Blog Archives

JULY 4TH 2025

Today we celebrate the 249th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. This great document and the hope thereof appears in its entirety at the end of this post.

America has been under attack for several years now. The ongoing planned destruction had previously been slow and steady. And though there are great sinister forces from without, the primary attack has come from within. The enemy hates individual freedom. The enemy hates strong well-informed individuals. The enemy hates Spirit-filled believers who have sided with the Lord Jesus 100% and are determined to do His will.

As I have mentioned often here, there were three types of American Colonists that existed in 1776. Each type comprised roughly one third of the colonial population. One type was fully on the side of the English king and Parliament. One type was fully disengaged, ignorant, apathetic, selfish, and completely unaware of the battle at hand and its future ramifications. And one type comprised the greatest generation, the great American Patriots who put everything on the line to fight for freedom.

These three types also comprise the Americans of the present. Whether or not America survives will depend on which type eventually wins. I encourage you to do your own research, make your own evaluations, and come to your own studied conclusions regarding these three types of Americans.

As of now, it appears that the forces of evil have gained the upper hand. But I must remind everyone that the same dynamic was in play 249 years ago. The American Patriots appeared to have no chance but that never stopped them from taking that chance. They knew they would have no chance at all unless they went all in. Their great victory proved again that good is greater than evil and that Light always overcomes darkness.

To date, American Christians have generally become spiritually weak, dumbed-down, compromised, and overcome by the culture. Many rarely or never read and study the Word of God and thus fail to apply it to their lives. Most American Christians are not dedicated disciples of the Lord Jesus. One may wonder how this could have happened but it’s actually quite simple: The majority of American Christians have rejected the total Lordship of the Lord Jesus, have refused to honor and follow His Word, have rejected the Book of Acts in particular, and have instead dedicated themselves to fruitless socially acceptable counterfeits including the leaders thereof.

However, there is a group on the rise that has been on the rise for several years now. I saw this at least thirty-three years ago when I began my initial research for my book Real Christianity. I saw that if real Christianity was to survive in America it must overcome the massive forces of Unreal Christianity. I certainly expressed the hope that this group of real Christians would continue to rise, and for that to happen there must be an Awakening. I mentioned this in the book.

However, it was not until late August of 2010 that I received the definitive proof. The Lord told me America was in the early stages of a national Great Awakening. That was almost fifteen years ago. It has proven to be true.

Since then the enemy stopped his slow gradualism approach and went full bore into the open, no longer all that concerned with attempting to hide his sinister plans or keep his subterfuge secret. Of course, it pretty much stayed secret anyway because the great bulk of Americans and American Christians remained absolutely clueless and ignorant with no desire to change for the better. It has made things very easy for the enemy. He now does his dirty work in plain sight and most Christians still do nothing about it.

Real Christians, however, back in the 1990s, did see. They had the Spirit of God. They had eyes to see and ears to hear. Sadly, they were by and large castigated and rejected by their own, those who could only manage to live in the present and chose the way of compromise and friendship with the world. If the real Christians could survive and manage to coalesce, real Christianity in America could be saved. Thus, SOMETHING profound must have happened in this country in the roughly fifteen year period of 1995-2010. This was a time when enough real believers, largely as mere disconnected individuals, remained dedicated to the Lord Jesus and doubled down on their dedication in the face of persecution from their own. The Lord was apparently greatly pleased. He needed this group and fought for this group. This was a Remnant group of His making that would be necessary for His future plans. It was these who would be used to bring forth the current Great Awakening.

After 249 years this country remains at a terrible crossroads. Most never saw what was coming during the good times but the few did. Presently, more can see it, if not by spiritual eyes then by experience. Empirical evidence always promotes clarity. Americans will experience more in the immediate future—dire circumstances from seemingly every direction—that will cause them to start waking up. They will see that all the warnings they previously rejected had great merit. They will see that those who had it right all along but had their names and lives destroyed should have been listened to and honored.

Perhaps the best verse of Scripture which perfectly illustrates what has happened over the last three decades is the following:

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.” [Mark 6:4][1]

The Lord always has witnesses. One might recall what happened to His great and powerful personal witness. One might recall what the Lord’s own did to Him. What might recall what the unbelievers of His nation—the forces of antichrist—did to the members of the Lord’s Community. This same dynamic plays out every day in every nation. It has certainly played out in America.

Thanks to the Lord Jesus, however, we have great hope. Thanks to Him and His real followers, everyone will have the opportunity to gain the spoils that go to the victor.

249 years ago a group of American Revolutionaries openly declared themselves independent and free of corrupt government. They would go on to fight another five years to win the prize. When they won, and it was a GREAT victory, the spoils of war were shared by all Americans, even the traitors and cowards.

American Christians must therefore thank those who have been in the spiritual battle all along, those who were most usually never or rarely supported and who were forced into long term survival mode. It was the real Christians, the only ones the Lord was allowed to work through and with, who brought us to this time of opportunity and hopeful victory.

The Great Awakening is here. Whether it will be enough or not remains to be seen.

In CONGRESS July 4, 1776

The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.

Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Posted in Current Events

MESSIANIC PROPHETS IN CAPTIVITY: STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND

Apr 14

Posted by RJ Dawson

The ancient Hebrew prophets spoke of the Messiah often. They told of a future day when He would arrive. It would obviously be the greatest Great Awakening of all time.

PROPHETIC ACCOUNTS

And His name will be called

Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God,

Eternal Father,

Prince of Peace. [Isaiah 9:6]

For historical perspective regarding the prophetic Messianic timeline, the prophet Isaiah, who was quoted by the Lord Jesus several times in the Gospel accounts, dates to the mid-to-late 700s BC. This means the beginning of his ministry was almost eight centuries before the Lord’s.

In his composite work The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict, well-known author and speaker Josh McDowell highlights sixty-one major fulfilled Messianic prophecies. [1] The total number of fulfilled prophecies is actually much higher and an exact number depends on interpretation, comprehensive context, and detailed analysis. Suffice it to say, however, that the total exceeds 300! Specific sources cite 324 [2] and as many as 333. [3] In Isaiah’s written work alone, one source has listed as many as 122 fulfilled prophecies of the coming Messiah, each and every one fulfilled by the Lord Jesus, of course. [4] It is impossible that anyone else could have qualified to fulfill these many prophecies to even a slight degree.

Isaiah is characterized as a major prophet, primarily due to his book and extensive prophetic work. There are other prophets which could also be characterized the same but have no distinct books with their respective names in the title, such as Elijah and Elisha, whose works are recorded in the historical books of 1Kings and 2Kings.

JUDGMENT FOR SIN

The prophets with which we are likely most familiar date to either the time before the Babylonian Captivity, a severe judgment against the wayward Kingdom of Judah, or during it. This judgment began in circa 606/605 BC and lasted a prophesied 70 years. Before that key event, going back centuries, the Word of God had always arrived and in a clear and concise manner. This continued during the Captivity by a select group of Messianic prophets.

It must be noted that at the time of the Babylon judgment, the three-tribe Southern Kingdom of Judah was all that remained of a previously much larger United Kingdom of Israel which was composed of all twelve tribes (actually thirteen) and had existed from the time of the first king, Saul, who began his reign in 1050 BC. Following Saul, King David, through his many wars, excellent leadership, and heart for God, built the kingdom into the expanded state in which it existed for over a century until it was broken up into two separate kingdoms by internal strife in 930 BC after the death of Solomon (the third king). These two realms were the ten-tribe Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah (comprised of the predominant tribe of Judah, plus Benjamin and Levi), each with its own kingly lines of succession.

The same manner of judgment against Judah at the hands of Babylon was also earlier rendered against the larger ten tribe Northern Kingdom over a century before by the Assyrians. The conquest by Assyria began in approximately 740 BC. This eventuated in the removal of the Israelite tribes located east of the Jordan River—Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh—to locations in Assyria. The invasion of Israel proper then commenced centered on the central section of Samaria. The conquest was completed in 722 BC when the rest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel population was also exiled to Assyria—the remaining seven and a half tribes—though many inconsequential stragglers remained. Samaria was later repopulated with other foreign groups who intermarried in part with the remaining native inhabitants and is why the area was later deemed a place of impure Israelite blood.

These two major judgments against the kingdoms of Israel and Judah differed however, in that the native tribes of the North were deported permanently with no allowed return, whereas the Southern Kingdom (Judah) would return after a 70 year hiatus. The tribes of the Northern Kingdom were apparently unredeemable since they had ventured so far into sin, idolatry, abominable practices, and gross degradation. Though Judah also engaged in great sin and likely deserved the same fate, a core of the nation had to be preserved for future purposes, the most obvious and greatest being the forthcoming eventual arrival of the Messiah. This is in part why the times called for Messianic prophets and their major works filled with detailed accounts of both the times and future prophetic events. (After the end of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, Judah was later referred to as Israel also since it was all that was left and became the de facto Israelite nation.)

PROPHETS IN CAPTIVITY

The three primary prophets chosen for this difficult time were Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Prior to and after the start of the Babylonian Captivity in 606/605 BC the clear prophetic Word continued primarily through these men whose lives began before the great exile and continued throughout the first twenty year period thereof. This was the initial destruction phase which lasted until the fateful summer of 586 BC. It was on the infamous date of Av 9 of that year that Jerusalem and the 380 year-old Temple of Solomon were destroyed by the forces of Nebuchadnezzar. Afterwards, much of the remaining population was taken captive in the third and final deportation to Babylon.

Even though a sizable number of the population living in Judah was exiled per the nation’s judgment and was composed in the main of the nation’s best and brightest, Jeremiah only records a relatively small number of 4,600 deportees (See Jeremiah 52:28-30) though some authorities have estimated it to be as large as 20,000. There is also some apparent discrepancies regarding the deportation dates. Whatever the case, though these numbers of the exiled appear small relative to the overall population, there remained an existent segment of Israelites in the land left to survive on their own, primarily in the southern tribal areas of Judah and Benjamin (though a few migrated north). Yet it was likely the case that those who remained had the least chance for survival (or possibly no chance). This was due to God’s determination to inflict the strongest of judgments:

“Thus you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “As I live, surely those who are in the waste places will fall by the sword, and whoever is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in the strongholds and in the caves will die of pestilence. I will make the land a desolation and a waste, and the pride of her power will cease; and the mountains of Israel will be desolate so that no one will pass through. Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I make the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations which they have committed.”’ [Ezekiel 33:27-29] [5]

Of these three major prophets associated with the Exile, only Jeremiah remained in the land for the initial twenty years until the great destruction of 586 BC. Though history does not record his exact birth year, it can be deduced to have occurred in circa 650-648 BC or possibly a little later. Jeremiah then began his prophetic ministry as a young man during the reign of the righteous King Josiah. He remained in his native land until sometime after 586 BC when the prophet was taken by force by his own people to Egypt, a place where many Israelites had been relocating in prior years. The time of his death is also lost to history though some sources estimate it took place in Egypt in about 570 BC.

The prophet Ezekiel was born in 623/622 BC and was part of the second deportation to Babylon in 597 BC. He began his ministry at 30 years of age like the Lord Jesus. Ezekiel’s year of death is unknown as well but is also estimated at the year 570 somewhere in Mesopotamia. The prophet Daniel lived from 620-536 BC though his date of death is an estimate based on the year of his last prophetic account. His life likely extended beyond that date, possibly to as late as 530 BC when he would have reached 90 years old. After being deported to Babylon as a young man in 605 BC he lived out the remainder of his life there, eventually seeing the same judgment inflicted upon Babylon when it was conquered by Persia. All three of these prophets never returned to their homeland and each were also victimized by the sad events of the Babylonian Exile.

With regard to other prophets of that time, Habakkuk, of which little is known, lived and preached in the range of approximately 612-598 BC according to some sources. If so he would have witnessed at least the first deportation and likely the second. Reportedly a contemporary of Jeremiah, he refers to the Chaldeans (Babylonians) in his short book of three chapters with strong sentiments and heartfelt complaints.

Thus we see that the Lord had good men stationed in the right place at the right time to give a clear and precise accounting of the events of that significant historical period. The Lord always kept His people informed though the majority either never listened or rejected His Word as well as the men who delivered it. Sound familiar? Nevertheless, the Messianic prophets were raised up and anointed to speak the Word of God to His people, to teach, guide, and direct them, and to apply ongoing necessary correctives and even severe rebukes.

There was always much need for the latter since the nation of Israel was constantly going astray.

[2] See: https://firmisrael.org/learn/how-many-messianic-prophecies-did-jesus-fulfill/

[3] See: www.preceptaustin.org/messianic_prophecies

[4] See: www.preceptaustin.org/messianic-prophecies-in-isaiah

Posted in Teaching

9 Comments

Tags: America, American Sin and Depravity, Ancient Israel, Babylon, Biblical Prophecy, Daniel, Discipleship, Ezekiel, God's Judgment, Isaiah the Prophet, Jeremiah, Jesus is the Messiah, Judgment, Lord Jesus, Messiah, National Judgment, Prophecy, Prophetic Warning, Real Christianity The Nature of the Church, Rejecting God's Prophets, The Great Awakening

WHO IS THIS MAN?

Posted on March 15, 2025 | Image

TENDER MERCY AND THE PROPHETIC WORD: FROM MALACHI TO JOHN THE IMMERSER

Oct 19

Posted by RJ Dawson

The ancient prophecy of Malachi said the next prophet to come would be a forerunner to prepare hearts and would announce the Messiah through the prophetic Word.

The Messiah is always announced through the prophetic Word. That is why there is no Messiah wherever there is no prophetic Word.

JOHN

John the Baptist—I prefer to call him John the Immerser because this title is both accurate and illustrative in the original Hebrew—was a mere man. Yet he was a man with a powerful spiritual anointing. His anointing was so powerful that it was aligned with the anointing of the ancient prophet Elijah. This is what the prophecy in Malachi actually entailed. It did not refer to a mere man or to a return of Elijah but to a particular powerful prophetic anointing which would show up in the Last Days.

MALACHI

He was the last prophet of Israel before the prophetic Word ceased. For roughly four and a half centuries until John there was no prophet in Israel. Imagine that. For perspective, if we traveled back through time from now for 450 years we would arrive at the year 1572. This was way before anything America. It predates Plymouth (1620) and Jamestown (1607). It even predates the Lost Colony of Roanoke (1585-87). Hence, Israel was prophetless for an incredibly long time.

Malachi’s ministry occurred in the late fifth century BC and ended at some point prior to 400BC when he spoke his last and passed from the scene. His voice was stilled. Having no successor, the prophetic Word went silent. One may wonder how or why this happened but it likely had something to do with an age-old fight between two elements meant to work together but were often effectively at each other’s throats. This ancient battle between priest and prophet continues to play out in our day but’s that’s another story for another time. Suffice it to say that the priests won their battle against the prophets when Malachi breathed his last.

We get an indication of the timing by taking a closer look at Daniel’s prophecy of weeks. He speaks of a distinct division in time that occurred after forty-nine years (seven weeks) which coincided with the completion of the rebuilding of Jerusalem in approximately 407BC. One can easily read into this as a time when the priests had taken full control of the city of Jerusalem and the second temple. They had everything going their way though they achieved it in part (likely a major part) through guile, mammon, and self-serving determination. Now they no longer had to worry about that confounding variable of God speaking to His people and stirring them up against their dead religious order. They had finally eliminated their great nemesis the prophet who was ever exposing their corruption. Does this sound familiar?

The anti-prophet effort had been brewing especially during the time when what was left of the nation of Israel was in Babylonian Captivity almost two centuries before. The nation had been banished there due to its great sin and faithlessness. A defiant faction of the priestly element never did repent but grew further from God and more rebellious. They also picked up some bad demonic stuff while in Babylon and incorporated it into their teachings. When they finally returned to the land after their 70 year penalty phase it was only a matter of time before their evil hearts would overtake the dutiful priests honorably adhering to the Law of Moses and the pure honesty of the prophets and rid the land of not only the prophetic Word but the edifying and preserving influence of God Himself.

Thus, the words of Malachi have special import. Imagine a friend or relative at the end of life speaking his or her final words. This person would never be heard from again. One would therefore want to spend time with the passing one whose speech would soon cease forever. Whether Malachi knew this or not we may not ever know but I think he did. He was a prophet after all. Unlike the priests who performed routine quotidian tasks and ceremonial duties, prophets had to stay close to God at all times or would not be able to fulfill their callings. They could never fake it. Their lives were not composed of man’s order but the comparative wildness of spiritual warfare as reflected in nature when one may not know what may come next—crashing oceans, great thunderstorms, raging blizzards and the like—but had better be equipped and able to deal with it. They were given a most difficult task to achieve that demanded the crucifixion of flesh. They were often greatly humbled. It sometimes appeared that God had little concern for their welfare or physical comfort. They were driven to be the best and to achieve their calling against great odds. These were tough men. Very strong. God demanded of them a high level of spiritual discipline and the outworking thereof because the people needed to hear from Him for their direction and salvation and this could only happen through the prophetic Word delivered through humanity.

Obviously very few men qualified to be prophets, not necessarily because God was partial or particularly choosy but because He had a hard time finding those who would willingly submit to the rigors of the calling. I cannot imagine how hard this process must have been for the Lord but I get a pretty good clue whenever I think about the working out of my own walk and its hopeful effectiveness and how the Lord must be forever patient but also demand commandment-keeping, curriculum-learning, calling-achievement, and having something great to show in our lives for what He did for us on the cross. He built a great foundation which gave each real Christian a tremendous head start. I would think He expects us to strive to be the best we can be. This is how it was for the OT prophets, though to the nth degree.

The book of Malachi has been described as “a beautiful expression of God’s love for a nation that continues to disobey Him,”[1] and in one sentence: “The Great King will come not only to judge his people, but also to bless and restore them.”[2] It is composed of four chapters. The verses we are concerned with in this paper come from Chapter 4 and describe that distant time four and a half centuries from Malachi’s era into the future when the great closing prophetic events occur in the final generation of Israel in the first century AD. Here is Chapter 4, the last verses of the Old Testament, in full:

Final Admonition

¹ “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

² “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.

³ “You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the LORD of hosts.

⁴ “Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.

⁵ “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.

⁶ “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.” [Malachi 4:1-6][3]

Those who are aware of the final conflagration of the nation of Israel will see in this passage the absolute accuracy of the prophetic Word of the Lord spoken through the prophet Malachi. This man was given a pure vision of the future by God and he captured it in written form. As I wrote earlier, the vision within this short passage directly refers to the final generation of Israel and the “Last Days” spoken of in the New Testament writings. They were the days of the next prophet after Malachi, a man named John, who the Lord Jesus referred to as the greatest man born of a woman. And of course, right after John arose the greatest Prophet, a Man excepted from the former description since He is truly the greatest, who was the long waited Messiah as referred to by Malachi in verse 5, “the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.” This day was great primarily because He would arrive and save all believers from their sin and grant them eternal life. But the day was terrible in that:

V1: It would burn like a furnace and all the arrogant and every evildoer would be chaff; the day that is coming will set them ablaze and leave them neither root nor branch.

V3: The wicked would be tread down and be ashes under the feet of the righteous on the day “which I am preparing.”

In the last verse the Lord speaks of one final chance for the nation. If not heeded He would “come and smite the land with a curse.” Of course we know it was not heeded. The prophet John was rejected. The Messiah was rejected. The prophetic Word was rejected. Every warning ever spoken was rejected.

The nation crashed and burned, as did the great city of Jerusalem, the city of David. And the brand new sparkling gold-laden and gold-filled third temple was also burned to the ground and every last trace of it vanished.

For the righteous believers who welcomed John and welcomed the Messiah and respected the prophetic Word we have:

V2: “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.”

We see this prophetic truth mentioned once again as reflected in the next passage from the Gospel of Luke when John’s father Zechariah spoke the following prophecy at baby John’s circumcision ceremony:

“Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people. He has sent us a mighty Savior from the royal line of His servant David, just as He promised through His holy prophets long ago. Now we will be saved from our enemies and from all who hate us. He has been merciful to our ancestors by remembering His sacred covenant—the covenant He swore with an oath to our ancestor Abraham. We have been rescued from our enemies so we can serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness for as long as we live.

“And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord. You will tell His people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.” [Luke 1:68-79 NLT]

[1] city.org.nz/kit/bible-overview

[2] biblestudytools.com/books-of-the-bible/

Posted in Teaching

5 Comments

Tags: America, Ancient Israel, Babylon, Discipleship, Generation, Herod's Temple, Jesus is the Messiah, John the Immerser, Last Days, Lord Jesus, Malachi, Mercy, Power To Be Anointed Witnesses, Prophetic Warning, Prophets, Real Christianity The Nature of the Church, Rejecting God's Prophets, Spirit and Power of Elijah, Spiritual Warfare, The Destruction of Jerusalem 70 AD, The Great Awakening, The Prophetic Word

JULY 4TH PRELUDE

Jul 3

Posted by RJ Dawson

Tomorrow we celebrate the 246th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Tomorrow’s post will contain the entirety of that great document and the hope thereof.

I have told you several times in recent posts of the three types of American Colonists that existed in 1776. Each type comprised roughly one third of the colonial population. One type was fully on the side of the English king and Parliament. One type was fully disengaged, ignorant, apathetic, selfish, and completely unaware of the battle at hand and its future ramifications. And one type comprised the greatest generation, the great American Patriots who put everything on the line to fight for freedom.

As of now, it appears that the forces of evil have gained the upper hand. But I must remind everyone that the same dynamic was in play 246 years ago. The American Patriots appeared to have no chance but that never stopped them from taking that chance. They knew they would have no chance at all unless they went all in. Their great victory proved again that good is greater than evil and that Light always overcomes darkness.

However, there is a group on the rise that has been on the rise for several years now. I saw this at least thirty years ago when I began my initial research for my book Real Christianity. I saw that if real Christianity was to survive in America it must overcome the massive forces of Unreal Christianity. I certainly expressed the hope that this group of real Christians would continue to rise, and for that to happen there must be an Awakening. I mentioned this in the book.

However, it was not until late August of 2010 that I received the definitive proof. The Lord told me America was in the early stages of a national Great Awakening. That was almost twelve years ago. It has proven to be true.

After 246 years this country is at a terrible crossroads. Most never saw what was coming during the good times but the few did. Presently, more can see it, if not by spiritual eyes then by experience. Empirical evidence always promotes clarity. Americans will experience more in the immediate future—dire circumstances from seemingly every direction—that will cause them to start waking up. They will see that all the warnings they previously rejected had great merit. They will see that those who had it right all along but had their names and lives destroyed should have been listened to and honored.

Perhaps the best verse of Scripture which perfectly illustrates what has happened over the last three decades is the following:

Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and among his own relatives and in his own household.” [Mark 6:4][1]

Thanks to the Lord Jesus, however, we have great hope. Thanks to Him and His real followers, everyone will have the opportunity to gain the spoils that go to the victor.

246 years ago a group of American Revolutionaries openly declared themselves independent and free of corrupt government. They would go on to fight another five years to win the prize. When they won, and it was a GREAT victory, the spoils of war were shared by all Americans, even the traitors and cowards.

The Great Awakening is here. Whether it will be enough or not remains to be seen.

Posted in Current Events

8 Comments

REJECTING THE TRUTH (When It Hits Too Close To Home)

Mar 4

Posted by RJ Dawson

At first the prophets were respected. Then their pronouncements caused discomfort. Then the people got angry. Then the prophets were rejected.

This is the way it always goes. The message of the prophets never changed. The only thing that changed was the reaction to the message. The reaction was worse in relation to the prophet’s closeness to home. Rejecting truth caused unrepentant people to turn inward, ingrown, and interbred. They eliminated the possibility of receiving the seed of God which always came from without. They became anti-fruitful, grew spiritually lazy and sluggish, and wanted an easy time of things. God would have nothing of it.

The Lord Jesus spoke nothing but Truth. The Truth inevitably caused a bad reaction. The bad reaction denoted the place the reaction came from in that the hearts of such people had grown far away from God though they all considered themselves just fine with God.

THANK YOU LORD THAT WE ARE NOT LIKE OTHER RELIGIONS

Christianity in general likes itself and sees no problem. This is the problem. The Lord is fixing the problem. That’s why we are in the early stages of a national Great Awakening. But the Awakening is still being opposed by the very people who should be supporting it. They oppose it because they like things the way they are. They are resistant to change. This is not new. They take the correcting and reforming words of the Lord as an offense.

I wrote the following 16 months ago: Americans Deciding with Their Feet: The Ongoing Exodus from Traditional Christianity. It speaks of the fast-approaching future, ready or not, some of which has already arrived, which demands TC get its act together or face complete irrelevance.

I have written hundreds of well-researched articles like this reflecting the exact scenario regarding the closed hearts and minds of so many so-called Christians who oppose the Lord while claiming to support Him. The evidence for this should be obvious to any nominal believer by the very lack of evidence among the unreal believers of actually obeying the Lord and carrying out His plan.

“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.” [Acts 7:51]

Their hearts are not right. They resist. They oppose. None of it surprises the Lord. He has a bit of experience in this area. The same spiritual dynamic always happens and it always happens the same way. For a refresher course, it goes like this:

(1) An obscure nobody suddenly speaks forth something so profound and so different that the first reaction from the entrenched religious traditionalist status-quo is silent shock (“What did He just say?”).

(2) They try to throw Him off a cliff.

IDOL O’ PROTOCOL

This is exactly what they attempted. Only it was not, as one may suppose, the actions of some strange evil street protesters who advocate for killing everyone who doesn’t believe exactly everything they believe. But wait. It kind of was. But before they assumed that form they were nice church-law-abiding pew-sitting go-along-with-the-program types who somehow found great spiritual nourishment in silently watching the pros perform while making sure such pros performed in exactly the way they were accustomed. They had no hankering for anyone even thinking of doing anything even the slightest bit different or break in any way from the correct time-honored protocol.

Then the Lord Jesus broke protocol. Actually, on His very first visit to His home town church after beginning His ministry when asked to read He proceeded to the front, turned and faced the crowd, and read a very familiar passage. Then he said some other things from right out of the very Scriptures those people supposedly honored but never, ever mentioned. About this time and in that process He let everybody know that things would be different from now on and demonstrated it by very calmly picking up the dead carcass of religious protocol in His strong and mighty construction-worked hands and slamming it against the nearest wall splintering it into a thousand pieces. It was pretty cool. The church people were not happy. Here is the narrative:

And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

“THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”

And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And all were speaking well of Him, and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, “Is this not Joseph’s son?”

And He said to them, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’”

And He said, “Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown.”

“But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.”

And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. [Luke 4:16-29] [1]

Posted in Current Events

10 Comments

Tags: Christian Pharisees, Christianity, Circumcision of the Heart, Lord Jesus, Nazareth, Rejecting God's Prophets, The Great Awakening, The Prophetic Word, Traditional Christianity, Unreal Christianity

Reject God’s Prophets At Your Own Peril

Jul 12

Posted by RJ Dawson

The Watchman On The Wall

The preceding link will direct you to an incredibly timely post from the blog, Manoah’s Wife, and for me, one with clear and current prophetic overtones. Many voices have been going forth from the Lord over the last several years warning this country of what is coming. Without repentance there is no way to hold back the tide. Our national and personal sins have demanded judgment. This passage is a perfect word to each of us, to our “churches” and spiritual communities, and to the nation of America itself.

The good news is that many are not only hearing the prophetic word but are acting upon it. Our former righteousness will not save us in the day we sin, yet the wicked that turn from sin will be saved. This is happening right now. Many sinners are turning to God but many “righteous” are falling away and do not even know it. These “believers” have closed their hearts and minds to prophetic warnings and the full truth of the Lord’s message. They have substituted false doctrines that appear perfectly Biblical and subsist on dry formalism, dead religion, and watered-down “Christianity light” instead of embracing the Lord Jesus in all His power and glory.

It is an exact rendering of the Lord’s words from so long ago directed to His own people:

“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ And he answered, ‘I will not;’ but afterward he regretted it and went. The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.” [Matthew 21:28-32]

Many Christians have fallen asleep and insist on playing games and engaging in mere dutiful routine because they have rejected the prophetic word and disfellowshipped every prophet whom the Lord ever sent their way. The passage in Ezekiel reveals exactly the heart of God but many “Christians” insist that such is mere “Old Covenant” drivel and that God is no longer like that, in that the New Covenant has transformed God into an uncaring and worldly pansy who would rather we all act like a bunch of Sunday School kids and go through mere motions every Sunday morning. Those who have adopted this false view of God have no chance, because they refuse to listen to prophetic warnings and strong teaching, and instead substitute a fleshy, worldly, and wimpy “Christian” outlook devoid of spiritual strength and power.

What a sad state of affairs it is when most “Christians” would rather reject God for their own “Bible-based” religion or simply live in sin with no conviction or desire to honor the Lord Jesus properly.

“If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” [John 14:15]

Based on this, most “Christians” do not love the Lord and therefore do not show His real love to others. They are dealing with a substitute. They “say” but do not “do.” They cannot possibly send forth the seed of the Gospel simply because they do not possess it, nor want to possess it.

“But as for you, son of man, your fellow citizens who talk about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses, speak to one another, each to his brother, saying, ‘Come now and hear what the message is which comes forth from the LORD.’ They come to you as people come, and sit before you as My people and hear your words, but they do not do them, for they do the lustful desires expressed by their mouth, and their heart goes after their gain. Behold, you are to them like a sensual song by one who has a beautiful voice and plays well on an instrument; for they hear your words but they do not practice them. So when it comes to pass—as surely it will—then they will know that a prophet has been in their midst.” [Ezekiel 33:30-33] [1]