DISPATCHES

May 13.....Trump is scheduled to land in China in about an hour of this posting. The following paragraph is from a 2025 post...."On February 21, 1972....my plane took off from Tan Son Nhut Air Base outside Saigon....I was headed home. The same day President Nixon...on Air force One....landed in Beijing. His reason for the trip was to make war with Red China less likely. On April 30, 1975....Chinese variations of the Soviet T-54 tanks....rolled onto that tarmac of Tan Son Nhut Air Base. We watered China as if it were a plant from which we would receive fruit. Well that plant proved to be of the invasive type....that competes with our plants for....as Wikipedia puts it...."moisture, sunlight, nutrients and space."

May 11.....Trump told an interviewer that he told Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu....that Israel was a "great ally"....but what he does with Iran is...."My business and not anyone else's." Folks....I am on book number 112 right now on Trump....how many times have I posted here....Trump cares about Trump....and no one else.....and never has. He is a con man....with no foreign policy expertise....and in his second term not even good advice around him. It's all about Trump....not you or anyone else. God has taken all discernment away from evangelicals today concerning Trump because we became more concerned with our entertainments than guarding our own minds from deception.

Trump also assigned some in Congress to push for a resolution....that would expunge the two impeachments....in other words....make it like they never happened. Evangelicals...put away the games and get down to business. You were decieved....taken in... and it is time to admit it. You can blame it on your pastors if you want because they gave you absolutely no warning at all....that is between them and God....but ultimately we all failed in our responsibilities to one degree and in one area or another. It is long past time for all of us to fall on our knees at what has happened in America....and in the church....and in us....and I am first in line.

The cage match is scheduled for Trump's 80th birthday....June 14....on the South White House  lawn....with 4,000 to 5,000 on the lawn....and maybe another 100,000 watching from....where else....the famed ellipse. Cry for America if you want....at what we have become....for there are plenty of us already doing it.

Just a little snippet here on the four horses of Revelation six...or more accurately the four riders on the four horses of revelation six....and actually only the first three of them. The general teaching in the doctrinal tradition of which  I am a part believes that the rider on the white horse is Jesus. After over forty years of studying this....I just cannot see that. It makes no sense to me....and seems more to be a fashioned interpretation in order to fit with other doctrine. No....it seems to be someone coming out....as it says...."Conquering....and to conquer." So then comes the rider on the red horse.....and that is pretty clear....war. Now that could mean a third world war....or a nuclear war....or something like the four years now of steady war with Russia and Israel and now Iran. And then comes the rider on the black horse....famine....and if you go now and spend just a little time perusing it....you will see concerns about famine in Asia....and the Sudan....and quite a number of other places....the concerns are there primarily because famines are generally started because of war. We need to be studying prophecy folks....and there are a number ways of doing it....this just being one of them.

The six 'conservatives' justices on the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act that was a successful attempt to ensure that Blacks primarily would have ethnic representation in Congress. Technically....I'm sure they were correct in their ruling. Morally....it may be a different story. It took less than a day for Republicans to start planning new districts in time for the mid-terms. In the mid-twentieth century we as a people had somewhat come to grips with what we....(our ethnic forefathers)....did to an entire race of people. The answers we came up with were not perfect....and in some cases pretty bad....but at least they were an attempt to help an ethnic minority that we....(we can't get away from it folks....we enjoy white privilege....please....please read my post on this that is down at the bottom of this page titled....White Like Me)....an ethnic minority that we sentenced to seemingly everlasting lower class status at best. We are doing the same thing with the immigration deportation debate. Technically....many are here illegally. Morally....we let those who want to use racial hatred to stay in power in Congress....and the White House....incite us into doing things that we as conservatives would not have done decades ago. There was a better way to address these issues....but we chose the drumbeat with no compassion. 

The ballroom was initially to cost $100 million.....then ballooned to$400 million....but supposedly paid for with donations. After the events of this past week....Trump.....through Lindsey Graham's advancing the issue....wants the government to pay for it now....because an underground military bunker and communications center is needed to protect against....as Trump mentioned...drones. Forget the ballroom....and give them the money to build the bunker. As for drones....I have warned for years now that the drone problem could only get worse....and Trump apparently seconded that warning. There is no limit to what evil minds can think of to do with a drone! 

Have you read James Comey's book....or Andrew McCabe's account....or Christopher Steele's....or any of the other first account books on the....'Russia hoax'? Probably not....for we have been good cult members in not reading what our own personal Watchtower tells us is fake news. These men....did what they were required to do when an American celebrity becomes a prime candidate for Soviet or now Russian kompromat. Trump today brought new charges against James Comey. This is a sick illness of revenge....unequaled as far as I know short of Soviet show trials....and evangelicals do not just ignore this assault on truth and justice....they....far too many of them....celebrate it!

Trump's whole life has been one of threats and power bonds and litigation. MAGA fits nicely into this constant animosity that he thrives on....but to the rest of America it is a constant churning vexation of the spirit.

Surely you have heard or read of these famous words from a poem by Martin Niemöller...."First they came for the socialists....and I did not speak out....because I was not a socialist....then they came for the trade unionists....and I did not speak out.....because I was  not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews....and I did not speak out....because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me."

Hitler Derangement Syndrome....Winston Churchill had it....and England should thank God that he did.

God's Perfect Design.....With His Imperfect Church

             I don't usually use the word but I have always had heroes....and the most long-standing of those may be Joni Eareckson Tada....that wonderful Christian woman about my age who at 17 years old became quadriplegic from a diving accident. I am always in awe at her faithfulness and her testimony. Probably next to her would be more recent....in the former Senator from Nebraska....Ben Sasse....who has a terminal cancer diagnosis....and has since given a testimony of faith that should humble all of us!
             Ben Sasse speaks with an intellect and wisdom that is more than rare in American government. He would be the top candidate for the next Republican nomination were it not for his illness. If you listen to the recent 60 Minutes interview you will hear strong opinion on AI and other issues that need to be tackled in the Senate.....but are not.
             This isn't a political post....for as strong as Ben Sasse is in what would be the leadership that we desperately need....he does have an area where he is lacking....for his theological foundations....which are the same as mine....is unable to see that the Second Coming....is now. He....we....are generally blinded to it....but there is a reason for this.....for God's design is perfect....and in amongst that design there are discrepancies and even doctrinal disputes.
              I have understood this for a long time....not perfectly....but rather that God must have a reason that we have these differences....and permits us to continue to defend that which we believe.....without compromising this gospel! We....all of us who still hold the gospel of Jesus Christ and the absolute need to be born again as central....we may push against each other in some areas....but ultimately we balance each other out....and constantly challenge each other....forcing each other to have some humility.....and not letting any of us get too arrogant.
               So some of us know that the church is under judgment....that delusion and end-times deception is everywhere...and that 1948 set things in motion without a turning back....and some of us do not know that.....even deny it....but those others have their own strengths! This may not be perfect theology for anyone.....but it is perfect in that God will bring us all together at the perfect time....which is not far away. Maranatha....Lord Jesus Come!

The following is a breathtakingly beautiful interview with Ben Sasse and Michael Horton:

                                                                           

"How Do You Turn This Thing On?"

Preface: I remember typing the following post....it was early October....a few months ago....the day after my wife and my 49th anniversary....and it was in a hotel room in Virginia Beach....right on the concrete boardwalk....only thirty yards or so from the famous boardwalk statue of Neptune.....the god of the sea. My wife was sleeping while I was working under a desk light....covered up with a shirt or something....to keep the room dark. What should I write about. The following is what came out...

"How Do You Turn This Thing On?"

The crowd applauded as John Rigby left the microphone and moved to his seat to the left of the podium. Micah Taylor stepped back up to the mic and said this....

"Thank you Mr. Rigby. And now let us hear from"....he looked closer at the paper before him...."Let us hear from.....Special.....Dog?"

The crowd laughed....as Special Dog walked up....and kind of looked at the mic from both sides....as if he had never held one of these before.

"I never talked into a microphone before...."

The crowd giggle

"That was a very nice presentation by Mr. Rigby....on the....positives....of Donald Trump. I disagree with just about everything that he said though. So here is my resume. I'm 75 years old....(76 now). I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh back in 1976....that would be the football team's national championship year. I spent three years in the army....half of that in Vietnam in signal intelligence....and I did some graduate work when I was fifty years old. I voted for Donald Trump in 2016....and celebrated when he won. About two or three months into his term I could tell that there was something wrong....seriously wrong....terribly wrong....so I started reading about who this Donald Trump was....other than that which we all knew....the comical supermarket tabloid character....and TV show host....of which I never saw a single episode. I just started the 108th book on him.....(I just finished book 109....STOP In The Name Of GOD....Why Honoring The Sabbath Will Transform Your Life....Charlie Kirk's last book)....books for him and against him....and supposedly by him.....books on every decade of his life....and books on single topics like Mar-a-Lago and golf and of course.....Russia.....lots of books on Russia! So that's my resume....not a whole lot of letters after my name....and no experience at all in speaking before people."

Someone from the back shouted out...."Get closer to the microphone!"

Special Dog looked at his watch.....

"Well....I have thirteen minutes left so let me get right to the topic a hand. I do not think that Donald John Trump has changed an iota in the past....seventy years....he is someone with no compassion for anyone....and who cares only about one person....himself....it is all lies and flattery and threats."

Someone again from the back shouted out...."You're a communist!"

"Hey....that's an interesting comment. I have studied for fifty years now on communism....and saw first hand....in Vietnam....how communists come in and brutally murder people....before taking over the country and turning it into a capitalist resort. I've been warning Americans about communism for a long time. No....I'm not a communist. That is my opinion on Trump from what I have gleaned in the past 8 1/2 years....(now 9 years)....of reading and observing and researching in any way that I could....watching just about all of his rallies....(the latest being today's TPUSA rally in Phoenix)....which were the exact same...methodology....that that German Fuhrer used to get power in the early 1930s. 

The Donald Trump show is the greatest show on earth. In a fifteen minute talk I have to pick and choose what to point out. In his first term he picked some pretty good people for his cabinet....and then alienated most of them. They know today all too well who he really is. Yes....the pandemic did him in in the 2020 election....without that he would have won....but he lost. I watched television that morning of January 6....2021....and had to turn the set off because the rhetoric was too disturbing....and unsettling. He did nothing to stop what was going on.....in spite of his people begging him to do something....and then almost immediately....even before the dust settled....began a campaign to turn history upside down....so that it appeared that he did nothing wrong on that day....and that Anthony Fauci and others were the truly bad people. In retrospect....all of this is kind of unbelieveable....but what was truly mind-boggling was that intelligent people....evangelicals....seminary trained pastors even....actually believed the lies they were being told." 

Special Dog used the few cat calls to take a deep breath

"Trump then began to brow beat everyone in the Republican Party into supporting him. The approximately 30% or so of true believers behind him were enough to beat off all of the opposition. He didn't even debate in the primaries....lying as usual....saying that legal matters prevented him from doing so. So he won....and formed the worst cabinet in American history....filled with loyalists....and a couple of nut-cases who needed paid back for their support....and the usual suspects of attractive women who has always liked to keep close by.

So here we are today. The Republican Party is gone....replaced by the Trump Party. Evangelicalism is gone....replaced by Christian nationalism. What exactly happened to Donald Trump from November of 2020....to January of 2025....when he was inaugurated for a second time....I really don't know. Some people say that he learned his lesson from his first term. Others say that the radical right finally convinced him to be bold. I lean to something more supernatural....for this is a new man that has come out in the second term...."conquering...and to conquer"....as Revelation puts it in the sixth chapter....concerning the rider on the white house....excuse me...white horse.

I would ask you....especially evangelicals....and very especially pastors....do you really think that a golden age is coming? Hey....maybe you do? Maybe you think that Jesus is behind all of this....and that men like Jonathan Cahn are correct? Well....that view is going to be severely tested in the days to come....thank you."

Note: An hour ago I watched a few minutes of the last day of TPUSA in Phoenix. I watched a few minutes here and there over the past few days. Vice President Vance was the speaker....and I thought about all of the evangelical youth that must be in the audience. Please excuse my naivety....but Nicki Minaj was the previous speaker....and I do not know anything about who she is....but I listened...and this was a compromised and very modern testimony....but everyone seemed to love it. Anyway....I listened to JD Vance finish. This is truly scary stuff....that evangelical youth can be taken in like this. Personally....the Vice President has been the biggest disappointment that I have ever experienced in politics.....(and I have had some big disappointments)....everything pointed to this being a man of integrity....who would tell it like it is....and not be drawn into the web of personal advancement....but it turned out to be the opposite.

Update: Today....Friday....April 17....2026....I watched Trump speak at the latest TPUSA rally....again in Phoenix! As Trump ridiculed NATO....these young people....many of them evangelicals....booed NATO....which means that they booed the people of England....and France....and Italy...and Poland....and Canada! These member nations....and many others....were our allies and our friends....before Trump changed all of that!

Addendum: I have an interesting....and personal....anecdote for you. It was November 4 of 1979....and I sat at my father's bedside as he died. The 2012 Academy Award winning Best Picture....ARGO....a Ben Affleck film....began on that day....in Tehran...as Iranian students took 52 American hostages at the American Embassy....but six American employees slipped into the city. The film is about the successful rescue of those six Americans. That rescue could not have come about had not Canada made a very dangerous decision to hide those Americans....and then help them escape!              

Lord's Day Post

Preface: The following post is from June 2, 2022:

                "You heard the phrase a lot in basic training....way back when anyway....smoke 'em if you got 'em. The drill or the march or whatever had stopped for a rest....and the Drill Sergeant would just say....smoke 'em if you got 'em. Well I have a phrase for the pastors in their pulpits today....it's about tears....the phrase is....shed 'em if you got 'em. Give us some kind of unction fellas....some emotion....some clue that you know the intensity of the evilness of the day....some passion for the souls in your own congregation....some hope for the return of our Lord where....'He will wipe away every tear from their eyes....' Revelation 21:4

Psalm 126:5...."Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of Joy!" 

At least remind us every Lord's Day....the words beginning the very next Psalm....

Psalm 127:1.... "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."

"Keep Your Lamp Full!"

                Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died within hours of each our on July 4....1826....fifty years to the day after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. We all.....most of us anyway....know this. Neither man was a Christian. The best description of what Thomas Jefferson was came from his own writing.....saying that he...."was a sect by himself"....in other words....he held his beliefs but there was no sect or denomination that he would fit into. Adams was Unitarian. Both men denied the divinity of Christ. Both men also thought that institutional Christianity was the culprit. Only one week ago I had two men separately come over the house to do some work. As I always try to do....I  started a conversation on Christianity....and both men....very politely.....in fact they accepted recommendations and a book from me.....but both men said very clearly that the problem they have is with organized religion!
                What were Jefferson and Adams thinking as the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence drew near? It seems that in their letters to each other....Adams wanted to talk about the old days.....but Jefferson wasn't that interested. I have something to offer on this although it may hold no importance at all.....and it is this....
                Fifty years? How much do we retain after a half century? How much might Jefferson and Adams have retained? I have one possible clue....in my own experience. Fifty years ago....it will be to the day in a few months....was my wife and my wedding day. Now that is pretty important....but probably not as important as Independence Day was to these two men. The war itself was roughly in this time span....and I was in the army and in Vietnam....in roughly the same fifty year time span. 
                 I can remember as if it were today....our wedding....and much of my time in signal intelligence in Vietnam....so I would assume that Jefferson and Adams would have roughly the same recall and feeling of their days at the time of the revolution....and even moreso as the constitution came about....and even more than that....their own terms in the White House! 
                 Somebody today who is only about thirty or forty years old....not to even mention college students....might not be able to see this? Young people probably think that 1976 or the Vietnam War were ages ago....instead of only decades ago. I think of JFK as a real man....who died when I was a real boy....but others today may see only a mythological figure? They might even think that about Reagan....but Reagan to others even near my age was as real as Bill Clinton....who is still walking around.
                 It is appearing more and more certain that they have finally found the remains of Noah's Ark. There have only been sixty....60.....centuries since God created Adam and Eve. A little calculation and....there have only been 120 of those fifty year periods since the Garden of Eden! This isn't lotto odds folks....in that this is the generation that will live through the tribulation described in the book of Revelation.
                  Fifty years ago was our bicentennial. I remember quite well the tall ships and the celebrations. There is not going to be a tricentennial....or tercentenary. Scripture is very clear on this....but one has to have eyes to see and ears to hear.....and one also has to have a desire to see Jesus return....nor would anyone thinking logically and rationally....want this time to pass....for where the world and society are going at....full-speed-ahead....is not a time period that anyone should look forward to or even want to live through.
                 We have run our course. The situation alone that Israel is in should show us this. There is no peace coming to this world. AI and the potential horrors of drone warfare....let alone drone terrorism....and the proliferation of Nuclear weapons....including small transportable weapons....and add to this a geological and cosmic increasing turbulence and volatility should tell us to....as a Christian neighbor passing by the house today....stopping only long enough to comment on the news of the day....smiled a hopeful smile up to me and said...."Keep your lamps full of oil".....(a reference to the Parable of the Ten Virgins from Matthew's version of the Olivet Discourse)....of which I then said....and some extra to take along!"

Addendum: 'Tippecanoe and Tyler too.' We learned that presidential campaign slogan in grade school. William Henry Harrison....(Tippecanoe)....became our ninth president....and John Tyler....his vice president....later our tenth president....this in 1841. As governor of Virginia....Tyler gave the funeral eulogy for Thomas Jefferson. Here is a rather astounding genealogical trivia. President Tyler's grandson....not great-great-great grandson or something like that.....but his grandson....died....last year.....last year....in May 2025!

Mike Pence Would Be One Of Them

               I had the opportunity today to meet Vice President Mike Pence....well that's embellishing what happened....for it was no more than shaking hands and making a few comments of which he replied....and I was nervous. It was a luncheon in his honor.....billed as....God and Mike Pence....A Spiritual Life. I'm not going to give a summary of his testimony for you can read the full story in his 2022 autobiography....So Help Me God.
               What I would like to do is relate one question given to him afterards....and his answer. The question was....'What word of advice would he give to pastors?'. He paused.....and I'm glad that he did.....for the question even threw me.....as I thought to myself....that what is really important was....what word would they have for him.
                Sure enough....the former Vice President gave almost that same answer.....for after pausing....and maybe struggling a little with question himself....he quoted Scripture....a concise summary of....2 Timothy 4:2...."preach the word.....in season and out of season."
                There was a comment in the middle of his talk that touched me....I wish that I could remember the exact word that he used....it probably wasn't as strong as this...but the implication was the same....that when he was a young man....just getting interested in the workings of government....and reading of past presidents....and a Democrat at the time....that he loved JFK. I know where he is coming from....for as an 18 year old at the time I surely loved RFK.
                 My comment to Mike Pence in the receiving line....was that I once shook Jimmy Carter's hand....so in a long life....it was just he....and Jimmy Carter....and that I was satisfied and honored with that. He said something nice about our 39th president....and acknowledged some differences in the two of them....and that was it.
                 There were some leaders in our past.....that fallible as they were....(and Mike Pence acknowledged in his talk that he was also fallible)....they could actually draw out love from us. Reagan was one of them. One felt that no matter where they would lead....or what would lie ahead....that one could follow them.
                 Mike Pence is one of those men....(or it could be women.....for I would have felt that about Margaret Thatcher had I lived in England)....and I think that there may be a few others out there today. Difficult times are ahead....more difficult than any political science professor  or political commentator can describe or even imagine. These leaders out there are all fallible men....(women)....as all pastors are fallible men.....as we all are all fallible....and no one it seems more than me....but when it is obvious that they know that their abilities come from God....and that God alone raises leaders....for His purposes....or brings them down....for His purposes....then one can put their trust fully in Christ....and look at these leaders....not as one strong enough and wise enough to lead....but one humble enough and therefore deserving enough to lead....and for us to give them their due respect and follow.
                 
      

We Think That God's Prophetic Warnings In His Word......Are Fake News!

                One of the powerful cinematic moments in the new film....A Great Awakening....is when George Whitefield is perched up on portico of the courthouse in Philadelphia....with citizens lined up all the way to the dock.....as he bellows out...."Awake, O Sleeper!" He took those words from Scripture....as Isaiah wrote at the Holy Spirit's direction...."Awake, Awake!'.....and Paul wrote in Ephesians...."Awake, O sleeper....and arise from the dead....and Christ will shine on you."
                Those 1740s were God's time for that Great Awakening. Everything is in God's perfect timing. John MacArthur bellowed out similar commands....as did R. C. Sproul....and many others actually....but it was only Billy Graham who had that prominent perch for the American citizen to see him....and we did respond to his words....for a while....but no single man was needed by God.....and no single man could claim the victory in any of the revivals in America.
                 O we are indeed sleeping in America right now. None of these show events like national days of prayer or Bible reading marathons or college baptism rallies are related to what happened in the colonies at the time of Whitefield and Edwards and others. 
                  Pittsburgh is going to be overrun by.....I don't know....what are they....fans....in the next few days for the NFL draft. The Penguins are in the playoofs.....and the Pirates are doing well....we have all kinds of excitement scheduled for the summer. That is what we want. We are happy somnambulists.....performing complicated tasks while in a deep sleep.
                  There is no one in the American church right now with enough gravitas to even gather us together to hear the words....Awake....O Sleeper!
                  We will have to hit rock bottom.....with a thud....to wake up....and for God to wake us up....and that is surely coming. The evidence of our coming demise is literally everywhere.....as AI alone is a resounding death knell.....but to all of us.....it is all....fake news!
                  
                   

The Sixth Chapter Of Jeremiah

It was towards the end of Jeremiah's long ministry of warning Judah and Jerusalem. Zedekiah was the king....a fairly young man....doing evil like his forefathers....and he ultimately rejected Jeremiah's warnings....in favor of a false prophet named Hananiah....who promised to make Jerusalem great again. Folks....Judah and Jerusalem back then was us today....and as Jeremiah wrote in the chapter that I reference below...."

"Because from the least of them
 even to the greatest of them,
 everyone is given to covetousness...

 That is us also folks and the basis for....America first. That verse continues...

"And from the prophet
  even to the priest
  everyone deals falsely
  saying....'Peace....peace'
  When there is no peace

 So there are six more verses from that sixth chapter that I want to focus on....

"Thus says the LORD:

Stand in the ways and see,
and ask for the Old Paths,
    and where the good way is,
And walk in it;
Then you will find rest for your souls"

"But they said, 'We will not walk in it."

That is us today! We're not going back to those old paths....and all that 'born again' stuff. Our church is prospering! Everyone loves it there! We've got work to do....get this country back on track! Folks....it was forty years ago when God's messengers....men like Billy Graham....were warning us of God's judgment on what America had become....and that is what we want to go back to? 

"Also I set watchmen over you saying,
'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!'
But they said, 'We will not listen.'

God has taken home just about all of the men who were standing in the gap. We are actually following a false prophet now like Hananiah who tells us that a golden age is coming!

Therefore hear, you nations
And know, O Congregation,
      What is among them.
Hear, O earth!
Behold, I will certainly bring calamity
      on this people,

But we said...."I don't think so. This is America...God's chosen people!"

Even the fruits of their thoughts,

Do you know what 'fruits of their thoughts' might be? MAGA...that is the fruit of our thoughts!

"Because they have not heeded My words
 Nor My law,  but rejected it.
 For what purpose to Me
 Comes frankincense from Sheba
 And sweet cane from a far country"
 Your burnt offerings are not acceptable.
 Nor your sacrifices sweet to me."

We wanted nothing to do with the Lord's Day....or separating ourselves from the world. Instead we plan National Days of Prayer....and....National Prayer Breakfasts....and....Easter Prayer Luncheons....and....Bible Marathon Readings...."We kept the church doors open in a pandemic! Have you not noticed all the crosses worn around the neck in the White House? Have you not heard all the God talk?" This is all a stench in God's nostrils!

Therefore thus says the LORD

Behold I will lay stumbling blocks
      before this people

"And the fathers and the sons together
     shall fall upon them
The neighbor and his friend
     shall perish."

These judgments will bring us down....as we will eventually stumble upon them. 

Lord's Day Post

Preface: I sent out an email yesterday....and in that email my advice was to ...."stay in your church....and pray for your pastor....but do not die of malnourishment in the process." The implication was that today's preaching leaves us malnourished....and we need to supplement that preaching with preaching from the past. Modern sermons....and fellowship....can be a comfort....but only the preached Word of God can cut deep....and show us what we need to see about ourselves! Everything else is going to be too kind. Yet as kind and loving as a friend can be....the comfort cannot come near matching the balm that God's Word applies....after the incision has been made! This morning....upon rereading that email....I remembered a past post from two years ago that basically said the same thing....

               Babylon was going to rule over Judah and all the lands surrounding them. That was the proclamation that Jeremiah had given to all the priests and prophets and princes and people. Judah had brought it all upon itself. Jeremiah had been warning everyone for decades. None of the aforementioned wanted to hear anything of the sort. Jeremiah's message went further....if the people accepted that which God said through His prophet was going to happen ....then they would get to live in peace in their own land and till their own soil....this being after Daniel and others....and some temple vessels....had previously been taken off to Babylon. If they did not accept this then everyone was going to be dragged off to Babylon....and the temple and the city and the walls....destroyed.
                One false prophet....Hananiah....was incensed....and prophesied..."In the name of the LORD"....that within two years the yoke of Babylon would be broken....and all the temple vessels and the people would be returned to Jerusalem. Jeremiah walked away but God told him to go back and tell Hananiah that he would be dead within the year....and that indeed happened a few months later.
                The America that we once knew is gone. I'm old enough to have lived in both. It is a different country today. We brought it upon ourselves.....and I was a contributor as much as anyone else. Trump is telling us....indeed he has been telling us since he came down that escalator in 2015....essentially....that the yoke of Babylon is going to be broken....and we are going to be greater than we ever were.
                The power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God preached in our pulpits once sustained us....just as the preaching of the Puritans sustained England and early America. Each and every believer needs the power of the preached Word of God. If we don't have it then we become malnourished and weak with no discernment. Today we have preachers in pulpits everywhere....new fangled churches with smiling faces and bigger buildings....with a ministry for literally everyone if they want one....but Ichabod....the glory had departed.
                 These posts exist for one reason. Oh yes I expound on politics....and there is humor in my life so there is humor in these posts....and I warn the best that I know how to warn....and I present the gospel in an evangelistic way that is representative of the way that my mind operates....but my main goal is that I might help the reader see that the high probability is that they are not hearing the power of the Word preached in their churches....that they are not...are not....hearing what they need to hear to humble themselves in this Babylon that we live in....but that there is a way if they would only but go there.
                 God gave the Baptist Charles Spurgeon to London in the latter half of the 1800s....and then He gave the Presbyterian Martyn Lloyd-Jones to the same city from the 1930s to roughly 1980. They....along with Anglican J. C. Ryle....and some others....kept the flame alive....and the remnant fed. When I was relatively young....Billy Graham crusades were  on one of the four....that's right....four television stations....as his crusades were on TV all the time. Some quite remarkable preacher/pastor/teachers were given to us....R. C. Sproul and John MacArthur and John Piper to name but three. We were revived for a time.
                 Dear reader....you absolutely need this nourishment! Stay in your church....pray for your pastor....he needs it more than you or he knows....but add....add these men to your life who still preach the power of the Word of God! Show up on the Lord's Day....but get fed every day if you can from other sources! All you would have to do is Google....'Spurgeon sermons YouTube'....or....'Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermons YouTube"....or...."J.C. Ryle YouTube"....or go to....ligonier.org....or....gty.org...or....desiringgod.org.

Note: I would like to add Paul Washer's sermon to that list....and if you do go to John Piper's....desiringgod.org....look for articles written and read by Greg Morse....and this....I would to highly recommend a film to you....which I have watched at least a dozen times....it is part documentary and part drama....and very easy to boot up and watch....at....C.H. Spurgeon....The People's Preacher.

                   I watched the preliminaries to the White House Correspondents Association dinner for about an hour....as the people slowly entered the foyer of the Hilton....and then mulled around the tables inside. It was all laughter....at times raucous guffaws. As the dinner was starting....a famous....'mentalist'....whatever that is....(a modern day soothsayer?)....was plying his craft on the dais to both the president and first lady....as the president of the White House Correspondents Association....in overhearing his words....seemed amazed at what he was telling him....and then....in a manner of speaking....the handwriting appeared on the wall....and what followed was tense chaos....a horror scene that we are becoming all too familiar with. The annual State of the Union Address.....and this White House Correspondent's Dinner....and there are a number of other events....serve no purpose in the combative climate that we live in today. At least the upcoming UFC fight night on the White House lawn fits in with the absurdities that are everywhere else. There is talk that they want to reschedule this dinner within the next 30 days.....which is beyond absurd....into lunacy. 

I want to reiterate what I mention in the January 2025 post below....in that this host website does not support a photo of the oil painting below as it can be displayed....so please....follow the directions to see this great oil painting as it should be viewed:

The Handwriting On The Wall

                                  

               The above is a photo of an oil painting by 19th century....(the period of Romanticism)....English painter John Martin....who was known for his epic religious themes. If the grainy photo piqued your interest....please Google....John Martin...Belshazzar's Feast...Yale University....where the image that will appear is not grainy....and you can expand it to see just how incredible the oil painting is!
               In a few days we will begin a four day inauguration celebration....Saturday through Tuesday. There will be three balls....Carrie Underwood and Lee Greenwood and the Village People will sing. Franklin Graham will pray. There will be a....Make America Great Again Rally....on the Lord's Day at 3:00 PM in the sports arena. Evangelicals are primed for the "feast".

               We believe that great things are about to happen because Donald Trump will be back in the White House. All gone...is God's fifty years plus warnings to us that judgment was coming....all because we have Trump and a Republican Congress....and new cabinet members. All forgotten is the decades long judgements....one after another....building to a crescendo....only the latest being Los Angeles....as we are about to celebrate the dawn of a new....Golden Age in America! We in effect....blew off God's warnings. We are far more godless of a people....both on the left and on the right....than we ever were. On the right....including evangelicals....we are drunk with the promise of economic gain....and national glory....and have been steered away from Jesus Christ....but God will not be mocked. 

DISPATCHES

Donald Trump was nominated and elected primarily because his opponent was Hillary Clinton. He was nominated a second time primarily because his opponent was Joe Biden. Trump is not being rejected by evangelicals today primarily for the same reason....our propaganda news sources direct our attention at all times on the wild progressives on the other side. In reality....godly ministers were warning back in the early 80s of God's coming judgment on America....and we in America today are ten times worse....(100 times worse?)....than we ever were. Judgment has come in the form of....first Joe Biden....and then Donald Trump. There was no....lesser of two evils....only different evils. The man who evangelicals continue to defend in spite of the fact that he has mocked God for a decade now....is God's judgment on the church!

Hamas attacked Israel on the last day of the Jewish feast of Sukkot....and the world has not been the same since. Jewish feasts and blood moons and solar eclipses are not predictive in that we can say that something will happen at those times....but they are definitely reflective in that we can see God's hand after-the-fact in the events of Israel and in this entire world. Trump was born right on a blood moon....which is astonishing in itself. A little over a decade ago there were books written and much reporting on an extremely rare tetrad of blood moons on Jewish feasts coming in 2014/2015. That tetrad came and went....and people seemed disappointed in that nothing seemed to happen. Well....something did happen....as Donald Trump came down that golden escalator....right smack dab in the middle of evangelicalism....in the middle of that tetrad.....and there has been nothing but torment and disturbances and division ever since. This current war with Iran started on February 28....only hours later really was what NASA called a...."spectacular blood moon." I took a screen shot of one headline at the time of the blood moon. It read....WAR SPIRALS. The next total solar eclipse will be August 12....viewable only in parts of the earth. The next blood moon will not be until December 31, 2028. 

I just now came home from the movies after watching for the second time....A Great Awakening. I took a friend this time and he loved it....which I knew that he would. The theater was filled the first time....two weeks ago....but only four were in attendance today....so it is running its course.....but there is still time for you. A short summary on the film is on the relationship between George Whitefield and Benjamin Franklin....with vignettes of both men in their youth. The film will go back and forth from The Great Awakening itself....to the debates which led to the drafting of the constitution in 1787. The gospel message strong and powerful....and I hope that you go and see it. It will surely be streaming sometime in the future...and there will be a DVD....but don't wait....break the habit of waiting to do things....for this age that we live in does not give us that luxury.

I do not know if the bombing will resume in Iran....or if some sort of peace agreement will be signed.....nor do I know the outcome of the war in the Ukraine....but I do know this....on Iran or Lebanon or the Ukraine or Venezuela or Cuba....Trump will do what he believes will benefit him....in the short run. It has nothing to do with the people in any of these places....or even with Israel. He needs his poll numbers....or at least the projections for the Republican Party....to go up before the mid-terms....and even before the planned celebrations around July 4th. I know this after ten years of studying him....after voting for him in 2016....and celebrating....but shortly afterwards seeing a big problem....that has since then taken captive just about all of evangelicalism....taken our eyes and our hopes and our trust off of Christ....and onto our own powers.

We have been informed that an asteroid the size of three football fields will pass by the earth....within 20,000 miles....on April 13, 2029. This is an extraordinary event even though astronomers are confident that it not affect the earth....with "zero risk"....a "once in a 1,000 year" event....observable with the naked eye for some. I point it out because when reading....hopefully studying the book of Revelation....that we are fully aware that some of the cosmic scenes depicted....are not unimaginable....but might even in due time be predicted!

I did watch Trump's remarks at a 'roundtable discussion' in Las Vegas.....where he described the war in Iran as...."a little diversion."  The longer it goes....fewer people can say that they followed the lives of politicians more than I have....for it is about 58 years....but to watch something like Trump tonight....which is really no different than the other fifty or so rallies where I studied him....is to watch history in the making....'real time'....as some like to say today....not everyday history.....but such as only when the Bolsheviks or the National Socialists took over....and tried and true mind control techniques deceived multiple-millions....even tens of millions. The biblical aspect of this is that even as of today....evangelicals that I not only know....and have known for decades.....and respect their basic discernments on so many things....they have fulfilled....for now.....for it will in due time change....Matthew 24:24...."so as to mislead....if possible....even the elect."

The following three paragraphs are from different DISPATCHES posts within the past few months. Friends....brothers and sisters in Christ....you have been duped. We....all of us....brought all of this upon ourselves. Every one of us should be shedding tears....it is that bad. What we are seeing with Trump is not peace....it's not good....it is lies.....illusions....blasphemy....mockery and horror. Oh but you will say...."Just trust in God"....but then you steadfastly refuse to trust in the very clear warnings He has given us! 

"Donald Trump's....rise...fall....and rise....demonstrated for all with eyes to see....one colossal weakness in man. With all the intellect....and zeroing in closer....even among many of those who have actually been....born again....with all that....we can look at Trump....at eleven years of the....'let Trump be Trump'....and not fall to our knees in repentance for one of the most egregious mistakes that Christians have made since Jesus ascended to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit! It just has to be end-times related. It just has to be part of the great end-times delusion. It is so extraordinary in weakness....that when we finally see what we have done....it may separate the chaff from the wheat....and beckon the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior and King."

We knew there would be a falling away....we just didn't know that we would be part of  It......The following is from an October 2025 post...."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".

"And If Any Man Shall Take Away From The Words Of The Book Of This Prophecy......The following is from a January 2026 post....What about...."Not by might or by power but by My Spirit?" (Zechariah 4:6) What about "come out from among them and be separate?" (2 Corinthians 6:7) What about all the admonitions to stay vigilant and awake and alert? What about all the warnings of false miracles and false prophets and a great delusion and a falling away that is coming.... so strong of a delusion that even the elect.... that is you and me folks.... that even we can be taken in.... if it were possible.... which means temporarily.... which is already what has happened to so many!"

               It was reported that in his first term....Trump while traveling....carried around with him a box....not of briefing materials....but news articles. This is in line with reports over decades of how on his desk at Trump Tower was stacks of magazine articles about himself. What this man does is stay up at night and read the news that mentions him....and then reacts. It is just one more symptom of a serious mental illness.
               Trump didn't like what the American Pope was saying about the war in Iran. This came after Trump threatened to obliterate an entire people. Much of the Iranian people were....(I'll use the past tense)....on Trump's side in the war.....but Trump threatened to destroy the entire country....bridges....electricity....and he had previously mentioned water. Pope Leo's remarks were about what one would expect from a pope....but the Pentagon called in some Catholic prelates....and....well you decide.....did they threaten the pope by bringing up the 14th century where the emperor essentially took over the entire papacy? I think that it is pretty obvious that it was a coded threat.
                It was the beginning of the 14th century....France was at war with England....and the French King wanted church finances to help with the war....the pope didn't like that and was going to excommunicate the French king....the pope was then arrested....mistreated....and died soon afterwards....another pope lived for a short time.....and then the French king made sure his own man was made the next pope.
                The next seven popes resided in Avignon....which is now France. I could easily picture Trump trying to threaten....or coerce in some way....Cardinals in a conclave....to get a pope that he wants. Evangelicals need to know that under the right circumstances....they would be told to speak along the accepted lines.....or keep their religion to themselves.

Two Whole Chapters In Revelation!

             Theoretically....I would think that Revelation is the most important book for the Christian today. Let me break that down....for the Christian in question would already have been immersed in the doctrines of salvation from Romans....and the Gospels....and the Acts of the Apostles....the beginning of the church....(and also possibly descriptive of the last days for the church)....and all of the truths from Paul and Peter and Jude....and the creation account....and the OT books describing the redemptive history of our covenant God....and the beauty and worship and truths of Psalms....and the warnings of all the OT prophets....in other words....everything else!
              To that Christian....I would think that Revelation is not only for them....but vital. The Pre-Trib believer would have to look at most of what happens in Revelation....almost as after the fact....for they would have been taken up to meet Jesus by then....but to us....hopefully you also....we know that there is a greater purpose to the believer in the book of Revelation....the third verse in it which reads...."Blessed is he who reads....(spacing mine)....and those who hear the words of this prophecy....and keep those things which are written in it....for the time is near." The time has always been...."near"....to every Christian....but to us it appears that it is near in a very special way.
               So what about the second and the third chapters of Revelation? These contain the seven letters....to the seven churches. We seem to pass these chapters almost....as I once wrote....as if they were nothing but historical filler....but that just makes no sense.
               As a Reformed....or Reformation Christian....for about thirty years now.....I had come to consider the letter to the church at Ephesus to be directed to us....sound in our doctrine....but having since lost something.....something that needs to be regained. It is amazing to me that this letter to Ephesus could only have been a short thirty years or so since Paul wrote to Timothy who was pastor in Ephesus....but then I only have to look back thirty years in evangelicalism to see how far and how fast we can stray.
                We know that over much of the world there is a persecuted church such as described in the letter to the church at Smyrna....although we do not know what that designation of "ten days" means.
                 We do not know how the church....(Pergamos)....located where "Satan's Throne" is....although many think that they do know. What we can glean from that letter is the warning about holding to the doctrines of Balaam...who taught them to Balak....and we can go to that passage of scripture to study and scrutinize....just as we can study and meditate upon the warnings to the church at Thyatira.
                  Sardis had the "works"....yet they were dead! Should that not stop all of us in our tracks....especially the part where if they are not vigilant....and do not watch....that judgment will come as a....thief.....not knowing the hour....or the time period....that this judgment will come?
                  There is no warning for Philadelphia....other than to...."hold fast." They will be kept from the trial coming upon the whole world! Folks....the beginnings of whatever the tribulation turns out to be....including the riders on the four horses....cannot be that final trial upon the whole world. Maybe it will be that....hopefully we all will be....as the church in Philadelphia by the time these things comes upon the earth?
                  And then there is Laodicea....a wealthy and what was considered a....'free city"....by Rome....known for its entertainments....and so metropolitan and international in its makeup....with many Christians and Jews....that even the persecution for not worshiping the Roman emperor was lax....because it was difficult to enforce in such a city! They thought that they were safe....just like we do here in America.
                  My hope in this post is simply that we might take these letters more seriously than we have in the past....for to reiterate what I said at first....God would not have put these chapters in such an important book relating to the end-times.....if they were not meant to speak to those at that time....which by all of the signs that God has given those who have "ears to hear"....is us today. Maranatha....Lord Jesus Come!

           

"Trouble Ahead: Prepare To Meet Thy God"

                I am in a Barnes & Noble at least fifty times a year....most of those visits are on Tuesdays....when the new releases come out. It only takes me ten minutes in the store....for I already know what is there in both the 'Current Events' section and what they now label the 'Religion' section....so I only have to walk slowly by....for it is easy to spot books that were put out that morning. 
                 The average B&N bookstore carries about 100,000 titles but some have a lot more. My wife and I have been bibliophiles our whole lives. We met in 1975 as students working at Pitt's Hillman Library....and she went on to be a wonderful....if I do say so myself....but I think that everyone would agree with....a wonderful librarian for 47 years before retiring. Together....thirty years ago....we owned a Christian bookstore.
                 From the moment that I walk in the door at B&N to when I make it to the 'Religion' section....I am almost overcome with sadness....as I pass by people browsing all the various sections....but mostly the fiction....for I know what is out there....and what is popular....and what they are wasting their lives away on.....nonsense fiction....maybe a little romance and a little crime....maybe a fluffy tale of a dog or a cat? I know what the bestseller lists look like....and I know what the children's books consist of.....and the teen sections....and the biographies and the history....and the various business and self-help....and psychology and technical reference sections. As for the Christian books....there are at least a thousand titles in the average B&N....all of them almost worthless....save a few classics from C. S. Lewis....and maybe once a month at most....a good critique on evangelicalism that slips in there....of which is what I am looking for.
                   I'll often look at the faces of the people....and more than once I felt like crying....for there is pure gold out there in the form of books....if you know where to mine for it.....but they don't.....and would have no interest in that kind of gold anyway.
                   The Christian bookstore in America is dead. The best authors are dying off almost on a monthly basis....with very few if any coming up to replace them. Christian television programs are a hundred times more in quantity than in the 80s....with one-hundredth of the quality.
                    No one has to be born again anymore to be a Christian.....for they only have to be conservative church-goers. Holiness is in not voting for Democrats. Preaching is therapy. Sermons are Bible studies....and Bible studies are the level of what should be given to children.
                    This is the church age that we live in.....but have no idea of. As for prayer....we are as if on a catamaran....heading swiftly for a hundred foot waterfall....praying that the boat might soon be paid off....or that grandma or grampa in the rear might be healed....or for another conservative Supreme Court judge....for our preachers told us that God's Word tells us that we will never know when the big waterfall is coming....even though God's Word actually gives a map of the river and the falls....a map of which we are told does not exist.
                     Newspapers are just about dead. Conservative talk radio is long gone. We have no trustworthy news media. Fox News....once 'fair and balances'....is now poison. Podcasts are like drone warfare. AI will strangle us before we know what's happening. In summary....evangelicalism has gone the way of Judah and Samaria....and we are witnessing the fall of the American Empire....along with Israel's final war....but few know any of these things....because we thought that we were invincible....and that God was on our side...."God bless America"....unaware that we were as Nineveh....given time to repent by Jonah....of which from time to time we did....but now we have a message from the prophet Amos....who no one reads....relayed to us by Billy Graham....who at least many of us read...."Trouble ahead....prepare to meet thy God!"

Lord's Day Post

Preface: The following post is from July of last year....and I'm bringing it back for this Lord's Day Post. It was titled....

We Need Each Other

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

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

This Is the Day......There Is No Guarantee You May Have Another One!

                You are troubled! You want God at one moment....and then you are mad at Him....and then you want Him again? This has been going on for a while. What more could God want? You came to Him and demanded of Him that if He was real then He should somehow make Himself known to you....but He never did. You even pleaded with Him....but nothing worked!
                 So you decide to get back at God. You tell anyone who might be listening in your mind...that you are done looking for this God. That will show Him! The responsibility is no longer yours....any sane person could see that....but you are as troubled as you ever were....and probably even more so.
                 Or....or....you do the opposite? Instead of telling God that He has to make Himself known to you....instead of being on the defensive....you tell Him that you have nothing....nothing to commend yourself....and nothing to offer....nothing within you with which to even make a promise! You lay there defeated....destitute....with no hope....you cannot even get up for your legs are useless....and then something happens!
                 A man speaks to you....from somewhere? Is there a pulpit there....or a TV....where is the voice coming from? You have heard this man before....and you never liked him....but this time....instead of looking for an exit.....or the remote....you cup your ears as if to hear better what he is saying. He says that every man has sinned against God....and lies there in defeat....destitute. You want to shout out...."Yes! That is me!" There is a shadowy figure there. He says....look to Jesus and you will be saved....run to the light and you will be healed. You listen to every word that he says....and then he disappears....but behind where he was is a light....and you run to it....shouting...."Life! Life! Eternal Life!

              The following is one of the last sermons that John MacArthur gave....before crossing the river....but it may be one of the best that he ever gave. In this instance....concerning you....he can be that shadowy figure....if you feel yourself destitute....if you are finally humbled....or....you can just 'X' out of this post....and regret that you ever came here.
              

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.

Charles I....Charles II....And Now Charles III

 Preface: The following post is from February of 2024. My surname is solidly English. That famous Tower of London is actually a group of individual towers....one of which has my last name. Although I do not take a great interest in it at all....(the only ancestor of mine that is an influence on me was Adam....and the only character trait....his sin)....I was told that my ancestors were Roundheads. It is hard for me not to think of him as Prince Charles.....since we are about the same age....but now he is King Charles III....(see the post below)....and I have always considered him to be New Age....and certainly no friend to Christianity or even Christendom. So at the end of this month he is scheduled to visit with our king. Nothing good can come of this. One thing that I do not mention in the following post is that the Great Plague of London started in 1665....and the Great Fire Of London was in September of 1666"

The Restoration   

              "England.....and Scotland and Ireland at the time....experienced what became known as its....Restoration....this in 1660. Charles I previously had been beheaded. Oliver Cromwell became the Lord Protector in 1653....but he died five years later....in 1658! Two years after that came the Stuart Restoration. If you think that there is division today....when Charles II became king....they dug up Cromwell's body and put his head on a pole. Anyway....it's not that the government in the Restoration closed the church doors....as in a pandemic....rather it just told the preachers how to run their churches. It was estimated that 2500 faithful ministers refused to do that! That became known as....The Great Ejection....and those who were essentially kicked out became known as....nonconformists!
                 America is facing a restoration of its own....in Donald Trump. We....the roundheads....are long gone. The blockheads are coming back. Puritan divines...(Sproul, MacArthur, Wilkerson, Keller, Boyce etc.)....are dying out one by one....replaced by Johann Tetzels who promise indulgences for a vote in the ballot box.
                 The pressure is on to support this king....the few royals and nobles around him....his own aristocracy....and the vast gentry notable for their pleasure craft and golf cart parades.
                 So where are the nonconformists that we so drastically need? Where are the men who would rather be removed from their pulpits than let a king dictate how they are to preach....and what they are not to say....and who they are not to offend? "

           

                
         

      

And along Came Anna

                 Simeon....from the second chapter of Luke....was a devout man....who did not just sit there....and tell everyone that the Messiah will come in God's timing....and go about his business as if the coming of the Messiah could be hundreds of years away....for as Luke wrote.....it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would see the coming of the Messiah before he died. The Holy Spirit led Simeon into the temple on that day just when Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the temple. He would have had to have been old....and waiting a long time. Maybe the people tried to discourage him....maybe he heard a lot...."Oh Simeon....you have been saying that the Messiah was coming for a long time. You're wasting your life away!"

                So as Simeon gave his prophecy....along came Anna....who was a prophetess....and she was really old....older than me....and she spent all of her time her whole life in the temple....fasting and praying every day and every night. It's impossible to perfectly interpret the description of her age that Luke gives....but she might have been over a hundred years old! And there had been no prophets in hundreds of years....so why is Anna called a prophetess....and why did Simeon give that prophecy about the child Jesus? Well I think it was because during both of their long lives....the Messiah was getting nearer and nearer....and God was speaking again....and the demons were becoming more active....just like they are today.
               The Holy Spirit leads Anna to that part of the temple just as Simeon finishes prophesying....and she starts telling all the people about this child....all the people who also were also waiting for their Messiah.... or as God's Word puts it...."the redemption of Jerusalem.
               Somehow today....we have been led to believe that it's not a good thing to always be looking for Jesus to return! It's even worse than that because we are told that there is no way that we could know even if we wanted to know! There is no indication that Simeon was more than just a devout and just man living in Jerusalem who wanted the Messiah to come.

              Expect to see this friends....as the horrors of AI begin to unfold....and the new world order.....whatever it turns out to be....begins to take shape....and love grows ever colder and colder....and the rule of law more and more rare....and even greater delusions appear than what we are subject to now....expect more Christians to become as Simeon and Anna....in that they....as was the case with Simeon....wanted only to see the Messiah return to restore righteousness.....and as in the case of Anna....told everyone how that redemption of....'Jerusalem'....was nigh! 
               May God....should it be in his good and perfect will....have mercy upon our shepherds tonight even as they sleep....for if they do not begin to speak out that our Lord and Savior and King is near....then as Luke reported later that the stones would cry out.....the sheep may cry out from the pews! I've read that sheep do not make many noises....and usually only when they are in danger or not being fed.

The Irony And Incongruity Of It All

                 It is generally perceived by evangelicals that since America was once good....and since the Trump Party is trying to restore that goodness....that God's blessing upon America at this time.....economically and domestically in general and in its national security....is directly related to the success of this Trump administration. The irony and the incongruity here....is that the very Trump administration that they are trying to sustain and empower....is intent on making the poor and the disadvantaged fend for themselves....in order to increase the coffers of the treasury....so that more military might can be produced....in order to conquer more oil fields....and develop more resort areas....for even more profits....and all of this done as opulence is celebrated throughout the White House and now imperial environs of what was once the people's city.

One of the news reports on the proposed new military budget titled its headline this way:

"White House seeks massive increase in defense spending and looks to slash housing, social services and health care."

DISPATCHES

You have to be kidding me? Trump and Rubio....(on Trump's orders of course)....have been hammering NATO countries for not immediately jumping in on Iran. Not only since day one of his first term....but since 1987....after the Soviet Union wined and dined Trump in Moscow....Trump has been a voice against NATO. This was a solid alliance.....and a great strength of the Western world....that Trump purposely....much to Putin's delight....utterly destroyed. In the past year....in his madness....Trump has verbally attacked and attempted to humiliate these allies....as he expects everyone.....as does ..his own cabinet and much of the new MAGA Party....(formerly the Republican Party)....bow down and not only kiss his royal ring buy give constant praise and obeisance to him. So to have expected NATO to jump as he snapped his fingers....was absurd....and then to attempt to humiliate them again....as if they were the bad ally....is even beyond ludicrous. Trump is and always has been....a destroyer.

To Russia With Love....there are at least two former KGB operatives who had defected from the Soviet Union who have stated that at the very least Trump was....back in the 80s.... prime....primo....Kompromat material. Trump may have had....may have had....more financial dealings with Russians....primarily new money oligarchs....than dealings with big money from any other country....(although that is changing with Middle East oil and crypto money)....our intelligence agencies knew all of this....and did what they were supposed to do....investigate it.....but they are ones now under investigation....by Trump. Russians helped Trump in 2016 and then celebrated again in 2024. Trump had a habit of trying to get alone with Putin....with none of his aides present. Putin has always hated NATO....and so does Trump. 

Trump uses the word 'Hell' all the time...."48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to  God." This was one of Trump's Easter messages....the second is too vulgar to put up here but it does end with mockery...."Praise be to Allah." It has been said that there is a....'fine line between genius and madness'....well there is nothing near genius with Trump....in fact he is the quintessential example of stupidity and the gangster rising to the top. None of the above posts were surprising....but what is continually amazing.....even frightening....and immediately humbling is to realize that even a Christian man can be so deceived....as to not discern the horror in the deception of this man. There may though be a fine between physiological madness....and demonic possession.

Possible Diagnosis....Noted medical analyst Dr. Vin Gupta posted the following after President Trump's wild flourish of Truth Social texts over the weekend...."Erratic. Can't finish sentences. Often confused, Illogical train of thought, Word finding difficulties. Developing and worsening gradually over time. The President is exhibiting all the signs of dementia."

Another Prayer Abomination....On February 13....after watching this year's National Prayer Breakfast....I titled a post....National Prayer Abomination.....and I just now finished watching the Easter Prayer Luncheon....which is yet another abomination. Franklin Graham looked physically frail....and that surprised me....as he compared Donald Trump to Esther. Robert Jeffress was also there on the stage....applauding the words of a genuine biblical false prophet and pastor to our presdient.....Paula White. There are a number of once faithful ministers whose ministries were damaged....to one degree or another....because they let the wolf in the sheepfold. These dais events are usually all the same...as Paula White calls forward one minister after another to give his or her prayer....and they pull out their piece of paper to read....or put away their piece of paper after rereading it....for their moment in the sun....but without the Son. Robert Jeffress and Franklin Graham need our prayers....good men....just taken in because they did not remain vigilant.

Trump made a joke about French President Macron's wife....and he got a laugh....at the above....Easter Prayer Luncheon.

The White House put the video of Trump at the....luncheon....on the web.....then they figured out some of the things that he said....and they took the video down right away....but it was too late....for other sources had already posted it....and you can easily Google it and view it....and take note of how at one point Trump said that the federal government cannot give money for things like daycare....and Medicaid.....and Medicare.

I think that the tide is definitely turning in all of America....and more and more people are starting to see who Trump really is....and how heartless he is....the problem is that has been purging everyone and everything that is not vetted and certified as rubber stamp....never question anything.....just obey. He is grabbing firm control of all of the agencies that were established to protect the constitution.

Hegseth fired another top general today.....the purges have been going on consistently. This firing....or rather forced retirement....is related to the general having a different opinion....but is relayed to us as just not being in line with Trump's beliefs. The following paragraph and Stephen Miller quote are from a December 2025 DISPATCHES post...."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. 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."

Not Ready For Primetime President.....One would think that there would be some kind of news....in a primetime address....during a war....but there wasn't. It was rally material...'I did this'...."I did that"...."people are saying that it has never been done this great before.' The speech seemed to be thrown together. That was my take on it anyway....but Trump has a habit of talking up negotiations....and then striking as an element of surprise. Then again....he also is in the habit of giving constant 10 or 14 or 40 or 50 day warnings....or "I'll release this or that great secret in the near future....(JFK or UFOs etc.)".....the purpose being that every time he does that....it puts everything on hold for 10 or 14 or 40 or 50 days....buying time....until another threat or time period is given.

Coming To The Rescue....On January 2 of this year demonstrations were building in Tehran....and Trump warned Iran that if they start to kill the protesters then the US would step in. He told the protestors that he would "rescue them." It was commented on at the time that a comment like that would only encourage more protests and more people....and that happened. In tonight's primetime address....Trump gave the figure of 45,000 protesters killed by Iranian forces. The figure is stunning. The number of reported deaths was 13 when the rescue comment was made.  President Trump was previously taken to task for claiming that there already was regime change in Iran....so he expounded on that tonight....in that what he meant by 'regime change' was that all the top leaders were killed....so the 'regime' was gone....the new leaders were the 'regime change.' That is not regime change....nor is it rescue.

"Rather Hysterical"....The Jerusalem Post is reporting right now that Trump threatened Europe with taking away its military support of the Ukraine. Rubio verified that in saying that if the US finds that it needs weapons for its own defense....then it would keep them for itself. There is a double-edged sword here in that it does expand the Iran war into the Russian/Ukraine war....and it also seems to admit that US war supplies may indeed be getting low....which has been implied by others earlier. One report said that NATO Secretary General Rutte described Trump as...."rather hysterical" on the phone. That in itself is not a good sign.

Hitler Derangement Syndrome....Winston Churchill had it....and England should thank God that he did.

Do you believe in UFOs? A Republican congressman from Tennessee said this after being briefed on top secret information on aliens. "We just need to disclose it all. I'm sick of it, you're-ah, well,-I was briefed, I will just tell you this, I was briefed last week on an issue-or excuse me, two weeks ago-and it would've set the earth on- this country would've come unglued, I think, if they would've heard all that I heard." Folks....these are the last days....for real....if you don't believe that then go back to your March Madness....and there are going to be....and are now....feverishly increasing....evidences of demonic activity. I have a March 19 post that addresses this issue....please go there and read it.

Mind Setting

 Preface: I thought That I would bring back this August 15 of 2023 post...seven weeks before the October Sukkot attacks in Israel. Any Christian....reading his or her Bible as if they really believed that it was the very Word of God....would have known....or should have known....many years ago....that war was coming....and that a false peace was coming. "For you will hear of wars and rumors of wars..."....we don't know how many wars....or even how many times they will falsely say "peace." There are at least a hundred very specific verses in God's Word that identify the day and the age that you and I live in. John MacArthur....who is mentioned many times in the posts preceding this post....once said that in May of 1948...."God put the world on notice." This is not date setting! This is....mind setting...."Set your minds on things that are above, not the things of earth." (Colossians 3:2 ESV)

For Whom The Death Knell Tolls            

               Many of us....possibly most of us.....but certainly not all of us....have some kind of defining characteristic on how we lead our daily lives. My wife's would be in that she is always making a note of something that she has to do. She is famous for it....and it works out very well. Jonathan Edwards was famous for that also as he would take long horseback rides....to meditate...and when he returned it looked like it had snowed....for all of the white pieces of paper that he had pinned all over his clothing.
               Well I also have a very strong characteristic. I need to at all times have a constantly updated view on the big picture of things. I need to more than occasionally go over the many possible changes that life can present. For example....there may not be any imminent household expenses....a new furnace....or a new roof....but provision has to be made anyway for those possible emergencies. That characteristic dominates these posts.
               There is war ahead. One has to be able to step back to see this. It can't be stopped. The dies have been cast. If there is another virus....we have already shot ourselves in the foot....vaccinations are bad....scientists are bad.
               When Jesus said that...."If a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand"....He was letting us know what it was going to look like at the end. When He said...."Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth"....He was describing this world today....for as much as we say....'God bless this' and 'God bless that'....our faith has dwindled down to nothing more than those trite phrases. The carnival barkers have our attention today.....pointing to the clowns....or the bearded woman....or the world's strongest man....or the world's smallest man.
               AI alone....is a death knell! Drone warfare is a death knell! Our division is a death knell! Hemingway's famous words were...."For whom the bell tolls....it tolls for thee." Only God's Word gives us hope...."Jesus said to her....(Martha).... 'I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die."