Monday, December 29, 2008

Rick Warren?

Good Morning! I hope that everyone had a wonderful, meaningful Christmas! The celebration of the birth of the baby in the manger who was more than an ordinary baby....He was the savior! The Lord of all Creation...the King of Kings and Lord of Lords! He was Jesus Christ! the foretold Messiah from the Old Testament Scriptures who fulfilled every prohetic utterance of His coming and....will COME AGAIN! The time is drawing closer...are you ready?

Part of the reason for a belief that Jesus is coming soon is the fact of the condition that we find ourselves in at this present time...wars and rumors of war abound...perilous times are here...men are lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, having a form of Godliness but denying its power (II timothy 3:2-5)

In light of the above, here is an interesting take on the uproar by the decision to ask Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church to pray at the inaugaration of President-Elect Barak Obama:

The Warren Controversy
by Michael G. Mickey
(12-26-08)

Talk about a circus! Barack Obama's decision to have mega church pastor Rick Warren offer the invocation at his presidential inauguration fits the bill. It seems that most everyone has a bone to pick about it.

ReligionNewsBlog has the following to say on the topic, in part:


The Rev. Rick Warren, who will give the invocation, is the most influential pastor in the United States, and a choice that has already caused problems for Obama.

Warren is a Southern Baptist who holds traditional religious beliefs and endorsed California’s Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage. But he also wants to broaden the evangelical agenda to include fighting global warming, poverty and AIDS.
Later in the article....

By picking Warren, Obama is sending another signal, about his willingness to upset liberals by tilting to the center. Gay rights groups are demanding that Obama rescind the invitation because of Warren’s opposition to same-sex marriage.

“By inviting Rick Warren to your inauguration, you have tarnished the view that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have a place at your table,” Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a letter to the incoming president.
The liberals are upset

Joy Behar, co-host of The View and a way Left liberal by anyone's standards, had this to say of Obama's choice of Warren, according to Newsbusters, "I don’t think it’s appropriate. It’s like putting, you know, Cheney in charge of gun control. It’s wrong....it’s just wrong.”

And why, exactly, was it wrong of Obama to choose Warren according to Behar? He has spoken out against gay marriage and a supporter of Proposition 8, of course!

The first openly gay member of Congress, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said recently, according to Fox News, "Mr. Warren compared same-sex couples to incest. I found that deeply offensive and unfair." I'm sure he did, but, no offense to Congressman Frank, the lifestyle he leads is every bit as vile a sexual sin as incest in the eyes of God. Both are forbidden by God and were, until recent times, illegal in most of these United States.

What a time we've come to in America's history when a pastor who preaches as judgmentless a form of the gospel as Rick Warren does is seen as an extreme fundamentalist by the Left! I would never have dreamed years ago that I'd see a day in my life that this could possibly be true. And yet here we are. These days, as a result of current trends, I see our nation in a brand new light - one that's anything but glowing.

I no longer wonder how much less we're going to honor the Almighty because I know the answer to the question. We're going to dishonor God, as a nation, to whatever extent He will permit us to without destroying us.

We're in a bottomless pit of sinfulness as a nation and the sad thing about it? Despite the great bounty of blessing that God has bestowed on us, we didn't fall into it; we jumped into it with both feet!

Homosexuals are upset

The Left is up in arms and, within their ranks fo the most part, homosexuals are as well.

The following is an excerpt from a OneNewsNow.com article entitled "Homosexual groups blast Obama for 'mistake'":

Homosexual activist groups across the country are angry with the president-elect for choosing evangelical pastor Rick Warren to pray at the inauguration on January 20. Warren publicly voiced support for Proposition 8, the California ballot measure that banned same-sex "marriage" in the state.

The homosexual activist group Human Rights Campaign has accused Obama of dealing a "genuine blow" to the homosexual community by choosing Warren. In addition, a California homosexual-rights activist has labeled the selection "a huge mistake" by Obama; and the editor of the pro-homosexual newspaper Washington Blade calls the choice "Obama's first big mistake."
The ONN article quotes Jim Garlow, senior pastor of Skyline Wesleyan Church as saying "those protesting Obama's selection of Warren are "throwing temper tantrums like two-year-olds" just as they did after Prop. 8 was victorious in November."

They're not just throwing temper tantrums; they're being quite, dare I say it once again, intolerant of Christians.

In a One News Now article entitled "Homosexuals showing 'radical intolerance' of Rick Warren", Bishop Harry Jackson, Jr. of the High Impact Leadership Coalition is quoted as saying, "What's being revealed in this process is that the intolerance of the radical left is coming out. They want to be received and tolerated, but when someone takes one little overture like praying a prayer at a major event, they can't take it," he points out. "And whether we like it or not, this man Rick Warren has become the next generation's Billy Graham."

Amen to that, Bishop Jackson! If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times. Tolerance is a one-way street that flows away from God!

Traditional, fundamental Christians are upset

As a strictly traditional Bible-believing Christian, Rick Warren isn't someone who has ever impressed me a great deal with his 'Purpose Driven' gospel. Heavy on love and practically devoid of the threat of judgment found throughout the Scriptures, his teachings have always left me flat. Of his books, I have told people that they're Gospel Lite as opposed to Gospel Right and cautioned them against becoming followers of his theology. His decision to accept Barack Obama's invitation to give the invocation at his inauguration only reinforces why I've never been a big fan.

What he reportedly had to say in a recent sermon only sours me on him more. According to Fox News, Warren had the following to say on 12-21-08:

"I have in no way ever taught that homosexuality is the same thing as a forced relationship between an adult and a child, or between siblings. I was trying to point out I'm not opposed to gays having their partnership. I'm opposed to gays using the term marriage for their relationship."
He's not opposed to gays having their partnership in defiance of the Word of God? Well, he ought to be as God's Word is clear as crystal on the matter.

God gives no sanction to same-sex relationships of a romantic nature whatsoever. It's issues like this that upset Bible-believing Christians - one reason why I count it as anything but joyful when Rick Warren is referred to as 'the Billy Graham of the next generation.'

Conclusion

Why should a Christian leader, even Rick Warren, snuggle up to a man, on the day of his inauguration to become our president no less, who has promised to advance the causes of the homosexual agenda on a wide variety of fronts and swing wider the doors of abortion clinics than they have ever been before? I can't think of a good reason, personally.

This isn't the time for the Church to be found among the world, but a time for us to be separate from it! Instead of praying at the inauguration of Barack Obama, many of whose policies are going to fly directly in the face of Almighty God, Pastor Warren and the Church in general should be standing back a bit, not so far away that president-elect Obama can't see or hear us but far enough away that he knows our highest allegiance is to our God and it is an allegiance we are not going to compromise on!

Am I suggesting that Christians shouldn't show our incoming president love, respect, and support? Absolutely not, within boundaries of course. I believe that president-elect Obama is reaching out to the evangelical community somewhat in this gesture, perhaps to show us that he isn't going to slam the door in our faces concerning the issues that are important to us once he moves into the White House, but mark my words. If the Church starts cuddling up to his way Left policies as though he can do whatever and continue to meet with our approval, while the door won't be slammed in our faces, it will be subtly and quietly pushed shut until, if we listen closely, we'll be able to hear it latch and be locked! Who are we kidding if not ourselves to think otherwise? The Left doesn't care about us except when it's time for a voting lever to be pulled. The GOP isn't much if any better, for the record, but that's a topic for another time.

The years ahead, depending on where you get your information from, are going to be bad or worse than bad. Most economic prognosticators are predicting that our nation is going to fall on some very hard times and that means we're going to be NEEDING God's hand of mercy more than we have in a very long time and less DESERVING of it than ever before.

The Warren controversy, all perspectives shown here included in that ongoing melee, shows us the state of disrepair our nation's collective spirituality is presently in - and vividly at that.

The wicked are so wicked that anything short of our government signaling a total disregard of God's Word is no longer acceptable to the masses. More troubling, perhaps, is that the Church has become such a non-factor in having a discernible voice from everyone else that Rick Warren is considered the voice of this and the next generation of evangelical Christians.

All of the above shows us just how close we are, conditionally at the very least, to the return of Jesus Christ.

2nd Timothy 4:3-4:

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
In these last days, sound doctrine isn't acceptable in many churches. As a direct result, there are a lot of ear-tickling preachers in the world, Rick Warren among them, ready to tell us just what we WANT to hear and absolutely nothing we NEED to and that? It's prophecy being fulfilled and a sign of the last days.

I don't have to remind any of my regular readers what was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah at the time of its destruction. Things were so bad there that the righteous soul of Lot, seeing and hearing all that was going on around him, was vexed on a daily basis according to 2nd Peter 2:8. The similarities between Lot's days in Sodom and the world faithful Christians are living in today are strikingly similar.

Prophecy is being fulfilled - a reminder that we may be closer to seeing Jesus than we've ever dreamed possible. Not only that, it's a grim reminder of how many are going to be caught completely offguard, wrapped up in the concerns of this world, when the Rapture of the Church occurs.

Luke 17:28-30:

Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;

But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
Soon, Christians! Soon!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Watch & Pray!

Good Morning...I hope you will read the following article and take heed!


Something Evil This Way Comes – Again
By Ron Graham

“This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come, For men shall be lovers of their own selves...Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God...Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof...Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,” 2 Timothy 3:1, 2, 4, 5, & 7.

“And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you,” Matthew 24:4. Jesus was very concerned about His future Church becoming deceived. With so many statements made by the writers of the Bible under God’s inspiration that speak of being deceived, why are so many not taking heed?

Ask your pastor or Bible teachers about the Emerging Church and you will probably get a host of different answers concerning that movement. Some say “it’s not yet definable” or “let’s wait to see just where they are going”, (currently 40 million strong just here in America ). Some say it’s the young people who want something different; they don’t want to follow the old Christianity of their parents (which has been quite sufficient for the last two-thousand years). They want much more than just to attend a Church service on Sunday mornings. Others say it’s a short term movement and it will run its course and fall by the wayside. To those individuals I say, “Look again”.

The proponents of the Emergent Church movement claim Christianity must be re-defined to adapt it to the post modern crowd. It’s Satan’s business to disrupt the fellowship of believers any way he can. Doctrinal differences are wide and in many cases satanic in origin. That’s how the enemy works. Division among God’s saints is his greatest achievement. The Emergent Church movement is just one more in a long line of divisions initiated by God’s greatest enemy. “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;” 1 Corinthians 15:1. When we exchange the truth of the Gospel of Christ for a lie, a perversion we will certainly reap as we harvest what we sow.

The Emergent Churches precepts are certainly not anything new to the Church of God . In the Apostle John’s three epistles he gives us a look at the heresy known as Gnosticism. Gnosticism takes a different and deceptive path than that of true Christian doctrine. The Gnostics didn’t believe Jesus’ death on the cross was a true event. They promoted the idea that a substitute was placed on the cross while Jesus made his escape. The Gnostics believed that we must obtain knowledge, a special secret knowledge to achieve Heaven’s reward. The Gnostics also denied the deity of Jesus Christ. Today there are many who deny that Jesus Christ is God Almighty. Sadly, they are all totally deceived.

The Emerging Church movement has become most popular with the younger crowd, but it’s also making huge inroads into our established Christian Churches . I’m including some of the most popular names connected with this movement as well as some who are connected to the New Age movement: Brian McLaren, Dan Merchant, Dan Kimball, Tony Campolo, J.P. Moreland, Brennan Manning, William Shannon, Henri Nouwen, Rob Bell, Ken Weber. These names should be posted on our refrigerators as people to stay away from at all cost. There are many others who have signed on to this heresy; www.lighthousetrails.com is a great resource for information giving the warning signs about the Emergent Church/Contemplative Spirituality (EC/CS), as well as a host of other perversions. Here’s a small sample of a warning that came through my e-mail recently from Lighthouse Trails.
Dan Merchant is the author of a new book titled “Lord Save Us From Your Followers”. Merchant's book, published by Thomas Nelson, is similar in nature to Dan Kimball's “They Like Jesus But Not the Church” .The message in Merchant's book is basically that since the world doesn't like Christians, it must be the fault of Christians who spend too much time "preaching" the Gospel as opposed to just listening and befriending unbelievers without trying to convert them. The subtitle on Merchant's book is “Why is the Gospel of Love Dividing America ?” suggesting that a "true" gospel message would not be dividing but rather uniting people.
Also, J.P. Moreland, in a Christianity Today article, says that Christians are too committed to the Bible:“
In the actual practices of the Evangelical community in North America , there is an over-commitment to Scripture in a way that is false, irrational, and harmful to the cause of Christ.”
Lighthouse Trails says this is a very typical outlook by contemplative/emergent advocates. Contemplative figure Brennan Manning calls this over-commitment "bibliolatry"(Bible Idolatry):
“I am deeply distressed by what I only can call in our Christian culture the idolatry of the Scriptures. For many Christians, the Bible is not a pointer to God but God himself. In a word--bibliolatry. God cannot be confined within the covers of a leather-bound book. I develop a nasty rash around people who speak as if mere scrutiny of its pages will reveal precisely how God thinks and precisely what God wants.”

--Brennan Manning, The Signature of Jesus, pp. 188-189
Keep in mind that Manning rejects the idea that God the Father sent His son to die a violent death on the Cross for the sins of mankind. "[That God] does not exist," Manning states in his book, Above All, actually copying verbatim Eastern mysticism proponent William Shannon (from Silence on Fire).

The proponents of this movement say they succeed because God is behind them. Interestingly they remove Jesus Christ from the path laid out in the Bible as our only way to salvation and replace Him with a “more spiritual” way of attaining forgiveness. I can promise you this: God is not behind this movement, but His enemy most certainly is.


“Every modern erroneous cult is some ancient satanic heresy revived. Every “new” heresy has been anticipated by the Holy Spirit. Satan has nothing new to offer. We live in a day when religious toleration is interpreted to mean “one religion is as good as another.” Many people try to take the best from various religions and fabricate their own. To them Christ is only one of several great religious teachers, with no more authority than they have. He may be prominent, but certainly not preeminent.

When we make Jesus Christ and the Bible only a part of a total religious system or philosophy, we cease to give Him preeminence. When we strive for “spiritual perfection” or “fullness” by means of formulas, disciplines, or rituals, we go backward rather than forward. We must beware of mixing our Christian faith with such alluring things as yoga, transcendental meditation, Oriental mysticism, and the like. We must also beware of the “deeper life” teachers who offer a system for victory and fullness that bypasses devotion to Jesus Christ. In all things, He must have preeminence!

No one familiar with the teaching of Colossians will ever be misled by the specious sophistries of the various occult systems now being foisted upon a credulous public, such as Theosophy, or Spiritualism; or be deluded by the revived Gnostic religions of Eddyism, Unity School of Christianity, or other branches of misnamed New Thought or New Age.”

Dr. Chuck Missler – www.khouse.org
On the surface, this EC/CS movement may actually seem to be an awesome magnet, successfully drawing millions into its fold. But in all actuality its agenda is to supplant God’s word. Their leaders are young, energetic, deceived men and women aiming to bring about a new Christianity steeped in eastern mysticism and spiritualism. Using deceptions and non-biblical concepts of who God is, they determine we can achieve “a form of godliness” beyond what the Bible teaches.

The main overwhelming heresy that should trigger a warning light in front of the eyes of those who attend these meetings is Jesus Christ has been removed from the foundation of their belief system. Gnosticism is back and in full vigor. It really never left the world scene but has always been lurking in the shadows. Without Jesus Christ as the foundation of the Church we have no Church.

Remember this. Satan’s main goal is to get people to look at Jesus as just another good teacher in a line of many good teachers, who, along with all the others, did His fair share to help the downtrodden of this world. If humanity is to look to Jesus Christ at all, Satan wants us to see Him only as some sort of a prophet, never as the Savior of the world. “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me,” John 14:6. To all who can read, Jesus’ statement here is crystal clear.

The promoters of the EC/CS movement claim it’s a new world and we must embrace new concepts of Christianity for proclaiming a new message that will lead to a healthier and more peaceful future for mankind; lots of feel good tripe but no substance, nothing that gives us the true way to salvation. Satan has many tricks up his sleeve and this is just another in a long line of deceptions. Sadly, millions are falling for this new movement with all its promises of a better world. The Bible tells us things will get worse, not better, as the end draws nearer. Jesus said “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many,” Matthew 24:11.

There are many scriptures in the Bible which point out that there will be a perverted apostasy promoted as the norm in the last days. How then are leaders like these who promote this EC/CS movement and others able to be so completely deceived? It’s actually quite simple. They don’t really believe what the Bible says or they allegorize scriptures that should be taken literally. As President Bush stated recently, “I don’t take the Bible literally, I’m not a literalist”. When he meets Jesus face to face, he will be.

Oh sure, these deceived leaders speak as with great scriptural knowledge and authority, very eloquently, but they are actually harboring satanic deceptions. Christian leaders who embrace this new spirituality are leading multitudes astray, all because they refuse to follow God's word. They are heading right down the path that their leader has set for them. He’s a wily old fox and a deceitful lying serpent.

“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time,” 1 John 2:18. A very strong delusion has arrived on the Christian scene in force and millions of gullible folks are already deeply involved in that deception. “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us,” 1 John 2:19. Of those high profile evangelicals who are now so deceived, many actually began their journey in the ministry with very good intentions. They started well but have been seduced by listening to Satan who convinced them to join his team. And, of course, they are so deluded they don’t even realize it.

“Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son,” 1 John 2:22. Many evangelicals are now beginning to align themselves with other faiths, such as those who embrace the Muslim faith. They’ve begun to meet together with the leaders of those false religions in order to promote universal ecumenicalism. But Islam denies Jesus is the Christ. How can evangelicals promote a unified body with Islam? Be careful folks! Something evil this way comes!

There is a huge deception currently being promoted by some evangelicals that a great revival is coming. Supposedly, it will be so pervasive that all evil will be eradicated from the face of the earth. Only then will Christ’s Second Advent be ushered in. This sounds good, but the Bible tells us something different. God’s word tells us that the true believing Church will become quite weak in the end times, almost pathetic in its existence. Jesus told His Apostle John to write, “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write... ‘I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it: for thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name,” Revelation 3:7a, & 8. Jesus says the Church at the end, just before His return, will have a little strength, not that they would be some huge worldwide conglomeration of believers eliminating evil from the world.

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that [spirit] of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world,” 1 John 4:1-3. John says try the spirits; don’t just fall for any old lie that begins to gain prominence. Remember, the Gnostics did not believe that Christ came in the flesh and this is the spirit of antichrist. Don’t fall for it! Adherence to this lie will do just one thing for your future - condemn you to the same place Satan is condemned to. Jesus said “Watch therefore:” Matthew 24:42.

Watch therefore! Watch out for the books these silver-tongued false teachers are promoting. They can be found in most big-named secular bookstores, as well as in most Christian bookstores. Do not invite them into your homes as many have already done. Their words will infiltrate your mind, corrupt your beliefs, and confound your faith in Christ. They carry the spirit of antichrist between their pages, ready to mislead you.

How do we avoid the same traps as those who have already been consumed by this perverse delusion? First of all, study your Bibles and learn God’s truth for yourselves. Secondly, never listen to anyone who doesn’t believe Jesus Christ is God. The Holy Spirit, sent to us from God, will never deceive us. His main purpose is to point us to Christ. That’s the Spirit we should be listening to, especially now as we move into the last of the last days here on earth.

Always be alert to the evil that surrounds us. Jesus Christ has not changed and we don’t need a new spirituality, or some demonic spirit guide to lead us around by the nose. God’s word is unchanging; read it, study it. That’s your revival. Instead of Christians conforming to God’s Word, many are trying to conform God’s Word to us. "It’s cultural", they say. “We’ve changed." That’s just another buzzword to confound the weak-minded. It’s not cultural.

We are the body of Christ; it’s His Church and always has been. Charles Spurgeon wrote “A church should be a camp of soldiers, not a hospital of invalids.” How true. Sadly though, the latter is what we see in many of our Christian Churches today.

Just because we see this world falling into step with end time’s Biblical prophecy, doesn’t mean we should give up or look for some new spiritual concept. Christianity has endured for almost two-thousand years and will continue to do so until God calls an end to all things. The Emerging Church/Contemplative Spirituality movements are heresies and should be shunned by all believing Christians and by all Christian Churches. Let it be known. A choice made to embrace these two movements will strike a devastating blow to the body of Christ!

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever,” Hebrews 13:8. The next time someone tells you we need to re-define Christianity, quote the above verse to them and then Jesus’ admonition to Peter, “Get thee behind me, Satan”.

God bless you all,
Ron Graham

Friday, December 12, 2008

Random Thoughts

It is late on Friday night and I am sitting at my computer, watching the news, with my wife Sandy asleep by my side...we went to Calvary Christian tonight to watch our son Collin play against Sherwood of Albany...we lost...big...Collin scored seven points tonight after scoring twenty on Tuesday night...the ups and downs of a freshman roundball player...

I am wondering why we have such corruption in the city of Chicago? Rumor has it that Daley tilted the election to JFK in 1960 and it has been going on ever since with four different governors going to jail, with the latest being Blago...Mr. Obama stated a few days ago that he was confident that none of his staff was involved in this sordid mess, but that was before it was revealed that Rahm Immanuel, his chief of staff, is on the tapes....I wonder why anyone would really think that someone who comes from the background of Chicago politics would be untainted?

Christmas is coming and this year with all the bailouts and layoffs, maybe, just maybe people will stop and think what Christmas is really all about...Its not about presents but about a Savior who left the glories of heaven to coem and be one of us, yet without committing any sin! Who gave his life for us, shedding His blood so that we might have the opportunity to be redeemed back to God...Praise the Lord! Glory to God in the highest!

Monday, December 8, 2008

Are You Afraid?

Good morning! With all that is happening around us in these days, many people are afraid...they are afraid of what is happening to the economy and what will we do if this industry or that industry bites the dust...One thing that we, and I am referring to believers in Jesus Christ, tend to forget is that God is sovereign and in control of all things! The following article from the Omega Newsletter is a great reminder of this truth:



Sudden Fear -- And the Desolation of the Wicked
In Defense of the Faith
Monday, December 08, 2008
Jack Kinsella - Omega Letter Editor

I read a statistic that said the stock market crash has erased something close to one third of the average American's 401k holdings. For folks around my age, it means rethinking the age at which retirement is possible.


I know a fellow about my age who retired on his investments a couple of years ago. The crash is forcing him out of retirement.
For somebody in their sixties or early seventies who retired recently, their monthly retirement income has suddenly dropped by a third and there isn't a lot they can do about it.

So what do you do? A person's first instinct is to panic. When enough people panic at once, well, that's how markets crash in the first place.

Individuals panic by cutting back on their cable bill, or selling their extra car, canceling their vacation or coming out of retirement back into the workplace.

Corporations panic by laying off more workers than necessary, selling off more inventory at greater discounts than necessary and closing more outlets than necessary.

Lenders panic by cutting off more credit than necessary to more borrowers than necessary. In all these cases, the thinking is the same -- cut back all the way to the bone and then reorganize.

Restructuring is not the same as reacting. One restructures as necessary. When one reacts, it is out of panic.

It's either controlled or uncontrolled, but its still panic. Panic is when you don't know what to do -- and you do it anyway.

I know Christians who when they panic, instead of cutting back, they double their tithe. They double down on their tithe so that God will bless the stuff they still have.

Sounds spiritual. But it's not, really. No matter where one stands on tithing as a doctrine, you can't get around what a tithe is mathematically -- it's ten percent.

(So if you're already tithing, then 'doubling down' is like offering God a tip.)

Ok. Let's roll everything back to zeroes for a moment and take stock of the situation.

First, we're Christians who believe that Bible prophecy is true and relevant to this generation and that we are living in the last days. We go to church on Sunday and pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done."

What does the Bible forecast for the last days? A great apostastic social meltdown. The rise of antichrist. The collapse of the economy. Earthquakes, famines, wars and pestilences.

What do we see? A great apostatic social meltdown. "Apostasy" means to 'fall away from the faith' -- it refers to watering down of doctrinal principles to conform to worldly principles.

The apostasy is global -- former bastions of Christianity across Europe have all but formally renounced their faith. Christianity in the West is on the decline to the degree that the term 'post-Christian era' is no longer surprising when applied to America.

Is the world ready to embrace the antichrist when he comes? I submit that the antichrist could run openly AS the antichrist and probably get the majority non-Christian vote, if he were half as charismatic as Barack Hussein Obama.

The global economy is in free-fall, as we've already noted. And we've spent the past ten years up to our necks in earthquakes, famines, wars and pestilences.

This is exactly what the Bible predicted for the last days. We know this in our hearts and in our minds. But we rail against the moral meltdown.

We worry for the future of a country under Barack Hussein Obama even as we KNOW what the Bible says is the ultimate future of not just this country but the entire western world under antichrist.

We fret and panic over our 401k accounts, knowing that what is transpiring is all part of God's plan for the last days.

We search the Scriptures for answers to questions like; "what should Christians do to overcome in such times as these?"

But isn't this what we prayed for?

There is an old principle of spiritual warfare that says, "Be careful what you pray for. You might get it." We tend to view it more as a joke than a principle.

We should take it seriously -- to do otherwise is the spiritual equivalent to assuming a gun isn't loaded.

A trained warrior knows what a bullet can do and treats all weapons as if they were loaded unless he has personally inspected them to ensure their status.

The seven words, "I didn't know the gun was loaded!" form the most tragic phrase in the English language.

Prayer is as real as a loaded gun. Because prayer is real, prayer has real consequences. It isn't enough to talk about trusting God in times like these. We've prayed for His Kingdom to come, for His will to be done.

Prayer is real, His kingdom is real and that His will is sovereign. So if you're afraid of what is coming, does that mean you're faithless? Does it mean you aren't trusting the Lord? No. It means you are human.

But it also means you're missing out on some of what God has set aside for you.

"Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken." (Proverbs 3:25-26)

Notice there are two fears being addressed here. "Being afraid" and "sudden fear."

"Sudden fear" is what comes to us all. Fear of losing my stuff. Fear of not being able to retire when I'd planned. Fear that my 401k is lost and gone forever.

It is this concept of 'sudden fear' that keeps us from being reckless. It is what keeps you from trying to beat oncoming traffic.

After all, you're saved. You're a Christian. Nothing can happen to you without God's permission. So why don't you just jump out in front of that oncoming car? (The 'sudden fear' that God may have granted that permission without telling you.)

Let's move up to the next level; from 'sudden fear' to 'being afraid.'

God says, 'be not afraid of sudden fear'. This is the trust level. Where you recognize that the danger is real and the fear is real.

But we needn't BE afraid of that sudden fear, NOR of the desolation of the wicked when (not 'if') it cometh. Note the promise: "For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken."

It is ok to be afraid IN the 'sudden' sense -- but not to be afraid OF the fear. We live in the world, but we are not OF it. The current economic panic began when folks decided they couldn't pay their mortgages and defaulted.

There are exceptions to every rule but, in the main, what happens when somebody defaults on their mortgage? Do they evaporate? Or do they move somewhere else where they still have to pay, even if it is less?

The Lord differentiates 'sudden fear' from giving in to panic. You lose your job and stop paying your bills to preserve your available cash for when you 'really' need it. That is panic; fear devoid of trust.

"Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it. Say not unto thy neighbour, Go, and come again, and to morrow I will give; when thou hast it by thee." (Proverbs 3:27-28)

Sudden fear is an understanding of the situation and a respect for its gravity. Being afraid of sudden fear is what happens when one forgets to place one's confidence in the Lord.

This is more than just a pretty platitude. It is a bedrock principle of doctrine. It is the Source of that "peace that surpasseth all understanding."

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (John 14:27)

"Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:31-33)

There is but one way to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness than I can find in Scripture -- and that is to trust Jesus. It is one thing to respect the risks attached as 'sudden fear' -- it is another to allow it to rule your life.

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."(Matthew 6:34)

Don't worry. God's got it all under control.



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Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Good Evening

Good evening...well Thanksgiving is over and we have survived "Black Friday", with the exception of the maniacs at the Walmart who stormed the doors, trampling to death a 34 year old employee...what a tragedy...our prayers go out to his family...

It is 23 days until Christmas...what are you celebrating? This is the time of year that we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. My prayer for you is that the real meaning of the season will speak to your heart and remind you of what God has done for us...God provided a way of salvation for anyone who will receive His free gift of salvation through His Son Jesus...Jesus who was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on a cruel, rugged, cross, but rose victoriously from the dead! He lives even now, seated at the Father's mighty right hand, interceding for those who believe...AND WHO WILL SOON RETURN! Do you know Him?

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Thanksgiving....What are you thankful for?

Hello everyone...tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day and I trust that you are thankful for the many blessings that God has bestowed upon you...I am reminded at this time of year just what God has done for me...He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die in my place that I might be reconciled back to God...because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, because of His shed blood, my sin can be paid for when I repent of my sin and ask Jesus Christ to forgive me of my sin, come into my heart and give me eternal life! Have you done this? If I can help you with this, then just send me a comment to this posting....

As we contemplate where we are in this walk of faith in the United States, the following article by Dr. Al Mohler certainly says it all:

Echoes of Old Heresies Still Among Us -- A Visit to Divinity Hall

By Dr. Al Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Lusiville,Kentucky

Posted: Friday, November 21, 2008 at 6:12 am ET



Just a few hours ago I stood at the very spot where one of the most significant addresses in American history was delivered -- and where the settled understandings of the Christian ministry and the church's theology were thrown into revolution.

The date was July 15, 1838, the place was the chapel of Divinity Hall at Harvard, and the speaker was Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson had been asked to deliver an address to the Senior Class of the Divinity College, and he accepted the challenge. Emerson was then a part-time Unitarian preacher, but his intellectual stature in the movement known as Transcendentalism attracted the attention of the students training for ministry.

More to the point, Emerson had ignited an intellectual explosion the year before, when he was asked to deliver the annual lecture to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard. That address, "The American Scholar," was widely understood to represent a declaration of independence for American intellectuals. No longer should American thinkers be slavishly dependent upon European patterns, Emerson declared. This was the time for the emergence of the American Scholar, a new and advanced form of the human thinker; a scholar who would "plant himself indomitably on his instincts" and refuse to be "timid, imitative, tame."

A year later, Emerson rose to deliver his address to the Divinity School. Speaking to young men studying for the ministry, Emerson repudiated Christianity and called the young ministers to trust their own spiritual instincts and to free themselves from the Bible, from belief in a divine Christ, and from any remnant of orthodox Christianity.

"Historical Christianity has fallen into the error that corrupts all attempts to communicate religion," he declared. "As it appears to us, and as it has appeared for ages, it is not the doctrine of the soul, but an exaggeration of the personal, the positive, the ritual. It has dwelt, it dwells, with noxious exaggeration about the person of Jesus." This singular focus on Christ has turned Christianity into an uninspiring religion, he argued. All the "official titles" ascribed to Jesus just serve to make him into a "demigod," Emerson insisted.

Preaching that centers on Jesus Christ as the divine Savior is "vulgar," Emerson asserted. Miracles were eliminated as a possibility. Men and women do not come to be "converted," he insisted, by a "profanation of the soul" that centers on necessary beliefs. Instead, they should be converted "by the reception of beautiful sentiments."

Emerson also attacked the ministers of his day by accusing them of preaching the Bible. So far as Emerson was concerned, the Bible was a dead and lifeless book in itself. Preaching from the Bible will not produce greatness, Emerson explained. To limit the voice of God to the Bible is to shut the voice of God up into a dead book.

"Men have come to speak of the revelation as somewhat long ago given and done, as if God were dead. The injury to faith throttles the preacher; and the goodliest of institutions becomes an uncertain and inarticulate voice," he argued.

In other words, the young ministers were challenged to give up preaching the Bible and instead to preach their own religious sentiments:

"To this holy office you propose to devote yourselves. I wish you may feel your call in throbs of desire and hope. The office is the first in the world. It is of that reality that it cannot suffer the deduction of any falsehood. And it is my duty to say to you that the need was never greater of new revelation than now."

Emerson's bold and confrontational call for "new" revelation was translated into his most memorable lines from this historic address -- "Yourself a newborn bard of the Holy Ghost, cast behind you all conformity, and acquaint men at first hand with Deity."

In other words, he commanded the young ministers to abandon the Scriptures and to trust their own instincts, religious sentiments, and intuitions as all the divine revelation they will need. "Preaching," he explained, is nothing more than "the expression of the moral sentiment in application to the duties of life."

With his address, Emerson ignited a firestorm. He had boldly and thoroughly repudiated biblical Christianity. His proposal was to replace the Christian faith with a religion of individualistic sentimentality, iced with a coating of moralism.

Nevertheless, even as Emerson ignited a firestorm, the Harvard faculty were themselves mostly Unitarian in outlook. Theological liberalism had already become a fixture by the 1830s. The professors scandalized by Emerson's address might protest his candor, but they had little theological ammunition with which to refute him.

Ralph Waldo Emerson's 1838 "Divinity School Address" was a call to radical theological revisionism, and thousands of ministers have answered his call. It is no accident that evangelical Christianity was so soon set on its heels in Emerson's New England.

Standing in the chapel in Divinity Hall last evening, I was struck by how contemporary Emerson's argument sounds. The call he issued 170 years ago is the very message we now hear from others -- Christianity must change or die. We cannot simply preach a book that is two thousand years old. God still speaks, and a slavish dependence on the Bible is both offensive and ineffectual. Doctrines must go -- intuition and sentiment will be enough.

The issues and arguments are the same. Nevertheless, we have all the evidence we need to show us where Emerson's argument leads. It leads to the death of churches, denominations, institutions, and ministries. It leaves sinners dead in their sins and robs them of hearing the Gospel.

The church has never needed "newborn bards of the Holy Ghost." Instead, the need of the church is for preachers who are skilled in the art of preaching the Word of God -- rightly dividing the Word of Truth, while holding without apology to the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

I am glad I visited that historic room in Divinity Hall last night. It served to remind me of what is at stake in our generation -- and for eternity. There are no new heresies, only echoes of the old ones. And yet, the old ones come back again and again.



_________________________

Photo taken at Harvard University, November 20, 2008- by R. Albert Mohler, Jr.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Just how Does The End look?

Good evening...another Saturday night before worship services tomorrow...I trust that you will be in your house of worship on Sunday...well, how does the end look? The following article by Michael G. Mickey is very intertesting:


How The End Looks
by Michael G. Mickey
(11-21-08)

I continue to catch a lot of heat from those skeptical of the position of this small ministry for Christ, which is that Jesus Christ is coming soon, but, whenever I'm feeling beaten down or wearied, all I have to do is look at the news of our world today and compare it with Bible prophecy. That does the trick for me each and every time.

Rarely does a 24-hour period go by that I can't find something in the news that I can point to and say to anyone, "THIS is how the end looks, according to Bible prophecy!"

Let's review a few examples of recent findings I've come across that point to this being the case.

The United States on its way out as a superpower

Anyone who has examined Bible prophecy extensively or tried to answer the question of where the USA is located in prophecy has ultimately come to a very limited number of conclusions. Me? I've come to the conclusion that the USA isn't going to remain the all-powerful nation it is today OR the USA, whether willfully or by necessity, is going to become part of the revived Roman empire of Bible prophecy we today refer to as the European Union, the embryo of the new world order to come. Looking at the news of late, I can see potential for either to occur.

Fox News is reporting the following, in part:


The next two decades will see a world living with the daily threat of nuclear war, environmental catastrophe and the decline of America as the dominant global power, according to a frighteningly bleak assessment by the U.S. intelligence community.

"The world of the near future will be subject to an increased likelihood of conflict over resources, including food and water, and will be haunted by the persistence of rogue states and terrorist groups with greater access to nuclear weapons," said the report by the National Intelligence Council.

The analysts said that the report had been prepared in time for Barack Obama's entry into the Oval office on January 20, where he will be faced with some of the greatest challenges of any newly-elected president.

"The likelihood that nuclear weapons will be used will increase with expanded access to technology and a widening range of options for limited strikes," the 121-page assessment said.
Living under a daily threat of nuclear war? Environmental catastrophes occurring regularly? A world in persistent threat of armed conflict because of supply being unable to match demand for the earth's ever-dwindling resources? All of this is inevitable. Because of an ever-growing human populace, the spread of weapons of mass destruction and evil world leaders coming to power periodically as they have throughout human history, these things are bound to happen! Not only that, it's how the end looks according to God's prophetic Word, isn't it?

Not only can students of Bible prophecy see we're reaching a critical point in human history, voices from the secular world are expressing concerns, predicting calamities galore even!

Christians, we have a lot of work to do - and not a lot of time left to do it, in all likelihood, this side of the Rapture of the Church, but let's continue on the topic at hand for now.

I remember that it wasn't too long ago that I was receiving quite a bit of criticism for suggesting that the United States might be overcome by the rising new world order being born in Europe. I'm not being laughed at so much anymore, particularly with NewsMax.com, for example, chillingly reporting the following, in part (emphasis added mine):


The results of the G-20 economic summit amount to nothing less than the seamless integration of the United States into the European economy.

In one month of legislation and one diplomatic meeting, the United States has unilaterally abdicated all the gains for the concept of free markets won by the Reagan administration and surrendered, in total, to the Western European model of socialism, stagnation, and excessive government regulation.

Sovereignty is out the window. Without a vote, we are suddenly members of the European Union.
My theories? They're not quite so outlandish anymore. They never were to me because I've read my Bible and folks? This is how the end looks!

NewsMax.com isn't the only news source telling us that the new world order the Antichrist is someday going to lead is rising before our very eyes. Consider the headline of a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article I was made aware of. It reads: 'New global order' begins

A look inside the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette piece finds that the recent G-20 meeting, about which the article was written, ended with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown stating that the "birth pains" of a "new global order" have commenced - a most interesting choice of words in light of 1st Thessalonians 5:3 which gives us a hint into what the world will be saying when the advent of the prophesied Antichrist occurs and, ironically, a description likening the Tribulation Period to birth pains: "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."

Birth pains, Christians! A new global order is experiencing birth pains! This is how the end looks!

Atheist Warriors

I'm not alone in seeing how the pieces of the end times puzzle are being arranged. Just today I saw that Gordon James Klingenschmitt, a former naval chaplain who only a short time ago went on a hunger strike outside the White House because he wasn't allowed to share Jesus Christ with others as he felt led to while acting in that role, is concerned that our military is becoming atheistic, which he believes is a necessary element of the Antichrist rising to become a global dictator with power "over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations" in the prophetic future. Revelation 13:7

In a OneNewsNow.com article, Klingenschmitt is quoted as saying, "There is a day coming in the end times when the military will be forced to be atheistic because, in order for the eventual man who is the man of sin -- the Anti-Christ -- as it is describe in the Bible, for him to come to power and to stamp out Christianity around the globe, he's going to need a good strong atheist military. That is the first step toward Armageddon, and I'm concerned about that. And I pray that President (elect) Obama is not foolish enough to lead us down that road."

Quite frankly, I would be surprised if the Left-leaning Obama administration did anything other than weaken the role faith plays in our armed forces. Obama didn't beat out Ted Kennedy and John Kerry to earn the title of most liberal Senator in the United States Congress to suddenly have a change of heart and become a moderate in the White House, in my humble opinion.

As Klingenschmitt fears may occur, our armed forces, as well as the forces of the entire rising new world order, are likely going to become more secularized and atheistic in preparation of the advent of the Antichrist to occur. In the OneNewsNow.com article, Klingenschmitt vows he's going to "blow the trumpet and sound the alarm" if he sees that happening.

From where I'm sitting? If Klingenschmitt blows the trumpet so loud and long people's ears begin to ring, few in our world today, even in the Christian community, are going to get up in arms about it, no pun intended. Why? Because a Church that is willing to elect a man like Barack Obama isn't likely to put a great deal of effort into demanding that our military chaplains be allowed to share the gospel according to their faith.

A Church Asleep Behind The Wheel

I've ranted and raved on the issue of the Church of these last days sitting on its hands where condemning rampant sinfulness is concerned and, in many instances, flat out supporting evil that I've practically turned blue in the face, Christians voting for Barack Hussein Obama topping the list of my most recent frustrations.

Does anyone remember September 11th? I know I do. It was a day that will haunt me as long as I live and yet, based on the election of Barack Obama, it seems that many Christians would've voted in favor of that kind of loss of life happening each and every day! Shocking, isn't it?

Consider the following excerpt from a commentary written by Thomas A. Glessner for WorldNetDaily.com:


As evangelical leaders "tone down" their voices of opposition to abortion, unborn children continue to die at a rate of 3,300 per day. In other words, America experiences every day a silent 9/11 attack within abortion clinics across the country while voices in opposition to such an onslaught become weaker and more muted.

In regards to abortion and the cultural battle over the sanctity of life ethic, we need to seriously ask: Whatever happened to the community of faith?
A thought-provoking question, isn't it?

If you're anything like me, you probably think of September 11th occasionally. Whenever you see the twin towers fall in your mind, see people jumping to their deaths to escape the heat and smoke of that horrific day and all the other painful memories we associate with it, we should consider all the children that are going to continue to die every single day - each of them part of a daily 'September 11th' occurring in abortion clinics all over America. That's what a vote for Obama brought with it, not to mention emboldening the homosexual community to pursue it agenda more militantly than ever before which we're already seeing become more problematic because Christians failed to stand united on biblical principles at the polls.

Some will undoubtedly write to me and say, "Mike, the GOP isn't much better." I wouldn't raise a great deal of objection to that, but at this point? Even somewhat better is better than the absolute worst of liberalism that is going to become prevalent in our society beginning on January 20th, 2009!

I read the other day that unhappy people watch more television. If that's true, I guess I'll be watching more beginning next year. We won't be able to afford to do much else anyhow once Obama begins raising all our taxes, but I digress.

Thomas A. Glessner asked, "Whatever happened to the community of faith?" I don't know, exactly, but this is how the end looks, isn't it?

A dramatic "falling away" from the faith has taken place since I was a child which doesn't seem that long ago, although my graying hair reminds me that it may have been a bit longer than I remember.

Almost Out of Time


In closing, probably because I'm planning on being away from my computer for a bit due to family obligations I have that will carry me into remote areas of Appalachia where frustrated small town America clings to guns and religion and has little to no internet connectivity, I'm rambling a bit I fear. Please forgive me if so as there's a lot I want to get out to my readers before taking this brief rest to recharge my brain and see some of my family I don't get to very often.

Barring the Rapture of the Church or circumstances beyond my control, I'll be back at work shortly. I'll have to be, quite frankly, or the big show may well be over and me with a very full inbox of information at that! Unacceptable short of the Rapture!

An article by Russia Today opens as follows, reinforcing my point made in all of the above:

You may not need to write your last will and testament after all. Now a group of pessimistic scientists from the U.S., the UK and France say humanity has reached the point of no return and has little hope of continuing life on Earth.

A new study published by The Open Atmospheric Science Journal says the concentration of CO2 in the planet’s atmosphere has reached the point at which irreversible changes to climate start. Even if the concentration of carbon dioxide is lowered from its current level in record time, the catastrophic effects will still occur. The scientists give us about 30 years till the end of the planet to which humans are adapted.
Yes, this is how the end looks according to Bible prophecy and secular mankind as well! And in spite of it? Those of us working hardest to alert a lost and dying world that time is swiftly running out for them to come to faith in the only One who can save them from certain and eternal destruction? We're the punchline of many a joke it seems, but even that, as ironic as it is? Just how the end looks. Exactly how it looks.

2nd Peter 3:3-4: Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

It's time to get serious while you still have time!

If you're reading this and you've never accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, what are you waiting for? Are you waiting for the actual end to come? If so, that will be too late.

You need Jesus Christ in your life and you need Him right now. Tomorrow may be one day too late as the Lord's plan? It's proceeding precisely as we were told to expect it to - and more dramatically by the minute it seems.

Suddenly, we're told, Christ will come for His Church, after which the world is going to descend into utter madness on the road to Armageddon.

Please don't be left behind. Cry out to Jesus! He's listening for you!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Glad to be home!

Good morning! I am glad to be back home...the mission trip to Guatemala was a great time to be in a place to serve God...our team saw 14 people come to faith in Jesus Christ along with bible study groups developed...the days were very warm, the nights cool and the fellowship sweet...Our missionary contacts were gracious hosts, the translators were great and even our driver for the week was enthusiastic! All in all, we had a wonderful time and God blessed our efforts with the salvations...

Well, thgings have been happening since the elections and I will be sharing with you more information regarding that as the next few days go by....but again, IT IS GREAT TO BE HOME!

Friday, November 7, 2008

More Election Thoughts

Good Morning...I will be headed to Guatemala on Saturday, Nov. 8 and returning on Nov. 15, so this may be my last post before returning...the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States of America makes for some interesting fodder on the prophecy news front...the following article is from rapturealert.com:

Barack Obama, The EU and Bible Prophecy

by Michael G. Mickey
(11-7-08)

Since the election of Barack Obama to the office of president of the United States and somewhat even before, there have been a whirlwind of developments taking place of interest to those of us following current events in the world pointing to the soon-coming return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In this commentary, I would like to share with you a few of these events, along with links to various articles you can read that will make it clear to you that, although many of us are upset that a man we feel is going to lead our nation further down a path that takes it out of God's will, there is a reason for all things and God is still in control.

A Beast Looking For Teeth

In Bible prophecy, the rising of a revived Roman empire is foretold that will ultimately become what most of us today refer to as a new world order.

In Daniel 7:23, we get a glimpse of this Beast empire the Antichrist to come will wield power over and see it will be an aggressive alliance of global powers:


Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces.
Quietly, this Beast empire has been rising for decades in the form of the European Union which presently consists of 27 member nations.

Recently, with the newly-formed 16-member Mediterranean Union being brought into the fold, the European Union, for all practical purposes, is now 43 member nations strong. (To view three maps of the old Roman empire, the European Union and, lastly, the European Union combined with the Mediterranean Union, click HERE and see how dramatically the Roman empire of the days of Christ has been reborn, for all practical purposes, in our world today.)

On a number of occasions, each time noting that the European Union is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium where the most powerful military force in the world (NATO) also calls home (no coincidence in my opinion), I've brought to my readers' attention that the revived Roman empire is considering the benefit of having its own military, something for us to bear in mind in light of Daniel 7:23's prophecy, in spite of the fact I question its necessity to exist on any grand scale for Bible prophecy to move forward now due to NATO's existence and availability to the EU.

Along these lines, however, on October 27, 2008, the EU Observer reported that the United Kingdom's Defense Minister favors the creation of a European Union military along with French president Nicolas Sarkozy who "had hoped to place EU defense architecture at the heart of his country's EU chairmanship until his best-laid plans were overtaken by the global financial crisis."
The potential of a European Union army rising capable of operating outside of NATO remains an issue of prophetic interest at the very least so bear in mind I'll be keeping an eye on that topic and reporting on it periodically if the Lord wills it.

A Greater Role for the EU?

On the very day of the U.S. elections, something I've told my readers to watch for to occur for years was physically requested by the European Union, namely the EU being given a more influential role in the world to include "more engagement with a resurgent Russia and more emphasis on peacemaking in Afghanistan and the Middle East."

How many times, those of you who have followed along with me through the years, have I told you we should watch for a turn of events to occur that would place the revived Roman empire of Bible prophecy in a posture to potentially resolve the troublesome issue of Middle East peace? I have to tell you, brothers and sisters in Christ, that I got chills and am right now as I type these words to you. Why? Because the EU Observer report that details this request on the part of the EU states the following, in part (emphasis added mine to stress the relation to Bible prophecy):

The letter urges the new US administration to put the Middle East peace process at the top of its agenda and foresees a "useful role" for the EU as co-guarantors of a future Israeli-Palestinian accord.
The European Union as co-guarantors of a future Israeli-Palestinian accord? This language reads as though it was ripped from the pages of Bible prophecy! Let me explain.

In Daniel 9:26-27, we're told that a prince (or leader) of Roman descent is going to confirm (or make strong) a covenant of peace in the Middle East that will be seven years in duration. This leader, the prophesied Antichrist, will go on to head the new world order and will immediately, by confirming this covenant, begin the seven-year Tribulation Period, the culmination of which will be the battle of Armageddon, a sequence of events highlighted by the visible, physical, bodily return of Jesus Christ and the armies of heaven to the earth after which Christ will set up His kingdom on the earth!

Praise God, there is HOPE for us too, Church! CHANGE is coming and not just because Barack Obama has been elected president of the United States of America, contrary to what many believe!

Barack Obama elected president of the United States

As everyone who has read my website at all knows, I have been less than enthused by the prospect of a Left-leaning Democratic party-led president and Congress having control of our nation at a dangerous time in our nation's history like this, but could it put Bible prophecy on the fast track to fulfillment? Absolutely. And why? Because, quite frankly, I believe that Barack Obama, true to his word, is going to be very interested in repairing what the Left believes to be a George W. Bush-shattered image of the U.S. around the globe. The European Union has made a request of president-elect Obama and he will, in my opinion, if for no other reason than to stick one more fork in President Bush's foreign policy, grant it .

Demonstrative of how receptive our world is becoming to practically worshipping a man as though he were god, even a man who has done absolutely nothing like Barack Obama to merit such worship, people around the globe are giving us a glimpse into how nuts mankind is going to go over the prophesied Antichrist when his advent occurs. Below are a few excerpts from an Associated Press article for your consideration that illustrate this (emphasis added mine):

This is the fall of the Berlin Wall times ten," Rama Yade, France's black junior minister for human rights, told French radio. "America is rebecoming a New World. "On this morning, we all want to be American so we can take a bite of this dream unfolding before our eyes," she said.
"What an inspiration. He is the first truly global U.S. president the world has ever had," said Pracha Kanjananont, a 29-year-old Thai sitting at a Starbuck's in Bangkok. "He had an Asian childhood, African parentage and has a Middle Eastern name. He is a truly global president."
As EUBusiness.com is reporting, the European Union is openly rejoicing that Obama has won the presidency. In my opinion this is because the EU's leadership sees Obama as someone they'll be able to get to roll their way on most everything which I concur with. The following is an excerpt from that article:

"This is a time for a renewed commitment between Europe and the United States of America," Barroso said in a statement. "We need to change the current crisis into a new opportunity. We need a new deal for a new world."

"I sincerely hope that with the leadership of President Obama, the United States of America will join forces with Europe to drive this new deal. For the benefit of our societies, for the benefit of the world," he said.
Make no mistake about it, the pathway to a new world order coming into existence just became a lot less rocky to obtain, as if I even need to state that to the majority of my readership.

If a new deal is needed for a new world (order), Barack Obama will be the first to sign off on it as would any president chosen from among the cast members of the loony Left, all of whom I pray will have mercy on me and not send me to a re-education camp now that their evil empire is almost in place. (A little humor interjected there, folks. Sorry, but I couldn't resist. But seriously, Obama Truth Squad dudes, you don't have to fear me. Most people think I'm a nut just like you do so I'm not a threat to you or your plans. I'm just hanging out, watching the fireworks with the religious right - my Bible in one hand and a cup of hot coffee in the other.)

In related news, concerning the new deal the EU is looking for, EUBusiness.com is reporting that "Obama's US election victory has revived European hopes for deep reform of the global financial system."

Recently, I documented that the EU is presently pushing for a new world order and that vice president-elect Joe Biden indicated he and Obama have accepted the realities of a new world order so I expect the EU has little, if anything, to hope for. My guess is the EU can fully expect the Obama administration to go along with most anything the Europeans want on that front which, once again, will only serve to advance the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Perhaps, the EU's leaders already realize this based on some of the language found in an EU Observer article.

A "former trade official in the Clinton administration and a consultant on foreign affairs and emerging markets", David J. Rothkopf stated recently, "President Obama will play a bigger role in re-inventing the international system than any other president before in past decades." No surprise here where that is concerned. I wholly agree.

Conclusions

The last few days have been for many in the evangelical community, myself included, pretty anxious in relation to what an Obama presidency may mean for our nation, our constitutional rights, and our standing in the world.

Not surprisingly, I have been overwhelmed with e-mail asking me everything from whether I think Barack Obama is the prophesied Antichrist to whether we've entered the Tribulation Period, neither of which I believe to be true for any number of reasons.

Suffice to say I am where a lot of my brothers and sisters in Christ are right now - a bit concerned, dismayed, frustrated and, admittedly, a little angry with those of us who overlooked the Word of God's teachings and voted for the candidate most likely to lead this nation down the path to destruction and the Body of Christ into persecution. But, even in the midst of all this confusion and hurt, I can see, more and more clearly by the hour it seems, that all of this is part of God's plan, not that I ever really doubted it per se, but I'm seeing it!

While I wholly believe that John McCain wouldn't have been a perfect president by any means, I think he would've held back the darkness that I sense is coming upon our nation and the world to some extent. The old maverick would've put his foot on the brakes now and then, in my opinion, but it looks like God has a different plan - a better one as hard as that is for us to see right now.

I once heard Dr. Charles Stanley preach a sermon wherein he explained that God always hears our prayers and answers them in one of three ways.

God answers our prayers with a "yes" and gives us what we want.
God answers our prayers with a "yes, but later" response because what we want is something He is willing to give us but there's something else He has in mind for us right now He knows is more important for us to learn or experience.
God answers our prayers with a "no, I have something better in mind" response. This is the one we struggle with most as we only hear the "no." From our perspective we can't see past God failing to give us what we want. We often can't envision any scenario wherein He has something better in mind for us than what we wanted but we can be sure He always does. Is it not written that "all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose?" (Romans 8:28)
This is a time for us to do our very best to look beyond our circumstances and perceptions and simply trust the Lord that everything is going to be okay.

Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Even though president-elect Obama isn't, in all likelihood, going to be a president who will value our contributions to this nation or love us enough to stand with us in protecting the unborn, fighting off the homosexual agenda and pledging our unyielding dedication to the nation of Israel regardless of what any power on earth thinks of it, three things he could do to bring remarkable blessings to our land that would benefit him as well as us, we need to pray for him, his family, and his administration.

We should pray for the salvation of president-elect Obama and his administration above all, but also for them to be wise in deciding the course our nation will take in the next four years. Additionally, just in case their hearts are too cold or stubborn to do what is right for our common good, we should pray that God Himself will honor our wishes that His will be done and, if necessary, supernaturally set up roadblocks that only He can that will prevent Him from having to judge our nation harshly that the vital work of those of us who still believe in His Word and are trying to honor it can continue in His service here without fear until He comes for us, if that is His will.

Hang in there, brothers and sisters! A happy ending is coming as well as tremendous reward if we faint not in these troublesome times that vex our souls! Everything is proceeding according to God's plan and THAT is something no power on earth, whether by means of an election or by the edge of a sword, can change!

Our redemption draweth nigh!

Until next time, God bless you all!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

The Second Coming!

Good afternoon! Pastor Mark Blitz, a Jewish Rabi who has come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, pastors a church in the state of Washington...he sends out a newsletter and after reading it, I believe that I need to share it with you post haste!




Shalom, one and all!
We have entered the month of Cheshvan

It’s hard to believe how time has passed so quickly since the last newsletter. Sorry for the delay, but it has been crazy!! After the Fair and Feasts I got sick for a week and I think it was from just being exhausted. This week I finally have had time to go through the multitude of phone calls and emails. So if I didn’t respond yet, I now will be able to. It so happens Cheshvan is the second month on the civil calendar following the month of Tishri. We know Nisan is the first month on the religious calendar, but I want to focus on the civil calendar right now. Noah’s flood took place 1,000 yrs before Moses and the times given are based on the civil calendar used at that time. In Genesis it says:
Gen 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Well, the anniversary of that very day is the coming Sabbath of Nov 15th 2008! I think it interesting that not only is it the very day the floods came but the Torah reading for that day is the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. That Sabbath is also the same day the nations are gathering together to discuss the global financial problems in Washington DC! It is truly judgment day! I am so glad you are subscribing to this newsletter and you will want to forward this one to as many people as you can, as what I am about to share with you will come as a shock to most of you.

Sharia Compliant Financing Forum
US Treasury to Host

Concerning the global financial problem the “West” is looking for answers. Our very own U.S. Treasury Dept is holding a forum this week regarding the introduction of Sharia or Islamic banking to the United States prior to the meeting on Nov 15th! You need to verse yourself on Sharia banking now. I am not trying to scare anyone or bring fear. As watchmen and watchwomen we need to see what is coming to warn others and to get them to repent and come to God. Our trust is in God alone and not in our finances. Be strong and of a good courage knowing the time is short. This is a time to pray and fast as never before. Please read the profiles of the speakers (page 4-7 of linked resource) at this event. Notice how it is directed toward the policy makers as if we have no choice? Encourage people to sign up for the newsletter and I will try to be more diligent in getting them out. Many have requested a look at the picture I took when I was in Israel of the marble image that is part of the Dome of the rock on the temple mount. You won’t believe it! I will give you two pictures one is from a distance and one from close up. First the one from a distance so you can see where on the Dome it is:
On a lighter note...
Let's look at the Hebrew word "Bless" and "Blessing"

What an awesome opportunity to see what God Himself considers to be a blessing, how He defines it, and discover what it entails!
1Ch 29:20 And David said to all the congregation, Now bless the LORD your God. And all the congregation blessed the LORD God of their fathers, and bowed down their heads,
The Hebrew word for bless is: #1288 barak ; to kneel; by implication to bless God (as an act of adoration). The very same word “barak” which is translated as “bless” in 1Chron 29 is also translated as kneel in Psalms 95:
Ps 95:6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel "barak" before the LORD our maker.
The Hebrew word for Blessing is: Strong's #1293 Berakah from #1288; by implication prosperity: a present. Implies bringing a gift to another on bended knee. Think of the magi coming on bended knee and bringing their gifts as a blessing. So God considers it a blessing to bring a present to another on bended knee. So that is what we do when we want to be a blessing to God is to come to Him on bended knee and bring Him our lives. But look at this! The greatest blessing of all is what God told Moses when He explained how He wanted Moses to bless His people!
Numbers 6:22,27 And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to Aaron and to his sons saying, In this way you shall bless the sons of Israel, And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them.
Say unto them: The LORD bless you and keep you.

The tables have turned! Here, God wants to come to you on bended knee to bring a gift to you! The gift of eternal life! What an outpouring of grace!
Phil 2:7,8 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Be Blessed, Pastor Mark To view past newsletters, go to: http://community.icontact.com/p/wwwelshaddaiministriesus

The Election

Well, the election has come and a socialist baby-killer has been elected as the 44th President of the United States of America. I am saddened that this day has come to this representative republic that was handed down to us with great care from the founding fathers who gave their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor, willing to die for the cause of freedom...and we have squandered what they paid so high a price to attain...may God have mercy on us...though we are really just getting what we deserve...for over 30+ years we have slaughtered the most innocent among us, the unborn child and now we are reaping what we have sown...the following article from Jan Markel tells the story:


America Cries, "Give us a King!"

By Jan Markell

There is a story in II Samuel 8 where we see Israel demanding a king. God was not sufficient for them, so they asked for a "real king." They got an evil one -- Saul. America has been in a similar mood. We want a "king" to solve our many problems starting with the economy. So Israel said to Samuel, "Now appoint a king to lead us such as all the other nations have" (II Samuel 8:5). But all the other nations had pagan kings.

God lamented to Samuel and said, "Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do."

Two years ago came a charismatic man named Barack Obama who was engulfed in a cult-like atmosphere. Some actually called him "the messiah." Shrines were built to him. A Web site said, "Obama is god." There has been a messianic fervor, adoration and a worship-like atmosphere surrounding him. At some rallies people fainted at the sight of him. Young children recorded on YouTube sang songs to him stating he would change the world.

The intrigue with this man is global. Newsweek magazine had a headline recently titled, "The World Hopes for its First President." Imagine, a world president! Newsweek states, "In country after country, polls show a record-high fascination with the outcome of the U.S. elections." Newsweek basically said "The international audience really cared less about John McCain, Sarah Palin, or Joe Biden. Somewhere along the road to the White House, Obama became the world's candidate."

Even for those with proper eschatology this sounds alarming. But on the positive side, a barometer as to how late the hour is has been revealed. Newsweek continues, "Obama is a 21st century man with whom the whole world can identify." In Obama's speech in Berlin, Obama said that we are all citizens of the world! Talk about a message on globalism. Will he establish the one-world system?

America longs for a king to take care of us. We demanded change and change we will get! There are YouTube clips of people jumping for joy that Obama will take care of them. As one says, "Obama will pay my mortgage and buy my gas." The entitlement mentality reigns and it is cross-cultural.

As Jack Kinsella says in his recent Omega Intelligence Digest, "In October capitalism passed away after a long illness." He is right. Socialism now is very appealing and being implemented in America. The government is buying up many industries and turning them over to a new Socialist president!

None of the candidates who ran in "Campaign 2008" can save us! Only the Lord God of Israel can do that! But as in Samuel's day, God is not good enough for America. Thus, I believe He has allowed "strong delusion" to filter across the nation and around the world. It says in Isaiah 66:4, "I will choose their delusions." Thus, all has happened for a reason. God removes kings and establishes kings for His own purposes. (Daniel 2:21)

Here's what we do know for sure. In spite of troubling and even perilous times, the Bible still has all the answers, the Holy Spirit is still active, God will still inhabit the praises of His people, there will still be room at the cross, Jesus will still save the lost, and Jesus will still return to the holy city of Jerusalem to establish perfect government: A Theocracy for 1000 years. "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end...."(Isaiah 9:6-7).

Monday, November 3, 2008

How Would Jesus Vote?

Good morning...well, we are less than 24 hours away from the official time for the voting to begin...I wonder how the Christian community will cast their ballots? Yesterday in the church services at Fairview Baptist Church, I made an appeal to vote for life! For me, this is the foundational issue in this race and every other election...I have always and will always vote for those who uphold the value of life and will settle for nothing less...I pray that what happens tomorrow will not be because Christians failed in this test...the following article is from Jack Kelly of the Omega Newsletter:


How Would Jesus Vote?
By Jack Kelly
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"But as for you who forsake the LORD and forget my holy mountain, who spread a table for Fortune
and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny, I will destine you for the sword, and you will all bend down for the slaughter; for I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen. You did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me." (Isaiah 65:11-12)

For most of America's history there's been a direct connection between patriotism and faith, probably because the US was founded as a Christian nation. We've always believed that God has watched over us, made us prosperous, and been on our side in the wars we've fought.

That connection began to unravel in the 1960's, but it's surprising the number of people who still believe that if seems to be good for the country, it must be right. This is true even among believers. According to recent Barna polls, 48% of those likely to vote in the coming election are born again Christians. That means they claim to have made a personal commitment to Jesus and believe they will go to heaven because they have confessed their sins and accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. These same polls show that nearly half of them will vote for the candidate they think has the best plan for restoring America's reputation in the world and managing the economic battles that lie ahead, rather than the one who they think will best uphold the Biblical principles they believe. So if only half the voters are believers, and half of them plan to use worldly standards in making their choice rather than Biblical ones, it follows that only 1 in every 4 voters will be exercising any spiritual discernment at all in casting their vote.

The other 3 are using standards like peace, financial security, tolerance, choice, and so on as their guidelines. They don't realize that only God can restore peace and security to their lives, and tolerance and choice are just nice sounding words that really stand for rebellion against Him. By not considering His standards in casting their vote, they're guaranteeing that He won't be helping them get what they want.

What's At Stake Here?
In the opinion of expert observers, this election could bring about fundamental change in America. Depending on the victor, we could see the last traces of the Judeo-Christian principles that have guided us in the past disappear. Restraints on behavior that God is clearly against could be removed, and prohibitions against behavior that God desires could be imposed . Parents may no longer have the ultimate say in raising or educating their children. The relationship between effort and reward could become unrecognizable. Those with the greatest ability could wind up supporting those with the greatest need. In the name of peace we could make self defense impossible. The list goes on.

If all this comes to pass, believers will be forgiven for their lack of discernment and whisked away in the rapture before things get too bad. After all, obedience to God's word isn't the basis for our inclusion in the Church, it's our belief that the Lord died to save us from our sins. But the unbelieving majority will come to understand the meaning of the Isaiah passage above more clearly than they ever dreamed possible. Everyone in the Great Tribulation will have it rough, but I think that those who rebel as blatantly as people are being called to do in this election will have it especially bad. After all, look at the blessings they've enjoyed by being part of a Christian nation, and the light they've been shown because of our religious heritage. The Lord called but they didn't answer. He spoke but they didn't listen. They will have done evil in his sight by choosing what displeases them, and He will destine them for the sword.

We know that all these things will eventually come to pass, that it's only a matter of time. There's no Scripture anywhere to persuade us otherwise. But it's quite possible that in this election America will choose a course of action that will accelerate our downfall. We will have forsaken the Lord and His Holy Mountain.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. (2 Corinthians 4:18)

Over the past few weeks, I've been encouraging us all to accept a giant paradigm shift, to realize that this is not our home. I've been saying that we need to start thinking more about our real home and getting ready to go there. We need to distinguish between our love for our county and our love for God. As good as this country has been, it's no where near as good as where we're going. Like Abraham we're looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and builder is God. (Hebrews 11:10) And the bottom line is that regardless of who wins this election, America will soon be a far different country than it has been.

So this could very well be the last presidential election we'll ever vote in. It's time to realize that we really don't belong in any political party. No matter how we've thought of ourselves in the past, the reality is that as Christians we're monarchists and we await our coming King. Since our fondest desire is to please Him, we should vote the way we think He would want us to. And remember, we're not voting for someone, and we're not voting against something, we're voting in a way that pleases our Lord.

So, how would Jesus vote? He would vote for life, He would vote to uphold His Father's Word, and He would make His vote count. Can we do anything less? Selah 11-01-08

Thursday, October 30, 2008

More on the Election

Good morning...I received the following e-mail from my mentor in the ministry that says it all...If you are a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, I urge you to read the following and then respond in obedience:


Ed Chapman, Murray, KY

To all those who name the name of Christ who plan to willfully disobey Him by voting for Obama, take warning. Not only is our nation in grave danger, according to the Word of God, so are you.

First, the facts on life: On July 17, 2007, Barack Obama spoke to Planned Parenthood and said:

"On this fundamental issue of [abortion rights], I will not yield, and Planned Parenthood will not yield.... The first thing I'll do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act; that's the first thing that I'd do..."

And what is the "Freedom of Choice Act"? It would completely federalize the abortion issue and strike down all state laws from parental notification to the Woman's Right to Know Laws to bans on partial-birth abortion, declaring them null and void with the stroke of an Obama pen.

In one week, America will make a choice. And to those who call themselves "Christian" who are planning on voting for Barack Obama, put down the Obama talking points and read God's voter guide before you go to the polls:

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live (Deuteronomy 30:19).

But you think this issue doesn't matter? God felt so strongly about it that he carved it in stone:

You shall not murder (Exodus 20:13).

Think you can love God and still vote against life? In John 14:15, Jesus said:

If you love Me, keep My commandments.

Yes, and "Thou shall not murder" made the top 10.

Barack Obama and many of his followers claim to be Christian. But Isaiah 29:13 says:

Therefore the Lord said: "Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men" (Isaiah 29:13).

And Matthew 7:20:

Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. (Matthew 7:20).

Knowing that, here's another command from Proverbs 31:8:

Open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die.

To you who are pretending that you don't know this, Proverbs 24:11 speaks directly to you:

Rescue those who are unjustly sentenced to die;
Save them as they stagger to their death.
Don't excuse yourself by saying, "Look, we didn't know."
For God understands all hearts, and he sees you.
He who guards your soul knows that you knew.
He will repay all people as their actions deserve.

It's not just about "hope" and "change." Proverbs 6:16-22 states that there are some things God HATES:

These six things the LORD hates,
Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:
A proud look,
A lying tongue,
Hands that shed innocent blood,
A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that are swift in running to evil,
A false witness who speaks lies,
And one who sows discord among brethren.

Obama - Biden are pro-death. McCain - Palin are pro-life.

Now choose life, that you and your children may live.

On marriage, Mark 10:7 reveals what Jesus had to say about it:

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife.

Notice, the man doesn't leave his father and mother to be joined to his domestic partner. In his Oct. 22, 2008, WorldNetDaily column, Matt Barber outlined Obama's position on marriage:

In 2004, Obama called DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) an "abhorrent law" and said, "The repeal of DOMA is essential.… For the record," he continued, "I opposed DOMA in 1996. It should be repealed, and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor. I will also oppose any proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from marrying." Obama also came out earlier this year in favor of the May 15 California Supreme Court decision that unilaterally redefined natural marriage in that state to include same-sex duos. "I want to congratulate all of you who have shown your love for each other by getting married these last few weeks," Obama gushed. Despite assurances otherwise, these are not the words or policies of a man who opposes "same-sex marriage."

No, this election is not about race. It's not about the economy. It's about obeying God.

Even Martin Luther King Jr. said it's not about race: "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."

To those who call themselves by the name of Christ, who ignore what God says about life and marriage, and are clinging to a fantasy of economic gain, think again.

Obama will use your tax dollars to kill innocent children, and then he'll take your paycheck and use it to "spread the wealth around." Don't believe me? Don't believe Joe the plumber? Hear Barack Obama for yourself in an 2001 interview about his goal to try what the Soviets proved does not work. <<(Click. This is a hyper link, not an underscored sentence.)

This is not a discussion on whether or not to redistribute the wealth; it's a discussion of HOW Obama wants to do it.

Be forewarned: If you willfully disobey God on life and marriage because of race or false hope for the economy, you will usher in the kind of change that brought the Soviet Union to collapse!

But the warning goes far beyond that. To those who think that God's grace gives them license to willfully disobey Him without consequences – think again:

Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!" (Matthew 7:21-23)

That deals with your eternity. Matthew 7:26-27 says that if you don't obey God, prepare for a crash even sooner that that:

"But anyone who hears my teaching and doesn't obey it is foolish, like a person who builds a house on sand. When the rains and floods come and the winds beat against that house, it will collapse with a mighty crash." (Matthew 7:26-27)

I just hope you won't take the rest of the nation with you!

If the word of God matters more to you than your perception of personal gain, Joel 2:12 issues a call to repentance that I pray you will heed:

"Now, therefore," says the LORD, "Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning" (Joel 2:12). Then obey Him in the voting booth - and out of it. If not, do us all a favor and quit calling yourself a Christian.

Ed Chapman

Calloway Co. High School, Murray, KY

Asst. Coach - Boys Basketball