Chronology of Joy

“Anyone who doesn’t have principles that they are willing to die for at any moment is already dead and of no use to anyone, including himself, and will be miserable their whole life because of it.” 

–William Cooper

Grace and peace, saints.

I’m just a guy with a blog.  I’m just a guy who wants to bring as many people as I can to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  I’m just a guy who wants to see people get saved and freed from bondage to Satan the way I was freed.  I’m just a man who tells the truth.  I am nobody special, except for the fact that Jesus Christ died and shed His blood to save me.  But I must be pretty important to somebody.

Right now, the time is 1:52 a.m.; and I can’t sleep; or rather, they won’t let me sleep.  I went to bed at 11:30 p.m. last night and at about 1:00 this morning the index finger on my left hand jerked me awake.  I’m assuming it was the index finger on my left hand, because that’s the finger that normally jerks me awake when I try to go to sleep; that is, when it’s not the baby finger of my left hand, or that of my right hand, or a foot, or the muscles in my thigh, or the muscles in my lips.

Saints, I seem to have made somebody angry.

This lends credence to my belief in the Bible and that at the root of all the evil that is going on in the world is a religion, and it’s not the worship of Jesus Christ.  You see I don’t know jack about politics.  I don’t know squat about economics.  I don’t know diddly about nuclear physics.  But I do know the Bible.  And everything that Satan does and is going to do is based on and is foretold in the Bible.  The so-called New World Order that is coming to a neighborhood near you is foretold of in the Bible.  And everything that I talk or write about is Bible-based; therefore, whomever I seem to have angered is angry because I talk about the Bible, because that’s basically all I ever talk about.

Therefore, the Bible must be right about the Roman Catholic church being behind everything that is going on in the world, including the Norway massacre.  Therefore the Bible must be right about the Roman Catholic church being the Great Whore of Babylon responsible for spilling the blood of the prophets and saints of God and having caused all the wars that have ever been fought. Therefore I must be correct in my belief that the pope is the Antichrist, and I must be correct that the Great Persecution of the Christian church is imminent.

I must also be right about the Roman Catholic Charismatic Movement being used to beguile the Christian Church into uniting with all the other ungodly religions in a one-world church headed by the pope.  I must be right in my contention that the Rapture is a farce.  I must be correct that the New Age Movement has united Freemasons and other secret societies, along with witches, occultists, homosexuals, feminists, and anyone else who hates Christians, into one giant fraternal organization bent on destroying the Christian church.  I didn’t make all this up; it has already been established by many other people, most notably William Cooper.  But I did the research on my own and came to the same conclusion; and my research has been confirmed by the fact that people in St. Louis are paying an awful lot of attention to me–an awful lot.

But all this didn’t begin in St. Louis.  It actually began in Munich, Germany, in around 2002.  This is why I believe the Bible when it calls the Roman Catholic church the Great Whore.  And since they won’t let me sleep and are determined to mess with me no matter where I go and no matter what I do, I am going to tell you about it—to pass the time.

First of all, when I say I don’t have any knowledge of those subjects, I mean it.  I was born into a poor family in St. Louis, Missouri, and received an average public school education.  I enlisted in the Army in 1982 at age 21 as a Combat Engineer and did my basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.  My first duty station was Fort Sill, Oklahoma with the 299th Engineer Battalion.  I had done two tours of duty at Fort Sill and one in Panama before I changed specialties.

One day after coming in from a field training exercise, I saw an announcement that was to be the catalyst for a great change in my life.  It was for the Bonus Enlistment and Re-Training (BEAR) program.  As the title says, this program allowed soldiers to retrain into jobs that were classified hard to fill; some because they were jobs that no one wanted to do, and others because it was difficult to find and keep qualified people to do those jobs. After successful completion of the training, the soldier reenlisted for a minimum of three years, at which time he received a cash bonus.

One job caught my eye.  It was MOS 97E, Interrogator.  Though the name sounds high-speed, it was not.  The job was basically as a translator, who during times of war, was supposed to interview enemy prisoners of war in their native language.  If you saw the movie, “Saving Private Ryan,” you probably remember the scared American soldier who spoke German, and who let the German soldier go free who later killed a valiant soldier.  Well, I was the modern-day equivalent of that guy.

It sounded exciting, and I thought that it would give me better opportunities for a career after the military than I would have as a combat engineer.  So, I went to talk to the in-service recruiter (the guy one talks to when one wants to transfer to another specialty).  I learned that this job fell under Military Intelligence, and that I would have to be willing and able to go to school for a year to learn the Russian language.  Well, to make a long story short, I went to Russian School at the Presidio of Monterey, California, and on to the Military Intelligence Center and School at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.  The entire process took about 18 months.  I was then stationed in Stuttgart, Germany.

Eight months later, the Gulf War broke out and in December 1990, I was sent to Saudi Arabia, where I spent the next six months.  After the war, the unit disbanded and in September 1991, I was sent back stateside to Fort Carson, Colorado.  At that time, this was one of the best duty assignments in the military.  A couple of years later I was transferred to Fort Bragg, North Carolina where I was assigned to an airborne Intelligence unit. 

I must say at this time that I believe my whole career in Military Intelligence was a fluke.  Military Intelligence soldiers are among the brightest men and women in the military.  They can also be some of the weirdest.  I was not all that bright and I certainly wasn’t weird.  But I was a very good linguist and a good soldier.  However, it was difficult for me to find where I fit in.  I’m black, and there were very few blacks in Military Intelligence at that time, and those few were not at all what you would expect.  So, it was sometimes difficult.  Overall, though, my experience in Military Intelligence was priceless, as I learned things about myself that I probably would not otherwise have learned.

After two years at Bragg, I transferred to Augsburg, Germany, about 45 minutes from Munich.  It was here that I met my wife, which occurred one Saturday afternoon on this wise: Occasionally soldiers would have to pull an eight-hour shift at the airport to await incoming soldiers and arrange for their units to pick them up. 

On this particular day I was sitting at the inbound flights section talking to a new found friend of mine, also a soldier, when this beautiful black girl walked past us emptying ashtrays into a plastic bag.  My friend took notice and attempted to strike up a conversational with her, which didn’t go well, because she didn’t speak English and he spoke neither Portuguese (she was from Angola) nor German.  Moreover, the entire time he was talking to her, she was looking at me; so my friend suggested I talk to her.  I was reluctant, however, because I had no idea what possible common ground there could be between an African girl and an American solider.  Uh-huh, I was just that stupid.

Well, I gave her my number half-hoping she would not call, because I dreaded the thought of struggling through a conversation with her.  It wasn’t the prospect of trying to talk to a foreigner that daunted me, because having been in the military for fifteen years at the time, and having been stationed overseas twice before, I was used to the mechanics of language.  It was the idea of looking like a fool.  Well, needless to say she did call and we went on a date the next weekend. 

We went to McDonald’s (where else does one go on a first date in Munich?) and had struggled for fifteen minutes trying to understand each other–her German and my English locked in mortal combat–when it suddenly occurred to me that many Africans are multi-lingual.  So, I asked her what other languages she spoke.  Among the several she mentioned was Portuguese.  It so happened that when I was taking Russian at the Presidio, I had befriended some Rwandan soldiers who were there learning Portuguese.  They had tried to teach me some, and I learned that it is similar to Spanish.  So, I started speaking Spanish to her, which I had picked up in Panama.  That’s when the floodgates burst.  That quiet, demure girl instantly morphed into Joan Rivers, and I couldn’t get a word in edgewise, which was perfect.  It was a great first date.  And many more followed.

In 1998, I retired from the military, and, after a short stint in the U.S., I went back to Munich to be with my girlfriend.  Shortly afterward, I managed to land a job as an IT consultant with a German firm and I and my wife and newborn daughter settled into a comfortable life.  That is, until one day, while at home in St. Louis visiting my hospitalized mother, I was in my car on the way to the VA hospital, when I got a call from my little brother.  He told me that an airplane had just flown into the World Trade Center.  That day forever changed my life.

I was in shock.  I sat in the lobby of the VA hospital watching in stupefied horror as the tower burned.  Then suddenly out of nowhere in plain daylight a second plane crashed into the second tower.  That was when I knew that this was no accident.  Sometime later came the announcement that this heinous crime was perpetrated by Islāmic terrorists.

I instinctively knew that something was terribly wrong.  Though I knew nothing of United States national security, I knew that NORAD sits in Colorado Springs, and that it watches the skies over America day and night.  How then, could not one, but two planes manage to hit the twin towers and F-16’s not blast them out of the sky?  Something was wrong, and I was very confused.

In the ensuing anti-terrorist frenzy that followed, I panicked.  My first thought was that someone, knowing that I was in Intelligence and spoke Russian and owned a Koran, might think I was a terrorist.  You see, though I didn’t talk about it much, when I was in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, I had studied Islam and had actually become a Muslim.  I later abandoned it, when I realized that I could not reconcile Islam’s view of Jesus Christ as merely a prophet with my Christian upbringing of Him being something more, though at this time, I didn’t know what. 

Now, because everyone was talking about how these terrorists had studied in America, had commercial pilot’s licenses, and seemed to have led ordinary lives until that fateful day, people no longer trusted anyone who wasn’t “normal.”  In my eyes, that included me.  So, one day, I got all my Russian books, dictionaries, and tapes, my Koran, Hadith, and everything that didn’t “belong,” and drove to the Goodwill, where I deposited the lot.  I then flew back to Germany in a daze.

Back in Munich, a friend of mine came to visit me in November 2001, and handed me a book.  The book was entitled, Secret Societies and Their Power in the Twentieth Century.

DISCLAIMER: This book is full of New Age propaganda, Eastern Mysticism, and disinformation, designed to mislead those who have realized that something is wrong in the world.  God used it as a means to guide me into His truth, but Christians should STAY AWAY from this book.  It is dangerously deceptive.

That was the second event that forever changed my life, for that book introduced me to what has commonly become known as the New World Order.  It also introduced me to a group that has almost become cliché, the Illuminati. 

This book blew my mind, because it suggested that all the wars, famines, depressions, dictatorial regimes like Hitler’s Third Reich, and events such as 9/11 were not just random accidents, but planned events brought about by those who constitute the real power in the world.  This was a lot to handle, but it made sense.  In fact, it was the only thing in my life up to that point that had made sense.  Now, things that had always puzzled me about the world and even my own life began to sharpen and solidify.  But there were still many questions, chief among which was how something like this could be happening without anyone knowing anything about it.  Well, it turned out someone had known something about it and put it in a book entitled, Behold A Pale Horse.  That someone was William Cooper.

William Cooper was a former Naval Intelligence Officer and Vietnam War veteran who began to study the New World Order ever since the Kennedy Assassination.  Cooper had a shortwave radio program called The Hour of the Time where he presented evidence that the NWO stems from an ancient plan to create a One-World, totalitarian Socialist government that will supplant God with the worship of Lucifer. 

Cooper’s research led to a 42-tape series on his broadcast called “Mystery Babylon” where he presented “the history, the dogma, and the identity of those who operate in secret to bring about a One-World, totalitarian Socialist government,” and he proved that this New World Order is actually based on an ancient pagan religion.  I managed to acquire the series and, using it and the references that Cooper gave, conducted my own research.  I found out that Cooper was 100% correct.

Now, in the course of my research, I found that the common thread between all the disparate groups that make up Mystery Babylon is the occult.  I also realized that they all hate Christianity.  At this time, I was not a Christian, so it rather surprised me, because I reasoned that if the devil were a fantasy, then these people would not have a problem with Christianity.  Therefore, I surmised that not only must the devil be real, but also so must Jesus Christ.  And if Jesus Christ is real, then so is the Gospel.  This realization eventually led to my salvation.

Shortly after I got saved in Munich in September 2005, I discovered Chick gospel tracts and began a tract ministry distributing tracts at train stations, subway stations, and basically anywhere there were people, and I managed to personally lead one person to Christ.  But strange things began to happen.  People became increasingly hostile towards me. 

One day for instance, I was riding my bicycle down the bike path when a German man just walked up and pushed me off my bike.  I pulled myself off the ground and confronted him, never once, mind you, losing my cool.  I simply wanted to know what had prompted him to act in a way that could have resulted in me getting seriously injured.  As we were talking (he was yelling), an Asian lady, who had nothing whatsoever to do with this, walked up and told me that she was going to call the police and tell them that she saw everything and that I had assaulted the man.  And she meant it.  I got on my bike and rode away.  Something in me though, told me that the thing was staged.

There were many more events such as this all feeling similarly staged.  Besides this, strange things were happening at home.  Once someone had allowed his dog to poop on our doormat.  Another day, someone had dumped trash on our first-floor balcony.  Often I would find my bike tires punctured, and someone would ring our doorbell early in the morning or knock on our living room window.  Occasionally when my wife and I were having an intimate moment, someone would knock on the floor of our apartment just beneath us.  There were many, many such incidents.

Of course, my neighbors were responsible for all this, in particular the family who lived next door to us.  Often when I would be in my study, the next-door neighbor would bang on the wall or, as he had access to the janitor’s room that was underneath our apartment, he would bang on the floor with a hammer or use very loud power tools.  And ever single day for almost three years, he would play his music as loud as possible in the early morning hours.  This family also practiced witchcraft. 

The spiritual warfare that went on between that family and me is a very interesting story indeed and shows not only the existence of witchcraft, but also the power of Jesus Christ. But it went further than just harassment.  One day a young lady walked past my family in the subway and burned my daughter with a cigarette.

At this point, in the interest of fairness, let me say that not all Germans are bad, just like not all Americans are good.  In fact, if I didn’t say that I am extremely grateful for the time I spent in Germany and for all the great people I met, not to mention the great life lessons I learned there, I wouldn’t be very honest.  Hey, I got saved in Germany!  The Germans are a great people many of whom have been engineered to be racist.  I had once heard that Satan hates Germany because the courageous Martin Luther, who started the Protestant Reformation, was German; so by setting up the Nazi regime and exterminating over six million Jews, Satan knocked off two birds with one stone: he partially eliminated an old enemy and he forever altered the world’s opinion of Germans.  Germans are a largely misunderstood and very deceived people, whom I can’t help but love.

Now, to continue, I had chocked all of this up to neighbor hostility and hostility towards blacks (or at least this black) and I figured that perhaps my presence in the building disturbed something that shouldn’t have been disturbed.  I tried to see things from their perspective and this actually helped.  So, even though there was always this feeling that everything was choreographed, I eventually let it go, and I thought no more of it.  It was just one of those things that you can’t change.

Then I came back home.  And the same thing happened here.  When I first got back to St. Louis, I lived in an apartment in a four-family flat in one of the roughest neighborhoods in town.  The landlord was a man in his thirties and was without a doubt a drug dealer, who also lived in the building as well as his mother and cousins.  In fact, the only tenant that wasn’t in his family was me.  Even though I was a very good tenant, this guy and his family just didn’t seem to like me.  And they let me know it.  What was strange about it was the way they let me know.

There would be knocking on my wall, stomping on the floor from his cousins who lived above us, and water leaking from the ceiling as if they purposely let water run on the bathroom floor upstairs so that it would leak into our bathroom.  Sometimes I would come home from school to a quiet house.  Yet five minutes after arriving, the front porch would be full of people making the worst racket.  One time my kids and I were coming home from grocery shopping.  As we approached the apartment building, which was empty and quiet, someone peeked from behind the curtain in the apartment above us.  Suddenly there was a stream of people onto the balcony as we approached.  There was a familiar choreographed feel to all this activity.  I struggled to remember whence I had felt it.  I made up my mind to move.

I moved about 15 miles away to what I thought was a quiet suburb.  Everything was fine for a couple of days until one day my kids and I went to the store.  While we were at the checkout counter, a lady behind me subtly pushed her cart into my leg.  When I looked at her, the most sadistic grin coupled with feigned ignorance crossed her face.  My youngest daughter, who saw the thing, told me that the same lady had followed us all over the store.

On another day we had come out of the store onto the parking lot, where I found that a shopping cart had been pushed with great force against the front quarter panel of my car, making a dent.  As I looked around, realizing that there was no wind to blame, I spotted a lady looking at us from her car, parked a short distance away.  She was smiling.  For reasons totally unrelated to these incidents, we moved six months later to where I live now.  You guessed it: the same things happen here, only much more sinister.

If you were to see my street, you would think it was one of the most idyllic, quiet streets you had ever seen.  And yet, some of the most evil people on the face of the earth live on this street.  The neighbor to the right of me is a chronic drunk.  He is only thirty-six or thirty-seven years old, yet he looks like he has lived a hard life.  He is unemployed, and he rarely, if ever, leaves the house.  He maintained a strategic silence the first couple of days after we moved in, but soon made his presence known. 

Had I known that my next-door neighbor would be a drunk, I would not have moved into this house.  After six years of living next door to a drunk in Germany, I was not in a hurry to relive the experience.  I tried to get along with him for my children’s sake, because I don’t have any family.  If something had happened to me, there would have been no one to take care of them.  Men like this are often a prison sentence just waiting to happen to some poor unwitting fool.  They will start it, hoping you will finish it, so that they can call the police and have you hauled off.  My drunken neighbor in Germany had tried to do this to me.

So, I put up with him until my children returned to Germany.  I even tried to witness to him and gave him a Gospel tract.  But, the man is full of self-loathing and hate, and hate needs no excuse.  Even though I tried to be friendly with him just to keep the peace, he has called me the ‘n’ word on three occasions.  So, I left off speaking to him.  As in Germany and in my first apartment, even this man’s actions seemed choreographed, and he one day confirmed my suspicions. 

Once, when I was washing my car, he walked up to me, inebriated as usual, and slurs a greeting.  I told him in the nicest way possible that I didn’t want to talk to him at that moment.  He seemed stunned and walked away to his own house.  When he reached his porch, he yelled, “You’re a f-ing racist!”  This blew me away.  I had never been accused of being a racist before, especially just for saying that I didn’t want to talk to someone.  This seems to be a growing trend.

I have had the same thing happen to me here that happened at the other locations.  Trash dumped in front of my house, people kicking or hitting the side of the house, setting off my car alarm, someone taking the flea collar off my cat (she even disappeared for two days), and knocking on the side of the house when I go to the bathroom.  And they make tons of noise:  Dogs barking constantly.  Lawn mowers, chain saws, and weed eaters screaming.  Loud music.  Loud talking.  And everything has this choreographed feel to it.  But it doesn’t end there.  Wherever I go I am followed.  If I go to a restaurant, twenty minutes after I arrive, it is packed to capacity.  And the noise is deafening.  One of my neighbors, whom I had never met, just “happened” to be taking his trash out at the same time I was and I realized that I had seen him before at my school.

And hardly anyone works in my neighborhood.  Virtually everyone is always at home.  The streets are as filled with cars during the day as in the evening.  When I’m at the store people nearly run into me with their carts and almost bump into me coming around corners as fast as the Indy 500.  And everything and everyone feels choreographed.  Before I realized what was going on, I sat down once and tried to find a common denominator to reconcile the same behavior manifesting in people of different colors, nationalities, income brackets, and on two continents.  I could find none, until one day I remembered the family that lived above me in the four family flat.

One day after they had been particularly annoying, my kids and I had gone to the park to relax.  When we came back I noticed an interesting development.  The window on their front door, which had a plain white curtain on it, now sported a curtain embroidered with the Roman Catholic “Mother and child.”  Suddenly everything that had happened in the last ten years made perfect sense.  Religion was the only thing that all these diverse groups could have in common.  It then hit me that Munich is staunchly Catholic as is St. Louis, and the neighborhood where I live is seriously Catholic.  Could this all be Roman Catholic persecution in response to my evangelism efforts?  I am thoroughly convinced of this.

But I think it goes even farther.  I have taken a mental inventory of the people who literally follow me around and congregate wherever I am.  They include a large number of homosexuals and lesbians, and I have even seen on occasion, Muslim women dressed in the typical headdress.  There are also many Chinese.  All of these groups are hostile towards Christianity, and I have passed out Christian tracts speaking out on homosexuality, Islam, and Communism.  It seems I have made some enemies.

And there’s a high-tech element.  I don’t know how they do it, but they do manage to wake me up and even keep me from sleeping by causing my muscles to spasm or twitch.  Last night for instance, when I started writing this, it was 2’oclock in the morning.  It is now 7:08.  As I was typing this I nodded off for a second.  Immediately my back spasmed, waking me up.  And it is always accompanied by what feels like a minute electric shock.  William Cooper said that it was possible to do this sort of thing to a human body by remote control in his four-part series on Mind Control.  Now I’m a believer.  But God is faithful.  He always sticks a few days in there where I do manage to get some sleep, and thus, I am able to keep going.  

Once, I was on my bike on the way home from the university.  As I was about to cross an alleyway that I have crossed dozens of times, something told me to stop immediately.  A split second later, a large truck came flying out of the alley onto the street.  If I had not have stopped, I would have been killed, or, at least, seriously injured.  On the side of the truck was written, “Irish Construction.”  My neighborhood is Irish Roman Catholic. 

Why am I telling you all of this? Because I am just a guy.  I’m nobody special.  I don’t have any special knowledge of what’s going on in the world, and I have no government contacts.  Yet, you would be amazed to see the number of people who follow me around, and the elaborate scenarios they set up to make it look authentic.  It’s almost like a movie where everybody is an extra.  Like the Truman Show.  It is of course intended to look that way which serves its own purpose.

When you think of the logistics of this, it is costing someone a lot of money.  All of these people who just stay at home.  All of these people shopping, eating at restaurants, or just standing around.  Who’s paying their rent?  Who’s paying their bills?  Someone with a bankroll.  Now who has that kind of money?

All this would make no sense unless the things that I say were true.  This would be pointless if I were not a threat to someone.  Everything I say comes out of the Word of God or is a result of Bible-based research.  Therefore, I am right to say that religion is at the root of this.  And that is what I want you to know.

There is a lot more I could tell you, but it may very well be that someone is experiencing something of this nature, but not to the extent as I.  I don’t want to make that person paranoid, because the enemy wants you to know what he’s doing and has even published books on this subject.  The purpose is to get Christians scared and paranoid always looking over their shoulder.  The less you know of their tactics, the better.  Suffice it to say that every single Christian-hating group is united in the New Age.

So, don’t get all wrapped up in conspiracy theories.  Stick to the Word of God.  Everything is in there.  Pass everything you see, everything you hear, and everything you read through your Biblical filter.  If you can’t reconcile it with Scripture, throw it out.  And listen: don’t be in a hurry to “fellowship” with everybody, especially Roman Catholics and Mormons.  By all means witness to them, because they are also souls for whom Christ died.  But don’t consider them Christians, because what they actually believe and practice as opposed to what they say is quite different from Christianity. 

Jack Chick writes that right before the Irish Roman Catholics massacred the Irish Protestants in the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre, they gave them gifts.  And this doesn’t just go for Catholics.  Anyone in your life who is not a bone-e-fied born-again Christian you had better watch; for your own safety and that of your loved ones.  I’m hearing too many stories these days about friends killing their friend’s babies.

If you saw the things that I see every day you would be amazed.  I walk alone.  My wife took me to court and took my kids back to Germany in a court case that was so lopsided and crooked, I could write a book about it.  My kids hate Germany, but they are being forced to live there.  Can you imagine three black American children being forced to live in Germany?  

That they are blacks is problematic enough, but they are also Christian.  Regardless what you have been told, Roman Catholicism is the enemy of the Christian church, and Roman Catholics are persecuting Christians in secret.  If it is happening to me, it must be happening to someone else.  Like me, my kids are being persecuted for their faith, as the events I described above are also happening to them, especially my son.  Why?  Because he is my son.  

He has been beat up by groups of German kids several times, and once they busted his head so badly that he required stitches.  He once told me that a group of boys left him in a large hole on the school grounds where construction was being done—for three hours, on a school day.  This means that even his teacher was in on it, which doesn’t surprise me at all.  And the same neighbor who harassed me for six years is now harassing him.  He once told me that he couldn’t sleep, because someone beats on the floor of his room.  The same thing the neighbor did to me.  

Nothing will be done about this, because unfortunately, his mother is also a Roman Catholic.  Don’t be surprised; Jesus said that the day would come when a man’s foes would be those of his own house.  That day has arrived.  If you are a praying person, please pray for my kids.

As for me, my whole—and I do mean whole—birth family has forsaken me.  I don’t have one friend.  I am totally alone in the world.  That’s why I have to rely on Jesus: there is no one else.  But let me tell you something:  Because I am alone and everyone here knows it, they let their hair completely down.  They do things in front of me that they would never do if I had someone to tell it to.  That has enabled me to see wickedness of epic proportions.  I’m sure that’s the way God planned it. 

Folks, believe me: you don’t know people as well as you think you do.  Use discernment!  If you don’t have it, then ask God for it.

“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed;

“We are perplexed, but not in despair;

“Persecuted, but not forsaken,

“Cast down, but not destroyed;

“Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10).

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man:  but God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

 

If you would like to know the Lord Jesus, click here. 

If you would like to read more of my testimony, click here.

Be encouraged and look up; your redemption draweth nigh.  

The Still Man

UPDATE June 14, 2014.  My family and I have been back together for two years here in Munich.  God is good!

Please pray for us.

 

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The Media Assault on Christianity Continues

Grace and peace.

In our post entitled, “In God We Trust, All Others We Monitor” we discuss how the media associates Biblical Christianity with terrorism by calling it “fundamentalism,” the same term applied to Islāmic terrorism.  In “The Occult Significance of the Norway Shooting” we explain how the media is using the same technique to claim that the alleged shooter, Anders Breivik, was on a Christian “crusade,” by stating that he posted his views on “fundamentalist” websites.  Now, in a further development, the Associated Press takes an even bolder step toward brainwashing the populace into accepting this scurrilous allegation.

In an article entitled “’Christian Terrorist?’ Norway Case Strikes Debate,” the author makes the claim that Breivik “is being called a “Christian extremist” or “Christian terrorist,” going so far as to even include this unfounded allegation in the title of the article, which he cleverly masks as a query.  

The problem with this is that the author only cites two sources for his contention.  Two opinions is hardly a consensus, yet that doesn’t deter the author, who goes on to quote a college professor who apparently wrote an essay “likening Breivik to Timothy McVeigh.” The media made this same association in the immediate aftermath of the Norway incident.  But where the previous article made only a subtle allusion, this article makes an explicit and damning accusation:

“McVeigh and Breivik were both ‘good-looking young Caucasians,’ self-enlisted soldiers in an imagined cosmic war to save Christendom…and both were Christian terrorists.”

How the media can call Breivik a “Christian terrorist” based on these unsubstantiated claims beggars the imagination.  The media hate Christianity.  The article continues this vitriol:

“For Christians who think of their faith as preaching peace, how to explain the faith-sanctioned killing of the Crusades?”

The media always reanimate the bloody Crusades when they want to paint Christianity as violent extremism.  But as any first-year history student knows (that is, any history student that hasn’t been brainwashed by a liberal, Jesuit-run school), the Crusades were sponsored by the Roman Catholic church, which is not Christian, no matter how much the pope says it is.

Any discerning Christian would expect the liberal, Jesus-hating media to pull this type of stunt, but even so-called Protestant Christian clergymen are pattering this rhetoric, including the pastor of an AME church in Philadelphia, who said,

“It clearly puts us in a position where we can’t simply say that extreme and violent behavior associated with a religious belief is somehow restricted to Muslim extremists.”

By his words, this pastor, just like the media, associates Christianity with Islāmic terrorism.  This is not totally surprising, however, because even the apostle Paul said that he was often “in danger of false brethren.”

The article even goes so far as to refer to the Ku Klux Klan’s burning of crosses as a form of Christian terrorism.  Though the Klan are indeed terrorists, no one in his right mind believes they are Christian.  Jesus Christ, the Apostles, and the true Christian church never did the things the Klan has.

Again, the media’s association of Christianity with all this bloodshed is designed to discredit the Christian church by making Christianity appear violent and extreme and a threat to “peace and security.”  This is in preparation for the planned “cleansing”: the persecution of the Christian church.  Soon, thanks to the media, the Christian church will appear more violent than Islam; that is, until American Islam is in a comfortable enough place to show its true character.  And this is not very far off.  The Muslim public relations efforts are about as effective as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’.

A chilling portent was offered by Arsalan Iftikhar, an “international human rights lawyer and author of the book ‘Islamic Pacifism: Global Muslims in the Post-Osama Era,’” who says that the effect of the media’s association of Christianity with terrorism would be “to restart a debate on the term terrorism, and [to whom] and when the term should be applied.” 

I hope you understand the import of Iftikhar’s words, dear readers, for make no mistake: they were prophetic.  Iftikhar is talking about a global debate on terrorism and that means the United Nations.  If the United Nations gets involved, you can rest assured that any resolution on terrorism will supersede our Constitution, because the Constitution has already been subordinated to the United Nations by treaty.   That will spell doom for our freedoms—including freedom of speech—and that will effect the ability of Christians to witness.  That, my friends, is the end game.  Watch for this to happen.  

What is especially troubling is that this prediction was made by a Muslim.   When a Muslim can make such a bold statement given the history, doctrine, and goals of Islam, you know we are in trouble.

In case you didn’t know, Saudi Arabia just passed a law that makes any dissension against the government a terrorist act.  A couple of years ago, a similar bill was introduced into Congress.  Truth be told, the USA PATRIOT Act already accomplishes this; it just hasn’t been enforced yet.  But it will.  Saints, we are truly in the last days of the Last Days.

If Christianity is considered terrorism—and there is every indication that it will be—then anything a Christian does will be considered terrorism—this includes witnessing, and passing out Christian literature such as Gospel tracts.  The Bible then, will be considered terrorist literature.  Some in the homosexual movement are already pushing for the Bible to be considered hate literature for its condemnation of their abominable lifestyle.  

Before all this happens, saints, while it is still legal to witness, while it is still legal to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we need to get out there and witness to a lost and dying world.

Jesus told us these things would happen and that they must come to pass, so we are not to be troubled.  We are however, to be prepared.  Therefore, watch and pray.  And by all means, saints, witness, while we still can.  One day soon, witnessing will be considered terrorism, and the price of winning a soul will be martyrdom.

If you now realize that the Norway massacre is a part of prophesied events, and you now realize that if the Bible was right about events like Norway, it may be right about God’s coming judgment on this sinful world, you need to get saved now, while there’s still time.

Be encouraged and look up; your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011-2012 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

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Breaking the Yoke of Bondage: Sins of the Fathers – Part 3

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Sins of the Fathers – Part 2

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The Occult Significance of the Norway Shooting

“And He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces towards the east; and they worshipped the sun towards the east.”

– Ezekiel 8:16 

Grace and peace to the brethren in Christ Jesus and greetings to my brothers and sisters in Adam.

This has been a very significant weekend.

You may recall that in our post entitled, “In God We Trust, All Others We Monitor,” we told you how the media uses the term “fundamentalism” to describe Biblical Christianity and Islamic terrorism, and in so doing, imply that the Biblical position is extremist.  Now the media has implicated the man accused of killing 92 people in Norway with being associated with so-called Christian fundamentalism.

First, I must offer my wishes for a speedy recovery to the surviving victims and my condolences to the families of those killed in this senseless tragedy.

Now, the Associated press reports that Anders Behring Breivik, believed to have killed 92 people at a youth retreat on an island in Oslo, Norway and to have detonated a bomb at the Norwegian government headquarters, resulting in seven deaths, was on an “anti-Muslim crusade,” and had posted his views on “Christian fundamentalist websites.”  There are serious problems with these allegations.

First of all, just because he posted his views on some Christian websites does not necessarily mean that the websites held the same views Breivik did.  It is easy to post comments to websites, as most moderators do not prohibit people from expressing their opinions, so long as it is done in a clean, respectable way.  Furthermore, it has only been reported that Breivik “posted to Christian fundamentalist websites.”  It has not been alleged that he expressed any anti-Muslim sentiments in those postings. 

Lastly, we don’t even know what was the nature of his postings.  For all we know, he could have posted “Nice post” in response to someone else’s post.  But because of the media’s savvy word jockeying, many who read this article will not only assume that Breivik posted anti-Muslim rhetoric on these websites, but that the websites themselves were anti-Muslim (or at least the forum on which he posted), and this has not yet been established.  He will already be tried and found guilty in the court of public opinion with the media as the prosecutor.

I see nothing in the body of the article that justifies the headline that Breivik wanted an “anti-Muslim crusade.”  If anything his anger was vented at the government because he thought they supported “islamization.”  There is a big difference.  Besides, if he had truly wanted to hurt Muslims, the Norwegian government building would have been the last place to plant a bomb.

The article went further and reported that “[b]oth targets [the youth retreat and the government building] were linked to Norway’s left-leaning Labor Party.”  The juxtaposition of the Christian right and the Labor left presents a curious and not accidental role-reversal.  The so-called left wing—which gave us Marxism, Socialism, and Communism, all of which throughout history have been responsible for violent revolutions worldwide, resulting in the death and enslavement of millions upon millions of people—is being portrayed here as the victim, while so-called Christian fundamentalism—which was the basis for Western civilization, was responsible for the majority of the medical and scientific breakthroughs of the last century, and which was the basis for our Constitution—the document that gave us our freedoms—is being portrayed as violent and revolutionary.

Another indictment of the Christian church is the article’s mention of the “mixture of fertilizer and fuel” used to blow up the government building as being similar to that used to blow up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995; an act attributed to Army veteran, Timothy McVeigh, who is said to have been associated with the militia movement.  The militia movement has been associated with so-called Christian fundamentalism.  Coincidence?

The combined effect of the media’s efforts is to make Christianity seem a menace to peace and security.  A threat to Islam.  A threat to labor.  And in that many innocent civilians and youth were killed and injured by Breivik, a threat to the innocent.  All by an implied and totally unsubstantiated connection between Breivik and Christianity.

This crime also bears a resemblance to another tragedy: The Columbine massacre. Witnesses to the shooting at the island retreat claim that there was a second shooter, though Breivik’s lawyer, Geir Lippestad, says his client claims to have acted alone.  Similarly, witnesses at Columbine also claimed that there were at least three shooters, and this was covered in the first media reports.  Later reports, however, focused exclusively on Kliebold and Harris.

I am reminded that witnesses to the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center claim to have heard bombs going off in the buildings before they collapsed.  One gentleman, a janitor, claimed that he heard an explosion after which he found and assisted a man whose clothes were on fire.  What is curious is that all of this happened in the basement of the tower.  The fire was on the top floors.  Even more troubling is that many who claimed to have seen or heard explosions in the twin towers seem to have met with mysterious deaths.

Moreover, Eric John Phelps, the author of Vatican Assassins, claims that over 100 witnesses to the Kennedy assassination were killed over a 20-year period.  Just food for thought.

A very important element of this story is the allegation that Breivik supposedly penned a 1500 page “manifesto” entitled, 2083 – A European Declaration of Independence.  Besides the nominal similarity with our own Declaration of Independence, a document that was modeled after several Christian documents, is its similarity, at least in this context, with the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a document falsely claimed to have been written by Jews and which was later used by the Nazi government to justify the murder of over two-thirds of Europe’s Jews in the Nazi death camps.  Will the media somehow try to tie this “manifesto” to Christian “fundamentalism?”  Only time will tell.

Perhaps most interesting is the connection between this incident and Freemasonry.  It is reported that a video on YouTube believed to have been posted by Breivik features “symbolic imagery of the Knights Templar and crusader kings.”  It is widely believed that Freemasonry is merely the modern day manifestation of the Knights Templar, though Freemasonry claims to be much older.  This is very important.

Freemasonry contains practices similar to Kabbala, which is Jewish ritual magic.  The Kabbala places great emphasis on numerology and “sacred numbers.”  Certain numbers are considered powerful and hold significant meaning.  Among the many numbers of Kabbalistic importance the numbers 3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13, 17, 18, 21, 22, 27, and 33 seem to come up the most often.

Nine is one of the most important numbers because for one, it holds the triple number of Antichrist, the Beast, which is 666.  Now, 6+6+6=18.  18=1+8, and 1+8=9.  Thus, the number 9 holds the hidden number of Antichrist.  For this reason, 27 is also important, because 2+7=9.  Also, 27=9+9+9 and 999 upside down is 666.  And lastly, the number 27 is  a multiple of the numbers  3 and 9 (3 x 9 = 27), both powerful occult numbers.

Multiples of any sacred number are said to be even more powerful.  So, 22 is important because it is 2 x 11.  It comes up a lot.  Three is the number of the pagan trinity, so most any multiple of three is important.  33 is important because it holds the sacred numbers 3 and 11 (3×11), and is the sacred number 3 doubled.  33 also just happens to be the number of the ostensibly highest degree in Freemasonry, the 33rd degree.

13 is the number of rebellion, so besides 18 it is a very important satanic number.

Someone once said that everything Satan does is based on the Bible, and I have found this to be true.  For example, Jesus had 12 disciples.  But at one crucial point, there were actually 13 disciples.  That crucial point can be found in John Chapter 13 at the Last Supper.

This is the scenario:  Jesus and the disciples were at supper.  Jesus is troubled because he knows that soon Judas will betray Him into the hands of His enemies.  So He tells His disciples that one of them will betray Him, and they are all wondering whom it is going to be.  Simon Peter then asks John, who is leaning with his head upon Jesus’ chest, to ask Jesus who the traitor is.  We pick up at this point:

“He then lying on Jesus’ breast saith unto Him, Lord, who is it?  Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. 

“And when He had dipped the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.  And after the sop, Satan entered into him. 

“Then said Jesus unto him, that thou doest, do quickly” (John 13:25-27).

As you can see, at this crucial juncture, there were actually 13 people sitting at the table with Jesus.  One of them was The Great Rebel, Satan.  This is why I believe the number 13 is important in occultism.  If you have a better explanation, I would be interested to hear it. 

Notice something else very important:  All of this happened in Chapter 13 of the book of John, and the verse where Satan entered Judas is verse 27.  Both very important occult numbers.  I could give you other examples that make a very good case that what Satan does is based on the Bible.

I’ll give you another example.  As we have seen, 18 and 27 have great occult significance.  Now remember that in the book of the Revelation Jesus talks about the Synagogue of Satan, men who claim to be Jews, but actually worship Satan, whom they call Lucifer.  (By the way, these are who I believe are Zionist Jews, not God’s chosen people.  The difference is Zionist Jews worship Lucifer, while true Jews worship Jehovah. 

Also, Zionist Jews support the pope, not God, and want to give Jerusalem over to the Vatican, hence the current effort to make Jerusalem an international city.  Well, Jesus mentions the Synagogue of Satan twice: in Revelation 2:9, and at Revelation 3:9. 

 “[I] know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 2:9)

“Behold I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie…” (Revelation 3:9). 

2 x 9 = 18, and 3 x 9 = 27. 

The numbers 18 and 27 show up again.  Coincidence?

So, as you can see, numerology plays an important role in the occult.  Perhaps now you can understand the occult significance of 9/11.  It was not just an arbitrary date.  Many, many events just happened to have occurred on September 11. Look it up.  You will be amazed.

What have Freemasonry and Kabbalistic numerology to do with the Norway shootings?  Let’s take a look.

First of all, as you can see below and from the article, Breivik is dressed in Masonic formal attire, with the Masonic apron around his waist.

 

It is also interesting that Breivik is 32 years old.  The 32nd degree just happens to be the highest degree that most Masons can make.  The last degree, the 33rd, is only acquired after meritorious contribution to “The Great Work.”  Only a select few make it to the 33rd.  There is also an honorary 33rd, but it is not the same as the meritorious degree.

 Now let us look at the date of this tragedy, for it is very “illuminating.”

 

The incident happened on July 22, 2011, or 7/22/2011, or 7/22/11.

7/22/2011:  7 + 22 + 4 = 33

7/22/11 (three occult numbers):  7 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 13

July 22:  7/22 = 7 + 22 = 29, 2 + 9 = 11 and 2 x 9 = 18

July 2011 the 22nd day or 7/2011/22:  7+4=11 + 22(11x2) = 33

7/2011/22:  7 x 2 = 14 + 2 = 16; 16 + 22 = 38, 3 + 8 = 11

7/2011/22:  7 + 2 = 9(11) = 99(9 + 2 = 18); 22 = 2 x 11; 99 + 11 = 110 + 11 = 121; 121 = 12 + 1 = 13

7/2011/22: 7 + 2 = 9 x 2 = 18 x 22 = 396; 3 + 9 + 6 = 18

7/2011/22: 7 x (2+1+1+2+2) = 56, 5 + 6 = 11

I’m sure there are more here, but I just wanted you to see how this works.  Now, I ask you, what date could yield this many combinations of the same specific numbers?  When you get the same occult numbers over and over like this, it is no coincidence.

And that’s just the date.  We haven’t even gotten into other details of this crime.

There were 92 total people killed (as of this article).  2 x 9 = 18.

There were 97 wounded.  9 x 7 = 63;  6 + 3 = 9;  6 x 3 = 18

There were 85 killed on the island retreat.  8 + 5 = 13.

There were 7 killed in the bomb explosion.

Breivik ended his “treatise” on the internet with a note dated 12:51 p.m.

1 + 2 + 5 + 1 = 9;  12 + 51 = 63;  6 + 3 = 9; 6 x 3 = 18

And remember, the number nine contains the triple number of the beast, or 666.

Recall that the name of the manifesto starts with the number 2083.

2 + 8 + 3 = 13

2(8 + 3) = 2 x 11 = 22

8 – 2 = 6; 6 + 3 = 9

20 + 8 + 3 = 31; 31 reversed is 13

3 x 8 + 2 = 26; 26 = 2 x 13

80 + 2 + 3 = 85; 8 +5 = 13

38 + 2 = 76; 7 + 6 = 13

2 x 83 = 166; 1 + 6 + 6 = 13

32 x 8 = 256; 2 + 5 + 6 = 13

Remember, 13 is the number of REBELLION!  And the Bible says, “Rebellion is as the sin of Witchcraft.”  The article gives the number 2083 another significance.  But what are the odds that almost every combination of this number yielding 13 is a coincidence?  Ask a mathematician.

The article states that it took 90 minutes for police to reach the island.

90 = 9 x 10

Now common sense should tell you that the odds of the same numbers popping up time and again in the same event are astronomical; unless of course, that event were planned.

This is just one more planned event towards the New World Order, and I believe that at least one of its goals is gun control, meaning the total disarmament of the populace.  It is also being used to stoke the fires of resentment in the Muslim community against Christians.  It is also my belief that the Muslims will be part of the persecution of the Christian church during the Great Tribulation.

There’s one more thing to think about.  Often when the occult forces pull off something significant that they don’t want us to think about too hard, they will stage another event as a smoke screen.  Did you know that Amy Winehouse died this very weekend?  Do you know that she died on Saturday 23 July?  Did you know that she was 27 years old? Do you know that running the math on the day of her death turns up some more interesting numbers?

Saturday, 23 July 2011 or 6/2/3/7/4

6 + 2 + 3 + 7 + 4 = 22 (11 x 2)

Saturday, 23:

6 + 23 = 29; 2 x 9 = 18; 1 + 8 = 9

Saturday, 23 July:

6 + 23 + 7 = 36; 3 + 6 = 9 

6 + 2 + 3 + 7 = 18; 1 + 8 = 9

 One could go on and on with this, and the same numbers will keep coming up.

Did you know that the police were called “shortly before 4:05 pm (1505 GMT)?”

4 + 5 = 9

1 + 5 + 5 = 11?

Can you see 9/11?

9 x 11 = 99; 9 + 9 = 18; 1 + 8 = 9

Did you know that the original report of Amy’s death listed the cause as “unexplained?” Is it a coincidence that the name Amy Winehouse just happens to have three and nine letters, respectively?  Don’t 3 x 9 = 27? Don’t 2 + 7 = 9?  Is it yet another coincidence that the day and month of the Oslo shooting add up to 29? (July 22 or 7 + 22 = 29.)  Don’t 2 x 9 = 18? Don’t 1 + 8 = 9?  Is it merely yet another shocking coincidence that we have the numbers 18 and 27 (which both equal 9) again?!

You see the same numerology in the birth and death dates of singer Whitney Houston, who also died under mysterious circumstances. 

The number of the Beast and the number of the Synagogue of Satan!

Are you starting to see that very little that goes on in the world is a random event?  Are you beginning to see that a human life has absolutely no value to these people?

Can’t you see that these people are not playing games?  Do you realize that the New World Order Kingdom of Antichrist will be characterized by the greatest wholesale slaughter of people the world has ever known?  Do you know that the main target (but not the only target) of these people is Christianity and all Christians?  Can you see that the Inquisition is about to return with a vengeance?  Don’t you understand that is why Christians must get on their knees now and ask the Lord Jesus to prepare us spiritually for what is coming? All true Christians will have an opportunity to stand up for the Lord Jesus, and if necessary, to lay down our lives for Him the way He laid down His life for us.

The Oslo shootings and bombing was an occult planned and controlled event; one of many to bring about Antichrist.  There will be many such events until their ends are achieved. Saints, you had better be on your knees daily praying for discernment.  Get out and witness to this dying world while there is still time.  One of the goals of constantly falsely implicating Christianity with these atrocities is to one day criminalize our ability to witness and to close people’s minds to the Gospel message.  

Satan is at the bottom of this.  Events are happening so quickly now that when you go to bed at night, you have no idea what the world is going to look like when you wake up in the morning.  That ought to sober you up, you fence sitters!  Researcher on the occult mystery religions, William Cooper, said some very important things: 

“If you do not believe in God, Lucifer, or Satan, you must understand that there are great masses of people who do.”          

                                                                     —Behold A Pale Horse  

“It makes no difference whatsoever if you believe it or dis-believe it.  If they hold the powerful positions of the world; if they are pulling the strings that make you dance, then whatever they believe AFFECTS YOU.”  

                                                                   —The Hour of the Time, Mystery Babylon Episode #27, “Christianity to Babylon.” 

Unbelievers, can’t you see that Satan is real?  And if Satan is real, then Jesus Christ is also real.  Even if you don’t believe, can’t you see that these people who do believe can and, in fact, do affect your life with their beliefs every single day?  Whether those 92 people believed in Satan or not, their lives were permanently affected, as were the lives of the survivors.

Any thinking person should be able to see that there are things going on that just don’t make sense in any worldly context.  Coincidences are a rarity, if they occur at all.  But when there are too many coincidences, there are no coincidences.  

Before the satanic education system destroyed our ability to think critically, people knew intrinsically that when something could not be explained logically then the explanation must be supernatural, and therefore spiritual, and they knew that the truth could be found in the Bible.  There is a great war being fought for the hearts, minds, and yes, SOULS of the human race.  Satan is waging all out war against the Lord Jesus and all humanity.  You are going to have to make a decision, and to decide not to decide is to decide.  You must choose.

Choosing Jesus is to choose eternal life.  Choosing not to choose is actually choosing Satan, which is eternal death.  Understand something: until we choose to accept Jesus’ free gift of salvation, we all belong to Satan, because we are sinful, and we will go to the Lake of Fire with him.  Sin is a death sentence.  God does not want us to die, that’s why He sent His Son Jesus to die for us.  That’s Love.

The Bible teaches that all the world except those whose names are written in the Book of Life (Christians) will worship the Antichrist and the dragon which gave him his power (Revelation 13:3-4).  The Dragon is Satan.  All those who worship Satan are doomed to eternal fire (Revelation 20:15).  The only way to get your name in the book of life is to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.  There is no other way.

Satan’s greatest deception is to convince the world that he doesn’t exist.  For those who know better, his next deception is to convince those people that he and his people are the good guys, and that Jesus and His people are the bad guys.  Whom will you believe?

Choose Jesus and live.

Oh, crooked and perverse generation! Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

The Still Man

Disclaimer: I used these quotes from William Cooper because they are very appropriate.  However, in his earlier research, William Cooper made some claims about the existence of extraterrestrials, which he later recanted when he found out the UFO threat will be used in order to scare the world into accepting a One World government.  That was the message of the movie, Independence Day.  

I will add that the existence of extraterrestrial life will also be used to discredit the Bible and Christianity.  Never forget that this is their end game. William Cooper eventually realized that he was being used to perpetuate the lie of extraterrestrial life and that he was being fed misinformation, and he subsequently left the UFO community.  

Unfortunately, his earlier research is often quoted by New Agers, those who believe in “reptilians,” the horribly deceived UFO community, and those who believe that the New World Order is merely a banking conspiracy of the “Global Elite.”  

These people are either concealing the truth or have no knowledge of the religious and occult roots of the New World Order and that it actually fulfills Bible prophecy.  In some ways, this discredits Mr. Cooper.  Moreover, Cooper himself vacillated on his religious beliefs, claiming to be a Christian, yet sometimes doubting the inerrancy of Scripture and the deity of Jesus Christ.

Notwithstanding, William Cooper’s research concerning the occult Luciferian origins of the New World Order and the Mystery Religion of Ancient Babylon stands as one of the greatest contributions to Truth ever made.

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‪The Wounded Platoon

‪

Grace and peace to you.

I came across this video the other day.  It is tragic what is happening to these young men.

We must pray for them.

 

The Wounded Platoon 1‬‏ – YouTube.

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Doctrines of Devils: The Rapture (Part 1)

Grace and peace unto you, saints.

I want to expose a false, deceptive, and poisonous doctrine that pervades the Body of Christ today, and makes us look like fools before the unbelieving world.  That doctrine is the Rapture.

The doctrine of the Rapture is a false, unbiblical teaching that directly conflicts with the Bible’s teaching on the Resurrection.  It is a heretical doctrine that is part of the Great Apostasy.  Anyone who believes in the Rapture is actually calling Jesus Christ a liar.

The doctrine of the Rapture was never preached.  What was preached was the Resurrection, which has been corrupted by the preaching of the Rapture.  The most vocal proponents of the Rapture tout a pre-Tribulation event, or the teaching that the body of Christ, the Church, will be taken to heaven by Jesus prior to the Tribulation.  The problem with this theology is that it conflicts with Jesus’ teaching that there would be only two resurrections: the resurrection of believers and the resurrection of unbelievers:

“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice,

“And shall come forth, they that hat done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28-29).

This was also taught in the Old Testament: 

“And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).

So, there will be one resurrection for all believers: past, present, and future.  Further proof that the Resurrection will happen after the Tribulation is the fact that John saw in his vision the martyred Tribulation saints:

“And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands” (Revelation 20:4).

It is important to understand that this passage is not talking about all the saints who have ever been martyred, but only those killed during the Tribulation, because the passage specifically states that they were all beheaded.  During the Tribulation this will be the punishment for all who follow Jesus.  Not all the Tribulation saints will be put to death, however, because Jesus taught that some would spared:

“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. 

“And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:21-22).

So the bloodshed will be stopped only by Jesus’ coming.  Therefore, the resurrection will include the living and the dead: the dead saints and martyrs from all ages and the saints who are alive when Jesus comes.  Paul verifies this when he said:

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed” (1 Corinthians 15:51).

Further proof that the Resurrection will be after the Tribulation is the Two Witnesses. 

“And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothes in sackcloth. 

“These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. 

“These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will” (Revelation 11:3-4,6).

See our post entitled, “Don’t Get Too Enraptured by the Rapture” for the identity and importance of the two witnesses.  Now, notice that these two men will preach for “a thousand and threescore” (one thousand and sixty) days.  That equates to 42 months or three and a half years.  At the end of this time, Scripture says that the Antichrist will kill them (Revelation 11:7), after which time, their dead bodies will lie unburied in the street of Jerusalem for “three days and a half” (11:9).  At the end of this time, the Holy Spirit will enter into them, and they will stand on their feet.  Then, a voice from heaven will summon them, and they will ascend into heaven in a cloud (11:12).

I submit that three and a half days is symbolic for three and a half years.  This is because if there is only one resurrection for believers, and that resurrection will occur after the Tribulation, then the two witnesses would have to be a part of this resurrection also.  If the witnesses will testify for three and a half years, be killed, and lie in the street for three and a half more years, that makes a total of seven years—the number of years of the Tribulation.

Moreover, the Tribulation is also called “Daniel’s 7oth Week” because it is the last week of a prophesied 70 weeks that God showed Daniel at the end of which Jesus would be anointed King.  The sixty-ninth week ended when Jesus was “cut off” (crucified).  The 70th week will begin when the Antichrist signs “a firm covenant for one week (7 years).”   In prophetic language, one week is seven years, rather than seven days, so three and a half days is three and a half years.  If Jesus told the truth about only one resurrection for believers, then the only way for all the past saints, the Tribulation martyrs, the living saints at Jesus’s coming, and the Two Witnesses to be included in one resurrection would be were it to occur after the Tribulation, before God’s judgment on this sinful planet.

Therefore if Jesus told the truth, then the Rapture is a lie—or at least the way it is understood today.  I believe that the teaching originated when some tried to reconcile Jesus’ teaching of the resurrection of the dead with his teaching that all would not perish during the Tribulation.  As we have seen, though Jesus clearly states in Matthew Chapter 24 that not all would perish, when speaking of the Resurrection He mostly stressed the resurrection of the dead.  I believe this was because He knew that He would die and be resurrected, and He wanted us to understand that in the same way He rose from the dead, we shall also rise.

Rapture theologians like to use 1 Corinthians 15:51 and 1 Thessalonians 4 as proof.  But they neglect to consider the preceding verses and in so doing, they miss the fact that in both of these passages Paul is talking primarily about the Resurrection of the dead.   1 Corinthians Chapter 15, for example, is devoted entirely to the Resurrection, for Paul begins this discussion by saying:

“Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?” (v. 12.)

It is obvious that false doctrine concerning the resurrection had crept into the Corinthian church, for Paul later says,

“Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.  Awake to righteousness, and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.  But some man will say, How are the dead raised up?  And with what body do they come? (vv. 33-35.)

Obviously there was a false teaching abroad concerning what type of body the dead will get in the resurrection.  Paul explains that they will have the same body they had before they died, but that it will be changed because the body of sin cannot enter heaven (vv. 42-44).  He then goes on to say that in the same manner the dead will be changed, those who are alive at Jesus’ coming will also be changed (v. 51-52).

The passage most often cited as proof of the Rapture is 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, but again, the preceding verses are often neglected.  Yet they are important, for they contain the context of Paul’s dissertation, which is based on the resurrection of the dead: 

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him” (v.v. 13-14).

It would seem that the church at Thessalonica was worried about whether their deceased brethren would be resurrected, so much so that they worried “as others which have no hope” or unbelievers.  For Paul to have to reassure them about the Resurrection it would seem that, as did the church at Corinth, the Thessalonians had somehow come to a corrupted understanding of this teaching.  Verse 15 gives us interesting insight into the dilemma: 

“For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep” (v. 15).

The key to understanding this verse is the word prevent.  It is the English translation of the Greek word phthano (f-than-o), which means, “to precede” (Strong’s Concordance, 1990).  It would seem that Paul is reminding them that both the dead and the living will be resurrected together.  But notice that the Thessalonians aren’t worried about themselves—the living, but about the dead saints and whether they would be resurrected.  I believe that this was because they felt that the Lord’s coming was imminent and wondered if their dead brethren would also be resurrected.  This is the reason why after explaining that both the living and the dead would be resurrected together (vv. 16-17), Paul goes on in 5:1-2 to say that he had no reason to write them about “the times and the seasons,” and that “the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night.”

The case of the Thessalonians is closest to what we see today concerning the Rapture.  Unlike the Corinthians, they still believed in the Resurrection, but they somehow came to believe that the living would be resurrected first.   This became a problem for them, because they knew that there is only one resurrection and that if only the living saints would be taken, then the dead saints would be left behind.  That is why they were worried, and why Paul had to remind them that both the living and the dead would be resurrected together.

This is the same problem that Rapture theology presents to the church today.  If the Rapture only concerns the living, then it is a heresy because the Bible clearly teaches that both the living and the dead saints would be resurrected.  If the Rapture also includes the dead in Christ, then it is the Resurrection and should be called such.  If the Rapture includes both the dead and the living, but occurs before or during the Tribulation, then again, it is a heresy, because the Bible again teaches that the Resurrection will occur after the Tribulation, and as we have already discussed, it must include the Tribulation martyrs and the two witnesses, who are not resurrected until the end of the Tribulation.  Lastly, if the Rapture includes both the dead and the living and occurs after the Tribulation, then it is the Resurrection, and it should be called such.

If Christians would have adhered to Jesus’ teaching that the Resurrection would occur after the Tribulation “on the last day,” the Harold Camping fiasco would never have happened, and he would have been seen as the horribly deceived man that he is.  Instead, the church looked foolish, weak, and selfish, because, unlike the Thessalonians, who worried about their dead brethren, many so-called Christians were only concerned about themselves.  That’s Rapture theology.

I hope that it is becoming clear to you that times have not changed.  The Mystery of Iniquity doth still work, and we as Christians will have to stay in the Word of God and walk in the Spirit 24/7 so as to not be deceived.

Stay tuned for “Relief In A False Belief” Part 2 of Doctrines of Devils: The Rapture, coming soon.

Stay encouraged and look up; your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

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The Media and the Christian Worldview

Grace and peace, saints, and greetings to those who are still in the world.

I didn’t use any Scripture references in this post, because I want to appeal to the thinking man who does not have the benefit of the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  If it seems to be rambling to a degree, it is because it is.  I started writing about the Rapture and ended up with this.  The best explanation I have is that God laid this on my heart, so, I’m trusting that there is someone out there that this is intended for, and I pray that they will receive it.  I took out the part dealing with the Rapture and will hopefully post it later today or tomorrow, God willing.

The term “the media” originated in advertising over 70 years ago, but has come to refer to all forms of mass communication.  The word media is actually the plural form of the word medium, which Webster’s defines as, “a means of affecting or communicating something.”  From this perspective, all communications: movies, television, radio, advertising, literature, and music are all forms of media, for they are a means of communicating something, and they certainly do affect us.

Human beings are sensory creatures.  Our view of the world is shaped and affected by what we perceive through the senses, most importantly, what we see and hear.  Moreover, the human brain is like a computer.  All information taken in through the senses is stored in the brain for later retrieval.  This is true whether an individual can understand the information or not.  Therefore, even if a child cannot understand what he is seeing or hearing, the information is nevertheless stored in memory, and can be accessed later when the child is old enough to understand.  These images and sounds, stored as memories, will be appended to current images and sounds, and the lot compiled and processed.  These stored, compiled, and processed images and sounds form the core of our personalities and are the essence of who we are.  But they lack one important component: a context.  For the human being, that context is our worldview.

A worldview is like a computer program.  It takes all the data and processes it within a particular frame or context and enables a person to 1) define the world around him, 2) relate to the world around him and 3) define his place in this world.

There are essentially two worldviews that are battling for control of the hearts and minds of men: the Christian worldview and the Humanist worldview.  The fate of mankind rests on which worldview is adopted by the mass of humanity.

Let me give you an example.

  • Data: murder
  • Worldview: Christian
  • Context: the Bible, which says, “Thou shalt not kill.”
  • Conclusion: murder is wrong
  • Result:  a society that values human life and promotes peace
  • Data: murder
  • Worldview: Humanist
  • Context: Man is God; therefore, he chooses what is right and what is wrong
  • Conclusion: Murder is wrong only if a person believes it to be wrong.
  • Result:  a society that has little regard for human life and promotes death

As you can see, the consequences of a correct worldview are earth shaking.  Our worldview is crucial to who we are, and who we are determines what society is.  In order to control society then, it is important to control the sensory data that is coming in and our worldview, or the context in which we view this sensory data.  If Americans desired a peaceful, orderly, and moral society, they would have to first ensure that the sensory data coming in through the media is peaceful, orderly, and moral.

The next thing Americans would have to do if they wanted a peaceful, orderly, and moral society is to adopt a worldview that clearly defined what is peaceful, orderly, and moral and what is not peaceful, orderly, and moral; in other words a clear definition of right and wrong: moral absolutes.  And there would have to be an authority for this definition of right and wrong that eliminates all subjectivity. Currently, there are two choices being offered to us: the Christian worldview, whose authority is the Bible, and the Humanist worldview, whose authority is man.

History is replete with examples of the horror that results when man determines for himself what is right and wrong.  If he likes apple pie and hates cherry pie, apple pie will be right and cherry pie will be wrong.  Cherry pie won’t just be least preferred, it will be wrong.  And with man to be wrong is to die.  The Humanist worldview, therefore, must be rejected completely if man is ever to have a peaceful, orderly, and moral society.

The Christian worldview uses the Bible as its moral authority.  All subjectivity is eliminated because man is seen as the flawed creature that he is: incapable of goodness and morality when left to his own devices.  He then turns to the supernatural Author of the Bible, the Creator of the Universe, infinitely Wise and Good, and follows His advice.  He lets God determine what is right and what is wrong.

Unfortunately, the Christian worldview has been rejected by the majority of society and is seen as outmoded and incompatible with the modern age.  Man sees himself as having “evolved” to the point where he no longer needs a God to tell him what to do.  He is a big boy now.  He can determine for himself what is right and what is wrong.

Or can he?  Look around and decide for yourself whether man’s rejection of God as Supreme Authority is benefitting society.  Do you feel safe?  Do you feel secure?  Are we at peace?  Are we an orderly society?  Are we a moral society?  No.  No.  No.  No. No.  Who then is to blame?  You are.  How?  Because you support the media by watching immoral movies and television programs glorifying crime, homosexuality, and immoral sex.  Because you read books and magazines which in many cases are just soft porn.  Because you have made pornography acceptable, which pollutes the minds of our children, young people and adults and is the number one cause of violent sex crimes.  Because you believe you are God and you know best.  Because you have rejected God.

There is no morality without God.  There is no goodness without God.  There is no hope without God.  And there is no peace without God.  If you don’t believe that, look at the history of every country, including ours, in times where the Gospel of Jesus Christ was not freely preached and widely accepted.  Look at Communist Russia.  Look at Nazi Germany.  Look at Cambodia under Pol Pot.  Look at Cuba.  Look at North Korea.  Look at China.  Look at Yugoslavia.  Look at Africa.  And look at the United States during slavery, the Civil War, and right now.  You will see unbridled debauchery, death, murder, misery, the absolute de-valuing of human life, and horror of unspeakable proportions.

You won’t understand how serious this is until it is at your doorstep. You won’t understand how dangerous is a worldview that allows an individual to decide for himself what is right and what is wrong, until such an individual decides it is wrong for you to live; or your daughter or your son, and that it is right for that individual to be the agent of your son’s or daughter’s demise.  This is the hypocrisy of many Americans:  

“I believe that there is no such thing as right and wrong, and I support your right to determine for yourself what is right and what is wrong as long as you do it to someone other than me and my family.”  —John Q. Rebel

The United States knew this at one time.  At one time the Gospel of Jesus Christ was embraced by this nation.  And God blessed her with peace and prosperity.  We are now losing our prosperity and Americans still haven’t awakened to why.  Shortly, we will lose our peace.  We will not have to watch war happen in other countries anymore.  We will not have to watch screaming women carrying the bloody, limp bodies of their children and think, “How horrible!”  Americans will be intimately familiar with pain and suffering.  Then, and only then, will Americans truly be part of the human family.  They will finally achieve the one-ship with the world that they have been brainwashed into parroting about for years.  Something tells me though, that they won’t like it as much as they thought they would.

It all starts with the media: the means by which sensory data is transmitted to our hearts and minds.  Incidentally, Webster’s also defines medium as “a channel of communication between the earthly world and a world of spirits.”  Notice that the definition says “a” world of spirits rather than “the” world of spirits.  The editors of this dictionary know full well that there are two spirit worlds:  the angelic and the demonic.  Which spirit world our media is communicating with is plain to see by the types of programs they put out.

Unfortunately, we can’t control that.  There are very few, if any, true, Bible-believing Christian millionaires in the world and there are even fewer, if any, true, Bible-believing Christian millionaire media moguls in the world.  This is important because there is a direct correlation between money, the media, and us.  Money buys influence.  The media is influence.  And the media influences us.  So, whoever has the money can influence us.  And influencing us is what it’s all about.  The values that those with the money and control hold dear are the values that they will be influencing us with.  From what we see in the media there can be no question that those values are not Christian.

We can’t control the media, but we can control our worldview.  We can decide that there are moral absolutes.  We can decide that there is such a thing as right and wrong.  We can stop puffing ourselves up to think that we are higher evolved than someone else.  We can humble ourselves and let God tell us what is best.  Only then can we begin to put incoming data into its proper context.  Only then can we begin to call sin what it is—sin.  If we do this, one person at a time, one family at a time, then we can postpone the inevitable.  And we can give ourselves at least a couple more years to enjoy the precious few freedoms that God has allowed us to have.

I’m not sure whom this is intended for, but if it is you, please go to the Lord Jesus and let Him know that you want Him to be your medium to righteousness.

 

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.  

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

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The “Curse” of Clarity

Grace and peace, Saints.

The Lord has been showing me so much lately, and some of it has been very weighty. Sometimes it can be a chore to post anything, because there is so much I want to put out, that it overwhelms me.  I want to talk about so many things because I can see the spiritual significance of them–the reason behind “the reason.”  But to write about them means to think about them, and to think about them is sometimes very painful.

It is incredible what is going on in the world right now, and how they confirm Scripture. But you really have to keep seeing things from an eternal perspective, because to see things clearly at times can seem as much a curse as it is a blessing.  Of course, that’s the devil at work, but knowing this doesn’t make it any easier.

One thing I can tell you, Saints, is that prophecy is being fulfilled right before our eyes! I ask any of you who are praying Christians to please say a prayer for me, because God is showing me so much, and I know that He is not doing this for me to keep to myself.  Yet, it hurts to see the imminent death of life as we have known it along with the free-est country in the history of the world, and to see the majority of Americans going about their business, totally oblivious to the fact that they are about to lose everything.

But at the same time, you know that Jesus said that these things must come to pass.  We are so privileged to be seeing these things, because, right now, before our very eyes, Jesus is proving Himself to be Who He Said He Was.

But the weight of this privilege!  I am going to post something between today and tomorrow, God willing, and I will try to collect my thoughts and attempt to post more regularly.  I praise God throughout.  He is good!

Stay encouraged Saints.

The Still Man

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In The Eye of the Hurricane

“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass…” (Luke 21:36).

Grace and peace unto you, elect of God.

I hate to say that He told you so, but He told you so.  We’ve written a couple of articles on surveillance: a brief one covering Apple’s iPhone allegedly tracking where its users go, and another about the government’s surveillance of Americans under the USA PATRIOT Act.   We also wrote an article about the growing problem of children murdering other children.

Now, these articles are not nearly as extensive or as well-researched as others you will find out there (though some good research went into our  essay on government surveillance), and they were not intended to be.  Their purpose was to get you thinking and to get you to consider these issues in light of Scripture.  It is to help you understand that the Lord Jesus told us these things would happen, because once you understand that, it should have a calming affect upon you, when you see things going absolutely crazy around you. (And believe me, if you are walking in the Spirit, you will. I Gar-On-Tee).

In my continuing effort to edify, inform, and encourage the Body of Christ, and to get non-believers to understand that Jesus is The Real Deal, I submit for your approval yet two more articles to support the aforementioned.  It seems that a British tabloid has been hacking into the cell phones of private citizens and deleting certain calls.  It is interesting to note that the tabloid is owned by Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who also owns Fox News.  

Now, besides the obvious privacy issues involved (which is actually a joke because England is a Socialist country as America will soon ostensibly be, but I digress), this may be a potentially criminal act, because many of the alleged victims of this cell-phone-peeping-Tom-age are relatives of murder victims, some of whom were killed by terrorist acts.  I will not speak any further to this, because you should have already seen enough to know by now that privacy is a thing of the past.

In another story, an 11-yr-old Ind. boy is accused of murdering his brother by shooting him in the head.  As the children’s mother and her boyfriend were not home at the time, there may also be child negligence charges pending.  Children killing children again.  Saints, are we not living in perilous times?

Now, I know that this is a pretty negative way to start the day, but I did it not to alarm you, but to sober you up.  Now that you are sober, let me offer you a little comfort.  When we see things like this going on in the world, we should consider them, because they are happening for a reason.  But we shouldn’t think about them too hard.  Remember, Jesus said that these things must come to pass (Luke 21:9).

We are not to be troubled.  We are in the midst of the storm, not in the storm.  We are in the eye of the Hurricane.  To give you some comfort, let me share with you one of my favorite verses of Scripture in the entire Bible.

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8). [Boldface mine.]

Did you get that?  Man, if it is beautiful, lovely, and virtuous, that’s what we ought to be thinking about.  The devil wants us to see these things and be afraid for our lives.  He wants us to live in fear.  Jesus said, “Watch and pray,” not “Watch and be afraid.”  When we see these things happening, we are supposed to remember that Jesus told us about them centuries ago. We should realize that if we can trust Him about the present, then we can certainly trust Him about the future, and that’s what it’s all about!

Be encouraged and look up, your redemption draweth well nigh!

The Still Man

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July 4th: America Celebrates It’s Independence from God

“Those who will not be governed by God will be ruled by tyrants”

-William Penn

Grace and peace unto you.

Today is the 4th of July 2011 and it is raining outside; and I could not be more pleased.  Independence Day is a sham.  For the retail business, the 4th of July is merely a day to market grills, charcoal, coolers, and flags.  For most Americans it is just a day off from work to eat barbecue and enjoy family and friends.  There is nothing wrong with that.  But, Americans could care less about the true meaning of this day.  I would wager that many—if not most—Americans are not even aware that the true name of this day is Independence Day, and I would again wager that precious few of those who are aware know the circumstances which lend special significance to that moniker.

No.  Americans have completely divorced themselves from the ideals that made this country what it is.  Americans are ashamed to be Americans.  Americans are ashamed to be patriots.  And Americans are ashamed of their Constitution: the only document in the history of the world that set man free.

Americans are blissfully ignorant of the fact that the greatest war between good and evil, light and darkness, and liberty and slavery has been, is being and will be fought in this country.  They are marvelously blind to the fact that America is the only country in the world where human beings were free to do as they like.  Our Constitution gives us the freedom to say what we want, to think what we want, to worship as we see fit, to associate with whom we choose, to bear arms in order to defend our persons and property, and to be secure in our persons and property from government seizure.

Every other nation in the world is under some form of dictatorship.  Even the so-called democratic countries have nothing in writing that guarantees any freedoms to their citizens to the extent that the United States has.  These countries can grant or rescind any privileges given to the people that they so choose.

And therein lies the difference.  The Constitution of the united States of America—unique in the history of the world—grants its citizens rights rather than privileges; and there is a huge difference.  Rights are God-given whereas privileges are man-given.  It is against the principles of the Bible to deny a person the right to say what he chooses, or to worship his God, or to defend himself against anyone who would want to take his life or property.  These rights are given us by the Constitution, a document which would never had been ratified by the several states unless those rights were expressly given.  The founders of this country knew what the inevitable result would be if a government were given unlimited powers over the people – tyranny.

Therefore the founders devised the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution, which the several states demanded as a prerequisite to signing the Constitution, to protect our God-given rights.  The Constitution established a federal government—meaning that power was shared between the national government and the government of the several states—with limited powers.  And this is very important to understand.   The United States government exists nowhere but on paper.

The Constitution created a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people,” which was limited in power and scope to keep it from turning into a dictatorship.  Without our Constitution, the government has unlimited power; and can do as it pleases, when it pleases, and to whom it pleases.  Yet this document, which is the only protection that the people have from their government, is being trampled on daily by both the government and the people.

You must understand that without the Constitution we have no rights.  If you think that once the Constitution is abolished, the government, out of the goodness of its heart, will allow people to continue to enjoy the freedoms that they do now, you are out of your mind. 

The imminent loss of the Constitution of the United States should be of great concern to everybody, but it should absolutely terrify Blacks. 

Before the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments (the Reconstruction Amendments) to the Constitution, Blacks were slaves—owned property—who did not have the right to live, let alone own property.  They were property.

Slavery is the best example of the difference between a right and a privilege.  Understand that the United States Constitution created a Constitutional Republic, where the rights of the individual were more important than the rights of the people; the logic being that if you look out for the rights of the individual citizen, then the rights of all citizens will be protected.  But those who supported slavery preferred a democracy,  where the rights of the people took precedent over the rights of the individual.  Which people?  The majority.  Who were the majority?  male, white, property owners. 

The majority, who filled many offices of government, said that blacks were not people and thus, were not entitled to the right to life, liberty, and property.  Without that right, blacks could be bought, sold, and discarded like all other owned property.  Life, then, for the Black, was a privilege rather than a right, and, thus, could be taken away at a moment’s notice.

The 13th Amendment not only abolished slavery as a government-sanctioned institution, but it also eliminated slavery as a class (for that is exactly what it was) and thus a perpetual and hereditary condition.  The 14th Amendment then established the Negro as a person and thus entitled to all the rights and privileges under the Constitution and the various state governments.  Among these is the right to live, granted by the Fifth Amendment, which reads:

“No person shall be…deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”

Did you know that the right to life comes from the Bible?  Well it does, and we would do well to understand that.  Genesis 2:7 says,

“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.”

That means that God gave us life, not man.  There is a very simple principle at work here:  he who makes a thing owns a thing.  God created us and gave us life, so only He has the right to take away our lives (as He has proven on occasion).  That is why the taking of a man’s life by another is called murder and is against the law.  Man didn’t come up with that; God said it first.

The Declaration of Independence

But ever since Cain killed righteous Abel, man has usurped God’s authority and determined for himself who should live and who should die.  Whenever man is in charge he will set himself up as lord over other men and, taking upon himself the mantel of God, usurp a right that is exclusively His: the right to determine who should live and who should die. 

Can you see now why Evolution is so dangerous?  A doctrine that eliminates God as Supreme Lord and Creator and decrees that man just “happened,” supplants God’s decree regarding the sanctity of life.  Then men get to choose who will live and who will die.  Which men?  Why, the majority.  Who is the majority?  Why, the most evolved.  Who is the most evolved?  Well, I think we all know the answer to that one.  This is the danger of a democracy.

The founding fathers were Christian and learned men who knew full well the weakness of man, so they gave us the Bill of Rights to protect the common man’s life, liberty, and property from anyone who would take these away from him.  This is even reflected in the way the Amendments to the Bill of Rights are ordered.   The First Amendment gives man among other things, freedom of worship, and right behind it comes the Second Amendment, which gives us the right to “keep and bear arms.”  Why? In order to protect the first rights and all the others.  This too, comes from the Bible, for Jesus said:

“When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace” (Luke 11:21).

Without the right to protect ourselves, we would have no way to keep someone from denying us any of our rights, especially the right to life. 

At this point, I want to emphasize something very important:  if everyone thought that all individuals were entitled to rights, there would have been no need to expressly grant them in the Constitution.  So, the very fact that they are in the Constitution is a direct indictment against man.  It is also important to note that at the time the Constitution was penned, there were no blacks in government and no one was looking forward to a day when Negroes would be free.  That means that white men at this time feared enslavement and deprivation of life by other white men.

This is very important to understand considering that many, many, people blame Blacks, Hispanics, and anyone else they can for all of America’s ills.  Yet, at this time, whites were afraid of other whites.  Why?  Because they knew that it is not a man’s color that one should be concerned with, but his ideology and worldview—his religion.   This is why the founding fathers, after giving us the freedom to worship as we choose, gave us the right to arm and protect ourselves from someone exercising their freedom to worship a god that may not be very friendly towards you. 

Think about it.  If your right to live comes from God; that is, Jesus Christ, but Jesus does not hold the place in another man’s heart that He holds in yours, then this person may not even recognize your right to live.  The founding fathers understood that “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

You may not think that the right to live and to protect your life is important, but look at what has happened in every country where those rights were not respected.  Look at Nazi Germany and the death camps.  Look at Communist Russia and the more than two hundred million Russians killed under Stalin.  Look at Communist Cambodia and Pol Pot’s Killing Fields.  Look at Communist China and Tiananmen Square.  And look at America during the time of slavery.  

Everywhere where the right to life and the right to protect one’s life has been denied people have suffered terribly.  Yet we have these rights expressly guaranteed in our Constitution–and we want to get rid of it!  Rather than remember the terrible price that has been paid in order to make our country free, we prefer to get together and eat barbecue.

bbq

 

Don’t get me wrong.  There is nothing wrong with eating barbeque on Independence Day.  But rather than celebrating the ability to cook and eat barbecue, we should be celebrating the Constitution which gave us all the rights that enabled you to be standing at your grill wearing your “Kiss the Chef” apron on a normal workday (whereas in a Communist country you would be working).  

Blacks should be remembering all the brave men and women from President Abraham Lincoln to President John F. Kennedy who fought and died so that you could have the right to enjoy the same rights as everyone else.  We should above all remember the Lord Jesus from whom those rights ultimately came.  And we should never forget that there are those who are determined to take those rights away from us.

Enjoy this Independence Day America.  Soon it will be a thing of the past.  Forgetfulness is a terminal disease.  

Please forgive me for this ranting diatribe, but my heart hurts for America.  Come quickly Lord Jesus!

The Still Man

 

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Statement of Faith of a Charismatic Church (cont.)

We continue with our analysis of the Charismatic Statement of Faith:

3. “God is One, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who are infinite in glory, wisdom, holiness, justice, power, and love.”

This is a true statement except for one thing: notice that nothing is said of mercy or grace.  A God who is all-powerful, just, and loving, can still be a tyrant if He he is not also merciful.  When God proclaimed His own name to Moses on Mount Sinai, He said this of Himself:

“The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” (Exodus 34:7).

This is God speaking of Himself, and the first thing He wants us to know about Him is that that He is merciful, gracious, and forgiving.  Only after He had said this of Himself did He proclaim His sense of justice, and He did this for a reason.  A God without mercy and grace is not a God that sinners such as you and I would willingly worship.  Because we are sinners and prone to err frequently, there would be many opportunities for God to show us how just He is.  If He were not merciful, I would be scared to death of Him anytime I made a mistake.  

Did you know that there are sinners who will not come to God because they fear His sense of justice and His holiness?  Just as Moses was afraid to look upon God because he was a sinner, so are these afraid even to come before His presence.  They are crushed beneath an incredible weight of sin and guilt.  Someone in this situation does not need to be reminded how Holy God is—they already know that.  They need to know how merciful, gracious, and forgiving He is.

I love my children and sometimes punish them when they do wrong—sometimes being the operative word.  If I punished them every single time they did wrong, I would be just and maybe even loving, but not very merciful.  I would command my children’s fear, but not necessarily their love.  My God is Just and Holy, but also Merciful and Gracious, and I love Him for that.

I once led a woman to Christ who had an abortion.  This woman wanted forgiveness so badly, but she was sure that God would never forgive her for murdering her baby.  My heart broke for this dear soul, because she, for one, understood that abortion is murder. All the propaganda in the world could not free her from the awful weight of sin and guilt that had oppressed her and made her life miserable.  But what most impressed me about her was the fact that she could not bring herself to appear before the Lord.  Though she was not saved, she knew that God is Holy.  She could not bear to look at His face with the murder of an innocent child on her conscience.  I explained to her that God said:

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

She was overjoyed, and decided to give her life to Jesus.  I wanted to pray with her in secret, but she was so happy that God would even grant her forgiveness for this one sin that was crushing her life, that she wanted to show that she was not ashamed of Him.  We prayed out in the open on a crowded street in a busy shopping district and she prayed the most gut-wrenching, body-shuddering, sobbing, heartfelt prayer that I have heard to this day.  As she bore her soul to Jesus, she felt the weight of sin being lifted from her tired body and soul.  What a blessing!

Understand that if one goes to God with a broken, repentant heart, He will be:

Merciful – He will not give you what you do deserve.  (Hell, eternal damnation.)

Gracious – He will give you what you do not deserve.  (Eternal life, blessings.)

Forgiving – He will give you what your heart truly longs for. (Forgiveness of sins, peace, joy.)

God is merciful!  Don’t believe what you’ve heard.  God loves us and wants to forgive us–is waiting to forgive us.  All we need do is come to Him.  Jesus says,

“Behold I stand at the door and knock; and if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).

Don’t be afraid to come to Jesus.  He is not a tyrant.  He is a tender, loving, merciful, and gracious God.  And He loves you.

Click here if you are ready to receive forgiveness now.

In his book, Fifty Years In The Church of Rome, Charles Chiniquy writes that Roman Catholics are cleverly taught from their youth that Jesus is a powerful, mean, judgmental, merciless tyrant who would like nothing better than to destroy all of mankind for their disobedience and rebellion.  According to Chiniquy, they are taught that Mary is the only person who can calm Him down, and so it is to Mary that Catholics must pray to receive mercy.

This does not describe my Jesus, who said,

“Anyone who cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.”  

John 1:14 says that Jesus is, “full of grace and truth.”  We should remember this when we are telling people about Him.

Now, I understand that many churches have statements of faith that use this same wording, and I am not saying that every church that uses this wording is a Charismatic church.  I myself at one time used this exact wording in my belief statement (which I actually borrowed from a particular ministry that I trusted) until I began to reflect on what it actually may be implying, and how it could be misconstrued by someone searching for a church they can trust.  

Some may see this as inconsequential, but a person coming out of a false religion or cult could doubtless attest to the fact that the deception starts with the pitch; after all, that is how most of us get hooked.  For a church, that pitch is the statement of faith, therefore, we must be wary.

4. “Jesus Christ is both Man and God (Almighty God in the Flesh), who in His incarnation was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin, Mary.”

There is a potential danger in this seemingly innocuous statement.

Jesus is both Man and God—Almighty God in the Flesh.  And He was incarnated and was also conceived of the Holy Spirit.  These are true statements.  The statement ends, however, by saying that Jesus was “born of the virgin, Mary.”  This last part is troublesome, and I’ll tell you why.

It is the virgin birth of Jesus that is important to our salvation, not the fact that He was born to Mary.  Scripture tells us that because of Adam’s sin, all people on earth have inherited sin:

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).

This is what is called Original Sin.  It is the sin we inherit from Adam, the first man to ever sin.  Inheritance is passed down through the father, not the mother.  In order for Jesus not to inherit sin from Adam, as we all have, He would have to be born only of a woman, with no male intervention.  This is impossible—for us.  But for God, all things are possible.  Mary conceived of God The Holy Spirit, not a mortal man.  In this manner, Jesus was born without Original Sin, and during His earthly sojourn He never sinned.   For this reason, Jesus was the only person in the history of the world who was qualified to die for the sins of mankind.

So, it is Jesus’ virgin, sinless birth that is important to our salvation—not the fact that He was born to Mary.  God chose Mary, it’s true, but Jesus could have been born to any virgin.  It is not necessary therefore, to even mention Mary’s name, and doing so could even be dangerous for Christians.  I will explain why.

Protestant Christian churches are born of the Reformation, the great sixteenth-century movement, started by Martin Luther, which saw the true believers of Jesus Christ split from the Roman church over certain traditions and practices which the reformers saw as unscriptural.  A major distinction between Roman Catholicism and Christianity is the Catholic exaltation of Mary, whom they call The Mother of God. Scripture says that Jesus is “from everlasting to everlasting,” and that He existed “from the beginning.”  Jesus was God before Mary was even born (John 1:1), so it is not accurate to call her the mother of God.  She was only the mother of Jesus. 

The Reformation Church has always differed with Rome on this matter.  Therefore (in my experience), in their statements of faith, Reformation Christian churches never mentioned the name of Jesus’ mother, preferring instead to say that Jesus was “born of a virgin.”  I believe they did this to distinguish themselves from the Roman Catholic church.  This distinction is important because only the Catholic church continues to worship Mary as a virgin, when the Scriptures clearly state that after Mary gave birth to Jesus, she gave birth to sons and daughters.  She was no longer a virgin.  

With respect to using the name Mary, in the book of Luke especially, one will notice that after Jesus was born, Mary is mostly referred to as “His mother.”  She is rarely mentioned again by name.  As a matter of fact, during Jesus’ ministry, she is most often referred to as the mother of Jesus’ siblings (Mat. 27:56, Mark 16:1, Luke 24:10), or “the other Mary” (Mat 27:61, 28:1).

It is also particularly noteworthy that at the marriage feast in Cana, Jesus addressed His mother as “woman” (John 2:4).  This is because she was asking Him to perform a miracle; namely to provide wine for the feast.  Jesus wanted to make it clear that He didn’t do requests; not even for His mother.  His response is interesting:

“Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come.”

Now, whenever the Bible mentions that Jesus’ hour had not yet come, it is referring to His crucifixion.  Jesus therefore, was referring to a future time after His crucifixion when people would pray to Mary to get Jesus to do something for them.  This is what the Roman Catholics do now.  Jesus was basically saying, “Hey, I’m not dead yet!”  He later uses this same manner of address again, when, on the Cross and referring to the apostle John, he says to His mother,

“Woman, behold thy son” (John 19:26).

It would seem to us very rude for a man to address his mother as “woman,” especially at a very public gathering.  Was Jesus rude then?  Not at all.  Jesus loved His mother.  But He wanted to make it clear to His true followers that He never intended for us to go to His mother as an intercessory to Him.  The fact that, even at the point of death, He still called his mother “woman” is proof positive that He was serious about this.

So, in mentioning Mary by name, and calling her “the virgin,” this statement could be viewed as an endorsement of Roman Catholicism.  That may not necessarily be the case, neither is a church that uses this wording necessarily Charismatic, but it should be noted that, at the very least, this statement could be viewed as consistent with the ecumenical goal of bringing Christian churches once again under Rome.

I realize that many churches use similar wording in their statements of faith, as did I at one time.  In my case, when I first started this blog, I borrowed my statement of faith from another ministry, which I trusted.  Only when I examined the statement in light of what I am telling you now, did I understand what it was actually implying.  I then looked at the statements of faith of other churches, and I found that many use the exact same wording.  I think that ministries are borrowing from others which they believe hold to the same beliefs as themselves.  That is why it is very important to really know what it is that you believe, and then to make sure that everything about you: what you do, what you wear, where you go, with whom you spend your time, what you read, and especially what you say, accurately reflect who you are and what you believe.

Because many churches use similar statements of faith, one should examine whether a church’s practices reflect its beliefs.  If there is a disparity, bring it to the pastor and find out what he really believes.  If what he believes cannot be reconciled with the Bible, then you have a decision you must make. 

In these last days, when deception is so convincing that it is extremely hard to tell which churches are truly of God, our statements of faith should be straightforward, unambiguous, and should reflect our union with Jesus Christ and none other.  The Christian Church should look to distinguish itself from all other religions—especially Roman Catholicism.  Even though the world will call us dogmatic, contentious, and uncompromising, we are only imitating our Master.

Understand that these are my beliefs, based on what I have seen and experienced, as well as on my understanding of Scripture.  You may not agree, but if you love the truth, you should at least consider what I am saying.

We have only examined four statements in this church’s Statement of Faith, and though we have not yet proven that this church is Charismatic, the discerning eye can already see that it certainly has some ecumenical overtones.

Click here for Part 2 of this study.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

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DOCTRINES OF DEVILS: The Charismatic Movement

Grace and peace unto you.

The apostle Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 4:1:

“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.”

Paul was prophesying that the day would come when some Christians will leave the true Church, having been seduced by the spirit of Satan, and will join false churches with false doctrines and damnable herecies.  Jesus also foretold of this when he said,

“Take heed that no man deceive you…for there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Mathew 24:24).

The most distinguishing feature of the last days will be deception: false churches, false prophets, and false teachings.

Jesus said that the deception would be so convincing that, if it were possible, it would fool the very elect of God.  In order for such a deception to be effective, it would have to look Christian; if it were not, it would not be an effective deception. 

Buddhism, for example, is so dissimilar from Christianity as to require little or no discernment to know that it is not Christian.  Buddhism pays no homage to Jesus Christ, nor does it feature a virgin birth, a crucifixion, or a death, burial, and resurrection.  Consequently, Buddhism is so distinguishable from Christianity that only the most naïve person could be beguiled into believing that it is Christian.

A religion that ostensibly worships the Lord Jesus, however, and that seemingly adheres to the major tenets of the faith, while actually calling Jesus Christ a liar, would be harder to detect.  Such a church could indeed fool many.   This is the reason Paul said that we must watch and pray in these last days.

There could be no doubt that we are in the last days of the Last Days, for never in history have there been so many false churches and false belief systems.  They may seem to be dissimilar, but they all have a few things in common.  In Genesis Chapter 3, Satan tells us what to look for in a false church.

Satan, in the form of a serpent, is talking to Eve about God’s commandment concerning the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  As we know, God had commanded Adam and Eve not to eat of this fruit saying, “For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17).  Satan challenges the Word of God, and in doing so, makes five very revealing statements about the character of all false religions.  Speaking to Eve, Satan says,

1) “Yea hath God said?” (“Did God really say?” Denying the inerrancy of God’s Word by questioning and casting doubt.)

2) “Ye shall not surely die, (There is no death and/or no hell.)

“For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof,

3) “Your eyes shall be opened, (Illumination through continuing revelation, mystic experience, or degrees of initiation.)

4) “And ye shall be as gods, (Man can be a god.)

5) “Knowing good from evil.” (Man can decide for himself what is right and what is wrong.)

All false religions will contain to some degree some or all of these five propositions.  Some religions, like Mormonism, have all five.  I will cover Mormonism some day in the future, God willing, since Mitt Romney is running for president of the United States, and is a Mormon.  Mormonism claims to be a form of Christianity, so it behooves us as Christians to know something of what Mormonism teaches, for Scripture tells us to prove all things.

Now, there are many false religions out there: so many that we as Christians do not have time to study them all, for it seems that new religions and belief systems are popping up almost daily.  It is more profitable, therefore, to examine those that are the greatest threat to the Christian church, for the very reasons we mentioned earlier: because they appear to be Christian, but are not: for they espouse doctrines of devils.

One religious movement definitely deserves our attention, because it is gobbling up whole churches and bringing them under the influence of Rome.  That religious movement is called the Charismatic Movement.

Charismatic in this sense does not mean charming and full of charisma.  Charismatic is derived from the Greek word, charismata, and has to do with the works of the Holy Spirit. The Charismatic Movement was started by the Roman Catholic church as part of the Ecumenical Movement, which seeks to unite all the religions of the world under the Catholic Church with the pope as the head.

The better I understand the Ecumenical Movement, the more I realize that virtually every church I have attended throughout my life was in some way ecumenical. Until I got saved, ecumenism defined my “Christian” experience.  This is how pervasive and dangerous this movement is.  

The Ecumenical Movement seeks to unite diverse religions on the basis of religious experience rather than doctrine, because doctrinal issues are normally what distinguishes and separates religions.  Doctrine, therefore is considered “divisive.” Ecumenism attempts to circumvent doctrinal issues and unite all religions on issues that are considered less divisive and contentious.  

Enter the Charismatic Movement.  The Charismatic Movement focuses on the work of the Holy Spirit, in particular the speaking of tongues and healing.  Every Charismatic church that I have ever visited placed great emphasis on speaking in tongues and healing through the laying on of hands.

Charismatic churches are very deceptive because in many ways they appear to be Christian and to assert most of the doctrines of Biblical Christianity.  But, on fundamental, doctrinal issues, a Charismatic church will disagree with Biblical Christianity.  It is important, therefore, to remember a few crucial items when evaluating a church’s doctrine in order to determine whether that church is in fact a Charismatic church.

1)   Remember that the Charismatic Movement is not of Jesus Christ; any doctrine not of Jesus is of the devil and will therefore reflect one or all of Satan’s doctrines outlined in Genesis 3 above.  Satan hates the Bible, so one doctrine that a Charismatic church will certainly attack is the inerrancy of Scripture.

2)   If it is true that the Charismatic Movement is part of an effort to unite all religions and bring them under the headship of the Vatican, then the doctrines and/or practices of a Charismatic church should in some way somehow reflect this goal.

3)   Discernment is of the Holy Spirit.  One should pray for discernment when evaluating a church’s doctrine, desiring to hear the truth rather than what one wants.

We will examine the Statement of Faith of an actual church to show you how deceptive they can be and to show, based on the above criteria, how to tell whether a church is charismatic.  I will not identify the church, because there are so many false churches out there, that it could easily become a full time job. 

It is more fruitful to reveal doctrinal errors that one can recognize and use as a template.   We will examine each statement one by one, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things, and in do doing, also demonstrate how Satan often mixes truth with error to make his errant teachings more palatable.  We should remember that God says no lie is of the truth.  If it is partially wrong it is completely wrong.

STATEMENT OF FAITH OF A CHARISMATIC CHURCH [numbering mine.]

“We Believe; [sic]

1. “That the Scriptures of the Holy Bible, are the Holy Word of Almighty God, and are free from error.”

This statement very cleverly declares that this church does not believe the Bible is the Word of God.  The first part of the sentence, “the Scriptures of the Holy Bible are the Holy Word of Almighty God,” reveals a grammatical as well as doctrinal sleight of hand at work.  Note that Scriptures is the subject, not the Holy Bible.  Holy Bible is actually the object of a prepositional phrase beginning with the preposition “of.”  If one were to take out the prepositional phrase, the sentence would read, “The Scriptures are the Holy Word of Almighty God.”  As the word “Scriptures” is often used to refer to the Word of God—the Bible—this would be fine.  As the sentence is written, however, the Scriptures are clearly being distinguished from the Holy Bible.  The reason why this was done will become clear in a moment.

The next part of the sentence, the predicate, reads, “are the Holy Word of Almighty God.” Again this is referring to the Scriptures, not the Bible, because since the Bible is part of a prepositional phrase, it cannot be modified by the predicate.  In other words, the verb “are” refers to the subject of the verb “Scriptures,” not the object of the preposition “Bible.”  If they had wanted to say “the Bible is the Word of Almighty God,” they could easily have done so, as I just have.  They did not, however, because this is not what they believe.  They believe “the Scriptures of the Holy Bible” (or the Scriptures on which the Bible is based) are the Word of God, not the Bible itself.

The last part of the sentence, “and are free from error,” again refers to “Scriptures” because as we just saw, “the Holy Bible” is part of a prepositional phrase.  In other words, the sentence is stating that the Scriptures are free from error, not the Holy Bible.  Again, if the author had wanted to say that the Bible is free from error, the sentence should simply say, “The Bible is the Holy Word of Almighty God, and is free from error” or “The Scriptures are the Holy Word of Almighty God, and are free from error.”  They did not do this because this is not what they believe.

I have never heard anyone refer to the Bible as “the Scriptures of the Holy Bible.”  To understand what has been done here, imagine if I were to say, “I believe that the words of this book are true,” rather than saying “I believe that the book is true.”  Any intelligent person would assume that I do not agree that the entire book is true.  Why?  Because I made a distinction between the words and the book.

By distinguishing the Scriptures from the Holy Bible, they are implying that the two are separate.  To understand why they would make such a distinction, it is important to understand that those who deny the Word of God contend that what we have today are not the inspired, original words of God.  They say that our modern bibles are full of errors, and that men injected their own thoughts for the thoughts of God.

Scriptures, therefore, refers to the original writings on which our present Bible is based.  The originals were written on papyrus, which only lasts a few years, and no longer exist.  Our present Bible, the Authorized King James, is based on copies of the originals that were faithfully reproduced, preserved, and handed down over hundreds of years.

Some, however, believe that the King James, as well as the many other bible versions, are full of errors, but were all based on various inspired manuscripts, and thus contain “some truth.”  They believe, therefore, that all of the bible versions are necessary in order to come to some semblance of what God actually said.  Hank Hannagram is one highly-regarded theologian who espouses this belief.

So, in a very clever fashion, this church is actually saying that the original inspired writings were “error-free,” but that the bibles we have now are not.  This does not agree with Scripture, which says, “All scripture is given by inspiration from God” (2 Timothy 3:16).  “All scripture” means “every word” in the Bible.  It means that the Bible is true from cover to cover.  This church (as well as others) uses the word “scripture” to refer only to the original writings and make the contention that only they were inspired of God and free of errors.  They use this verse to justify their errant belief.

Let us look at their next statement:

2. “We consider the Holy Bible our final and absolute Authority, above and beyond all other authorities on earth.”

This statement is really saying that all bible versions are equally valid, and that there is no one bible version that is the actual Word of God.  Remember, that they have made a grammatical (but not accidental) distinction between the Scriptures–which they take to mean the original manuscripts on which the Bible is based–and the Holy Bible.

Remember that through this distinction they implied that only the original manuscripts are the Word of God and are thus error-free–not the Bible.  In that none of the bible versions, according to them, are the Word of God and error-free, then none is completely reliable. But since they believe that all bible versions are based on the “Scriptures” (by which they mean the original writings), then all bible versions contain some truth, and thus are all valid.  Hank Hannagram himself has said this very thing.

To check if what I have just revealed to you is true, and if a church believes that we have the Word of God in this present day, ask the pastor which bible version is the word of God. He will either say all of them are, or none of them are.  

Now, we know that all of them cannot be, because none of them agree: some of them omit verses, while others add verses.  God is not the author of confusion.  We also know that it is not possible that none of them is the Word of God, because Jesus said, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away” (Mathew 24:35).  To say that we no longer have the word of God is to call Jesus Christ a liar.  No true Christian would do this.

As I said in the beginning, Satan denies God’s word by questioning if we really have His words. (“Yea, hath God said?”).

Click here for Part 2 of this essay.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

 

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Roger Ebert Finds His Voice

Cancer survivor Roger Ebert

Grace and peace unto you.

There were a few things going on in the world that I wanted to talk about today, but I think I will perhaps talk about them tomorrow.  I just finished watching a video where Roger Ebert appeared on Ted Talks speaking about dealing with the inability to speak since having his lower jaw removed due to cancer.

It was a very moving presentation.  At first, Mr. Ebert used Apple’s “Alex” voice synthesizer on his MacBook to speak, but after a few minutes, he deferred to his wife and two other gentlemen who read from scripts to convey his thoughts to the audience rather than encumber them with the computerized voice for too long.

Mr. Ebert talked about his struggles to find a digital voice that was natural and as closely as possible imitated normal speech.  He shared how difficult it was for him to have to type as fast as possible so that in a conversational situation the other party would not have to wait that long as he typed.  He said that there is html code that he can use in a conversation that would help the synthesized voice to mimic subtle nuances in speech such as voice inflection, but that it is much too slow in a natural setting when he already has the task of typing as fast as he can so that the conversation can flow naturally.

Mr. Ebert said that at the encouragement of his wife, he contacted a software company in Scotland that was able to use samples of his voice from existing tapes and audio material from his long career in television.  The company was able to use that material and synthesize it into a computerized voice that sounded almost exactly like his natural voice.  He played a sample and indeed, it sounded almost exactly the way I remember him from “At the Movies.”

Mr. Ebert related something very interesting that I have not been able to forget.  He spoke about how much our voices are tied into who we are as people and how not being able to express ourselves any longer can actually change who we are.  He said that in his case, having to rely on another voice to speak for him actually brought about the birth of a new person.  This was something that I have never thought about, but I can certainly see how that could happen.  He also talked about how uncomfortable he felt without his computer and how he spends much more time listening in conversations than he used to, rather than slow the conversation down by typing.

Possibly the saddest and most sobering part of the presentation is when he talked about the physical toll this ordeal had taken on him with all the surgeries he has undergone.  He said that on four occasions his carotid artery actually ruptured, and that on one occasion had he not been listening to a particular album longer than he should have, he would have died in his car.  Fortunately, the artery ruptured before he left the hospital and doctors were able to save his life.  He also talked about the way people react when they see him; how they speak to him with a loud voice as though he were deaf, and how many avert their eyes when they see him, because he reminds them of their own fragility and mortality.

His wife, Chaz, who did a very good job of holding herself together, read this portion of the presentation and one could plainly see that she was suffering for her husband.  What I liked about her was that there was not an ounce of self-pity on her behalf.  Her concern was clearly for her husband, who at one point (through his wife) said that he looked like the Phantom of the Opera, to which his wife vehemently protested.  He is truly blessed, in spite of it all, to have someone by his side, and that he is not going through this difficult time alone.

Mr. Ebert devoted the final minutes of his presentation to how computer technology and the internet have given him a second chance at life and enabled him to express himself even though he can no longer speak.  He talked about how he has met so many supportive people, through his blog and Twitter, who have gone through similar trials such as one man who is cripple, and another who has to type with his toes.  I was very much encouraged by this man’s story because, even though I have the power to speak, I am utterly alone in this world, having been either disowned by family and friends or cruelly torn away from the only people who still love me.

I have always been the black sheep in my family, so I am used to being alone.  But, when you have a burning desire within you to share what Jesus has done for you and to help others who are going through various trials with the knowledge and encouragement that the Lord has given you, it can be very difficult.  Our situations are different but similar: he has a captive audience but can’t speak to them, I am very much able to speak, but no one wants to hear.

Enter the internet!  This blog enables me to share with the lost the love, hope, and salvation that are in Christ Jesus, as well as to encourage, edify, and admonish the body of Christ.  What a blessing! I thank God for this miracle of modern technology!  Though I would never venture to compare my pithy circumstances with Roger Ebert’s, I know something of how it feels to have found one’s voice on the internet.

But how do you share the love of Jesus with someone in Mr. Ebert’s situation?  How can you convince someone that is going through such a trial that the Lord Jesus loves and cares for them and has a plan for their life?  I have to confess that I don’t know how.  I desperately want to know how.  But I fear that I am no different than most people, who have petty fears about the disabled.  I have always wanted to witness to them, but have never tried because I have never walked in their shoes.  It would be incredibly fake and pretentious of me to try to tell them to have faith and be encouraged and trust in the Lord, when that is hard enough for able-bodied people to do.  I pray that the Lord will give me wisdom in this area.

I am glad that I saw Roger Ebert’s video.  This Christian walk can be so difficult, but it’s nothing compared to what Mr. Ebert has gone through and must yet go through.  It was very encouraging.

Mr. Ebert is also not a believer, as during his presentation, he spoke of the world as being billions of years old.  With his newfound access to so many people, perhaps there is someone in a similar situation that has somehow found the Lord Jesus and can share his testimony with Roger Ebert.

We all have our own burdens to bear, trials to go through, and difficulties to overcome, especially in this economy, but if you can spare a moment, please pray for strength for Roger Ebert and his wife Chaz and all those who are going through similar circumstances.  And while we are at it, let us ask God to help us to overcome our own ignorance and prejudice.

In Love,

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

 

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Are You Going To Believe Me Or Your Lying Eyes?

Grace and peace.

Adolf Hitler is reported to have said, “If you tell a lie long enough, loud enough, and often enough, the people will believe it.”  I am a witness to this phenomenon of deception.  I have known someone to give a completely false account of an incident that everyone present knew was a lie.  Nevertheless, this person continued to tell his false version of the incident for so long–literally years–and so often, that after awhile, some of those who witnessed the event came to doubt what they actually saw, and to believe the false account.  

Indeed, I know two people who actually said that they never admit guilt to anything, and that if someone were to see them commit a crime, the person would have to prove without a shadow of a doubt that the they were guilty.  No matter how trivial the infraction, they have determined never to admit guilt.

I heard a story once where a woman caught her husband in the very act of infidelity. “It’s not what it looks like,” her husband said.   “What do you mean, it’s not what it looks like,” his wife answered, “What else could it possibly be?”  “I’m telling you it’s not,” he retorted. “Now are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?”

This seems to be the attitude that the media takes toward the public.  Often, they will report on an incident and that report, which often takes place during, or immediately after the incident, will be truthful.  Oftentimes, however, shortly thereafter, a new report will come out denying what the initial report either stated openly or implied.  This is probably because someone in a powerful or influential position didn’t like the way the original report made something or someone look.  It’s a cleanup report.

Take for instance the riot that occurred the other day in Vancouver, British Columbia when the Kanucks lost to the Boston Bruins in the Stanley Cup finals.  Rioters took to the streets, overturning cars, smashing windows, and setting fires.  The scene was of absolute chaos and anarchy.  And over what?  A game.  Turns out they have done the same thing before.  This damning portrait is in stark contrast to the media’s perpetual portrayal of Canadians—especially those in Vancouver—as laid back, easy-going people.  Yet, they are obviously capable of terrible violence for the most trivial of reasons.  No different than anyone else.

I saw a glimpse of this hypocrisy a couple of months ago at a press conference for a UFC card featuring a title bout between George St. Pierre and Jake Shields.  Jose Aldo, a Brazilian, was also fighting on the undercard and appeared at the press conference, held in Vancouver, which was also attended by Lyoto Machida, Randy Couture, GSP, and Shields, among others.  

 

 

Brazilian Jui-Jitsu Artist and MMA fighter, Jose Aldo

Jose Aldo is one of the fastest-rising stars in the UFC and is considered by many to be pound-for-pound the best fighter in the UFC. Yet, amazingly, not one question was asked of Aldo by the many journalists in attendance. Not one question.

I personally wanted to hear what the dynamic and explosive Aldo had to say, but no one at the press conference seemed to care.  It is extremely rare that a fighter of Aldo’s caliber would not be asked a single question at a press conference.  In fact, I had never before seen such a thing.  So this made me wonder about the Canadians, or at least, these Canadians.  I chalked it up to the UFC crowd though, having been myself for a long time brainwashed into believing that the Canadians were “laid-back, easy-going people.”

Now, this senseless riot happened to snap me out of my media-induced slumber and into the real world.  The Canadians are just as bad as the rest of us.  Canada must have realized that they could stand to lose millions of dollars in tourist revenue if they didn’t act quickly.  

Enter The Media.  A new story has come out of Vancouver to put a happy face on that shameful incident.  Amidst tear gas being hurled, bottles being tossed, expletives being thrown, cars being overturned, and fires being set, apparently a young couple was photographed kissing on the ground: a placid, tranquil, and tender oasis of love amidst the carnage.

Fake Vancouver Kissing Couple

I’m no media expert, but this photo looks fake as all get-out.  The circumstances of their tender encounter make it all the more implausible.  The words of a journalist reveal the real purpose of this “feel good” story:

“Brett Jones [the young man’s father] now says the couple is being besieged by media requests from outlets around the world.

“All, of course, are interested in knowing the circumstances that found the couple smooching as cars were burned and windows were smashed around them.” [Boldface and brackets mine.]

So, according to this journalist, everyone now wants to know why this couple was kissing, rather than what in the world made these “laid-back, easy-going people” lose their minds. Uh-huh.

But the depth to which a media clean-up effort will descend is reflected in this dubious statement:

“But despite some of our initial assumptions, the kiss seen ’round the world wasn’t the product of a riot-fueled, uncontrollable passion. Brett Jones instead notes that Thomas was injured and his son was coming to her aid.”

Please look at the photo one more time.  Look at the position of their bodies, especially the young man’s legs, and tell me if it appears he was just “coming to her aid.”  And believe me, the view of a particular part of the young girl’s anatomy would make the average red-blooded male forget all about the riot.  Just as it is intended to.

Now, I’m not trying to come down on the Canadians.  I know for a fact, based on two Canadian guys I used to know, that they are as nice and friendly as anyone.  But just like anyone else, there are elements who can be excited to violence for the slightest of motives.  Despite the media’s efforts to make Canadians look uber-angelic, we should not forget this.  The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9).  That includes Canadian hearts.

Brethren, in these last days, we are going to have to be especially careful of what we see, hear, and read in the media, as there will be a lot of clean-up reporting going on.  They are going to be asking us, “Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes?”

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

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Put Off Thy Shoes From Off Thy Feet

Moses at the Burning Bush

Grace and Peace brothers, sisters, and friends in Christ Jesus and in Adam.

You know, it can be difficult at times to know how to talk to God.  After all, He is God: Creator of the Universe, Sovereign of All Things whether in heaven, in earth, or under the earth.  The First and the Last.  The Beginning and The End.  Wow.  He, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, is over everyone and everything.  Yet, how many of us remember this when we go to Him in prayer?

Remember that when God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, He said,

“Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground” (Exodus 3:5).

Did you know that when we come before the Lord in prayer we are actually in God’s presence?  Have you any idea what an awesome privilege this is?  You and I will likely never gain an audience with an actual king, queen, or president, and even if we did we would have to first go through a lot of protocol before even being allowed in the room where the king, queen, or president sits.  I have no idea what that protocol might be, and frankly, I’m not interested enough to even go through the trouble to research it.  The point is that we cannot come before any king or queen at our leisure, when we want to.  It must be at their leisure and when and if they want to.

But God in His love for us has given us permission to come before His sovereign presence whenever we please.  Why?  because God loves His Son Jesus, Who in suffering and dying for the sins of the world, was “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8).  The Lord Jesus did not have to allow Himself to suffer humiliation at the hands of sinners (Hebrews 12:3), nor, being innocent, did He have to allow Himself to be condemned as an evil-doer by evil-doers.  But the Lord Jesus did this and more: for He saw this evil all the way to its conclusion and allowed Himself to be crucified on the cross (a death reserved for criminals) for the sins of the whole world.  And this man had never sinned a day in His entire life.

For this, God, who rewards righteousness (Mathew 6:6), has highly exalted Jesus (Philippians 2:9) and given Him a name that is above every name.  He will give Jesus whatever He asks.  Jesus said that anything that we ask of the Father in His (Jesus’) name, He (Jesus) would give it to us (John 14:13-14).  (Incidentally, if Roman Catholics, who pray in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which is unscriptural, receive anything that they “pray” for, it is only because of the grace of God.)

Now, Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well that the day was coming when people would neither worship God “in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem” (John 4:21).  This meant that we would no longer be required to go to a certain place to worship God as the Jews had to, but that we could worship Him wherever we are.

Jesus next told her why this would be.  Please pay attention to this, because it is very important.  Jesus said,

“The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.  God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.”

Jesus said that the true worshippers of God would one day worship Him “in spirit.”  We know that this is true, because the Bible says,

“For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit” (Philippians 3:3).

Paul draws an important contrast here.  Scripture tells us that another name for the Jews was “the circumcision” because they were chosen of God to be His people, and the circumcision of all male children was a token in the flesh of the Jews’ covenant with God. Non-Jews, or Gentiles, were known as the “uncircumcision,” which name denotes not only a physical reality, but also the fact that they had no covenant with God.  In other words, they were not a chosen people.  The Jewish worship of God, prior to the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ, entailed a person going to the priest with an animal sacrifice (usually a lamb or a goat) which he would present to the priest at the Jewish temple in Jerusalem.  The priest would then sacrifice it and shed its blood on behalf of that person as an atonement to God for that person’s sins.  The priest then, was the mediator between God and man.

But God in His love for us, sent His Son Jesus to die and shed his blood for the sins of the world.  As the Lamb of God, Jesus performs two roles:

1) As the final sacrifice for the sins of all men, Jesus eliminated the need for us to physically present a sacrifice to God for the atonement of our sins.

2) As our Great High Priest (Hebrews 9:11) Jesus is now our mediator to God under the New Covenant (Hebrews 9:7, 12:24). There is no longer any need for an earthly priest.

So, whereas the Jews (the Circumcised in the flesh) had to present themselves bodily in order to worship God, we Christians (the Circumcised in the spirit) need not so to do.   We are free to worship God whenever and wherever we are through the spirit.

This enormous blessing is not without its problems though, because oftentimes we forget that we are talking to The King of Kings.  If we had to travel all the way to Washington in our best clothes, at our own expense, and after much correspondence and protocol, for a once-in-a-lifetime, brief, fifteen-minute audience with God, it would immediately become clear to us how big a deal it was.  And we would not only wear the best clothes we had, but we would probably buy new clothes specifically for the occasion.  Worship would become a chore if we had to do this once a year, let alone once a month, a week, or—God forbid—every day.  But because of the grace of God we don’t have to.

Let me put this in perspective for you.  Precious few of the over one billion Roman Catholics in the world will ever gain an audience with the pope, the head of their religion.  The pope is only one man, and if it were required for every Roman Catholic to travel to Rome to visit him even once in their lifetime, it would be a Herculean undertaking for the pope and certainly of no small consequence on the part of the individual.  On a smaller scale, a Roman Catholic must still present himself bodily before the priest to confess his sins and receive absolution, or forgiveness (which is unscriptural, by the way).  Likewise, it is also a requirement of Islam that every Muslim who is physically able must make the pilgrimage to Mecca at some time in his lifetime.  Because of the planning, financing, and logistics involved, this would be a major task in the life of a Muslim—especially the poorer ones.

Our God, however, has given us the awesome privilege, because of His love for us and because of His love and regard for His Son Jesus, to come to Him in spirit rather than in person.  What a blessing!  We need not go to the holy mountain in Jerusalem to worship the Lord.

But, just because we are allowed to come before God in spirit rather than in person does not mean that we ought to forget that He is The King.  That means that our attitude should be one of humility.  Humility is first reflected bodily, and for this reason it is customary to kneel in prayer.  But we should at times humble ourselves more than by merely kneeling before Him.  Notice that God told Moses to take off his shoes because he was on “holy ground.”  For most of us, this will not be a problem because we pray in the morning before getting dressed and at night after disrobing.  But we also pray in the street: asking God to protect us from evil, help us to resist sin, to let us reflect His holiness in our dealings with people, to let this interview turn out alright, to help us to not react to certain ungodly people, etc.  We should spiritually take off our shoes when we talk to God even at these times.  Let us not forget that He is The King.

How do we spiritually take off our shoes?  We address God in a way that reflects who He is and our reverence for His position.  We use any one of His many names and titles that are found in the Bible.  But you won’t know what they are unless you read your Bible.  It is when addressing God in prayer that I know whether or not I have been lax—not necessarily in reading the Bible, but in remembering Him and His sovereignty when reading the Bible.  I can tell you, while writing this, that I have been somewhat lax in this area, as I have been going through a difficult time lately.  When I go through these trials often my prayers are me groaning out my problems to Him, thanking Him for counting me worthy to go through these trials for His name, and telling Him that He is still worthy of all praise and honor.  But I neglect to praise and honor Him.  Funny huh?

I thank God that He knows I am just dust.  So, since I have been sleeping on this, you can walk through the Bible with me, and we’ll find some of His names and titles together.  I like it this way.  Let’s see…I have always liked John 17, Jesus’ Great Priestly Prayer to God on behalf of His disciples and the Church.  In verse 11, Jesus calls God “Holy Father.”  That is a great title, because God is Holy.  Remembering that will insure that we won’t address Him as merely a friend or a relative, though He is both, but also as His Holiness.  Only God is Holy.  Remembering this should also enflame you against all pretenders to that title.  But I digress.

In verse 25, Jesus calls God “Righteous Father.”  I especially like this since I can see the actor portraying Jesus in the movie, “The Gospel According to John.”  He did a really good job conveying the love and humanity of Jesus and the love He had for God the Father.  When he said, “O Righteous Father” it touched something in me that I still feel whenever I read those words.  God is Righteous—meaning Just—and we need to always remember that His judgments are never out of animosity.  Even when He acts out of anger or vengeance it is always righteous anger and righteous vengeance, for He is Righteous.

Now let us turn to Psalms, for if there were anyone who ever knew how to pray, it was David.  The psalms, besides the example of Jesus, are a great way to learn how to pray, by learning how David addressed God.

Let’s begin with Psalm 91, the Psalm of Security.  Here, David calls God the “Most High” and “The Almighty.”  As Most High, there is no one and no thing higher than He.  Therefore He is deserving of more praise than anyone.  He is deserving of more honor than anyone.  He is deserving of more reverence than anyone.  He is deserving of more respect than anyone.  And He alone deserves our worship.  As the Almighty, He is the most powerful being in existence, and is able to do anything and everything.  And, most happily, He is also our God and Father.  Let me tell you something: if I were a child and my father were a king, I would not be worried about too much in this world, because I would know that my father has the resources to handle most of life’s problems because he is king.  And if he can’t fix it, he knows someone who can.  Our heavenly father, God Almighty, is King of Kings.  All resources are His.  Not only can He fix anything He pleases, but He has the power to compel and empower anyone He wants to fix anything on our behalf.

But look at line 2.  Because God is the Most High and the Almighty, we can say of Him, “He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in Him will I trust.”  We can trust God to do what He says He will do, because He has the power and authority to do it.  Let me tell you something.  That is a big deal.  Presidents and kings can do many things, but rarely do they promise to do anything but try, because, though they may have authority, they do not always have power.  Authority is nothing without power, and without power there are no guarantees.  Politicians often make promises, but rarely do they deliver, because they don’t have the power to deliver.  They may have the authority to promise, but they do not always have the power to make good on their promises, even if they were so inclined (which is not often).  God has all power and all authority.  He is the only one who can deliver on all His promises.

Even the Roman centurion knew this.  Being someone in a position of authority, and being invested with the power of the one who gave him the position, he understood that Jesus could not do the things He did without having both authority and power (Luke 7:1-10).  Jesus has all power and authority, because He is King.  Think about that the next time you pray.

Let’s look at Psalm 90:

“Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”

Before there was ever a king, God was, and after all kings have longed passed away, God will be.  He is eternal.  However you choose to express this to Him: be it Eternal God, Everlasting God, Father of the Everlasting, Eternal One, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the important thing is to recognize His eternal nature; for if you understand His eternal nature, you understand His authority and power: for who can promote or demote an Eternal God?

Perhaps no psalm conveys the message of God’s absolute authority like Psalm 5, for here the psalmist says: “Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King and my God: for unto thee will I pray.”

God is called both King and God.  These titles convey both His temporal (worldly) and spiritual authority and power.  As King He is Lord of the temporal, because he created the physical world.  The Scripture tells us in many places that it is He that sets up and deposes rulers at His pleasure.  If He sets up kings, then He is King of the Kings, and, as such, He is worthy of our honor.  As God, He is over all gods, who in fact are no gods, for He alone is God.  As God, He is worthy of our worship.  We would do well to remember this when we come before Him in prayer.

Let us revisit the issue of humility once more: for if we humble ourselves in deed, it is a mere detail to humble ourselves in word.  As you will recall, when Moses was speaking to God in the burning bush, Scripture tells us, “Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God” (Exodus 3:6).  There are a couple of important things to consider about this verse.  First, it is important to note that Moses was not told to do this.  His heart, which was already subject to God, knew instantly to render due respect and fear to the Sovereign of the Universe.  He didn’t have to be prompted to do it.  Second, notice that God never told Moses to uncover his face.  God expects our fear and reverence, and it was not improper, humiliating, or unmanly for Moses to act in this manner.  Even though God doesn’t demand this show of reverence when we come to Him in prayer, if your heart is right with God, at some point the Spirit will reveal to you the need to render this honor to Him.

When I would pray with my children, I would always bow myself to the ground on all fours with my face to the ground.  I would not always cover my face when doing so, but somehow my children (one in particular) felt the necessity for this.  If we understand that it is to the King of the universe to Whom we are praying, and we display this in our attitude and words by a reverential and humble attitude, our children will understand this right away; for children, being subject to everyone, understand nothing if not authority.  But when we display an irreverent, careless attitude when addressing God, believe me when I tell you that our children will pick up on this too, and will be likewise irreverent and careless in their dialogue with the Lord.  This ought not to be.

Let us by all means come to the Lord whenever we choose, being thankful that Jesus has made it possible, through His selfless sacrifice for us, to worship God how and where we are.  But let us not forget that God is a Sovereign and Holy King, Who deserves not only our love and gratitude, but also our utmost respect and reverence.

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Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011-2012 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

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Weep For Your Children

Grace and peace unto you, Saints, and greetings to those who are still in the world.

We are living in some frightening times.  Murder has always been with us.   Ever since Cain killed righteous Abel in the Garden of Eden, murder has been as much a part of life as eating and drinking.  This fact, coupled with the desensitizing of Americans to violence through the media (in which the big eye in our living rooms has played no small role) has led to such a hardening of people’s hearts to violence and murder that no one seems to even notice that crimes of extreme violence seem to be on the increase.  The most startling aspect of this trend is the murder of children by children.

Children are exhibiting such an astonishing level of hate for each other that incidents of violence involving children are beginning to rival that of hardened murderers.  In Florida, for instance, a 12-year-old Florida boy, Cristian Fernandez, faces first degree murder charges for killing his 2-year-old brother.  How horrible!  What could the boy possibly have done to merit this? 

It is bad enough to take the life of another human being.  It is even worse to take the life of a child.  But it is horrible beyond words for a child to take the life of another child—especially his own sibling! and a toddler at that.  Prosecutors are pushing for Cristian to be tried as an adult because of the violence of the crime.  That will be two lives destroyed. The boy even confessed to having broken his brother’s leg a few months earlier.  What hate.

I simply cannot relate to this.  When I was a child, my brother and I fought all the time, either physically or verbally.  But, he was always my little brother.  Nothing he could have done—and he did a lot—could have ever changed that.  I felt bad even when on occasion I would punch him, because to me, he was always my little brother, and big brothers just don’t hurt their little brothers. 

It is part of the unofficial job description of big brothers to take abuse from their little brothers.  That’s just the way it is.  It’s all part of them being immature little idiots, and us being seasoned, wise, sage, protective big brothers.  Our vaunted positions entail a little abuse from time to time.

This just doesn’t seem to be the case anymore.  It seems as though big brothers just aren’t as protective of their little brothers as they used to be.  And it’s not just the boys anymore either.  Increasingly girls—yes, girls—are becoming violent towards their siblings and other children—to the point of death.

Yesterday, in Kansas City, Missouri, a five-year-old girl drowned an 18-month-old boy in a bathtub.  No, this is not a misprint; and it was no accident.  The little girl actually confessed to “dragging” the toddler into the bathroom and drowning him in the tub, which was already filled with water from other children in the home who had previously taken a bath.  And if you think the crime itself was terrible, the reason that she did this terrible thing is even more so, for the child said that she murdered the boy because she “did not like him,” and because he “was crying too much!”

Let me put this in perspective for you.  Drowning is a horrible way to die.  It is an even more horrible way to kill someone, because it is not as impersonal as a bullet or even beating someone to death with your own hands.  Because of all the things that a drowning person does when he is dying, and the length of time it takes for a person to finally succumb; there is time to rethink your actions.  For a person to continue to drown someone, in spite of all the signs of impending death, takes an incredible amount of coldness and impassivity, even for a grown person.  But for a child!

Even if you could somehow rationalize the rage this child must have felt towards this little boy to purposefully drag him to the bathtub, put him in, and force his head under the water—even if you could somehow intellectualize that—how can you possibly explain the incredible lack of compassion and love that would allow this child to continue the act to its conclusion? 

Even after seeing the boy thrashing about (as he must have), even after seeing his legs kicking (as they must have) as he is trying to survive, even after seeing his wide-eyed, terror-stricken face pleading for his life as he knows without knowing that he is going to die (as he must have), even after seeing his little body stiffen and then go limp (as it must have) as the precious life-force ebbs from his limbs…what could have possibly taken hold of this child that would allow her—in  spite of all the sobering signs of the horror of her actions and of the inevitable result—to complete her gruesome mission?  This is unfathomable.

There is something about the coldness and hate of this vile act—perpetrated by a mere child—that sends chills over my body.  I had a difficult time sleeping last night trying to wrap my head around this.  You could not have told me ten years ago that I would live to see the day when children would be killing one another at such a young age and in such a horrible way.  A five-year-old child drowning an 18-month-old child.  Can there be any doubt that something is seriously wrong?

What troubles me is that there are parents somewhere reading this who are going to try to rationalize these crimes.  They may try to chock them up to race and economic status.  After all, the victims and the perpetrators in both of these crimes were minorities.  They are going to say that it had something to do with their upbringing—or lack thereof; that these unfortunate children are the result of poor parenting.  There is some truth to this. 

Cristian’s mother gave birth to him when she was only 12 years old.  I know grown women—some in their thirties—who are lousy parents.  Can you imagine a 12-year-old girl giving birth to a child?  This boy never had a chance.  In the case of the five-year-old girl, she and several children had been left in the care of a sixteen-year-old who allegedly suffered from some form of mental illness, while an adult had allegedly left to drive a relative home.  The drowning occurred shortly before twelve o’clock midnight.  These children should have been in the bed asleep, under the watchful eye of an adult. 

In truth, someone somewhere dropped the ball.  But even under those circumstances, there was no need for the kind of violence perpetrated.

No.  There is another reason that these children murdered.  There is another reason for the total disregard they had for the lives of the other children.   Economics aren’t solely responsible for the frightening rash of violence among our children that we are seeing in recent years.  This is the work of Satan himself.  And it doesn’t matter how good a parent you are.  It doesn’t matter how much time you spend with your children, though it is admirable that you do spend time with you children.  And it doesn’t matter how good your intentions are.  If you are not insulating your children at home from satanic influences that they are learning at school and on the streets, then your children are just as vulnerable as any.

One of these satanic influences is a religion that is being taught to practically every child, in practically every school, in possibly every city in probably every state in this country.  This religion is the heart and soul of what those who are trying to destroy these United States and its Constitution believe, and what we see happening to our children is a direct result of this teaching.  This religion is Secular Humanism.

The preface to the Humanist Manifesto II contains a brief, but very informative definition of Secular Humanism:

“[H]umanists still believe that traditional theism, especially faith in the prayer-hearing God, assumed to love and care for persons, to hear and understand their prayers and to be able to do something about them, is an unproven and outmoded faith.

Salvationism [sic] based on mere affirmation, still appears as harmful, diverting people with false hopes of heaven hereafter.  Reasonable minds look to other means for survival.” [Boldface mine.]

In other words, Humanists rely on their own reason rather than look to God for guidance.  This presents a moral quagmire.  If God is taken out of the picture, how do human beings determine what is wrong or right?  The Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9).  If this is true–and history has more than proven that it is–then man cannot be left to himself to determine what is wrong or right.  He will fail miserably.

Think this is not a problem?  Well, you are dreadfully mistaken and are in need of a little clarification.  In a book entitled Weep For Your Children, Dr. Murray Norris says this about Secular Humanism:

“Unfortunately, many parents do not recognize the real enemy of their home and their religion.  They do not know that secular humanism would destroy both.”[1]

Why is Secular Humanism so dangerous?  Well, a major tenant of Humanism, called Values Clarification, is being taught in practically every school in the country.  Listen to what Values Clarification holds:

“It’s OK to lie…It’s Ok to steal…It’s OK to have pre-marital sex…It’s Ok to cheat…It’s OK to kill—if these things are part of your own value system and you have clarified these values for yourself. 

“The important thing is not what values you choose, but that you have chosen them yourself—freely and without coercion by parents, spouse, priests, friends, ministers, or by social pressure of any kind.” [2] [Boldface mine.]

Now is all this starting to come together for you?  Our children are being taught in school that whatever they decide to do–be it good or bad–is OK as long as it is right in their minds.  In case you are of the delusional belief that children are not buying this, Dr. Morris provides this story:

“In one school, a student came home from an “enrichment class” with a rebellious and terribly selfish attitude towards his family, especially his brothers and sisters.  The distraught mother, trying to find the problem, asked the student why he had become so selfish. 

“He explained that the school had told him he could choose to do anything he wanted.  He was the only person who counted.  His ideas were the only ideas of importance.  What his parents or what anyone else wanted was of no importance to him.  This is what he had been taught in school.” [3]

Understand that children are like little sponges.  They will believe anything that their teachers tell them, because they are taught by parents like us to believe their teachers, and they are taught by society that teachers know better than we what is best for our children.  What a shameful state of affairs.

Children who buy into this will one day grow up to be adults who will then perpetuate the lie.  I had a “friend” once when I lived in Germany (the friend was an American) who made a very shocking statement to me one night while we were shooting pool.  Literally out of the blue he said,

“Hitler was not wrong for trying to exterminate the Jews, because he thought he was doing the right thing.  It would have been different if he had known it was wrong and still did it, but he really thought he was doing the right thing.  Therefore, he was not wrong.”

Without the information I have just provided, you would probably have wondered how this person could possibly have come up with such a ludicrous idea.  In light of what you now know, you should realize that he likely had learned Values Clarification in school.  Don’t you just love how your tax dollars are being spent?

Humanists do not believe in moral absolutes, or right and wrong.  They believe that the end justifies the means and whatever you have to do to get what you want is OK so long as you believe it is right. 

Understand that this teaching comes straight from the pit of Hell.  It was Satan’s promise to Eve that if she ate of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, that she would “be as gods, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:5).  Is it any wonder, then, that our poor children are turning on one another seeing that they are being brainwashed with this satanic doctrine? 

And believe me, they are being brainwashed.  Dr. Norris had this to say on the subject:

“Some intellectuals, even among the clergy, insist that Values Clarification methods can be used to instill proper values in children.  They recognize that Values Clarification is not merely a neutral program, but one that can be used to bend or even brainwash the minds of children.” [4] [Boldface mine.]

Did you hear that?!  This is incredible!  Understand that many teachers are not our friends.  There are precious few good godly teachers in the education system.  Most are humanist, and are trying to mislead your children.  Listen to what one university professor said:

“If I can only plant the seed of doubt that God exists in the minds of the students…I have succeeded.” [5]

I can personally attest to this.  I went back to college four years ago and what I found being taught at the university shocked and horrified me so much that I never want any of my children to attend the university.  What I found in the grade schools shocked me even more.  Our schools are hotbeds of Socialism, Communism, Humanism, Witchcraft, Eastern Mysticism, Buddhism, and other ungodly teachings.  Is it any wonder that we are seeing our children committing such heinous acts as the ones we have discussed?

*************************WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT*************************

  • We must pray, pray, pray.  How many of us daily pray for our children?  We need to pray over our children that these harmful doctrines don’t penetrate into their pliable little minds.  We must pray that they recognize a lie when they hear it and train them to silently pray to themselves that those lies bounce right off them and onto the floor.  I have done this with my children.
  • We need to teach our children right and wrong using the Bible as our authority.  We must explain to our children that most teachers are not Christian, and therefore don’t hold to the same values that we do.  We must tell them while they must respect their teachers, they mustn’t trust everything they say.  I have taught my children that when their teachers tell them something that is contrary to the Bible that they must say to themselves, “That’s a lie,” and if they know the Bible verse that counters it, to say it to themselves.
  • We need to explain to our children that there is a war going on between Satan and his followers and the Lord Jesus and His followers.  We need not be worried that they won’t understand.  If you are saved, trust the Holy Spirit to enable you to explain this to your children in a way they will understand.  If you are not saved, get saved, so that God will give you the Spirit of Discernment (if you pray for it), so that you will understand what is going on and why.  Without the Holy Spirit, you could be the most intelligent, most endowed with wisdom and common sense person in the world, and still not understand the spiritual significance of current events.  Without this knowledge you cannot see the Big Picture, and thus make it tangible for your children.  This is crucial information that your children must have.
  • We need to get saved.  The time for games is over.  The forces of darkness are massing and they are getting bolder and more confident because they are seeing the culmination of their efforts.  They see that their people have infiltrated every level of society: Government, education, the judicial system, law enforcement, the military, and most importantly, religion, have all been compromised.  Our only defense is the Lord Jesus.  He is our Protector.  He will tell us what to do.
  • We need to get smart.  Christians are some of the most ignorant people on the face of the earth.  Most of us are blind to what is really going on in the world due to the fact that many, if not most pastors are part of the agenda.  Stop merely believing what your pastors and so-called Christian evangelists and radio personalities tell you.  Believe me, like former Illuminati Druid High Priest-turned-Christian evangelist, John Todd once said, if they were preaching hard-core Gospel, they would not be on TV or radio.  Get right with God, and get into the Word.  The Lord Jesus has promised to reveal Himself to anyone who truly seeks Him out.  You don’t need to always have someone tell you what is going on.  Learn from the Holy Spirit, the world’s greatest teacher.

I hope by now you understand a little better why things are getting so crazy.  And they will only get worse.  The last thing I want is for any of our children to make the news in this way.  Stop fence sitting and get on the front lines for Jesus.  Your child’s well being depends on it.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man


[1]Weep For Your Children: An explanation of the anti-God religion in our schools and what you can do about it!, Dr. Murray Norris, 1979, 1983, Christian Family Renewal, p. 5. (Available on Amazon.)

[2] Ibid, p. 6.

[3] Ibid, p. 3.

[4] Ibid, p. 6.

[5] Ibid, p. 8.

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“Greater Love Hath No Man Than This…”

Grace and peace.

The Midwest and the South are experiencing a record year with floods and tornados.  With regard to tornados, Missouri had been somewhat lucky until now.  The tornado that tore through St. Louis on April 20th did a lot of damage, including to the airport, and displaced many people, but no one was killed.  This tornado in Joplin, however, was in stark contrast to the St. Louis twister: over 125 casualties thus far.

Possibly the sadest moment was when searchers Wednesday recovered the body of a 16-month-old toddler who was reported missing following the twister.  That was a low.  I was hoping that they would find the child underneath some debris or something–scratched up, but otherwise fine.  Sadly, that was not to be.  Though it is of little consolation to the parents of this dear child, I’m grateful that the child is now with the Lord Jesus (and he is with the Lord Jesus), and will be spared the knowledge of this profane and perverse world.

Out of this same tornado, came another story: likewise of loss, but also of heroism in the face of peril.  Bethany Lansaw described how her husband threw himself on top of her to save her life, and in doing so, forfeited his own.  Now that’s what I call a hero.  I rarely, if ever, use that word these days, because it has been overused by the media, who will call anybody a hero.  If a person survives an ordeal, they are hailed as a hero.  They are not a hero; they are a survivor.  There is a big difference.

The Bible says,

“greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (Matthew 15:13).

That, in my opinion, is a true hero.

I don’t know if I would have done what Don Lansaw did.  I would like to think that I would, but I don’t know if I would.  We know, however, that this man did, and for that he is one of my heroes.  In the moment of truth, he loved someone else more than himself.  Let me tell you something: in this selfish age, that to me is a big deal.

May God soothe and comfort Bethany, who doubtless must feel at least a twinge of guilt. But she needn’t.  Her husband did what the Bible says a man should do: he loved his wife so much that he gave his life for her.  The Bible says,

“Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” (Ephesians 5:25).

The implication is clear: If we love our wives as Christ loved the church, then we are to give our lives for our wives, as Christ gave his life for the church.  This is the pattern that the Lord Jesus set for us to follow.

Adam also gave his life for his wife.  The Bible says that Adam was not deceived like Eve was (1 Timothy 2:14).  Why, then, did he eat of the forbidden fruit, when he knew that the penalty was death?

Because he loved his wife, and he didn’t want to live without her.

Now, how many men reading this would give their lives for their wives?  I am not saying that we should do it.  I’m saying that we should be willing to do it.  How many of us are willing?  If you are not willing, why?  How many women reading this are certain that their husbands would be willing to lay down their lives for them?

You might want to earnestly consider this, because believe me, as the world continues to turn, the times are drawing nearer when women are going to need their men.  Just look at some of the third world countries, those in Africa particularly, where the rape and physical abuse of women is rampant.  And it is not just in countries like the Congo, which gets so much media attention.  South Africa has always had a huge problem with rape among the European population, but you won’t find that in mainstream statistics.  Women in these countries cannot afford the luxury of saying, “I don’t need a man.”

And it is a luxury.  The feminist movement has given women the delusion that times have changed.  But they have not.  Feminism may have changed the way women feel about themselves, but it has not and will not change the way many men feel about women.  And it wasn’t intended to.  What the feminist movement has done is take away the desire of many, if not most, men to give their lives for their wives.  And that is a shame.

If I were a woman, I would not want to find out in the moment of a crisis that my husband would not be willing to risk his life to protect me.  I would especially not want to find out that the reason is because I had not valued my husband, had not appreciated my husband, had not respected my husband, had not loved my husband.  That would be a pity.

Now, I am fully aware that there are men out there who are behaving very badly.  But they are actually in the minority.  The media however, which supports the feminist movement, make it appear as though the majority of men are behaving badly, and this is just not the case.  But I won’t argue this.  Let each woman reading this examine her own conscience.

The fact is that the Lord Jesus says that a man should be willing to give his life for his wife.

Jesus is known in the Bible as “the Last Adam,” for as Adam was innocent of any transgression, yet he gave his life for his wife, so was Jesus also innocent of sin, yet He gave His life for his Bride, the Church.  That is why Scripture says that Adam “is the figure of Him (Jesus) that was to come” (Romans 5:14).

This is true love:  This is true heroism:  To lay down one’s life for one’s beloved.

Don Lansaw did something that few men would do, and for that I commend him.  So, in between worshipping your rock stars, movie stars, and sports heroes, please take a moment and consider Don Lansaw and say a prayer for his wife, Bethany.  And let each examine his own conscience.

Jesus Christ also did something that no other man could or would do: He laid down His life for us, His friends.  Let us be grateful.  If you would like to get to know a real Hero, click here.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

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“Take Heed That No Man Deceive You” (Matthew 24:4)

Grace and peace, Saints.

Folks, I have just spent the last three and a half hours on YouTube checking out videos posted by various “Christian” ministries.  Let me tell you something in all seriousness:  If you do not have the discernment of the Holy Spirit, you will, I repeat, YOU WILL BE DECEIVED.   One site I went to featured a guy putting out information that was actually true, though he mixed it with speculation.  He was talking about the correlation between the Japanese tsunami and Biblical prophecy, only he attributed the tsunami to weather warfare.

I don’t know if this is true or not.  One thing I do know is that Jesus foretold of such events as the Japanese tsunami (Luke 21:25).  It doesn’t matter who actually caused it, what does matters is that it fits into God’s plan.

What is more important and what I want to speak to is the fact that he seemed to be legitimate in that he was right in his assertion that this was the finger of God.  He also mentions the name of Jesus Christ often, and says that people ought to get saved.  But as I watched his videos and perused his website, I began to see inconsistencies.  Suspicious, I looked to see if anyone had posted any comments or a video response that may help to shed some light on him.   Someone had.

This individual posted a video expose that featured snippets of other videos the gentleman (who I will call a videovengelist) had made.  The expose not only refuted some of the gentleman’s claims, but it also showed some glaring inconsistencies in his statements by comparing video snippets that clearly show him contradicting himself.  In short, this video expose’ confirmed my suspicions about the videovangelist.

After watching the video expose’, I went to its owner’s YouTube channel to see what he was all about.  He gives very little information about himself other than that he presents the truth using the same tools that Satan uses to deceive the masses, or words to that effect; those tools are namely, “comedy and video.”  One of the videos posted on his site depicts stars actually denying God or attempting to deceive the public by invoking God in order to appear godly.  The most memorable for me was Jamie Foxx being asked by a young lady what God was to him.  Foxx is visibly perturbed at this question.  He then asks the lady, “What is He to you?”  When she responds that He is everything to her, Foxx then says, “You got all the answers, so why are you asking me?”  He ultimately says that God is everything to him, but in a manner suggesting that he was only mimicking what the young lady said just to get through the question.

Discerning Christians know, of course, that Christianity and celebrity are diametrically opposed, and that in reality most, if not all, celebrities worship Satan or practice some form of Satan worship.  So, again, this information is consistent with the truth.  Another video highlights mega-church pastors and prosperity gospel preachers and how they are actually deceiving the gullible.  This is also something we know is going on: so far, so good.  Well, the last video I looked at was taken at a local comedy club.

In that worldly comedy is totally inconsistent with Christianity, I was interested to see what the video dealt with given my experience with comedians.  Within the first minute of the video a comedian used some of the most vulgar, sexually explicit language I have ever heard.  I fast forwarded to the next comedian and it was more of the same.  After I clicked out of his site, I sat back in my chair and pondered what had taken place this morning.  This is what I concluded.

The videovangelist reminded me that not only does Satan deceive people by combining truth with lies, but he also deceives people by using the truth for evil ends. I discovered that the videovangelist is likely a scam artist.  He claims to have a Bible school, but it seems that no one has ever heard of it.  He advertises books, videos, and other merchandise on his website, which people have complained that they ordered, but have never received.  And he solicits donations from the public, but no one seems to know what he does with the money.  It seems he also has a knack of disappearing for months at a time only to reappear with a convenient excuse for having been in absentia.  But I don’t think he is an opportunist.  I believe he is a part of a well-orchestrated plan designed to discredit genuine Christian ministries.  People who follow this man will be deceived, and many will become bitter and distrustful of all Christian ministries, even those who are speaking the truth.

Those people will be driven to sites like Mr.  Expose’s which actually exists for the same purpose as Mr. Videovangelist’s site.  He exposes the hypocrisy of the videvangelist and turns people off to this gentleman.  He then entices one to visit his site where one will view his videos on false pastors and may be turned off to ALL preachers, legitimate or otherwise.  One then views his videos on the occult connection between the entertainment industry and the “Illuminati” (which most people these days are aware of) and think that he has all the answers.  Then while at his site, one will out of curiosity view his videos of the comedy club with all their profanity and sexual overtones, and be lured into Satan’s camp through the senses.  And people will begin to follow this guy just like they followed the videvangelist.  He will draw people away from church and draw disciples unto himself.

Think this is a stretch?  Well consider that one person had left a comment for Mr. Expose’ wherein he asked if the “prophecy” of Harold Camping were true because he has “drifted away from God.”  This poor man has already been deceived into accepting Mr. Expose’ as his guru.  Other people had also left comments saying how they knew the videvangelist was a phony, many of them thanking Mr. Expose’ for helping them to see the light.  It’s easy to get people to take you into their confidence in this manner.  All one need do is to first establish trust by “saving” someone from being deceived by exposing a false prophet and then establish legitimacy by putting out old information with a new face.  I, for instance, had never seen the clip of Jamie Foxx, nor had I seen some of the other people saying the things they do on his video, though I have seen many, many others.

One last thing I noticed was that Mr. Videvangelist and Mr. Expose’ both list contact addresses in the same state.  Is this a coincidence?  Maybe.  Is it also possible that the two are working in tandem?  Now you’re beginning to use your knowledge knot.

Remember that Jesus in Matthew 24:24 says,

“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.”

By the way, Mr. Videvangelist actually quotes this verse in one of his videos.  As I said, the devil will use the truth for evil ends.  These gentlemen appear to be “deceitful workman transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.”  But their end “shall be in accordance with their works.”

Pray for discernment saints, and look up; your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011-2012 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

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Smile, You’re on Heretic Camera!

 

Grace and Peace to you.

Something is seriously wrong with America.

Today, for some reason, I decided to go to YouTube and type “Neighbors Spying” into the search engine.  I was amazed at how many hits I got.  It seems that during this depression (or is it a recession?) an ever-increasing number of Americans have been busy little bees.  Americans are spying on one another.

The videos that I saw on YouTube prove without a shadow of a doubt that a lot of Americans are involved in spying on their neighbors.  There were videos that people have posted of them spying on others.  There were videos that people had posted of others spying on them.  There were videos showing you how to spy on others, as well as videos showing the ways that others could be spying on you.  There were videos by people who had videotaped others involved in malicious activities against them, as well as videos people themselves had made of them committing malicious acts against others. 

I was amazed—simply amazed—at the sheer number of videos and the lengths people will go to know what their neighbors are doing. 

When I finished watching these videos, I understood:

That many Americans are behaving very badly.

That many Americans want to behave badly, but need guidance.

That many Americans are willing to give them guidance.

That there are people out there who are taking advantage of all groups.

That some people have way too much time on their hands

That there is a reason it’s called YouTube.

One thing that was very clear in the videos was motive.  It was clear in most cases that the people doing the spying considered the subjects their enemies.  It was also clear that the people considered those who were spying on them their enemies.  And it was clear that the people who were videotaped committing malicious acts considered the victims their enemies.  By their actions, therefore, all of these people have declared war on each other, even though there was no formal declaration of war.

This is important because we as Christians are involved in a war, even though we don’t always behave as though we are in a war.  In fact, most of us don’t even know that there is a war going on.

It’s just like the war in Afghanistan.  We know there is a war going on, but we forget, because we are not directly involved in that war.  However, those who have family members who are involved in the fighting as well as those who have lost family members know full well that we are fighting a war.  Christians are like that.  Those Christians who are on the front lines of this spiritual war can testify that there is indeed a war going on—and hot and heavy, but those who are in the rear or who are “back home” may have no idea that a war is going on.

Now to most liberal Christians this may sound very unloving, but even a cursory glance through Scripture would make it clear that we are involved in a spiritual war.  Most pastors, however, rather than preach this fact, are preaching love, tolerance, acceptance, and inclusiveness, and are sadly doing their congregations a major disservice.

Knowing your enemy is a major part of preparing for any war.  If you don’t know your enemy: his tactics, his strengths and weaknesses, what weapons he uses, etc., you will be at a major disadvantage when you meet him on the battlefield.  This is what is known as intelligence.  It is information on your enemy that you can use to your advantage to defeat him.  All successful armies collect intelligence and gather all the data they can on their enemy using any means at their disposal—including spying.  You can rest assured that our enemies are gathering information on us, because they fully intend to win this war.

But we are not engaged in conventional warfare:

“But though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds)” (2 Corinthians 10:4).

That means that we don’t gather information on our enemy, because ultimately it is not we that do the fighting, but God.  And He has all the information he needs.  But we are in a war.  How then, do we fight?  We fight by praying and witnessing—by the Word of God.  But to even begin to do this we have to know who our enemy is and what he believes.  If we don’t know who our enemy is, we can’t pray for him; and if we don’t know what he believes we may not witness to him.

Let me give you an example.  Thanks to the ecumenical movement, most people, including many Christians, think that Roman Catholicism is Christianity, because they pay lip service to Jesus Christ.  Because of this, most Christians don’t even bother to witness to Catholics because they think that they are already saved.  Moreover, many Catholics use Christian terminology but with different meanings attributed to them.  They are thus able to fool many Christians into believing that they are saved, and the Christians therefore do not witness to them. 

If Christians knew what Roman Catholics really believe and practice, they would know that Catholics are not saved and are desperately in need of salvation.  For starters, they worship an idol named Mary, who they believe is the mother of Jesus, but in fact, is not.  Not only is the worship of Jesus’ mother un-Scriptural, but also idol worship is expressly forbidden in the Bible.  If Christians knew this, they would feel a burden to witness to the Catholics, and give them the true Gospel.

Another example is Islam, which many Christians consider a peaceful, God-fearing religion that emphasizes family and community.  What they fail to realize is that Islam, though acknowledging Jesus, considers Him no more than a prophet, saying that “Allah Had No Son.”

I know this for a fact to be true, because about four years ago, when I lived in Germany and attended a Christian church, I was passing out tracts at a busy outdoor mall one Saturday morning with the pastor and a few other members of the church, when a middle-aged Turkish gentleman came rushing up to me.  “You must understand,” he said, “to be a good Muslim, one has to believe in Jesus.”  “I realize that,” I said, while handing him a tract, “but you believe He was only a prophet, whereas I believe He is the Son of God, and in fact God Almighty.”  “Allah had no son,” he said, waving his hand and walking away.

Now if I had not known and believed that the Bible teaches,

“God gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

or that Jesus said,

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me” (John 14:6).

And…

“He who denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father” (1 John 2:23),

I would not have bothered to witness to this gentleman.

Now, doubtless, there are many good people who are Roman Catholics.  There are also many good people who are Muslims.  When I lived in Germany I met and befriended both Catholics and Muslims before and after I was saved.  Only after I got saved, I felt it my responsibility to witness to my Roman Catholic and Muslim friends, not only to obey the Great Commission, but because I understood that they were my enemies because of Jesus’ sake.  Whether they know it or not, their religions teach this in some fashion, and if their leaders were to tell them to persecute Christians and they didn’t, they would be considered heretics and infidels and could themselves be persecuted.  This can be confirmed by many sources.

Both the Roman Catholic church and Islam have persecuted Christians throughout history, and the Christian that refuses to accept this is only deceiving himself.  Christians living in Muslim countries can testify to this right now.  By witnessing to our friends, neighbors, and relatives who are trapped in these belief systems, we may save someone from the damnation of Hell, and maybe even turn an enemy into a friend.  At the very least, by knowing what these religions actually teach and believe, we would know and recognize a potential enemy, and pray for those individuals, and not put ourselves in a vulnerable position.

I live in a predominately Roman Catholic city in a mostly Roman Catholic neighborhood.  Believe me when I tell you that my neighbors have gone to great lengths to let me know that they do not approve of me.  Things have happened to me that only happen to people in the movies.  These same things happened to me when I lived in Munich, Germany.  This is why I personally believe the things I have read about Roman Catholic persecution of Christians.  I have lived it.  Now, I know that there will be someone out there who will vehemently disagree with this, but I also know that there is someone out there who knows that what I’m saying is true.

Now, because of what I have gone through, I had to constantly pray to God to show me how to love my neighbors, because they were making it far easier for me to hate them than to love them.  Of course, this is exactly what Satan wants.  I knew that I was being a very ineffective witness for Christ to my Catholic neighbors.  Two whole years had passed and I had only given out three gospel tracts to my neighbors and not one was on the errors of Catholicism.  This weighed heavily on my conscience.  I felt a burden for them, but at the same time, I was beginning to despise them.  Not good.  I continued to pray and fast over the matter. 

Then one day, a neighbor had done something particularly irksome to me, but rather than get angry, I grabbed as many Catholic tracts as I could carry, and went door to door handing them out until I didn’t have anymore.  When I got home I immediately dropped to my knees and gave God the glory:  I had finally witnessed to my neighbors.  The persecution has by no means stopped; as a matter of fact, in some ways it has intensified.  But I know that I have done what God wanted me to do.  I gave them the Gospel.  I also know that I could never have done this if I truly hated them.  More importantly, I would never have done this if I had believed that they were already saved.

Understand, dear brethren, that if you are a Christian (as well as anyone else), you are being watched, and that your neighbors are not all who or what they appear to be.  Know also that there is a war going on and that this activity is totally consistent with war.  Let this be an opportunity for you to walk the walk rather than just talk the talk.  As someone said, just make sure that what you say and what you do is truth.  Be honest in word and deed.  Bring glory to God.

Before I understood I was being spied on, my next-door neighbor, who is a chronic drunk, once called me Superman, and on another day he called me Mr. Perfect; both times in a negative manner.  I used to wonder what about me would make him call me those things when I am far from perfect.  It was only when I realized that he was spying on me, that I understood that he watched me when I wasn’t looking and saw that my private character was consistent with my public character.  This angered this man to no end, but it was because his own conscience was pricked.  Godly behavior (not to be confused with perfect behavior) is an indictment on the ungodly.

Get out there and witness to your neighbors.  Understand that spying, just like pornography, reality TV, and magic, is very addicting, and, like those, is a doorway through which Satan can enter a person’s life and get a toehold.  And once he gets a toehold, its over.  That is why many of us see our neighbors getting stranger and stranger.  Satan has come into their lives and will not let them loose. Their only hope is Jesus Christ, and only you can tell them about Him.  So, why not do it?

If you are a Roman Catholic and now understand that your religion is not true Christianity, and you want to have a real relationship with Jesus Christ, click here.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011-2012 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

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Baptism: Your Receipt of Salvation

Grace and peace to you.

There is one subject that I have wanted to talk about for some time.  It is a very controversial topic; indeed so much so, that doctrines concerning it have been the cause of much confusion in the so-called Christian community.  It has also historically been the primary cause of the persecution of the true Body of Christ—even to the point of death.  That subject is baptism.

There are many who believe that they are saved because they have been baptized.  An individual very close to me considers herself a Christian merely because she was baptized.  I remember visiting a church about three years ago and seeing a young woman getting baptized.  Before she was immersed she delivered this emotional and teary-eyed dissertation that drew applause and “Amens!” from the applause and “Amen!” gallery (every church has one).  I remember thinking that this show of emotion was superfluous given that baptism is merely a symbol whereby we identify ourselves with the Lord Jesus.

I know a lady who got baptized (without any rebirth or confession of faith in the Lord Jesus, I might add) and insisted that her entire family be present, bringing a video camera and everything, as though it was to be the most memorable event of her life.  She also invited me.  Now I knew that this young lady was not a believer and had not had a rebirth, but had merely decided to get baptized one day.  She even told me that she had been going to church for years, but had never been baptized, and that she had simply decided that now was the time. 

So, the Sunday prior to her baptism, with her permission, I talked with her pastor, letting him know in no uncertain terms that he was participating in the delusion of this poor woman, in allowing her to think that a mere dunking in water guaranteed her entrance into heaven.  He seemed utterly confused by what I was saying. It was then that I realized that he himself was as deceived as my friend; either that or he was delivering an Oscar-worthy performance.

At any rate, my friend went ahead with the baptism as scheduled, and nothing—absolutely nothing—was accomplished in her life besides her getting wet.  To be sure, her baptism was not the glorious event that she made it out to be, because she continued to have the same spiritual problems that she had always had, which problems remain until this very day.

I’ll tell you how I know.  One day she was telling me about a certain evangelist-turned-prophet-turned-gospel-singer whose CD she had just purchased.  She was very impressed by this lady and told me the profound effect the singer’s music had had upon her.  She then gave me the synopsis of the woman’s testimony.  It was straight out of Paul’s experience of being taken up to the third Heaven!  I told the lady that this woman had merely appropriated Paul’s experience from the Bible and made it her own. 

As most professed Christians don’t even read their bibles, including my friend, it was easy for this woman to deceive them.  She went on to tell me that until she bought the woman’s CD she had been unable to read her Bible or pray.  This was something that under normal circumstances she would never have related to me, because she was always trying to defend her supposed salvation.

Believe me: one of the first signs that something is wrong with you spiritually is an inability to pray.  And if you cannot pray, it is a given that you will not be able to read your Bible.  Prayer is our way of talking to God.  The Bible is one of His ways of talking to us.  You can do neither if you do not have a right relationship with the Lord Jesus; and you cannot have a right relationship with the Lord Jesus unless you are saved.  And your baptism alone cannot save you.

What then is baptism?  Well, it is mostly symbolic.  Colossians 2:12 for example, tells us our baptism identifies us with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ:

“Buried with Him (Jesus) in baptism, wherein also you are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.”

Besides identifying the Christian with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, baptism is also a symbol of the “new man” we have become in Christ Jesus:

“Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  

“For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: 

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin”  (Romans 6:4-6).

This truly emphasizes the symbolic nature of baptism.  We know we were not crucified with Jesus, neither were we planted (buried) with Him.  Yet, through our baptism we are in the “likeness” of his crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection.  This concept of the “new man” is consistent with 2 Corinthians 5:17 which says,

“If any man be in Christ he is a new creature: old things have passed away: behold, all things have become new.”

Baptism is something tangible for us to remember that as Jesus was resurrected from the dead, so are we also resurrected.  The old sinful man is dead and the new man is born.  This is what is referred to as the new birth.  Though we are not sinless and shall continue to struggle with certain sins, we shall no longer serve sin; that is, we will no longer enjoy sinning; neither will we be powerless to stop, for sin shall no longer have dominion over us (Romans 6:14).

By the way, if there has not been a profound change in your life, then you are not saved.  It doesn’t get any simpler than that.  If you are still doing the same things you were doing before you got “baptized,” it’s because no change has taken place, because the Lord Jesus has not given you the Holy Spirit; and it is only through a relationship with Jesus Christ that the Holy Spirit will dwell within you, giving you the power to change.  Without the Lord Jesus, permanent change is impossible.  It all starts with salvation.

Now, I know that many who believe that baptism in and of itself is sufficient for salvation do so on the bases of Acts 2:38 which says,

“Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.”

But they neglect to consider all that passage entails.  Repentance, briefly, is the willful act of turning from sin and turning towards God.  But repentance is only the first step.  Notice also that Paul says to be baptized “in the name of Jesus Christ.”  One would not do this unless one first knew who Jesus was and why He was.  It is folly to think that Peter would not give them the entire Gospel.  We know, in fact, that he did, because verse 40 tells us,

“And with many other words did he testify and exhort…”

Testify here is very important.  It means Peter witnessed (explained) to them about Jesus Christ, and the importance of His death, burial, and resurrection.  Lastly, verse 41 says,

“Then they gladly received his word and were baptized.”

Then is very important in that it signifies a sequence of actions.  First Peter testified of Jesus to them, THEN they gladly received (believed) his word and were baptized.

Thus is the order established.  One must:

1) Hear the Gospel

2) Believe the Gospel

3) Be baptized

This is supported by Acts 8:26-40 and the story of the Ethiopian eunuch who was converted after hearing the testimony of Philip.  We are told that Philip encountered the man reading a passage of Scripture (Isaiah 53:7,8), and the man asked Philip to whom the passage referred.  We pick up at verse 35:

“Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus.”

So the eunuch first 1) Heard the Gospel.

The Scripture then says that as they continued on their way they came unto “a certain water”, and the eunuch said:

“See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?” (36).

Notice what Philip said:

If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest…” (37).

This is a conditional If…Then… statement.  The performance of the last action is dependent upon the completion of the first.  If the condition is met, then the action may be taken.  Bear in mind that the condition is not optional.  It must be completed before the second action may be taken.  Notice what happens next:

“And he (the eunuch) answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

Notice that the eunuch did not have to be told to confess.  He knew that the only way Philip would understand that he believed was for him to confess his belief openly.  Then there could be no doubt.  This is what I alluded to earlier when I related the story of my un-regenerated (not born again) friend who was baptized without ever professing a belief in the Lord Jesus.  One should not be baptized unless one has professed a belief in the Gospel.  This is why Scripture says:

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  

“For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:9-10).

As you can see, belief and confession go hand in hand.  So, by his confession, the eunuch fulfilled step 2; that is, he showed that he believed the Gospel.

We continue with verse 38:

“And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.”

Steps 1 and 2 having been fulfilled, Step 3, baptism, was completed.

The final proof that baptism cannot save you is the fact that Scripture says,

“Without shedding of blood there is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22).

That means someone must shed his blood for us to obtain remission of sins, commonly known as salvation.  But that someone cannot be us, because we are sinful (Romans 3:23).  But Jesus was sinless (2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 John 3:5). 

Therefore salvation can come only by the shedding of His blood for the remission of our sins:

“This is my blood…which is shed…for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:28).

“By His own blood He…obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:12).

“In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” (Ephesians 1:7).

That is where our faith comes in, for though He shed His blood for the sins of the whole world (John 1:29) only those who have faith that His blood is sufficient for our salvation will be saved:

“Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:

“Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood”  (Romans 3:24-25).

You see, we are saved when we believe that the shedding of Jesus’ blood washed away our sins and saves us from the damnation of Hell.  We have merely to accept this as fact and believe it, just like we believe that our mother is our mother even though we didn’t actually see her deliver us.  Faith is a choice.

Baptism is also a symbol of our salvation:

“…The longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. 

“The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us…”  (1 Peter 3:20-21a).

Did you see that?  Baptism hails back to the Flood when God saved Noah!  But you have got to dial in on this…you have got to wrap your head around this…Notice that it says eight souls were saved by water.  When we think of the Flood, we usually think only of the fact that water destroyed.  But water also saved, because were it not for the water, the Ark could not have been borne up and Noah and his family would have perished with the rest!  Wow!

You cannot tell me that God does not have a plan.  Everything—and I do mean everything—He does has a purpose.  The more that I read Scripture the more I understand this. That’s why I’ll serve no other God but Him.  He knows what He is doing.

So, our baptism also symbolizes our salvation by reminding us of how God saved Noah and his family by water.  But someone is bound to read this and say, “Hey, but the passage says, “baptism saves us.”  We must let Peter continue:

“…(not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 3:21b).

There you have it:  the final confirmation.  Baptism cannot save you, because it does not “put away the filth of the flesh.”  In other words, it does not remit sin.  It does, however, give you a clean conscience by reminding you of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which should then remind you that as Christ is Risen, so are we, because we believe.  We are a new person, and are free of the sins committed in our previous life; as well as Original Sin.

This last can be confirmed by Hebrews 10:22 which tells us:

“Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from all evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”

Amen!  Now there is one more thing I would like to address, and that is the issue of multiple baptisms.

The Bible says,

“One Lord, one faith, ONE BAPTISM” (Ephesians 4:5).

That means that we are to get baptized once in faith.  The reason for this is that Jesus died one death for the remission of sins:

“But this man, after He had offered ONE SACRIFICE FOR SINS FOREVER, sat down at the right hand of God” (Hebrews 10:12).

Now, maybe you are someone who had accepted the Lord Jesus as your Savior, but for whatever reason, you stopped living a Godly life.  It could be that you stopped going to church or reading the Bible for a time; maybe you had even slipped back into your some of your old ways.  But you never denied Jesus as your Savior.

Now you have resolved to start going back to church and devote yourself to reading your Bible and truly living a Christian life.  This is commonly known as a rededication or revival, and it happens to many Christians.  It is good to rededicate yourself to the Lord, but you do not need to get baptized again.  Remember, when you got saved, you died to the old man and were reborn in Christ Jesus.  Your baptism is proof of this.  You can only be reborn once.  The bible says you must be born again, not re-reborn again.

Also remember that our baptism is a symbol of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  If then, we continue to get baptized, we symbolically continue to crucify our Lord, which is saying that His one sacrifice was not sufficient for the remission of sins.  If this is true, then Jesus died for nothing.

For this reason, there is no such thing as a backslider coming back to the faith.  A backslider is a person who once believed, but left the faith.  He literally “slid back” into his old way of life.  Now the difference between a person who needs to renew his faith and a backslider is that the backslider totally leaves the faith.  He denies Jesus as his Savior. Such a person cannot come back into the faith, as the writer of Hebrews says,

“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

“If they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame” (Hebrews 6:5-6).

So, these people who leave the faith every two or three years and come back and get re-baptized every time, actually crucify Jesus again and again, and subject him to shame and reproach.

Why is Jesus on the cross a shame and a reproach?  Because Scripture says,

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is anyone who hangeth on a tree (cross)” (Galatians 3:13).

When Jesus hung on the cross, He became a curse for us, because all of our sins were dumped on Him.  This was terrible, because Jesus was innocent of any sin (1 John 3:5). But He did this for us—once.  Afterwards, Jesus was taken down from the cross and buried. He rose on the third day in His glorified body and later ascended into heaven, where He now sits at the right hand of God the Father.  He is no longer on the cross.  He is no longer a curse.  It is finished.  Therefore we should not put Him back on the cross. This is why the Roman Catholic crucifix is an abomination to all true Christians: it shows Jesus Christ as a continuous curse.  This should not be.

The seriousness of this can be seen in the Book of Numbers.  We read in Chapter 20 that after Moses had led the children of Israel out of Egypt, there was a point when they were thirsty and there was no water to be found.  God told Moses to speak to a certain rock and water would come from it (v. 8).  But Moses, who was by this time fed up with the Israelites constantly complaining, in anger, struck the rock with his staff instead of speaking to it (v. 11).  And he not only struck it once; he struck it twice.  For this, God told Moses he could not cross over the Jordan into the promised land (v. 12).

Why did God do this?  Because the Rock was Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4), and Moses’ striking the Rock was symbolic of Jesus crucifixion and death for the sins of the people. When he struck it twice, it was actually a declaration that Jesus’ one sacrifice was not enough.  And for this disobedience, Moses was not allowed to cross over the Jordan with his people, after having led them in the desert for 40 years.  

Now do you see how serious this is?  This is what we do when we get baptized several times.  We crucify Jesus again. And it is a serious crime to put Jesus back on the cross.

So, again, once we truly believe and are baptized, that is it.  If you truly believe, you cannot un-believe, and then re-believe.

An example of someone who would need to be baptized again would be someone who was baptized before, but never truly understood the Gospel message.  It could be someone who was baptized as an infant (such as a Roman Catholic), or a teenager or adult who never really understood the Gospel message and so had not truly accepted Jesus as his Savior.  If such a person later hears the Gospel, accepts Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord, and is baptized, the second baptism is the one that counts; not the first.

Now that the person is a true believer and has been baptized, he need not ever do it again. Even if he should stray away for a time and decide to rededicate himself to the Lord Jesus, he need not get re-baptized, else he puts Jesus back on the cross.

Let me explain this from a personal perspective.  Back in 1998, as a young man, a deacon in a local church “witnessed” to me and I was subsequently baptized in a formal ceremony.  But because the deacon never told me what Jesus did for me and why I needed Him, I never really understood the Gospel message and what salvation was all about.  Consequently, I never made Jesus my personal Savior, and made no confession of faith, either inwardly or outwardly. I was not saved. My baptism, therefore, was pointless.  This was later evidenced by the fact that I continued to live a sinful life.

Seven years later, I heard the real Gospel, was convicted of my sins, repented, and believed on the Lord Jesus, making Him my personal Savior and Lord.  I then openly confessed the Lord Jesus. Now, I knew that I needed to be baptized, according to the Scriptures, but I wasn’t a member of any church.  So, I filled my bathtub with water, and had my wife baptize me by laying me back in the tub, while saying, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. This I did out of obedience to the Scriptures.

I later found out that my wife was not saved (she is Roman Catholic), and I wondered if I should get re-baptized by a believer.  But the Lord showed me that it was not the externals of the baptism that were important, but the internals.  In other words, it was not what my wife believed that was important, but what I believed. Later the Holy Spirit revealed to me the things I am sharing with you now, and I knew that I was right not to get re-baptized.

I hope by now you are convinced that baptism is not a means of salvation, but is rather a symbol of our salvation.  It is your receipt—your assurance that if you have heard, believed, and accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and have made Him your Lord and Savior, you are saved, and Heaven is your reward.  Pray about this and ask the Lord for discernment, because it is important.

If we know that we first heard the Gospel, believed it, accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, and were baptized, then we have assurance that we are saved.  This is important because a frequent tactic of the Devil is to try to make us think we are not saved.  When you start to believe that way, first ask yourself if you believe the Gospel; that is,

  1. That you are a sinner and deserve to go to Hell
  2. That Jesus Christ died for you, and shed His blood for your sins
  3. That His death was sufficient payment for your sins
  4. That if you believe this and have accepted Him as your Savior, you are saved.

If the answer is yes to the above, have you been baptized?  If yes, then relax, you are saved, and your baptism is proof.

If the answer is yes, but you have not been baptized, what are you waiting for?  Get baptized! Now!

If the answer is no, then you need to hear the Gospel, believe the Gospel in your heart, and accept Jesus as your Savior.  Then go get baptized.  That is your assurance.

Baptism is like a receipt.  When I buy something expensive, I make sure that I have my receipt, in fact I make a copy of it and put it somewhere safe.  That way, if something were to go wrong, I could take the purchase back, with full assurance that the store will honor it, because I have my receipt.

If you believe and have accepted the Lord Jesus as your personal Savior, believing that His death and the shedding of His blood are sufficient payment for your sins, and have been baptized, then you have your receipt in your baptism.  So when Satan tries to instill doubt in you, check your receipt.  Don’t have your receipt?  Go get it.  You will need it.

The podcast on this teaching is below.  I pray it blesses you.

Play
 

If you have been baptized, but have never had a relationship with Jesus Christ, you are not saved.  But you can fix that right now.  Afterwards, get baptized.

If you were baptized as an infant, and therefore never heard nor understood the Gospel, you are not saved.  But you can fix that right now.  After that get baptized.

If you believe and have been baptized, relax.

Be encouraged, and look up; your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

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Rejoice, and be Exceeding Glad (Matthew 5:12)

Grace and peace unto you, Saints.

I hope that your day has been joyous regardless of what trials and tribulations you may be going through right now.  We all know that tribulations are part of the job description for the Body of Christ, but some of us may feel like we have had more than our share of difficult times.  If you are one of these, trust me, you are not alone.  Be encouraged, and remember what the Word tells us:

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it”  (1 Corinthians 10:13).

In other words, God will not put more on you than you can handle.  Understand that this is a promise: God will not let you go through something without providing a way for you to get through it.  That may mean that you are stronger than you thought you were.  It may mean that God will strengthen you for the particular trial you are going through.  Whatever the circumstance, the end result will be that you will persevere.  The world says it a different way, “Whatever doesn’t kill me will only make me stronger.”  They borrowed that from us.

At the end of the day, the purpose of these trials is to strengthen our testimony.  A Christian with a weak testimony is an ineffective witness for Christ.  A Christian with a strong testimony is a powerful witness for Christ, because he has been through some things and come through them, and gives God all the glory.  Now that’s living.

Paul went through a few things himself.  In fact, there was no one who suffered more than the apostle Paul.  Yet, through all his sufferings, he remained joyous, because he looked past them to the reward that was waiting for him.  Understand that a Christian who hasn’t been through anything is probably a lukewarm Christian.  If you are about God’s business, the Devil will not be happy with you.  And he will let you know that.

But we are not to give up.  Listen:

“We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed;

We are perplexed, but not in despair;

Persecuted, but not forsaken;

Cast down, but not destroyed;

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10).

Did you see that?  We are to be a walking, talking, living, breathing carbon copy of what the Lord Jesus went through when He walked this earth.  The Bible says that Jesus was
a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3).  Why is it that they always portray Jesus smiling and showing all his teeth, as though everything was just a bouquet of roses?

That would be very inconsistent with what we know of Jesus’ life.  If everyone thought Jesus was such a great guy, He never would have been crucified.  The people would not have stood for it.  There would have been a riot.  We know that that didn’t happen.  He suffered way before the Cross.  And in like fashion, so do we suffer.  If you are being persecuted for your witness of Jesus Christ, you are in good company:

“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. 

“Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matthew 5:11-12).

I don’t know about you, but I would rather be in the company of prophets than all the celebrities in the world.

So, no matter how bad things may seem, the fact that you are going through something is proof that you will come out the other end OK.  Latch on to this promise, Saints; hold onto it for dear life.  And rejoice!

Be encouraged, and look up; for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

 

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In God We Trust. All Others We Monitor

Grace and peace unto you.

Someone left me a link to his website yesterday, where he commented on my blog post regarding America’s jubilation over the death of Osama Bin Laden.  It seems he believes America’s celebration was justified because Bin Laden had killed many Americans.  I will not argue that point.  This is America and at least for the time being, we are entitled to our opinion.

The gentleman also talked about the issue of government surveillance, which I found very interesting, because he thinks the contention that the government may be listening in on the private telephone conversations of American citizens is a bit conspiracy theory-ish.  (He gave the example of him calling his wife to tell her that he loved her as an example of a conversation that did not merit surveillance.)  He then went on to say that he didn’t feel there was anything special about him that would merit the government’s attention.

Unfortunately, this gentleman is woefully uninformed and apparently oblivious to the nuanced definition of terrorism under the USA PATRIOT Act.  You see, prior to 9/11, Section 2331 of Title 18, United States Code, defined terrorism as “acts that attempt to affect the conduct of a government by assassination, or kidnapping.”  Section 802(A) of the USA PATRIOT Act, however, amends this definition to read “acts that:

  1. “involve acts dangerous to human life…
  2. “appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce…
  3. “influence the policy of a government… and
  4. “affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.” [Emphasis mine.]

How do you like the new and improved version?  Notice that terrorism now includes “activities that appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce.”  Appear to whom?  Something may “appear” to be one thing to you, but “appear” to be something totally different to me.  We may even both be wrong.  This wording is very subjective; and it is intended to be.  It justifies any action the government may take against a citizen, because all they need say is that it “appeared” you were participating in terrorist activity.

Note also that terrorism includes activities that are “dangerous to human life.”  This is potentially very troublesome.  There are many things that are dangerous to human life many of which are considered fun.  Take skateboarding, for instance.  Skateboarding can be dangerous, as I have seen some pretty bad skateboarding injuries.  Are skateboarders to be considered terrorists?  Probably not, but this vague wording gives the government the freedom to regulate a wide variety of activities and have even greater control over the lives of American citizens.  The potential for abuse is great.

What, for instance, should the government have to do with “childhood obesity?” Nothing. Yet they are passing stricter regulations on school lunches using the issue of childhood obesity as an excuse.  If you keep in mind that somewhere there is a law for everything the government does, you should now understand that under this nuanced definition of terrorism, the government can legally take action to “protect” its citizens against actions that are “dangerous to human life,” including eating unhealthily.  Hitler did the same thing in Nazi Germany.  You can look for a lot more of this to happen as the government exerts unprecedented control over our lives.  Welcome to 1984.

It should now also make sense to you why the government is getting involved in “bullying.”  Bullies have always been problematic.  But now they can be considered terrorists.  If you think this a stretch, consider that the new definition of terrorism does not say “acts that appear to intimidate or coerce the government,” but merely “acts that appear to intimidate or coerce”—period.  That means anybody.  If your kids are “bullies,” you might want to sit down and have a talk with them, or you might see them on the six o’clock news.

But what should most interest our innocent blogger and all lovers of freedom is that the third definition of terrorism includes acts that “influence the policy of a government.”  Did you know that when a person pickets in front of the White House he is in effect attempting to influence the policy of a government?  Of course you did.  You should now know that picketing can now be considered terrorism.  This should be of concern to our blogger, because of remarks such as this which appear on his website:

“Mr. President, don’t you know that the Bible says “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Pro 14:34)? Don’t you know, sir, that your actions here are unGodly?  Why do you wish to bring America down once more? Aren’t we stooped enough in sin as it is?  

“Why would anyone who claims to be a believer in God and his word want to do away with an act [DOMA] that will keep marriage between the people that God made marriage for in the first place (men marrying women only)?”  [Brackets mine.]

It must be added that this gentleman noted that whatever he posts to his blog, he also sends to the President.  Now, can there be any question that his intention when sending these words to President Obama is to influence government policy?  If not, then why send them to the President?  To show him how well he can write?  Under the PATRIOT Act, this can be considered terrorism.  This gentleman needs to understand this.

But what is most important for him to know and that is more to our purposes, brothers and sisters, is this:  A couple years ago, a document was “leaked” on the internet that made quite a stir among lovers of freedom all over America.  It was published by the Department of Homeland Security and was entitled Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment. This unclassified document identified several groups as potential targets of rightwing extremist recruitment and/or activity and therefore, of concern to the U.S. government.  Included are groups that the government has traditionally labeled as “the extreme right” such as Republicans, pro-lifers, and so-called Fundamentalist Christians.  But it also includes groups that one would not normally expect.  We will examine those groups shortly.

Now let us return to our zealous blogger.  Note the boldface above and compare it to the boldface in his words to the President:

“Nothing is said [in the Bible] about two men or two women.  One man, and one woman for life.  Those are the only ones that God will join together in marriage. What about the homosexuals?  God does not recognize them as being married, and while President Obama has turned his back on God’s laws, God won’t.  

“God will punish homosexuals in the day of judgment because they are not living in accordance with his divine will.   God will punish, not only them, but also those who “have pleasure in them that do them” (Rom 1:32).  [Brackets and boldface mine.]

I count seven references to God in this statement.  Only an alien does not know that in America the Biblical position is considered “fundamentalist.”  It is important to understand that so-called fundamentalism is considered extremist.  Is it a coincidence that the media calls Islamic terrorism (such as that attributed to the Taliban) Islamic fundamentalism?  No, it is not a coincidence.  It is intended to draw a parallel between Islamic terrorism and Biblical Christianity and instill in the American psyche the errant belief that Biblical Christianity is radical and extreme.

Understand the danger in the term fundamentalism.  Islamic fundamentalists are so-called because they adhere strictly to the teachings of the Koran, which supposedly teaches that it is permissible to kill “infidels” (unbelievers).  When President Bush, in the aftermath of 911, said that Islam is a peaceful religion by making a distinction between ordinary Muslims and Islamic “fundamentalists,” he was basically saying that those Muslims who adhere strictly to the teachings of their holy book, the Koran, are the ones the world should be worried about, not the average Muslim.

Consequently, when the media call Biblical Christianity fundamentalist, they draw a parallel in the American consciousness between Christianity and Islamic terrorism, essentially calling Christians terrorists.  They send the message that those Christians who adhere to the Bible as the rule and guide of their lives are as dangerous as the Muslims who strictly adhere to the teachings of the Koran by killing infidels.

This is why the bloody Crusades are being brought up again and again.  This is why so much media attention was given to so-called Christians blowing up abortion centers and executing abortion doctors.  This is why all the media attention was given to the so-called Christian pastor and his church who picketed the funeral of a fallen soldier for the cause of anti-homosexuality.  This is why all the media attention was given to the so-called Christian pastor in Florida who burned the Koran.  It is to inculcate fear, resentment, and anger in the American consciousness towards the Christian church.

What’s worse is that many Christians have also begun to use the term fundamentalism to refer to themselves, unaware that they are really calling themselves terrorists.  They have drawn a target on their own backs.

So, under the PATRIOT Act, our blogger, by his actions and words, could be considered a terrorist; not only because he is trying to influence the policy of the government, but also because his Biblical views are considered fundamentalist.

But let us return to the “leaked” DHS document, for its revelations are frightening.  Not only are “fundamentalist” Christians on the government’s watch list, but so are two other groups, the inclusion of which is shocking because of the sheer likelihood that, in this economy, a large percentage of Americans with no particular political affiliation or ideological bent will at some point in their lifetime belong to them.  Those groups are:

THE UNEMPLOYED, because “high unemployment..has the potential to lead to alienation, thus increasing an individual’s susceptibility to extremist ideas” (p. 4). and

THE CHILDREN OF THE UNEMPLOYED, because “there appears to be a strong association between a parent’s unemployment status and the formation of rightwing extremist beliefs in their children” (p.4).  (Look at the bottom in the fine print.)

Is this starting to sink in?  This is incredible.  But there is yet another group that the government considers a threat to “peace and security”:

MILITARY VETERANS: because: “After Operation Desert Shield/Storm in 1990-1991, some returning military veterans –including Timothy McVeigh–joined or associated with rightwing extremist groups” (p. 7).

It should be noted that accused Norway shooter/bomber Anders Breivik is also being compared to Timothy McVeigh.  Comparing veterans to McVeigh indicates that the government considers them potential terrorists.  Veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder should be especially concerned about this, because this reports says that you have a “willingness” to join extremist groups (p. 7).

I’m a military veteran.  When I joined the Army, I took an oath “to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”  Why, then, would the government consider military veterans a threat?  Because we took an oath “to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” That’s why.  Veterans are some of the most patriotic Americans you will ever meet.  Most of us took that oath seriously.  A government that has declared war on the American people cannot abide citizens who will defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign AND DOMESTIC.

Understand that by declaring military veterans—many of whom have given their lives to defend the freedoms guaranteed us in the Constitution of the United States—terrorists, the government has essentially declared itself an enemy of both the Constitution and the United States.  This much is clear.  But by declaring unemployed people—ordinary citizens, most of whom are not unemployed by choice—and even their children, terrorists, this government has declared itself the enemy not only of the Constitution, but of the American people.  Now do many of the government’s actions and its increasing antagonism towards citizens suddenly make sense?

Are you now beginning to see the big picture?  You are seriously mistaken if you think you will escape the government’s scrutiny just because you are a good citizen or just because you pay taxes or just because you volunteer or just because you voted for Obama or just because you never discuss religion or politics.  If you are alive and breathe air, as far as the government is concerned, you are a potential terrorist.  Understand that.  If you are a Bible-believing Christian, patriot, criticize the government in any way, or would defend the Constitution “against all enemies foreign and domestic,” understand something: to the government, you are a terrorist.  Believe that.

To the blogger who supported America’s celebration over the death of Bin-Laden and anyone else who feels that the government would not be interested in his life: you my friends, have a lot to learn.  For additional information, read my essay about the government’s surveillance of Americans.  It is about a year old, but it still applies.  And it doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface.  In light of the controversy concerning airport scanners, you should pay particular attention to the section on BIOMETRICS.  It is very “revealing.”  I have included a “Works Cited” page so that you can research my claims.  And read the DHS report VERY THOROUGHLY.  Whether it is authentic or not, it is accurate based on current events that are being played out in the media right before our eyes.

The apostle Paul admonished us to “watch in all things.”  We are not to be taken by surprise by all that is going on around us, neither are we to be ignorant.  Jesus said the ungodly would not understand, but those that know their God would understand.

If you realize that events in the news are part of the coming New World Order Kingdom of Antichrist, which the Bible predicted, then you should realize that if the Bible was right about that, then it is probably right about God’s coming judgment on this sinful and rebellious world.  If you would like to escape God’s wrath, then click here to learn how you can be saved.

Be encouraged, and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

P.S.  In case you don’t think these people are serious, I went to the post office a couple of months ago, and the postal employee who helped me asked me if I had any “special operations training” because she had a “job” that she wanted someone to do.  She actually asked me this in front of a roomful of people.  Now, what do you think that was all about? Can you say, “Set up?”  Watch and pray.

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Update to Sorrows

When I posted the link to the story of the British woman that was beheaded in Spain, I did not know that the story has changed from what I had written in my post.  It is a good thing that I had saved the previous two stories from the 14th and the 15th, or you would have had no idea what I was talking about.  As of this writing, the Telegraph is reporting that the man was shouting that he was a prophet of God while he was killing the woman. This differs from the previous story of May 14, 2011, which stated, “It was also claimed that he had spent time in a psychiatric hospital and thought he was a “Prophet of God.”

There is a big difference between someone claiming a person thought he was something and that person actually saying he is something.

The difference between history and news is that one happened and the other is reported to have happened.  Don’t fall asleep on this folks.  You may be reading about yourself one day and finding out that you believe something that you had no idea you believed, and said something that you had no idea you said.

If they did it to Jesus, they can and will do it to us.

 

The Still Man

 

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These Are Only The Beginning of Sorrows

Decapitation victim Jennifer Mills-Westley

Grace and Peace Saints.

As the world spins closer to the Coming of our Lord, there will be more and more venom directed towards God’s peculiar people.  In Spain yesterday, a 60-year-old British woman was stabbed and then beheaded in broad daylight allegedly by a man described as a homeless derelict.  (NOTE: The version of the story now posted at the Telegraph website is different from the May 13th and 14th versions below, which I saved in PDF format.  Pay close attention to all three).  According to the news report dated May 13, 2011, the man entered the store and somehow procured a knife, which he then used to stab the woman.  He then allegedly used the knife to sever the woman’s head and then ran out the door bearing the gruesome relic.  Outside, passersby and a security guard managed to subdue the man.

There are some peculiarities regarding this incident, starting with the fact that there were conflicting eyewitness reports with regards to the murder weapon.  Initially, it was reported that the man used a knife, which he got somewhere inside the store, but some witnesses say the man came into the store with a machete.  The newspaper account of the identity of the alleged killer is also a puzzlement.  The May 13, 2011 report simply stated that the attacker was believed to be a “homeless man of Bulgarian origin.”

However, a subsequent report, dated May 14, 2011, had this to say:

“Today Spanish newspapers said police had arrested a 28-year-old man named locally as ‘Deyan Valentinov D,’ declining to give his full surname.  It was also claimed that he had spent time in a psychiatric hospital and thought he was a ‘Prophet of God.’ Local news website CanariasalDia.com quoted the local mayor, José Reverón, as saying that the man, who lived in a semi-derelict house, had shouted: ‘God is on Earth.’” [Boldface mine].

You will have to look very carefully in order to see the editorial sleight of hand that just occurred.  Carefully note that the second sentence states, “it was also claimed” rather than “Spanish newspapers also said,” or “They also said,” or anything that would attribute the statement regarding the attacker having spent time in a psychiatric hospital to the Spanish newspaper.  As it is, anyone could have made that statement, and it may very well not be true.  Also note that the unsubstantiated claim is immediately followed by a claim attributed to Mayor José Reverón.

This appears to be a case of very creative embellishment.  Sandwiching the unattributed claim between two attributed claims gives it credence when in fact it is totally unsubstantiated.  Also note that the unattributed claim stating that the attacker “thought he was a prophet of God,” is immediately followed by an attributed claim stating that the man shouted, “God is on Earth.”

This is extremely important.  It is nothing strange for someone to claim that God is on earth.  There are those who believe that both Heaven and Hell are on earth, and many who believe this way are highly educated and successful people.  Also consider that if Heaven were on earth, and God lives in Heaven, then it must follow that God would live on earth also.  Moreover, it must also be noted that the pope claims to be the representative of Jesus Christ on earth.  If Jesus Christ is God, then the pope claims to be God.  But no one seems to have a problem with that.

But this report links that harmless statement with the previous unattributed and unsubstantiated claim that the alleged killer claimed he was a “Prophet of God.”

There is a lot of this going on lately in the media.  As I said earlier, the media and Christianity are diametrically opposed.  The media have always portrayed God fearing men as axe wielding, Bible toting, Scripture-quoting psychopaths, and Christian women as liars, busybodies, hypocrites, and adulterers.  This is just another case of the media associating Christians with criminals.  Remember that the media constantly emphasized that the man that kidnapped Elizabeth Smart was a street preacher.  Also recall that the media claimed the group that recently killed the Americans in Afghanistan did it in retaliation for the pastor in Florida who burned the Koran.  There are many such examples.

This is just the beginning of a major worldwide persecution of Christians under the New World Order kingdom of Antichrist; coming very soon to a neighborhood near you.  Everyone these days talks about the New World Order and the coming Police State. But almost no one talks about its decidedly anti-Christian character.  The Bible does though.   Turn with me to the Book of Daniel Chapter 7, verse 23-25:

“The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth (the New World Order), which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it to pieces.  And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise: and another shall rise after them (the Antichrist); and he shall subdue three kings.  And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High” (Daniel 7:23-25).

The world will be divided into ten regions of which the North American Union (the U.S., Mexico, and Canada) is one.  (That was one of the reasons for NAFTA and GATT—to break down borders).  Notice that the New World Order will persecute Christians.  In case the worldwide character of this persecution is not yet clear to you, let us turn to the Book of the Revelation, Chapter 17, verse 12.  We read:

“And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast (Antichrist).  These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.  These shall make war with the Lamb (The Body of Christ, Christians), and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful” (Revelation 17:12-14).

I have heard people who know that the United States will be the headquarters for the New World Order say that they will go to another country to escape it, but as you can see, it will be global.  There will be no escape.  But be encouraged: they are playing right into God’s hands, because He is bringing it about:

“For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled” (Revelation 17:17).

God is in charge.  And His will shall be fulfilled.  But, in the meantime, we are going to go through some trying times.  What we see happening in the media is all part of the plan to turn the mass of humanity against Christianity, so that when the next and final Inquisition comes, no one will be against it—in fact, most people will be glad to see us gone.  Recall that we Christians will suffer a similar fate as the Two Witnesses, and as the world will send presents to one another when the Antichrist kills them, so will they rejoice when we are killed.  It is also important to note that the Nazi Holocaust was preceded by a massive propaganda campaign to enflame the Germans against the Jews. The present propaganda campaign against the Body of Christ will precede the last and final Inquisition.

Jesus told us about this in Matthew Chapter 24:

“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake” (verse 9).

We have been warned–and forewarned is forearmed.

Get in the Word.  Stay in the Word.  Stay in prayer.  Be encouraged.

If you can see that events in the news confirm Biblical prophecy, then you probably realize that if the Bible was right about the New World Order, then it may also be right about sin and God’s coming judgment on this sinful world.  Click here to know why we all need salvation, and how you can escape the coming nightmare.

And look up; your redemption draweth nigh.

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

 

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God Did Not Give Us The Spirit Of Fear

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7

Grace and peace to you.

I was reading last night that scientists have found some mysterious, dark planet called Nibiru, that is supposedly hurtling through space, right for us.  Again, the media wonders if the prophecies concerning 2010 could be true.  Well, you already know how I feel about certain “scientists”.

You know, there is much speculation these days about end time events, such as the Rapture and the Great Tribulation.  For instance, the false prophet, Harold Camping, has predicted that the Rapture would take place on May 21, 2011.  Sigh. 

What is even more incredible is all the attention the godless media are giving to these events.  Common sense would tell you that the media are not trying to get people to believe in the Bible.  In fact, the exact opposite is true.  But, because of the media hype of the end times on television, radio, and in Hollywood, many non-believers are aware of many of the signs that Jesus’ coming is near.  It is incredible that many, if not most, of these signs are occurring now, IN OUR TIME!  Folks, we are in the last days of The Last Days.

The signs are growing in intensity and in frequency, and yet, incredibly, there are many who believe that these signs are not from God.  I believe this is because people have been pattering about “wars and rumors of wars” for so long people no longer fear war.  I believe it’s because people have been chirping about “earthquakes in diverse places” so much that an earthquake, no matter how devastating, just doesn’t seem to move the average Joe.

But a tsunami?  The Japanese tsunami really got people’s attention.  There was something about this tsunami, which wiped whole villages completely off the map and that actually moved Japan so much that now some villages are flooded at high tide, that thinking people know instinctively that God is trying to tell us something. 

Still there are those who doubt that this is a portent from God.  Well those who doubt should know that Jesus foretold of tsunamis.  Did you know that?  Jesus actually foretold of tsunamis such as the one in Japan.  And He not only foretold of tsunamis, but He also told us about the seemingly unexpected and unprecedented turmoil that was already happening in Africa around the same time.

Let us go to Chapter 21 in the Book of Luke (in the King James Bible of course.  You know, you really ought to get one) and read the words of Jesus.  Jesus is telling His disciples the things that are going to happen to His followers and that are going to come upon this world.  Understand that He is talking about the end times—the very times that we are in.  We pick up in verse 25.  The words of our Lord:

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and waves roaring.”

Now, when Jesus said that the sea and the waves would be roaring, he wasn’t talking about your garden-variety “narly” wave that every surfer lives for.  For Him to include this in His List Of Things To Watch For, it would have to be unmistakable.   Something to let us know without a shadow of a doubt, that this was A SIGN.  Well let’s take a look at this tsunami.

  1. It was preceded by an 8.9 (some reports say 9.0) magnitude earthquake that actually moved the island, and caused huge waves on our country’s Pacific coast.
  2. It caused waves that surged higher than many “tsunami hills” that were built in certain villages so that people could evacuate to higher ground.
  3. Over 10,000 people are dead and thousands more missing and presumed dead.
  4. It caused a massive whirlpool off the country’s coast.
  5. The quake was so powerful, that it moved Japan 18 inches.  Some villages now flood at high tide.
  6. There was no warning.

I’m sure there was a lot more to this tsunami than this, but if your name is The Still Man, this was quite enough.  It’s already history for most of us, and we have forgotten about it and moved on with our lives.  Such is life.  But for the Japanese this is still a reality that they must live and cope with every day.  No one there will ever be the same again.

Now, notice that verse 25 also says that the roaring sea and waves would be accompanied by “distress of nations with perplexity.”  There has always been distress of nations and will always be distress of nations until the Lord comes.  But this distress of nations is different in that it is perplexing.  It makes no sense.  When the revolt happened in Egypt, even little kids were scratching their heads.  They were perplexed.  Everybody was perplexed.  It made no sense!  One minute everything was alright, the next, all hell had broken loose.  It was the same thing with Syria.  It all happened so quickly that it took everyone by surprise.  Jesus told us that would happen.

Now that you’ve had a chance to digest this, and are thinking that maybe perchance there is something to this, consider that Jesus told us to look out for something else: us.

Verse 26:

“Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.”

People are going to be freaking out.  THIS is where the media come in.  Isn’t it strange that the God-less media and Hollywood have been paying so much attention to the “prophesies” of Nostradamus and the Mayas concerning 2012?  Why?  It certainly isn’t because they want us to read and believe the Bible.  Could it be because they want people to be in fear?  Could it be because they want people to check out of here before that time comes?  Did you hear about the man that jumped off the tallest building in the world the other day?  Hmmmm?

Those who do not commit suicide will be in constant fear, worry, and anxiety.  Stress.  Stress causes many problems physical and mental.  Haven’t you noticed that mental problems seem to be on the increase?  A hospital close to my house closed down leaving only one section open.  Would you like to guess which section it was?  Yep.  The mental health ward.  They would not do this if there were not a need for it.

People who are under a great deal of stress and have mental problems sometimes do strange things—even terrible things, like killing their children, killing their entire family, killing themselves, and a combination of these.  Is there any wonder why this is on the rise?  You can look for more of this to come.

Why is everyone confused when there is a Book that tells us what’s coming?  The Bible says the wicked will not know why these things are happening, but that those who know their God will.  That’s you and me.  We are not to scratch our heads and wonder why, because Jesus has already told us why.  Jesus said that “these be the days of vengeance” (Luke 21:22).  This is the beginning of God’s judgment on this fallen world.  And believe me, it is only the beginning.

Let the wicked cower in fear.  But as for you and me, dear believers, Jesus gave us a Word of advice:

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).  

 

Words to live by.

Be encouraged and look up; your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

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Don’t Get Too Enraptured by the Rapture

False prophet Harold Camping

Grace and peace, saints!

It seems that a preacher named Harold Camping has predicted that the Rapture will take place on May 21, 2011. Jesus said that this would happen (Matthew 24:23), and it’s happening just like he said. What is unfortunate is that many Christians will be taken in by this false prophet. The Rapture has gotten a lot of attention lately, even from unsaved people. But, I don’t think that all this attention is warranted.

The Rapture, or Blessed Hope, for those who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour, is a glorious event that everyone who names the name of Christ looks forward to. It is the time when Jesus shall come for His people.

I had not given much thought to it, honestly, because there is just too much for me to do here in the present for me to worry about the future. Jesus said that He would come as a thief in the night. That means that we ought to be living right all the time, because we never know when he will show up. So, the Rapture wasn’t a subject that I devoted a lot of time thinking about. A couple of months ago, however, I became concerned with the time of this event, because of a question from my eleven-year-old daughter.

One day while we were discussing the Rapture, my daughter asked me whether someone who accepted the Lord Jesus a split second before He appeared would be taken up. I thought about this question for a moment, and I told her that, yes, I believe that a person under those circumstances would be taken in the Rapture. I explained that Jesus is merciful, and that He is not so “dogmatic” that He would disqualify someone if that person hadn’t been a Christian for a specific amount of time.

I then told her that Jesus, God the Son, is Omniscient, and He knows everything, including the future. So, He would know if the person were going to accept Him as Saviour, and He would come prepared to take the person with Him. She smiled at this. I truly believe she asked this question for her mother’s sake, who is not saved.

Next, she asked me a question that I was not ready to answer.  I told her that I didn’t know exactly when the Rapture would be, but that I thought it would be before the Great Tribulation.  She then asked me if that were true, then when would the Resurrection of the Tribulation saints take place, because the Bible only speaks of two future resurrections: the resurrection of the dead in Christ (commonly called the Rapture), and the resurrection of the damned.

This question came from an eleven-year-old child. Don’t tell me that God ain’t good. This was an excellent question, and I couldn’t believe that I had never thought of it before. I told her that I would research it and get back with her with an answer. I found it, and I want to share it with you.

First, it is important for me to mention that there are three schools of belief concerning the Rapture. Some believe that it will occur before the Tribulation (the Tribulation will be a time of great social upheaval, when the Antichrist will persecute the Christian church and the Jews), some believe that it will occur during the Tribulation, and still others believe that it will occur after the Tribulation. I used to believe that it would occur before the Tribulation. But after some research, I have had a major change of opinion. Perhaps after reading this, you will too.

First, as most Christians know, there are two resurrections. Jesus spoke of both of them in John 5:28:

“Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice. And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.”

There is no third resurrection. Therefore, all who have accepted the Lord Jesus will be part of one resurrection: the first, and all that have not will be part of another resurrection: the second. This will be important later. Now, the first Resurrection, as most Bible students know, is spoken of in 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4:14-17:

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

“For the Lord Himself shall descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

The second resurrection coincides with the judgment of the damned, or the Great White Throne judgment spoken of in Revelation 20:11,12,15: “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works…and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

We know that we won’t be a part of this resurrection because these will be judged according to their works.  We will be judged according to grace (Ephesians 2:8-90).  Big difference.  Now I used to believe that the Rapture will occur prior to the Tribulation, because of the martyred saints the apostle John saw in his vision in Revelation 6:9-11:

“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held;

“And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

“And white robes were given unto them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.”

I had associated these saints with the saints in white robes mentioned in Revelation 7:9-17, who are said to have passed through “great tribulation.”

Now, however, I do not believe that these are the Tribulation saints, because their mention coincides with the opening of the fifth seal, which happens before the Tribulation.  What is also important to note about these martyrs is that they were martyred “for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held.”  This is the definition of a martyr for Jesus. There is nothing in this passage that identifies these saints as those from the Tribulation. These martyrs are everyone who has ever died in the name of Jesus.

The tribulation saints are mentioned specifically in Revelation 20:4.  They are distinguished from the former group because they are martyred not only for their witness of Jesus, but for “civil disobedience.”

“And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands…”

As you can see, these saints are martyred not only because they are Christians, but because they refuse to worship the Beast and his image, which worship will be mandatory under penalty of death.  They also refuse to accept the “mark of the Beast” on their foreheads and in their hands.   All of this is spoken of in Revelation 13:15-18 and is associated with the Tribulation.  These then, are the Tribulation martyrs.

Now refer back to Revelation 6:11.  Notice that the martyrs are told to wait on two distinct groups: 1) their fellowservants (those believers who will not have been martyred) also AND 2) their brethren that should be killed (the martyred Tribulation saints).  It is important to consider that the martyrs of Revelation 6:11 are told to wait on both groups.  This agrees with 1 Thessalonians 4, which says that the Rapture will involve two groups: 1) the “dead in Christ,” and 2) “[those Christians] who are alive and remain.”  The Rapture must take place after the Tribulation.

Revelation 7:9-17 is referring to the collective body Christ, both saints and martyrs from all ages, for they are spoken of as “a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tongues.”   That they have come out of “great tribulation” (v. 14) merely suggests that they have all suffered for Christ, as Scripture says that all who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

Now, I said all of this to lay the groundwork for what I am going to say next. Many Christians believe they will not see the Tribulation. They believe that we will be raptured out of here before then, and that the Tribulation saints are those who will accept the Lord Jesus after the Rapture.

But like my daughter said, if this were true, and there are only two resurrections, when would the Tribulation saints be resurrected? The only scriptural answer is that the Rapture, to include all believers AND the Tribulation saints, in one resurrection, would have to occur after the Tribulation.  This is the only answer, based on the two-resurrection scenario that Jesus spoke of.  There is just no other way that it could happen and include the Tribulation saints.

There is something else to consider that strengthens this argument. That is the case of the Two Witnesses found in Revelation Chapter 11:

“And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

“These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.

“These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.” (Revelation 11:3-4,6).”

Most Bible students are in agreement that these two prophets are Jewish, as the Bible uses the olive tree and the candlesticks (as in the Menorah) to refer to the Jewish nation. Some believe that they are Moses and Elijah, because Moses caused plagues to come upon the Egyptians, including causing waters to turn to blood. Elijah, as you may recall, caused it not to rain for three and a half years.  The Bible also says that Elijah would return before Jesus’ second coming (Malachi 4:5).

It is also important to note that neither Moses nor Elijah died.  Elijah was taken up to heaven, and Moses did not die a natural death, as God merely “put him to sleep.”

Now, a thousand and threescore (sixty) days adds up to three and a half years. Bible students know that the Tribulation will last seven years. The passage says these prophets will testify for three and a half years and then:

“When they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves…

And after three days and a half the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.

And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them” (Revelation 11:7-9,11,12).

Do you know that the witnesses could also represent the Christian church during the Tribulation? They will witness for three and a half days.  Then they will be killed. Then they will be resurrected. First, God will let them witness for three and a half years and no one will be able to do anything to them for Revelation 11:5 tells us that:

“If any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

Can you imagine what this will do to the Christian church? It will be totally energized, spurred on by the testimony and the miracles of these two witnesses.  Many will turn to the Lord, because science will not be able to explain away what these men will be doing.

The governments of the world may even try to enforce a media blackout, closing down the Internet and all radio and television communication so that the world will not hear the testimony of these two witnesses or see that the governments will be powerless to stop them.  But, I don’t think God will let them. For the first time, Facebook and Twitter could be used to spread the Gospel, as many will be talking about the exploits of these witnesses worldwide.

After three and a half years, the Antichrist, energized by Satan, overcomes and kills the Witnesses. But notice, that it is according to God’s will, because the passage says they will not be killed until “they shall have finished their testimony.” God will be in control the entire time. I believe that the death of the two witnesses will mark the beginning of the last and great worldwide persecution of the Christian church. Finally, the witnesses’ dead bodies will lie in the street for three and a half years: the length of time of the Kingdom of Antichrist.

Now, this is where it gets interesting. Remember that after three and a half years, the Spirit of life will enter into the two witnesses (v. 11). They will be resurrected. Once again, pay close attention to what happens next.

“And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them” (v. 12).

This is extremely important. Let us again look at the Rapture in Thessalonians 4:16-17.

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel...and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds…”

Brothers and sisters, can’t you see these are talking about the same thing? The two witnesses will be the first taken in the Rapture and we will be right behind them! Praise God!

Think about it. Considering that there is only one resurrection for believers, this is the only way that all the servants of God, including the Tribulation saints (martyred and living) and the two witnesses, can be taken in a single resurrection. The Rapture must occur at the end of the Tribulation.  Now there is one last proof that the Rapture marks the end of the Tribulation, and it can be found in two places: 1 Corinthians 15:21-24 and Revelation 11:13, respectively.

“For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.

“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

“But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming.

“Then cometh the end, when He (Christ) shall have delivered up the kingdom to God…” (1 Corinthians 15:21-24)

This establishes the order: first the Rapture, then the end, when Jesus Christ delivers the kingdom to God. Now, compare that with what happens after the two witnesses are resurrected. We pick up again at Revelation 11:12:

“And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud…

“And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

“The second woe is past; and behold, the third woe cometh quickly.

“And the seventh angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ…” (Revelation 11:12-15).

Can you see it now? The Rapture will occur after the Tribulation, and then the end will come.

One last thing: Many believe that the Rapture will occur unbeknownst to the world. They believe that one moment we will be here and the next we won’t –that we will just vanish.  For this reason, many Christians believe that the ungodly media will try to use the Rapture to prove the existence of extraterrestrials by saying that abduction by aliens is the only plausible explanation for the disappearance of so many people.

But if the Rapture of the Church coincides with the resurrection and ascension of the two witnesses, then we go up into heaven in like fashion as they: in plain view of everybody. For Scripture says that the two witnesses, “ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them” (Revelation 11:12). Think about it. Why would God whisk us out of here secretly, when He said that He would reward us openly? (Matthew 6:4). The Resurrection is certainly our reward. Furthermore, God has nothing to hide. He wants the ungodly to see what they’re missing.

This is a good time to discuss Harold Camping’s claim.  The Tribulation will last seven years.  The Two Witnesses will testify openly for three and a half years, be killed and their dead bodies will lie in the streets of Jerusalem, unburied, for three and a half years. That equals seven years: the same length of time of the Tribulation.  Then the Two Witnesses will get up, and ascend into heaven.  God has given us a time line:

1) The Two Witnesses appear.  Start of first half of the Tribulation.  Christians can still witness for three and a half years, albeit through some persecution.

2) The Two Witnesses killed.  Start of the second half of the Tribulation (called the Great Tribulation).  Christian persecution begins in earnest.  Kingdom of Antichrist (the New World Order) reigns for three and a half years.

3) The Two Witnesses get up, ascend into Heaven.  Christians get up, ascend into heaven. All of this happens in plain view of everybody.  All believers have left the earth.  The boo-boo hits the fan.  Woe to the them who are left on the earth.

So, don’t even start thinking about the Rapture until you at least see the Two Witnesses. And you will see them.  Remember that Revelation 11:5 says that when anyone tries to hurt the Two Witnesses, fire will come out of their mouths.  What is important to remember is that anyone to whom this happens will die, for the Scripture says, “if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.  Why is this?  Because Scripture says that the Word of God is a consuming fire.

If you haven’t heard anything about anyone being spoken on fire, relax: the Rapture is still a long way off.

Now, if someone were to miss the Witnesses exploits on TV, they will surely hear about their deaths, for the world will know about it.  Listen:

“And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another, because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth” (Revelation 11:10).

There will be a huge party when the Two Prophets are killed.  Have you received an invite yet?  I didn’t think so.  Scripture also says at Revelation 11:13 that at the same time that the Rapture occurs, there will be a great earthquake during which a tenth part of Jerusalem will fall.  Seven thousand people will die.  All this will happen simultaneously. Look for that on the 21st.  Scripture proves that Harold Camping is a false prophet.  He’s not even moderately convincing.  But, he will garner his disciples, because people would rather listen to a man, than listen to God.

Now let me say something very important.  The God-less media and their occult sponsors have hyped up the Rapture in various ways for a few years now.  They are always looking for ways to disprove the Bible and prove their claims, such as the existence of extraterrestrials.  I believe that they can and will, if necessary, stage a “rapture” to achieve certain ends.  But, I’ve just told you what to look for.  There is a lot more to the Rapture than just people disappearing.  In fact, people don’t “disappear” at all.

Now, these are only my observations. But I truly believe this is what the Spirit has shown me, because the closer we get to our Lord’s coming, the more attention that will be given to the Rapture, as recent events clearly show.   This is not to scare you, but to help you to put things in perspective.

I believe that all the media attention given to a pre-Tribulation Rapture is designed to give Christians a false sense of security–and it’s working.  Arguably, most Christians are not the least bit interested in fulfilling the Great Commission.  I have visited a great many churches and without exception the “Christians” in these churches seemed to be merely celebrating their own salvation.  We should celebrate our salvation, for the gift of eternal life is something to be excited about.  But we should also feel a burden for the lost: for those poor souls languishing in sin.  But we don’t.  We have bought into the Pre-Tribulation rhetoric and have eased back in our faith and put our feet up.  This is exactly what Satan wants.

Though we should all look forward to the Rapture, Jesus doesn’t want us to overly concern ourselves with it.  He wants us to occupy until He comes.  There’s work to be done.  We need to be out there witnessing to a lost and dying world.

Christians in America do not know suffering as Christians in Communist and Muslim-dominated countries do.  As Paul said we “have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin” (Hebrews 12:4).  But we will.  The time of Christian persecution is coming to America.  And it will happen sooner than we think.   When it does, then we can start praying for the Rapture.  But until then, we need to be busy for the Lord.

Would you like to have the wisdom to discern the true character of events?  Would you like to have peace when everyone else is in a panic?  Would you like to have eternal life? Then you need to know Jesus.  Click here if you would like a relation with Him.

If you would like to know the identity of the Antichrist, click here.

Be encouraged and look up; your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

 

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Perilous Times Shall Come

I was reflecting today on yesterday’s news story about the couple that nearly starved their six-year-old child to death.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the longer I live, and the more I see, the truer the Bible becomes.  It is indeed a prophetic book.  God told us these things would happen.  I don’t have to ask myself why things are so bad, neither do I have to furrow my brow and wonder if things will ever get better, because I know they won’t.  Things will only get worse.  The Bible says so.  Listen to what the apostle Paul wrote about the times we are now in.

“Know also, that in the last times, perilous time shall come.

“For men shall be lovers of their own selves: covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

“Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those who are good,

“Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.  Having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:1-4).

Because Americans today are more ungodly than we have ever been in any other time in our history, most people will not be able to see that this is a very good description of our culture.  A look at some of the terms will bear this out.

Lovers of Their Own Selves.  Every time I hear that song by Whitney Houston, “The Greatest Love of All,” I think about this verse.  The Bible says “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).  This is the greatest Love of all.  But, the world says that the greatest love is the love that one has for oneself.  That is a selfish love.  That is the reason people are so selfish, and actually it is the love of oneself that is responsible for all the other problems that are listed here.  The apostle Paul knew what he was doing when he listed it first.

Covetous.  This means you want something that belongs to someone else.  Each and every one of us, whether we know it or not, whether we choose to accept it or not, has an enemy.  Some of us are fortunate in that we know who some of our enemies are.  But did you know that there are people who believe that everyone likes them?  I know at least one person like that.  It’s true.  And they do everything in their power to make sure that everyone likes them.

But for all their “going along to get along,” they still have enemies.  Satan always makes sure of that.  Even if you never do anything to anger anyone, Satan will make sure that there will always be someone, in or out of your life, who will hate you just because you have.  Maybe you have an attractive wife.  Maybe you have a nice car.  Maybe you have a successful marriage.  Maybe you have a job.  Maybe you cut your grass.  Maybe you don’t curse.  There are literally a gazillion reasons they could hate you, but usually it’s because of something you have that they don’t.  They’re covetous.

Proud.  Americans are known the world over for being proud.  The “Ugly American” is actually a proud American.  One who thinks that Americans are the standard by which all others should be measured.

Blasphemous.  This means to speak evil of God.  Americans are especially guilty of this one.  Just look at our language.  The Bible says that we should not take the Lord’s name in vain.  Yet, “Oh, my God!” is so commonplace, that the abbreviation for it (omg), is probably part of the lexicon.  The name of the Lord Jesus Christ is one of America’s best-loved curse words.  I once bought a four-DVD entertainment pack which included the movies, “Twister” and “Outbreak.”  I had not seen these movies since I became a Christian almost six years ago, so I was shocked to hear how often the name of Jesus was used as a swear word in both these movies.

We even shorten it to make it look OK.  Did you ever stop to think that the word “Gee” (like the Beaver used to say) sounds amazingly close to Jesus?  It could very well be that the Beaver, by saying “gee” all the time, was actually training America’s kids to take the Lord’s name in vain.  Those kids are now grown, and we know what they are saying now, and it’s not “gee.”

Disobedient to Parents.  Kids these days are so disrespectful to their parents, that it has become commonplace.   The weird kid is actually the one who obeys his parents.  We are so disrespectful, that there is even a saying that when something is really good, it’s “so good, it makes you wanna slap yo’ mama.”  Now, who would come up with something like that?  But when you think about it, it makes perfect sense.  If we disrespect our Father, how could we ever expect our children to respect us?

And there lies the crux of the matter.  Children these days, no matter what else they may be, are very intelligent.  They know how hypocritical it sounds for them to have to obey us, but we don’t have to obey anyone.  If we took our marching orders from the Lord Jesus, and made this clear to our kids, they would understand that we are not just making this stuff up as we go along.  They would know that just as they have their orders, we have our orders too, from above.  Just as they are held accountable, so are we.  But as it is, we tell them that who pays the bills makes the rules.  This may be true to an extent, but it should not be the sole basis of our authority.  We are in charge because God said so.  And we should let our children know that to disobey us is to disobey God; and that has consequences. 

By the way, click here to read how Secular Humanism is creating a generation of selfish, self-centered, arrogant, and disrespectful children.

Unthankful.  We are a thankless generation.  Most of our parents made incredible sacrifices to provide a decent life for us.  And how do we repay them?  When they get old, we ship them off to an old folk’s home to die.  When they’re old, and when we have achieved a modicum of success and independence, this is a perfect time to repay them for all that they did for us when we were young.  But we don’t.

Unholy.  SEE Blasphemous.

Without Natural Affection.  This is something that we see a lot of these days. Natural affection is the affection that normally exists between family members, and especially that which should exist between a mother and her children.  But this type of affection is quickly becoming a thing of the past.  Never in history have there been so many instances of parents harming their own children, or visa versa.  When was the last time you saw a parent and a child hug each other out of genuine affection for one another?  It is becoming extremely rare.  Many parents only do what they legally have to for their children.  They do the bare minimum.  Everything else is left up to someone else.  This puts tremendous pressure on teachers, caregivers, and yes, even spouses, because they are left to deal with the inevitable emotional baggage of a child or adult who has been neglected.

Trucebreakers.   How many people keep their promises these days?  I remember a time when a person’s word was his bond.  A person knew that if he betrayed his word to just one person, the word would get around until pretty soon, that person had a reputation for being untrustworthy, and then no one would trust that person anymore.  This is no longer the case.  Oftentimes, it is almost a given that if a person promises to do something, they likely will not.  People no longer place a premium on honesty.  A truth and a lie have equal value in the minds of many.  We can thank “situation ethics” for that.

False accusers.  We will begin to see more and more of this.  This is not just bearing false witness, or lying.  This means someone lies for the express purpose of getting someone else in trouble, often for something they themselves did.  During the Inquisition, in Nazi Germany and in Stalinist Russia, you could not trust anyone.  People routinely lied on their neighbors just to see them disappear.  And it will happen here too, you can believe that.

Incontinent.  This is a lack of self-control.  The contemporary meaning of the word is the inability to control one’s bodily functions.  The Bible, however, uses it in the classical sense of an inability to keep one’s passions in check.  An example would be someone who is easily angered, is sexually promiscuous, or even has a problem with substance abuse.  The general idea is that one is not in control, but one’s passions are.  Could there be any doubt that this is the case today?

Despisers of Those Who Are Good.  Let’s face it.  People nowadays hate people who are decent.  Do you doubt this?  Well, walk into a doctor’s office and just say a general “Good morning” to everyone in the room.  I have done this.  This will visibly disturb some people.  I have heard someone called fake, just because that person always smiled and had a kind word to say.  But, someone who wears a perpetual scowl on his face, and is quick to blow up will get fear and respect, even admiration.

Traitors.  Did you know that many Americans say and believe things that would have been considered treasonous seventy years ago?  We embrace ideologies that run counter to everything America stood for.  Socialism is considered the answer to America’s problems.  If this is true, then many a mother’s son has died in vain to protect the American way of life, just so we could become that which we fought against.  How hypocritical!  Some of America’s worst enemies are her own citizens.

Lovers of Pleasure More Than Lovers of God.  Ultimately, this is what is really wrong with America.  We have become a pleasure-seeking society and not a God-seeking society.  And we’re proud of it.

The Bible foretold of this over two thousand years ago.  And it is spot on.  Now, if it was right about this, and so many other prophecies, is it such a stretch to believe that the predictions the Bible makes about the Antichrist, the coming New World Order, and the return of Jesus Christ and the coming Judgment will also prove correct?  I think not.

Brothers and sisters, if the Bible is right about what’s coming, it will far surpass even the most horrible times in world history.  It behooves each of us to make his peace with the Lord Jesus.  Now.  Before it’s too late.  All the signs are there for us to see.

If you would like to make your peace with the Lord, click here.

Nothing can stop what is coming, but we can delay it for a little while, if we would humble ourselves, turn from our evil ways, and seek God’s face.   There’s still time.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011-2012 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Osama Bin Laden is Dead. Now We Can Sleep In Peace?

It just amazes me how fickle Americans are.  We will look for any excuse to sing Kumbaya.  Osama Bin Laden is dead, and America is having a feel good moment.  “Justice has been done,” said President Barak Obama, who  announced that he gave the go-ahead for the elite SEAL Team 6 to go in and kill Osama Bin Laden. And America couldn’t wait to celebrate.

Yesterday, people were partying in the streets, waving flags, wearing flags, kissing and hugging.  One guy said that it was a great time to be an American.  One woman said that we always come through in the end, and no matter what, Americans always come together (which America is she talking about?).  One woman, however, took the grand prize for the Most Uber-Optimistic and Over Exaggerated Comment In The World.  This lady said that tonight she doesn’t have to sleep in fear; tonight she can sleep in peace.  Say what?

Maybe it’s just me, but the last time I looked, nobody in my neighborhood had to worry about getting jacked by Osama Bin Laden.  Last time I looked Osama Bin Laden wasn’t selling crack or meth in my neighborhood.  Last time I looked Osama Bin Laden wasn’t lurking around some elementary school in my neighborhood waiting to molest some little girl or boy.  Last time I looked Osama Bin Laden wasn’t teaching my children that they are descended from a monkey.  And when my car alarm goes off in the middle of the night, I’ve never expected to go out there and have to confront Osama Bin Laden.

Don’t get me wrong.  For the people who are survivors of 9/11 or who lost loved ones in the Twin Towers, I understand that this must give them some much-needed closure.  But to say that this man’s purported death just eliminated all fear and worry from your life is maybe going a little bit too far.

Let me help you put this in perspective.  Today, a Virginia couple has been charged with the murder of one of their children, whose body police found buried underneath their home.  But that’s not all.  They found the body after police interrogated the couple subsequent to finding their six-year-old daughter, who the couple had been keeping in a makeshift cage since last summer.  The girl was so malnourished, that she was EATING HER OWN SKIN to stay alive.  That’s right.  Eating her own skin.  She was also lying in her own feces and was covered with bedsores.  The couple said they treated the child this way because she had Down’s Syndrome and other problems.  Now you tell me.  What did Osama Bin Laden’s death do for that little girl?  Yet everybody’s acting like the world just became a happy place.

It reminds me of the story of the man who leaped from a very high building.  As he was passing the twentieth floor, someone asked him how things were going.  “Fine, so far,” he said.  Put away your party hats, folks.  We are only just passing the twentieth floor, and the ground’s coming up pretty fast.

Sleep well.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

 

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Bipolar. Schizophrenia. Six of One Half Dozen of the Next.

Grace and peace to the brethren in the Lord, and greetings to the unsaved.

Today, I was considering the revelation that Catherine Zeta-Jones, by her own admission, has been diagnosed as having Bipolar Disorder.  This term has grown in popularity in the last decade.  I had never heard of it until 1998, when a friend told me that her child had been diagnosed with it. 

Since that time, another acquaintance of mine has expressed concern that she too, may be bipolar.  I’ve always wondered what bipolar disorder was and why there seems to be an increase of it in the last ten years or so.  But, before today, my curiosity was never enough that I took the time to research it.

Today, however, I went to the encyclopedia to look for a definition for bipolar disorder. First, I looked in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1985 edition, and could not find it.  Then I looked in the Collier’s Encyclopedia, 1991 edition, and could not find it either.  Lastly, I went to the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, which gave the following definition:

“Bipolar disorder n. (1980): Any of several psychological disorders of mood characterized usu. by alternating episodes of depression and mania – called also manic depression, manic-depressive illness.”

In other words, serious mood swings.  Webster’s also gave this definition for bipolar:

“bipolar adj. (1810) 1: having or marked by two mutually repellent forces or diametrically opposed natures or views.”

This definition is highly enlightening and suggestive of the real cause of bipolar disorder.  The excessive mood swings that characterize this disorder are caused by two mutually repellent forces in one person.  I could stop writing now, because it is obvious where I am going with this.  But I won’t.

Because I had heard somewhere that bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are the same, I decided to test this contention by looking up the definition for schizophrenia in the encyclopedia to see if it matched the dictionary’s definition for bipolar disorder.  I was not disappointed.  

Encyclopedia Britannica says that schizophrenia literally means, “splitting of the mind.”  Do you see the similarities?  If you split something, like a mind, the result will be two halves or two minds, yet, in one person.  Bi-polar literally means “two poles,” yet, in one person.  They are the same thing.

Now, two poles are not necessarily bad.  A car battery has a positive and a negative pole, but it doesn’t explode when you turn the key.  The earth has two poles: the north and the south, yet here we are.  That the two forces are mutually repellent and diametrically opposed is what makes bipolar disorder problematic.  That means they don’t get along.  They are contrary to one another.

A car battery functions because the two poles are separate.  The earth has not exploded, because its two poles are separate.  Perfectly normally people are often either happy or sad.  But when the two poles, or in this case, minds, are mutually repellent and are trying to come together in one person, that is a recipe for disaster.  It’s like trying to touch the same poles of two magnets together.  You can’t do it.  They will fight each other.

I think the reason I could not find bipolar in the encyclopedia is because it is the same as schizophrenia.  It has just been given a kinder, gentler name, a politically correct name. All reference to the mind have been taken out so as not to offend anyone.  After all, we don’t want to offend a schizophrenic by telling him he is a schizophrenic, because he would know that he had a problem.  And If he knew that he had a problem, then he might seek help.  And we don’t want that, now do we? 

That’s the whole idea behind political correctness.  Being careful not to call something what it is.  If we don’t know that something is broken, we won’t try to fix it.

We do the same thing with sin.  We don’t like to call sin what it is: sin.  Because if people believed in sin and the consequences of sin, they might seek help so that they could stop sinning, and we don’t want them to do that, now do we?  

So, we come up with the name bipolar, because it sounds less harsh.  It’s like calling a drunk an alcoholic.  It makes us feel better.  I could probably easily find bipolar in a modern encyclopedia because I would bet they are all politically correct.  They would probably even have the term, politically correct, which, by the way, I was not able to find in my encyclopedias.

The contention that modern dictionaries and encyclopedias are politically correct is supported by the following example.  Webster’s dictionary usually lists the origins and meanings for words made of foreign roots, so you will know the origin for such words.  If you look up the word, schadenfreude, for example, Webster’s will tell you that it is made up of two German words: schaden meaning “damage” and freude meaning “joy.”  The word literally means “to have joy at someone else’s troubles.”

Though Webster’s lists the origins and meanings of many words made up of foreign roots, it doesn’t do this with the word schizophrenia.  If you look up the word schizophrenia, Webster’s will not list the root words and their meanings, but will merely give you the definition for the word.  If you look up the root schizo-, however, Webster’s will tell you that it is a Greek word meaning “to split,” and if you look up the root –phrenia, Webster’s will tell you that it is a Greek word meaning “mind.”  The word schizophrenia literally means “split mind.”

Webster’s Dictionary Eleventh Edition is also politically correct with the word entertain.  If you look up the word entertain, Webster’s will tell you that it is derived from the French word entretenir, which Webster’s says is formed from the words entre + tenir. Interestingly, Webster’s says that tenir means “to hold,” but it doesn’t tell us what entre means.  But if you go to Webster’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of the English Language, International Edition, Vol. 1, (p. 291 “Entertain”) you will learn that the word tenir means “to hold or maintain.”  To entertain literally means “to hold between or suspend.” Click here for the spiritual significance of this word.  

Why doesn’t Webster’s list the meanings of the two roots that make up the word schizophrenia?  Could it be because the politically correct powers-that-be do not want you to know that schizophrenia literally means, “split mind?”  You bet your boots it is.  Because if you knew that schizophrenia meant “split mind,” then you would know that you had a problem.  And if you knew that you had a problem, then you might seek help.  And we wouldn’t want that, now would we?

Think about it.  If someone went up to a Bible-believing Christian and said that they had been told that they have a split mind, then the Bible-believing Christian might remember that the Bible says,

“a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8).

Then the Christian might tell the person that

“God has not given us the Spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind (READ whole mind)” (2 Timothy 1:7).

Then the person would realize that his problem was spiritual, not mental.  Then, with his eyes wide open, the person might ask the Christian, “What Sir, shall I do?”  Then the Christian might say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”  And then the person might get down on his knees then and there and accept the Lord Jesus as his Saviour, and he would then be delivered from the DEMONIC ACTIVITY that is causing his problems.

Then the person, set free and wanting to let somebody know about it, might go and tell someone else he knows that is suffering from the same thing, and then that person might accept Jesus and be set free.  And then that person goes and tells somebody else, who tells somebody else, who tells somebody else, until there are no more bipolars or schizophrenics.  How would the psychologists and psychiatrists make a living?  They might starve to death!  And we wouldn’t want that to happen, now would we?

So they come up with a kindler, gentler name for it, and say, “Take this pill and call me in the morning…and the morning after that…and the morning after that…And so we follow the politically correct spin-doctors who make us feel better about ourselves instead of telling us that something is broken so that we can get it fixed.  And we let them do it.  For shame!

Did you know that doctors don’t have a clue what causes bipolar disorder?  Did you know that according to doctors, bipolar disorder (schizophrenia) is not a disease, but a syndrome? Why, then, don’t they call it bipolar syndrome?  Why, because you might look in the dictionary and find out that a syndrome means,

“a group of signs and symptoms that occur together and characterize a particular abnormality or condition” (Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition).

That means that a syndrome is not a problem, but a sign that there is a problem.  So, they call it a disorder, meaning that something is “not in order,” or out of whack.  You already know that!

They’re being politically correct again.  They don’t want you to know that something is broken, and they can’t tell you why, because if you knew that something were broken, and that they couldn’t tell you why, then you might seek help elsewhere, perhaps even from Jesus. 

And if you sought help from Jesus, then you would find it.  And when you found it, then you would get better.  And when you got better, then you might tell somebody.  And we surely wouldn’t want that, now would we?

Schizophrenia.  Bipolar.  Six of one, half-dozen of the next.  Both mean that something is broken that needs fixing.  Both mean that a person does not have a whole mind.  Jesus says he can make you whole. If you, like Catherine Zeta-Jones, have been told or suspect that you are bipolar or schizophrenic, or know someone who is, know that Jesus Christ can make you whole, if you would only ask Him.  Why don’t you give him a try?

If you want to be whole, click here.

By the way, Bipolar Disorder is often a result of a generational curse and even affects many Christians and their families.  Read here about generational curses and how to get free from them.

We have produced a companion audio podcast of this teaching which is available for free at the iTunes Store.  You can get it by clicking here.  For your convenience, it is also available below.

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As always, be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man 

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Was the Royal Wedding a Spirit-filled event?

Prince William and his new wife, Kate, exit Westminster Abbey after the nuptials

When I came home last night, I went to check my email and check the news headlines to see if anything major in the world had happened while I was out.  Of course, the major headline was the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton.  I was not in the least bit interested in this wedding, which will have absolutely no impact whatsoever on matters of any real importance.  The poor will still be poor.  The sick will still be sick.  People are still dying senselessly on the streets of every major city in America.  Yet, the media (who are always trying to get us to look right when we should be looking left) are having a feast covering this wedding.

Well, out of curiosity, I clicked on the link on the Yahoo website to the video of the coverage of the wedding live from Westminster Abbey.  And I am so glad that I did.  What was most interesting to me was not all the pomp of the wedding.  It was not seeing what celebrities were there, though there were a couple luminaries in the crowd whom I recognized.  It was not seeing Catherine Middleton’s dress that the media said was just to die for.  It was the spiritual significance of the wedding that interested me.  The planners did their very best to make the wedding a very spiritual affair.  It may very well have been spiritual, but it was definitely not Christian.

First of all, it was a beautiful affair.  Westminster Abbey is a spectacular edifice, rich, and steeped in history.  The whole time I was watching the wedding, I kept wondering what it must be like to know your family’s history going back hundreds even thousands of years. That is a privilege that has been denied many of us.  In that respect, Prince William is very fortunate indeed.  What I enjoyed most of all, though, was the all-male choir that performed.  They gave one of the best performances I have ever heard in my entire life. They were outstanding.

But, there were two things that happened that were of major spiritual significance for me, and that really made an impression on me.  The first occurred after the royal couple said their marriage vows, when Kate Middleton’s brother read from the Bible a passage from Romans 12.  To begin, his reading was so dry and emotionless that there could not have been any doubt that the Holy Spirit was nowhere in the room.  But what was even more notable was that the young man was not reading from the Authorized Version, the King James Bible, but from another translation.

This may not seem very significant to most people, but it is very significant when you consider that England gave us the King James Version.  And when a translation other than the King James is used in the marriage of the likely future king of England–a marriage, the religious significance of which, the organizers went to great lengths to underscore–it sends a clear message to the world.  Not only is it basically a denial of the King James as the Authorized Version, but it is, in fact, tantamount to endorsing whatever version of the Bible was used.

Think about it.  Designers’ careers are made when someone of note wears one of their creations on nationwide TV.  The same can be said of jewelers, shoe makers, handbag makers, cake makers, eyeglass makers, and on and on.  Everything that is to be seen, worn, consumed, or in any way associated with a celebrity is carefully scrutinized and considered, because the celebrity’s handlers know that the use of an item at such a media event is essentially an endorsement of that item.  Doubtless, this did not escape the attention of the organizers of the royal wedding.  They knew, especially considering the importance of religion, and the current war that the liberal bible versions are waging with the King James, that this would be of major importance. They were sending a message; and I read it loud and clear.

The second event of note occurred during the reading of the address by the Bishop of London, Richard Chartres.  The theme of his address was basically that for a young couple to have a successful marriage, they should each allow the other to be an individual and not try to change or “reform” the other partner.  About three-quarters of the way through the bishop’s address, Kate Middleton did something very significant.  I will pick up the address already in progress:

“We’re all incomplete.  We all need to have the love that is secure, rather than oppressive.  We need mutual forgiveness in order to thrive.  But as we move towards our partner in love, following the example of Jesus Christ…”

At this point in the address, the camera had shifted away from the bishop to the royal couple.  At the mention of the name Jesus Christ, Kate Middleton’s lip tightened, and she looked to her right and to the floor, held that position for a moment, then looked back up again, managing a wan smile as though she realized the cameras were on her.  She seemed visibly disturbed at the mention of the Lord Jesus.  This is what I saw.

I am so grateful that I was watching a video of the wedding rather than seeing it live.  I was so caught off guard by this, that I rewound the video about six or seven times to make sure that I really saw what I thought I saw.  Not only did I see what I thought I saw, but I noticed that Prince William reacted rather curiously himself, though his reaction was very slight.  Princess Kate’s reaction, however, could not be mistaken.  Check out the video of the wedding.  Pay close attention beginning at about 4:58 and see if you see what I saw.  Pray for discernment.

Make no doubt about it.  The royal wedding, though very beautiful, did not have a Christian feel to it.  Even though there were many references to Jesus Christ, I don’t think the Holy Spirit was in attendance.

Below is a scripturally sound analysis of the royal wedding from the perspective of a Christian wife and homemaker.  

“Royal Wedding: A Shabby Affair?”

Disclaimer: I am not able to thoroughly investigate every site, so please exercise discernment and consult Scripture, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things.  Disclaimer on translations other than the King James Bible and possibly some content.

**********************************UPDATE**************************************

7/21/11: YouTube removed the original video on “copyright grounds.”  You be the judge. I managed to find this one today.  Let’s see how long it lasts.  I’ve noticed that someone from Australia visits my website fairly often and only goes to this webpage.  What are the odds that this has something to do with the videos disappearing.  Watch and pray.

4/24/14: Someone access this site and altered the URL link to the Royal Wedding so that the video would not appear.  I have now linked to the video on my YouTube Channel.  Let’s see how long this one lasts.

Be encouraged and look up; your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011-2013 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man.  All Rights Reserved.

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Uncertainty Can Be Deadly

 

Grace and peace to you.

This afternoon, I checked a local radio station’s website to see if they stream their program live, so I could listen to a particular show while working on my computer.  It turned out that the host of this show had posted a personal video where he commented on the power of prayer.  He explained how one day he was praying to God to let his deceased father rest in peace.  He said that he knows his father “is in a better place,” but he just wanted to know if his father were OK, so he asked God to give him a sign.

Well, the next day, it seems that a cousin of his called him to tell him that she found a picture of his mother and father.  The radio host took this as confirmation that his father was OK, and that it was the sign from God that he had asked for.  He then went on to extol the efficacy of prayer.

It is touching that this gentleman still worries about his dad, who has already departed this world and is now gone to his reward.  This kind of love is commendable in a world where television headlines daily show human beings displaying a lamentable want of natural affection.  I can relate, as ironically, last night, I dreamed about my own father, who passed away almost twenty years ago.  Unlike the radio host, however, I never worry if my father is alright or not.  And I’ll tell you why.

My father was a good man as good men go.  He was hardworking, kept a job, and was a responsible citizen.  Like many of us, however, he used to do what he wanted when he wanted, and some of the things he wanted to do I’m certain would not have met with God’s approval.  But, thankfully, like me, he found Jesus late in life, and made Him the Lord of his life.  Praise God.  Later, he became a minister and associate pastor of a small church.  He had a small shop where he used to sell citizen band radios on the south side of the city, and he divided the shop in half and used the extra space to sell Christian literature, including Gospel tracts.  In fact, it was in his shop that I first encountered Chick tracts.

Years later, my father passed away peacefully in the hospital after a bout with cancer.  My mother said that the night he died, she was visiting with him, sitting next to his bed.  At one point, he had his eyes closed and it seemed that he was talking to her, but she could not hear him well, so she leaned closer to him, and discovered that he was talking to Jesus.  She said that it was as though he were holding a regular conversation, only barely discernable.  She heard him say repeatedly, “Yes, Lord, I’m ready to go,” or words to that effect.  That night he passed quietly away.

When I got saved, I wondered if my father had ever witnessed to me of Jesus Christ, because I couldn’t remember him ever doing that.  Because of this, at one point I wondered if he really knew the Lord, because surely if he knew Him, he certainly would have told me about Him.  But I stopped worrying about that, because there were many times when my father tried to speak words of wisdom to me, and I just would not listen.  It is possible that he tried to witness to me, but my ears were just closed.  Though I was not hostile to the Gospel, I just didn’t want to hear it.

One thing is for sure: the fact that he was selling Chick tracts in his shop shows that he was not ashamed of the Gospel.  But it is still something I used to wonder about.  I stopped wondering when I understood that one day I will know for sure whether my father really knew the Lord, when and if I meet him in Heaven.  Only the Lord knows the truth.

I said all that to say this:  there is only one way to be sure if a person is OK after he has passed from this life, and that is if you know that that person has a relationship with Jesus Christ.  If a person has found the Lord Jesus, that person has been granted eternal life.  He may have passed away from this life, but he has life eternal with the Lord Jesus.  He or she has merely changed addresses.

It is hard when a loved one dies.  I know that.  I am in no way trying to trivialize death, nor its effect on the surviving loved ones.  But, if you have a relationship with the Lord Jesus, and your loved one also knew the Lord, take comfort that he or she has passed on into a new life with Jesus, and shall never again know heartache, sorrow, pain, suffering, or want.  The race is over.  They are indeed in a better place than we, and at some point we have to take comfort in that so that we can move on.

But if they didn’t know the Lord, I have a couple questions for you.  First, do you know the Lord?  If the answer is yes, then did you witness to that person about the Lord Jesus when they were still in this life?  If you did, then you fulfilled your responsibility to that person, and their blood will not be on your head (Ezekiel 3:19).  But, if you knew the Lord and did not witness to that person, then you failed in your obligation.  The person is in Hell, and you had a chance to warn them and didn’t.  Their blood is on your hands (Ezekiel 3:18).

If, however, you don’t know the Lord, then, like the radio host, there is a good reason why you worry about whether your deceased loved one is alright.  How could you have any assurance of the disposition of someone who has passed, if you have no assurance that you yourself are alright?

 

At any rate, that person that has passed on has gone to his or her reward, be it good or bad.  And your worrying about that person is a sign of uncertainty, which could actually be a good thing, because you are still here, and you still have an opportunity to turn that uncertainty into certainty.  I will tell you what I told the radio host (via a comment I left on his web site): if you are worried about your loved one’s soul, it is a sign that you both were lacking something spiritually.  What you were lacking is certainty about where your soul is going when you leave here.

Think about it.  If you know that a person is going to Heaven, why worry if they are “OK?”  You must have your doubts, and if you do, why?  Another thing: make no mistake, if you have children, and they have not been given assurance (because you don’t have it), whenever you pass on they may have the same uncertainties.  And as with you, it will be a sign that something is spiritually wrong with them.  Why would you put your loved ones through that?

You could end the uncertainty right now.  You could KNOW whether you are going to be “alright” when you die.  You could tell your loved ones not to worry and why, and they would understand, because they would have the same assurance about themselves.  Now that’s the best gift that you could ever leave a loved one.  Eternal assurance.

The radio host deleted my comment.  That’s a shame, because it may have helped someone else.  I doubt that he is the only one that has these concerns.  I have fulfilled my responsibility though.  I didn’t want to write a comment at first, but something (or Someone) within me urged me to do it; and I’m glad I did.

Now you have the same opportunity.  Will you too pass it up?  Will you too bequeath fear and uncertainty to your loved ones?  Or will you do something about it right now?  If you are ready to end the uncertainty and have peace, security, and assurance, click here right now.

Be encouraged and look up; your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011-2012 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

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Peace: The Cure For Restlessness

Grace and peace to you.

Last night, in one of my writing classes, we discussed a book wherein the author dealt primarily with the subject of restlessness.  It was said that this author has addressed this subject in some of his other books, and we therefore concluded that perhaps he had unresolved issues stemming from his childhood.  Towards the end of the discussion, the professor asked each student in turn if he had ever experienced restlessness.

When it was my turn, he asked me if I were a sedentary person or a restless person.  I told him that I used to think that I was a restless person because, having spent the better part of my life in military service, I had grown accustomed to being constantly on the move and had gotten quite used to it.  In fact, I was better at traveling than I was at staying in any one place.  Because of this, I had come to think that I was born to travel.  But, as I explained, when I found the Lord Jesus, all of that changed.

I knew in my heart that there would be some in the class who would not appreciate this small bit of my testimony.  It is class policy for each student to distribute a copy of a story he has written to every member of the class, which we in turn are to critique and suggest any improvements.  We then collectively discuss the story at our next meeting.   About a month ago,  a young lady had written a short story about a mission trip she took to a South American country.  At the conclusion of the story, she included a passage from the Bible that she said gave her courage and strength in difficult times.

I was very surprised by the reaction of some of the class members to the inclusion of the Bible passage, as some were offended that she expressed her religious sentiments.  A couple students said that they would have preferred if she had merely hinted at her religious beliefs, rather than “hit them in the face with them.”  What was curious is that the lady never, for one minute, talked about her religion.  She never said she was a Christian.  She never mentioned Jesus.  There was no preaching or moral lesson.  There was a scene that involved someone giving thanks before eating breakfast, but the prayer didn’t end with “In Jesus’ name,” so it was, in essence, a secular prayer.  One could say that the Bible verse was a reference to Christianity, but the version of the Bible she used was one of the liberal modern translations, and in fact, sounded so unlike the version found in the Authorized Version, the King James, that it could have come from any secular publication.  In short, there was nothing overtly religious about the story; and yet, people were offended.

What is even more amazing to me, and which speaks directly to the present antagonism of Americans towards the Christian religion, especially in our schools and on college campuses, is that, without exception, the author of every book that we have examined in this class, about ten total, has included to some extent his worldview or a religious belief: be it evolution, Buddhism, Hinduism, or any other.  Yet, no one in the class ever expressed being offended by this material.  As a matter of fact, at least one person said that one of the books caused her to think about her own life.  Of course, this was the reason that book was included as one of our textbooks in the first place.

So, when the professor asked me about restlessness, I determined within myself to address this subject from a spiritual perspective and make my plug for Jesus, because I perceived in my heart that someone in that class needed to hear that.  It seems that even the most avowedly open-minded person can accept just about any worldview except the Christian worldview.  And that’s the one that they need to hear!

You see, what each of us instinctively knows, but doesn’t want to accept, is that a major cause of our restlessness is, in fact, a lack of a relationship with the Lord Jesus.  Scripture says that we were made for worship.  There is a hole in each and every individual which can only be filled by the Holy Spirit, and that can only happen through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Without a relationship with the Lord Jesus, we are restless, because we have no peace.  And we can have no peace, because only Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, can give us peace.

Did you know, dear reader, that until we make our peace with God, we can have no peace? The Bible says, “there is no peace, saith the Lord, unto the wicked” (Isaiah 48:22). He says it again at Isaiah 57:21.  Whenever Jesus says something twice, you had better listen.  If you are not at peace, you are at war.  It’s just that simple.  Did you know that until you accept Jesus as your Saviour, you are at war with God?  Listen to what Romans 5:1 says: 

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

That means that until we have made our peace with God, we are His enemy.  Now, that doesn’t mean God is going to mash us with His thumb at any minute, but it does mean that there are some blessings that He may not bestow on us just yet.  Peace is one of those blessings.

I was in war, and I can tell you that you go to bed at night with one eye open.  I don’t remember having one dream when I was in Iraq.  That was because my body only let me sleep deep enough to run it’s self-maintenance routine, so that I could function the next day.  I rarely, if at all, slept deep enough to dream.  Did you know that many people who do not have peace with God can not get a really good night’s sleep?  I was witnessing to someone a few months ago and she made a startling admission.  She told me that she has never had one dream in her entire life.  I was surprised.  I told her surely she has had at least one dream.  She assured me that she had not.  It’s important for me to mention that this lady also told me that she manifests a lot of psychic phenomena like spirits communicating with her that she believes are deceased family members.  God, in Deuteronomy Chapter 18, expressly forbids communicating with spirits.  That is because there is no such thing as ghosts.  These spirits are demons.  And it is forbidden to talk with them.

With respect to her inability to dream, in order for a person to dream, the person has to enter into the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep.  This is the deepest stage of sleep and is the point where a person dreams.  What I didn’t tell this lady is that the inability to dream is often a complaint of people who have demonic activity in their lives. Show me a witch, and I’ll show you a person that hardly gets any sleep.  People who have been delivered out of occult activity have testified that they rarely got a good night’s sleep and were always in a constant state of fear.  Remember, “There is no peace…unto the wicked.”

Until we repent of our sins we are living in a state of wickedness.  The Bible says, “The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest” (Isaiah 57:20).  That means that we are constantly tossing and turning, like a ship in a storm that cannot find its port where it can dock.  We are restless.  This restlessness can take the form of an inability to get a restful night sleep, an inability to dream, or a feeling that we have to be constantly on the move.  I know someone like that.

Some people are constantly in search of a new high, a new place to hang out, new friends, or a new pastime.  Others have to move every two or three years.  These people constantly have to be re-energized by a new experience.  It becomes addicting like a drug. If they don’t get their fix, they get depressed.  There are people who are constantly in search of the travel destination that will help them to put their lives into perspective.  That is why exotic destinations like Tibet are all the rage, and why Eastern philosophy and yoga are in vogue.  That is why the travel industry, even in a depression, is still making a profit.  We are restless.  We have no peace.  We are trying to find ourselves.

I told the class that when I got saved, I found out who I am, why I am here, what my mission in life is, and where I am going when I die.  For the first time in my life I had direction and purpose, and I came to realize that God had made me the way I am for a particular purpose that is perfectly suited to the work that He has called me to do.  I no longer had to “fit in.”  I no longer had to find out what my life’s calling was.  I only had to find out how the Lord wanted me to fulfill it.  I didn’t feel different for the reasons I used to feel different.  I was now different because I was a part of God’s family, and the world has no use for God.  The Bible says that we are “sojourners and pilgrims” in this world.  I’m just passing through.

I stopped searching.  I stopped looking.  I stopped seeking.  I had found myself.  I was home.  I was in Germany at the time, and the year was September 2005.  Two and a half years later I came home.  The travel bug that I used to have has died and gone to travel bug heaven.  I didn’t even bother to give him a funeral.  I may travel in the future, but for entirely different reasons.  It’s interesting to note that a young lady in my class, who travels quite often, told me that she never thought she traveled because she was looking for herself.  She sort of laughed it off, but you could tell that she was thinking about this.  A young man in the class, who had written a story about a trip he had taken specifically for the purpose of “finding himself” (he admitted to doing this every two or three years), was looking at me rather intently, but he said nothing.

Think about it.  There is a hole in each and every one of us that can only be filled with Jesus Christ.  Stop running.  Slow down.  Stop.  Stop looking for something to fill that void in your life that will be empty again tomorrow.  Give Jesus a try.  He’ll fill you up.  He’ll satisfy you.  He’ll tell you who you are.  He’ll tell you why you are here.  He’ll tell you what your mission in life is.  And he will never, never leave you nor forsake you.

If you are tired of moving and would like to start a wonderful relationship with the Lord Jesus, click here.

Then, be encouraged and look up; your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011-2012 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

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Tornado Miracle

Grace and peace to you.

Today is the day Christians celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Historically, believers go to church and fellowship with other believers, rejoicing in that our Lord and Savior is Risen, and because He is Risen, we also are risen with Him to a lively hope in the future resurrection of our bodies.   Praise God!

However, today is also a day of sadness for many people who were affected by the F-4 tornado that tore through St. Louis, Friday, causing millions of dollars worth of damage and displacing hundreds.  Thousands are without power, and as of yesterday evening, it is not anticipated that power will be restored until Tuesday at the earliest.

Many of the families involved were entertaining relatives who had arrived to celebrate the Easter holiday, and are now either being temporarily housed in shelters, living with relatives or neighbors, or making do in their houses without electricity.

The overwhelming response to this disaster has been one of complete surprise.  Many are saying that they never thought that they would ever be involved in a natural disaster.  Indeed, the same can be said for many of us, who are used to watching the guy on TV holding back tears as he picks up a photo of his grandchildren amid the remains of his demolished house as his wife and children pick through the rubble in search of mementos, valuables, and heirlooms.

For someone who has gone through something like this, consolation could be very difficult.  Rare is the person who is overjoyed simply to have survived a disaster in one piece.  But, I cannot find fault in someone who cannot appreciate this blessing immediately following a catastrophe.  Just because someone is heartbroken over having lost everything but one’s life, does not mean that a person does not appreciate having survived.

I can imagine that all kinds of emotions can surface in the aftermath of a disaster.  One lady I talked to was heartbroken because she did not receive the help from her family that she thought she should have.  Another person was disappointed because he found himself at the mercy of family members who have never liked him.  One lady was not looking forward to the next few days in her home alone without television, radio, or Facebook, and stuck with a husband she has been married to for almost forty years, and with whom meaningful communication has long been a thing of the past.  One person was worried sick about the prospect of becoming a burden on a parent who herself was going through a difficult time.  These are all valid concerns, and most of us could identify with at least one of these scenarios.

Only one person with whom I spoke was actually upbeat about the whole situation.  She was elated just to have survived.  The amazing thing about this woman was that, rather than being concerned about her own situation, she was more concerned about those people who do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ.  She expressed deep regret that the majority of Americans have turned their backs on God and thought that the timing of this event was very significant.  She gave me her own testimony about having been saved out of a life of drugs by a caring church of only a handful of members, and having been sustained by their fellowship and love through some very difficult times.  For her this was a warning to not take the goodness and blessings of God for granted, and to be glad to have been given another opportunity to turn our lives over to him.  This dear lady even made me feel better about not having been touched by this disaster.  She said that my voice was calm and soothing and was actually helping to calm her down.  She added that this would not have been possible had I been in the same situation as she.  There is truth to this statement.  It is remarkable that such insight and perspective could come from someone who had gone through such an ordeal.  This dear lady ended up ministering to me when I was supposed to be the one doing the ministering!

I guess I said all of that to say this.  If you are reading this, you have survived something whether you know about it or not.  For whatever reason, you have been spared a traumatic event –be it a robbery, a rape attempt, a terrorist attack, or a natural disaster like a flood or tornado.  Reflect on what your life would be like at this very moment had something like that happened to you.  Appreciate how blessed you are to be reading this from the comfort of your living room, den, office, or bedroom, all snuggly-wuggly wrapped up in your robe with the smiley-face pin on the lapel, with your hot cup of whatever you like to drink, all snug in your jammies with your slippers on and the room set at a comfortable temperature.

Now imagine, a woman with her three children crammed in a small space at a shelter.  Imagine them sitting bewildered, shivering slightly, partially from cold and partially from shock, in utter disbelief, sitting on a cot wrapped up in blankets, in the company of people whom they don’t know—some good, some bad—the mother trying desperately to hold on to her few valuables, praying that nothing happens to her meager belongings or to one of her children when she goes over to the line to get them a cup of soup.  Imagine that only twenty-four hours earlier, this lady was probably doing the same thing you are doing now, warm and cozy in familiar surroundings with her children safe and sound, tucked into bed or in front of the television.

It could all change in an instant.

If it did, what. would. you. do?  And IF—God forbid—you didn’t survive it, would you be ready to meet the Lord Jesus?  You will one day, you know.  Even though many of you don’t believe that.  Did you know that more people are willing to believe in aliens and Reptilians than God?  Do you know that more of us believe in Santa Claus then the Lord Jesus?  (Even though we saw the toys “hidden” in the closet the week before Christmas!). There is more evidence of an All-Powerful God than there is of ET, and yet…

You will one day meet the Lord Jesus.  And you want to do that with confidence, knowing that you have accepted His grace and have been forgiven your sins.  And you know you have them.  We all do.

It can all happen in the blink of an eye.

Think about it.

If you would like to have confidence and assurance of the future, click here.

For those of you who believe and are waiting for the Lord Jesus, Rejoice!

Be encouraged and look up; your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

 

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America and the Plot to Kill God

Grace and Peace to you.

I read a story today that shows how far down the road America has traveled in its journey away from God.  Jessica, 16, a sophomore at a Seattle private high school, was doing volunteer work with a third grade class at a public school as part of a week-long pre-Spring Break community service project. She came up with the idea of filling plastic Easter eggs with candy and approached the teacher to get her permission.  She was told that she could do it as long as she called the treats “Spring Spheres” instead of Easter eggs.  The Seattle elementary school is apparently not the only government organization taking action to make Easter a more politically correct holiday.  The city’s parks department also removed Easter from all its advertised egg hunts.

This news does not upset me for the reason it upsets a great many Christians, because I know that Easter is a pagan fertility holiday (as Easter eggs clearly demonstrate) that is often confused with the day Jesus Christ was resurrected as well as the Passover.  The fact is, it is neither.  I was going to post something explaining this using Scripture, but a tornado prevented me from getting it out before Easter Sunday.  The fact that I know Easter is not Christian does not get me bent out of shape, because just as Paul said that some preach Jesus from the heart and others preach Jesus for personal gain, but at least “Christ is preached,” I appreciate the fact that a day has been set aside that Christians can observe the Resurrection of our Lord even though I know that Easter and Resurrection Day are not the same.

This story out of Seattle represents the latest of many attempts to completely secularize America.  A few years ago, the U.S. government “accidentally” minted several hundred thousand quarters without the motto “In God We Trust.”  I believe this was “accidentally” done in order to see what America’s reaction would be, and to gauge the effectiveness of the anti-God propaganda that the media and public education system has been feeding Americans for decades.   I’m sure they concluded that the propaganda campaign has been hugely successful.

Americans have turned their backs on God.  This was the richest, most prosperous, and most blessed country on the face of the earth, because America was the only country in the history of the world that set man free.  And God honored that.  America was the envy of every other nation because she proved that a country that honored God and granted true freedom to each and every individual regardless of race, color, creed, and previous condition of servitude could not only succeed, but excel.  America was foremost in virtually every arena, and we did it by giving every person the right to reach his or her full potential—Freedom with responsibility.

But that is no longer true.  Patriotism is a dirty word.  Christianity is an even dirtier word.  America has become a reproach in the eyes of the world, and her greatest enemies are her own citizens.  Want to become the most unpopular person at a party?  Say that you love God.  Say that you love America.  As a matter of fact, say that there is such a thing as moral absolutes (right and wrong).  You will get taken off everyone’s Christmas list in a hurry.  Something is terribly wrong.

Barack Obama was right; America is no longer a Christian nation.  America embraces every religion but Christianity, yet Christianity was the basis for the freedoms we enjoy and used to covet.  I fear the worst because of America’s disowning of God.  If it were not for the fact that God is in charge—and I know that—I would be inconsolably depressed.  America you are getting ready to go for a ride.  But you asked for it, so God is going to give you what you asked for.  Even so, come Lord Jesus.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

 

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The iPhone (READ “Eye” Phone) Has Been Tracking Where You Go

Grace and peace to you.

Heard this today on a local talk radio station and here it is again on the net.  This is not news to me.  When will people realize that privacy is a thing of the past?  Believe me when I tell you that your iPhone is not the thing to be most concerned about.  You have been watched for quite some time, especially if you’re a Christian.  

Your neighbors are watching you.  And their neighbors are watching them.  And on and on and on.  The 21st century will be characterized by the most complete and all-pervasive surveillance network in the history of the world.  There is no place to hide.  No place to run.  That is frightening.  But it is true.

If you are a Christian, however, you saw this coming, or at least you should have.  They are watching us, but God is watching them.  And that should give us comfort.  The New World Order will happen, because God is making it happen.  The bad guys are part of God’s agenda.  They don’t know that though, because they don’t read the Bible.

Here is the link:

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/iphone-location-tracking-iios4-ipad,news-10910.html

Don’t be afraid.  Be busy for the Lord.

For more on the U.S. government’s surveillance of American citizens and the new definition of domestic terrorism under the USA PATRIOT Act, see my post, “In God We Trust, All Others We Monitor.”  It will open your eyes.

Stay encouraged, and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011-2012 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

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Is Steve Harvey a Christian?

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Grace and peace to you Brothers and Sisters.

I woke up this morning (thank God) with health and strength and with a sound mind, and turned on the radio and listened to the Steve Harvey Morning Show.  I have been doing this for about a month.  It seems Mr. Harvey has become somewhat of an Ann Landers in the black community due to the success of his two relationship books.  So, while flipping through stations one morning I came across his show, and have been listening to it every morning during my workout, hoping to get a glimpse of what has made Mr. Harvey such a celebrity.

You see, my only previous experience with Mr. Harvey was when he was the host of the “Kings of Comedy” series, where he acted as a “master of ceremonies” of sorts introducing three popular comedians (one of whom died a few years ago).  His job was to get the audience pumped up and ready for the other comics, which he would do by telling a few jokes, playing popular R&B music, making fun of people in the audience, and speaking on different topics.  He then gave them a fantastic introduction.  I guess you could compare him with a talk show host minus the interview (and I have no doubt he is working towards this).  

He was a great showman.  He was also very vulgar.  In fact, the use of profanity was as integral a part of his show as were his jokes.  So, I wondered how good his show would be under the restrictions imposed by the FCC, though these restrictions are eroding daily.

Well, I wasn’t very surprised to discover that Mr. Harvey’s radio show is almost exactly like his Kings of Comedy show.  He plays a combination of classic and contemporary R&B, which is generally not too bad.  His co-host is a lady named Shirley Strawberry, who also hosts a segment called “Strawberry Letters,” a play on the title of a popular song by the R&B duo, The Brothers Johnson, called “Strawberry Letter 22.”  This segment features Mrs. Strawberry reading on-air letters sent in by people seeking advice on relationship issues, to which Mrs. Strawberry offers her advice, often deferring to Mr. Harvey’s “wisdom.”  Mrs. Strawberry also just published a book called “Strawberry Letters,” which I gather deals with the same subject matter.

To be sure, I would not consider the relationship advice given by either party to be Christian advice. Yesterday, for instance, a young lady called wanting to know what to do about her boyfriend who apparently had left the relationship, leaving her with a small child.  “God has a plan for the child,” Harvey said, “You and the man is [sic] just the vessel.” Doubtless, God does have a plan for the child, but Harvey made it sound as though it were God’s plan for the young lady and the man to have sex and create a child out of wedlock, which was certainly not the case.

As a matter of fact, the Morning Show crew seems to hold untraditional views on just about every matter of importance.  One morning, for example, an individual called in to ask what the show’s hosts had against traditional marriage.  There was a guest on this particular day (a young black male), who I believe was an entertainer.  This guest lambasted traditional marriage and vehemently protested against the notion that marriage should be a monogamous relationship, adding that marriage partners should be able to have extramarital affairs without censure.  Mr. Harvey and company agreed with the gentleman.  For her part, Mrs. Strawberry asserted that she was in a monogamous marriage, though she only weakly contended the guest’s opinions and even laughed at his remarks.

Sexual innuendo is also a major part of the Steve Harvey Morning Show.  Mr. Harvey and a third host, whose name escapes me, make frequent and overt references to sexual intercourse using Black slang.  Since Black slang is no longer Black slang thanks to the Hip-Hop movement, Harvey’s remarks would be intelligible to all but the very young, the very old, and aliens. But what is most upsetting about the show is a segment wherein Mr. Harvey plays a character called “The Pastor.”  This segment features him portraying the classic caricature of the Southern black preacher replete with superfluous “A-mans!” (Amen!), sexual innuendo, and allusions to misappropriation of church funds.  

Yesterday, “The Pastor,” among his other ramblings and Sambo-esque buffoonery, said, “Praise me.  Lift me up.” Another member of the cast, named Eugene, who gives birthday shout-outs, played his sidekick and said that he was “saving people through horoscopes.” How blasphemous! This is upsetting because the Christian church has come under attack for years in the media: from gun-toting, Scripture quoting psycho-killers, to hypocritical, woman-chasing preachers.  This is merely Satan doing what he does best; that is, “accusing the brethren.” But, it is especially distressing to see a black celebrity of high visibility making a mockery of the Christian church, which was always on the vanguard in the struggle for black civil rights, as well as the abolition of slavery.  Harvey is the first black I’ve seen caricaturing black preachers since Arsenio Hall did it years ago in “Coming To America.”  (There are probably others, but I rarely watch television or go to the movies).

Mr. Harvey loves religion.  He loves it so much that he is currently touring with “Gospel” singer Kirk Franklin in what Harvey described as a “comedy and Gospel show.”  This is probably the ultimate oxymoron, and speaks volumes about Franklin, whose music has always tiptoed on the line between The Gospel and The World (he himself has essentially acknowledged this), but in recent years has seemingly fallen headlong onto the worldly side.  What does the Gospel have to do with comedy?  What fellowship hath light with darkness?

No true Gospel singer would affiliate himself professionally with a man as vulgar as Steve Harvey, who even admitted that someone attending the Harvey/Franklin show might hear him using profanity from time to time (which I took as a guarantee that he would be using profanity).  Click here for reviews of the show.  It seems his “Christian” comedy is just as vulgar as the “Kings of Comedy.”

A few years ago, someone sent me a video clip of Mr. Harvey during a show telling the audience what he would say if he were opening for “Christ.”  Using some of the names of Jesus such as the Rose of Sharon, Harvey proceeded to whip the audience (many of whom had their hands in the air looking towards heaven) into a frenzy as though he were opening for Chris Rock.  

UPDATE 7/27/11.  YouTube has since removed the video of Steve Harvey introducing “Christ” on [ahem] “copyright grounds.”  Uh-huh. 

UPDATE 6/6/2012.  I found this video today on YouTube.  Let’s see how long it lasts.

Say what?  Does Mr. Harvey realize just Whom it is that he is “opening” for?  In that whole self-aggrandizing diatribe, Harvey only got one thing right: Jesus needs no introduction. Folks, this is blasphemy of the highest order.  Jesus is no rock star.  He’s not even a celebrity.  He is The Creator of the Universe and Sovereign Lord of All.  And Steve Harvey just tried to reduce Him to the level of a fake, egomaniacal, narcissistic, publicity-seeking celebrity. What’s worse, is that on the longer version of this clip, Mr. Harvey prefaces his introduction of “Christ” with a laundry list of his own accomplishments.  So much for Christian humility.

UPDATE 7/7/12: This video has also been removed from YouTube. 

Mr. Harvey loves to appear Christian.  A couple weeks ago he was bragging about how televangelist Joel Olsteen (who has some curious beliefs himself) texted him to congratulate him for doing a great job at an awards show where Harvey spoke.  Dropping Olsteen’s name was a clever ploy to garner the acceptance of those with Christian leanings who are aware of Harvey’s decidedly non-Christian character.  But, any Christian with even a spoonful of discernment would doubt that Mr. Harvey worships the God of the Bible.

Who then, is the God that Harvey serves?  Well, yesterday, Harvey was speaking on the “Law of Attraction,”  which he explained as a fundamental law of nature wherein a person’s thoughts, words, and actions “attract” similar realities to that person.  In other words, what a person thinks, what a person says, and what a person does determines his or her outcome in life.  He said that this “law” is neutral, and does not recognize “positive or negative,” but only acts on what a person puts out.  According to Harvey, If you think “positive” thoughts, positive things will happen to you.  If you think “negative” thoughts, negative things will happen to you.  Harvey says that it does not matter if you believe in this law or not.  If you just think or speak these things, you will think or speak them into existence. 

This teaching is not Christian.  It is the first of several “cosmic laws” which the New Age calls The Law of Causality.  In his New Age book, Jan Van Helsing (a pseudonym) describes this law thus:

 “You have a certain idea, and the more you think about this idea, the stronger it gets.  Thus you establish a cause.  The effect thereof is that whatever that idea was, it will enter your life sooner of later.

“To clarify: You are afraid that some time you might be raped…The energy created by this thought is a command to the subconscious and the cosmos, and it will be complied with 100%” [1]. [Boldface mine.] 

I thought God was in charge?  This is totally inconsistent with the Bible.  Yet Harvey, who claims to be a Christian, espouses this belief.  And many people, including Christians, are buying into it.

Unfortunately, this teaching does not square with reality.  Try explaining this law to a five-year-old girl who has been raped by some pedophile predator.  What could a little girl possibly have been thinking to have brought this upon herself?  Try explaining this law to the poor of India, who because of the caste system, can never hope to overcome their situation and attain to a better life.  Try telling these people that their circumstances are the result of “negative” thinking.  

This is a New Age belief and comes from the pit of Hell.  It is actually witchcraft.  You see, witches don’t believe in a personal God or a personal Devil.  They believe in “The Force.” (Now where have we heard that before?  Star Wars perhaps?)  This impersonal entity, like Harvey’s “law” is neither “positive nor negative.”  It just is. 

That was the message of Star Wars.  Both the “good” Jedi Knights and the “evil” Darth Vader utilized the force.  So-called white magic is supposed to be the benevolent use of the force, while black magic is the malevolent use of the force.   This is what witches teach their unwary initiates.

One lady, in a book devoted to witchcraft, echoes this teaching:

“Many people think that all witchcraft is black magic.  It’s not.  Black magic is worked for an evil purpose…The magic in this book is white.  Generally, this means that it’s worked for a good end”[2]. [Boldface mine.]

But Anton LaVey, the late founder of the Church of Satan, wrote in The Satanic Bible,

“There is no such thing as a ‘white witch.’  White witchcraft is pure mythology.  All witches are drawing upon occultic power to do their bidding, and that power does not originate with God.” [Boldface mine.]

If a top Satanist says there is no such thing as “white witchcraft,” I think we can take him at his word.  All witchcraft is evil and comes from the devil.  So, the doctrine that Harvey is proposing, which is a witchcraft doctrine, actually comes from Satan. This shouldn’t surprise you.  Our culture has been inundated with witchcraft.  Witchcraft concepts and terminology have pervaded our language and culture for years without our knowledge.  For instance, the phrase “more power (force) to you” is an old greeting among witches [3].  Betcha didn’t know that.

Further proof that Harvey’s God is not the God of the Bible can be found in the manner in which he describes how he prays.  Speaking of himself in regard to the “Law” of Attraction, Harvey said that when he prays to his God and asks Him for a financial blessing, “it” will give it to him.  Harvey didn’t say that He (as in God) would give it to him.  He said that “it” would give it to him.  What is “it?”: 

“The LAW OF CAUSALITY—which some call God” [4]. [CAPS in original, Boldface mine.]

Harvey is a New Ager.  And, like all witches, New Agers always disguise their true beliefs with Christian terminology. 

Recall also that Harvey did not say The Force was neither good nor bad, but that The Force was neither “positive nor negative.”  This is because witches don’t believe in good and bad: 

“The terms good or bad, valuable or worthless are not justified and at best are expressions of our own subjectivity” [5]. [Boldface mine.] 

You see if witches believed in good and bad, then they would have to admit that there is a God and a Devil—the personifications of good and bad.  Witches believe in neither, so they use the terms positive and negative.  Incidentally, Oprah also believes and has stated that God is not a person, but a force.  It should also be noted that in the Bible Satan is called “The Prince of the Power of the Air” (Ephesians 2:2) and “The God of Forces” (Daniel 11:38). I’ll let you ponder that for a moment.

I must add that I do not have anything personal against Steve Harvey.  I do not know him personally.  He may be a very nice person.  But he claims to be a Christian, and, because of his immense popularity, he has a bully pulpit.  Scripture says that we should test everything.  Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh” (Luke 6:45).  Based on this and what I have heard from Steve Harvey’s mouth, I have my suspicions about the nature of Steve Harvey’s heart.

The United States as well as the world, is in the final birth pains before the New World Order finally creates the ultimate police state.  It should be clear to any thinking person that something is terribly wrong.  The engineers of this revolution (or violent paradigm shift) are endeavoring to bring in the Antichrist and to do so, they have to re-educate (READ Mind Control) the mass of humanity into the Luciferian mindset.  People in education, entertainment, the arts, and ALL media, including radio, have been contracted to facilitate this re-education.  Make no mistake, Mr. Harvey is a part of this agenda.  If you are a Christian and you enjoy listening to Steve Harvey and others like him, know that you are being subtly wooed into Satan’s camp. 

Comedy is a major part of the plan to re-educate America.  Comedians have been used for years to Satan’s advantage.  People are usually too busy laughing to pay attention to what the comedian is actually saying.  If you think about it, the subjects comedians most like to talk about are politics, religion, race, and sex, all of which just happen to be the most divisive of issues.  This is no accident.

Everyone has heard of the phrase “divide and conquer.”  If someone wants to destroy an organization, a corporation, or even a family, the most effective method is to get the organization to destroy itself from within.  Conquering it is elementary from that point.  There is a plan afoot to destroy the United States of America by destroying her from within.  This is being done by transforming the United States from a nation of people united by a common interest—FREEDOM—into a nation of quarreling, fighting, hateful factions divided by self interest.  Can there be any doubt that this has happened?

Now, while this fact is fresh in your mind, think about how comedians are always talking about race.  While both black and white comedians are guilty of this, my experience is mostly with black comedians, who are especially guilty.  Think about how black comedians are always talking about whites as though they’re stupid, naive idiots, who can’t dance and talk funny. 

This, in a country where the racial hate on blogs and internet forums is red-hot.  This, in a country where only a short time ago, blacks swung from trees like apples.  This in a country where black slaves were bought and sold like cattle a mere 150 years ago and where blacks were granted civil rights less than fifty short years ago.  This in a country where 13 years ago, in Texas, James Byrd, a black man, was chained by the ankles to a pickup truck by three white men and dragged for miles until his head was torn off.  This in a country where the same crime was repeated in 2009, when two white men similarly dragged Brandon McClelland to his death not 250 miles from the town where Byrd was executed.

Racism is no laughing matter.  A major war was fought in this country over slavery, and if you think people have gotten over it, you are not playing with a full deck.  Racism is a major issue.  Yet, race is a major tool in the black comedian’s arsenal.  Look how upset blacks get when a white celebrity uses the “N” word or makes some other racial comment, yet black comedians joke about whites on national TV.  Is this why President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation (for which he was murdered)?  To give blacks the freedom to taunt and belittle their former slave masters in public forums?  Have you ever noticed how almost every black comedian after a few years appears in movies and has a television show?  That is his and her reward for selling out their people.  Steve Harvey is a case study in this phenomenon.

Black comedians as well as white are being used to foment hate and animosity in the black and white communities and further divide this country, making it ripe for takeover.  And the time is almost here.

Something is terribly wrong.   Two weeks ago I attended a writer’s conference.  One of the speakers, who was speaking on the importance of blogs for authors, mentioned that one of her favorite blogs was entitled, “The Crazy Things That White People Do,” or words to that effect.  Ironically, the speaker was white.  How long can this go on before something serious happens?  Folks, I guarantee you.  We are on the brink.

Comedians also constantly make light of drugs, premarital sex, adultery, and all kinds of social ills.  Their excuse is that their making light of these issues takes our minds off of the problems of life.  There is certainly a grain of truth to this, but only a grain.  These are real problems.  But because of comedians, we laugh at these problems, rather than cry about them and pray over them.

Religion has always been a major target of comedians.  The late George Carlin used to say that “Religion is bull*@!.”  Ben Stiller once said that Christmas should be turned into a secular holiday (which it basically has been).  Jamie Foxx was once asked during an interview who God was to him.  He got visibly upset at this question and asked the interviewer who God was to her.  She answered that God was everything to her, to which Foxx replied, “Then why are you asking me?”

I believe that Steve Harvey, like most comedians, is a change agent, who is being used to turn blacks away from God and indoctrinate them into the New Age religion of Antichrist. He often criticizes Christians as being judgmental in condemning his sinful ways.  If he were not a Christian and tried to do this, he would be immediately rejected and seen for what he is.  So, he tries a subtler approach, masquerading as a Christian, who is merely pointing out the many problems of the Church, using his position and influence to gain a wider following.  Harvey is also making people comfortable in their sins, as he emphasizes a Christian being “a work in progress” rather than stressing holiness.  He curses almost as much on his show as he did on the Kings of Comedy, and when his co-hosts mention this, he just laughs it off, seeming to glory in his sinfulness.

I seriously believe that the purpose of all of the “sudden” fame that Harvey is enjoying is for him to garner a large following based on his personality and charisma.  Then Harvey will announce that he is going into the ministry and will ultimately start his own mega church.  I believe this is the purpose for Harvey aligning himself with mega church pastors like Joel Osteen and TD Jakes, and the reason for his partnering with Kirk Franklin.  He is establishing his credibility in the “Christian” community.

Harvey is going into the religion business. This is not a stretch, as a mega church is essentially a cult of personality.  Many of Harvey’s followers will later be filling his pews, or in this case, auditorium seats, and Harvey will lead them down the side of a steep hill into a sea of perdition.

If you are a Christian, you should know that Steve Harvey is not your friend.  Steve Harvey hates Christianity and all true Christians.  He is part of the problem and not the solution.  Do not be deceived by this Trojan Horse.  Remember, a good tree is known by his fruit.

Notice that on this earlier segment of the show during which Steve Harvey introduces “Christ,” he mentions his “third eye.”

Did you know that the concept of the Third Eye comes from Hinduism?  Well, it does.  It can also be found in Wicca: that’s right—witchcraft.  The Third Eye refers to spiritual “enlightenment” that can be gained a number of ways including mind-altering drugs, Yoga, and even sexual intercourse.  The Bible doesn’t say anything about a third eye. That, my friends, is because the Third Eye is not Christian.  It is New Age.

The goal of the New Age Movement is to destroy Christianity.  Now you know what Steve Harvey is really all about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notice that Steve Harvey also points to his forehead the second time he mentions his Third Eye.  The Third Eye is also a symbol for godhood, as the eye on our one-dollar bill is often called the Eye of God or the Eye of Providence.  It is also called the Eye of Horus, the pagan Egyptian Sun God.  As you may recall, God struck directly at the Egyptian Sun God with the plague of darkness: a darkness so thick, it could be felt (Exodus 10:21-22).  

The Eye in the Pyramid has been linked with the so-called Illuminati, an occult organization originating from the ancient Mystery Religions of the east, whom the Bible calls “Mystery Babylon.”  The Illuminati is actually linked to the Roman Catholic church, as the eye in the pyramid atop this Roman Catholic church in Munich, Germany proves.

Munich church of illumination

Munich church of illumination

Click here to learn more. 

Harvey’s reference to the “third eye” marks him as an initiate of the Mysteries.   Harvey is also saying that he is a god, as the New Age teaches that man can be a god, if he would recognize this and perfect his nature through alchemical transmutation.  

Need more proof?  OK.  Remember that in Exodus 3:14, God told Moses that His name was “I Am.”  Jesus also claimed to be the Great I Am (John 8:58).  Well, Steve Harvey makes the same claim.

In case you are still skeptical, notice that the center portion of the “W” is a pyramid with a capstone.  The pyramid is pregnant with meaning, but what concerns us is the Freemasonic significance of the pyramid:

“DELTA.  The name of the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet.  In form it is a triangle, and was considered by the ancient Egyptians a symbol of fire, and also of God[6]. [Boldface mine.]

Notice he is also forming a triangle, or pyramid, with his hands.  He thinks he is a god.   But notice something else:  Harvey says, “I Am Power.”  Remember, the Bible calls Satan “The Prince of the Power of the Air” (Ephesians 2:2), and the eye in the pyramid is also called The All-Seeing Eye of Lucifer—Satan.  Now we know the true identity of the “power” to whom Harvey prays.

Also note that Harvey is dressed in all black with a black and blue background.  Black, as we know, is always associated with spiritual darkness.  But the reader may be interested to know that blue is associated, among other things, with the first three degrees of Freemasonry, called the “Blue Degrees.”  

It is also interesting that one side (the viewer’s left, or the West side) of Harvey’s face is in darkness, while the other side (the viewer’s right, or the East side) is “illuminated.” Interesting.  Freemasons claim to be traveling from darkness to light, and Freemasonry purports to “illuminate” or enlighten its devotees by initiating them into the ancient mystery religions “by degrees.”  Freemasons also claim to be traveling toward the East, which, as you have just learned, is the symbolic and geographical seat of the Babylonian Mystery Religions.

So, not only does the East have literal importance, as it is the place where the sun rises, but it also has the spiritual distinction of being the birthplace of all idolatry.  This has biblical significance:

“And He (God) brought me (Ezekiel) into the inner court of the Lord’s house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east” (Ezekiel 8:16). [Parentheses and boldface mine.]

Could Harvey be a Freemason?  You decide.

There is one more thing.  The “W” actually forms three “V”s, two on the side, and one on top upside down.  The numerical value of “V” in Greek is 6.  I don’t have to tell you the significance of “666.”   Harvey is an antichrist.  Not The Antichrist, but certainly an antichrist.  Right now, you should be making some serious connections.

This should silence any remaining skeptics who believe that Steve Harvey is truly a Christian.  Beware of this Trojan Horse. Watch and pray, saints.

“Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.  Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15-16).

A podcast of this article is available for free at the iTunes Store.  You can download it for use with your favorite audio device.  Subscribe to our free podcast today.  For your convenience, it is also provided below.

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Stay encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

 Sources:

[1] Secret Societies and Their Power in the Twentieth Century, Jan Van Helsing, 1995, Ewertverlag S.L.  ISBN: 3-89478-654-X, p. 341.

[2] Everyday Witchcraft: love magic, charms and spells, fortune telling: everything you need know to enjoy occult power!, Delphine C. Lyons, 1972, Dell Publishing Company, NY, p. 3.

[3] Ibid, p. 2.

[4] Van Helsing, p. 366.

[5] Ibid, p. 340

[6] A Dictionary of Freemasonry, Robert Macoy, 1989, Random House Publishing, p. 118.


P.S.  Since I posted the link to the longer clip of Steve Harvey introducing “Christ” which shows him talking about his “third eye,” the video has been “removed by the user.”  But, I managed to find this short clip that serves the same purpose.  YouTube also removed the video of the Royal Wedding, which clearly shows Princess Kate’s curious reaction at the mention of the name of Jesus Christ (again, I managed to find another, praise God).  They do not want you to see them for what they truly are. When the light comes on, the roaches will scatter.  –TSM

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America and the End Times

Grace and peace to you.

Today I was studying the prophetic Word in the Book of Daniel and in the Book of the Revelation.  A couple of months ago I had purposed to study prophecy more to get a better grasp of End Times events, but I had gotten away from it.  But God, knowing my heart, found a way to get me back into it.

I recently completed a poetry class assignment which required me to do an anaysis/exposition of a poem by one of America’s most revered poets.  I was not very excited about this project.  It is a sad fact that many of America’s most admired and best-loved poets had actually no reverence for God whatsoever, and in many cases were some of the most debauched and profane people on the planet. 

For this reason, I often cringe when I read their works, and I feel a great sense of sorrow for the downward moral spiral wherein America finds itself.  I’ve come to realize that the so-called academics: the poets, the writers, the thinkers were and are on the vanguard of America’s rebellion against God.  One such person was W.B. Yeats.

Yeats, like many poets, often couches his anti-Christian rhetoric in twilight language, using a mixture of Christian and mystical terminology, which, to the undiscerning ear sounds spiritual and even beautiful.  That is because Yeats and others came from Christian backgrounds and thus, had some knowledge of Scripture, and often made use of biblical language and concepts in their poetry.  

Oftentimes, the poems sound Christian on the surface, but upon closer examination, one can discern subtle, yet unmistakable messages reflecting themes of doubt about the existence or benevolence of God, the nature of truth, the divine inspiration of Scripture, pantheism, Eastern Philosophy, and other ungodly beliefs.

I chose to analyze Yeats’ poem entitled The Second Coming. As I said, many of these writers were schooled in Christian doctrine at some point in their lives, and so they are familiar with concepts such as the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.  When I read this poem for the first time over a year ago, I was offended because it seemed to me that the poet’s reference to a “rough beast” was a derogatory inference to the Lord Jesus Christ.  This time, however, the Spirit revealed to me that Yeats was referring to the Antichrist and that he was looking forward to his coming with great anticipation.

Because this poem makes extensive reference to the Book of Daniel and the Book of the Revelation, I had to refer a great deal to these books to analyze the poem.  This turned out to be a God send.  For in the course of unveiling the hidden meanings in Yeats’ poem, the Spirit revealed several things to me that I didn’t understand before.  The result of this inquiry was a rekindling of the fire within me to know and understand the prophetic books.  In light of recent events, this is more important now than ever.

Another one of these rebels was Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose poem, Nature is chocked full of ideas one finds in The New Age, Eastern Mysticism, Hinduism, and even Wicca.

What troubles me the most is that every day in universities all over America children are being fed a liberal dose of these ideas, totally oblivious of the effect these poisonous doctrines are having on them both morally and spiritually.  People are puzzled about why violent crime is on the rise all over the world, and do not realize that it is due to the philosophies they are learning from godless, pagan teachers and professors in godless schools and universities throughout the United States and the world. 

Our children trust these people implicitly and blindly follow them.  In many cases the children even regard them as wise surrogate parents.  These godless people are using their influence on these children to fill their heads with doubt and cause them to hate the very Lord Jesus who ransomed their souls with His own blood.

Not only are academia and the literati to blame for the undermining of America’s youth, but so too are all the media, the motion picture industry in particular, for peddling among other things witchcraft, prostitution, pornography, homosexuality, atheism, alcoholism, and drug use.  But it doesn’t stop there.  America is not only guilty of destroying its own youth, but it is guilty of exporting its sinful, moral-less lifestyle around the globe.  God must one day judge this sinful nation.  Which brings me to what I really wanted to talk about today.

Revelation 17 and 18 speak about spiritual and economic Babylon, which most agree is the Roman Catholic “church,” who Scripture identifies as a harlot “arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with precious stone and pearls, and having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication.”  It is also depicted as a beast with seven heads and ten crowns.  Scripture identifies the seven heads as seven hills and the woman sitting on the beast as “that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth” (17:18).

Rome sits on seven hills, and the Vatican is the headquarters of the Holy Roman Empire, what remains of the Roman Empire, which literally reigned over the entire world.  For this reason many feel that the Roman Catholic church is the spiritual Babylon of Revelation 17 and that the pope is the Antichrist.  But opinions are mixed as to the identity of the economic Babylon of Revelation 18.  Some say it is America, rather than Rome.  Until today, I didn’t agree with this.  But now I do.

First of all, the entire beast does not represent seven hills, only the seven heads do.  The beast represents first a king as 17:11 tells us, “the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth.”  The beast also represents a kingdom as we read in Daniel 7:23, “The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth.” Revelation 13:1 also describes this same beast as being, “like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion.”  This fourth kingdom is a composite of the previous three kingdoms, the three beasts described in Daniel 7:3-7.

So, if the beast of Revelation 17 also represents a kingdom, and this kingdom is worldwide, it is possible that it could have both an ecclesiastical and an economic headquarters, and that the two are not necessarily co-located.

A woman is often used in the Bible to represent a people or a church.  A woman is used to represent the Jewish people both in the Old and New Testaments.  The Church of Jesus Christ is spoken of as the bride of Christ.  A whorish woman represents idolatry and spiritual depravity.  I believe, therefore, that the economic Babylon mentioned in Chapter 18 is the United States of America.  Let me explain why.

First, lets look at verse 3.

“For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.”

The sentence says that “all nations” and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her.  Is there any nation on earth that has the influence that the United States has?  Through its economic policies and military might, the U.S. has wielded incredible influence over the governments of the world.

Verse 5 says, “Her sins have reached unto heaven.”  Is there any country that has had more of a moral influence on the world than the U.S.?  America, through the Hollywood motion picture and music industries, is the biggest exporter of culture in the world.  Its films can be found in virtually every city in every country on every continent.  But what kind of culture is represented in Hollywood?  Violence, drugs, premarital sex and sexual promiscuity, pornography, witchcraft, homosexuality, witchcraft: the list goes on and on.   Hollywood is the biggest promoter of immorality in the world.  And it is an American institution.

Indeed, America’s sins have reached unto heaven.

Verse 7 almost represents what has become known the world over as the typical “ugly American” attitude.

“She has glorified herself, and lived deliciously…for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.”

Arguably, no nation in modern memory has enjoyed the economic success that the U.S. has.  There hasn’t been a war on American soil in over 125 years.  For many years, Americans enjoyed the highest standard of living of any people on the globe.  This has created a proud, haughty, and pampered people who feel they have it made and will never see hardship.  World opinion of America is at an all time low, and if one were to peruse internet blogs and forums, one would hear the world’s glee at America’s economic woes as they look forward to her eminent fall from prominence with great anticipation.

Verse 8 tells us that because of its iniquities, the Lord Jesus will destroy economic Babylon.  A closer look at the reactions of those who had gotten rich doing business with her will reveal some things.

“And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise anymore.”

“Their” in this sentence refers to the merchants.  The passage implies that these merchants did more than just profit by doing business with this country.  They were literally sustained by doing business with this country; for the passage says that after this country is destroyed, “no man buyeth their merchandise anymore.”  It would take a huge economy to have such a tremendous effect.  The United States is the largest economy in the world, and the largest importer of goods in the world.

Think about it: there are entire economies that depend upon the United States for their livelihood.  The Arab oil emirates would be the very first to feel the loss of the United States.  Moreover, because most of the United States’ industrial base has relocated overseas, many third-world countries’ economies have benefited from the United States.

Many have predicted a global depression, but few, if any, have intimated that the cause of it could be the elimination of the United States economy from the global marketplace. The U.S. economy is so huge and vital, that to eliminate it would cause a global economic meltdown.  I believe for this reason, that the United States is the country spoken of in Revelation 18.

Look at what the merchants do:

“And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness: for in one hour is she made desolate” (v. 19).

That is some reaction.  Notice that “all that had ships in the sea” were made rich doing business with her “by reason of her costliness.”  This is another sign that this is a major economy that is being spoken of here.  

There are yet two proofs that the United States is economic Babylon.  Notice that chapter 17, verse 15 says, “The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”  It may seem that this verse merely means to say that the whore rules the whole world.  But, verse 18 tells us that the great city “reigneth over the kings of the earth.”

To rule over the kings of the earth is to rule over all the people of the earth; for the kings rule the people.  But verse 15 specifically mentions “multitudes, nations, and tongues.”

Consider that virtually every people, nation, and language in the world is represented in the United States.  Some nations have almost as many, if not more, of their citizens living in the U.S. than in their own countries.  Cape Verde, Africa, is an excellent example. I believe this passage could be speaking of the “melting pot” which is the United States,

There is yet one more piece of evidence to consider.  Chapter 17, verse 4, speaking of Babylon says,

“And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with precious stone and pearls…”

For years I have wondered what the colors of the U.S. flag stand for.  When I was in the military, we were told that red stands for blood, blue stands for water (for the Atlantic and Pacific oceans), and that white stands for bravery.

Understand that in the world of symbolism, symbols can also masquerade as other things to hide their meaning from the wary.  Likewise a color can masquerade as another color.  So symbolically, red could easily stand for scarlet, blue for purple, and white for pearls. 

Consider also that another well-known symbol for America is a woman.  Though more famously known as Liberty, America (as she is really called), the goddess of our country, is always clad in red, white, and blue, just like the whore of Babylon, and as the Whore of Babylon has a golden cup in her hand, so does America hold a golden torch in hers. Remember, in the world of symbolism one thing almost always means something else.

The very last proof that the United States is economic Babylon and is targeted for destruction by the Lord Jesus, is the fact that as prominently as the United States figures in world affairs, she is not mentioned anywhere else in the book of the Revelation.  Outside of Chapter 18, there is no mention of any country that bears any likeness to the United States.  That’s because after Chapter 18, the United States no longer exists.

With all the things that are going on in the world from Africa to Japan to Afghanistan and the Middle East, it behooves each person reading this to seriously consider where he stands with the Lord Jesus.  His return is sooner than any of us thinks.  The United States has been targeted for elimination by the Lord Jesus, and for good reason. She is responsible for much pain, misery, and suffering.  Listen to how complete her destruction will be:

“Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burnt with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her” (Revelation 18:8).

Want to know how complete is compete? Listen:

“Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all” (Revelation 18:21).

The U.S. will be wiped off the map.  Where will you be?

If you don’t know the Lord Jesus, and have decided after reading this that you want to get to know Him, click here.

Stay encouraged, and look up, your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011-2012 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

 

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Japanese Tsunami: The Fields Are White To Harvest

Grace and peace to you.

Today, I was thinking about the catastrophe in Japan, and I realized that besides material and financial support, these dear people are going to need emotional and spiritual support.  Many people have lost loved ones, and in a most horrific manner.  Today, for instance, I read that a Japanese man was found floating ten miles out to sea on the remains of his roof.  He said that after the earthquake, he and his wife had returned to their home to get some things when the tsunami hit.  His wife was immediately swept away, and he was washed out to sea, clinging to the remains of the roof of his house.  He drifted for two days, trying fruitlessly to get the attention of planes and helicopters flying overhead.  Finally a fishing vessel noticed him waving a red flag and rescued him.

What a horrible way to lose a loved one!  I cannot even imagine what that must have been like for him.  Imagine your loved one being swept away from you by a wall of seawater and within seconds you too are swept away riding a sea of destruction as cars, houses, boats, and trees, pass by you.  Imagine what it must have sounded like.  The unthinkable has happened.  Without a doubt this man will need emotional and psychiatric help to deal with his grief, as will the other survivors.  They had very little if any warning.  Their lives were suddenly, horribly, and permanently changed.

Doubtless in a situation like this, one begins to take a cold, hard look at oneself and begins to re-evaluate oneself and reorder and re-prioritize one’s life.  I read that one Japanese man lamented that before now he had “a good life,” but now he doesn’t even have water and electricity.  After the shock wears off and the final death toll is in, he will likely realize how fortunate he was to have survived.  But he may then ask himself why he was spared, when so many others perished.  There is very little in the way of comfort that one can give to someone who has lost so much and in a manner so horrible.

The survivors are devastated.  They will be uncertain about their futures.  They will be searching for answers.  They will be looking for hope.  This may be as good a time as any to tell them about Jesus.  A person’s only comfort in a time like this may be to know that they have been granted a second chance to hear about Jesus’s Love for them.  It is too late for those who have perished.  But it’s not to late for the survivors.

Doubtless, this has already occurred to the many false prophets, who will be descending on this shocked, demoralized, and bewildered people like a flock of ravenous vultures. Doubtless many are already on the ground, taking advantage of this opportunity to give these people a false hope.  Missionaries are sorely needed.  Unfortunately, many of us are not able to be a missionary to Japan.  But there is something else that we can do.  We can support those Christian missionaries who are already on the ground in Japan and those who are planning to go.

Thousands, possibly even millions of caring individuals from all over the world are likely sending money and material support to help with the Japanese relief effort.  But, how many people are sending over the Gospel?  Dear ones, this is an excellent opportunity for us to help minister to their souls and fulfill the Great Commission.  It would be a great idea if we would find a Christian missionary in Japan and do whatever we can to support him.  It doesn’t take much if enough of us pitch in.  The false prophets have plenty of money and plenty of willing people to help them spread their poisonous doctrines.  Why don’t we do what we can to send them the antidote?

Please, dear ones.  The fields are white to harvest.

And don’t forget to pray for the Japanese.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

 

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Japanese Tsunami: A Sign of the times

Grace and peace to you.

Today Japan is reeling from an 8.9 magnitude earthquake that hit the island country earlier this morning.  As if that weren’t enough, the earthquake was followed by a huge tsunami that sent a wall of water smashing into its coast, creating a wave of water and mud that swept cars, boats, and buildings far inland.  As of this writing, over 200 bodies have been found, but that count is sure to rise as the waters recede.

The tsunami also created a huge ocean whirlpool just off the coast of a small Japanese province.  Videos of the whirlpool show a small boat whirling perilously near its vortex.

Official Japanese sources say that this is the seventh most powerful tsunami in the country’s history.  But for the victims of such a catastrophic event, it may as well be the worst

The comments on Yahoo’s website reflect mixed attitudes as to the cause of the event.  Many say that this is the finger of God.  Others say it is the devil.  Still others blame man’s abuse of the environment for the disaster, and say that “Mother Nature” is fighting back.  Many are angered at any notion that God may be responsible, arguing that it is cruel to suggest that God would needlessly destroy the lives of innocent children.  A small minority believes that governments of the world have harnessed the power of the elements and are waging a “weather war” against one another.

No one can say with 100% certainty why this happened.  Yet, one cannot help but notice that the Bible speaks of just such events happening before the return of Jesus Christ.  Listen to what Jesus says:

“Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars; see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places.  These are the beginning of sorrows.

“And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another and shall hate one another”  (Matthew 24:6-7).

“Ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars.”

There are wars going on all over the world at this very moment, many not even publicized.  There are numerous “proxy wars” being fought over ideological, political, or religious differences.  The United States has been at war for nine years, yet many of us, who don’t have family members or friends that are involved in the war effort, forget that there is a war going on.  And there seems to be no end in sight.

“For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.”

Look at the unprecedented political uprisings happening in Africa and other places.  It should be evident to any thinking person that something is very wrong.

“And there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in diverse places.”

Japan’s earthquake and tsunami are just the latest in a series that have been happening all over the world for decades.  Scientists cannot explain why this is happening, though they scramble to come up with a plausible scientific explanation.

“And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another and shall hate one another.”

Look at how people are turning on one another.  Many crimes these days are committed not by “criminals,” but by everyday folks.  There has been a huge increase in parents killing their own children and children murdering their parents.  People are distrustful of their neighbors and incidents of “feuds” between neighbors are increasing.  One need only visit the many Internet chat rooms, forums, and blogs and read the comments to understand the white-hot hatred that people have toward one another.  

Americans are divided along every conceivable issue, and many see those who don’t share their point of view as the enemy.  Everyone seems to think that the world would be a better place if it were only rid of the people they don’t like.  Tiny do they realize that someone somewhere feels exactly the same way about them.  The Bible says, “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked…” (Not the black heart, or the white heart, or the gay heart, or the Republican heart, or the vegetarian heart, but THE heart.)

Notice that Jesus says that these things “must come to pass.”  It is divinely decreed that the world should pass through these difficult and troubling times.  This is because the Holy Spirit is slowly withdrawing from the world, as 2 Thessalonians Chapter 2 tells us.  It is through His presence that we have any peace at all, and as He withdraws, peace shall wain more and more until it becomes a thing of the past, even as people’s obsession with it grows.  That is because we have turned our backs on the “Prince of Peace” and as a consequence He shows us His back, though he will not turn it completely.

I have more to say on this subject and may do so tomorrow or at some point.  In the meantime, I admonish everyone to earnestly consider the events in Japan and make your peace with the Lord Jesus TODAY.  Remember, He said, “These are the beginning of sorrows.”  There is more to come.  Even so, come Lord Jesus.

Stay encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2012 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All rights reserved. 

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Stay encouraged, and stay in the Word

“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman who needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” –2 Timothy 2:15

Grace and peace to you.

I am having a tough time with time management lately.  I am earning both an English degree and Bible degree, and, with the demands of school, plus all the other things that one must do to live, let alone thrive, it can be very tough.  But, I only have a few credits left to complete both degrees, so I just have to hang in there.

The thing that bothers me the most is that with all the studying I have to do, it’s sometimes hard for me to remember chapter and verse numbers.  I don’t have problems remembering the verses, because I am an audio learner, so I recite the verses in my head and they stick.  But, sometimes remembering exactly where they are can be a challenge. (I’m sure advancing years has something to do with it.)  It’s time to go back to flash cards for Bible verses.  I used to do that all that time, but I’ve gotten away from it in the last year or so.  It’s time to go back.

The Lord showed me something in the Bible concerning blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, which Jesus called an unpardonable sin.  God really cleared this matter up for me. Before last night, I was having great difficulty understanding what He meant by this.  But, last night God pulled the scales from my eyes, and I was amazed by how clear Jesus’ teaching really was on this subject.  I won’t share it with you today, because it is somewhat involved, and I’ve got a lot of school work to do tonight.  But, I will hopefully post something within a week or two.

Sometimes it can be a challenge to stay in the Word the way I should.  It is at those times that I have to remember my priorities.  School is important, especially in this economy.   A university degree can mean better job security, or it can determine which candidate gets the job when all other things are equal.  

But a university degree will not help where it concerns spiritual matters; only the Word can do that.  The Word is food for our soul, as it is the Living Bread sent to us by our Father and Lord.  That means that I must center my priorities around Bible study and Christian growth.  Jesus said that if we pursue the kingdom of heaven first, then all other things will be added onto us.  This doesn’t stop being true after we get saved.

So, if you are an adult who has gone back to school to pursue or finish a degree, do not give up.  It is worth it.  The same applies if you are a young adult high school or college student struggling to stay afloat.  Perhaps you are not in school, but are still struggling to stay in the Word.  You may be a working mom or dad who has to come home and still take care of the family, or a single parent who has to hold down a job (or two) and still take care of the kids.  Perhaps you work so many hours that you feel you are too tired to study the Word, or you feel you just don’t have the time.  

I understand, because I have been in most of these situations myself, so I understand the challenges.  But let us never forget that the things of this world are passing away; we must make provision for the things of the spirit, which are eternal.  We both know that we will make the time for those things that we really want to do or those things that we absolutely have to do.  The solution then, is to make Bible study something that we really want to do, or, better yet, something we feel we have to do.

We can always squeeze in fifteen minutes of Bible study somewhere.  Maybe while we are on the train or bus on the way to work.  Maybe we could finish lunch a few minutes early, so we can give five or ten minutes to the Word.  Or maybe we could purchase an audio bible and listen to it while we are driving to work.  And, if we cut back on (or cut out altogether) watching the family altar, or television, we would definitely have enough time to dedicate to the Word.  The key is to want to do it, and to then ask God to show us how to do it.

The Lord speaks to us through His Word.  To not read His Word is like living in the same house with your father, but never listening to him.  Whenever you want something from him you ask for it, and he gives it to you, but when he wants to say something to you, you ignore him.  That would be cruel.  

Well, it’s the same with God and the Word.  We go to God, our Father, in prayer with our requests, and most of them He grants.  He even gives us things we don’t ask Him for.  But do we ever listen to what He has to say to us?  God has said and done many things over thousands of years.  If it were not for His Word, He would have to repeat everything He has ever said and tell every new Christian about everything He has ever done.  That’s a lot of talking.  He could do it, but I understand why He probably would not want to.

Not everything that you and I have to say is important.  So, if someone misses something we say today, if we feel it is important, we can fill them in tomorrow–or not.  But everything God has to say is important, and we ought not to miss the things that He has already said; they are important to our understanding and to our well-being.  And, because “there is nothing new under the sun,” His Word is also how He speaks to us about things in the present and most importantly, the future.

In the book, 1984, George Orwell wrote, “He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.”  Do you believe that God controls the past, present, and future?  It’s not difficult to digest this if you understand that He invented time.  The wise man learns from the past, and we would do well to examine the past from a biblical perspective, because it would help us to understand the present.

We can learn a lot from the past, especially if it’s the Lord Jesus telling us about it.  There are a lot of things going on in the world, much of it very unsettling, so we had better find out what God has to say about the future, as much of it concerns us.

A great many people died to pass God’s Word on to us.  Will we let their deaths be in vain? Let’s read it, and hear what the Lord has to say.

Stay encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

 

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Light: The Best Evidence For A Literal Six-Day Creation

Grace and peace unto you.

I don’t normally take part in the Creation vs. Evolution debate, simply because I feel that I need to focus more on reading and growing in the Word, to be better equipped to witness.  That’s not to say that this debate is not important.  On the contrary, it’s very important.  But I think that we as Christians need to be careful that we don’t get so caught up in this debate that we lose sight of those people around us who truly need witnessing to.

The same can be said of the subject of apologetics in general.  Many apologists use 1 Peter 3:15 as the basis for vigorously defending the gospel against every known attack of the enemy.  But the apostle Peter doesn’t admonish us to give an answer to every question that is asked of us.  He admonishes us to “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you.”  

Why, is this so important?  Because, it is the basis of the Gospel.  The hope that is in us is the Blessed Hope that the apostle Paul speaks of in Titus 2:13:

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”

The Blessed Hope is the First Resurrection (the resurrection of the dead in Christ) or Rapture as it is commonly called, reference to which can be found in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17:

“For the Lord Himself shall descend with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  

“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

It can also be found in Romans 8:23 and 1 Corinthians 15:51, as well as in the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.  The Resurrection is a perfect segue to the Gospel.  That is why we definitely want to be ready to answer any question about this Blessed Hope.  Without this Hope, we would be wasting our time witnessing, and our faith would be useless, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19:

“Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?  

“But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen.  

“And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching in vain, and your faith is in vain.  

“And if Christ be not raised, your faith is in vain; ye are yet in your sins.   

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.”

Man, do I love that part.  “If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are all of all men most miserable.”  But since we have hope in this life as well as the next, then we are of all men most joyous!

So, we are admonished to answer any question regarding our hope in the Resurrection because it is tied directly to Christ’s resurrection, and while we are on the subject of His resurrection we can give them the gospel.  That is not to say that we don’t answer questions on other matters of faith, but we must be careful that we don’t get into arguments that in the end distract us from the gospel message.

It is no secret that a frequent tactic that Satan uses is to get us arguing with someone who has already determined in their mind not to believe the gospel.  They only want to distract us, waste our time, and hopefully frustrate and discourage us.  For this reason Paul admonishes us to “avoid profane and vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so-called” (1 Timothy 6:20).  Can there be a more profane babbling than the so-called science of evolution?

Now, there is a place for creation ministries, as I was led to the Lord in part by the Creation Science Evangelism ministry.  But, these are people who are dedicated to this type of ministry, and are very good at what they do.  That is not to say that the average Christian should not be ready to defend creation, but we should know with whom we are dealing and make sure that we have enough ammunition to fight with before we decide to tackle these arguments or we risk losing the very people we hope to save. 

If you don’t have enough information, stick to the gospel.  But if you feel that it is important enough for you to invest the time and energy to get smart on the arguments of evolutionists to better defend the gospel, by all means do it.  Towards that end, let me share with you something that I found that literally blew me out of my socks.

Let’s go to the Book of Genesis.  As we know, Genesis 1:3 says, “And God said, Let there be light, and there was light.” Did you ever ask yourself why God’s first act of creation was to create light?  Did God need light?  Psalm 139:12 says, “Yea…the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.”

So God can see in the dark (which helps since the wicked often do their evil deeds in the dark), so He didn’t need light.  Adam and Eve certainly didn’t need light yet, because they weren’t created until Day 5, and besides, God had created the sun, the moon, and the stars on Day 4 “to give light upon the earth” (v. 17).  Why, then, did God command there to be light so early in the creation when it wasn’t yet needed?  Why, He did it for you and for me, to show us that we can believe in His word.

You see God is nothing if not orderly.  Everything has its time and place.  He could easily have created the sun, moon, and stars on Day 1 in anticipation of creating Adam and Eve.  After all, He knew he was going to create them from the beginning.  But, had He done that, we would have been left without a very great piece of evidence of His omniscience and His omnipotence.  Let me explain.

Because God knows all things, including those things that are not yet, He knew that the false scientists identified in Romans Chapter 1 would invent evolution to deny the Creation, and that the theological evolutionists would use evolution to deny a literal six-day creation.  Let us look at what God says about the false scientists of our day, because it is extremely revealing:

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20).

Wow! That is powerful stuff.

God is extremely upset at ungodly evolution-pitching scientists, because He has shown them the truth of Himself through science.  But the scientists keep it from us.   The purpose of science is supposed to be to bring us to the knowledge of God.  Bet you never thought of it that way, did you?  But it’s true.  You see, science was not intended to answer all questions, because all questions cannot be answered by science.  Probably the best evidence of this is light.

Did you know that scientists don’t have a clue what light is?  They know what it does, how it acts, and how to manipulate it, but they have no clue what it is.  But Christians know what light is because Scripture tells us “God is Light” (1 John 1:5).  Jesus is the Light (John 9:5).  The Holy Spirit is Light (Daniel 5:14).  “And these three are one” (1 John 5:7).  Light may be the best evidence of a Creator-God.  And science cannot explain it.

When scientists reach a point where they cannot give a “scientific” explanation; that is, one that can be observed, tested, and demonstrated, they are supposed to say, “This is the finger of God.”  Even Pharaoh’s pagan magicians had sense enough to do that (Exodus 8:19).  But nooooo.  The Godless scientists of our day would rather make up some foolishness like evolution rather than point to God.  They would rather invent a false history than point to God.

Why do they do this?  Because they don’t want to admit that there is a God, and that He created the world, and therefore, has the right to judge his creation.  You see, God, like any good parent, has rules, and He expects them to be obeyed.  If you take a hard look at anyone, and I mean anyone, who will not admit that there is a God, you will probably see that there is some sin in their life that they do not want to give up.

Be it chasing women, chasing men, homosexuality, drunkenness, witchcraft, you name it, if we like doing it, we don’t like the idea of someone telling us that we can’t.  I have heard that one evolutionist scientist admitted that he knows evolution is untenable, but he would rather believe in evolution rather than admit that there is a God, because he doesn’t want anyone telling him who he can and cannot sleep with.

So the ungodly make up the fairy tale of evolution, so that they can continue to live in sin. It’s fine if they want to believe that they are descended from monkeys.  That’s their prerogative.  The problem is that they are teaching our children that they too are descended from monkeys.  For me that is a problem, because it could destroy their faith in the Word of God.  But God saw this coming and showed us in His Word.

That’s why He created light in lieu of the sun to “divide the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:4).  He then created Day and Night (verse 5), providing the means by which we could mark the passing of time.  He then said, “And the evening and the morning were the first day” (verse 5).   With Day 1 established, He created the atmosphere (Day 2), the oceans and all plant life (Day 3), The sun, moon, stars, and all the planets (Day 4), all fish and birds (Day 5), and lastly, the animals and His crowning achievement, you and me (Day 6).  And on Day 7 He rested.  He had a busy week.   And it all started with light.

God broke us off a little piece of Himself when he gave us light.  He broke off an even bigger piece of Himself when he gave us The Light.  Light itself is evidence of a Creator-God, and the light at the beginning of the Creation is the best evidence of a literal six-day creation.  And as for the scientists who deny this, well, God says that they are “without excuse” (Romans 1:20).  May their end be in accordance with their works.

If in reading this you are beginning to see that true science points directly to an Almighty God, and you realize that it behoves you to get right with Him right now, click here.

Brothers and sisters, you might want to add this to your evolution-fighting arsenal.

Be encouraged, my little children, and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

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Jesus Christ: Declaring The End From The Beginning

Grace and peace unto the Body of Christ, and greetings to those still in the world.

With evil growing exponentially, and the world growing increasingly hostile toward the Christian Church, Christians need to rely more than ever on the eternal Word of God for encouragement.  What encourages us is that we believe the Word of God is true forever, so when our Lord Jesus says, “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world,” we can rest assured he was speaking the truth.

We believe this, because we believe that God is Omniscient: He knows everything, including the future.  In times of trouble, we need to know that we can rely on Him to do what he says He will do.  It is vitally important for Christians to become intimately familiar with the promises of God that we can hold them to our hearts in times of trouble.  But we should also seize on passages where God declares His omniscience, for they will help us to understand that what He has written concerning the future of the Christian Church is reliable, and this is a comfort.

Isaiah 42:9 says that God declares “the former things…before they spring forth” and Isaiah 46:10 says that God declares “the end from the beginning.”  These are the most oft-quoted verses proving God’s omniscience.  But there is an oft-overlooked passage in the New Testament that demonstrates God’s omniscience even more poignantly than these.

In John 12:20-30, the Bible describes how the Greeks approached the Apostle Philip, desiring to see Jesus.  Upon hearing this, Jesus was troubled, seeing it as a sign of His coming death on the cross and the fact that He would suffer and die not only for the sins of the Jewish people, but also for the Gentiles.  Verses 26 and 27 are what we want to examine.  Jesus speaks:

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“Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.  

“Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven saying,

“I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” (John 12:27,28)

 

The power in this passage is in its simplicity.  Let us look at it again.

“I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

The English student will be quick to notice that I [God] is the subject, and glorify is the verb.  “Have glorified” means that the action was completed in the past, while “will glorify” means that the action occurs in the future. This is where it gets interesting, because the inclusion of the word both means that both the past and future actions have already been completed!  God is essentially saying, “I have already done it, and I have already will do it.”

Now we have two choices in this matter.  We can decide that a grammatical error was made in translation, and that what the author meant to say was “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again” (in fact, this is exactly how the passage is rendered in the New International Version), or—or, we can see it for what it is: that is, proof that God is Omniscient, and can, therefore, declare that which has not yet happened as though it already has.

We who believe know that the King James Version of the Bible was as inspired as the original manuscripts from which that Bible was translated.  So, the first option is really not an option at all.  We must, therefore, come to the obvious conclusion that the translation is correct, and that the Apostle John really did mean to write what he wrote.  God is Omniscient.  He really does declare the end from the beginning.

Brothers and sisters, if this doesn’t give you hope; if this doesn’t give you confidence; if this doesn’t make you excited, then you need to take your pulse and see if you are still alive.  If you don’t believe God’s Word, then all this will be meaningless.  But if you do believe, then this should give you goose bumps, as it gave me.

In these very difficult times, we will need to rely more and more on Jesus Christ for hope, strength, and assurance.  Scriptures like this show us that we can believe in Him.  For He is who He says He is.  He will not only do it; He has already done it.

If you would like to get to know the Lord Jesus now, click here.

Stay encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

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Welcome and God Bless You!!!

Grace and peace brothers and sisters, from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

This blog will discuss things related to the Bible, Christianity, and the End Times. It’s purpose is to edify, educate, and empower  the Body of Christ as well as to encourage the lost to seek a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.  Stay tuned!

The Still Man

Copyright © 2011 Anthony Keeton, The Still Man ®.  All Rights Reserved.

 

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