Status Report on the War Between Good and Evil

After he is inaugurated Donald Trump is expected to receive an invitation to meet the Queen of England some time next year.

I'm SO glad she hasn't yet been succeeded by Charles, who would/will be an absolute disaster for England with his multicultural views of religion that embrace both Islam and Catholicism.   I'm not sure what the Queen herself believes,  but thanks to Henry the Eighth the monarch is the head of the Church of England, and she has always had the reputation of putting her duty as monarch above all else.  Charles has been reported to want to change the monarch's title from "Defender of the Faith" to "Defender of faiths."  THAT is scary.  Poor England, to have lost the reason for its former strength in its illustrious faithful Protestants.  Don't know William's beliefs, I hope they aren't as scary as his father's. 

Recently I watched the first season of the Netflix series, The Crown, which is about Elizabeth's reign. It's no doubt fictionalized, and probably wrong on some points, but the believable and admirable theme is the priority of the Crown itself as the symbol of the nation, to be put above all personal concerns, and Elizabeth is presented as dedicated to that duty.  The series also shows her being schooled as a young girl in the English Constitution, and quoting it as defining the monarch's foremost duty as to God, above the Crown.  (How sad that God was left out of our Constitution.)   But anyway, God is presented as the ruler of the nation above the monarch, a genuinely Protestant point of view, which she as devoted to duty must still uphold.

The recent decision of the people of England to leave the European Union has probably gone some way to protecting the Crown from eventual subjugation under alien government, ultimately ruled by the two major totalitarianisms, Islam and the Roman papacy, entwined with the totalitarian ideology of Communism/Marxism.  The two gigantic religions represent the two legs of the Roman Empire as depicted in the Book of Daniel the Prophet, in Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the statue representing the succession of the empires from Babylon to Rome. 

What's surprising about both Brexit, the English vote to leave the EU, and Trump's winning the American Presidency, is that it suggests that Biblical prophecy of the One World Order has been set back for a time.  It's all been coming together so neatly in line with prophecy that it's even rather shocking to think God is giving us a break from its inexorable march.  If Marine Le Pen wins the Presidency of France there will be three great nations that now have some hope of reclaiming their threatened sovereignty and culture.  I'm not completely sure of Le Pen but Nigel Farage says he's supporting her, which is in her favor.  Maybe poor miserable Sweden will be emboldened by their example to join them, a nation awash in violent alien refugees who rape their women with impunity.  It would be nice to think Germany would join us, because their citizens are also suffering mightily from the violent Muslim population that is being forced on them by Political Correctness/Cultural Marxism.   In Germany this Political Correctness that has poisoned the minds of the leaders of the European Union has even been taking away the apartments and houses of citizens to give them to these foreigners.  This is sheer evil being treated as if it were good.  In France where the Muslim population is very large they have been torching cars in the thousands for years, taking time out occasionally to kill people at work and play. 

And of course all this is because Europe has abandoned its Christian foundations.  They are under judgment by the God they have abandoned who is now abandoning them to their enemies.  The Bible reveals that one of the punishments for turning away from God and God's Law is a nation's being overtaken by foreigners.  This is what is going on in America too.

That being the case, any political victories over this trend have to be short-lived unless there is a great movement back to God.  Then and only then would the judgment be lifted.  How we need a great revival of true Christianity.   Not politics, not counter-violence, just revival, Knee Power.

(I just got a picture in my mind of Queen Elizabeth on her knees before God to intercede for her nation.  What a wonderful thought.  The Crown can and must bow to the King of Kings.  One day all crowns will be flung at His feet.  Then let all Europe and America follow suit.  It makes me cry.)


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The fact is that the history of the entire world is outlined in the Bible and without that revelation history is incomprehensible.  From the Fall in Eden the world has been dominated by Satan and his hordes of demons, because he succeeded in turning our first parents against God, winning him the right to rule over us as "the Prince of this world" in Jesus' words.  All the religions of the world are his invention, sometimes containing vague memories of the true God but always twisted into something that keeps the peoples enslaved to the demons.  From the beginning, however, God promised to send a Savior to free us from bondage to the sin that brings God's judgment against us, which also enslaves us to the demons.  This prophecy is repeated in hints throughout the Old Testament until finally He arrived,  God Himself incarnate as a Man, which is what the entire New Testament is about.  He lived the perfect righteous life of a perfectly sinless man, and then chose to die to pay for the sins of those who would believe on Him, to save us from an eternity of punishment for our sins.  He is the only Man who could do that for us, being perfectly sinless.  Although he was God during His life on earth He nevertheless lived and died as a man in order to be the propitiation for human sins. 

That's what Christians believe.  That's what has to be reclaimed if there is any hope of restoring the formerly Christian nations and bringing peace in the world.  If God would permit us a great revival of true Christian faith it would no doubt also convert great numbers of others, such as Muslims and Roman Catholics who aren't saved.
That would be a wonderful reprieve, and the world would be dramatically changed by it, and millions would be rescued from the bondage to Satan. 

But Christianity always deteriorates over time in this fallen world, with the help of Satan of course, so even such a wonderful blessing would eventually come under the devil's influence again.  Prosperity brings complacency, we lose our vigilance, evil takes advantage of us again and again.  Only when Jesus returns to claim His rightful rule over all Creation will Satan be banished and we be freed once and for all from his influence.  We've been watching the prophetic signs of the coming End increasing for some time now, all an accumulation of evil which the Lord's return will put a stop to, a trend which Trump  seems to have interrupted.  The hatred of Trump and his supporters is so furious, irrational, uncivilized, unAmerican, crazed, barbarian, thuggish, murderous, it will be  something of a miracle if he is able to be the President he wants to be for long enough to carry out his promises. 

Even if Trump is God's mercy on us, we still have to repent of our sins, the churches have to reform, we have to pray constantly to maintain the blessing.  That's a lot to ask of us, but what is impossible for us is possible with God, so I'm hoping and praying.  For America to be revived, for the UK, for Europe, for the salvation of millions of the unsaved.  And against the forces of evil which are of course working feverishly every second to destroy as many of us as possible.

Europe has abandoned God, So ISIS attacks in Brussels and nobody sees the connection

Today a slaughter in Brussels by the usual suspects. Is the push for Islamic world power escalating or is it just a momentary flurry?

What can I say? I guess I can keep saying this is a spiritual problem. Politics alone won't solve it. I'm glad if the police are getting good information but that's a mercy of God He's granted fairly generously considering how He is hated in Europe. Europe is under judgment, and the great numbers of Muslims displacing the original ethnic populations is one form of that judgment. Already their loss of national boundaries to the EU should be seen as God's judgment. It's all in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

Islam is the scourge He is using, in Europe and America both. That's what 9/11 was, and it's what all the Islamist attacks in Europe are too.

Why are we under judgment? You only need to read the Ten Commandments to make a list of the sins proliferating in the West over the last few decades. We've even thrown the Ten Commandments out of our courts so you'll have to find a Bible to look them up. But the preeminent sin is our rejection of the true God.

As God keeps saying over and over in the Old Testament: "But return to Me" and He will heal us, He will bless us, He will give us favor with the Muslims too and they will see the truth of Christ.

Europe has abandoned Christianity, and I mean Biblical Christianity, Reformation Christianity, Protestant Christianity, and America is well on its way though still lagging behind somewhat. The only salvation possible for the West is to restore it. I pray for it. May God have mercy on us all.

Yes, Church, we could still turn America around, Yes, but it would cost. And we need a George Whitefield. Or two or three.

A great exertion, a great commitment of time, by a great number of God's people, especially the pastors, really could very possibly turn this nation around even at this very very late hour. If we dropped everything else that could at all conceivably be dropped, and that's got to be a lot more than we think we can drop, did some fasting, did a lot of praying, and tried to coordinate our efforts with one another across the nation, surely we would be a formidable spiritual army. Surely.

We all see it don't we?  The dire need of it I mean.  I open the internet to all kinds of everyday trivia, how to roast the best Thanksgiving turkey, what's the best brand of makeup, where's the best place to retire, and the dissonance makes me a bit crazy.   Maybe it creates enough of an illusion of Normal Times to put a bunch of us to sleep?    I'd love to drift away on the illusion myself, I'm not looking forward to what's coming on this nation.

When God plans to bring Revival, they say, "He sets His people to praying," so if they don't feel the urge to pray then it must not be God's will.  So what do we do, have our perfect Thanksgiving turkey, lean back and watch the nation go down under His judgment?  I guess we could, you know, if that's His will.  But how can it be His will?  Really?

I went to Sermon Audio and clicked on "Sermons by Date" just to see what was being preached this month,   Some of the titles are obscure but most look like Preaching as Usual.  Probably many good sermons for the growth of Christians, certainly the necessary work of pastors, but forgive me if I say this is not the time for that, we have a nation to save.

I know most of us have given up.  We know the nation is already under judgment but we've given up.  I guess we're not feeling it enough yet, or maybe we just can't tolerate the news so we've gone into ostrich mode, or maybe we just don't know what to do.  Shouldn't the pastors be more like the Black-Robed Regiment these days, dedicated to preserving the nation against the tyrannical foe of freedom?  Any Christians can do something of course, like Christine Weick I mentioned in a recent post, but shouldn't it be the pastors leading us?  They put together a meeting in Houston to respond to the mayor's encroachment on their freedom in the pulpit, but it was just a few hours.  Maybe it had something to do with ushering this great conservative wave into Congress, but nothing much seems to have been happening since.  We've even had the abomination of a Muslim imam "praying" in Congress since then, and also in the National Cathedral.  Not a peep out of our leaders that I'm aware of, though the usual ministries took note of it.   They send out their usual scary news stories and warnings and exhortations, but otherwise not much seems to be happening.

Some are focusing this in a different direction.  No mention of the imam in Congress but we don't really have to get upset about the National Cathedral because after all the Episcopalian Church has been apostate for a long time already, nothing unusual about having an imam there.  The idea seems to be Therefore it's nothing to get all worked up about.  Well, OK, but that's the church where Presidents have their most high-profile religious events, such as  Bush's ecumenical prayer meeting for the nation after 9/11.  This is the church that has positioned itself to be representative of the nation, so anything that calls it down for its apostasy is a good thing.

We also shouldn't just be engaged in lamenting the darkness, this trend of thought goes, but in actively doing something, and the something we should actively be doing is taking the gospel to the Muslims.   I'm not sure why this is an either/or but it seems to be.  I can agree that among all the tasks I'd list for what the Church should be doing now that we're not doing anywhere near enough, taking the gospel to the Muslims should rank fairly high.  But I put saving the nation above that myself, because if we can't save the nation the Muslims are going to rule us.  And Revival would go a long way toward accomplishing both forms of salvation.

Seems to me the important thing to keep in mind is that all this is God's judgment on the nation, it's already here, the imam in our government buildings, so many Muslims in the nation too, and saving the nation means moving God to forgive and renew us.  Starting with the Church, where judgment begins.

Interestingly, just as a side note, Norway has been deporting its illegal aliens for a while now, which means Muslims, and their crime rate has been reduced by a third as a result.  France should do the same as Muslims are trashing the city of Marseilles.  This isn't the Christian solution of evangelizing them but I'm not sure there's anything wrong with deporting criminals from a Christian point of view either.  A safe society is the responsibility of government, and ours is rapidly losing all sense of that duty.  The original Christian colonies of America had strict laws against foreign or nonChristian intrusion and influence, and the Black Regiment of pastors preached for, and then fought for, freedom in the Revolutionary War, because political freedom is necessary for all the projects of Christianity from spreading the gospel to providing a Christian moral environment. 
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I often think it's too late, and I know others think the same, that all we can do now is prepare for the disaster, for the persecutions, for horrors upon horrors to come.

But you know what, it isn't too late.  It's only too late because we aren't going to do anything, not because it isn't possible to do something.  Again, are we or are we not "Terrible as an army with banners" as the Church is called in the Song of Songs?.  Right now we don't seem too terrible, but there's no reason we couldn't come to live up to our name.  Hooray for every Christian who is doing something already, but I think it's the pastors across the nation who need to be organizing this, leading this, preaching it, exhorting it.  It would take dedication, time, stripping our lives of everything else, some fasting, a lot of prayer, a lot of seeking the Lord for guidance and wisdom, a lot of coordination with the rest of the Church, a lot of prayer for each other, for all the pastors, a lot of denouncing the sins of the churches and separating from those who are in serious error, a lot of praying for cleansing of the Church, a lot of praying against the sins of the nation after the sins of the Church are dealt with.   

I Stand Sunday wasn't enough.  We need every Sunday, and really every day, dedicated to the work that's cut out for us. 

And we need a George Whitefield.

Wishing I Stand Sunday could prevail with God.

I wish I could say something really positive and supportive of the I Stand Sunday effort. I did watch it, there were many solid Christian messages preached, including the need to be bold in these days, willing to sacrifice, the importance of repentance, how it begins with the Church and is the Church's responsibility. There was also mention of revival, how God can turn a nation in a moment's time. They had an altar call and many of the pastors came forward to pray. All very moving really. I just wish I could believe it could accomplish anything.

They showed video of the business owners who have been persecuted by the gay marriage people, fined, driven out of business. I don't get why that can't already have been turned back because it's so obviously against the First Amendment. Why do we need complex legal actions in the case of a clear violation of the Constitution?  The Houston mayor withdrew her subpoenas in the face of all this uproar over it, which is great, but did the message come through to her that her action was illegal or is she just waiting for another opportunity?  If they realized it's illegal would they stop, however, or don't they care if it's illegal, all that matters is their own agenda? I suspect that in the highest places of the land they don't care if it's illegal, I'm not sure at the level of a mayor. One thing that's clear, though, is that their disqualification of a huge percentage of the signers of a petition against her "civil rights" ordinance was illegal, and she must know that.

The illegality starts in the Supreme Court that has been passing down twisted misinterpretations of the First Amendment for decades now, and slapped down the will of the people all across the nation where they have made their views of gay marriage known; but it's all accepted as if it's legal because, well, they're the Supreme Court.  With such a dysfunctional system what is anyone to do?  It makes no sense to appeal legally to a court that is clearly rotten and perverse, yet that's all anyone does or thinks possible to do.  Not that I have an alternative, except resistance, and that always works against the resistor in a tyrannical system of government.

So it's nice all these pastors got together to exhort one another to stand firm in the evil days, but I wish we'd do something to overthrow those evil illegal laws and I don't see why we can't.  Except for the force the government would bring against us of course, more lawlessness.

The call for revival is so sad it seems to me, because so futile.  Yes, of course Catholics were involved and accepted last night but we won't have revival as long as that is the case.  There are many Catholics in politics these days and some of them are great people and great Americans and great politicians.  One of them, Rick Santorum gave a filmed greeting to the group.  Another speaker mentioned Roman Catholicism in passing.  I think I could vote easily for Alan Keyes or Allen West for President, but they're both Catholics.  Then there's Ben Carson, another black man I also love as a political voice, not a Catholic but a member of another really iffy cult.  I guess I could vote for him if I could vote for the others.   Mitt Romney is a nice guy with some acceptable political views, but his cult is the weirdest one of them all. What has happened to Protestant America?

God isn't going to bless a mixed gathering of religions that has a spiritual purpose as the I Stand Sunday gathering had.  I can't say God told me so, and I can't point to really clear evidence, I'd just hope there would be enough appreciation for what the Reformation did to show the folly of it in the case of Roman Catholicism. I would also mention that there's been lots of ecumenical prayer for the nation over the last decades and especially since 9/11 and I don't think anyone can say God has smiled on any of that prayer.  I'm talking about Bush's prayer meeting in the National Cathedral right after the twin towers attack, including an RCC priest, a Muslim leader and I forget who else; and I'm also talking about yearly gatherings of ecumenical groups in the D.C. area for God to bless the nation, and what's the fruit of all that, pray tell?  How do people explain it to themselves that they pray with such good intent and such fervor and things get worse?  Surely it's obvious things have been getting worse, isn't it?  How do you explain it?  Islam is more influential and threatening than ever, growing so year by year by year since 9/11.  How do you explain that?  

And I'd mention the fact that we have so many Catholics in office too, which would make the earliest settlers of the nation weep since they came here specifically to try to head off the influence of the RCC in the new land, which had caused so much grief for Protestants in Europe. Our Catholics don't seem to be anything but good Americans, and especially the conservatives we Protestants love and support, but then we have Boehner and Pelosi inviting the Pope to speak to Congress next year and that should ring loud bells in a true Protestant's head.  They seem to have ear plugs in though.

How do you explain all that?

Has God deserted us, is that the explanation, just not hearing our prayers?  Well, many recognize that the nation is under God's judgment, but the point of the prayer meetings is to repent in the hope He'll turn back from judgment.  If we believe in an omnipotent God who is intimately involved in human affairs it seems to me that should have happened by now.  Why hasn't it?

That's what I've been thinking and praying about in recent posts, and the ecumenical effect is number one on the list that I keep coming up with to explain why we haven't had revival.  Leonard Ravenhill's passion alone through the last decades of the last century should have produced revival but nothing, silence from heaven and the continued proliferation of sin and threats to our wellbeing and corrupt politics.

I've come to think that Ravenhill may have compromised his own plea for revival with his acceptance of Roman Catholicism and of the charismatic movement.   That's my theory.  I need an explanation and that's the one that comes to mind.  And if it explains his failure to light the spark it must also explain why the wood has remained wet ever since despite efforts by many to reach God's ears.

Of course God is sovereign and we can't force Him to act, it just seems that He should have acted already in our present condition, and if He hasn't there must be a reason for it.  Of course the condition we are in includes deviations within the churches for starters, taking the word "church" to refer to any body that claims the name of Christ.  That would include "churches" that have been swayed to liberal doctrines, deny the truth of parts of the Bible, accept evolution and even in some cases abortion and gay rights and gay marriage.  Would God give us revival when there are so many "Christian" churches that hold such views?  The only revival He could give would have to change such views, but while revival reforms people I'm not sure it's ever done so to that degree.  And those are things we know from the Bible alone are violations, to be dealt with by solid Bible preaching.

Well, I've pondered a lot of the reasons in previous posts and still hope to get up a permanent Page where I try to be exhaustive though that isn't happening yet.  But here I just want to say I don't think the earnest prayers at the I Stand Sunday gathering are going to bear fruit any more than all the previous earnest prayers have done.  Something else has to happen.  There are people in the camp who have taken accursed things from Ai, that's why Ai has been able to defeat us.  That's the thought anyway.  Get rid of the accursed things, the pagan things the church has been accepting, and God may see fit to bless us after all.  Seems to me that would involve churches that have not done this denouncing those that have, making a public issue of it.

There's really not much chance churches are going to repudiate all those nice Catholics though, is there?  Or that nice lady pastor, who is also in violation of Biblical truth, no matter how good a preacher she is.  And all the other churches that have women pastors and elders, and there are many of them.  We shouldn't have to argue about what the Bible says about this, it's all too clear. 

But that's just the start of the problems.  There were calls to repentance at the I Stand Sunday gathering, though mostly personal repentance, which of course is necessary.  But we need to name the sins of the churches and repent as churches and denounce them as churches.  That's how I'm reading the problem, that's why I think we aren't having revival and can't have revival until this is done. 

I'm nobody of course, just an opinionated blogger out here in nowhere land thinking about these things.  And I'm a woman and I have no authority over anybody.  All I can do is hope that if I'm right about any of it others will pick it up and spread it and exhort the churches to it. 

Please Lord.  We SO desperately need revival.

Preaching and praying the Bible far more effective than sending them

Heard a report that Houston's mayor got something over 500 Bibles sent to her in protest of her subpoena of the writings of Houston pastors.  Also heard that it wasn't just Mike Huckabee who made the call for this form of protest but also Ted Cruz and Glenn Beck.  Well, Ted Cruz is a Protestant, at least he belongs to a Southern Baptist church according to Wikipedia, so he can put out a call to pastors for such a purpose. 

But not dear Glenn Beck, smart lovable solid patriot conservative Glenn Beck the heretic.  He's also calling for revival but this is just another way revival is hindered because a Mormon can't call us to genuine revival.   If people responded to his call to send  Bibles that is NOT a good sign.

There are some great conservative Catholics we have to leave out too. I think first of Alan Keyes and Allen West, but there are lots of others. Can't include them if we want genuine revival.

But I don't really think sending Bibles or sermons does much to deal with what we are facing in such unconstitutional actions as taken by Houston's mayor.  It's a good sign that the Church is paying attention and cares enough to try to do something, but it isn't the something we need.  Michael Brown's suggestion would have been more effective in my opinion: that pastors across the nation preach that following Sunday on what the Bible says about homosexuality.  And the reason it would be more effective is that it would be an act of boldness that pastors are likely to be intimidated out of these days, and it's a spiritual action that could get God's ear.  Whereas sending sermons and Bibles is just human action.  Preaching and prayer are a much better direction for the Church to take, and especially in bold declaration of God's word, and I wish those who called for the sermons and Bibles had instead followed Michael Brown's lead.

The headlines are hard to take again today.  Some of the stories I can't even get myself to read because it will just upset me.  Islam encroaching further, more stupidity in high places, or is it malice, more evil for good and good for evil.  And a story about a study of beliefs of evangelicals that shows a lot of confusion about major doctrinal issues, especially concerning the Trinity.

I'm going to put up a permanent page on the possibility of revival, collecting my recent thoughts on it.  It's the only solution possible, nothing we do at a human level will accomplish anything which ought to be pretty apparent to us by now.   And we've been doing something wrong in our attempts to reach God too, which is my main concern.  God must act or we're lost.  We need revival, we need His direct revitalization of the Church.  And yet in the current situations we're facing nothing could be less likely.  Still, God is the God of the impossible, sovereign over all things.  And if we make a concerted effort to honor His conditions...   well, I haven't given up yet.

Revival starts with seeking God and expecting answers

Another thought occurred to me in the hope of encouraging others to fast and pray for revival, starting of course with cleaning up the church and your own life. I'm aware that I'm a believer that the Lord does communicate with us in knowable ways, which is denied by some leaders of the Church, or seems to be. Of course everyone encourages prayer as a necessity, and believes in answered prayer, but the idea that we can get identifiable knowable answers doesn't seem to be acknowledged, and is often denied, as if it were in the same category as charismatic beliefs. But I'm convinced the charismatic "gifts of the Spirit" are false and that it's important to discourage that belief in any seeking of revival. Nevertheless, I've had too much experience of a kind of answered prayer that is very real to confine myself to intellectual understanding, which is often what seems to happen with those who preach against such communication.

The main thing I'm thinking of is that prayer for answer to specific questions usually gets those answers in my experience, and I think it very important that we be seeking for answers to questions related to these revival concerns. If my list of problems that hinder revival is true others should arrive at the same list by asking God to show them what hinders revival. If the lists are somewhat different that could mean human error at any point in the process, but if we're sincerely asking God to give us His wisdom the lists should look very similar. God shows us such things sometimes directly to our minds, sometimes through other means. But I think those who aren't expecting God ever to answer in such a knowable way probably don't recognize the answers when they come. They might even think I'm a heretic for believing this. I believe pastors can be guided by God to sermon subjects, and have a strong conviction that God led them, and that all of us can be guided to spiritual issues in our own lives that we need to deal with, and so on and so forth.

I don't really want to get deeply into this subject, just want to encourage anybody who wants to pray for revival to expect that God will answer prayer for knowledge and wisdom, will show us where we need to focus our prayers and other things we may need to do. So much of the work of the Church is intellectual, and it's good work, good sermons are preached, good analysis of problems in the Church and the nation and the world are arrived at, things in accord with God's word. But that doesn't guarantee that the message of the moment is the one God would want given, and messages that God gives come with a power to affect others that messages we put together from our own knowledge usually don't have.

But if we pray for that kind of light, and especially if we add whatever degree of fasting we can manage to that prayer, and especially if we extend the prayer beyond our usual time limits, I think we can be sure we'll get the light we ask for and we'll know it when we get it. And maybe if enough of us are doing this to whatever little extent we can we could be the beginning of a revival.

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Afterthought: The two issues that are my own personal hobbyhorse at my blogs, the Bible Versions controversy and women's head covering, are usually decided intellectually, by argument alone. No doubt with brief prayer, but not the kind of prayer that seeks God's understanding of the matter. If those who have decided them that way would take the time to fast and pray and ask God about them my guess is that you'd have to come to the conclusions I've come to.

Of course the issues must be argued intellectually, but not ONLY intellectually. Perhaps if we all fasted and prayed over everything we think we'd get closer to agreement with each other on doctrinal questions.

And, perhaps more important than any of the rest, though it's all tied together in the end, is that if enough genuine Christians, those saved by faith alone in Christ alone, fasted and prayed for God's wisdom in general, I suspect that the Lord would finger Roman Catholicism as still the main enemy of all Christendom, and what a boon it would be if more people came to realize this. So many good preachers in all kinds of churches, so many good discernment ministries, apologetics ministries, and most of them are blind to the Biggest Baddest Wolf that looms behind so much of the apostasies and heresies and destruction of the Church and the nation.

Hey, guess what! George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were "Homophobes" and "Haters"

And they weren't even Christians! Today's Gay Rights bullies are as un-American as you can get!

I mentioned Chris Pinto's radio program on this subject in the previous post, but he got much of his information from a website called Apologetics Press on the attitude of the Founders to homosexuality.

A pernicious plague of sexual insanity is creeping insidiously through American civilization. Far more deadly than the external threat of terrorism, or even the inevitable dilution of traditional American values caused by the infiltration of illegal immigrants and the influx of those who do not share the Christian worldview, this domino effect will ultimately end in the moral implosion of America. Indeed, America is being held captive by moral terrorists. The social engineers of “political correctness” have been working overtime for decades to restructure public morality.

The Founding Fathers of these United States would be incredulous, incensed, and outraged. They understood that acceptance of homosexuality would undermine and erode the moral foundations of civilization. Sodomy, the longtime historical term for same-sex relations, was a capital crime under British common law...

...In the greater scheme of human history, as civilizations have proceeded down the usual pathway of moral deterioration and eventual demise, the acceptance of same-sex relations has typically triggered the final stages of impending social implosion. America is being brought to the very brink of moral destruction.

But none of those other civilizations had the Biblical basis we have, which makes us more morally culpable, but also gives us the possibility of rescuing the nation that no other ever had. Oh if only we could wake up and have a drastic housecleaning, a drastic selfdenying repentance of everything we KNOW is against God's word, and fast and pray in prodigious numbers for as long as it takes to persuade God to come down and turn us back from destruction.

How desperately we need revival

Jan Markell's ministry sends out lists of headlines every day now, and it's hard to choose among them what is the most dire situation we need to address.  They're all dire, that's the times we're living in.  Here for instance is today's list.  Religious liberty is threatened in Houston, the wellbeing of the entire nation is threatened from the seats of power in Washington, Kerry is blaming ISIS on Israel, ISIS is continuing its rise.  

So a bunch of pastors did send Houston's mayor some sermons, which is a good sign in that at least a bunch of pastors is alert to the situation, but clearly the Church is being targeted and clearly we aren't showing the ability to stand up against it in any way that would demonstrate that we have the power of the living God behind us. 

I'm driven back to my desperate wish for revival because revival would bring us that power, would bring God Himself down to us. 

Is the list of obstacles to revival I discussed a few posts back to be taken seriously?  Are these really the reason we haven't had a revival through all the growth of the power of our enemies and the enemies of America and of the west over the last decades?  Why did Leonard Ravenhill's impassioned calls to revival fail?  Why have we had only the morally and spiritually impotent "revivals" of the signs-and-wonders Charismatic churches in these decades?  Those are the questions I've wanted God to answer and I think the list I gave is unfortunately only too likely to be His answer, at least in the ballpark of the explanations we've been missing.  

Then, as the complaint about Replacement Theology has been capturing my attention lately I've wondered if the Dispensationalist errors should be identified as another hindrance to revival to add to the list.  More on Replacement Theology is what I intended to write about in this post that I'm now finding myself addressing to these more general problems.   I'll probably go on to that topic in the next post, but I feel so strongly that if we don't have revival all is lost that I wanted to add these thoughts about it.

If the problems I listed can really be taken as obstacles to God's willingness to give us revival, how much hope is there that we could overcome them?  Could those who are committed to ecumenism open themselves to the idea that they are wrong and repent of it for the sake of revival?  Could charismatics be persuaded that their own beliefs could be a hindrance?  What about all those in the churches who have been divorced and remarried, what on earth could anyone do about that?  Dying to self is our calling but these things are a call to more dying to self than we've ever even begun to ask of ourselves.  Then there's Bible Inerrancy:  the chances of the churches who deny it changing their minds seems awfully remote so should we not include them in prayer for revival or what?  (I think as we pray for revival we should clearly denounce these false elements in the Church.)  And so on.

I realize as I write this that nothing that I know of is happening toward revival anyway, this is all just my own ponderings, mostly an expression of despair.  All the best analyses of what's happening can't help us.  Nothing we can humanly do can help us. We need God's power SO desperately and everything we are doing is keeping us from having it.

My opinion on what hinders revival

No news yet about pastors preaching in solidarity with the Houston pastors whose sermons on gay rights issues have been subpoenaed, perhaps it didn't happen at all or only a few got involved.

I didn't want to get too deeply into the specifics of the Houston situation because for me it quickly became the source of an idea for getting the Church out of what seems to be paralysis in the face of every move made by the left, as if we just have to sit back and put up with it. I've been guilty myself of giving up and thinking Well, the Church was born in the Roman Empire which persecuted them, and it looks like we're just going to go back to being ruled by a pagan government that wants us gone, and persecution is good for the Church after all; the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church and all that. And besides this is the end times and prophetically we're right on schedule... Which is all true. But lately I think there may be ways to fight it after all and that's what's been preoccupying me.

THE HOUSTON CHALLENGE TO THE CHURCH

Just to say a few words about what's going on in Houston. First, the Mayor and City Attorney of Houston both denied knowing anything about the subpoena until the controversy was underway, and both affirmed that religious freedom is not to be infringed, and claim that wasn't their intention, it was just a matter of a badly chosen word, the word "sermons." What did they intend to say? Just "any and all communications," no emphasis on sermons. Supposedly this is for some kind of study, not an attack on pastors, just a necessary study connected with Houston's new equal rights ordinance that some pastors were strongly opposing. It is dubbed "the bathroom law" because it provides that public restrooms be available to either sex according to their preference, to allow access for transgendered individuals to the facility where they are most comfortable. No regard for how comfortable the majority may be with this arrangement, or the strong possibility that predators would take advantage of it.

About the denial, it isn't true that the mayor respects freedom of religion, which has been shown by the publication of a tweet of hers on the 14th that said "If the 5 pastors used pulpits for politics, their sermons are fair game." Clearly she is definitely targeting the Church for "hate speech" or violations of gay rights. I'm not sure what law makes political speech in the pulpit a crime, but if it is a crime we shouldn't tolerate this state of affairs any longer. I'm grateful for the recent discussions from many sources of the "Black-Robed Regiment" which proves that the early American clergy considered it a duty to preach on the politics of the day, which ought to be a model for the clergy in all times.

As for the "bathroom law" it's obnoxious and obscene and should be stopped in its tracks. This is a violation of public decency. When I was in rehab for my hip replacement summer before last I was shocked both by having a male nurse on some shifts, which made me decidedly uncomfortable, and by one incident where I was drying off after a shower and a nurse rushed into the bathroom saying she was going to bring a man in to use the toilet and needed to pull the shower curtain around me. I felt violated quite frankly. When he was behind his own curtain I rapidly dressed and left. The nurse commented that I "sure didn't like it" when she did that, did I, obviously implying I was the one out of order, not she. I'm a dinosaur and we're supposed to move with the times. Separate bathrooms is old fashioned, passé, a relic of an oppressive age. Do we protest or do we just let it all roll over us? Protesting takes work, it causes bad feelings, it's easier to just try to live with it, not make waves. So we back off. Wimp that I am, I said nothing more about it.

So on to today's news:

Newsmax today reports that Mike Huckabee wants all pastors in the nation to send their sermons to the mayor of Houston, any and all sermons, not specifically sermons on homosexuality or gay rights, and all those hearing him (see video) to send her a Bible. I've got to say this hits me as a useless gesture and a waste of Bibles. Huckabee says some good things about what the right to freedom of religion means and how this mayor is violating it, but in my opinion his solution is no solution. At best maybe it could show her that there are a lot of Christians in this country who disagree with her, and maybe that would have some effect.

THE CALL TO UNITE BEHIND THE HOUSTON PASTORS RAISES A TENUOUS BUT REAL HOPE FOR REVIVAL

But no, this just gets me back to Michael Brown's suggestion that pastors preach on homosexuality to support the Houston pastors, and I'd still like to see this sort of thing be considered as a way to deal with the problems we've been facing in America. I can see lots of plusses to such an action. It would aggressively defy the threatened repression of specific Christian teachings which is a violation of our First Amendment rights, it would give pastors strength in numbers who may be intimidated by such threats, and if the congregation supports the pastor and prays for the success of his preaching and prays against the repression of Christian teaching, we are also calling on God whose power we need to accomplish anything at all. Besides the goal of supporting the Houston pastors I allowed myself to expand on the suggestion to include all the problems America has been facing, dedicating a Sunday to each perhaps, although the specific method is something the pastors would have to determine, but some dedicated time when churches preach and pray in one voice across the nation against the evils we've all been only too aware of lately, especially perversions of American law that have been undermining the nation for decades now.

And just thinking along these lines reawakened my dormant hope for revival. It's dangerous to have this hope reawakened because of the disappointment that follows when we work for revival and it doesn't happen. I think I have a better grip on why it doesn't happen and that's good, but it doesn't mean the obstacles can be overcome. When I started my blogs I had the occasional rush of hope for revival that would deflate rapidly under a sense of the obstacles that would have to be overcome, back then mostly the specter of the "holy laughter" and other disruptive charismatic phenomena that were so prominent in recent "revivals;" along with the naysaying of a portion of the Church who believe God has given up on revival and now only seeks judgment on a sinful nation.

So my first thought was what a futility it is when I saw that David Ravenhill is continuing his father Leonard's preaching on the need for revival in America. A few decades ago Leonard Ravenhill preached many sermons and wrote many books trying to wake up the American Church to pray for revival, one titled America is Too Young to Die, all good and true preaching on a very important subject. You can find his preaching at You Tube. But what a disappointment when you know people were trying to follow his lead and nothing happened. No revival. Some bogus charismatic "revivals" but nothing like the Great Awakening that changed a nation, nothing like the revivals in Wales and the Hebrides that morally transformed those communities and left an indelible impression of the power of God on all who experienced them. Years later Martyn Lloyd-Jones still spoke of the impact of the revival he had experienced as a young man. It makes you yearn for the experience, but then you run up against all the reasons it probably can't happen.

Kay Arthur, who leads Precept Ministries Bible studies put out a call to pray for revival a few years ago to her Bible study members across the nation and the idea thrilled me. I did a couple of blog posts on it. That many people praying concertedly for revival surely ought to bring us revival. But it didn't.

So even thinking the thought of revival now comes with a cloud of gloom over it that I have to keep shaking off. If none of the pastors responded to Michael Brown isn't that already a sign we can't get a unified Church on any issue in America today? In earlier times you could get a revival if just one church was involved, or even just a few people started a prayer meeting focused on revival. I think it was the Hebrides where a powerful revival occurred when the elders of a church met to pray a few nights a week and were joined by a couple of elderly ladies praying in their home, a powerful revival that had people flocking to the church who hadn't even heard of its prayers, just drawn by the Holy Spirit. Then in New York City a man advertised for people to come pray for revival at a location he rented downtown and only a few showed up at first but then thousands and ultimately over a million.   I've kind of given up on that model of starting small, thinking the churches across the nation have to share in the desire and the work to bring it about. But maybe that's the Pollyanna element, maybe one just has to start where one can start.

I've been doing some minimal fasting and praying lately about the horrors of the daily headlines and I believe God has been rewarding my paltry and inconsistent efforts. I wake up early with my head full of thoughts along the lines of my latest blog posts. This morning I woke up with thoughts about what hinders a revival.

Leonard Ravenhill also wrote a book titled Why Revival Tarries. It's an indictment of a prayerless Church, prayerless pastors, prayerless Christians. Here's Page One of the book. And you can get a feeling for it by reading the Reviews of it at Amazon. It's a powerful book, it makes you very uncomfortable. One reviewer says it changed his life. Some of us just get overwhelmed by it, we can't do what he asks so we sink into deeper gloom. That includes me. He makes you feel terrible about it. I can't sustain the deep protracted prayer life he asks for though I admire it and wish I could. I've tried. I won't bore you with my futile efforts. They are something like closing my eyes, gritting my teeth and trying desperately to fend off alien thoughts with frantic flailings. I've come to think we may need revival to give us the ability to pray in depth. I occasionally succeed at the little my lazy American self feels up to and hope God will make more possible. Ravenhill's book may spur others on to the depths of prayer but I have to limp behind them, and I think there are many others like me. So I say let's just do what we can, even a little may be blessed by God and one thing we know: the more we have the more we will get, that's a principle Jesus taught that could keep us from giving up.

If we did pray as Ravenhill wants us to I'm sure God would finger all the problems in the Church that are hindering revival and move us to deal with them. But I'm sort of suspecting that the reason we can't pray in the depth we should is the same reason revival isn't happening:  We're under spiritual oppression because of the sins of the Church. My own answered prayers lately are giving me some idea of what we're up against.

The thought of them, as usual, takes the wind out of me. But here goes.

WHAT HINDERS REVIVAL

1) The main one, that I keep bringing up over and over, is ecumenism. I have the impression from somewhere that even Leonard Ravenhill didn't take a stand against the Roman Church. He may have tolerated it or been ambivalent about it, I'm not sure, but I don't recall his ever denouncing it. Billy Graham might have had an influence on him, he had a lot of people fooled, but we have to denounce Graham in no uncertain terms for his acceptance of Romanism, for sending Catholics from his Crusades back to the Roman wolf, and also for his horrifying admission to Robert Schuler that he thinks some people are saved who never heard of Christ. You can find this at You Tube. And we need to repent of all ecumenical prayer gatherings. I think this is absolutely crucial. Jonathan Cahn preaches a solid gospel sermon but doing it at an ecumenical gathering is as good as burying it six feet deep. God will not hear us if we hold hands with the followers of Baal, even if they are very nice conservative people we agree with on most other things. If they are Mormons or Catholics or whatever they are, they have to come out of their false Churches before we can fellowship with them on a spiritual level. If we want revival in this nation we HAVE to come together as a pure Christian body free of the influence of false doctrine. We can be nice about it, we just can't have it.

So I'm thinking it's possible that if Ravenhill was at all open to Roman Catholicism, even possibly for the sake of friendship with Billy Graham, he may have put the brakes on his own call to revival.

2) But I know for sure that he was open to the Charismatic Movement, like so many of us who believe God could still move in miraculous power and long to see it. But a lack of discernment in that area could also have stifled his call to revival, because the Charismatic Movement is based on false doctrine. They have a false idea of the Gifts of the Spirit and it is a big mistake to equate God's continuing will to bless us at times supernaturally with the particular beliefs of Charismatica. I do think most Charismatics are saved people and doctrinally orthodox on the most important points, but they are also particularly accepting of Roman Catholicism, and I also have to take the position that because they promote the false teachings about the gifts of the Spirit that they shouldn't be part of preaching and prayer for revival. I think of Michael Brown who called for the pastors to unite with Houston pastors and I feel bad about it but I couldn't include him in this effort toward revival. He says he regularly prays in tongues, it's part of his private devotions. He's deceived, he's not talking to God. I don't doubt his salvation, I don't doubt his orthodoxy on foundational doctrine, but any effort toward revival needs to be free of doctrinal problems wherever we can identify them.

I know this is going to offend a lot of people, which is one big reason why I have so little hope of success in seeking revival. We can't have revival if we don't do our utmost to purify the Church.

But wait, it gets worse.

3) The other thought that keeps coming to mind, apparently in answer to prayer, that is guaranteed to offend a great number of people, is that one hindrance to revival is the presence of sin in the churches, and the one sin that is in all the churches these days is divorce, and especially remarriage after divorce. I know that this is justified on the basis of scripture in many churches, for instance that sexual betrayal is preached as justification for divorce and remarriage. I'm not sure even that interpretation holds up (isn't dying to self the most central of all the commands to us?), but could it possibly be the reason for all the many divorces we see in the churches? Battering and abuse seems like a justifiable cause, although scripture doesn't mention it and as far as I know it's not a very common reason anyway. I can't determine the best interpretation of the scriptures on this subject, I haven't studied them closely enough but even if I had it wouldn't be my place. Different churches have different levels of strictness about it. I've strongly felt that some justifications are so lenient they amount to permitting sin in the congregation, but it's a feeling or impression and I don't want to try to defend it. All I want to say is I think the Lord has an objection to some of it, maybe all of it, and that if He does it could definitely interfere with efforts toward revival. How would we find out? By fasting and praying. This is what every church should do with any policy that could be controversial. God will reveal the truth about the controversy if the prayer is sincere. You have to be willing to accept the answer He gives. It could be very disruptive of the church, but each church would have to deal with it according to the Lord's leading.

If we want revival it's going to cost.

I had to get all that said, I feel strongly that the Lord has pointed to these three areas in particular as needing Reformation before we can begin to expect Him to send us Revival. Others need to fast and pray to come to their own conclusions about it.

Later I have to add 4) Denial of Biblical Inerrancy has to be identified and shunned. Sad to say this is one of the things that was on my mind when I woke up early this morning, one of the things I believe comes from God in answer to my prayers to understand what hinders the revival we need to answer the deteriorating culture. And I forgot to write it here. Absolutely crucial. It's really all of a piece with "Liberal Christianity" too. Those individuals and churches who hold these views, who deny that God's word is inerrant and therefore affirm all kinds of worldly and ungodly positions, cannot participate in this revival effort. It's one of the things we need to preach down, denounce in preaching and prayer, like the rest on the list I've been putting together here.

Revival has a purifying effect in itself, it stirs up everybody's conscience and leads to personal reforms of all kinds, but in our current situation it seems we need to do some reforming on our own before we can think of being blessed with revival. But I feel optimistic that it's possible, if we were to do these things God could very well respond with revival.

5) and 6) I also have two other issues that are the subject of separate blogs that I believe could make a big difference too, the Bible Versions issue and the woman's head covering. There's unfortunately not much likelihood of convincing many of my views on these, but I'll just put it out there that if everything else is done and revival is still not happening it might be worth the experiment of women wearing scarves in church and the church using only the King James Bihle. Just a thought.

There could of course be other problems that need reform before we can have revival. I'll probably be thinking about it.

KNOWING WHAT HINDERS COULD HELP, OR OVERWHELM US 

It has to help to have some idea what may be hindering revival, when before we've had no way of explaining our continual defeats. There is always hope in having a direction that could conceivably be followed even if a difficult one. The particular issues I've identified are of course not likely to persuade many so in the end revival could well be prevented anyway as it has been for so long already. But if even a few churches agreed to these things we could possibly have a local revival at least.

Maybe not many Christians even want revival. But what if it's the only way we could possibly push back the pagan influences that have been overwhelming us lately? That's the context in which I think God brought these things to my mind.

I'll close this by saying we should be a David Church and I have some hope that we could be:

1 Samuel 17:26 And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?

But at the moment instead of being a David Church that stands up to Goliath, we're the ones who bring reproach on Israel by fleeing from him.

Rivers of Living Water

John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.  

John 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

I could spend a lot of time on these verses, but there's really only one simple message I want to convey: I think we ignore these promises of Jesus in a way that is depriving the Church of power these days. They have no doubt been misused, such as by the Charismatics, Pentecostals and others, but we don't have to fall into their theological systems to take them seriously. We don't need to know, for instance, whether they have anything to do with a separate "Baptism of the Holy Spirit" or not, all we really need to know is that Jesus promised this kind of power to His followers, to those who "believe on Him," and we don't have it.

"Rivers of living water" certainly implies the power to impart spiritual life to others. that is, salvation.   Don't you long for that power? We have the Holy Spirit if we believe, but we don't seem to have the Holy Spirit in this degree of power. Why not?

One thing that is often ignored by the Charismatics and others who claim to have such power is that "The Holy Spirit is given to them who obey." Yet they expect to have the power without bothering to obey, which is no doubt a big reason why all they are getting with their zealous exertions to possess it is counterfeits.

So maybe the reason NOBODY has this power these days is about lack of obedience. Something to think about.

Nevertheless I think we should be praying for this power, using Jesus' own words: Teach us what it means to have the river of living water from our bellies, so we may possess it;  teach us what it means to have the power to do those greater works so that we may do them, and above all teach us what it means to "believe on You" because obviously we aren't getting it or we'd have these powers.

Yearning for a True Holy Spirit Revival

Here's the link to the talks at the STRANGE FIRE CONFERENCE

When Jonathan Edwards preached his famous sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" on July 8, 1741 to a congregation in Enfield, Connecticut, many were powerfully affected even to having visions of Hell over which they were being dangled, and this is said to have been the beginning of the Great Awakening that profoundly changed American life just before the Revolution.

Lately I've been thinking some of us could do with the experience of being dangled over the pit of Hell, and I'm including myself, most particularly myself. Speaking of "awakening," most of the Church needs to be awakened these days to a reality of our faith that few of us appreciate. This is apparent just in the condition of the world around us, the nations around us and the Church itself with its growing apostasies in all directions, plus our worldliness that can be seen in divorce statistics and such woeful things as addictions to pornography, about which I just heard an interview on Christian radio.

  I hope those who do have a powerful faith are exercising it in prayer on behalf of the rest of us. Or maybe I should say I hope there is such a thing as some who have such a powerful faith.

Well, I can report that I've been praying more myself, and I'm thankful that I'm able to do it. I've also been reading a lot of Andrew Murray (Absolute Surrender, The Spirit of Christ, Experiencing the Holy Spirit), hoping his exhortations and guidance to living in the power of the Holy Spirit might bring about the awakening I know I need personally if I'm going to be of use to anybody else.

Most genuine revivals begin with a powerful sense of personal sinfulness, which is what Edwards' famous sermon brought about in that Connecticut congregation, and that's what I'm hoping my own reading and prayer will do for me too. I pray for revival for the entire Church but I'd be very happy if God would revive me personally for starters.

 One thing I can report is that I'm heartily sick of myself, my so easily falling into sin, the flesh, self, worldliness, and the more I read and pray the more I feel that, which is painful of course, but has to be a good thing. There was a time when I couldn't read much of Murray, I'd just end up feeling "I can't possibly do that," (such as "absolute surrender" to God) even that I couldn't have the faith that what's impossible for me is possible with God, which he avidly preaches. But this time I'm believing it and hoping it will bear fruit.

Yes I know there is good reason not to pray or hope for revival in our time just because the Church IS in such bad shape. A W Tozer many years ago said revival could be a disaster with the Church in such a worldly condition. Leonard Ravenhill focused more on how the condition of the Church prevented us from having revival. If you go all the way back to Spurgeon you can find him preaching on how much the Church needs revival but that he'd rather have no revival at all than have a revival trumped up in the flesh or a revival aflame with "wildfire."  

Wildfire, or Strange Fire, is unfortunately what we've been getting through the Charismatics for some time now.   I've often avoided praying for revival because of all the counterfeit "revivals" we've seen over the last few decades, from the "Toronto Blessing" to "Brownsville" to the Todd Bentley demonic horror in Lakeland. So I hope instead for a new Protestant Reformation, and we certainly do need that, but at the same time I yearn for the TRUE power of God to come down and transform us as a doctrinal reformation may not do. Or would do much too slowly in our desperate times.

So now I'm again praying and hoping for a real revival, but it MUST start with me, I must personally be revived as we all must who hope for revival. The Strange Fire Conference got me moving in this direction, maybe by a circuitous route. I was convinced by it that the gifts of the Spirit that inaugurated the Church at Pentecost had ceased, and the best evidence of this to my mind is that the phenomena that are being called "the gifts" are nothing like the gifts in the New Testament Church, and most of them are outright counterfeits.  But at the same time the position of Cessationism can go too far in the direction of denying the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit among His people in all times. Those who join the Charismatic movement often do so because of the yearning for the felt presence of God to power our lives and power His work through the Church. It's a legitimate desire when too much of the Church depends only on correct doctrine and DOES feel "dead" as the Charismatics always complain about it.

HOWEVER, the Charismatic movement has NOT succeeded in bringing the true power of God into the Church, but sure has brought a lot of counterfeits of Holy Spirit power instead. The true power of God would dangle us over the pit of Hell until we realize our desperate need of Christ and then come to cling to Him with a new recognition of what this Christian life is really all about. Instead, the counterfeits bring us bogus "prophecies" and bogus "tongues" and bogus "healings" and bogus "apostles" and bogus "revivals."   AND along with all the bad doctrine and the counterfeit supernatural phenomena interestingly often comes a great tendency for Church leaders and members to fall into some of the grossest kinds of sin. Such as Todd Bentley did, such as others that could be named in relation to the Prophecy movement have done. Such as I myself have done too. It's scary and depressing how sin is always right there breathing down my neck. I'm plagued by it unless I pray constantly against it. 

Go hear African pastor Conrad Mbewe who preached at the Strange Fire Conference about the condition of Africa if you want to get an appreciation for the connection of false doctrine with sin. There the biggest churches preach what he says is really a version of African witchcraft mingled with Christian terminology, thanks to the preaching of the false Word-Faith gospel, and where sexual sin has become common among the PASTORS of such churches, who even take advantage of women in their congregations. Take notice: SIN is the fruit of these counterfeit "miracles" they all seek. We all too easily fall into THE FLESH, even if we are true Christians but maybe some of us should ask if we are truly Christians and I'm including myself.

But some of us ARE walking in the flesh even if we are true Christians, when we don't live in the TRUE power of God.

So this is why I'm seeking personal revival, and it's why I'm still hoping for revival for the Church at large too. We need the Holy Spirit of God to come down and dangle us all over the pit of Hell as TRUE doctrine is preached to us and the counterfeits are exposed.

Musings off the London Olympics: is there any hope God would yet turn us back to Him?

I didn't get to see the opening ceremony for the London Olympics, but saw a few pictures, read a few descriptions, and if there's a video out there of the whole thing I suppose I might eventually see more. I watched the wedding of William and Kate. I'm an Anglophile, partly no doubt because my paternal great grandfather was a lithographer in London, and my mother's family were mostly English as well, but maybe more because I know a little about England's history.

The wedding of over a year ago now was full of Christian references because of England's Christian history, although it's sadly clear they've lost their Christian worldview and the Christian rituals have become for the most part empty forms. The Archbishop of Canterbury is either a liberal or a Romanist or both.

I wouldn't expect their Christian past to show up in the Olympics ceremony and I'm sure it didn't, and besides, the whole Olympics thing has a pagan origin.

I know I'm a "fanatic" to many, even to some other Christians. I think it's the only thing to be if you're truly a Christian. To be honest, I don't think I'm enough of a fanatic really, I have all the symptoms of the worldliness of most Christians these days. At least I regret them.

So I see the Queen of England at the Olympics opening, not looking very happy in her photos for some reason, don't know why, usually she's smiling in her pictures. She's supposedly the "head of the Church" of England. I wonder what that means in reality, what she really believes, what with all the liberal influences in the Church of England over the last century or so.

Mitt Romney attracted some negative attention by the British press while he was there, and a snarky put-down by the Mayor of London, for some remarks Romney made about what he saw as an apparent ("disconcerting") lack of preparedness for the Olympics. I'm no particular fan of Romney, but as the frontrunning Republican candidate for President against Obama he represents America and I found myself resenting the London mayor's nastiness. Romney did run the Olympics in Utah after all, and if the task was in any way less demanding because of its location than running them in a busy city like London, one ought to expect that those who are used to running things in that city should be able to demonstrate their ability to do as well there as Romney did in Utah. In any case he should be treated with some respect for that experience. But I was also disappointed in the mayor because such snarkiness against a foreign leader is just not in the spirit I associate with England. Grace and charity are what I expect in such a situation, humility, grace and charity, not rudeness. Sure, perhaps Romney should have said nothing, but it wasn't anywhere near the rudeness of the mayor. And I'm also disappointed in Romney for changing course in response to the rudeness and saying only nice things about the London preparedness after that.

So goodbye to England's illustrious past in more ways than one. Not that its degeneration is new, it's been on its way down for decades. Too bad. England was once great. BECAUSE IT WAS CHRISTIAN. Because of its great Christian preachers, leaders, and general culture. That's the ONLY reason it was great. When it began to lose its Christian foundations it started to fall from grace. Now it's undergoing God's judgment just as America is, just as Europe is. Being overrun with Muslims is certainly God's judgment. Being attacked by terrorists is certainly God's judgment.

I don't know if The Harbinger will have much of an impact on America or not in the end but I have to believe God has sent it to us as an unavoidable proof of His displeasure with us, and a warning that if we don't turn back His judgments against us are only going to escalate. He brought down ancient Israel and they never recovered, and Isaiah 9:10 was certainly a marker or harbinger of their doom. He can do that to us as well. The harbingers the book reports on spell out our doom in an unusually literal way, as clear signs of God's speaking to America through the appearance in America of some Old Testament signs and principles, starting with Isaiah 9:10 (or Isaiah 9:8-14 to get the whole context). If we don't heed them and turn back, they will stand as testimony against the nation until it is destroyed.

Maybe God has given similar signs to England or Europe but nobody noticed them. It's possible, I suppose, though perhaps not very likely. He'd also have to give someone to notice them and bring them to the attention of the public, as He did with Jonathan Cahn.

America was once great because of our adherence to the God of the Bible and the predominantly Christian mindset of Americans. The same was once true of England, and particularly after the Reformation much of Europe. I've been for some time in a state of mourning over the great loss in both cases. America was once GOOD. Is there any of that goodness left in us after our murder of millions of our unborn, our "sexual revolution" that has violated everything related to sex that God spells out in His Word as the Law that brings blessing if obeyed, cursing if disobeyed; the great apostasy of the churches, the liberalism that gobbled up so many of them, the cults that sprang up in the 19th century (Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, Christian Science), the increase in militant atheism and ridicule of God and religion?

There are those who are sure God won't send us a revival at this late stage in the history of the world. There are certainly reasons to think this could be the case, especially the apostasy itself which a revival would have to correct to be a true revival, but which could just swallow it up instead. Perhaps it's a new Reformation we really need. Mormonism is not Christianity but they want a revival. Catholicism is not Christianity but they'd certainly like to see a revival of Catholicism. Muslims want to see Islam spread. The New Agers even have their own notions that some kind of "revival" is coming, some kind of great evolutionary leap from what they see as the retrograde influence of Christianity into some wonderful new world of peace and light. Kind of what the UN envisions as well.

Christians know all this could only be the ascendancy of the spirit of Antichrist, ultimately over the whole world, and not true revival, and this is certainly what COULD happen instead of true revival at this stage in history. It would fit prophecy of course. Well, God knows, God is in charge. I still hope true revival might come and wake up what's left of the true Church and turn the hearts of the apostates to the true God. In America, in England, in Europe, where God first laid down the principles of His word through the New Testament and brought civilization where there had been nothing but the darkness of paganism and witchcraft. To which we're all now reverting if He doesn't intervene.

God's Warning Harbingers to America Are Getting Recognition and Packing Salvation Power

I'm so happy! So why am I sobbing? Tears of joy. SO good to hear Jan Markell's interview of Jonathan Cahn that aired yesterday that I just got around to listening to this afternoon. This was one of her programs she felt needed to be extended so there is also a Web Bonus to listen to.

I'm so glad that she gets it. She marinated in it for days, she says, in order to fully grasp the message. She understands it, she appreciates it, she knows it's from God and very far from an invention of Jonathan Cahn's, so she was able to conduct the interview with insight and clarity.

But also I was SO glad to hear about how the information is being received. Not only did the book Harbinger get onto the New York Times best seller list but reports have been coming back of people being saved through it.

That's how it first hit me, as a tool to bring people to the Lord. I sent it to friends and family for that reason. I found, however, that I had to be a bit of a bully to get them to think it through so its message could be appreciated, although even after they saw how uncanny and God-wrought it had to be they still balked at stepping past that recognition into belief. Nevertheless, the hope I felt when I first heard about it is now rekindled.

This IS God's work. Everything about it is God's work and that above all has me crying tears of joy. God is doing all of this.

Jonathan Cahn is simply God's chosen vessel for this work. The story itself is about physical omens and signs in the real world that uncannily reflect a Bible verse that relates on many levels to the attack on 9/11. These omens or harbingers point to God's will for America, the judgment He's going to bring if we don't heed His warning, but also the hope He must have for us that He would give us such a direct intervention as this one.

These are signs, omens or harbingers that only God could have brought about, but God also saw to it that the book got published, Jonathan Cahn doing nothing at all to promote it. I'd heard the story before about how God sent a man for that purpose, but this implication of it came through more clearly in this interview than before. This is the story of Cahn's being in an airport and praying to God that since this is His work He must make it known to people, and immediately after praying a man sitting near him strikes up a conversation and tells him that he's going to publish this important book and points him to a publisher. This got described in the Web Bonus part of the interview.

THAT IS HOW PROPHECY DOES HAPPEN THESE DAYS. This is a TRUE prophecy. God DOES still talk to us through prophecy. Those who dismiss out of hand the possibility of such communications from God have closed themselves off from one way God relates to His people even today. Yes, there are all kinds of abuse of claims of prophecy. If an "angel" appears onstage with the "prophet" or is invoked by the "prophet" y0u can be sure he's not hearing from God but from an evil spirit. And people who have experienced true prophetic words may have an unfortunate tendency to fall into the flesh and try to MAKE it happen and mistake their own daydreams for God's speakings.

Yes, that happens, but the TRUE direct communications from God ALSO happen. We just have to stay alert and true to God's word and pray for more discernment.

It was also good to understand how Cahn came to write the book as a novel. He understood from scripture that it is wise to present knowledge in an attractive form and that changed him from his first writing of it as a straight description to creating a fictional structure as its vehicle, and he said that from that point the writing flowed easily.

This too had to have come from God, and this choice is no doubt why it made the best seller lists and why UNbelievers as well as believers are reading and appreciating it. I'm SO happy.

THIS IS ALL GOD'S WORK. God Himself wrought the signs of America's judgment that Jonathan Cahn is telling about, God directed Cahn to the best method of presenting it, God sent a prophet to direct him to a publisher, and God got it onto the best seller list and into mainstream stores rather than just Christian stores.

THANK YOU, LORD. May this revelation you have so mercifully sent to us through Jonathan Cahn save many people. (Even America too, for a while yet, please?).

The resistance to the 9/11 harbingers is a good sign but the church has to overcome it

The message from God through Jonathan Cahn just keeps growing on me.

This is really His direct call to His American church, what else can it be? This kind of direct irrefutable evidence of His existence and His heart for this miserable backslidden American church and sin-glutted nation as a whole just is not something He gives often in this world and it would be a tragedy if we lose the opportunity.

As someone reminded me tonight we're in the eleventh year since 9/11 and the warning to Israel of Isaiah 9:10 was followed by ten years of time to repent until God sent Assyria back to finish them off. We're already past that point, in a dangerous time as Cahn keeps saying. The southern kingdom of Judah had twenty years, perhaps that's the timing that applies to us. In any case we'll be one sorry lazy irresponsible Church if we don't spend whatever time is left to us fasting and repenting and praying our hearts out for God to show mercy. And believe me I'm talking to ME first. My bad habit of waiting for others to go first and inspire me has got to go. I know what's happening so I have the responsibility to do what I say we need to do, now. Oy.

This message has LOTS of resistance against it, some of it in the form of odd "little" things that interfere with it getting out to people. Any resistance is a sign of a call from God though. I got just about no response from those I emailed about all this a while back, either silence or excuses from Christians and unbelievers alike. To be fair, a few did respond the way I responded, and the way the audience of Jim Bakker's show responded, which is great, and they are sending it on to others, but there's still a lot of apathy which is discouraging. This message OUGHT to get us all fired up. What an opportunity! God just doesn't normally give us such opportunities as this one, such a direct irrefutable message straight from Him.

But there IS resistance and the challenge is not to give in to it, because it IS discouraging. But again, it does have to be a good sign, that this is something God really does want us to pursue because the devil does NOT like it.

The fact that it's promoted by some televangelists is going to be a barrier to some so they wouldn't even give it a chance. Even the fact that it's got all this off-putting hype attached to it, or that the book was written as a novel which can seem to undermine its authenticity, these things can prevent people from wanting to learn about it. In fact even that violin that kept playing over the message at the Messianic conference in 2005 can be a problem for some. All these things make it difficult to recommend them to people. But God likes to work through small weak imperfect things (like all of us) and such things just happen to require us to be humble if we want to hear from Him, which is exactly what He wants of us. It may be the devil adding the touches of interference, but ALL things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. He uses those who will listen and we have to humble ourselves and accept whatever packaging the message comes in. The Athenians looked down their noses at Paul "the ragpicker" and we're all ragpickers. If we're Athenians God usually can't use us.

So we're in the eleventh year since the warnings came, and the economy has already been hit hard and more is to come.

Oh Lord, wake up Your church that we may finally be the conduit of Your power and mercy to this world You made us to be. Amen.


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Just heard that Cahn had been on Pat Robertson so I'm putting up that video:

How do you tell a true revival from a counterfeit?

Reading in Leonard Ravenhill this evening, a book he wrote in 1979, America Is Too Young To Die, his usual powerful exhortations to a failing church, exhortations to repentance, to holiness, to prayer, to revival. It's rich with quotations I'd like to copy out and hope I will soon. It's so sad that it's been over thirty years and America still hasn't seen revival considering that Leonard Ravenhill prayed for years for revival and preached and wrote exhortations that moved many.

But some would disagree that we've had no revivals since then. In the back of the book there are ads for other books put out by the same publishing company, all revival-oriented, some of them about genuine revivals I'm aware of that go back a hundred years or more, but some on highly questionable revivals. There is a series of books, for instance, about the "Azusa Street Revival" of 1904 which I came to believe years ago was a false revival, but now I'm going to have to repeat my research on it to convince myself again, because I find it so hard to reconcile an ad for that event with the solid Biblical position of Ravenhill -- can't the publishers tell the difference?

There's also an ad for a book on the supposed "Brownsville Revival" of the 90s in Pensacola, Florida, which I've also been convinced was counterfeit. Again I'm going to have to do more research, but I did start by finding some video of that "revival" on You Tube and it's really quite fascinating. It's the first time I've actually seen some of the phenomena I'd only read and heard about otherwise, people falling down, jumping up and down "in the spirit" and having the "jerks" and generally acting "drunk in the spirit."

Well, to be accurate, I'd seen something like it in charismatic contexts, people falling down when the leader -- usually a visiting "evangelist" -- touched them and prayed over them, but I was never convinced that was for real. None of it appeared to be involuntary -- though some of it may have been, I don't know, there was no way to tell.

I also saw some people fall down under helpless laughter at a charismatic retreat, but not the whole group, just a few. The "Laughing Revival" in Toronto was going strong during that period and it was clear the people in the group where I was were really having some kind of laughing fit they couldn't stop. I've experienced out-of-control laughter that takes your breath away and makes your sides hurt and that's what this looked like, but it went on an entire night in one case at least and maybe more and it was all attributed to the Holy Spirit.

Brownsville wasn't into laughter, but it certainly was into passing out, jerking and flailing and the like. And now I know it is very very real, whatever it is. You can see it particularly in a four-part You Tube video, the first part of which I've embedded below -- you click on a message at the end of each which will take you to the next part -- where one of the leaders/pastors is interviewing various people about their experiences in the "revival." Most of them experienced these phenomena even in the process of being interviewed -- watch the young black man as he is waiting for his turn in the second part -- and the interviewer himself almost succumbed a few times later on, his head jerking uncontrollably at times, almost completely falling down at least once. The phenomenon seems to start with small jerks of the upper body and may or may not progress to full body flailing movements and/or falling down, though some just seem to get weak in the knees and fall down without any of the other manifestations.

It appeared some were making a mighty effort to control the effects. Whatever these things are they are clearly real in the sense that the people are not intentionally doing them but it's all just happening to them. I think this is completely obvious on the film.

They call it "the power of the Spirit" and refer it all to God and Jesus. But is that what it really is?

It seems that all they talk about is the physical manifestations themselves. This is what interests them, what they come for, what suffices for "revival." They "give the glory to God" but IS God the author of all this? They seem drunk, and they love being drunk, it's obviously a lot of fun. The crowd applauds when someone falls down or shows other evidence of being "under the power" and they laugh and jump up and down in the normal voluntary emotional way to see that clearly INvoluntary stuff going on. It all reminds me of the giggles people get on various illegal drugs recognizing that everybody else is also high. Very much like that. Drunk. Stoned.

What IS this phenomenon?

The interviewees say God "really did a work" in them or something along those lines, when they were out cold on the floor, or God "healed me" and so on. But the actual content of the experience is oddly vague and scrambled or not voiced at all while the jerking and falling and whatever the feeling is that goes along with those manifestations are celebrated as what it is really about. "Give me more," more more more, says the first woman. More WHAT? Apparently just whatever the feeling is that makes her stagger and eventually fall down and not wake up until 3:30 in the morning.

Is God REALLY the author of these things? Is God glorified in such phenomena?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogSrTm598XE&feature=related

Since the people in the Brownsville "revival" clearly believe it is the work of the Holy Spirit and give thanks to God, talk about cleaning up their lives and plead the blood of Christ and the like, I don't want to come to any premature conclusions on the basis of some negative impressions but want to study it more. The test is always the fruit, as the Lord says, so what has been the fruit of Brownsville? True revivals change the surrounding community in some way and the participants in the revival go on to do meaningful Christian work. Has that been happening?

There have been many credible witnesses of former revivals that were undoubtedly true revivals who reported that such phenomena also occurred to some participants --sometimes understood in earlier times to evidence a bad conscience under conviction of sin, or a weak constitution -- but in those cases the manifestations were not made the center of the revival as they obviously were in Brownsville. So there is room, it seems, to recognize that such things may happen to some people in a true revival, but when they dominate and become the focus as if they are the whole point of the revival itself they've got to be considered at least a distraction from God's true work. I'm not completely happy with this way of sorting it out but it would be risky to assume more than this.

At the very least I have to say that this is not the revival I'm praying for, and I specifically pray that such phenomena not be welcomed and applauded if God sends us revival, though I'm not going to say it shouldn't be expected or tolerated. If the focus isn't clearly on conviction and repentance from sin and changed lives it's just too vague WHAT it's about.

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Later, I'm convinced this all does come from God now, my impression after watching the video a number of times, but I'm also puzzled at the different kinds of revivals that apparently all come from God. [June 13 2012: I don't remember what made me think this was of God back then, probably nothing more than believing one or two of the participants. But as I review it now I have to go with all the misgivings I had at the time as well. This can't be from God.] Just what's on these videos makes it appear that repentance from sin was NOT part of this revival. There's more of a spirit of accusation from the pastor's wife, for instance, a complaint she had against the church, a statement about being "hurt," no sense of her own being at fault, so rather than being forgiven by God she thinks in terms of being "healed" by God, or released from a "curse" she's been under, or from a kind of imprisonment. The young black man said something about having done some bad things but he also denied that he was a bad guy and there was no spirit of repentance in him either.

This kind of thing is what I've witnessed in charismatic contexts myself -- much emphasis on healing and release, no sense of repentance. (I do have to note that the Wikipedia article on the Brownsville revival says that preaching on sin and experiences of conviction and repentance definitely WERE part of this revival, though that wasn't evident on the video above.)

But it's the great revivals in which God breaks people under conviction of sin and self-accusation that I've only read about that seem to carry God's power out to the community and affect the participants for the rest of their lives. This is the sort of revival I hope would come to America. The revival in Saskatchewan in the 70s started with repentance among the church members and I think their pastor Bill McLeod ought to be a model for all pastors today because he spent hours praying for his church every day until the revival came. This charismatic kind of thing in Florida just seems weak by comparison. The TONE of it bothers me, the giddiness or giggliness. What WAS the fruit of Brownsville?

At Ground Zero God SAID He is judging America. Oh Church, wake up! Listen to Cahn's message and act accordingly. We're America's only hope.

I can only hope that there are many people out there who have heard Jonathan Cahn's message, Harbinger, and seen the importance of making it known to God's people as I also have. I have been discovering that there is a stiff spiritual battle going on over this message, just getting anyone to listen to it at all for starters and then even when they admit that it is as uncanny as I've said it is, getting them to grasp the implications of it. And I won't even mention what's going on with me personally to interfere with me. It's like there is a veil over it despite its being truly this amazingly uncanny just-about-flatly-undeniable in-your-face Message From God Himself.

I keep listening back to Cahn's message and it never fails to make me cry over what God has done and will do if we don't repent and seek His face. It makes me yearn fervently that God would use this prophecy to save the nation and I hope it would have that effect on many others as well.

There is no other hope at this point. This is SUCH a powerful uncanny direct speaking of God at Ground Zero you'd think all the patriots at least would rally to the message. Not yet anyway, this is truly a spiritual battle.

It may be there are objections people have to this, it's possible to find fault with anything if you have a mind to. Cahn is a Messianic Jew and there are reasons to object to that movement although I don't think Cahn represents any of the extreme versions of it, he sounds to me like a solid Bible-believing Jewish believer in Christ, but I know some can get all caught up in suspiciousness instead of simply listening for God's voice, Who speaks through all kinds of imperfect Christians, even through unbelievers at times, even through Balaam's ass (ok, donkey; no, leave it "ass"). Not that those examples apply here of course, Cahn is CLEARLY a true believer and deserves to be heard.

I know some object to the very idea that anyone would claim to receive a prophetic message for today, isn't the canon closed and all that and so on and so forth. Well, first of all LISTEN to this message because it's BASED on the Bible. God DOES speak to us through His word, He speaks to ALL of us through His word, the prophecy is ancient, it is merely being applied to today, it is not a new revelation, it's an old revelation applied to today, which is the way God has ALWAYS worked among Christians! And yes, we may have objections to dance as a part of worship for instance, which the Messianic churches get into quite a bit just as the charismatic movement does, and which Cahn mentions in his talk was a prophetic part of a Messianic conference, which he apparently accepts. There is also a "prophetic" or "anointed" violin playing in the background of this talk -- which can get a tad annoying at times but I've listened to it many times by now and it doesn't really interfere.

My answer to all of this is if God isn't objecting to it, if God is giving this man this amazing prophecy, humble yourself and listen to him! God is speaking through him! EVERY DENOMINATION HAS SOMETHING WRONG WITH IT BUT GOD PUTS UP WITH ALL WHO TRULY AND SINCERELY LOVE HIM AND SEEK HIM IRRESPECTIVE OF DENOMINATIONAL DIFFERENCES, AND HE IS WILLING TO SPEAK THROUGH ANYONE WHO MAKES HIMSELF AVAILABLE FOR THAT PURPOSE!

And oh it makes me weary but I suppose there will be those who will object that George Washington was really a Deist and a Mason so his prayer for the nation is meaningless or worse. What can I say. God clearly heard his prayer and the prayer of that first governing body who prayed with him.

We all should ask God to show us what we need to repent of and obey Him.

Please, whoever is reading this, hear Cahn and pray that his message would go out to all God's people, and please pray for me too. I've been praying but I'm spiritually flabby too, I need prayer that God would strengthen me to fast and pray, that would help a lot. That's what we need, all of us, all the churches in America. Oh Lord, make it happen. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, seeing Your hand in this prophecy and begging You with deep humbling -- starting with personal repentance and confession of the nation's sins -- to save our land.

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Maybe the biggest resistance to this message comes from those who are thinking of the individual victims of 9/11. All I can do is say again this is not about the victims, this is about the nation. The memorial to the victims that has been constructed at Ground Zero isn't a problem, but rebuilding a skyscraper on the site to replace the World Trade Center is, because that directly expresses the nation's defiance of God along the very lines of Isaiah 9:10. Oh please America, oh please churches, please please wake up. God is the same yesterday and today and forever, He does not change. He judged His people Israel, and He will judge America.

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Later: I looked at some of the sites that report on what has been going on at Ground Zero recently. Besides the memorial and the tower that's going up, I found that they've also planted a few hundred oaks. Funny thing, soon after seeing that I was reading Isaiah -- really feel I need to get a much better grasp of God's dealings with ancient Israel than I've had -- and my eye fell on this:

Isa 1:29-30 For they shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for the gardens that ye have chosen. For ye shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water.

Of course there may be no connection, but the oak was one of the idols of the heathen that Israel adopted, therefore one of the reasons for God's judgment against them, so I had to wonder if our planting oaks has some significance in this whole scenario of judgment. I've assumed that having a memorial to the victims isn't the same thing as rebuilding the site according to the Isaiah 9:10 message, but perhaps building anything at all there without consulting God is an offense, and oaks MAY have some significance, at least as another reminder of America's falling away: our "leaning to our own understanding" rather than putting everything we do before God to discover His will.