The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

                There are 'prophecy ministries' literally everywhere in America but they seem to tend to congregate in Oklahoma and Florida. There are more books on prophesy than I could ever read....and more prophesy podcasts than I even want to think about. They interview each other all the time....and speak at conferences all the time! Hal Lindsey was one of the first within evangelicalism. So it is a niche....but a huge niche....with a lot of separate niches within....such as Jewish messianic ministries...the biggest one today obviously Jonathan Cahn....but in the past....going way back....we had Zola Levitt and Marvin Rosenthal and others. This is truly....The Good....The Bad....and The Ugly....while the bad are really bad.....and the ugly are really ugly.
                 These ministries major in the concept of....a window of opportunity....a period of time that God has given America to repent. They will give all of these end-times scenarios....usually centered around Russia and Iran. Their niche followings obviously find this fascinating....and there is truth there....but ultimately none of it is real to these people....for it is as just a play....in a theater....with three parts. The ending always has Jesus returning and judging all the bad people. It is Part Two where the plot makes no sense. Here is why...
                There is an imminence in Part One....as America is in rebellion to God....and judgment is coming....so far so good....but then that 'window' comes into play....where the focus of these ministries segues into politics....and America repenting. Here is where they see God blessing America again....and all the judgments then placed on indefinite hold. All of the Russia and Iran warnings....which are true....all of a sudden disappear. Part Three is forgotten.
                It gets worse....much worse. Most of these prophesy ministers are pro-Trump. They have to be for if they were not then they would lose just about all of their followers. The man is a genuine biblical false prophet....and possibly much worse....and an enemy of the gospel of Jesus Christ....and an "antichrist" as the Apostle John describes them....yet we love him? He has emaciated evangelicalism....we are greedy and no longer compassionate....we are power hungry....and oddly enough....he himself prophesies the exact opposite of what all these prophecy experts make their living prophesying! It makes no sense.
               Most of these prophecy ministries believe in a rapture that comes before the Tribulation. That relatively new prophecy doctrine....a little over a hundred years....when applied to America today....permits all the Christians to waste their lives on making money and getting possessions....with grand plans living vicariously through the kids....and in their free time enjoying God's gifts like NFL football....not only gross idolatry,....but Lord's Day idolatry! They all say that they believe that they are ready to be zapped up in the rapture....but they don't really believe it....and they would not even want to get zapped up right now....with that prophesied....Golden Age....just ahead....for what they really want is to make America great again and go on with the American dream....which in reality is a nightmare....and has been one for probably a lot longer than they have been alive.

The Final Journey Of Jesus......And The Path That We Are On Today!

              "Where do I start reading the Bible?" I've heard that question quite a few times....as recently as a week ago. For me that is a tough question to answer....and I have never been overly confident in the various answers that I have given. It depends on the individual. I might recommend starting with the gospel of John....or Matthew.....or with Acts....or even with Psalms. What I want to do in this post....is to give a recommendation to the seasoned Christian today....because time is short.
              The festival of Hanukkah this year begins at sundown or nightfall on Sunday....December 14....and lasts until sundown on Monday....December 22. The year was 164 BC when a Jewish man named Mattathias revolted against the evil Antiochus. He died soon afterwards but one of his five sons....Judas....who became known as....Judas Maccabeus....(Judas the Hammerer)....continued to lead the revolt. The revolt was successful in that the Jews got control of the temple back....and cleansed and rededicated it. Hanukkah....the Feast of Dedication....and the celebration of that victory at that particular time....has been celebrated....in good times and in bad times....ever since.
                Jesus of Nazareth went up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feast. We cannot be sure but this was probably in the year that we would label....29 AD....and it would have been in either our month of November or December.
                These tumultuous days that we are living in....days of great delusion and great deception and great danger....in my own way of looking at it....are as that time period from the Feast of Dedication....(29 AD?)....to Passover the next year....and the death and burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior and coming King!
                 I believe that the reader can tell if he or she looks closely and prayerfully at it....that the words of Jesus....as He began his journey from Galilee to Judea....and then finally to Jerusalem....begin to explode from the page in warnings and condemnations....particularly the confrontations that Jesus had with the Pharisees....and the serious warnings that He gave to the people....and the specific warnings that he gave to His disciples on the Mount of Olives....(all of which transfer to us)....in what has become known as....The Olivet Discourse....included in Matthew 24 and 25....and Mark 13....and Luke 21.
                  Please consider this.....and take the month of December....supplementing the glorious news and celebration of the birth of the Savior in Bethlehem....supplementing that with building intensity in the words of Jesus....beginning in chapter 12 of the gospel of Luke. I think that if you prayerfully meditate upon everything that you read....you will be more than set back on your heels....but sobered up....which we all need at this time....and blessed with the discernment....that just as Jesus knew what was ahead for Him in that final journey....you will realize what is just ahead for all of us....and become solemn yet joyful....that the King of Kings is coming for us!

Laodicea

                Whether it was Samaria or Jerusalem....or Rome or Athens....or St. Petersburg or Berlin....or America....when a people turn solely towards their own entertainments....and seek only to fulfill their own desires....in other words everything is only about them....then it is only a matter of time before that people or that nation falls....and that unfortunately is us today.
                From my observation....intense observation....over many years....evangelicals have no interest at all in the return of Jesus Christ. This is not the same America nor the same evangelical church of only a few decades ago.
                One reason for this....is that the preaching today cannot cut to the heart....it cannot nor does it even attempt to mortify. We are going into church....and coming out even more blind as to our own self-love than when we went in.....and we adamantly refuse to consider that we may be that Laodicean church of Revelation....even the mega-churches with the name of Jesus bandied about everywhere....and the smiles and handshakes before and after the calcified and sterile 'praise and worship' production.
                You certainly may vigorously disagree with this right now....but later....after the inner collapse of America is fulfilled by the visible collapse....think back to those like Billy Graham who have warned you for decades upon decades....and consider.....finally....that it was you....it was us.....it was the church....that stood by....and was taken in....and permitted it all to happen.

The Debate Ended....And The Conversation Died....Replaced By The Podcast

                

                A few posts ago I gave the example of the loss of Christian bookstores....I'll give a different example here....talk radio....or what was once conservative talk radio. I have been a talk radio listener since the mid-1960s....if you can believe that....primarily through KDKA radio in Pittsburgh. I know a little bit about talk radio....from the listeners side. It used to be....for the entire time that I was a regular listener....a genuine conversation.....sometimes boring as all get-out....but always at least a give-and-take. You could express your opinion....vent if you will....and the host could do his thing. There were a lot of bad ideas shared over those airwaves....but even more good ideas....and we as a society benefitted.
                Well that is all gone. It began to disappear in the spring of 2017. Opinions opposing in any way Donald Trump....were no longer allowed....not like they were during the primaries. Every minute of every three hour show had to be reinforcing the MAGA narrative. Some like myself....just abandoned talk radio....frustrated that no other opinions were acceptable to the call screeners. Others just accepted that they were no longer part of the conversation....no longer read or researched or even thought on their own.....no longer questioned anything.....but just set about to memorize all the talking points.
                 Our minds slowly....but now completely....atrophied. There are no Christian bookstores....and few good books even if there was....and no evangelical leaders of stature....steeped in discernment that they learned from Christian leaders of the past. All the sermons today are....corporate sermons....in other words....an acceptable....lowest common denominator sermon.....that offends no one....entertains many....and fits in nicely with the image of a loving and caring and friendly and family community church dominated evangelicalism.   
                  Redeemed Christians are a remnant in America today. Pat Robertson's progeny did not carry on his legacy of discernment....nor did Billy Graham's....and certainly not Jerry Falwell's. John MacArthur's pulpit apparently will not have a thundering voice of warning. Alistair Begg made a legitimate mistake....a slap on the hand mistake....the thing spiraled out of control....and we lost that influential pulpit....and there is no one to fill the shoes of R. C. Sproul....(those are shoes that cannot be filled without God's direct intervention.) 
                   Podcasts have taken over....and they rely on that which titillates....and at times mesmerizes....the visual element. Gone are MacArthur's and Sproul's powerful daily teachings. Everyone is playing it conservatively. No one wants to actually say it let alone shout it out....to prepare quickly....for what all of the signs in God's Word point to.
                  
                    
                   

Vexed Or Vaxed?

                Society as we know it today in late 2025 has collapsed. As bad as we were....and knew ourselves to be....only ten years ago....we have since then lost all of our moorings....and our rudder....and our ballast. All we are doing right now is sewing up the sail....on top of which we have hung a giant Stars and Stripes. The ship is rocking violently in a tempest of hurricane force winds....with 90 feet waves. The holds are taking on water....and the ship is under mutiny.
                I won't give the name of the sports outfitters....for that is not necessary....but I was in one of their beautiful stores today....walking slowly from one section to another....just in awe at what was before me. Have you ever thought of a fishing section of being aesthetically beautiful? Well it was....with row upon row upon row of rods assembled as if they were drawn swords pointing to the lord of the sky!
                I'm not a camper....and have no desire to sleep anywhere out under the stars....but the tents were so perfect in geometric design that I almost wished that I had one....just to put it up and look at it! The snow ski apparel rivaled anything in design that NASA could outfit its astronauts. I haven't been on a golf course in many decades....and these did not seem like rows of 'clubs' that I walked through....but instruments seemed a more suitable description.
                Maybe I ought to get out more often....but there was a sadness in me as I left the store....for every sport represented there....seemed to shout out to me.....'stay away from here....you do not have the money or the time to get involved in any of this!'
                Surely we are like life in Pompeii as the volcano erupted....with their statues and marbled floors....or the baths and villas of Rome as the hordes entered the city. Did you know that construction of the Colosseum started just as Titus paraded through Rome the golden menorah from the destroyed temple in Jerusalem....along with thousands of now captive Jewish slaves? It's as if the temple of God was torn down to make way for sacrifices of Christians in the arena?
                Constantine later made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Sounds good right? It's just like what we are trying to do in America....but something like that comes with a cost....the Christian Faith itself.
                The glory of God....what little of God's glory was left....departed our halls of congress ten years ago....and our White House and even our churches. It has been a decade of torment. If you are not vexed at what is happening....then maybe you have been vaxed....immune to evidence not only right before you....but everywhere in God's Word..
                  Something happened in February of 2017 was symbolic of our collapse....as the 240 stores owned by Family Christian Stores....after two years trying to survive through bankruptcy....closed for good. One month after the presidential inauguration....we replaced the cross of Calvary....with the flag....and the Christian bookstore with the current events section at Barnes & Noble....and the warning of prophets with the warning of podcasters.
                 Billy Graham had given his last recorded warning two years previous....and God would take R. C. Sproul home before the end of 2017. He would take others home one-by-one....until there was no one left to speak out.
                 

           

                 

I Don't Ever Want To Go Back To That Way Of Thinking!

                We still teach it in our seminaries.....some of them anyway....we just don't believe it anymore....that the preached word of God is a means of grace....that the believer is actually endued with power from hearing the preached word.
                Preaching is just a formality today....albeit a pleasant formality....if not too long. It serves a purpose and that is to provide a reason for the saints to gather at church and make plans....and apply a little therapeutic massage. If the pastor has a little bit of showman in him....it can be a conduit to the community through a radio or television ministry....or a podcast.
                Try this....take some time and Google some of the larger churches in your town or city....and look over the website. Chances are you will not find a sermon archive....for no one would be interested in that.
                 It takes talent to be a carpenter or a lawyer or a doctor....but the only talent necessary to preach is to be able to spin a good yarn....or to teach an adult Bible study from the pulpit....or to sell....which as more of a CEO is essentially what they are doing.
                 How do I know these things? Christian bookstores helped....but we don't have any of those anymore. Only recently I was listening to an old interview with R C. Sproul....and he was reminiscing....and told about how in the early days of his Christian walk he found this Christian bookstore in New Castle, Pennsylvania....with these great books....and he kept going back to that Christian bookstore. Well guess what....in about 1992....(judging from the age of our son)....I found that very same Christian bookstore....this probably thirty years after R. C. Sproul found it....and I kept going back to it year after year after year! At first I didn't know much about what I was reading....I only knew that if on the spine of the book was this little robed man holding up a Bible....then whatever was in that book would move me mightily. The logo on those spines is that of the Banner of Truth books.
                  Granted....I'm retired and I have the time....but I listen to on average tens sermons a week from either men from the past or men to who preach like men from the past. I'm hardly ever in the car without listening to Spurgeon and others. When doing yard work I'll always have my headphones on. If the sermon is a means of grace...then I must be overflowing. My advice to you is short and succinct....supplement your church sermon with sermons from men of the past or men today who preach like men from the past. 
                   Christians often challenge me in my firm belief that Jesus is returning soon....that I warn that there are no more 'windows' for repentance as a nation as we are told all the time today. That window was for a half century and has been closed. I had lived quite a few years....decades actually....believing as they do....that Jesus might not return for twenty years or more. So I can compare the two....and my prayer to God is that I would never go back to not being sure that Jesus is at the very door! If Jesus should indeed tarry for twenty years....or more....may I....if I were still here....always feel and hope and trust and think exactly as I do today....for that is God's design....that we always hope and expect and yearn for and pray for and plead for and cry out....again and again and again for as long as it takes....Maranatha....Lord Jesus Come!

One Step At A Time

                There are books and videos galore out there on the seventh chapter of Daniel. This is the chapter on the four beasts that come out of the sea. We all feel fairly confident that we at least know a little about the fourth beast....the one with the ten horns....and the little horn....for that is the world power or world system that is coming. It's the first three beasts on which we can only offer speculation. Now a lot of people think that they can more than speculate here....but I don't think that they can....and I know that I can't. Daniel was told that much of what he saw was sealed...."till" the end. That implies that at that "end"....we will see things more clearly....because at that time we would need to see things more clearly....and that...."end"....brothers and sisters in Christ...is right now!
                At the beginning of the chapter....Daniel saw four winds stirring the great sea. To me that is saying that war and some kind of chaos is coming....and then in short order we read about the first three beasts....the one like a lion with eagle's wings....and the one like a bear with three ribs in its mouth....and the one like a leopard....with four heads and four wings on its back.
                Later in Daniel....when the fourth beast is judged and destroyed....the first three beasts last for a little while longer. It is tough to steer away from the bear....with the three ribs between its teeth....being Russia....for Russia has often been called a bear....and the three ribs may not be Latvia and Estonia and Lithuania....the Baltic states....but with all that is going on with Putin and his ultimate goals....that is a definite and reasonable possibility!
                So who or what might the lion and the leopard be? So far we have one beast that is most likely the New World Order....and one that was...and was not....and apparently is again....communism. You would think that somewhere in there would be the Third Reich....or the terror reign of the Nazis? Who or what would be left but us....or Western Civilization in general?
                Folks....I don't know these answers. Let others who think that they do write wherever they write....whatever they want. I think that it is more important for us as individuals to meditate upon and pray about these things than to just take the short cut and pick the theories that are more amenable to our lives today.
                 What we see in the news today....whether it is Russia/Ukraine....or China/Taiwan....or Israel/Iran....or Maga or the European Union....these are part and parcel of Daniel seven. Understanding that is a good beginning.

Oh Say......Can You Hear?

                   For what it is worth....my forty-three years of hearing sermons have produced this opinion. Expository sermons....explaining the true meaning of the text....necessary and helpful and a blessing as they can be....is like basic training. When the LST is loaded with troops and tanks....and the command to weigh anchor is given....and the secret destination is heard by those on board....then the Holy Spirit must guide the chaplain....or in our case the pastor....on what to preach. I've found that a rigid schedule for preaching months at a time....on one book....inhibits that guidance....and in the case of the church in America....prevents us from hearing the warnings that are needed to hear....in our particular time and in our particular place.
                   Charles Spurgeon's primarily topical preaching enabled him to listen to the Holy Spirit on what to preach....and hence he became known as the Prince of Preachers. The blessing of his preaching is as strong today as it was in the latter half of the nineteenth century....as pastors and believers everywhere still read his sermons....and as I just this morning....before our own church service began....listened to a sermon of his from 1877.
                   Ready or not....we are out of basic training. We are on that LST....and we have to know what is ahead. My father was on a ship like that in 1944....on the way to Okinawa....when kamikazes attacked....and he was seriously wounded and spent months in the hospital. We can and usually are....'green'....as the inexperienced are described on something like this....on a spiritual beachhead so to speak. I personally know a few Christians....usually missionaries....who are no longer 'green'....because of what they have already been through....but not me.....I'm still green....and I need this preaching....and these warnings....and this preparation for that spiritual beachhead that I know to be just ahead....for word got out....for anyone with ears to hear!
                   In 1969....after my basic training in the army was completed....and in the midst of my training in signal intelligence....they gave us what was called a....dream sheet....to fill out.....asking us what our preference would be for our first duty station. We all laughed but filled it out anyway. I think that I may have written in....Germany. That sounded good. I'd like to go to Germany. They sent us all to Vietnam. That is like all of us today who want to follow our Lord and our Savior and our coming King!
                   So there is a pastor out there who is on....oh say....week nine....of an....oh say....thirty two week series from....oh say....Ecclesiastes....or 1 Samuel....or Philippians....if they would but just put down that schedule that they made that fit in nicely....between the end of summer and the beginning of the new year....and plead with God for words and warnings that their sheep need....they might just winding up preaching on....oh say....the ninth chapter of Daniel....and Daniel's prayer....which is a prayer that we in America need to pray....

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

Daniel 9:3-12a

Addendum: My habit is to Google a Spurgeon sermon....and scroll down the offerings until I come to a sermon that I had not already heard....which is taking longer and longer since I have heard so many. So a few days ago I was doing this and clicked on an 1877 sermon titled....Remember Lot's Wife....only for some reason that particular YouTube had no volume? I tried it again a few days later and still no sound....but by now I really wanted to hear that sermon. So early this morning I found a different offering of the same sermon....with a different man reading Spurgeon's sermon....and this one worked fine. The sermon was so good that I'm adding it hear if you are interested....

                  
                  

"Except The LORD Keep The City....The Watchman Waketh But In Vain."

                Sixty-two years ago today America was shaken to the core by what happened in Dallas. To this day I will read the latest book that comes out. There have been years when I would get the bug and spend weeks reading and researching what happened in Dealey Plaza. Four and a half years after that fateful day....my own world was shaken to the core by what happened in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. You probably do not know this but twenty days before Dallas....the President of South Vietnam....Ngo Dinh Diem was overthrown and murdered during the CIA-backed coup.
                 President Kennedy was to read a speech in Dallas that was probably composed by speechwriter and friend Ted Sorensen....who later wrote that "[JFK] alone was responsible for the decision that lay at the heart of every major speech."
                  In that speech that was never given but is considered to be the last official words of President John Kennedy....was the second part of the first verse of Psalm 127....from the King James...."Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." The full concluding statement in that speech was this....

"The righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago...."Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it....Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

                

The Grand Finale Is Ahead

                I have a vignette in the novella that I wrote thirty-some-odd years ago that is on a link to your left on this page. Isaac Crocket....a mature Reformed Theology Christian....is walking with his new wife at Christmastime in Philadelphia....she having been raised Catholic. As they are shopping in this city so rich in the days of our independence of 1776....he is pointing out the history all around them....when his wife surprises and embarrasses him in her new transformation....(I likened her to that of Jonathan Edward's wife Sarah)....as she stops his lecture and asks him if this is Christmas coming up or the Fourth of July. That was me thirty-some-odd years ago. 
                 Thanksgiving was always my favorite holiday....since my conversion anyway in 1982. I would not even start to put up Christmas decorations until the day after Thanksgiving. I just put up our Christmas tree today....and have been decorating for Christmas for a couple of weeks now. Why the transformation?
                  It's because America has changed....itself having been transformed....we conservatives and evangelicals being the last group to distort words like freedom and liberty....and to rely more on power and money and pride. We are no longer the pilgrims on that Mayflower....but the ship's crew. We do not have the faith....(deist though it was)....of the founding fathers....or the mortification such as brought on by the carnage of the Civil War. A revival to us today is a rally around the flagpole on a college campus. There are no itinerant preachers anymore....preaching repentence....or even tent revivalists preaching salvation...but plenty of pastors leading their listeners in thanking God for sending us Donald Trump....and somehow considering it a reprieve?
                   So the holiday....once so intertwined with God's mercy and blessing upon us as a nation....is out of place in a nation that uses God's name like a campaign lapel pin....and in a church where the glory of God has long since departed....replaced by pot luck dinners....voter's guides....magachurches....megachurches.....and a salvation that needs no repentance....comes at no cost....and wants no warnings on anything other than the loss of their rights.
                   Christmas to me today....is still not a Hallmark holiday....but rather a trip back two-thousand and some-odd years....to a manger....and forty-three and some-odd years....to a dead heart that began to beat....and an ear that began to hear....and an eye that began to see....and feet that began to run to the Savior that was born in that manger....and grew up to fulfill His mission. The following is a preface from last December....to a post from two Decembers ago. I decided to bring this back earlier this year to give more time for contemplation and meditation:

Preface: I have been blessed with a number of wonderful preacher pastors. Of course I just didn't fall into this....I had to research churches and then make the move....and that is not always an easy thing to do. Possibly the finest preacher....and the only reason I say that is because I was glued to my seat after every sermon....was a man who spoke with a slight stutter....and in a monotone....and he had a combover....and he wore a robe in the pulpit. He was a man out of place in his church....oh they were nice elders....and did their best and tried their best....but there was no Puritan in them...and this man was a Puritan. Every year there was a Christmas tree off to the right of the pulpit....and an American flag off to the left. He eventually decided to just move on....and so did we. The concept of Advent goes way back....maybe to the 300s. It originally incorporated both the first coming of the Messiah....and the second coming of the Messiah....but that changed over time....and it was taken over by Christmas. Personally, I look at Advent December almost as a waste of a month in most churches in America....1/12 of the year conceded to the culture. Yes the date is based on Saturnalia....and no our Lord was not born in December....but there is glory indescribable in that birth in that manger...and it is possible to celebrate Christmas without giving the gospel a month off....and even to look to the grand finale! The following post is from December of 2023:

Who Leaves After The Overture

One of the Oxford dictionaries defines an overture as...."An introduction to something more substantial." Occasionally a movie is so epic that it has an overture. Doctor Zhivago comes to mind. I posted the following last year in early December....

"Celebrating the birth of Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem.....with all the wonderful hymns associated with it.....is the overture....but who walks out of a concert or film after the overture? The post concluded with this....""A baby was born....and the angels rejoiced....it was the overture....to be followed by choruses....and arias....and cantatas....and every imaginable orchestral arrangement....leading up to a grand finale that the angels are preparing for right now! So yes....Merry Christmas.....for it was a wonderful overture....but the Composer has left the greatest audiological masterpiece for the grand finale."

               Handel originally intended the Hallelujah Chorus to celebrate Easter....thus it appears as an instrumental overture but the chorus appears at the end of Part Two of his Messiah with the Risen Christ. Church tradition has moved Handel's famous piece to Christmastime

               We attended a Christmas concert benefit this evening. Last evening I watched....for probably at least the sixth time....the 2016 film....Risen.....that starred Joseph Fiennes as a Roman Tribune who saw Jesus dead on the cross....and then came face to face with the risen Christ! It's a marvelous film that I highly recommend!

               So you may very well have a Christmas sermon tomorrow. In 2018 I wrote these words in a post...."I came across an older series of Christmas sermons by Pastor John Piper at his church in Minnesota....and I actually had to laugh....it was so wonderful....for he kept saying Christmas this....and Christmas that....but it was entirely the gospel of Jesus Christ! This pastor refused to separate Christmas from Calvary....or Christmas from the Second Coming!" 

                  Just Google.....Messages On The Birth Of Christ, John Piper

Pottersville

                   Evangelicals right now are living in what psychology would label as denial. They are assuaging their guilt by focusing on what good might have happened here or there. Barack Obama threatened to fundamentally change America but it was Trump that actually did it. He had a decent cabinet the first time and a great vice president.... today he has henchmen and hangers-on.... political paybacks for support in the campaign.... and a vice president who is the greatest disappointment that I personally have ever witnessed. In his first term Trump would say something outrageous and then be forced to walk it back. This time around he is actually doing outrageous things and there is no need to walk back anything for no one really cares anymore.

                 I'm sure that you recall the storyline in that Christmas classic.... It's A Wonderful Life....where Bedford Falls was transformed into Pottersville. It was unrecognizable to Jimmy Stewart's character of George Bailey as he ran through the raucous town after his weird meeting with Clarence the angel. Well America today is unrecognizable to me with Trump-this and Trump-that everywhere. It's a wild west town with no law....except that of a modern-day Judge Roy Bean who proclaimed himself judge of everything.
                 In Deuteronomy 15 we see how in Israel....all debts were to be 'released' every seven years. A Christian of ten or twenty or thirty years has read this or heard it in a Bible study or a sermon many times....but did you ever wonder....OK....if debts are to be 'released' every seven years....then wouldn't everyone just refuse to lend money in the sixth year....only to have the debt released the next year? I've wondered that. That would be like someone going into a bank and asking for a $1000 loan because they were going bankrupt and needed to buy a new suit for their court appearance!
                  God's Word addresses that problem....by telling the one asked for a loan not to have that wicked thought....but give the poor man the money that he needs....for this is all part of God's plan....and He will bless that lender in everything to which he puts his hand!
                  It has been aptly put that if one refuses to speak out against something then it can be taken as agreeing with it. Whether they were wise policies in the beginning or not....we evangelicals....by not speaking up against the greed....are joining with Trump in taking benefits from people that need them. We are throwing the good charities out with the bad. We are joining in the Draconian measures to drag people out of Mexican restaurants....and even churches....and we are turning lives upside down by eliminating jobs....not to lower a $38 trillion dollar national debt....that was $19 trillion when Trump took office in 2016....because it hardly does anything to that debt....but to take revenge on federal employees....and make it look like he keeps his promises.
                   God's Word tells us that if we treat the poor and the needy and the displaced like this....then do not come to Him we when are the poor and the needy and the displaced.
                   

We Have Wasted One Full Dacade

               Nestled in between Jonah giving a forty day warning to Nineveh....and Nahum simply telling Nineveh to prepare for the judgment that was coming right then....is Micah....pointing out to Judah....and its capital Jerusalem....that God had brought down judgment on Israel....and its capital Samaria....for the same things that they themselves were doing!

              More than any prophet's book in the Old Testament....more even than any passage in the Old Testament....Micah speaks to us in America. They were wealthy....they were religious....and they were fake. This isn't a thought that just came to mind....the following paragraph is from an August of 2016 post!

              "Would you be interested in partaking in a little biblical meditative exercise? The exercise, should you want to do it, is to read the book that is between Jonah and Nahum....the book written by the prophet Micah. Now these words from Micah, once again words of judgment...but also of hope....were to specific people-the people of Judah, but these books are to us also, certainly at least as examples for us to consider what happens when a nation blessed by God then rejects Him. The book is small but take an evening reading it and contemplating each verse, and possibly referencing different translations and a study Bible to help with the changing context. Put America in there as if....as if.... it were written also to us, just to see if our history of blessings and then rejection of our Benefactor is not strikingly similar. And if our rebelliousness is similar, would not the judgment be similar also, and would not the patience extended before judgment be similar...a patience that we may have used up! I'm confident that as you read through Micah you will see many instances where we followed the same path as rebellious Judah. You may even be astonished at times."

                We have corprately....on our side of this divide....sadly and shamefully even evangelicals....just wasted one full decade thinking and hoping and even expecting....that we could make America....great again! At the end of every Trump rally he would lead the rally-goers in the cheer....included in his first inauguration in January of 2017...."And we will make America strong again....and we will make America wealthy again....and we will make America proud again....and yes....we will make America....great again!" Folks....brothers and sisters in Christ....he led the same cheer only months ago...if not even more recently than that!
                 It sounds absurd right now does it not? Well it was absurd in June of 2015 when Trump came down that escalator into the middle of evangelicalism and the church....but God had blinded our eyes because of our transgressions! Trump actually said in that inauguration speech that the divide in America was going to heal....but thanks to him....that divide....that crack....that fissure....is today a great chasm.
                 Out pulpits have miserably failed us....in not warning us....and we have miserably failed our pulpits....in not demanding more food and sustenance that we might give glory to God. If you read Micah in humility and reverence....you will see our reflection....and you may also see where our hope lies....and in the midst of this chaos....where the world says to the believer...."Where is your God"....we might say as did Micah write....

"Do not rejoice over me; my enemy
 When I fall, I will arise.
 When I sit in darkness
 The Lord will be a light to me." (Micah 7: NKJV)

DISPATCHES

"You have no idea the dragon you have awakened." 

The above were Stephen Miller's words in the eulogy that he gave at the September 21 memorial service in Arizona. 

Mr. Miller....we know who the dragon is!

 "And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world-he was thrown down to earth, and his angels were thrown down with him." Revelation 12:9

Trump had constantly prophesied peace and security....and our best is yet to come....and most recently a coming golden age for America....all of which are false prophecies from a genuine biblical false prophet....but he did make one prophecy that has come true....when he said back in 2015 that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone....and his base would not leave him.

Trump is set to pardon the former Honduran president who was convicted in a U.S. court for protecting the trafficking of cocaine to America. His excuse was that the former president was treated very unfairly....an excuse he has used for other pardons. Drugs are said to be the key issue with Trump's threats to Maduro....but I would ask you to consider this....Trump is a man who never before seemed concerned about drugs in America....as his life was Studio 54 and Epstein and his long time dealings with Russian oligarchs. He doesn't seem too concerned what the former Honduran president may or may not have done on bringing drugs into America.

We are very determined to get rid of the murderous dictator Maduro....but also appear very determined to appease the murderous dictator Putin. Why the dichotomy? Putin has nukes and can start WW III. Plus....Maduro had a lot of oil that Trump has wanted for at least eight years now. The problem gets worse. If Xi Jinping moves on Taiwan like Putin moved on the Ukraine....then Trump might eventually tell Xi...."OK....you get to keep Taiwan....but we want (whatever it is that he would want.)" The same goes for Israel....and we can already see that happening.

Monday....November 24....A volcano erupted in NE Ethiopia for the first time....as has been reported....in at least 12,000 years. I think that they are off on that date by at least 6,000 years....but still.....it's a long time. My point here is to show how geologic and cosmic events can happen at any time....and in this case when certainly not expected.

Republican greed is bringing huge increases in healthcare premiums....increases that will hurt the people with the least money. In their backroom political meetings they know that if this were the only issue on the ballot then the Republican Party would get absolutely demolished in the mid-terms. So they are trying to backtrack.....not because they have hurt people....but because the people know that it is them that is hurting them....so in the next few days they will announce some kind of adjustments....and claim that these adjustments are more helpful than they really are.

The news text that I received referred to the new name of the Department of War....so it wasn't a good start to reading the text which said plans to purchase new helicopters next year were on hold if not ended altogether....the reason being that they want to go to unmanned helicopters. Well that is the trend and Melania spoke about that trend on her visit to Camp Lejeune this past week. The negative side of this is that it makes killing impersonal. We are already getting in the habit of pushing a button at some distant location to send missiles to kill and destroy.

Saturday....November 22....It's possible that Marjorie Taylor Greene has her eyes on running against Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff next year. By resigning she doesn't have to toe the line for Speaker Mike Johnson on Trump anymore. 

Friday evening....I had to see it for myself.....surely the reports had to be exaggeration.....but they were not. It was a "lovefest"....as one news outlet reported it....Trump and  Mamdani....in the Oval Office. Why can't evangelicals see that God would never use a man like this? This is no Cyrus. This is no Jehu. This is an Ahab. This may even be an Antiochus Epiphanes before it is all over.

Friday....November 21....I think that the nations of the world....particularly the nations of the west....have learned by now that there is no extended value or security in having the United States as an ally as long as Trump is in office. His only concept of a real ally would be....'hey your a multi-billionaire....and I'm a multi-billionaire....we can work together to become even more filthy rich!' Trump famously ran an expensive ad in the Times and Post and Boston Globe....this on September 2, 1987....stating that all of our allies should be able to defend themselves. He took out this ad less than two months after visiting Russia at the invitation of the Soviet ambassador. He said soon after that...."forget our enemies....Russia....our friends are making billions of dollars....stripping us our dignity." He wasn't a fan of Gorbachev because the Soviet leader did not have a firm enough hand....but sent this message to Putin after he was named Time Man of the Year...."As you probably have heard....I am a big fan of yours."

Monday.....Trump announced today that the United States will sell F-35s to Saudi Arabia. Trump wants a Saudi/Israeli peace deal. MBS wants the advanced fighter jets....(and 300 tanks by the way)....and he wants a similar security guarantee that Trump gave to Qatar.  Trump could not care less about Israel. All of his peace deals have been transactional so that he could personally benefit. These jets....and tanks....if Saudia Arabia has time to actually buy them....would someday be used against Israel. This is really a stab in the back....but totally expected from a man who also could not care less about anything beyond the near future. 

                                      
Stalinesque.....An individual was charged and convicted of some serious terroristic threats around the time of the January 6, 2021 insurrection. He is set to be sentenced. Two prosecutors....in a memo to be given to the judge....stated the facts....and included were some of the events in that insurrection....(the prosecutors referred to it as a 'riot'). Things like this do not sit well in the Trump Justice Department....the two prosecutors were removed....and replaced by two new prosectors....who filed the same memo....only they removed the references to January 6. In the above famous photos....in the top photo was an ally of Stalin....in the bottom photo....Stalin just had his image removed. Show trials and purges are the absolute norm in the Trump administration. The horror of January 6 is being purged. This is revisionist history at its worst.

Sixty Second Review....Zedekiah was only 21 when he became king of Judah. It was all downhill since Josiah died. Nebuchadnezzar came down the first time....and took some people back with him...and exacted tribute. A little while passed and the leaders and false prophets were telling Zedekiah not to give Babylon any more tribute....that Nebby was tied up with Egypt....and would not be able to come down again. The false prophet Hananiah....said that God said that the yoke of Babylon would be broken in two years....kind of like Trump saying that things were going to be better than ever. Meanwhile Jeremiah had been prophesying to them since the days of Josiah that judgment was coming....kind of like what Billy Graham preached to America. Zedekiah cut off the tribute....but Nebby defeated Egypt and came down. Zedekiah lasted about two years inside the walls until all the food ran out...and man was Nebby angry!

Department of Eliminating Opponents....Trump likes to change names....and that would be an apt name change for the Department of Justice. Subpoenas went out to Brennan and Strzok and Page....with dozens more to come. It doesn't matter if you believe this or not. It's late in the game....and you have not done your homework....there are dozens of good books on the subject....but you have been told that they are fake news....and you believed what they fed you. Trump is fixated with getting back at people who were doing their jobs. With Trump's history concerning Russia...and being the ultimate candidate for Russian kompromat....it would have been dereliction of duty....and criminal....for the FBI and the CIA....not....not to have investigated Trump. Trump's actions with Putin since his first inauguration only prove that they were on the right track. We have right now a Stalinist-style of government in respect to attempting to put opponents in jail....or Siberia. The evidence is out there in dozens of books....but you don't have time to catch up on it now anyway. If these people who Trump has sent his 'justice' department after....ever find a smart lawyer....their defense will be....'we knew there was a problem....we found that problem....and it has since been proven!'

 "Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered." Proverbs 21:13   

If Republicans think that yesterday's elections were bad....wait till people start getting their notices on decreased insurance coverage....I posted this on February 25....as Republicans were forcing passage of 'the big beautiful bill'...."Some republicans who know about these kinds of budget issues say that if X number of dollars have to be cut....then it would be impossible to do so without some cuts in Medicare. Cuts in Medicare mean that people of limited or fixed incomes....will go to the doctors as usual....and then find out that something or other is no longer covered." This was as clear as day....republicans were pushing a bill that would eventually curtail the Medicare benefits to seniors with limited or fixed incomes. I was told this today....an elderly person who is on oxygen in the home was notified that the insurance company will no longer give that coverage. Now....here is how it works....insurance companies are in the process of tightening requirements on many benefits....because the reimbursement coverage to them has been cut. This is the "back door" that I posted about back then....for republicans indeed were cutting Medicare....they were just going in the back door to do it. If republicans think that yesterday meant trouble for the mid-terms....wait till people find out that yes....their Medicare coverage is indeed being cut....along with having to pay higher premiums....'But hey....let them eat cake.'

UPDATE....Tuesday....November 18....Two more friends of  mine were added to the growing list of people who have to cancel their health insurance because of the premium increases.

"Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his lords...." Trump said that the new ballroom will seat up to 999 and...."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." Anyone who has read about the life of Trump knows that is how he is....but we on the right don't read that stuff do we....for it's all fake news" Today they started complete demolition on that East Wing. In his former life....Trump 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." God's Word tells us that unless the LORD builds the house....they labor in vain who build it. (Ps:127) God also said through Zechariah that the rebellious people would build houses but not live in them. God also warned about building houses on sand....in other words....trying to build apart from God's will....and God said through Haggai that the people were building their luxurious houses....while God's house lay in ruins.

"After an alliance is made with him he will practice deception....and he will go up and gain power with a small force of people" (Daniel 11:23 NASB) The Tsar was gone....and the moderate Mensheviks in the Social Democratic Workers' Party was in control....the Bolsheviks were a small minority....but their strongarm/strongman tactics took that control and purged everyone else. The Weimar government was gone....and The Nazis were a minority....but their strongarm/strongman tactics took control and purged everyone else. MAGA was a minority....but their strongarm/strongman tactics took control of the Republican Party.....and conservatism....and evangelicalism....and purged everyone else. 

 "For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit." Luke 6:43 NKJV....There are a lot of articles out there implying that there are signs of a revival....particularly among the youth. Evangelicalism right now....circa October 2025....is a bad tree....and there will be no revival or good fruit coming from a bad tree....for the whole gospel....which had already for decades been compromised....has been politicized.

 

Annie Get Your Crown

 The following 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.

  

Evangelicalism Has Been Decimated....We Just Haven't Accepted It Yet

Preface: Evangelicals right now are not just ignoring....for that is fast becoming impossible to do....but blotting out the grotesque images of the new America. Trump has decimated evangelicalism. When Jesus conjectured if the Son of Man would find faith when He comes....He was pointing to today. The following post is only a few weeks old:

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!

                  

No....It Won't Be Tomorrow....But Maybe Next Lord's Day?

                That Lord's Day will arrive....sooner rather than later....when in the previous week....America will have experienced....if we are fortunate it would be called a wake-up call....if we are not so fortunate....it would be more of a cataclysmic catastrophe.
                That previous week's Lord's Day would most likely have been typical....which in essence means that there was no urgency at all....in anything. 
                We will enter our sanctuaries on that coming Lord's Day with a sobriety not seen in American sanctuaries in since December of 1941.
                 None of the sermons that you will hear tomorrow....will be preached on that coming Lord's Day. There will be smiles on that day....oh yes there will be smiles....but not the same category of smiles that will be everywhere tomorrow....and they will be few. They won't be happy....golden retriever smiles....but rather trusting and hopeful smiles....emanating the faith that....'our God is still in control....and our great and glorious Savior and King has left His throne....and along with His army of mighty angels....faces like steel....are holding back their steeds that are chomping at the bit.'
                 God has sent prophet after prophet for forty years....not half-naked....barefoot....long-haired prophets....carrying signs that read....The End Is Near....not even itinerant tent revivalist preachers....or Whitefields or Wesleys or Bunyans who had to find an open clearing to preach....but nationally known preachers....like Billy Graham in front of a hundred thousand in an arena and millions in front of a TV set....warning us....pleading with us to take our eyes off of the glitter and the gold....and to look off in the distance to the light shining brighter than the sun....and to prepare for the winds that will bring down every house not built on the Rock.
                  No....tomorrow won't be that Lord's Day....for there is no time to look around and understand what is happening....but maybe next Lord's Day....should that be in His perfect timing....and give Him the glory due to the one who has written on His robe and on His thigh...

KING OF KINGS....AND LORD OF LORDS.

I Do My Own Daily Calculations

It seems that most of the members of my extended family play that daily word game.....Wordle....and occasionally they have asked me if I wanted to join in. I'll tell them that I have my own type of calculations....that I do almost on a daily basis.

              The estimates of Trump's net worth range from around 5 billion to over ten billion. A lot of that money is volatile.....paper money they call it.....where it could increase or decrease by billions in a very short period of time. It is estimated also that his net worth may have increased by as much as 3 billion since taking office in his second term....and the very latest estimate....this by Forbes....has Trump's net worth as 6.6 billion dollars.
               Solomon went from the wisest man on the planet....to the stupidest. Did you know that he abandoned the covenant faith at one point....and did those things that God's Word said that a king was not to do....as he accumulated gold....and horses....and foreign wives? That is why many of the passages in Ecclesiastes seem so odd....so foreign to God's Word everywhere else. Solomon was like Samson....who had the great strength....then lost it....as Solomon lost his wisdom....and then was given it back at the very end. The strength was there....but no longer the glory. Samson completed his task....as did Solomon....and we are to learn from both.
                Are you aware of this? when Solomon turned away from God....his annual income was 666 talents of gold? How odd it seems for us to be given such a specific income figure? We will find out about all of this....probably in the near future....but the least that we can take from it right now is that gold....(riches is an acceptable interpretation of it)....and the love and accumulation of it....is key.....not only in the rise and fall of any individual....but in the rise and fall of any group of individuals.....governments if you will....corporations....churches.....anything.

1 Kings 11:9
Deuteronomy 17

"This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666." Revelation 13:18 ESV

That Man Was Me

                 After posting that which is below on recommending both Jesse Johnson and Greg Morse....while on a drive....I booted up another Jesse Johnson sermon.....and couldn't wait to post on something that he said in it. Actually it was a chapel talk to Master's University students.....and the topic was more or less.....depression. Here is what hit home in a way that we all need to understand....

                At the beginning of the talk....he told a story about his own matriculation to seminary. His pastor wasn't for it initially....so Jesse went in a different direction....and taught high school Spanish for two years....but was very dissatisfied with that vocation. A man....presumably from his church....this was in Albuquerque where he grew up....took an interest in his predicament....took him out to breakfast....and encouraged him on spiritual growth. Please bear with me on this....to see where I'm going.
                This man introduced Jesse to the ministries of John MacArthur.....and also John Piper....something that I have done and continue to do all the time....introduce people to these two men. He gave Jesse a John MacArthur Study Bible....something that I also have done a number of times....as recently....believe it or not....as four days ago. He gave Jesse a specially chosen CD....and a book by Jonathan Edwards....both of which I have done many times over the past four decades.....giving away thousands of books and hundreds of CDs. In other words....this man was me.
                Jesse Johnson went on to the Master's Seminary. Years passed....Covid came on....and that man who had taken such an interest in Jesse....after hurting his back....became addicted to pain killers. He lost his family over his addiction....and was in rehab in a hospital....this now in Oregon....got into a fight with nurses.....ran out of the hospital....crossed a freeway....and was hit be a truck and died! This happened two weeks prior to Jesse Johnson giving this talk.
                Have you figured out where I'm going with this? We....all of us believers in our glorious Lord and Savior and coming King....are never to become overconfident. We are always to examine ourselves....to work out our salvation in fear and trembling....and to be vigilant at all times....knowing that wolves....and roaring lions....are out there....looking for us to slip up but one time. The following YouTube is that chapel talk....

                                                                          

                  

                

"Preach The Bad News Too"

                There is a little bit of good news in this short post. I've mentioned often that all of our leading pastors on a national stage.....Billy Graham and Sproul and Keller and MacArthur and others....are gone....called home by their heavenly Father. These men were the closest thing that we had on a national level to shepherds....as God designed shepherds to be....both encouraging and warning. Combine this with the loss of local Christian bookstores....and sound Christian television and radio programming....and we are effectively lost in a maelstrom....sails still flying....but no rudder to guide us.
                 There is one man that I have come across who has the potential to stand in the gap. He is the closest thing to John MacArthur that I have heard as he has a very unique gift to phrase things....and enter into difficult topics....in a way that makes him appear as one of us....on the one hand not some scholar flaunting his seminary education....or on the other hand not some televangelist who communicates very well....but just about everything that he communicates is poison!
                   Give this man a try if you would....and see if I know what I'm talking about. Just Google anything like.....Pastor Jesse Johnson YouTube....and go from there. One other thing. John Piper has a young man on his ministry staff....desiringgod.org....whose name is Greg Morse....and over the past few years....everything that he has contributed to Desiring God Ministries....has been profound....and searing as to what we need to be seared with. Try his latest offering by Googling....Greg Morse....Preach The Bad News Too.

"Hate Your Next Door Neighbor....But Don't Forget To Say Grace"

             If this were on the drawing board....starting from scratch....then the subsidies....or lack of them....would be....or rather might be....logical and worthy of consideration. The same principle would apply to the number of employees in a government department. The same would apply to a grand design for the number of immigrants accepted into the country. It would all be so very simple....apply logic and economic common sense....and even compassion to the plans.
             That scenario....unfortunately....is not the reality that we face today. For better or for worse....wise or foolish....the die has already been cast....time has passed....the population has increased....stark and even frightening class economic divisions exist. Multitudes are already dependent on subsidies....some existentially dependent....people are employed and dependent on that employment.....and millions of immigrants....whole families....are assimilated.....paying taxes....serving in the military....new born and aged....are already here and established.
              Republicans are cutting these subsidies through the Big Beautiful Bill....(which was anything but beautiful)....and threatening cutbacks on Obamacare subsidies. Multitudes were summarily fired from their jobs....lives totally upended by a man like Elon Musk....(with an emphasis on traditionally Democrat occupied jobs)....and Medicare benefits are disappearing....(but the blame would go to the states....who made the cuts....because reimbursements were cut.)
               And this is only the beginning. Insurance premiums have to go up....probably drastically. A friend the other day commented to me....in a conversation that had absolutely nothing to do with politics...,that his son was astonished at the increases in insurance premiums that he will have to pay. I couldn't help myself....and told him that that was what Trump's Big Beautiful Bill did.
               You won't like this analogy....but it's only the method at achieving a goal that I'm referring to. The commandants of German concentration camps were pressured to show numbers of human beings....that were exterminated. If they didn't get their ten or twenty thousand a week....they were in trouble. The Trump administration wants numbers....big numbers....of deportations! It would be great if they were criminals....but not necessary. The irony here is that all of the illegal immigrants could never be deported.....for we are talking millions.....but that doesn't matter because this is all political. The numbers are the key. Trump needs the numbers to keep his poll numbers from flagging. He needs....more than he has ever needed anything....Republicans to hold the House of Representatives in 2026....or he will face a dozen or so special counsels....and more impeachments.
                 Thirty years ago or so....we republicans and conservatives and evangelicals took job applications for the position of President of the United States....we wanted less regulations and less taxes and a stronger national defense.....among other things....unfortunately we did not want any character references. Trump has applied to city governments his whole life for permits to build. He knows how to fudge the figures and plans. He applied to us....we bought his interview....and he got the job....and now he acts like he put out applications and hired us! Over time he stole our identity. We are republican in name only....no longer conservative....and certainly no longer evangelical!
                  We were once the party on the high ground of ethics....but no longer. As incredible that it was in the Old Testament....after Israel had gone after the Baals....and Judah saw it.....and saw what God did to them....they.....Judah....actually had gone after false gods more than Israel had! That is what we did....as we saw the irresponsibility of the modern Democrat Party....and the consequences....but we doubled-down on our own greed!
                   Referring back to the first paragraph....this is not an economic model on the drawing board for a new country. These are real people....millions and millions of them....many at basic subsistence levels....victims and not predators....simple people who....once again for better or worse....wisely or foolishly....find themselves living on a budget that relies on subsidies....while the elites....who see great profit ahead for them....(new billionaires are being made all the time)....are going to cut back subsidies at enormous levels....hurting tens of millions....even in some cases unto death....all the while trying to make us believe that they are merely being good shepherds of the economy....when it is their fortunes that are top priority....or their next election?
                   All of this came from the mind of Donald Trump....who has a history of making money at the expense of others....but then he is the one who applied for the job without having to give any character references....thus all of us have been torn apart....and many tormented....compassion for our fellow man and the alien in our midst abandoned....and the gospel of Jesus Christ turned into a political campaign....all this for an entire decade....and now we just want more money in our pockets....to blazes the multitudes who would be hurt....or as the lyrics admonish on Barry McGuire's 1965 hit song....Eve Of Destruction...."Hate your Next Door Neighbor....but Don't forget To Say grace."
                   

The AI Generated Gospel Of Today

                  Breaking Rust is the singer of the top country song right now....only there is no real Breaking Rust....for he is AI generated....along with the song....Walk My Walk.
                  Some in Nashville are up in arms....but it is way too late to stop AI! I posted my first warning on Artificial Intelligence back in 2010....in a book review of Nicholas Carr's....The Shallows, What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains.
                   I listened to the song....Walk My Walk....and the thought came to mind of a dirge that might be sung by the poor people following the casket in a funeral procession. Then Frank Sinatra's....My Way....came to mind.
                   My Way....was a French tune that Paul Anka Americanized into Sinatra's mega-hit signature song. The person in the song did it his way....right up to the end....kind of like the lyrics from....Walk My Walk.
                   So it's not just that the number one song was AI generated....but also that the message is that of a defiant rebel.....the same as in My Way.
                   Mysteries are being revealed consistently albeit slowly on our Lord's return in power and glory and righteous judgment....but signs are showing up all the time....and one of them is AI.....or artificial intelligence....which most definitely will play some part in the rise of the Antichrist.
                   We are living in an age of an artificial gospel....a man-made gospel....a fake gospel....or another gospel....as Paul warned about in the beginning of his letter to the Galatians. There is no need to be born again....only born free....no need to be converted....but rather recruited....and no cost....other than the eventually realization that fake or artificial or man-made gospels do not save. It's odd....in that this modern gospel is man-made....in that man constructs it....but it comes from another intelligence....that is anything but artificial or a myth!

The Good Shephard......And The Bad Goatherd

                I've known over the years....guys like Tucker Carlson....and Alex Jones....and Joe Rogan. As for Carlson....one particular friend stopped me as I was trying to explain the gospel to him....and told me that he had read the Bible....first page to the last page....so there was nothing that I could tell him.  Another friend was like Alex Jones in that he would tell me all of the demonic influence in world leaders....but that is all that he was interested in talking about. Another friend was like Joe Rogan....but he just liked to talk about God....as it was an interesting subject to him.
                 Carlson is in the news again after relating how he was in bed one night....and something demonic attacked him....clawing him and drawing blood. I remember reading....(this back in the early 80s)....a Catholic priest relate the exact same story that Carlson did.....and I have my own story. It was probably 1973....I was in a bedroom with the door locked....and something sat on the bed. I was parlysized.....struggled....finally uttered the word....'Jesus'....and the whatever it was got off of the bed...and I lay there in a pool of....not blood....but sweat.
                 At the time I was still close to the height of my rebellion and debauchery. It was around that time that one evening I found myself as a drunken bum rolling around in the middle of Forbes Avenue on the Pitt campus....fighting with another drunken bum. 
                 Fast-forward fifteen years later....as a Christian of five years....I and a friend were among thousands of other Christians....silently protesting the blasphemous film....The Last Temptation of Christ....on that same Forbes Avenue. I suddenly realized something....asked my friend to stop....and told him that fifteen years earlier....I rolled around on that very spot that we were standing....as a drunken bum....stopping traffic as we were that evening....and I praised God for His mercy upon the least deserving of it!
                 As the thousands of us marched on Forbes Avenue....holding flickering candles....there were no shouts of protest....as it was a quiet march. There was no fiery political leader flattering us and teaching us how great we were....and how to hate our enemies. We were lambs...safe in the care of the Good Shepherd. Today we are more like goats....guided by a bad goatherd....who is in it only for the money....and if it should come to it....would protect only himself.

The Real Trump Doctrine....'I'll Figure Something Out"

                I'll give credit to Fox's Laura Ingraham as she actually challenged Trump....sort of anyway....for a minute or two. She brought up Trump's proposal for fifty-year mortgages....calling it more money for the bankers. Then Trump did what he has done for ten years now in interviews....he begins talking....blathering is a better word....some of it purposely just confusing the issue....or exaggerating where in continuing to talk fast....the interviewer has no chance to challenge....and in just outright lies....once again where he just continues to talk fast....changing the subject at times....attacking Biden or Powell at times....blah blah blah....end of interview.
                There is absolutely nothing new in this. It's a grand deceitful ploy....and has proven very effective....enough so that conservatives and evangelicals have been taken in hook...line....and sinker....but Trump may have slipped up on one thing in his interview with Ingraham. She brought up the Supreme court's coming decision on whether the tariff money will have to be paid back....and Trump said that would be a disaster. She asked him what he would do....and here is where he slipped up....by giving her the real Trump Doctrine....on everything....as he blew off the question and quickly said...."I'll figure something out....that's what I do....I figure things out."
                 Trump cannot see the long run....and he never even tries. He just wants instant glory and then move on and let others mop up the mess. He does this on everything....including foreign policy. This Gaza peace deal would never hold up....but to Trump that doesn't matter....for he'll just figure something out when it collapses..
                 So what would Trump do when he eventually stands in judgment before Jesus Christ? He'll figure something out....or so he thinks. This Trump Doctrine of....I'll figure something out....has taken over the MAGA and conservative and evangelical mind. There is great disappointment ahead....and the shedding of real tears....and even the grinding of teeth....as the Trump Doctrine will be seen for the egotistical....short-sighted....irresponsible....me-centered doctrine that it is.

Addendum: Let me add this on that interview with Ingraham. He said that there is no big deal between a thirty-year or a fifty-year mortgage....as you only pay a little less....for a longer time. A half a century ago I worked as a loan officer....and what we were instructed to do was offer to everyone who came in to make a payment....to take a new loan out and pay a few other bills off....with smaller payments....just over a few more years....whether this was needed or not. It would not help the borrower....but be a lot more money for the lender.

I Can Only Imagine....Seventy And Eighty Year Old Saints....Listening In Wonder As This Twenty Year Old Preached!

                He was only five years a Christian....with no formal training other than growing up in a Christian family....and he was twenty years old at the time....in his second year as the pastor of New Park Street Chapel in London....and he preached the message on faith in the accompanying video!
                The only explanation is that God had gifted this young....actually he was a boy when the gift first appeared. Looking back in history there is nothing quite like it! It was the beginning of a ministry in London that would last the next almost thirty-seven years....and then last throughout the world right up to today....with me joyously listening to this sermon as I raked leaves!
                 His name was Charles Haddon Spurgeon....known affectionately and in thanksgiving as the....Prince Of Preachers. London....indeed all of England....would not have survived without the challenging and powerful preaching of Spurgeon....and J. C. Ryle....and others in that God-blessed latter nineteenth century....and I would add that we might not be here without the sermons and ministry that he left....and others who succeeded him like Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
                  So please listen to this sermon on faith. I've heard many sermons on faith and I'm sure you have also....but try this one....for it's practicality may hit home with you as it did with me.

                                                                         

The Wake Of The Edmund Fitzgerald

Preface: Fifty years ago tomorrow....November 10, 1975....the Edmund Fitzgerald sank suddenly in a storm on Lake Superior with high waves and hurricane strength winds....about an hour away from safe harbor. The following was first posted on May 17, 2016....two weeks after Ted Cruz withdrew his name from the 2016 campaign....and one month and a day before the Republican Convention in Cleveland would nominate Donald Trump:

Batten Down The Hatches

                I usually turn the volume up and listen intently to the lyrics when Gordon Lightfoot's hit song of 1976 The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald is played on the radio. We had just celebrated our bicentennial in America as the song was released. Bruce Jenner had won Olympic gold as  'the World's Greatest Athlete,' I shook Jimmy Carter's hand as he campaigned in Pittsburgh, and I was only weeks away from getting married. The Edmund Fitzgerald had sunk to its watery grave in Lake Superior less than a year earlier in November of 1975.
                 We call them hatches today but they were formally called hatchways. A ship's hatches were not sealed and when a storm brewed the crew spread a tarpaulin over the hatch and secured it down with what were called battens. Thus we have had the term batten down the hatches. In Lightfoots original release of The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, one lyric went "at seven PM a main hatchway gave in." The singer/songwriter was intrigued by the media coverage of the loss of the American Great Lakes freighter and thus the wreck was immortalized soon after the ship went down.
                On another topic, have you by any chance noticed how Billy Graham seems to have been going off the deep end for the last few decades with book titles like Approaching Hoofbeats, The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse and Storm Warning which was first published in 1995 and revised in 2010.   He's even received some criticism for the severe tone in what has been billed as "his final work" Where I Am, Heaven, Eternity, And Our Life Beyond.  One reviewer reported that it was "a significant shift from the approach he took after the first decade of his ministry..."
                Billy Graham of course has not gone off the deep end. I think that many years ago I experienced a similar "significant shift." God seems to be removing veils as of late. You might be saying, 'Oh He's been doing that for the last forty-five years starting with Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth.' I agree somewhat but with a qualifier. Those early years and those books were dominated by events and how they might fit into Biblical end-times. We are still preoccupied today with events on earth and in the heavens. What is needed and what they cannot do is to mortify, and therein is the 'shift' noticed in Billy Graham's writing.
                 What we are seeing today in many ministers of the Gospel such as Billy Graham is an extreme soberness. Soberness in that these 'events' are no longer just a 'connect the dots.' This collapse in everything that we hold dear is more than unnerving! It should drive us to our knees. That others cannot see the full extent of what is happening in America and in the world should be no surprise at all.
                 I've used a number of nautical terms in these posts of over seven years. I'm adding another today. Batten down the hatches! I think it high time to batten down the hatches.....close off those areas where sea water can enter....secure the cargo and set a even ballast, for the waves in this coming storm will be merciless, the winds revengeful and the sea unforgiving.
                We do have a safe harbor hemmed in by the mountains of the righteousness of Jesus Christ where we can tie onto the dock with 'cords of kindness, (and) with the bands of love' but we have sailed willfully into this tempest.....for we are as those of whom it is written in Psalm 107:

"Those who go down to the sea in ships,
Who do business on great waters,
(who) see the works of the LORD,
And His wonders in the deep.
For He commands and raises the stormy wind,
Which lifts up the waves of the sea....
Then they cry out to the LORD in their trouble,
And He brings out of their distresses.
He calms the storm,
So that it's waves are still....
Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men"

Afterthought:  Those...."many ministers of the Gospel such as Billy Graham [preaching] an extreme soberness"....that I mentioned above....are just about all gone! There are no more warnings folks....and no soberness at all let alone extreme soberness.

Also....On November 10....1871....154 years ago....Henry Morton Stanley....'found'....David Livingston....from whence we have the saying...."Doctor Livingston....I presume?" I have heard Charles Spurgeon glowingly refer to David Livingston in a couple of his sermons.