts of 15 1/2 years. There is hardly a day that goes by where I do not consider stopping. From a human perspective I hope that people will at least say that he tried. From a spiritual perspective my hope is that by God's mercy upon the lowest of the low that I directed some souls to ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ who have remained faithful....Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones and Piper....the warnings of Billy Graham and others. I probably could count on one hand the number of times I have asked readers to pass these posts along....particularly to their loved ones who have no idea the darkness of the age that we live in.

I thought that I would add the conclusion of a Spurgeon sermon that I was listening to this morning....titled....A Sermon For The Time Present....this from 1887. After describing the state of the country and the church of the day he said...."Let us expect great judgments in the future." To the remnant within the church he gave an anecdote about Alexander the Great....when told of the hundreds of thousands of the Persian enemy before him said...."The butcher fears not myriads of sheep"....and when told that their arrows are so many that they will darken the sun....he said...."Then it will be fine to fight in the shade." He went on to say to Christians that if the odds against us are 100,000 to one....let us wish that they were a million to one....that the Lord might get the greater glory. He said that it is a small thing to be quite alone in the warfare of the Lord....for then there is more room for God. I post this primarily as an encouragement for pastors who feel alone....for Elijah felt that way also....but was told that God has 7000 other faithful men out there who will not bow to Baal....and there are more than 7000 faithful pastors out there today!

Are You Looking For A Personal Trainer?

                A family member....female....employs a personal trainer at the gym. I imagine that the expertise involves how to operate gym equipment....what equipment to use....weights and repetitions and sets....things like that....but that is just a guess. I've been retired for going on seven years now....and I'm one of those that would like to be working at least part time. I had this thought in my daydreams from time to time. Someone hires me to be their personal trainer as they navigate the first years of their Christian walk. Well that's not going to happen....but I have a Plan B. No one hires me....I just do it here in my posts. 
                OK....let's get started. You are somewhat like 'Christian' in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress....only you found your way to Calvary....and your burden fell off....and rolled down into the grave. What do you do now?
               Well you have to eventually find a church but that's not going to be easy....not in my plan anyway. There are plenty of churches to go to....where you would basically stay right where you are at today....and this for decades if you wish. Unfortunately there are not many churches with pastors from out of the past. They are there but you have to go through some training in order to be able to identify them.
                So....in the meantime what you will need to do is to find a ministry that you can trust....and then let them guide you. That's where I come in. I'll tell you the ministries that you can trust. Actually if you do that then you won't even need me much longer....but that's OK. I just want to be the guy wearing the neon clothing and waving his flashlight in the direction that you have to go....to avoid the bridge that the storm had taken out.
                What I'm going to do this first day is tell you that you have to hear the gospel preached....absolute bare minimum....once a week....but preferably even more than that....two or three or four times a week. I'm at about ten....and if I can't keep this up....in this collapsing world that we live in....then I get weak real fast.
                What I'm suggesting is very easy to do. All you need is a computer or a smartphone. In the first stages of this first stage....you just need three names.....Charles Spurgeon and Martyn Lloyd-Jones and John Piper. Just Google their name...along with 'sermon YouTube'....and pick whatever sermon that comes up that you want. There will be lots of them. This will feed you. It's not the only food out there....it's more survival food for times of disaster....which is what we are in.
                That's it folks....your first lesson. If you do this you will come back.

Note: Folks...with a post like this I am pulling out all the stops. The Hee Haw video....the concept itself of a personal trainer....all this to get your attention....to encourage you to make it a regular habit to listen to sermons from....as I always put it....Men from the past.....or men from today who preach like men from the past. You need to hear God's Word preached in the power of the Holy Spirit....and today's pulpits are not....are not....giving that to us.

Also:  If you want....I'll give you two specific sermons to start with...

Charles Spurgeon....An Urgent Quest For An Immediate Answer

John Piper....If My Words Abide In You

The Same Yesterday......And Today......As It Was Fifty Years Ago

                So it is Spring of 2017....right about this time of year....baseball is in Spring training....the hockey and basketball playoffs are a little ways off but March Madness will take up a whole month until then. Plus there will be a lot of yard work for many men....and getting that golf swing in form for others. Fill in your own blank on how you pass your time.
                 As for me....back in 2017 I'm wondering just who this Donald Trump is? We're almost the same age so I've been familiar with his name for at least forty years....but I really know nothing about him other than he is comically egotistical....and golfs a lot....and gets married a lot....and builds big buildings a lot....and oh he has a television show for I guess a lot of years.....couldn't tell you much about it though because I never saw a minute of it.
                 I sure didn't want him to be the Republican nominee in 2017. I was for Ted Cruz....that's back when he still had his mind. I actually predicted Trump would win because I had made a few trips back and forth across Pennsylvania.....and after about forty-six years of following politics....I knew from the yard signs alone that something had taken off here and was not going to be stopped. So I celebrated when he won because Hillary would be gone....but it only took a few weeks actually before I knew there was some kind of problem. Ivanka had earlier given an interview where she said that while her father was in the White House that she was just going to be a mom....and then presto chango she and her husband are right smack dab in the middle of the Oval Office saving the world!
                    A few months later and....Luther Strange is running against Roy Moore....and Trump endorses Strange? That's real strange. Rush doesn't say a single solitary word about it for ten days....and then tries to wiggle his way out of criticizing Trump. I figured that I had better read up on who this Donald Trump is. Hey what can I say....some men golf all the time....I read. I had a stack of books on Trump that I read and decided to count them....thirty-two. It was easy to keep track after that....and it's at a hundred books now....for Trump....by Trump....(although he really didn't write them)....against Trump.
                   How could this be? How could one man be so empty....for so long? I'm reading about every area of his life....even golf and Mar-a-Lago....and it's all a con job! He will stick it to anyone to make a buck. He lies like a rug. No one really likes him....but that's OK because he doesn't like anyone....except for maybe Roy Cohn. I'm not even sure he likes his kids....except maybe Ivanka.
                   The years pass....different teams win the Super Bowl and the World Series....I guess. People are making money....and I'm still reading about Trump. A friend after hearing some of my concerns....says....'Come on....surely there is something good about Donald Trump?" I answer....'No....there is nothing good about him." I'm serious....but to understand why I say that you would have to have followed his entire life....for in doing so you would see the exact same person today that was in court fifty years ago....for systematic violations of the Fair Housing Act of 1968....settled out of court of course....(his lawyer was Roy Cohn of course)....with no admission of any violations!
                 I would like to drop this....but folks this is far more than mere politics. The man is a genuine biblical false prophet....telling us how great things were always going to be....forever....kinda like Barbie. Evangelical's minds were and are turning to mush under this false prophet. Three years ago....in the summer of 2021....I commented to a Christian friend that if Trump gets out of this latest mess....(January 6)....he would have to at least be considered a candidate for the Antichrist....(with one mortally wounded head healed....as the world watches amazed.) My friend was not as open on his comments as I was but did say that if Trump gets out of this latest mess....then he might have to reconsider my speculation....and there have been many more messes since then!
                 At some point a reporter is going to question John MacArthur....and I would have two questions to recommend to ask of him....one...."Will you endorse Donald Trump like you did the last time....for it's the same two candidates?"....and two...."As pertaining to your radio program....Beware Of False Prophets....would you consider Donald Trump a false prophet....and if not....why not?"
                 When I was a kid....scientists said that it would take seven years for the human body to replace all its cells. Science today lowered that length of time to 80 to 100 days. So I imagine that Trump's cells have been replaced close to 200 times in the past fifty years....but the mind is the same!

In The Midst Of The Shouts Of The Mob....With Bullhorns Stirring Us Up All The Time....Have We Even Thought What He Would Be Like?

I don't think that conservatives and evangelicals who support Trump because of the alternative have thought through any of this.

Who will Trump choose for a running mate? The man....or woman....would have to put his or her mind on mute....for they would never be allowed to think on their own....or make any consequential comments without direct supervision from Trump? Would they know this beforehand? Possibly not....but they would find out real quick.

The same question could be asked to anyone chosen to serve....would they know that serve means....be subservient to....Trump?

Let's go back a step. The possibilities should Trump be in the White House are:
1) Trump has a Republican House and Senate.
2) Trump has a Republican House but a Democrat Senate.
3) Trump with a Democrat House but Republican Senate.
4) Trump works with both a Democrat House and Senate.
Use your imagination on how Trump might deal with these differing situations
There is another possibility....
5) A Supermajority in both chambers of Congress can change the constitution.

Trump with this supermajority would be the definition of....absolute power corrupts absolutely.
You might respond with....the Congress would have to give him those powers....but you should also recognize that when Republicans do not completely comply with Trump's wishes they are hounded and eventually replaced by someone who will.

Think about the possible choices for the Cabinet. In his first term....before we all knew that he was psychologically unbalanced....in his first cabinet meeting....they went around the table and everyone praised Trump. You would know about this if you read any of the books that came out at the time.....but we never read any of those books did we?

Who would he choose for Attorney General....and/or the FBI or the CIA or any of the other intelligence or law enforcement agencies?

Could Tucker Carlson actually be given authority in anything important?

Could Marjorie Taylor Greene wind up in some position of power? 

What type of generals would he appoint to important posts....from what ideological group would the generals that he would appoint come from?

Can you even imagine the extent of pardons that would be given on the first day in office?

*You remember how he did away with the....Johnson Amendment....right....for he told you that he did away with it at his rallies. Well....no surprise here but that wasn't the case....the Johnson Amendment is still there. The more important question is would he use it....against....against....evangelical pastors....should they ever wake up and him for the false prophet that he is....and tell there congregations?

Does Trump again say to NATO....I might join in the defense....and then again....I might not? You do know that Putin....the Butcher....badly wants Trump in there....in spite of what he says?

*In the Middle East....the first time....Trump would do anything....sell military fighter jets.....anything....in an attempt to get a deal....because he needed reelection. This is different. How does he deal with Israel?

How would Trump deal with North Korea....after all....Japan and South Korea and Taiwan would no longer be election issues?

How would Trump deal with Venezuela....after all....the first time....as recorded in another book that we never read.....he said about Venezuela....."That's the country we should be going to war with....They have all that oil and they're right on our back door." Remember....this is the man who boasts that he will keep us out of wars.

Can you imagine Trump's first State of the Union address only a month after he would be in?

The purge and the revenge would begin immediately....but how far and how strong might it be? Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger might have an opinion on this?

Who might his various cabinet secretaries be? Would they be aware of the track record of those who joined in with Trump the first time? Would they be interested in hearing the opinion of Trump from those who were in his administration?

Trump would in effect be a lame duck president. The only thing he would be fighting for is the power in and the future of the name Trump.

The Covenanter

                Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached this sermon on July 31st, 1887....in the midst and at the height of the Down Grade controversy that took a toll on his health....not to speak of a near fatal blow to the Baptist churches of England. The sermon began with the Scottish Covenanter....indeed that is the title of the sermon that can easily be Googled....The Covenanter. Spurgeon used the hallowed memory of the Covenanters to urge his congregation to be true covenanters in their heart. 

Advantage Pilgrim

The following was first posted on October 13 of 2021....the additional comments a little after that.....and the addendum in April of 2023. I try to keep it near the top....hoping that the message is as potentially potent that I think that it is....you are sixty or seventy.....maybe only fifty....you had the advantage for all of those years....with no real concern about having to stand before God....but those years are gone....or almost gone....and now the advantage is with me....for you used up your hope....while mine only built up. Here is good news....you did stall....and balk....but the door is still there for you to knock on....no believer will look down on you for delaying....for every one of us was given mercy that was totally undeserved. 

Preface: I'm thinking specifically of two men that I had known in the past....similar in many ways....the opposite in some other ways....but ultimately destined for the exact same future. Both were extremely intelligent.....contemplative. No one could say that they were not thinkers. We had many conversations about God over decades. The one would not only challenge every single thought....and do so with total confidence that they were right....but also do so with a smile....so as to twist the dagger....so to speak. The other was the opposite. He relished the conversation and hearing any and all of my thoughts....and would even expand the questions....not to challenge.....but to welcome the furtherance of discussion. He rarely challenged....and often agreed....and also with a smile....a sincere smile. The former never even considered God let alone the need for salvation. The latter appeared to almost want to believe....but at the same time there was no disappointment in that he did not believe. The following post was not directed to either of these men.....they never entered my mind when I typed up these thoughts....but in retrospect....the post refers to my conversations with both of them. Their advantage is gone today. The passing of time has taken it away. The question in the debate was never urgent to them.....but now.....along with age....comes a certain creeping urgency. They watched forty years pass....and have not a single sentence to add to the defense of their argument....whereas I have evidence of forty years of God's faithfulness....having witnessed and experienced His wisdom and glory.

Advantage Pilgrim

               If the whole world were somehow darkened....the sun completely blotted out....and God were to cause every Bible in the world to emit a light....then the earth from space would appear as a lighted globe....that is how many printed copies of God's Word there are....not to mention the same Bible accessible on every computer.
               One could hold in one hand the most valuable diamond in the the world....and a cheap paperback Bible in the other hand.....and there would be no comparison in the real intrinsic and eternal value in the hand that holds the Bible.
               One could be rich like a Musk or a Bezos....or adored as the greatest celebrity....or the greatest athlete.....or the greatest anything....but have nothing compared to any little old woman anywhere in this world.....hobbling home with a paper sack containing that day's food....who is in prayer and praise to her Lord and Savior....and coming King....Jesus Christ.
               Take a look at your watch dear reader....or a clock on the wall....and whether you can see the second hand or not....it is moving....nothing can stop time. No matter how rich....or how happy one perceives they might be....that time is merely rented....with a contract that will run out.
               So we debate this.....you and I....and time passes.....years.....decades maybe. In the beginning you had the advantage.....how foolish of me to waste my life.....but as time passes....your advantage lessens....for you once could exclaim with reasonable confidence that you would have many years to enjoy your thesis....and the conclusion of it all was far away.....while I could only say with confidence that the conclusion of all things would prove the Bible true....but now....as the years have passed....you can only say that the past is on your side....while I still point to the future...which is no longer far away.
               But this God who you accuse of being unfair....he watched you debate against His righteousness for those so many years.....and yet still says...."Knock....and it will be opened." This God who you accused of being harsh....has offered you mercy for maybe fifty years....and still says to you...."Today is the day."  Pick up that Bible that is probably as close to you as the next room....or the attic....or the basement....for the very same words that you may have read before....while you had so much confidence in yourself....may this time bring you to your knees....first in horror at where you are headed....and then humility in how wrong you have been....and then hope in He who opened your eyes....as He had opened all of our eyes. 

Addendum....the one man....the one who would talk to me every chance that we had....over many decades....and enjoy the intellectual stimulation....but never seriously considered how the conversation was directed at his eternal soul....who was as health conscious as anyone that I have known in my life....passed away suddenly a few months ago. Our last conversation was only about a year ago....as I ran into him in Barnes & Noble....right there among the books that we so often talked about. As I recall....we talked about the Apostle Paul. He brought it up. It was another mind exercise....where one then puts down the barbell of thought....refreshed in a way....but to no purpose other than to keep the mind in tip top shape.

"We Will Not Listen"

                Well the Academy Awards are on tonight.....as you surely are aware of.....but I'll give you an alternative that could be of eternal consequence....maybe for someone you know or a loved one. 
                England....London particularly....had two shining lights....two pillars of pulpit faithfulness....in the latter half of the 19th century....in the Baptist preacher Charles Hadden Spurgeon....and the Anglican preacher J. C. Ryle. Christianity in England was on the way down....and would eventually collapse....until another shining light and pillar appeared in London in 1939 in the person and ministry of Martyn Lloyd-Jones. America has had its share of wonderful preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ....but we come in a clear second to England.
                 So what I have to recommend to you is more of an audio book....the reading of a book written by J. C. Ryle....Old Paths....and the particular chapter can be Googled at....J. C. Ryle....Few Are Saved. Jeremiah was led to use that phrase....Old Paths....in chapter six....verse sixteen...

"Thus says the LORD....(are you listening intently?)....Stand ye in the ways and see, And ask for the Old Paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls." (There's a little more in this verse that we might want to meditate upon)...."But they said, 'We will not walk in it'."

Jeremiah continues in verse seventeen...."Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, 'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!' The response was the same...."We will not listen."

I'll add the next three verses....."Therefore hear. O nations, And know, O congregation, what is among them.Hear, O earth! Behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people-The fruit of their thoughts, Because they have not heeded My words, And as for My Law, they have rejected it also.For what purpose to Me comes frankincense from Sheba, And sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, Nor your sacrifices sweet to Me."

               We conservatives in America like to quote 2 Chronicles 7:14....beginning with...."If My people..." We hear it all the time....you probably know it by heart....the problem is that America is not God's people as we are constantly told. God is not looking for legislation without the heart.....nor does he take delight in sacrifices of praise if on His day we are more interested in the big game or the big event later in the day. These are difficult words....but look around....is not God's judgment everywhere....and have we not said....we will not walk in the Old Paths....and we will not listen?

               

It's Not The Mysteries Of The Harbingers......It's The Mystery Of Salvation....By Grace Alone....Through Faith Alone....In Christ Alone....As Revealed By Scripture Alone....To The Glory Of God Alone

Preface: Jonathan Cahn's The Harbinger....strikingly....and eerily....shows the connection between God's warnings....and what happened in America....but please consider this....we had all these warnings of judgment before....through the Old Testament prophets. I knew of God's judgments coming upon America long before I ever heard the name Jonathan Cahn....and others such as Billy Graham had long before me! Here is the danger....if we chose to rely more on these historical and geographical facts....over the Word of God itself....then we may very well come to rely on what Jonathan Cahn would continue to....reveal....in future books! That is just what happened....as I mention in the post below....Trump was seen as someone sent from God to help us....whereas it was the opposite! So Cahn was wrong! How could he be so right in The Harbinger....and then so wrong in everything else?  He continually says...'go to Jesus...go to Jesus"....but he says little about why....other than avoiding punishment! It could turn out that the most valuable thing about Jonathan Cahn to us in this small remnant of believers in America and in the church today....is that it strikingly warns us to stay vigilant! The amazing world of Jonathan Cahn can astound anyone....believer or unbeliever....but this is not the same thing as how the Holy Spirit 'astounds' us in the power of witnessing the glory of God! Brothers and sisters in Christ....Go to Jeremiah....go to the Word of God....and even the amazing world of Jonathan Cahn will fade away in comparison!
              

               According to his own testimony....a young Jonathan Cahn was a Jewish....atheist....something that is not unusual. He said that he brokered a deal with God....if there was a God....he would accept him late in life. A lot of people say that very same thing only they do not acknowledge that that is what they are doing. That young Jonathan Cahn....in his teens....was almost killed while in a car that was hit by a train. Having his plans shaken....he in effect renegotiated his contract with God....he would believe when he was twenty years old.....and he did that....when he turned twenty....being the honest young man that he was. He later discovered the true Messiah....believed unto salvation....and wound up as what we know as a.....Messianic Rabbi....a Jewish man who trusts in Christ....enters the ministry....but retains the Jewish traditions. Jonathan Cahn has a gift.....and uses it....and I think that he is now....at my count anyway....at nine best-selling books....with a tenth to be released soon....for it surely would be a best-seller also. I have bought every one of his books....and most on the very first day they were released.....for that is what I do.
               So what is his gift? He can see....through hard work and research....many and various coincidences....that cannot be coincidences....in the Old Testament primarily.....that point to things that are happening today....in America primarily. The first book resulting from this was 2010's....The Harbinger. In it he pointed out quite a number of events that happened to Israel and Judah....that seem to be happening to America today. Some of them are rather astounding. I posted favorably on this book quite a while ago. Then more books started coming out one after another....and Jonathan Cahn is today a very familiar name in many Christian homes.
              I have a few concerns....to put it mildly. As the new books came out it seemed as if he was increasingly imagining similar amazing...."mysteries" as he called them....to be revealed. This resulted in 2017's....The Paradigm.....in which he saw the Old Testament's Jehu as....Donald Trump....and Bill and Hillary Clinton as Ahab and Jezebel...along with many additional pairings of Old Testament figures with today's politicians.. He was wrong in all of this....and it makes me wonder who orchestrated these "amazing mysteries?"  This speculation set many evangelicals off on a dangerous trip....following a false prophet in Trump....thinking that he was some kind of political savior....and that trip has not ended....but is getting closer to the precipice!
              An even more recent book delved into demonic gods of old....that are returning today. Two things....as interesting as are the events described in The Harbinger....we do not need them to know that America has abandoned God! We don't need any of them. God's Word and the Holy Spirit provide us with all the information on this that we need....plus information on our own many failures....which are leading to these judgements....which if one only reads Jonathan Cahn's books....we see the rebellion of others....but not necessarily ourselves! This is how....brothers and sisters in Christ....we came to fall for the false prophet Donald Trump. We were so enamored with these amazing similarities....and the deeds of people like the Clintons....that we failed to see the warnings of Paul and the Apostles...and Jesus...on someone such as Donald Trump!
             There are clues that we should have seen.....Jonathan Cahn being hosted often by Jim Bakker for one....or Glenn Beck for another. Why is it if Jonathan Cahn can discern great and ancient mysteries....that he cannot even spot a false prophet today....and an antichrist as the Apostle John Labels them? Why does he help Jim Bakker rebuild his ministry as a televangelist? Why is he sharing the stage with Glenn Beck?
              I came across a DVD of the 2022 film based on The Harbinger at the checkout counter at Hobby Lobby....The Harbingers of Things to Come. It's worth watching if you can keep these things in the proper perspective. For instance....the DVD has a lot of advertisements in it for other books that Charisma Media publishes....and they are just about all books to stay far away from! 
              I have mixed feelings about Jonathan Cahn. He can give us things to think about....his book....The Harbinger....gave clear evidence on how the same judgements that God brought on rebellious Israel and Judah....were now coming to us in our rebellion....but he can also send us down rabbit holes....such as genealogies and ancient Gods....rabbit holes that God's Word tells us to stay away from. These aren't ancient mysteries solved as they are portrayed.
              I have on numerous occasions gone to Jonathan Cahn's congregation and ministry website....and this is very typical of not only charismatic ministries but mega-church ministries....as in amongst the tons of information and ministries and events and directions and 'donate here' links....there is very little beyond a basic statement of faith! 
              The DVD has a link where Jonathan Cahn tells you how to find Jesus....and I watched it....twice. Here is part of the problem....a viewer watches the film....and is utterly amazed....as they might be utterly amazed at many other things in life....so they follow the directions on how to become a Christian. It's like handing a flag and a copy of the constitution to a person....leading them in the Pledge of Allegiance....and telling them that they are now a patriot. Becoming a Christian is being born again....not...."repeating after me." It's not seeing how bad the Clintons and Obama and Biden are....it's how bad we are! It's not the mysteries of harbingers....it's the mystery of salvation by grace alone....through faith alone....in Christ alone....as revealed by Scripture alone....to the glory of God alone!

Note: On the segment about Abraham Lincoln....it should be noted that President Lincoln did not compose that proclamation....but men in the Senate....who put it on his desk....and of which he then signed. Yes it is important that the Union remained intact....but what Jonathan Cahn cannot see is that the church would decline greatly as America grew in productivity....and the repentance never came.               

"Amazing!"...."Masterful!"...."Spellbinding!"...."Astonishing!"

                 No.....this isn't a movie review.  I wish it were only a movie. The man has lied about something every day of his life since he came down that escalator in June of 2015. Has there ever been anyone as vindictive as he is in America in our lifetime? (I'm 74) Can you think of one person at his level of egomania....ever in America? He hasn't a shred of conscience....and no real empathy for anyone....even family members. Amazing!

               He bungled the response to Covid until he was forced to address the issue....but has since turned that into some kind of victory march! He's been dealing with Russians money most of his adult life....a tabloid example of a playboy and a textbook candidate for Russian kompromat. Putin tried to help him win....and he's since been a godsend to Putin and all things dictatorial. Using patriotism....he has turned most of us into soft racists. Masterful!
               He has evangelical pastors actually fighting for him....a false prophet....and an antichrist! Many people are in jail...and some died....following his orders on January 6 of 2021....and  we  conservatives have worse than forgotten the whole thing....we bought into the lies that he conjured up afterwards. I...as I posted on a number of times....on that fateful morning....had to point the remote and turn the television off as he spoke on the Ellipse....because of the violent overtones were so unsettling! Folks....brothers and sisters....this is prophetic biblical....strong delusion! Spellbinding!
                He turned a legitimate investigation into his ties with dirty money and oligarchs....into something akin to....'remember the Alamo!' He destroyed Rush Limbaugh's discernment...along with Mark Levins. He made a fool out of Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz. General Flynn and Rudy and Mark Meadows....and dozens if not hundreds of others got burned....but Trump came out stronger and unscathed! Good men....experienced....and tough.....Kelly and Mattis and Bolton....stood up and shouted that this man is crazy....but he just turned it around and said that they were crazy....and got away with it. Astonishing!
                He wouldn't debate any Republican candidates....because he would have stumbled all over the place....and just sat on the sideline....texter in hand....and watch them fall one by one...and now....he is all of a sudden Braveheart....challenging an elderly care president to debate. Breathtaking!"
                He survived impeachments....indictments....and the literal horror of January 6....surely at least his evangelical followers would be on to him now....but he doubled-down on the political thuggery....repeated promises from 2016....that he failed to follow through on....but bragged that he did follow through on....while threatening and attacking anyone who would not stand at attention and raise their arm in a salute. Stunning....mind-boggling....dazzling in its deception....as these seemingly mortal self-inflicted wounds were healed....and the whole world marvels as American....conservatives....and evangelicals.....follow him!