Blog Archives
THE ELEPHANT IN THE CHURCH BUILDING
The “Elephant in the Room” paradigm fits perfectly here, as almost everyone knows about the problem but next to no one admits it’s there or has the courage to do much about it.
.
There still remain many successful churches in America, though an increasingly larger number over the last several decades are of the mega variety. You may be a member of a successful church and are thus blessed. Many are getting it right, seek the Lord every day, and are willing to do anything He says. There are also a great many unchurched real Christians, some of which are part of small organic groups or maybe even on their own. Many seek fellowship on the internet which has proven to be a great medium for sharing information and encouragement. Formerly silenced ones have found their voice. It can be a tough spiritual landscape but the Lord is always faithful. All things remain possible. Awesome things are getting done. However, there also exists a flip side…
PROVING MY THESIS
We live in a time when authoritarian, dishonest, sell-out politicians have skyrocketed into a high arc over the land, effectively spouting “catch me if you can,” as if trying to best all the crooked ones before them on what they can get away with, something one may think impossible, yet they achieve it day after day. These boys and girls are getting their marching orders from above, of course, and are only obeying their puppet masters who remain ensconced behind the curtain, out of view and out of mind of most. The puppets you see are not only controlled but likely forcibly controlled if you get my drift. And Americans in general, over and over and over again, do absolutely nothing about it.
Except talk. And vent. And gripe/complain/mumble—worthless ventures all. Except when some trustworthy Americans (including a few elected reps), do actual truth-telling with facts and research that cannot be denied or discounted, expose dishonesty, and give well thought-out solutions for every single problem. These Americans are, of course, most often denied and castigated, as any reformer knows, including those attempting to reform off-kilter Christianity, because the solutions therein put an end to in-house corruption, fraud, and graft and make it difficult for grifters and abusers to carry on their devil’s work. Sadly, such solutions are also rejected by those who would benefit most because the great many refuse to do their own research or question authority, stay glued to the TV, and keep trusting the word of the appearance-based shallow people instead of listening to the warnings of the good guys because the major media makes the bad guys look like good guys and the good guys like bad guys. Sound familiar?
Thus, the great stringed people know the majority won’t do anything to stop them. They used to have at least a modicum of fear and expectation of reprisal from voters but of course many don’t anymore because voting is often fixed at the national level. And if you think this coming November will result in appreciable change when a great red wave will supposedly replace all those evil blues, you will be gravely disappointed once again. Even if elections were not corrupted, these people (actors) are all on the same team. It is the Uniparty. Until the voting system is reformed your votes count generally for effectively nothing. It’s become far too easy to game the system. If people still cannot see this after what happened in 2020 then its lights out.
I wrote a post about the great election steal of 2020 exactly one month after it occurred on December 3, 2020. You can find it here: THE REPUBLICANS ARE COLLUDING WITH THE DEMOCRATS: THE SACRIFICING OF AMERICA. Well, guess what? After almost twenty months this collusion has only expanded exponentially in that Republicans are supporting virtually everything the Democrats are putting forth and not stopping most of it. This sacrificing of the country has continued unabated since that time, has accelerated, and is now accelerating greatly. I told you in recent posts about the ongoing destruction of the economy, the ongoing destruction of the supply chain (diesel anyone?), and the ongoing destruction of the food supply. None of this is happening by accident. It has all been planned. It is impossible for such things to occur unless some great outside force CAUSES it. Along with everything else, therefore, Americans must wake up. They must stop supporting the enemy. The enemy is no longer merely at the gates. He is inside. He is at the controls.
Regarding what could have been done and should have been done to stop this, even at such a late date, there was a duly elected gentleman in power not long ago that decided to stand down instead of stand up. As it turned out he was nothing but rhetoric at a time when action was demanded. You know what kind of leaders you have at the moment of crisis and at that moment, as the opportunity was still viable, he let it all drain out. He frittered it away. There were people with the goods on the enemy who tried to get him to act but to no avail. He now continues to speak in rallies in hopes of a return but that ship has sailed. His time has passed. Whoever is putting their hope in him is missing the mark. The time for action is NOW.
“I, only I, am the Lord, and there is no Savior besides Me.” [Isaiah 43:11]
All real Christians must now understand that the only remaining chance that exists is one far beyond any possible usual and tried and true. None of that exists anymore. It’s gone. No one is coming to save you in that area. I wrote about this a year ago in my post of May 10, 2021 on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of this site: HAPPY TENTH BIRTHDAY REAL CHRISTIANITY. That post received a relatively great response with many Likes and Comments. It was very well received. However, most of those readers are now gone. I have had several people say great things about my work and then they suddenly disappear. I have tried to engage them and discover the problem to no avail. What do you call it when one greatly appreciates you and your work, follows you for years, makes positive comments, reblogs your work on their sites, and then suddenly disappears?
This is sad. Really sad. I’m sure I’m not the only one this is happening to, of course. It is a time when we should be putting relatively minor differences aside and uniting against the enemy, but appreciable differences, apparently, still remain strong. The Divide and Conquer approach against American Christianity has had great success. Love is still the answer but appears to always be in short supply when needed most. Nevertheless, I am greatly appreciative of those of you still reading my work. Thank you. Christians may not agree or even not agree on much at all but can still love one another anyway.
A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE
A few days ago I read a post by a friend. Part of it involved the story of a non-believer visiting a church at some point in the recent past. This person had dressed inappropriately on purpose. She was going to test the people there. If anyone said anything negative she would leave and likely turn her back on God. Everybody there ended up treating her well and she eventually gave her life to the Lord. They loved her into the Kingdom. I left the following comment:
That’s a great testimony of how it should be done. I have a massive amount of church experience so I’ve seen this kind of thing many times. Once, in the late 1980s, a young couple visited the church I was attending. I had never seen them before. They had a great attitude, were smiling and happy to be there. They sat right behind us. The young man had a dangling metal earring in one year. No big deal, right? Well, to my chagrin and great embarrassment, during the service the pastor called him out, rebuking him for the earring from the pulpit. I could hardly believe it. Needless to say, I never saw them again. I saw a lot of this.
Though there have always been rednecks in churches, I think most of this stuff began happening on a large scale in the 1960s to 1970s when so many young adults were coming to the Lord. The traditionalists often treated them like lepers. Granted, many simply didn’t know any better but the overreaction to their appearance was a gross violation of the Lord’s teachings and still is. One wonders how many quit on their pursuit of God based on the way they were treated.
When I first visited a church (traditional, conservative, but with a new group of young adults) in the mid 1970s at the invitation of a good friend I trusted who was recently saved, my hair was really long. Thank goodness I was among some cool understanding people, at a prayer meeting, some of whom were also recently saved or just knew how to treat people. Nobody cared about my appearance or said anything. They were happy I was there. A week or so later, my decision for the Lord made with no looking back, I got a haircut. A real one. No one ever told me to or even suggested it.
We MUST allow the Spirit of the Lord to do His work in bringing whatever conviction is necessary. We MUST trust Him and allow for His timing. In the meantime we MUST love people and not judge them.
Be Blessed
Since then (June 17), my comment has received seven Likes, most from readers I do not know, proving that the subject matter is something most identify with. It has historically always been a bad problem but has essentially never gone away. Christians in general remain committed to their sects and divisions. Too many still possess not so great attitudes. If we try to engage in any type of cross-communication we often get stuck with the ecumenical label. If a Christian questions the beliefs of another Christian offense takes place. If Christians judge other Christians or non-Christians, however, their judgments often stand and are supported. The people in charge should know when violations of the Lord’s teachings take place but apparently most do not or simply do not care. Protecting the “pastor,” church, denomination, or institution is much more important than addressing any wrongs. This prerogative trumps obeying the Lord Jesus. It trumps obeying the Golden Rule. In reality, anything that violates the Lord’s teachings should be thrown in the river but if some churches do this there won’t be much left, which likely explains the protocol.
I am saying all this to say that I have been involved in this fight for decades. I have pretty much always known what the problem was and discovered the solution long ago. (It is simply a matter of returning to our roots.) The bigger problem is that most Christians refuse to address the problem and would rather let the problem stand in order to protect themselves from having to change and get right with God. They see necessary positive and reformative changes as too all-encompassing.
We see the same approach to reforming the voting system. Those at high levels know this could reveal systemic corruption on a wide scale. It would reveal that a great many were never properly elected and that a great many more were denied legitimate victories.
Churches in general do not appreciate the idea that they might be engaging in something that is incorrect or teaching incorrect or incomplete doctrines. In general, much of Christianity hates the very idea of reform. Rather than repent and change for the better they effectively stone those the Lord sends to correct them. Yet, was not the Lord often forced to use this very method?
So, forget about trying to change existing churches, denominations, and institutions for the better. It will likely never happen. Their protection filters are so fine they also block out any possible corrections. The Christians thereof are far too invested. They do not know the Word of God as they should. They simply cannot see the forest for the trees. They will change, however, and do change. They change for the worse. They degrade over time. THIS IS OTHERWISE OBVIOUS. If one looks at history it is a no-brainer. Those who refuse to continue following the Lord Jesus into the fresh new green fields always end up dying out in the resultant spiritual famine which they brought on themselves. And because of this chosen spiritual famine there is currently a plan for actual famine in America gaining steam.
Most traditional Christians are thus pre-primed to reject the current Great Awakening. It doesn’t fit their paradigm.
I recall reading the works of Ralph Neighbor and communicating with him in the past. He is a great source if you’re interested. He often spoke of “The Seven Last Words of a Dying Church” which are “We’ve never done it that way before!”
Christians in America must understand that business as usual no longer works. Anything that deviates from the Lord’s teachings is a sign of disobedience and rebellion and is destined to fail. Christian leaders in general almost never get the memo that God begins warning of bad times coming when good times are happening. Christian leaders in general reject anything that seems to put a damper on their good times.
Imagine a farmer in the past who listens to the Lord, who is close to the Lord. He has been experiencing bumper crops and knows he is blessed of God. Then one day the Lord tells him to prepare for drought. The farmer doesn’t question the Lord. He doesn’t ask to bless him by arranging things to stop the drought. He knows that is an immature approach, something he had tried long before that doesn’t work. Instead, because he hears the Lord and knows His voice, he simply starts preparing for a drought. He knows that somehow or another the Lord will sustain him and his family and help him get through it. So he prepares. He prepares during the great times. He gathers in his bumper crop as usual but prepares for what’s coming. People think he’s an idiot. “Lighten up, man!” When the drought hits, those who never heard from God, either because they are not real Christians, because they grew cold spiritually, or because they continually rejected the warnings, were not prepared. When the drought hits, only those who began preparing during good times and continued following and obeying the Lord Jesus made it through. And though the farmer did try to help others there was simply not enough to go around. HE WAS BLESSED AND PROTECTED. They were not.
Over the last few decades many churches have failed and no longer exist. There are empty and repurposed church buildings in many locations all across the country. It is a trend that is not stopping. Those who got the memo long ago have long since made the proper adjustments. They saw what was coming. When they heard the Word in good times, and their warnings were rejected, it sealed the fate of those greatly “successful” ones who would meet a very challenging future unprepared. And those who obeyed God, who were rejected, made fun of, cast out, and cold-shouldered, who went through tough times due to their bad treatment by other “Christians” and were forced into survival mode, learned how to prepare.
“But many who are first will be last, and the last, first.” [Mark 10:31]
So, none of the current garbage taking place right now is a surprise to God. For those who insist on continuing to do things the way they always have and trust in the things they always have, they will find that what used to work no longer works. It has certainly never worked as good as the original. Most of it hasn’t worked for years but they either don’t notice or don’t care. They can’t see the big picture, don’t care about the big picture, and only care about what goes on in their respective closed-off bubbles. Because the majority of American Christians refused to prepare during good times and continually insisted on depending on their usual traditional way of doings things and not honoring the Lord Jesus or obeying His warnings, they have entered into a future, which is now upon us, unprepared.
One would think, with all the Biblical directives and Old Testament stories at our disposal on this subject, and the many teachings and warnings of the Lord Jesus (the Parable of the Ten Virgins, for example), that Christians in general would be the last to be unprepared for anything.
The opposite is often true.
Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
And He began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’” [Luke 13:1-9][1]
© 2022 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
OUTING EVIL, RESISTING TEMPTATION, AND DODGING DESTRUCTION: A SPIRITUAL VICTORY PRIMER
Someone is causing a problem. But you don’t know who it is. At first, you actually don’t even know what it is.
.
God created a perfect world. Much of His original Creation still exists to a great degree, continues uncorrupted, and remains extremely beneficial. One thinks of the great outdoors, fresh fields, an isolated seacoast, clean air, and soft breezes. In such places one is much closer to the heart of the Creator because there is so little interference. In such a setting, one can quickly be saturated with good—with natural and spiritual benefits effectively raining down upon one’s presence—with no personal effort whatsoever.
Someone once said the best things in life are free. While this is a seemingly noble sentiment, though not actually true, the point is that much of what we require for good health in every respect truly is free, such as our aforementioned pure natural settings and the natural gifts thereof God has bestowed.
AND THEN CAME EVIL
Evil arises in many forms from apparently unknown invisible origins. It has a decided presence on the planet. It reaches out from a ubiquitous unperceived darkness not so far away from each of us. Some locales are darker than others. Its desire is to corrupt, infect, and distort. It hates purity and innocence.
Where does it come from? Rather than get into a far-flung exegesis, relegating the subject to the unexplainable, or addressing the philosophical problem of evil as it were, God goes right to the heart of the matter and makes it all very simple. He clearly identifies evil. He reveals its exact starting point. He shows us how it operates. He identifies a single source.
This source is extremely beguiling. It has its best results by operating through humanity. God tells us how this first occurred. It has been occurring that way ever since.
But how so? How does the source of evil cause people to listen to it and then convince people to obey it? Again, God makes it very simple for us by revealing the only three avenues the source of evil uses to tempt people to do its bidding. These three methods of temptation were revealed in the very beginning when the source of evil convinced the very first person in history to go over to the dark side. Before then humanity was absolutely good and pure. Afterwards every human being became familiar with evil and subject to the dark side. An iniquitous force had entered into the realm of humanity that it could not throw off. It could not purge itself of this evil. No matter what humanity attempted to do in ridding itself of immoral inclinations toward shameful behavior and undesired aftereffects that many members wanted no part of, it could not find a cure.
THE THREE TEMPTATIONS
Though it may appear that evil uses a wide array of schemes and procedures, and though this is true on an elementary level in which one is initially unaware of evil’s presence, objectives, and essential means of operation, its technique actually breaks down to only three principle methods. There is Door #1, Door #2, and Door #3. Sound familiar? All sin originates from behind these three doors. These are the three connecting points the source of evil uses to corrupt humanity. Each is one of the only three foundational means of temptation. These doors are presented as ways for evil to enter into a person.
Of course, an otherwise innocent naïve person does not comprehend that the entity attempting to cause one to enter such doors is the source of all evil, is pure evil, desires to spread its evil, and make yet another disciple of evil. Nevertheless, the person being tempted has a predisposed inherent interest in answering said door due to long held resident tendencies passed on by hundreds of generations in part because he or she never fully understands how malevolent, malicious, and wicked evil actually is or what will become of him or her as evil takes effect.
This makes one essentially defenseless. For the most part, a human being is no match for the great deceptive powers of the source of all evil. The devil is a superior actor. He pretends to be the opposite of what he is. This is how he takes advantage of simple-minded humans. He presents himself as innocent and good, a being no one should fear:
Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. [2Corinthians 11:14]
Therefore, one must first be aware of fakes. Almost everyone knows to fear obvious evil, but many do not protect themselves against those who merely pretend to be good, who wrap themselves in faux innocence, who adorn themselves with fake righteousness, who know how to put forth fake smiles, fake attitudes, and fake presentations. This is the devil’s game. It is the devil at his best. And since this is the ultimate manner of disguising himself in order to fool even the best and brightest among us, one should pay much more attention to getting up to speed in this area. One should study hard to gain the proper education in differentiating between the real and the fake so as not to be overcome by smiling shysters and glowing fraudsters wrapped up in faux decorum attempting to take advantage of you, gain authority over you, rip you off, and steal your soul.
This is where to start:
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. [1John 2:15-17]
These are the three temptations:
- The lust of the flesh
- The lust of the eyes
- The boastful pride of life
This is how the devil got Eve:
When the woman saw that the tree was good for food (the lust of the flesh), and that it was a delight to the eyes (the lust of the eyes), and that the tree was desirable to make one wise (the boastful pride of life), she took from its fruit and ate… [Genesis 3:6]
This is how the devil tried to get the Lord:
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. And the devil said to Him,
“If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE.’”
And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore if You worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘YOU SHALL WORSHIP THE LORD YOUR GOD AND SERVE HIM ONLY.’”
And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; for it is written, ‘HE WILL COMMAND HIS ANGELS CONCERNING YOU TO GUARD YOU,’ and, ‘ON their HANDS THEY WILL BEAR YOU UP, SO THAT YOU WILL NOT STRIKE YOUR FOOT AGAINST A STONE.’” And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT PUT THE LORD YOUR GOD TO THE TEST.’”
When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time. [Luke 4:1-13]
NO REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TEMPTATION
Whoever chooses to follow the Lord Jesus will be tempted by the devil in the same way. Whoever chooses to become a mature disciple of the Lord Jesus will be tempted by the devil in the same way. Whoever chooses to serve and work for the Lord Jesus will be tempted by the devil in the same way. Our spiritual success comes in part by successfully resisting temptation. This is obviously not an all or nothing proposition, however. There will be times of failure. Failure is when we disobey the Lord and obey the devil. There will be times of success. Success is when we obey the Lord and disobey the devil. The more we obey the Lord the greater the chances of spiritual success. The more we succeed the more spiritually mature we become. The more mature we become the better we are able to resist temptation.
The proper representation of the Lord on our part then, as disciples of His, depends on staying victorious in the temptation war. Whatever may cause us to be defeated must be defeated. We must live in spiritual victory and this demands overcoming the devil’s temptation and thus defeating him in spiritual battle. In order to insure victory, the Lord has made available the gift of His Holy Spirit.
A TALE OF TWO CITIES
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. [2Corinthians 10:3-6][1]
The devil has constructed strong military forts and fortifications with thick walls and armaments. He has many weapons at the ready trained and focused upon his enemies. Paul speaks here of the necessary spiritual attack upon the devil’s fortresses and strongholds. He tells us the Lord Jesus has supplied powerful spiritual weapons for His people that are very effective in blasting holes in the devil’s walls and even leveling the devil’s military forts. The Community of the Lord Jesus even has the power to blow the devil’s fortifications off the map.
Those who are actually doing this are the real Christians. They are those who have overcome temptation. They do not submit to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. They are not lovers of money. Christian Pharisees, however, are indeed lovers of money. They must have it in very large amounts. They cannot live without it. It helps them gain whatever they need to fulfill their lust of the flesh, their lust of the eyes, and their boastful pride of life. Rather than resist temptation, they serve the devil in order to receive all he can give them. How then is it possible for Unreal Christianity to fight a successful spiritual war? Those who not only fail repeatedly in the temptation wars to the point of surrender but also assist the devil in building and maintaining his military fortifications are the antithesis of the real Christian. However, things have become so clouded and deceptive within overall Christianity in general only a comparative few can see through the deception.
The original church community at Corinth was composed not only of the usual immature believers but also some who were still being heavily influenced by the particular evils of that city. The apostle Paul was working to help the congregation gain the necessary spiritual maturity all believers need but it was initially a tough fight. We may think of a similar circumstance regarding the nation of Israel after the Exodus. It was very tough for God to get the Egypt out of them. It was somewhat the same for Paul and his mature spiritual associates in getting Corinth out of the Corinthian believers. They were tempted with “speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.” As residents of a powerfully sinful city, these believers previously had a big problem with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It was difficult for them to overcome spiritually but they did. The gift of salvation, God’s grace, and the infilling of the Spirit of God made all the difference. The devil could not compete with the Corinthian Pentecost.
When the congregation became mature, “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ,” Paul was then ready to punish all disobedience. The remaining vestiges of demonic and fleshly control were singled out for defeat. The Christian Community at Corinth and other Gentile cities thus became powerful and strong toward defeating the devil’s authority in their respective locations. They may not have had complete success but each had various levels of success where none existed previously.
On the flip side, Jerusalem was a city where the devil’s authority was never defeated spiritually. Evil maintained its presence there to the point that the only remaining option was physical destruction. This is what awaits every collection of human beings large or small. Each will either change its ways and submit to the Lord Jesus or will face certain destruction. It is only a matter of time. And if you may be wondering, the Lord really doesn’t even have to be materially involved. They usually do it to themselves. This is what happened in Jerusalem in 70AD. Having rejected their Messiah who would have brought peace and victory, they chose leaders who ended up fighting one another and the vastly superior Roman forces who never wanted such a fight. This was a repeat performance of Israel’s ancient enemies who used to be subjected to the same, such as Midian during the time of Gideon when the Midianites turned against one another and destroyed themselves.
ON THE EVE OF DESTRUCTION
Whoever opposes the Lord Jesus is allied with the antichrist spirit. This can be a single individual or a vast metropolis. Destruction will always come to such people. It is inevitable. It may come through a series of destructive actions on the part of those in control, intentional or not. Whoever rejects the Lord Jesus will face destruction because He is the only cure against it. He is God. He is the Creator. It should be obvious that whoever opposes the Creator will also oppose anything and everything associated with His goodness. That leaves only one remaining choice and that choice has a time stamp. Why? Because God will not allow evil to exist except on a temporary basis. The same holds true for anything built that does not have His direct involvement or sanction.
Have you noticed that ancient builders were sometimes so good at their work that portions of it still stand? Other than the obvious massive structures that still remain, such as the Egyptian pyramids, we still have a few remaining structures from ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. The Romans were especially proficient at architectural design and developed a great understanding of natural forces and the requisite engineering to overcome them. To this day we have massive multilevel valley-spanning aqueducts, for example, that have withstood all natural earth movements and weather forces since first constructed. Imagine having that on your resume. And though earthquakes have destroyed many structures and even cities of the ancient world into the present, such aqueducts and other structures were built so well they remain victorious, though in ruined form, against the forces that would destroy them.
At the top of the list of destructive forces however, are entities of the non-natural and effective non-temporary form. These entities predate humanity. They were here before us. They are masters at their craft. They oppose God and always have. Most human beings are aligned with them whether they know it or not. Such people have been overcome by deception—“speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God.” They exist for a while, as do their cities and structures, maybe a long while, but all is temporary. Every world empire was seemingly invincible in its time. This was especially true of Rome. It was without question the greatest empire the world had ever seen, but was eventually overrun and completely destroyed. Other lesser forms of it arose but no other empire existed at the same level until the present, which too will cease to exist at some point in the future. One must understand, therefore, that those whose mission is destruction sow the seeds of their own destruction.
Whoever engages in the opposite of what the Lord taught us will thus receive the opposite of what He died to give us.
In the meantime, other forces are at work to give the destroyers a run for their money. We live on a planet with a moving, shifting surface that often shifts greatly and violently. Sometimes powerful explosive volcanoes burst forth. Massive floods happen. Disastrous hurricanes and tornadoes spin forth. Whatever lies in the vicinity of these purely natural destructive wonders is leveled. But earthquakes are perhaps the most deadly, largely because they happen with no immediate warning whatsoever. This is especially true even in areas of previous earthquake activity along moving, shifting tectonic plates and those containing known fault lines. Experts in the field are good at identifying where but not so much at when. They speak in terms of decades or perhaps centuries. Since many of these areas are monitored they only know when the big one hits right before it hits or as it hits, meaning actual warnings remain ineffective.
Regarding America, two locations of particular notice are the San Andreas Fault along the west coast running through California and the New Madrid seismic zone in the eastern Midwest located at the junction of Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee stretching into Arkansas. The experts say both areas are not only due but overdue. I recently read a book about the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906. It was published in 1971. The authors not only went into great detail of what happened in that event but also strongly warned against the next one which would surely come. According to expert predictions of that time an even greater earthquake should have already happened by now and is actually long overdue. I remember very well the San Francisco-Oakland earthquake of 1989. I also remember the Northridge, California quake of 1994. These were actually relatively minor, 6.9 and 6.7 on the Richter scale, while the quake of 1906 was a much larger and much more destructive 7.9. The later two may be seen as mere wake-up calls but it appears most people have gone back to sleep.
ETERNAL LIFE MATTERS
I find it extremely interesting that people so easily lose sight of these coming hugely destructive events. It reminds me of Noah. He warned everybody what was going to happen. He preached and built the Ark over a 120 year period. The more he preached the more they laughed. The more he warned the more they scoffed. The closer the time came for the great Flood to begin, the more the people collectively disbelieved and/or refused to pay attention. Noah eventually became a complete laughingstock, a madman. All the newspapers and social media of the time constantly portrayed him as an absolute moron. The peer pressure was so intense that anyone who may have otherwise heeded Noah’s warning chose instead to surrender to the will of the cultural narrative setters and religion hustlers as a false form of survival. To do otherwise would cause the complete destruction of their livelihoods and social standing. They knew they would suffer the same persecution as Noah but also knew they would never be able to handle it. The doomed were thus much more concerned about their reputations and current comfort level than righteousness and eternal life.
They did not want to be put out of the synagogue. They did not want to be perceived as crazy by their church friends. Still, one would think there would have been at least a few individuals who didn’t care what the great unthinking majority thought and joined Noah anyway. But no. They all went to their deaths believing the lie and rejecting a providential place of safety and survival.
Only Noah’s immediate family believed him.
Maybe that was the miracle.
© 2021 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
RISING AGAIN…
The world was dark and cold. Defeat had become a matter of lifestyle, of accepting a great wrong against one’s hopes and dreams with no way to overcome the pain.
And it was certainly pain, the kind of deep pain stored in the depths of one’s heart that it seems can never be excised no matter how hard one may try.
There were “leaders” who had come along who claimed they had answers but their efforts never went anywhere, even though a few had gained relatively large followings. Yet, no matter what particular hope had come down the road and into the hearts of the defeated, though briefly, the light shined for merely a moment and was gone.
It was as if the whole world was against each person, and that each person had no way to strike back effectively. The great pain carried by most was the pain of a defeat so strong and overwhelming that they must simply surrender to it and find a way to make life work.
It is one of the most difficult things to deal with and make sense of, and in all probability the most difficult. People were created to overcome, to stand tall, to fight and win, to work hard and get things done, to put their heart into alleviating a problem, and to let nothing stand in the way of their freedom and success.
Yet, the nation was broken. It had long ago been taken over by a brutal regime that had little or no compassion, and certainly no concern for the individuals who lives were essentially destroyed and enslaved. People kept working hard—they had to—but they were only working to stay alive. Survival was the big dream, or actually, it was the attempt to stay mentally tough against so much misfortune and no hope for the future. This “survival” was the manner in which one was forced to attempt a win, the way a starving man may grab at crumbs in hopes that he may find a piece of bread, and then, just maybe, something more.
But it was the seeking of something more substantial that caused the greatest depression among people. If they could only just give up and accept a less than good life, a less than average life, or even a mere subsistence level life, then maybe that pain would go away. Maybe if they just gave up on dreams that kept stirring their hearts but never, ever came close to reality, then, and only then, could they maybe smile a weak smile and somehow be content with their lot.
It was not to be, of course. No one can live like that for very long without finding alternatives to bleak reality that somehow make reality possible to stomach. It had all been going on for so many years and decades. People could actually no longer remember any actual good times but they still had the misty sagas that old people told on occasion, when long ago, their people lived in victory and strength.
In a way, such stories, real or imagined, kept a spark alive but only a few really thought it could ever grow into anything more than that. So many people had tried for so long to overcome it all…
Their houses had been broken into and ransacked. They were forced to vacate not only their homes and fields that they had worked so hard at building, but whole towns. Communities were destroyed. Industry was destroyed. The means to build it all back was completely removed. These evil despicable hell-bound demons in human form had decided that total destruction was the answer, and in their zeal to eliminate those good people they falsely characterized as evil, they had become evil incarnate.
Their sweeping victories, however, gave them the aura of somehow being on the winning side, and that their grossly evil behavior was somehow justified even by God Himself. It was as if God had turned from His righteousness and honor, and sided with the devil, and that any unfortunate ones who fought the invaders would be crushed by God because the good people were characterized as being the devil.
Why would God do this? Why would He side with evil? Why wouldn’t He help these poor destroyed people? Was their sin so great and the obvious sins of these invaders so unacknowledged that the entire cosmos had gotten turned upside down?
As their lives, hopes, and dreams were destroyed, they remembered their Scriptures, the sayings of their holy book. They remembered the words that seemed to fit so clearly—
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight! [Isaiah 5:20-21]
The confidence level of the invaders had grown exponentially the more they destroyed the land and its people. As the proverbial sharks smelling blood and swimming swiftly to the kill and engaging in a free-for-all bloodbath, so did these so called liberators fall into the most heinous of crimes. Looking past their own sins and thinking themselves as holy with justified and God-breathed righteous anger, and even as agents of proper judgment, they raped and pillaged and burned and murdered, and they exulted in it, they enjoyed it, it was a tremendous opportunity to release their evil passions like hardened, reprobate, insane criminals escaped from the worst penitentiaries.
How could agents of supposed good engage in such incredibly sinful acts? And why do monuments built for their leaders exist to this day—statues and bronzes beholding their evil glory?
As the majority of those in the Lord’s day who judged Him falsely of evil and agreed with His death sentence and torture, so do so many still to this day claim the side of righteousness while engaging in or fully supporting the most evil of deeds. They refuse to acknowledge the gross violations of the Lord’s teachings. It is a justification of the worst forms of hate and all that stems from it.
It must be understood that the thundering hooves supporting these invasions never stop. They continue on in subjugating others, and others still, and overcome the innocent, and rob them, and destroy them, and justify it all.
But the day will come when their juggernaut will come face to face with a higher power, the very power they had previously claimed was on their side, and they will at last meet their match, and so much more.
In their current state, the subdued cannot imagine anything to change it, for evil has gained such a stronghold over them, and they are so small and outnumbered, and apparently defeated. But they remember what always follows, what comes next, what the prophets said about the righteous and faithful people, and it is then that the tiny spark in their deepest heart glows brighter:
Evil is always stopped. It is only a matter of time. The temporary never survives against the eternal. Dishonesty, lies, deceptive agendas, fake historical accounts, and false narratives never defeat Truth in the long term. And the evil ones who ride high in their day and get away with so much will all eventually pay the price. Their time will come to an end. Their earthly kingdoms, like all previous earthly kingdoms and empires, and all their sordid gains will fail and come to nothing, and can never be translated into eternity.
The real kingdom, though—the eternal kingdom of the Lord Jesus, inhabited by those who love Him and obey Him and are called by His Name—it will continue now and throughout eternity. And regardless of the pain and the many losses the Lord’s people have suffered upon this planet, their fate is good and bright—they will live forever in their eternal home.
And one more thing: Those places and regions of the earth where the devil has historically wreaked the worst havoc are often the same places from which the Lord later brings forth the greatest Great Awakenings…
“THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED.” [Matthew 4:16] [1]
© 2015 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved.
[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
