There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.
1 PETER 2:15
Carnal fear may take either of two opposite directions. It may make us afraid to do what we know we should do, or afraid not to do what we have reason to think people expect us to do.
There is a foolish consistency which brings us into bondage to the consciences of other people, but this morality by public pressure is not pure morality at all. At best it is a timid righteousness of doubtful parentage; at worst it is the child of weakness and fear.
A free Christian should act from within with a total disregard for the opinions of others. If a course is right he should take it because it is right, not because he is afraid not to take it. Any act done because we are afraid not to do it is of the same moral quality as the act that is not done because we are afraid to do it.
The way to escape this double snare is simple. Make a complete surrender to God; love Him with all your heart and love every man for His sake. Determine to obey your own convictions as they crystallize within yourself as a result of unceasing prayer and constant study of God’s Word. After that you may safely ignore the expectations of your friends as well as the criticisms of your enemies. You will experience first the shocked surprise of the regimented army of lockstep believers, then their grudging admiration!1
Oppressors may get their will of poor and needy men as easily as they can split logs of wood, but they had better mind, for it is a dangerous business, and a splinter from a tree has often killed the woodman. Jesus is persecuted in every injured saint, and he is mighty to avenge his beloved ones. Success in treading down the poor and needy is a thing to be trembled at: if there be no danger to persecutors here there will be great danger hereafter.
To cleave wood is a common every-day business, and yet it has its dangers; so then, reader, there are dangers connected with your calling and daily life which it will be well for you to be aware of. We refer not to hazards by flood and field, or by disease and sudden death, but to perils of a spiritual sort. Your occupation may be as humble as log splitting, and yet the devil can tempt you in it. You may be a domestic servant, a farm labourer, or a mechanic, and you may be greatly screened from temptations to the grosser vices, and yet some secret sin may do you damage. Those who dwell at home, and mingle not with the rough world, may yet be endangered by their very seclusion. Nowhere is he safe who thinks himself so. Pride may enter a poor man’s heart; avarice may reign in a cottager’s bosom; uncleanness may venture into the quietest home; and anger, and envy, and malice may insinuate themselves into the most rural abode. Even in speaking a few words to a servant we may sin; a little purchase at a shop may be the first link in a chain of temptations; the mere looking out of a window may be the beginning of evil. O Lord, how exposed we are! How shall we be secured! To keep ourselves is work too hard for us: only thou thyself art able to preserve us in such a world of evils. Spread thy wings over us, and we, like little chickens, will cower down beneath thee, and feel ourselves safe!1
I SAY then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. (Personal evidence is best. Paul, as an undoubted Israelite, found in his own conversion the proof that the Lord had not utterly rejected the seed of Abraham.)
2 God hath not cast away his people which he foreknew. Wot (or know) ye not what the scripture saith of Elias? how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
3 Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged down thine altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life.
4 But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal. (Things are often much better with the church of God than wise and good men think they are. They are ready to give up all for lost, when it is not so. God has a remnant still.)
5, 6 Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work. (This is the gospel in a nutshell. He who remembers these distinctions is on the right road to sound theology.)
7, 8 What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
“It is a dreadful art that some acquire of having eyes and not seeing, of having ears and not hearing, of sleeping on when heaven, earth, and hell are making their souls a battle-field.”
9 And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling-block, and a recompence unto them:
10 Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.
11 I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.
12 Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fulness?
25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. (Though blindness has happened to Israel in part, yet not to all Israel. The Lord knoweth them that are his, and he will save them by his grace. Better times are, however, coming even for Israel after the flesh, for in the latter days they shall be converted to the Saviour.)
26, 27 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28, 29 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the fathers’ sakes. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. (He never repents of his choice, or changes his purposes of love.)
30, 31 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief: Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
32 For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all.
He shuts them up as condemned by the law, that he may deal with them in a way of grace.
33–35 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counsellor? Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again?
36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen. (All things are of him, as the efficient cause; through him, as the disposing cause; to him, as the final cause. They are of him, without any other motive; through him, without any assistance; and to him, without any other end.)1
15 Then he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and he came and stood before him. And he said, “Behold, I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; so accept now a present from your servant.”1
Ver. 15.—And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company. It is not always seen what this involved. It involved going out of his way at least fifty miles. At the Jordan, Naaman was on his way home, had accomplished a fourth part of his return journey; in three more days he would be in Damascus, in his own palace. But he feels that it would be an unworthy act to accept his cure and make no acknowledgment of it, having turned away from the prophet “in a rage” (ver. 12), now, without apology, or retractation, or expression of regret or gratitude, to return into his own country under the obligation of an inestimable benefit. His cure has wrought in him, not merely a revulsion of feeling from rage and fury to thankfulness, but a change of belief. It has convinced him that the God of Elisha is the God of the whole earth. It has turned him from a worshipper of Rimmon into a worshipper of Jehovah. He must proclaim this. He must let the prophet know what is in his heart. He must, if possible, induce him to accept a recompense. Therefore he thinks nothing of an outlay of time and trouble, but retraces his steps to the Israelite capital, taking with him all his company, his horses and his chariots, his gold and silver and bales of clothing, and numerous train of attendants. And came, and stood before him; i.e. descended from his chariot, and asked admittance into the prophet’s house, and was received and allowed an audience—a striking contrast with his previous appearance before the house, in expectation that the prophet would come down and wait upon him. And he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. This is an acknowledgment of the sole supremacy of Jehovah on the part of a heathen, such as we scarcely find elsewhere. The general belief of the time, and indeed of antiquity, was that every land had its own god, who was supreme in it—Baal in Phœnicia, Chemosh in Moab, Moloch in Ammon, Rimmon in Syria, Bel or Bel-Merodach in Babylon, Amun-Ra in Egypt, etc.; and when there is an acknowledgment of Jehovah on the part of heathens in Scripture, it is almost always the recognition of him as a god—the God of the Jews or of the Israelites, one among many (see Exod. 10:16, 17; ch. 17:26; 18:33–35; 2 Chron. 2:11; Dan. 2:47; 3:29; 6:2, etc.). But here we have a plain and distinct recognition of him as the one and only God that is in all the earth. Naaman thus shows a greater docility, a readier receptivity, than almost any of the other pious heathens who are brought before us in Scripture. Balaam and Cyrus alone equal him. Now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing—i.e. “a present”—of thy servant. Heathens were accustomed to carry presents to the oracles which they consulted, and to reward those from which they received favourable responses with gifts of enormous value (see Herod., 1:14, 50, etc.). The Jewish prophets did not generally object to such free-will offerings. Naaman therefore quite naturally and reasonably made the offer. He would have contravened usage had he not done so.1
5:15 there is no God … but in Israel. Upon his healing, Naaman returned from the Jordan River to Elisha’s house in Samaria (about 25 mi.) to give confession of his new belief. Naaman confessed that there was only one God, Israel’s God, the Lord. In saying this, Naaman put to shame the Israelites who continued to blasphemously believe that both the Lord and Baal were gods (cf. 1Ki 18:21).2
5:15 there is no God in all the earth but in Israel. Naaman was not merely saying that the Lord was more powerful than the Syrian gods; he was confessing that there is only one God, the Lord. In saying this, Naaman adopts the faith of Israel as his own (1 Kin. 18:39).3
5:15 Naaman’s next words to Elisha sounded like another paradigmatic statement of the expected consequences of God’s great works—the response of faith on the part of those who experience or learn of God’s great works (Ex 18:9–10; Jos 2:10–11; 1Kg 8:42–43; Ps 66:5–8).4
1 Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. (1909). 2 Kings (pp. 95–96). Funk & Wagnalls Company.
Ezekiel 39:1 — Notice the repeat from the previous chapter (similar to Genesis 1 and Genesis 2). From EnduringWord.com:
In Hebrew literature it was common to give an account and then to repeat it to give emphasis and a few additional details. Ezekiel 39:1-8 is a summary of what was described in Ezekiel 38.
Ezekiel 39:2 — Notice the size of the destruction: 83% of the army is wiped out! It will take seven years to burn the captured weapons (Ezekiel 39:9)! Why would they burn the weapons?
Usually weapons left by a defeated enemy would be added to the victor’s cache of arms. After all, there would be other battles to fight. The war against Gog was to be no ordinary war. It will be the final battle, whose conclusion will make armaments obsolete.”
Ezekiel 39:22 — Again one of the 80 times we read that God acts so that people can know He is the LORD their God! Give God your attention and your obedience before He has to compel it!
Ezekiel 40 — Here’s a 3D Model of the Temple (this really helps when reading the chapter):
James 2:21 — Martin Luther famously referred to James as “a right strawy epistle,” because you like him may have run into people that claim James teaches “justification by works.” Let’s see what James means by “works.” James did not say Abraham was justified by the amount he gave to Melchizedek in tithes or in his lifetime of good deeds, but James points to one solitary action. Let’s look at how this incident is recorded across Scripture:
Genesis 22:1-2 – “God did tempt Abraham … offer him there for a burnt offering”
Hebrews 11:17 – “By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac”
James 2:21 – “Abraham … justified by works, when he had offered Isaac”
God tried Abraham, Abraham had faith in God, and Abraham proved his faith by obedience.
If you want to say (in spite of cross-referencing) that James is saying you can be justified by doing generic good works, let’s look at the key text that says you can work your way to heaven: Leviticus 18:5. “Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.” Moses repeats it in Deuteronomy 4:1. The prophets come back to this theme (Nehemiah 9:29, Isaiah 55:3, Ezekiel 18:9, Ezekiel 20:11, Ezekiel 20:13). Jesus reiterated there is life for those who keep the commandments (Luke 10:28). Paul echoes it as well (Romans 10:5, Galatians 3:12).
If you want to be saved by the Law and claim James as your proof text, then you better backup to James 2:10 that we read yesterday and remind yourself that you better keep all 613 laws perfectly for your entire life! See Romans 3:23 before attempting!
James 3:8 — James compares the tongue to a bridle for a horse (James 3:3), a rudder for a ship (James 3:4), and a fire (James 3:5-6). It can bless God and curse men (James 3:9). As James says, if you claim to be a Christian, you should act like a Christian (James 3:10).
Proverbs 28:2 — Bureaucrats are part of the judgment of the land. There are over 2 million employees of the U.S. government, not counting the postal service or the military. If you are a government employee, Solomon is not saying your work is bad. He’s saying that many federal jobs would be unnecessary if this were a nation of righteous people (there are 105,000 full time federal law enforcement officers alone).
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To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.Revelation 2:7
No man may turn his back in the day of battle or refuse to go to the holy war. We must fight if we would reign, and we must carry on the warfare till we overcome every enemy, or else this promise is not for us, since it is only for “him that overcometh.” We are to overcome the false prophets who have come into the world and all the evils which accompany their teaching. We are to overcome our own faintness of heart and tendency to decline from our first love. Read the whole of the Spirit’s word to the church at Ephesus.
If by grace we win the day, as we shall if we truly follow our conquering Leader, then we shall be admitted to the very center of the paradise of God and shall be permitted to pass by the cherub and his flaming sword and come to that guarded tree, whereof if a man eat, he shall live forever. We shall thus escape that endless death which is the doom of sin and gain that everlasting life which is the seal of innocence, the outgrowth of immortal principles of Godlike holiness. Come, my heart, pluck up courage! To flee the conflict will be to lose the joys of the new and better Eden; to fight unto victory is to walk with God in paradise.
Christ, we do all adore thee, and we do praise thee forever. Christ, we do all adore thee, and we do praise thee forever, for on the holy cross hast thou the world from sin redeemed. Christ, we do all adore thee, and we do praise thee forever. Christ, we do all adore thee.
Young men are coming to church in record numbers. What does this mean for society and for the young men themselves?
From Higher Ground Times. In a post-election jeremiad at Slate, Jill Filipovic opined that President-elect Donald Trump rode to victory on a “particular kind of masculine identity” that “imperils men and women alike.”
Ms. Filipovic is right about the first point and wrong about the second. Men have risen: young men and old men, as well as men of all races. Women also voted for Mr. Trump in unexpected numbers, but commentators on the left and right seem to agree that men — especially young men — are the ones who propelled Mr. Trump into the White House, and his allies into Senate and House majorities.
Men’s religious identification is noticeably increasing—far fewer Gen Z men identify as “nones” than women.
Young men are 80% more likely to identify as evangelicals than women their age.
The demographic shift of young men is a huge story. But the bigger story is about the role that religion played in this shift. Young men are becoming both conservative and religious in a mutually reinforcing cycle. This trend defies all conventional wisdom, which says that women always have been and will always be more religious.
Is growing religiosity among young men a societal threat — as Ms. Filipovic suggests — or a benefit? Evidence suggests the latter. Religious growth among men is related to stronger life purpose, better mental health, increased morality, healthier habits, and a growing respectfulness toward others.
Bringing young men into adulthood is tricky for any society. Sociologist Margaret Mead noted several decades ago that “the central problem of every society is to define appropriate roles for men.”
It’s true. In my work with Summit Ministries, I have interacted with thousands of young men. It is far easier to get the man out of boyhood than it is to get the boyhood out of the man. Historically, religion has played a key role in this transition. The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was founded for this very purpose.
Yet the growing religiosity of young men makes some people nervous.
Kristin Kobes Du Mez, the best-selling author of “Jesus and John Wayne,” contends that current expressions of Christian masculinity are fundamentally toxic. Ms. Du Mez even castigates the Promise Keepers movement that encouraged a generation of men to be faithful and kind husbands. Widely reported church abuse scandals have made many women deeply suspicious of the connection between religion and masculinity.
Young men returning to church is not a portent of fascism or misogyny. It is a natural impulse of a generation of young men who feel underrated, lonely, and aimless, and who are finding that God is the answer.
Of course, masculinity alone will not positively shape American culture. It must be a godly masculinity, the kind that serves as a protector rather than a predator, that seeks justice rather than justifying bad behavior. Faith is known by its works.
When men are godly, society has a big view of God. When men are not godly, society has a small view of God. We should celebrate — not condemn — the rise of men.
Share your prayers for men in America below.
This article was originally published at Higher Ground Times. Used with permission. Photo Credit: Afta Putta Gunawan/Pexels.
“Could a mariner sit idle if he heard the drowning cry? Could a doctor sit in comfort and just let his patients die? Could a fireman sit idle, let men burn and give no hand? Can you sit at ease in Zion with the world around you damned?”1
“The question isn’t were you challenged. The question is were you changed?”
“A true shepherd leads the way. He does not merely point the way.”
“You never have to advertise a fire. Everyone comes running when there’s a fire. Likewise, if your church is on fire, you will not have to advertise it. The community will already know it.”
“A popular evangelist reaches your emotions. A true prophet reaches your conscience.”
“Today Christians spend more money on dog food than missions.”
“Many pastors criticize me for taking the Gospel so seriously. But do they really think that on Judgment Day, Christ will chastise me, saying, ‘Leonard, you took Me too seriously?’”
“Everyone recognizes that Stephen was Spirit-filled when he was performing wonders. Yet, he was just as Spirit-filled when he was being stoned to death.”
“If a Christian is not having tribulation in the world, there’s something wrong!”
“Paul never glamorized the gospel! It is not success, but sacrifice! It’s not a glamorous gospel, but a bloody gospel, a gory gospel, and a sacrificial gospel! 5 minutes inside eternity and we will wish that we had sacrificed more!!! Wept more, bled more, grieved more, loved more, prayed more, given more!!!”
“Prayer is not an argument with God to persuade him to move things our way, but an exercise by which we are enabled by his Spirit to move ourselves his way.”
“Christianity is the only religion in the world where a man’s God comes and lives inside of Him!”
“Tell me what time you spend alone with God…and I’ll tell you how spiritual you are.”
“I believe the place of prayer is not only a place where I lose my burdens, but also a place where I get a burden. He shares my burden and I share His burden. … To know that burden, we must hear the voice of the Spirit. To hear that voice, we must be still and know that He is God.”
“The world does not believe the Bible and the church does not obey it.”
“If you kneel before God, you will stand before men.”
“You can’t live wrong and pray right.”
“Satan fools and feigns, blows and bluffs, and we so often take his threats to heart and forget the ‘exceeding greatness of God’s power to us.’”
“The apostles had no gold, but lots of glory. We have lots of gold, but no glory.”
“Today God is bypassing men—not because they are too ignorant, but because they are too self-sufficient. Brethren, our abilities are our handicaps, and our talents our stumbling blocks!”
“Prayer makes the soul tender.”
“God doesn’t answer prayer, He answers desperate prayer!”
“A Christian who isn’t praying, is only playing!”
“Three things faith does: it reckons on God; it risks with God (and) it rests in God.”
“A wet eyed preacher will never preach dry sermons.”
“If we had more sleepless nights in prayer, there would be far fewer souls to have a sleepless eternal night in hell.”
“The darker it gets, the brighter your light will shine.”
“America is not dying because of the strength of humanism but the weakness of evangelism.”
“A man who is intimate with God is not intimidated by man.”
“John the Baptist’s training was in God’s University of Silence. God takes all His great men there.”
1All of the following quotes are from the websites below:
Were the authors of the gospels of Mark and Luke connected to eyewitnesses to the life of Jesus? Well, it turns out that there are good reasons to think that Mark was linked to the eyewitness Peter, and Luke was linked to Paul, who had a post-mortem appearance of Jesus in 1 Cor 15:8, and who met with Peter and James in Galatians 1 and again in Galatians 2.
There is a list of evidence for Peter’s influence on Mark on the Cold Case Christianity blog.
Here’s my favorite one from the list:
Peter’s Embarrassments Have Been Omitted
There are many details in the Gospel of Mark consistent with Peter’s special input and influence,including omissions related to events involving Peter. How can Mark be a memoir of Peter if, in fact, the book contains so many omissions of events involving Peter specifically? It’s important to evaluate the entire catalogue of omissions pertaining to Peter to understand the answer here. The vast majority of these omissions involve incidents in which Peter did or said something rash or embarrassing. It’s not surprising these details were omitted by the author who wanted to protect Peter’s standing in the Christian community. Mark was quite discreet in his retelling of the narrative (other Gospel writers who were present at the time do, however, provide details of Peters ‘indiscretions’ in their own accounts. See Cold-Case Christianity for a more detailed explanation).
It makes me laugh to imagine Peter looking over Mark’s shoulder and saying “no, don’t put that in it” and “no, don’t tell them I did that”. Funny! But also very good evidence. The rest of Wallace’s list makes it even more clear.
And what about the gospel of Luke? Well, did you know that the author of Luke’s gospel knew Paul? If you read it carefully, you’ll see that Luke switches from describing history from an “I” perspective to describing things from a “we” perspective in the book of Acts (which he also wrote). Who is the “we” he is talking about?
Now who was this author we call Luke? He was clearly not an eyewitness to Jesus’s life. But we discover an important fact about him from the book of Acts. Beginning in the sixteenth chapter of Acts, when Paul reaches Troas in modern-day Turkey, the author suddenly starts using the first-person plural: “we set sail from Troas to Samothrace,” “we remained in Philippi some days,” “as we were going to the place of prayer,” etc. The most obvious explanation is that the author had joined Paul on his evangelistic tour of the Mediterranean cities. In chapter 21 he accompanies Paul back to Palestine and finally to Jerusalem. What this means is that the author of Luke-Acts was in fact in first hand contact with the eyewitnesses of Jesus’s life and ministry in Jerusalem.
[…]There is no avoiding the conclusion that Luke-Acts was written by a traveling companion of Paul who had the opportunity to interview eyewitnesses to Jesus’s life while in Jerusalem. Who were some of these eyewitnesses? Perhaps we can get some clue by subtracting from the Gospel of Luke everything found in the other gospels and seeing what is peculiar to Luke. What you discover is that many of Luke’s peculiar narratives are connected to women who followed Jesus: people like Joanna and Susanna, and significantly, Mary, Jesus’s mother.
Was the author reliable in getting the facts straight? The book of Acts enables us to answer that question decisively. The book of Acts overlaps significantly with secular history of the ancient world, and the historical accuracy of Acts is indisputable.
This has recently been demonstrated anew by Colin Hemer, a classical scholar who turned to New Testament studies, in his book The Book of Acts in the Setting of Hellenistic History. [5] Hemer goes through the book of Acts with a fine-toothed comb, pulling out a wealth of historical knowledge, ranging from what would have been common knowledge down to details which only a local person would know. Again and again Luke’s accuracy is demonstrated: from the sailings of the Alexandrian corn fleet to the coastal terrain of the Mediterranean islands to the peculiar titles of local officials, Luke gets it right.
I know a lot of people (like my Dad) read the Bible devotionally, looking for feelings or trying to “get right with God” so they get blessings. But I think it’s helpful to look at things from an evidential point of view – how am I going to make a case for this? When you look at things from that perspective, the Bible gets a whole lot more interesting. And you can talk about it with non-Christians when you know about these interesting details.
People are out and about, smiling at each other. It’s been true since the morning after the election, the results of which defied every prediction. Who doesn’t like to see the smug elites who have ruled the world for five awful years taken down a peg?
More than that, there are hints of a return to sanity. Mainstream advertisers are suddenly returning to X, putting their economic interest above their tribalist loyalties. The editor of pro-lockdowns Scientific American, which had long blessed totalitarian measures as true science, has resigned.
The attempt to pillage InfoWars and give it to The Onion has been reversed by a federal judge. That might be a fluke or might not be: maybe the lawfare is dialing back too. The cabinet of the incoming administration is being filled by voices that were fully censored for years. Employees are reportedly packing their bags at the FDA and other agencies.
Mainstream news commentators are sputtering around with less bravado than they have shown in years. CNN is firing major personalities.
Trump is talking about abolishing the income tax and granting $10K in tax credits per homeschooled child, not to mention blowing up college accreditation systems, among other sweeping changes.
The American Bastille day is coming, not only freeing the political prisoners of January 6 but also many of the unjustly persecuted including Ross Ulbricht, Roger Ver, and Ian Freeman, among so many others. That will be a day of rejoicing.
Oh, and peace seems to have broken out in some contentious areas of the world, for now.
What is happening? This is not the usual transfer of the resident of the White House. This is starting to look like an actual transfer of power, not just from Biden to Trump but from the permanent government – ensconced in many sectors – that has been long in hiding to an entirely new form of government responsive to actual voters.
As it turns out, there was no late surge for Kamala Harris. All the polls were wrong, and the rest was media blather. What was correct were the betting odds on Polymarket, and only days later, the FBI raided the 26-year-old founder’s home and confiscated his phone and laptop.
There are still many millions of missing voters, people who supposedly showed up for Biden in 2020 but stayed home this time. Meanwhile, there has been a historic shift in all races, ethnicities, and regions, with even the possibility of flipping California from blue to red in the future.
After decades of academic slicing and dicing of the population according to ever more eccentric identity buckets involving race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual interest, along with countless thousands of studies documenting deep complexity over intersectionality, the driving force of the election was simple: class, and the few intellectuals and some wealthy entrepreneurs who understand that.
The division was not really left vs right. It was workers vs laptoppers, wage earners vs six-figure stay-at-homers, bottom half vs top 5 percent, people with actual skills vs weaponized resume wielders, and those with affection for old-world values vs those whose educations have beaten it out of them for purposes of career advancement.
The silent majority has never been so suddenly loud. It just so happened that the heavily privileged had come to inhabit easily identifiable sectors of American society and, in the end, had no choice but hitch the whole of the overclass wagon to the fortunes of a candidate like themselves (Kamala) but who was unable to pull off a compelling masquerade. Not even a parade of well-paid celebrity endorsements could save her from total rebuke at the polls.
Sylvester Stallone called Trump a second George Washington but another reference point might be Andrew Jackson. The overwhelming victory for Trump is on a scale not seen since 1828 when, four years after the presidency was stolen from Jackson, Old Hickory came back in a wild landslide and cleaned up Washington. Trump arrives in Washington with a mandate for the same, with 81% of the public demanding that the government shrink in size and power.
It has all happened so quickly. We are barely ten days into the realization of what just transpired and the entire lay of the land seems different, like a tectonic shift in politics, culture, mood, and possibilities. We are even seeing blunt and open talk about the horrendous Covid response that so utterly demoralized the country and the world, after years of silence on the topic. We have promised hearings coming, and court cases galore now on fast track.
The sudden coming together of three great sectors of anti-establishment fury – MAGA, MAHA, and DOGE – in the last two months of the election of 2024 is one for the ages. It provides the beginnings of an answer to the great question on our minds for decades: how precisely does an authentic revolution take root in an industrialized Western democracy? Are elections capable of delivering real results?
For now, the answer seems to be yes. That should thrill any responsible observer of social, cultural, economic, and political affairs. It means that the early architects of the American system were not wrong. The intolerable costs of political upheaval of ages past can be mitigated by planting power firmly in the hands of the people through the plebiscite. This was their view and their gamble. All the evidence of our time points to the wisdom of the idea.
In the darkest days of the last year of the first Trump presidency, the bureaucracy was riding high, in full revenge mode against an elected government it hated and sought to overthrow. The agencies were passing strange edicts that felt like laws but no one knew for sure. You are essential, you are not. You must stay home, unless you have an emergency. Your elective surgery needs to wait. The kids cannot go to school. That European vacation cannot happen. You can eat at a restaurant but only if you are six feet away from other patrons and you must put this China-made cloth on your mouth if you get up to go to the restroom.
The flurry of edicts was mind-boggling. It felt like martial law, because it was some form of exactly that. The best research points to the astonishing reality that this was never really a public-health response but a scheme by security and intelligence sectors to enact some kind of global color revolution, which is why the policies were so similar the world over. It was indeed an awesome display of power, one that invaded all our communities, homes, and families.
No one knows this better than Team Trump, even if there has been near silence on the topic for all these years. They have had time to put the pieces together and figure out what happened and why. And they carefully, and in seclusion worthy of a Cistercian monastery, plotted their return, leaving nothing to chance.
Meanwhile, the past two years have had the Covid insurrectionists quietly stepping away from the spotlight, while leaving as much of their newfound power in place: the censorship, the technology, the mandates, and the propaganda that all of this shock-and-awe was nothing more than “common sense health measures.” It was never tenable, and vast numbers have come to realize that something went very wrong, like a kind of evil settled over the world and burrowed itself within all institutions.
In an instant, the whole scheme seems to be crumbling. The incredible result is that the administration under which this calamity occurred is now coming back, which is probably the strangest irony of our times.
And yet, even though no one has yet been open about precisely what happened in the White House in March 2020 to cause Trump to greenlight the lockdowns, there is a widespread belief that it was never really his choice. It was some kind of coup – egged on even by his closest advisors and the VP – that he either could not stop or lacked the personnel to marshal effective resistance. Regardless, he has been forgiven because, implausibly, the next administration not only owned the worst of it but added even more on top of that, including the wicked combination of mask mandates, forced injections, and continued school closures.
The result has been a continuing economic crisis, one far worse than agencies admit, in addition to a health, education, and cultural crisis. Meanwhile, all those involved in causing this from behind the scenes have been rewarded with professorships, loving interviews in the mainstream media, and lavish security provisions to protect them from legions of what they suppose are angry workers and peasants.
Therefore, among many of the ruling class, the results of this election are certainly not welcome, and nor are many of the early appointments. They represent the coming together of MAGA, MAHA, and DOGE, the fulfillment of decades of cultivation of disparate groups of dissidents who had not previously realized their common interests and common enemies. It was the Covid era and the imposition of top-down rule that brought them all together.
It was like three groups wandering around in a giant maze who suddenly confront each other and then, realizing that they all shared the same predicament, figure the way out together. These new alliances have not only shattered right and left, as traditionally understood, but reshaped the structural basis of political activism for the duration. It turns out that medical freedom, food freedom, free speech, political freedom, and peace all go together. Who knew?
The incumbent world of academia, think tanks, and most media simply finds itself unprepared to deal with the new realities. They had hoped everyone would forget about the last five years as if it was just a thing that happened but is now over; everyone just needs to grapple with the great reset and learn to love our new lives of surveillance, propaganda, censorship, perpetual war, poison food, unaffordable everything, and endless injections of potions for our own health and well-being.
Well, times have changed. How much? Early signs point to a dramatic unfolding of revolutionary change over the coming months. Is believing this the triumph of hope over experience? Absolutely. Then again, no one believed five years ago that most people in the world would be locked in their homes and communities, stuck drinking and streaming movies until biotech could come up with a cure for a respiratory virus with a zoonotic reservoir. Then it did not work and made people more sick than ever.
That was nuts but it happened.
If that could happen, with predictable results, the response could be equally implausible and more much thrilling. What’s man made can be unmade by man, and something new built in its place.
Jon Jones performs the Trump dance after winnning UFC main event in Madison Square Garden.
UFC heavyweight champion Jon Jones retained his crown after defeating Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 last night in Madison Square Garden.
Jones fought in front of a packed house with President elect Donald J. Trump in the front row watching the fight.
Trump entered Madison Square Garden in New York Saturday night around 10 PM ET for UFC 309 after a historic landslide victory in the November 5 election.
It was so loud you couldn’t even hear. The commentators were screaming on air because of the roaring crowd.
“It’s always loud when he comes in, but now that he’s won, now that he’s President again, oh, my God,” said one of the commentators.
WATCH:
The crowd goes wild as Donald Trump attends UFC at Madison Square Garden after winning back the presidency. pic.twitter.com/11MfFMwenF
Everyone in the stadium rose to their feet to greet the President-elect. Trump was joined by Elon Musk, Don Jr., Eric Trump, Robert Kennedy Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Dana White, and others.
After President 45-47 Trump entered the Garden he was seen dancing to YMCA!
Jon Jones ended his fight in round three with a shot that hurled Miocic to the matt.
After his victory Jon Jones, one of the greatest fighters ever, danced the Trump dance in the middle of the ring.
Jones then pointed at President Trump sitting up front and smiled.
Jones then led the crowd in chanting, “USA!… USA!…” He then told announcer Joe Rogan, “I am proud to be a great American champion. I’m proud to be a Christian champion!”
The crowd went nuts!
Jon Jones did an impression of Trump’s dance and then started a “USA! USA! USA!” chant.
“I’m proud to be a great American champion. I’m proud to be a CHRISTIAN American champion.”
I never imagined I would think, let alone write, that the Democratic Party’s victory in 2020 was a blessing. But for those of us — meaning, it is now clear, a majority of us — who regard the Left as an entirely destructive force in America as it is everywhere else in the world, 2020 may well have turned out to be a blessing.
Why?
For two reasons.
The first reason is that, thanks to the Left being in power for the last four years, Americans got a chance to see what it — and therefore the Democratic Party, which has become a left-wing, rather than a liberal, party — stands for.
— Most Americans now know that the Left and the Democrats could not care less about the average American. For example, Democrats and the rest of the Left still maintain that Americans have been fooled into thinking that inflation is devastating. This is understandable given that the Democratic Party and its defenders represent the wealthy — people who neither know nor care about the price of food and other everyday necessities.
— Most Americans now know that the Left is morally and psychologically sick. Unlike the Left, the vast majority of Americans do not believe that men give birth; that boys’ bathrooms in high schools should have tampon dispensers; that men who say they are women should be allowed to compete against women in women’s sports or be placed in women’s shelters and women’s prisons; that schools should not inform parents when their 10-year-old daughter says she is a boy and adopts a boy’s name at school; or that young women, not to mention teenage girls, should have their breasts surgically removed if they tell a psychologist — usually after a few hours of consultation — they think they are a boy.
— Most Americans now know that the Left holds America in contempt and breeds that contempt among young Americans. Most Americans do not believe, as the Left does, that America was founded in 1619, when the first black slaves were brought to America; they believe it was founded in 1776. Most Americans think Washington, Jefferson and the other Founders were great men, not racist and genocidal.
— Most Americans now know that the Left breeds chaos not only in America but around the world. About a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I asked one of the greatest living historians, Niall Ferguson of Harvard and Stanford, if he thought Vladimir Putin would have invaded Ukraine if Donald Trump had been president at the time. Without a moment’s hesitation, he gave a one-word answer: “No.”
That attack took place less than a year after the Biden administration, with the full backing of the Democratic Party, precipitously and chaotically abandoned Afghanistan for no good reason, causing the unnecessary deaths of 13 U.S. servicemembers (the deadliest day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan since 2012) and wounds to another 45 servicemembers, leaving the Afghan people to the Taliban monsters, and leaving behind $7 billion in military equipment.
It is also unlikely that if Trump had been president, Hamas would have attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, rendering it the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust and plunging the Middle East into war. Trump left a peaceful Middle East on the brink of Saudi Arabia and other Arab states recognizing Israel’s right to exist.
Trump placed sanctions on Iran, greatly weakening that regime economically. The Biden administration reversed course and gave Iran access to $16 billion, which it promptly used to spread death and chaos in the region.
Thanks to the Left being in power for nearly four years, the American people learned not only these things about the Left; perhaps even more importantly, the American people also learned that virtually every elite, meaning left-wing, institution is deeply corrupt.
They learned that:
— The country’s most elite universities — virtually all of which are left-wing institutions — are moral wastelands.
— The only Americans who still trust The New York Times, The Washington Post (or any major newspaper in any major city) — or CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS, NPR, The Associated Press and the rest of what was until now known as the “mainstream media” — are those who share those organizations’ left-wing politics. Over these past few years, among myriad examples of left-wing bias, all these media labeled as “racist” any American who said that COVID-19 likely began in a Chinese lab, and participated in the Trump-campaign-colluded-with-Russia lie. The Times is so woke, it refuses to print “Latinos”; instead, it uses the idiotic term “Latinx.”
— They cannot trust scientific institutions. Thanks to these years of Democratic Party and left-wing power, most Americans no longer trust almost any scientific body. The American Medical Association has come out against listing a newborn’s sex on its birth certificate. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institutes of Health, and Food and Drug Administration are regarded as pawns of the major pharmaceutical companies. Most Americans know that they were misled regarding the COVID-19 vaccine’s efficacy and safety, social distancing, masking and most especially lockdowns, which served only to damage millions of children and destroy innumerable small businesses. The oldest science journal in America, Scientific American, is correctly regarded as just another woke, i.e., left-wing, media enterprise. It had never endorsed a political candidate in its 175-year history until it endorsed Joe Biden.
All of this happened thanks to the Democrats’ victory in 2020.
Dennis Prager is a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and columnist. His commentary on Numbers, the fourth volume of “The Rational Bible,” his five-volume commentary on the first five books of the Bible, will be released in November 2024 and is available now for presale on Amazon. He is the co-founder of Prager University and may be contacted at dennisprager.com.
The War to end all Wars is inevitable. The only question is, how long before the world gathers together to fight against the only One who can save their souls?
America just elected a president. We had two choices, and I believe America was on the brink of judgment. If we made the wrong choice, we would have faded into history. Many Americans felt the same way. Christians prayed – truly prayed for God’s mercy on us. Guess what? Prayer worked. Many people didn’t listen to the liberal news media pushing a Socialist agenda that would give open borders with free room and board to people coming here illegally, less freedom to hard-working Americans, and total acceptance of deviant lifestyles.
As it turned out, God isn’t done with America quite yet. Praise God for His mercy. Mr. Trump was elected and has set about undoing damage that has happened in the last four years and is moving forward to fix this nation.
This isn’t the first time in history that God gave a reprieve to a Gentile nation. Jonah was sent to the very wicked city of Nineveh, and they repented, and God didn’t destroy them. In this modern age, when America is filled with wickedness and deserves God’s wrath, Christians prayed, and God had mercy, so what do we do now?
First and foremost, thank Him, and thank Him again and again. Then, examine your life to see if you deserved His mercy. None of us are perfect, and we all have things we need to change in our life in order to be closer to God. Now would be a good time to do that. I’m not pointing fingers because there is plenty in my life that I need to compare to Scripture and change. This has been true for people throughout history. Remember, it’s those of us who love the Lord who need to draw closer to His ways and not accept as normal the wickedness of the world.
After the Temple was built, God told Solomon, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).
It was God’s people who needed to obey God. I don’t know about you, but I would like for this land to be healed. People who don’t know God or who reject Him don’t know or care what He desires from us. So, it’s up to Christians to know Him and be obedient.
The first thing God told Solomon in the above verse was to humble themselves. Humility is something we all need to work on. It’s easy to be filled with pride and filled with our own self-interest. When we bow our knees to God and humble ourselves before Him, we will submit to His will, and we will obey His word. Judgmental attitudes will fall away, but judging in love with a righteous judgment will become natural. Jesus taught that we are to forgive others but also to “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24).
We have to judge things but not judge in order to condemn. We need to judge as to who we will be our friends and what lifestyles we should reject. In choosing to follow Christ in our judgments and decisions, we will love people but not follow them into sin.
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
That perfection can only be achieved through faith in the shed blood of Jesus. It’s His righteousness, not our own feeble attempt at righteousness, that makes us worthy of God’s forgiveness.
The next directive that God gave to Solomon is to pray. Too often, we only pray when we’re in trouble. Then our prayer is earnest, begging for God to get us out of a predicament that we got into through our own lack of obedience to Him. Prayer should be as natural to a Christian as breathing. A prayer of praise, a prayer for wisdom and guidance, a prayer for the right words to say at the right time, a prayer for healing, a prayer for comfort, and on it goes.
The Apostle Paul wrote, “Be careful for nothing: but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6).
Just talk with Him like a friend. If prayer isn’t a part of your life, you need to change that. Prayer doesn’t always need to be formal. When I see an ambulance drive by, I automatically ask God to be with the person who is in need of medical assistance, or when I drive by a funeral parlor where people are gathered, I ask God to comfort the mourners. God hears those prayers, just like He hears those said on bended knee.
Scripture encourages us to pray continually. “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).
The next item on the list is “…seek my face.” How do we do that? Get to know God by studying Scripture from Genesis through Revelation. God reveals Himself to us through Scripture. He doesn’t hide from us, but we tend to hide from Him, just as Adam and Eve did when they sinned. They knew they had disobeyed God and tried to hide from Him. We sin and then stop fellowshipping with other Christians. This opens the way for new friends who don’t honor God to influence us to sin more, which causes us to want to hide from God. Remember, there is no sin so great that God will not forgive you. Humble yourself before Him and pray for His forgiveness. Study Scripture and learn all you can about God.
The Old Testament sometimes makes us feel that God is angry and looking for ways to condemn people. If you truly study Scripture, you’ll find that only those who had no love for God and lived life opposed to Him found judgment. Those who tried to please God always found mercy. King David truly loved God. Like all humans, David was a sinner. He committed great sin and seemed to not see his fault. He had a one-night stand with Bathsheba, who became pregnant. To cover his sin, David made sure her husband, a loyal soldier, was stationed in battle where he certainly would be killed. Under the Law, David should have been stoned to death for adultery and murder. When David was confronted by his sin, he immediately admitted his fault and humbly went to God in prayer.
“[[To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.]] Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness; according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest” (Psalm 51:1-4).
David didn’t treat his sin lightly, but he did seek God’s face. He admitted his sin before God and asked for forgiveness. Christians need to seek God’s face in this way. We need to understand that sexual encounters of any kind outside of a one man/one woman marriage is opposed to God. Sacrificing babies and calling it a woman’s right is pure Satan-inspired evil. Lying, gossiping, cheating, and stealing are all abominations to the Lord. When we seek God’s face, our sins will be revealed to us.
“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us” (1 John 1:8-10).
Go to Him humbly in prayer and confess. He already knows your sin and has forgiven you of all sin when you gave your life to Jesus. The prayer for forgiveness is for you to understand the changes you need to make in your life when seeking God’s face.
The next item on the list of things God wanted Israel to do was “…turn from their wicked ways.” What is so appealing about sin? Whatever pleasure it gives is temporary and only brings sorrow. If you’re seeking God’s face, then you will certainly turn from the wickedness of sin. It’s a very sad comment on our society today that sin is taken lightly. Sexual sin is a very common transgression, and it leads to more sin, often in the form of abortion. It’s all wickedness. If all our sins, past and future, are forgiven, then why does it matter if we continue to sin? It matters to God.
Think very carefully about Jesus and what He chose to suffer through in order to forgive you. First of all, He left Heaven where He was worshipped and there was no evil. Yet, He chose to enter His creation as a baby, very humble and lowly. He was humbly born in a manger. He grew up like other children and then began His ministry. He was mocked by the religious leaders, but the common people followed Him. When the time came for Him to lay down His life, the torture inflicted upon Him was horrific. He was beaten, whipped, His beard was plucked out, and a crown of thorns was shoved on his head. The Roman soldiers paraded Him through the streets as He carried His cross, and when they arrived at Calvary, they pounded spikes into His hands and feet and then raised the cross for all to see. He suffered there for hours as His blood oozed out. He shed His blood to take our sin away. Why?
Because “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. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:16-18).
Jesus was willing to do that for you and me, so shouldn’t we humble ourselves, pray, seek God’s face, and turn from our wicked ways? Christians should lead the way in turning from sin.
God promised Israel that if they followed His directions, He would forgive their sin and heal their land. The election that America just had proves that God is full of forgiveness. The sin in this nation is beyond comprehension. Brothers and sisters, we prayed, and God answered even before we turned from our wicked ways. This fact is very humbling to anybody who is paying attention to the signs of the times and the state of the world. So, now what?
Remember that God forgave Nineveh, but they soon returned to their wickedness and were destroyed. America could face that judgment too. It’s time to turn back to God and honor Him by truly seeking Him. We need to love what God loves and shun Satan’s lies. God loves His people, the nation of Israel, and Christians. God loves sinners and wants them to come to salvation.
“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
God wants everyone possible to come to salvation before it’s too late. As Christians, we should desire that also. In gratitude for what God has done for us, we need to share the Gospel with others.
What do we do now?
God has given us mercy, so we should show mercy to others. We must humble ourselves before the Lord and pray without ceasing. We need to seek the Lord with all of our heart every day. Brothers and sisters, we need to repent and turn from our wicked ways and live a life that pleases God. It’s not always easy, but it is what we need to do now.
On Nov. 3, 2024, it was reported that Joel Rosenberg (speaker, author, founder of The Joshua Fund, and editor-in-chief of All Israel News) told a Podcast audience at Dallas Theological Seminary:
The veil is coming off,
The scales are coming off,
The curtain is rising as we get closer to the tribulation, to the Second Coming.
More and more Jews are coming to faith in Jesus.
Rosenberg believes God is shaking Israel to its core.
I agree, and God is shaking the nations too, especially the Arab nations, Iran, Syria, and Lebanon (He is revealing Himself to get them saved).
I believe the blinding of Israel will cease, and all Israel will be saved at the Second Coming (Luke 19:42; 21:24; Rom. 11:26).
I believe the gospel will go all over the world, and a multitude too great to number will be saved during the Tribulation Period (Matt. 24:14; Rev. 7:3-16; 11:3-6; 14:6-7).
The understanding of Bible prophecy is increasing (Dan. 12:4).
Here is a link to Rosenberg’s article and podcast.
The Church will soon be caught up to heaven, the curtain is rising as we approach the Tribulation Period, and multitudes from Israel and all nations will soon be saved.
Here are recent events that seem to indicate that the end of the age is near.
One, concerning America’s future relationship with Israel: on Nov. 7, 2024, it was reported that Israeli Pres. Netanyahu sent Pres. Trump a message of congratulations on his election victory.
When Trump delivered his victory speech on Nov. 6, 2024, he said he wants to end all wars.
A few pundits took that to mean that Trump was telling Israel to pull its troops out of Gaza and Lebanon.
The next day, Trump’s spokeswoman, Elizabeth Pipko, quickly corrected that.
Pipko said,
Trump did not give Israel an ultimatum.
Trump promised to ensure that Israel wins.
Trump supports an end to the fighting through decisive Israeli victories.
(More: On Nov. 7, 2024, it was reported that the Biden administration will push for a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon during the remainder of its time in office. A spokesman for the State Dept. said We have no shortage of work to do over the next 74 days, and we are determined to make the most of the time left.)
(More: On Nov. 10, 2024, Netanyahu said he had spoken to Trump 3 times since he got elected (3 times in the last 5 days), and they see eye-to-eye on the Iranian threat and the expansion of peace in other realms.)
(More: I have also seen speculation that those that are running the Biden administration may try to tie Trump’s hands on several issues before he is inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025.)
(More: I have seen speculation that the Biden administration may try to get a UN resolution to force the Two-State Solution on Israel and a withdrawal of Israel from Gaza and Lebanon. An Israeli withdrawal would prevent Israel from winning the war and allow Hamas and Hezbollah to rebuild their terrorist organization.)
(FYI: If you want a blessing, go to the following link and watch what happened when Trump finished his victory speech; about 1 ½ minutes.)
Two, concerning antisemitism, the world turning against Israel and the Jews returning to the Promised Land at the end of the age: on Nov. 8, 2024, it was reported that Israeli Prime Min. Netanyahu was dispatching rescue planes to Amsterdam following a very violent incident against Israeli citizens.
Masked protestors attacked hundreds of Jews leaving a soccer game; some were chased and beaten, one was knocked unconscious, one was run over by a car, and more.
Video of the attack have been posted on social media.
(More: On Nov. 8-9, 2024, Israeli emergency planes flew 2,000 Jews from Amsterdam to Israel, and there may be more in the near future.)
(More: On Nov. 11, 2024, it was reported that the violent attacks on Jews in Amsterdam was organized by a former employee of the UN Relief and Works Agency. According to the Bible, the entire world will be against Israel at the end of the age, and repeatedly, UN employees or former UN employees have been caught attacking or killing Jews. Most recently, Israel provided irrefutable evidence that some were involved in the Oct. 7, 2023 attack that started the Israel-Hamas war.)
(My opinion: People need to wake up to the fact that Islam is not a religion of peace. As I understand it, they are at war with all non-Muslims until they have converted the entire world to Islam. Then they think there will be peace on earth.)
Three, concerning world leaders wanting Israel to withdraw from Gaza (which will let Hamas rebuild its military there): Israel has captured computers with thousands of hours of videos of Hamas terrorists torturing Palestinian citizens.
Many victims are chained to a torture area with a sack over their head, and they are crying and begging while a Hamas terrorist is beating them.
Some human rights activists have warned that this was happening, but the UN, EU, U.S., Arabs, and others ignored it.
(My opinion: It is not hard for me to believe that terrorists that would burn Jews alive, kill babies, rape women, and take hostages – as they did on Oct. 7, 2023 – would torture Palestinians to control them.)
Four, concerning the Battle of Gog and Magog: on Nov. 8, 2024, it was reported that Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, posted the following message on X (Twitter).
The world will certainly see the day when the Zionists (Israel) are defeated in a resounding defeat by the resistance (Iran and its allies).
Iran will try to destroy Israel, but they will fail (Ezek. 38:18-23; Amos 9:15).
Five, concerning Iran: on Nov. 11, 2024, Joel Rosenberg (author, speaker, Editor-in-Chief of All Israel News) speculated that Trump’s election means that if Iran attacks Israel, Israel’s response will be much greater than it would have been under Harris.
The Ayatollah is now facing a great dilemma (just a couple of months to act before U.S. military support for Israel greatly increases), and he must back down on his threats to attack Israel or risk losing his oil wells, nuclear reactor, and a lot more.
(More: On Nov. 11, 2024, it was reported that the prospects for a ceasefire in Lebanon before Trump takes office look good. It is beginning to look like Israel will withdraw from Lebanon, Hezbollah will pull back across the Litani River, and Israel will retain the right to go back in if Hezbollah does not keep the agreement.)
(My opinion: Israel will eventually have to go back in because Muslims do not keep ceasefires and peace treaties. The claim that Islam is a religion of peace is false. The goal of Islam is to gain control of every nation on earth and force all people to worship Allah. To Islam, peace means everyone on earth must worship their god.)
(More: On Nov. 13, 2024, it was reported that Iran is postponing its promised third attack on Israel in the hope of reaching a deal with President-elect Donald Trump, who has taken a hard line on Iran.)
Six, concerning an increase in the frequency and intensity of natural disasters at the end of the age, on Nov. 9, 2024, it was reported that some parts of Colorado received more than 4 ft. of snow.
Over a 3-day period, San Isabel (in the southeast area of the state) received 54.9 inches (probably a record).
Seven, concerning a peace treaty and the expansion of Israel’s borders at the end of the age: on Nov. 12, 2024, it was reported that Israeli Prime Min. Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to declare Israeli sovereignty over all the Jewish settlements and settlement blocks in Judea and Samaria after former Pres. Trump takes office.
It was also reported that Trump may not support it, but he probably wouldn’t oppose it either.
It appears that Trump wants it to be part of a normalization agreement.
We could know soon after Trump takes office.
Eight, concerning God’s promise to bless those that bless Israel and to curse those that curse Israel: on Nov. 12, 2024, Worthy News reported that Trump’s incoming U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, said:
There is no such thing as the West Bank – it’s Judea and Samaria.
There is no such thing as settlements – they’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities.
There is no such thing as an occupation.
Nine, concerning Huckabee’s appointment, Joel Rosenberg of All Israel News said:
Mike is a dear friend, a devout Evangelical follower of Jesus Christ, and one of the most influential pro-Israel voices in the Christian world.
His appointment is an unmistakable sign of just how seriously Trump regards the enormous influence of the tens of millions of Evangelical Christians in the United States who love Israel and the Jewish people.
This is the first time in history that an American president has chosen an ambassador to Israel who is so openly and unashamedly committed to his love for Jesus Christ and the Bible.
Here is my daily update on the Israel-Hamas war.
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024 (Day 397) The three hundred and forty-second day of the resumed war. Day 175 of the attack on Rafah.
Hezbollah fired more than 150 rockets and about 20 drones at Israel.
Israel struck several targets in Lebanon in civilian centers south of the Litani River.
Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024 (Day 398) The three hundred and forty-third day of the resumed war. Day 176 of the attack on Rafah.
Israel struck 20 sites in Lebanon north of the Litani River, killing at least 60 Hezbollah terrorists.
Hezbollah fired 120 rockets and several drones at Israel.
Friday, Nov. 8, 2024 (Day 399) The three hundred and forty-fourth day of the resumed war. Day 177 of the attack on Rafah.
Biden’s Defense Sec. (Lloyd Austin) warned Israel that it is at risk of losing access to some U.S. weapons if it does not produce credible evidence that it has improved the supply and distribution of aid to Gazan noncombatants.
Israel has captured or killed about 2,000 terrorists in Gaza in the last 3 weeks. The U.S. and UK struck 9 Houthi weapons facilities in Yemen.
Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024 (Day 400) The three hundred and forty-fifth day of the resumed war. Day 178 of the attack on Rafah.
The U.S. and UK struck 9 Houthi weapons facilities in Yemen.
Sunday, Nov. 10, 2024 (Day 401) The three hundred and forty-sixth day of the resumed war. Day 179 of the attack on Rafah.
The U.S. and UK struck 9 Houthi weapons facilities in Yemen.
Israel said it found a terror compound (command rooms, living quarters, weapon storage facilities, weapons, and combat equipment) under a cemetery in Lebanon and sent in hundreds of trucks and concrete mixers to fill it with about 159,000 cubic feet of concrete.
Israel assassinated a Hezbollah commander that killed the Prime Min. of Lebanon in 2005.
Monday, Nov. 11, 2024 (Day 402) The three hundred and forty-seventh day of the resumed war. Day 180 of the attack on Rafah.
Hezbollah in Lebanon fired about 175 rockets at Israel.
Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2024 (Day 403) The three hundred and forty-eighth day of the resumed war. Day 181 of the attack on Rafah.
The U.S. announced that Israel has improved the humanitarian aid shipments to Gaza, so the U.S. will not withhold the shipment of weapons to Israel.
FYI: God does not send anyone to Hell (all of us are born with a sin nature and destined to go to Hell because we sin), but God has provided a way (Jesus) for everyone to go to Heaven (and He is the only way to get there; John 14:6).
Finally, are you Rapture Ready?
If you want to be rapture ready and go to heaven, you must be born again (John 3:3). God loves you, and if you have not done so, sincerely admit that you are a sinner; believe that Jesus is the virgin-born, sinless Son of God who died for the sins of the world, was buried, and raised from the dead; ask Him to forgive your sins, cleanse you, come into your heart and be your Saviour; then tell someone that you have done this.
Providence Baptist Church on RSBN featuring Pastor Dr Rusty Sowell live from Providence Baptist Church in Beauregard, AL Sunday Morning Worship 11/17/24
Truth2Freedom's Blog 