Month: October 2014 (Page 1 of 2)

Democracy is a marvelous governmental system. It allows the people to have a say in who runs their government. Democracy insures what President Abraham Lincoln so eloquently referred to in the Gettysburg Address, “…and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” But Democracy is useless if people do not vote. The case in point was raised by Todd Starnes concerning Houston, Texas’ lesbian mayor, Annise Parker. Mayor Parker was voted into office with only 13% of registered voters voting. Parker has pushed her homosexual agenda on the citizens of Houston and is now in the process of attacking several Houston pastors. Most of Houston’s eligible voters do not want her in office, but they were unwilling to exercise their power at the polls to prevent her from being elected. Now they are subject to one person of dubious moral character that is attempting to muzzle the pastors of Houston’s churches.

When I look at the despots that have wreaked havoc on mankind in modern history, I am amazed that they were not prevented from reaching power. The death toll of the five worst despots total 100 to 127.5 million people. Mao Zedong, 45 to 72 million; Adolph Hitler, 25 million, Joseph, Stalin, 20 million; Vladimir Lenin, 9 million; Pol Pot, 1.5 million. How does one man kill 72 million people? If he attacked 10 people he would suffer defeat and possibly death. They were able to get into power because people gave them access. But to my knowledge no despot has ever ruled a democracy. There is great concern that America might become an exception.

In an article by Chuck Chalberg, “What Tocqueville foretold: A despotic democracy”, he warns that America is vulnerable to soft despotism.

He wrote: “Alexis de Tocqueville penned an essay with a rather ominous title, ‘What Sort of Despotism Democratic Nations Have To Fear.’ Tocqueville’s democratic despotism, on the other hand, would be ‘more widespread’ and yet ‘milder.’ It would ‘degrade men rather than torment them.’ It was Tocqueville’s contention — and insight — that a democracy’s drive for equality would at once fuel despotic government and temper it. The result would be a soft despotism, featuring officials who ruled more like ‘schoolmasters’ than ‘tyrants’.”

Tocqueville wrote, “Having thus taken each citizen in turn in its powerful embrace and shaped him to its will, government then extends its embrace to include the whole of society. It covers the whole of social life with a network of petty, complicated rules that are both minute and uniform … . It does not break men’s will, but softens, bends, and guides it; it seldom enjoins, but often inhibits, actions; it does not destroy anything, but prevents much being born; it is not at all tyrannical, but it hinders, restrains, enervates, stifles, and stultifies so much that in the end each nation is no more than a flock of timid and hardworking animals with the government as its shepherd.”

The only way to prevent this from occurring is if enough people decide with their votes that it is not going to occur.  Shall we again be reminded of the statement attributed to Edmund Burke, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” All that professing Christians have to do to insure that “soft despotism” becomes rooted in our society is to not vote. A vote is infinitely more powerful than a complaint.

Please vote on November 4. Vote for people that support policies that compliment Democracy, not threaten it. Vote for individuals that have Judeo-Christian values. Vote out the ones that have proven by their leadership that they want a different America than what the Constitution provides. This may be your last opportunity to stop the downward spiral of our nation. You will be voting for your future and the future of your children and grandchildren. Vote for the world you want them to grow up in.

One of the trials we may face in these last days is satisfying the hunger to see a move of God. True Christians want to see mighty revivals during which souls are saved and people are brought out of their stagnant spiritual condition and into a fiery encounter with God. However, God’s word does not prophesy a great endtimes revival, but rather a great and final apostasy. Thus, the spiritual atmosphere in Christianity that produces apostasy on that large of a scale will be composed of smothering hypocrisy, apathy, lethargy, complacency, flirtation with demon spirits, and rampant sin, etc. There will be no great revival for those deceived individuals, but rather a great delusion.

“Revival is bringing back to life those who are spiritually dead or near dead.”
Consider that God has already poured out His Spirit. If you are a true Christian, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. Revival is bringing back to life those who are spiritually dead or near dead. True Christians are always alive in Christ. They do not need revival. It is the stagnant or backsliding ones that need revival. However, millions of them have and are rejecting love for God’s truth and entering the final apostasy. They will not be sent a revival, but a strong delusion (see 2Thess. 2:11).

God’s word does not declare a great endtimes revival, but a great apostasy. The prophesy of a great endtimes revival originated from leaders of the heretical NAR movement. It has been repeated numerous times in the last few decades via “Christian” television and in literature. The result is that it has become a part of Christian folklore. That is the only basis of believing in a great endtimes revival. Many professing Christians have become addicted to the fallacy and, like a child with a fist full of contaminated candy, they refuse to let go. They are gushing with excitement and expectation for what may lure them into the vortex of the great and final deception, delusion, and apostasy.

“…they are looking for exactly what Satan is going to deliver and is in fact delivering.”
The consequences of believing and expecting a great end times revival is becoming susceptible to great and eternally fatal deception. The atmosphere that produces the Antichrist will also produce the False Prophet. Satan is in fact coming with all demonic power, lying signs and wonders, and the full force of all unrighteous deception (2 Thessalonians 2). The Lord Jesus warned us that this deception would be powerful enough to deceive the very elect, if that were possible. It is not possible if one is sober, vigilant, and alert, with the condition of full surrender to God. However, if people are conditioning their minds and spirits for a mighty endtimes revival, they are looking for exactly what Satan is going to deliver and is in fact delivering. They will make themselves susceptible to joining the great endtimes demonic “revival” that will be nothing more than sight and sound show with demonic activity that hyper-stimulates the emotional system. What they ought to be told is to prepare for an unprecedented invasion of extremely dangerous deception that will usher in the Antichrist and the False Prophet.

“The great temptation will be to search for a move of God’s in the strange fire of false revivals.”
Considering the spiritual atmosphere, this may be the time spoken of by Christ, “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work.” (John 9:4) How can there be a great revival in the darkest spiritual period in earth’s history? This will be a great test of the true Christian’s faith. The great temptation will be to search for a move of God’s in the strange fire of false revivals. We should be aware of the fact that demon spirits are at work in those meetings. God’s word declares what our mindset ought to be when we are in the midst of the last days turmoil; “By your patience possess your souls.” (Luke 21:19)

“We should not have to go seeking for Him among the pews or chairs in a building full of people.”
The questions are, can we survive spiritually without seeing a great move of God in the last days? Will our faith remain strong? Will we still have intimacy with and power from Him? I believe that we can not only survive, but grow stronger. The fact is that we walk by faith, not by sight. It is not what we see or feel that governs the stability or strength of our faith. It is what we posses, or are rather possessed by. We are possessed by the Holy Spirit. Because of this we posses His power, wisdom, truth, and we have intimacy with the Father. We should not have to go seeking for Him among the pews or chairs in a building full of people. Further, we should not fall into the trap of believing that we must see mighty signs and wonders in the endtimes or else we are out of the loop of what God is doing.

The prophet Daniel declared, “Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” (Daniel 11:32) The term “great exploits” does not connote a great endtimes revival to counter the false revival orchestrated by Satan. It means to “stand firm and take action, firmly oppose and resist”. To be equipped to stand strong and resist, we must have put on the whole armor of God and be submitted fully to Him. (Ephesians 6:10-18, James 4:7)

“The only sign true faith needs is the sign Christ declared would be given.”
If professing Christians are expecting a great endtimes revival, then they are certainly not anticipating an imminent return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Obviously, by their doctrine He cannot return until that mighty revival occurs. What if a mighty world-wide revival with great signs and wonders breaks out in spite of the fact that God’s word says it will not occur? Will not many professing Christians be deceived and fall into the vortex of the final apostasy? Concurrently, the wicked grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived, the ones that desire to live godly in Christ are suffering persecution, and all the prophetic signs are being fulfilled. Right now, professing Christians by the millions are rejecting God’s truth and running into the arms of heretics and hirelings. I would be a mistake to follow these spiritually blind individuals that seek for signs rather than intimacy with God. Faith that needs to see signs and wonders to survive is not strong faith and will not withstand deception. The only sign true faith needs is the sign Christ declared would be given.

“An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:39-40)

Can we live by this faith, or must we walk by sight? Do we seek spiritual stimulants for our faith because of our carnal need to “feel” or “see” something? Are we seeking spiritual delirium among the throngs that gather to drink from the broken cisterns of diabolical “revivals”? Or are we grounded and settled in Christ with our hope firmly in God’s truth?

“My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness,
I dare not truth the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ the Solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.”

(By Edward Mote [1797-1874] who was so admired by his congregation in Horsham, West Sussex that they attempted to give him the church building. Mote replied “I do not want the chapel, I only want the pulpit; and when I cease to preach Christ, then turn me out of that.”)

I have said along with many others that if the Democrats are successful in November, America is doomed.  I stand behind that statement.  However, I do not believe that a victory for right thinking and common sense in November will be the panacea for all of America’s ills.  Our nation stumbled and fell into a deep ditch when it elected the most destructive and divisive president in history.  She fell on her sword when she reelected him.  As a result, the damage that has occurred will take decades to undo, if it can be undone at all.  One thing is absolutely clear.  It will not be undone by politics alone.

Bluntly put, our society has reached the tipping point.  It is bloated with individuals that wish the complete destruction of the Judeo-Christian moral system and replacement by a sin-friendly alternative.  They have deceived a significant number of professing Christians to join them in their thinly disguised agenda.  They can now vote whomever they please into political office.  Defeating them in one election does not erase the specter of them coming back again and again every election with a vengeance.

That brings me to the condition of Christianity in our nation.  Christianity is the factor that has kept this nation’s nose a few inches above the rising flow of moral sewage contaminating most of the world.  However, those days are gone.  There has never been a time in our nation’s short history when Christianity has been so diseased and weakened by soul-destroying heresies.  It is symptomatic of an underlying cancer that has been eating away at the foundation for many years.  That cancer is an attack on God and the moral influence and truth emanating from His word.  The focus of that attack has shifted significantly from outside to within Christianity.  Most professing Christians are unaware of the change.

I am convinced that the ones invading Christianity are not Christians and have no desire to be such.  Just as they invaded politics, journalism, public education, and every other sector of influence, they crept into Christianity for the purpose of converting it into a surrogate birthplace for their satanic ideas.  These evil ones have slithered into Bible colleges and Christian Universities to teach apostasy to generations of gullible young Christians.  Both secular and Christian colleges and universities can be a danger to ones spiritual health.

They wormed their way into leadership as deacons, teachers, pastors, and even heads of denominations.  The Christian music industry is inundated with them and their apostate protégés.  Heretical deception flows non-stop from so-called Christian television.  It is very likely that one will encounter dangerous heresy in many Christian books.  The Internet is replete with Christian websites and social media pages that comprise a virtual smorgasbord of heresies.

To make matters worse, scores of leading Christians have been exposed as having committed terrible sins, which is indicative of their spiritual destitution.  However, they never seem to go away or sincerely repent.  Some congregations refuse to evict them from leadership.

Many of these hirelings insist on people giving them money so that they may live opulent lifestyles while their parishioners struggle to makes ends meet.  They speak flagrant blasphemies, court ecumenism with cults, dabble in paganism and New Age practices, and even deny the truth of God’s word.  The situation is so deteriorated that I’m convinced it is now dangerous to attend many churches.

As a result, people are abandoning Christianity in record numbers.  Approximately 4000 churches close down every year and 3500 people leave every day. Of the 250 thousand Protestant churches in the nation, 80% (200 thousand) are stagnant or declining in growth.  (Sources:  various polling data)  Some experts will point out that a significant number of new churches are being planted.  However, many and maybe most of these new plants are Emergent/Seeker Friendly/Launch churches.  Thus, traditional churches are drying up spiritually and closing while heretical ones are stepping into the vacuum left behind.  This indicates that traditional Christianity is being systematically replaced by new, glitzy, but heretical Christianity.

In view of these facts, do we really believe that a big win for conservatives in November will bring about America’s salvation from despotism and ruin?  A win may grant a reprieve from the relentless hopelessness that many Americans endure.  But what will they do with it?  Will American Christians rise up in force and begin to push back the flood of evil with their prayers, commitment and obedience to God?  Will they get serious about abandoning their obsession with the gospel of materialism and comfort?  Or will they remain on the same path of declension buying books, movies, music, sending offerings, and sitting in church buildings, that sponsor heresy and the ones that spread it?

In my honest opinion, I believe that even if conservatives won in November, professing Christians would squander away the opportunity.  Giddy from victory, they would develop a false sense of security and be completely unprepared for the next presidential election.  Free from the sense of impending doom, they would go back to their complacency, their heresies and their ravenous consumption of everything the world system offers by way of sports, music, and entertainment. For two more years they would settle back into the almost imperceptible and gradual slide into apostasy all the while believing that God had delivered them.

I realize that this rains on some people’s parade.  However, the truth needs to be presented here.  The majority of Christians are so desperate for a political victory in this spiritual battle that they gush with adoration for Mormons Glen Beck and Mitt Romney.  They have placed their hopes on Fox News and the Tea Party, sanctioning them as the bastions of Christian principles.  Three decades ago, they would never have wrapped their arms around the people and entities that they are embracing today with total abandon.  Do they not believe in the power of God?  Do they not know how to pray, or is it that they are unwilling?  Why do they trust in man when it is clear that no man can save this wicked world and unrepentant church from the destiny of their mutual course?

We cannot honestly believe that (with the election of a few conservative people) we are going to escape this terrible predicament by returning to a particular point along the path of disobedience.  When God says “Return”, He does not mean to back up a little bit.  He means to turn about face, go back to the place where we went astray, and get back on the course of His perfect will.  Anything less than that may prolong the consequences of a wayward course, but it will not prevent the inevitable conclusion.