Does Your Heart Break At Times At Christmas?

            I hope that you have a wonderful Christmas. I have 73 Christmases to look back upon.... even if the earlier ones are on photos only. From 9 years old to my early teens there are wonderful memories as my mother and I would take the bus to downtown Pittsburgh.... Petula Clark's hit song was back in those days.... and shop at Kaufman's and Gimbels and Hornes....and then have a great steak and baked potato dinner at....The Flame....for under $10 each!
             Two Christmases were spent in Vietnam...and another three in oblivion while in college....then God had mercy on me and gave me a wonderful wife who is upstairs as I type this....48 years later. Then in 1982 He had mercy on my wandering and rebellious soul! A few years later came our son who has been a source of joy now for 38 years....along with his wife and son!
             So I know as all of you do the joys of Christmas. I'm looking forward to the next few days....should God will it....for we never know what a day can bring. I looked for many years at the babe in a manger....as a baby myself....able to take nothing more than milk....but then the scroll came....as it eventually does to all of us....and God in effect commanded as He did to Ezekiel and the apostle John in Revelation...take it and eat it....put it in your mouth and consume it. Are you looking forward to the marriage supper of the Lamb? Oh what we will know then!
              So....as your family gathers around a table this Christmas....and that traditional joy is wafting throughout the house....look if you will at each and every family member present. Stay out of the laughter and the conversation for only a few minutes and gaze upon the face of each and every one of your loved ones. We all know what love is....but do we know what the ultimate love for another is?
                Here is where experiences will be different. Some of you will gather with family....all of them....who know and trust in their Lord and Savior Jesus....the same babe born in that manger....no longer a babe....but most of you will not have that complete joy....for that brother or sister that you dearly love....or that parent....or that child....or even that spouse....will not as of yet....(can I use this term? It's viewed as archaic today?)....will not as yet be....saved....which means more than they are just lost!
               Does your heart break over this. As you exchange a gift with them....are you fighting back tears? Do you pray for their salvation....not only every day....but often throughout every day? 
                Jesus came to us in that manger....that we might have those tears....and that we might rejoice not only in the mercy extended upon us as individuals....but the mercy extended upon others....who if it be in God's merciful will....will be those who you will sing....Jingle Bells....or even....Silent Night or Joy To The World....along side!
                

            

"Siri......Play Joe Rogan's Podcast......I Need Some Wisdom And Power

               The teraphim....were family idols....or household gods. Genesis 31:19 records how Rachel stole her father's teraphim....probably  for some occult power on her journey. Judges 17:5 tells us how in idolatrous Israel....teraphim were used for divination. Ezekiel tells us in 21:21 how the king of Babylon sought guidance from them. Zechariah mentions that these idols "spoke"....nonsense or deceit.....(Zechariah 10:2)....and Josiah outlawed all the teraphim....this is II Kings 23:24.
               

"For the idols (teraphim) speak delusion
  The diviners have seen a lie
    and have told false dreams
     They comfort in vain
      Therefore they went their way as a flock
        They were troubled
          because there was no shepherd
           Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds....Zechariah 10: 2, 3a

                 Apparently these were little....you could hold them in your hand....household idols that the rebellious Israelites tried to get divine wisdom from....their own personal ephods? So do we in modern times have our own form of teraphim? Well....statues of saints qualify. My mother had a Saint Anthony statue by her bedside until the last few years of her life. I wore a Saint Jude medal around my neck in my youth....for protection. It didn't help....for one evening....out on the town....I was in a restroom...at a service station.....and another guy came in and started trouble....(he was drunk...I wasn't) In that scuffle my medal was torn off. An hour later I noticed that my Saint Jude medal was missing so I went back to get it. This time there was this guy and a few friends. It didn't turn out well....even though I retrieved my medal.
                 I have to wonder though if we have a different sort of modern-day teraphim that we rely on for guidance? If so then my iPhone would count as one....which I consult a hundred times a day....or my laptop....or my television....or my Sirius/XM? Are we not often asking Siri or Google or Alexa questions? A few years ago I was about to ask Siri a question. Just then my wife was walking out the door going to work....so I shouted out...."What time do you get off?" Siri then answered me....a little huffy...."We're talking about you Special Dog....not me!" I learned my lesson with that woman.
                 We seek guidance from Fox cable....and talk radio....and podcasts. We want advice on investing....and on what the best product might be....and what Trump or Franklin Graham's latest tweet (X) or Facebook entry was. We let a television comedy tell us what truth is. So the question is....have we turned these devices into idols? I know that I have with this iPhone. Is this our form of divination? 
                 So where are the shepherds? Well they are probably on their iPhone also....or listening to a podcast....maybe Eric Metaxas or Jonathan Cahn. Wherever they are they have not been warning the sheep on anything....except possibly this...that we shouldn't get too caught up in wondering when Jesus will return!

Don't Go Hog Wild

                So what do we know about the Antichrist? What are we to look out for? Well let's see. We know that he or she or it or whatever it turns out to be will be associated in some way with the number 666. We know that. And we will eventually know what that means because we are directly told to calculate it. There is something about a mortal headwound that gets healed.....a "seeming" fatal head wound....or what "appeared to be" a fatal head wound. Is that a literal head wound....or a wound to some particular power or position that the Antichrist would have....for example....he might be a....Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy....(just to use that 1974 John le Carre' book title for a little help)....and maybe the tinker or the soldier or the tailor or the spy part of him gets that seemingly fatal head would. Whatever it might be....it is eventually restored....and all the world will be amazed.
                 I haven't told you anything new yet have I? Well I'm not going to try to tell anything new....because I don't know anything new. All I know for sure is what God's Word tells us. Why would the whole world follow this man? I can't see that happening to a Muslin as some Bible prophecy teachers believe him to be. 
                 He is going to work wonders and miracles....so what might they be? Bringing peace might be considered a miracle? But then it might be something like restoring an economy? Maybe he will get everyone to like each other. That would be a miracle. 
                 And what could all of this....ten horns and seven heads and ten crowns stuff be? Maybe those folks who say it will be a revived Roman empire with ten countries are right? Could be? 
                 Daniel gives a lot of very specific hints....beginning around chapter eleven....but they are the kind of things that we will not know until they actually happen. It does seem that the Antichrist will forge a covenant with Israel. Now that's a real possibility today. We are under the assumption that this covenant that everyone is expecting has not been signed yet. That's very possible....even probable....but not absolutely necessary. Hey....for all we know he may already have signed that covenant....or maybe it was an oral covenant....with a promise that we never even heard about. We do know that he will break that treaty or promise or covenant half-way through the seven years that the covenant is supposed to be.  We have to look at every aspect of all these hints that God's Word give us.
                  And we know that a false prophet will be hanging around him. That also could be a man or an inanimate object...like a computer....or artificial intelligence? I could see that happening....AI giving us miracles....and then tells us that this particular man is to be worshiped by everyone. That's where the mark on the hand or the forehead come in.
                  Folks....I am purposely writing this post in this manner. I'm not mocking anything. I believe all of this. I will sit down regularly and utilize this type of questioning in my own mind. There is no other way to do this! Oh you can go to the Internet and send for a couple of dozen books on the end-times and the Antichrist and the Rapture and any number of other things....and those authors will give you all the specifics. The problem is that they don't know the specifics....but who is going to buy a book like the post that I have here? 
                  I'm not saying that all these books are bad. Some are quite good....particularly books such as the Rose Publishers put out....because they do not speculate. They give you the theories that are out there and let you work it out yourselves. This is what we are supposed to be doing today. God does give direct answers through studying His Word diligently....but those answers are more confirmation that He is near....that you are on the right track in studying and desiring and even in calculating! The alternative is that you will be taken by surprise. God is not going to enlighten someone all at once....someone who showed no previous interest. 
                  This has been just a primer on the topic of end-times prophecy. It takes time....don't go hog wild over the first theory that you read. The reward is great if you keep in moderation....with prayer and self-examination hand in hand with your study in this area.

"Are You Still Sleeping And Resting"

Preface: So do believers know yet what the scriptural falling away and the great delusion might be....signifying that which will come before the coming of our Lord and Savior and King? No we do not. We should know....we should be able to discern....(but we do not)....'a' falling away that is happening now....for in essence the church in this now political climate where our hope is in power and strength and not in Jesus....and not in the Holy Spirit....has 'fallen away'....but the final falling away will be much greater than that. As for the 'delusion' .....Donald Trump is indeed 'a' great delusion that has bewitched the church. In him is a genuine biblical false prophet....for he has flattered us into blindness for eight years now....and he is 'an' antichrist in that he has taken our minds off of our Savior....but whether or not he is that great delusion....that has yet to be determined. If you doubt or outright disagree with my statement that a falling away is already in progress....there is really nothing much that I can do to help you see this other than to ask you to examine yourself....where is your hope right now? You will surely say Christ but remember that you are to examine yourself. I submit to you that your real and present hope is in....not only a man....but a vile and foul lifelong liar and deceiver...a destroyer....a man who would throw you and your faith....and Israel....and anyone and anything.....under the bus so to speak....if the circumstances demanded it in his world that revolves only around his business interests and his own perceived glory. The following post is from this past July 2. Our pastors today....the vast majority of them....are afraid to bring up anything of the nearness of Jesus....other than pithy little comments meant to assuage and not stir....or to say anything negative about the great hope of today in Donald Trump....for they would receive much opposition....and many would leave their church. I do know of Christians....many Christians....but I do not know of any Christian friend or close acquaintance....who will say that we are indeed there....and that Jesus and His mighty angels....are already mounted so to speak....with their swords unsheathed....for they consider it to be obedient and humble to feign ignorance. They think that in not being concerned that they are showing trust in Jesus....but do not realize that they instead are showing no trust in the many warnings of Jesus in His very Word....nor are they being obedient in His commands to be vigilant and awake. Consequently they wind up promoting this false prophet....and false hope.

Are You Still Sleeping And Resting        

               The long and short of it is....it is already in process....the coming of the Son of Man in power and glory and righteous judgment. We are most definitely as in the days of Noah.

                Oh you say....but God's word tells us that we will not know the day or the hour? Luke 9:51 reads like this...."Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem." The time had come. It was just after Jesus entered Jerusalem to palm branches and shouts of Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD....that Jesus said to His disciples....this in John 12:23...."The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified." The time had come....the hour had come!
                 Jesus laid it all out for us in what is called....The Olivet Discourse. The journey to Jerusalem from Capernaum was the culmination of the ministry of Jesus. He gave one astounding parable after another on the way....and brought the hammer down on the Pharisees. The disciples knew that something was up....and they out-and-out asked Jesus...."Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming, and the end of the age?" 
                 Is this not the question? When? Jesus told His disciples....this two-thousand years ago....."But of that day and hour no one knows, no, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only." (this was right after Jesus mentioned the days of Noah) That's all we need right...."no one knows"....when does the Steeler training camp begin? But Jesus followed this with...."Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming." He went on to say that if the master of the house did know the hour the thief would come that he would have protected his house....and then Jesus said...."Therefore you also be ready...."
                  Just after Jesus entered Jerusalem....after He said...."The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified"....He said...."Now is the judgment of this world..." Once again the theme....the time had come!
                  Friends....this is the time....this is the hour....of the coming of the Son of Man. 1948 was the most obvious starting point. What is happening in Israel right now....which began on the last day of Sukkot....last October....is totally unprecedented in the short history of modern day Israel. We underestimate this at our own spiritual peril. Israel is in legitimate...existential danger right now....unlike it had ever been. This alone should send us to our knees in prayer....into self-examination....and anticipation of what will transpire as Jesus returns!
                  Just before they came to get Jesus in the garden....He took Peter and James and John off to pray....but then had to say to Simon...."Simon, Are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour. Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation." He came a second time...."Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold the hour is at hand..."

To summarize where all of this is in God's Word....you might start to read at Luke 9:51....and read through to the end of chapter 21. Then you might want to read Matthew 24 and 25...no....start with chapter 23.....and then Mark 13....these....with Luke 21....being the three variations of the Olivet Discourse. One last thing....In John....you might want to read in John....beginning with chapter 14 to chapter 18 verse 6....for this describes the same evening.
              

It's All Yours....I Don't Hear The Good Shepherd's Voice In Any Of It

Preface: I was on a road trip today and planned to stop in a very small Christian bookstore along the way....as I have done for decades actually while heading to this particular destination. I wasn't shocked for I knew it would probably happen someday....but it had closed up for good. A few years ago I had offered to help the lady who owned it. I would buy an assortment....a couple dozen....of solid Christian books. (That is my field folks....I know what good solid and powerful Christian books are)....and she could keep all the profits and just return to me the cost of the book. As the books would sell....and they would....for evangelicals have no idea today what is available to them....we could continue this arrangement. The bookstore would thus be profitable....the community would be blessed....and God would be glorified....but she could not discern the difference between the books that she had on the shelves....and any books that I would offer
                
                Oh maybe a month ago in a general conversation I asked my son just who was this Joe Rogan? Well it really took him by surprise that I didn't know much about him....and he proceeded to fill me in. Are you somewhat astonished that I wasn't very familiar with him? I submit to you that it is partially because I am not familiar with him....whereas you might be not only very familiar with him but a regular listener to whatever it is that he does....that I know that Jesus is at the very door....and you find that ridiculous that we can know anything like that? You cannot live in the podcasts of these men....or Fox or Breitbart....or talk radio....on a regular basis....and have discernment from God. It doesn't work that way.
                I knew the name....it would be nearly impossible not to hear his name in the news a lot......and he did that interview with Trump....of which I watched about a minute of it....which is the only minute that I have ever heard his voice. I have read his opinions from time to time in the news....the most recent being this morning. I knew that he was an influencer....and came to find out that he was an ultra popular influencer....I just wasn't familiar with how effective he was in connecting with the youth today. I knew nothing about his being on a television comedy show....NewsRadio....until today. Never saw the show. The ring fighting and all that? Found that all out today.
                 So I cannot comment too much on Joe Rogan at all....but I can say this.....apparently.....from what I have recently learned....he is the Rush Limbaugh of today in influence. In other words he took Rush's place. Would you disagree with that. I know I could be wrong. And I can say this....he is all yours. The difference between he and Rush....from the little I know of him....compared to the lot that I knew of Rush....seems to be the difference that I perceive in conservatives today from what we used to be. Enough said. He is yours....along with Marjorie Taylor Greene....and Nancy Mace....and Gaetz....and the WWE guy...and the UFC guy.....and Musk....(can you even believe that Elon Musk has become one of our heroes)....and RFK Jr....and Tulsi....and Vivek....Hulk Hogan....Kristi Noem....Tucker....and Melania....and Don Jr....Lara...and Jim Jordan....and Lauren Boebert....and Paula Cain....and Jonathan Cahn...need I go on....and Trump's pay back....and....now you owe me big time....cabinet....they are all yours! This is the new conservatism  and the new evangelicalism! I don't hear the Good Shepherd's voice here....I don't even hear Rush's voice here.
                 Evangelicalism has changed. John MacArthur hasn't been in his pulpit in twenty weeks....because of health reasons....and he was the last defender of the gospel on the national stage in America....Billy Graham having essentially been gone for over six years. Who is there left? Tell Me. Joel Osteen? Any one of these megachurch Christian Nationalist pastors? Eric Metaxas? Gordon Robertson? R. C. Sproul is long gone. There are no Christian bookstores anymore. Hank Hanegraaff joined one of the religions he used to inform us about. Ligonier.org is still there but without R. C. it is no longer on the national stage. Tim Keller has gone to be with the Lord along with Billy Graham and R. C. Sproul. That only leaves John Piper....wherever he is.
                 Folks....why am I so combatative? It's because the evangelical today....generally....does not know the seriousness of the situation! They know socialism....and they know woke....but they do not know and do not particularly care to know of God's warnings on us! They were possessed with Joe Biden getting a second term....or Kamala getting a first....but have no concern that the Antichrist....if it indeed is a man....is walking around as an adult right now! 
                 I thought that I might ask Santa for a shortwave radio for Christmas. So I did some research to see what might be a good SW radio to start with....and I found out that there are men all over the place....putting out their videos....their basement or workrooms or whatever they are....filled with all kinds of electronic equipment....and they are overflowing with all this information of bands and frequencies and this and that....and it's very impressive! I respect them for putting in so much time over so many years to know exactly what they are talking about. So I did my research....and I told my wife to tell Santa what I would like. Well guess what? That's the same thing that I've done for forty years. In my workroom you would see hundreds upon hundreds of books and Bibles and filled notebooks and charts. That's my resume folks. I hope that you look at me as I look at all these electronics wizards and say....it sounds like this guy knows what he is talking about!

Note: John MacArthur did make a return to the pulpit this past Lord's Day during the evening communion service....to give thanks and to tell how...."Sometimes trials are blessings in disguise." You can listen to this sermon by going to his ministry website....gty.org....and it is right there as the latest sermon.

The Speech Even Took The Media By Surprise

                    I thought that this video of the conclusion of the speech that President Johnson gave on March 31, 1968....I thought it worthy for us to watch today. I remember where I was as he gave this speech....at Ted's Dairy Store....as an eighteen year old....watching this along with....Ted....on a small television that he kept on the counter. It was a shocker. The president gave the media an advance copy of the forty minute speech....but that advance copy did not include the announcement at the end of the speech. You will notice that President Johnson quoted the admonition of Jesus that a house divided will not stand. Five days after this speech Martin Luther King was shot....and sixty-two days after that....Bobby Kennedy.

                                                                

               The collapse of America came slow. That is the way that God has always done it. Would you rather that He gave no warnings at all? There was even a time of revival and reformation that peaked in the mid-80s....and then waned....and led to a falling away that we are experiencing today....where compassion and humility and love have been replaced by power and pride and revenge....all in the name of God of course. Jonah warned Nineveh....and the city then changed for a while....and God later sent Nahum....(rhymes with Graham)....no warnings this time other than to prepare for what is coming. 

Lord's Day Post

                A young man is raised in a Christian environment....he accepts the Lord in his teens....chooses to become a minister and a pastor....marries a wonderful young Christian woman....has a few kids.....gets a church....and is a picture-perfect Hallmark ideal father who seems to spend time with his kids every day of the week. He wants revival....which means a dozen or two dozen people pick his church to raise their own kids in.  American pulpits are full of these wonderful young men. This is not what we need.
               We need that young man who as if has tugged on the robe of Jesus all through whatever college he went to....begging to be put to use to pull souls out of hell. Yes he has a church....and they are about to ask him to leave because he keeps harping on the holiness of God....and not the happiness of the youth and their families. He almost drowns himself in tears each night seeking answers. He's reading great preachers of the past every night....asking God to give him but a small portion of the unction and effectiveness that they had. Maybe he's married and maybe he is single....that's God's business....He will send the help when the time is perfect....or He has sent the help....and he could not even be where he is at in his pleading with God without that help of a faithful and praying wife.
              God will give us these men in due course....for that is how God always does it. Our job is to look here for them....and look there for them....our bags packed....just waiting to move on if necessary and go and help them. Or....we have a pastor....and he may appear on the surface as that ideal Hallmark young man....but we see an anxiety in him.....tearing him apart. Everyone else is telling him to trust God to take that anxiety away....that it is a lack of faith.....but we know that the anxiety is the Holy Spirit....taking his sleep away....befuddling his prayers....clouding his Bible reading....but with each stroke of the rod....pulling him inches and feet closer with a staff. 
               Revival isn't a dozen or two dozen or two hundred or two thousand or two million new people in pews. Revival is a dead heart that begins to beat....and another beating heart to rejoice with....and another beating heart to make a three-fold chord....and another beating heart to send them out two-by-two....and another beating heart for one to add prayer cover for the whole every week day....and another beating heart to sit and stand and sing praises on the Lord's Day with yet that newly arrived beating heart that God has sent in answer to prayer....to enter that pulpit....and proclaim the holiness of God for all that God has sent to hear. May tomorrow see this anew in many pulpits across America....if it be in His perfect will....and this be His perfect time!

Hop This Freight Train While It Is Still Day

                Evangelicals....many of them....are nervously asking of themselves right now...."This is good....right?"

                No....this is not good....and it has only been eighteen days since the election. Jonathan Cahn....in one of his prophet shouting moods....looked at Donald Trump in the audience and proclaimed that if he....Trump....lives wholly for God then all these great things will happen. After eighteen days has Cahn figured out yet in all the ancient mysteries that he supposedly discovered....that he still hasn't a clue what the ancient mystery of a man like Donald Trump is?
               Franklin Graham continues to express and expound upon his political wisdom on his Facebook page just about every other day. He is the Martin Niemoller of evangelicalism today. He is the equivalent of that celebrity that we conservatives always disdained who barged into politics with nothing on their resume other than an Emmy or an Oscar or a Tony. The only difference is that he is a good man who just never listened to his own father's warnings.
               This is a different cabinet then the one Trump formed in his first term. All caution is being thrown to the wind. He is a troubled 78 year old man who has 78 years of no wisdom to rely upon as he charges into the valley of danger.
                The remnant is forming folks. It's like a freight train that one needs to hop....or 'catch on the fly.' Catch it while it is still day....for night is coming!
                 I check every Friday....on the bulletin from John MacArthur's church....to see if he will be in his pulpit two days later. This Lord's Day will be the twentieth straight week that health issues have kept him out of it. We have few in evangelicalism today who exude gravitas when they speak....whose name carries weight...such as John MacArthur does....even with the mistakes that he has made in the past few years.
                In yesterday's post I recommended a talk given by Iain Murray about a month after Martyn Lloyd-Jones had gone to be with his Lord and Savior and King. In that talk Murray said that the date March 1, 1981....(the day Lloyd-Jones died)....should be remembered as is September 30, 1770 when George Whitefield died....and January 31, 1892 when Charles Spurgeon died....because of the loss sustained by the church. The 69 days beginning in December of 2017 between R. C. Sproul and Billy Graham going home qualify as such a loss to the church.
                I know of no way to get feedback on John MacArthur's health. All we can do is pray....and that is what I do....pray that he might enter his pulpit next Lord's Day....but if he does....I have to wonder what he will preach about? I do know that we need someone on a national scale to warn us of where we are heading....may God have mercy upon John MacArthur....and us who would hear him....if it be His perfect will....to have a trumpet sound from a watchtower....that the enemy is near and approaching fast.
            

               

I Moved Up 18 Places!

December 17, 2024

                     Well it's that time of year again when the media/politics watchdog company Mediaite announces the 75 most influential media personalities. Only this year with the ascendance of artificial intelligence.....Mediaite is able to give in order the most influential people in the entire world....all 8 billion....194 million....270 thousand and 656 people!
                     Elon Musk came in first because of Twitter or X or whatever it is called....and Joe Rogan second because he uses the F word more than anyone else.. Sean Hannity was the number five....which is a testament to his long career in radio and television. Tucker Carlson was number 37. I wish it were one million and thirty-seven. Jesus always came in the top ten but with the rise of Donald Trump....the Creator of the universe....and the King of all kings....came in two-hundred and fifty-third. I came in number 8 billion....133 million....269 thousand....716....which I am happy with for it is a move-up of 61 million and18 people....but then again 61 million people died in the last year.

                     Who are your....influencers? I'm serious....who in the media influences you more than anyone else? If you are young and reckless it might very well be Joe Rogan. Donald Trump was not included in the top 75 because he supposedly is not media. This is a man who has over the past nine years tweeted the world as a conductor leads an orchestra....but technically he doesn't count.
                     How about your favorite media minister? Billy Graham was America's pastor for many decades. He was an influencer more than Joe Rogan is today....and we can thank God for that mercy.
                     For many decades....to conservatives anyway....talk radio was a huge influence upon us....and it did a pretty good job....until around 2015 when it lost all integrity and ethics. Fox Cable....O'Reilly and Hannity etc....had a big impact on our thinking....but that is all gone as far as being an information source....for it is now just an outlet for MAGA. Podcasters are the big thing today. As I read over the top 75 most influential media....I could not even recognize half of the names.....probably not three-quarters if the names!
                      I have some advice for you....(what else is new)....get rid of Fox cable and talk radio and all the podcasters! Suppose there was an....EMP....electromagnetic pulse....an EMP attack on our nation? All telecommunications might end for a considerable period of times. What would I do without my iPhone or these posts? I'm typing right now on a laptop....and listening over headphones to hymns on my iPhone....as the house is full of women for a Christmas party. Well....might it not be wise to prepare for that loss of telecommunications right now....so that we are not rendered catatonic without our media toys?
      

                      

The Day That Sister Alfreda Cried

Preface: The following paragraph was composed two years ago: 

"On November 22, 1963 President Kennedy was to give a speech in Dallas....probably composed by Ted Sorensen. That speech....never given....but that still exists on paper....would have concluded with these words...."The righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: 'Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain'." The full verse in the first verse of Psalm 127....KJV....reads.... "Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World in 1932. We are familiar with that but he also wrote The Doors Of Perception that documented his psychedelic trips on mescaline. He was a famed apologist on most anything anti-Christian. C. S. Lewis of course was the prodigious and profound apologist on the Christian Faith. All three men.....JFK and Huxley and C. S. Lewis died 59 years ago today. (that would be 61 years ago today)

               It was indeed Camelot....a handsome prince.....an intellectual really....and a Shakespearean tragedy. I was in Sister Alfreda's 8th grade classroom on that day in 1963....when she came in crying....semi-informed us of what happened....and along with the whole school we were dismissed for the day.
              So....it has been acknowledged that a Bible verse....from Psalm 127....in the King James version....was the last official words of John Fitzgerald Kennedy.
              Those words should have spoken directly to us in the church in the past eight years. Unless the LORD builds this house of ours....we are laboring in vain....and unless he keeps the city....or...."watches over the city"....as the ESV puts it....or...."guards a city"....as the NASB puts it....all of our efforts as....watchmen....are and will be in vain. There is nothing there about a....lesser of two evils. JFK was correct....he and Ted Sorenson probably....righteousness has to be our cause....not hegemony....not preeminence....and not getting what is ours.

                                                                                                

Trivial Pursuit....It's A Good Game....But A Very Bad Lifestyle

                 Sixteen years of writing these posts. It takes its toll in ways I don't even want to get into. I don't know how many times I would tap the 'publish' button and ask the Lord if that was the last one? I may very well do it after posting this. 

                I have a number of different goals in these posts. I want to introduce visitors to great ministries and great preachers from the past....Spurgeon and Martyn Lloyd-Jones....for evangelicals today have never heard preaching like this....and I would like to point them to ministries today that can carry them until they can find a real preaching church....which are few and far between....and I get to do this all the time in these posts....to people all over the world....and I'm so thankful for the opportunity!
                I want to shake pillars. By that I mean that I want to stir up pastors and leaders....even if it means that they get mad at me....for it may at least get them thinking again! I want to shake up friends.....yeah I'll lose many of them but I want to at least attempt to shake them out of the doldrums that they are most definitely in....wasting away on the most trivial pursuits.
                I want to do something else....and in doing this I have to reach as many people as I can. I know these two things....and they are not conflicting statements.....I know that Jesus is at the very door....and I mean right now....that is statement one....and I know that if Jesus tarries.....which would mean that I am wrong....that the Father wants us to believe that Jesus is coming back right now....even if Jesus does tarry! 
               This is where the true hope and joy is! This keeps you focused! This stirs us up with zeal! I am so thankful to God....to be called a fool at times....for shouting so loud....Maranatha....Lord Jesus come....for I know even more....that His Word will not come back void!
                So I post about all of this....and I know that I don't change many minds....but that is not my primary goal here. I want the visitor....and the reader....friends who have given it the once over and then went back to their games....I want all these folks to have this website....specialdogg.blogspot.com....in the back of their minds....because when they finally see that all the warnings from men like Billy Graham and MacArthur and Sproul....and so many others....when they finally see that these men were not just flapping their lips....and when the judgments become too pronounced to ignore any longer.....then they can come back here to fill in some of the blanks on things that they did not see....or even recall some of the warnings that they rejected....and this for encouragement....because we are all going to need strength and wisdom and encouragement in the days to come!

Upon Having Reached The End Of...."Three Score Years And Ten"

              This short post was written a few hours after the above was posted. Since posting the above I listened to a 'newly found' address given by Iain Murray....on Martyn Lloyd-Jones....given about a month after....The Doctor....went to be with his Lord and Savior. I recommend to you....heartily....that you Google....Martyn Lloyd-Jones-The Latter Years. Indeed....is that not what I mentioned in the above post....that I want in these posts to introduce visitors to great preachers from the past?
               I generally will listen to any tape of Iain Murray....for he is one of my favorite authors....and this tape was no disappointment. I'll give you but one anecdote here....(Murray is a man of anecdotes)....Martyn Lloyd Jones had turned eighty years old....and health-wise it had been a challenge for a while. He would live about another year. In a conversation with Iain Murray he mentioned that another great preacher....Thomas Chalmers....had said that when a Christian completes his...."three score years and ten"....that it should begin a time of preparation for heaven....a sabbath so to speak....a time to disengage somewhat....to withdraw from the 'busyness' of the world. Lloyd-Jones told Murray that he agreed with that....and that a Christian should desire a time of preparation before death....rather than as some desire....a sudden death.
              There is in this train of thought a link to the Second Coming of Christ. I know that it must be hard for a younger person....with as we often state it....'has their whole life in front of them'....it is hard for them to easily come to grips with a world about to be judged....but for believers like myself....and so many of my friends....it is time to let go of that...."busyness"....which dominated our lives for so many decades....and to as Chalmers wrote....and Lloyd-Jones agreed....begin to prepare for meeting Jesus....face to face....in that day of which only He knows. The awareness of the nearness of the return of Jesus should give all believers that...."time of preparation." 

White Privilege....Noblesse Oblige....And The Royalty Of Being Born Again.

Preface: The following was first posted in July of 2023:      

             I was thirteen years old....and my mother....having separated from my father....moved back to her childhood home in East Pittsburgh....right alongside the giant Westinghouse factory that employed both of my parent's families since the early 1900s. I had a wonderful summer living with cousins but we had to find a place to live and a school to attend....this being my eighth grade year.

            My mother didn't have a lot of money.....and that's an understatement....so finding a modest apartment similar to what we left in Buffalo would not be easy. I remember the taxi ride....(her days of owning a car were long gone.) There was one very pretty community only a couple of miles away....with mostly family homes.....and a few developments with very nice newer homes. I'm guessing that it is only about 150 yards long....the street that God led us to. A young boy my age.....was on a bike....right as we turned the corner....with a raccoon on his shoulder....(and this was odd folks for this is not a rural community....and I had surely never seen a raccoon before.) He would become my best friend.

            Well there....right in the middle of brick and framed family homes was a duplex....our new home. Two doors down lived two boys....one just a couple years younger....and the other just a couple of years older. The younger is a professor at Carnegie Mellon....and the older spent his career as a professor at Clemson. A few doors the other way were five boys....that boy with the raccoon on his shoulder....and two younger....and two older. One was a professor at Pitt.....and my best friend an economist for the Army Corps of Engineers. Across the street was the mayor....and his grandson who is today an architect....and there was also the best man at our wedding who is a child psychologist.
            I was never able to reach their level of professional vocation....but just being one of them.....through years of front porch games and movies and pizza nights....kept me on the straight and narrow. (that would drastically change later) They naturally went to a private Catholic high school....super-rich in tradition....and I tagged along. They all excelled....as I just got the diploma. Three of us went into the service....two of us to Vietnam....and the third as a medic stationed at Okinawa....treating the wounded from Vietnam.
            Friends....this was my....'white privilege!' Had my mother moved to one of the other surrounding communities I would not have had the academic role models....and I would not have attended that high school....which I describe in my profile to this website...."where I would at least I experience, although hardly partake in, a scholarly atmosphere." I probably would not have gone to Pitt on the G. I. Bill after the army....because I would not have had all these friends to give me the impetus.
            This has to be said....there are many who did not need all of these benefits that I had....J. D. Vance comes to mind as an example....for they had the will and the determination to succeed on their own. I doubt that I would have had that ability. I am only referring in this post to a future economic status...for these white communities have no claim to being any better than anyone else....or having stronger more loving families....or more intelligence.
            The term bandied about so much today....'white privilege'....has legitimacy....I am proof positive of that....but like so many other things....it can and has been terribly distorted. This is what communist methodology does folks. It attempts to belittle and eventually destroy tradition and heritage. If we conservatives simply deny white privilege....then we are making matters worse. It is a difficult responsibility....being vigilant against communism....but at the same time remaining humble and thankful enough to realize blessings we were born into.....but it has to be done.
            Noblesse Oblige.....is that French saying where if one is born into nobility then they have a responsibility....an obligation....to show concern for those not so blessed. We are not on the level of nobility....as were the Kennedys....but we still have a choice...go the Ayn Rand way....where we do everything for our own benefit....or go the Christian way....white privilege in way....born again into royalty....only the white here is not the skin color....but the robes that we will be given....

"After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and people and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands..." Rev. 7:9

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of the One having called you out of darkness into His marvelous light" 1 Peter 2:9

Afterthought: I wanted to add this. There are some who in effect say....'Hey...I had it rough too. We had absolutely nothing....no one gave me anything....and I made it!" There is no doubt that there are multitudes of people like this....but even here....they may not understand the blanket effect of being raised in and by a specific culture. I walked safely to grade schools....sat next to children whose parents may have had a lot of money....nobody knew or cared....played some sort of sandlot sport after school....and then watched Father Knows Best or Gunsmoke or Lucy about people who looked like me....and talked like me. 

Fifty-Five Years Ago Today....Same Time Of The Morning Actually

                 Fifty-five years ago today....about the same time that I'm typing this....five in the morning.....our company in basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey was gathering around busses...our eight weeks of basic complete. It was chilly as I remember....we were wearing our greens for the very first time....and we were passing around the platoon photos to have each other sign them. It wasn't a pleasant situation....for I probably would never see again any of the men in this group that I grown close to over the past two months. It was a little  different for me because a lot of the guys were getting on the same bus to go to wherever their next training would be....and many of them were infantry. I got on a bus alone to go to Fort Devens, Massachusetts....joining a few others on the bus from other companies that also had just finished their basic training. I sat next to a guy named Frank....from the same city that I was born in....Buffalo, New York....and we were barracks mates for the next six months in our training which was in the general military intelligence field and required a top secret clearance which I had only been informed a week previous that it had been granted. There was snow on the ground when we arrived in Massachusetts.
                   I was a few months short of twenty years old....as today I'm a few months short of 75 years old. I had signed up for a four year enlistment but three years into it....we were  offered a one year drop....'get out of the army a year early'....because the war was winding down and there were too many of us. I took the one-year drop.
                   I have only one anecdote to give here....it was December of 1971....and I was on my second R&R to Sydney, Australia. During the day I would walk the city...and this day I was standing on a pier facing the east side of the Sydney Opera House that was in construction at the time. A man came up to me....oh he was about 35 years old maybe....and he asked if I was an American soldier....which would have been easy to guess. When I said that I was he asked me if I was a weight lifter....which also probably wasn't too hard to figure out. The long and short of it is that he said that he was a Baptist pastor at a church in the city....and the church had just purchased a set of weights....and he asked me if I would come over to the church to give the youth group some basic instruction on lifting weights.... and they would like to meet an American. I had big plans for that night....one of the bars in the King's Cross district of Sydney....so I declined. He politely asked again if I would consider just an hour to help the youth group....and I just as politely again declined.
                    This episode has bothered me on and off over the past fifty-three years. A few years ago I put in some solid effort in trying to find that pastor in Sydney....even emailing some churches....but all with no results. A few years ago....five or six maybe....probably longer....I had 3.83k views to these posts from Australia. Today I have 3.83k views from Australia. I was banned for some reason. There are over three thousand posts here and all of them are basically the same as what you see in the past week or month. I did some research and I don't think the censors want anything controversial at all coming into their country.....and the Gospel of Jesus Christ is controversial.
                    I thank God every day of my life for the mercies He has extended upon me. I was a despicable rebel....but the saying has a lot of truth to it....if someone is saved from much sinning....then he....or she....tends to be more thankful than those who were not...or do not perceive themselves to have been....such detestable sinners.

Note: Personal posts such as this I generally only keep up for a few hours or a day and then transfer them back into the pack somewhere. If you have read even a month of these posts you would know how much I emphasize the importance of strong biblical preaching that cuts deep within our conscience....for without such preaching....which has always been be a foundation in the church....and especially in Puritan England....without it we cannot see ourselves in relation to a Holy God....and thus we are not prostrated in humility and repentance....nor can we see what were saved from....nor can we rejoice as we should in such a great salvation!

Your Advantage Is Gone

 "....I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day." 2 Timothy 1:12 NKJV

            I posted on this particular subject a few times over the years. I mentioned two men....good friends that I had many conversations with over three decades....they were not believers. They liked to talk about God and His Word as I would bring it up....but really were not interested....primarily because all indications pointed to there being at least many decades pass before they would be proved wrong....if they were to be proved wrong. And they were correct....for decades have passed....although one man passed away suddenly of Covid related issues. It was a great advantage for them in our talks....but time passed....those decades passed....and that advantage is all gone. One way or another we are all going to find out....and it is not going to be long at all. Just this morning...three hours ago...I received a call....and took an older friend to the emergency room as he was having trouble breathing. (He is OK) 
            That had been my message in those past posts....to unbelievers....that they had an advantage....but time would pass and they would lose that advantage....but today in this post....I want to address believers....and the topic changed slightly to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in righteous judgment on this world. I have heard it now for forty years straight....that oh yes Jesus is near....maybe in the next twenty or thirty years. They might have a passing interest for a few hours.....or in maybe a book they might read....but it was in essence just a fun topic....Jesus comes back....we are all raptured before the tribulation....(a serious error in itself that helped put them to sleep)....and then heaven....but until then.....there is more important things to think about....and more blessings from God to be enjoyed. (unless you live in Syria or the Ukraine or Russia or South Sudan or struggle here in America just to put food on the table)
             So my message here is to believers who refuse to take seriously God's warnings and the age that we are living in....ignoring all the evidence that Jesus is near....Webster's definition of 'near.' You had the advantage....but that advantage is gone. Maybe not today or this week or this month....but things are rapidly deteriorating in this world. MAGA is not your answer....it's part of the problem. All you have to do is to put the things of this world down for a while....the hobbies and the games and the projects....settle down in a comfortable chair....ask humbly for forgiveness if you indeed have failed your Christian responsibilities in looking for and desiring Jesus to return....and then ask for discernment as you open God's Word to you.
             Start with all three Olivet Discourses in Matt 24 & 25....Mark 13....and Luke 21. Read through Jeremiah as if it were also written to us today....for it was....and he warned for forty years....and continue reading until God has mercy upon you. Read as if one hand is on the Bible and the other reaching out as if to touch the robe of Jesus....as did the woman with the issue of blood. Read again all the letters of Paul and Peter and James and Jude....and take note of all the verses that relate to the end-times. They are everywhere! And read those letters to the seven churches in Revelation....to see where you are. I know where I am....somewhere in part in five books with the exception of Smyrna and Philadelphia....for they received no condemnation.

              

Thoughts On The New Bonhoeffer Movie

The following two paragraphs were posted yesterday:

              The reviews make me wonder if everyone had watched the same movie.....Bonhoeffer: Pastor Spy, Assassin.....which opens today.....and of which Lord willing....I will see tomorrow. Some of the reviewers see in the film a call for Christian Nationalism....while some others see it more as a warning against blindly following any man or cause. I have a few concerns about the film....from what I have read....and I would naturally compare this film to some very good movies on Bonhoeffer that have already been made.
                I will though give a little review on this. Here's a little background. Apparently, the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Trust found some previously unknown sermons. If you Google....MLJ Trust Sermons....you will find an extensive and categorized list of Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermons and talks for which to listen. The first category is those....Newly Found Sermons. I had listened to all of them previous to this morning except one. The one I had not yet listened to I thought might be more of an informative teaching than a powerful message....for the title of it is....The Mayflower Pilgrims. I should have known better....for I have never listened to a Martyn Lloyd-Jones tape without being blessed. So I recommend that....conference talk is what it was....to you....for it speaks directly to us in the church today!

Thoughts On The New Bonhoeffer Movie

                OK....We just returned from the theater and watching....Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin. The definition of hagiography is a biography that idolizes and glorifies a person. It must be hard not to make a movie about a Bonhoeffer or a Spurgeon or a Wilberforce....somebody like that....without fighting that tendency to glorify them. This particular film is very different from a 2000 film......(that I highly recommend you Google up and watch on your computer)....titled....Bonhoeffer: Agent Of Grace. The subtitles alone.....Pastor, Spy, Assassin....vs....Agent of Grace....give more than a hint as to the Bonhoeffer you will meet.

                 This particular film leaves a lot out of Bonhoeffer's life....but that is OK since it focused on two areas of his life....how the African-American church influenced his theology....and how he was committed to stopping a tyrant who was destroying his country...and the German church....and killing multitudes of people.
                  I didn't see a leftist message in the film as some others apparently have. I did see a strong warning about blindly following a man to make a country great again....although the main message it seemed was in how the church let this ideology take over.
                  The character of Martin Niemoller....German theologian and pastor....plays a significant part of the film. I referenced him numerous times in past posts as he at first could not see a great problem with National Socialism and the church....but he did later see that problem....and spent quite a bit of time in a concentration camp for this later opposition to the Nazis. Surely you have heard or read of his poem...."First they came for the socialists....and I did not speak out....because I was not a socialist....then they came for the trade unionists....and I did not speak out.....because I was  not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews....and I did not speak out....because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me."
                   The theater was filled....as were all the other showings. I tried to gage who it was that were filling these seats. I'm the type that I'll at times look at someone....and hold the look....hoping that they might give some smile or something....encouraging me to start a conversation....but that wasn't working today. Everyone seemed to be all business. Does that say anything about the film? I don't know.

                    Filmwise....the acting and the photography were superb. The young man who played Bonhoeffer was excellent. There was a lot of jazz music. The African-American Christians who Bonhoeffer befriended while visiting New York were a highlight of the film in their Christian fellowship and simple love for the Lord. 

Note: If you Google....Bonhoeffer: Agent Of Grace....YouTube VisionVideo....it will come right up.

Mortification Salt......The Missing Ingredient....Lord's Day post

Preface: The following post is from May 5, 2021....the day before the 70th Annual Day Of Prayer....the paragraph before it from later in that year. The pandemic did not do it....in fact we became less humble....and more political. I am praying....please join me....for mortification in our pulpits tomorrow. May God bring these pastors low....His Holy Spirit blowing away the lovely meringue pastry cloud forms....exposing us to the searing heat of the sun's rays....not for us to be scorched....but purified. May He....if it be His will....and all to His glory alone....then raise these men up to proclaim the righteousness of God....and our utter failures to see how far we have fallen....and then if He might show mercy....may we raise up to give Him the praise that is due....and His alone. May tomorrow be the Lord's Day that God's glory returns to many of our sanctuaries!    

              In March of 1863 when the Senate put a proclamation for a National Day of Prayer and Fasting on the desk of Abraham Lincoln....the words within it were of mortification at what America had become. There is no mortification today....not in the prayers that president's speech writers pen....nor proclamations put out....nor our national prayer days. Yes....genuine prayers seeking mercy will be said throughout the land tomorrow....and God will hear those prayers....but we do not schedule revival.....revivals schedule us. We cannot conjure up God's Holy Spirit.....for something else will appear instead....as did Donald Trump. (This past election was zero mortification....and all pride)....God doesn't want our stages and our committees and our themes and agendas and press releases....MC'd by mega-church and mega-ministry leaders. He wants prayer for clemency...not piously constructed prayers....with a dash of humility....and a pinch of repentance....all seasoned to our own taste....but without even a smidgen of Mortification Salt....and all this prepared more for our taste buds than His anyway.

That Part Of The Book Of Daniel That We May Have Missed

               What comes to mind first when you think about the Old Testament book of Daniel....the lion's den.....or Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego in the furnace.....or Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a great image with a head of gold and breast and arms of silver and thighs and middle of bronze and legs of iron with the feet part iron and part clay....or his dream of the great tree that was him and was cut down....or maybe the fingers writing on the wall? If you were making a list you might add Daniel's vision of the four great beasts....and the ten horns with the little horn coming up.....or the cryptic prophecies of the king of the south and the king of the north?
                What a book this is! The Christian can and should read through this throughout his or her entire life....and that day will come....and we most likely are nearing it....when piece by piece those words become even more clear....but there is one part of Daniel that may be the most important to us today.....of which most of us may not even recall.....and if we do we certainly do not dwell upon.
                 In chapter nine Daniel was given knowledge of Jeremiah's prophecy of the seventy weeks....this as he was nearing the end of his life....but he had first prayed and fasted in sackcloth and ashes....seeking mercy over the desolations that had come upon Jerusalem....and it is his prayer that we in America should contemplate greatly upon as our own country lies desolate. Here is that prayer

                "I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession saying, 'O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you, To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the LORD our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity...."  

"Is Everybody OK?"

                Robert Kennedy was my idol. I didn't know a whole lot as an eighteen year old but I knew what I loved....and we all loved Bobby Kennedy. To this day....fifty-six years after that fateful date at the Ambassador Hotel....Robert Kennedy was and is the most compassionate politician that I have ever witnessed on the national scene. His first words after he sustained what would be a mortal head wound were...."Is everybody OK?" That is what he was concerned about....was everyone else OK?
                My new bride and I honeymooned on Cape Cod....and we have vacationed there a number of times since. As a young impressionable Roman Catholic youth I had a penchant for having idols to look up to....Roberto Clemente was another....Elvis yet another....the Marquis de Lafayette....(long story)....another....the entire Kennedy family and history became somewhat of an obsession. 
                As for Robert F. Kennedy Jr....because he is Bobby's son....I would bend over backwards....and have bent over backwards.....to look for the good in him. And there are a lot of things that I like about him....but he has often been a radical for very bad causes. His abortion stance should influence evangelicals against confirmation....but all those pro-life reasons for voting....the lesser of two evils.....were deceptive. Yeah there was truth there but the real reason we supported someone like Trump was because we want our old life back....college for the kids....and less taxes....and safe suburbs and rural communities. It has little to do about God.....if it did then Donald Trump himself would be a concern.
                So they are saying that six senators could be the difference in confirming....not RFK....but Matt Gaetz. This is an issue that evangelicals for Trump have to push way back in their mind....and disable their common sense! As John Bolton....(who used to be one of our conservative heroes by the way)....Bolton described the Gaetz nomination as the worst nomination....in history! And it is. I'm still having a hard time realizing that it happened....and a harder time not understanding how it is even being contemplated.
                Where would I even begin in describing how this is ludicrous? This is the top law enforcement individual....in the nation! We today have facts against illegal immmigration....but no compassion for the alien in our midst. You do know that compassion was a big command from God to the Israelites do you not?  The Gaetz nomination is an outrageous power grab. If the Congress gives Trump the power of recess appointments....then that which we have always accused the Democrats of attempting....subverting the constitution....we would have been the ones to do it!
                

"What Have I Done?"

                What I'm going to present here is a question that Christians should at least consider. This needs some meditation....and a heartfelt and honest answer. Let me lay the groundwork for the question.
                  Go back if you will to the 1970s and 1980s. Now if you are too young to do that then I will fill you in or you can go to older Christians for their thoughts. The voices that were heard on a national scale in the church were primarily those of Billy Graham and Pat Robertson and John MacArthur and R. C. Sproul and Charles Stanley and Jerry Fallwell. Of course there were the entire Charismatic and Pentecostal communities....and the fundamentalist churches all across America.
                 In the mid-70s Jimmy Carter came on the scene and the words born again were commonplace. Charles Colson....the chief Nixon hatchetman....was sent to jail....and then marvelously born again. A number of celebrities came out as born again.....singer B. J. Thomas for example. Hal Lindsey's....The Late Great Planet Earth....had an incredible effect on the Christian church....and the concept of the end-times was planted in the minds of most everyone else.
                  There were Christian bookstores everywhere....figuratively speaking...and now they are nowhere....figuratively speaking. We had four channels on the TV and Billy Graham's face in his crusades was always there....so much so that people were often at least exposed to a few minutes of what he had to say....and what he had to say was that America had become like Sodom and Gomorrah....and that judgment was coming if America did not repent.  
                     As I've stated many times in these posts over many years....(I am over 16 years now)....the Billy Graham evangelical became the Ralph Reed evangelical....which became the Karl Rove evangelical. God took Billy Graham home...along with R. C. Sproul....and a man came down an escalator in New York City....and over the course of a few short years we became the Donald Trump evangelcial....which was and is no evangelical at all!
                  Gone with the wind was all the discernment that America must repent. Jonah was no longer speaking to us with a warning. ...but Nahum was....with a proclamation to America similar to the one that Amos had relayed from God to the Israelites....."Prepare to meet thy God."
                   Going through the news this morning I took a quick screenshot of a comment that the North Dakota governor....(only the latest former presidential candidate....now a political celebrity....who Trump has used for his cabinet appearance) ....Doug Burgum had tweeted this seven days ago but it was also his last tweet....you can go and read it now...."There's a new sheriff in town. It's only been 48 hours but the world is preparing for peace with @RealDonald Trump heading back to the White House." Long gone is the biblical warning of...."For when they shall say, Peace and safety...." (1 Thessalonians 5:3)
                    Most....only God knows the percentage....most of the Christians today actually think that peace and security is here....let the good times roll....happy days are hear again....let God be praised! They are in for the biggest shock of their lives!
                    It was and still is a great film....Bridge On The River Kwai. I remember the evening that I first saw it. It was 1958....at the Arrow Drive-In in Buffalo New York. My mother was working the afternoon shift at Sisters of Charity Hospital....(my parents were still together)....and my father was passing time before he had to pick her up....so we went to the drive-in. Funny how I can remember all that as if I were there.....but I'm not 100% sure where my keys are right now? And I probably wouldn't know where the blue ball cap that I'm always looking for is....if it wasn't on top of my head as I type this.
                   OK....the enemy train was just about to be blown up. William Holden's character lay dying in the water....and Alex Guinness's character of Colonel Nicholson....who had lost all sense of who the enemy was.....and built for them a strong bridge to transport enemy troops....to kill British and American troops. Finally....finally....after he saw Holden's character had been sent back to stop him....finally he saw the great mistake that he made....and he took off his cap and uttered....."What have I done?"
                   That....brothers and sisters in Christ....is what  possibly you and many others will do when they finally see what they have done in closing their eyes to all of God's longtime warnings of impending judgment....and essentially saying....'peace at last....peace and safety....and money....and power.....Make America Great Again!"
           Evangelicalism has been taken in....bewitched....by a genuine biblical false prophet. Jonathan Cahn has replaced Billy Graham. So back to that question....if what you believe today about Donald Trump is true....you must....if you are to have any integrity at all...call Billy Graham a false prophet....for he....and many others....warned us of what we had become...and what God was therefore going to do....and few if any have repented....no one even has to be born again anymore....the only requirement today for going to heaven is to go to church....or at least say you are a Christian....and not to be a Democrat!

                                                                      

Billy Graham's......Storm Warnings

Preface: The following post is from December 6 of 2023: 

                   Billy Graham was seventy-three years old....my age....when he wrote a book that he titled....Storm Warning. Eighteen years later....at the age of ninety-one....that book was....according to the cover...."completely revised and updated." Tonight I had a small stack of books that I was paging through....on a research mission....and I came across a few paragraphs that I want to bring out in this short post.

                I used to have a copy of the 1992 edition....no more.....I'm sure that I gave it away....but I would think that these words that I'll relate to you were added in the 2010 edition. I say this because Billy Graham's overall message became much more serious as the years went on. His son Franklin remarked that his father did not speak much in his last year....that would be when Billy was ninety-eight and turned ninety-nine....this in 2017 to February in 2018 when Billy Graham went to be with his Lord and Savior. So here are those words that stood out to me. The first few sentences are from....page 73....

"I look back at my many years as an evangelist and wonder, Have I made the Christian faith look too easy? (Italics his)....in my eagerness to tell the world about the greatest gift that comes only from God, I ask myself if I have comprehended the price He paid for our freedom. Have I adequately explained the price we must pay in humbling, turning our backs on pride, and sacrificing our earthly desires out of obedience to the Lord?"

             The second set of remarks conclude that chapter five on page 75....

"I hear the distant thunder. I see lightning striking in many places of our world; I know that the coming storm will someday engulf the whole world. I see the storm clouds mounting in the lowering sky. For the length of my days, I will always be sending out the call of an evangelist to proclaim hope that redemption-new life-can be found in Christ and to sound the alarm that there is serious trouble ahead for our world and for all who live in it. These are the elements what make up the images of the Apocalypse-a storm warning that carries a booming jolt of truth-Trouble Ahead; Prepare To Meet Thy God!-followed by the voice of the Gentle Shepherd-Come!"

            I wonder at times what was going through Billy Graham's mind during that last year? Did he possibly come to realize that evangelicals put in power....in Donald Trump....a false prophet....and an antichrist....as John describes them....and folks....maybe even worse? Did he lament anew how he might have missed this? Did he look back at the idolatry of sports that took captive that same evangelical? In the so-called Bible Belt....college football stadiums are packed with evangelicals....living not in the discernment of the gospel....as their country rumbles and shakes as a volcano about to erupt....but for this god of the gridiron.
            Did he see his son making the very same mistakes that he had made in his earlier years....but no longer have the physical ability to warn him? What would he say if he were with us today....fully capable of warning as he had been....and this with Donald Trump having long since shown to anyone with discernment....that there is punishment written all over the legacy of this vengeful and egomaniacal man who....and this has to be supernatural....is still beating down the evangelicals....with almost no pulpits warning the sheep....those pastors concerned that many would leave should they go against the powerful force that had infiltrated all the congregations?

Madness

Gaetz for Attorney General? Madness! Isn’t there anyone around Trump....in his inner circle....if there even is an inner circle...who speaks up? This seems to be a major mistake on his part. He must really think he is a king….and that all the Republicans in the Senate are just vassals that can be banished for not bowing. If he goes the route of recess appointments that also is a major mistake. Gabbard....Noem...RFK Jr....Musk....a Fox host....what is this....a cast for a television show? Everything here revolves around how it affects Trump....nothing on getting the best people for the job. Are my readers out there ready yet to consider that there may indeed be serious psychological disorders in play here? If the Gaetz nomination remains....we need to hear what every single Republican thinks about it....to gauge the actual level of control that Trump has over the minds and the will of this republican congress. Are you aware that Lauren Boebert was reelected in a different district....and she tweeted...."Trump won...Trump won...Trump won?" Are you even familiar with her? Nikki Haley and Mike Pompeo were quickly given the boot...two solid people with experience. It's not that Trump is repaying those who were loyal to him....he doesn't repay anyone unless he has to. He had suckers who endorsed him....and he wants suckers in his cabinet. RFK Jr. is pro-choice....Gabbard got an F from the Susan B. Anthony group. Who cares? All that abortion stuff is over...."Trump won...Trump won...Trump won!" As for abortion or marriage or Israel....it is all about that ball bouncing around on the Roulette table. Trump is surely giving threats out right now as I type. That is what he has done his whole life! Evangelicals must be sitting there asking themselves....'this is good right?" It's been repeated many times. This is how tyrants come about....take control....and purge.

That We Might Rally Around Them....

                Germany was in a similar situation in 1933. The hated Weimar government was gone....and the national socialists were going to make Germany great again....of which the German church had entwined itself around. A Confessing Church formed in an unsuccessful attempt to keep the political movement from dominating the church. 
                 We need a confessing church today! We have had a Confessing Movement for about twenty years that formed in a very successful attempt to keep liberal doctrine and progressivism out of their own mainline congregations....but what we need today is something beyond that.
                 The evangelical church has entwined itself around the MAGA movement. It is very ecumenical with nonsense and heretical charismatic teachers and prophets and apostles all over the place....shoulder to shoulder with well-known evangelical megachurch pastors and evangelists. If you have never watched the Paula White video from the 2020 election where she is fulminating against the bad angels....and calling her good angels from Africa and South America to come in defense of Trump....you most definitely need to....for this is the heart of this 'Christian' support for Donald Trump. Just Google....Paula White YouTube. Angels.
                 This is what the evangelical movement has become....and why we need a very visible confessing response....not just the namby-pamby sermon where the pastor admits that only God can help us....but warns no one in his congregation of the wolves feasting on them. These type of sermons are staples today....and worthless in protecting and guiding the sheep.
                  Well....God knows what we truly need....not me.....it's just my way of pleading with Him to give us a man or many men who will stand up to what is going on in the evangelical church of today....and specifically warn us that Donald Trump was not sent to help us or anyone....so that we can rally with him or with them. 
                  We don't deserve it....for we 'built this city' as much as anyone else. God has spared us from this particular delusion....but there is delusion and deception everywhere today. May He....if it be His perfect will....restore in us trust in our only hope...that of His Son....our Lord and our Savior....and our coming King....Jesus Christ!                   
      
                 

Shame

                The Israelites on a number of occasions had been driven to repentance through shame....shame at what they had become....or what gods they had chosen....or at what they had failed to do. Moses and Nehemiah and Zerubbabel and others were used by God at these times. May He have mercy upon His people today in America....that we might see our shame....at what we have become....and what gods we have chosen....and what we have failed to do.
                The shame is not so much in walking into a voting booth and checking off the name of a vile ogre of a man....who is also a false prophet and an antichrist as John labelled the many antichrists who had gone out....whose god is a god of fortresses as Daniel informs us....for our shame had already been established over years as we let this man continue to bully and deceive his way onto that ballot in that voting booth.
                 I have to return yet again to the concept of winnowing....for this vast army of evangelicals will be whittled down through winnowing by God to a remnant. The others will continue to say....God bless America....until they can see for themselves that God has not blessed America.
                 There is more than enough shame to go around....and I carry my own heavy load....but there is even more mercy and grace that God offers to those who return to trusting in Him alone. May He do this quickly....if that be His will....for this will be difficult for us to once again have eyes to see and ears to hear. May God apply a balm to cover the pain of seeing what we have done and what we have become!

"Mr. Prime Minister...."

                The following paragraph was never published. I came across it just now as a....Draft....from June 22 of 2017. Whether I started a post and just never completed it....or had a change of heart....I just do not know. I came across it because I did remember in a post telling Benjamin Netanyahu never to trust Donald Trump. Maybe this was it. Either way....here it is:

"Mr. Prime Minister.....Mr. Netanyahu.....big....big....big mistake! Do not trust President Donald Trump! Smile....work with him....you have no choice....sign whatever worthless piece of paper he comes up with.....but don't place your trust in that piece of paper! I understand full well the situation that you are in, I just don't know if you understand it. It seemed like an answer from God......Barack Obama's heavy hand was gone and this 'make America great again' president was going to have Israel's back once again, but it's a lot more complicated than that. Yes, President Trump would like Israel to be safe and to succeed, and this is indeed a big improvement over a President Obama, but Israel is as important to Donald Trump as repealing Obamacare, or immigration, or tax reform......in other words the importance of them all are somewhere below the importance of Donald Trump's business plan for the world."

"And Blessed Are Those Who Hear...."

              "He who has ears to hear....let him hear..." That is how we usually read it in God's Word. Jeremiah described the ears that cannot hear as "uncircumcised." (Jer 6:10) Ezekiel put it this way..."Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which has eyes to see but does not see, and ears to hear but does not hear, for they are a rebellious house." (Eze 12:2)  Of course there is this in the parable of the soils...."Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear." (Matthew 13:8-9) Peter quoted Psalm 34...."For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer." (1 Peter 3:12) Isaiah wrote of the LORD's command...."Make the eyes of this people dull, and their ears heavy..." (Isaiah 6:10) He also penned at the direction of the LORD...."And he said, 'Go, and say to this people. Keep on hearing, but do not understand'." (6:9-10) There are about sixty such verses about ears and hearing in God's Word.
                A friend in another state keeps sending me a sermon and asking me to have his brother sit down to listen to it....and I have been able to at times. Indeed....I recommend sermons in these posts all the time.....and I am giving a strong message right now on Donald Trump....a curse and not a blessing....a false prophet and an antichrist....who has pushed his way into the church....and drawn us into this great delusion....but ultimately....any potential listener....has to have ears to hear! I mentioned my mother a few posts back....on how it took thirty-two years of my talking....until she had ears to hear.
                Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones both would remark in a sermon from time to time how there were people in the pews listening to that sermon....who were not able to hear it because they did not have ears to hear. In fact much of prophecy is based on having ears to hear....for when in God's perfect timing....they will hear....but before that they will not. That is why there has been such a great emphasis on the end-times in the past fifty years or so....because we are now in the last of the last days!
                 I know that surely some readers took my advice and listened to a sermon that I had recommended....and saw nothing special in it at all. That is because they did not have ears to hear the power of such a sermon. I have spent most of my Christian walk without ears to hear so many warnings....and so many wonderful truths. If someone would drop a grape on the floor I would hear it....but read to me...."Trust in the LORD with all of your heart....lean not on your own understanding"....and I could not hear what it was saying to me. (Proverbs 3:5)
                 In the second and third chapters of Revelation there are what are known as....'the seven letters to the seven churches.' I know that we in evangelicalism generally would hurry and read through those chapters so that we could get to the good stuff....the four horses of the apocalypse....and the beasts from the earth and from the sea....and 666....but we did not have ears to hear what was even more important....which was God beginning the ultimate letter on prophecy by giving all of us readers a stern warning beforehand to see where we need to repent or else we will not even be a church. Indeed...the third verse in Revelation reads...."Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it. for the time is near."

"And From These People Turn Away...."

"For false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect." Matthew 24:24 NKJV        

Preface: We are strengthened and receive discernment in proportion to the power and the glory in our preached sermons. We are an ultra-weak age for the power and the glory in preached sermons. Therefore we have little discernment. My advice? Flee....flee as fast as you can these political influences that have deceived you into believing that you are doing this for the glory of God! And run to listen to either....preachers from the past....or preachers today who preach as preachers from the past.....(Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones would be but two examples from the past....and MacArthur and Piper but two examples of today)....this until God might....if He is to have mercy upon His church....wake our pulpits up....humble them....and restore them to what they should be. 

                I had a different vantage point of Donald Trump over the past seven and a half years than most evangelicals. I did not like this man who I knew little about....but I voted for him in 2016 and celebrated that Hillary would not be president. Unlike Rush and so many others....I very early on became concerned about things that he was doing....so I started reading to see just who this man was. I happen to be a reader. I don't waste my life on NFL football. I did that up to my early to mid-thirties. Christian men everywhere will follow their teams for yet another half a year....and most will be sad at the end....while others celebrate....and this is just one sport....what a mess of pottage to have traded the glories of Jesus Christ for! I don't golf....I listen to God's preached Word from either preachers of the past or preachers today who preach like preachers of the past. Are you revolted at a statement such as that? You won't be in due time as God's judgments continue to unfold....for you will searching for God's Word to fill your time.
                 I saw just today in a much older post how I remarked that I had read thirty-two books on Trump....as they were in a pile and I had just counted them....and I've kept track ever since....and it is at one-hundred and four books about Trump....the 'good'....the bad....and the in between....and the books he supposedly wrote....which of course he did not....books on every decade of his life....and just about every aspect and interest of his life....and I followed him daily in the news....and what I found was a man today who is the exact same person that he was in his early twenties....with no conscience and no guilt....everything seared....and who considers himself the most important person not only in the world....but the history of the world. It is a megalomania run amok. Truth....(isn't that a word in his social media?)....truth is not even a concept in his life. He lies as easily and as naturally as he breaths....and please hear this specific comment....he being what he is....condemns any and all of his enemies if they are caught in one single lie! It's is astonishing....but what is more astonishing is that Christians fall for it! I could listen to him speak for hours....and I have in watching his rallies....and take apart just about everything that he says....but it doesn't matter because he himself bragged a long time ago....he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any followers! That statement alone....alone....should have scattered Christians....fleeing from this man. So I may make a comment on him from intense and personal study over almost eight years....and someone who has never read a single book on him....but only shovels in the nonsense fed him by Fox cable....will tell me how they know him better than I do.

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves....lovers of money....boasters....proud....blasphemous....(no this is not Trump's resume)....disobedient to parents....unthankful....unholy....unloving....unforgiving....slanderers....without self-control....brutal....despisers of good....traitors....headstrong....haughty....lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God....having a form of godliness but denying its power....and from these people turn away!"....2 Timothy 3: 1-5....but we have not turned away from this man as we should have years ago!

"Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince....rebuke....exhort....with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine....(Joel Osteen)....but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears....will heap up for themselves teachers....(the airwaves and the bookstores are full of them)....and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables....(Jonathan Cahn.) Chapter 2: 2-4

                 
                  That Donald Trump has been....('resurrected' is a word I heard many times in the past few days)....that he has come back to power....as the world marvels....is biblical....and supernatural. God has allowed him to be where he is....for God's reason....and not Jonathan Cahn's. Forty years ago the church....coming off a genuine revival of not only conversions but the reclaiming of great doctrines of God's Word....forty years ago we had more than a modicum of discernment. We knew a cult when we saw one. God's Word was more important than the constitution. Our teachers were on the radio....and writing books....men and women of God. Preaching was at least evangelistic. We were praying for souls....fishermen....whether we caught many or not. Today our teachers are men like Tucker Carlson! Our preaching is abysmal....our love has been sullied by our pride and our greed. We are no longer fisherman....nor carpenters building a church....nor farmers growing the food and living off it....we are artificial intelligence robots....tuning in every day at a certain hour to whatever show charges our battery.
                    Folks....what in the world are we even hoping for? Do you think that God is going to take back the judgments that men like Billy Graham warned us of....for over a half a century....because we have a majority in the Senate....or the House....and the White House...not to mention that it is a man who has given a....prophesy a day....of glorious greatness....for nine years now....when God's Word explicitly says that exact opposite? Do you think that after an election that God is telling us....go and enjoy your entertainments like before....everything is going to be terrific from now on?

Addendum: The following underscored paragraph is the conclusion of President Trump's February 4, 2020 State of the Union Address. Picture this please....no one has to be born again anymore....warnings are never given in the church.....and no wrath is ever preached.....the cross is an outdated symbol....God took Billy Graham home....his days of warning us over....and the president of the United States says these words of prophecy....as the coronavirus is just about to break out and wreak havoc over America and the world! 

."This nation is our canvas, and this country is our masterpiece. We look at tomorrow and see unlimited frontiers just waiting to be explored. Our brightest discoveries are not yet known. Our most thrilling stories are not yet told. Our grandest journeys are not yet made. The American Age, the American epic, The American adventure has only just begun. Our spirit is still young. The sun is still rising, God's grace is still shining, and my fellow Americans, the best is yet to come."

We are getting the same message today....only the new words are...."This will truly be the golden age of America."