https://www.bitchute.com/video/rmf4BpsSBF65/

If you have not seen the documentary, “DIED SUDDENLY” here is the link.

Anthony Fauci’s Sociopathic Murder of the Masses

By Kelleigh Nelson

November 1, 2022

The mainstream media and social media giants are imposing a totalitarian censorship to prevent public health advocates, like myself, from voicing concerns and from engaging in civil informed debate in the public square. —Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Chairman, Children’s Health Defense

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist. —Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. It is a hallmark of an authoritarian regime. —Potter Stewart, Dissenting to Ginsberg v. United States

It happened. Therefore, it can happen again. It can happen everywhere. —Primo Levi, Italian Jewish survivor of Auschwitz

Indifference and the silence of people led to the Holocaust. To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all. —Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor

Dr. Joseph Goebbels wrote that ‘A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.’ Tragically for humanity, there are many, many untruths emanating from Fauci and his minions. —RFK Jr. exposes the decades of lies. Luc Montagnier, Nobel Laureate

In Charlotte Iserbyt’s 1999 book, The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, she exposed the truth of communism and the unelected powers who rule.

She states the following on page 134:

The Daily World of November 8, 1975 carried a very interesting article entitled “Planning is Socialism’s Trademark” by Morris Zeitlin. The Daily World (newspaper of the Communist Party USA) was formerly known as The Daily Worker and was founded in 1924. The importance of this article lies in its blatant admission that regionalism, which is gradually becoming the accepted method of unelected governance in the United States (unelected councils and task forces, participatory democracy, public-private partnerships, etc.) is the form of government used in democratic socialist and communist countries.

Throughout the country from federal agencies down to local city and county boards, all of the decisions regarding C-19 were made by unelected heads of agencies which affected every American. Those choices were followed by state governors, city and county mayors, heads of police and fire departments, hospital administrators, etc. They all loved their totalitarian control and then the mandates! Get the clot shots!

Except of course for those Biden deemed exempt.

The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) is a drug regulatory, drug safety watchdog agency. The FDA doesn’t tell doctors how to treat patients.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH), is a government-funded research organization. The NIH doesn’t tell doctors how to treat patients.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is an infectious and chronic disease, epidemiologic and analytic organization. The CDC doesn’t tell doctors how to treat patients.

A lot of these quasi-governmental agencies that people think are governmental are actually front groups of the pharmaceutical industry.

Not one of these federal agency leaders was elected, and not one of them ever treated a C-19 patient. Yet, every one of them told America what we could and could not do and then destroyed the ability of physicians to properly treat patients other than with their deadly protocols. Their goal was the money-making deadly inoculations for C-19.

When hospitals followed those protocols they collected beaucoup tax payer dollars from the federal government, with the highest payments for patients who died. The following chart shows the monies each state received for each C-19 patient.

Remember that the PCR tests were not valid tests for COVID and the Nobel Peace Prize inventor, Kary Mullis, told us it was improperly used and would give far too many false positives.  Mullis knew Dr. Anthony Fauci was dangerous and said he spent $22 billion and killed 100,000 people with his fraudulent AIDS drugs.

Nor should we look to other unelected parties to tell us what to do, and that includes our local health departments who advocated mandates that are destructive not only to children, but to all citizens.  And the latest is the euphemistically named Congressional bill H.R.550 (Immunization Infrastructure Modernization Act of 2021) which paves the way for state and local health departments, as well as public and private health care providers, to share personal health data with the federal government. The bill has hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars allocated to the tracking system’s success.

The Wentworth Report states, “In 2000, Dr. Fauci, who Dr. Joseph Mercola calls a sociopathic bureaucrat, met with Bill Gates, who asked to partner with the NIH in an agreement to vaccinate the entire population of the world with a battery of new vaccines. In 2009, this agreement was rebranded as “The Decade of Vaccines,” the objective of which was to implement mandatory vaccinations for every adult and child on the planet by the year 2020. Link

“Gates calls what he does philanthropy capitalism, the idea that, you can use philanthropy to make money. He had a foundation where he has sheltered $50 billion in tax-free money. He continues to have absolute control over it. He uses that money to gain control of public health agencies in our country and the World Health Organization.”

Portions of the following info come from The Real Anthony Fauci movies. We’d all be wise to purchase a copy of these two films.

Willowbrook State School

In 1965, Robert F. Kennedy, Sr. visited Willowbrook State School in Staten Island, New York and was appalled at the situation and called it a snake pit, similar to the 1948 movie by the same name. The institution’s medical personnel were conducting US Army funded experiments on the children. These children had been abandoned by their parents in dilapidated institutions.

Children housed at Willowbrook were intentionally given hepatitis in an attempt to track the development of the viral infection. The study lasted for 14 years. It wasn’t until 1987 that Willowbrook was shut down.

Just one of the horrid experiments was the deliberate injection of Hepatitis during 1964. From 1958-1964 feces was taken from children who had Hepatitis, put in milkshakes and fed to newly admitted children for experimentation purposes.

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments were conducted between 1932 and 1972. The Willowbrook experiments started in 1956.

The Nuremberg Codes were formulated in August of 1947, yet these experiments on Americans were never prosecuted under the Codes. The question remains, “Why not?”

Now there’s far worse.

Fauci and AIDS

In the late 1980s, foster children in seven states were enrolled in experiments of HIV and AIDS drug trials. Fauci called them studies, but they were invasive experiments. Fauci arranged for the drug companies to get access to these experiments. Merck, Progenics Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer, Glaxo Wellcome and others were involved.

I wrote about Fauci’s experiments on children in October of 2020 in an article entitled, “Is Dr. Anthony Fauci Guilty of Negligent Homicide?” I now believe he is guilty of murder in the first degree, but I highly doubt he’ll ever see justice here on earth.

The Wentworth Report states, “AZT was a chemotherapy formulation that was so toxic it killed all the rats when they gave it to them. The inventor of AZT felt that it was unsafe for any human use, so he didn’t even patent it …

“Very early on, the National Cancer Institute had found that when you put AZT in a culture of HIV, that killed the HIV, not surprisingly. It killed anything it touched. And so, Fauci partnered with the manufacturer of AZT. He guided that formulation through the regulatory process and tried to fast track it. He cheated terribly on the clinical trials.”

Children who were considered to have AIDS via the PCR tests used during COVID, were as unreliable for AIDS prognosis as they were for COVID. Thus, many of the children were not even HIV positive.

Fauci together with pharmaceutical companies sponsored these AZT experiments. Many of the children died. In Hawthorn, New York there is a cemetery where these children are buried. Journalist Celia Farber, who is featured in The Real Anthony Fauci movies, tells of the burial site of at least 80 children, perhaps more, their bodies in metal caskets, many with more than one body per casket.

Farber commented that, “Fauci’s reign has elements to totalitarian societies and it also has the theme of mafioso velvetiness to it.”

“…Dr. Fauci copied the choreographed script for winning remdesivir’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) from the worn rabbit-eared playbook that he developed during his early AIDS years, and then used repeatedly across his career to win approvals for deadly and ineffective drugs,” writes Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “Time and again, he has terminated clinical trials of his sweetheart drugs the moment they begin to reveal cataclysmic toxicity. He makes the absurd claim that his drug-du-jour had proven so miraculously effective that it would be unethical to deny it to the public, and then he strong-arms FDA to grant his approvals.”

Vera Sharav, Holocaust survivor and President of the Alliance for Human Research Protection (AHRP.org) stated, “Most people cannot imagine that there are people, especially medical doctors, which Dr. Fauci is, who would disregard the humanity of people including children.  There was horrific abuse and because it was government sponsored, together with pharmaceutical companies, they had kind of free rein. New York State and New York City provided the children for the government experiments. New York Administration for Services’ documents confirmed there were 80 deaths and many others suffered serious harm.”

Reagan’s Injury Compensation Act

In 1986, Reagan signed into law a bill that gave compensation to children for drug exports and vaccine injuries. It was meant to make vaccines safer, but it gave virtual liability protection to vaccine manufacturers and health care providers who were providing vaccines.

Mary Holland, general counsel and President of the Children’s Health Defense states, “The 1986 Act was created and signed into law by Reagan. It allegedly created a program for compensation of children who were injured by their vaccines or who died and they would get some level of compensation.”

Dr. Sherry Tenpenny said, “The 1986 Injury Compensation Act was a real game changer because all of the drug companies who were making vaccines were deciding that they were not going to do vaccines anymore unless they got liability protection because they were getting sued at every turn.”

Mary Holland said, “The blanket liability protection created a boon town, a gold rush. The sad reality is a whole new industry of recklessly developed vaccines that are highly profitable was created, and it did not lead to compensation to children who are injured and it absolutely did not lead to safer vaccines.”

Here is a 45-page report on The Horrible History of Big Pharma.

“That’s one of the tragedies that is across the board when it comes to public health.  Because you see, when doctors join forces with government, they no longer comply with medicine’s mission which is the sacred oath to do no harm to the individual patient. They become agents of government and they do what they’re told,” added Vera Sharav.

This is just like the physicians who work for a group. They do what they’re told or they lose their jobs, and the groups invariably get their instructions from the CDC, NIH and FDA.

John D. Rockefeller

“In 1910, John D. Rockefeller really kind of took over medicine, particularly the medical schools. And they redirected medicine to be totally focused on pharmaceutical interventions and also, various surgical procedures, in other words, to make it a real business. The Rockefeller’s are involved in everything, the World Health Organization, both Rockefeller and Gates.”

John D. Rockefeller was not just interested in oil, but in medicine, in education and in retaining his massive earnings via tax free foundations.

Britannica states, “He made possible the founding of the University of Chicago in 1892, and by the time of his death—from a heart attack in 1937, shortly before his 98th birthday—he had given it some $35 million. In association with his son, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., he created major philanthropic institutions, including the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (renamed Rockefeller University) in New York City (1901), the General Education Board (1902), and the Rockefeller Foundation (1913). Rockefeller’s benefactions during his lifetime totaled more than $500 million.”

Vera Sharav’s insight on foundations is spot on, “The very wealthy foundations were formed to eliminate their tax requirement. Foundations don’t have to pay taxes. So, they simply move their business under the flag of foundations and then they’re exempt from taxation and they gain huge control because they’re distributing money to all sorts of non-government agencies. They get to decide exactly who to give money to, what kind of policies to support. In the meantime, they’re shoveling in money for themselves.”

That is one of the tragedies that is across the board when it comes to public health.

NIH Payments

Robert Kennedy Jr. tells us, “One of the secrets that they’ve tried to keep hidden at NIH are these direct payments from the pharmaceutical company not only to the agency, but to hundreds if not thousands of scientists and officials within those agencies for royalty payments for the drugs that that agency has partnered with the pharmaceutical company to develop and market.

“The agency has become a big marketing arm for Big Pharma. And they don’t want the American public to know that that is the ultimate object of this terrible devolution. And one of the big emblems of that devolution are the payments that are being made to Tony Fauci, to his deputies, to his scientists. We’ve made FOIA requests and inquiries and the NIH has stonewalled us.”

They’ve had hundreds of FOIA requests and are being sued over those requests, but as of yet, little has been forthcoming. This is an important portion of the last 25 minutes of the second video.

Dr. Pierre Kory says, “To call Fauci ‘America’s doctor’ is such a misnomer. He’s essential a mafia don who runs all three agencies. He rules science and the practice of medicine.”

Vera Sharav calls Fauci, “a shyster, a man without scruples of any kind.”

Dr. Paul Marik says, “He should be charged with the crimes he’s responsible for which go back to the HIV era. He did some terrible experiments in Africa. He’s resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of patients.”

Global leaders have united in an urgent call for an international pandemic treaty to be headed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The loss of American sovereignty has been nibbled away at for decades, but this kind of treaty would eliminate American citizens freedoms to choose their own health care and would be forced to abide by the dictates of the WHO.

There is no conclusion to this ongoing battle against tyranny, and I should end here.

However, I’m going to include Vera Sharav’s speech in its entirety rather than just linking to it.  She was to give the speech in Brussels but because of protestors, it was given in a restaurant. She outlines the parallels of today with the German Holocaust of European Jewry.

She states exactly what we’re facing because she’s been through it before.

A vital lesson from the Holocaust is that genocide was facilitated by global silence, indifference and the failure to intervene. The Holocaust was set in motion when personal freedom, legal rights and civil rights were swept aside.

The author Primo Levi, an Italian Jewish survivor of Auschwitz, warned: “It happened. Therefore, it can happen again. It can happen everywhere.”

As a Holocaust survivor, I am appalled by poseurs who control the Holocaust narrative. They deny the relevance of the Holocaust to current discrimination and increasingly aggressive and repressive edicts.

These vigilantes censor and silence those who speak out. By denying the relevance of the Holocaust to current repression, the vigilantes are Holocaust deniers.

Elie Wiesel, an Auschwitz survivor and Nobel laureate, was regarded as the victims’ voice. He stated: “Indifference and the silence of people led to the Holocaust. To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all.”

Today, survivors are shaken by the fear-mongering, and divisive, discriminatory measures against a minority. Horrifying scenes include police in black uniforms brutally attacking demonstrators in European cities, in Australia, and, yes, in Israel. These are painful reminders of the prelude to the Holocaust in which the Nazis:

• • Used the psychological weapons of fear and propaganda to impose a genocidal regime.
  • Demonized Jews as the spreaders of disease and the cause of their misery.
  • Systematically obliterated moral norms and values.
  • Destroyed their social conscience in the name of public health.

Today’s predators are also using fear and propaganda to maintain a state of anxiety and helplessness. The objective then and now is identical to condition people to become obedient and to follow directives without question.

The global assault on our freedoms and our right to self-determination is facilitated by the weaponization of medicine. Then and now, the medical establishment has provided
a veneer of legitimacy to mass medical murder.

The Nazis declared disabled people “unfit for life.” The 1,000 German infants and young children who were the world’s first medical murder victims were actually murdered in hospitals.

In 2020, global governments declared an emergency and issued deadly medical dictates:

• • Hospitals were ordered not to treat the elderly in nursing homes. The result was mass medical murder which Sweden called “active euthanasia.”
  • UK hospitals used lethal doses of the drug Midazolam to medically murder the elderly ­ a drug they continue to stockpile.
  • S. hospital guidelines still call for the elderly to receive minimal treatment.
  • Doctors in Western Europe and the U.S. are forbidden to prescribe existing, licensed, safe and effective, life-saving treatments for COVID patients.

Today, humanity is threatened by the global heirs of the Nazis. The real virus that continues to infect these predators is Eugenics.

A report by the U.S. Commission on the Holocaust, chaired by Elie Wiesel, noted: “… the inclination to duplicate the Nazi option and once again exterminate millions of people remains a hideous threat.”

The modern-day Nazis’ objective is global population reduction. The global oligarchs are determined to gain absolute control of the world’s resources natural, financial and human.

Bill Gates, a lifelong eugenicist and major stakeholder in the vaccine industry, declared the COVID vaccine the “final solution.”

COVID injections use an experimental, gene transfer technology. Its testing on the global population is in gross violation of the foremost human right to “voluntary, informed consent.”

Those who refuse to be injected are vilified as spreaders of a deadly virus. They are subjected to increasingly harsh penalties and discrimination. Germany, Austria and Italy are once again swept up by an orgy of fascist hate-mongering. This time the unvaccinated are being targeted.

The claimed rationale for vaccine mandates was to protect people from getting and transmitting infection. However, the incontrovertible evidence shows that COVID injections do not prevent infection or its transmission and they do not provide immunity.

Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s director, Rochelle Wallensky, has acknowledged that COVID jabs cannot prevent transmission.

Albert Bourla, Pfizer CEO, conceded that “two doses of the vaccine offer very limited protection ­ if any.”

If vaccinated people can get infected and spread COVID why are they privileged? Why are the unvaccinated who refuse to be injected with a clinically worthless product maligned, discriminated against, threatened with job loss, and the withdrawal of their children’s schooling?

If COVID injections do not protect anyone’s health, what is the real objective of vaccine mandates and digital passports?

Many independent scientists are warning that these injections are biological weapons of mass destruction. Tens of thousands of doctors, scientists and nurses refuse the injections even if it means losing their jobs and their licenses.

Government data from the UK, Israel, the U.S. and the EMA [European Medicines Agency] confirm that massive deaths and injuries have been reported. Close to 38,000 Europeans have died following the shots. And more than 3,390,000 have suffered injuries. Healthy, athletic, young adults have died. Children are suffering from myocarditis and blood clots. Neurodegenerative diseases are also emerging in the vaccinated.

We are at a catastrophic junction in human history. Today’s predators have unleashed an injectable biological weapon designed to deliver a poisonous spike protein, and stealth surveillance technology, into the body.

This weapon enables the predators to control the global population remotely 24 hours a day. We must choose whether to disobey, and assert our freedom and our rights as human beings or to be enslaved.

Auschwitz survivor, Mariann Turski, a Polish journalist, was asked if a Holocaust could happen again. He replied: “It could happen. If civil rights are violated if minority rights are not respected and are abolished.”

He urged everyone to “defend the constitution, defend your rights, defend your democracy. Minority rights must be protected… Thou shalt not be indifferent when any minority faces discrimination.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an exceptional German Protestant minister during the Nazi regime stated, “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

Rabbi Michoel Green just posted an urgent plea that it’s “time to atone for the Holocaust by not allowing it to be repeated.” Green admonishes everyone not to obey tyrants’ orders and not to marginalize and persecute minorities. And he tells the Jews: “Don’t repeat the fatal error of blindly heeding your capo betrayers and walking obsequiously like to the slaughter. Wake up NOW.”

Do not be deluded; the unvaccinated are not the enemy. The first step on the slippery slope to genocide is the stigmatization of a minority. Silence invites ever-increasing repressive restrictions. If we are to survive as free human beings, we must speak out against discrimination. We must not ever be silent again – not today, not tomorrow, not ever.

The vaccine program is betrayal.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 45 – Published 10/8/22

I officiated a funeral today for a good friend and this article has shaken me as much or maybe even more. For the last couple of years we’ve been listening the words of many who call themselves prophets and the numerous political talking heads who claim that we are going to turn this ship around. What exactly does this mean? It’s more like we are on the Titanic and do not realize it. The points you mention explains the frightening reality of a government that is now nothing more than a mafia of organized crime. They have become so large and powerful, that everyone will bow down to them or realize they are in line to be ruined or killed. Our Constitution has been ignored and has been replaced with a communist legal system. We can call this New World Order whatever we want, but the real the real problem is the evil within the heart of people. And there is no way to cast out that many demons. Am I letting go of the rope? Well, the only rope I’ve ever thought about about was my faith that God was listening to our prayers, BUT, if it’s Hill sovereign will to fulfill His own prophetic timeline, I do not want to work against Him. Now, all we have are memories of a strong and proud nation whose majority believed in doing the right thing. And then just like when Lucifer rebelled in heaven, evil seeped in, and similar to leaven in bread it contaminated and corrupted the entire system. It seems there was never a way to contain or reform a depraved human nature. Hope and Peace in Christ, your friend, Billy –

America in Name Only

By Cherie Zaslawsky|October 4th, 2022

By Cherie Zaslawsky

October 4, 2022

As much as I admire the great patriots who fought so hard to wrench our nation out of the hands of the usurpers, patriots such as General Michael Flynn, brilliant attorney Sidney Powell, My Pillow mega-mogul Mike Lindell, and more recently, famous filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza whose documentary 2,000 Mules presents indisputable evidence of vote fraud in the swing states that illegally tipped the scales in Beijing Biden’s favor, I can’t help feeling that many of us remain in denial about our current situation, including former President Trump. We shake our heads at the steady stream of violations of our constitutional protections, wondering how these flagrant abuses can take place in America.

For example, how is it possible that our own DOJ has locked up dozens of innocent men and women for attending a peaceful demonstration in our nation’s capitol, and left them to languish in squalid conditions in the D.C. Gulag for nearly two years, many still awaiting their trials? What happened to Habeas Corpus?

And in what world does our own FBI get to raid President Trump’s luxurious home, ransacking every room, pawing through Melania’s lingerie, taking Trump’s passports, spending nine hours combing every inch of Mar-a-lago, and quite possibly planting “evidence” and/or surveillance bugs along the way?

But the shocks keep coming—one of the latest being the witch-hunt targeting some forty “Trump associates” who’ve been subpoenaed and/or had their cell phones confiscated. Fox News host Tucker Carlson viewed a subpoena and was stunned by its unlawfulness. In his words:

What it [the subpoena] demands is both unlawful and without precedent in American history.…Now keep in mind, that any claim you make as an American citizen about electors—any claim you make about American politics period—is protected explicitly under the First Amendment. That’s our core freedom…[Emphasis mine]

In fact, all of the above assaults on our rights are unprecedented and despicable, but not, as some may think, merely a matter of political revenge.

A SHATTERINGLY INCONVENIENT TRUTH

The painful truth is that there is nothing out of the ordinary about these abuses, including the January 6th political prisoners being detained without due process—without being charged, and without being granted their right to a speedy trial. Nor should we be surprised that Trump, his associates, and the MAGA millions Biden decried in his ghoulish tirade demonizing patriots, are under attack.

What we’re conveniently forgetting is that between November 3rd, 2020 and January 6th, 2021, we didn’t merely experience a stolen election, we went through a Color Revolution—a takeover of our nation by forces hostile to it—and not just the DemComms, but the ChiComms and other globalist enemies of liberty as well. So that now, America as we’ve know it exists only in our memories. Oh, we see the vestiges of America all around us, and we can and should do everything in our power to resuscitate our vanquished Republic. But that shining city on the hill has been snuffed out. It’s just that we still see traces of its light, like the light of a distant star that is no more.

And while the shift from our Republic to the increasingly dystopian reality we’re currently living in seemed to happen almost overnight, the minions of Satan have been paving the way for this takeover of America for decades. Following the subversive advice of Antonio Gramsci and his follower Rudi Dutschke, they planned the Marxist “long march through the institutions” to alter and control American culture. And as iconic conservative journalist Andrew Breitbart famously remarked, politics is downstream from culture. We’re just experiencing the dramatic climax of these long-term efforts, as when a house suddenly crumbles after years of termites eating away at its supporting beams and wooden foundation.

So when I say there is nothing out of the ordinary about the January 6^th patriots being brutally and unjustly treated, I mean that this is what Communists typically do to political prisoners. We the People are now under the thumbs of fascistic totalitarians who thrive on inflicting sadistic cruelty on others.

A PLETHORA OF TRAVESTIES

I’m at pains to imagine a more blatant travesty than the spectacle of Beijing Biden standing in Independence Hall, flanked by uniformed military and ominously bathed in blood-red background lighting while giving a clenched fist tirade damning at least half the country. But we do have some contenders.

There’s the raid on President Trump’s exclusive Mar-a-lago villa for one. And the tragedy of innocent Americans being held and tormented in unconstitutional detention in the D.C. Gitmo. And how about the sudden spate of some forty subpoenas from Brandon’s nefarious DOJ targeting Trump associates? Or the 34-year prison sentence the DOJ’s dangling over the head of brilliant patriot Steve Bannon, President Trump’s chief strategist in 2017, co-founder of Breitbart, currently host of Bannon’s War Room? Or our courageous Frontline doctor Simone Gold who was recently released from prison for using her First Amendment rights?

What do these outrages have in common? These indignities all sing the same tune: patriots are the enemies of the State; the 2020 election results may not be questioned; none of the State’s official narratives may be questioned; Trump is radioactive; and your betters are in control now, peasants!

JANUARY 6TH PATRIOTS IN THE D.C. GULAG

Of all the Leftists’ relentless attacks on the MAGA millions since Obiden took office, the one that leaves me sickest at heart is the unconstitutional imprisonment and torture of the January 6^th patriots who answered President Trump’s call to rally in D.C. on that fateful day. As painful as it is to read their stories, we must do so, and do all we can to help bring them out of their dungeons into the clear light of day. For how can we hold our heads up while they languish in the DC Gulag?

Here are just a few of these tragic tales:

• Ryan Samsel: Since his arrest, Ryan has been held in a Washington DC prison. On March 21, 2021, he was awakened by correctional officers and his hands were zip-tied. Then they walked him to an unoccupied cell where he was brutally beaten by the officers. Ryan Samsel lost an eye in the beating. His face was smashed, his skull fractured. The next day the guards beat him again.
• Ronald Colton McAbee: a sheriff’s deputy who was at the Capitol on the 6th, tried to help Rosanne Boyland, who died that day. As WND reported on September 6th: MCAbee was maced repeatedly “for removing his face mask to take his medication. The Tennessee man was then left in a cell covered in the spray for over eight hours of torture, unable to de-contaminate and rinse off his burning skin.” He’s been in the D.C. Gulag for over a year and his trial isn’t scheduled until September 2023—a year from now!
• Jake Lang: a 26-year-old hero, saved the lives of two innocent demonstrators on January 6^th by rescuing them from beneath a pile of people as they were being crushed and suffocated.

This brave young man has been locked in solitary confinement for over seventeen months! He describes January 6^th as: “The day when free men and women stood unarmed against tyranny and were brutalized, beaten and even murdered on the steps of our own Capitol.”

• Sean McHugh, patriot, business owner, father of four, who came with a megaphone. Immediately, the alleged FBI asset Ray Epps glommed onto Sean, urging him to tell people “the plan”—that they were going into the Capitol at 1pm whether Trump was done speaking or not. Here’s a quote from McHugh’s open letter:

“I’m a January 6th political prisoner being held in the DC-Gulag. My name is Sean McHugh. I’m being held in very inhumane conditions in the DOJ’s effort to try and make me plead guilty under duress.” And though McHugh left early, long before a breach in the police line occurred, he’s been “detained” in the D.C. hellhole for over a year now, while instigator Ray Epps strolls around free.

• Thomas Robertson: An off-duty Virginia police officer who claims he was let inside the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, by Capitol Police officers who told him merely to stay inside the ropes was sentenced to more than seven years in prison. Former Rocky Mount Police Sgt. Thomas Robertson, a U.S. Army veteran, also was sentenced to three years of supervised release after his prison term by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper.

THE USURPING ÜBERMENSCHEN FLEXING THEIR MUSCLES

One of the most outlandish affronts to American patriots has got to be the shocking FBI raid on President Trump’s home, the exquisite Mar-a-lago. Along with the FBI agents were three Department of Justice lawyers whose demeanor was described by an eyewitness as “arrogant.” Who do they think they are? Why didn’t they first subpoena whatever documents they were looking for? What was the fictional “probable cause” this warrant was based on? And how dare they rifle through our beloved First Lady Melania’s wardrobe! The point, gentlemen? I mean, barbarians!

Remember, those orchestrating this outrage are the same America-hating Leftists who orchestrated the Russia hoax—their Show Trial #1 under Robert Mueller and pals—followed by not one but two phony impeachments of President Trump, and now they’re conducting Show Trial #2, spiced up with a pre-dawn raid of his elegant mansion, as if he were a dangerous criminal about to destroy evidence of a heinous crime. We’re being treated to Marxist theater on steroids.

FBI Special Agents spent hours in Trump’s private office, rummaging through his private property that they had absolutely no right to lay their filthy hands on. His attorneys had all along been in full cooperation regarding possible classified material being stored at Mar-a-lago. They too were blindsided by this surreal show of force against Trump and his legacy.

But I forget, we’re not in America any more. In our Marxist/Fascist/New World Order vassal state, our masters can do with us as they like. In fact, that’s the message.

They just showed their utter contempt for the most popular president in modern history, and by extension, the 80 million or so voters who elected him for a second term in 2020. If they can push Trump around with their surprise attack, invade his privacy with no probable cause, abscond with his passports and who knows what else, mess with his wife’s wardrobe, infest his home with hidden surveillance bugging, and possibly plant incriminating “evidence” to use against him, what can’t they do to the rest of us?

This was a display of raw power, calculated to publicly humiliate its target—a kind of symbolic rape—the violation of the rights, the dignity, and the privacy and personal property of the man Americans elected for the second time to be their Commander-in-Chief in the White House, and who rightly belongs there now, as our President.

Esteemed attorney and author John O’Neill, who clerked for Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist back in the day, has this to say regarding the raid at Mar-a-lago: “That they sent 30 some FBI officers from a special unit in Washington to raid a president’s home without warning in the wee hours of the morning is much more like the Stasi, or the Gestapo, or the KGB than it is like any American FBI. This is a black mark on the history of the United States. The raid was illegal, almost certainly, because the requirement for a warrant as opposed to a subpoena, was not met.”

Trump’s truly colossal blunder—the one I blame him for unreservedly—was his failure to take bold, constitutionally valid action after the Dems stole the election out from under him. Though the stakes couldn’t have been higher, he apparently failed to grasp the cost of his throwing in the towel. Now it is not just the January 6th innocent patriots who are paying the price for his abandoning the ship, he himself is feeling the burn. More to the point, We the People are paying the price, and it’s only going to get worse unless and until we can take our country back.

WANNA BET ON WHAT COMES NEXT?

If the Cabal/Deep State/NWO elites/Dems and Obiden play true to form, they will charge Trump with a crime and sentence him to prison along with the January 6^th political prisoners.

After all, they only have to get him out of the way for a couple of years—say till 2025 or so. That way it will be easier for them to steal the 2024 election. DeSantis, if he runs, would win, but is unlikely to match the drawing power of Trump, whose courageous and spot-on truth-telling and inspirational love of our country and its people won him a permanent place in the hearts of millions of Americans. DeSantis, not likely to command a Trumpian landslide, would be easier to cheat out of a win.

Or, if the DemComms don’t want to risk the national outrage that would ensue if they sent Trump to prison, they may push forward with a third faux impeachment; if they got him convicted, they could claim he was ineligible to run. Never mind the pesky fact that you can only impeach someone who’s in office. Details, details…

One thing is certain: our elite masters fear the groundswell of patriotism and enthusiasm Trump inspires. They want us downtrodden, impoverished, miserable and resigned—like the typical masses under Communism—not feisty, energized and optimistic—like Americans.

THE BITTER TASTE OF TYRANNY

Every time we’ve seen Communist takeovers, mass genocide follows. That’s the playbook our “betters” are reading from, and those paying attention may already see the signs of the mass starvation and poverty to come—not to mention the tragic results of the apparently intentionally genocidal Covid injections.

But how could this happen in America, you ask? It couldn’t.

While we’re still on the landmass of America, we’re no longer citizens of the Constitutional Republic created by our illustrious Founders. In fact, Benito Biden was actually correct when he called America-loving patriots enemies of the State—that is, patriots stand in opposition to the tyranny the Marxist/globalist oligarchy inflicted on our nation through the coup d’état of 2020.

Of course, in a Communist regime, the leaders can and do often imprison their perceived enemies on fake or trumped up charges, hold them indefinitely, and not infrequently, even murder them.

And in a Communist regime, if the Politburo (in our case, the Dems & pals) want to drastically reduce the population, they starve the peasants.

THE WRITING ON THE WALL

Have you read about the mysterious fires annihilating large food packing plants all over our country? Have you seen the container ships stalled in our harbors with no truckers permitted to load the goods and deliver them as usual? Have you read about Bill Gates buying up a huge percentage of American farmland at fire-sale prices since farmers are being ordered to kill all their cattle, hogs and chickens, and to stop growing their crops, and thus are forced to sell their suddenly unproductive farms?

The disaster awaiting us may still be invisible to many, as we can still shop at Publix or Safeway or Trader Joe’s, though some items are missing and prices are skyrocketing. Today, in one of our local SF Bay Area “upscale” grocery stores, a single Hass avocado goes for $4.99, as does a head of lettuce; a loaf of multigrain bread costs $7.99. Enough Pacific salmon to feed four people clocks in at $70, and price increases are the norm across the board.

Worse yet, Pacific Gas & Electric, California’s hated utility monopoly, raised the price of gas in our utility bills to nearly double—now over $2 per therm. And for those of us clinging to our gas-fueled cars, we’re lucky to find gas in California for under $7 a gallon. How does this bode for the future? How will the working and middle classes feed and support their families?

Decades ago there was already talk of future “third-worldization” in store for America. The global elites’ plan for their One World Government calls for the end of sovereign nations—especially any nation dedicated to liberty and enjoying prosperity. That’s partly what Agenda 21/ Agenda 2030— the U.N.’s version of Build Back Better and the WEF’s Great Reset—are all about. Actually, these are all names for the same “Programme” as the U.N. calls its dystopian plans.

America has all along been the jewel in the crown—the sought-after prize of the psychopathic elites. She’s now imprisoned along with the January 6^th patriots rotting in that filthy D.C. jail. It isn’t hard to read the writing on the wall to figure out what happens if we do nothing. The wild card is what happens as we endeavor to take our country back, bit by bit. At this stage, every victory, no matter how small, matters. For we are not only fighting for America, we’re also taking our personal stands in what is surely an epic battle—perhaps the epic battle—between good and evil that is rapidly intensifying before our very eyes.

© 2022 Cherie Zaslawsky – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Cherie Zaslawsky: cherzz@sbcglobal.net

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS – Part 42

Published 9/17/22

Culture of Debt: How Marx and Keynes Made Us Numb & Dumb

by James Jaeger – July 30, 2022

We live a “culture of debt” — the opposite of a capitalist society. But you will never hear SPEECH like this from woke Academia, the liberal Mainstream Media or over-extended corporate America. These entities, like millions of WE THE PEOPLE, are encumbered by mind-boggling debt and plagued by insidious inflation. The national debt is now over $30 trillion and the inflation rate is bucking 10%.

To explain why this happened, all one has to do is consider two terms: Marxist Ideology and Keynesian Economics. Both of these gifts to humanity promote big centralized government with endless debt, taxes and regulations. Both are used by the Globalist-infested Democratic Party in their mission to destroy the U.S. Republic as envisioned by the Framers.

Specifically Marxist ideology rejects free-market capitalism and Keynesian economics encourages debt-financed government expenditures. In other words, both Marx and Keynes conspire to destroy “capital formation” — savings — with “debt accumulation.”

What you were not taught in public school is that capital formation is the basis of capitalism. Capital formation is thus anathema to the Marxist mentality — the mentality that now dominates the public school system. The lesson never taught is: if individuals and companies were to spend less than they took in, they would generate “profits” and these “profits” would become “capital formation.” So the real reason the word “profits” is vilified in endless lefty movies is because “profits” create “capital formation” and capital formation is anathema to the Marxist mentality.

A society replete with prudently-managed businesses that had no need for DEBT is the LAST kind of society Marxist Bankers want. If no one needed to borrow money — because businessmen could finance seasonal inventories and expand operations using capital formation — bankers would not be able to lend money and collect endless interest payments. This is why elite bankers lobbied Congress in 1910 and formed the Federal Reserve System — a Marxist central bank that causes the boom and bust business cycles as well as inflation and unemployment.

Over the decades the “Fed” segued the United States from the “gold standard” and began a long-term program of backing money with less and less gold and more and more debt. This is known as “monetizing debt — turning debt into “money,” or “bills of credit” as the Constitution warns us about. Today, “monetizing debt” is simply a fancy term for “printing money,” or the euphemism, “quantitative easing.”

Through this mechanism, the Fed Banksters and Crooked Congressmen have now monitized 30 trillion Federal Reserve “Notes” and “eased” them into the economy to expand the government into the Leviathan we now have — all “justified” by Keynsian economics and Marxist ideology. All lent to American business owners that made a deal with the devil and overthrew their capitalist principles of profit and savings for easy and fake “money.”

Today “fiat currency” — what could be characterized as demonic money printed out of thin air — has been lent to corporate America for endless mal-investments; used to co-opt and bias the Mainstream Media and funded perpetual wars. It’s even been used to encumber our kids with $1.7 trillion in debt for college “educations” that do not even make them smart enough to get a job that keeps up with inflation, let alone pay off their debt.

Yes, printing tuition money caused the very inflation a proper education is supposed warn a student to avoid. So both Marxist ideology and Keynsian economics have failed our kids physically and philosophically. Congress and the Federal Reserve System conspired to take the U.S. off the gold standard so they could use Keynsian-inspired fiat currency-generated debt for all manner of government expenditures, including college loans for our kids.

It’s much easier — and less risky to a congressman’s political career — to fund a foolish budget or cover a deficit by borrowing printed money than it is to get that money by raising taxes. So after the Fed was formed, and the monetary base was no longer tethered to gold, profligate rogues in Congress printed and drank all the money they wanted, starting with a couple of World War cocktails. Now, the purchasing power of today’s “money” is so diluted it takes one dollar to purchase what 5 pennies purchased in 1913.

Yes, the practice of printing fake, fiat money makes it easy for math-challenged rogues in Congress to create money out of thin air. Creating money by hard work is an activity few government employees, especially the deep state, can comprehend. “Sweat equity” — when you work hard and create value because the products and services you are delivering are needed and wanted by the Society — is almost unknown to those who live off debt or work for the government.

Marxist Bankers — and their Democrat-controlled Mainstream Media propaganda machine — spit on hard work, just as they spit on “profits” that could become “savings.” Why work to generate money when you can simply print to generate “money.” And numb and dumb Americans bought it: “Hey I can get a $10,000 loan for 0% interest if I’m a good little slave to my ‘credit score.’”

Again, if a corporation earns more than it spends and thus goes into evil “profits,” these evil profits, when saved up, create “capital formation” and this capital can be used by the corporation at no cost. How can a Marxist Banker compete with this? He can’t but he tries. This is why the outrageous scheme of printing money — amplified by the equally outrageous scheme of “fractional reserve banking” — were invented. Printing up unlimited amounts of fiat money is the only way Bankers can compete with corporations generating their own capital through the prudent management and allocation of profits.

The Fake Fed and the Crooked Congress thus partner — more accurately, conspire — to print money out of thin air and then use it to keep us all in their insane, Marxist-Keynsian Debt System. This is the essence of the game. No college education needed to comprehend. The Marxist Bankers, the Mainstream Media Control Group, woke Academia, and over-encumbered corporate America are counting on you to be ignorant, stay ignorant and not speak a word in protest.

The “culture of debt” we find ourselves in could be considered a spin-off from Economic Marxism. As we explain in a movie entitled CULTURAL MARXISM, a splinter group known as the Frankfurt School, engineered a methodology of advancing Marxist principles using Culture. By this means, Cultural Marxism has been advancing through Academia, the Mainstream Media, Corporate America and now Social Media — in what’s known as “the long march through the cultural institutions.” Watch Pat Buchanan, G. Edward Griffin, Edwin Vieira and Ron Paul explain.

FILM IN PRODUCTION:

We are currently in production on a new documentary film that will address how the God-given right of speech is being assaulted. The documentary is entitled, SPEECH – The Door Is Closing. SPEECH will explain how Marxist social engineers from the Frankfurt School have managed to censor, abridge, block, shadowban and de-platform all manner of important SPEECH in America — what we now call “cancel culture.”

To find out more about our production of SPEECH – The Door Is Closing visit www.TheDoorIsClosing.us At the website you can watch a trailer and/or review the narration script and the production budget. If you see merit, please help us complete production by donating what you can at www.TheDoorIsClosing.us/donate Prominent screen credits, as described on the donation page, will be accorded donors to acknowledgment their contributions.

SPEECH will be our 11th public service documentary. Feel free to watch any of the past 10 documentaries free of charge at www.HomeVideo.net

The reason we place these films on the Internet for free is because FEW people will watch a political film if they have to PAY for it. If it’s FREE, they MIGHT watch it. If it’s free AND it reinforces their interests, values, cultural perspectives and prejudices they probably WILL watch it. But if the film costs MONEY, and it does NOT reinforce their interests, values, cultural perspectives and/or prejudices they will NEVER watch it. So I ask you, if you are trying to REACH people that disagree, misunderstand or hate your political message, how are you MORE LIKELY to reach them: with a FREE documentary or a documentary they must PAY for? I think the answer is obvious.

So how do you fund the production of documentaries that can be released to WE THE PEOPLE for free when the cost to make documentaries is high? Does the filmmaker go to the banks for production funding? What about the studios or TV networks? What about private investors? Each of these funding sources has a serious problem for the filmmaker that wants to make and release films that do NOT promote the liberal, secular, anti-constitutional, anti-capitalist, Globalist Agenda. The banks won’t lend money for films because they’re criminals only interested in Ponzi schemes. The studios and TV networks won’t fund films unless they promote the liberal, secular, anti-constitutional, anti-capitalist, Globalist Agenda. And investor-financed films can never be released for free or released only after the investors recoup their money.

All of these funding methods also require unlimited amounts of time filling out paperwork and dealing with lawyers, agents and accountants. By the time the film is financed and released World War IV has come and gone and there is no country left to even watch the film.

So, if we had to rely on banks, studios, networks or investors our films would take forever to finance, produce and release and they would NOT reach anyone “on the other side”. Even though 150 million American citizens will NOT pay even $19.50 to purchase a movie on a political subject, a significant percentage WILL watch the movie if they can get it for free. This is why donor-financed movies are crucial — the only way millions of NEW citizens can be reached. This is why your donation — from $25 to $25,000 — can make a BIG difference on what subjects and issues get out and into the public discourse.

Millions of people will be able to watch SPEECH – The Door Is Closing — even though bankers, movie studios, TV networks and investors do NOT care about the God-given right of speech — or anything else in the Bill of Rights. They only care about MONEY, not AMERICA. Let’s by-pass them. Go to www.TheDoorIsClosing.us/donate and help us get SPEECH done. © 2022 James Jaeger – All Rights Reserved. E-Mail James Jaeger: contact@moviepubs.net. E-Mail James Jaeger: jjaeger@mecfilms.com.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

PART 41 – Published 9/10/22

Come out of the world or be brainwashed – Part 3

What does it mean to love the world? Within the Christian life, we are told that God loves the world, John 3:16, and as His children, we are called to do the same thing. However, we are also commanded to NOT love the world or anything in it. Sound confusing? The explanation is simple but critically important to comprehend. In the Bible, the term world can refer to the physical earth, but it can also be used to describe a legal, social, and political system that is not governed by God. Every person has a spirit and this is what God loves and also what motivates us to pray for all people. We love people, but there is nothing to love about sin. However, with God’s grace and mercy, people can repent and be born again into God’s family.

Christians live in the world, but they are not to become entangled in its pleasures and politics. How can we do that? Stay away from it! No one can play with a viper and not eventually be bitten. We must develop spiritual discernment and become so sensitive that we know when to back away. The temptations and attractions from the sin-filled world is very subtle and is like a spiders web that draws the un-renewed mind into carnal thinking. It is not a game and is very dangerous to attempt to love both realms, in fact, it cannot be done. The fifteenth chapter of John describes a secular culture that hates God and is filled with corruption and deception. Sinful people are blinded and contaminated with darkness and confusion. They have a default spirit that has yet to be transformed and God’s remnant must avoid being persuaded and infected by their words. Staying focused on Jesus is the ONLY way the elect will not be pulled into rebellion and fall away from their faith.

Only those who are branches within the vine of Christ realize the only way to bear fruit for God’s glory is to take up their cross and follow Him. Godless governments desire to control the masses and as Satan has been given authority to control the global agenda, we will continue to see an increase in the demand for everyone to accept and obey this system. When Jesus told the rich ruler to sell everything he had and come follow Him, do you believe this was unreasonable? What exactly did this mean? Some will say it was easier in the ancient world to live in a tent than it is today. Really? How easy would it be for this man to walk away from his entire kingdom and his family? You see, this man represents all of us. We all have our own homes and families. Is Jesus still asking individuals to do what He asked this man to do? I believe so. I only know one person who has done this and he lives alone in a converted bus on a remote piece of property. He is a wise man in the eyes of God but mocked by the world. He is one of the most intelligent people I have ever known, but the world considers him a fool. This is exactly the way it is supposed to be.

We do not pull away from the world because we are already drowning in it. To be honest, we have no intention of selling our homes, or giving all of our money and possessions away. But what if Jesus told us to do it? HE IS telling us the same thing He has told all of His disciples, we just choose to ignore Him. But I have too many valuable things to just walk away from it all. Are these things worth more than your soul? We realize that even if we considered such an extreme and radical lifestyle change, that our families would rebuke us and say that we have lost our minds. In fact, many people would not only talk very critically about us, but they would also hate us. Of course, our flesh does not like the idea of living by faith and depending on God to take care of us. We love drawing our social security, our pensions, our saving account withdraws, stock-market gains, savings account interest, our business investment profits, and whatever else we can think of to collect more money. But my spouse said they would divorce me, attack my integrity, and ruin me. I understand. This response would not be uncommon, and also brings us to an interesting verse.

Many will try to explain this passage does not mean that we must choose between God and everything and everyone we love. Really? Jesus said in Luke 14:26-28, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counts the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?” How many people have known what the Lord was telling them to do, and yet they chose money or a family member over God. When we count the cost we are examining within our hearts if we really love God more than anything else in the world – even our life. I believe this is the meaning. I’ve heard for years that God could never be jealous because it would be a sin, but however you want to interpret God’s written Word, His anger is provoked when His people have a divided allegiance to Him. Let us look at another passage that warns us against trying to play both sides when it comes to spiritual devotion.

II Corinthians 6:14-18 says, “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial (Satan)? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” In the Bible, the term world can refer to the earth and the physical universe such as in Hebrews 1:2 and John 13:1, but it most often refers to the humanistic system that is at odds with God, Matthew 18:7, John 15:19, I John 4:5. When the Bible says that God loves the world, it is referring to the human beings who live here, I John 4:9. And as His children, we are to love other people, Romans 13:8, I John 4:7, I Peter 1:22. The parable of the Good Samaritan makes it clear we cannot pick and choose whom to love, Luke 10:30-37.

Listen carefully to this demand found in I John 2:15-16. “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, comes not from the Father but from the world.” When we are told NOT to love the world, the Bible is referring to the world’s corrupt value system. Satan is the temporary god of this world, and he has his own value system contrary to God’s, II Corinthians 4:4. I John 2:16 details exactly what Satan’s system promotes: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. Every sin imaginable can be summed up in those three evils. Yes, but how can we live without enjoying our blessings? We must be grateful but not arrogant. We must be humble and walk in the awareness of His presence and in the reverential fear of His holiness. The world is what we leave behind when we come to Christ. Isaiah 55:7 declares that coming to God involves a yielding, forsaking, an abandoning of our own ways and thoughts. This is a major difference between religion and relationship. John Bunyan, in his book The Pilgrim’s Progress, pictures the believer’s position as having “his eyes lift up to heaven,” holding “the best of books” in his hand, and standing with “the world as cast behind him.”

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 40 – Published 9/3/22

“Toxic Masculinity” – The Lie – By Rob Pue – 7/25/22

There’s a new “buzz phrase” going around these days — and it’s catching on; becoming another MOVEMENT — promoted by Leftist, “Progressive,” feminist activists. I’m sure you’ve heard of it. It’s called “Toxic Masculinity.” “Toxic Masculinity” is a new mindset these “progressive” feminists are attempting to force into the cultural talking points, which vilifies traditional manhood and all things “masculine.” The Leftists have been incredibly successful over the past few years in pushing their crazy ideas. What was once UNTHINKABLE in America has now become the “norm.” Good has become “bad,” and BAD has become “good.” While most of these ideas are only accepted now by a small, but VOCAL minority, if things do not change, it won’t be long before this nonsense is embraced by an overwhelming majority…like everything else they’ve come up with.

So what IS ‘Toxic Masculinity?’ According to FEM Magazine,“toxic masculinity harms all genders. It promotes sexism, misogyny, violence, and rape culture while enforcing dangerous stereotypes of masculinity and femininity. It is a fundamental pillar in the patriarchy and its normalization throughout cultures demands action. Next time you hear comments that promote toxic masculinity, remember to call them out; taking actions to disband this mentality is necessary in order to dismantle the patriarchal structure.”

There you have it, in their own words…. the ultimate goal is the demise of manhood, the dismantling of what they call the ‘patriarchal structure.” In other words, “Men BAD, women GOOD.” More division. You see, the Left is not content to divide us by ethnicity, religion, or political ideology. Now they must ALSO divide us by gender, which I find ironic, because it is these same Leftists who want us to accept as fact that there are now as many as 13 different “genders” — an insane idea which they insist we must all embrace as truth. And WOE to the poor soul who makes the “mistake” of calling someone by the “wrong” pronoun!

FEM Magazine goes even further in their fight to destroy manhood. In an article from December of 2016, they wrote, “Machismo leads to homophobia, sexual harassment, and murder, as violence becomes a channel through which to acquire control.” And so these radical feminists are now portraying men as sexists, misogynists, rapists, and murderers. It was not long ago that it would have been unthinkable for people to accept the idea of “transgenderism,” much less the idea that there are now THIRTEEN distinctly, different “genders.” But now, “transgenderism” is being forced upon an unsuspecting, but largely apathetic populace under the force of law…“Get your mind ‘right’ and accept all these different genders or you will pay the consequences.”

Isn’t it interesting, though, that the same people who want to vilify males as rapists and murderers are the same ones who want to do away with the TRUTH of the matter, which is, that there REALLY ARE only TWO genders: male and female. For goodness’ sake, even the ANIMAL world understands this. You do not see male dogs confused over their gender. You don’t see male birds confused over their genders. God made all created things male and female. One is not “better” or “worse” than the other. On the contrary, the TWO (and there ARE only TWO) different genders were designed by God to COMPLIMENT one another.

Are there men who abuse women and act wickedly? Absolutely, and that is behavior that we have NEVER accepted in a civilized society. Abusers of women and children and those who are bullies have NEVER been considered “good” men. They have been looked at as the rude, crude JERKS that they are. But the same can be said of women. If you have any doubt, just look at the recent Women’s marches that have been taking place around the nation, ostensibly to support “women’s rights.” Consider the foul-mouthed speakers at their rallies and the mean-spirited hateful vitriol that flows from their mouths as they proudly wear their “vagina hats!” Most of these feminist activists are more vulgar than any men I have ever known. Yet THEIR actions are considered just fine — simply because they are female…

But wait a minute: I thought we were not supposed to focus on gender. I thought there were 13 different “genders,” and all of them were “equally good.” But it turns out, I guess, TWELVE of them are “good,” but ONE is very, very BAD. It is very, very BAD to be male or “masculine.” That just cannot be tolerated any longer. Masculinity, they say, MUST BE DISMANTLED, along with our “traditional patriarchal structure.” The clear and obvious hypocrisy of the Left never ceases to amaze me.

There is no question that manhood is under full assault in America today. Just like the LGBT movement, the idea of “toxic masculinity” is now becoming more and more widely accepted. And as usual, it starts with the indoctrination of young boys in preschool, grade-school, middle school, high school… and then this idea that masculinity is a horrible, awful thing is solidified in their young minds in college. This is why we are seeing more and more young “men” embracing feminism; dressing —and acting — more and more like women. I dare say that MANY young men in our public colleges today are, in many cases, more feminine in their behavior than young women are. They have been indoctrinated WELL by the propaganda that has been drilled into their heads all their lives.

Let me ask you a question: if you wanted to bring down a nation; if you wanted to DESTROY a nation from within, how would you start?  By destroying the natural family. By twisting the truth and deceiving the minds of millions of young people over a period of just 12-16 years, the time it takes for a child to go through public school and college. Drill your lies into their heads for just 16 years and you can fundamentally change an entire culture and society. Mission accomplished.

This is what has taken place in America. The first step in destroying the natural family was to bring down the HEAD of the family, the Dad. And so, not so long ago, we began seeing fathers portrayed in TV sitcoms and movies as bumbling fools and idiots. Then we began drugging our children — mostly young BOYS — to alleviate the “problem” of ADHD. (By the way, have you noticed there aren’t many young GIRLS who have ADHD and must be drugged with Ritalin?) No… it’s always the BOYS who suffer from this malady. If they act too masculine or display too many male traits in school, that is simply unacceptable. And “for the good of the child,”they tell us, “they must be treated for ADHD.” And so we drug our children, on the advice of the so-called “professionals.”

We’ve been lied to, folks. Most parents have turned their children over to the mercy of the almighty State and after 12 years of public school and 4 years of college, and much medication, our boys finally manage to “get their minds right?” Really? Now our young men eagerly join the Women’s marches, the “pride” parades, and embrace transgenderism. Not to mention the holocaust known as “a woman’s right to choose.” Now they dress like women, act like women, speak like women. These are not the young men of that Greatest Generation that fought for freedom in World War II. My own Dad left school at the age of 17 and enlisted in the US Navy. He was among our fighting men in the South Pacific and HE WAS THERE when we liberated the Philippines. Can you imagine a 17-year-old boy doing such a thing today? Or, are some of them more likely to join ANTIFA and wreak havoc on their own country? Or simply sit at home and watch porn and play video games in their Mom’s basement while wearing their “skinny jeans,” painting their toenails, and poofing up their hair? You tell me.

It goes without saying, they have also abandoned the God of the Bible. If they have any “faith” at all, it’s in some weird religion. Many young people today worship the Earth. Many worship the pagan “goddess” of feminism — or as they are now calling it, the “Gynarchy.” Many seek out satanism, eastern mysticism or ancient demons masquerading as “angels.” And many are simply atheists or agnostics. This is the easiest route, because it gives them the perceived “freedom” to do as they please. Like the satanist Aleister Crowley wrote, inspired by the devil himself, “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.”

So to bring down a nation without firing a shot, first you destroy the family, and you start that by destroying the head of the family — the Dad. Then you feminize the boys, and confuse their minds, so that many of them actually believe they were meant to be girls. Those who still have a little common sense left find themselves in deep, dark turmoil in their souls. They instinctively KNOW they are male, yet they are not allowed to BE male. Everything all around them in the culture tells them: “masculinity is BAD!” They are so conflicted in their spirits…. and then we wonder why we’ve seen such a dramatic spike in the suicide rate — especially among young men and boys.

There is NO SUCH THING as ‘Toxic Masculinity,’ friends. God made us male and female. And make no mistake:  there are only TWO genders, designed by God Himself to compliment one another. Even our physical anatomy proves this out. DIFFERENT, but equal… and BOTH ARE NEEDED to procreate AND to raise spiritually, mentally and physically healthy children to be responsible, well-rounded adults. When my children were young, they would walk BETWEEN my wife and me and each of us would hold one of their hands. My wife would hold our kids’ left hand, and I would hold their right. Because a child NEEDS BOTH PARENTS to feel safe and secure, and to grow up healthy in mind, body, and spirit. Two men cannot do that. Nor can two women. It takes a Mom AND a Dad.

“Toxic Masculinity” is a lie from the pits of hell. It is so sad for our young men. They are ashamed of themselves, just because they are male… and if they happen to be WHITE males, then they’re even more ashamed because as we all know now, the Leftist mantra has been: “white males are BAD, ‘people of color’ — especially ‘WOMEN of color’ — are oppressed victims, who must be PROFUSELY apologized to and then celebrated, worshiped and adored.”

Meanwhile, our families disintegrate, relationships between fathers and sons are destroyed, the minds of our young people are radically confused and twisted, and suicide rates are increasing exponentially. Toxic Masculinity is a lie. It’s just another brick in the wall the Leftists are building to further divide us and separate us from the truth, from rational thinking, from God’s natural order and design. When a nation no longer accepts and follows God’s natural design, it reaps the consequences, which are too many to mention but suffice to say, we are seeing all those consequences play out in living color before our very eyes this very day. So how’s that working for us?

But what IS true masculinity? What is the role of man in God’s natural order? First, the man is to submit to God, his Creator, follow His commandments, and with the guidance and counsel of the Holy Spirit, take up his cross daily and follow Christ. He’s to be the husband of one wife, taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Once united to his wife in Holy Matrimony, he is then to be the MINISTER of his home — the spiritual leader. He is to SERVE his wife, protect his wife, and provide for her. He is NOT to use his authority as head of the household as a tyrant, but rather as a SERVANT.

Then, together, the husband and wife are to be fruitful and multiply. As the wife follows her husband as he follows Christ, the children then see modeled for them how to “do life right.” They grow up with a Mom and a Dad in the home, actively involved, guiding, nurturing, and training them up in the fear and admonition of the Lord…. as Jesus said, “teaching them to obey all He commanded.” THIS, my friends, is what makes for a strong, solid FAMILY, and the family is the FOUNDATION of a civilized nation. Destroy the family and you’ve destroyed the nation. The first step is taking down the head of the home, the man… the husband and father.

So men: do not let the agenda of pop culture shame you because of your gender. STAND UP! BE the MAN God created you to be, with all the attributes and virtues of a REAL man of God. Remember, it only took 12 men — Jesus’ 12 disciples — to turn the whole world upside down. So embrace the freedom you have in Christ — or perhaps a better way to state it — embrace the DUTY you have been given by God Himself, to be counter-cultural, world changers, watchmen on the walls, and truth tellers.

I can tell you, this will not make you “popular” or well-liked by most; especially those in your own home, your own church. But as you live out and model true masculinity, those around you will begin to “get it.” Real men love babies, real men stand up for those unjustly led to slaughter. Real men push back and fight evil. Real men protect, lead, provide for — and SERVE — their wives and families. Real men have a PURPOSE, ordained by God. Be a REAL man. Audio CDs and transcripts of this message are available when you call me at (715) 486-8066 or email Rob@WisconsinChristianNews.com. Ask for message number 247.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

PART 39 – Published – 8/27/22

People do not approach God because they do not want to live for Him

I have been seeking answers to why people shy away from the subject of miracles and healing from God. I awoke a few days ago and was gathering my thoughts before I got out of bed when I was suddenly given a spiritual revelation that enlightened my mind and allowed me to see another level of comprehension. It’s true that most everyone will not discuss or even consider the reality of God healing them. I have always thought this was strange because He is the one who created every person. He has the power and authority to speak the universe into existance and yet people walk away from the possibility that He can heal a disease. When they are shown in the Bible that Jesus healed every person who believed, they are seldom encouraged or inspired. Even if they hear about someone being healed it does not phase them. When passages throughout the Bible are revealed and explained it seems to make no difference in their enthusiasm. This is what has baffled me for so long. Those who desperately need Jesus to touch them and make them whole would rather focus their attention and trust to strangers who attempt to figure out how to treat them. Why is this? Because approaching God means they will SEE they need to give their lives to Him. How can they fall on their knees and worship and say they love Him, when all they want is a quick fix? Most people have decided they will not approach God at all and this allows them to be more comfortable in their lost condition.

There are very few people in this world that have an intimate personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I’m not talking about saying they believe that God is real or going to a local assembly. I’m referring to an individual who has taken up their cross in total surrender as they follow God dedicated to obey His Word no matter the cost. This small group of peculiar truth seekers have willingly pulled away from the world and are called to be the remnant and bride of Christ as they abide under the shadow of the Almighty. When we think of the 12 disciples of Christ who walked with Jesus and were students who were constantly being taught by the Master, this is exactly the way these modern disciples live. They listen to His instructions and they do the work of the ministry for His glory. The world sees them as strange and they actually hate them because they hate Jesus. This remnant has been given a transformed spirit, a renewed mind, and a holy conscience to stand for God’s truth and will never compromise which makes them a target for rejection and persecution. I said all of that to paint a clear picture of the difference between a true Christian and the world which includes all who play religious games.

This is what the Lord revealed to me. When the world is confronted with the opportunity to be healed by Jesus, they are immediately filled with guilt and condemnation. Why? Because they know how serious and personal this request is. They know that to approach God for a gift from Him, they would need to be broken and humble, to repent, to love and worship Him the same as bowing down before Him and receiving His eternal salvation. They are intimidated and embarrassed to consider this approach because they realize they have never trusted Him with anything before. Oh sure, they have gone through the motions of listening to prayers, many have attended church services and they have a general knowledge about Jesus dying on a cross, but they do not walk with Him. Either they have never been genuinely born again through the blood of Jesus or baptized in His Spirit, or they have so backslidden their heart is cold and calloused. Whatever the case, you can see that presenting someone the truth about how God wants to heal them causes much anxiety and accountability. In other words, they are thinking how can I approach God for a miracle when I have never given Him the time of day about anything? They are afraid and ashamed because they know that stepping forward toward God will require more than they want to think about. They know deep down inside they would only be seeking the gift instead of the giver and they are ashamed to admit they truly serve the dark side.

I had never really seen the depth of this before. I thought that people would be excited to know that healing and any type of miracle is available through God and that He is waiting for anyone to approach Him and ask Him. I wrote a 500-page book about all the promises and conditions of God to heal those who are suffering and included the requirements and responsibilities of the seeker. I thought that people would realize that God wants us to surrender our will to Him and to boldly walk in His holiness and power. I knew that healing is not something that is given out like candy, but I believe and hope that someone would embrace Christ as Lord and not just for the miracles. I pray for the Holy Spirit to stir people’s hearts and provoke them to believe that God’s Omnipotent and Omniscient authority when combined with fervent faith can change any circumstance, heal any disease, and even raise the dead. Nonetheless, I failed to realize that sharing with someone how they can be healed is the same as evangelizing the gospel about how to be spiritually born-again. It can clear out a room very quickly unless God has created a divine appointment. Those who do not want God run for the door as they are trying to escape the uncomfortable feelings of indifference and disobedience. THIS IS IT! This is why they cringe when they see a book about healing! The masses know they are living a life of rebellion against God and they certainly do not want to approach Him – not just about healing, but for anything! They do not seek healing because they do not want to bow down to Him and worship and serve Him!

A key word here is being “threatened” by the absolute truth of God because it demands that we change our direction and embrace His way of living. This is why people would much rather go the hospital and trust a doctor. In a medical environment they are safe from someone counseling them about their spiritual life. They are not threatened to have to change the way they live in order to receive medical help. They can leave out everything that is deeply personal, no intimate relationship with God, no obligations, commitments, pledges or promises to become a brand new person of faith. It’s much easier to allow a doctor to practice his medicine instead of trusting the Great Physician to completely heal us. They just want someone to fix their problem so they can go back to the rebellious carnal life they love. People avoid being threatened and are uncomfortable when they meet someone or enter a place that is holy. They immediately realize there is war between good and evil and they are on the evil side. If they were on God’s side, they would be running toward the holy of holies. The majority of humans are spiritually blind but the conscience is sensitive and can always detect the presence of God.

Another key word is “control.” Lost and the lukewarm souls want to have complete control of their lives and make their own decisions according to their emotions. The carnal human nature hates to be told what to do and will fight unto the death to maintain this so called freedom. This is why dieting is so difficult. Modern ministers and liberal churches have discovered that being strict and preaching convicting messages will drive the average religious person away and the assembly will become very small very fast. The person who plays religious games will not endure sound doctrine because their flesh is stronger and they choose to obey it. When they hear a convicting sermon they run the other way. When they hear a soft gentle song about being in the arms of Jesus and surrendering our all to Him, they are looking for the exits. So, many so called churches decided to only present an encouraging and inspirational devotions that motivate everyone to be who they are and enjoy God’s blessings. No more piercing truth that made people weep and repent. Let’s just have entertaining rock concerts and welcome all sinful lifestyles because we do not want to offend anyone. We want a popular seeker friendly place where everyone can eat and have a great time, (don’t forget the offering plate because we need to pay for all these salaries). The problem is that when the two-edged sword of God’s truth is removed the Holy Spirit is no longer welcome and God left them to their delusions. He removed His candlestick as these places were now nothing more than a culture club, a den of deception, a house filled with perversion, and a carnal gathering of wolves in sheep’s clothing. Intentional sin in the camp. A sad and heart breaking example of the blind leading the blind.

I am naive to think that everyone is as interested in spiritual truth. I have worked in the world and I function the best I can, but for the most part, I live in a protective bubble in my cozy home with my wife who shares my views. Throughout my life, I’ve spent many hours each day in my office studying, reading, and writing about God and learning about the Christian life. I pray and seek His wisdom and He gives me His revelations and insights to spiritual mysteries. I enjoy being in His presence and I love Him and worship Him for who He is. I want to give my life to His service and bring Him glory. With being involved in ministry and trying to develop an awareness of God’s presence, I often lose the perspective that only a very few can relate to the subject I am obsessed with. I’m just another beggar pointing to the Bread of Life as I’m grateful for God’s love. I sense the calling of God and I have chosen to surrender my heart to Him. I am not perfect and make mistakes, but I pray for discernment and wisdom to recognize my errors and for a contrite heart to repent when I have sinned.“Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise” Jeremiah 17:14.

I have very few true friends because hardly anyone is excited about spiritual doctrine, the Bible, the ministry, and especially inviting Christ to be their Lord. Very few people even want to understand what this means and this enmity between the spirits is awkward and uncomfortable. You could say that I live a life of isolation which is somewhat lonely, but at the same time it is the perfect environment to listen to God and write down His messages. I should not be surprised this does not appeal to the world. As long as you are talking about the world and the carnal flesh, you blend in with the crowd and everyone is at ease. However, if you mention how we all need to abandon our sin and take up our cross for God you become the enemy. I’ve written many songs about having an intimate relationship with God where we worship Him and are constantly aware of His presence. I write messages every day about how He demands for us to become a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto Him. One thing that has been consistent since the beginning of time and that is the negative response from a depraved human nature. I realize it’s not really a personal rejection against me or anyone who has an awareness of God, but rather it is the rebellion against the message. The world hates Jesus and His truth and they will also hate all those who represent His kingdom and speak His words. Until a person embraces the life of Jesus and invites Him to sit on the throne of their heart, they will never love or obey His truth. There has always been a deadly war between good and evil. The darkness hates the light. This is just the way it is and as time moves forward it will only grow worse.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 38 – Published – 8/20/22

What is the RAPTURE and when will it happen?

By Professor Alan Hultberg on what the Bible says about the end times – April 22, 2012

There’s nothing like an apocalypse prediction to get the media buzzing. Last May, one of the more highly publicized predictions in recent memory came from radio host Harold Camping, who gained national notoriety by warning that Judgment Day would arrive on May 21. (It didn’t, of course.) Meanwhile, other doomsday predictors have had their eyes on 2012 for several years now; some say the Mayan calendar places the end of the world on Dec. 21. But in the midst all the hype and pop culture hoopla, what does the Bible actually say about the end times?

Eschatology is a popular but notoriously difficult area of Christian theology. There are nearly as many theories on how to interpret the book of Revelation, for example, as there are books in the Left Behind series. One of the most contested elements of evangelical end times scholarship is the rapture — specifically when it will take place in relation to other eschatological events like the tribulation and the return of Christ to earth. Alan Hultberg, an associate professor at Talbot School of Theology, is one of Biola’s resident experts on end times theology, and he recently edited the book, Three Views on the Rapture. Biola Magazine recently interviewed Hultberg about the rapture, its various interpretations, and why it’s important for Christians to take seriously.

What is the rapture, and what is the scriptural evidence for it?

The rapture is the doctrine that at the return of Christ, all believers will be caught up (i.e., “raptured”) to meet the Lord in the air. The bodies of dead believers will be resurrected, and all believers, living and dead, will be glorified. It is taught explicitly in 1 Thessalonians 4:15–17 and more or less implicitly in 1 Corinthians 15:51–55 and John 14:2. Other passages, such as Matthew 24:31; 2 Thessalonians 1:10; and Revelation 14:14–16 are debated.

What purpose does the rapture serve in the overall purposes of God for creation? How does it fit into the big picture of God’s redemptive plan?

God’s redemptive plan is to restore what was lost in Adam, to restore the proper functioning of his rule in creation through the vice-regency of a humanity living in proper relation to him (though that entails a lot more than what I’ve said here). The resurrection of believers is part of that restoration, as Paul teaches in Romans 8:18–23. So, insofar as the rapture and the resurrection are associated, the rapture plays a role in that restoration. However, the Scriptures also teach that before the establishment of the Messianic kingdom at the return of Christ, God will pour his wrath out upon the world opposed to his rule. The church is promised reprieve from this wrath, and the rapture is the means by which it is protected.

In your introduction to Three Views on the Rapture, you say that while the issue of the timing of the rapture isn’t central to the Christian faith, it “touches on the doctrine of the church and on issues of normative Christian experience,” and “is thus not an inconsequential doctrine but one that the church at large needs continually to wrestle with.” Why is this issue an important one for Christians to discuss?

Well, when I say that the doctrine of the rapture touches on the doctrine of the church, I mean that the distinction made among believers by the rapture raises the question of the relation of various groups of believers in the larger family of God. The Bible teaches that some believers will go through the period of God’s wrath (notably the 144,000 in Revelation 7, 9 and 14) and some won’t (the “us” that Paul associates himself with in 1 Thessalonians 5:9, those who will be raptured). Why is there this distinction among believers? What does it have to teach us about the family of God? When I say it touches on issues of normative Christian experience, I mean that it raises the question of God allowing the church to suffer. There is debate over the timing of the rapture in relation to the final tribulation, the final period of unparalleled persecution by the Antichrist. Some argue that God will not allow the church to suffer under Antichrist. But God does allow the church to suffer in this present age (John 16:33; Acts 14:22), so what makes the difference, if there is one?

There are three main views of the timing of the rapture: pretribulation, posttribulation, and prewrath. Could you briefly explain the main claims of each position?

The pretribulation view teaches that God will rapture the church before the final seven years of this age (often called the 70th week of Daniel, from Daniel 9:27, or the tribulation). According to this view, this entire time period is characterized by God’s wrath. It depends in part on making a distinction between the coming of Christ to rapture the church and the coming of Christ to return to earth to reign. Post-tribulationism teaches that the church will be raptured at the very end of the age, when Christ returns to reign. The church will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and immediately return to earth with him. The prewrath view teaches that the wrath of God is poured out sometime in the final three and a half years before the end of the age, after the start of the final persecution by Antichrist. The church is raptured immediately before God’s wrath is poured out, so, like pre-tribulationism, a distinction is made between the coming of Christ to rapture the church and the final coming to earth, but unlike pretribulationism, the church will experience the final persecution by Antichrist.

You argue for the prewrath position. What are the main supporting arguments for this position?

I base my argument on two points that I believe the Scriptures to teach: that the church will be raptured sometime during the second half of Daniel’s 70th week (that is, after the abomination of desolation and beginning of the final persecution by Antichrist), and that between the rapture of the church and the return of Christ to earth will be an extended period of time when God’s wrath is poured out on the hostile world. The first point is derived especially from Matthew 24; 2 Thessalonians 2; and Revelation 13. The second point is derived especially from 1 Thessalonians 4 and 5 and Revelation 7 and 14. Of course, both points consider numerous corollary issues and passages. In the main, though, pretribulationism is ruled out by the first point and post-tribulationism by the second.

As someone who takes the prewrath position, do you then believe that the rapture won’t be entirely unexpected? That is, if the abomination of desolation is an event we can observe happening, wouldn’t that signal that the rapture will be imminent?

Since the prewrath position requires the rise of Antichrist and his abomination of desolation before the rapture, it means that, in this view, the rapture is not imminent in the sense of being able to happen at any moment. In my opinion, 1 Thessalonians 5:2–4 and 2 Thessalonians 2:1–4 teach exactly that those “signs” must occur (and other passages imply as much). That means that I need to deal with “imminence” passages, like Matthew 24:42–44, differently than as teaching an “any moment” rapture. Matthew 24:32–33 suggests that this is proper. Essentially, in my opinion, the Bible teaches the “unknowability” of the timing of the rapture, not its “any moment imminence.” As long as the number of intervening events or the duration of time between certain events and the rapture is unknown, “imminence” in the biblical sense is maintained. There is nothing in the prewrath view that undermines that biblical “imminence.”

Do you think it’s a danger for Christians or churches to focus too much on the rapture? Do you think it gives off the impression that Christians are just eager to escape the world and leave it to its own destruction?

I guess it’s a matter of how that focus is presented to the world and what one holds to be central to Christian theology. If one makes the rapture the central focus of one’s Christian life and holes oneself up awaiting the return of Christ or merely (and gleefully?) preaches destruction to unbelievers, or if one neglects the larger issues that make for Christian unity and virtue — things much more clearly taught and prescribed in Scripture — in favor of dogmatic and divisive interest in the rapture, then one is focusing too much on the rapture. Paul enjoined against something like the first problem in the Thessalonian letters and Jesus something like the second in John. Getting things straight scripturally is important, but majoring on the minors and becoming arrogant and unloving in the process, both toward insiders and outsiders, is not of the Spirit.

To the outside (secular) world, the idea of the rapture is looked at derisively, as a kind of kitschy joke that makes Christians look silly (“date predictors” like Harold Camping don’t help things). How should Christians defend the idea of the rapture in a more intelligent or believable way?

Well, defending what the Bible says is always going to be a joke as far as the world is concerned. All we can do is aim to be accurate, humble and winsome, admitting where things are clear in Scripture and where they aren’t clear. One thing that “date setters” have in common is poor hermeneutics; they use indefensible interpretive methods. More knowledgeable Christians can try to explain to an incredulous world what defensible interpretations lead us to conclude about the return of Christ.

In the midst of various interpretations of the end times, what would you say are the most important eschatological truths or facts that all Christians should cling to? In other words, what are the eschatological “essentials” versus “non-essentials”?

Things indisputably taught in Scripture and central to our faith are essential; things less clearly taught are non-essential. That Jesus is coming again to vindicate his church and judge the enemies of God is the big essential. That is the blessed hope of the church. When and how are not as essential. That there will be a resurrection of the dead, some to eternal life and some to eternal suffering, is essential. What the new heavens and earth will be like, what the kingdom of God on earth will be like, etc., that is, the details, are non-essential.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 37 – Published 8/13/22

COME OUT OF THE WORLD OR BE BRAINWASHED – Part 2

Only God knows a person’s heart. However, since the way we think is the cause of our actions, this allows everyone to discern what type of person we are. I’ve heard all my life about how we are not to judge others unless we are alright with having people judge us. But, we must admit that if everyone is a a type of spiritual tree, whatever fruit we bear is seen by all and whether we like it or not, this is how we will be known and remembered. Our behavior identifies us and if this is judging so be it. I’ve always thought the passage was not against judging, but rather a reminder that we will also be judged so live holy as God is holy. Here is a key point. The closer we are to God, the more noticeable and offensive sin will be to us. If we wink at the sin of others and laugh at their disobedience to God, we have joined ourselves with them and are just as guilty as they are. This is a result of us also living in a lukewarm and carnal lifestyle. The modern church refuses to warn about the dangers of being carnal. The refining fire of God is for EVERY believer in order to purify and sanctify. “I know what you have done; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. How I wish you were either one or the other! But because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth.”

So, lets say that we are serious about living exactly the way God wants us to live. If we embrace the requirements to take up our cross and become a living sacrifice which means we surrender our will to Him, then we must be prepared to react differently and be treated differently. We are no longer the person we used to be and I can promise that everyone will recognize it. Something to remember as we step forth into this new way of living, is that we do not trust our emotions like we used to. When we were carnal, we just said and did whatever came to our mind, but now that our mind has been renewed, our thoughts are transformed and guided by the still small voice of God. We are bought with a price which means we no longer live however we want. This is why we are called to constantly be focused on the Lord so that we can accomplish His perfect will. This sensitivity is the heart of who we are and how we live. Without it, we are no different from the lost and blind world. For example, if we disagree with someones sin, let us be sure God is arranging a divine appointment for us to speak to them. If we attempt to bring correction without His leading, it might cause more harm than good. God must soften and convict the conscience of a person BEFORE we approach them. If they reject being confronted and their heart had not been prepared, they will become offended and aggressive against us. The field of the heart must be plowed by the Holy Spirit before the seen of God’s truth can be planted.

So why am I talking about judging? Because, we cannot say we are against sin and willingly watch it on the media platforms at the same time. The question we must answer is a very simple yes or no when it comes to the Lord calling for us to abide in the secret place with Him. Are we holy just some of the time? Not only are we to hate sin, but if we walk with God we will be hated, and the stronger we are in our faith and boldness, the more intense the hatred against us will be. Maybe many are just part-time Christians. Listen carefully to the words of Jesus found in John chapter 15, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you that a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: They hated me without a cause.”

The key for the Christian is to listen to the Holy Spirit’s instructions as every situation is unique. The only way we can have this keen spiritual sensitivity called discernment is to develop a constant awareness of God’s presence. You see, He might have a member of His remnant participate in a debate against someone who embraces evil one day, and the next day He may whisper to be silent and walk away. This is because we are a more effective witness when we follow His orders. Being able to recognize a divine appointment rather than acting in our emotions has everything to do with being effective. Without God leading and empowering our conversations and actions we will most likely make the situation worse. However, when we move according to His directions, our words will be anointed and empowered as they pierce the mind and convict the heart of the listener.

Truth must become a personal revelation or it only adds to our collection of information. The Christian community is filled with people who know a lot about religious ideas, but how much of it is actually true? Are there 20 different truth’s for one doctrine? The revelation of divine truth is straight from God and there are no opinions or speculations attached to it. When we wade into the waters of Biblical interpretation, it does not take us long to discover that it’s difficult to find a topic that everyone agrees about. This is because very few have been enlightened by the Holy Spirit to know absolute truth. When the brain attempts to interpret spiritual truth, it is easy to become confused. The Bible and God’s voice is spiritual truth and must be absorbed by our spirit and then translated into our mind. Remember, Jesus confronted the most religious and intelligent people on earth, who did not even know God. When someone is teaching God’s Word to a group of people, there may be only one person who receives the enlightenment of spiritual reality. As Christians, we embrace evangelism because we realize that even though everyone will not accept truth, someone will. A Christian television broadcast may be sent out to millions of possible viewers, but if only one person’s life is changed forever, the will of God was accomplished.

Intentional willful sin causes a calloused heart and opens the door to a mental and spiritual delusion. Many who believe they can live however they want rarely consider the consequences of losing their soul. Satan has come to steal the mind AND the spirit, to kill the body, and destroy families and nations. He is the greatest deceiver the world has ever known and the father of all lies. However, let us also remember that those who continue living in carnality and reject the conviction and pleading from the Holy Spirit to repent, are given a strong delusion by GOD, and this is when they no longer have any desire to turn to Him. “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” II Thessalonians 2:10-12. In this hour, the floodgates of lies and deceptions have been opened greater than ever before as the spiritual blind welcomes in a new world order of evil. Some might say, “how could anyone knowingly support evil?” Bingo! Since the majority believe that good is evil and evil is good, we know that two things are happening here. One: They are so deceived they cannot see they are supporting evil. Two: They have given their soul to Satan and desire to serve and please him. What about this question? What is happening with so-called Christians who vote and support abominations and those who are blatantly evil?

The slogan “to build back better” means there must first be a tearing down of the old before a new creation can be established. The traditional faith in God is being removed to make way for the global control of a world leader who is called the Antichrist and his false prophet. As the older conservative generations pass away, the younger generations who have been groomed with the lies from, social political brainwashing through the public education system will eventually lead and control the culture. There was a time when the moral majority demanded that sin be driven back into darkness, but today the roles have been reversed and many Christians are now crawling into the shadows to avoid being censored, harassed, and confronted. Satan’s plan worked! He indoctrinated the masses through his perverted lying media machine and was able to brainwash every person EXCEPT the remnant. So, we realize there is the lost world and the religious blind who will bow their knees to the system. Only those who have Christ sitting as their personal Lord on the throne of their heart will be saved. The line is drawn, the people have decided, the great falling away is happening now.

Fear is a sin and it’s time to make the stand for God and His truth or be drawn into the powerful vacuum that is trying to draw every person on the planet to serve Satan. It is no coincidence that the internet is called the world wide web. There are only two choices, the Lamb or the dragon. Here is a sobering reality; if you refuse to fight for God on the front lines of spiritual warfare against evil, then you are supporting it. There is no more riding the fence or playing both sides. You are either a child of the kingdom of God or you are a servant for the kingdom of darkness and death. I realize Christians are afraid of being called fools and to have their integrity ruined, but each person must decide if their pride is more important than their our love for God. Yes, drastic changes will continue to come and every person who calls themselves a Christian is being confronted NOW by the beast system to choose whom they will serve. How many will speak up for Christ and declare their allegiance to God? If we side with the system, we can live, but our spirit will be lost forever, if we side with God we become a target and may lose our lives, but we will live with God for all eternity. According to statistics, 2.4 billion, or nearly one third of the people on the planet claim to be a Christian. Really? This is a perfect example of how that what we call ourselves has nothing to do with who we really are.

Those who call themselves a Christian and are not devoted to prayer and obeying God’s voice are not who they think they are. A tare may look like wheat, but this is not a game where those who are close to winning are still counted. Humans love to live in denial and play games, and when it comes to religion, the assemblies are filled with them. Everyone wants something for nothing, but this is not the message in the Bible. Sadly, we are seeing churches openly teaching that however you choose to live is acceptable with God. They invite these carnal impostors into their seminaries to be pastors who lead more people into deception. Holy standards are being tossed out because are determined to no longer be relevant to a progressive society. The Bible is now seen as an ancient document that cannot be used as a trusted guide to live by. So, if the stories are not real and the holy laws are not to be followed, these public gatherings are nothing more than a social club with food and entertainment.

When a person is brainwashed, they are convinced they can play footsy with the world and everything is fine. What they do not want to hear is that religion is a demonic influence and nothing more than a weapon of Satan to lead the masses into hell. When any church turns away from the truth there is no longer a presence of the Holy Spirit to convict and cause repentance. Without people seeing their guilt and being broken over their sins, the identity and mission of that assembly is powerless. It’s time to draw the line and identify the spies who are actually working for the enemy, and it’s time to call out those who are supporting the vile government and demonic global system within the body of Christ. No one can serve Satan and God at the same time and as God’s people pray for discernment, He is revealing the wolves who are wearing sheep’s clothing as they are guilty of idolatry. “But brother, these people are friends and family members.” No matter what a person says they are, anyone who believes in reckless abortion, gay marriage, and the LBGTQ+ movement must not be elevated into spiritual leadership and be told why. There is no place for corrupt politics and social views in the body of Christ as this spirit quenches the anointing for God to manifest Himself to perform miracles. Why are many churches dry and lifeless? Compromise. We are to love every persons spirit, but this does not mean we congratulate the way they live. Jesus said my sheep hear my voice and they follow me, which means that all true Christians understand that God hates ALL sin and there is no way any true follower could possibly accept, support, agree, endorse, or even tolerate them.

Most modern churches are cherry picking the scriptures that talk about blessings which people love to hear. Listen to this stern warning found in II Corinthians 6:14-18, about the dangers of allowing the demonic spirits of the world to infiltrate the holy sanctuaries,“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial [ungodliness]? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Therefore, COME OUT from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing and I will receive you. And, I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” This passage has been used to explain why Christian men and men should be careful when they are wanting to wed someone that is not a dedicated follower of Christ. However, many assemblies have welcomed in strange spirits and been taken over by these subtle demons. Some pastors feel trapped, like they are being held hostage and under the control of those who have influence over the congregation. If they rise and stand against intentional sin, they are told to stop offending the people or leave. They receive salaries that their families depend on and are faced with either serving money or God. It would be better to work a regular job and worship Jesus in homes than to be a part of a false system that God does not approve of. Another huge deception among the masses is to believe a church building is the only place to worship, learn and pray. If He has removed His candlestick from an assembly, why are we still there?

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Can Repentance Save This Nation? by WYLIE MARSHALL

July 9th, 2022

I haven’t watched much “news” for the past several years. But I did hear through the grapevine that Roe v. Wade was reversed. And I heard that the Supreme Court even strengthened the personal protection gun laws unless that was just a rumor. After how many years? Does that seem a little strange to you? In the middle of the most damaging administration in our history, our Supreme Court has suddenly found and can read and understand the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights?

Do I hear more noise in the streets now than I did before? Of course, we might hear more noise if those that run the Oil Company’s filling stations lower their prices for gasoline. After President Biden told them to lower their prices to what they pay for the gas! Saw that too, and did a huge double-take on that one. Just couldn’t believe he was saying it, but low and behold, they have dropped a bit! Yes, we may see more clamoring in the streets about abortion and how those guns are killing people. I am a cautious person, and I am going to have to hang on a bit longer to see what happens next. I have always been of the opinion that there are no free lunches! Are they so worried about the next election that they would reverse the abortion opinion of the Supreme Court after around 70 million babies have been murdered in and outside the womb? I have to think that something is going on here that we just don’t understand yet! They have been lying to us for years and now they are going to tell us the truth and reverse their opinion? Their modus operandi has always been to divide and conquer!

Also saw where a coach won a case for praying with his football team. What is this country coming to? Do you remember that it was 27 years ago that another football coach lost his case to the ACLU for praying with his football team?

I just read a great article by Robert Pue about Sodom and Gomorrah, I mean Columbus, Ohio and the debauchery that goes on there with the LGBTQP. I have never been to a pride parade and hope I never stumble into one going on. I have seen the remains of Sodom and Gomorrah and what fire and brimstone did to those cities! Of course, the inhabitants of those cities were burn to ashes instantly and have blown away. No evidence of them left to see!

Does it make any difference if we pray with our football team, pray in school, pray at home, or even pray at church? Does it make any difference if our children are being targeted by LGBTQP’s that have given their souls to Satan? Or if you get down to it, does it make any difference if we murder our children in the womb, in our schools or wherever? Does it really make any difference? Rob Pue’s article said the number of LGBTQP+ is rising daily with the flow of massive propaganda. And did you catch that he said that there were no less than FORTY so-called Christian “churches” marching IN the parade, in support of sodomy, transgenderism, sadomasochism and pedophilia. Why is this happening?

I read article after article after article telling us what is wrong with our culture, society, country and way of life. Everything we are doing wrong, everything our churches are doing wrong, everything our politicians are doing wrong. But where is the fix? How do we fix these problems? We have been trying to fix these problems for ages by voting a solution into office for years and years! How is that working? Not so good! Every time we vote what we think is a decent person into office, they become compromised or totally corrupted almost overnight! Satan has infiltrated every institution in our beloved country! Maybe it is time to try something different?

Do you ever pray to God, if you do, do you tell Him you love Him? Is it just lip service? How many times do we tell God that we love Him and then do the opposite of what He has told us to do? Does telling God that we love Him really mean anything if we refuse to obey Him? Obeying God is the key here. Obeying God is the only way we are going to get to where we really want to be, whether we know that or not. We praise Him in song, in sermons, and prayers and turn right around and disobey Him! How do we disobey Him? We break His Law! Even after He gave us His only Son so that we might have a relationship with Him and eventually, eternal life…how much it must hurt Him to see our behavior? The perfect life Jesus lived and the tremendous pain and suffering He went through to take away our penalty of everlasting death that we earned and deserved because we would not do the things our Creator told us to do, so that we might have life and have it more abundantly now and eternal life later! How sad this must make Him.

It was not just His dying on the cross that took away our death penalty. Jesus had to come as a human and live a perfect life! He had to live a life without committing even one sin! What does that mean? What is sin? I guess the short definition would be, 1 John 3:4, “Everyone who practices sin is also practicing lawlessness, for sin is lawlessness.” So, sin is breaking God’s Law, and if Jesus had sinned just once, He would not have been the perfect Sacrifice and would not have qualified to take away the sin of the world! John 1:29, “On the next day, John sees Jesus coming to him, and he says, Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world.” The sacrificial lambs could not have even one blemish on them. One blemish would have disqualified them to be used as a sin offering. Exodus 12:5, “Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You shall take it from the sheep or from the goats.” And if Christ had sinned just once, He would have had a blemish, and we would still be living under that death penalty and still be facing that never ending death that we so deserve!

Do any of us understand that kind of love? No, not one! We are incapable of understanding agape love, and that is the kind of love God has for us! It is total unconditional love, and we are not capable of giving that kind of love. But that is where God is taking us, because that is what God is, total unconditional love! You might say, “Okay, I will understand it when I get there!” Well, if you are waiting to understand it when you get there, then you might not get there! You should start working on understanding it now! You don’t know when God the Father is going to say to you, “Come here and learn from Me!” John 6:45, “It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore, everyone who has heard from the Father, and has learned, comes to Me.” You just don’t know when that will happen! It might happen in this lifetime or the next, but it will happen, so you should be working on it now!

There is a lot of misinformation out there that is causing a lot of confusion. They confuse the “Works of the Law” which were the sacrificial laws that ended at the death of Christ, with the Law of God, the Ten Commandments! God’s word is not hard to understand if you live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. What were those words that God spoke and commanded His people to keep? They were the Ten Commandments. God personally SPOKE the Ten Commandments from His mouth and told His people to keep them for 1000 generations. Let’s see, that would be for at least 25,000 years and those years are not up yet! Exodus 20:1, “And God spoke all these words, saying,” and He goes on to list the Ten Commandments! Deuteronomy 7:9, “Therefore, know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God Who keeps covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations.”

God has to know who will obey Him and who will not. He will not allow anyone who will not obey Him to enter into His Kingdom. God will not create another Satan. God does not wish for anyone to suffer the penalty that Satan is going to suffer for all eternity. Revelation 20:10, And the Devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet had been cast; and they, Satan and the demons, shall be tormented day and night into the ages of eternity.” The beast and the false prophet were flesh and blood and were burnt to ashes in an instant, but Satan and the demons are spirit beings and will burn and be tormented for all eternity in the lake of fire and brimstone. I have written before about the stories in the bible, in particular, the story of Jonah. Well, now I will tell you about another story when the children of Israel refused to obey God. I have mentioned this one before, but this time I want you to notice a different aspect of the story.

Remember the story of the children of Israel first arriving at the promise land. God had Moses send scouts into the promise land to scout it out and bring back a report. Moses sent a scout from each tribe and all, but two scouts brought back bad reports. They reported that the people of the land were too strong and there were giants in the land and that they were not able to defeat the people of the land, even though God had fought all their battles for them ever since they had left Egypt! The people became afraid because of the 10 scout’s bad reports, and refused to go up and take the promised land. So, what did God do? He had the children of Israel wander in the wilderness for 40 years until all of the adults that refused to go in and take the promised land had died. Numbers 14:29, “Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness, and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against Me.” God did not allow anyone who murmured against Him to enter into the promised land and God is not going to allow anyone into His Kingdom that will not obey Him, and He has to be assured of that fact beforehand!

People love to claim that all you have to do is to claim the grace of God and that is all that is needed. That is not what God says! Matthew 15:8, ‘These people have drawn near to Me with their mouths, and with their lips they honor Me; but their hearts are far away from Me.” God expects us to do something to show Him we are serious about our love for Him. God has total unconditional love for us, and we must develop that same love for Him before we will be allowed into His kingdom. He wants to know who His people are, and He wants His people to know Who their God is! John 14:15, “If you love Me, keep the commandments— namely, My commandments.” John 14:21, “The one who has My commandments and is keeping them, that is the one who loves Me; and the one who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him.” We will not enter into God’s kingdom on lip service!

God’s Law contains a sign that few people know exist. It is a sign between God and His people. Exodus 31:13, “Speak also to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Truly you shall keep My Sabbaths, for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations to know that I am the LORD Who sanctifies you.” Now how many generations are we to keep God’s Law? Yes, for a thousand generations! This “sign” just happens to be the fourth Commandment! That commandment is the only commandment that requires an outward example of it being kept. You actually have to do something to keep that commandment, so God can see you doing it. It is not a passive commandment that you can keep without doing anything. To keep the Sabbath day, you must go and fellowship with your brethren and go and worship God and sing psalms, and teach and learn, and pray! You have to physically do something! That is what makes it a sign between God and His people! But it has to be done on His day, the Seventh day of the week! That is the only day of the week God made Holy! Gen 2:2, “And by the beginning of the seventh day God finished His work which He had made. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.” Gen 2:3, “And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because on it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

When will you stop being ashamed of the God that created you and let Him help you? Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.” Luke 9:26, “For whoever shall be ashamed of Me and My words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when He comes in His own glory, and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” Romans 1:18, “Indeed, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness;” And what is righteousness? 2 Peter 2:21, “For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment that was delivered to them.” So, what do you think is happening right now? We have a supreme court that has lied to us for 50 years while approximately 70 million babies have been murdered. Are they trying to cleanse their conscience or is it something else? What about their ruling on sodomy, gay marriage? Where is that in the Constitution of the United States?

This nation has closed its door to God a long time ago, and we are sliding into the abyss. I can not understand why our people can not see this phenomenon. Our Republic was established with Godly principles and can only flourish in a nation that has a God lead moral culture. Our Republic will not work with any other system and that is why our present government is working so hard to remove everything that has to do with a Godly moral family way of life. I’m sure there is a better way of articulating that, but I think you can understand what I am trying to say. If we don’t turn back to God and Obey His Voice, then maybe you should make your final arrangements, because if they don’t come after you with a needle, they will probably starve you to death.

Our problems are spiritual! They cannot be solved by voting them out of office. We saw that in the 2020 election. They have the elections rigged to where they will never lose another election and they know it. They are led by Satan the Devil, Ephesians 6:12, “Because we are not wrestling against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against powers, against the world rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual power of wickedness in high places.” If you don’t wake up and understand what you are up against before it is too late, then you will have nothing in this life to wake up for. The only one that can help you is God, and all He requires is that you repent of breaking His Laws, His statutes and His Judgments! How little for so much! This doesn’t have to be Satan’s world. Satan can only do what God allows him to do. Turn back to God and repent of breaking His Law and watch what happens! Nineveh repented and was spared total destruction!

© 2022 Wylie Marshall – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Wylie Marshall: sirwylecoyote@yahoo.com

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

PART 29 – Published 7/2/22

This week I wanted to share a dream and a column from a good Christian brother and fellow newspaper columnist Jim Honeycutt. He and I write each week for the Lockhart Post Register in Lockhart Texas. This spoke to my heart and I thought you would enjoy it. You are welcome to share any thoughts or interpretations pertaining to these writings. Blessings –

Dream:

I recently had a dream that was a little more vivid than usual, the colors and brightness of it all was nearly overwhelming. Laying in my bed asleep, I thought I heard a noise that quickly awaked me. Sitting up in a startle, my eyes strained to focus as I saw a bright golden white light emanating from the direction of the stairs. Sliding back the covers I glanced over and saw my wife was still asleep. I thought to myself, man she must really be out of it. How can she sleep through this commotion? Getting up I began walking toward the stairs. Looking down the staircase I saw what appeared to be a man bent over wiping them down with a white woolen brush. Just as I was starting to ask him what was he doing in my house he looked up. His eyes were as bright as the morning and I was overwhelmed with reverence. But then he looked down and continued his work.

A noise coming from the kitchen drew my attention down the stairs. Passing the man while he was working, he paused looked at me and smiled. My heart leapt from my chest or at least that’s what it felt like. Having a hard time standing, I kneeled beside him. In an instant my strength returned and I was able to continue. But as I rounded the bottom of the stairs, I saw the man again. He was in the living room in front of the TV, cleaning all around it. Not just the floor, but the walls and the ceiling. With the greatest accumulation of trash in front of our recliners. Again as before he paused and gazed upon me. In what seemed like forever, but lasting only a second, I felt a strong longing coming from him. Like his desire was for me, but that he was spending his time doing something else. The noise from the other room caught my ear again, and as I turned away my heart melted, regretting the filthiness of my living room. But the brilliance of the light coming from the kitchen was so compelling I quickened my step.

Looking over the counter I saw the man once again, now he was cleaning out my pantry, as he cleaned out my refrigerator and the freezer, all at once. I don’t understand what I’m seeing, yet peaceful conviction floods my mind. I find myself asking, what are you doing? Now he is before me, closely before me. A breath away. I am intimidated. Though strangely comforted. He speaks and my heart leaps once more and the softest of words cascade warmly across my being. No voice I audibly hear, it is though the words are being written upon me with the punctuation pressed into my heart. I swoon. Unable to stand before him I fall to my knees weeping. My voice has now failed me as I can only mouth my most recent  transgressions. With strong hands that gently raise me he places me back on my feet while kissing away my tears. Embracing me closely, I look upon his face and love envelopes my heart. Courageously I confess My Lord, My God! Nothing holds my words back. Even if I tried, they would still escape from my lips. And as I peered into his eyes, I saw all my loved ones that had gone on before, like they were just on the other side of a crystal glass. I started to call to them, but before I could utter I found myself awakening. Lying there, pondering these things, I felt the words that had been spoken upon me in my dream. The best I can comprehend is: I desire that you walk beside me in righteousness, rather than continue to kneel for forgiveness.

Column:

Of all the tremendously generous gifts his Heavenly Father had given him, one that he enjoyed nearly everyday, was that of sitting in his backyard listening to the birds sing. He was simply infatuated with the melodies they produced so effortlessly. He enjoyed their song so much that he often lost track of time while sitting among their concerts of praise. He had doves and sparrows, mockingbirds and cardinals, finches and robins, blue jays and scissor tails and on and on. Each type of bird singing their unique praise. He realizes they are not singing for him, though sometimes it feels that way. One day he thought, what a blessing their songs are to me and decided to offer them seed. Buying several types of bird feeders he placed them in various places around the yard. He searched and found a good mix of song bird feed that included many types of grain. Soon the number of birds in his back yard began to increase. Where he had only seen birds in the early morning and late afternoon, now through out the day they were congregating. He was excited with the chorus that was assembling. For a while things were melodious, with him tending the seed and them singing. He was joyous. Then on a trip to a local hardware store he spied a bag of seed that was less than half the cost he paid. Looking, the bag appeared almost identical to what he had been feeding.

Now of all the birds in his backyard the most devious ones where the boat-tailed grackles. Usually content to steal the cats food, they also did their best to steal food from the other grackles. They were loud, messy and would simple take over. The food he had placed in the feeders originally they cared nothing about, so they pretty much left them alone. But as soon as he changed the food, something in the mix drew them in like you wouldn’t believe. Even with all the different types of grain in the mix only one did they desire. And since there wasn’t much of it in the bag, they would scatter the grain onto the ground while picking out what they craved. As they continued to congregate their numbers increased. They pushed out many of the song birds. Performing their loud shrieking and boastful dances the more gentle birds left in search of more comfortable surroundings.

The doves hung around the longest, landing on the ground to forage for the seed that had been discarded into the grass. But this was dangerous, for the cat of the yard was always watching. Watching for the ones that let their guard down. For it only took a second of distraction to become dinner for the cat. Before he knew it the songs he enjoyed, dwindled. Examining the seed mix he had purchased, he found that there really wasn’t much nutrition. Stems, hulls and little bits of unknown particles made up a large portion of the bag. No wonder so many of the singers left. He was giving them trash. And the ones that remained were in danger of the cat. What have I done? He thought to himself. How foolish of me to reward their service with look alike garbage. After cleaning out the bad seed and restoring the feeders, he changed back the seed to the original. The grackles which had been so disruptive, he ran off by simply returning to pure seed.

Sound familiar? It does to me. But I tend to look at things as they first appear, then beyond to see any symbolism that may be present. So let me steer your thoughts into the direction mine pondered.

In our day the church in the United States appears in decline. A recent poll shows for the first time in our country people are leaving the fellowship of corporate worship and in many cases Christian practice all together. Why is this? I’m not completely sure, other than Scripture says this will happen as people’s hearts become more calloused towards others. But one thing I am absolutely sure of, The Gospel of Jesus Christ is being watered down and diluted by many of the very ones that are supposed to be barriers of His Truth. Many have turned from living, speaking, and teaching life changing truth for an entertaining, milk toast, social gospel that doesn’t have the power to convict sin. Much less deliver the soul changing victories our world so desperately is starving to experience. People have been hurt by the changing of the spiritual food needed to grow and mature. Have you been run off?… Are you searching around for real seed?… Is the symbolic cat about to pounce?… There is but one way, regardless of what many voices say, which are like squawking grackles. It is found in The absolute Truth. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, the pure seed.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 28 – Published 6/25/22

ARE WE STAYING OR GOING? Part 6

I found this article by a man named Will Libby that contains some interesting information that helps us understand our modern views about a pre-tribulation catching away of the saints. As I have asked the question before, if every Christian on earth is removed before the tribulation begins, this means there would be no one in the world to preach the gospel or stand for God’s truth. Another important point to consider is whether the Holy Spirit is also removed. I have mentioned this before, but Revelation chapter 20 clearly says that saints will be martyred “during” the tribulation. So, are these new converts who found a Bible and called upon Jesus to save them after the bride was removed? And how were they convicted and drawn into repentance without the power of the Holy Spirit opening their eyes to spiritual truth? These are questions that deserve answers.

According to the pre-tribulation rapture view, the restrainer is holding back the anti-Christ at this moment and there are several opinions as to who this might be. The Holy Spirit working through the remnant is widely accepted as what is preventing the world leader from being known, but should we not also consider that it could be God Himself? “Do you not remember when I was with you I told you these things? And now you know what is holding him [Antichrist] back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the mystery of iniquity [the power of lawlessness] is already at work, but the one who is holding him back [God] will continue to do so until he is taken out of the way [is this the remnant and the Holy Spirit? The church is always referred to as a she]. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the splendor of His coming” 2 Thessalonians 2:5-8. This passage is used to prove the saints are holding back the global dictator, but the only one with the power and authority would technically be the Holy Spirit. Paul was saying to his listeners you know who I’m talking about but does not clearly identify this to us. He mentions the restrainer will be “taken out of the way” but does this mean completely removed from the earth or is it just no longer holding the Antichrist back? To teach there will be no Holy Spirit or Christians during the tribulation does not make sense at least until the wrath of God is poured out upon the world.

Will There Actually be a Global Rapture Event? Viewpoints Explained by Will Libby

Summary:

• Some early theologians, like Origen, saw the rapture as a purely spiritual event
• Rufinus viewed biblical references to a rapture as a statement about the nature of the afterlife
• Other early theologians, like Augustine and Chrysostom, did associate a physical rapture event with the Final Judgement
• Many modern depictions of the rapture in pop culture come from a theology developed by John Darby in the 19th century

What do we mean by “Rapture”?

The Final Judgement has become a staple of Christianity’s interaction with pop culture. Whether through cinematic depictions of apocalyptic natural disasters, or literary references to the Four Horsemen, many today, whether Christian or not, have developed some sort of idea about what the last days will look like.

Chief among those ideas is some working understanding of a rapture of believers, where Christians around the world will be taken up into heaven prior to the unleashing of the cataclysmic events that most associate with the end times. Images of empty piles of clothes and cars whose drivers had suddenly disappeared have been a part of the popular understanding of the rapture for decades, and many do not question whether such an event plays out like this. But how did we get here? Where did these popular understandings of the rapture come from, and how do they compare to what the church historically taught regarding the rapture and Final Judgement?

Let’s begin by examining the origin of the term, “rapture,” itself. Like much of our modern vocabulary, the English word is derived from a Latin word used in the Latin translation of the Bible, called the Vulgate. The word in question is mentioned in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17. “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever” (NIV).

The Latin word, rapio, is used in verse 17 when Paul says “will be caught up”, and it is from this association with being “caught up” or “carried off” that we became familiar with the word, rapture. Long before this word was ubiquitous in modern culture, however, the early church fathers wrestled with the concept of the rapture (if they didn’t necessarily call it by that word) by examining the above-mentioned verse and other scriptures relating to the end times.

A Spiritual Rapture

Origen, a 3rd-century theologian and “Church Father” looked at 1 Thessalonians 4:17 in a largely spiritual way, defining the dead and the living not based on any sort of physical condition, but on their relationship to Christ. “Those who have been perfected,” he claimed, “are alive in Christ,” while the dead in Christ were those who were still inclined to become overpowered by their human nature, and so, in his view, had not completed their union with Christ. From this perspective, Origen sees Paul’s idea of being “caught up” as a sort of spiritual resurrection. “Those whom we said to be dead have special need of the resurrection,” says Origen of this passage of Scripture.¹ So, in Origen’s view, the rapture was not so much a physical carrying-off, but a spiritual resurrection, needed most by those who are furthest from Christ.

Rufinus of Aquileia, a 4th-century theologian, similarly attributed a spiritual significance to the idea of the rapture, although he was more apt to see it as a physical event as well. “And do not marvel that the flesh of the saints is to be changed,” wrote Rufinus, “into such a glorious condition at the resurrection as to be caught up to meet God,  suspended in the clouds and borne in the air” (emphasis added). Rufus and Origen both saw a spiritual significance to the rapture, describing it as the final step in complete union with Christ. Rufinus, however, sees this event as being a part of the final physical resurrection, where the physical bodies of believers are exchanged for a more heavenly form. In this context, though, Rufus is not speaking of the Last Judgement necessarily, but about the final fate of Christian souls. To Rufinus, this physical carrying off is not inherently tied to the Great Tribulation mentioned in Revelation, but simply represents what ultimately awaits believers in Heaven. He does not state that this carrying-off will be a single event that affects all believers worldwide. Instead, the rapture to Rufus is more like a statement about the nature of the afterlife, one where physical forms are replaced by heavenly bodies and believers commune with Christ for eternity.

These two theologians, Rufinus and Origen, primarily focused on the nature of the rapture’s significance. In other words, they were concerned largely with what it would mean for believers once the rapture, as they understood it, had reached its end. Contrast that approach with the likes of John Chrysostom, who was instead far more interested in the nature of the rapture’s occurrence.

A Physical Rapture

“If He is about to descend, on what account shall we be caught up?” Chrysostom muses. “For the sake of honor. For when a king drives into a city, those who are in honor go out to meet him; but the condemned await the judge within…as He descends, we go forth to meet Him…” Chrysostom, a 4th-century church father famed for his eloquent public speaking, answers his own question by employing an analogy about a king entering a city, and how his subjects come out to meet him before he arrives at the gates, preparing a way for his triumphant entry. This imagery conjures up more modern ideas of the rapture as seen in pop culture. Chrysostom associates being caught up (note his use of the term, like Origen and Rufinus) with the final judgment, as Christ is envisioned as a king returning to his city to judge the righteous (those “who are in honor”) and the condemned. In his telling of events, the rapture occurs before the coming of Christ, as in his analogy the citizens ride out to meet the king before he enters the city, and those who are not “in honor” remain in the city until the king comes to judge them. This certainly seems to imply that a real event, where believers are carried off from this world before Christ returns, is going to occur, according to Chrysostom. Augustine similarly implied that such a thing would happen, stating that a “resurrection shall take place in the twinkling of an eye,” bringing to mind the instantaneous disappearance of believers around the world that is often seen in cinematic depictions of the rapture.

John Darby and the Modern Rapture

Though Chrysostom and Augustine laid a rough framework that vaguely resembles modern ideas of the rapture, the credit for fleshing those ideas out and establishing a firm understanding of the rapture as a global event that precedes the Second Coming of Christ goes to John Darby. In the 19^th Century, Darby championed a novel way (for the time) of reading Scripture, which was strictly literal, and focused much of his attention on the end times prophecies in the book of Revelation. It was through this interpretive perspective that Darby concretely separated the rapture and the Second Coming as two distinct events, largely based on the reading of Revelation 20:1-6, “Then I saw an angel descending from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the abyss and a huge chain. He seized the dragon—the ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan—and tied him up for a thousand years. The angel then threw him into the abyss and locked and sealed it so that he could not deceive the nations until the one thousand years were finished. (After these things he must be released for a brief period of time.) Then I saw thrones and seated on them were those who had been given authority to judge. I also saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of the testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God. These had not worshiped the beast or his image and had refused to receive his mark on their forehead or hand. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished.) This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who takes part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.”

Darby saw the thousand-year reign mentioned in Revelation 20 as a literal 1,000 years, and as a distinct era of history which was to be marked at its beginning by the Second Coming. That Second Coming, however, was to be preceded by a rapture, where Christ would assemble all Christians, living and dead, with Him in heaven before returning to begin this millennial reign with them. In between these two events (the rapture and the Second Coming), all the apocalyptic events of Revelation would occur, known as the Great Tribulation.

Darby’s specific view of the rapture and Second Coming garnered the name, dispensational premillennialism, so named for Darby’s desire to divide the world’s history into distinct eras (or dispensations), and for the fact that Christ’s Second Coming would be occurring before His millennial reign (thus, premillennialism).

The Rapture in Pop Culture

This view of the rapture, dispensational premillennialism, has given rise to much of what we see in pop culture with regards to the rapture and accompanying apocalypse, due to its wealth of content which translates well into books and movies. The Left Behind series, for example (both the books and films), drew upon dispensational premillennialism’s history of literal interpretation to create a story built around the premise of the literal fulfillment of all of Revelation’s prophecies, including a global rapture event that preceded the Second Coming of Christ.

The rapture is not exclusive to premillennialist views, however, as the term, premillennial, largely denotes the time-frame of Christ’s return, not necessarily the nature of any sort of rapture event. Postmillennialism, for example, claims that Christ will return after a thousand-year period of blessedness and prosperity on earth. Amillennialism, on the other hand, views the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20 as largely symbolic, or as a metaphor, where Christ’s reign is over a spiritual kingdom on earth, rather than a literal one.

A version of the rapture could conceivably fit into any millennial framework. Origen and Rufinus’ claim that the carrying off mentioned by Paul in 2 Thessalonians is largely a spiritual experience pairs well with the spiritual approach to scripture offered by amillennialism. Postmillennialism claims that Christ’s coming is accompanied by his judgement on the wicked (as opposed to dispensational premillennialism, which separates the two events), which seems to be what Chrysostom is implying in his understanding of the rapture, and so the two are compatible.

The version of the rapture we see in premillennialism and espoused by John Darby (which also is compatible with what Chrysostom claims) is by far the most recognized in pop culture of the three, although in terms of its acceptance within the church, there is a relatively even split among the millennial views. Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches for the most part reject the idea of a pre-tribulation rapture event (dispensational premillennialism view), and opt to interpret the rapture instead as Rufus and Origen did.

Denominations more apt to interpret the scriptures through a literal lens, in the way that John Darby did, are more likely to accept the idea of a global rapture event preceding Christ’s Second Coming. Thus is this view found in Protestant churches more than anywhere else. The Pentecostal denomination accepts this version of the rapture as truth, and many Southern Baptist laypeople hold this view as well, though the denomination does not officially claim it as a central tenant. Protestant denominations such as Presbyterians, Methodists, and Anglicans, to name a few, reject Darby’s view and instead hold to Origen and Rufinus’ view.

So, whether a church views the rapture as a spiritual event, or a physical one, and no matter the timeline, there is precedent in church history for such belief. While the idea that Darby championed of a global event that marks the beginning of the Great Tribulation is by far the most familiar view among those outside of the church, it is by no means the only option for Christians to adhere to regarding the rapture and Second Coming. Church fathers throughout history have examined the particular scriptures that deal with the rapio, the carrying off, and their conclusions offer up a host of ideas that any Christian would be in good company to hold.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 27 – Published 6/18/22

URGENT WORD

By William F. Holland Jr.

It’s painful to write about the subject of a fallen world especially when I have witnessed this country embrace the path of communism and atheism. The United States has never been perfect, but was clearly founded upon the desire for all men and women to enjoy the freedoms of being able to believe and say what they wanted – but this is no longer a reality. Sadly, as this nation is only around 250 years old, today it would not be recognizable to the original founders. The Christian presence has been strong throughout the years as a basic reverence for God was common and only until about 70 years ago a spiritual awareness was accepted in the government, legal, and public education system. It’s difficult to imagine how the culture has taken a moral nose dive in my lifetime as each day there is a new shock factor of debauchery and the evil attempt to control what we believe. You can look around and see the negative results of mind control that are boldly brainwashing the masses. It’s obvious the invention of media technology was disguised as a blessing, but it was actually intended to indoctrinate the listener with propaganda. Before the mainstream media determined what was true, people thought for themselves and listened to God. Today, the masses are herded like cattle and told to embrace and obey what they are told in order to preserve their integrity and good standing within the system. This is where communism and atheism bond together and will continue to dominate until Christ returns.

I speak with conservatives on a regular basis and most of them are decent Christian people who love America and want to live in peace. There are still good people out there who are standing on the front lines fighting for what is right and doing all they can to push back the flood of corruption and deception. Some Bible scholars believe these believers are what is holding back the Antichrist from stepping onto the world’s stage. The Holy Spirit lives and moves within them and allows the world to see the character and nature of Jesus. If there is such a thing as a rapture, I would not want to be here after the saints are removed. I do not intend to promote discouragement for those who believe in the Bible and its demand for holiness, but it’s obvious the battle is being lost in many areas. Truth seekers ask how could all of these horrible changes happen so fast and who kidnapped our society? Well, we know that Satan has been given a long leash by God to do whatever he wants within God’s plans, and what we are seeing today is the result of careful organizing and designing. The devil’s agenda is to kill, steal, and destroy as much as he can within the timeline he has been given. This demonic onslaught has blinded the eyes and minds of those in authority and they are being used as puppets to carry out his dirty work. It’s true this has been going on since the beginning of time, but now the floodgates of spiritual warfare are open as we are now very close to the great tribulation.

We look back and realize that while the churches in America in the last 100 years were building their beautiful buildings and trying to raise money to finance ways to bring in more members, they lost sight of what God had called them to do. They became so distracted with trying to become successful corporations and making larger salaries, the government was openly passing evil laws that were ruining the nation. It’s clear the Christians dropped the ball. They refused to get involved and chose to ignore the nation’s downward slide into a cesspool of filth and perversion. In fact, many who professed to be a follower of Christ participated and supported the enemy. If the churches had come together in a spirit of unity and demanded the country to be led in a conservative direction with God being respected and the Bible being used as a standard of morals, we would not be in the mess we are in today. The truth is the churches were filled with liberal lukewarm thinkers who did not really believe in the Bible and certainly did not want to aggressively stand for it. Pastors were two-faced traitors who were afraid to speak the truth and did not want to offend anyone because it might decrease their popularity. The love of money was and is a carnal infection within the religious world which by the way is led by a rebellious Pharisee spirit. They refused to contact those in congress and their representatives about important issues because they were too busy grilling a hamburger and watching television.

So just how bad is our current state of affairs in this nation? Allow me to give an example. A staunch liberal group of atheist scientists conducts an experiment and does an official study of 10,000 people who have been fully vaccinated to record the percentage of adverse effects. The results are reported that only 10 people complained of minor side effects and there were no deaths or disabilities, supposedly proving the drug is perfectly safe and leaving no excuses for anyone who would have anything negative to say about it. Of course, this entire program is being led by medical and government officials that completely agree with whatever the World Health Organization declares. The system widely promotes and endorses the study as infallible and uses the mainstream media to report and confirm that everything within this research is absolutely the truth and no one in their right mind would refute or disagree with it. What makes this a dead giveaway of deception is the global dictators who created the virus are the same puppet masters who make the vaccines. It does not take a genius to know this is all about money and controlling the world and sadly with the masses having a blindfold over their minds, most of them never stop to consider how this is another evil government deception and the propaganda is being presented with smoke and mirrors by a media monster who is the voice of the beast.

On the other hand, we have a team of open-minded scientists who are not associated or funded by the government and decide to also launch a valid investigation of 10,000 people who have been fully vaccinated. Some of these highly respected professionals do not embrace the liberal agenda and some are believers in God which immediately makes them an enemy of the state. They discover in their research that according to verified autopsies, 1200 people had died within 3 days of taking the injection and it was determined by doctors and coroners the vaccine was directly responsible for their death. It was also verified that 3100 people out of the 10,000 had adverse reactions to the vaccine, 1100 had partial disabilities, and 590 filed for total disability. When the findings are reported to the government health officials, they are immediately denied as being inaccurate, labeled as disinformation, and the media is given strict orders by the Center for Disease Control to absolutely refuse to broadcast this data on any type of media outlet. The entire study is brushed under the rug and those involved are mocked and their reputations insulted and discredited. Those who support the findings and attempt to share the information are monitored as conspiracy theorists and accused of being terrorists and dangerous to society. This one-sided cancel culture authority is another obvious sign of a rising communist state that most average people are not even aware of. We have now passed the point of no return.

We’ve just read a hypothetical analogy, but you get the point. This control of what is socially accepted and rejected is the most devastating attack on our freedom of equal rights in the history of our country. How many events over the last century have been told with a biased perspective? Are we really that naive and gullible to think that everything the government has told us is true? Seriously? I would venture to say that nothing we have been told is true and this is based on the fact that Satan is the father of all lies and he is the one who controls the airwaves. This insane enforcement and tainted selection of information not only monitor our medicines, health choices, and hospital protocol, but every facet of life including philosophies about human history, science, evolution, social issues, political correctness, religion, sexual deviance, public education, and everything we have an opinion about. I recently heard an interview with a Hollywood actor who implied that anyone who disagreed with the world’s agenda to indoctrinate every child with sexual perversion is a dangerous idiot. They went on to rant about how the older generation will soon die off like the dinosaurs and the new world order will be a wonderful way of life where people can do whatever they want with criticism. Satan is no longer lurking in the shadows. The dark agenda to reset our culture is being made clear more every day as the demons of hell have announced they are coming for the children because they will soon be leading the world for Satan. The older folks cannot be influenced by the blatant lies from this system, but the children are drinking the cool-aid and do not have a clear understanding of what is true. Their minds are being molded and they have nothing to compare or measure right and wrong.

We no longer have the first amendment freedom to speak what we believe. All the blood that has been shed so that everyone could speak what they believe is the foundation of this nation. We are now a country where only a one-sided world view is accepted. All information is being presented in a certain parameter and this will continue to be more strongly enforced. In China, if a person rails against the government and accuses them of lying, they are taken away and never heard of again. This is where we are heading. The voices of truth will be silenced and this includes the few Christians who are still standing for God’s ways. Since all social media is now controlled and anyone who has an opposing opinion about the government is immediately censored, does it bother you to know you are being groomed to worship this new system? It seems the majority of average people do not care about being held hostage in a demonic culture as long as they have something to eat and a cellphone. Are you willing to sell your soul so that you can enjoy the pleasures of this world? God is sending a strong delusion over the minds of those who do not love or serve Him and the love of many are waxing cold. The evil is growing more aggressive and violent and we are rapidly approaching a society where persecution is normal. People are driven by fear and we will soon witness a denial of the truth that we could have never imagined. The remnant of Christ are the only lights of God’s divine love on this planet and they are the targets of Satan. The fear of being martyred for standing with God will cause many to publicly curse Him. Are you prepared to stand when you are commanded to bow down to the beast?

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 26 – Published 6/11/22

Walking in peace when the world is falling apart

By William F. Holland Jr. – 6/11/22

The mind of a child is a fortress of dreams, a happy place where people and places are good and they live happily ever after. When they have love, food, and comfort, they assume that everyone else has it also. Within their own small mind, reality is a personal dimension where thoughts and ideas gradually are shaped and grow into what they believe. Most older people if asked about what the world was like when they were a child, will give us an outline of what they thought it was. However, we know they did not understand except for what was going on right in front of them. They did not realize there were people all around them that were starving, being abused and molested, being killed, suffering from cancer, or dying without Christ. Maybe we all have a secret chamber within our conscience that helps us cope with fear and worry. In this light, we can see that our happy place is very essential to our well-being as it allows us to be safe from the darkness and terrors that try to consume us.

When we hear about having the joy of the Lord in our hearts, I wonder if we really know what it is? The Christian faith includes joy as a vital part of our faith like love and hope, so the concept is that God is filled with joy, and the more of Him we have the more joy we will experience. It’s also associated with the level of our spiritual strength as the biblical definition of joy says that it’s is a feeling of good pleasure and happiness that is dependent on who Jesus is rather than on who we are or what is happening around us. This is where we separate the emotional feelings of happiness from the deeper realities of joy which comes from the Holy Spirit, abiding in God’s presence, and having hope in His truth. One of the most popular passages about joy comes from Nehemiah chapter 8 when the people were commanded to eat and drink as the law was being read and were encouraged to celebrate this holy day as the joy of the Lord was their strength. The same is true with being able to walk in peace even when we are surrounded with stress and anxiety. We just have to take control of our mind and dwell upon the truth of God’s promises instead of our emotions that are manipulated by fear. The Bible says as a man thinks in his heart so is he, so this means we choose our state of being.

In the New Testament, we have a passage in John chapter 15 and verse 11, where Jesus is speaking to His disciples, “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.” The idea is that when any Christian is reminded of spiritual truth they can rejoice in knowing that God’s words can never fail. This produces a joy that cannot be taken away by how circumstances may appear. Joy is based on a peace that goes beyond the natural realm of what we see and feel, as a spiritual reality of God’s promises. A further distinction between happiness and joy is knowing the difference between a religious sensation and a spiritual conviction. It would take a deeply devoted saint of Christ to be able to see beyond their own personal suffering while receiving comfort from His presence. Is this what the Christians who were thrown to the lions in the coliseums experienced? What about those who were held captive in the concentration death camps? I’ve never really suffered for Christ and admit that I can more easily see the ability to dwell on joy when we are not focused on the bad things that are going on around us. It’s as if joy would be more appreciated if we could somehow escape from an evil and spiritually depraved world. If we could just look out from our windows and see the beautiful forest and the endless Ocean, we could imagine a world where people love God and are happy. But, when we step outside and engage with humanity, we awaken from our slumber and comprehend this realm is filled with hatred, agony, and despair.

Yes, my friends, I would not be an honest messenger if I withheld the fact that our world is sliding downward into moral decay and global tyranny. There have been times of sorrow and discouragement since time began, and our daily recommended allowance for spiritual joy is the same as it always has been. The flood of wickedness can be overwhelming especially if we ignore our need to constantly abide with Him under the shadow of His wings. Let’s get real, we cannot change the world into a place of love, respect, and compassion. We have crossed the line and the age of innocence will not return. Satan focused on the children while the church was sound asleep and now they are controlling our culture with a godless agenda. We now live in a realm of chaos and confusion where governments and legal systems are enforcing a demonic society of hatred and darkness that are now openly declaring war on everything that is good and holy. We have entered into an evil environment comparable to the days of Noah and Sodom. This is a carefully designed plan by the enemy of our souls that is being unleashed from the pits and portals of hell and it cannot be stopped. Are you surprised that I would make such a negative statement? I heard a minister recently prophecy that God was going to remove all the evil people from power and ignite a revival so powerful that even professional sports would cease, and would cause the government to reverence the Lord, and it would all happen in one day. Tent revivals and people being saved and healed to the point where even the secular media would be astounded.

This is a very encouraging thought, but is this what God is saying? We know that bold speeches can generate excitement, but people need to be careful when they say they are relaying God’s message. In the Old Testament, people were stoned for being a false prophet. Of course, I like a positive and inspirational message and in my newspaper column, “Living on Purpose” I try to be uplifting and edifying, but I do not see God eliminating all the evil people so that America can become a Christian nation. He does not force people to love Him. Acts chapter two speaks about the Spirit of the Lord being poured out in the last days upon all flesh, but in the same context it says the sun will be dark and the moon will turn to blood. It’s common to assume this passage is referring to a spiritual movement that will launch a last minute harvest of souls, but was Peter talking about the revival at Pentecost or at the end of the age? A closer look at the New Testament allows us to know that the world continues to grow darker and more evil. There is nothing said about evil being done way with or the world turning to embrace Jesus as their Lord until the millennial reign of Christ. However, we do read about a coming New World Order where the Antichrist will become a global tyrant and will martyr Christians. Second Thessalonians talks about a great falling away and God sending a strong delusion that the masses may believe a lie, not a great revival. Many Christians are crying and begging for a rapture to escape the persecution of a horrific tribulation, but again, does the Bible actually speak of such a thing? We should be more concerned with learning how to live for God than trying to escape our responsibility.

Can we still maintain joy knowing that people all around us are spiritually lost and only one breath away from an eternity of suffering? Can we have joy when we see children being mutilated and transgendered into something they were not created to be? Can we rejoice when we know our government is led by Satan and is doing everything he can to cause the great reset and usher in the system of the beast? Mainstream media is nothing but a propaganda machine for the liberal left and the commercials and advertisements are now promoting lifestyles of debauchery and perversion while the masses drink their fill. Our legal system is guided by a Satanic philosophy that believes good is evil and evil is good. Yet, there is still good news! According to God’s truth, there is a way we can live in His perfect peace that passes all understanding and a joy unspeakable and full of glory. However, there are conditions. We cannot support and compromise with the world system and enjoy walking with God at the same time. We will have to choose to serve and walk with God or Satan and this is where the church does not have the courage to speak the truth. The churches have failed miserably because they try to please everyone instead of pleasing God. The masses will continue playing games and only a tiny remnant will take up their cross and follow Jesus. We pray and wage war against the realm of darkness, but we walk in the perfect love of our Heavenly Father. Abandoning the sins of the world and having a personal relationship of joy with Christ is the only way we can survive what is coming.

Dr. Holland is a conservative Christian minister, chaplain, and author. Read more about the Christian life at billyhollandministries.com

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 24 – Published 6/4/22

A Closer Look At Bible Translations

This comparison chart helps us visualize the differences between various Bible translations. Though not every Bible is listed here, all translations will land somewhere on the spectrum from “Word-for-Word” thru “Thought-for-Thought” and all the way to Paraphrase. The left side are the more literal translations called formal equivalence, and the right side is referred to the paraphrase and is fully into the dynamic equivalence realm. The best translations of the Bible are mostly well-known, but there are also a few that are not. Scholars regard a word-for-word translation as the most accurate method that also leaves the least room for error. Thought-by-thought and paraphrasing are much easier to read, but they have been criticized because these attempts to translate many times spill over into trying to interpret what the scriptures are saying by making the text say what the person wants it to say. For example, scholars have noted how King James influenced the scribes as they translated in order to support his personal views. Many Christian leaders believe the King James Version is perfect without any errors and some will only allow it to be used in their churches. This is a personal decision that can be based on tradition, emotion, or just preference, and many will become hostile at the thought of a possible error.

I am convinced that God spoke to those He trusted and they wrote what they were inspired to record, but I also believe the book must be interpreted through the Holy Spirit and not to read and understood literally. Let us also remember that mortals are not perfect and everyone makes mistakes. It is accepted that Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible which is a considerable amount, especially when realizing it was written by hand. I see nothing wrong with assuming that he had many historical documents that had been written by others before him and that he copied this valuable information. I would also not doubt that Noah brought all the important scrolls he could find with him on the Ark. In this light, there may have been many more scribes involved with the Old Testament that we will never know. The important thing to know is that beyond the ink and paper, whatever and however God wants us to know what the text is saying, we can pray and ask Him to give us the correct meaning and He will lead us into His perfect truth. It is not meant to be insulting, but those who insist on the infallibility of the human input with the Bible, have never learned the ancient languages and have not translated the Bible themselves. In fact, the more dogmatic a person is about what a verse is saying and refusing the possibility of there being allegories within the texts, the more we realize they embrace a rigid literal approach. These two areas alone have caused much division.

Each approach has its strengths and weaknesses. Bible scholars have to analyze the original languages for a long period of time in order to develop a high proficiency in the original language. And these same scholars must be top experts in the target language as well. Anyone who has learned a foreign language knows there are certain idioms in each language. These idioms do not always translate accurately from a source language to the target language, so translators must be very careful to make sure the meaning is accurately transmitted. One word used incorrectly and in the wrong place can give a passage a completely different meaning. If you’ve ever used a concordance, you see that often there are several words that are similar but have different meanings. For example, “Thou shalt not kill” should actually read, “Thou shalt not murder.” However, for the most part, the translators do a good job trying to make sure they choose the correct words. How do we know this? Because after thousands of years of Bible translating, most of the major translations are in general agreement about the major meanings they are conveying in English.

Before we close, I want to reveal a list of five translations that most scholars advise us to avoid. The Living Bible, The Message Bible, The New World Bible, The Passion Translation, and The Mirror Bible. I encourage everyone to do your own personal research of Bible translations and see for yourself which one the Holy Spirit leads you to trust. Almost all scholars agree that the New American Standard Bible (NASB) receives the crown for being the most accurate English Bible translation. May the Lord continue to give us His wisdom and the revelation of His Word.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 23 – Published 5/28/22

ARE WE STAYING OR GOING? Part 5

I mentioned Corrie Ten Boom in an earlier part of this series. Many of these innocent people loved God and begged Him to intervene and yet they were humiliated, gassed with poison, and burned in incinerators. Why? Because demon-possessed people were controlled by Satan and sadly to say this hatred and violence has been happening since Cain killed Abel and will continue until Jesus returns. This week I want to share a letter that she wrote in 1974 as it talks about how the religious world is convinced that we are going to be excused from living by faith in times of tribulation. I realize her personal experiences have influenced her greatly but it is not only her life we are considering. All through the ages, we have seen Christians suffer and many of us here in the United States rarely think about those who are killed in other places simply because they believe in Jesus Christ. Are we any better than they? Are not the spirits gathered around God’s throne those who were martyred during the great tribulation (that has yet to come?) Yes, this is troubling, but why are we convinced this could not be talking about us? Here is her letter.

“The world is deathly ill. It is dying. The Great Physician has already signed the death certificate. Yet there is still a great work for Christians to do. They are to be streams of living water, channels of mercy to those who are still in the world. It is possible for them to do this because they are overcomers. Christians are ambassadors for Christ. They are representatives from Heaven to this dying world. And because of our presence here, things will change. My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews. Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland, and Belgium were herded into a room built for two hundred. Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room as far as I knew. We may have been the Lord’s only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed. Jesus said, “In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”  We too, are to be overcomers – bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate.

Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible coming true. Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid, that I have just read the last pages. I can now come to shouting “Hallelujah!” for I have found where it is written that Jesus said, “He that overcometh shall inherit all things: and I will be His God, and he shall be my son.” This is the future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive – but that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world. In the concentration camp, Betsy and I prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick. “Yes, the Lord will heal me,” Betsy said with confidence. She died the next day and I could not understand it. They laid her thin body on the cold concrete floor along with all the other corpses of the women who died that day. It was hard for me to understand, to believe that God had a purpose for all that. Yet because of Betsy’s sacrifice and unwavering faith, today I am traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus.

There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days.
Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on around the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution. In China, the Christians were told, “Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated – raptured.”  Then there came terrible persecution. Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly, “We have failed. We should have made the people strong and prepared for persecution rather than telling them Jesus would come first. Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution, how to stand when the tribulation comes – to stand and not faint.” I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it. We are next. Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus’ sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible scripture I think, “Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation.” Then I write it down and learn it by heart.
When I was in the concentration camp, a place where only twenty percent of the women came out alive we tried to cheer each other up by saying, “Nothing could be any worse than today.” But we would find the next day was even worse. During this time a Bible verse that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy. “But and if you suffer for righteousness sake, happy are ye; and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled” (I Peter 3:14). I found myself saying, “Hallelujah! Because I am suffering, Jesus is glorified!” In America, the churches sing, “Let the congregation escape tribulation” but in China and Africa, the tribulation has already arrived. This last year alone more than two hundred thousand Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get into the newspapers because they cause bad political relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to think about that when we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners. Many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all going to escape the tribulation.

Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into power. The first night I was there some of the Christians were commanded to come to the police station to
register. When they arrived they were arrested and that same night they were executed. The next day the same thing happened with other Christians. The third day it was the same. All the Christians in the district were being systematically murdered. The fourth day I was to speak in a little church. The people came, but they were filled with fear and tension. All during the service they were looking at each other, their eyes asking, “Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the next one?” The room was hot and stuffy with insects that came through the screen-less windows and swirled around the naked bulbs over the bare wooden benches. I told them a story about my childhood. When I was a little girl, I went to my father and said, “Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Christ” Tell me, said father, when you take a train trip to Amsterdam, when do I give you the money for the ticket? Three weeks before? “No daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train.” That is right, my father said, and so it is with God’s strength. Our heavenly Father knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. He will always supply all you need – just in time.”

My African friends were nodding and smiling. Suddenly a spirit of joy descended upon that church and the people began singing, “In the sweet, by and by, we shall meet on that beautiful shore.” Later that week, half the congregation of that church was executed. I heard later that the other half was killed some months ago. But I must tell you something. I was so happy that the Lord used me to encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the Word of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who remained faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life.

How can we get ready for the first waves of persecution? First we need to feed on the Word of God, digest it, and make it a part of our being. Growing strong in our faith does not happen overnight. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives. Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History, but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive and sitting at the right hand of God. We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is no optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those early disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in the tribulation without it.

In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and encourage each other. But we must not wait until the tribulation comes before starting. The fruit of the Spirit should be the dominant force of every Christian’s life. Many are fearful of the coming tribulation, they want to run. I, too, am a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years, including the horrible Nazi concentration camp that I might have to go through the tribulation also. But then I read the Bible and I am glad. When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord, we were so weak, but we received power because the Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in yourself when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me down. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him,” for I know that to all who overcome, He shall give the crown of life. Praise His name forever!”

Amen! I am very touched and moved within my soul and appreciate her heart. I have also read her book “The hiding Place” as she gives a small glimpse into the world she has seen and experienced. She passed away in 1983 and lived a humble life under the mighty hand of God’s mercy and love and believed He opened her eyes to a deeper spiritual perspective. I was thinking that even though this letter is pointed toward the seven years of tribulation that is prophesied in Biblical eschatology, we can also apply the basic meaning of trials and challenging situations to other types of tribulations. I realize that sickness and disease can be a very scary valley to walk through because death has its share of concerns and sadness. The fears of having dementia as we grow older and if provisions became difficult to obtain could also be other issues to worry about. Whatever the cause for being anxious or the level of difficulty involved I believe as she explained that being close to God is our refuge and His Word as the anchor for our soul.

I refer back to the exchange between her and her father and the train ticket. The powerful illustration was that God knows what we will need before we even ask and will supply them as we have need of them. I believe this is how the martyrs have always been able to endure intense suffering as they crossed over from this life into the arms of Jesus. I trust with all of my heart that whatever happens from this time forward we will remember we are in the palms of His hands and will be with Him forever. If we are raptured tonight – Praise God! If we are called to help others in the times of violence and terrible sorrow, then let us roll up our sleeves and work for Him until He calls us home. I close with this promise of hope and encouragement. “For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit choose to mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have NOT received the spirit of bondage again to fear but you have received the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father. The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. And if children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him that we also be glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” Romans 8:13-18.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

PART 22 – Published 5/21/22

Wanna Light a Fire Under Your Pastor?

BY Dave Daubenmire|May 19th, 2022

This is the most critical moment in the history of the American church. We are doomed to 1000 years of darkness if the Church does not stand up.  The curse of abortion is about to be expunged.  Churches must arise NOW!

Here is a stern warning to pastors. Write it off if you like. The folks in the pew are greatly dissatisfied. I hear it when I speak in churches and I hear it every time I write a commentary. Churches are hemorrhaging members and sadly, the leadership wants to blame the sheep. A good coach never blames the players. The sheep are a reflection of the shepherd.

Pastors are coaches. They deal with people. Most successful coaches have a very firm set of fundamentals by which they operate. They are not running a popularity contest; they are leading a team. A good coach will tell you that the best way to get your butt beat is to compromise on what you believe. MANY have emailed me asking, “What should we do, Coach? Our pastor won’t preach the hard truth anymore. It is all the “feel-good” stuff. Weare starving for TRUTH” [See: “Enemies Within: The Church” DVD]

I am often accused of pointing out problems but rarely offering solutions. Well, you asked for it, so I will tell you what I think. This is risky because the “Church of the Status Quo” and her apostles are sure to attack you. They will accuse you of criticizing the local church and church bashing. But you should love them enough to tell them the Truth.

Paul said it this way, “Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?” My dad was a great guy but little things used to drive him crazy. One of the things that used to bug him the most was when he would come home from the factory in the winter and the fire in the fireplace was barely burning. He would grab the poker and turn to one of us and say,

“How many times do I have to tell you that you can’t lay a big log on top of the fire or you will smother it? A big log will only burn if there is a good base of hot coals burning underneath. You can’t start a fire with a big log.” So here is the analogy. The pastor is the log and those sitting in the pews are the kindling, the little wood that sets the big log on fire. For too long we have tried to convince the big log that he needed to catch on fire. Every time a spark was lit in the pew he would roll over and smother the flame. “Wild fire” is the one thing the big logs hate. The big logs want “natural-gas” fires on which they can control the flame.

“It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people’s minds.” –Samuel Adams.

Okay, Mr. Kindling-Wood, you have a decision you are going to have to make. Are you sick and tired enough to come out of your comfort zone and begin to set little brush- fires? If you are not willing to make a stand then you have no reason to complain. It is time to stop waiting on the big log to set the rest of you on fire. As my friend Pete, once said “Our leaders will never see the light until we turn up the heat.”

Here are a few things to do to change the temperature in your church. (Warning: You will be called all kinds of names by your “brothers in Christ.”)  They will say that you shouldn’t bring politics into the church… it only brings discord. But you’re not sowing discord. You are asking questions. It is a church BODY not a monarchy. Pastors deserve your respect, not blind allegiance.  So, here are some ideas.

1. Stop calling your elected officials and start calling your pastor. Every time you see something that your local church should be concerned about, call your pastor and ask him a very simple question: “Pastor, what is our church going to do about it?” His response will tell you a lot about him. Do it privately at first as the Scriptures teach.

2. Don’t let him “wiggle off of the hook.” Follow up in a day or two and see if he has progressed in his plan to oppose evil. Let him know that you have shared your concern with others in the congregation and that they are waiting to hear his response as well.

3. Tell him you have decided to go to the school board (as an example of an issue that you might have brought to him) and ask him if he will go with you.

4. Continue to email and hard copy him on information germane to the topic. Be persistent. Don’t let him say later that “he didn’t know.”

5. After a hard sermon, make sure that you let him know that you appreciate what he had to say. Then ask this, “Pastor, what can I do to help you fight this in our community?” (Be careful, he may start quaking but let him know you are serious.)

Note: You are creating a sense of accountability here. Demand that he walk the walk and not just talk the talk. Let him know you are expecting his leadership, as are others.

6. If he rarely preaches a hard sermon ask, “Pastor, I haven’t heard a sermon on the sins of abortion, homosexuality, and pornography recently, but do you have one planned?” Let him know it is important to you and continue to bring it up. Write notes to him. He will hate it.

7. Ask him who he is voting for in the next election and why. If he is voting for a pro-abort, or homo-sympathizer point it out to him. If he says he doesn’t think he should share his personal political beliefs, please ask him why. Ask him if his personal beliefs are different from those he preaches. It is important to know what he believes.

8. Get your hands on videos and books and begin to educate YOURSELF on what is going on. Be like the Bereans who checked things out for themselves. Forward good stuff to him. CC the elder board.

9. Start a fellowship in your home with like-minded folks. Ask the leadership to support it. You would think they would encourage the assembling together of the saints but usually, that means only where they can have you in a controlled environment. Leading a Bible Study will stretch you and make you more equipped to share your faith with others. This is a good thing. But, be warned that the pastor may try to turn it into a controlled “small group” that is more about building horizontal relationships among each other rather than a vertical relationship with God.

10. Withhold your financial support if he refuses to preach against sin. He may say something like, “We preach the LOVE of Jesus.” Tell your pastor that you are going to give your money to a ministry that is preaching “the whole-counsel of God.” Follow the Biblical edict to “sow into good soil.” Many culturally active ministries could use the help.

11. If he doesn’t encourage his flock to carry Bibles to church, please ask him why. It may be that he wants to use several versions (possibly up on a screen) that can cause confusion. Ask him if he would hire a carpenter who came to work without a hammer.

12. Offer to start a “community watch-dog” ministry in the church to keep an eye on issues affecting Christians. Ask for his endorsement.

13. Offer to start a co-op for home educators and ask if the church would support you. If your pastor doesn’t want to “offend the government school teachers” in his flock, then that is a red flag.

14. Ask him if Christians should vote for local school levies and why? Begin to share information about the dangers of public schools.

15. Be prepared to leave your church. The answers that you get may not satisfy you. For the sake of your soul and the souls of your family find a church that is walking in the Truth.

It is time to turn up the heat. Those big logs will never burn until the kindling starts to glow red. Jesus warned us: “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth.” Accountability is a two-way street. Stop complaining about the lukewarm preaching. Put up or shut up. Light a fire and watch it spread. The big log will either catch your fire or roll on down the road! Snap, crackle, and pop. [See: “Enemies Within: The Church” DVD] Our window of opportunity is now. We can never win with lukewarm leadership. Lukewarm Leaders can never stand up to evil crooked politicians. America needs the pulpits to blaze. It is our only hope.

© 2022 Dave Daubenmire – All Rights Reserved

E-Mail Dave Daubenmire: ptsalt@gmail.com

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

PART 21 – Published 5/14/22

Who Will Be Kept from the Hour of Trial?

By David C. Grabbe

As human beings, we have an aversion to pain. We try to avoid the uncomfortable, the unpleasant, and the hurtful. Equipped with the capacity to feel both physically and emotionally, we are continually taking stock of what could injure us in our environment. When we know something painful is approaching, our natural tendency is to draw back, skirt around, or run past it—to do almost anything to avoid it When we look at the state of the world, considering what is prophesied to happen during the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord, our minds quickly become occupied with thoughts of how we might avoid having to experience those things. Protestantism comforts itself with the myth of a secret rapture—the idea that everyone who has professed Jesus Christ will be spirited away before things grow too bad. Knowing what the Bible says, however, to us that notion is an empty one.

Yet God does make promises of physical protection, so we do have hope. The letter to the church of Philadelphia contains one of the best known: “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those who dwell on the earth” (Revelation 3:10).

Before examining this promise, it may be helpful to understand what it does not say. Note how conventional wisdom would paraphrase this verse: Because you consider yourself to be a Philadelphian, and because you are with the church organization that is doing the most to preach the gospel to the world, I will keep you from the hour of trial and will take you to the Place of Safety where you will be protected while all those who disagree with you will go through the Tribulation.

“Conventional wisdom” is not actually wisdom but what is generally held to be true by many, yet it may, in fact, be fallacious. This rendering of Revelation 3:10 is the conventional wisdom in some circles, illustrating how many take narcissistic liberties with this verse. It also shows why there is such an emphasis today on which church group is the best: because we are averse to pain and tend to try to avoid it. Thus, some convince themselves that they will be safe from what lies ahead because they are with the right church—rather than being right with God. This is extremely dangerous, as it indicates that they trust in the wrong thing.

Patient Endurance

The letters to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 are written in large part from a perspective of “if the shoe fits, wear it.” In each, Jesus concludes with “he who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”—plural—meaning we should glean all that we can from each letter rather than focus on our favorite one. In this light, a way to approach Revelation 3:10 is that perseverance is part of what Christ uses to define who a Philadelphian is. Thus, an individual is a Philadelphian because he keeps His command to persevere, in addition to exemplifying the other things He says, such as keeping His Word and not denying His name (Revelation 3:8). In short, a person cannot conclude that, just because he is fellowshipping with a particularly faithful group, he will be carried along in its positive momentum and benefit from the promise of protection and other blessings. An unfaithful individual in an overall faithful group will reap what he sows, not what the rest of the group sows.

Christ says similar things in other places, as in Matthew 10:22: “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved” (emphasis ours throughout). He makes no mention of group membership but addresses the enduring individual. Similarly, in Matthew 24:12-13 and Luke 21:36, He emphasizes what we do as individuals—our personal faithfulness and endurance—rather than the merits of a particular group. Just as Laodiceanism can be found in each of us regardless of the church we attend, so each of us can persevere and courageously endure no matter where we fellowship.

Revelation mentions patient endurance seven times. At the book’s beginning, John sets the tone by introducing himself as “I, John, your brother and companion (sharer and participator) with you in the tribulation and kingdom and patient endurance [which are] in Jesus Christ” (Revelation 1:9, Amplified Bible). The construction here is peculiar, but John uses three words to describe one thing—namely, the tribulation that is connected with the Kingdom and which requires patient endurance (see Acts 14:22; II Timothy 2:11-12). In the letters to the seven churches, several recurring phrases or themes appear. They all contain “I know your works” and “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Five letters contain the command to repent, and “patience” appears four times in three of them, a good indicator of the importance of patience to God’s church, especially at the end time.

In addition to the mention in Revelation 3:10, Christ commends the church at Ephesus for its patience: “I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake and have not become weary.” (Revelation 2:2-3). Perseverance—patient endurance—is also a part of the praise that Christ gives to the Thyatiran church: “I know your works, love, service, faith, and your patience” (Revelation 2:19).

The patience of the Saints

As the prophecies of the end time unfold, the patience of the saints is highlighted twice more. The first is in Revelation 13:9-10: “If anyone has an ear, let him hear. He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” In the preceding verses, John describes the Beast, his power, and his blasphemy. God allows him to make war with the saints and overcome them. This is part of what the saints will have to endure. Some translations, like The Amplified Bible and the English Standard Version (ESV), end verse 10 with here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints, which fits exactly with Christ’s “command to persevere” (NKJV) or [keeping] the word of [His] patience.

The first part of verse 10 can be confusing because, even though the book was written in Greek, John is actually using a Hebrew idiom that signifies the certainty of approaching judgment. This can be seen in Jeremiah 43:11; 15:2. This Hebraism means that it is so certain that the Beast will carry out these things that none will escape being involved in some way. Thus, God calls for endurance and faith. Revelation 14:12 contains another reference to the perseverance of the saints: “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

The saints are defined as those who keep God’s law and maintain and give attention to the faith of Jesus. Again, the context is the time when the world will worship the Beast and receive his mark. As in Revelation 13:10, translations such as the ESV render the first part as “Here is a call for the endurance of the saints,” meaning that, when the saints see this occurring, their endurance and perseverance will be in greatest need.

In Jesus Christ’s promise in Revelation 3:10, the core issue is perseverance. The King James reads, Because you have kept the word of My patience, and patience is likewise used in the other verses in Revelation. But “patience” tends to make us think of passive activity, which is not what the underlying Greek word, hupomoné, actually means. Greek scholar Spiros Zodhiates describes it as “constancy under suffering in faith and duty,” and commentator William Barclay defines hupomoné as “having the quality to stand, facing the storm, struggling against difficulty and opposition. Obviously, activity is involved; it is not just passively waiting. It describes active, spiritual resistance—against Satan, this world, and our own carnality. The most succinct rendering of hupomoné may be “courageous endurance.” “Cheerful or hopeful endurance” is another good rendering, as it includes a degree of optimism—and when we remember Who is on our side and how this story ends, we have every reason to be optimistic while persevering.

The Hour of Temptation

To put this command into perspective, we must imagine what the world will be like at the time when this letter will be most applicable. A great false prophet will be active, and deception will be so widespread that it will threaten even God’s elect. A powerful and blasphemous tyrant will encourage or even command worship of himself, and he will institute financial controls, such that commerce will be essentially impossible without paying homage to him. Yet, it will be our responsibility to be constant and unwavering under the suffering imposed by that system. Further, it does not appear that the church of God will be unified at that time. Given the various prophecies that describe seven lampstands and seven letters to seven churches, it seems that division will be the norm within the church. Some of the letters in Revelation 2 and 3 indicate a low level of faith and a high level of carnality.

As Jesus says in Matthew 24:12, “Because lawlessness will abound, the love [agapé] of many will grow cold.” The world does not have any agapé, so He must be speaking of the church! True Christians will have to persevere through encroaching sin and dying love within the church. The temptation may be great to throw in the towel, to withdraw, to separate from the brethren because of offenses, but doing so would be the opposite of hupomoné—of courageously enduring.

The New King James speaks of “the hour of trial,” but the King James calls it “the hour of temptation.” This is a fitting rendition because during that time it will be tremendously tempting to give up, to give in, to compromise, to let down just a little, to sin (just a little!) in order to make life easier. It will be a time of pressure like never before and thus very easy to become distracted, not just because of the blatant idolatry and religious deception, but also because of the world’s increasing attractiveness and pervasiveness.

It does not have to be just a time of fascism and concentration camps. People will be eating and drinking and marrying—having a great time. Revelation 18’s description of Babylon focuses on luxury and ease and the avoidance of suffering. Jesus warns in Luke 21:34, “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly. Distraction leads to idolatry. Whatever the reality of that time, “persevering” or “courageously enduring” without compromising will certainly be no small accomplishment. Yet Christ says that because some of His people have been keeping His command to persevere, He will keep them from the worst of it. They have already proved their faithfulness to Him; He knows where they stand, He sees their track record with Him, and He will not require them to experience everything that the rest of humanity will suffer.

In colleges and universities, some professors make the final exam at the end of a semester optional. This means that students take the final only if they need to bring their overall average up. But if a student already has an A from other tests and class work, the professor figures the student has already proved himself, and does not require him to take the final exam. This approach is analogous to Revelation 3:10. If the Christian is already faithfully persevering and resisting the spiritual foes, God may not require that he endure the very hardest test to prove what is in his heart. He has already proved it consistently through the course of his life. However, if, like a stereotypical first-year college student, he has frittered away his time, becoming involved in matters having nothing to do with college (even if they are not altogether bad things), he will have to prove where he stands. The final exam in this case is the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord, so it is in our best interest that we students demonstrate to the Teacher that we are serious before the end of the semester.

Perfect and Complete

The word translated “kept” or “keep,” used twice, plays into this. This word means “to attend to carefully; to maintain; to guard; to hold fast,” and the way that it is used indicates reciprocity. We certainly want God to guard, hold fast, and carefully attend to us. We would prefer that He guard us and hold us fast far away from the destruction and torment that will come upon the world! But the flipside is that He wants us to do the same thing—keep, guard, hold fast—with regard to our responsibilities to the covenant. In other words, if we want God to take an active interest in our well-being during that time, we should understand the principle of reciprocity and take an active interest in Him at this time. If we diligently guard the things He has committed to our trust, He will do the same for us.

Jesus’ brother, James, provides insight into the perseverance that Christ wants us to have: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing” (James 1:2-4). The perseverance that we will increasingly need as the end approaches cannot be developed all at once. Goofing off all semester and then cramming for the final exam rarely works in college, and it certainly will not work where our covenant and relationship with God is concerned. James counsels us to be thankful when our faith is tested, because all of those little exercises of faith not only prepare us for substantial trials, but also make us spiritually complete.

The upshot is that no man has the strength to endure and persevere through what lies ahead. Without God, we are all dead men, physically and spiritually, but because “power belongs to God” (Psalm 62:11), we can tap into the source of true strength through our relationship with Him. He decides the circumstances of our lives. He alone knows what we need to survive the trials and temptations at the end. More importantly, He knows what we need to be prepared for eternal life. Remember that God desires godly offspring (Malachi 2:15). He is creating sons and daughters in His image (Genesis 1:26; Romans 8:29). He is using His perfect creative genius to engineer the experiences and circumstances that we need to take on His image and have His eternal character formed in us.

For some, walking with God through the very depths of the end time is what they will need to become “perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” A large part of that may be a result of the choices that they make now, and their tendencies toward apathy, complacency, or compromise. For others who are already keeping His command to persevere, He will keep them from the hour of trial. It does not mean they will not see hardship: They must see hardship to endure courageously. But because of their constancy under duress—because God is not a stranger, and they are already accustomed to walking through life with Him and drawing upon His strength—they will be given a blessing of protection. “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” John 14:1-3 “Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.” Rev 3:10.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

PART 19 – Published by 4/30/22

ARE WE STAYING OR GOING – PART 4

Have you noticed, the only people who seem to be concerned about the rapture doctrine are the remnant? The casual religious people do not care enough about it to study it, because they are not worried about it. They just listen and trust a preacher, they believe that everything will be alright, and then head to Cracker Barrel for lunch. My friends, everything is NOT going to be alright! Look back through time at all the times of severe tribulation and see if God removed His people. Did He remove the Jews who were saved from the Holocaust? Did Jesus remove His disciples from persecution after He went back to Heaven? As I have said before, there is a difference between persecution and wrath. God saved Noah from the flood and Lot from Sodom, but He did not stop the tortures recorded in Foxes book of martyr’s. Have you ever thought about the people that God will speak to and say, “depart from me, I never knew you?” These were religious individuals who thought they were saved but were not. They thought they were ready for Heaven but they were not. Look around you now, can you see those who believe is real but do not live for Him? The Bible clearly explains the field of the world is filled with tares but only the wheat will be gathered into the Master’s barn.

I have been speaking about the pre-wrath rapture and I appreciate all those who have contacted me with your thoughts about this subject. This is a very important topic and if you will spend time researching Matthew chapter 24, you must ask who Jesus is speaking to? If the remnant bride is gone, why would He spend so much time telling us about the details during this time? When He says to watch in verse 42 and to be ready for the Son of man coming, who is He talking to? Go through Matthew 24 and you will clearly see the body of Christ is on the earth during much of the tribulation and at least up until God’s wrath is poured out. The question is when will God’s wrath be released?

Verse 34 is confusing to many but they are not interpreting through the spirit. When Jesus said this generation will not pass away until all these things are fulfilled, He was not talking about the one they were living in. He is talking about that particular last day generation who has the spiritual discernment to see the “leaves” or signs appear (end time prophecies) NOT the people who were with Him in His earthy ministry. Verses 32–35 begins with His analogy to learn from the example of a fig tree. When the leaves appear, people know summer is coming. In the same way, when mankind sees all these predicted signs and prophecies, they should know Christ’s return is near. The generation who can discern those signs will not pass until they have been completed. Nothing will change this since His words will not pass away even though heaven and earth may pass away. This is another example of mentally reading the words in a literal light instead of having the ears to hear within the sensitivity and wisdom from His Spirit into our spirit. Anyone can read the Bible but very few can interpret correctly.

The more I learn, the more I see that I do not know. Let me say that we live in a world system that is based on legal control. Many believe that no one is telling them what to do, but they are already brainwashed with deception. The money we receive, our credit and items we purchase, our legal and political system, social media, what we watch, where we go and what we say are all monitored and this data is being used for a purpose. It is all about knowing where we are and what we are doing in order to manage us. Ninety nine percent of the masses are up to their neck with technology and have bought into this system without having a second thought. Again, religion did not warn them because they are an essential part of it. Groups like the Amish and those who have pulled away from the grid have a more serious understanding of this snare trap and are trying to prevent being entangled in this web of demonic influence. Our entertainment technology is a choice not a necessity. This latest experiment to see how the masses would react to a mrna vaccination should awaken us to what all of this is really about. People will laugh when I say this is all leading up to the mark of the beast where each person will choose to serve God or Satan. I’m sad to say that most everyone will agree with the world.

In The Book Of Revelation the reference to Babylon is talking about literal historical places while also symbolizing a Satanic spirit. John is carried away into the wilderness where he saw spiritual visions. Revelation 17:3-6 says, “A woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the SAINTS, the blood of the MARTYR’S of Jesus.” This Whore of Babylon is the spirit of a seductive culture, where politics and laws are actively engaged in the deception and destruction of God’s people. That she rides upon “the beast” means she is propped up by the forces of anti-Christian government. Just like the beast, who was, and is not and is about to rise, the “Whore” who sells herself to the highest bidder keeps surfacing in each generation. A particular brand of her seductive charm may fall into the dust and be buried by the sands of time, but before you know it, she will rise again in another place, known by another name, but waging the same destructive war against God’s covenant people. As it was in the past, so shall it be in the future. However, let it be declared and trusted that GOD IS WITH US EVERY STEP OF THE WAY whatever we will go through.

Even though this demon is clearly seen throughout history, when you speak with the average person about the dangers of this system, the response is laughing or scoffing with comments like you have gone off the deep end with conspiracy theories. I can assure you, global wickedness is raging and the New World Order is not an illusion. The population is walking into an ambush because they have no spiritual discernment. They are too distracted with television and social media to pay any attention to how they are being led as sheep to the slaughter. Have you noticed that friends and even close family members are becoming hardhearted and their love has turned cold? The strong delusion has come upon them because of their rebellion to God. They have been warned by Godly leaders and prophets, but they have laughed. They wanted freedom to sin and they are NOT prepared for what is coming. I’m not talking about storing food and water, I’m talking about selling their soul to Satan. Even those who call themselves a follower of Christ will deny Him when they are threatened to be persecuted and to lose everything they have. You see, our bank accounts have direct deposit and most people pay their bills with electronic transfers, debit cards, credit cards, or checks. Cash is slowly disappearing and soon there will not be any cash. Everything will be bought and sold through a computer system as we will have some type of identification that will allow us to conduct financial business and basically prove who we are, what we have done, our medical records, and all that we own. We are slowly making our way toward this satanic system and you must have it in order to live and provide for your family.

Parents with small children will be told they must have the mark or they cannot purchase food or fuel, pay their mortgage, car payments, electric, water and all utilities, access their bank accounts, make credit card purchases, and the list goes on. My question is how many mothers will refuse the mark while their child is hungry? How many fathers will refuse the mark when their family is looking to them for support and protection? It all comes down to our relationship with Jesus Christ and our faith in Him. I have personally heard Christian mothers say they would take it to save their children. Those who have NOT invested their lives into Yahweh while they had a chance will NOT be able to suddenly be filled with a high level of courage and faith to resist the mark. In fact, instead of being in fear, most everyone we know will believe this is the most intelligent idea that has ever been thought of. The devil is laughing at the world as he has been slowly leading them down the path of destruction and soon will take off his mask and reveal that he is the monster that will either control them or kill them.

Soon it will be exposed that amazing technology, prosperity, and pleasures all seemed like a paradise, but the spiritually blind did not realize they were dancing to the mesmerizing tune of a pied piper who was leading them down the path to hell. The Bible clearly says that all who accept the mark in order to save their lives will lose their souls for all eternity. Take a look around, how many people that you know who do not live for Christ will die for Him? Those who have good jobs, prosperous businesses, happy marriages, nice homes and vehicles, children and grandchildren, bank accounts and investments, will they just say, “Oh well, I do not care about any of this?” Only a tiny remnant who is preparing this hour for what is coming will have the deeper levels of trust in God to know what they will do.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 18 – Published 4/23/22

ARE WE STAYING OR GOING? Part 3

Many have heard of Corrie Ten Boom the precious lady who loved Jesus and her powerful testimony about working on the front lines of God’s kingdom and the agony she suffered trying to do His will. As a Dutch survivor of the Nazi Concentration Camps, Corrie learned what it meant to face persecution. Her family was dedicated missionaries for Christ, and this passion to save others brought much suffering upon them as they joined many others that were persecuted in the holocaust during World War II. In fact, her family was brutally murdered before her eyes for simply trying to protect those who were innocent. She and her family walked through a series of tragedies that is difficult to imagine, but they are only one family in the midst of a world who have been victims of persecution. Throughout history, we cannot count those who have been killed for who they are and what they believed.

Speaking of being persecuted and martyred, today there is much talk about a pre-tribulation rapture which means that all Christians will be removed from the earth BEFORE the anti-Christ appears and thus will escape any type of situation where they will be called to trust God and not compromise. Many believe they have figured out all the details about this event and I do not want to argue about it, but I do want to ask if you have done a personal study about this? The assembly where I grew up taught the doctrine of a pre-tribulation rapture and I’ve listened to many friends and family talk about how excited it will be to be rescued from this evil world and escape persecution. The idea is the remnant will be caught up in a twinkling of an eye before having to reject the mark of the beast. I am not opposed to the concept of a pre-wrath rapture whenever that will be, but I am not convinced in a rapture before the New World Order is set in place. Being rescued any second tickle our ears and causes us to relax, but is relaxing something we should be doing? I thought we are to be preparing our wedding garments and making sure we are ready to face death for our Lord like all the other martyrs before us.

Again, I’m not saying there will not be a rapture, because I believe at some point in time the saints will be removed, but it’s difficult to separate the rapture scriptures from those that talk about the Lord’s return. Evidently, He is coming back once to remove us from God’s wrath and again when He comes in all of His glory and destroys the armies at Armageddon. There are passages about the saints being taken from the earth and the dead being resurrected before He pours out His wrath, but I just want to ask, where does it say specifically that He will remove us BEFORE the beginning of the tribulation? Many Bible scholars say that a pre-tribulation catching away was not taught until the 1800s. It has long been claimed by those who interpret prophecy allegorically that the doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture is a relatively new doctrine. Of course, it became wildly popular because any time someone points to a way of escape, everyone will run to it. It’s just a part of our natural instinct to accept an idea that prevents us from standing for Jesus, but it’s worth a careful examination to see if it is true.

Gary DeMar, President of American Vision, says: “A majority of prophecy writers and speakers teach that the body of Christ will be raptured before a future tribulation period. But did you know that prior to about 1830 no such doctrine existed. No one in all of church history ever taught pre-tribulation rapture” (cited from “Why Christians Will Suffer Great Tribulation,” Our daily bread by Joe Ortiz). When Demar says the pre-tribulation Rapture did not exist prior to 1830, he is referring to The Morning Watch prophecy journal and the writings of John Darby which popularized dispensational theology in the 1800s. Others who study eschatology are convinced the Pre-tribulation rapture worldview was popularized extensively in the 1830s by John Nelson Darby and the Plymouth Brethren, and this was taught in the United States in the early 20th century by the wide circulation of the Scofield Reference Bible. So, why would the remnant not remain on earth at least until God’s wrath is released?

God’s saints are called to experience the harsh violence of a world gone mad, and should also be PREPARED to walk in His presence and learn how to trust Him when faced with death. As Peter lied and denied Christ to escape being killed, will we not have the same opportunity to stand or deny? I believe these passages are a sobering message for us in this late hour. May we receive His us peace and understanding. “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:3-9).

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this, we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

Many will say, “What difference does it make whether Christ comes before the tribulation or after.” My friends, it makes a world of difference. Most assemblies are afraid to warn the people about what is coming and have not only failed to present correct interpretations of this doctrine but there are many other views that Christians have been taught that are dangerously wrong. As the old saying goes, “things are not always the way they seem.” Almost everything that everyone believes has been taught to them and this is not the way it should be. 1 John 2:27 reminds us to stop being lazy and to study for yourselves. “And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him remains in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you remain in Him.” It is disturbing to know that the majority of Bible teachers were and are not baptized with the Holy Spirit. They cannot interpret the scriptures because they are not receiving revelation wisdom directly from the Lord. They are reading and comprehending with the natural mind and then teaching it as divine enlightenment.

This exposes the evil religious spirits and proves they are not listening to God because they are not close to Him. They want the people’s money and are NOT going to offend or cause them to fear. People do not want to hear about persecution, they want to hear about blessings. If the body of Christ is taken out of the world before the tribulation, people can continue worshiping materialism and their flesh as they have nothing to be concerned about. The remnant will have to walk through the tribulation, and many if not all of them will be martyred because they will never bow down to the system of the beast. The three Hebrew children refused to bow down to the image and the last day saints will not either. The point of this account was not that they survived but that everyone witnessed the manifestation of God and many believed. Are you now seeing why this doctrine it critically important?

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Published 4/16/22

Jesus gave His life so that we could live

I admit I am an emotional person. I recall going to see the Passion movie a few years ago and I was disturbed to say the least. It’s not uncommon for me to shed a tear when I witness something that moves my soul and this was no exception. Recently, I was watching a program about the “Make-A-Wish Foundation” and how they provide a way for very sick children to experience a happy but most likely a last request and I cried through the entire program. As the agonizing scenes of what Christ went through were presented, I kept thinking how could someone watch this and not be deeply stirred in their soul? I feel the same way about the Chosen series. I’m not ashamed to wear my feelings on my sleeve and have no desire to act tough and pretend that expressing emotions is a sign of weakness. If we are not careful, we can become hardened by the harshness of life and lose our spiritual sensitivity.

Remembering the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ should be more than an annual holiday. For the Christian, it should be a constant awareness of His love. Once again we are bombarded with the celebrations of eggs, rabbits, baby chicks, baked ham, and new clothes that can be distractions from the focus of Christ suffering and dying on the cross and resurrecting three days later. The incarnation is another celebration where worldly traditions attempt to deflect and compete for attention. These holy seasons are a reminder of the gift of eternal salvation. We realize it’s never pleasant to imagine an innocent person being brutally tortured, but the fact that Jesus miraculously came back to life proves His infinite power and authority and why we are so filled with humility and encouragement. Jesus Christ did not just talk about love, He demonstrated His mercy and compassion by suffering and surrendering His life so that we could live.

When I think about Christ and the reason why He came to earth, it’s a comfort to know this was not a spur-of-the-moment idea, but rather it was a carefully planned mission by the Father to restore our fellowship with Him. Jesus willingly left the glories of heaven, submitted to His Father’s will, was betrayed and denied by those He trusted and mocked as someone delusional. The religious community rejected His message and the legal system along with the demands from the general population overwhelmingly agreed to publicly execute Him without a reason other than they hated Him. Sadly, these negative attitudes have not changed.

We notice that Jesus was constantly approached by those in desperate need and it was His perfect nature to be concerned and compassionate. The world has always been filled with human suffering and He is always ready to respond in love and mercy. Being emotional and even knowledgeable about the Bible is fine, but that does not necessarily mean that someone is following Christ. It’s what they do with what they have learned that transforms considerations into spiritual obedience. When we see someone who needs help or even an encouraging word, what good does it do to just look at them with pity? Christ was always ministering to those who would reach out to Him by faith and two thousand years later He is still pouring out His grace and forgiveness to anyone who will call upon His name.

As His followers, we have been called to focus our attention on becoming more like Him despite a troubled world that justifies walking over the wounded and being self-centered. His command to take up our cross includes letting go of our natural way of selfish thinking and willingly embracing His character and nature. The more I learn about His life and His message, the more I realize that I am far from being who I need to be. As we meditate on His truth, we are given a deeper understanding of who He is, and what He wants to accomplish through us. The reverential fear and awareness of who Jesus is and why He came to earth is our only hope and it’s every Christian’s responsibility to keep their spiritual eyes focused on Him. Beyond the festivities and the feasting, may we consider spending time concentrating on the one who loves us and came to save us from being lost forever.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 16 – Published 4/9/22

Are We Staying Or Going? – Part 2

I have been trying to find a separation point in the coming tribulation between Satan’s domination and God’s wrath during the popular seven-year period commonly called the great tribulation. For those who study the end times, researching the 70 seventy weeks of Daniel is considered a timeline of future events, and of course, many weave passages such as the book of revelation and Matthew chapter 24 into the overall equation. This is difficult as we know there is a world of different opinions about these timelines and it’s very difficult to comprehend. For example, is the book of Revelation in chronological order, or is it a jigsaw puzzle? This one question alone can present many possibilities (and confusion). Personally, I have not felt led to spend time with future events over the years as I am more of a general Bible teacher and focus on human behavior and daily Christian living. I have read the Word and much speculation about eschatology, but have not felt confident teaching it. However, I do believe it is important to seek God for wisdom and discernment so that we might know what is happening around us and be aware of the signs that can help us understand spiritual prophecy.

Matthew chapter 24 is an amazing gathering of information that Christ has given to those who are interested in the rapture, tribulation, and His second coming. He mentions the days of Noah and how He would come (whether a rapture or His glorious appearing) at a time when people are not thinking about it and neither are ready to meet Him. In verse 43 He says, “But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore, you must be ready because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” I teach that a true disciple of Christ can have His mind, hear God’s voice and be given a correct interpretation of His scriptures when they fervently pray and ask Him. This particular chapter is a warning for God’s children to not only research His Word but to be ALERT and aware of the URGENCY to walk in His Spirit and maintain a spiritual sensitivity to everything that is happening around us. We are told to watch so this means He wants us to know.

First of all, I want to establish that I do believe that God’s people will NOT suffer His wrath. Lot and his family being removed from Sodom is a perfect example of how the Lord does NOT destroy His own children. He may punish and discipline His elect with whatever His sovereign judgments may require, but this is different. We read about sins that are punishable by death and we have seen many people die for the sins they have committed, but this is God’s perfect justice and only he has the right to make these decisions. However, when we talk about having to stand for God and suffering persecution and even death during the rule of anti-Christ, I see nothing that would prevent any Christian from having to go through a time of choosing whom they will love and serve. Since the first half of the tribulation period is a time of hardship and a test of faith, this is why I have a difficult time understanding the remnant being removed from deciding if they love God or themselves. This escape teaching gives today’s Christian a breath of relief, but is this really the way it is going to happen?

Many believe the anti-Christ is standing at the edge of the stage at the moment, waiting for his curtain call to step out into the spotlight and be the savior of the world. I agree. According to the majority of scholars, when he is recognized by the remnant as a son of perdition (which means eternal damnation and utter destruction), this will be the official beginning of the tribulation. There have been other dictators in history that have been influenced by demon spirits, but this ultimate Satanic representative has not appeared yet, or at least not to the point where we know without a shadow of a doubt it is him. I spoke to a Bible teacher the other day and he is convinced the anti-Christ will come from America and is watching the next president (whoever it might be) very closely. Many believe the anti-Christ will appear to be religious, have strong leadership, a powerful orator, and the ability to persuade those who are NOT walking in spiritual discernment and are without a renewed mind. This includes most of the world. The masses will rejoice and support this person who seemingly has all the answers, wonderful ideas, the ability to bring world peace, and even manifest miraculous demonstrations.

One of the numerous views is the first three and a half years are directed by Satan as God has given him authority to do so, (similar to how God gave him the opportunity to inflict devastation upon Job). We notice in this account that Job did suffer greatly but survived and was blessed by God for holding onto his faith in the face of horrible persecution. Is this a type and shadow of the tribulation and how the Christians will need to stand strong instead of cursing God and dying like Job’s wife wanted him to do? Wherever the seal, trumpet, or bowl indicates the ferocious wrath of God being poured out upon the earth, I believe this is where God’s remnant will be removed. What we need to remember is that after the Christians are taken, the Holy Spirit remains on the earth and the Word of God is being taught. The two witnesses train the 144,000 evangelists and the gospel message will be preached to the masses. Many people will be saved throughout this entire span of time all the way up to Armageddon, but most of them will be killed for standing for God’s truth. For those who heard the gospel but refused, is this a punishment for not reaching out to God while they had the chance? Or will the delusion from the Lord prevent all who rejected the gospel from being saved because they refused to submit to the conviction of the Holy Spirit during the days of grace?

Some agree these tribulation saints will be protected (Noah and the Ark) but why wouldn’t you and I also be protected if there were no pre-trib rapture? All of God’s people throughout time have had the choice to stand for Him or compromise and I’ve often thought the mark of the beast would be the ultimate opportunity to either save the body and lose the spirit, or save the spirit and lose the body. If every saint in the world will be removed before the anti-Christ is revealed, and we all agree that he is ready to be revealed, this view believes a pre-trib rapture could take place any second. This would mean there is no event that needs to happen before the saints disappear. It also means they will never know who he is, nor will they be subject to the mark. And yet, there is so much fear about not being able to buy and sell and being killed for our allegiance to Christ. If a person believes in pre-trib, they have nothing to worry about. The mid-tribulation view is a time of terrible hardship and persecution, but God’s people have always suffered this as Foxes Book of Martyrs describes.

A third speculation is a post-tribulation view which connects the rapture with the second coming as one event. The phrase the time of Jacob’s trouble comes from Jeremiah 30:7, which says, “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” If you believe that all saints will go through the entire tribulation, you must also believe that either God is going to protect His people or remove them. Whichever view a person embraces, it’s critical to be as close to God as you possibly can. The evil spirit of Babylon has always been trying to destroy God’s saints and the end times we know will be worse than ever. The government and social media are controlled by Satan and he is trying to lure as many people as he can into hell. This is not the hour to relax and wait to be rescued. There is much work to do as the fields are white with harvest. The pre-tribulation view in my opinion has caused the Christians to eat and drink and make merry as their seats have been reserved for the next flight out of here. This is a deceptive, selfish, and lukewarm attitude that has caused much damage. The reason why our government and legal system are now flooded with Satanic control is because the saints went to sleep and opened the door for demons to establish principalities and powers and to rule in high places. Compromise is corruption and the wages of sin is death. Today is the day for the remnant to pray without ceasing, ask for sensitivity to hear His His voice, study the scriptures and seek Him for the correct interpretation, and be obedient to what He is saying. Meditate on these things.

We realize the rapture doctrine is one of the most controversial topics within our faith and currently; I stand with the saints staying and enduring whatever Satan has planned but either removed or protected when God’s wrath is poured out. In other words, at this time in my spiritual understanding, I believe the saints will go through the period where they are demanded to take the mark and this will reveal the wheat from the tares. Again, we can agree there will be Christians on the earth during all of this because people will be saved until the second coming. At His second (or third) coming, we read how the saints who are alive are taken up before the battle of Armageddon? These two raptures or resurrections make it more difficult to understand the differences between all the passages that talk about the rapture and the second coming. Again, some believe these passages refer to the same event.

Lastly, as far as the 70 weeks, there are so many opinions about this timeline. Some begin as far back as the covenant promise with the rainbow all the way forward to when Satan is cast into the lake of fire. I read recently about how the book of revelation is divided into two separate explanations as chapters 2-11 and 12-22 are an explanation of the same events but with different perspectives. I’m not saying this is true, but one thing is for sure, it’s truly difficult to have clarity as the Bible cannot be read like just another book. It is a living revelation that is quickened into the spirits of those who have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying. Divine truth is hidden for us, not from us. We must seek or we will never find and must be enlightened through spiritual eyes and a renewed mind. Treasure is buried, not scattered on top of the ground. Let us invest our time wisely and pray that our eyes of understanding will be opened with greater discernment and wisdom. God’s message to us this hour is to embrace Matthew 7:7.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

PART 15 – Published 4/2/22

ARE WE STAYING OR GOING? – Part 1

When people talk about the rapture, they are referring to a moment in the future when Christ will remove His people from the earth to rescue them from the great tribulation. I was taught this as a child and most everyone I know today still embraces this doctrine. I want to begin by saying that I would always appreciate being rescued from harm and I hope this is going to happen. The problem I’m having is trying to see this in scripture as a clear and indisputable reality. Next, I am not saying there is no such thing as a “catching away” I’m only questioning if it will happen before the tribulation or after it. I believe Christ will rapture His people from the earth, but could it be that all the passages are referring to one event instead of two?

I have searched carefully and I do not see anything that exposes a rapture before the tribulation. Many will say it’s not important when as long as it happens. I disagree. If there is NOT such a thing as a pre-tribulation rapture, most Christian assemblies are blind and deceived about this. We are reminded of how the church at Laodicea mentioned in the book of Revelation refused to see reality with spiritual eyes, and sadly this religious spirit is alive and well today. We have said before that many scholars agree that the pre-trib rapture idea was not taught until the 1800s. However, news traveled fast and it spread like wildfire. Since this time, people have been very happy to know they will not be required to stand for God against a hostile system of government and laws.

As a minister, chaplain, and counselor, I’ve listened to a lot of opinions over the years and what I’ve learned is that most people are like children in many ways. They love to do what they want to do and they hate discipline. Most are not spiritually educated and are dominated by their own carnality. In short, this means we can give advice but do not expect their eyes to be opened or to be completely transformed in one afternoon. Here’s a general truth, humans are always looking for something for nothing, and going to heaven without suffering or being accountable is considered the best deal in the history of the world. If preachers had told the complete story instead of just quoting John 3:16 every Sunday, the crowds would have been even smaller. The emotions of an unrenewed mind are dangerous for all concerned especially when it comes to Biblical teaching. I stand back and listen to what people say and how they act, and I’m perplexed by what the average person believes about salvation.

Persecution of those who love Yahweh has been common since Yahshua was crucified, but very few want to talk about it. We know all the disciples, the early church followers, and down through the centuries, the Christian trail of blood has run deep. The Muslims and the Catholics have killed untold amounts of Christians and God’s people are being tortured and killed at this very moment. Those who stand for Jesus in this country today are being black-balled, scoffed, intimidated, mocked, and being made fun of because the world hates God and anyone who believes His word. Many modern churches have learned that in order to be successful they must compromise with sin and play political games with a socially acceptable cancel culture. Some will say, “what’s the difference?” If churches were all the same, why did Jesus rebuke the high priest? God has removed His candlestick from many of these religious moose clubs and they are turning against truth and the real Christians just like in Jesus’ day.

These places of comfort and happiness do not want to upset or offend people with spiritual reality. They say it makes people afraid and uncomfortable so they just give everyone a positive pep talk and sing songs that talk about how much God wants to bless you. The idea is to make people happy so they will support e programs with money. All messages about hell, chastisement, lukewarmness, being deceived, or changing your lifestyle from intentional sinning to a life of holiness and sanctification is considered negative and too extreme. More members mean more money and this is what pays the staff nice salaries. Many churches are run like a business instead of a spiritual training center and God has always been angry with this. He will judge those who have turned a holy calling into being a snake-oil salesman. These leaders talk about God but they do not know Him. They deny His power because they have no faith themselves. It’s just employment. If pastors revealed what surrendering our will and taking up our cross really means, they would only have a small number of supporters. These religious assemblies do not contain saints that walk in covenant with God, they contain those who only want the chocolate cake gospel that is content to play church.

Listen to these two verses; “Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the LAST trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed” I Corinthians 15:51-52.

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” I Thessalonians 4:16-17.

These passages are commonly used to reveal a rapture of God’s people and rightly so, but as you can see, there is nothing that implies this is before the anti-Christ. Matthew 24: 29-44 is another widely used passage to explain how one will be taken and the other left behind, but where does it clearly say this is happening before the great tribulation? Can this not happen at the second coming of Christ where He removes His saints before He pours out His wrath? You see, all of the tribulation is NOT God’s wrath, as much of it is the rule of Satan. Yahweh has given him the authority to destroy and kill God’s people who stand in faith for God’s truth. I can see that God might remove His people from the earth before He pours out His WRATH, but who knows when this will be? Is it AFTER the 7 years of Satanic tribulation?

If Christians are taken out before the times of persecution, they will be the only humans who have been excused from being martyred for God in the history of the world. What makes the end-time saints special? All the passages that talk about standing and enduring would not have a chance to be tested if all the saints were removed. Also, does this mean the Holy Spirit is removed from the earth? If all the saints are gone, who will preach the gospel during the tribulation? However, if they are removed AFTER the tribulation and before God pours out His wrath, they will join Noah and his family and Lot and his family as an example of God removing His people BEFORE He brings destruction. This next passage says, “Immediately AFTER the distress of THOSE days… 

“Immediately after the distress of those days, [what days? The tribulation?] the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken. Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” [So, are these the saints that have died and are waiting in Paradise? Does this include the saints who are living on the earth?]

“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.” [why would we be told to keep watch if we had been raptured seven years earlier?] “But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” Again, if the saints have already been raptured, who is this verse talking to? The idea of vanishing at any moment is a nice thought, but is it true? Has the teaching about being raptured caused the saints to prepare for persecution or has it caused them to rest on their beds of ease and not worry about anything? When a person feels no urgency to prepare for trouble because someone told them they are going to be rescued, why should they work hard to prepare? Is this the reason why the religious world is asleep and will continue to fall away from God in the last days?

We will continue with this subject next week and I would love to hear your comments on this topic. Whether the saints are raptured pre, mid, or post-tribulation, we know that God loves us and is preparing a place for those who have given their hearts and lives to Him. The key is to develop our faith today that we might obey His will, pray for an awareness of His presence and a sensitivity for His voice, discernment, wisdom, a correct interpretation of His Word, and a constant reverential fear of God which will keep us walking on the narrow path of holiness. “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” John 14:1-3.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 14 – Published 3/26/22

Dream 3/26/22

In this dream, I was on a 250-mile hike through an untouched wilderness that was mostly forest. I was in search of answers and thought if I could get away from all distractions, I could maybe hear God speaking to me. I was seeking His truth, and was desperate to know about things like; His return, the tribulation, our purpose, Heaven, and the requirements of salvation, just to name a few.

I do not know what country this forest was in. I carried a large backpack with a tent, sleeping bag, food, water, etc..and a pistol for protection. The plan was to travel 100 miles North into this uninhabited wilderness, turn 50 miles to the West, and then return. I had no time frame. This was a dense area with a few small mountains and the occasional stream. In my dream, it was clear that no humans lived here only an abundance of wildlife.

I would walk during the day, pray, and sometimes cry asking God to please speak to me to which I mostly only heard birds and the wind blowing through the tops of the trees. In the evenings I would build a campfire and see what I could find to eat and read my Bible from a small battery lamp. I brought some food but was always on the lookout for berries and I would try fishing when there was a chance.

After about a month into my journey, one day I smelled smoke and was very concerned that maybe there was a forest fire and I was heading into it. As I kept pushing forward, I noticed a clearing up ahead and when I stepped into the sunlight, I thought I was hallucinating. There was a small house and the smoke I smelled was coming from the chimney. I just stood there staring in disbelief.

The house had a front porch, gray siding, and a dark green metal roof. A tall black iron fence was about 10 feet from the dwelling and completely surrounded it like a fortress. There was a pile of split wood in the yard along with some other things like plastic sleds, a chain saw, an ax, and other such tools. I snapped out of my trance when I watched a man step from the porch and open the iron gate. He said hello and asked what I wanted to which I spoke up and replied I was just hiking through the forest and meant no harm.

He told me not to move and started walking toward me. He pointed toward the ground and said, “see this wire? Be careful and step over it.” When my eyes adjusted, I could barely see a thin wire that was obviously some type of warning system. I stepped over it and he invited me in. When I came to the iron gate, I noticed there were spikes sticking up on the ground all around the front of the iron fence. I thought it would be very painful if anyone were to try to climb the fence. We went inside but I do not remember introducing myself or him telling me his name. I know it sounds strange, but I also do not remember what he looked like.

His presence was warm and comforting, like a grandfather, and it’s hard to explain but I felt secure even though I had just met him. He gave me a glass of cold water and he shared what he had been eating with me. As he placed a plate in front of me, He asked why I was walking alone in such a remote wilderness and I told him my story about seeking God and His truth. I knew He was smiling. He served me fresh fruit, cornbread, and fish fillets from an iron skillet. He blessed the food and prayed that I would find what I was seeking.

I remember asking where in the world did the fruit come from, and I cannot remember the exact details but it had something to do with him calling in supplies and a package being dropped every so often. I know this sounds vague but only certain parts of the dream are clear. I asked if he hunts animals and eats them and he said he did not hunt but he did fish in a creek that was down over the hill. He said he loved animals and all creation and he thought they were too beautiful to kill. I asked how he was able to haul wood without machinery or even a horse. He explained there were plenty of dead and fallen trees around and he just pulls his plastic sled into the forest, cuts the trees, and pulls them back to his house. He said this keeps him in shape. He lived a very simple life and the shipments provided things like fuel, coffee, sugar, clothing, and whatever he needs.

After we ate and had some coffee, I started asking him questions about the Christian life and the Bible and he was very wise. I do not remember knowing why I thought he had the answers, but I did. I had a notebook and started writing down his responses. Time passed very quickly and it became very late. He said I should get some sleep if I planned to resume my journey in the morning. There was a guest room with a bed, a small chest, and a window. Very simple, just the basics.

When I laid down, a sensation of peace came over me like I had never felt before. I went into a deep sleep that seemed more like a coma. I rested soundly as it was if my spirit was floating in a state of tranquility. I woke up the next morning refreshed and he served me some coffee and a bowl of oatmeal and fruit which tasted amazing. I told him I really appreciated his hospitality, I had a wonderful night’s sleep, and I was grateful for all the things he shared with me about God. He led me through the gate and revealed where the tripwire was and as I headed out I turned and waved goodbye.

The dream continued as I kept walking north. After several weeks of travel, I had a change of plans and decided to turn around and head back to the man at the house to ask more questions and maybe stay with him again before heading home. I was really looking forward to seeing him, but when I came back to where he was, I was shaken to my core. There was the clearing, but everything else was gone. Where the house once stood, there was now just a field of grass and small cedar bushes. Standing completely still, all I could hear was an eery echo of a crow cawing in the distance. I knew this was exactly the right location but was I losing my mind?

I walked around the perimeter of the field and I noticed something posted to a tree. I walked over and saw that it was a plastic envelope that had Billy written on it. The four corners were nailed and I pulled it off tearing the corners. I opened it and there was a letter. It said; “Dear Billy, the few who willingly sacrifice this life for me, I will welcome them to live with me in Heaven forever. However, those who ignore me in this life will not be given this invitation. They have decided eternal life was worth trading in exchange for their earthly independence.” This is where the dream ended. I wish I could have read more of the letter. I’m sure there was more. I’m now praying for a deeper understanding.

I am the truth seeker in this dream. Every day I pray for wisdom, discernment, an awareness of His presence, sensitivity to hear His voice, and a correct interpretation of His Word. I see that geographic location does not matter when it comes to searching for Him and His truth. We search for God within our mind, conscience, and spirit, and this passionate determination requires complete concentration. This is why Satan is trying to lure you away from Yahweh with all types of addicting distractions. Wake up and turn away from the world! Prepare today to refuse the coming mark of the beast and be ready to say NO when the system requires you to bow down. God does appear and speak through His servants and His nature. He is everywhere, we just need to pay attention. We will never walk in His Spirit until we are totally sold out to Him. Constant perseverance, praying without ceasing, focused and dedicated to submitting our will in order to follow and obey His. All of Him – none of me. “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” Jeremiah 29:13.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

PART 13 – 3/19/22

WHO IS REALLY THE CAPTAIN OF OUR VESSEL?

Many are familiar with Psalm 23 and I want to look at a specific portion of this incredible passage. First of all I want us to read verse two. “He makes me to lie down in green pastures: he leads me beside still waters.” I realize we have all been given free will, but do you notice here that our Creator provides a way for us to walk in the peace and abundance of His Spirit? This can only happen for those who have invited Christ to sit on the throne of their heart and rule as Lord. These are the remnant who are the genuine bride that places their relationship with Him as their highest priority.

The casual religious person will not take up their cross because they love the world more than they love Yahshua which means Yah’s salvation. This is the difference between goats that hate to follow and sheep that have an internal nature to follow. Another point I want us to observe is verse three. “He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name’s sake.” Why does the writer declare about the Lord restoring his soul? The soul is the seat of the emotions and directly associated with the mind and will. Why would the soul need to be restored? The Lord was trying to explain there is a battle between our flesh and His Spirit and in order to stay on track with the King of kings, our soul must always be submitted to the Holy Spirit. He will lead and restore, but our submission to His desires is an intentional act of our will. The covenant that is offered through the blood atonement of Christ does not allow the mind to lead and make decisions independently from Yahweh, neither does it force us to follow His voice, but rather we are restored and empowered by yielding the seat of our soul willingly to His Lordship.

Some might ask, “how often would my soul need to renewed?” Without being legalistic, our soul needs to be renewed constantly. Generally speaking, every moment we are receiving information that needs to be filtered through the Holy Spirit or we risk being deceived. This is how we discern what is right and wrong and divine wisdom helps to keep us on the straight and narrow. Knowledge is only information until it has been quickened into spiritual revelation which is imparted and engraved on the tables of our hearts. When it comes to the many different types of deceptive snare traps, our soul can very easily become distracted and fall back into our old habits of mental reasoning and logical thinking.

It’s true the Almighty did give us the potential to have a powerful and sound mind, but we must be aware of the dangers of seeing our surroundings with an emotional perception instead of a spiritual revelation. The ability to discern does not come automatically and only comes with much prayer as the Bible promises those who knock that it shall be opened. The ones who are desperate to have spiritual sensitivity will learn what it takes to walk in the awareness of Yahweh’s presence. Adam and Eve fell in the Garden because they removed their concentration away from Elohim and followed the feelings and judgments within their souls. They fell and humanity has been falling since that day.

We can say for the carnal person (whether they consider themselves a Christian or not), the soul is the captain of their vessel, however, this is not the way Yahweh intended for Adam and Eve or any of His children today. Many who claim to be righteous live in denial about who is really in control. This hypocrisy can harden the heart over time and cause a strong delusion that disables the ability to be convicted by truth. The old saying about someone being “set in their own ways” is a very sad state of existance and leads to death in this life and the one to come. The mercy and grace of conviction is something we should recognize and be eternally grateful as one of the most wonderful gifts from Heaven. It is Yahweh intervening into our life and trying to get our attention because He loves us and has our best interest in mind. This sensitivity is how we are able to listen and walk on the narrow path of His will instead of drifting into the wide gate and broad way of destruction. Without this spiritual sensitivity we are blind and deaf and will drift aimlessly on the sea of fear and confusion.

We can call ourselves anything we want, but Romans 6:16 declares that we are servants to whom we obey. If we follow our own thoughts and always do what we want, Yahshua is not our Lord. The masses do not recognize the difference between a religious facade and a personal relationship and this is the most dangerous spiritual deception in the history of the world. Everything we need to receive eternal life with God has been provided except the sacrifice of our will which is our part of the covenant. Redemption is offered and can be received but it is not free as it will cost us everything just like it cost Yahshua everything. Humans are always looking for something for nothing and have misunderstood the concept of salvation. Covenant is based on both parties being loyal to one another and until we give Him our heart, there is no salvation.

This war for the control of the mind is addressed in the Bible from cover to cover, but it’s only the remnant who lives and moves within the awareness of His presence. Satan works day and night to convince all humans to live according to their opinions and how they feel and this sounds wonderful to the old default carnal nature. However, we cannot walk in His Spirit if we have no desire to obey what He is saying. Throughout the holy scriptures, the history of the world, and all around us today, we see individuals who made the intentional decision to be led by their soul instead of their spiritual destiny and the result is great loss. Whether the masses who work hard to avoid Yahweh will admit it or not, trusting the soulish realm instead of His divine truth leads individuals into gross error and in many cases even into the depths of eternal hell.

ONWRD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 11 – Published 3/12/22

THE TIME TO PREPARE FOR CHRIST IS NOW

You would have to be living in a cave to not see the world is changing daily and not for the better. Many hideous things are being planned behind closed doors and as the Bible has prophesied, we know that terrible events are coming and will happen just as the Lord has promised. I pray that you have s desire to be close with the Lord today. There are many things that cause us to worry, but this is the opposite of faith. We cannot be filled with fear and faith at the same time, we must choose to believe in God’s promises or what those around us are saying. I’ve seen many people through the years refusing to care about developing a personal relationship with Christ, and then when something bad happens, they do not have a clue what to do. A crisis is like an ambush that attacks without warning and uses the element of surprise to overcome those who were not prepared. They cannot understand why this is happening and start crying out for everyone to please pray and make it go away. They have not invested the effort to build faith and when they need it the most they do not have any. This is another way that Satan lures people into his spider web and then he can steal, kill, and destroy them because they were not prepared to fight with faith. The hour to start building our trust and wisdom of who God is and a line of direct communication with Him is NOW! Focusing will involve being dedicated and determined to spend quiet time alone with Him and this means that we MUST turn away from the powers of carnal persuasion. When we are on our deathbed, it is too late to generate a comprehension of God’s revelations.

As followers of Jesus, He transforms us into a new creation. We have a brand new spirit and have been called to work diligently to allow the Holy Spirit to reform our conscience and renew our minds. Our spiritual identity is immediate but our spiritual maturity does not happen automatically. Our new way of living is established by learned behaviors that are dependent and conditional upon our free will. If we dedicate our full attention to Him, we will develop into what He has called us to be, however if ignore God’s convictions to be consumed with Him, we will not be able to know His thoughts and there is a chance of falling completely away from Him. If we continue to refuse to heed His corrections and discipline, He is sovereign to judge and do what He needs to do. There is also a strong possibility we were never truly born again at all. There is a huge difference between what we feel, and the way things really are. The remnant is the small group of genuine believers in the midst of a huge world of religious attitudes which are deceived. The remnant is called to develop a strong awareness of God and to follow His voice in every decision. They guard what they see and hear and keep their hearts pure and holy as this is the only way to know what He is saying. We notice in Luke chapter 11:21-23, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” Those who play religious games do not guard their soul and are always vulnerable to being overcome by the enemy. They are easy victims as they are not filled with the spiritual authority of faith and truth which God graciously equips for those who love Him.

We know that Satan is doing everything he can to keep the divine truths about salvation a secret, but isn’t he also trying to distract everyone from knowing what it means to live the Christian life? In the tenth chapter of John, we read where he has come to steal, kill, and destroy, which includes no rules or boundaries when it comes to him causing human suffering. The devil and his demons work around the clock to make sure everyone is watching television, playing video games, and being snared in the deceptive spiderweb of social media. Why? This is all a carefully planned strategy to distract us from praying and studying God’s Word. When the Lord said that His people were destroyed from a lack of knowledge, He was talking about those who claim to follow His voice and yet neglect the divine revelations of His truth. I know people who have attended Christian assemblies all their lives and have never read or studied the Bible. They only believe what they have been told and have no idea why they support the personal views they stand for. Can you see how easy it would be to be deceived? No matter if we go to an assembly or not while yielding to the temptations of the world every minute of the day, we are not going to walk in God’s presence or be able to hear His voice. Can you not discern how these powerful persuasions of carnality tempt, confuse, hinder, distort, and influence humans to love and be addicted to drama, to enjoy worldly pleasure, and entice the heart with lust, envy, greed, and jealousy. Why? To keep every person focused on everything except what God is saying. Are you guarding your heart today and protecting it from being contaminated and corrupted by Satanic influences? Do you sense the danger of being manipulated like a puppet by the kingdom of darkness? If not, you are already held firm in this diabolical snare trap of denial.

I am surprised at how little the average Christian knows about God and the Bible. We hear the term Bible scholar, and this is impressive, but we fail to realize that God wants each of His children to be one. Where did the idea that a Bible interpreter was a special gift and calling only reserved for a few? God said for the remnant to study and show themselves approved, rightly dividing the word of truth and this means each child of God. The idea of only a few people making the sacrifice of energy, determination, to learn spiritual truth, while the other 99 percent of the people lay around is abnormal and dangerous. This concept came from the ancient priest who spoke Latin, but the followers did not. The people had to trust what was being said and they did not even understand a word that was spoken. Nonetheless, the baskets were passed and the ministry was financially supported much like it is today. The point is that each member of the body of Christ is a “full-time” minister with a responsibility to teach God’s Word, have a burden for the lost, live holy above reproach, be sensitive to divine appointments, and be subject to persecution. We can look around and see that most who call themselves Christians are asleep and have no intention of being what God desires for them to be. This attitude of thinking one is saved while living like the world is one of the most devastating deceptions in the history of Christianity. The pre-tribulation rapture escape doctrine is another reason for global spiritual lukewarmness since 1830, but we will discuss more about this at another time.

I want us to imagine how much deeper we could go with the Lord Jesus if we started eliminating the diversions of the world and turned our focus upon Christ. Of all the people I know, there are only two people who have turned away from television and social media because they recognize the purpose is mind control. Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as a person thinks in their heart, so are they: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.” What we notice in this verse is a person who is saying one thing with their mouth, but their heart is in a completely different place. The thoughts and inclinations of the heart shape the reality of who you are. They shape your thinking which will ultimately shape your actions. That’s why what you think about matters because it is forming the basis of who you will become. Here is the problem. Who you are on the inside and what you say and appear to be on the outside, may not always be the same thing. The Pharisees, for example, were very good at presenting themselves as very pious, devout, religious people, yet Jesus called them hypocrites and vipers. This word hypocrite in the Greek means actor. The Pharisees were playing a role on the outside that didn’t reflect who they really were. Remember, Jesus said they were like whitewashed tombs, but on the inside, they were like dead men’s bones. If you need to know who a person really is, you can’t always determine that by the things they say or the way they act, you have to look at the root of who they are, and that root is the heart. The true intentions of the conscience flow out of their heart. It is the core of the soul and a reflection of the spirit. Jesus said you will know a tree by its fruit which is simply a reflection of the root it’s connected to. You will never get an orange from an apple tree root. The core of who you are is confirmed by the thoughts or roots of your heart. That’s why what is on the inside is so much more important than what is on the outside. You can mask the outside to others, and play hide and seek with God, but ultimately, what’s in your heart will be what He will judge.

Let us be reminded that this is not the day or time to relax and use the world’s entertainment as an intentional distraction from the fears and worries of what is going on around us. Instead of searching for things that are fun and that make us comfortable, we should be searching for God’s perfect will and His personal instructions for us. If we would invest the same amount of time in seeking His voice that we do with seeking the voices of the world, we would walk in the power and wisdom of His Spirit instead of cowering in confusion and anxiety. Do not go to sleep thinking that you will be caught up and escape having to stand for God and His truth. God’s remnant have the whole armor of God and are on the battlefield of spiritual warfare accomplishing the miracles that Christ is calling for. Come out from under the bed and join your brothers and sisters in this last day stand against evil. Today is the hour to prepare to engage against the darkness and possibly lose everything you have – even your life for His sake. If you are not for God – you are against Him. “Arise, shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” Isaiah 60:1-3.

In closing, I want to say that above all things that are going on in the world and all the things that you believe are important, there is nothing more important than making sure your wedding gown is without spot or wrinkle. Remember the ten virgins where five had their lamps filled with oil and the other five were trying to find oil at the last minute. The five who had their lamps filled were prepared to meet their Lord and they are called wise. Are you being wise today or are you falling prey to the kingdom of darkness that is trying to corrupt your heart and steal your soul? Pray for personal awakening and pray for wisdom, discernment, sensitivity, and an awareness of God’s presence. If you will sincerely ask for God to open the eyes of your heart. He has promised to provide for those who knock, ask, and seek. However, do not plead for this unless you are willing to take up your cross and surrender your will to Him. Unless you agree to come out of the world and stop believing that you can live however you want and that God does not care, you will continue living on the wide and broad way of destruction. Millions are going into eternity every day and hell is rapidly expanding. Today is not the time to eat, drink, and be merry without being brokenhearted for a blind and lost world. If you spend more time with television and social media than you do praying and seeking God’s face, you have already made it known to whom you pledge your allegiance. If you have truly decided to follow Jesus, your life will need a complete overall and this will include some drastic changes that will be very difficult. Prepare to suffer persecution and to be mocked, but walking in God’s presence means more than everything in the world. Do you have the faith to stand in the days of tribulation, are you ready to meet Him today?

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

PART 10 – PUBLISHED 3/5/22

Waiting in the Wings

By Jan Markell – March 1, 2022

Gog is stirring and evil is rising. The bear has always been wicked but now it is as though Mr. Putin is possessed. He is showing aggression not seen in decades. Observers say he has transformed recently into ultimate evil and with the images playing out in front of us, that is obvious.

Nuclear forces are now alerted in Russia. Talk about perilous times (II Timothy). Israel is on alert because we know Vladimir Putin will not stop with Ukraine. Much more territory is in his sights, and he longs for the spoil (wealth) stored up in Israel (Ezekiel 38-39).

Society became fear-based two years ago with the pandemic, which opened the door for government overreach. More and more, the world longs for a leader, a Mr. Fix-It. Right now, such a person is not prominent. He may be obscure at this time, but he is waiting in the wings.

The Church will never know who the Antichrist is and the leader of the Russian invasion is not the Antichrist. But Vladimir Putin is “Gog-esque.” His ultimate goal could be “the mountains of Israel” (Ezekiel 38:8). Thanks to this blundering invasion, more than ever, he needs the natural resources and other “wealth” of Israel.

The conflict in Ukraine is an end-time turning point. It is much more than “wars and rumors of wars” predicted in the Bible for the end-of-days. It is further destabilizing a world that is already groaning, fearful and weary.

It is impossible to keep up with the signs of the times. But the world lacks a strong, forceful leader. You cannot point to a capital in the world today that reflects leadership. And that’s when tyrants rise. One wonders if it is 1942 or 2022. Watching refugees on the run, having left possessions, people and even pets behind, tears at the heart. One day they had a normal, prosperous life and the next, they were being hunted.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 9 – Published 2/26/22

THE WHEAT AND THE TARES 

Today, we are seeing a clear dividing line between those who are in bondage with demon spirits and those who are breaking free from the enticements of the world system. The ones who play religious games are exposed because the eyes of their heart have not been opened. The remnant of God is advancing in their discernment and wisdom and can now more easily recognize deception and demonic activity.The window of grace is open now for all those who desire to be wise virgins. Developing an awareness of God’s presence can be obtained but it will require much devotion and determination to spend time with Him. We can be as close to God as we want, the question is how close do we desire to be?  2 Timothy 3:1-9, “But understand this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, opposed to what is good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God. They will maintain the outward appearance of religion but will have repudiated its power. So avoid people like these. For some of these insinuate themselves into households and captivate weak women who are overwhelmed with sins and led along by various passions. Such women are always seeking instruction, yet never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. And just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these people—who have warped minds and are disqualified in the faith—also oppose the truth. But they will not go much further, for their foolishness will be obvious to everyone, just like it was with Jannes and Jambres.

Outwardly these people seem religious. They make a profession of Christianity, but their actions speak louder than their words. By their ungodly behavior, they show that they are living a lie. There is no evidence of the power of God in their lives. While there might have been reformation, there never was regeneration. Weymouth translates: “They will keep up a make-believe of piety and yet exclude its power.” Likewise Moffatt: “Though they keep up a form of religion, they will have nothing to do with it as a force.” Phillips puts it: “They will maintain a façade of ‘religion’ but their conduct will deny its validity.” They want to be religious and to have their sins at the same time as described in Revelation 3:14-19, “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.” It is the fearful portrayal of an apostate Christendom, an ancient religious spirit of paganism masquerading under the name of modern Christianity. Pray for spiritual sensitivity to know the wheat from the tares.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 8 – Published 2/19/22

TAKING A PERSONAL INVENTORY OF OUR HEART

We have known people in the workplace that openly betrayed the very Savior they claimed they were following. These people publicly took God’s name in vain and yet at the same time professed to be faithful Christians, involved church members, strong family leaders and trusted confidants. So, what is it that makes someone a hypocrite? It is not a lack of holy knowledge, but rather the absence of mental discipline. Transforming the mind was never intended to be an option in the Christian life but a Heavenly demand if we have any intention of becoming a reflection of His image. Unfortunately, no one is exempt from the disease of having a carnal mind and it cannot be hidden as the scripture in Luke 12:3 declares, “Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear.” It’s true we all slip up and make mistakes and its also a fact that whatever the circumstance, it’s discouraging to know that some people are not what they seem to be. This unfortunately applies to friends, members of our assembly, co-workers, and even our family members. To stay encouraged we must learn to keep our focus on Christ and live in a constant awareness of His presence.

It’s normal to listen and receive information from many different sources, but these influences must be filtered through the Holy Spirit to prevent us from absorbing error and being deceived. Even those who teach Biblical doctrines and insights sadly many times play the same game of persuading to control just like everything else that has developed from the idea of commerce. For example, when individuals had a plan to sell snake oil proclaiming that it would heal sickness and disease, word traveled fast among the greedy thieves that it was a dependable moneymaker. Those who sold it were passionate, charismatic, and articulate orators while the naive ones who drank it were convinced under the power of emotional perception that it was true. Thus, the world of marketing and advertisement for medicine was born which paved the way for a world-changing acceptance of magical drugs created by global conglomerate pharmaceutical companies. Pay attention to the avalanche of commercials on television and magazines that are constantly telling us how we need these medicines. Are we being slowly turned into someone we were never intended to be? Many doctors participate in prescribing these experimental trial drugs so they can share in the riches with one of the most lucrative industries in the world. It is all in the name of the mighty dollar and they are not worried about the damage they could cause. How are these medications affecting our brains, hormones, our organs, our personalities? In another area, what are genetically modified foods doing to our bodies?

We must ask the question if these chemicals are actually helping or is much of it a placebo effect? Do you believe in such a thing as the power of persuasion and do you you believe it would be impossible for people to take a sugar pill and swear they feel much better? The placebo effect is when a person’s physical or mental health appears to improve after taking a placebo or fake treatment. Placebo is Latin for “I will please” and refers to a treatment that appears real, but is designed to have no therapeutic benefit. The idea was intended for experimental studies where half the group is given a drug and the other half is given a sugar pill but the participants are not told which one they received.

The same pattern evolved with man-centered religious ceremonies and worship rituals; aggressive and deceptive personalities learned that the weak, and uneducated masses were emotionally vulnerable to fear, sadness and excitement. These leaders of men discovered that a person’s admiration, loyalty and money could be controlled through the spoken word. The parable Jesus describes in Mark chapter 4, verses 30-32 compares the Kingdom of God with a mustard seed that grows into a large tree where the fowls of the air live. “And he said, whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it grows up, and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadows of it.” While often interpreted as being a happy or normal prediction of the growth of the Christian church on earth, some scholars believe this parable and the parable of the leaven, which immediately follows it, are related and is trying to warn us about an imitation gospel. A picture of the abnormal growth and response to a deception that becomes controlled with demonic activity as denoted by the presence of birds. These fowls may be seen as an undesirable thief, since they would eat any new seed that is sown and this carnal atmosphere could represent false teachers manipulating those who would rather have religion than relationship, thus preventing the masses from advancing in true spirituality.

Many who are involved with the ideas of religion are more focused with prosperity, psychology of self-improvement, and dominion theology and have unknowingly missed the heart of Christianity which is living in the awareness of God. By emphasizing the priority of church membership and beautiful buildings and drawing larger numbers, instead of having a personal relationship with Jesus, many have somehow missed God somewhere along the way. Another familiar religious group is the “seeker movement.” Critics claim that it is providing a, “don’t worry be happy” type of spiritual security where most of the content is chocolate cake and ice cream. With non threatening messages, and easy going music, the absence of commitment or accountability is popular and the religious wolves will declare whatever it takes to herd these followers into supporting this agenda. When people can gather in a local assembly and feel comfortable, coming and going without feeling the anointing or conviction of the Holy Spirit, something is wrong. The truth cuts like a knife as incorporating wisdom revelation into our mind and behavior is God’s plan for our personal growth. To go down the list of what is being taught and practiced in many modern assemblies, it’s almost identical to the failures and hypocrisy found in the churches mentioned in the book of Revelation, chapters 3 and 4. Mega churches are leading the way as they provide a safe place for people to hide without dealing with their sins. While the larger numbers are seen by the world as religious success, the private battle cry of board meetings behind closed doors is focused on the one question, “did we make budget?”

I personally continue to be drawn to the small independent house church model because of the agape love and sincere humility it can manifest. No salaries, no building programs or debt, no competition with the group down the street, no strife, clicks or politics, no professional entertainment or performances or having a focus to grow into a larger ministry to prove success. These are opportunities to have humility where no one is trying to be famous but everyone is recognized as a minister of the gospel. No more compromising sermons that tickle our flesh or music without the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and no more fleshly agendas or ideas, just simply waiting on God’s presence and devoting time and resources to the poor and needy. Whatever happened to these kinds of assemblies and when will we see them again? We will see them when the remnant becomes filled with the Holy Spirit and thirsty for God. We must open our eyes and see that we cannot be dictated and ruled by fear. Most pastors are afraid to speak the truth because they believe many of the members will leave and take their checkbooks with them. When teaching God’s truth must be approved and depends on what the members want to hear, that assembly is in trouble.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Published 2/12/22 – Part 7

KNOWING GOD’S EXPECTATION FOR OUR LIVES

How many times will it need to be declared that we can have as much of God as we want? And how many tears will we shed from the sadness of knowing that most people only want enough to get by? How often we find ourselves being so overwhelmed with problems, worries, and stress that we are just too exhausted to invest time with the Lord, and its sad but common that many of us are guilty of basing our attitude toward Him according to what type of mood we are in. In Jeremiah 33:3, the Lord invites us to seek His face regardless of our emotional state. “Call unto Me, and I will answer thee, and show you great and mighty things which you have never known.” It’s worth considering that not having a passion to communicate with God could be the reason why many people are anxious and fearful about their future.

The battle between following how we feel and obeying what God is saying is not to be taken lightly. To choose which side we will accept has everything to do with our destiny and the joy we experience in the journey. When our mind and conscience agree that we can steer our ship according to our own compass, we have failed to comprehend the true meaning and purpose of our lives. Our creator brought everyone into His world and offers them an opportunity to be redeemed and spiritually transformed in order that they might live with Him forever. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” John 3:18-19. Those who would rather be the manager of their personal affairs and not accept this invitation of salvation will not only suffer loss in this life but possibly the next one as well.

Maybe some of you today are discouraged and frustrated for whatever reason and we know that being in the wilderness is a challenging and difficult place to be. Sometimes it feels like we have been dealt a terrible hand of cards and within the sadness we are not sure what to do or have anyone we can talk to about it. I have listened to others share about their bitterness and pain from life’s disappointments that can become so heavy in our soul that it’s difficult to envision ever having hope and joy again. Allow me to say, these attacks on our heart and mind can be defeated when we give them to Jesus and allow Him to be our Lord. Aside from the mocking and relentless accusations from the devil, or the painful consequences of our decisions, we have been designed to meditate about our discouragement and suffer through our grief in order to learn from our experiences and advance in our wisdom and grow stronger in our spiritual maturity. We are given the choice to learn how to overcome or keep going around in circles. “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you” James 1:19-20.

Within our human nature, we are vulnerable to physical and emotional affliction and there is nothing wrong or sinful with going through these experiences. We are not robots that cannot feel rejection and we are not immune to the despair of loneliness or the agony of being betrayed. Many of us have walked through severe trials and tribulations, yet let us not forget that Christ in His infinite wisdom and His own personal sufferings can relate to everything we have endured. James 1:12 says, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.” Be encouraged today and know that God has always loved you and is waiting to reveal your destiny. We are a work in progress and our life is to be a continual classroom dedicated to learning who God is and who we are in Him.

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 6 – Published 2/5/22

GOOD CONFESSIONS BRING GOOD RESULTS

“I repent of my sins and any trespasses against you. With my sins of commission and omission, I ask you to forgive me and wash me clean with your blood as white as snow. I confess by FAITH that my mind is influenced and controlled by your Word and that I have a passionate desire to live under the persuasion of the Holy Spirit! I choose to gird up the loins of my mind by reading and absorbing your truth and filling my mind with your thoughts and promises. Dear God, your Word strengthens me and keeps my mind free from unbelief and lying strongholds. I plant your Word deep into my mind and it will grow a harvest of wisdom and revelation. Your holy divine truth develops my faith into a strong and bold lifestyle. Please give me more desire, fire and passion to serve you and self-discipline to resist temptation. I understand that I can draw as close to you as I want, but my flesh is so weak. Help me to be more determined and give me perseverance to prevent the devil from finding access into my life! Each me your ways that I might be an overcomer for you. I love you Oh Lord, I trust you, I bow down to you, I worship you, and I ask all of this in the name of Jesus, amen”

Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” These simple prayers and confessions are a part of the warriors armor. God is ready to equip His children but our spiritual development comes from the inside out. Absorbing His Word and speaking our prayers, decrees, and confessions OUT LOUD is a part of the word of our testimony. Revelation 12:11 declares, “And they overcame him (devil) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

It’s true, the dedicated follower of Christ is always under attack from the devil and the closer we come to God the more intense the spiritual warfare will be. However, let us not forget that our greatest enemy is our fallen carnal nature and if we can discipline our flesh, we will not need to worry about what the devil says or his temptations. How many will take this battle seriously? It’s much easier to ignore the responsibility to pray and turn away from what is pleasing in His sight. In fact, “floating down the river” takes no work at all and explains why the true Christian remnant are few and far between. We are not referring to a religious ritual but we are talking about those who have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ and a passion to be wise, sensitive, holy, fearless, and filled with the Holy Spirit.

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” II Corinthians 10:4-5. This is reminding us to not fight and argue in our own intelligence but rather to enter into our prayer closet and see the power of God produce miracles for His glory!

God is pouring out His Spirit today as His return is very soon. His Bride is carrying the light of His presence. This remnant is called to demonstrate His character and commissioned to speak His truth! Joel 2:28-32 declares, “And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, And the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord calls.”

Isaiah 55:11 promises, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” God honors HIS Word and His Word NEVER fails! As we allow our heart and mind to become filled with God’s Word, we can release His truth into the atmosphere and allow Him to energize and empower these words to accomplish His will. Let us take a moment and become saturated with His love, faith and hope.

Let us spend a moment confessing with our mouth and declaring what we really desire to be in this life.

What is our highest desire? May you be renewed with His strength and confidence as you draw closer to Him. When you speak these confessions it will help engrave these truths into your heart. Knowledge must be converted into wisdom and then transformed and quickened into life-changing revelation. Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. These positive and optimistic confessions when released into the atmosphere will breathe life into your mind and spirit and empower you with a surge of spiritual hope and encouragement. Tape these on your bathroom mirror, speak them before you go to bed, take them with you wherever you go. “As a man thinks in his heart – so is he” Proverbs 23:7.

WHERE YOU LEAD I WILL FOLLOW

LORD, I DEDICATE MY LIFE AND WILL LIVE FOR YOU NO MATTER IF NO ONE ELSE DOES

I AM ALLOWING YOU TO CHANGE MY LIFE AND TO MAKE ME A LIVING SACRIFICE FOR YOUR GLORY

I AM DETERMINED TO HAVE A GOOD ATTITUDE IN ALL THINGS

I AM IN POSITION TO RECEIVE YOUR BLESSINGS AND FAVOR

I HAVE FAVOR WITHOUT MEASURE

IF I HARBOR SIN IN MY HEART – YOU WILL NOT HEAR ME

I WILL PRAISE AND WORSHIP YOU WITH LITTLE OR WITH ABUNDANCE

JESUS, I KNOW YOU PROVED HOW MUCH YOU LOVED ME ON THE CROSS

THIS DAY I GIVE MY MIND AND HEART COMPLETELY TO CHRIST

LORD YOU GO BEFORE ME AND MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE – POSSIBLE – AMEN!

YOU PROVIDE MIRACLES AND OPEN DOORS FOR ME THAT NO MAN CAN CLOSE

YOU ANSWER MY PRAYERS ACCORDING TO YOUR PERFECT WILL

MY FAITH, ANOINTING, AND CONFIDENCE IN YOU IS INCREASING

I AM BECOMING SPIRITUALLY STRONGER AS YOU PURIFY ME

I WILL FAST AND PRAY FERVENTLY TO LIVE IN YOUR HOLY OF HOLIES

I AM ADVANCING AND PROGRESSING IN MY FAITH AND CONFIDENCE IN YOU

ANGELS ARE ENCAMPED AROUND ME AND WORKING ON MY BEHALF –

I AM INCREASING IN SPIRITUAL DISCERNMENT, SENSITIVITY, AND POWER

MY TALENTS, ABILITIES AND SPIRITUAL GIFTS ARE EFFECTIVE IN YOUR KINGDOM

MY HEART AND MIND IS BEING CHANGED FROM THE INSIDE OUT

I AM BEING PURIFIED AND SANCTIFIED BY YOUR HOLY REFINING FIRE

MY CONSCIENCE IS BEING RENEWED AND TRANSFORMED THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT

I AM INCREASING IN THE WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR WORD

I HAVE A SOUND MIND – I CAN HEAR YOUR VOICE – I KNOW YOUR DIRECTION –

I SURRENDER MY ALL TO YOU RIGHT NOW

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

Part 5 – Published 1/29/22

BECOMING WHO GOD CALLED US TO BE

The key to being a good soldier is being obedient. No one including God wants a soldier that runs off or that is rebellious and always wants to do things their way. Every effective military has strict discipline for a purpose and this is for making sure the soldier is focused on what the leadership is saying. One reason for going through boot camp is to learn certain skills while training the soldier to build strength so they are in excellent physical condition. Going into battle is very strenuous and demands for each team member to be strong and confident. But even more importantly than building physical endurance, their minds must be educated and renewed to follow orders and ready to respond without fear under the most terrifying and difficult situations. To have someone’s attention, the person must trust and respect the one who is in command. Both of these physical and mental components are crucial to being victorious. As you can see, the concept of awareness and discernment cannot be over-emphasized in our relationship with God our Lord and King.

In the summer of 2021, I began praying and asking God to help me develop an awareness of His presence along with His wisdom and discernment. I wrote down a few statements to confess in my prayers and during the day when it would cross my mind. I added a few things here and there and it came together like a jig-saw puzzle and it is becoming a revelation to my life. Information is only a piece of knowledge until it becomes quickened as divine truth and wisdom to our mind and conscience. Many people know a lot of facts, but until truth energizes and activates conviction within the heart, it will not change our destiny. I have asked God to help me recognize errors so that I might know the correct interpretation of His Word. I am consistently asking to have more spiritual sensitivity for His voice so that I can know what He is saying. It has taken a while but I am noticing a positive change within me. I am slowly drifting away from being mesmerized by the chaos of the world and things that were once important are no longer that way. However, this is an attitude that must be constantly maintained. We can fall away from God in moments if we choose to embrace the temptation to sin. Many believe in the dangerous deception there is no need for a persistent attitude of repentance. Lukewarmness brings a false sense of security by blinding the conscience. For years I have been a truth seeker and have pleaded with God to open my spiritual eyes to His truth, and I believe Him when He promised all those who seek will find.

Like a fire that begins with some tinder and a few smaller sticks, then larger branches are added before finally placing a log in the flames, our prayers are tempered with patience and persistence. We may not see immediate results from our petitions because God is sometimes waiting to see if we are truly serious. It is the repetition of our faith that generates His authority to move in His perfect time. As the woman in Matthew chapter 15 approached Jesus and would not take no for an answer, we should always remember that Persistent prayer is the demonstration of faith in God who, while at times may delay His answers, will always act decisively and justly with respect to His people. Although it seemed that Jesus was ignoring her and not willing to answer her request for healing, she would not give up. She was relentless and was not going to give up. As a testimony to all of us, her persistence eventually paid off. Even Christ was amazed at her tenacious faith and granted her miracle – even though He told her earlier in the conversation that it was not time yet for Gentiles to receive the blessings of the Kingdom of God. In this light, she was able to single-handedly usher in a new dispensation of the Kingdom of God earlier than anticipated. She received what she needed because she would not let any obstacle stand in her way! Are we that determined? How long are we willing to stand for our miracle? 

I am a believer in positive confessions and speaking forth God’s Word as much as we can. The Bible says in First Thessalonians 5:17 to pray without ceasing as this is no doubt trying to teach us the importance of being focused on God and the power of constantly declaring the decrees of His will. I will relay some of the specific declarations the Holy Spirit has revealed to me. You can use the list as it is, add to it, and make your own. The important message here is to memorize these requests and brand them into your heart as a passionate and fervent desire. Yes, every Christian should have a prayer journal where you can keep up with individuals and situations who need intercession, and out of establishing a more detailed communication with God, you will naturally have a deeper relationship with Him. However, we are also to release decrees and desires into the atmosphere when we are working, driving, or wherever we are and to believe that God is listening. When God created everything in seven days, He did not use a hammer and nails. He SPOKE everything into existence and still does. Since He lives inside of every Christian and has promised in Isaiah 57:19 to create the fruit of our lips, we must understand He wants to SPEAK through us. If this is not a reason to believe that words have creative power nothing will. If we speak God’s general and specific will in faith, we know that He is going to honor our petitions. Remember Mark 11:23, “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.”

When we depend on God doing all the work while we watch TV, we are not working together nor are we activating faith. This is another dangerous assumption that God is not closely paying attention to how we live. But when we choose to make the investment as a dedicated prayer warrior, we will sense His Spirit revealing more about what He wants us to do. When we agree to accept a burden for the lost, the sick, and those with serious problems and needs, we agree to remove our eyes from what we desire and place them on the pain of others. This includes sacrificing the pleasures and control of our selfishness and pride. This will only happen when we plead for a deeper love for God and others. When we are only thinking about our problems and desires, we do not have the time or concern about what others are going through. This is a lifestyle of responsibility that only a few people (the remnant) are interested in. The religious masses usually decide they are not willing to become this extremely involved. They might say that’s too bad or isn’t that awful, and then never think of it again. This is not the compassion and love of God and this is not the heart of the good Samaritan. When we hear an ambulance, we should immediately pray for the one who is in a crisis. When we hear of someone suffering we should include them in our prayer journal. Let’s take this a step further. Do you believe God has a plan for everyone and He longs to intervene in everyone’s lives? Do you believe He is waiting for you to pray for others so that you can add more faith and power to their requests? In this light, when we choose not to pray, it is obvious we do not care what God wants nor do we care whether other people receive a miracle or not. It shows we have no love for God or others which are the two greatest commandments ever given. First Corinthians chapter thirteen proclaims that without love we have nothing and are nothing.

“Lord, I ask for an awareness of your presence. I know this is the only way to walk in your Spirit. If I am aware that you are constantly with me, I will walk in the reverential fear of you and I will not sin. Fearing your majesty is the beginning of wisdom and I plead with you to fill me with your wisdom and discernment. I am thirsty for you as the deer pants for the water. As Solomon was given a choice to name anything in the world he wanted, he asked for wisdom and discernment because he wanted to be a good leader and to always answer everyone with your perfect truth. You gave it to him and I believe you will also give this to me as you are not a respecter of persons and I receive this in your holy name! Of all the things in this world, I ask to know, speak, and live according to your wisdom. Jesus, I long to demonstrate your character and nature. Give me agape love so that when the world sees me they see you. I desire for my life to be none of me and all of you. I make the holy vow to live in blood covenant with you and I honor your gift of salvation. Give me the correct interpretation of your scriptures that I might show myself approved and teach your word with accuracy. Father, make my heart so sensitive that I may always hear your still small voice. How can I obey you if I cannot hear what you are saying? How can I respond to divine appointments if I cannot understand your directions? Give me a burden for the lost and that I might pray without ceasing. Come and sit on the throne of my heart as the King and Lord of my life. I worship you in Spirit and truth. Give me a passion to be holy and may every sin make me nauseous. I receive your power and authority to do your works for your glory. I am willing to walk through the refiner’s fire and be made pure as gold. Break me, melt me, mold me, use me. I am preparing my wedding gown that it might be without spots or wrinkles. I cast down my carnal flesh and speak to my old nature to die once and for all in the name of Jesus. Open the eyes of my heart, and allow me to see everything the way you see, and give me the mind of Christ. Whatever it takes, I will stay focused on you and I will surrender my all to you. I lay down my will. All to thee I surrender.” 

ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS

PART 4 – Published 1/22/22

HEARING FROM GOD – Part 2

Continuing from last week, we are taking a closer look at how God wants to speak to His people, but rarely has the opportunity to share His thoughts. Why is this? Because there are conditions to receiving revelation wisdom from God. Most of these conditions apply to how serious we are about hearing His voice. A good way to measure how desperate someone is to hear from God is to know how much time a person spends in prayer and studying God’s Word. These are spiritual connections with God that develop lines of communication with Him. For anyone to believe that God will pour out His profound wisdom on someone that is not paying attention is deceived. As we have said before, His mysteries, secrets, and answers are not just laying on top of the ground where we can go out and gather them. They are buried deep where only the diligent seeker will find them. There is a peculiar passage found in Matthew 7:6 that explains why God does not share what is holy with those who do not have a passionate love for truth. “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you.” If you say that someone is casting pearls before swine, you mean that they are wasting their time by offering something that is helpful or valuable to someone who does not appreciate or have a desire to research and understand it. The same as God knows the hearts of every person and does not speak His mysteries to those who have no interest, we also are to have discernment to know the spiritual level of what others can comprehend or what they want to hear.

Sadly, God has removed His candlestick from many churches and all that is left is a gathering of powerless programs and demonic spirits of control. To bring back the fire and authority of God, there would need to be a complete overhaul and a rededication unto the Lord. The truth would need to be spoken about how the assembly lost its first love and how it must repent and allow the Holy Spirit to cleanse the gathering and for the people to regain the reverential fear and respect for God’s holiness. Each heart would need to recommit their lives to Jesus and to understand how they have been deceived. The authority would need to be turned over to God and they would need to let go of their desire to dominate what happens in the church. Until a congregation realizes the church is God’s church and the Holy Spirit is in control, there will be no manifestation of God’s glory. God’s presence is evident where there are people who love Him with all of their heart and are desperate for His presence.

I have written about how important it is to have an awareness of God’s presence for years and I have tried to develop this attitude. I am stunned at how difficult it is to obtain this higher level of sensitivity. When we give our attention to the things of the world and seek to entertain and pleasure our flesh, we give control to our default nature and automatically obey the lust of the flesh. We know the mind is the battlefield for this control and unfortunately the flesh usually wins. Our old nature is ready to fight to the death to maintain control and as the old saying is true, “the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” Humans do what they want to do, and walking with God is not very high on their priority list. I know a man who has this vision to have Jesus as His Lord and tries to constantly focus all of his attention on Christ. It has cost him everything. The sacrifices he has made to live in the secret place of the Most High has been painful in the natural but rewarding in the spiritual. He understood the only way to go all the way with the Lord was to let go of the world and yield his will to the Father. This is the way Jesus lived and the same way God expects us to abide with Him in His covenant.

Sadly, we can clearly see the assemblies are filled with members that do not read or study their Bible, and neither do they spend time in meditation, worship, or prayer. In the days before media technology, people could only read the Bible and books to learn about God and of course they had to travel to hear people teach and preach. Since the majority of individuals were uneducated, their views and convictions were shaped by what other people believed and this is true today. Those few who entered into the ministry were considered the “experts” of the Bible and were trusted the same as doctors were trusted to know about the human body and sickness. The problem with this way of thinking about the spiritual life, is this caused the masses to be lazy and study on their own. It’s true, that certain clergy are called into the five-fold ministry and spent time preparing devotions and working in God’s kingdom, but this caused the congregation to live however they wanted and spent their time thinking thought about other things. Instead of every Christian developing a personal relationship with God and a constant awareness of His presence, they assumed that going to church once a week was good enough. The masses came up with the idea that it would be much easier to pay someone to give sermons and visit the sick that it would be for every member of God’s church to embrace their responsibility to be led by God’s Spirit. This carnal attitude opened the doors to a religious spirit of lukewarmness that has done extensive damage to God’s kingdom.