A Sad Contradiction

                 I had given my copy away so I ordered it again a few weeks ago....and read it again. I had done a post on it when it was first published....and mentioned it a few times in posts since then. The book is John MacArthur's....Christ's Call To Reform The Church...Timeless Demands From the Lord To His People....(2018.) I strongly recommend that you read it....and not only that but that you take advantage of MacArthur's ministry of Grace To You....gty.org. I have a number of his teaching series on cassette....along with many of the books that he has written over the years...and I was even able to meet him at a conference a number of years ago here in the Pittsburgh area. I wasn't able to listen in but was thankful to see that he was in his pulpit yesterday for the morning service....for he has been ill....and is one of the few stalwarts of the faith left on the national scene.

               Having given these plaudits....and I could give many more....I still find myself asking....'how could this contradiction be'....who is this man who can write and preach so wonderfully....and warn against over-involvement in politics....but still be immersed in politics himself? I believe that there are over thirty elders in his church. Are there not some....a number even....who may have over the past few years given advice to leave this area? Who is this man who can write Christ's Call To Reform The Church....and yet continue with his pandemic crusade?
               He has a movie out....a regular movie theater film....The Essential Church....that just opened on Friday. The issue is the closing of churches during the pandemic.
               I watched....(on video)....as John MacArthur stood before his congregation in September of 2020....and said....slowly as to emphasize the words...."There...is...no...pandemic." It made national news. How did he make this mistake?
               Donald Trump is a genuine false prophet....a biblical false prophet....and an 'antichrist' as the Apostle John referred to in his letters. Trump may even turn out to be more than just a false prophet. One of John MacArthur's strengths over the decades has been in warning the church on these false prophets. In fact I first heard his radio program episode....Beware Of False Prophets....on May 8, 2015....forty days exactly before that false prophet Donald Trump came down the escalator in Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for president....that being June 16, 2015....where he paid people to cheer. How has MacArthur over the years missed the real Donald Trump?
            At one point in the 2020 campaign President Trump called MacArthur on the phone. Maybe it was a surprise.....maybe not.....and Pastor John....who has blessed the church for decades in his preaching on salvation....what it is....and what it is not....and on what a true Christian is....how could this phone conversation come about? According to MacArthur's words it went like this....

"He called me after the Sunday morning service and was very gracious and said, 'I just want to thank you for taking a stand....(MacArthur kept his church doors open)....church is essential....(essentially the title of this movie)....and I'm glad you're doing what you're doing.' and then we talked for a little bit about why from a biblical standpoint Christians could not vote for a Democrat." He concluded his conversation with this..."Any real true believer is going to be on your side in this election...." Well that relegates me into not being a "real true believer"....and millions more of us.

           John MacArthur recently said that he made the movie...."to make some pastors feel guilty." That is a very unwise statement to craft....and an odd goal to have....even if his assumptions were true. There is something wrong here....possibly due to age. Churches are indeed going to be persecuted....a lot more than stopping Sunday service while people are dying all over the place....and it will not refer back one iota to this political fight being waged over open church doors during the pandemic....but they will claim that it does....unaware that they themselves failed to warn of the....real dangers....to the....real church....false prophets being one....politics another....while promoting a political movement that....(gathering in our young people by the way)....may officially stand for biblical truths on social issues of the day....but incites hatred....and all too often employs racism....lacking compassion in many areas....and attracting those who we would normally want nothing to do with....all to build its base.
            Whether or not the health field scientists such as Fauci and Birx were correct or not in their actions....they tried to save lives....if you cannot even believe that then you have been terribly taken in. Whatever the origin of the virus....and whatever China's involvement....it was still judgment from God. Getting to the bottom what happened is not based on saving lives in any future pandemics.... but rather winning the upcoming election....even if Donald Trump....false prophet....and an antichrist....should get the nomination.

Addendum: Folks….John MacArthur is eons beyond me in any category. That he made these mistakes late in life is an anomaly. None of our heroes in the faith are perfect….and although we have to take great care….we have to defend the gospel even over our beloved pastors and denominations….particularly in times when they might be most susceptible. Which leaves us also in need of constant self-examination.

I feel that I need to add this for new visitors to these posts. I voted for Trump in 2016....but within months knew that there was something terribly wrong with this man that I knew little about. So I started reading....books for him....books against him....books by him....books on every decade of his life and most of his interests. I am just shy of 100 books read on the life of Donald Trump. In a word...he is a destroyer. He either purposely destroys that which does not further his malignant egomaniacal goals....or whoever flies too close to his flame are destroyed.....Rudy Giuliani is a prime example here....but there are dozens of others. Whole institutions are destroyed. Conservatism is gone. Evangelicalism has been neutered. Talk radio is worthless. Rush was taken in. Fox News was split down the middle and seriously compromised. Franklin Graham ignored the warnings that his father gave....and John MacArthur from the above post is another example. Is Trump really a false Prophet? He reeled evangelicals in with his constant...."We are one glorious nation under God"....(we are not and were not!)....."And our best is yet to come." February 4, 2020 was the high water mark in the economic progress but also the end of the sham. It was the State of the Union address....and here are some of the words in that speech....as Republicans frolicked in the aisles...and God's judgment was just coming out of incubation. 

"Tonight I stand before you to share the incredible results....(of the past three years)....Jobs are booming....Incomes are soaring....Poverty is plummeting....Crime is falling....Confidence is surging....and our country is thriving....America's fortunes are on the rise.....America's future is blazing bright....our pride is restored....("Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" Proverbs)....we are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago....and we are never going back....we are advancing with unbridled optimism"....and the address ended with this...."This nation is our canvas, and this country is our masterpiece. We look at tomorrow and see unlimited frontiers just waiting to be explored. Our brightest discoveries are not yet known. Our most thrilling stories are not yet told. Our grandest journeys are not yet made. The American Age, the American epic, The American adventure has only just begun. Our spirit is still young. The sun is still rising, God's grace is still shining, and my fellow Americans, the best is yet to come."

note: The recent sermon from John MacArthur that I mentioned above is wonderful....and you can easily listen to it by Googling....John MacArthur, Heaven On Earth, Part Two! You can also listen to his sermon on false prophets....also by Googling....John MacArthur, Beware Of False Prophets. Part One.....and/or....Part Two

"Who Shall Separate Us From The Love Of Christ"

   "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died-more than that, who was raised-who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us? Who shall separate us from Christ's love?" (Romans 8: 31-35a)

            "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

             You could see it in Spurgeon....and you could see it in R. C. Sproul....and Jonathan Edwards....and J. Gresham Machen. I mention only these four because I have either read much about it....or as in the case of R. C. Sproul.....heard it with my own ears. In fact there are probably more of whom you could say this about than those who you cannot say it about. David's 34th Psalm is about it....and many more Psalms. The book of Job is about it. Jeremiah lived it for over forty years. There are times when it seemed to them as if the whole world was against them....and even their own friends or allies were nowhere around. "Where is God? Has He abandoned us"....they might briefly think....because of our human frailty....but at the same time knowing full well that....no....God hadn't abandoned them. Martyn Lloyd-Jones labelled all of this....Spiritual Depression. 
              Folks....this is God's love....that for those like Spurgeon or Machen....who suffered humiliation and worse for their faithfulness to the gospel....that God will keep them....and bring them through the fire....even though they are weary from the blows! One has to be very....very careful when using the above verses on God's love for us....for we might also keep in mind the words of John the Baptist to the Pharisees and Sadducees in Matthew 3:9....

              "And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father,' for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham."

             Or we might want to memorize the words of Jesus in the letter to the Laodicean church....that I used in a post only a few days ago.....

             "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent." Rev. 3:19

             On the surface we might have a disagreement here....but I think that we would agree if we take all of God's Word into account on His love for us. God is there for us and will never leave us but if we presume upon His love....then He will use His rod to awaken us....and His staff to bring us back. We would agree on that would we not? So the question then would be....''just what would this presumption entail?".
              Is there a man reading this who can say that he has spent more time reading God's Word and praying and pleading for souls....even the souls of those he loves....more than all the accumulated hours involved in all the sports....watching them or playing them...or reading about them? I don't think that there is a man out there reading this who could say that! And that is only sports! Would it not be the same for other entertainments? What we have today is new. All of these sports....professional and college and high school and even younger is relatively new to America. It seems normal to us.....God's blessings so to speak....it isn't....and they aren't!
              There is something terribly wrong in our logic here! Christ was nailed to a cross....to bring us out of hell...but we are far more interested in sports and enjoyments than growing in the grace and knowledge of Him! And yet then we stutter....or lash out....and proclaim when challenged on this that...."God loves us!"
              I do not have to convince you of this. I only have to convince to meditate on this....ponder these things....for the answer is obvious. Yes God loves us....and is patient with us....but if we presume upon that love....then He will withdraw Himself. Look around at America friends....that is exactly what has happened. God has loved us so....that He will not let us continue on the path we are on....without warning us....and providing the way back on the right path.

Here's The Kicker......Those Warnings Are Just About All Gone

 "For when they say, 'peace and safety!' then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape." That is 1 Thessalonians 5:3. It is one of those many verses in prophecy where we are to keep it in mind....meditate and contemplate on it....even speculate....but ultimately we will not know the exact circumstances until the day that it is fulfilled.

Here is one speculation....and after it I'll give another one....totally different. We have war ahead of us...in America and the world. Seventy-three years of life and a half century of reading history and watching current history unfold has made that clear....to me anyway. In China and Russia there is no avoiding it....for they have gone too far in their planning. In Iran and North Korea a regime change could conceivably turn the countries around....but that is not likely. If war comes....and then it goes....the smoke settles....and there has been no nuclear conflagration....then people would surely say....all over the world....'peace and security.'

There are other scenarios but I'll just give one more. It has to do primarily with the church....more specifically evangelicalism....and even more precisely....anyone in America who considers themselves to be Christian. We have recently finished....within the past four or five years....an approximately fifty year period in the church where preachers....Billy Graham's name comes to mind first but there were many other nationally known preachers and many more in small churches across America....we just finished that era where we were strongly warned....just as Judah and Israel at times were warned....that we had departed from God....and that judgment was coming. Here's the kicker....those warnings are just about gone.

Few preachers warn today. No one seems to particularly care. We have entered into a....for lack of a better analogy....Twilight Zone....in the church where to anyone with eyes to see....we are completely undone in America....at the very doorstep on our Lord's return....and not only that....we should be rejoicing in and hoping for the nearness of His glorious return where every tear would be dried....but to the others....it is as the ship is sinking bow first....and we are hanging on to the aft rail....simply taking in the view as if we were on the high point of a Ferris wheel!

When you have Joe Biden and Donald Trump and Elon Musk and Zuckerberg as your primary influencers....Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse so to speak....and then you go down the line of celebrities and idolatries and influencers of all kinds that we have today....from Tucker Carlson to RFK Jr....when this is your situation and you are not on your knees each and every day seeking mercy and forgiveness....then some sort of period of anesthetization has taken place....some drug given us involuntarily that dulls our senses....the theological description would be in that it ruins our discernment.

What I've tried to do in these posts....is shake the pillars....not to bring the roof down....but to send us outside to look up....hoping to see Him returning in the clouds....to stand as it were at a fork in the road....pointing to the 'old paths....where the way is good"....(Jeremiah 6:16)....and to say to anyone who would listen....using the words from a Puritan prayer in Arthur Bennett's wonderful book....Valley Of Vision....

"May I say to all I meet,
 I am journeying towards the Lord's given place,
 come with me for your good."

Addendum: I had to interrupt my lawn mowing to add this anecdote that Charles Spurgeon gave in an 1880 sermon titled....Do Not Be Afraid. He was encouraging his hearers to continue to pray for their unsaved loved ones....and to never be discouraged. The anecdote is this. Spurgeon heard of a woman in the north end of London who prayed for a long time for her husband....who had no interest in the gospel. She would take her little dog to church with her....and the dog would simply curl up on the pew. The woman died....but the little dog would continue to walk to that church. The husband....out of curiosity....followed the dog one day....and followed him into the church and right down to the pew that his wife had always sat. Spurgeon said that God prepared that minister that night....and the man who sat there with the dog....was converted to faith in Jesus Christ. That reminds me of another story that Spurgeon once told....this from his own experience. He was to preach for the first time in London's huge Crystal Palace....and took the pulpit during the week as craftsmen were working up in the heights of the ceiling. Spurgeon was testing the power of his voice in the large hall. As he proclaimed verses on salvation at the top of his voice....as he was told later....a man high up in to scaffolding....was also gloriously saved. Folks....passing Spurgeon's message on to you....do not stop praying for loved ones who are as of now still unsaved!

 

🎶....'Where Have You Gone Billy Graham......Our Nation Turns Its Lonely Eyes To You'....🎶

                             Billy Graham went home to be with his Lord in January of 2018 but other than a short and beautiful video produced by BGEA has been gone from us for a long time. His son has been awash in politics since then in taking over the ministry. Jerry Falwell went home in May of 2007. One of his sons became the face of the ministry....and that was a total disaster. David Wilkerson was taken home suddenly in an automobile accident in 2011. Tim Keller passed away recently....and now Pat Robertson.....whose son that is in charge....similar to Franklin Graham....is not only off into politics but also hasn't a clue that Donald Trump has been judgment on the church....and not a blessing.

             R. C. Sproul departed from us quickly a few months before Billy Graham. You might want to Google his very last sermon....raspy voice and all....simply put in R. C. Sproul's Last sermon. That type of message is gone today....replaced by the....God Loves You Just As You Are message. John MacArthur took ill at a Lord's Day service on the first day of the year....and thank the Lord is back....sort of....with a sermon here and there....even though his voice pattern has aged considerably.
             So who does that leave? Well John Piper is still there. He used to have a 'sermon of the day' right there up front on his website....and I took advantage of that for about three years....with blessings....but for whatever reason that is gone.....the sermons buried so that you have to look for them....and in their place a 22 minute 'episode'....that they still call a sermon....which they shouldn't. The teaching is still there at desiringgod.org....but the power in the means of grace that was there for probably the few who took advantage of it....has been waylaid.....although anyone can Google a John Piper sermon....which I still do.....but how many are going to do that? We need the power of the preached Word Pastor John...we have enough teachers.
             As I mention so often in these posts....Christian bookstores are essentially gone. No one is going to stumble across the the gospel anymore while out shopping....as I did in 1982. I'm typing this at a beach resort on Hilton Head island....out on the main patio so that someone might stumble across the gospel and the warnings that are therein. Forget Christian television....we can only hope that no one stumbles across this stuff. Christian radio used to be very popular in the Christian community....but we have moved on to other things.
             Twenty years ago I was always trying to lead men that I would talk to at work....to a church....but the last decade I did that so very few times....because it is very hard to find a church to recommend. Megachurches have taken over....fancy sanctuaries....state-of-the-art sound systems....latte bars....with a great time to to be had all around....but no conviction....no mortification....and no warnings other than that our liberties are being taken away.
             If Billy Graham were still with us....he would be hammering home to us....."Prepare to meet thy God!" All that our pulpits do is talk about revival....but they don't have the slightest idea what that would be. It wouldn't be through the sermons that they palm off as the gospel. And even if God should give....revival....or even an awakening....it would only be to gather the saints in from the coming storm....of which even the weaker extended bands of wind and rain are pummeling us into submission to whoever promises any relief.

Update: Since posting the above....I sat down to listen to a Spurgeon sermon....this one from 1890....near the end of his long ministry....this in London to those not familiar with Charles Spurgeon....I heard these words and wanted to put them in this post...."What have we to do with themes that are foreign to our design? If I were to come here and talk to you about strikes....or home rule....or socialism....and should you pray to God to convert souls by my discourse....would it not be a mockery or worse? I think so."

Whatever The Analogy......We Are At The Lowest Point

                Transgenderism....or something similar enough to be categorized as such....had been in existence for probably.....millenia. None of the social issues that divide America today are newly invented. Men with men....women with women....drugs....nothing is new.....just as Solomon wrote....under the inspiration of God. Sacrificing children to pagan gods for instance....it is well documented in God's Word....and throughout history.....whether it be Carthage or the Aztecs. Today the god is personal freedoms....and the method is called abortion.
                 There were so many times over so many years.....where at the beach....in the surf....I may have just body-surfed in....and sat in the exposed sand.....as a gentle flow of the sparkling remnants of the wave that I came in on....sleeks back into the ocean. All is pleasantly calm....for a few seconds....and then the next wave....not seen....body-slams me. This is particularly problematic at my age as I do not react as quickly as I once did...and I'm not as strong to face the wave as I once was.
                 If you are old as I am you may very well remember a fad that was called....Biorhythms....this from the 1970s. According to this pseudoscience....the body is subject to biological cycles....physical and emotional and intellectual. And all three cycles are of different lengths....23 days....28 days...and 33 days....all functioning in sine waves. So....in reference to one's day of birth....there are days on the calendar when all three cycles are are on a high point....and days when they are are all on the lowest point...and there is everything in-between. So...if you were an athlete....that followed this fad....you might feel confident that all of your skills would be at their best on the day of the big game. I actually remember one time looking at Terry Bradshaw's cycle!

                 Well that is nonsense but we do....Israel of old and all of us today.....move in cycles....of rebellion to God....and times when for one reason or another we may have been humbled. Referring for a moment to the concept of those rhythmic cycles of sine waves....we in this world today seem all to be on the lowest of the low point. Another way to look at it might be the concept of the....perfect storm....with monstrous tempests coming at us in all directions....and yet another way to look at it might be the pattern on a shotgun target....where most of the holes are in the middle. Compare this to the target from a scattergun....where there is no center. There was a day....all of my life anyway....where the fringe was....the fringe….but there is no fringe today....for there is no discernable center!  Cycles or no cycles....we are in deep trouble....rebellious Israel if you will....Ahab and Jezebel. Our only recourse is repentance....and seeking God's mercy.....but we seem not to be aware of any of the above concepts. 

"Maybe If We Just Ignore God......He WIll Go Away"

              The scene before me is fairly normal for summer. There are various shades of green....from the darker maple leaf....to the lighter dappled willow....to the richer greens of blades of grass. The sky today is a powder blue....with a few white cumulus clouds....and the hospital white of the rails on the beige deck planks....and on that deck are bright reds...light and deeper purples....and brilliant yellows of the few flowers. I'm looking at a retro solar powered lantern....hanging on a wrought-iron post....and when night comes....and that lamp lights....from all physical appearances of this scene....I would be within my rights to hold it aloft as a town cryer....as I would shout....."Ten o'clock and all is well!" But all is not well.

              Within the past hour I have seen two squirrels....a grinny....two pigeons....one robin and an assortment of small wild finch-type birds. The squirrels obviously play with one another...as do the small birds....who recognize me as the one who brings seeds every morning. Only the grinny is still scared of me. The squirrels might return to that part of the deck where they earlier found three peanuts....but they cannot in their mind analyze the situation beyond giving a few minutes search and then running off up a tree....and this is just one small oasis in a world of millions of similar and even greater wondrous and beautiful vistas.
              Man has no excuse for not seeing this as a creation....having the ability to ponder it....and even scrutinize how it came into existence....but for man to assign it to chance....is nothing but intellectual and ethical laziness....and to purposely ignore the time-honored book that...as capable and powerful as our minds might be....can fill them to capacity with great and wonderful truths....is nothing but rebellion to the God whom man denies.
              That same person can gaze upon any and all of these vistas.....in total admiration....and perceive that all must be well in such glorious settings in this world....but if one dares look at the evil that man is capable of....and consider what knowledge combined with the evil can do....and not raise that lantern and shout instead...."Awake....awake....call an assembly!"....then those vistas are but food coloring and icing on a stone-cold cake.
               I've come across the meme a number of times in the past week....and surely you will have also....the ad from Barbie....with her in the front seat of a pink convertible....Ken sideways in the back seat....and a beautiful vista.....maybe of Oppenheimer's beloved New Mexico....in the distant background....and a rainbow arched overhead....only in the meme....J. Robert Oppenheimer replaces Ken in the back seat. It's a very imaginative meme....the only thing missing would be a mushroom cloud above Oppenheimer.
               Here would be an equally odd scene....evangelicals sitting around in a circle chatting....and the topic of God's judgement somehow comes up....(It wouldn't come from me....for they don't want me in their circles)....and one speaks up....."Maybe if we just ignore God....He will go away?" Well if I were there I would add...."We've already done that....and He has gone away!"

Joppa To Tarshish......Weather Permitting

Preface: The following post is from November of 2020....the paragraph before that from 2021:

                It was reported in March of 2021 that for the first time in sixty years....fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls were found in a cave. Eleven lines were found....from Zechariah 8:16,17....."These are the things that you shall do: speak the truth to one another;  render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace. Do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. and love no false oath, (that means lying) for all these things I hate, declares the LORD"....and from Nahum 1: 5-6....'The mountains quake because of Him. And the hills melt.  The earth heaves before Him, And the world and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before His wrath? Who can resist His fury? His anger pours out like fire, and rocks are shattered because of Him." This was no accident....these fragments being found....for God was warning us.

Joppa To Tarshish......Weather Permitting

             When is the last time that you read the book of Jonah? This small book can be read in a half hour....and that's with meditating on and praying about what you are reading. Well we all know the story.....so why read it again? That attitude on reading God's Word is kind of like saying.....why drink water.....I've had it before......I know what it tastes like.
             So the Bible opened to Jonah tonight.....and that's what I read.....and meditated upon again. The last thing that Jonah wants to do is go to Nineveh and tell them to repent. He thinks that sailing all the way to the other end of the Mediterranean should be far enough from God and Nineveh. I could not count on my fingers and toes the number of times that I wanted to quit. Don't we all feel like that at times....that we don't think we are doing any good anyway?
             I guess that the Mediterranean can at times get a storm equivalent to Cat 1 hurricane. That's probably what Jonah and Paul both experienced. These men on his boat certainly weren't like the Ninevites.....as even when they found out that Jonah was responsible for the storm.....they didn't want to go so far as to throw him overboard....but after they did....and the sea calmed....and they no longer had any goods to deliver anywhere....they may have just pulled into a harbor.....possibly back at Joppa....and told their story.....and that story may have made its way quickly up to Nineveh.....maybe giving those people a few laughs.....until Jonah showed up....bleached out from the fish's belly....and smelling like Pungent....Eau De Toilette Water....real toilet water.
             There would have been no laughing this time. Maybe we'll stop laughing in America some day. God relented in his destroying Nineveh. At times I think about America during of our Civil War as Nineveh in Jonah's day. Great revivals of religion had broken out in those days.....and just previous to those days.....did you know that? Anyway in a way God relented in destroying America back then. Nineveh went another hundred and fifty years or so before Nahum showed up.....and there was no offer this time....only a warning to get ready. Well.....we kind of went about a hundred and fifty years after the Civil War.....and we had plenty of warnings....pausing a time or two but generally ignoring them. Our Jonah is gone....Billy Graham.....(there were many others)....and Nahum is speaking to us today.
             Here are a couple of verses from that short book.....(there are 47 verses in Nahum....and 48 in Jonah)....."And I will cast abominable filth upon thee"....."Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven".....and "Thy shepherds slumber".....but there is also....."The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him." (3;6, 3:16, 3:18....and 1:7)

There Are Things More To Be Pondered In The Heart

Preface....July 23, 2023: The Jerusalem Post has an article up right now....referring to former United States Ambassador To Israel David Friedman....where he thought it very bad timing to push the judicial reform issue on the eve of Tisha B'Av. The article then points out that during the Roman siege of Jerusalem....there was a  major rift....to put it mildly....between the defenders in Jerusalem....half of them moderates....and half of them zealots....and the zealots purposely burned the food supplies....thereby forcing all the dfenders to fight.

This paragraph just below is taken from my latest DISPATCHES post. I'm adding it to this post because of the topic matter....

ISRAEL....Israel does not have a constitution. Their Supreme Court can override their Knesset....whereas our Congress can override our Supreme Court.  Our judges....in America....if not directly elected....are nominated and approved by people who are elected....imperfect as those elections may have become. A nine member committee chooses judges in Israel. The charge from traditionalists in Israel is that the Supreme Court leans heavily left. Netanyahu's attempt at judicial reform has the country in an uproar. The one side says that it will put all the power in the hands of the government. The other says that it will take some of the power away from the unelected judiciary. The essence of this argument is that one side is determined to protect personal liberties.....while the other side is determined to protect the national security. What happens if a war breaks out tomorrow? Will the hundreds of thousand of demonstrators put the issue on hold in order to defend the country? We have the same concerns here.

Tisha B'AV starts on the evening of July 26 this year.  In my albeit insignificant forty years of studying biblical prophecy....I would find it more problematic that God would not use signs in the skies....total lunar and solar eclipses.....and Jewish feasts...than that He would still use them....but more....after-the-fact....looking back and seeing what He has done rather than looking ahead. His use of certain specific times periods....forty years or days....seventy or four hundred years....even millenniums....is almost expected. The Jewish people for so many years would at the Passover Seder proclaim....'next year in Jerusalem!' Well they do not have to do that anymore. As for me....I for years now keep saying to myself....'next Lord's Day....the next Lord's Day at the foot of the cross'.....for God to begin to awaken His church and all of us....but that is just me....as I would think that He would begin His mercies towards us from those pulpits. 1948? Well....that is different. One could build their reputation around refuting the importance of that year....but I am convinced that they will find themselves mistaken. God was in as much as telling all of us through the events in the Middle East in that year....'It begins....begin to prepare!' These are things to be pondered in the heart. The following post was from July 29 of 2020.

Ninth Of Av 

                  In a few hours from now....(about 1:40 ET)....the sun will set in Jerusalem....beginning the ninth day of the Hebrew calendar month of....Av....the Ninth of Av....Tisha B'AV....traditionally a day of mourning......because of the many disasters incurred by the Jews over the millennia....including the destruction of both temples. The Roman destruction of Herod's Temple reportedly collapsed the price of gold in Rome because the precious metal became so common.
                   The dates of the future feasts of Israel....(Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and Passover etc.)....are always only a click away for me or anyone who feels that surely major prophetic events will occur on these days. This isn't date setting for we do not know the years....but we do know that God's future plans for the Jewish people will most likely revolve around their feasts. To  prognosticate on this is more than problematic....but to ignore it is being careless to God's warnings to us.
                    Israel today.....the people and culture....is similar to America....or England....or any of the Western nations.....in their rebellion to God.....for this glacier of disbelief and arrogance has not stopped on Israel's borders. At the very least we can use the yearly feasts to meditate upon and contemplate how Israel had miraculously come back into existence as a nation....and that for a purpose....just as America came into existence.....for a purpose....neither of which was for the glory of a nation-state.

Update: It is 5 o'clock PM in Jerusalem as I type this update....with a few hours left in the ninth of Av. Israel's Knesset has closed up shop for their summer....scheduled to resume in mid-October....after the high holy days. The country is torn apart over the judicial reform legislation that has only just started. Older evangelicals in America are surely concerned. We weren't really expecting Israel to be completely torn apart from within as we are. 

Additional update....July 31....The Jerusalem Post is reporting the release of a peer reviewed archaeological article on the identifying of a large building that was most probably burned on the ninth of Av....586 b.c. During Babylon's destruction of Jerusalem. 

DISPATCHES

 WARNING....just to let you know who you are dealing with....our son has a new Internet service....so while visiting I asked him for his password....he gave me the first word...."OK...got it".....he said...."ampersand"....."OK....How do you spell that?"

Fairy Tales? On that recent trip to visit our son....watching our six year grandson to give them a night out....he could not sleep waiting for them to come home. When they did....and his father softly crept up the stairs to check on him....slowly opening the door....as the fan hummed softly....what did he find....me telling a story of knights of old....or some other some fairy tale? No....I was explaining electromagnetism....and how motors work!

JOHN PIPER FOR TWELVE MINUTES....It's a simple Google search....'John Piper, dangers in exposing cultural sins.' This is short because it is from the Q &A link on his website....desiringgod.org....but in these twelve minutes....and particularly in this one sentence....Piper explains why we are hurting ourselves by spending so much time raging against what the Democrats and liberals do. That sentence is...."IT'S POSSIBLE TO FIND PLEASURE IN TALKING ABOUT THE THINGS WE HATE. I recommend so often in these posts to avoid like the plague today's conservative talk radio....and podcasters...and Fox evening cable....because it is the opposite of edification....but Piper puts it in much easier to understand terms.

KISSINGER....On February 21, 1972.....I boarded a plane at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon....leaving Vietnam after eighteen months. On the same day....Henry Kissinger landed in Beijing....accompanying President Nixon on Air Force One. He was 49 years old at the time. Kissinger landed in Beijing again today....meeting with China's defense minister in an attempt to smooth relations between the two countries. Kissinger is 100 years old!

BARBIE....President Biden has nominated a women to lead the navy. Margaret Thatcher was one of my heroes....the Iron Lady. She was tough....and a very good Prime Minister....and the issue with her was never that she was a woman. Golda Meir served well and honorably as Prime Minister of Israel. There is a verse in Isaiah....3:12....that you are never going to hear in your weekly sermon...."Youths oppress my people, women rule over them. My people, your guides lead you astray, they turn you from the path." (NIV) Solomon married pagan wives....and he incorporated their pagan beliefs. Biden's nomination is one reason why our armed forces cannot meet their recruiting goals. Wokeism....(one definition being....sensitivity to systemic injustices)....is a destructive force. I went to the movies yesterday....Mission Impossible....and it was probably a very good movie....but I left about halfway through. Why? Well....example....right at the beginning a man enters a top secret defense meeting....someone who is supposed to be there....but then he rips off his rubber face mask....and it is really Tom Cruise's character....who is not authorized to be there. Wow....and then it seems every five minutes there is another....Wow! It was just a little too much. There were pink clad moms and little girls everywhere out in the refreshment area.....going to see Barbie. I understand that the plot is that Barbie enters....the real world! Well....wokeism is Barbieland. I read the 'plot' of Barbie on Wikipedia....Wow!

Mark 3:25, 26....ESV....Jesus Speaking...."If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand."

GUNSMOKE....The people of Dodge were sick and tired of the sheriff shooting people all the time....simply because he wore a badge....so they got rid of him and hired a new sheriff....who immediately arrested the old sheriff for shooting people all the time....but the new sheriff was also shooting people all the time....because he now wore the badge....so the people had a town meeting....should they just tell both sheriffs to....'Get out of Dodge'....and hope to find an honest sheriff?

RFK....It's an interesting YouTube.....Robert Kennedy debated Ronald Reagan in 1967 in what was called at the time a...."Town Meeting of the World." Bill Bradley was one of the students asking the questions. I simply wanted to view it again....so I started with Googling Robert Kennedy....and all kinds of articles came up....on Robert Kennedy Jr.. It took me three or four minutes of changing the search to get to anywhere near his father. It hit me oddly....how RFK once pointed in the American mind....first to the former Attorney General and Senator....but today it points to his son....and it is almost as if the change describes the shifting from gravitas in our leaders and our citizenry....to shallowness.

DeSantis....If God should even permit us to hold elections in 2024....and should He will it that I even still be here....and the Florida governor be the nominee....and Biden or someone like him be the other nominee....(Joe Manchin would be an all-together different story)....I would need a reminder to vote....and probably quickly cast my vote for DeSantis. Today....in his quest to bolster his campaign.... he said that he could very well nominate RFK JR. to be the head of the FDA or the.....CDC. DeSantis arose in our ranks....but then our ranks have since been decimated. RFK Jr. leading the CDC? The absurdity seems to be never-ending.

COVID....I wish that it were just shoddy journalism......but it isn't. Breitbart has an article out now....based on a New York Times article that upon reading the headline you would think that the number of coronavirus deaths reported were 30% higher than the real number. Conservatives will be quoting that all over the place. I have been reading this type of journalism for seven years. It is disgusting and it is misleading. I had twelve friends and acquaintances die of or with Covid in less than a two year span. Before 2020 I hardly lost any friends....and after the virus abated.....I haven't heard of any new deaths. A friend was over the house the other day....an accountant when he worked....Covid wasn't the topic but he said to me that you can make numbers say anything that you want.

            

Past Addresses......Ephesus....Pergamos....Thyatira....Sardis....:Laodicea

               It would make no sense for God to include in the book of Revelation....the letters to the seven churches....(chapters two and three)....as only an historical account. There has to be profound prophetic importance here. As with most of Revelation itself....we still...."see through a glass, darkly." Most of prophecy is like a time-release pill....things will get clearer and clearer to those who will actually experience the last of the last days.....which by the way is most likely us.

               Yes....these were obviously seven real cities. That is not in dispute....but who other than the first century churches in Ephesus....Smyrna....Pergamos....Thyatira....Sardis....Philadelphia and Laodicea....is this book of prophecy speaking to? Well it's another obvious answer in that it speaks to all of us in all the ages....but the examination of this portion of Revelation....over the centuries....as it relates to the churches of the day....seems to evidence that in every age....different churches have different strengths....and different weaknesses.
               I only want to mention the first letter here....and the first city....Ephesus. They had their doctrine down pat....that is for sure. They would spot the false teacher and the false prophet. There is an old joke in Presbyterian circles.....it goes something like this....there is ministerium meeting of some sort of the various denomination churches....and a fire breaks out....a Baptist pastor jumps up and shouts...."Fire!"....next a Methodist pastor jumps up and shout...."Water!".....and a Presbyterian pastor then jumps up and shouts...."Order!" That's us all right....and it is a good thing....but we better also call the fire department and starting throwing some water on the fire.
              This church of Ephesus had its share of problems....for it left its first love. The doctrine and the polity were in good shape....probably better than all the other churches. Even after the reprimand....they are given credit for fighting against the Nicolaitans....and no one does that better than us....in systematic theology and precision of doctrine and worship practices....and therefore the defense of sound doctrine....but we had better focus on being meek....and humble....and conscious of the fact that although this church was named first....it does not mean that we are first among equals. 
               It seems that if the church is not persecuted....then the free time and the easy living leads to error and failings. To complicate matters even more....the Reformed church has also been greatly persecuted in the past....and is persecuted in various places in the world today! So no matter how we try to categorize the seven letters to the seven churches....things seem to overlap....and it might be best to address these issues individually. For instance....I have seen myself under the warnings of more than one church....thus the multiple addresses in the title of this post.
               Whether my theories here are generally in the right direction or not....this much is sure....we in evangelicalism....in the church today....had better not ignore or diminish the importance of the seven letters to the seven churches....for they are for us....not just a lead-in for the heavy stuff that follows....and this now more than ever in the church. As in the book of Revelation itself....it might be a good idea to complete our resume questions....current and past addresses.

Note: John Piper's Sermon of the Day today is particularly wonderful on the topic that it addresses. It can easily be Googled at....John Piper, Willing God's Will as a Way of Knowing Christ's Word.

Counting The Cost

 "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:20) "And he answered and said unto them. I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out." Luke 19:40) "Return to thine own house, and shew how great things God hath done unto thee" (Luke 8:39) "For whoever may be ashamed of me and of my words...." (Luke 9:26a)   

Preface: Dealing on a daily basis with both a collapsing church and a collapsing nation does not bode well for smooth sailing in one's life. It's not good enough to just rant on about how bad Progressivism is for America....or how terrible Liberalism is for the church. That's the easy part of this whole mess.....and that's where most conservatives have settled in. It's when you go beyond those obvious enemies to the deceivers or the lazy or the ignorant in our own camp that the waters get rough and the winds blow fiercely. Whereas in the former....the 'cost of discipleship' can almost make one a hero....for everyone rails against Progressivism....but in the latter....where we look inwardly....one can become a pariah in one's own family and church and community. The former is more a badge....whereas in the latter it can be more of a wound.

The Cost Of Discipleship....August 3, 2017

              One of the failures of today's evangelicalism is that we fail to mention the cost of discipleship when we evangelize and I have been guilty of this as much as anyone. I put a couple thousand miles on our vehicle recently and that usually means listening to a few more sermons from R. C. Sproul than I usually do. I had to go back into his archives a little bit to find one that I had not heard and I'll give you easy directions to listen to it at the end of this post. I need not add that what you will hear will be eons in wisdom and knowledge beyond what I can type out!.
              You have close friends....maybe you have a wife and children....maybe even grown children. If your plans are in just joining into fellowship of a church because it's something that you think that you should probably do...don't worry about the cost of discipleship. You may annoy a person or two, and you may even offend someone, but you probably won't find that there is a quantifiable cost to you involved in your decision to become a Christian. Of course you'll be pretty much useless to the spread of the gospel but hey....you get what you pay for.
             Your parents...whom you deeply love...may show deep disappointment in you. R. C. had this happen to him with his mother, and I experienced the same thing. It's very difficult and in my case it turned out to be decades of praying for wisdom in presenting the gospel to my mother....and asking for forgiveness for the times that I felt that I failed miserably. It would have been so much easier to avoid the topic....but then I'm one of those strange birds who actually believe that one has to be born again....and I loved my mother too much to let a little thing like her disowning me stop me from telling her about Jesus Christ.
             A good friend will stay your friend but you will wind up either....one....letting him alone in his life without Christ....or two....you will try again and again to present the gospel to him and thus you may find that although you are still friends....you really don't have much to talk about anymore. Still, unless your parents disown you and all your friends avoid you like the plague then this also does not appear on the cost ledger.
            Doctrine does come with a cost. The word doctrine is simply a biblical truth that often is not simple....but often essential in becoming a Christian. If you stay with the basics then there will be little to no cost to you. Do you have a serious hobby? Most people do. Is there something you have worked at for years and you excel at? Maybe you are a scratch golfer? I was a scratch golfer....I'd hit the ball and have to scratch my head but maybe you actually know how to play the game? If you apply yourself to the Word of God in like manner then it will most likely cost you....because people generally have their own doctrine that is very palatable to their specific tastes. You may have to leave the church that you love. Other Christians may consider you divisive.....but there is One that will not abandon you.
            These are really minor costs compared to what others have paid. Your wife may wind up leaving you. Your kids may hardly ever bring the grand kids over.  I've witnessed these things with friends.  We have all read stories in the news where Christians lost their business or their livelihood because of their Christian faith. Every one of us should never allow much time to pass without thinking about and praying for Christians around this world whose cost to them was their lives or their families.
            These words were brief and not very profound. My intention was not to make a list of things that will cost you but rather to point out that we fail to mention any costs at all as we ....'share the gospel.' This sets the person in question up for some rude awakenings that may result in their abandoning their faith. This failure to mention a cost also winds up adding enormously to an American church filled with people who have never been born anew....born from above.....nor do they even know what that means,

Google....R. C. Sproul, The Cost Of Discipleship, Part II

White Privilege......Noblesse Oblige......And Royalty Through Being Born Again

                I was thirteen years old....and my mother....having separated from my father....moved back to her childhood home in East Pittsburgh....right alongside the giant Westinghouse factory that employed both of my parent's families since the early 1900s. I had a wonderful summer living with cousins but we had to find a place to live and a school to attend....this being my eighth grade year.
               My mother didn't have a lot of money.....and that's an understatement....so finding a modest apartment similar to what we left in Buffalo would not be easy. I remember the taxi ride....(her days of owning a car were long gone.) There was one very pretty community only a couple of miles away....with mostly family homes.....and a few developments with very nice newer homes. I'm guessing that it is only about 150 yards long....the street that God led us to. A young boy my age.....was on a bike....right as we turned the corner....with a raccoon on his shoulder....(and this was odd folks for this is not a rural community....and I had surely never seen a raccoon before.) He would become my best friend.
               Well there....right in the middle of brick and framed family homes was a duplex....our new home. Two doors down lived two boys....one just a couple years younger....and the other just a couple of years older. The younger is a professor at Carnegie Mellon....and the older spent his career as a professor at Clemson. A few doors the other way were five boys....that boy with the raccoon on his shoulder....and two younger....and two older. One was a professor at Pitt.....and my best friend an economist for the Army Corps of Engineers. Across the street was the mayor....and his grandson who is today an architect....and there was also the best man at our wedding who is a child psychologist.
                I was never able to reach their level of professional vocation....but just being one of them.....through years of front porch games and movies and pizza nights....kept me on the straight and narrow. (that would drastically change later) They naturally went to a private Catholic high school....super-rich in tradition....and I tagged along. They all excelled....as I just got the diploma. Three of us went into the service....two of us to Vietnam....and the third as a medic stationed at Okinawa....treating the wounded from Vietnam.
               Friends....this was my....'white privilege!' Had my mother moved to one of the other surrounding communities I would not have had the academic role models....and I would not have attended that high school....which I describe in my profile to this website...."where I would at least I experience, although hardly partake in, a scholarly atmosphere." I probably would not have gone to Pitt on the G. I. Bill after the army....because I would not have had all these friends to give me the impetus.
              This has to be said....there are many who did not need all of these benefits that I had....J. D. Vance comes to mind as an example....for they had the will and the determination to succeed on their own. I doubt that I would have had that ability. I am only referring in this post to a future economic status...for these white communities have no claim to being any better than anyone else....or having stronger more loving families....or more intelligence.
              The term bandied about so much today....'white privilege'....has legitimacy....I am proof positive of that....but like so many other things....it can and has been terribly distorted. This is what communist methodology does folks. It attempts to belittle and eventually destroy tradition and heritage. If we conservatives simply deny white privilege....then we are making matters worse. It is a difficult responsibility....being vigilant against communism....but at the same time remaining humble and thankful enough to realize blessings we were born into.....but it has to be done.
               Noblesse Oblige.....is that French saying where if one is born into nobility then they have a responsibility....an obligation....to show concern for those not so blessed. We are not on the level of nobility....as were the Kennedys....but we still have a choice...go the Ayn Rand way....where we do everything for our own benefit....or go the Christian way....white privilege in way....born again into royalty....only the white here is not the skin color....but the robes that we will be given....

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

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

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

Artificial Intelligence Is A Vacuum....Ready To Be Filled

                 I was eighteen years old at the time....and accompanied my older scholar friend to the theater to watch Stanley Kubrick's....2001 A Space Odyssey. I do not recall being all that thrilled....although my friend was. Well he was more prescient than I....for the epic film would be a box office hit if it were only first introduced today. As for my friend....he was a professor his whole life at a major university....and eventually became a Christian.

                The plot? Well there is a monolith that is spotted on a planet in space. What is it? Star Trek was just beginning its second season when the Kubrick film came out....and an 'Enterprise' type of spacecraft is sent to investigate. There is a computer that runs the ship....and interacts with the crew. OK....I am not going to give spoilers here....but everything is OK until the computer makes a mistake. If it did indeed make a mistake then the crew would have to disable it....for it was never known to make mistakes....and mistakes could be fatal. Now the computer....the AI aspect of it....insists that it did not make a mistake....that it was human error. OK....that's it. I couldn't explain the ending even if I wanted to....and I don't think that Kubrick could explain it.....but Arthur C. Clarke....the author of the book that the film was based on had aliens and god and all kinds of other things in mind.
                Well back to real life....there have been literally hundreds of scientists make the effort to come out to express grave concern over the potential catastrophe of AI. This is not dissimilar to the invention of the atomic bomb. The potential was there....there were benefits that could be had....and there was no one to stop it. It is the same with drone technology. I would have to look it up.....it was quite a few years back....but I was concerned that these cute little flying devices would some day carry weapons.
                They literally laughed at the fundamentalists back in the early 70s as they warned about computers and chips of some kind on the hand....and a new world order. The Christians of course were right because they were merely repeating what God's Word was telling us.
                Artificial Intelligence....AI....is a vacuum ready to be filled....if it hasn't already started. It is perceived to be a money-maker....and that my friends is a hard thing to stop.

Note: My original plan was to reserve seats on the first day to see the new film coming out....Oppenheimer....which deals with the issue of atomic warfare....but in researching it as the reviews are just starting to appear....the R rating is more than problematic....and I need more information. I instead ordered the 2006 Pulitzer Prize winning....(biography)....American Prometheus....from which the film is based. We are becoming aware of the dystopia that we are creating whether it be nuclear war or AI or experimentation in human genetics or any one of a number of other things....but we never bring God into the equation. Once again God lets us know of these things in advance. Read the twelfth and concluding chapter of Daniel if you wish....but consider particularly verse 4....

"But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book until....('until' being a key word)....the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase."

There Are Variations Of What A Beautiful Mind Might Be....And How They Might Be Nurtured

                 We spent the last few days in Princeton, New Jersey....and on the campus of Princeton University. About a hundred yards from our room is the gravesite of Jonathan Edwards....and probably within 200 yards in the other direction is the house that he spent only 35 days in as the college president before he became ill and died at only 54 years of age.

The remains of  John Witherspoon....and Aaron Burr Sr....and Aaron Burr Jr....are only feet away from that of Jonathan Edwards.
             Before I continue let me say that the glory of God that once must have wafted through the numerous stone arches is long gone. The churches and chapels are just relics that haven't had time to crumble yet. On issues of the needs of black and hispanic Americans....I am of the Robert Kennedy mold....the most compassionate and caring politician that I have ever observed.  I have posted on the 'white privilege' that helped me earlier in life....and I have been extremely critical of how our main goal in the Republican Party today seems to be in keeping low-income housing away from our suburbs. That's where I am....but having said that....it is more than a quest for legitimate diversity on these higher education campuses of today....rather it is some sort of god. The plaque on the historic post that is in front of the house that once was home to the college presidents....began with...."THE PRESIDENT'S HOUSE, 1756-1878. In this house, home to Princeton University's presidents from 1756 to 1878, lived at least sixteen enslaved men,women, and children. All were the personal property of the Presbyterian ministers who served as presidents of this institution." That fact is what Princeton chose to highlight. I walked up to two women who were reading the plaque....(only fifty yards away from the historic Nassau Hall where the Congress of the Confederation convened for four months in 1783)....this called the Maclean House today....and I asked them if they ever heard of Jonathan Edwards. They hadn't and I gave them a short description and advised that they Google him.
              We spent time on the grounds of Princeton Seminary....where men like Charles Hodge and B. B. Warfield and J. Gresham Machen and John Murray....to name only four stalwarts in the Christian faith....where they worked and labored for the Lord....but it is not the same Princeton Seminary that it once was.
               I purchased literature at the local bookstore to help as we walked the grounds....and one photo stood out to me....a chapel....but no longer a chapel....the photo taken from the back....all the pews were old and scratched up. The caption read...."Generations fidgeted to sermons"....using their penknives to etch graffiti in the wood....(this in the late 1800s)....and on one occasion covering the pews with molasses so that services...."would be cancelled." Such was the slow....step-by-step transformation....from Christian....to liberal....to even anti-Christian....that plagued higher education in America.
               The architecture is beautiful....and the secular history also astounding....with men such as Woodrow Wilson and Albert Einstein permeating the air....if you are aware that they once taught here. As with many elite universities....they have individual colleges on the campus. I was reminded of touring Cambridge University back in early 2001....Emmanuel College it was....where John Harvard attended....and as I ascended the steps of the main building there was a statue of the Buddha. Anyway...there is Rockefeller College on I believe the NE corner of Princeton....where the film....A Beautiful Mind....with Russell Crowe as the mathematician John Nash....had many scenes. If you have seen or will see that film....you might ponder the secular definition of a beautiful mind....compared to a biblical definition....for there are variations of what a beautiful mind might be....and how they might be nurtured.
                 I recommend it as a day trip but two days would be better. The Nassau Inn is the only hotel right in town....and would certainly make the hours of walking easier....while there are plenty of restaurants and ice cream parlors and chocolate stores if that is your thing. 

Yeah....I'm A Fanatic....But Then So Are You

                 Let's get this out of the way right at the beginning....I listened to this Charles Spurgeon sermon four times within the past four days....A Clarion Call To Saints And Sinners. You might say or think....'You listened to a sermon four times....in four days....you've lost it friend!'

                Well let's look at that. It's possible that you....certainly many did....sat around the yard or park yesterday for four to six hours....just sitting in your lawn chair....laughing and talking to friends and family. Maybe you went to a baseball game...and was in the stadium for three hours.....or sat in front of NASCAR on TV....or  golfed 18 holes....or sunned at the pool for four hours....or played tennis for two hours....or pickle ball.....this for the fourth time this week....or whatever? Why isn't this considered fanaticism of some sort....but listening to the glorious preached word of our glorious God....more than an hour a week.....is considered fanaticism?
                How many hours does a serious runner put in on the streets or the track? I used to run four and five times a week....and that is comparatively moderate. How many people read a novel a week....or more....every week of the year....and maybe four novels on vacation?  How many women might spend ten times as much time in their garden....or getting their 'steps' in....than the hour they spend preparing their weekly bible study.
                How many hours a week do you think that a soldier might spend in training and getting physically fit? Well it would depend....is it in a time of war....or preparing for a coming war? Well there it is....if you are a Christian....then you are a soldier....and there is a war going on all the time!  That soldier can work in his or her garden....and be fighting this war at the same time....or running. I used to hit the track on hot summer days.....steam coming up from the rubber....and be praying the whole time. Where is the fanaticism there....in the running in the extreme heat....or in the praying? 
               I came across that sermon....from probably the greatest preacher that God has blessed his church with over the past century and a half....and I had to have it again and again. I will be listening to it again....Lord willing...in about two hours as I will be on the road. In all of these sermons from either....men of the past....or men today who preach like men of the past....I just sit there praising God for His mercies on the chief of sinners! My spirit is lifted....and my shoulders rise as I hear of the glories of my king....and how He is there....He is always there....to call to me...and give me the strength that I do not have!
               So ultimately.....yes....it is fanaticism....for we are all fanatics for something.....even the lazy are fanatics in their laziness! As for that particular sermon....A Clarion Call For Saints And Sinners.....Spurgeon had labored in London for four decades. Look him up on Wikipedia sometime to see what this fanatic had done for orphans and ministers and the poor and the lost right up until he preached that sermon....which was immediately after a number of years of fighting the liberalism taking over the church....a fight that left him physically weakened.....and often discouraged.....but always visited by God's Holy Spirit to continue his soldiering until God would call him home....which was only months after he preached this sermon!
                So yes I am a fanatic....but so are you! Chances are that the moment that you leave this post....you will return to the fanaticism that rules your mind. I told my wife yesterday that it is official....I am getting old. I think she rolled her eyes....but there is no retiring from soldiering! Yes others may have to pick up the dropped banner....but then some of the weapons....prayer for example....pleading and bleeding prayer....for those at the front....is a sharper sword than it has ever been.
                Spurgeon's message in this sermon is....a trumpet call....right up to your ears....'Rise....and depart this place!....get back on the path.' It is a message to you because it is a message to all of us! Friend....let God bless you through this faithful minister! If I helped you here....then you will be there to help me when I become discouraged....and need to hear that trumpet call.

Carnivale Royale

 

The following is from 2011....and is always over on my humor page....and I will return it there in about a day. An explanation of the above photo is at the end of this post:

Walking into the dark trailer from the bright sunlight temporarily blinded me. The man in the sport jacket over a turtleneck in 85 degree weather....who had his hand firmly clasped around my wrist....had no problem....for the dark sunglasses helped him make the transition easily. The character of Oddjob flashed through my mind as he fit the description complete with a bowler hat on top of his head. I was a little bit disoriented and tried to focus on where I was. There were small television monitors across the one wall and a man sitting in front of them who motioned for me to sit down on a wooden chair directly below the glare of a floor lamp with a flexible goose neck. At least it was cool in the trailer so I took a couple of deep breaths before complaining, "What's all this about?" He ignored my question and said "Tell me, are you a very good gambler...or just a very lucky one. Or is it maybe something else?" "I hardly call it gambling" I said, and he responded "Well, I guess that I shouldn't either for you seem to win all the time, not much gambling in that." "So that's why you brought me here. I win a lot?" "That's right," he glanced over at my winnings which the apparent security detective laid on the table in front of me and continued. "Is it mathematical equations? Nah....it can't be that....or are you some sort of magician?" "Look" I said brusquely, getting increasingly angry, "My wife must be out there looking for me." I paused to catch my breath and continued, "I pulled five bucks out of my pocket and if I had lost that I would be home by now." "Five bucks? You expect me to believe that you raked in that haul from five bucks?" "Yeah! I'm not going to waste more than five bucks in a dump like this!" With this Oddjob pushed me back into my seat and his friend said "We take a lot of pride in our work. We run a first class operation. A lot of people have a good time, we make a small profit, that is until someone like you comes around." "I have to find my wife." I said. "She must be getting worried by now." My interrogator was heavy set and bald. He began scanning the monitors on the wall. "Look at these screens. do you see her anywhere?" I pulled up closer to the monitors. She wasn't by the merry-go-round, or the caterpillar....or the french fry stand. "There she is. Look...she's looking all around....by the cotton candy booth" Curly, for lack of a better name, looked at Oddjob and said "Go get her. Tell her that we just have few questions for her husband." He looked at me "OK now?" I settled down "Make it fast." He got up from the desk and walked over and picked up Snoopy. It was a good three feet tall, white and fluffy, with a perfect likeness of Charlie Brown's dog. I fidgeted, for the tips of his fingers had nicotine stains. "Please keep your hands of my Snoopy." He set it down and pointed to each one of the stuffed Snoopys "One, two, three, four, five...and six...six huggable, squeezable Snoopys...all won on a game that, mathematically speaking, shouldn't give a winner more than once every other day..." I was getting more irritated and stood up "Look...I tossed the ball and it rolled into the red cup..." He met me face to face "Six Snoopys on five bucks... three balls a buck, that's 16 balls." Oddjob, who had returned, interrupted, "15 balls boss." "Fifteen balls... do you think I was born yesterday?" I didn't back down and shouted myself, in spite of the aroma of sauerkraut...very bad sauerkraut, coming from his flaming nostrils. "Look, there's 576 cups on that board...thirty of them are yellow, 16 are blue and one, in the center, is red! I just happened to toss fifteen wiffle balls and six of them rolled into the red cup!" He backed away "And I suppose you think that a jury will believe that?" "A jury?" I gasped. "This is a travelling street fair...and I won six Snoopy dolls....are you crazy?" "Crazy? Each one of those Snoopy dolls are worth thirty bucks! You walk off with a hundred and fifty bucks of my merchandise and..." Oddjob interrupted "A hundred and eighty bucks boss" "I don't care, a hundred and fifty bucks, a hundred and eighty bucks. I want to know how you did it?" "I told you....I rolled the little white wiffle balls and..." He interrupted again and grabbed a cellphone from his shirt pocket...putting it right into my face "You want me to call homicide?" Oddjob looked at him "Homicide...boss?" "Homicide, Vice, Immigration...whatever. You come into my house and rattle off how may blue and yellow cups.... I don't even know those numbers! You cased this place and I want answers!" I grabbed the phone out of his hand "I'll call the police! You can't pull me in here and give me the fifth degree because I rolled six little white wiffle balls into a red cup!" "One red cup" he shouted "out of six hundred and fifty two cups." Oddjob corrected him "576 boss" "I don't care how many cups are out there. What did you do...guide that wiffle ball into the red cup with some kind of remote control or satellite?" He stopped abruptly and his eyes widened. "Do you have an iPhone? You do, you have an iPhone!" he demanded. "Its an app...isn't it? You guided those balls with an iPhone app!" "Yes I do have an iPhone. Oh Look! Here it is" I said as I took it off my belt. " Lets see.... nine...one...one..." He grabbed the phone out of my hand and began jabbing on the screen all over with his finger, hoping to stop the phone call. Oddjob took it and tapped once to end the call. Curly ran his fingers over his scalp as if expecting to find hair and paced around for a minute or two. "Look. OK. You got me on this one. Tell you what...I'll give you three hundred smackers just to tell me how you did it." "I told you already. I just rolled the little wiffle..." He had had enough of my explanation and pushed me aside as he opened the door of the trailer. The bright sunlight invaded our space and I covered my eyes but not before I could see that he had no hair at all...absolutely none, and a very reddish complexion. "You can leave now...mister. But I'm warning you. By dawn I'll have your picture spread to every carnival...five counties wide... each direction! You stay away from Roll The Ball!" I didn't say anything. I just grabbed my Snoopys one by one and walked out. My wife threw her arms around me and helped me by carrying three Snoopys. As we were walking out of the street carnival, I turned and walked back over to the Roll A Ball. There were half a dozen kids and their parents standing by the rail, waiting to buy balls. I hoped Curly, or should I call him Goldfinger, was watching on his monitors. I started giving away the Snoopys to the kids. They were excited beyond belief and they and their families walked away, holding their prize for the night. I looked up and saw a camera pointing at me from a pole. I saluted into it and my wife and I walked off hand in hand.

                                                                  

There is only a grain of truth in this story. I did go to our local street carnival and bought a peanut covered caramel apple and spent a little bit of time at the Roll A Ball. Watching the kids faces is the real joy, especially since it seems that it was not that long ago that our son was rolling the ball. Today he's a lawyer who could have been called if this scenario had taken place. I did count the colored cups and spent some time trying to figure out just how to land that wiffle ball in the center cup. 

Update: The above photo is from tonight as I was drawn once again to Roll-A-Ball. The photo at the top is my winnings....and it only cost me ten bucks! 

"Puff.....Ayn Rand"

                 This is a difficult....and complicated....and long post....and I don't blame you if you choose to ignore it. Have you read my post of a few days ago that begins with the word....Puff? Assuming that you may have....Foxnews.com in their news and articles this morning....chose to....'Puff".....Ayn Rand...to make her appear as a wise prophetess. That's why I am bringing two old posts back....from 2011! 

Who Is Ayn Rand....April 25, 2011

                I had not read Atlas Shrugged in the early 1970s....(my early 20s)....because I was too busy reading Charles Reich's The Greening of America in between sips of beer at the Wooden Keg on Pitt's Oakland campus. If I had, I might have been a millionaire today, a Gordon Gekko! Thank goodness for cheap drafts, Charles Reich, Carlos Castaneda, Van Morrison, and Carole King. I still have not read completely through any of Ayn Rand's four novels but did....many decades ago...see the film The Fountainhead starring Gary Cooper and Patricia Neal, the final scene of which still haunts me today where the two stars stare heavenward as they rise in the construction elevator of Cooper's budding skyscraper. (My memory was a little off....as Patricia Neal looks up as she ascends the construction elevator of the world's tallest building....as Gary Cooper....Christlike....awaits the rapturous arrival of his wife.)
                   Who is Ayn Rand? She was born in Russia in 1905 and experienced, first hand, the Bolshevik takeover of human life and property. She came to America and was enamored by the silver screen ( I can relate to that) and wound up in Hollywood as a screenwriter and then author turned philosopher whose philosophy of Objectivism drew devotees including Alan Greenspan and has remained popular to this day. She died in 1982. They tried to make a movie of Atlas Shrugged for decades, finally accomplishing it recently in what could not be a more apropos time. I saw the film (first of a trilogy) this past week on a rainy day in Myrtle Beach. The small crowd (most families were filling the other theaters) applauded at its conclusion. If you do not see imminent catastrophe for America, or the world for that matter, or even the possibility thereof, you will probably find the film boring. If you do see dark tornado clouds moving fast over our heritage you will get your money's worth. It was well made and acted and it was good seeing a film that did not have the usual movie stars who hop from project to project.
                   A 2009 cover story from Hank Hanegraaf's Christian Research Journal, which can be Googled easily....(Was Ayn Rand Right, Jay W. Richards)....captured the allure of Ayn Rand....along with the reason for criticism. Rand....as Richards relates....called greed a virtue. He wrote "Rand was a staunch defender of capitalism, but also an anti-Christian atheist who argued that capitalism was based on greed." Richards contends that "she missed the subtleties of capitalism." He brings Adam Smith into the equation and his 1776 classic work on economics The Wealth Of Nations and points out in detail how Smith admitted that "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest." Richards points out that "every time you wash your hands or look both ways before you cross a street, you're pursuing your self-interest-but neither activity is selfish."
                    Richards' second point concerning Smith is that "in a free market, each of us can pursue ends within our narrow sphere of competence and concern....our self interest....and yet an order will emerge that vastly exceeds anyone's deliberations." His third point from Adam Smith is that even if capitalism channels greed and...."even if the butcher is selfish....he can't make you buy his meat. He has to offer you meat at a price you'll willingly buy." So "capitalism doesn't need greed" and Richards would say that it doesn't need Ayn Rand either. The author continues with, and I would agree, that Rand's appeal is because she "mercilessly skewered every leftist cliche." That is what the American public is calling for, why the film is a success and why the audience applauded at the end.
                     It's Rand's defense of capitalism, and not definition of capitalism that allures. Richards mentions a survey that I had heard of before where he writes "In a poll conducted by the Library of Congress and the Book Of The Month Club in the 1990s, Atlas Shrugged came in second behind the Bible as the most influential  book." Richards' conclusion is that "her hatred of Marxism and collectivism led her to defend a caricature of capitalism more grotesque than anything Marx imagined." It was Ayn Rand's accurate critique of leftist economic philosophy that woke the author up many years previous. This critique by Ayn Rand's is her only contribution, but a contribution nonetheless. My only disagreement with Jay W. Richards' article is where he writes "Competition between entrepreneurs in a free economy thus becomes an altruistic competition, not because the entrepreneurs have warm and fuzzies in their hearts, or are unconcerned with personal wealth, but because they seek to meet the desires of others more than their competitors do." I agree with this statement but it stops short of seeing how a nation can in the beginning see desires and wants as....food, raiment and a home....and then evolve where those desires and wants become....65" television screens, risk derivatives, Facebook and various other narcissistic pursuits, etc., etc..  Wall Street is as capable of distorting capitalism into a grotesque caricature as Ayn Rand. Her contribution is best acknowledged and then put aside for the number one influential book in that survey.

Atlas Shrugged....May 19, 2011   

                      There are quite a number of Christian books that have been published, and films made, on the topic of the Antichrist. I submit to you that Ayn Rand's character of John Galt is a contender in principle. A few blogs ago I wrote of seeing Atlas Shrugged on a rainy day in Myrtle Beach. I went in knowing little about the novel of which the term cult-like following is inadequate. I came home and picked up the book and began where the film (the first of a trilogy) left off.
                       Ayn Rand provides a savior for us in Atlas Shrugged and it is John Galt. Two thirds of the novel looks ahead for the answer to the question "Who is John Galt?," which is a running theme of the book, as roughly two thirds of the Bible looks ahead to the coming of the Messiah. Described accurately as a dystopian United States, the setting of the novel has this Christ-like figure in John Galt who calls certain chosen disciples to himself to go into seclusion and watch the world collapse without them.  Confronted with his wisdom, these chosen disciples drop everything to follow him. He promises a paradise, or more accurately, the instruction of building one and freedom to do so.
                             John Galt's oath, repeated a number of times after his appearance on the scene, is...."I swear by my life and love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man nor ask another man to live for the sake of me." These disciples learn from him and fear for him as he exposes his person to the pharisees to confront their enslavement of truth. He is tortured...but lives....and his kingdom eventually comes to earth (this nation anyway.) Rand did indeed have the playbook of the leftist and the totalitarian, her avowed enemies, in writing Atlas Shrugged, for one can see their dangerous ineptitude and propaganda in today's newspapers, even in what will be the headlines of tomorrow's....but her utopian vision also comes from that same leftist playbook!
                             John Galt replaced original sin with original righteousness and received the love of man and woman because of it. The self-adulation of man has often been a temptation throughout history and in the hands of Ayn Rand's pen it is most formidable. She may not have thought too highly of libertarians but they apparently think the world of her. There is high tension today between some conservatives and some libertarians who are so close...yet so far away. The news media, in their infinite befuddlement, covers this early skirmishing among Republicans as if the election were next month while drooling on polls that are of very little use, if not useless, at this time. It is my contention that the eventual Republican nominee is not even in the mix as of yet. (Romney announced shortly after this post)
                      There are extreme dangers in the Middle East and the world's economy, and malicious intentions of the world's elites that may not even be completely formulated as of now, any of which can alter the best laid schemes of mice and men. Ayn Rand's philosophy which exalts the potential of the mind of man to the exclusion of God is not the answer to our problems but rather a steroid. A consensus is needed between all conservatives and all libertarians but it cannot be at the expense of the One who indued our intellects with the very potential to prosper and who will, and has, withdraw it when we exalt ourselves.

Is It Even Possible.....The You Even Reformed Pastors....May Have Made A Mistake....I'm Not Asking You To Concede Anything....Only A Simple 'Yes' Or 'No"....Is It Possible That Billy Graham....The Fundamentalist....Who Is Not As Knowledgeable As You Are In Theology....May Have Had More Discernment On Some Things Than You?

Preface: I remember when I wrote this post.....back in March of 2017. I was venting a little....come on guys....500 years....you are in effect telling your people....not....to look to and pray for the imminent return of our Lord and Savior and Mighty King! God is telling us to prepare....and you are essentially telling us not to be too concerned. Once again we are twenty-four hours from faithful men taking their pulpits. May God....if it be His will....and to His glory alone....even now burden these men with the responsibilities of the souls in their pews....(yes even the redeemed in the pews of reformed churches need warned….are we not susceptible to idolatry….I know that I am....are we not prone to laziness....I know that I have that fight daily)....cause them consternation....searching for the source of that burden....and then fill them with Thy Holy Spirit....calming them with the glory of such a Father....who is there to apply the balm....and strengthen the sinews....all to His everlasting praise....and our eternal redemption....in the joy of His presence!

Is It At Least Possible?          

             It may be the single most valuable Christian ministry in America....well that's my opinion anyway.... and they have a home conference coming up that they call The Next 500 Years. They are alluding here to it's having been almost 500 years since Martin Luther's writings began the 16th century Reformation. So it's natural to take the opportunity to envision what can be done in the next half millennium.
             I understand the message but what went through my mind upon hearing of the conference title was.....next 500 years....how about the next 500 days? Or even the next five years...or maybe even the next 500 souls surrendered to Christ...or even the next 5 million souls surrendered to Christ? I just don't agree with the emphasis on the next 500 years when....if I might use this expression in a very literal sense....all hell is breaking out in this world. (folks....within 500 days of my writing this....both R. C. Sproul and Billy Graham had gone on to be with the Lord....the first of two impeachments were to begin....followed by the pandemic....the horrors of January 6....along with multiple other horrors....including the collapse of evangelicalism....and the very possible beginnings of world war)
             What it boils down to is this.....some people see events in one way...and others see it in another way. So I'll be party of the first part here. This is not normal what we are seeing. This is not problems with a Third Reich and an Imperial Japan.  This is not a Cuban Missile Crisis. There is no America to defend the world anymore. We're dealing with nuclear weapons in the hands of maniacs...maniacs who actually want nuclear war... and we can't even come together to deal with them.
              Nothing is holding together! Do you read the news? I'm not talking about that worthless paper delivered to your door every morning....I'm talking about Drudge. He's where he is at because he actually links to real horror...and that's what it is....horror! A kid walks out of his house a couple days ago holding his mother's head in his hands! And this horror happens every single solitary day! And even if we somehow read about it it's a shake of the head and page over to the sports or weather.
              The party of the second part here happens to be the vast majority. By the way I'm only referring to Christians here whether the first party or the second....wonderful Christians! I'm but a gnat compared to any one of the dozen or so speakers at this upcoming conference. So what have we become...a church where only the well known are to be heard. I hope that we all can still give an opinion.
              It's not only war...the people with all the money want a one world government...and they want it bad! We do know what that means do we not? One half of our nation....one half of America....are blind to just about anything. I listen to them on the news and marvel....marvel....at how little the human mind can at times comprehend.
              The same men at that conference will admit that we are now pagan. We sacrifice children! New technologies are entering into areas that make the Tower of Babel look like child's play. The last one hundred years has been one warning from God after another.
               I am not alone in my concern by any means. There are atheists out there...Stephen Hawking for one says that "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race." Here's a man with no concept of God who sees what most of us don't.
               The party of the first part reads Revelation or the Olivet Discourse and sees a message that after nearly two thousand years may literally be written to them. The party of the second part reads the same words and says... "Uh...be careful there...don't want to be a date-setter!" Can anyone read my posts and think for a second that I have given up on proclaiming Christ? The crux of the matter is whether one can see disaster on the horizon...warn about it...and still trust God. I say that they can....in fact that seems to be what Scripture tell us to do. I would question others on if they trust in God so much why don't they trust in His warnings?
               Let me ask this question to the [men involved in this upcoming conference]....do they even think that it is possible that they may have made a mistake....that they may have actually come up short in this area? I'm just asking and honest question! I know how accomplished you are and how much good that you have done...and I praise God for that! I've admitted that you tower above me....but is it possible that you may have erred....is it somehow possible that an Arminian....such as Billy Graham....not educated in a Reformed seminary....or another who may wear an ill-fitting suit off the rack at Sears and dangle his misplaced modifiers...is it possible that he might have discerned what God is saying and you may not have?