End Times Updates: Legislative destruction of the US (amnesty for illegals, "hate crimes" attack on religion), imminent disclosure that ETs are real!

Well, here's one from Scott Johnson we should all know about. In this one he's covering a delightful potpourri of recent events that clearly presage the end of all things

unless the church of God rises up in full armor with our powerful spiritual weapons -- prayer, scripture, repentance -- and pulls down the strongholds bringing this about.

Start with the state of the USA.

DEMOLITION OF GOVERNMENT PROTECTION OF CITIZENS:
We've got legislation coming down that is going to allow illegal aliens more rights than citizens, including gang members. Even CNN is objecting. Scott Johnson plays the audio of Lou Dobbs's report on this, but I also got an emailing from D A Waite's Bible For Today ministry on this one.

HEALTH CARE/INSURANCE DEMOLITION PLAN:
They also sent this link about Obama's health care proposals that will leave seriously and urgently sick people stranded just as Canada's socialized health care leaves people stranded without care.

Then of course there is the flu/vaccination hoax that further confuses us about our health and may also in reality compromise it, as mentioned in my previous post.

FIRST AMENDMENT DEMOLITION PLAN: HATE CRIMES LEGISLATION Then we now HAVE, yes, it passed our Congress, the Hate Crimes bill we've known was coming for a long time, the bill that makes it a crime to even THINK or SAY anything that could be construed as hostile to homosexuals. Johnson covers that in this talk too and Bible For Today sent me a long email with many links I may check out and post later. The bill amounts to a violation of the First Amendment which protects freedom of religion and speech from government interference, but the First Amendment has been habitually violated by our legal and judicial processes for years now anyway so who's going to notice?

EXTRA-TERRESTRIALS REVELATION IMMINENT?
Then Johnson goes to a report by an "Exopolitics" newspaper on the imminent disclosure to the world that "extra-terrestrials" are real (starts at 00:13:34 on the audio counter). "Exopolitics" has to do with extra-terrestrials.

Here's a website on the subject, and here's their link to the article on the imminence of a "disclosure" of extra-terrestrial presence.

This is to be a "disclosure" because the idea is that it's been known at the "higher levels of government" for decades but not revealed because they've been afraid it would scare people too much. Why they think it won't scare people as much today is a question. Yes, there have been lots of movies about such events, but I personally don't know anyone who is prepared for the idea that those things are actually REAL.

And they AREN'T -- or, they are AND they aren't, but only Christians can really grasp the truth about this. They are demonic apparitions of some sort, like the apparitions of "the virgin Mary" and similar phenomena, including apparitions and manifestations in "haunted houses," of "angels" or "angelic beings," or in past times of "fairies" and so on. They ALL come from the world of fallen spiritual beings, demons, fallen angels and whatnot and they are NOT friendly.

This revelation in any form will shock most people, no doubt, but those who accept the idea that they are beings from outer space rather than demonic entities are going to be the most deceived.

THEN THE OUTRIGHT DEMOLITION OF OUR NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY AND WEALTH IN ONE FELL SWOOP AT COPENHAGEN IN DECEMBER:
Then Johnson goes on to a clip of Lord Christopher Monckton about the Global Climate Treaty Obama will probably sign in Copenhagen in December, which subordinates all national governments to a global government, and also requires the transfer of wealth from wealthy countries to poor countries in payment of a supposed "climate debt." Monckton suggests that we can still rise up and prevent the signing of this treaty, but

REMEMBER: WHEN WE ARE STRIPPED OF ALL WORLDLY SUPPORTS, BELIEVERS HAVE THE ONLY SUPPORT THAT REALLY IS A SUPPORT, THE LORD HIMSELF, THE SPIRITUAL WEAPONS HE HAS GIVEN US, THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB AND THE WORD OF OUR TESTIMONY.

Swine Flu Emergency Hoax

Scott Johnson has been talking for weeks about the swine flu, how the flu itself is not the problem but the vaccination for it is. Today's talks are on the same topic. You do have to take his stuff with a grain of salt but I want to post Part 2 of today's talks because it covers some pretty clearcut evidence -- that this supposed epidemic of swine flu is nonexistent, that there's no emergency level even if the cases WERE swine flu, but that when they are tested it turns out a huge percentage of them are not only not swine flu but not flu at all. He includes interviews that are very convincing, including Barbara Lowe Fisher who is one of the most trustworthy flu and vaccination experts.

This is the audio for Part 2, and this is the PDF file that covers the same material.

Found a whole Google page of references to swine flu as a hoax. Haven't checked them out but here's the page.

Prayer without ceasing.

I've discovered something wonderful. It IS possible to "pray without ceasing" in a sense I haven't heard much about. I started doing it and then found someone writing about it and I wish I could remember who, now, but maybe it will come to me, possibly one of the speakers at the Revival Conference I listened to recently. I also then discovered that Jonathan Edwards wrote of praying what they used to call "ejaculatory prayers" all day long, just prayers sent up to the Lord in the midst of doing other things. Just to be clear, I've done this all my Christian life, but not to the extent I'm doing it now.

And then I remembered that Saint Patrick prayed a hundred times a day for six years to be rescued from slavery in Ireland before the Lord answered. That did not appeal to me at all, I must say, as the prospect of praying for long periods without an answer is just too discouraging and I figured I'd lose faith. I couldn't imagine being able to make myself pray so consistently with such a sense of futility about it.

What makes the difference is that prayer is pleasant in itself, it's a connection to the Lord and keeps your mind on Him as well as the subject of your prayer.

It's a big help for me because discipline is so hard for me. Having set times for anything is hard. So this solves that problem and I think it's going to have all kinds of spiritual benefits I can only guess at, some already starting to emerge.

Just praying all day long whenever your mind is free at all, when you're doing physical work for instance, when you're driving around town, when you wake up in the middle of the night. I always thought I'd have to get out of bed or sit up or kneel, and that would sometimes just be too hard; but just lying there with my mind constantly asking the Lord for help with this or that now seems acceptable. I find myself now waking up in the morning with a hymn or praise song going through my mind.

Praying for all the things you'd pray for in a scheduled prayer session, praying for each situation as you encounter it too, though I find myself focusing on a particular concern more than the others lately and have been getting some leadings from the Lord about it. Also just worshiping and praising.

Is Dietrich Bonhoeffer really a Christian?

November 1: Ever since I read some of Bonhoeffer years ago I've had a question whether he's really a Christian. I'd read other neo-orthodox and they all write in such a way that you don't really know what they mean. Familiar Biblical concepts are put in some other context so that they seem to say something entirely different while at the same time supposedly affirming orthodox doctrine. So it's really a question I should be asking, I suppose: IS Dietrich Bonhoeffer really a Christian or not?

I posted the following in the conviction that he's not, but I think the fairest statement is that I don't know. I haven't read him thoroughly enough, and his style makes it impossible for me to want to read him more thoroughly.

I'm adding this caveat now because I don't know if the writer I've quoted below really knows for sure what Bonhoeffer means either, and the quotes may be somewhat out of context. All I can say is that I too had the same impression when I read Bonhoeffer myself.

=================
It's always bothered me that Dietrich Bonhoeffer is so often admired and quoted by Christians, because he was not a true believer. Hearing him quoted by Christians does create the impression that he is one of us, and gives him a status he doesn't deserve which can mislead people. He courageously opposed the Nazi regime* and he said some memorable things that are useful for the church ("Come to Christ and die" or some version of that), but anyone who is led by those quotes to study him further will find that he was a "liberal" Christian at the very least.

This discussion reveals more about his apostate theology than I had known and I knew enough to be concerned already:

1. He believed that "God is teaching us that we must live as men who can get along very well without Him. The God who is with us is the God who forsakes us." Bonhoeffer also believed that the concept of God as a "supreme Being, absolute in power and goodness," was a "spurious conception of transcendence," and that "God as a working hypothesis in morals, politics, and science ... should be dropped, or as far as possible eliminated" (Letters and Papers from Prison, S.C.M. Press edition, Great Britain: Fontana Books, 1953, pp. 122, 164, 360).

2. He believed that mankind had become of age and no longer needed religion, which was only a deceptive garment of true faith; he suggested the need for a "religionless Christianity." To Bonhoeffer, "the Christian is identified not by his beliefs, but by actions, by his participation in the suffering of God in the life of the world" (Letters and Papers from Prison, S.C.M. Press edition, Great Britain: Fontana Books, 1953, p. 163). Thus, Bonhoeffer's final writings have given impulse to Marxist theologians sponsoring "liberation theology" and to others wishing to promote a worldly social gospel.

3. He refused to discuss the origin of Christ, His relationship to the Father, His two natures, or even the relationship of the two natures. Bonhoeffer was adamant in his belief that it was impossible to know the objective truth about the real essence of Christ's being-nature (Christ the Center, pp. 30, 88, 100-101).

4. He questioned the Virgin Birth, and in reality denied it (The Cost of Discipleship, p. 215).

5. He denied the deity of Christ; he advocated that "Jesus Christ Today" is not a real person and being, but a "corporate presence" (Testimony to Freedom, pp. 75-76; Christ the Center, p. 58).

6. He denied the sinlessness of Christ's human nature and further questioned the sinlessness of His earthly behavior (Christ the Center, pp. 108-109).

7. He believed that Christ exists in three "revelatory forms" -- as Word, as sacrament, and as church. From asserting that Christ is the church, he followed that all persons in the church are identical with Christ (Christ the Center, p. 58; The Cost of Discipleship, p. 217). This amounts to pantheism!

8. He believed that Christianity is not exclusive, i.e., that Christ is not the only way to God (Testimony to Freedom, pp. 55-56).

9. He was a prominent figure in the early ecumenical movement, as evidenced through his associations with the "World Alliance for International Friendship" (a forerunner of the apostate World Council of Churches [WCC]), Union Theological Seminary, and Visser 't Hooft (who later became the first General Secretary of the WCC) (Testimony to Freedom, pp. 22, 212, 568). Bonhoeffer also reached out to Roman Catholics, prefiguring the broader ecumenism that blossomed after Vatican II in the mid-1960s.

10. He was a practical evolutionist (No Rusty Swords, p. 143), and believed that the book of Genesis was scientifically naive and full of myths (Creation and Fall: A Theological Interpretation of Genesis 1-3).

11. He adhered to neo-orthodox theology and terminology concerning salvation (Testimony to Freedom, p. 130), was a sacramentalist (Life Together, p. 122; The Way to Freedom, pp. 115, 153), believed in regenerational infant baptism (Letters and Papers from Prison, Macmillan, pp. 142-143) as well as adult baptismal regeneration (The Way to Freedom, p. 151), equated church membership with salvation (The Way to Freedom, p. 93), and denied a personal/individualistic salvation (Letters and Papers from Prison, Macmillan, p. 156).

12. He placed little or no value on the Old Testament --"... the faith of the Old Testament is not a religion of salvation" (Letters and Papers from Prison, S.C.M. Press edition, Great Britain: Fontana Books, 1953, p. 112).

13. He denied the verbal-plenary inspiration of Scripture, believing that the Bible was only a "witness" to the Word of God and becomes the Word of God only when it "speaks" to an individual; otherwise, it was simply the word of man/men (Testimony to Freedom, pp. 9, 104; Sanctorum Communio, p. 161). To Bonhoeffer, the Bible was meant "to be expounded as a witness, not as a book of wisdom, a teaching book, a book of eternal truth" (No Rusty Swords, p. 118). He also believed in the value of higher criticism/historical criticism, which is a denial of the inerrancy and authenticity of the Bible (Christ the Center, pp. 73-74).

14. He had no faith in the physical resurrection of Christ. Bonhoeffer believed the "historicity" of the Resurrection was in "the realm of ambiguity," and that it was one of the "mythological" elements of Christianity that "must be interpreted in such a way as not to make religion a pre-condition of faith." He also believed that "Belief in the Resurrection is not the solution of the problem of death," and that such things as miracles and the ascension of Christ were "mythological conceptions" as well (Christ the Center, p. 112; Letters and Papers from Prison, S.C.M. Press edition, Great Britain: Fontana Books, 1953, pp. 93-94, 110).

==================================
* although joining the plot to assassinate Hitler was not right from a Christian point of view.

Occultism and Demonization

Three talks by Bill McLeod about occultism and demonization at Sermon Index. The second and third overlap quite a bit. The first is his discussion of the common questions about demonization and the Christian, maybe the most reasonable I've heard.

Separate Blog on Revival opened up

Posts on Revival and related topics have been moved to my other blog, Revival and its Counterfeits (renamed Things of the Spirit).