The Ascendancy Of Evil

  

Reblogged from gracethrufaith.com/end-times-prophecy

Saturday, May 9th, 2015

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Commentary by Jack Kelley
For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way (2 Thes 2:7).
The number of emails I receive from people who are discouraged, frustrated, even despondent, is steadily increasing. They point to current conditions in the world and wonder how much worse things can get.

You no longer have to be an astute observer to notice how rapidly our world is changing. It wasn’t that long ago when the standard measure was a comparison between what was acceptable to people in their time with what was acceptable in their grandparents’ time. Now we only have to compare what’s currently acceptable with what was acceptable just a few years ago to see measurable change. Not only are things changing, but the rate of change is accelerating.
A person with discernment can’t help but see a supernatural component in all this. It’s true that the heart of man is incurably wicked (Jeremiah 17:9) but these days society seems to be under a compulsion to see just how wicked they can become. All around us we see God’s Laws being conspicuously broken, His word being stifled, and His people, both Jewish and Christian, being persecuted. It’s like it doesn’t matter how twisted something is, as long as it’s a slap in God’s face, it’s bound to catch on.
This obviously couldn’t be happening without man’s active participation, but I’m becoming convinced there’s more to it than a natural progression of things. I think there’s growing evidence of a malevolent power accelerating this and to me that means the time during which the restrainer holds back the secret power of lawlessness (2 Thes. 2:7) is rapidly drawing to a close.

That Day Should Not Surprise You

If you keep up with Christian or even conservative news instead of just relying on the main stream media, none of what I’m describing is new to you. You’ve already seen the increase in frequency and intensity of the the things Jesus called “birth pangs” in Matt. 24:4-8. And you’re aware of the same kind of destructive changes taking place in society.
As one example among many, our country was founded primarily on principles of religious freedom, but today, of all the religions practiced in America, only Christians are seeing their freedom of expression restricted.  Laws have already been passed that limit our right to adhere to Biblical principles and more are coming. These laws began with prohibiting school prayer, then municipalities were made to stop erecting Christmas displays. These laws have gotten progressively more restrictive until now individual Christians risk being prosecuted simply for living according to their beliefs.
The Bible tells us we can expect these trends to continue. Speaking of the time before the rapture, Jesus had this to say to the Church,
“I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name”(Rev. 3:8).
At the end of the Age the commendation Jesus will have for the Church is even though we have little strength, we have kept His word and have not denied His name. The Greek word translated “strength” also means “power, or ability.” As the end of our time here approaches we will no longer have much influence in the world, but we will have kept His word and not denied His name. For that He promised two blessings for us.
I will make those who are of the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews though they are not, but are liars—I will make them come and fall down at your feet and acknowledge that I have loved you (Rev. 3:9).
A large component of Christianity believes that when Israel rejected the Messiah they gave up any right to the future promises God had made to them, and those promises were transferred to the Church. This belief is called supersessionism or replacement theology, and is the reason why many Christians believe the Church is now spiritual Israel, heirs to Israel’s destiny. Supersessionists believe the very existence of Israel in our time is in defiance of God’s word.
But Jesus said these people are liars and He would make them bow down at our feet and admit that He loves us.
Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come on the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth (Rev. 3:10).
The Lord also promised that because we’ve kept His command to endure patiently, He will keep us from the hour of trial that’s coming upon the whole world to test the inhabitants of the earth.
The hour of trial refers to the end times judgments of Daniel’s 70^th Week, the only time since the Great Flood when the Lord will subject the whole world to a judgment. And right now is the only time since He said that when all the signs we’ve been given to alert us to this coming judgment are in some stage of fulfillment. The Greek word translated “from” in Rev. 3:10 means “out of the time, place, or cause” of the end times judgments. We won’t be here when they happen and we won’t be here where they happen, because we’re not the reason they’ll be happening.

This Too Shall Pass?

Many people see the times in which we live as a temporary situation. They think if we just humble ourselves and pray, the Lord will preserve us through them and then everything will go back to being OK again.
But the Bible speaks of a time when that won’t be the case. At the end of the age the world will be subject to a series of judgments unlike any other and if the Lord didn’t return at the appointed time not a single human would survive them (Matt. 24:22). All indications are that we aren’t approaching one of the temporary periods of hard times we’re used to, but literally the end of the world as we know it.
One of the signs that this is true is that the world will suddenly become more rebellious toward God and the love of people toward one another will turn cold. Paul said, “There will be terrible times in the last days.  People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,  without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,  treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Tim. 3:1-5)
This alone tells us that evil is on the ascendancy and we’re not just going through a temporary rough patch but are headed straight for the time of judgment.
And that means two things; 1) Born again Christians are going to become less and less comfortable here, and 2) the time of our departure is drawing near.
Jesus said His Kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36) and that means we who are part of His kingdom are not of this world either. Paul said our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ (Phil. 3:20). When Jesus comes for us, He won’t be coming to be with us here where we are, He will be coming to take us to be with him in His Father’s house where He is (John 14:2-3).
I believe one purpose of this ascendancy of evil is to divest us of all our misguided notions that this world is our home. It never has been our home, and it never will be. If it has been a pleasant place for us, that’s just a measure of God’s Grace. And if it’s steadily becoming less so, that’s an indication that our stay here is just about over. In the meantime our prayer should not be that God will make this world more comfortable for us, but that He would hasten to take us to our real home, where we will enjoy every conceivable comfort forever.
One of the Lord’s great promises to us is that when we see all these signs of the end times judgments begin to happen we should stand up and lift up our heads because our redemption is drawing near (Luke 21:28). That means every advance of evil in the world brings the day of our departure that much closer.
I’m not saying that we should celebrate the ascendancy of evil in the world. But I am saying that it shouldn’t come as a surprise to us that all this is happening (1 Thes. 5:4). It’s something the Bible has warned us about and its arrival is one more sign that our time here is drawing to a close, and we’ll be going home soon. Therefore encourage one another with these words (1 Thes. 4:18). You can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah 05-09-15.

Related posts:

1. Incontinent?
2. Christians In Name Only
3. I Will Not Do That!
4. Did God Create Evil?

"How can salvation be not of works when faith is required? Isn't believing a work?"

Reblogged from http://www.gotquestions.org/QOTW.htm

Answer: Our salvation depends solely upon Jesus Christ. He is our substitute, taking sin’s penalty (2 Corinthians 5:21); He is our Savior from sin (John 1:29); He is the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2). The work necessary to provide salvation was fully accomplished by Jesus Himself, who lived a perfect life, took God’s judgment for sin, and rose again from the dead (Hebrews 10:12).

The Bible is quite clear that our own works do not help merit salvation. We are saved “not because of righteous things we had done” (Titus 3:5). “Not by works” (Ephesians 2:9). “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). This means that offering sacrifices, keeping the commandments, going to church, being baptized, and other good deeds are incapable of saving anyone. No matter how “good” we are, we can never measure up to God’s standard of holiness (Romans 3:23; Matthew 19:17; Isaiah 64:6).

The Bible is just as clear that salvation is conditional; God does not save everyone. The one condition for salvation is faith in Jesus Christ. Nearly 200 times in the New Testament, faith (or belief) is declared to be the sole condition for salvation (John 1:12; Acts 16:31).

One day, some people asked Jesus what they could do to please God: “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus immediately points them to faith: “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:28-29). So, the question is about God’s requirements (plural), and Jesus’ answer is that God’s requirement (singular) is that you believe in Him.

Grace is God’s giving us something we cannot earn or deserve. According to Romans 11:6, “works” of any kind destroys grace—the idea is that a worker earns payment, while the recipient of grace simply receives it, unearned. Since salvation is all of grace, it cannot be earned. Faith, therefore, is a non-work. Faith cannot truly be considered a “work,” or else it would destroy grace. (See also Romans 4—Abraham’s salvation was dependent on faith in God, as opposed to any work he performed.)

Suppose someone anonymously sent me a check for $1,000,000. The money is mine if I want it, but I still must endorse the check. In no way can signing my name be considered earning the million dollars—the endorsement is a non-work. I can never boast about becoming a millionaire through sheer effort or my own business savvy. No, the million dollars was simply a gift, and signing my name was the only way to receive it. Similarly, exercising faith is the only way to receive the generous gift of God, and faith cannot be considered a work worthy of the gift.

True faith cannot be considered a work because true faith involves a cessation of our works in the flesh. True faith has as its object Jesus and His work on our behalf (Matthew 11:28-29; Hebrews 4:10).

To take this a step further, true faith cannot be considered a work because even faith is a gift from God, not something we produce on our own. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). Praise the Lord for His power to save and for His grace to make salvation a reality!

Mental Health and Life Transitions: Personality Disorders

Reblogged from http://www.blogos.org/christianlifeandgrowth/Christian-personality-disorder.php

Introduction

By T. Jaden Ozwell

This is a series about the impact personality disorders, depression, and anxiety have on the life transitions of twenty-somethings and beyond. The fourth and final article will address how mental illness has affected me spiritually.

Part 2: Depression
Part 3: Anxiety Disorders
Part 4: The Church


Mental illness is always a difficult topic to have a discussion about. Those who have a mental illness are often wary of speaking of it because of the stigma and poor responses that society — and the church — often give. Those who do not have mental illness often struggle, understandably, to grasp how such illnesses affect the daily lives of their parishioners, friends, and loved ones.

As a twenty-something with mental illness, I would like to offer my perspective to the discussion. Specifically, I'd like to speak to the ways mental illness affects the life transitions which twenty-somethings — and in many ways all ages — already find so daunting. Transitioning from school to work, from home to on-your-own, from one type of "free" to another and very different type of "free," on and on to marriage and kids and...and...

My own story is the only one I can speak from, so I will use myself as examples throughout this series. I have been diagnosed with a Personality Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, and a couple kinds of Anxiety Disorders to boot. So, I will write on each of these major sectors of mental illness, with a fourth and final article addressing how these disorders have affected me spiritually, and how the church might be of help.

I will start with how my Personality Disorder has affected my twenty-something transitional experiences.
Read More 
 

A Dispensational View of the Christian Life (Part 5)

May 11, 2015

Dr. Steve Spurlin Cornerstone Bible Church

In our last post we delved into two of the three main difficulties that a Christian faces in the daily challenge of living life in obedience to the Holy Spirit, otherwise known as the spiritual, or Spirit-filled life. We will now look at the third aspect of this triumvirate of problems the Christian faces.

The Internal Struggle

It is this environment of maintaining the proper motivation in the Christian life, and overcoming the various impediments into which a new creation is placed (2 Cor. 5:17) and the new man is born. The inner tension that Paul warned about in Galatians 5:16-17 exists between the Spirit and the flesh, or the new creation and the sin nature of the old creation.]

To use different biblical terminology it is the struggle between the new man (creation) and the old man. That term, "old man," directs our attention back to Romans 6:6. The New American Standard Bible reads, "knowing this that our old self was crucified with Him." However, the Greek uses the exact phrase "old man" (palaios anthropos) in place of "old self." In the act of co-crucifixion we are transferred from our natural born position in the first Adam to our new position in the Last Adam (Rom. 5:12-21, cf. Col. 1:13-14). 

Paul's further testimony concerning his own struggles is helpful. The Holy Spirit found it necessary to have Paul describe these struggles in order for believers to understand that the new position in Christ does not eradicate the old man in the present. In fact, we should remember Paul's emphatic exclamation at his own plight, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Rom. 7:24) This statement alone illustrates the fact that the sin nature, the old man, the flesh is indeed somehow intrinsically tied to our current physical state. It is our inheritance from the first Adam and cannot be expunged from this present body, but it is the complete removal of this nature to which we look with anticipation.

With the new man born in the believer the internal struggle begins in earnest. This is not to say that we are schizophrenic or possessed of two personalities. Ryrie offers an excellent explanation of the unity of the believer:

Although man is a many-faceted being, and even though these facets of man participate in the conflict between the old and new natures when a person becomes a believer, still man is a unity and acts as one. What I do, I do, not a part of myself....True, certain aspects of my being may originate an action, but that action is performed by me, not part of me....
Galatians 2:20...says not only that Christ lives in me but that Christ lives in me, and the life is a life which I live—to be sure by faith—but nevertheless I live it. Whatever is done, whether for good or evil, I do, for there is no other way for the old nature, the new nature, the soul, the spirit, or any other aspect of my being to express itself than through me. [1]

It is within the context of this internal battle that the following is issued: "...[L]ay aside the old self,...and put on the new self..." (Eph. 4:22, 24). Our new position in Christ means that positionally, the old man is put off. The everyday experience, or our experiential or progressive sanctification, is where the battle to live the Christian life takes place, and the old man will not go quietly. We must actively, and consistently strive to put off the old man, and replace him with the new man, the man who is to be transformed by the renewing of his mind (Rom. 12:2), replacing the old way of thinking with "the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. 2:16) to which every believer has access.

The victory of the new man over the old man is, on the part of the believer, dependent upon a positive volitional response to biblical commands such as the one just mentioned. In a word, victory for the new man over the old is through obedience. The power to make the correct decision is provided by the Spirit, "for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). Therefore, the desire is produced by the new man in conjunction with the divine enablement of the Spirit, the positive volition belongs to the believer, but the power to overcome belongs to the Lord.

It is clear from what we've seen that there is a great deal for the believer to overcome. Between the various impediments that the multiple enemies place in his way and the internal struggle that is faced on a moment-by-moment basis the battle is seemingly hopeless for the believer. Yet, God has not left believers to fend for themselves. The indwelling Spirit provides the power for the believer's victory and progress in the Christian life.

Endnotes

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[1] Ryrie, Christian Life, 32-33.

Jerusalem

Yerushalayim Shel Zahav / Jerusalém de Ouro

Ouçam essa canção em homenagem a Jerusalém. "Orai pela paz de Jerusalém; prosperarão aqueles que te amam." (Salmos 122:6)Confiram a tradução abaixo. Quem gostar, compartilha.Jerusalém de OuroO vento das montanhas, claro como o vinhoE o cheiro dos pinheirosÉ levado pela brisa do crepúsculoJunto com o som dos sinos.E no sono profundo da árvore e da pedra,Presa em um sonho,Está a cidade solitáriaE no seu coração - um muro.Voltamos aos poços de água,Ao mercado e à praçaO shofar chama no monte do temploNa cidade velhaE em cavernas nas montanhasMilhares de sóis brilhamDescemos novamente ao Mar MortoPelo caminho de JericóJerusalém de ouroDe bronze e de luzPor que não ser eu o violino para todas as suas canções?Porém hoje venho cantar para tiE te elogiarEu sou o menor dos teus filhos jovensE um dos últimos poetasTeu nome queima os lábiosComo o beijo de um serafimSe eu te esquecer JerusalémQue é toda de ouroJerusalém de ouroDe bronze e de luzPor que não ser eu o violino para todas as suas canções?Por que não ser eu o violino para todas as suas canções?

Posted by Marcos Pereira on Saturday, May 2, 2015

My response to those calling me 'cowardly'

CARTOON CONTROVERSY

Reblooged from http://www.wnd.com/2015/05/my-response-to-those-calling-me-cowardly/

Exclusive: Michael Brown counters readers ripping him over mocking-Muhammad issue

Published: 1 day ago

image: http://www.wnd.com/files/2015/03/Michael-Brown_avatar.jpg
Michael Brown About | Email | Archive

Michael Brown holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University. He is the author of 25 books, including "Can You Be Gay and Christian?" and "A Queer Thing Happened to America," and he hosts the nationally syndicated, daily talk-radio show, "The Line of Fire." Follow him at AskDrBrown on Facebook or @drmichaellbrown on Twitter.

I love to address controversial subjects and have a healthy, lively debate on difficult issues, and every day of my life, on radio, in writing, on social media, and in public debates, I give people a platform to disagree with me. Bring it on!
Contrary views are warmly welcomed, and often, they sharpen my thinking and expand my understanding.

The last column I wrote here on WND, focusing on the Muhammad cartoon contest, ended with the words, “That’s my take. What’s yours?”
Obviously, I was inviting dissenting opinions, and I have no issue with those who feel that standing for freedom of expression trumps all other concerns.
What I object to, and what I find ugly and even dangerous, are the comments of those who accuse me of cowardice because I was not in favor of the contest. They could not have been more wrong if they tried.

To be sure, I’m constantly maligned online and elsewhere (it goes with the territory), and in the last few days alone, an Orthodox Jewish man commenting on my YouTube channel called me “Another greedy, clueless preacher, feeding on the ignorant, and preying on the people of Israel … a fool and a charlatan,” while a professing Christian claimed that the God I believed in was “anti christ, devoid of all lawfulness = Satan.”

Again, this goes with the territory. Plus, Jesus told us we’d be falsely accused for the gospel, which for me is a cause for rejoicing not complaining (Matthew 5:10-12).
What concerned me with some of the comments to my last article was not the false accusations but rather that people didn’t have the ability to see the difference between cowardice and gospel strategy.

Of course, it’s amusing for me to see people sit in the comfort of their homes and accuse me of cowardice. Live in my world for a year, and we’ll see who the coward is.
Get spat in the face for sharing the gospel and have someone tell you if they catch you doing that again, they’ll strangle you with their own hands. 

Join me in some of my campus events, debating homosexual issues or talking about radical Islam, where the university requires armed police to be present.
Come to India with me into a radical Hindu village where you are told not to address certain volatile subjects like idolatry, adultery and murder, and then get up and preach on those very themes because you feel God wants you to – and the next night, have your meeting shut down by Hindu militants who take over the stage with knives and razor blades in their hands.

Or stand with me by the gravesite of one of my spiritual sons who was martyred by al-Qaida terrorists three years ago for his effective missionary work in the Muslim world, leaving behind a young widow and two sons, and join me on Skype as we speak with his team members who are still serving in terribly dangerous situations, risking their lives to bring the gospel to the lost.

Or talk to our team currently serving in Northern Iraq, not far from ISIS, or to a courageous female colleague serving in Nigeria, not far from Boko Haram, and understand that part of the reason they are serving there is because of our ministry philosophy of glorifying Jesus whether by life or by death (see Philippians 1:20-21; Revelation 12:11).

I personally practice the “shout louder” policy when people try to silence me, self-publishing my book “A Queer Thing Happened to America” when it was deemed too hot to handle by other publishers, even putting their rejections on the back cover, calling it, “The Book the Publishers Were Afraid to Touch,” and naming my publishing company EqualTime books.
And on a regular basis, I confront the evils of radical Islam, stating that while it is not the only expression of Islam, it is a valid expression of Islam based on the Quran and the example of Muhammad.

Accusing me of cowardice is as silly as claiming I don’t have a mustache.
More importantly, in my column, I spoke of Pamela Geller’s “tremendous courage” and wrote that, “I commend her along with others … for refusing to bow to intimidation and fear.”
I also stated that “I defend Geller’s right to hold the contest,” pointing out that I have had some of her colleagues on my radio show (including Robert Spencer, who spoke at the contest) and that I frequently link to their websites, often retweeting Geller’s tweets as well.
I also understand that Christians are not killing Muslims for insulting our faith but that Muslims are killing us simply for following Jesus and that a contest like this is a way for Americans to say, “Not in our country!”

Again, I absolutely defend our rights to do so and commend the courage of those who do.
I simply stated that from the perspective of sharing the gospel with Muslims, most of whom are not murderous, I found the cartoon contest to be an unnecessary provocation.
If you differ with my assessment, I have no problem with it whatsoever, because I agree that Sharia law must be resisted and that free speech is critically important.

But just as I speak the truth about homosexual “marriage,” knowing that in doing so I will offend LGBT readers and listeners, I don’t call them “faggots” or the like, and I do my best to speak the truth in love. Put another way, I know that the truth can offend and will not back down from it, but I do my best not to be offensive.

Perhaps we could learn a lesson from the really courageous ones, the Christians being persecuted to the death by Muslims worldwide. They are suffering because they follow Jesus, not because they mock Muhammad.

Again, you can differ with me on the cartoon contest, and that’s fine and valid. But for heaven’s sake, if you want to be taken seriously, drop the “cowardice” rhetoric.
It may apply to some, but it certainly doesn’t apply here.
Media wishing to interview Michael Brown, please contact media@wnd.com.

The Baltimore Riot and the Dissolution of the Black Family Unit

Reblogged from https://kingsjester.wordpress.com 

 

 

Yesterday, Black Economist and Conservative Pundit, Dr. Thomas Sowell, wrote the following perceptive (as usual) column about the Racial Division which America is currently facing.

Among the many painful ironies in the current racial turmoil is that communities scattered across the country were disrupted by riots and looting because of the demonstrable lie that Michael Brown was shot in the back by a white policeman in Missouri — but there was not nearly as much turmoil created by the demonstrable fact that a fleeing black man was shot dead by a white policeman in South Carolina. Totally ignored was the fact that a black policeman in Alabama fatally shot an unarmed white teenager, and was cleared of any charges, at about the same time that a white policeman was cleared of charges in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.

In a world where the truth means so little, and headstrong preconceptions seem to be all that matter, what hope is there for rational words or rational behavior, much less mutual understanding across racial lines?
When the recorded fatal shooting of a fleeing man in South Carolina brought instant condemnation by whites and blacks alike, and by the most conservative as well as the most liberal commentators, that moment of mutual understanding was very fleeting, as if mutual understanding were something to be avoided, as a threat to a vision of “us against them” that was more popular.
That vision is nowhere more clearly expressed than in attempts to automatically depict whatever social problems exist in ghetto communities as being caused by the sins or negligence of whites, whether racism in general or a “legacy of slavery” in particular. Like most emotionally powerful visions, it is seldom, if ever, subjected to the test of evidence.
The “legacy of slavery” argument is not just an excuse for inexcusable behavior in the ghettos. In a larger sense, it is an evasion of responsibility for the disastrous consequences of the prevailing social vision of our times, and the political policies based on that vision, over the past half century.
Anyone who is serious about evidence need only compare black communities as they evolved in the first 100 years after slavery with black communities as they evolved in the first 50 years after the explosive growth of the welfare state, beginning in the 1960s.
You would be hard-pressed to find as many ghetto riots prior to the 1960s as we have seen just in the past year, much less in the 50 years since a wave of such riots swept across the country in 1965.
We are told that such riots are a result of black poverty and white racism. But in fact — for those who still have some respect for facts — black poverty was far worse, and white racism was far worse, prior to 1960. But violent crime within black ghettos was far less.
Murder rates among black males were going down — repeat, DOWN — during the much lamented 1950s, while it went up after the much celebrated 1960s, reaching levels more than double what they had been before. Most black children were raised in two-parent families prior to the 1960s. But today the great majority of black children are raised in one-parent families.
Such trends are not unique to blacks, nor even to the United States. The welfare state has led to remarkably similar trends among the white underclass in England over the same period. Just read “Life at the Bottom,” by Theodore Dalrymple, a British physician who worked in a hospital in a white slum neighborhood.
You cannot take any people, of any color, and exempt them from the requirements of civilization — including work, behavioral standards, personal responsibility and all the other basic things that the clever intelligentsia disdain — without ruinous consequences to them and to society at large.
Non-judgmental subsidies of counterproductive lifestyles are treating people as if they were livestock, to be fed and tended by others in a welfare state — and yet expecting them to develop as human beings have developed when facing the challenges of life themselves.
One key fact that keeps getting ignored is that the poverty rate among black married couples has been in single digits every year since 1994. Behavior matters and facts matter, more than the prevailing social visions or political empires built on those visions. [Emphasis mine.]

Amen, Dr. Sowell.

When that single black mother beat the snot out of her teenage son on national televison, grabbing him by his hoodie and pulling him away from the rioters in Baltimore, a week ago last Monday, she had the overwhelming majority of Americans backing her actions.

Lyndon Baines Johnson told Americans, as he campaigned in 1964, that the establishment of his proposed “Great Society” was going to eliminate the problems of America’s poor.
It had the opposite effect.

Johnson’s Great Society created a dependent class, which, instead of diminishing as it’s members joined the workforce, increased from generation to generation, relying on the federal government to provide their every need.

“Uncle Sugar” became Mother, Father, Preacher, and Doctor to generations of Americans. This “plantation mentality” continues to this day, thanks to Liberal Politicians on both sides of the political aisle.

However, there are other factors among the Black American Community that reinforces this vicious cycle of Generational Poverty and Crime, which has become seemingly inescapable for some.

Back in July of 2013, CNN Reporter Don Lemon (who happens to be black) caught a bunch of grief for saying,

Just because you can have a baby, it doesn’t mean you should. Especially without planning for one or getting married first. More than 72 percent of children in the African-American community are born out of wedlock. That means absent fathers. And the studies show that lack of a male role model is an express train right to prison and the cycle continues.

Politifact.com researched the statement and found out that Lemon was correct. As of the 2010 Census, Black American Babies were experiencing a 73% illegitimacy rate.

If Modern American Liberals, both black and white, Democrat and Republican, in Municipal, State, and National Leadership Positions, would focus their angst and “concern” on the society-altering, continuing dissolution of the Black Family Unit, which their policies have most definitely exacerbated, and work instead toward the restoration of the Black Family Unit, instead of facilitating rioting over the deaths of criminals, perhaps the stifling defeatism of the cycle of Generational Poverty and Crime, and the violence it brings, would eventually be a thing of the past, or greatly diminished, anyway.

Then, I wouldn’t be awakened every morning, by the Local News in Memphis, to stories about Black Americans killing each other, or mobs of Black Teenagers beating up innocent people.

But, then again…that would make too much sense.

Until He Comes,
KJ

How Can I Tell If An Old Testament Verse Is For Me?

Reblogged from http://gracethrufaith.com/ask-a-bible-teacher

Tuesday, May 5th, 2015

• Interpreting Verses

Q.  How can I know which verses from the Old Testament can be applied to my life today?  I used to think verses like Jeremiah 29:11 were applicable to everyone.  Now I see that verse was for a specific people at a specific time and the church today often takes it out of context as if God was speaking it to us now.  Since I realized this, I now question whether I’ll misinterpret other verses in the OT.  I worry that I’ll believe a verse such as Proverbs 3:5-6 that says trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding is for everyone only to discover later that it wasn’t.

A.  You can tell if an Old Testament verse is meant for a specific time or people by the context in which it appears.
In the example of Jeremiah 29:11 God had Jeremiah write a letter to the Jewish exiles in Babylon (Jeremiah 29:1).  He encouraged them to build houses, plant gardens, marry and have children, etc (Jeremiah 29:4-6).  Then in Jeremiah 29:10 He said after 70 years He would come to them and bring them back to the promised land, because He had great plans for their future there (Jeremiah 29:11).  This tells us He was speaking to the Jewish captives at the outset of the Babylonian captivity. From this we can see that Jeremiah 29:11 was intended specifically for them.

Your other example,  Proverbs 3:5-6, does not contain contextual clues like those in Jeremiah 29:11.  That means it’s intended for everyone.
So the general principle is to read several verses surrounding the one you’re wondering about, looking for clues that will tell you whether it was meant for a specific people or time.  If you don’t find any, you can assume it’s for everyone all the time.

Tom : Israel´s secret Messiah, the Vatican, the Cern collider

Receive The Holy Spirit

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

Reblogged from  http://gracethrufaith.com/topical-studies/spiritual-life/receive-the-holy-spirit/

• Spiritual Life
• The Holy Spirit

A Bible Study by Jack Kelley
I’ve gotten a raft of comments on my comparison of John 20:22 with Acts 2:1-4 in my answer to a recent question. Some were more diplomatic than others in suggesting my understanding of these verses leaves something to be desired. So let’s take another look and see how these two passages are alike and how they’re different. We’ll take John 20:22 first, in the context of the passage.

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (John 20:19-23)

Some have suggested that Jesus was only pretending here, his breath meant to imitate the sound the Holy Spirit would make when He really came 50 days later, and not investing the disciples with the Holy Spirit. But Acts 2:2 says the sound of the Holy Spirit was much different. “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.” It’s like comparing the sound of blowing out birthday candles to the sound of a hurricane.

And the Greek word for receive in John 20:22 is lambano and means to take or lay hold of something in order to use it, or carry it away. It denotes permanence and possession. The same word is used in Acts 8:17 referring to the believers in Samaria when they finally realized they had received the Holy Spirit after Peter and John arrived. I don’t believe Jesus was pretending, any more than Peter and John were. I think the disciples who were present were receiving the Holy Spirit just like it says.

Jesus met with the disciples several times after that night, speaking with them about the Kingdom of God. (Acts 1:3)
On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:4-5)

The Greek word for baptize literally means to be temporarily immersed, usually in water. Jesus explained that while that was the case with John’s baptism, soon the disciples would be temporarily immersed in the Holy Spirit, giving them miraculous power.
So when they met together, they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:6-8)

This gift was not the receipt of the Holy Spirit, which had already happened, but the power to do miraculous works. Remember, He had previously told them the Holy Spirit had been with them and would be in them (John 14:17). This had been accomplished. Now He was saying the Holy spirit would come upon them.

This is seen in the use of the Greek word “eperchomai” which is translated to come upon or come on. It means to over power someone, or take them over. The same Greek word described the 2 instances recorded in Acts of Gentiles speaking in tongues. In Acts 10:44 the Holy spirit came upon the Gentiles listening to Peter at Cornelius’ house. In Acts 19:6 the Holy Spirit came upon a group of Gentiles when Paul baptized them in the name of Jesus. I believe both of these events were temporary situations intended to show the Jewish leadership that the Holy Spirit could come upon Gentiles as well as Jews.

The Holy Spirit had also come upon men in Old Testament times, as with Balaam (Numbers 24:2), Saul (1 Sam. 11:6), Amasai (1 Chron. 12:18), Azariah (2 Chron. 15:1) and Zechariah (2 Chron 24:20).

Understanding the difference between receiving the Holy Spirit (lambano) and having Him come upon you (eperchomai) helps clear up some of the confusion surrounding these verses.

And Now For Acts 2

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. (Acts 2:1-4)
The word for filled also means to be temporarily taken over. And men had been filled with the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament as well. Examples are Joseph (Genesis 41:38) when he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream, and Bezalel of the tribe of Judah who was given supernatural skill in designing and working the gold, silver, and bronze ornamentation for the tabernacle (Exodus 31:2-4).

Both Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist, were filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41, 1:67) over 30 years before Pentecost. In addition people are also said to be filled with wrath (Luke 4:28), fear (Luke 5:26), wonder (Acts 3:10), etc. In every case the same Greek word is used. And in every case it describes a temporary condition.

So being filled with the Holy Spirit did not originate with Pentecost, nor did having Him come upon us. But don’t get the idea that temporary means it only happens once for a little while and then it’s gone for good. Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. But then he was filled again in Acts 4:8 and once more in Acts 4:31. Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 9:17 and again Acts 13:9. It can happen every time there’s a need.

Here’s the point I made in my answer. When we first come to faith the Holy Spirit is sealed within us as a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance (Ephes. 1:13-14) and will remain there as long as we live on this Earth. The disciples experienced this on the evening of the Lord’s resurrection and ever since then every believer has had the same experience. But from time to time the Holy Spirit will come upon us and we will be temporarily filled with His power to perform a miracle on His behalf. Every believer can also experience this. It doesn’t require a special ceremony, and it doesn’t only happen in some churches. It can happen at any time to any believer who makes himself or herself available in faith. It has happened to me and it can happen to you. Selah 03-27-10

The Mockers

Pray For America

By STLloyd April 30, 2015

 

Originally posted on Rus Alan:

The team behind Australia’s National Day of Prayer and Fasting with other prayer leaders is calling the nations of the world to prayer and fasting for seven days for USA. This period of prayer will take place from 30 April – 6 May 2015. April 30 is America’s National Day of Repentance (NDOR) 7 May is the 64th Annual National Day of Prayer (NDP).

Warwick Marsh, Australian coordinator, said, “30 April is the 226th anniversary of George Washington’s inauguration as a devout Christian president and the 152nd anniversary of Lincoln’s Day of ‘Humiliation, Prayer and Fasting’ held during the devastating times of the Civil War. The theme for the USA National Day of Prayer on 7 May, 2015 ‘Lord Hear Our Cry’ is taken from 2 Kings 8:28: ‘Give attention to your servant’s prayer and his pleas for mercy, Lord my God. Hear the cry and the prayer that your…

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The Class of 2015: Book Burners Afraid of Matches - Bill Whittle

Jonathan Cahn - The Altar of the Dark Angel on the Temple Mount

THE SECOND COMING

 Note from the blogger: I found this poem in the Prologue page of an ebook I ordered today titled: Slouching towards Gomorrah" by Robert Bork.
I found it very "à propos".


 William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)
     

    Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

    Surely some revelation is at hand;
    Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
    The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
    When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
    Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
    A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
    A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
    Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
    Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds. 

    The darkness drops again but now I know
    That twenty centuries of stony sleep
    Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
    And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
    Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

---

The Second Coming was written in 1919 in the aftermath
of the first World War. The above version of the poem is
as it was published in the edition of Michael Robartes and
the Dancer dated 1920 (there are numerous other
versions of the poem). The preface and notes in the book
contain some philosphy attributed to Robartes. This printing of the poem has a page break between lines 17 and 18 making the stanza division unclear.

Following the two most similar drafts given in the Parkinson and
Brannen edited edition of the manuscripts, I have put a
stanza break there. (Interestingly, both of those drafts
have thirty centuries instead of twenty.) The earlier drafts
also have references to the French and Irish Revolutions
as well as to Germany and Russia.

Several of the lines in the version above differ from those
found in subsequent versions. In listing it as one of the
hundred most anthologized poems in the English
language, the text given by Harmon (1998) has changes
including: line 13 (": somewhere in sands of the desert"),
line 17 ("Reel" instead of "Wind"), and no break
between the second and third stanza.

Yeats, William Butler. Michael Robartes and the Dancer. Chruchtown, Dundrum, Ireland: The Chuala Press, 1920. (as found in the photo-lithography edition printed Shannon, Ireland: Irish University Press, 1970.) Yeats, William Butler. "Michael Robartes and the Dancer" Manuscript Materials. Thomas Parkinson and Anne Brannen, eds. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1994. Harmon, William, ed. The Classic Hundred Poems. New York: Columbia University Press, 1998.