A politician... one that would circumvent God.
- William Shakespeare
Individually and corporately, political ideology and opinions are historically among the most diverse and hotly contested of issues. To a greater or lessor degree, they have and continue to influence every aspect of life. The sway of sociopolitical factors can be subtle, as has previously been the case in many of the more developed and democratic societies. Or more direct and even deadly, as in communist and dictatorial nations. As Mao Zedon, the founder of the People’s Republic of China so infamously demonstrated and noted, "Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed."
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, and its collateral damage, turned the page on many aspects of modern life. Particularly in regards to the areas of politics and governance. Marked by vastly escalating global overreach and deception, this new chapter in modern history may well usher in a dramatic change in the Times and Seasons in which we live. Not to mention establish a precedent and increasing potential for far greater future distress.
This article was begun in the early hours of Wednesday morning, as the final results of the U.S. Super Tuesday Presidential election were yet being counted and verified. While 150 million strongly supported either President Donal Trump or Former Vice-President Joe Biden, the author voted for neither of these. Nor any other 2020 candidate. This article will examine why. Along with recent upheavals in the fabric of American society, as well as critical hallmarks and ramifications of the new sociopolitical era.
Politics has been defined as, "The activities associated with the governance of a country or other area, especially the debate or conflict among individuals or parties having or hoping to achieve power." A layman definition would certainly include the centrality of purposed benefits to those being governed, and the responsibility of the people to insure their leaders fulfilled said benefits. A directive clearly stated in the opening of such foundational documents as the U.S. Declaration of Independence, paragraph 2:
- We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Unless one eclipses the other. And/or vice versa.
Over the course of 2020, globally and particularly in America, goodness and truth were radically redefined by the leadership of the Democratic Party with the billionaire support of media moguls and major corporations. Ridiculous and dangerous agendas, previously espoused by only a fringe of ultra leaning liberals, were suddenly entrenched as the unassailable political platform repeatedly reinforce by nearly every major Democratic leader.
Such signs of the times bode poorly for modern Christianity, and society as a whole. As do every other indicator imaginable. The threat of present and future global pandemics abound. Economic tribulation reverberates worldwide. National debt and military spending is skyrocketing. Forty three million applied for unemployment benefits in the U.S. alone. Coast to coast rioting and looting, violence and murder, over the justifiable death of career criminal George Floyd has gone undeterred for months. Not to mention a series of other false martyrs used by Antifa, Black Lives Mater and Democrats to promote and propagate the greatest unchecked anarchy in recent U.S. history. To the point of choreographing race riots with militias on both sides (if link does not play click here to download militia video). All this while calling to defund the police after already making the crucial job of society's protectors all but impossible.
Scripture is clear such manipulations of facts and logic, much less the rebellion and anarchy they promote, are forbidden and will prove disastrous for all parties involved:
- "Doom to you who call evil good and good evil, Who put darkness in place of light and light in place of darkness, Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" Isaiah 5:20 MSG
The liberal leaning ACLED (The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project) reported that in the three months "between 24 May and 22 August, ACLED records more than 10,600 demonstration events across the country. Over 10,100 of these — or nearly 95% — involve peaceful protesters. Fewer than 570 — or approximately 5% — involve demonstrators engaging in violence. Well over 80% of all demonstrations are connected to the Black Lives Matter movement or the COVID-19 pandemic."
Referencing this study, in September 2020 an article published in The Guardian maintained, "The vast majority of the thousands of Black Lives Matter protests this summer have been peaceful, with more than 93% involving no serious harm to people or damage to property, according to a new report tracking political violence in the United States." Thus admitting 7% of BLM riots involved "serious harm to people or damage to property." The Guardian article further explained, "Between late May and the end of the August, ACLED and Princeton researchers documented 7,750 demonstrations associated with the Black Lives Matter movement in more than 2,000 different locations across the United States."
According to the accounting in three months there were 542 (7% of 7,750) seriously harmful and/or destructive BLM riots across the U.S. by mostly peaceful protestors…
Michelle and former President Barack Obama's 2020 DNC speeches supporting BLM's "peaceful protesters" provide blatant examples of calling evil good and good evil. Here is a deplorable excerpt from each:
Former First Lady Michele Obama:
- "Empathy: that's something I've been thinking a lot about lately. The ability to walk in someone else's shoes; the recognition that someone else's experience has value, too. Most of us practice this without a second thought. If we see someone suffering or struggling, we don't stand in judgment. We reach out because, "There, but for the grace of God, go I." It is not a hard concept to grasp. It's what we teach our children. And like so many of you, Barack and I have tried our best to instill in our girls a strong moral foundation to carry forward the values that our parents and grandparents poured into us. But right now, kids in this country are seeing what happens when we stop requiring empathy of one another. They're looking around wondering if we've been lying to them this whole time about who we are and what we truly value. They see people shouting in grocery stores, unwilling to wear a mask to keep us all safe. They see people calling the police on folks minding their own business just because of the color of their skin. They see an entitlement that says only certain people belong here, that greed is good, and winning is everything because as long as you come out on top, it doesn't matter what happens to everyone else. And they see what happens when that lack of empathy is ginned up into outright disdain. They see our leaders labeling fellow citizens enemies of the state while emboldening torch-bearing white supremacists. They watch in horror as children are torn from their families and thrown into cages, and pepper spray and rubber bullets are used on peaceful protestors for a photo-op."
- Since when is "empathy" defined as supporting months of BLM's unchecked violent and deadly rampage across the entire country. How is looting and torching the life's work of innocent business owners "the ability to walk in someone else's shoes; the recognition that someone else's experience has value, too."
- It's certainly true that inflating erroneous police crime statistics, while ignoring years of Black on Black violence and murders within inner cities, occasions "looking around wondering if we've been lying to them this whole time about who we are and what we truly value." Particularly in the Obama's own city of Chicago where within weeks of their speeches there were 18 murders in 24 hours.
- No one is supporting and BLM is not targeting "torch-bearing white supremacists." Rather just about everyone else. Including the retired 77 year old black police chief David Dorn who was assaulted and left to die on the sidewalk outside of a pawn shop he was hoping to protect from "peaceful protesters."
- "Peaceful protestors" hardly describe the hundreds, if not thousands, of violent criminals that have largely been free to rampage at will.
Former President Barack Obama:
- "Joe and Kamala will restore our standing in the world – and as we've learned from this pandemic, that matters. Joe knows the world, and the world knows him. He knows that our true strength comes from setting an example the world wants to follow. A nation that stands with democracy, not dictators. A nation that can inspire and mobilize others to overcome threats like climate change, terrorism, poverty, and disease. But more than anything, what I know about Joe, what I know about Kamala is that they actually care about every American. And that they care deeply about this democracy. They believe that in a democracy, the right to vote is sacred, and we should be making it easier for people to cast their ballots, not harder. They believe that no one – including the president – is above the law, and that no public official – including the president – should use their office to enrich themselves or their supporters.They understand that in this democracy, the Commander-in-Chief does not use the men and women of our military, who are willing to risk everything to protect our nation, as political props to deploy against peaceful protesters on our own soil. They understand that political opponents aren't "un-American" just because they disagree with you; the free press isn't the "enemy" but the way we hold officials accountable; that our ability to work together to solve big problems like a pandemic depend on a fidelity to facts and science and logic and not just making stuff up…. Because that's what at stake right now. Our democracy."
- "Joe and Kamala know… our true strength comes from setting an example the world wants to follow." Rioting and looting, violence and murder, burning police buildings and defacing public property based on a narrative of lies is hardly an example the world wants or needs.
- No one has even suggested impinging the rights of "peaceful protesters." A description clearly opposite the agenda of destruction and mayhem demonstrated by Antifa, BLM and most Democratic leaders.
- The "way we hold we hold officials accountable" is for the liberal media to provide endless forums promoting politicians and community leaders calling evil good and good evil. All the while denouncing voices of sanity and reason.
- Supporting and promoting months of nationwide anarchy, based on inverting truth and statistics opposes "fidelity to facts and science and logic" and is the very definition of "just making stuff up." As is the recent "scientific discovery" of modern gender theory, insisting that biological men can be women, and vice versa, whenever and however they want to.
Never before has the spiritual and societal battle lines been drawn so clearly. Even the genocide of abortion is largely unseen. More a religious and moral issue than continual in your face BLM rioting and looting, violence and murder. A new campaign of terror supplemented with the tearing down of monuments, while bestowing martyrdom and sainthood on felons. Again, with the approval of a majority of the most powerful individuals, corporations and organizations in America. If not the world.
And this as all while the same Democratic political party repeatedly turns reason on its head by suddenly declaring transgenderism an inalienable right. Even in the case of elementary school age prepubescent children. A reversal of sanity and science, goodness and truth, widely reported. Including in an October 19, 2020 article by The Federalist:
- At presidential candidate Joe Biden’s TV town hall last week, the mother of “two girls, eight and 10” whose “youngest daughter is transgender” asked if he would reverse President Trump’s supposed “dangerous and discriminatory agenda” against trans people. Biden’s response? That he will “flat-out just change the law.” Biden continued, “The idea that an 8-year-old child or a 10-year-old child decides, you know, ‘I decided I want to be transgender. That’s what I think I’d like to be. It would make my life a lot easier.’ There should be zero discrimination.” Greenlighting the “transition” of eight-year-olds in the name of non-discrimination to advance your political career has to be one of the most cynical political moves of this presidential contest. Biden is a supporter of the Equality Act, legislation House Democrats passed in 2019.That bill’s form of “nondiscrimination” against transgender people would require ending sex-based privacy protections in prisons, homeless and abused women’s shelters, locker rooms, sports teams, and bathrooms, including for children in schools. It would ban all forms of therapy for confused children that do not push them to behave as the opposite sex. It would also likely allow medical professionals who profit from surgically and chemically altering children to continue to experiment on them in the name of transgender rights. That is because the bill would codify making it “discrimination” to treat people based upon their actual biology. Eight-year-olds do not have the capacity to reasonably determine their own sugar intake, screen time, and bedtime. So why are some parents, some doctors, and now a presidential candidate advocating for their ability to choose permanent, life-altering medical treatments? That’s exactly what it means when an eight-year-old “decides to be transgender.”
- Tampax has faced a backlash online after saying that 'not all people with periods are women'. The tampon company tweeted in support of transgender people and insisted that 'not all women have periods'. The company said: 'Fact: Not all women have periods. Also a fact: Not all people with periods are women. Let's celebrate the diversity of all people who bleed. But some feminists online accused Tampax's owner, Procter & Gamble, of 'erasing' women with their message. Others praised the company for the inclusivity and show of support to trans people in the tweet. Among those stoking the flames online were Laurence Fox, who wrote: 'I'm genuinely interested to know who at Tampax thought it might be a good idea to gamble your entire client base (Biological Women) against this anti-factual and anti woman, virtue vomit.'
- As election day finally arrives, Americans look forward once again to the majestic panorama of American democracy in which men and women gather peacefully to choose their leaders while Black Lives Matter and Antifa burn their cities to the ground all around them. With our culture so divided between those conservatives who wish to protect our constitutional norms and process, and those human homunculi hiding behind masks while they terrorize citizens, destroy property and loot goods before voting for Joe Biden, we here at the Daily Wire would like to begin a deep and profound examination of the causes of our division. But who has time for that? So instead, let's just speculate recklessly on what is so dividing Americans from Democrats. Some people feel the increasing leftist bias of every elite communications outlet has deepened the natural hostility between Republicans and violent buffoons. And that the professors of our academies, know nothing nincompoops who spread the toxin of socialism to young people left ignorant by lower schools run by rabid radicals more bent on teaching genderless perversity than history, science and math, so that they turn out brainless journalist who not only magnify anonymous lies against patriots, but cover up any truth that may reveal the left to be the mean ugly dishonest pile of steamy horse manure that has transformed our entertainers into humorless propaganda spewing zombies cursing the very society that has elevated them to the highest levels on the basis of good looks and a dash of talent so small it would be totally invisible if we weren't drawn to stare at the pornographic shelf displays that have corrupted our youth and degraded or national conversation until we’re no longer able to fulfill the basic duties of a free society but are contented languishing in mind numbing hedonism as a small band of over credential morons turn our cites into gigantic trash-heaps of homelessness and poverty."
One of the most listened to podcast in the world is The Ben Shapiro Show, also on Daily Wire. Episode 1159 is entitled, Do You Speak Woke? Ben details how this new language claiming to promote inclusivity is actually an effective tool, employed by the aristocracy and media to signal solidarity with liberal intelligentsia's strategy to divide and conquer America. And the world.
Nonsensical buzzwords such as systemic and environmental racism, economic and environmental justice, white privilege and defund the police, non-binary and gender pronouns, transgender theory and transgender parenting, are less about forwarding rational and coherent sociopolitical arguments than signally unity with the ruling elite's agenda. A kind of signet or code, along the lines of Avenger's whispered and shouted, "Hail Hydra." Woke's idioms and expressions, cancel culture and BLM rioting have been nearly universal recognized and received by international media and corporations, globalist and liberal politicians. A tragic development, again clearly in keeping with the adoption of the kind of Doublethink and Newspeak undermining society in George Orwell's infamous dystopian novel 1984.
Shapiro and other savvy cultural commentators repeatedly make the case that while ultra liberal programing is the engine of the new political era, including the global redistribution of wealth, conservatives and society as a whole, are along for the ride. What was ridiculous and extreme only a decade or two ago is now heralded as self evident and mainstream.
And what of the leadership of conservatives, including the modern Republican Party? Given their massive and long standing record of failure to adequately respond to the challenges already referenced, and those about to be introduced, at best they are guilty of a litany of sins of omission. At worst, they are co-conspirators with liberals and Democrats. Two sides of the same coin. Front and back of the train.
Consider the political landscape of President Trump's past term. During the first two years, the Republican majority afforded control of the Presidency, Senate and House of Representatives. Yet what net gains were actually accomplished during this period of overwhelming influence? Even in regards to such a keystone issue of abortion, Planned Parenthood was not even fully defunded. And while three apparently conservative Supreme Court Justices were appointed, the death toll of abortion continues all but unabated. As does a myriad of other crucial concerns ranging from governmental mismanagement and waist to overspending and overreach. Failed economic and social programs to inner city crime and violence.
Most notable, yet largely overlooked, is President Trumps failure on two fronts. First, to fully address the previously referenced BLM rioting and looting, violence and murder. Domestic terrorism on a national scale sponsored by powerful liberals within government, media and business. For the better part of a year, it has been within his purview and ability to stop ineffectually tweeting complaints and debating liberals, by the use of a pair of incredible resources at his disposal. Both used effectively by previous Presidents. Fireside Chats and the Insurrection Act.
In regards to Fireside Chats, Wikipedia explains:
- "The fireside chats were a series of evening radio addresses given by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (known colloquially as "FDR") between 1933 and 1944. Roosevelt spoke with familiarity to millions of Americans about the promulgation of the Emergency Banking Act in response to the banking crisis, the recession, New Deal initiatives, and the course of World War II. On radio, he was able to quell rumors and explain his policies. His tone and demeanor communicated self-assurance during times of despair and uncertainty. Roosevelt was regarded as an effective communicator on radio, and the fireside chats kept him in high public regard throughout his presidency.
Why, in heaven's name, would a responsible President fail to avail himself and the country he leads, to such a singular and amazing resource?
Wikipedia also sheds light on the Insurrection Act:
- The Insurrection Act of 1807 is a United States federal law prior to 2016, that empowers the President of the United States to deploy U.S. military and federalized National Guard troops within the United States in particular circumstances, such as to suppress civil disorder, insurrection and rebellion.
- The Act empowers the U.S. president to call into service the U.S. Armed Forces and the National Guard: when requested by a state's legislature, or governor if the legislature cannot be convened, to address an insurrection against that state, to address an insurrection, in any state, which makes it impracticable to enforce the law, or to address an insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination or conspiracy, in any state, which results in the deprivation of Constitutionally-secured rights, and where the state is unable, fails, or refuses to protect said rights.
Again, why in heaven's name, would a responsible President fail to enact his power and authority to defend both the people and constitution of the nation he's sworn to serve? See Matt’s insightful post Biden inauguration review of Republican and Democratic Parties. Glaring Trump administration errors include, but are hardly limited to:
- Failure Defund Planned Parenthood.
- BLM/Antifa insurrections.
- Proliferation of Transgenderism agenda.
- No Fireside Chats modern equivalent
- C-19 vaccine Operation Warp Speed development and implementation without addressing serious health and safety concerns by medical professionals.
- Media collusion ubiquitous rise.
- Social Media censorship gone unchallenged.
- Loss of Presidency, House and Senate.
Such serious sins of commission by Democrats and omission by Republicans do little to dissuade from the alinement of end time Biblical prophecy with conspiracy theories and/or possible deep state plots.
The difference seems to boil down to this:
- Democrats: Every word out to their mouth is a lie.
- Republicans: Every other word.
- Liberals: They say the want truth and unification. They really want anarchy and control.
- Conservatives: They say they can save traditional values. They really don’t even try.
In defense of U.S. politics and policies, some have pointed out in detail that many of America's founding fathers and documents honor God's power and plan, provision and protection. Even so, the spirituality of the United States has always been quantum in nature.
Even as many thousands of Christian participants recently filled the National Mall in attempts to call a sacred assembly, they did so surrounding the Washington Monument. Both a beloved American icon and the world's tallest obelisk. Easily identified as an Egyptian occult and phallic symbol. Not to mention the All Seeing Eye within the Egyptian pyramid engraved on the back of the Great Seal Of The United States. Appearing with the inscription that some have loosely interpret as "New World Order" and crowned with "Our Plans Have Succeeded."
One may well wonder what place overt Satanic symbology has in the founding of a Christian nation? Particularly one often heralded by Christian leaders as directly ordained by God as preeminent, as well as a leading prophetic type of Israel? Yet Scripture warns:
- "Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war. Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up pagan idols in God’s holy Temple?" 1 Corinthians 6:14-15 MSG
- "The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, commonly referred to as the Jefferson Bible, is one of two religious works constructed by Thomas Jefferson. The first, The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth, was completed in 1804, but no copies exist today. The second, The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, was completed in 1820 by cutting and pasting with a razor and glue numerous sections from the New Testament as extractions of the doctrine of Jesus. Jefferson's condensed composition excludes all miracles by Jesus and most mentions of the supernatural, including sections of the four gospels that contain the Resurrection and most other miracles, and passages that portray Jesus as divine."
Why Such Deception?
With or without devilish collusion by one or both sides, why such a radical embrace of foolishness (the opposite of truth), and evil (the opposite of goodness)? Either by omission or commission? The reasons are as numerous as they are strategic. Some of the more diabolical include the following:
1. Human Nature: Psychologists, and philosophers, cosmologists and even theoretical physicists have posited we are all part of and/or telling ourselves a story. With thousands of thoughts to sort through daily, this is hardly surprising. We need a way of organizing and dealing with our perceptions and emotions, attitudes and actions. As well as those of others.
This has never been more true than today. Life within developed nations is not only overflowing with input, but trillions of dollars are spent to manipulate mankind as a marketable audience. Sadly, much of modern media is heavily laced with immorality and worse.
The situation is further complicated given that God, the source of all goodness and truth, provides Scripture as the ultimate narrative. One forever at odds with worldly wisdom:
- “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 NIV
- “But the natural, nonspiritual man does not accept or welcome or admit into his heart the gifts and teachings and revelations of the Spirit of God, for they are folly (meaningless nonsense) to him; and he is incapable of knowing them [of progressively recognizing, understanding, and becoming better acquainted with them] because they are spiritually discerned and estimated and appreciated.” 1 Corinthians 2:14 AMP
- “Reality is kind of a fiction, in a way. That isn’t to say that facts aren’t real. That experiences aren’t real. That outcomes aren’t real… The reality that we live in day to day is an amalgamation of what we see and what we don’t see. And the seen and the unseen create the world that we dwell in. Because the world itself is too complicated and too vast for us experience. We have to apply filters in order to function… And it’s those filters and how we form them, that creates the reality we dwell in.”
- “…it puts a responsibility on each of us to insure that we don’t fall pray to the seductions of, the word is homophily, you know, how we love our own. Birds of a feather flock together. And it’s so easy. And it creates a seamless bubble. We’re wired to create bubbles.”
Simply put, we are all telling ourselves a story. While insulated in a bubble. A bubble in which we are not alone.
2. Spiritual Warfare: Seemingly fantastic, the Bible reveals the company we keep can be of both the seen and unseen variety. Like dark matter and dark energy, which account for over 95% of our universe, it may be argued that while not observable, the existence of spiritual malevolence is nevertheless quantifiable. Such physical evidence supports the viability of Scripture’s metaphysical assertion.
Through its crucial context and content, Biblical revelation introduces and continually reinforces conflict theology. Scripture is full of passages detailing the havoc caused by the great and fallen Archangel once called Lucifer or in Hebrew הילל בן־שׁחר Helel Ben-Shachar. The effects of his ancient angelic rebellion and current campaign of temptation and terror, encompass the entire Earth.
Through a cosmic campaign of demonic resistance, various voices, continually vying for dominance, often assert themselves as human. And even our own. This produces a cacophony of good and evil thoughts and feelings, hopes and fears. For better and worse, these in turn lead to attitudes and actions resulting in often negative habits and lifestyles. Chronicling first our earthly, and eventually eternal, lives. With such vital conversations taking place within and without, little wonder Scripture cautions:
- “Time passed. Cain brought an offering to God from the produce of his farm. Abel also brought an offering, but from the firstborn animals of his herd, choice cuts of meat. God liked Abel and his offering, but Cain and his offering didn’t get his approval. Cain lost his temper and went into a sulk. God spoke to Cain: “Why this tantrum? Why the sulking? If you do well, won’t you be accepted? And if you don’t do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it’s out to get you, you’ve got to master it.” Genesis 4:3-7 MSG
- “Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that’s where life starts. Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you. Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust.” Proverbs 4:23-27 MSG
- “He then called the crowd together and said, “Listen, and take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life, but what you vomit up… Don’t you know that anything that is swallowed works its way through the intestines and is finally defecated? But what comes out of the mouth gets its start in the heart. It’s from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing. That’s what pollutes. Eating or not eating certain foods, washing or not washing your hands—that’s neither here nor there.” Matthew 15:10-11,17-10 MSG
- “The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.” 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 MSG
1. Sin Within: Resulting from individual and inherited fallen natures.
2. Sin Above: In the form of devilish and demonic temptation and deception.
3. Sin Around: The collective and cumulative effect of sin within and above.
In regards to sin from above, the apostle Paul is quite adamant:
- “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Ephesians 6:10-12 NIV
- “And that about wraps it up. God is strong, and he wants you strong. So take everything the Master has set out for you, well-made weapons of the best materials. And put them to use so you will be able to stand up to everything the Devil throws your way. This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels.” Ephesians 6:10-12 MSG
Many such passages reveal a kind of multi level, and player, chess board with humanity sandwiched between and inexorably embroiled in a cosmic war, with God and Satan as combatants. A conflict with the most serious temporal and eternal ramifications. For both men and angels.
3. Devilish Propaganda: If conflict theology and the assertion of storytelling proves true, it follows that an enormous propagandist agenda must be in play. Time and again, Scripture archives the earthly difficulties and spiritual deceptions of countless individuals and societies. From evil heathen to God's anointed. The likes of Samson and David, Solomon and Saul/Paul, not to mention the Pharisees and Sadducees, provide cautionary tales. If Saul/Paul's studied zeal could be so off page, how much more the misplaced, albeit sometimes good intentions of the apathetic and worse? If such a disciplined and sanctified 1st century servant of God could misread Scripture to the point of violent and murderous spiritually insensitivity, how much more those of us in the 21st? What chance do billions have when daily being inundated with ubiquitous temptation and deception by unprecedented worldly theatrics orchestrated by the wayward media campaigns of trillion dollar global corporations and coalitions? And worse.
Nature abhors a vacuum. So too the super-natural. As quantum physical/spiritual beings, we yearn to understand and be understood. Searching for relevance, our souls crave company. Both of the seen and unseen variety. We’re attracted by and attractive to kindred spirits telling homogenous stories augmenting our own sense of individual and collective reality. Migrating and/or herded into increasingly larger groups, distinction and personality can be suppressed and/or obfuscated. This is clearly the case regarding the influence of major national and international sociopolitical groups. Even through the auspices of consortiums with seemingly diametrically different presentations.
In 1985, Neil Postman juxtaposed two very different dramatizations, George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, to highlight just such a scenario:
- “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture…”
- “…today we live in a society in which spurious realities are manufactured by the media, by governments, by big corporations, by religious groups, political groups… Very sophisticated people using very sophisticated electronic mechanisms. I do not distrust their motives; I distrust their power. They have a lot of it. And it is an astonishing power: that of creating whole universes, universes of the mind. I ought to know… It is my job to create universes… And I have to build them in such a way that they do not fall apart two days later… The matter of defining what is real—that is a serious topic, even a vital topic. And in there somewhere is the other topic, the definition of the authentic human. Because the bombardment of pseudo-realities begins to produce inauthentic humans very quickly—as fake as the data pressing at them from all sides. Fake realities will create fake humans. Or, fake humans will generate fake realities and then sell them to other humans, turning them, eventually, into forgeries of themselves… It is just a very large version of Disneyland.”
For those who do, it’s a wild ride. Better science and tech. Better healthcare and housing. Better working conditions and entertainment. Better lifestyles and choices. With nothing but blue skies it’s all coming up roses. But are we paying close attention? Like Pinocchio, might we find Pleasure Island exacts a high price? Playing hooky from responsibility’s all fun and games until hands turn into hoofs. For folks as blessed as we, seems to be more brayin’ than prayin.’ As Scripture warns, given time misused freedom makes jackasses of us all. And tragically, Andrew Klavan's previously referenced summary is just the tip of the iceberg.
Appropriate Response
The adage, entertainment reflects reality, is a misnomer designed to deflect culpability for collapsing social norms. Life doesn't always imitate art, or vice versa. More and more, life reflects devilish propaganda. Particularly given the constant bombardment of negative influence from the modern world. As Woody Allen famously punned, "Life doesn't imitate art, it imitates bad television."
Socially and spiritually, life and politics are quantumly entangled. Even so, it's also been rightly noted that among social constructs, politics is not the first but last to change. Case in point, the 1960's sexual revolution. Explosive growth in immoral behavior and acceptance took hold long before the legalization of abortion and the rise of the LGBTA movement. All of which were disseminated and reinforced by modern media's obfuscation of goodness by means of redefining truth. At the insistence of political correctness, laws were created codifying immorality and its aftermath as constitutional rights, against which any challenge is now legally defined as discrimination.
This, and the other inconvenient truths referenced thus far, partially explain why modern Christianity has clearly lost the culture war. A battle it has never truly fought. Worldly doctrine and lifestyles attest that Churchianity has far more often been negatively influenced by, rather than positively influencing, societal degeneration. Hardly surprising given the average church attender is all but prayerless, stopping to pray less than 10 minutes a day. Not to mention Biblically illiterate, unable to quote 10 Bible verses in a row. Much less correctly interpret and rightly implement even Scripture's most emphasized commands. Thus opening wide the church door, inviting various and insidious forms of temptation and deception, immorality and entitlement, apathy and presumption, heresy and profanity to waltz right in.
All this with little notice and less remorse. Even as the body of Christ is splintered into hundreds of sects, various Christ and versions of the Gospel. The vast majority embracing a linty of false doctrines regarding God's unconditional acceptance, to sanctification, appropriate worship to spiritual gifts, eschatology to salvation itself.
It would seem modern Christianity has followed society's lead in playing fast and loose with the truth. The very virtue God may well value most.
And it isn't as if we've not been warned time and time again. The Old and New Testament are replete with direct and indirect pertinent passages and examples. At times, Paul and others merge Old and New together, as when reminding Christians that the repeated and dreadful failings of God's people the Jews are a cautionary tale for we, "upon whom the ends of the ages have come."
- "Remember our history, friends, and be warned. All our ancestors were led by the providential Cloud and taken miraculously through the Sea. They went through the waters, in a baptism like ours, as Moses led them from enslaving death to salvation life. They all ate and drank identical food and drink, meals provided daily by God. They drank from the Rock, God’s fountain for them that stayed with them wherever they were. And the Rock was Christ. But just experiencing God’s wonder and grace didn’t seem to mean much—most of them were defeated by temptation during the hard times in the desert, and God was not pleased." 1 Corinthians 10:1-5 MSG
- "The same thing could happen to us. We must be on guard so that we never get caught up in wanting our own way as they did. And we must not turn our religion into a circus as they did—“First the people partied, then they threw a dance.” We must not be sexually promiscuous—they paid for that, remember, with 23,000 deaths in one day! We must never try to get Christ to serve us instead of us serving him; they tried it, and God launched an epidemic of poisonous snakes. We must be careful not to stir up discontent; discontent destroyed them. " 1 Corinthians 10:6-10 MSG
- "These are all warning markers—danger!—in our history books, written down so that we don’t repeat their mistakes. Our positions in the story are parallel—they at the beginning, we at the end—and we are just as capable of messing it up as they were. Don’t be so naive and self-confident. You’re not exempt. You could fall flat on your face as easily as anyone else. Forget about self-confidence; it’s useless. Cultivate God-confidence." 1 Corinthians 10:11-12 MSG
- "The matter is quite simple. The bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament."
In stark contrast, Christ explained Christian responsibility this way:
- "Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage." Matthew 5:13 MSG
- "Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world." Matthew 5:14 MSG
Such a crucial concern holds true for all aspects of society, including politics both old and new. Particularly with such three-dimensional conflict theology so often successfully arrayed both against and within us.
By now, Prophetic Christians should be quick to note that every sociopolitical and spiritual indicator are clearly pegged in the red. Both within and without modern Christianity. Most have been so for decades. From immorality and abortion to apathy and worldliness. From inappropriate entertainment and vices replacing virtues to calling evil good and good evil. From ubiquitous temptation and deception to the redefining of marriage and family. From homosexuality and transgenderism, to illicit politics and various forms of violence.
In regards to COVID-19 alone, the modern world has never yet seen its equal. Not since the 1918 Spanish Flu has a pathogen killed so many. Never have billions been forced into extended lockdown. Never has the global economy been in such disarray. Never have non essential businesses, including religious institutions, been ordered to close their doors. Never have Christian churches around the world been shuttered on Easter Sunday. Never has such a universal crises been so clearly defined. Nor the unique spiritual opportunity such suffering affords, so greatly ignored. See GB's COVID-19.
Yet with all this, combined with the political concerns already raised, where's the honesty and prayer? Where's the brokenness and repentance? How few the calls for far greater spiritual sensitivity and sanctification.
In the tradition of such great video messages as "The Revival Hymn," the late great David Wilkerson addressed this pandemic of Christian apathy and worse long before the overwhelming challenges presented in 2020. Such sermons as “A Call To Anguish” and “A Time To Wake Up” rank as some of the best ever preached.
“A Time To Wake Up” begins with “Today you will rarely find a message on repentance.” “A Call To Anguish” (hear abridged version) begins with "Folks… I’m tired of hearing about revival. I’m tired of hearing about awakenings… Of last day outpourings of the Holy Spirit… I've heard that rhetoric for 50 years… Just Rhetoric. No meaning whatsoever. I’m tired of hearing about people in the church who say that they want their unsaved loved ones saved… I’m tired of hearing people say I’m concerned about my troubled marriage when it’s just talk… Rhetoric. And I look at the whole religious scene today and all I see are the inventions and ministries of man and flesh. It’s mostly powerless. It has no impact on the world. And I see more of the world coming in and impacting the church rather than the church impacting the world. I see music taking over the house of God. I see entertainment taking over the house of God. An obsession with entertainment in God’s house, A hatred of correction and a hatred of reproof. Nobody wants to hear it any more… Whatever happened to anguish in the house of God? Whatever happened to anguish in the ministry? It’s a word you don’t hear in this pampered age. You don’t hear it. Anguish means extreme pain and distress. The emotion so stirred that it becomes painful. Acute deeply felt inner pain because of the conditions about you, in you, or around you… Anguish. Deep Pain. And Sorrow. Agony of God’s heart…"
And sprinkled throughout this fearfully honest sermon David further cries:
- All true passion is born out of anguish. All true passion for Christ comes out of a baptism of anguish.
- Hear’s what God said, “I’ve heard the words of this people. They have well said all that they have spoken. O that there were such a heart in them. That they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always that it might be well with them, and their children forever!”
- “When I (Nehemiah) heard these words (regarding the ruin of Jerusalem) I set down and wept. And morned certain days and fasted. And prayed before the God of heaven.”
- We face a similar situation except ours is many times worse.
- Does it matter to you at all that God’s spiritual Jerusalem, the church, is now married to the world?
- Does it matter about the Jerusalem that’s in our own hearts? The sign of ruin that is slowly draining spiritual power and passion? Blind to lukewarmness. Blind to the mixture that’s creeping in.
- You won’t fight. You won’t labor in prayer anymore. You won’t weep before God anymore. You can sit and watch television and your family go to hell!
- Does it really matter to you that your unsaved loved ones are dying and we’re getting closer and closer to the end?
- Where’s the anguish. Where’s the tears. Where’s the mourning? Where’s the fasting?
- It’s going to take more than preaching. More than a new revelation.
- Please don’t tell me you’re concerned. Don’t tell me you want your unsaved loved ones saved while you’re spending hours before the internet or television. Come on….
- There's going to be no renewal, no revival, no awakening until we’re willing to let Him once again break us. Folk’s it’s getting late and it’s getting serious.
Of course, with the demise of so many Christian disciplines and virtues, few concern themselves with the rigors of Biblical sanctification and radical discipleship. Even so, those not interested in revival can at least partially substitute sociopolitical responsibility. Those who are, must come to realize they are ostensively one and the same. And do so before it's temporary and eternity too late.
This article's initial quote of Christ's response to a threat by King Herod, Israel's top governmental leader, reinforces a vital Biblical principle. Our responsibility to God and man is spiritually quantum in nature. First and foremost, we must fully submit and adhere to Scripture's Kingdom requirements. Biblical commands Churchianity violates on a daily basis. After restoring our place as the salt and light we've been entrusted and commissioned to be, we can realistically hope to effect real and substantial change. First in ourselves and families, fellowships and churches, and then and only then, perhaps in the world so clearly flailing and falling apart around us.
Spiritually and socially prescient, the Bible's literally designed for such a time as this. Both Old and New Testaments come preloaded with timely verses that might well be labeled, "In case of emergency break glass." Of these, perhaps the most over quoted and underutilized passage is 2 Chronicles 7:14. See GB's If My People.
St. Augustine is credited with noting, "The New (Testament) is in the Old (Testament) concealed, the Old (Testament) is in the New (Testament) revealed. An observation certainly true in this case. The authorship of the Book of James is widely attributed to Jesus's half brother, whom appears in the Book of Acts as the recognized head of the Jerusalem church and the leader of the First Church Council.
James' version for 2 Chronicles 7:14 is far more insightfully instructive. Like his brothers Jesus and Jude, he rarely minces words or suffers fools lightly. Christian or not. James 4's handling of the all too familiar issue of the people of God succumbing to the plague of worldliness is unique in Scripture. Not written topically, the Bible rarely gives line upon line advice. Yet in this singular case, James provides a 14 point diagnoses and prescription for what ails us.
So why in this our greatest time of need, with both Christ and tribulation knocking at out door, is this passage overlooked and ignored? Simple. Because the cure is universally considered worse than the disease:
- "Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting within you. You want things, but you cannot have them, so you are ready to kill; you strongly desire things, but you cannot get them, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have what you want because you do not ask God for it. And when you ask, you do not receive it, because your motives are bad; you ask for things to use for your own pleasures. Unfaithful people! Don't you know that to be the world's friend means to be God's enemy? If you want to be the world's friend, you make yourself God's enemy. Don't think that there is no truth in the scripture that says, “The spirit that God placed in us is filled with fierce desires.” But the grace that God gives is even stronger. As the scripture says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will run away from you. Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners! Purify your hearts, you hypocrites! Be sorrowful, cry, and weep; change your laughter into crying, your joy into gloom! Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." James 4:1-10 GNT
Along these lines, the great Protestant reformer and prolific author Martin Luther has been noted as saying:
- "If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Wherever the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved and to be steady on all the battlefield besides is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that one point."
This is where "the battle rages" albeit mostly unfought. It's not only time, but truly past time, we corporately and personally enter the crucible of James 4's Prayer of Anguish. Let us replace assumed salvation with the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom. Let us exchange presumption with living faith. Profanity with acceptable worship. Deceptability with discernment. Let us ask for eyes, ears, hearts and minds able and willing to rightly perceive the dangerous Times and Season now upon us. As well as the impending threat of terrible judgment and Great Tribulation clearly at our doorstep.
Let us strive to recover the promised yet lost fruit and gifts of the Holy Spirit, Whom we so casually ignore and deeply grieve. Let us acknowledge and regain New Testament power evangelism and discipleship that we might yet fulfill Christ's sacred trust and Great Commission. Let us heed Scripture's prophetic advice, embrace pre-revival repentance and prepare to call the Sacred Assembly in hope of being fully transformed into entirely New Creations by experiencing a New Pentecost leading to nothing short of national and global renewal, revival and reformation.
The Apostle Paul warned, "if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare for battle?" It's high time to sound the alarm loud and clear, rather that relying on failed political promise. Or even false spiritual hope, such as cheep grace or a pre-tribulation rapture. Time to gather and quantumly prepare for a battle already raging:
- " Blow the ram’s horn trumpet in Zion! Trumpet the alarm on my holy mountain! Shake the country up! God’s Judgment’s on its way—the Day’s almost here! A black day! A Doomsday! Clouds with no silver lining!" Joel 2:1-2 MSG
- "But there’s also this, it’s not too late—God’s personal Message!—“Come back to me and really mean it! Come fasting and weeping, sorry for your sins!” Change your life, not just your clothes. Come back to God, your God. And here’s why: God is kind and merciful. He takes a deep breath, puts up with a lot, This most patient God, extravagant in love, always ready to cancel catastrophe. Who knows? Maybe he’ll do it now, maybe he’ll turn around and show pity. Maybe, when all’s said and done, there’ll be blessings full and robust for your God!" Joel 2:12-14 MSG
- "Blow the ram’s horn trumpet in Zion! Declare a day of repentance, a holy fast day. Call a public meeting. Get everyone there. Consecrate the congregation. Make sure the elders come, but bring in the children, too, even the nursing babies, Even men and women on their honeymoon—interrupt them and get them there. Between Sanctuary entrance and altar, let the priests, God’s servants, weep tears of repentance. Let them intercede: “Have mercy, God, on your people! Don’t abandon your heritage to contempt. Don’t let the pagans take over and rule them and sneer, ‘And so where is this God of theirs?’" Joel 2:15-17 MSG
- "And that’s just the beginning: After that—“I will pour out my Spirit on every kind of people: Your sons will prophesy, also your daughters. Your old men will dream, your young men will see visions. I’ll even pour out my Spirit on the servants, men and women both. I’ll set wonders in the sky above and signs on the earth below: Blood and fire and billowing smoke, the sun turning black and the moon blood-red, Before the Judgment Day of God, the Day tremendous and awesome. Whoever calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help. On Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be a great rescue—just as God said. Included in the survivors are those that God calls." Joel 2:18-32 MSG
Joel does offer hope of a quantum kind. He clearly doesn't sugar coat the issue. Like Jesus, James and Jude, he's direct to the point of belligerence. As with all of Scripture's prophetic advice, he insists on radical preparation before deliverance and/or salvation. And even then, qualifies the outcome with phrases like "Who knows?" and "Maybe." Doesn't sound much like modern Christianity's easy believism and assumed salvation, greasy grace and inappropriately intimate worship.
He does, however, sound a lot like his contemporary Zephaniah who strongly reinforces Scriptures greatly marginalized Before Principle:
- "I’m going to make a clean sweep of the earth, a thorough housecleaning.” God’s Decree. “Men and women and animals, including birds and fish—Anything and everything that causes sin—will go, but especially people. “I’ll start with Judah and everybody who lives in Jerusalem." Zephaniah 1:2-4 MSG
- "For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?” Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator." 1 Peter 4:17-29 NKJV
- "So get yourselves together. Shape up! You’re a nation without a clue about what it wants. Do it before you’re blown away like leaves in a windstorm, Before God’s Judgment-anger sweeps down on you, Before God’s Judgment Day wrath descends with full force. Seek God, all you quietly disciplined people who live by God’s justice. Seek God’s right ways. Seek a quiet and disciplined life. Perhaps you’ll be hidden on the Day of God’s anger." Zephaniah 2:1-3 MSG
The new sociopolitical era demonstrates two major inconvenient truths. The first is an alarming trend of increasing challenges and peril to peaceful citizens. From the supposed threat of climate change by drought and fire, hurricane and sea rise to global poverty and pandemic, economic and institutional shutdowns. From engineered intolerance and rioting, violence and murder to manufactured racism and indoctrination, social upheaval and race wars.
The second is the already mentioned entrenched and growing alinement of end time Biblical prophecy with conspiracy theories and/or possible deep state plots. Some of which appear more plausible than ever before. For example, take the previous non issue of contract tracing already implemented or being serious considered by nations around the world. Given unprecedented global economic and institutional shutdowns are now standard procedure, mandating continual monitoring of people's movements may be a foregone conclusion. While smartphones have been used, an implanted chip or even nano technology included in a required vaccination, could close any loopholes. As for a COVID-19 vaccine, there are a great many reasons for caution, up to and including genuine concerns in regards to efficacy and safety, not to mention medical professionals questioning plans to roll out genetic manipulation and even nano technology (if video link fails to play click here to download an important 20 min video).
This and other steps may seem all the more justified should there be a second wave of COVID-19, or future viral pandemics. The need for governments to manage, if not quell, rioting and looting, civil disobedience and unrest provide additional compelling augments for universal chip implantation and tracing. An option made all the more possible with the rollout of 5G wireless networks. Such advances may produce a plethora of positive and negative potentials. With newer and better technology, a cashless or even card-less society might lesson viral transmission and provide other benefits. From verifying immigration status to reducing tax evasion. Genuine smart homes and self driving cars could be just around the corner. Crime, from speeding to murder, may be more readily resolved.
On the other hand, there are serious health and privacy concerns with tech tracing assisted by widespread 5G distribution. More disconcerting still, for millennia the Bible's emphatically warned against receiving the impending Mark of the Beast. An implant, used not only for commercial purposes, but as a control mechanism with irreversible social and spiritual ramifications:
- "The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name." Revelation 13:15-17 NIV
- "A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus. Then I heard a voice from heaven say, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them.” Revelation 14:9-13 NIV
Abortion, and the inversion of morality, have long represent only two of the highest peaks of a growing global mountain range of sins commonplace in today's society. With temptation and deception, entitlement and doctrinal error pandemic, time would fail to list half the forbidden lines daily crossed by billions. Believers or not. Even something as mundane as spending hours a week, if not daily, watching TV would have been considered anathema to the New Testament teaching of Jesus and His apostles.
Another area of misunderstanding is the regrettable progression of willful or even uniformed rebellion against Biblical directives. As the supremely practical epistle of James explains:
- "Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. So don’t be misled, my dear brothers and sisters." James 1:14-16 NIV
- "Don’t be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. They’ll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they’re animals. Stay clear of these people." 2 Timothy 3:1-5 MSG
Only Options
The devilish nature of sin is that it not only warps and transforms people but society at large. So much so that once begun, any and all sin faces only one of three possible outcomes:
1. Repentance: Genuine Biblical repentance is best exemplified in the military command, "Halt, about face, march." Complete and abiding repentance for rebellion against God's authority and/or harm to another includes lifestyles of brokenness and contrition, sanctification and restitution if and when appropriate. While this preferable option remains open to humanity, mankind has yet to fully repent of a single sin. Much less such pinnacle sins as abortion and immorality.
2. Commensurate Judgment: Outside of God and His word, all things change. Unrepentant, corporately and individually we face the specter of God's judgment. In time and eternity. Should justice be satisfied in this life (a rarity) without complete repentance the cycle of sin would simply begin again. As evidenced throughout the whole of Scripture from Cain's murder of Able and Noah's flood, to Christ's denunciation of His people and Revelation's warnings. One can only imagine what the commensurate judgment of abortion's holocaust of 5-10 times the planet's entire population in Christ's day might be…
3. Mutation: Should sin proceed without repentance or eradication by judgment, it must continue to grow in scale. Eventually to the point of mutating into another kind of aberration altogether. Such a principle holds true from the least to greatest of sins. For the sake of brevity, again the example of abortion will suffice.
Simply put, the aborting of billions may in fact be summoning the Antichrist.
We've all seen the movies and heard the stories. When evil men and women seek to summon Satanic power they offer a sacrifice. The efficacy or power of the spell depends on three things, the first two being the quality and quantity of the sacrifice. Consider abortion in this light. Could more innocent human beings be found? And as for quantity, the sheer numbers defy comparison. In all of human history there has never been over a billion of any people group murdered.
The third component to ritual sacrifice is the sacrificer. Should those conspiring to murder successfully entice someone entrusted to love and care for the victim into offering the innocent life, the evil summoned is greatly magnified. When abortion is not compulsory, as in the Free World, turning a mother's hand against the offspring in her own womb completes the diabolical curse. Yet there is far more. To legalize and fund such betrayal requires corrupting the very institutions designed to protect the health and well being of its citizens from enemies both foreign and domestic.
Since America legalized abortion, the foundations of our greatest institutions have been undermined. Decades of attack have left many of the pillars of our society cracked and crumbling. In regards to abortion, far from protecting its youngest and most vulnerable future citizenry, these institutions are implicit in the murders of tens of millions. Is it likely such corruption and wholesale slaughter is simply coincidental or has it been orchestrated by an Arch Enemy? To what end have thousands of millions of babies been sacrificed on the altar of convenience? What could such a unprecedented and previously unthinkable act of occult barbarism hope to gain? Might the unmitigated global abortion of tens of millions annually serve as the greatest Satanic offering of all time? With the expressed purpose of summoning the Man of Sin called the Antichrist?
Separately and particularly together, these and a growing list of ancillary risks should be of the utmost concern. Yet, aside from the inconvenience of masks and social distancing, increased unemployment and national debt, nationwide rioting and violence, political and environmental catastrophes, for the most part it's business as usual. Both outside and inside modern Christianity.
COVID-19 Easter and Pentecost 2020 came and went with church doors shuttered around the world for the first time in two thousand years. Sermons before, during and after continued to be status quo and seeker friendly. Many minored on the topic of change, yet remained mired along traditional lines. Most justified previous positions, with little or no questioning regarding the problem of powerlessness made obvious by C-19. Few, if any, offered deep dives into such crucial topics as worldliness and entitlement, brokenness and repentance, sanctification and unanswered prayer. Passages like 2 Chronicles 7:14 were given lip service at best. James 4's Prayer of Anguish was ignored entirely.
Here and there, the importance of Pentecost was raised without doing the subject justice. Much less pinpointing the glaring global need for a new Pentecost of our own. If and when talk of a Sacred Assembly arose, there was little interest in even discussing prerequisite pre-revival repentance. In regards to healing the sick or the importance of power evangelism and discipleship, there were no mentions of our fall from grace. No church councils were convened to address the matter. No team tasked to recover the gifts of the Spirit.
What could and should have been our finest hour, was largely our darkest.
By all indications, upcoming years and decades are likely to present ever increasing spiritual and social, financial and physical challenges for ourselves and families, friends and neighbors. Making matters worse, the faith and message of today's anemic and all but powerless Churchianity are too ill informed and/or subjective to successfully compete against the concrete demands and ubiquitous distractions, inflamed desires and mass deceptions presented by modern life. How much less the increasing troubles of judgment or Tribulation? Among the means at our disposal to combat such circumstances is the concept of moving beyond merely praying for this or that, into the realm of seriously pressing in, with the quantum hope of ultimately praying through.
Perhaps, even yet, it is not too late. Interestingly, the Bible's answer to all the problems addressed in this article and more is one in the same.
Modern Christianity, or at least a significant percentage of Prophetic Christians, must finish the transformation from mere men, who's meeting often "do more harm than good" into entirely New Creations. From the pitiful anemia of 21st Century Churchianity to the fullness of power demonstrated by 1st Century Biblical Christianity.
While Christians have over the years attempted as much, clearly our individual and even collective efforts have fallen far short. I myself have attended and/or led over 1,000 corporate prayer meetings and have yet to see Bethesda's waters significantly stirred. Much less Scripture’s promised and desperately needed "rivers of living water" or “a fountain of water springing up into eternal life."
Consider for a moment a handful of verses from James chapter 5 through which hope in the power of effective, fervent and righteous prayer is derived. For in them we have not only an overlooked litmus test for Biblical church leadership, but a guaranteed cure for what ails us:
- "Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." James 5:13-16 NIV
Here we see no hint of cessation. Nor the failure of charismatics. What we do see are simple and straightforward instructions clearly indicating that elders are required to be able to offer the kind of prayer in faith that equates to miraculous healing and subsequent forgiveness of sins.
Yet how many can do so on a daily basis? Almost, if not absolutely, zero. Hence the need and wisdom of sheltering in place and shuttered churches, social distancing and masks.
How many are ready to admit the truth of the passage and our inability to fulfill the requirement? About the same.
Herein lies the horns of our dilemma. Here is the true crises/opportunity afforded by the mass global suffering of COVID-19. Not to mention every other intractable disease and disability. Yet who will respond appropriately?
"Many are called, but few are chosen." Why? Because few choose to answer His call.
To do so and gain the power of Elijah to which James referred would change everything. People would pack churches and tear the roofs off houses to gain access to the true and resurrected Christ of Biblical Christianity who's miracles and forgiveness was once again fully accessible.
Modern Christians would love and fear the Lord. Spiritual gifts would be plentiful and multitudes would fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!” The virtue of Godly fear would be restored. Sin and profanity would be judged and corrected, as in the tragic yet telling case of Ananias and Sapphira:
- "Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed." Acts 5:11-16 NIV
And yet even now we deflect and delay. Paul, the apostle of grace, warned against such lifestyles of apathy and deception. He recommended routine and robust spiritual check ups and prescribed a change of attitude and action when warranted:
- "Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it." 1 Corinthians 13:5 MSG
In summary, it comes down to a singular solution. Through completing the regimen of James 4's Prayer of Anguish, at least a good percentage of Prophetic Christians must become so filled with the genuine fruit and gifts of the the Holy Spirit, and mustard seed faith, as to daily do the miraculous. Or in other words, to routinely experience and live out the impossible. Why? It should be clear by now that both modern Christianity and society at large are careening down a slipper slope. If not in all out free fall. While everyone's telling themselves a story, most are getting it wrong. To break through our descending stalemate, it's not enough to know the truth that few are interested in hearing and to which fewer still will appropriately respond. Like Jesus and His apostles, Biblical Christianity has always been based on Show and Tell. As evidenced by even just the few Gospel and Book of Acts miracles that made the New Testament cut. Without the ability to regularly perform the miraculous, Christians have half the gospel at best. And given rampant denominational and doctrinal deceptions, far and wide the lessor part.
By definition, consistently performing the miraculous is an all but impossible task. A mission best accomplished in the shadow of a pair of powerful quotes. The first has been used in various films, including in the gritty movie, "The Edge" were Anthony Hopkins famously forces Alex Baldwin to man up in regards to killing a blood crazed giant grizzly with a sharpened tree limb. Shamed by ancient rights of passage of natives who did as much, Baldwin’s bid to continue shouting the truism, “What one man can do, another can do” until he believes. The second, is from Jerry Rice, regarded by many as the greatest wide receiver in NFL history: "Today I will do what others won't so tomorrow I can do what others can’t."
Such spiritual mindsets, accompanied by equally aggressive lifestyles of strategic prayer and sanctification, study and radical discipleship, are increasingly rare today. Even so, may great Christian have possessed these qualities. Thousands, if not millions of men and women who's exploits are alluded to in Hebrew's Hall of Fame of Faith. All of whom Scripture declares, "the world was not worthy." Better known more modern versions include the likes of Ripken and Insanity of God. Brunson and God's Hostage. Wesley and Taylor, Finney and Wigglesworth, Müller and Roberts, Bonhoeffer and Pullinger, Gruver and Pitman. To name but a few.
In regards to the improbability of walking in such implausible power and the fullness of God so as to routinely demonstrate the miraculous in real time and the light of day, a final quote from a man who understood the rigors of war seems appropriate. The late Admiral Chester Nimitz Commander in Chief of the U.S. Pacific fleet commanding Allied air, land, and sea forces during World War II was known to pray, “God grant me the courage not to give up what I think is right even though I think it is hopeless.”
We are engulfed in a spiritual war today with innumerable eternal casualties. Ruthlessly honest appraisal admits too many of our family and friends, fellow colleagues and Christians are taken captive or even forever lost. And this during relative time of peace and prosperity. Both of which may quickly erode, if our sociopolitical circumstances continue their rapid decay.
Such a pitiful state can only mean the strong man among us must be bound to have been so personally and collectively plundered. Should the preponderance of Scripture and evidence suggest that the foregoing is even close to the truth, responding with regular and revitalized personal and corporate prayer seems the least we can do. Not what passes for prayer today. Rather something far more desperate. Perhaps along the model of Azusa street. See QC’s outline on how to develop an Azusa Street style prayer meeting.
Borrowing from the perviously referenced prophetic advice, who knows, perhaps it's not too late to appropriately respond so that God might grant blessing instead of, or at least in preparation against, judgment? Maybe, if we enter into the crucible of James 4's Prayer of Anguish, discernment rather than deception may yet be our legacy. Perhaps, if we adequately prepare before it's too late, if it isn't already, we shall be "filled with all the fulness of God." Finding ourselves among the wise rather than foolish virgins.
And finally, just as Jesus responded to threats from King Herod, Israel's most powerful political leader of His day, through genuine power evangelism and discipleship we might also say, "Tell that fox that I’ve no time for him right now. Today and tomorrow I’m busy clearing out the demons and healing the sick; the third day I’m wrapping things up."
Update 2022
For my part I've spent 40 years strategically seeking and serving God with a single focus:
1. Is Modern Christianity and/or Churchianity working?
2. If not, why?
As a Charismatic minister, with better than average understanding of Biblical truth, the journey led me to the following inconvenient truths
1. 1/3 of my doctrine was accurate.
2. 1/3 of my doctrine was in error.
3. 1/3 of the Bible's most crucial points were either undervalued or missing altogether.
Furthermore, I've found this sad equation is far more often the rule rather than the exception.
With this in mind I've spent over two decades developing a topical Biblical commentary entitled, Quantum Christianity, showcased on my site GodBlog.net.
This was all long before 2020...
If there was ever an acceptable time to confuse Christianity with a Cruise vs. Battleship, those days are past. As Paul warned: “And if the [war] bugle produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle?” 1 Corinthians 14:8 AMP
The spiritual and sociopolitical foundations of America and Western Society have steadily been undermined since the 1960’s Sexual Revolution began reversing millennia of Christian morality. Followed by the decimating of traditional marriage and family through cohabitation and divorce. Culminating in the clinical and contraceptive abortion of 1 to 2 billion of Christ’s least brothers, 5-10 times the entire world’s population in Biblical days. A diabolic campaign of global temptation and deception destructively descending into militant homosexual and inconceivable transgenderism. A lost war against humanity, all but unfought by modern Christianity.
It’s one thing to fight and fail. It’s another to fail to fight. Not even in serious prayer meetings...
Furthermore, it should be abundantly clear the Times and Seasons have drastically declined since 2020. Nationally and globally, the world has never scene the like of even the following short list:
1. Covid-19 and variants, of questionable origin, mandates promoting and/or requiring untested and dangerous MRNA “vaccines” and “boosters” with negative efficacy and even deadly side effects revealing unprecedented control of healthcare and politics by the collusion of pharmaceutical companies and bureaucrats. To the point of threatening the removal of medical licenses of physicians prescribing safe and reliable treatments proven effective against respiratory and other illness. Example: In 2015 Ivermectin won the only Nobel Prize award for treatments of infectious diseases since six decades prior. Also report by Fortune Magazine (not right wing magazine) reveals that a simple home remedy of saline solution used for "Twice Daily Nose Flushing Can Reduce Covid Hospitalization and Death Researchers Find" by 85%. This study was conducted Fall 2020, and could have helped prevent 3/4 of Covid deaths.
- Sample Daniel Horowitz: "Twice Daily Nose Flushing Can Reduce Covid Hospitalization and Death Researchers Find" by 85%
- Sample Link: Steve Deace **9/15/22 Circumvent Medical Cartels with Dr. Harvey Risch** Simple straight talk from preeminent honored immunologist and cofounder of The Wellness Company TWC.health
- Sample Link: **Ivermectin Nobel prize** In 2015, the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, in its only award for treatments of infectious diseases since six decades prior, honoured the discovery of ivermectin (IVM), a multifaceted drug deployed against some of the world’s most devastating tropical diseases. Since March 2020, when IVM was first used against a new global scourge, COVID-19, more than 20 randomized clinical trials (RCTs) have tracked such inpatient and outpatient treatments. Six of seven meta-analyses of IVM treatment RCTs reporting in 2021 found notable reductions in COVID-19 fatalities, with a mean 31% relative risk of mortality vs. controls. During mass IVM treatments in Peru, excess deaths fell by a mean of 74% over 30 days in its ten states with the most extensive treatments.
- Sample Link: Daniel Horowitz: **9/26/22**The Woman Who Survived American Hospital Holocaust with COVID in Plano TX**: One could make a movie about Gail Seiler’s experience in a Plano, Texas, hospital during the pandemic. Our hospitals have become killing fields. From remdesivir and illegal DNR orders to denial of treatment, forced starvation, and abuse based on vaccination status, Gail experienced the horrors that hundreds of thousands of other Americans suffered in the hospitals. Except, thanks to her husband and help from state Senator Bob Hall, she wound up being forcibly extricated from the hospital after 14 days of torture (7 days no water…). Even though the doctors said she wouldn’t last a day longer, she is now perfectly healthy and is trying to raise awareness about the hospital genocide.
- Sample Link: Daniel Horowitz: **The Risk of Cancer from Both the Shots and Perpetual Mask Wearing with Guest: Dr. Colleen Huber | 6/3/22** “Clot shots. Poisoning of Americans (World) beyond belief, as they prepare to stick babies as young ad 6 months old. HOW IS THIS NOT THE ISSUE OF OUR TIME? That it perpetuates the virus, destroys the immune system, and causes every ailment known to man… And yet to this day, it’s like it doesn’t exist. It’s a complete lockout…” “If you don’t get it you have your career destroyed. If you do get it you have your body destroyed. And then everything they plan on doing there on down with it. And everything it represents, with biomedical state, track/trace, transhumanism... Dr. Colleen Huber: Neither Safe Nor Effective: The Evidence Against the COVID Vaccines (Cancer Researcher/Get eBook).
- Sample Link: **The Greatest Reset (Beast Rising)** Featuring among a score of others Dr. Peter McCullough, Internist Cardiologist with 600 citations, 40 publications on C19 making him the most qualified C19 expert in the world. Along with Robert Malone MD, founding researcher of mRNA technology, pharmaceuticals, and drug repurposing. Best documentary to date regarding the conspiracy behind the Covid plandemic and deadly vaccines, gene manipulation and trans humanism, World Economic Forum Agenda 2030, New World Order and global control by the Spirit of the Antichrist (Beast).
- Sample Link: **Died Suddenly** Documentary featuring video of alien and deadly clots being pulled from arteries and bloods vessels during autopsies, surgeries and from a beating heat. Never before seen clots harming and killing large cross section of population after receiving MRNA “vaccines” and/or boosters. Devastating effects on US military and civilians. Extreme rise in prenatal death and birth defects among newborn. Cover up and collusion by. governments, health care and media industries. Great Reset agenda of elites through population reduction and control.
2. Economic and institutional, social and quarantine lockdowns crippling businesses and institutions, education and families, from the elderly to children.
- Sample Link: Steve Deace: **The Thirty Tyrants** USA adopts China’s citizen control polices
- Sample Link: Steve Deace: **Time To Start Believing In Conspiracy** Theories
3. Individual mandates and social distancing, mask and "vaccine" requirements restricting interaction, breathing and health.
- Sample Link: Steve Deace: **A Clarion Call Go On The Offensive** Interview with Dr. Peter McCullough
- Sample Link: Steve Deace: **8/24/22 The jobs/Dr. Ryan Cole**Excellent interview with Dr. Ryan Cole who is treated over 500,000 Covid patients and has impeccable credentials explaining the clot shots are extremely dangerous and genetically mutating.
4. BLM and Antifa’s spreading of widespread rioting and looting, violence and lawlessness in the name of blatantly FALSE narratives such as Critical Race Theory (CRT) and systemic police brutality. Both undermining the foundations of society by “calling good evil and evil good.” All the while elevating career felons like George Floyd to sainthood status while ignoring the plague of black on black violence and murder, particularly within liberally controlled inner cities like the Obama’s Chicago.
- Sample Link: Candice Owens: **George Floyd was a Criminal (Facts)**
- Sample Link: Matt Walsh: **Episode 571: 9/24/20 Summary of BLM "Martyrs"**
- Sample Link: Matt Walsh: **It’s officially time for BLM to be labeled a domestic terror group.** DNC comments:
- Sample Link: Matt Walsh: **When the media says unarmed black shootings:** Actual case by case review
- Sample Link: Matt Walsh: **Police Shooting Stats:**
5. Campaigns of disinformation and destruction by the emerging Iron Triangle of liberal governments, legacy media and global corporations influencing and poisoning the hearts and minds of billions.
- Sample Link: **Crimes or Cover Up** Glen Beck Exposing The Worlds Most Dangerous Lie: History of C19 conspiracy with dates and facts.
6. Wokism’s ridiculous and dangerous plandemic of social engineering’s impact on lower and higher education, spread by the super carriers mentioned above.
- Sample Link: Ben Shapiro **Daily Wire. Episode 1159 is entitled, Do You Speak Woke?**
- Sample Link: Matt Walsh **Why The Left Is So Desperate To Expose Children To Drag Queens**
7. The impact of Transgenderism’s incoherent and devilish reversal of truth and goodness on genuine science and health care, parenting and morality, teens and children.
- Sample Link: Matt Walsh: **Episode 727: The Evil Quacks Mutating Our Children**: Reviews Irreversible Damage The Gender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Schreier
- **Transgender Craze Seducing America**: interview with the author Abigail Schreier: Chowchilla prison article
8. Political attack on democracy, particularly in the U.S. by media bias and censorship, election fraud, registration tampering.
- Sample Link: **Dinesh D'Souza** Author and filmmaker (2,000 Mules) Dr. Simone Gold, the founder of America's Frontline Doctors, tells us how she went from being a guest speaker at the Capitol on January 6 to facing a 60-day prison sentence for doing nothing.
- **Epoch Times**
- Sample Link: **The Real Story of January 6th** Epoch Times New Investigative Report and Video:
- Sample Link: **Jason Whitlock Fearless Blaze Media** Ep 124 | January 6: Little Lies Lead to Huge Deception | Kamala, Biden, AND Ted Cruz ALL Get It Wrong
- Sample Link: Matt Walsh: **Might Be Time For A National Divorce:**
9. Drug cartel control of southern border unleashing illegal alien invasion of 2 million immigrants in 2022. Horrifying abuse, violence and death of women and children, sick and elderly by the most outrageous smugglers and traffickers in American history enabled by Biden administration, democratic policy and republican controlled opposition. On national and state level. Immigrants extorted $10-50,000 by cartels to allow illegal crossing into US.
- Sample Link: **Texas Tribune Arrests along U.S.-Mexico border top 2 million a year for the first time.** https://www.texastribune.org/2022/09/19/u-s-mexico-border-arrests-record-2022/amp/
- Sample Link: **Tucker Carlson Battle For The Border**
10. Drug cartel designer drug epidemic and death rate. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Carfentanil is a synthetic opioid approximately 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl. The U.S. government does not track death rates for every drug. However, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collects information on deaths involving many of the more commonly used drugs. Nearly 92,000 persons in the U.S. died from drug-involved overdose in 2020, including illicit drugs and prescription opioids. Up from less than 20,000 in 1999. Thats a 350% increase in 2020 with higher rates in 2022..
- Sample Link: **CDC Fentanyl Facts**
- Sample Link: **Carfentanil is a synthetic opioid approximately 10,000 times more potent than morphine and 100 times more potent than fentanyl.**
- Sample Link: **National Institue on Drug Science 92,000 persons in the U.S. died from drug-involved overdose in 2020.**
11. Escalation of US violent and property crime rates. Current odds are 1/178 that an American resident will be murdered during their lifetime.
- Sample Link: **Blaze Media current odds are 1/178 an American resident will be murdered during their lifetime.**
12. Fuel and energy, transportation and economic crises created by faulty governmental policies and false media narratives.
- Sample Link: **Tucker Carlson Insane policies, energy and fuel crises.**
- Sample Link: **Daniel Horowitz The Only Ones Who Can Save Democrats Are Republicans and Diesel Shutdown.**
13. Republican party is Controlled Opposition enabling Iron Triangle of liberal politics, media and corporations to deconstruct Judeo/Christian values. 12 Republicans declare "lawfare” on Christians by voting for so-called "Respect for Marriage Act" codifying federal support for homosexual marriage.
- Sample Link: **Steve Deace 12 Republicans who voted for the so-called "Respect for Marriage Act."**
- Sample Link: **Daniel Horowitz The Only Ones Who Can Save Democrats Are Republicans and Diesel Shutdown.**
14. President Biden and Iron Triangle target Christian conservatives and/or MAGA Republicans as extreme and/or greatest threat to US.
- Sample Link: **Washington Post President Biden declares MAGA Republicans represent extreme and/or greatest threat to US.**
- Sample Link: **Fox News President Biden twice threatens Second Amendment supporters with F15's.**
15. Worldwide manipulation and control of all the above, as well as governments and economies, national budgets and banking, healthcare and communication, goods and services… by global elites implementing a Great Reset thus instituting a New World Order.
- Sample Link: **Monopoly: Who Owns The World**
- Sample Link: **Great Reset Introduction** Prager U interview with author and commentator Glenn Beck
- Sample Link: Eric Metaxas: **Letter to the American Church** Eric Metaxas wrote the definitive 24 hr audiobook biography on Bonhoeffer. His point is the American church is letting unprecedented evil arise and will perish today if we fail to respond to Bonhoeffer’s warning against cheep grace to the German church.
- Sample Link: Steve Deace: **3/8/22 Americans: A Very Serious People**. (We are the problem. Including republicans & Ukrain is the new Covid).
- Sample Link: Steve Deace: **3/13/22 Weekend Of American Debauchery** (Hopeless…)
- Sample Link: Steve Deace: **8/3/22 The People Are The Problem** (There are no red states)
- Sample Link: Steve Deace: **8/9/22 We’re Quickly Running Out Of Time** Crossing A Line: DOJ - FBI Raid on Trumps House. Coming for you…
River World Parable
Imagine a world abounding in streams and rivers of all kinds. An endless variety of waterways with contours wide and narrow, deep and shallow. Slow and swift, no two exactly alike.
Except in one respect. They all ran downhill.
Some rivers did so directly. Others had bends. Many meandered far and wide. Others descended rapidly, seemingly intent on reaching their end.
Frequently rivers crossed. Sometimes joining in size and strength. Sometimes passing through, then continuing on their way.
Upon these rivers where rafts and canoes, boats and ships of every imaginable shape and size. Filled with individuals and couples, friends and families, they joined in towns and communities. Interesting and eccentric, ethnic and people groups combined to create states and nations, unions and regions. Billions strong.
Curious and inquisitive, they explored and experimented on their situation and surroundings. Eventually creating powerful science and technology. Dualistic in nature, they employed their blessings to both help and harm themselves and others.
Diverse and alike, River World’s population possessed amazing dreams and ambitions, talents and skills. Filling their lives with love and goodness. And equally astonishing levels of apathy and foolishness, selfishness and hatred. Destroying their lives with violence and evil.
All the while the rivers coursed downward.
Individually and collectively peopled fared better and worse. Capable of intelligence and insight, few fully considered the manner and meaning of their existence. As knowledge increased, their interest in their origin story and final destination decreased.
Influence also increased. National and global news and information grew continually available. Individual and group media became all the rage. First incrementally, and then impactfully controlling and corrupting the personal and corporate stories told by all.
Sailing merrily, or even tumultuously downstream, River World narratives basically coalesced into one of two.
The first was that of entitlement and selfishness, half truths and whole lies. Sown and cultivated by the Adversary. The minions of which orchestrated the overturning of innumerable vessels, great and small. While elites, hidden and revealed, amassed hellish power and popularity.
The second was that of thankfulness and selflessness, inconvenient truth and radical honesty. Explained and exemplified by the Ally. The subjects of which worked to rescue the drowning and right crafts. While praying for heavenly power, diminished by worldly pursuits.
Seeking happiness today, eternity was of little concern.
Nor were changes happening around them.
Most failed to note the first gradual, and then increasing level of their descent. Accompanied by warming weather and darkening skies. As the air quality deteriorated, they mandated masks. As their health declined, they contrived risky remedies. As their relationships failed, they redefined reality.
People on every river continued longing for greater pleasure and purpose. Yet found lasting versions of neither.
Over time, billions had casually invested time and energy seeking the Ally’s aid, yet the vast majority refused to do so diligently enough to fully obey His directives.
All along the way, individuals and families, in groups small and great, hurtled themselves into the water in hopes of life on land. Bravely swimming against all obstacles, some made it. Others did not. Still others, disappointed or deceived, swam back aboard ship. Or perished trying.
All those making landfall and setting in on the journey to the Mountain heights paid a high price. Conditions were often unfavorable. Memories of family and friends left behind were painful. Targeted, the attacks of the Adversary were many.
Here and there, individuals and organizations recognized and sometimes appropriately responded to facets of their rapidly declining and perilous situation. Yet few cared to put the entire puzzle together. It presented too depressing a picture. One requiring whole life dedication to unwelcomed anguish and repentance in exchange for an opportunity to become what they had always been called to be. To pay the cost to fully receive and freely share the story and power the Ally came to teach and model. To walk on and calm raging waters. To heal the sick and deranged. To open blind eyes and deaf ears. To become entirely new creations. Kingdom citizen soldiers. Fully capable of all this and more. Commissioned and entrusted to make disciples among all ships along all rivers.
And do so before the night comes, when no man can work.
All this they did, collectively mindful that they had been given a Guide to another kind of life. One that warned that for all their wonder and beauty, joy and usefulness, rivers are not only dangerous but deadly. That land, the way less traveled, could lead up rather than down. That while more difficult than floating and sailing, walking and climbing held the opportunity to summit and the promise of eternal reward.
An option quickly disappearing as waterways joined into larger and stronger rivers, the banks of which receded into distant rocky cliffs. Even as noise grew louder. First faint then clamorous, making even normal conversation difficult. As the many rivers of the world gathered into a few, the tumult and spray of thunderous waterfalls grew more impossible to ignore.
Near the end, many jumped and were drowned for the hope of heaven. In the last hour, a small percentage wisely traded that which they could never keep, for that which they could never loose.
Land continued receding completely until invisible in the failing light. Hidden by first warm and then hot shrouding smoke with the tinge of sulfur. A foretaste of the unthinkable. A lake of fire receiving the waterfall of all rivers as they plummeted into eternity below.
Just as the Guide had warned so long ago.
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