Rabbi Cahn.....Which Is It?

               I would like to have the opportunity to ask Jonathan Cahn this question...."Rabbi Cahn....let me get this straight....Trump is Jehu....which means that God gave him to us to in effect save us....just like He gave Jehu to Israel. It's not only you I'm addressing this to.....but all of the prophecy experts and pastors everywhere who may not use Jehu as a reference but they still think that God gave us Trump to make us great again. So far so good right? OK....so how do you figure in all the warnings about demon gods and everything else that your ministry has grown to enormous proportions upon? You and all these pastors are conflicted....is Trump Jehu who will make us great again....or is judgment imminent? You have been playing it both ways! Your ministry is built on harbingers of various sorts....harbingers of judgement....but you keep on telling us how great Trump is. As for Trump....he has continuously....for over a decade now....told us ad nausium....how our best days are ahead....and we are going to keep on winning....winning....winning....and now it is a....golden age....that is ahead. You don't really believe that do you....for it is completely at odds with God's Word! I call it being a false prophet.....because he is telling us the exact opposite....the exact....opposite....of what not only God's Word tells us....but that you and all the other prophecy experts tell us. Which is it Rabbi? Is God's judgment near....as your books tell us....or if we turn to God....will judgement be called off?

Note: Trump is part of the judgment...on America....on the world....and on the church. There is a niche in evangelicalism with even an extreme interest is the return of the Lord Jesus Christ....but even here there is the Jonathan Cahn effect where it is titillation of the subject matter...the demon gods and the ancient mysteries revealed.....and not mortification that drives the interest. As for the rest of us....we are just not that interested....we have more pressing things on our plate....like the '26' midterms....it is as simple as that....and therein is part of the falling away of the church. Jonah was very clear....'judgment in 40 days unless'....and Nahum was very clear....'get ready-it's coming.' Jonathan Cahn and all the others are not clear....'judgment is coming....but Trump is here!'

The Warnings Of Forty Years Were Ignored

               It was a short two-paragraph post that began with this sentence....."King Charles I was ruling England without calling a Parliament which were the people's representatives. Taxation, questionable financial dealings and forced loans were some of the issues of contention between the king and his opponents." Oliver Cromwell was mentioned....and a few other people from English history. I finished the post and was about to push the 'publish ' button when....well I'll just add here what became the third and final paragraph of the post...."As I typed in the period of this last sentence, I was somewhat startled as my iPhone trumpeted....(in retrospect....and interesting word to choose)....an emergency weather alert for our area. Thunder and lightning have been lighting up the sky for an hour and the sound of heavy rain pelting the chimney cover has been echoing down to where I sit. I responded to the alert to find out that a Flash Flood Watch is in effect until tomorrow but cannot help but relate this to the warnings that God has given to us for over forty years....and I'm reminded of the words of Jesus in the 16th chapter of Matthew....'When it is evening, you say, it will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, 'There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening. You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times'."
             This whole post was published on June 14....2015....10:01 PM to be exact....Trump's 69th birthday....two days later....June 16....2015....Donald Trump famously....(now infamously)....came down that escalator in the Trump Tower....into not only the 2016 campaign for president....but right smack-dab into the middle of evangelicalism....neither of which would afterwards be the same. We had come down off of the high ground....and the flash flood had come....and carried us all off!

"Will You Still Need Me....When I'm Eighty-Four?"....You Bet You Will!

                                 

                A Paul McCartney concert is scheduled in Pittsburgh on November 11. He's 83 years old. He was 14 when he wrote the melody to....When I'm 64....and 23 when the Beatles recorded it. He must have thought that 64 years was old. I was just starting to mature when I was 64! 

               Mentally....at 75 years old....I feel like I could go back to college. Hey....don't laugh...I went back to college at fifty years old in pursuit of another degree. Maybe I'm one of those who like to go back to college every 25 years?
                It doesn't appear that Moses lost any mental acumen when he died at 120. David seemed pretty good when he died....Soloman may not have been as quick or innovative late in life....but he was wiser after screwing up big time....and the Apostle John seemed in top form when he penned Revelation....probably in his late 80s. So where does all this nonsense come from about mandatory retirements at 65?
                And where do ministers get the idea that....short of tripping all the time walking to the pulpit....that they get to retire at all? John MacArthur was still preaching powerfully at 85....maybe he talked a little slower but listen sometime to his final sermon. God just took him home. Billy Graham was warning America more passionately at 90 than he was at 40. R. C. Sproul's last sermon pleaded with the listener as much or more than he did while a young man in Pennsylvania. If David Wilkerson were still with us in January of 2021....he died in 2011 at the age of 79....he would be walking the through the crowd at the ellipse yelling...."Ichabod! Ichabod!"
                OK I get winded pushing my battery-operated self-propelled lawn mower....and I have to bring a case of bottled water in the house six bottles at a time....what does that have to do with sitting back....which I'm still good at....and watching prophecy fulfilled? 
                Aren't gray hairs supposed to mean wisdom? How can you know what the 80s were like in the church if there is no from that time period to tell you? How do you know what is fake if you do not first know what is genuine? How can you shout...."Ichabod....the glory has departed"....if you do not know what the glory was to begin with?
                 Learning through mistakes is invaluable....and I'm a billionaire in that field! Learning through experience is invaluable. I retired from my job at the end of October....2016....eight days before the election. I averaged 130 posts in the eight years from 2009 to retirement....and 280 posts in the eight years from retirement to 2025.
                 God brings us home in His perfect timing. We're not professional athletes. We don't wear out. I thought that watching professional sports was great when I was young. Now....I can't think of a greater waste of valuable time than following a sports team....beyond moderation....every year....let alone a professional team for every season....every year!
                  So you are....64....and everyone thinks that you are old. Tell them that you feel sorry for them....because Jesus is coming back real soon....and they do not have the time to gain the wisdom and discernment to even see that!

                                                                

                                                                             

                

Annie Get Your Crown

I took the title of this post from the award winning Broadway play of 1946 and the Academy Award winning (score) film of 1950....Annie Get You Gun....based on the legendary Annie Oakley. It was first posted in April of 2017:                

             Consider two women if you would. I'll call one Anne....and the other Annie. They are both 70 years old. Anne was born into money....private schools....a debutante ball.....Sarah Lawrence College....all of that. Her net worth has been in the billions....or today's equivalent of it....all of her life. Anne was physically beautiful...and still is as she had all that money could buy for various expensive cosmetic surgeries and beauty products to keep her skin soft and wrinkle free. She also is very healthy....as every sign of illness was addressed immediately by the best doctors in the world.
             Annie was born in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not far from the steel mills. She started smoking at fourteen because she didn't know any better. She began working as a cleaning woman at the historic Westinghouse Air Brake when she graduated from high school at 18 years of age. She has never had a thousand dollars to spare in her entire life. She still cleans banks and schools at 70 years old. There is no discernible shape or style whatsoever to her hair. Her skin is wrinkled and pasty....and she is not well although she really has no personal doctor to diagnose anything.....rather she will go to the emergency room when necessary.....which had been two or three times in her life. There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of fairness to life as it concerns Anne and Annie.
             God had humbled Annie early in life as she made a mess of it with men....and never married. There was a large yellow brick church on a hill that Annie would always admire when she was on that hill. One particular Sunday while in her thirties, she bundled up on a cold winter day, walked through the red doors, and sat in the last pew. It was as if God dragged her out of bed that day and pulled her up that hill. She heard something from that old man in the pulpit that she had never heard before. It was like water that starts to boil and then one has to hurry and turn the heat down on the stove to keep the water from boiling over the top of the pot.....as if Annie reached out that morning to grab the robe of Jesus....and been raised to life from the spiritually dead.....and has ever since echoed praises to her Savior and her Lord off of those cold bank marble and tiled cafeteria floors. Her body may often ache but her soul is comforted in the pure joy of grace bestowed....and of knowing that a crown awaits her!
               Anne married the perfect man....handsome and richer than her. Her children are all highly successful and have provided a dozen beautiful grandchildren. Anne attends a majestic glass and steel church but she has never once heard the words that changed Annie's life. They were similar words that she heard but sterile....lacking power....and she has no idea that something is even missing. Anne gives more money to the church every Sunday than Annie makes in a whole year....but knows only a name....and not a reigning King. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of fairness here either....for God had humbled Annie....but never Anne.
               Granted, there have been many examples that are the exact opposite where the poor woman had a chip on her shoulder against God her whole life....while the rich woman's sole purpose was in using her wealth to help others and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My point here as it concerns riches and a life of ease....or poverty....is that both are temporary.....with an eternity to follow! Surely there is someone within fifty yards of where I sit right now who is an Annie......and who has been blessed so as to make all the wealth of the richest man in the world appear as nothing but a gilded dung hill.
               What is of everlasting importance is whether Anne or Annie.....who having been born either in riches or poverty....had also since been born anew.....born from above.....or as we hear most often.....born again.....adopted into God's family.....forgiven.....made heirs of an eternal inheritance.....and given God's Holy Spirit to know all these things.....and to rejoice in them.....and to have faith in that which cannot be seen....and strength to persevere.....and if it applies.....to discern the dangers that lurk within riches. This highlighting here of the temporal in no way lessens our concern for the Annies of the world....it rather does the opposite.....for whether one is born into money or not....they are both born into a spiritual deadness......and to be raised from this to life.....makes one almost immediately reach for the one not yet raised.....as if to pull them up also.....whether it be an Annie....or an Anne.

  

"Trouble Ahead, Prepare To Meet Thy God"

Preface: The following post is from September 13, 2019. It was a warning about a storm that was coming. Two months later a cluster of patients in Wuhan, China developed pneumonia symptoms that did not respond to treatment. Billy Graham wrote his book Storm Warning in 1991. It was published on New Years Day 1992....and the book was "completely revised and updated" in 2010. I no longer have the 1992 edition....so I don't know if the following comment from page 73 was also in the earlier edition....but I tend to think that it was not. He wrote...."I look back on my many years as an evangelist and wonder, Have I made the Christian faith look too easy......in my eagerness to tell the world about the greatest gift that comes 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 ourselves, turning our backs on pride, and sacrificing our earthly desires out of obedience to the Lord?" I do believe that this comment was in the original....."[This] storm warning carries a booming jolt of truth--Trouble Ahead; Prepare to Meet Thy God." 

Storm Warning

           As I watch with everyone else the progress of Hurricane Dorian....I'm reminded of another hurricane force storm that occurred in the eastern Mediterranean almost two thousand years ago that was recorded in great detail in the 27th chapter of the books of Acts. That storm also lasted a couple of weeks. There was a similar storm at the end of September 1969. (Mediterranean storms that might be equivalent to a category 1 hurricane are somewhat rare.) In that storm a 20,000 ton tanker....named the Angel Gabriel....struck a reef near Malta and split in two.
            As of this evening....Dorian just doesn't want to move away from parts of the Bahamas.....very similar to how Paul and his 275 other shipmates fought and fought the storm for many days. We still are not sure of the exact path that Dorian will take....but we are sure of this.....God rules the waves of the sea as he rules every atom in this universe.
            I wonder how many of those Roman soldiers....and that ship's crew.....and the inhabitants of Malta....eventually came to faith in Christ because of that storm? An "angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve" wrote Paul....and Paul relayed it to his shipmates....."that there would be no loss of life.....but the ship would be lost." God's Word speaks similarly to us today in that there will be no loss of eternal life to those who belong to and serve Christ.....but the ship will be lost. Paul himself must have been gravely concerned at first for the angel had to tell him not to be afraid. He then in turn told all that were with him to take courage.
            There is another storm coming folks. Meteorologists speak in terms of rotating low-pressure weather systems and maximum sustained winds but God's Word as it pertains to this storm that is coming speaks in terms of birth pangs. The rotating low-pressure....as it were....is almost becoming unbearable to watch.....while the maximum sustained winds are increasing.....the cries of pain all over this earth are increasing....and the contractions are coming closer together. We are still told to take courage....but therein is the rub....there is a difference between knowing what is ahead and yet remaining calm.....and having no knowledge of or concern for what is ahead......and remaining calm.
            Folks....we....meaning Christians.....on the whole....could not care less about judgment coming. You would have to have lived in the 80s to know what it was like for the church to know how far we had fallen....and that God was giving a strong warning of impending judgment....but our discernment is just about all gone. The Pre-Trib rapture has done it's damage as Christians think that they are going to get beamed up out of an NFL football game if necessary before the tough times start. Look at what's on Christian television....it's as if God exists just to make us happy! What was left of us were taken in by a huckster in Donald Trump whose idea of wisdom is getting every dollar owed us around the world. It is eerie.....personal opinion here....to see how we have regressed....but it in itself seems to be part and parcel of what God's Word tells us that the world will be like upon His return.
            Trump deconstructed conservatism....and built in its place Trumpism....with faulty steel and cheap concrete....and an ideology-free foreign policy built on the best sale price at the moment....weakening policies that which had kept us out of world war for seventy years. Domestically he has tormented us....purposely....poking and jabbing every day to stir up anger.....and foment hatred. He has been a destroyer his whole life....(seventy-five books...(now 107)....on his entire life have shown me this)....with not an ounce of empathy for any living thing.

Prayer For This Lord's Day

           I combined here three recent posts on Hitler....Up To 1934....1938....and 1939....under the post title....Hitler....1919-1939. There is an article out right now on CNN that compares what is happening in America to Hungary's Viktor Orban playbook. The article begins...."Weaponize the levers of government for partisan political gain. Pressure privately owned media companies to toe the party line. Punish the owners who resist and reward the ones who acquiesce." We saw Disney and Paramount....(CBS).....cave to the threats. The FCC is pressuring any and all media outlets to fall into line. Evangelicals think that this is a good thing. God has for ten years now blinded their eyes. How was your service this past Lord's Day? I know how it was....comfortable....and encouraging. I had wondered at times in the past how things could get so bad that families would be divided. I am beginning to see how it can happen....as the one side thinks that they are doing God's work....with no concern that the Bible warns against the very methods and types of people that are supposedly doing this....work for God. The other side....us....becomes the problem. It's a powerful emotion....thinking they are defending Christianity....but in order to be able to fall for this....the real power....in the preached Word of God....has to be absent. If I could do but one thing in these posts....it would be to encourage Christians to.....I use the word....supplement....their regular preaching with the preaching that can cut to the very core of our soul....and show us our own egregious errors and lack of wisdom. Try to prove me wrong on this....incorporate two sermons a week into you schedule....from preachers from the past. (if you could see God's schedule....you would change yours) Just Google Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon YouTube.....and prepare to be weaned away from Fox News and podcasters and anything and everything else that has misdirected where your trust should be. The topic of the sermon does not matter....because the Holy Spirit is moving on the heart more than the intellect.

Hitler....Up To 1934             

                My disgust with the historical memory of Hitler is such that when I have referenced him a few times in these posts of almost seventeen years I would refer to him as....the German Fuhrer....but I will use his name since this post is about him.
                 The world looked at him as a comical figure...with his little mustache. When he came on the scene in 1919 Germany was falling apart. Hitler wanted a racially pure Germany....and he hated the Jews and the Socialists. He joined the fledgling German Workers Party....and became a prominent member....raging in his speeches. There was something about his speeches that mesmerized....and people just wanted to follow him. He demanded that he was to be the sole leader of the now newly named Nazi Party. If someone didn't get on board they were taken aside and....urged to reconsider....but Hitler and others moved too quickly and what followed was the infamous....Munich Beer Hall Putsch in November of 1923....a rally meant to be a coup in Bavaria that would then march to Berlin. The coup failed and Hitler wound up in prison for nine months. His sentence was longer than that but he knew people high up and he was pardoned. He started writing Mein Kampf while in prison.
                  As the 1920s wore on...the Nazi Party fizzled in the elections because things were looking a little better economically....what with the United States and others providing low interest loans. And then came the crash of 1929....the best thing that could have happened to Hitler....or so he thought at the time.
                 The army of Brownshirts was now large and strong and brutal....and Hitler would then form what would be the SS as personal guardians.....and then the secret police....the Gestapo.
                  Everyone higher up who also hated the Weimar regime....disliked this raging former corporal....but they thought that they needed him to stop the violence in the streets....and they thought that they could control him....so they gave him power...and he was appointed as Chancellor. By this time though everyone except his growing group of rabid worship followers knew that there might be a problem.
                  Hitler wasn't even a citizen....being Austrian....and he needed that citizenship in order to run for office. The second time around was a whole new ballgame. The people from all areas of society flocked to him as the savior who promised to make Germany great again.
                  This new Third Reich was forming now....and Hitler flew from city to city to rallies....promising a 1000 year reign that turned out to be only twelve years. That's when he made his biggest decision yet....and the first in his incarnation as savior. It was time for paybacks. His forces rounded up all of his old opponents and others who could not be trusted....hundreds died....many of whom were executed....including his long time closest ally....the leader of the Brownshirts....who worried that Hitler was betraying the movement. Rohm was thrown in jail....given a gun with one bullet to kill himself....and then shot in his cell when he refused to kill himself. This night that extended over a couple of days and nights came to be known as....the Night of the Long Knives. Would the Brownshirts accept him after he had their leader killed? Hitler gave one of his patented speeches on protecting the country....and wallah....they were all back in the fold.
                   Most of the Christian church came on board....believing the promises that were made....that the church was too much of an important German institution to do anything to. Of course that promise went by the wayside.
                   It was too late now. The popular Hindenburg....elected again as president....who was talked into naming Hitler as Chancelor....was now only an old-man figurehead....and died shortly afterwards....as he could only watch the change in the country and its people. It was only 1934.

Afterthought: We need to be aware of history. Germany after World War I was divided as we are today. They were susceptible to the rantings of a man who promised to restore nationalism and greatness. He used fear and hatred to push all the opposition out of the way. Even the church fell for the promise of prosperity and greatness. Paul asked of the Galatians....who had bewitched them? Were they so foolish to begin in the Spirit....but go on to perfection in the flesh?

Hitler Up To 1938

                One of the problems we face....those of us who know there are multiple serious problems with who Donald Trump is....primary mental and psychological....is that when Hitler is mentioned then Trump supporters fly off the handle....outraged that he would be compared to such an evil man. It's a deterrent to even bring up the subject....and a win for Trump....but the issue is with the methods that the German Fuhrer used to captivate the German public....the promises and gifts and threats and intimidations and instilling fear and anger....and their similarity with the rise of Donald Trump.
                 During the 2016 election reports came out that Ivana....Trump's first wife....told her lawyer that Trump kept a copy of Hitler's speeches by his bedside. Trump called that fake news....as he calls everything negative on him fake news. Reports continued and Trump then said that he didn't have such a book but if he did have such a book he would not have read it. That absurd statement is typical Trump that just makes you roll your eyes. Reports continued and Trump then was forced to say that a Jewish friend of his gave him the book. Reports continued and then it was reported that the friend was identified....and that friend said that he is not Jewish. This is Donald Trump. This is a man whose social is called....Truth....but he himself cannot now nor could he ever in his life....distinguish between truth and lies....but the point remains that he....a man who is famous for not being a reader....apparently was interested in why Hitler's speeches were so effective!
                    A couple of posts below this is a narrative on Hitler's rise up until 1934. This post takes it a few years later. After He had purged all of his enemies and potential enemies....the work towards building the broken economy started. Hitler expanded the autobahn and provided German cars for the people to drive on the autobahn. He was building everywhere which put people to work. Pensions were increased and many and various benefits were awarded to the people such as paid vacations and child care benefits. The army doubled in numbers almost immediately and work started on building a powerful Luftwaffe. Submarine building took off. The Nazis confiscated a lot of money from the Jews to finance their projects. They just took their money! As all these other projects were being built....so were concentration camps!
                  Germany had previously been awarded the 1936 summer Olympic games....and Hitler was determined to show the world the greatness of Germany. We get the term....Olympic village....from the changes that he made in hosting the athletes. The stadium was....state-of-the-art. Everything went almost perfectly and the games were a great success.
                   Young people were mobilized to grow into patriotic and physically fit adults...ready and willing to serve in the army. Propaganda was one of the keys....particularly through radio and the film industry and newspapers and posters!
                   Hitler began to expand the territory. They just sashayed into the Rhineland and no one said a thing. The Austrian government....'requested'....that the German army enter the country for stabilization. The people cheered them....and then Austria became part of the German Reich. Hitler then occupied the Sudetenland....and again England and France said nothing. It was now only 1938.
                    The point here is that the destitute economy was now expanding....and the people were told to take pride....and they were rewarded....propaganda was now the key to win over the hearts and minds....territories were being added....all opposition was being silenced....they were celebrating Hitler's birthday every year. Germany was great again and he was the reason.
                     We in America are between a rock and a hard place....in that the very issues that should be brought up along with Trump's rise....Trump uses to 'prove' that there is a Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Note: There are a number of excellent movies out there on Corrie ten Boom....the most well-known of course being....The Hiding Place....but....Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace....should also be watched.

Hitler Up To 1939

   In 1938....Hitler demanded a return of a part of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland....that had a heavily German speaking population. He claimed that the German speaking people were being persecuted....that was his excuse. England and France and Italy gave him what he wanted in what was called....the Munich Agreement. Czechoslovakia was not represented in the talks that ceded the Sudetenland to Hitler. British prime minister Neville Chamberlain famously returned to London with Hitler's signature....holding the paper over his head....where Hitler promised to stop his aggression in Czechoslovakia....but one week later the German Fuhrer proceeded to occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia's Moravian and Bohemian areas. Hitler had already purged most of the Prussian military generals who might not have gone along with his plans of conquest. Although outraged....all that Britain and France did was to guarantee protection for Poland if they were invaded. Does this sound familiar? Putin wants areas of the Ukraine with Russian speaking people. He already was essentially given the Crimea....although he only annexed it....and that didn't stop him.
                Hitler next wanted the free city of Danzig....which today is Gdansk. He then signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union with secretive elements to it....which would free him to invade the western areas of Poland....while Stalin could take other parts of Poland that he wanted. Hitler did invade Poland....and England and France declared war on Germany. Stalin then invaded eastern areas of Poland....but England and France were not ready for another declaration of war....this time on the Soviet Union.
                On the home front in Germany. Hitler always wanted an excuse for his aggression....(the Reichstag fire of 1933 started it all)....and he got it on November 9, 1938 with the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a German-Polish Jewish man. Brownshirts and the SS and even some German youth and citizens then tore through German towns....ransacking Jewish stores and synagogues....in what has become known as Kristallnacht....or The Night Of Broken Glass.
                On the home front today in America........Lindsey Graham thinks that Putin should be given some of what he wants but that European boots should then be placed on the ground in the Ukraine....which would deter Putin from any further invasions of the Ukraine!

Note: The news is dominated these past few days by Trump using federal troops ostensibly to make the capital streets safer....and beautiful. The intellectual affliction of the day is that we cannot....nor would we desire to....think through issues and take them further. We....you and I....created these urban areas. There were always those who sought their fortunes by selling us what we do not need.....and we complied....this ever since the 1960s. As this culture evolved we sat there enjoying that which we thought made us happier....but there were consequences. Not everyone can buy these things....but everyone wants to buy them....and many do....at the expense of building stable lives with the resources available. So what do we do? Well we just blame those who are not demographically as fortunate as we were. You see....we are honest and hard working....and they obviously are not. We have an Olympics coming up in America as well as the World Cup in soccer. Trump brags about this all the time. Well....Hitler bragged about the 1936 Olympics for the same reason....to show the world how great Germany was becoming. Homeless and slovenly appearing people....as well as Gypsies....were taken out of Berlin.... and the streets were cleaned up. There would be no crime while the world watched.

Lord....We have this extra hour of sleep tonight in America. Right now your children are thinking about the World Series....or this football game....or that world event.....even the shepherds that you have given to us. We have all failed you Lord in one way or to one degree or another....and you have judged us....for we are stumbling around with no light at all....or very little light. You have taken home those faithful shepherds who would not let us sleep or stray. I am no better....and even worse than my brothers....who may seriously err on what is to our left....as I seriously err on what is to our right.....but tonight Lord....if it be thy will....and if it be to thy glory alone....may thy Holy Spirit shake the walls around where these shepherds sleep....every bit as violently as you shook the walls in your servant Paul's jail cell! Do not let them sleep oh Lord. They may think that they have an extra hour of sleep....but Lord take it all away....and have them literally stumble or shuffle up into their pulpits or behind their lecterns....with their eyes red....not from lack of sleep alone oh Lord....but from crying at the realization that your Holy Spirit has given them of how greatly they have failed us in the pews....failing to have fed the sheep that you entrusted into their care....and failing to protect them from a wolf in their own clothing....and failing to warn them to prepare....for the Master is coming soon! Let it be tomorrow Lord that your glory returns to sanctuaries....not even another week....for if the winnowing would come right now....we would be blown away with all the chaff. For thy name's sake Oh Lord....that Satan could not take delight any longer in tempting your children away from their heavenly Father! 

              

Two Prayers......Almost Nine Years Apart

Preface: I posted the prayer that is directly below in December of 2016. You can clearly see from it how I looked at Donald Trump at the time. I voted for him....although I admit that I did not like him....and celebrated his win. Only four months after this post....this prayer....it was March of 2017....Trump started doing some things that candidate Trump gave us no clue of. I started reading....and watching....and taking notes....and researching.....right up to today....over eight and a half years later. I mention in this prayer that Trump in his first term had some people around him....and some in his cabinet....who were humble and God-fearing....and a wonderful and capable Vice President....but that is not the case this time....not with his appointed loyalists....or with his cabinet....or with his vice president. President Trump in his first term was just bad....an amateur and an egotist....but something happened to him from the day of the 2020 election to January 6 of 2021. He is not the same person....for the vile has become diabolical. How can I use such a word? When someone in essence enters into the church....the American church....the conservative evangelical element of it anyway....and leads them like a pied piper....away from trust in and obedience to Christ....and when the result is a decimated evangelicalism....with a gospel of works and patriotism.........lacking compassion for those who have not been given what we have been given....when in this case that man....strongarms and threatens....and then carries out those threats.....and causes pastors to cower and remain silent....then the word diabolical applies. Shame on evangelicals....not for making this mistake....for we are all sinners who err....but for ignoring the compelling every day evidence that show this to be a troubled and despotic individual....who will do what he has done his whole life....and that is deceive and destroy.

 Posted. December of 2016:

            Lord I lift this man up to you who is to become our president.... for mercies upon his soul Lord and for wisdom that might in turn lead to mercies upon we your children. I see myself in him Lord, not the fame or wealth or great abilities in business but in his blindness and even arrogance. I see myself when I was cast off from your blessings of grace and knowledge of your majesties....I see myself even now in need of the same mercies. Lord, you permitted him to attain that which this world calls great success...show him that it is but a dung heap. He finds himself in a position that he believes talent and purpose has brought him....maybe even fate as he perceives fate to be. Surely his countenance of supreme confidence must dissipate at night when he has nothing to do but lie in bed and contemplate what has happened to him in the last year. Surely Lord the responsibilities must unnerve him. Does he marvel Lord? I pray that he doesn't, for he would not marvel at what you have done for he has shown no inclination to consult you, therefore he would have to marvel at what he perceives he himself to have done....just as Nebuchadnezzar had marveled. In whatever is in store for him in this exalted position he is to assume I pray that if it be thy will that his eyes would be opened to the realities surrounding him...the realities of a world that has rejected its Creator and will therefore be judged by its Creator...and the reality that he also has fallen under this prideful self-exaltation and is in need of the mercy of redemption. Cause him to tremble Lord....at your holiness....at his sinfulness....and if it be in thy plans to have mercy upon us then cause him to humble himself before you just as you did so with us.... and that the accompanying eternal and unsurpassable blessings would also be his as they are ours. I ask not Lord for him to be the champion that he projects himself to be, for you alone Lord are our champion...our captain...and our king. I ask not Lord that our nation would merely be granted more time to move further away from you... but that it would...in whatever time you give us...display clearly to the world a refusal to follow the schemes of those whose plans are for building a new world in total antithesis to you its Creator. Lord, this man is not alone in need of mercy for we ourselves have failed miserably. Show us this Lord....and set us apart once again....for your purposes. If you should will it that we return to you then no force on this earth or in the heavens can thwart our return. Lord, this man has advisers all around him. Some acknowledge that only you cause nations to rise and to fall but most do not acknowledge you. Blind this man who will be called the president to those that are blind to you Lord! Give this man no strength apart from trust in you Lord, for any other perceived strength is worthless and deceiving. Then should turmoil come, we shall have perfect peace Lord...not necessarily peace as man views peace...but peace in the midst of travail....our minds set upon you who not only created the heavens and the earth but controls everything and everyone in this your creation.....and if peace should come....as man views peace....we could do nothing but gratefully acknowledge that you have brought order out of chaos for thy glory alone.

My prayer today:

         Lord.....if it be Thy will....and to Thy glory alone....I pray that Thou might open the eyes of Thy children to see who this man truly is. Have mercy upon us for going the way of Balaam....for profit. Have mercy on our pulpits for not warning of this false prophet....and on us for not demanding that they warn us. Lord....we forgot that Thou and Thou alone hast protected and sustained us over these many years and even centuries. We have thus went to Egypt for help. Bring us back as prodigals Lord....for Thy name's sake! Use this falling away for good....in winnowing us....that we might come together.....repenting together.....hoping and trusting together....free from the bondage....with the fog lifted that restricted our view of Thy imminent return....and the doldrums replaced by gales of wind from Thy Holy Spirit....guiding and empowering us even in our weakness....that we might show that Thy mercies are as great as Thy judgments....and Thy staff as gentle as Thy rod was harsh!

The Art Of Being Bombastic

             There was concern about the aesthetic and historic integrity of Trump's plans to build a ballroom next to the White House. In response to those concerns he said that the new ballroom...."won't interfere with the current building....wouldn't be touching it"....and they would pay "total....respect to the existing building....which I'm the biggest fan of."
            A model of the architectural design was displayed....and personal opinion here....it looked like a monstrosity to me. They started digging right away....and began to chip away at the East Wing of the White House....and then a day later they started to actually demolish that East Wing!
            Anyone who has read about the life of Trump knows that that is how he is....but we on the right don't read that stuff do we....for we've been told that it is all fake news. In his former life....Trump all the time had to placate zoning boards and other official committees. Once....in order to get a permit for a historic hotel....he promised that the famous facade would be carefully taken down and reconstructed. The contractors came in and demolished that facade. Trump essentially then said...."Oops." 
             The man is just a congenital liar. He has lied his whole life....and every day of his life since he came down that escalator in June of 2015. It was so comically obvious that back in 2017....Rush and Hannity and Levin must have planned it....within a week of each other....on their shows...they all admitted that yes Trump lies....but that's just Trump!
             Does Netanyahu know this? I don't know that he does....with the greatest intelligence organization in the world....he may still not know that Trump lies almost as a profession!
             I don't think that this will happen....for I believe that the world will be aflame before it could happen....but it would be poetic justice if this $300 million and growing project would get delayed....and the ballroom would finally be opened in time for President Kamala Harris's or some other Democrat's inauguration ball.
              In early 2017 Trump had a few golf partners over....and told them...."That White House is a real dump." The story broke because the people who worked there were upset because they loved the place. Trump denied saying it of course....for that is his standard response. Many years ago his famous lawyer Roy Conn advised him to....all the time....deny everything....and Trump has done that.
               Knowing Trump as we all do....too bad evangelicals are clueless....he will be in on every detail of this new ballroom. The world is on the brink....but this ballroom will have to be done right.
               This is just one issue.....there are many other more serious issues every day with this man. I think that this ballroom alone will stimulate the olfactory senses of many evangelicals and conservatives....but it is way too late.
                The evangelical of today gave us Donald Trump as president. God has judged His church first. Here is a man who has prophesied nothing but great times and prosperity and security. This is no different from when the people wanted Hananiah instead of Jeremiah. Zedekiah was going to make Judah and Jerusalem great again....and the yoke of Babylon would be broken within two years! We all know who was God's true prophet. As a matter-of-fact....you might want to stop taking the daily dose of poison in Fox News....and take about a month to read and pray over and read and pray over Jeremiah! 
                We made all these mistakes because all we thought about was ourselves. The false prophet came on the scene telling us what we wanted to hear....and we followed him like puppy dogs.
                 The people of Jerusalem thought that since their God was the LORD....and His temple was right there in Jerusalem....that God would never let anyone destroy it. Jeremiah warned hem against that type of thinking.....and that is what we are doing. We somehow think that we are something special in the eyes of the God? We're America! Look at all the good we have done! Gods needs us! No....we are more Babylon than anything else....and judgement is coming.

      

O That We All Looked For His Glorious Return!

                OK....we know this....that before the Lord returns....there will be a falling away....(1 Thess 2:3)....that is the church folks.....us....there will be a falling away....in the church! Matthew tells us the same thing....in the words of Jesus....in the Olivet Discourse....24:10...."at that time many will fall away."
                I submit to you that what we see in the church right now.....with Christian nationalism reigning over the gospel of salvation....is part of the falling away. When is the last time that you heard that a friend or a neighbor or a relative was....born again? Depending on your age you may have never heard it! You may have heard that so-and-so is now a Christian....and surely there are instances of this....but not born again....for salvation today is of a different substance.....as it is more political....works related....and conservative on social issues....and now patriotic. We are in that falling away!
                So immediately after that verse in 2 Thessalonians we are told that a man of sin....the son of perdition.....will be revealed. That doesn't necessarily mean that he will be identified....but only that he will come onto the world's stage. What are we told about him? Well we are told that he...."exalts himself." Eventually....in this megalomania....he will put himself above God.
                All of this is in the second chapter of second Thessalonians....which also mentions a...."mystery of lawlessness." If we knew exactly what it was it would not be a mystery. Whatever it is....it is chaos over order. 
                There is someone who...."restrains"....at the present time....so that this man of sin does not move on to a full-orbed domination of the entire world. Most think that he who restrains....is He who restrains....the difference of a lower case 'h' and a capital "H".....in other words.....it would be the Holy Spirit....which would be in the very end....of the end times....or the last of the last days....in the opinion of many....and I include myself....well into the tribulation.
                 We are told that...."The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders"....but that it is those who are perishing that who will fall for these deceptions....and as Paul wrote...."And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie."

                  Folks....are you hearing any of this in your church? No you are not....because that also is part of the falling away! Few are being warned. A short decade ago we had a number of men in the church and on the world scene....men who warned us....so that the Christian could hardly help but hear it....but in God's perfect providence....they are all gone....or just about all gone. Billy Graham and R. C. Sproul and John MacArthur and Tim Keller and even Pat Robertson and David Wilkerson....are all gone! It's like we had our chance.
                  O that you younger people could know what it was like in the church forty years ago! O that I knew what it was like in the faith hundreds of years ago! O that we all believed like the early Christians who were truly set apart from this world....and looked....(you can see it all through the New Testament if you but look for it)....and looked for the glorious returning of our Lord and Savior and King!

                  

White Like Me

                 I benefited from white privilege. When my mother and I moved to Pittsburgh....(I was 13)....God provided a very modest apartment in a duplex on a street with middle income houses. The new friends that I would grow through my teens with went on to become PHDs and other professional occupations. I tagged along to a Catholic high school that to this day is considered elite. I took a bus to our graduation ceremony....there was no family present....and when it was my turn to walk up and get my diploma....there was no diploma. It was held back because tuition was not paid....(I paid that tuition about fifteen years later when I found out about all of this.) When I returned from the army....all of my neighbor friends were graduating from college....so I went to Pitt on the GI Bill. (Is that socialism?) There were no drugs in the neighborhood that I grew up in....no arrests....and no shootings. The mayor lived across the street....my friend's father was the chief of police. If there was any of the....lower class....on the street that I lived....it was me. 

                 There is not one scintilla of difference in human beings....in their skin color or ethnicity....as to intelligence or love or potential. We....the white population....built this city....this city on a hill....so to speak. The urban centers are of our making....as we may have worked or occasionally went for entertainment....to as the Petula Clark song so frolickingly invoked....Downtown.
                  The average middle income house....as the decades passed....grew bigger and more beautiful. We all have fancy cars today. We all go on vacation or vacations....but the city remains the city. We love the black athlete that stars on our college or pro football teams....we just would rather that blacks do not live too close....or not too many of them anyway. Do you object to what I just said? You must not remember how Trump campaigned hard....particularly in Florida....telling mothers....very forcefully.....that they should vote for him....because he will keep low income housing away from their neighborhoods. That is racism folks....and we evangelicals struck out on that one!
                    Let me ask you....for God's Word asks this question....what do you have that God did not give you? At that elite high school that I went to....we had to read the 1961 classic....Black Like Me....where a white man had his skin color temporarily darkened....and then just went out into southern society. I haven't forgotten the message and ugly truth from that book....but we in evangelicalism today forgot where we came from....spiritually....we lost our first love....and we went hard after the way of Balaam....for profit.

Running On Empty

                Back in the 80s track and field was a very popular sport to follow....at least to those of us who liked to run. We were very familiar with the exploits of men like Bill Rodgers and Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett. Runner's World and Runner's Magazine were on the newsstands everywhere....and we were all waiting for the yearly runner's guide to shoes. I remember going from Brooks to New Balance to Saucony....but I don't remember the order.
                World class runners are a special breed of athlete. They run every day....and it is their life. They run in any kind of weather....and they run when they do not feel well....and they run through pain. And it all boils down to the last few seconds on the track....unless they are marathoners....which is whole different story.
                 I've known people who had run every day of their life for going on fifty years! I miss running so much that on my weekly walk....with my wife....as we near my truck at the end of the walk....I try to run the last fifty yards....thinking that maybe....maybe....I can some day run the track again. I can hardly get up off the ground because of my knees....and I have some other issues....but I still think of that track.
                 That is only a lead-in friends....the topic is this....the Christian....whether he is a lousy 'runner'....or a world class runner....(I'm speaking metaphorically....I would be of the former....and John Piper of the latter)....he or she is not only in a battle every day of their lives....but just about every hour of every day of their lives!
                  If I drop my guard for one day....by dropping my guard I mean that for one day I would not read God's word....or watch every word out of my mouth....or thought in my head....or even go one day without listening to a sermon by someone like Spurgeon or Lloyd-Jones or MacArthur or Sproul....(there are many others)....If I go one day without hearing God's Word preached....I become noticeably weak....running on empty. My mind might wander....or I might waste....just waste most of the day....doing the stupidest things or thinking the stupidest thoughts that you could possibly imagine!
                   The metaphor is running....but even in running there is a fight...(another metaphor)....a fight to keep going....to pick oneself up off the sofa to get out the door....even if the temperature is single digits....or in this case....a fight to put literally every thought and decision before us....every single day....on the grid of the Word of God....while cognizant and vigilant to all of the warnings that are there in it for us!
                   What it boils down to is how much one loves to run. Love is the key. How much does one love their son....or their daughter....enough to pray for him or her in every quadrant of every day of every year? 
                   If we are not working every day of our lives....in whatever manner we might have even a hint of a gift....to bring glory to the one who had nails driven through His wrists....for those who....without His calling and dragging....would have paid absolutely no attention to the gospel offered....until the day we passed into perdition....then how....how could we bring glory to Him? And if there is no sparkle in our eye....and no chill just thinking of our Savior and Redeemer and coming King....then how could that be considered....love?
                   

Lord's Day Post

Preface: Donald Trump was not my first choice in 2016. In fact he was the last choice of all the Republican candidates....but I did vote for him....and even celebrated that Hillary was not going to be our president. The last ten years have been a lost decade in America. It has been continuous spiritual torment....with no break....a vexation that has taken its toll on all of us. We are a different country....and a different people....then when I posted what is below. Tomorrow is yet another Lord's Day. Pastors have twenty-four hours from my typing this to come to grips with what has happened to this country....and to them....and to the church in general. It once was only...the doldrums....that the church suffered from....with no wind of the Holy Spirit to animate and guide and strengthen us....but that has degenerated further into the maelstrom of raucous revelry. Did you know....do you remember from God's Word....that Aaron....after they gave up on Moses and melted down their gold to build a golden calf....that Aaron proclaimed...."Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD!" They somehow thought that they were doing this for...."the LORD?" Did you know or do you remember that God then...."sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf..." (Ex 32:35) Did we not have a plague sent to us in 2020?

November 5, 2016....(three days before the general election)
               
                These next few days will certainly be nerve-racking for all Americans who understand that our republic is in danger of total collapse. They will be waiting with bated breath until the election returns start to come in....as will I....but not entirely for the same reasons. Donald Trump can do nothing to save our nation....as neither could any of our great leaders from the past if they were with us today. Breitbart News reported on a rally of Donald Trump's yesterday in New Hampshire where at one point he departed from the teleprompter text. A man, caught up in the euphoria of the moment, yelled out..."Save us!" to which Donald Trump responded...."We're gonna save ourselves!" His comment was meant to imply that we 'all' will save ourselves....not just him....but still it was further evidence that we are looking for help in the wrong place.

 No Day Of My Life....June 16, 2016....(one month before the Republican convention)
               
                  Ronald Reagan could not right this ship of state. George Washington could not buy us another day apart from what God has allotted. Thomas Jefferson could not convince this moribund Congress of its illness. Benjamin Franklin could not shame this media into doing their job. Abraham Lincoln could not find words of wisdom to penetrate the cold, listless, Facebook mentality that paralyzes our intellects. Self-abasement and repentance are what is needed in America. We have done it before but we are different people today. We are more likely to demand that God admit a little culpability in our problems.
        It was probably the mid 1990's when I was listening to John MacArthur's radio program Grace To You, and he offered his listening audience a free book titled Valley of Vision. The offer slipped my mind and I never sent for it but happened upon it one day while looking through a catalog from Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The full title is The Valley Of Vision, A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, and it's edited by Arthur Bennett and published by Banner Of Truth Trust. It sits prominently on a table in our dining room and I use it as a dinner prayer book regardless of who we might have over. It is one of my most valued possessions in life.
         The following is one of those prayers. I read it over three or four times before starting to compose this post. The reader does not know the author of the prayers. A dozen or so names from the past are given but it was intentional not to put a name to the individual prayers. Please consider meditating on the words of this prayer if only for a few minutes. Does your pastor pray in this spirit of humility? Do your own prayers prostrate yourself before God as this prayer would have us?

The Broken Heart  

O Lord, No day of my life has passed that has not proved me guilty in thy sight,
Prayers have been uttered from a prayerless heart;
Praise has been often praiseless sound;
My best services are filthy rags.
Blessed Jesus, Let me find a covert in thy appeasing wounds.
Though my sins rise to heaven thy merits soar above them;
Though unrighteousness weighs me down to hell,
Thy righteousness exalts me to thy throne.
All things in me call for my rejection,
All things in thee plead my acceptance.
I appeal from the throne of perfect justice
To thy throne of boundless grace,
Grant me to hear thy voice assuring me:
that by thy stripes I am healed,
that thou wast bruised for my iniquities,
that thou hast been made sin for me,
that I might be righteous in thee,
that my grievous sins, my manifold sins,
are all forgiven,
buried in the ocean of thy concealing blood.
I am guilty, but pardoned
lost, but saved.
wandering, but found,
sinning, but saved,
Give me perpetual broken-heartedness,
Keep me always clinging to thy cross.
Flood me every moment with descending grace,
sparkling like crystal
flowing clear and unsullied
through my wilderness of life.

"But Even If We....Or An Angel From Heaven....Preach Any Other Gospel To You...."

"I am  leaving soon...and you will forgive me if I speak bluntly....'the universe grows smaller every day....and the threats of aggression....by any group....anywhere....can no longer be tolerated....there must be security for all....or no one is secure....now this does not mean giving up any freedom....except the freedom to act irresponsibly....your ancestors knew this when they made laws to govern themselves....and hired policemen to enforce them....we of the other planets have long accepted this principle....we have an organization for the mutual protection of all planets....and for the complete elimination of aggression....the test of any such higher authority is of course the police force that supports it....for our policemen we created a race of robots....their function is to patrol the planets in spaceships like this one....and preserve the peace....in matters of aggression....we have given them absolute power over us....this power cannot be revoked....at the first sign of violence they act automatically against the aggressor....the penalty for provoking their actions is too terrible to risk....the result is....we live in peace....without arms or armies....secure in the knowledge that we are free from aggression and war....free to pursue more profitable enterprises....now we do not pretend to achieved perfection....but we do have a system....and it works....I came here to give you these facts....it is no concern of ours how you run your own planet....but if you threaten to extend your violence....this earth of yours will be reduced to a burned out cinder....your choice is to join us and live in peace....or to pursue your present course and face obliteration....we shall be waiting for your answer....for the decision rests with you." 

              The above speech from the 1951 classic film....The Day The Earth Stood Still....is from Klaatu....the alien. The robot would be Gort....the artificial intelligence that they created to protect them. There was a remake of this movie in 2008....with Klaatu Reeves....excuse me....Keanu Reeves....but I have no idea the storyline or narrative of that film. I do know that in the first film the spaceship lands....on the ellispse....between the White House and the Washington Monument....similar to the other seemingly now supernatural being who appeared on that same ellipse on January 6, 2021....seventy years later....giving a warning.
               I think the church needs to address this issue beforehand. There is a documentary coming out in late November on the many verified sightings of what today they call....UAPs....unidentified flying phenomena....formerly referred to as UFOs. It appears to be a credible documentary with Rubio and other government people being extensively interviewed.
               Let me lay the groundwork. God created man in His image....and there are no other "beings" anywhere.  This is vital to the Christian Faith to understand this! You cannot even understand the gospel if you cannot see this!!! If one wants to balk then that is their prerogative....we have seventy to eighty years....using biblical terminology....seventy to eighty years on average to our lives. Waste it if you want on speculation....speculation that the Apostle Paul warned us about.
               The more important issue is the turmoil and tribulation that lies ahead....for we need to be grounded securely in Christ....because of the deception and delusion and signs and wonders and false miracles that are ahead....and not wandering off on tangents about extraterrestrial life and ancient gods returning to earth as Jonathan Cahn more than speculates in his many bestselling books that lead evangelicals into idle speculations.
               So what about all the reports about flying objects that can do maneuvers that no human designed aircrafts can do? Satan took Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple. Demon possession apparently was rampant during the incarnation of our Lord and Savior. It appears that that the demonic world was stirred up....and in retrospect....rightfully so....for their judgment was in sight with the incarnation of the Son of Man! It is not surprising therefore that it is being stirred up again as Jesus is near in his return....with His mighty angels....who will fight these demonic angels!
               There have been thousands of apparitions over the millennia...'And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light." (2 Corinthians 11:14 ESV)  So let's prepare ourselves and talk about these things....particularly with this highly anticipated documentary film that is soon to be released to theaters. Bring it up in your cell groups....and if someone hedges on the truth from God's Word....don't let it slide.....but challenge the lack of vigilance in a brother or sister in Christ!

title: Galatians 1:8 NKJV

I want to recommend to you a pastor....somewhat on the national scene....that you can if so desire....Google his sermons and conference talks....to supplement the teaching that you already receive. The following talk was given a few years ago at John MacArthur's Shepherds Conference....and caused a little bit of a stir:

 

Google....Pastor Jesse Johnson sermons.

A Colossus......And A Colossal Disaster

Preface: The end-times scenario is forming so fast that it's hard to keep up with. Israel seems to feel as if it is finally at peace. The world....much of it anyway....is signing on to....to what?  We really don't even know yet. Nations with ancient....that is Old Testament identities....identities mentioned in that they will come against Israel in the last days....are aligning in a supposed security agreement for....Israel!             

             The Speaker of the Israeli Knesset only hours ago said this about Trump...."A giant of Jewish history....look back two and a half millennia into the mists of time to find a parallel: Cyrus the Great....President Donald J. Trump....you are a colossus who will be enshrined in history thousands of years from now. Mr. President....the Jewish people will remember you....your election to the presidency marked a turning point, not only for the United States.....but for the entire world."
             From an historical....not Christian perspective....the Trump phenomenon is something to behold....for there have been few figures like this in modern history. The problem is....it is all fake. It's all a lie....and a delusion. We do not know how far the phenomenon will go on....or to what extent he will assume power in the future....particularly with the boost of the moment! He is either the primary precursor to the Antichrist....he is certainly at least that....or will be the Antichrist himself.
             War is coming. God's Word has made that perfectly clear. That war will change the world order....and even the Christian can only speculate on the makeup of the coming New World Order....and how the events will transpire.
             Trump told the members of the Knesset...."This is not only the end of a war....but the end of an age of terror and death....and the beginning of an age of faith and hope." He thanked..."the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob"....and continued...."After so many years of unceasing war and endless danger....the sun also rises on a Holy Land that is finally at peace....It will be the Golden Age of Israel....and the Golden Age of the Middle East."

             All of the above from Trump is nonsense....and false prophesies. Breitbart....the absolute worst of anything today calling itself news....proclaimed this a...."Trump Mideast Miracle"....and it is in a way....a false miracle and a false wonder. Will the Christian remember the warnings in God's Word of just such signs and wonders? A few will....most will not....not a this time anyway.
             There have been many significant peace initiatives over the years....but none quite like this....because of the populist movement behind it....so it would be good to meditate on God's Word to us at a time like this....1 Thessalonians 5:3...."For when they say....'Peace and safety'....then sudden destruction comes upon them....as labor pains upon a pregnant woman....And they shall not escape."

"Extraordinary!"

                I've been at least somewhat active in politics since 1968 and Bobby Kennedy....and on through Arizona Congressman Mo Udall in 1976....Teddy Kennedy in 1980....Reagan and finally South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint in 2011/2012...

                                    

                     We have a small clocktower in our town that plays tunes....a lot of John Philip Sousa....and occasionally the Star Spangled Banner....of which when it plays....if I am walking by the stores....or crossing the street....I stop....and I don't know that I've ever seen anyone else do it....I take off my hat....put my hand on my heart as I face the music.
                   I'm a veteran....(who had....way back when....a top secret clearance)....with very strong feelings for those who serve in our military....but I feel today that I no longer have a country.
                   Some people....many actually....despised Richard Nixon....and the Clintons....and George W.....and Barack Obama.....but though we had vastly different political opinions....it was still America. 
                   We argued over socialism and abortion and guns...and then the national debt and immigration....but it was still a constitutional republic. President-elect Obama said that we were five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America. He spent eight years in....what was then the White House....I'm not sure what it should be called today....for it bears little resemblance to the White House that America knows....and there was no transformation. We were still America.
                    Donald Trump muddled his way through four years....and is fortunate that he was not convicted in his impeachment trials. President Biden then proved to be the worst president that we have ever had....but we were still America....and then came January 6....four years of threats and torment....and the second term of Trump....followed by vengeance....purges and show trials.
                     I've studied Donald Trump over the past 8 1/2 years probably closer than his own personal doctor....reading over 100 books about him....107 to be exact. I have watched fifty rallies if I have watched one. I've studied every decade of his life. He has never displayed any compassion....without the expectation of praise. He has never had a functioning ideology. Everything has always been transactional....anything is for sale at the right price.
                    It seems as if today he thinks that he has his own personal army....and police....and district attorneys.....and FBI. He has no concept of what truth is. He lies as calmly and consistently unlike anything I have ever witnessed....and then he will look at an opponent....and show outrage that the opponent told a lie? When he does things like this.....I calmy either out loud or in my mind....I'm not really sure....I'll simply utter...."extraordinary".....extraordinary to have witnessed such starkly sociopathic behavior in not only a government leader....but one who has somehow developed a worshipful following of true believers....and...as of now....fundamentally transformed the United States of America....into what is very similar to....or is at least quickly moving towards being....a dictatorial police state.
                        

"Trouble Ahead......Prepare To Meet Thy God"

                The remnant is small....and the falling away is great. Few are saved.....few enter in....many will say to the Lord in that day....'didn't I do this and that for you.....didn't I evangelize and bring others into the kingdom...and try to bring America back to you....didn't I even do miracles?' I cannot remember the last time that an evangelical....of any theological persuasion....mentioned to me the phrase....'being born again.' It's nothing but an adage today. Everybody is a Christian....unless they are a Muslim or an atheist or a Hindu or something like that....all they have to do is say that they are a Christian....and that is that. No one has to count the cost....because there is no cost. No one has to be separate from the world.
                 We are today in the church nothing but politics....and social issues. Here is another adage...."Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts." Everything today in the church is power and might! Jesus said concerning these days that we live in....that if it were possible....that even the elect would be led astray....which means that there will have to be a winnowing....because most of the elect....as of now....are being led astray!
                 Our itchy ears gave us the teachers that we wanted. We traded our inheritance for a mess of pottage. We did not remain vigilant....nor were we even....awake. We followed a false prophet who tells us how great we are...."one glorious nation under God"....with a golden age of peace and prosperity ahead....all of which God's Word proclaims the exact opposite. We are power hungry....uncompassionate....and vengeful. God has taken home just about all of His faithful ministers on the national scene....and we are left with no one to warn us anymore....only words such as Billy Graham left us with...."Trouble ahead; Prepare to meet thy God."

Saying...."Peace, Peace....When There Is No Peace."

                 God has given His children the most perfect gift....in that of His Word. Christians have carried this as their most precious possession. Every passage in it is "God breathed." We read it every day....and we memorize it....and we evangelize others with it. Nothing can be taken away from it nor added to it. Mine is sitting eight inches from my left elbow right now. It may be referred to in this post or may not....it is near....and that is all I care about.
                 In God's Word He speaks to us of a great delusion that will come in the last of the last days....so powerful of a delusion....that even genuine born again believers....(a redundant but today necessary description)....that even Christians can be taken in....for a time. We are told of a great falling away....so much so that Jesus gave us a parable....and used the case of a widow....who was wronged and sought justice from a judge....who kept ignoring her....but she kept coming back to the judge....again and again and again.
                 Jesus had just finished talking about the Day of the Lord....with the example given of fire and brimstone raining down upon Sodom.....and the example of everyone just going about their business amidst the violence until Noah entered the ark. We are told....through the parable of the widow....to keep praying....and praying....and praying. Jesus then said...."Nevertheless....when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
                Today....after more than a half century of warnings by God's faithful servants....we are that widow. God's word is being abused even in the church....as we are turning for answers and explanations to the sudden solving of ancient mysteries....and identification of deity genealogies....as if that would help anything anyway. Paul wrote to Timothy of the last days....that there would be...."deceitful spirits and teachings of demons." (1 Timothy 4:1) 
               Telling us....and convincing us....that today....in Donald Trump....we are given another....Jehu....thus causing us to turn from Christ....is one of those doctrines of demons....and we are thus part of that falling away....and taken in by that great delusion.
               The gospel of salvation is being eviscerated of that which saves....and added to in that which does not save....Christian Nationalism....and the hope in our own power and might....proclaiming the same lies as did the false prophets to Israel of old...."Peace, peace, when there is no peace." (Jeremiah 6:14)
                

               

We Were Easy Pickings.....Because We Were Not Vigilant

                 The American pulpit has utterly failed the people in the pews. The shepherds abdicated....half of them choosing to become CEOs of megachurches....and the other half therapists for needy people who do not want to hear anything about their own mortification. Franklin Graham leads those who fell hook line and sinker for a genuine biblical false prophet. They can say all they want about me....make all the charges that they want....but they have sat back....and said absolutely nothing....as their sheep were slaughtered and devoured by a fake Christianity....Christian nationalism....that believes that only the liberal and the progressive were rebels to God.....whereas we added our own form of rebellion....I'll call it a....'college football....turn our children and their futures into idolatry....and patriotism which is really just...."running greedily in the error of Balaam for profit." The following is the combination of three posts from a few months ago. We have become racist in the church....thanks to Trump. We have no real compassion....and are ready and willing to go to war with....or punish in some way....anyone who does not follow our leader. Read these posts if you will....and see the pattern from ninety years ago that Trump is following....our republicans in congress having ten years ago....abandoned what they knew to be right....for what they were told would lead us to greatness. There is no excuse anymore for not seeing Trump for who he is....for there is clear biblical evidence in the news every day....multiple times every day! We can't use our blind pulpits because we demanded that they be quiet and not warn about this man who was flattering us....wretched sinners that we really are....and using God's name to pretend to be bringing glory to Him. Woe are Us....and deserving of what is ahead.

Hitler....Up To 1934             

                My disgust with the historical memory of Hitler is such that when I have referenced him a few times in these posts of almost seventeen years I would refer to him as....the German Fuhrer....but I will use his name since this post is about him.
                 The world looked at him as a comical figure...with his little mustache. When he came on the scene in 1919 Germany was falling apart. Hitler wanted a racially pure Germany....and he hated the Jews and the Socialists. He joined the fledgling German Workers Party....and became a prominent member....raging in his speeches. There was something about his speeches that mesmerized....and people just wanted to follow him. He demanded that he was to be the sole leader of the now newly named Nazi Party. If someone didn't get on board they were taken aside and....urged to reconsider....but Hitler and others moved too quickly and what followed was the infamous....Munich Beer Hall Putsch in November of 1923....a rally meant to be a coup in Bavaria that would then march to Berlin. The coup failed and Hitler wound up in prison for nine months. His sentence was longer than that but he knew people high up and he was pardoned. He started writing Mein Kampf while in prison.
                  As the 1920s wore on...the Nazi Party fizzled in the elections because things were looking a little better economically....what with the United States and others providing low interest loans. And then came the crash of 1929....the best thing that could have happened to Hitler....or so he thought at the time.
                 The army of Brownshirts was now large and strong and brutal....and Hitler would then form what would be the SS as personal guardians.....and then the secret police....the Gestapo.
                  Everyone higher up who also hated the Weimar regime....disliked this raging former corporal....but they thought that they needed him to stop the violence in the streets....and they thought that they could control him....so they gave him power...and he was appointed as Chancellor. By this time though everyone except his growing group of rabid worship followers knew that there might be a problem.
                  Hitler wasn't even a citizen....being Austrian....and he needed that citizenship in order to run for office. The second time around was a whole new ballgame. The people from all areas of society flocked to him as the savior who promised to make Germany great again.
                  This new Third Reich was forming now....and Hitler flew from city to city to rallies....promising a 1000 year reign that turned out to be only twelve years. That's when he made his biggest decision yet....and the first in his incarnation as savior. It was time for paybacks. His forces rounded up all of his old opponents and others who could not be trusted....hundreds died....many of whom were executed....including his long time closest ally....the leader of the Brownshirts....who worried that Hitler was betraying the movement. Rohm was thrown in jail....given a gun with one bullet to kill himself....and then shot in his cell when he refused to kill himself. This night that extended over a couple of days and nights came to be known as....the Night of the Long Knives. Would the Brownshirts accept him after he had their leader killed? Hitler gave one of his patented speeches on protecting the country....and wallah....they were all back in the fold.
                   Most of the Christian church came on board....believing the promises that were made....that the church was too much of an important German institution to do anything to. Of course that promise went by the wayside.
                   It was too late now. The popular Hindenburg....elected again as president....who was talked into naming Hitler as Chancelor....was now only an old-man figurehead....and died shortly afterwards....as he could only watch the change in the country and its people. It was only 1934.

Afterthought: We need to be aware of history. Germany after World War I was divided as we are today. They were susceptible to the rantings of a man who promised to restore nationalism and greatness. He used fear and hatred to push all the opposition out of the way. Even the church fell for the promise of prosperity and greatness. Paul asked of the Galatians....who had bewitched them? Were they so foolish to begin in the Spirit....but go on to perfection in the flesh?

Hitler Up To 1938

                One of the problems we face....those of us who know there are multiple serious problems with who Donald Trump is....primary mental and psychological....is that when Hitler is mentioned then Trump supporters fly off the handle....outraged that he would be compared to such an evil man. It's a deterrent to even bring up the subject....and a win for Trump....but the issue is with the methods that the German Fuhrer used to captivate the German public....the promises and gifts and threats and intimidations and instilling fear and anger....and their similarity with the rise of Donald Trump.
                 During the 2016 election reports came out that Ivana....Trump's first wife....told her lawyer that Trump kept a copy of Hitler's speeches by his bedside. Trump called that fake news....as he calls everything negative on him fake news. Reports continued and Trump then said that he didn't have such a book but if he did have such a book he would not have read it. That absurd statement is typical Trump that just makes you roll your eyes. Reports continued and Trump then was forced to say that a Jewish friend of his gave him the book. Reports continued and then it was reported that the friend was identified....and that friend said that he is not Jewish. This is Donald Trump. This is a man whose social is called....Truth....but he himself cannot now nor could he ever in his life....distinguish between truth and lies....but the point remains that he....a man who is famous for not being a reader....apparently was interested in why Hitler's speeches were so effective!
                    A couple of posts below this is a narrative on Hitler's rise up until 1934. This post takes it a few years later. After He had purged all of his enemies and potential enemies....the work towards building the broken economy started. Hitler expanded the autobahn and provided German cars for the people to drive on the autobahn. He was building everywhere which put people to work. Pensions were increased and many and various benefits were awarded to the people such as paid vacations and child care benefits. The army doubled in numbers almost immediately and work started on building a powerful Luftwaffe. Submarine building took off. The Nazis confiscated a lot of money from the Jews to finance their projects. They just took their money! As all these other projects were being built....so were concentration camps!
                  Germany had previously been awarded the 1936 summer Olympic games....and Hitler was determined to show the world the greatness of Germany. We get the term....Olympic village....from the changes that he made in hosting the athletes. The stadium was....state-of-the-art. Everything went almost perfectly and the games were a great success.
                   Young people were mobilized to grow into patriotic and physically fit adults...ready and willing to serve in the army. Propaganda was one of the keys....particularly through radio and the film industry and newspapers and posters!
                   Hitler began to expand the territory. They just sashayed into the Rhineland and no one said a thing. The Austrian government....'requested'....that the German army enter the country for stabilization. The people cheered them....and then Austria became part of the German Reich. Hitler then occupied the Sudetenland....and again England and France said nothing. It was now only 1938.
                    The point here is that the destitute economy was now expanding....and the people were told to take pride....and they were rewarded....propaganda was now the key to win over the hearts and minds....territories were being added....all opposition was being silenced....they were celebrating Hitler's birthday every year. Germany was great again and he was the reason.
                     We in America are between a rock and a hard place....in that the very issues that should be brought up along with Trump's rise....Trump uses to 'prove' that there is a Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Note: There are a number of excellent movies out there on Corrie ten Boom....the most well-known of course being....The Hiding Place....but....Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace....should also be watched.

Hitler Up To 1939

   In 1938....Hitler demanded a return of a part of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland....that had a heavily German speaking population. He claimed that the German speaking people were being persecuted....that was his excuse. England and France and Italy gave him what he wanted in what was called....the Munich Agreement. Czechoslovakia was not represented in the talks that ceded the Sudetenland to Hitler. British prime minister Neville Chamberlain famously returned to London with Hitler's signature....holding the paper over his head....where Hitler promised to stop his aggression in Czechoslovakia....but one week later the German Fuhrer proceeded to occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia's Moravian and Bohemian areas. Hitler had already purged most of the Prussian military generals who might not have gone along with his plans of conquest. Although outraged....all that Britain and France did was to guarantee protection for Poland if they were invaded. Does this sound familiar? Putin wants areas of the Ukraine with Russian speaking people. He already was essentially given the Crimea....although he only annexed it....and that didn't stop him.
                Hitler next wanted the free city of Danzig....which today is Gdansk. He then signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union with secretive elements to it....which would free him to invade the western areas of Poland....while Stalin could take other parts of Poland that he wanted. Hitler did invade Poland....and England and France declared war on Germany. Stalin then invaded eastern areas of Poland....but England and France were not ready for another declaration of war....this time on the Soviet Union.
                On the home front in Germany. Hitler always wanted an excuse for his aggression....(the Reichstag fire of 1933 started it all)....and he got it on November 9, 1938 with the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a German-Polish Jewish man. Brownshirts and the SS and even some German youth and citizens then tore through German towns....ransacking Jewish stores and synagogues....in what has become known as Kristallnacht....or The Night Of Broken Glass.
                On the home front today in America........Lindsey Graham thinks that Putin should be given some of what he wants but that European boots should then be placed on the ground in the Ukraine....which would deter Putin from any further invasions of the Ukraine!

Note: The news is dominated these past few days by Trump using federal troops ostensibly to make the capital streets safer....and beautiful. The intellectual affliction of the day is that we cannot....nor would we desire to....think through issues and take them further. We....you and I....created these urban areas. There were always those who sought their fortunes by selling us what we do not need.....and we complied....this ever since the 1960s. As this culture evolved we sat there enjoying that which we thought made us happier....but there were consequences. Not everyone can buy these things....but everyone wants to buy them....and many do....at the expense of building stable lives with the resources available. So what do we do? Well we just blame those who are not demographically as fortunate as we were. You see....we are honest and hard working....and they obviously are not. We have an Olympics coming up in America as well as the World Cup in soccer. Trump brags about this all the time. Well....Hitler bragged about the 1936 Olympics for the same reason....to show the world how great Germany was becoming. Homeless and slovenly appearing people....as well as Gypsies....were taken out of Berlin.... and the streets were cleaned up. There would be no crime while the world watched.