Bibi......We Hardly Knew Ye

               Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had always been an example of pure dedication to the security of his beloved Israel. Indeed....it was always an encouragement just listening to him powerfully and yet eloquently explain Israel's position and determination....but time has worn him down....time and his forced and subservient association with the President of the United States....Donald John Trump. Trump does this to everyone who voluntarily or involuntarily flies too close to his flame. He is the only one who survives the turmoil that he causes.

              On February 4, 2020....Trump gave the most absurd State of the Union Address....where the greatest things were going to happen all over the world....but God had other plans....as the Covid 19 virus was replicating at the time. Here are a few words from that speech.

"Tonight I stand before you to share the incredible results....(of the past three years)....Jobs are booming....Incomes are soaring....Poverty is plummeting....Crime is falling....Confidence is surging....and our country is thriving....America's fortunes are on the rise.....America's future is blazing bright....our pride is restored....("Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" Proverbs)....we are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago....and we are never going back....we are advancing with unbridled optimism"....and the address ended with this...."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."

              On September 19, 2023....Benjamin Netanyahu gave a similarly absurd speech to the United Nations. He had by then bought a condo on the island of Donald Trump. Here are a few words from that speech....and some of my commentary....just as Hamas was finishing preparations for the October Sukkot attack.

"Imagine the blessings of finally cracking the genetic code, extending life by decades, and dramatically reducing the ravages of old age...imagine a world with boundless clean energy." John Lennon is not the person that any God-fearing man should be referencing....but that's what he (Netanyahu) did....by name....and it disturbed me a little in how he felt that he needed to remind people of what he personally had accomplished. He did acknowledge towards the end....the dangers in this latest quest for peace in the Middle East....but it was almost as an afterthought. I also found it odd how he emphasized....first the great potential of artificial intelligence...."the most consequential development of our time"....and then immediately after....the great dangers of artificial Intelligence. Actually I found it very disturbing that he would make AI which he said is...."progressing at lightning speed"....such a major part of a major speech.

Note: "And he (Jesus) said to them, 'I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven'." Luke 10:18 ESV

             

           

                Mr. Prime Minister....if a seven-year timeframe is ever mentioned on the peace agreement....I refer you to a book that was found in a stack of books on the bed table of David Ben-Gurion....after his death....The Late Great Planet Earth....by Hal Lindsey.

                There is a military draft coming.....because war is coming. I've posted on what a draft would look like for almost the length of these posts. Who will get drafted? There is no longer a student deferral....other than completing the semester that the students are in. Gays are no longer exempt. As it stands right now....women do not have to register for the draft. A Vietnam magnitude draft would take young males. A World War II magnitude draft would take older males....but still young men....unless the need for new recruits became greater.
                 Trump changed the name....as you surely know by now....from the Department of Defense....to the Department of War. There is a sickness in that.....but that is another story. Hegseth called a meeting in Quantico of generals and admirals from around the world. It was a political rally. He told the brass to either believe....or get out. It was a big warning....not that all military personnel had to stick to the Military Code of Conduct....but they had to join in the MAGA code of conduct.
                  Trump's part in the rally was about the same as every other rally that he has ever had....and I have watched most of them over the years. He fluttered around like a butterfly....stopping on this green shoot and that leaf....and eventually on a flower  that has some nourishing nectar. The green shoots and leaves are lies and embellishments....and the flower is the occasional truth....a process which is good for the butterfly....but not for the Christian.
                   It was a different way to begin a Christian walk....mine in 1982....for I immediately....and I mean right now....went into the defense of biblical truths. Maybe it had something to do with my personality....that I was inquisitive? Maybe it was because I had been an analyst of some sort my whole life....even in the military? The president of a national apologetic ministry came to our church for a conference....and stayed with us....because I volunteered first. I have been writing stuff like these posts for forty years now. I came across a thirty year old letter-to-the-editor that I wrote....and Hegseth....or Stepehen Miller....could not have composed it better. I had a high level of knowledge on cults in those early days....but other than the pure love and thankfulness of the forgiveness in the gospel....I was as it turned out....almost illiterate in the doctrines of salvation....but that didn't matter as I put all of my efforts in confronting cults....or the woke Christianity of the day.
                  I know what cults are....how they draw people....particularly young people....into their web. I know the makings of a cult leader or cult founder....how he or she acts....his or her ploys and deceptions....and his or her charismatic mesmerizing oratory....and his or her absolute need for loyal people. I know how they will kick a person out of the cult if that person questions things too much. I know how they control what the members of the cult read and listen to. I know how they must have their own....scriptures so to speak. I offered a Jehovah Witness who came to our house a copy of a book by one of their own leaders who had seen the deception.....questioned it....and was kicked out....and his hands went right up in the air. There was no way that he would take that book. 
                    Quite a number of years ago....maybe fifteen....I have a post on it somewhere....during the early Obama years....Rush Limbaugh described Obama true believers....as they believe anything that he says....as cult members. He apparently never put two and two together with Trump.
                     This is more than just....cultic....that we are witnessing today. These are tried and true cult techniques....the magnetic cult leader....the threatenings....the isolation....and the absurdities that are automatically believed by everyone. It is all done in the name of God....even though Lenin's and Stalin's fingerprints are everywhere....and now the German Fuhrer's stormtrooper mentality to rid the country of the evil communist....which then moved to the evil union worker....and then the evil Jew....and then the evil Christian ministers.
                  

Two Offerings

           I would like to give you here two offerings to sustain you and to strengthen you. The first I can only direct you to. It is a short eight minute motivational encouragement through John Piper's ministry.....written.....you can read it there if you like....and read by Greg Morse....who I have mentioned quite a few times in these posts. All you have to do is go to desiringgod.org....and scroll down to the article titled....WHEN WE MUST WALK ALONE.

           In the second I'll add the link here. Paul Washer is one of the few stalwarts in the faith on the national scene today. This is a sermon such that we should have on a regular basis but do not. I give you a caveat.....do not listen to this sermon if you are not willing to have your heart rendered....for it will do that.

                                                                       

Lord's Day Post

                OK....you have a son....or you have a daughter....and you love them. Everything is normal so far. Now....you believe in hell.....and you believe in heaven. I don't mean that you just give the standard answer for an evangelical....but that you really.....really.....believe that there is a heaven and a hell....and more than that you believe that one has to be born again to go to heaven. I mean you really....really believe that there is such a thing as being born again....and the "power of the resurrection". If that is the case that you believe in a heaven and a hell....and you also believe that one has to be born again....born from above....that there is no other way....to go to heaven....and not to go to hell....then using logic alone....one being that you really love your child....and two....you know that they have to be born again or suffer an eternal punishment....you would not....under any circumstances....leave there salvation to chance....and by chance I mean that the child is a nice person....has always gone to church....never gave anyone any trouble....but there is really not much else there as to belief....and certainly no passion for the gospel. So you just go about your business....and hope and pray that God has mercy upon the child that you love. I do not know what kind of love that would be? I know of good and faithful ministers on the national scene....and I personally know good Christian men who have a child that is reprobate. I can only imagine the heartbreak. No you cannot save them yourself! That is something that you cannot do.....but here is something else that you cannot do....you cannot let the gospel of the day....and this political gospel of the day....win the day....over the gospel in God's Word that you know to be true....without a fight. If you decide to leave all of this up to chance....then you had better look into your own salvation....for something is terribly....terribly wrong!

Philippians 3:10

Seven Mountains?

              We have all read in Revelation of the fall of....Babylon....on the great day of the LORD

             "Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come....for in one hour such great riches came to nothing." Revelation 18: 10 & 17

              God has not identified Babylon....and we speculate all the time....but it does seem that it will be all of the riches gotten through all of the schemes that man could invent....which does describe what we know as....in fact what we call ourselves....the West.

              The...."one hour"....tells us something. A supervolcano....such as the one under Yellowstone....could destroy the West in one hour....or a cosmic event....or a nuclear war?

               God's Word tells us that this Babylon is on seven mountains....or hills. Rome is the most prominent of all the cities said to have been founded on seven hills....but then....'Rome"....could be construed as meaning the Roman Empire. The term....'seven mountains'....could mean something philosophical or even religious?

               We do not know these things....but we are going to find out....maybe before the collapse....or maybe just after the collapse. There is so much more on this in those two chapters of Revelation....chapters 17 & 18. It's like each verse drips with new descriptions. How about this....17:11...."There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes he must continue a short time. And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition."

                Well let's think about that. There are eight....somethings. Five are already gone....so the time in question....the reference point....is during the sixth....something. The seventh had not yet come....and will but only for a short time....and here is the kicker....the eighth is of the seven!

                 Let's go over that again....I have to have an example....what could those "kings" possibly be? Let's say that they are United States Presidents. Hey....they could be UK Prime Ministers....or Popes....or anything.....but let's say....for this example....US Presidents.

                 For Trump to be the eighth...Biden would have to be the seventh....the short time president. Eight presidents back would take us to Reagan....so Reagan and H.W. and Clinton and W and Obama would be the five that are gone. The sixth would be Trump in his first term....or the reference point....the seventh would be Biden....for a short time.....and the eighth would be Trump again....who was already part of the seven.

                  You could play this game for United Nations Secretary Generals or just about anything....but it's not a game. Consider this carefully...this is verse 9 from the same chapter 17...."Here is the mind which has wisdom....the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits." Here is the mind which has wisdom! That sounds to me like the mind with wisdom is at least to make speculations like this....and I would take you back to the third verse in the book of Revelation...."Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near." 

                 And go to chapter 13 verse 18...."Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man; His number is 666." That's three times that God's Word is telling us what a mind with wisdom tends to do!

                 Christians have studied these verses for almost two thousand years....and there must have been value in that....even though there were abuses....but that reference point....that sixth king or sixth something....had not come yet. I submit to you that we are that generation....or that time period in question....and it began in May of 1948. We can and will make mistakes in our speculations....but the biggest mistake would be in not even wanting to have the mind with wisdom.

                   

ICHABOD......The Glory Has Departed

                We have in evangelicalism today lost the concept of being born again. In other words....the evangel is going down a path that does not save....and produces a church that is at the mercy of worldly schemes. Forty years ago we all used the phrase to describe what happened to us. Today no one uses it. It was about forty years ago that I was at a concert of what probably was the top band in Christian music. This group was as good as any of the top secular bands....four bass guitars reverberating in our soul....and a charismatic lead singer with a great voice. At the end of the concert this man gave his testimony....and it was a moving testimony....and he gave an altar call. We were on the second level....and the folding chair first floor level was filled with young people who had come forward. There is no way of knowing....but probably none of them were born again that evening. They were simply moved by the power of the music and the testimony. That is what we are experiencing in the Christian Nationalist movement that is dominant with our youth today.
                 The preached word of the cross is what saves....not exclusively....for one might read the word. If one is moved to going forward in a concert....the question becomes....what happens next? So let's say that they go to the average megachurch....and they hear a sermon about Jesus who saves....and they like and are even encouraged by what they hear....and they stay at that church....and within a year they are very involved in the church.....with everything from Bible studies to men's or women's or youth ministries....to picnics and excursions. They may....and they may not have....been regenerated and born again.
                  Time passes....decades....and maybe the elders and deacons have been born again....and maybe not.....maybe not even the pastor? Christian fads....actually heresies....such as Joel Osteen....are common even beyond charismatic churches....and then another heresy enters.....politics! A man in this case....prophesies....every single day....year after year....that our best is yet to come....and that we are heading into a golden age....while he tells us that we are....one glorious nation under God....where in fact we are a stench in the nostrils of God....and judgment is coming....not a golden age.
                 All discernment is now gone....for the glory has departed from the church. We are all panicking as we looked at Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.....and now AOC and Mamdani. We are rabid in our opposition to 'trans' issues....using this to prove to ourselves that we are doing God's work....but politics....particularly MAGA....has turned us into a self-serving mob with no compassion for anyone...following....and believing.....some of us even worshiping....the most prodigious liar and deceiver the United States government has ever produced....worshiping....a man who has decimated evangelicalism....and rendered the preaching power of pastors impotent....who as a wolf....donning the mask of a sheep....led multitudes of evangelicals  away from dependence upon Jesus Christ....to the broken cisterns of power and riches.
                 God has taken home the men who would have warned us.....Graham and Sproul and MacArthur and others. They would be shouting from the rooftops if they were here today. Even if we had Christian bookstores....they would be filled with Trump books.
                 This is the 'falling away' that God's word tells us was coming....and this is at least part of the delusion of which we were warned. Evangelicals are talking today about a possible revival because of what they have seen on television of a hundred thousand mostly youth singing praise songs at a memorial....and the supposed hundred million who streamed the event. I've had a handful of people comment to me....almost with stars in their eyes....when in reality this is evidence....not of revival....but of that great falling away.
                  The remnant in America is small folks.....relatively small when talking about 330 million people. If we were to dedicate say....two weeks....to reading with prayer and meditation the Old Testament prophets....we would see ourselves in those warnings.....and flee these false promises of today. Isaiah saw the destruction coming and told the people...."Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourselves a little while until the wrath has passed. For behold, the LORD is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity..." Isaiah 26: 20, 21a
                   Isaiah was in essence telling them to prepare for judgment. He told them earlier that they had gone to Egypt to seek help from Pharaoh...."Who take counsel, but not from Me. And who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, (30:1)  Folks that is us going to Trump. Isaiah told them that the priests and prophets were worthless because they were intoxicated with strong drink....but in Isaiah 29:9 we are told that we are indeed drunk....not with intoxicating drink....but spiritual darkness...."For the LORD has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep....and has closed your eyes....(the prophets)....and has covered your heads (the seers.) 

Lord's Day Post

Preface: It is axiomatic that political movements seek to draw the youth to their side. The Left...Biden and Obama going back to Clinton....had youth on their side....and now Maga has them on their side. 'Christian' is not the word to describe it....and 'religious' is too week of a word. Theonomous will do. It's all about God. The Christian God....just happens to be the God. It is both good in its simplicity....and devastating in its simplicity. It is worship in a half religious/half political setting. It is beyond exuberance....to being ecstatic. It is zealotry....zeal without knowledge. (Proverbs 19:2) It is a movement within a movement....'Christian' worship music within MAGA....an American Exposition....or an evangelical exhibition of modern day worship....that can be directed to anything religious or secular. 

               Turning Point USA has certainly caused thousands of young people to dedicate themselves to the MAGA movement....probably tens of thousands have been motivated....and maybe hundreds of thousands have been influenced in one way or another. I have been going on college campuses for over fifteen years....mostly Christian colleges....and I have always had the same hope....that maybe six....that's the number I've prayed....that maybe six young people from that campus might bond together like John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield and another bonded together at Oxford....this being almost 300 years ago....in what became known as their....Holy Club....but more so that these young people might find others with which to study God's Word....and be encouraged by the fellowship of like minds...in this vexing and tempestuous and tempting age and culture that we live in.
                 Tomorrow is yet another Lord's Day....and as I prayed at the dinner table only an hour ago...."Lord....for Thy name's sake....may Thy Holy Spirit cause Thy faithful servants to toss and turn relentlessly this night....before entering their pulpits....that they might speak tomorrow words that did not come from their sermon preparations."

Manifest Destiny?

               The game....the animals in the forests....were dwindling. The Indians were going to have to go into farming and weaving to continue to exist in the Southeastern United States. Jefferson wanted them to assimilate....and to be friends to the white man....and for there to be perpetual peace....but the prospect didn't look good.
                By the time Jackson became president....the Indians were just going to have to move west of the Mississippi. All of this....and Texas coming into the Union....as a slave state....was deemed manifest destiny. It was so very clear. We were a special people....and God was behind all of this! Well God was indeed behind all of this....but maybe not in ways that we thought.
                Some of the five nations of Indians knew that there was little choice but to pack up and leave....others fought for a while. We simply forced a people to move from one area of the nation....at a great loss of life....to another area of the nation. President Grant later said that the great conflict of the 1860s was punishment for all of this. He was right in that the Civil War was indeed punishment on us for many things that we had done....including both....displacing the red man.....and enslaving the black man!
                We have recently moved back into the manifest destiny mode. We think that we are doing all that we are doing with God's blessing. Personally....I believe that all of our God talk is a stench in God's nostrils.
                It's not deemed to be a manifest destiny with Israel today....the moving the people from one place to another....for it is deemed to be covenantal destiny....that this is their God given land. We evangelicals seem to be on board....and there is big money involved in that the strip of land that can be turned into valuable real estate....but our....the Christian's defense of Israel....should not be in returning the land that God originally gave to the Israelites....for God Himself will do that in due time.
                Israel has for over seventy years consistently endured threats and attacks and terrorism....and outright lies on a national podium. Our defensive support of them should be based on their right to exist....and to defend themselves. Ultimately we are two distinct nations...one almost 250 years old...the other almost eighty years old....both giving God lip service but far from honoring Him in who we have become.
                We know Israel's future...this from God's Word....in that they will severely be put to the test....and only when they see that they have no hope....will they for the first time see their only hope....in their Messiah whom they had rejected. As for us....we do not know what our future is....other than that the whole world will follow a man who seems to have all the answers....and later be forced to follow him....who displays false miracles and wonders to prove that he has all the answers....whose deception will be so great that if it were possible....(for it is not possible)....even the elect....the redeemed of God....would fall for the lies.
                 There is a remnant today....there has always been a remnant....even in the worst of times....even in Noah's day....and with Lot....and there will aways be a remnant....until the  Lord of Glory returns....with His mighty angels....in judgment on a world that as Babel...and Sodom and Gomorrah and in Noah's day....(for that is where we are today)....rejected God....or conformed God to our image....or replace God with other gods.

             

Birth Pains

               It seems like two or three years since I wrote the post that is below.....for it was over 300 posts ago....but it was posted one year ago. I wonder if we evangelicals ever really realize that if we had our own way....and America became....'great'....again....that it would have to be at least twenty-five or so years before we would see Jesus face to face....unless of course we died before that? God's Word speaks to us of...."birth pains"....in the last of the last days. Women could teach me about labor pains....bring some smelling salts if you do....but I understand them to be in stages. I submit to my brothers and sisters in Christ that we are right now in those labor pains that Jesus spoke to His disciples of in the Olivet Discourse....which is the passage....in Matthew 24 & 25 and Mark 13 and Luke 21....meant to specifically inform us of what to expect before He returned. Today we may go a few days of news....but not many....before we have to cry again. I would think that the Christian in the Ukraine right now....wants to see Jesus. That is just one demographic example. There are many more....but what is it that we want in the American church? When a Christian loved one dies....the first thing we might talk about is that we will see them again in Heaven....but if as in John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress....we enter the gate to the Celestial City....and we would see our loved one on our left....and Jesus on our right....who would we go to? I submit also to you that it would be no use going to your loved one because they would be gazing in adoration at Jesus. We need to examine our priorities....especially since those birth pains are getting closer....and more painful. Maranatha....Come Lord Jesus!

"But I Want To See Jesus"              

               In the 80s and 90s I listened to Christian talk radio all the time....occasionally sending off an email to the host. My wife and I had a Christian bookstore in the late 90s....and these folks at the radio station worked with me on a very nice commercial for the bookstore....but I haven't listened in much over the past few decades....until today when I tuned it in on a very short drive.....to the grocery store. That is the impetus for this short post.
               Kathy Keller....the wife of Tim Keller who went to be with the Lord in May of 2023....was interviewed. I got the impression that she has been on the talk show quite a few times....as the conversation was very casual. Even in this short period of time she got my attention by mentioning Puritan related biblical themes.
                I'm going to try to relate this as accurately as I can remember. At one point....she is talking slowly....as if sitting around a breakfast table with the hosts. I could almost see her gazing off in the distance as she said something like this....'It's not so much that I look forward to seeing Tim in heaven....but I want to see Jesus.' And then she repeated the sentiment.
                How we need to hear this exact sentiment today! It is Jesus who awaits us! Everything is Jesus! Yes....whatever the details of heaven are.....(I think that Kathy Keller used almost those same words)....meeting loved ones for one.....we will find out....and this surely would be wonderful....but this we know....the glorious Lord of our salvation....who beginning in that manger that we will soon celebrate....took on flesh....temptations and sufferings and all....and became as the lowest dreg in the minds of the people who called out...."crucify Him....crucify Him!".....and was brutally....crucified....for those elect who include a worm like me! Why? We will find out in due time....but for now....Maranatha.....Come Lord Jesus!

              

Artificial Intelligence....Evolving Into....Superintelligence?

               It's a tough book for me to wade through.....but then this subject is not easy for me.....but if you are computer literate then you may read it like I read a prophecy book. I was in Barnes & Noble at 10:00 yesterday....Tuesday is when the new releases are put on the shelf....and purchased two of these books....one for me and one for a friend who works in artificial intelligence.
               There are twenty-one blurbs for the book....dominated by AI professionals....and national security folks....and physicists. The title and subtitle makes no bones about where the authors are coming from....If Anyone Build It, Everyone Dies....Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All....and the authors are well-known and long-time experts in the field....Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares.
                I could not possibly get too in-depth in describing their analysis but I can weigh in on their warning. Let me put it this way....as I believe they explained it concerning where artificial intelligence may be going. They use the concept of...."want"....where will AI....want to go....as its speedy evolution continues? The professionals as they build AI know where they want to send it....or what they themselves want it to develop as....but as AI builds upon itself....and develops somewhat as an...."alien mind"....."grown" rather than "crafted"....by the very nature of the evolution....it will go where its increased capabilities lead it....or in other words....develop their own...."preferences."
                Here is where the...."want"....comes in. The authors are concerned with....super artificial intelligence....as opposed to what exists right now....for it is this superintelligence that will be smarter than humans. Nothing can be predicted as to exactly where AI will go other than it will go somewhere....and it will make its own choices on where to go.
                 I have only done this a few times of the many years of posting....review a book before I even finished it....this because of the importance of the subject matter....as I hope that some readers will go right out as I did and purchase the warning. As you might have noticed in that I was at Barnes & Noble at 10:00 AM....I do not waste time....because we have no time left to waste.
                 I did a little bit of research on the authors. One of them was a modern orthodox Jew....but today is a secular Jew....and the other was as a young child....a devoted Catholic....but has since lost his faith. Although the book is necessary....as I believe...what limits the authors is that they cannot put God into the equation.....(not yet anyway)....and therefore they themselves are limited in the possible supernatural effect on superintelligence.

 Note: I may amend or add to this post as I work my way through this book.

Afterthoughts: The authors use what they call...."parables"....throughout the book....quite interesting and intriguing storylines to help further the discussion....and I came up with a parable of my own....where the West....has developed it's superintelligence AI.....but the China faction had developed its own superintelligence AI. Both AIs deemed that there could only be one super intelligent AI if the whole world were to prosper and progress. The result would be that the two superhuman AIs would war against each other?

Jeremiah....As With All The Other Prophets....Speak To Us As Well As The People Of Their Time

Preface: The following is a short synopsis that I posted on the prophet Jeremiah in 2023. Jeremiah was preaching to....and warning....God's people in Judah and Jerusalem....which means that he is also preaching....and warning....God's people today. We are so similar. We had Billy Graham and many others warning us for the past forty years at least. We ignored all the warnings....and because we ignored the warnings....we are what we are today. We have our own false prophets....like Hananiah....who promise us that the yoke of 'Babylon' will be broken....and everything will return as it was. That is not going to happen. The people of Judah and Jerusalem would not have benefitted by just returning to their rebellious days before Nebuchadnezzar came....nor would we benefit just by going back to when America was 'great' again!            

                   "Jeremiah preached....prophesied....for over forty years. He started when Josiah was king....and was only a few years older than Josiah. No one wanted to hear his warnings. Just like no one was really interested in Billy Graham's warnings. He wasn't a shepherd or anything like that.....he was a priest....he would have offered temple sacrifices had not God called him to warn of judgment.
                   The chronology of the last four kings of Judah after Josiah is a little hard to follow. A younger son of Josiah was named king first for some reason. A couple of them went by more than one name. Two were hauled off to other countries....one to Egypt and one to Babylon....and their successors were appointed....first by Pharaoh Necho and then by Nebuchadnezzar. It was a real Peyton Place of intrigue.
                    Zedekiah wound up as the last king of Judah. He sued for peace with the Babylonian king....letting him take some of the temple vessels and a lot of the most capable people back to Babylon.....Daniel among then....then under bad advice he thought Nebuchadnezzar was weakening so he tried to ally with Egypt against Babylon....big big mistake! So Nebuchadnezzar came back to Jerusalem with a vengeance!
                    Jeremiah's message from the LORD was....look....you rebelled against God....and Babylon is going to rule over you. It's a done deal....that is the punishment. If you do not accept this then Nebby is going to come again and destroy the city.....and the  temple. He told them to accept the punishment and they would live and keep the temple and be able to worship....but there were all kinds of false prophets who told Zedekiah that God was....going to make Judah great again.
                    One of the many false prophets....Hananiah....prophesied to Zedekiah that in two years Babylon's yoke would be broken....and the vessels and everyone that was taken to Babylon would return. Jeremiah in as much as said....'Hey....that  would be nice but it ain't gonna happen.'
                    Meanwhile....the Jews in Babylon had their own false prophets. Jeremiah sent a letter to them....telling them to live in Babylon and prosper under Babylonian rule.....that God would eventually bring them back home. Jeremiah even gave them a time frame for this to happen....seventy years....although it wasn't for many years until Daniel's eyes were opened to this. Jeremiah was telling the people....and the king.....Zedekiah....not to resist Nebuchadnezzar....because God was going to use Babylon to punish Judah!
                    By the time that Nebuchadnezzar's army finally breached the walls of Jerusalem the people were starving. They were eating their own children! It's like we are eating our own children today. Jeremiah watched all of this and wept over it as he wrote Lamentations..
                    As a people....the American people....this book could be written to us. In fact....I believe that it was written to us....us and anyone who once acknowledged God but has thrown that faith and trust and obedience aside. We have our false prophets and we have those who truly have spoken for God. We still have our worship but it is mixed in with many and various idolatries. We had a time of revival....just as with Josiah....but now we are going from one despicable 'king' to another.
                    So how far will this similarity go? Jeremiah didn't convince anyone right up to when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple and the city and carried everything and just about everyone away to Babylon. That doesn't bode well for us. The pandemic....an obvious judgment from God....didn't humble us one bit."

One Night Of Elation....As Opposed To Every Morning And Every Evening Of Praise And Thanksgiving

              We may not think to ourselves in so many words....we probably have no conscious idea that we are doing it.....but somewhere deep down in.....when we read the newspaper or turn on a newscast or boot up a news site....if the situation calls for it....we cast a great sigh of relief that since the last time we opened a newspaper or turned on a newscast or booted up a news site.....there has no mass murders...or no gut-wrenching murders as we experienced this past week....no acts of terrorism....no escalations in war talk....no story about a godfather of AI warning that it eventually going to kill us all....no fifty day warnings to another country....or else. It is every bit as bad as that....life in the United States in 2025.
              At the same time we know that it is just a matter of time before we read or hear of any or all of the above. That two young men....and I use the word 'men' with disgust....who may not even be able to cut the grass....can purchase high powered rifles....and use them effectively....to kill another person is the height of horror. That everyone is out there flying drones....(I had to stop my car in a rural neighborhood the other night to see what the two big bright lights were that were hovering overhead)....that anyone can become proficient in this hobby/nightmare with catastrophic potential....is demoralizing.
             We have all these things....including computer games where you can sit for hours blowing multitudes of stick-figure people away....for one reason....if someone can make money....particularly become rich....by providing what our base instincts want.....it will happen....and if you object....they who probably never read a current events or history or even a biography in their life....all of a sudden become constitutional lawyers and defenders of freedom and liberty.
             Artificial intelligence is biblical end-times prophecy fulfilled. One way or the other everyone is going to get that chip. As for....'ten kings'....and a new world order....we should have learned or be learning by now that all it takes is a national emergency....a war probably....and all the safeguards and constitutional protections and a balance of power in government....and even sovereignty of nations....will be out the window....and when the dust settles....the powers that be will do whatever they desire.
            This is a Lord's Day evening as I type this at 11:00....and most of the football  games are over. Many men around America had a great Lord's Day with a win....(I have no idea what the Steelers did today)...and many men had a lousy Lord's Day....maybe they will have a lousy year....maybe the tenth lousy year in a row....but hey....there may have been five great years in the last sixty! 
             I can remember the thrill of political victories over the past....sixty years....beginning with JFK....yes I was a ten year old watching election night returns....and most recently in 2016 with Trump. And I can remember the agony of defeat in politics....1992 and 1996 and 2008 and 2012....but somewhere in the last eight years....God had mercy on this weather-beaten....gimpy-kneed....lisping....short of breath mid-septuagenarian....and I can see with 20/10 vision the gross futility of all of it....the wasted seasons of life following sports without moderation....and the pride and the hate and the lying of politics.
              I first posted the following words....to young people....in May of 2015:

"Do you sometimes feel a void of passion in your life...a meaninglessness that cannot be satisfied by the picture that you paint on your Facebook page? Well, a river of passion flows right by you! Cup your hands and drink from it. Let mercy and peace pass over your palate. A political election will give but one night of elation but the coronation of the King of Kings provides every morning and every evening with a ceaseless ardor that will make you forever thankful. If you happen to really see the trouble that we are in here in America....that vision is from God....and He will also give the balm....supply the strength and provide the wisdom to see the joy of redemption even in the darkest hours of this world....and to plan ahead with the full trust that if it be His will it will happen and if it not be His will you would not want it to happen. Here is the only true hope and change...... 'Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.. 2 Corinthians 5:17"
             
             
             

Populist Christianity

 2 Timothy 3:3-5 NIV

3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.              

                  Estimating how many evangelicals there are in America is more than just difficult. If you define evangelical one way....which some surveys have done....they come to the conclusion that there may be as many as 100 million evangelicals in America. If you ask specific questions on the survey....for instance the direct question....'are you born again'....as some other surveyors have done....the figure can be as low as 8% of adult Americans. It seems today that just about everyone....other faiths and agonistics and atheists excluded....claims to be Christian.
                 The Republican Party is at the mercy of the former figures. Therefore....it is not the gospel of Jesus Christ that determines where it will go....but rather the populist definition of Christian. So here we are....by 'we' I mean the redeemed....our beliefs have to be kept somewhat under wraps. Conservatives....that word once meant social and economically conservative....now primarily means....patriotic....and our own definition of patriotic at that.
                 Our fellowship thus has to lower itself to this level. Our churches and our pulpits have to follow suite....conform to the accepted definitions....and if the populist conception says that closing church doors in a pandemic was evil....well that is what they have to say also....or lose a good percentage of their people. The stronger opinion is always going to win out....and as I've mentioned in recent posts....if we choose to remain silent to keep the peace....we are indirectly affirming that which we do not even believe....and encouraging more of the same.
                 Whatever the exact percentage of evangelicals who are Christian may be....only God knows that....it is small. Few are saved....few go through the wicket gate. God's Word tells us that.
                  We have been this way in America for upwards of seventy years now. The Fundamentalist....and even the Reformed and the Pentecostal....have either been pushed to the side....or they conformed to one degree or another. Simply put....we do not have to be born again anymore. Mortification in conversion is not a necessity. The result is that the light for our path is gone....and we have stumbled onto a different path.
                   This could go on indefinitely....except for one thing.....Jesus is coming back now....by 'now' I mean that this is the chapter.....the last chapter of the book. The rubber is going to hit the road....very soon. The truly born again believer is going to be forced to search out other truly born again believers....or they will fall into despair....for there are absolutely no answers....and no hope....in a patriotic Christianity.

"But As The Days Of Noah Were...."

The following words were first posted in November of 2014:  

                   In amongst an entire chapter of information concerning the tribulation period....Jesus gave us this particular revelation of the Second Coming....in verse 37 of that 24th chapter of Mathew...."But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark."
                   If you read the Genesis account in chapter six you will find that what Jesus was referring to wasn't quite as simple as just getting married but rather that  men "....took wives for themselves of all whom they chose." In the next verse we see God's response in "And the Lord said, 'My Spirit shall not strive with man forever...'." A few verses later we read "for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth." And once again a few verses later "....the earth is filled with violence."
                    "But as were the days of Noah"....are we as in the days of Noah? It must be possible to know of such a situation or Jesus would not have given us the clue. One last verse....in speaking of the people of Noah's day....Jesus then said...."(they) did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be."
              

What Is More Astonishing....A Glowing Orb Flying At Heretofore Unmatched Speeds....Or The Devil Taking The Son Of Man Up In A Moment Of Time?

5And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8And Jesus answered him, “It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” 9And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10for it is written,“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ 11and“‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”12And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

               Now....do you believe these verses from Matthew 14....or have you turned all of this into symbolism? I believe every word. The devil actually took Jesus up in a moment in time! God has perfectly designed it that we do not know everything about angels....and the devil. We know all that we need to know. Jonathan Cahn....in his books....would tell us....supposedly.....all that we do not need to know! It would not help us one bit....nor further the kingdom of God....if we knew every one of these supposed ancient mysteries. 
                     
            This is a week of news stories from whistleblowers on how a certain glowing unidentified flying orb was hit with a missile and kept on flying at an incredible speed.

            There is absolutely no possibility whatsoever that alien life....as we define alien life.....exists anywhere else in the universe. If you know God's Word....then you know why there is no life anywhere else. If you question this....which is OK....you just do not know or understand God's Word.
                     In a moment in time the devil took Jesus....and showed him all the kingdoms of the world! What is more astonishing....and orb zooming by a military aircraft....or the Devil taking the Son of Man....in a moment of time....to see all the kingdoms of the world?
                       I know that these sightings are not aliens....I do not know if they are demons....but I know that demons can do things like this.

         You must admit this....these stories....when actually believed in the context of aliens....turn people away from belief in God. Now....what supernatural being do we know that....if they had the power....would do things that turned people away from belief in God?

                 Sixty years ago....or thereabouts....as a mid-teen....I would read about the clairvoyant Edgar Cayce....along with my teenage friends....and we would be astonished by his supernatural knowledge and deeds. Forty years ago....as a rejoicing born again believer in the King of Glory....I....in doing my research on cults....visited Cayce's headquarters in Virginia Beach....and understood that whatever there was that was supernatural....it was also demonic....and in like manner....particularly in the Charismatic Movement today....in many of their supernatural miracles....we also are seeing the demonic in action.

                  

      

     
    
          
            

"See....I Have Told You Beforehand"

             We evangelicals have had it ingrained in us for fifty years now that Israel will be surrounded in the last of the last days. We never questioned that....but Israel has been....surrounded by enemies....in one way or another....since their very inception as a nation.
             Today though.....it is a very different definition of being surrounded. Israel has never been in as precarious a situation as it is right now....not even close to it. It appears that the army is going to....raze....Gaza City. The Houthis are firing missiles from the South....and Syria is getting more problematic every day. Much of the world is increasingly turning against Israel because of the collateral deaths in Gaza....and now Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear that Israel will go anywhere to destroy their enemies.
              The book of Psalms has an redemptive/historical chronological narrative to it. I don't think that there is any question about that anymore. O. Palmer Robertson's masterly interpretation in his book....The Flow Of The Psalms...demonstrates this very clearly. No...the Psalms were not placed in perfect chronological order....but there is distinct chronology of the five books within the Psalms....and it appears that we are living in the fifth book!
                Psalm 117....the micro-short psalm in that fifth book seems to set the tone.....followed by the messianic Psalm 118 and the torah Psalm 119....duplicating the messianic Psalm 18 and torah Psalm 19. 
                Psalm 120 begins the....ascents....fifteen psalms....the title of which....can only be speculated upon. Psalm 122 tells us to pray for the peace of Jerusalem...followed by a couple of psalms where there is..."exceeding....contempt"....shown for David and Israel....with an intriguing verse 2 in Psalm 125...."....from this time forth and forever."
                 We in the church today seem to have....an exceeding....aversion....to proclaiming....although maybe not believing...that Jesus is returning....essentially right now....even though God's Word tells us in Amos 3:7...."For the Lord God does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets"....and Jesus emphasized in His Olivet Discourse...."For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect....See, I have told you beforehand." Matthew 24:24, 25. Yes....Jesus does say....eleven verses later...."But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven...."....but He then describes the days of Noah and completes His thought in verse 42...."Therefore....stay awake....for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming." Jesus rebuked those leaders for not recognizing His first coming...and rebuked the Pharisees for discerning the weather but not the signs of the times.
                  Even the more conservative of us admit that God uses certain numbers to at times come with a meaning....the number seven means this....and the number twelve means that....and so on....well there is also a prophetic element to the Jewish feasts. Even this last and most devasting event....October 7 of 2023...was on the last day of the feast of Sukkot! And God uses at times the sun and the moon and the stars. This blood moon phenomenon is not ridiculous speculation. There was a blood moon over Jerusalem only two days ago!
             That epic four conservative total lunar eclipses....all on Jewish feasts....this from 2014/2015....came and passed....and people said that nothing important happened.....but in the middle of that tetrad Donald Trump came down that escalator....even into the middle of evangelicalism....the same Donald Trump that was born on a blood moon on June 14. 1946!
      God is not giving us connect-the-dots games to play. What He is doing is letting His people know that something is about to happen....and to therefore prepare....and rejoice.. Is there abuse in studying biblical prophecy? Of course there is. There is abuse in doctrine and church polity and worship and evangelism and just about every area of God's Word. That doesn't keep us from studying His Word....rather it should make us....as did the Bereans....study it more.

Note: This past Lord's Day most of the world but particularly Europe and Asia and Australia experienced a blood moon....that rose brightly above Jerusalem,

The Best And The Brightest

                    Billy Graham's ministry to the world lasted for seven decades. The first few may have been wonderful in the crusades that were everywhere....but Billy himself....according to his own testimony later....had a lot to learn. He even wondered later in life if early on he presented the need for salvation seriously enough....and he regretted his mistakes made in his involvement in politics. He was on fire the last few decades in warning everyone of the nearness of the return of Jesus and of the coming judgment to America....but the time came....nearing a hundred years old....when he could do little. His son said that he hardly said anything in his last year. This was 2017....and Trump was not one 1/100....not one 1/1000 as dangerous as he is today....but did Billy as he lay there know that something was seriously wrong with where the church was going? I would imagine that he did. He went to be with his glorious Lord whom he served so faithfully on February 21, 2018. His son Franklin apparently learned nothing from his father's mistakes in politics.
                    R. C. Sproul....a Pittsburgher....was one of God's greatest gifts to the church. I supported his ministry for over thirty years now....and received the latest Tabletalk only two days ago. I love even the memory of him and am so thankful to God for this man's ministry....but he made a mistake in early 2017....as the 500 year anniversary was nearing of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg. His annual Ligonier conference was to address and celebrate the Reformation.....but the title that was chosen was....The Next 500 Years. Was there no one on the board at Ligonier to speak up and say that this was not a wise conference title....for it belittled the imminence of the return of our Lord and Savior and King? R. C. died unexpectantly later in 2017....and is now with his Lord and Savior!
                    John MacArthur made the biggest mistake. Here is a man who was probably the strongest defender of the gospel in the entire world....who I also thank God for the blessing of his ministry. No one more than he warned more powerfully against false prophets....but he received a phone call....probably a surprise phone call....on a Lord's Day afternoon in August of 2020 from a false prophet in Donald Trump. The pandemic had altered Pastor John's discernment as the government tried to close the doors....temporarily....on his 6,000 member church. He told Trump that all true believers would support his candidacy....which in effect said that John Piper and millions of other true believers....were not true believers. He went on to say before his congregation....I watched this with my own eyes....that there was no pandemic. I do not know if he ever apologized for that or clarified his remarks. He sued California for closing his doors and received a lot of money. His lawyer was a Trump lawyer who later was under indictments concerning the 2020 election. John MacArthur had entered Trump's orbit and suffered because of it. This whole covid episode was not wise. MacArthur though was one of the very few....to decry from the pulpit on Trump's comments that he would go to heaven if he was good. John MacArthur took ill on January 1, 2023....and went to be with the Lord who he faithfully served....this past July 14.
                    Another minister of international renown....Alistair Begg....made a mistake on the air on his radio ministry. He knew what his answer to a question was going to be....this question from the letter from a listener....so he should have had enough discernment not to answer that question on the air....but he did....and John MacArthur came down hard on him....too hard. Why? Everyone came down on him too hard. This was early 2024....politics and the election....that we now put all of our trust in....was only months away....and we were not going to let any minister get away with a soft answer on LGBTQ! So Alistair Begg eventually retired....way too early....and we are less one more man of good repute in a pulpit that might potentially stand in the gap against what is going on in the church.
                    Pat Robertson had made some unwise statements over the years....but I thank God for his ministry also....as I was a supporter of the 700 Club....for years. Pat's time for shouting from the rooftops....the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ....came to an end in July of 2023....as he also was called home by the Father. Pat had a discernment and a passion for souls that was greater than his doctrinal knowledge. He strongly supported Trump at the beginning....but later saw that there were big problems....and said that Trump....after the January 6, 2021 failed insurrection....was living in an...."alternate reality."
                     David Wilkerson was a modern day Puritan Pentecostal evangelist....odd as that may sound. I'll give you an interesting anecdote. Wilkerson had attended a concert of the biggest Christian musical artist of the day.....to see what this was all about. According to David....the singer's husband played the guitar and with a rose in his mouth. I was at one of this singer's concerts at the time....and her husband did indeed play his guitar with a rose in his mouth. Wilkerson said that he could see demons on the stage....and he ran up the aisle shouting....."Ichabod....the glory has departed!" That was David Wilkerson! I am fully confident in saying that had David Wilkerson lived.....(he died suddenly in 2011)....he would not for one minute have fallen under the sway of the false prophet Donald Trump.
                    God has taken home just about all of the men....(there are one or two left....somewhere).....who have the gravitas and national prominence to say something that the media will pick up on....and the nation's evangelicals will at least listen to. In other words....we have no spokesman left who are willing to stand in the gap....defend the gospel of Jesus Christ....and tell the church that they are depending upon their own might and power....and through a boastful and corrupt and vile man and false prophet at that.
                    There is not a man that I mentioned here....who does not leave me in the dust as to faithfulness or fruit for the kingdom. One the one hand I have no right to be critical. Proverbial speaking it would take me an eternity to even get to meet them in heaven....but on the other hand....no man is greater than his calling.....and if there is anything that we should learn today it is that even good men have to be careful when they become too successful. These type of men need to know this....so that they can examine themselves every day....and plead to God that they never think that God's needs their ministry.
                      

Addendum: There is a Reformed pastor who has been in the news a lot lately....Doug Wilson....out of Idaho. The secular news will describe him as someone who was relatively unknown until lately....but in evangelicalism....he has been very well known for many decades. He has started an association of churches across America....among other things. Hegseth is a member of one of those churches. One might say that this then would be the voice that is missing. Wilson has appeared many times on the same dais as Sproul and Piper and others. When we had a Reformed Christian bookstore....twenty-five years ago....I had two of Doug Wilson's books on the shelf. In fact I still have a copy of both of them in my basement. He said recently....that I heard recently anyway...that his plans will take hundreds of years to see their fruition. This that he presents is Christian nationalism....almost at its worst. This is not the voice that I wrote about above.

Lord's Day Post......We Need Each Other

Preface: I do what I do....in these posts....for almost seventeen years now. It requires time....and a willingness to be criticized....but that is what I feel that I need to do. Someone else has something else that they feel that they need to do. It may be in teaching Bible study....or the tedious and often unrecognized duties of a deacon. It may be in going house to house....or into the prisons and hospitals and old folks homes. It may be in sending money to missionaries....or it may be as missionaries. It may be as a pastor or church secretary. Some have more glory in the church's eyes than others....but not in God's eyes....for He chooses us and give us everything that we have and everything that we need. I need to warn the church....that it has settled for preaching that will not change lives....and has been sucked into the culture....particularly in politics. I need to warn that we in the church no longer know what it means to be born again....and throughout all of this I need to examine myself....or I might be the one with delusion. We need each other. The following was first posted this past July:  

               Economist Milton Friedman rather famously in 1980 gave a talk and produced a video....in which he held up a pencil and said that there is not...."a single person in the world who can make this pencil." He then went on to talk about the need for wood and steel for a saw and the compressed graphite and the rubber from the eraser and the yellow paint and the glue....all coming from different parts of the world. His point was that it takes everyone working together to make capitalism work.
               The Apostle Paul made a similar point many centuries before as he described....through the Holy Spirit....how believers are all part of the body. Some parts may have more glory than others but we all need each other.
               In 1975 I was working at a beer distributor....and two of the best tennis players in the world walked in to buy a case of pop.....some of you mistakenly call it soda. Those two players were Vitas Gerulaitis and Evonne Goolagong....who were on the then professional team tennis....Pittsburgh Triangles. I played tennis at the time and knew who they were. They were friendly and talkative....and I followed their careers. Some people may have more glory in this world than others....but we are all just people....come into the world estranged from the creator God of everything....and in need of mercy through salvation.
               A friend was talking to me the other day about how divided the church was. He was really distraught. Some have more glory than others. John MacArthur had more glory than my friend who is the janitor in his small church....who has more glory than me.....because everyone has and deserves more glory than me....but we need each other. John MacArthur could not do it without the janitor in his church....for if there were no janitors in that megachurch....there would not have ever been a megachurch.
               Christians known as....Reformed....with their history of doctrinal soundness....have a glory deservingly unto themselves. Pentecostals in my experience with them....share the gospel with a passion more than anyone. Some in the church today know more than others that Jesus is coming back right now....because they have a passion for Jesus to return right now....and Jesus rewards that passion, There is a glory for the churches in Africa and Asia and Eastern Europe that we in the West can only read about. There is a glory for the common uneducated laborer that the genius billionaire will never know.
               There is a glory for the humble....and a glory for the servant.....and a glory for the minister of a small fundamentalist church that the megachurch pastor of tens of thousands will never know.....but the grandest glory of all....is the glory that any one of us....Jew or Greek....man or woman....master or bondservant.....can give to the only who deserves all the glory....the Son of Man who came to set us free....who ascended to the Father....and who pleads our case and gives us strength to persevere until He comes again....to receive from all creation the glory and honor that has always been His! Marantha.....Lord Jesus.....come!

Afterthought: A few posts down there is a nine-minute YouTube testimony from Pete Maravich....given at a Billy Graham crusade. Please watch this and be blessed.....but in it....towards the end....he says this...."I want all of you here tonight to know this about Peter Maravich....you may never have heard of me....it makes no difference....I'm just one person on this earth....saved by the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ...." Billy Graham was just one person on this earth....as was Pete Maravich....as am I....and as are you. Each one of us is given something to do. This is what I do. What it is that God has called you to do? If nothing else....please pray for me....and I will pray for you....as I pray for each visitor that comes to these posts!

"For Even Satan Disguises Himself As An Angel Of Light."

"And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. " 2 Corinthians 11: 12-14 ESV 

              A few days ago while doing some research on crypto currency I tried to formulate a question in my mind. It was difficult to put into words but I fashioned something on Google anyway. I thought at the time that if I asked of anyone the same question that they would not even understand what I was getting at. So I was surprised to say the least when the AI function of Google understood my question better than I expressed it.

                Yesterday....at a White House dinner....Mark Zuckerberg sat next to Trump....and Bill Gates sat next to Melania who was on the other side of Trump. Big tech wants AI to have freedom....and Trump just wants profits. 
                 I have been opining against Facebook the entire time of these posts....for a number of reasons that are shared by many....but maybe the biggest reason is that it takes the Christian....puts him or her on a pedestal....with gilded framed mirrors on all sides of them.....and they just sit and gaze at themselves....as they waste their time and their life....updating others on their life....and checking out what everyone else is doing.
                 We never should have had anything to do with this digital monstrosity. It was created and sold through greed and lies....but Christian ministries all over the world....even some of the best of ministries and their internationally known ministers....tell everyone to check them out on Facebook. Franklin Graham has praised Donald Trump....a genuine biblical false prophet....on Facebook for over eight years now. God is patient with these ministers that show little discernment....as He is patient with me and my many gross errors....but the bottom line is that we are pretty much done for right now....no matter how many Christians and visitors may get something good out of Facebook ministries.
                  We long ago talked ourselves into participating in this company with explanations such as....well its a good way to see updated pictures of the grandkids. We have forgotten how Satan works. Zuckerberg got his beginning....humiliating female students....and then lied to his partners....and now he is sitting next to the President of the United States.....another person who is driven by pure greed.....trying to expand a technology that surely....surely is part of the rise of the antichrist!

DISPATCHES

Pastors across this nation were given an opportunity to move back into their calling. I received...as many of you probably have....a text from Trump that began....I WANT TO TRY TO GET TO HEAVEN. His shtick is to tell evangelicals that all of the good things he is doing for America are getting him closer to heaven. There should be tens of thousands of pulpits this Lord's Day using this as a sermon message....that one does not work their way to heaven....but there probably won't be....for our pulpits are still in darkness....and it will remain that way unless God has mercy upon us....and lessens the judgment in this area....over what we have become in the church.

I haven't been to a major league baseball game in 20 years but if I were at one I would like to catch a ball hit into the stands and give it to my grandson....but I wouldn't walk briskly across an empty aisle of seats and grab it from a woman who had just climbed over the seats in front of her and was about to pick it up. That woman in the news....did something dumb....and now is having a difficult time with the notoriety in this sick culture that we live in.

I am on college campuses fairly often....leaving materials for this website....and I would have this advice for students. Study in college with all seriousness....preparing as if Jesus would tarry in his return....but incorporate an Internet sermon on the Lord's Day and at mid-week from either Charles Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones....to supplement what you receive in church. God will do the rest.

"September 4....I mentioned below how Trump has to do or say something every day....to keep the pot stirred....and to keep our now feeble minds from once again thinking for ourselves. Today's outrage is that Trump tomorrow is going to change the name of the Department of Defense....to the old....Department of War. This is a disturbingly troubled man....who has chosen the least capable people....to crusade for the least important issues.

This is a new preface to a post below...."When a nation is as if under siege....it could be military or economic or political or domestic....it often opens the door to a tyrant....for he stops the hemorrhaging....and promises to make the country great again."  

Are there any Christian pastors....from sea to shining sea....who might in the next two days....before they enter their pulpits to speak for God....just give at least one short quiver....or tremble for a second or two....at just the possibility that they may have misread the sign and sent their people through the wicked gate instead of the wicket gate?

BLOOD MOON....There will be a total lunar eclipse this Sunday. North America and South America will be shut out on this one.....but Asia and Australia and much of Europe will see it. If you want to stream it you will have to check the times across the United States....but it will be in the afternoon. The next blood moon will be next America

UPDATE Sunday 6 PM: A blood moon was visible over the Kremlin and parts of the Ukraine and Jerusalem just a few hours ago.

VENEZUELA....The following was a Dispatch from 2019...."WHY DO VETERANS SUPPORT HIM? Donald Trump successfully avoided the draft for a long time during Vietnam. As he once said on a shock radio show....his 'Vietnam' was in avoiding STDs. As I wrote in an earlier post...."He doesn't seem to have any concept of the horror of war....or the value of human life....in spite of all his rhetoric about bringing our troops home. For if this were truly the case....how could he have uttered the absurd comment that invading Venezuela would be....'cool'.....as one book reported......or from a different book....again on Venezuela.....'That's the country we should be going to war with. They have all that oil....and they are right on our backdoor.".....or on John McCain.....'He's not a war hero.....he's a war hero because he was captured.....I like people who weren't captured'." 

It's been noted that Trump used to brag about how rich he was....but doesn't seem to do that anymore. The reason is that he is making so much money while president that he wants to keep it out of the news.  The best estimates are that Trump was worth in the area of $2 billion in his first term....and that had been at least doubled in the first eight months of his second term....and that is without crypto currency....where he was once totally against it....but now is projected to make billions by endorsing it and putting out his own coins.

You may have heard it in a movie....for it has been used in a few films....the Latin phrase....Qui Tacet Consentire Videtur....'he who is silent....is said to agree'....or....'silence gives consent.' The pastors around this country just utterly failed us in not warning us. They essentially said nothing....their silence in effect consenting to what this man was doing to evangelicalism..

I have been a conservative Republican for forty-five years....an evangelical conservative Republican for forty-three years. I was Tea Party and highly critical of milquetoast Republicans such as Mitch McConnel and Paul Ryan....but as for wisdom and honor and integrity and knowledge....they tower above Patel and the Hegseth and the Bondi and the Gabbard and Vance and Noem and the rest. I voted for this man in the White House in 2016....but within a few months saw that there was a serious problem....and have studied him as if I were a biographer for nine years. God has given this man to evangelical conservative Republicans as a judgment....because we chose to worship God and Milcom....and we chose to ignore God's warnings....and follow this man's promises. 

Trump continues to purge men and minds and ideas....the exact same thing that the National Socialists did. Today he continued his attack on the Smithsonian. Here are his words....."The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how terrible our Country is, how bad slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been-Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, Nothing about the future." Did you pick up on that....how we talk too much about how bad slavery was? We cannot talk too much about kidnapping multitudes of men and women....shipping them over to our plantations as if they were....bananas....half of whom may have died in the ship hold's before even getting there...and then building our country on their sweat. And then after God judged us in our horrid Civil War....we in as much as condescended to permit their descendants to find a place in a city somewhere....and find some work to feed themselves! May God have mercy upon us for our pretending to be better than any other human being!

Pete Maravich was born in Aliquippa....Beaver County....Western Pennsylvania....about eight miles from where I am typing right now....in June of 1947....and he died at forty years old on a basketball court....in a pick-up game....with Christian author and psychologist James Dobson on the court. Focus On The Family's James Dobson....died three days ago. Pistol Pete would leave this earthly body....to be with his glorious Savior and Lord and King....nine months after he gave this testimony at a Billy Graham crusade in Columbia, South Carolina....in April of 1987.

                                                                  

Wanted....Study Group....Must Want Jesus To Return....And Believe That He Is Near

                I asked our son if he was part of a study group in law school....and he said....no....and that he didn't think that they were that helpful....and he graduated near the top of his class. My wife and I are fans of the late 70's television show....The Paper Chase. I purchased the DVD series and I think that we have only two episodes left in the show that ran for four years. One of the key elements from the 1973 film of the same name and the TV show was that the main characters....1Ls....first year law students....formed a study group....where they each concentrated on a class.

              I am a little frustrated at times at the lack of serious and concerted and regular conversations with other Christians on the nearness and the coming and the great joy but trepidation of the return or our Lord and Savior and King. There was a scene from the great John Wayne film....The Searchers....where...I think Wayne's name was Ethan....where Ethan....in the wilderness of the desert....met up with an old Indian chief and friend....who spoke very little understandable English....but when he first met with Ethan....he shouted a couple of times....Hallelujah!....Hallelujah!
             Oh that I had that bravado to shout....Hallelujah....when meeting up with Chrisitan friends!
             The reason for this post is that if any readers out there....obviously local friends....who believe and hope as I do that Jesus is near....because the pain and terror and horror in this world is just too vexing....and it is only going to get worse....much worse....if any out there want to meet....as a study group in a way....and bless and extoll our Savior....while studying and researching God's Word as to the Second Coming....please let me know!