How do we respond to a world coming apart at the seams? I don't know but ...

 Heard a threat that if Trump wins there will then be round-the-clock rioting.  People willing to force their views on other people.  This is no longer America   And nobody is fighting back.  But how should anyone fight back?  I remember the story of the town, forget where, small town somewhere in the Midwest I think, where men of the town lined the streets when they were expecting a protest march to come through.  they were wearing guns where they could be seen.  They stood along the street.  No rioting occurred.   I picture that.  

And I picture something like Armies of the Lamb, where Christians come out to line the streets wearing T shirts saying "I kneel only for God" and doing just that, lining the streets on their knees and genuinely praying for hours on end for peace and justice, real peace, real justice according to God's will, which isn't going to be much like that of BLM and Antifa.  

We should already be praying for hours on end anyway.   

Then I found a worship song going through my head that I hadn't heard in a long time and couldn't remember some of the words so I looked it up.  Of course it's got the usual pop treatment I really don't like in hymns and worship songs, with hoked up human emotion instead of letting the music itself create the feeling in the listener but oh well it's a nice song and I like the fireworks in the video that accompany it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiYejm_O6JUI 

[LATER EDIT:  Woopsie, got to add a caveat here.   Just because it was going through my head and it's pleasant is probably not a good enough excuse to post it.  Listened to it again and it's one of those songs that doesn't name the Savior or the One it;s about which leave it open to all kinds of distorted interpretations.  Better to find a hymn that clearly addresses God the Father and Jesus Christ,  but I'm not going to take it down yet, just add this caution.  

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Oh and I figure those who go out to line the streets in either scenario, those in the groups that are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus anyway, should have arranged access to Hydroxychloroquine in case they get symptoms, or should even be taking it prophylactically.  See:  https://watchpraystand.blogspot.com/2020/07/hydroxychlorophone-another-victim-of.html

Another False Christ Contending for the Role of Final Antichrist

 Fascinating.  I knew that some believe the Antichrist is to come out of Islam,  I knew that Islam occupies the eastern half of the original Roman Empire and is thought to be represented by one of the two legs of the statue in Daniel 2, but what I didn't know is that there are some very specific reasons to identify the Antichrist as coming out of Islam, reasons that are found in their own writings.  John MacArthur lays out these sources in one of his teachings:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMy_cRtSrcA

The first seven minutes give background on the Islamic understanding of Jesus Christ as a mere human prophet.  Starting at about 7 on the counter MacArthur describes the Twelfth Imam or the Imam Mahdi who is the great savior awaited by Muslims who is prophesied to establish the worldwide Caliphate by killing all those who reject Allah.  

The fascinating thing is that in their own writings they identify the Mahdi with the first horseman of the Apocalypse in the Bible's Revelation 6, the rider on the white horse who goes out to conquer, whom we understand to be the figure of the Antichirst.  Unlike this figure, however, who carries a bow but no arrows, he bears a sword.   The second horse, the red horse that signifies war, is also identified with him.  

So their savior is our Anitchrist.   But even more amazing, this Mahdi will make a covenant with Israel for seven years, just as we understand from the Book of Daniel the Antichrist will do.   Interesting that a peace deal considered to be historic was recently signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.  Not the Mahdi of course and there doesn't seem to be a time limit on it, but wouldn't this one have to be broken for the Mahdi to establish a seven-year agreement?  Not that there would be anything surprising about such an agreement being broken.

MacArthur continues with a description of the figure Islam regards as Jesus Christ, who is prophesied in their writings to return to earth in order to teach Christians how wrong we've all been about him.  He's considered to be a servant of the Mahdi, inferior of course, a mere man who will eventually marry and have children and then die.  He seems to fill the role we identify with the False Prophet of Revelation, the one who points to the Antichrist.  Then there is a third figure who is to come according to Islamic doctrine, their version of the Antichrist who is rather like the true Jesus Christ.  Imagine that.  

This scenario certainly hangs together rather well overall.  Islam occupies about 60% of what was the original Roman Empire, according to MacArthur, and their own writings describe very closely what we expect to come based on the Book of Revelation.

What happens then to my own favorite scenario that has the Pope in the role of the final Antichrist?  That too has some pretty solid support.   The Protestant Reformers identified the papacy as the Antichrist, and many down the centuries testified to that identification, a few of whom I list here:

https://watchpraystand.blogspot.com/2018/09/the-antichrist-of-tribulation-day-of.html

The papacy more or less ruled the "Holy Roman Empire" throughout the Middle Ages, and the Roman Church itself had taken on the trappings of the pagan religions of the Roman Empire.  Some have considered it in itself to be the continuation of the Roman Empire.  The Vatican is both the seat of the Roman Church and a sovereign state.  The Harlot Church of Revelation is clearly identified as sitting on seven hilils which can only describe Rome.  The 666 of Revelation only too nicely fits a Latin title of the Pope, but that title itself, Vicar of Christ, is practically a definition of Antichrist on its own anyway.    I'd say the papal credentials for final Antichrist are better than pretty good.  

Nevertheless the Mahdi has a credible claim.  So how is this to be resolved?  At the moment it's just a question.  I don't have an answer.

False Christs Abounding As We Approach the Last Days.

 Needing an antidote to so much immersion in worldly concerns, looking for inspiration to turn me back to God, I've found some, some good devotional poetry, some meditations on the life of Christ and that sort of thing.  But I've also seen how much there is out there that pretends to be about Christ but is designed to mislead a person into false religion.  Hinduism has always co-opted Christ and there is a lot of that out there, even claims that He *really* taught Kundalini.   There is also a Buddhist mindfulness meditation that presents itself as Christian.  

Another trend of this is the Mormon influence.  One would think that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir should be an innocent enough indulgence.  The music can be quite good.  Andrea Bocelli sang The Lord's Prayer with them and it was breathtakingly beautiful.  I was just looking up the hymn "Jesus the Very Thought of Thee With Sweetness Fills the Breast" and found them doing that too.  It's jarring to realize that their idea of Jesus is about as profane as it gets, even to his supposedly being the brother of Lucifer.  It is hard to imagine them even being able to sing such exalted lyrics in the context of their actual beliefs.  So although I was attracted to the music I think it best to ignore them. 

It figures of course that there would be a lot of false doctrine along these lines as we approach the Day of the LORD.   Anything to deflect people from the simple truth of salvation and mire them in demonic pseudospirituality.    It can be quite dazzling and seductive.  The demons are supernatural beings after all.

As usual I can only hope and pray that the Lord will save many out of these deceptions.  I still need to spend more time myself in biblical meditations so I don't want to go more deeply into these false teachings.  

Dark Horse Podcasts: Riots, Politics, Trump

 Still watching the Dark Horse podcasts by Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying, which are usually good at keeping the insanity of the current rioting on the table.  A couple of liberals but they honestly report on what is really going on in their city of Portland Oregon.  While the mainstream media continue to claim it's "mostly peaceful" they say that it predictably becomes violent every single night after dark.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXtnCitgRFE

This 43rd podcast started out with the Trump administration Memorandum against the indoctrination sessions that promote racism:  https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/M-20-34.pdf   This is an inspiring statement against the promotion of racism and an affirmation of American values.

It has come to the President's attention that Executive Branch agencies have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to date "training" government workers to believe divisive, antiAmerican propaganda. 

, The Dark Horse duo applaud this action by the Trump administration and attribute the indoctrination to Critical Race Theory.   Just for context, Critical Theory is a Marxist concoction, just one of the many Marxist tools for the destruction of civilization, so it's not surprising that there is a specialized version of it called Race Theory.

So they are good at discussing the causes and dangers in this current movement, even good at giving the Trump administration credit where credit is due and rejecting the leftist accusations of fascism and white supremacy and so on.  nevertheless they aren 't quite ready to give up their generally jaundiced view of the man as they continue to see his basic motivations as narcissism, self interest and cynicism.   So they actually think he is only promoting the causes he's known for because he's catering to the interests of a certain segment of the population.  So that if the leftist position was popular among them he'd be supporting that etc.

Trump's personality is certainly problmatic at times, but nevertheless I've always seen him as genuinely working for causes he himself values.  That is, he's a genuine American patriot whose decisions are all about promoting American intrests, building up America economically and culturally, protecting America from her enemies and so on.  He's not a cynic.  I don't know if "narcissist" applies in any sense or not but if it means blowing where the wind blows I don't see it.   Also, there were many who spoke at the Republican convention who described him as a very kind and thoughtful man who was always there when someone was suffering.  That's also not a narcissist.  

Also I've heard at least one person who claims to know him well, Sean Hannity, say how he's always had this same patriotic mentality, had thought of running for President at other times because of it.  You may not like his style, he may talk too much and exaggerate when he should be more cautious, but no, the man is not a cynic, he's genuine, and the people who claim to know him all say so.

One other thing Bret says from time to time continues to bother me, which is that there is good reason for the protests at bottom despite their degenerating into indefensible violence.  Since the protests are based on incidents that are wrongly identified as racist, I can't see any justification for them at all.  Many, including black thinkers, have shown that there is no racial bias in the methods used by the police, that one could object to the methods but not on racial grounds.  And there is no systemic racism in the police or the society at large.  So I don't know what Weinstein has in mind when he claims there is cause for frustration thta fuels the protests.  It would have to be despite all these facts which oppose the main excuse of racism.  I don't say there can't be any such justifiable cause, I just don't know what it might be, since the stated cause is unjustifiable.  That plus the fact that BLM and Antifa are Marxist organizations adds up to illegitimacy.

Bret thinks Trump is going to win big in the election.   I think he should but I'm not all that sure myself that he will, but because it's so clear the Democrats are setting up a vote harvesting fraud.

So supposedly we evolved this huge brain .... moved this post

 

Copied to Fantasy of Evolution blog   htt(ps://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6030885580613135432/7954870186277174692

(I don't know what Blogger/Google did to my blogs but they all used to have their own URLs and they no longer do.  Also when I copy something from one to another a strange URL shows up that I can't get rid of.)

The People's President

 That's what I got out of watching parts of the Republican convention on You Tube.  Ordinary Americans, not bureaucrats, not many politicians even, just a lot of ordinary Americans of all races telling their stories and speaking out for America and for Trump.  Very happy there were so many blacks in particular speaking for Trump, the charge of racism against him is so false.       

I did look at some of the Democratic convention and some of the media comments on the Republican convention and it made me feel sick.  Lies and hatred, lawlessness and destruction, Marxism and anti-Americanism.  I don't know if they can win but if they do it will be a disaster for everyone.  

All I can do is pray.  And speaking of that, I thinnk my favorite speaker of all those I've heard so far was Jack Brewer, who said he was a lifelong Democrat:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MfIEEe2Nis

After doing a stellar job of defending the President and even the Republican party itself, he ended by quoting 2 Chronicles 7:14:  "If My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land."

Amen.

End times ponderings

 "All things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purposes."  Romans something :28, please forgive my memory problem (and my eyesight problem which overlooks too many typos and makes looking things up difficult.)   That scripture verse is very reassuring at times when I feel that nothing I do has any value, that all my writing here is a big waste of time.  Somehow it encourages me to keep doing it, maybe God has plans for it I don't know about.  My main daydream is that the Rapture will come soon and that many people I know will not be in it will nevertheless be able to use some of the information I've written here to become Christians during the ensuing time of Tribulation.   

I'm still persuaded of the eschatological scenario I've been sketching out here, 98% or so anyway.  If it's right I hope it will orient others to a useful idea of what to expect over the next seven years.   There are plenty of other sources that are more thorough that I also point to.   There are important points I haven't discussed, which I expected to get from John MacArthur's study of Revelation eventually , especially about the length of time that is clearly spelled out in the book of Daniel, but MacArhtur's study seems to have been taken down from Utube.  It's probably at his Grace to You website so if I can I'll listen and link.   

The daydream involves a few people who would probably eventually gravitate to my blogs, and if they turn out to be useful, drawing others to them as well.   The only reason they'd come here is that they know me though there are plenty of better sources of Christian truth.  I hope to point them to those, they aren't likely to go there first.  God could certainly lead them wherever He desires so I know my contribution isn't necessary, I just hope it's useful.   During the Tribulation who knows what internet sources of Christian teaching might remain, and for how long?  The Christians who maintain them will be gone after all, though I suppose there will be some who thought they were Christians and disovered they weren't who would repent and become keepers of such information.  And then there will also be the 144,000 Jewish evangelists who will reach out to everybody all over the world, if that interpretation of Revelation 7 is correct.  I pray for all of those I think of to be saved, and if there is any possible refuge for them during that time that God will provide it.  Above all they are going to need courage.

I wonder if anything of the political situation will continue into the Tribulation period.   Will America have become part of the global government, everybody under a Communist tyranny with the Antichrist presenting himself as the source of peace and safety?  At a price of course, such as taking the Mark of the Beast.  If the pandemic continues I hope and pray that HCQ will become available to any who get the virus.   But this of course assumes it's all coming very soon.  Yes I do believe that.  How soon?  A few years at most I'd suppose.   And of course I could be wrong.  

May add to this later.