Pray for the Support and Comfort you Need in your Afflictions

Matthew Henry’s “Method For Prayer”

Petition 3.35 | ESV

We must pray for effectual support and comfort under all the crosses and afflictions that we meet with in this world.

I know that I am born to trouble as the sparks fly upward; Job 5:7(ESV) but in six troubles be pleased to deliver me, and in seven let no evil touch me. Job 5:19(ESV)

Let the eternal God be my dwelling place, and underneath be the everlasting arms; Deuteronomy 33:27(ESV) that the spirit you have made may not grow faint before you, Isaiah 57:16(ESV) nor the soul that you have redeemed. Psalm 71:23(ESV)

Let me be strengthened with all power, according to your glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy. Colossians 1:11(ESV)

Let your statutes be my songs in the house of my sojourning; Psalm 119:54(ESV) and let your testimonies, which I have taken as a heritage forever, be always the joy of my heart. Psalm 119:111(ESV)

When I am afflicted in every way, let me not be crushed; and when I am perplexed, let me not be driven to despair; 2 Corinthians 4:8(ESV) but as sorrowful, let me be always rejoicing; as having nothing, yet possessing everything. 2 Corinthians 6:10(ESV)

Pray for the Support and Comfort you Need in your Afflictions

The Most Terrifying Thing God Can Do | The Log College

The Most Terrifying Thing God Can Do

by Tim Challies; INFORMING THE REFORMING; NOV 2, 2015

Have you ever seen one of those photo collages of a drug addict as she descends deeper and deeper into her addiction? It is startling to see that in just a few short years an addict can be transformed—or perhaps better, deformed—from an attractive, fresh-faced young lady to a hollow-eyed shadow of a human being. Some drugs are so powerful and so devastating that they rot not only the mind and soul but the body as well. The substance that promises such delight actually delivers terrible destruction.

I see the horror of sin pictured in the decaying face of the addict. Her drug is both alluring and punishing. It promises joy and delivers bondage. Meth is its own punishment. It takes captive. It rots. It destroys. And in that way it is a particularly vivid illustration of every other sin.

I have been working my way back through the book of Romans, and am just now wading through the terrible truths that come at the end of the first chapter. Here Paul explains why and how God’s wrath is a just response to human depravity. As I have read and considered this passage I have been struck anew with the horror of sin. I have been startled again by the way in which God expresses his wrath.

What we learn from Romans 1 is that the most terrifying thing God can do in this life is give you over to your sin. We see that God is the one who restrains human evil—he restrains evil in this world and evil within each one of our hearts. But as people continue to rebel and as they continue to pursue their sin, God eventually lessens his restraint, he loosens his grip on the chain that is holding back the great waves of depravity within each human heart. As the rebellion continues, God eventually lets go, giving people their desire, giving them over to their sin.

We speak often of hell and eternal consequences for sin, but perhaps we give too little attention to God’s action against sin in this world and this life. God’s punishment for sin is sin. His punishment is allowing people to experience the life-stealing, soul-rotting consequences of their sin. He expresses his wrath by allowing them the very thing they want. He does this because when they get the thing they want, it only deepens their destruction. In this way, sin is its own punishment. And in all the world I see nothing more terrifying than this: the prospect of God allowing people to experience the full impact and weight of their sinfulness. Nothing is more terrifying than God determining that he will no longer restrain the evil within them.

There is a call here for each one of us to identify sin in our lives and to put it to death. We need to pray that we would have a tender conscience that responds eagerly and immediately to the Spirit speaking through the Word. We need to heed the Holy Spirit as he calls and enables us to do this. We must take care that we do not harden ourselves against his presence lest he give us the very thing we want. How many who were once sure of their salvation were left spinning and doubting when God relaxed his grip and allowed them to sink deeper into that ongoing sin?

There is a call here as we interact with unbelievers as well, and it is a call to compassion. We can be compassionate because we get this glimpse into what God is doing, into how he is expressing his wrath against sinners. This compassion expresses itself in imploring people to turn from their sin, to understand that their sin only deepens their captivity, to understand that their growing desire to sin only proves their bondage. The greatest act of compassion is to tell people of their sinfulness and to point them to the hope of the gospel. It is for them, and for us, the deepest hope and the only hope.

C.H. Spurgeon: ‘Perfection and Preservation’ | Morning Studies

“Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it”
– 1 Thessalonians 5:24

What will He do? He will sanctify us wholly. See the previous verse. He will carry on the work of purification till we are perfect in every part. He will preserve our “whole spirit, and soul, and body, blameless unto the coming of our LORD Jesus Christ.” He will not allow us to fall from grace, nor come under the dominion of sin. What great favors are these! Well may we adore the giver of such unspeakable gifts. Who will do this? The LORD who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light, out of death in sin into eternal life in Christ Jesus. Only He can do this: such perfection and preservation can only come from the God of all grace. Why will He do it? Because He is “faithful”–faithful to His own promise which is pledged to save the believer; faithful to His Son, whose reward it is that His people shall be presented to Him faultless, faithful to the work which He has commenced in us by our effectual calling. It is not their own faithfulness but the LORD’s own faithfulness on which the saints rely. Come, my soul, here is a grand feast to begin a dull month with. There may be fogs without, but there should be sunshine within.

Source: Daily Devotional | SermonAudio

https://rchstudies.christian-heritage-news.com/2025/11/ch-spurgeon-perfection-and-preservation.html

Satan: His Past, His Present, and His Future | Answers in Genesis: Daily Articles

A short biography of history’s biggest loser

Satan is a figure who has fascinated many. His rebellion against God has served as literary inspiration for thousands of years. Today, many TV shows present Satan and demons as redeemable, with some good or understandable qualities. Some even suggest that he had a good reason for rebelling! There are many ideas about Satan from history, other religions, and culture, so it’s important that we start with a biblical foundation.

Before Eden: The Beautiful Light-Bearer Destroyed by Arrogance

God created the angel who would soon be known as Satan during creation week, with the other angels and everything else that exists outside of God himself. And like everything else God created, this angel was originally good. Some think, based on Job 38:7, that all the angels, including Lucifer, were created on day one or no later than before the separating of the dry land from the waters at the beginning of day three of creation week, only five days (or three days if the latter position is held) before the creation of Adam and Eve.

There are a few places that speak about Satan before his fall, and both are in laments against human kings who, like Satan, tried to be like God.

Ezekiel 28:12–19 is addressed to Ethbaal III, who was the king of Tyre during the first fall of Jerusalem and the siege of Tyre by Nebuchadnezzar II for 13 years. When Nebuchadnezzar failed to capture Tyre and Ethbaal survived, this likely contributed to his arrogance. Ezekiel’s message was that because of Ethbaal’s arrogance, he would undergo a destruction so complete that it is all anyone would remember him for. However, the language used in verse 12 surpasses what we would expect for a merely human king and ultimately refers to the ultimate figure whose arrogance destroyed him—Satan.

This passage states that the being addressed was in Eden, the garden of God. If this passage is talking about Satan, then there is a clear reference to Satan being in the garden of Eden. Because Satan was a created being and because Eden was guarded by cherubim after the fall, he must have been in Eden between his creation and the fall of man.

This Ezekiel passage is a lament regarding the king of Tyre, but the prophecy extends far beyond the immediate king and includes attributes that could not and do not apply to a mortal man. For example, the Bible only states that God, Adam, Eve, Satan, and the two cherubim placed there to guard it were ever in Eden (and Eden would have been destroyed in the global flood). Ethbaal II certainly was not ever in Eden. Also, in verse 14, this being is referred to as a cherub; no man is ever referred to as a cherub anywhere else in Scripture.

In verse 15, the being is described as perfect in all his ways—until iniquity was found in him. This means that this being was created (not born) perfect and remained so until he sinned. This statement could only apply to Adam and Eve (before the fall), Satan, or fallen angels (before their fall), not to any earthly king. The king of Tyre was “shaped in iniquity and conceived in sin,” just like all other humans (Psalm 51:5; Romans 3:23). While the king of Tyre may have been the immediate target of the prophecy, the ultimate “woe” of this lament is directed at Satan.

In Isaiah 14:4–23, there is a taunt (or prophetic warning) addressed to the king of Babylon (verse 4). But again, the prophecy goes beyond the description of a mortal man. Verses 12–14 state that Lucifer (“the shining one” or “the day star”) had fallen from heaven. Mortal men do not fall from heaven; however, twice we read of Satan falling from (or being thrown out of) heaven (Luke 10:18; Revelation 12:9). It is highly unlikely that a mortal man could honestly think that he could ascend into heaven and dethrone God, as this Lucifer thought, according to verses 13 and 14. Clearly then, this taunt includes both the mortal king of Babylon (likely Belshazzar) but also the person influencing him (Satan).

Ultimately, the creature that is being addressed here is Satan, the shining one, who disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). Regardless of the play on words, Lucifer can rightly be used as a name as well. Most of God’s names that he reveals constitute a play on words as well (e.g., Jehovah Jirah means the Lord provides, etc.).

The Crafty Serpent

The book of Genesis does not mention the name or title “Satan,” nor does it specifically state that Lucifer or any demonic being controlled the serpent in the garden of Eden. Having said that, however, we can figure out who was controlling and speaking through this serpent from other passages of Scripture and from the context of Genesis 3 itself.

In addition to being an accuser, Satan is also a deceiver.

Revelation 12:9 explicitly calls Satan “that serpent of old” and says that he was punished (cast out) and that he presently deceives the whole world. In addition to being an accuser, Satan is also a deceiver. Revelation 20:2–3 calls Satan a serpent and speaks of his punishment again. Then in Revelation 20:11, Satan is thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur and will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Satan’s work of deception began in the garden of Eden and has continued worldwide ever since then. Christians can escape Satan’s deceptions by simple and pure devotion to Christ (i.e., trusting and obeying his Word by his Spirit) and by putting on the armor of God.

Satan is called a serpent, not once but three times in the book of Revelation (Revelation 12:9, 12:15, 20:2). When combined with Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 11:13, the identification of the serpent in Genesis 3 with Satan is unmistakable.

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (Revelation 12:9)

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:3)

For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds (2 Corinthians 11:13–15)

In Genesis 3, God declares a war between the serpent and his offspring and the woman and her offspring. This conflict is apparent in the very first sons born to Eve—Cain and Abel. However, ultimately, this was a prediction of Jesus’ ultimate victory over the serpent.

In Genesis 3:14–15, we read of God’s curse upon the serpent and the promise of a Savior from the seed of the woman.

The Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

“The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”

The prediction of enmity (hatred and warfare) between the seed (zera, offspring or descendant ) of the woman and the seed of the serpent is nonsensical if the serpent was merely a physical animal. The seed of the woman is a future male child, ultimately fulfilled in the virgin birth of Jesus. If only serpents and natural human descendants are in view here, then that means that snakes are destined to slither around biting men on their heels and then getting their heads crushed. Given the references in Revelation and 2 Corinthians, this obviously is not the intent of the prophecy. So even in Genesis 3, we can easily deduce who was influencing the serpent. Plus, Romans 16:20 makes the identification plain because the same terminology is used here in regard to Satan’s fate: “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.”

Satan: The Adversary of God and Man

Chronologically, the word Satan first occurs in Job 1:6, and it is used as a title, not a personal name. It does not reappear until 1 Chronicles 21:1 with the last reference in Zechariah 3:1. So there are only three OT passages that use Satan to refer to our “adversary.” Of course, there are also several NT passages that use the word Satan as a name, applied to the ultimate evil spirit.

The OT passages that use the name Satan (adversary) give us insight into his character. In Job 1, he accuses Job of only loving God because he is wealthy and blessed. God allowed Satan to test Job, including murdering Job’s sons, daughters, and servants, as well as killing his livestock. In Job 2, Satan accuses Job of serving God because of his health. God allows Satan to torment Job physically (with boils) all over his body. In Zechariah 3, Satan accuses Joshua the high priest before the Lord (we are not told what the accusation was), but God rebukes Satan and the angel of the Lord orders (presumably) other angels to remove his filthy garments and clothe him in fine linen, signifying forgiveness of sins and ritual purity.

In 1 Chronicles 21:1, Satan stirs up David to number the people of Israel. This caused the death of 70,000 Israelites. Satan, as an enemy, suggested this census as an occasion to incite a sin. Satan is sometimes described in Scripture as doing what God merely permits to be done; and so, in this case, he permitted Satan to tempt David. Satan was the active mover, while God only withdrew his supporting grace. Throughout Scripture, Satan seems to enjoy his role as the accuser and persecutor of the saints (as mentioned in Revelation 12:10).

Satan (and/or in some Bible versions, the devil, Greek diabolos ) is frequently mentioned in the NT. He is described as a deceiver but also as a robber, a liar, a murderer, a roaring lion, and one who constantly seeks to harm God’s children. He wants to prevent people from hearing about God and his Word (Mark 4:15; Luke 8:12; Acts 13:8–10), lie to people that they can access God, not through Christ but by their own good works (like the Jewish leaders in John 8:43–44), and discredit any who are followers of Christ (Ephesians 6:11; 1 Peter 5:8; James 4:7). He keeps unbelievers in his sway so they will not come to Christ (Acts 26:18; 2 Timothy 2:26) and uses the fear of death as his chief weapon (Hebrews 2:14–15). He even causes physical harm to people to keep them in bondage (Luke 13:16) and prevented Paul from returning to Thessalonica for a while to hinder the gospel (1 Thessalonians 2:18).

One of the most telling passages about Satan is John 8:42–47 (especially verse 44). This passage sheds light on Satan’s designs but also reinforces who the serpent in Eden was. Let’s look closely at this passage.

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

When Satan deceived Eve, he lied about what God said and meant (Genesis 3:4–5). He knew that this would cause Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and likely cause her to give some to Adam, who also ate (Genesis 3:6). He was a murderer from the beginning because death entered the world at that point (Genesis 3:19; Romans 5:12, 18–21), and he was the instigator. He continues to lie, using false apostles and prophets and deceitful philosophies (Colossians 2:8, 15).

So Who Is Satan?

Satan was/is a fallen cherub and rebelled against God because of his pride. He likely wanted more power and responsibility and was not content with being a ministering servant to humans (Psalm 104:4; Hebrews 1:13–14).

Satan is, ultimately, a defeated enemy who is doing his best to take as many people as possible to hell with him.

Christians have always understood Genesis 3:15 (often referred to as the protoevangelium) to be the first prophecy of the Messiah, who would be the Savior of the world. Satan did bruise Jesus on the heel (from a human perspective) by moving men to crucify him. But Jesus knew about his upcoming death, telling his disciples beforehand (Matthew 20:18–19), and he submitted to the Father’s will (Matthew 26:39; Philippians 2:8). However, this was only a temporary wound, for Jesus rose from the dead. But the same act by which Satan thought he had defeated Jesus Christ was the very act by which Jesus destroyed the power of Satan. His resurrection was the proof and seal of that victory, granting us access to heaven through Christ’s atonement (Romans 5:9–11; Colossians 1:21–22; 1 Peter 1:3–4).

Satan is, ultimately, a defeated enemy who is doing his best to take as many people as possible to hell with him. We can rejoice in Jesus’ victory and participate in that victory by taking the good news to as many people as we can.

Source: Satan: His Past, His Present, and His Future

Wellness Cannot Save You | The Log College

Wellness Cannot Save You

How Wellness and Mental Health can be confused with the Gospel

O. ALAN NOBLE; OCT 31, 2025

Photo by Kaylee Garrett on Unsplash

I recently had the treat of listening to my friend and fellow Keller Center fellow 

John Starke

 give a talk in which he mentioned that contemporary people tend to view wellness as a form of salvation or an alternative gospel. I immediately felt convicted because in so many of my newsletters I have stressed the importance of mental health and healing. I hope I have always done so with the greatest good of God in mind, but I understood John’s point. There is a general cultural drive to see wellness as the Greatest Good, as the Good Life, as our telos. And for all my writing about the importance of pursuing recovery and healing in our lives, I think it’s even more important that we relativize that goal in relation to our need for Christ. The risk is that we come to see our physical or mental health healing as an ultimate goal which, if we can only reach it, will bring us to a place of shalom and wholeness and peace before God. And I fear that if we don’t rightly order our pursuit of healing, we will put a burden on health which it cannot bear. Our health will never satisfy our longings and will make us bitter and anxious for more cures, more treatments, more diagnoses to bring us closer to the elusive wellness. It is only when we see the pursuit of and union with Christ as our telos and health as a good that can be rightly ordered toward that end that we have the freedom to pursue health without making it a false idol. 

Wellness as an idol is easy to worship, I think, because no one wants to feel bad. And the dream of being well, being well-adjusted, being cured, being restored, or being healed is so desirable. You wake up sore, anxious, depressed, aching, in pain, or whatever the problem may be, and you think to yourself, “If I could only get over this problem, my life would be good.” And in some tangible ways, that’s true. Your quality of life would improve. But the good you imagine comes to be more than those quality of life improvements over time. It’s more than about dealing with diagnosable ailments; wellness is actually about optimizing the mind and body for contemporary life. Yoga, meditation, breathing exercises, supplements, Andrew Huberman, and so on. The quest is a quest of technique. And you feel a little anxious if you are falling behind on the project of fixing yourself into wellness. 

Of course a major component of that is mental health. I was reading an article recentlywere the CEO of Replika, a AI Chatbot company, bragged about seeing a therapist three hours a week. And while I’m certain that some people need that level of care for medical reasons, this CEO seemed to be doing it out of pleasure. She described herself affectionately as a “therapy junkie.” I do worry that for some individuals therapy has become a kind of hobby, a self-absorbed hobby. There’s a desperation here to hunt for every inch of maladjusted parts of yourself so that they can be reintegrated into the greater whole. While that may sound noble, it’s actually quixotic, particularly the desperation. No one is completely mentally whole in this life. We’re all fallen. That is the nature of things. And whether we can afford to see a therapist three times a week, or four, or five will not ultimately save us from that fallenness. 

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The appeal to wellness is the allusive dream that one day you may be holistically well enough to live at perfect peace with the universe. It is a desire for shalom. And people will spend billions of dollars a year chasing after it. But as I said earlier, health cannot bear the burden of godhead. It is insufficient. It will come crashing down on us.

If you look to your mental wellbeing for eternal hope, then you will grow bitter and frustrated as treatments fail to bring you to the place of serenity. They always fall just a little bit short. When your recovery slows down, when you have a lapse or a relapse, when you struggle, it won’t just be a difficult part of your mental health journey, it will be an existential crisis. Because your hope will be tied to your mental health. And the same is true for your physical health. 

Ultimately, we must come to see our health as a genuine good, but one that is subservient to the greatest good, God. Our health glorifies God and blesses our neighbor, and so we should take care of ourselves. We are God’s good creation, so we have a duty to care for that creation (Ephesians 2:10). Our bodies are a temple of the Holy Spirit, so we have a duty to care for that temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). We are called to love ourselves as God first loved us, so that love should manifest in care for ourselves (1 John 4:19). Working toward your healing whether mental or physical, praying and striving for it, is good. Living a temperate life is good. But all of those “goods” serve one greater good, and that is knowing and loving and glorifying God. 

What good does it do you to be “well-adjusted” while you wallow in pornography or greed? What good does it do you to be physically fit while you puff yourself up with vanity, pride, and elitism? What good does it do you to have low anxiety, great breath control, and mental balance if your heart is cold to Christ and your neighbor? 

None.

When you suffer mentally or physically, you can become so fixated on recovery that it becomes your standard for the Good Life. And once it becomes your Good Life, it can take over your horizon. It’s what you dream about, think about, desire, and work toward. While it is proper and good to desire recovery, it is also true that when you recover, you will still be a sinner in need of a Savior, just as you are now. It will still be true that the greatest need you have is for one to save you from your sins.

So it’s worth asking, what vision of the Good Life have you allowed yourself to adopt? Does it include recovery or healing, or is it solely defined by those things? Does it include temperate living, or is it defined by Wellness? Does it have, at its core, our union with Christ and the delight that gives us? Or does it only offer you more ways of self-improving yourself to death?

November 1 Evening Verse of the Day

THE PROGRESS OF SALVATION

For whom He foreknew, He also predestined … and whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. (8:29a–b, 30)

In delineating the progress of God’s plan of salvation, Paul here briefly states what may be called its five major elements: foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification.
It is essential to realize that these five links in the chain of God’s saving work are unbreakable. With the repetition of the connecting phrase He also, Paul accentuates that unity by linking each element to the previous one. No one whom God foreknows will fail to be predestined, called, justified, and glorified by Him. It is also significant to note the tense in which the apostle states each element of God’s saving work. Paul is speaking here of the Lord’s redemptive work from eternity past to eternity future. What he says is true of all believers of all times. Security in Christ is so absolute and unalterable that even the salvation of believers not yet born can be expressed in the past tense, as if it had already occurred. Because God is not bound by time as we are, there is a sense in which the elements not only are sequential but simultaneous. Thus, from His view they are distinct and in another sense are indistinguishable. God has made each of them an indispensable part of the unity of our salvation.

FOREKNOWLEDGE

For whom He foreknew, (8:29a)

Redemption began with God’s foreknowledge. A believer is first of all someone whom He [God] foreknew. Salvation is not initiated by a person’s decision to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Scripture is clear that repentant faith is essential to salvation and is the first step that we take in response to God, but repentant faith does not initiate salvation. Because Paul is here depicting the plan of salvation from God’s perspective, faith is not even mentioned in these two verses.
In His omniscience God is certainly able to look to the end of history and beyond and to know in advance the minutest detail of the most insignificant occurrences. But it is both unbiblical and illogical to argue from that truth that the Lord simply looked ahead to see who would believe and then chose those particular individuals for salvation. If that were true, salvation not only would begin with man’s faith but would make God obligated to grant it. In such a scheme, God’s initiative would be eliminated and His grace would be vitiated.
That idea also prompts such questions as, “Why then does God create unbelievers if He knows in advance they are going to reject Him?” and “Why doesn’t He create only believers?” Another unanswerable question would be, “If God based salvation on His advance knowledge of those who would believe, where did their saving faith come from?” It could not arise from their fallen natures, because the natural, sinful person is at enmity with God (Rom. 5:10; 8:7; Eph. 2:3; Col. 1:21). There is absolutely nothing in man’s carnal nature to prompt him to trust in the God against whom he is rebelling. The unsaved person is blind and dead to the things of God. He has absolutely no source of saving faith within himself. “A natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God,” Paul declares; “for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (1 Cor. 2:14). “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4).
The full truth about God’s omniscience cannot be comprehended even by believers. No matter how much we may love God and study His Word, we cannot fathom such mysteries. We can only believe what the Bible clearly says—that God does indeed foresee the faith of every person who is saved. We also believe God’s revelation that, although men cannot be saved apart from the faithful action of their wills, saving faith, just as every other part of salvation, originates with and is empowered by God alone.
While He was preaching in Galilee early in His ministry, Jesus said, “All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out” (John 6:37). But lest that statement be interpreted as leaving open the possibility of coming to Him apart from the Father’s sending, Jesus later declared categorically that “No one can come to Me, unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (v. 44). New life through the blood of Christ does not come from “the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13).
Paul also explains that even faith does not originate with the believer but with God. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast” (Eph. 2:8–9).
God’s foreknowledge is not a reference to His omniscient foresight but to His foreordination. He not only sees faith in advance but ordains it in advance. Peter had the same reality in mind when he wrote of Christians as those “who are chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (1 Pet. 1:1–2). Peter used the same word “foreknowledge” when he wrote that Christ “was foreknown before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet. 1:20). The term means the same thing in both places. Believers were foreknown in the same way Christ was foreknown. That cannot mean foreseen, but must refer to a predetermined choice by God. It is the knowing of predetermined intimate relationship, as when God said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you” (Jer. 1:5). Jesus spoke of the same kind of knowing when He said, “I am the good shepherd; and I know My own” (John 10:14).
Because saving faith is foreordained by God, it would have to be that the way of salvation was foreordained, as indeed it was. During his sermon at Pentecost, Peter declared of Christ: “This Man, delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death” (Acts 2:23). “Predetermined” is from horizō, from which we get the English horizon, which designates the outer limits of the earth that we can see from a given vantage point. The basic idea of the Greek term refers to the setting of any boundaries or limits. “Plan” is from boulē, a term used in classical Greek to designate an officially convened, decision-making counsel. Both words include the idea of willful intention. “Foreknowledge” is from the noun form of the verb translated foreknew in our text. According to what Greek scholars refer to as Granville Sharp’s rule, if two nouns of the same case (in this instance, “plan” and “foreknowledge”) are connected by kai (“and”) and have the definite article (the) before the first noun but not before the second, the nouns refer to the same thing (H. E. Dana and Julius R. Mantey, A Manual Grammar of the Greek New Testament [New York: Macmillan, 1927], p. 147). In other words, Peter equates God’s predetermined plan, or foreordination, and His foreknowledge.
In addition to the idea of foreordination, the term foreknowledge also connotes forelove. God has a predetermined divine love for those He plans to save.
Foreknew is from proginōskō, a compound word with meaning beyond that of simply knowing beforehand. In Scripture, “to know” often carries the idea of special intimacy and is frequently used of a love relationship. In the statement “Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived” (Gen. 4:17), the word behind “had relations with” is the normal Hebrew verb for knowing. It is the same word translated “chosen” in Amos 3:2, where the Lord says to Israel, “You only have I chosen among all the families of the earth.” God “knew” Israel in the unique sense of having predetermined that she would be His chosen people. In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth, “kept her a virgin” (NASB) translates a Greek phrase meaning literally, “did not know her” (Matt. 1:25). Jesus used the same word when He warned, “Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness’ ” (Matt. 7:23). He was not saying that He had never heard of those unbelievers but that He had no intimate relationship with them as their Savior and Lord. But of believers, Paul says, “The Lord knows those who are His” (2 Tim. 2:19).

PREDESTINATION

He also predestined (8:29b)

From foreknowledge, which looks at the beginning of God’s purpose in His act of choosing, God’s plan of redemption moves to His predestination, which looks at the end of God’s purpose in His act of choosing. Proorizō (predestined) means literally to mark out, appoint, or determine beforehand. The Lord has predetermined the destiny of every person who will believe in Him. Just as Jesus was crucified “by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God” (Acts 2:23), so God also has predestined every believer to salvation through the means of that atoning sacrifice.
In their prayer of gratitude for the deliverance of Peter and John, a group of believers in Jerusalem praised God for His sovereign power, declaring, “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Thy holy servant Jesus, whom Thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Thy hand and Thy purpose predestined to occur” (Acts 4:27–28). In other words, the evil and powerful men who nailed Jesus to the cross could not have so much as laid a finger on Him were that not according to God’s predetermined plan.
In the opening of his letter to the Ephesian believers, Paul encouraged them with the glorious truth that God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will” (Eph. 1:4–5).
Much contemporary evangelism gives the impression that salvation is predicated on a person’s decision for Christ. But we are not Christians first of all because of what we decided about Christ but because of what God decided about us before the foundation of the world. We were able to choose Him only because He had first chosen us, “according to the kind intention of His will.” Paul expresses the same truth a few verses later when he says, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him” (Eph. 1:7–9, emphasis added). He then says that “we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will” (v. 11).

CALLING

and whom He predestined, these He also called; (8:30a)

In God’s divine plan of redemption, predestination leads to calling. Although God’s calling is also completely by His initiative, it is here that His eternal plan directly intersects our lives in time. Those who are called are those in whose hearts the Holy Spirit works to lead them to saving faith in Christ.
As noted under the discussion of verse 28, Paul is speaking in this passage about God’s inward call, not the outward call that comes from the proclamation of the gospel. The outward call is essential, because “How shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard?” (Rom. 10:14), but that outward call cannot be responded to in faith apart from God’s already having inwardly called the person through His Spirit.
The Lord’s sovereign calling of believers gives still further confirmation that we are eternally secure in Christ. We were saved because God “called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity” (2 Tim. 1:9). Emphasizing the same truths of the Lord’s sovereign purpose in His calling of believers, Paul assured the Thessalonians that “God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. And it was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 2:13–14). From beginning to end, our salvation is God’s work, not our own. Consequently, we cannot humanly undo what He has divinely done. That is the basis of our security.
It should be strongly emphasized, however, that Scripture nowhere teaches that God chooses unbelievers for condemnation. To our finite minds, that what would seem to be the corollary of God’s calling believers to salvation. But in the divine scheme of things, which far surpasses our understanding, God predestines believers to eternal life, but Scripture does not say that He predestines unbelievers to eternal damnation. Although those two truths seem paradoxical to us, we can be sure that they are in perfect divine harmony.
Scripture teaches many truths that seem paradoxical and contradictory. It teaches plainly that God is one, but just as plainly that there are three persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—in the single Godhead. With equal unambiguity the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man. Our finite minds cannot reconcile such seemingly irreconcilable truths, yet they are foundational truths of God’s Word.
If a person goes to hell, it is because He rejects God and His way of salvation. “He who believes in Him [Christ] is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:18). As John has declared earlier in his gospel, believers are saved and made children of God “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). But he makes no corresponding statement in regard to unbelievers, nor does any other part of Scripture. Unbelievers are condemned by their own unbelief, not by God’s predestination.
Peter makes plain that God does not desire “for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). Paul declares with equal clarity: “God our Savior … desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:3–4). Every believer is indebted solely to God’s grace for his eternal salvation, but every unbeliever is himself solely responsible for his eternal damnation.
God does not choose believers for salvation on the basis of who they are or of what they have done but on the basis of His sovereign grace. For His own reasons alone, God chose Jacob above Esau (Rom. 9:13). For His own reasons alone, He chose Israel to be His covenant people (Deut. 7:7–8).
We cannot understand God’s choosing us for salvation but can only thank and glorify Him for “His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:6). We can only believe and be forever grateful that we were called “by the grace of Christ” (Gal. 1:6) and that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom. 11:29).

JUSTIFICATION

and whom He called, these He also justified; (8:30b)

The next element of God’s saving work is justification of those who believe. After they are called by God, they are also justified by Him. And just as foreknowledge, predestination, and calling are the exclusive work of God, so is justification.
Because justification is discussed in considerable detail in chapters 17–18 of this volume, it is necessary here simply to point out that justified refers to a believer’s being made right with God by God. Because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” men can only be “justified as a gift by [God’s] grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 3:24).

GLORIFICATION

and whom He justified, these He also glorified. (8:30c)

As with foreknowledge, predestination, calling, and justification, glorification is inseparable from the other elements and is exclusively a work of God.
In saying that those whom He justified, these He also glorified, Paul again emphasizes the believer’s eternal security. As noted above, no one whom God foreknows will fail to be predestined, called, justified, and ultimately glorified. As believers, we know with absolute certainty that awaiting us is “an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison” (2 Cor. 4:17).
Ultimate glory has been a recurring theme throughout Paul’s epistle to the Romans. In 5:2 he wrote, “We exult in hope of the glory of God.” In 8:18 he said, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” He anticipated that marvelous day when “creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (8:21).
To the Thessalonians Paul wrote that our ultimate glorification is the very purpose for which we are redeemed: “It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thess. 2:14).
This promise of final glory was no uncertain hope as far as Paul was concerned. By putting the phrase these He also glorified in the past tense, the apostle demonstrated his own conviction that everyone whom He justified is eternally secure. Those who “obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus [receive] with it eternal glory” (2 Tim. 2:10). That is God’s own guarantee.

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1991). Romans (Vol. 1, pp. 494–500). Moody Press.

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God’s Effectual Call

Romans 8:30

And those he predestined, he also called.…

My wife Linda and I have many different personality traits, which is a natural thing for husbands and wives, and one of them is the way we respond to someone’s call. If we are walking down the street and someone calls out so that we can hear the voice but cannot quite distinguish the words, my wife assumes that the person is calling her and turns around. I assume that the person is calling someone else and keep on going. The same thing is true if a driver of a car blows the horn. I ignore it; it must be for someone else. Linda thinks someone is trying to get her attention.
I do not know what that says about the two of us, perhaps only that Linda is more “people oriented” than I am and that I am more “task oriented” than she is. But it is an interesting observation in view of the word we need to look at in this study. The word is “called,” and it occurs in the statement that “those he [that is, God] predestined, he also called …” (Rom. 8:30).
This word is the next link in the great golden chain of salvation by which God reaches down from eternity into time to save sinners. The point of this word, the third link, is that, unlike myself but like Linda, those whom God calls not only hear his call but actually respond to it by turning around and by believing on Jesus Christ or committing their lives to him.

Calling: External and Internal

But we need to back up at this point and review a distinction I made two studies ago, when I first introduced the golden chain. It is the difference between a call of men and women that is merely external, general, and (in itself) ineffective for salvation, and a call that is internal, specific, and regenerating.
The first call is an open invitation to all persons to repent of their sin and turn to Jesus. As I have mentioned, it was spoken by Jesus himself in many places. For example, he said in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” In Matthew 16:24 he explained, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” He said in John 7:37, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.”
This last invitation was spoken in Jerusalem on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, when people from many lands and nationalities were assembled. There were Jews from every part of Palestine as well as from many regions of the Roman Empire. There were also Gentiles, some who had become Jewish proselytes but also some who, no doubt, were merely interested bystanders. We get a feeling of what this audience must have been like by remembering the composition of the crowd that had assembled at Pentecost when Peter preached the first sermon of the Christian era, likewise extending a general call to all to believe on Jesus. We are told that on that occasion Jerusalem was filled with “Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans and Arabs …” (Acts 2:9–11).
When Jesus (and later Peter) called such people to faith, the call was universal. It was (and is) for everyone. Anyone who wishes can come to Jesus Christ and be saved.
Today that same call flows from every true Christian pulpit and from all who bear witness to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in every land.
The difficulty with this external, universal, and (in itself) ineffectual call, however, is that if people are left to themselves, no one ever actually responds to it. People hear the gospel and may even understand it up to a point. But the God who issues the invitation is undesirable to them, and so they turn away. Jesus told a story about a man who had prepared a great banquet and invited many guests (Luke 14:15–24). When the feast was prepared he sent servants with the invitation: “Come, for everything is now ready.” But the guests all began to make excuses.
“I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it,” said one.
“I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out,” said another.
A third replied, “I just got married, so I can’t come.”
That is the way it truly is, since Jesus was not making up this story out of thin air. That was the way the people of his day responded to his general call. They would not accept his invitation. They rejected it, preferring to go their own ways and about their own business.
One of the great newspaper organizations in this country is the Howard organization, and if you are acquainted with it, you may also be aware of the Howard Company logo. It is a lighthouse beneath which are the words: “Give the people the light, and they will find their way.” The idea is that people make foolish mistakes and bad decisions because they do not know the right way. Show it to them and they will follow it, is what the motto means. But that is not the way the Bible describes our condition spiritually. When Jesus was in the world he was the world’s light. The light was shining. But the men of his day did not respond to Jesus by walking in the right path. Instead they hated the light and tried to put it out. They crucified the lighthouse.
This is how people still respond to the universal invitation. It is why Jesus said, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19). It is why Paul wrote, “There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God” (Rom. 3:11). And it is why Jesus declared, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him …” (John 6:44).
But this is where the second kind of call comes in, the kind that is actually spoken of in Romans 8:30. Unlike the first call, which was external, universal, and (in itself) ineffective, this second call is internal, specific, and entirely effective. In other words, it effectively saves those—and all those—to whom it is spoken.
The best discussion of the effectual call I know is in John Murray’s small classic, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, where he begins by making the distinction I have just made, showing that there is such a thing as a general or universal call and that there are examples of it in the Bible. But then he points out rightly that “in the New Testament the terms for calling, when used with reference to salvation, are almost uniformly applied, not to the universal call of the gospel, but to the call that ushers men into a state of salvation and is therefore effectual. There is scarcely an instance where the terms are used to designate the indiscriminate overture of grace in the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Here are some examples:
Romans 1:6–7—“And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.… called to be saints.”
Romans 11:29—“For God’s gifts and his call are irrevocable.”
First Corinthians 1:9—“God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.”
Ephesians 4:1—“As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”
Second Timothy 1:8–9—“So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, who has saved us and called us to a holy life.…”
Second Peter 1:10—“Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure.…”
In each of these texts and many others, including our text in Romans 8:30, the call of God is one that effectively saves those to whom it is addressed. Putting the above texts together, it is a call that unites us to Jesus Christ, bringing us into fellowship with him, and sets before us a holy life in which we will be sure to walk if we have truly been called. Putting the call into the context of Romans 8, it is the point at which the eternal foreknowledge and predestination of God pass over into time and start the process by which the individual is drawn from sin to faith in Jesus Christ, is justified through that faith, and is then kept in Christ until his or her final glorification.
Effectual calling is the central and key point in this great golden chain of five links.

The Power of God’s Call

Now that we have distinguished between the external and internal calls, we need to ask why it is that the internal or specific call is so effective. Why does it bring those who hear it to salvation? The answer is not at all difficult to find. The reason the effective call is effective is that it is God’s call. It issues from his mouth, and all that issues from the mouth of God accomplishes precisely that for which he sent it.
This is what Isaiah 55:10–11 teaches us, when it records God as saying:

“As the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return to it without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
  so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
  It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
  and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”

God’s words are always effective. They accomplish their purpose. But to be faithful to our text we need to point out that what we are dealing with in Romans 8:30, in terms of God’s calling of sinners, is a call to salvation rather than another purpose. So we need to ask exactly how the effective call of God works in the achieving of this goal.
The chief thing the effective call of God in salvation does is to cause the regeneration, or rebirth, of the one thus summoned. In the study by John Murray that I referred to earlier, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, Murray says that it does not make much difference whether we put regeneration before effectual calling, or effectual calling before regeneration, since the critical determining act is God’s in any case. But when the relevant texts are carefully considered, the order nevertheless seems to be as I have indicated. That is, God calls the individual with a specific and effective call, and the call itself produces new spiritual life in the one who hears it, on the basis of which he or she is enabled to respond to the gospel.
In my judgment, the best illustration of how this works is that of the raising of Lazarus from the dead recounted in John 11, the illustration I introduced in the earlier, introductory study of these terms. We are encouraged to take it as an illustration, because it is in the midst of this story and in obvious reference to it that Jesus utters the well-known words, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die …” (vv. 25–26).
What happens in this story? Jesus comes to the tomb of Lazarus and calls out to this dead man, “Lazarus, come out!” and Lazarus does. Clearly the call of Jesus created life in the formerly dead corpse, as a result of which Lazarus responded to Jesus by emerging from the tomb.
That is what happens when God calls us to salvation. His call creates spiritual life in the one called, and the proof that spiritual life is there is that we respond to him. How do we respond? We respond by turning from sin—the theological word is repentance—and by believing on Jesus Christ. In other words, the call of God produces life in the sinner, just as the word of God brought the heavens and earth into existence at the very beginning of creation. The first evidences of that new life are repentance from sin and faith in Jesus.
A moment ago I said that, according to John Murray, it makes little practical difference whether we put regeneration before calling, or calling before regeneration, and that is probably true, though the correct biblical picture seems to be calling first, then regeneration. However, this is not the case in regard to regeneration or calling, on the one hand, and faith and repentance on the other. In this case, the calling of God necessarily comes before the fruit of that calling. It is only after God calls and regenerates that one repents of sin and believes the gospel.
Which comes first, faith or life? The person who knows the Bible answers, “Life.” Otherwise, salvation would depend on ourselves and our own ability, and none of the certainties that Paul is speaking about in Romans 8 would be possible.

Some Important Observations

There are a few important qualifications and observations on what I have been saying, and it would be a mistake to overlook them. Let me list three briefly.

1. Two responses. I said earlier that the trouble with the general call is that men and women do not naturally respond to it, meaning that they do not become Christians by this call alone. But I need to balance this by adding that, although they do not respond to the call of God unto salvation, they nevertheless can respond superficially by such outward things as coming forward at a religious meeting, making outward profession of faith, or even joining a church. And not only can they, many do. That is why Peter says in the text quoted earlier, “Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure …” (2 Peter 1:10). He means that we must be sure that we really have been called by God and are truly born again, and have not merely been called by the preacher.
   Donald Grey Barnhouse, one of my predecessors as minister of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia (1927–1960), wrote: If men heed no more than the outward call, they become members of the visible church. If the inward call is heard in our hearts, we become members of the invisible church. The first call unites us merely to a group of professing members; but the inward call unites us to Christ himself, and to all that have been born again.
   The outward call may bring with it a certain intellectual knowledge of the truth; the inward call brings us the faith of the heart, the hope which anchors us forever to Christ and the love which must ever draw us back to him who first loved us. The one can end in formalism, the other in true life. The outward call may curb the tendencies of the old nature and keep a soul in outward morality; the inward call will cure the plague that is in us and bring us on to triumph in Christ.
2. The importance of the general call. My second qualification concerns the importance of the general call. Everything I have said thus far has stressed the necessity of the special, or internal, call of the individual to salvation by God. I have said that no one naturally responds to God on the basis of the general call alone. But now I need to add that although that is true, it is nevertheless also true that the general call is necessary, since it is through the general, or universal, call that God calls specifically.
   Let me say it this way: The effectual or specific call comes through the general call. That is, it is through the preaching of the Word by God’s evangelists and ministers and through the telling of the Good News of the gospel by Christians everywhere that God calls sinners. He does not call everyone we Christians call. We sow the seed broadly; some of it falls on stony or shallow soil, just as some of it also falls on good soil. But when the seed falls on the soil God has previously prepared and when God, the giver of life, blesses the work of sowing—so that the seed takes root in the good soil and grows—the result is a spiritual harvest. People are saved, and they do pass into that great chain of God’s saving acts, including foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and glorification, that is outlined in the eighth chapter of Romans.
   Let me put it still another way. If God calls effectively through the general call, it is as necessary that there be a general call if some are to be saved as it is that there be a specific and effectual call. Our call does not regenerate. God alone is the author of the new birth. All must be born “from above.” Nevertheless, the way God does that is through the sowing of the seed of his Word, which is entrusted to us.
   Nobody but God could invent this way of saving human beings. If it were left to us, we would say that either (1) God has to do it; we can do nothing, or (2) we have to do it; God can do nothing. As it is, the work of effectively calling people to Christ is of God, yet using human beings.
3. Am I elect? There is this last qualification. Sometimes people get bogged down by the subject of God’s foreknowledge and predestination, and they end up saying, “Well, if God is going to elect me to salvation, he will just have to do it. There is nothing I can do.” Or else they get hung up on knowing whether or not they are elect. They say, “How can I know I am elect? If I am not, there is no hope for me,” and they despair. This question bothered John Bunyan, the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress, for a long time and caused extraordinary despair in him.
   But there is no reason for either such passivity or such despair. How do you know whether or not you are elect? The answer lies in another question: Have you responded to the gospel? In other words, have you answered God’s call?
   How do we know that the patriarch Abraham was an elect man? It is because, when God called to him to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go to a land that he would afterward inherit, Abraham “obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going” (Heb. 11:8), and because he persevered in that obedience to the very end of his life.
   How do we know that Moses was predestined to be saved? It is because, though raised in the lap of Egyptian luxury, when he had grown up he “refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,” choosing “to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time” (Heb. 11:24–25). He sided with God’s people.
   How do we know that Paul was elected to salvation? It is because, though breathing out hatred against God’s people and trying to kill some of them, when Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, calling, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” the future apostle to the Gentiles was transformed. He saw his sin and turned from it. He saw the righteousness of Christ and believed on Jesus. He obeyed and served God from that time on. Moreover, when he wrote about salvation later, as he did in the letter to the Romans, he showed beyond any doubt that it was not he who chose God, but rather God who chose him and called him to be Christ’s follower.
   How do you know if you are among the elect?
   There is only one way, and it is not by trying to peer into the eternal counsels of God, stripping the cover from the book of his divine foreknowledge and predestination. The only way you will ever know if you are among the elect is if you respond to the gospel. We are told in the Bible: “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved …” (Acts 16:31). Do it. Then you can know that God has set his electing love on you and that, having loved you, he will continue to love you and keep you to the end.
   Will you believe? It would be a delight if God would use this study of the effectual call to call you effectually.

Justification and Glorification

Romans 8:30

… those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Anyone who is involved in a business of any size knows the necessity of a long-range plan. There are one-year plans, five-year plans, and even ten-year plans. The longer these plans are the more often they need to be reviewed, revised, and updated. An executive who can create an accurate long-range plan, foreseeing most of the contingencies that will affect the company in future years, and then keep on top of it, is an extremely valuable asset to his or her organization.
We have been studying a long-range plan, in fact, the longest-range plan that has ever been devised or could be devised. It is a plan that has had its origins in eternity past and will find its consummation in eternity future. It is all-embracing. Everything that has ever happened or ever will happen in history is part of it. And it is utterly certain. So detailed is this plan and so wisely is it drafted that nothing will ever arise to upset it or even cause an alternative plan to be necessary. Of course, I am speaking of the plan of God outlined for us in Romans 8:28–30.
This plan begins with God’s foreknowledge and predestination, expresses itself in time in the calling of individuals to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, includes justification, and ends in glorification, when these foreknown and predestined persons are made entirely like Jesus. We are to look at the last two steps of the plan in this study.

Justification by Faith

The first term we need to look at is justification, but we do not need to study it in detail here, since it was the chief focus of our study in volume one and has been mentioned many times since.
Justification is the opposite of condemnation. When a person is in a wrong relationship to the law and is condemned or pronounced guilty by the judge, condemnation does not make the person guilty. The person is only declared to be so. In the same way, in justification a person is declared by God to be in a right relationship to his law, but not made righteous. In a human court a person can be declared righteous or “innocent” on the basis of his or her own righteousness. But in God’s court, since we humans have no righteousness of our own and are therefore not innocent, believers are declared righteous on the ground of Christ’s atonement.
It helps to realize that the full New Testament doctrine is not merely justification alone, though this is the only word Paul uses in his abbreviated listing of it in Romans 8, but justification by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
That definition has four parts.

1. The source of our justification is the grace of God (Rom. 3:24). Since “there is no one righteous, not even one” (Rom. 3:10), it is clear that no one can make or declare himself or herself “righteous” (v. 20). How, then, is salvation possible? It is possible only if God does the work for us—which is what “grace” means, since we do not deserve God’s working. Paul frequently emphasizes this by adding the words free or freely to “grace,” which is redundant but nevertheless strong writing.
2. The ground of our justification is the work of Christ (Rom 3:25). We saw this in volume one in our discussion of the word propitiation. It is because this work has been done that God has been able to justify us justly.
   “Justification,” writes John R. W. Stott, “is not a synonym for amnesty, which strictly is pardon without principle, a forgiveness which overlooks—even forgets (amnēstia is ‘forgetfulness’)—wrongdoing and declines to bring it to justice. No, justification is an act of justice, of gracious justice.… When God justifies sinners, he is not declaring bad people to be good, or saying that they are not sinners after all; he is pronouncing them legally righteous, free from any liability to the broken law, because he himself in his Son has born the penalty of their law-breaking.… In other words, we are ‘justified by his blood.’ ”
3. The means of our justification is faith (Rom. 3:25–26). Faith is the channel by which justification becomes ours. This is not mentioned in the chain of God’s saving actions listed in Romans 8:29–30, but it is the fruit of God’s effectual calling and its result, which is regeneration. When we are born again we show it by repenting of sin and turning to Jesus Christ in faith, believing that he is our Savior.
   Two things should be said about faith.
   First, faith is not a good work. It is necessary, essential. But it is not a good work. In fact, it is not a work at all. Faith is God’s gift, as Paul makes clear in Ephesians 2:8–9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”
   Second, although faith is the means of our justification, it is also the only means. Luther expressed this by the words sola fide (“by faith alone”), thus adding a word not present in the text of Scripture but by it nevertheless catching the essence of the idea. Clearly, if faith is not a good work but only receiving what God has done for us and freely offers to us, then it is by faith alone that we can be justified, all other acts or works being excluded by definition. The only means by which any person can ever be justified is by believing God and receiving what he offers.
4. The effect of our justification is union with Christ. This idea was developed fully in Romans 5 and in an earlier section of chapter 8. It is the ground of the benefits of our salvation unfolded in Romans 5:1–11 and of our victory over sin elaborated in Romans 5:12–8:17.
   Stott explains it this way: To say that we are justified “through Christ” points to his historical death; to say that we are justified “in Christ” points to the personal relationship with him which by faith we now enjoy. This simple fact makes it impossible for us to think of justification as a purely external transaction; it cannot be isolated from our union with Christ and all the benefits which this brings. The first is membership of the Messianic community of Jesus. If we are in Christ and therefore justified, we are also the children of God and the true (spiritual) descendants of Abraham.… Secondly, this new community, to create which Christ gave himself on the cross, is to be “eager to do what is good,” and its members are to devote themselves to good works.…
   To be sure, we can say with Paul that the law condemned us. But “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Hope of Glory

Glorification, the fifth and final term of Romans 8:29–30, is also a word we have studied earlier. In fact, we met the term as early as Romans 5:2 (which anticipates Rom. 8:28–30), where Paul spoke of Christians as rejoicing “in the hope of the glory of God.”
What does Romans 5:2 mean?
It means that we know that one day we will be glorified and that we rejoice in this certainty. That is, we know that we will be like Jesus. He is God and is therefore like God in all respects; we will be like him. We will not become God, of course. But we will become like him in his communicable attributes: love, joy, peace, mercy, wisdom, faithfulness, grace, goodness, self-control and other such things (see Gal. 5:22–23). In that day sin will no longer trouble us, and we will enjoy the complete fullness and eternal favor of God’s presence.
When does glorification take place?
There is a sense in which much of it takes place when we die, for then we will be freed from sin, which has taken up residence in our bodies, and will be like Christ. As John wrote, “… we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). Yet I am sure John Murray is right when he insists in his treatment of this word that, in its fullest sense, glorification awaits the return of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of our bodies. In fact, the text in 1 John, which I have just quoted, says this. It does not say simply that “we shall be like him.” It says, “When he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
Here is how Murray puts it:

1. Glorification is associated and bound up with the coming of Christ in glory.… So indispensable is the coming of the Lord to the hope of glory that glorification for the believer has no meaning without the manifestation of Christ’s glory. Glorification is glorification with Christ. Remove the latter and we have robbed the glorification of believers of the one thing that enables them to look forward to this event with confidence.…
2. The glorification of believers is associated and bound up with the renewal of creation. [This is the teaching of Romans 8:19–22, which we studied earlier. In those verses the glorification of our bodies, which means their resurrection, and the renewal of creation are placed together.]
   When we think of glorification, then, it is no narrow perspective that we entertain. It is a renewed cosmos, new heavens and new earth, that we must think of as the context of the believers’ glory, a cosmos delivered from all the consequences of sin, in which there will be no more curse but in which righteousness will have complete possession and undisturbed habitation. “And there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life” (Rev. 21:27). “And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be on their foreheads” (Rev. 22:3, 4).

Past Tense, Future Blessing

The most striking feature of Paul’s mention of glorification in Romans 8:30 is that it is in the past (aorist) tense, a fact noted when I first introduced this chain of words three studies back. Since glorification is clearly future from our perspective, this requires explanation.
Some commentators think that here Paul departs from strict accuracy or logic in order to stress the absolute certainty of this future event. That is, it is so assured that it can be spoken of as if it were past. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones says this, writing, “The Apostle’s argument is that, as we know most certainly that we have been called and justified, we can be equally certain of our glorification. Nothing can prevent it because it is a part of God’s purpose for us.” Likewise Leon Morris: “So certain is it that it can be spoken of as already accomplished. It is in the plan of God, and that means that it is as good as here.”
Other scholars call this use of the past tense an aorist of anticipation or a prophetic aorist, which is almost the same thing. Since God has decreed it, it will happen and can be considered as having happened. Charles Hodge inclines to this explanation when he says, “God … sees the end from the beginning … so that in predestinating us, he at the same time, in effect, called, justified and glorified us, as all these were included in his purpose.”
F. Godet is also helpful, though to my way of thinking his explanation is probably not quite what Paul has in mind here. He reminds us that there is a sense in which we have been glorified. That is, our federal head Jesus Christ has been glorified, and we are glorified in him. If this is the case, the verse would be matched by Ephesians 2:6, where Paul teaches that “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” This does not mean merely that taking our place in heaven is a future certainty but that we have actually already been seated in heaven in the person of Christ. The only reason I say that in my judgment this is not what Paul has in mind here is because in Romans there seems to be a flow from eternity past to eternity future, the middle portion of which dips into time. Paul seems to be describing something that began in the past, has affected us in the present, and will carry us into the future.
If we must make a choice among these three interpretations, I would side with either or both of the first two.
Yet it may be—I think I prefer this—that the chain simply moves back into eternity at this point. We have seen that it begins in eternity and then dips down into time. The flow of the verses would be most satisfying if the chain simply moved back into God’s timeless eternity once again, glorification being spoken of as past because it is indeed past (or eternally present) in the mind of God.

What About Sanctification?

As I close my detailed discussion of these specific terms, I want to ask a question that is also raised by Lloyd-Jones in his exposition—wisely, I think. It concerns the one obvious omission in this list: sanctification. Why is sanctification not included, particularly when it is supposed by many to be the central theme of Romans 5 through 8?
I have already addressed myself to the latter part of this question, namely, whether Paul is discussing sanctification in these chapters. I did that at the beginning of this volume, arguing that it is not Paul’s purpose to discuss sanctification at all, though much of what he says necessarily touches on it. He is arguing the case for perseverance or eternal security, which is why he introduces the phrase “hope of glory” as early as Romans 5:2. That is the central and important theme, and it comes back at the end, in Romans 8, which is what we are studying now.
But that is not a full answer to the question.
Why not?
Well, Paul has not been discussing foreknowledge, predestination, or effectual calling in these chapters either, yet he mentions those terms here. If they are included, why not sanctification? Again, the apostle is unfolding the flow of salvation from the decrees of God in the past to our glorification in eternity future. Isn’t sanctification an indispensable part of that flow? Isn’t it as necessary and certain as the other items?
Why, then, is sanctification omitted?
Here are the reasons Martyn Lloyd-Jones offers.

1. Sanctification is not part of the argument Paul has in mind at this point. Paul is focusing on the acts of God for our salvation, and his point is that our salvation is certain because it is God who is thus acting. Our security depends upon what he has done, not on what we may or may not be able to do. To put it in other words, our security in Christ does not depend upon our sanctification. Eternal security is not the anticipated outcome of some process. Sanctification is a process while these other items are divine acts. From the point of view of Paul’s argument in Romans 8, these are entirely different things.
2. Sanctification is an inevitable consequence of justification. Therefore, Paul does not need to mention it. As soon as a person is called by God and is justified, in that same moment sanctification begins. This is because of regeneration or the imparting of a new nature to the saved person. There is no justification without regeneration just as there is no regeneration without justification. So the one who is justified, who now also possesses a new nature, will inevitably show that new nature by beginning to live a new life. That is why we can say that a claim to justification apart from growth in holiness is presumption.
3. Sanctification is inevitable also from the standpoint of our glorification. Indeed, it is a preparation for it. To go back to the text I cited toward the beginning of this study, I note that when John, writing of glorification, says “We know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is,” he immediately adds, “Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure” (1 John 3:2–3). In other words, it is the assurance of our glorification that spurs on our sanctification.
   What the great Welsh preacher gets out of this (rightly, in my opinion) is that the proper way to teach sanctification is not by concentrating on “me,” “my feelings,” or certain steps to “personal holiness,” but rather on what God has done for us. That is, the proper approach to sanctification is to fix our eyes on God and our minds on the great biblical doctrines.
   How do most people teach sanctification today? Either it is by methods (“These are the steps; do this, and you will become holy”), or it is by experience (“What you need is a special filling of the Holy Spirit [or tongues or whatever]”).
   This is not the biblical pattern. As Lloyd-Jones says: The way to preach holiness is not to preach about “me” and “my feelings” and to propound various theories as to how I can be delivered; it is, rather, to preach justification and glorification. By so doing you will include sanctification. Such is the Apostle’s method—“whom he justified, them he also glorified.” It is because certain people do not know the truth about justification and glorification as they ought that they are defective in their teaching about sanctification. A man who has his eye on his future state of glorification will spend his time in preparing himself for it.

Suppose you are invited to a party by the President of the United States. If you are normal, you would take some time to get ready, choosing a special dress or suit and making whatever other special preparations might be necessary. In the same way, the fact that we are going to be with Jesus Christ and be like him should influence our behavior and life choices.
When I was teaching on Romans 6:2 and 11, explaining how it is that we have “died to sin,” I said that we have died to it in the sense that we have died to the past. And I developed a slogan: You cannot go back; there is no place for you to go but forward.
That is absolutely true, of course. We cannot go back. The eternal purpose of God in saving us, unfolded in the five great acts of God described in Romans 8:29–30, makes that plain. But just as it is important to say that we cannot go back, so is it also important to say that we are going forward. God’s foreknowledge of us is followed by his predestination of us to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. His predestination of us to be made like Jesus is followed by our being called to saving faith. Our calling is followed by our justification. Our justification is followed by our glorification. Therefore, it is as certain that one day we will be with Jesus, and be completely like Jesus, as it is that God exists and that his long-range plan is realistic, effective, and unchangeable.
This is God’s great plan. So let’s get on with our part in it and be thankful that his grace has drawn us in.

The Perseverance of the Saints

Romans 8:30

… those he justified, he also glorified.

We are all familiar with the saying about people who can’t see the forest for the trees, and you must know people like that. You probably even know Bible teachers like that. I do not want this to be true of our study of Romans 8. So, at this point of our studies, having examined each of the five great terms of verses 28–30 in detail, I want to step back and look at the great doctrine of which they are all only individual parts.
It is not at all hard to recognize what that doctrine is, for we have been mentioning it in one way or another ever since we began the chapter. It is the perseverance of the saints, or eternal security. Or, as some say colloquially, “once saved, always saved.” It is the truth that those who have been truly brought to faith in Jesus Christ—having been foreknown and predestined to faith by God from eternity past, having been called, regenerated, and justified in this life, and having been so set on the road to ultimate glorification that this culminating glorification can even be spoken of in the past tense—that these persons will never and can never be lost. Perseverance is implied in each of the terms we have studied, but this is the place to go back and look at the entire forest.

The Biblical Doctrine

Yet we do not want to distort the doctrine by oversimplification, as some do. We want to understand it as it is taught in Scripture—as Paul teaches it in Romans 8, for instance. Therefore, we need to begin our overview by excluding some common misunderstandings about perseverance.
First, perseverance does not mean that Christians are exempted from all spiritual danger, just because they are Christians. On the contrary, the opposite is true. They are in even greater danger, because now that they are Christians the world and the devil will be doggedly set against them and will try to destroy them—and would, if that were possible. We do not need to go very far in Romans to see this fact, for in the next section of this chapter Paul lists some of the hostile forces believers face. He will speak of trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger, and sword, concluding, “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered” (v. 36, quoting Ps. 44:22).
It is because we really do face many spiritual dangers that the doctrine of perseverance is so important.
Second, the doctrine of perseverance does not mean that Christians are always kept from falling into sin, just because they are Christians. Sadly, Christians do sin. Noah fell into drunkenness. Abraham lied about his wife Sarah, saying she was his sister rather than his wife, thinking to protect his own life. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then arranged for the murder of Uriah, her husband. Peter denied the Lord. Perseverance does not mean that Christians will not fall, only that they will not fall away.
Jesus predicted Peter’s denial. But he added, “I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers” (Luke 22:31).
Third, perseverance does not mean that those who merely profess Christ without actually being born again are secure. This truth explains the many warnings that appear in Scripture to the effect that we should give diligent attention “to make [our] calling and election sure” (2 Peter 1:10). In this area Jesus’ statements are among the most direct. He said, for example, “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matt. 10:22). We are able to stand firm only because God perseveres with us. But it is also true that we must stand firm. In fact, the final perseverance of believers is the only ultimate proof that they have been chosen by God and have truly been born again.
The Christian doctrine of perseverance does not lead to a false assurance or presumption, though some who claim to be saved do presume on God by their sinful lifestyles and willful disobedience.
Perseverance does not make us lazy.
Perseverance does not make us proud.
No, the real doctrine of perseverance is precisely what Paul declares it to be in Romans 8: that those whom God has foreknown and predestinated to be conformed to the likeness of his Son will indeed come to that great consummation. They will be harassed and frequently tempted. Often they will fall. Nevertheless, in the end they will be with Jesus and will be like him, because this is the destiny that God in his sovereign and inexplicable love has predetermined for them.

The Problem Passages

However, it is not possible to present this doctrine, even in the context of an exposition of Romans 8, without dealing with some of the biblical passages that seem to contradict it. These passages trouble some Christians and are often in their minds when they hear the security of the believer mentioned. Perhaps they trouble you.
Consider, for example, Hebrews 6:4–6, which says, “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance.…” Doesn’t that imply that those who are saved can be lost?
Or what about 2 Peter 2:1–2? “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their shameful ways.…” Doesn’t that say that people who have been redeemed by Christ can later deny him and thus fall away and perish?
Or what about Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 9:27? “I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” Are believers subject to “disqualification”?
Or what about the four kinds of soil in Jesus’ parable in Matthew 13? Some of the seed springs up quickly, but later it is scorched by the sun or else is choked by weeds. It perishes.
Or what about the five foolish virgins of Matthew 25? They are waiting for the bridegroom’s coming, but because they went away to get oil and were not actually there when he came they were excluded from the wedding banquet.
I am sure you can add your own “problem” texts to these suggestions.
It is important to wrestle with these passages, of course, and not merely dismiss them with some glib statement of “once saved, always saved.” Otherwise we will indeed be presuming, and we will miss the very important warnings the texts convey. However, a careful examination of these passages will show that although they can be said to put a proper hedge around perseverance, lest we presume upon it or take it lightly, they do not contradict the doctrine.

Three Categories

How do we approach these difficulties? Martyn Lloyd-Jones does it at great length in more than one hundred pages of careful argument in the second of two volumes on Romans 8. I do not want to take that much space to do the identical thing here. Those who want to examine the matter in greater detail can use the Welsh preacher’s work. However, Lloyd-Jones is helpful for us in that he puts the problem texts I have been introducing into a few manageable categories and treats them in that way. In a much briefer manner, I want to follow his procedure.

Category 1: Passages that seem to suggest that we can “fall away” from grace.
This category contains the most difficult and most frequently cited passages. Therefore, it is the one we need to explore at greatest length.
The first passage is the one in which the phrase “fallen away from grace” occurs, Galatians 5:4. An examination of the context shows that what Paul is addressing is the problem of false teaching that had been introduced into the Galatian churches by a party of legalistic Jews who were insisting that circumcision and other Jewish practices had to be followed if the believers in Galatia were truly to be saved. Here the contrast with grace is law, and the apostle is saying that if the believers should allow themselves to be seduced by this false teaching, they will have been led away from grace into legalism. This is not the same thing as saying that they will have lost their salvation, though the doctrine of the legalists was indeed a false doctrine by which nobody could be saved. Paul’s argument is that the Galatian Christians should “stand firm” in the liberty Christ had given them and not become “burdened again by a yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1).
The parable of the four kinds of soil also falls into this category of problem texts. Does it teach that it is possible for a person to be genuinely born again and then fall away and be lost, either because of the world’s scorching persecutions or its materialistic entanglements? The image we have of young plants suggests this, since the plants in the story obviously do have life. But if we examine Jesus’ own explanation of the story, we will see that he makes a distinction between a person who only “hears” the word and a person who “hears the word and understands it” (Matt. 13:19, 23). The one who merely hears may receive the word he does not actually understand “with joy” and thus seem to be saved. But “he has no root” in him, which he proves by lasting “only a short time.” Those who understand and thus have the root of genuine life in them show it by their endurance and fruit.
Jesus’ point, since the parable concerns the preaching of the gospel in this age, is that not all preaching of the word will be blessed by God to the saving of those who hear it. Only some will be converted.
Another passage that falls in this category of problem texts is the story of the five wise and five foolish virgins. This is a disturbing parable because it teaches that there will be people within the visible church who have been invited to the marriage supper, profess Jesus as their Lord and Savior, and actually seem to be waiting for his promised return, but who are nevertheless lost at the end. It is meant to be disturbing. But if we compare it with the other parables in the same chapter—the parable of the talents and the parable of the sheep and the goats—it is clear that Jesus is saying only that in the church many who are not genuinely born again will pass for believers, until the end. It is only at the final judgment, when the Lord returns, that those who are truly saved and those who only profess to be saved will be differentiated.
The most difficult of the passages that seem to suggest that believers can fall away from grace is 2 Peter 2:1–2, which refers to people “denying the sovereign Lord who bought them.” This sounds as if Peter is describing people who, having been redeemed by Jesus and having believed in him, later deny him and fall away.
We should be warned against this misunderstanding by the way the chapter continues. Then we see that Peter is actually speaking of people who have learned about Jesus Christ and have even escaped a considerable amount of the external pollution of the world by having the high standards of the Christian life taught to them, but who have repudiated this teaching in order to return to the world’s corruption, which they actually love. Peter rather crudely compares them to “a dog” [that] returns to its vomit” and “a sow that is washed” but nevertheless goes back to “her wallowing in the mud” (v. 22). The reason they do this is because their inner nature is unchanged. They may have been cleaned up externally, but like the Pharisees, their insides are still full of corruption. These are the people who deny the Lord who bought them.
But how can Peter say that Jesus “bought” them? As I say, this is a difficult text and has proved so for many commentators. But the answer seems to be that Peter is also thinking of an external purchase or deliverance here. Since he begins by speaking of those who were false prophets among the people of Israel, what he seems to be saying is that just as they were beneficiaries of the deliverance of the nation from Egypt but were nevertheless not true followers of God, so there will be people like this within the churches. They will seem to have been purchased by Christ and will show outward signs of such deliverance, but they will still be false prophets and false professors.
None of these passages teach that salvation can be lost. They are either referring to something else, like falling from grace into legalism, or they are teaching that those who merely make an external profession of faith, however orthodox or holy they may seem, will fall away. As John writes in his first letter, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us” (1 John 2:19).

Category 2: Passages that seem to suggest that our salvation is uncertain.
There are a large number of verses in this category, but they are much alike and therefore do not each require separate treatment. For example, there is Philippians 2:12: “… continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” And 2 Peter 1:10: “Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fail.” And also Hebrews 6:4–6, “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance.”
This last passage, which I have already mentioned, is particularly troubling to many. So let me begin with it. One observation is that even if the text does indirectly teach that a Christian can fall away and be lost, its specific teaching would be that such a person could thereafter never be saved a second time “because [they would be] crucifying the Son of God all over again” (v. 6). Few would want to accept that. So even those who do not believe in eternal security need to find another, better interpretation.
In this case, the answer is in the entire thrust of Hebrews, which was written to Jews who had been exposed to Christianity and had even seemed to accept it somewhat, to go on to full faith and not to draw back again into Judaism. Everything in the book points in this direction. So this “problem” passage is actually talking about people who might have had a taste of Christianity but who fall away without ever actually becoming true Christians. If this has happened, they cannot come back, because in a certain sense they have been inoculated against Christianity.
However, the real situation emerges in verse 9, where the author of the book writes, “Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case—things that accompany salvation.” In other words, the author considered his readers to be genuine believers, which meant that, in his opinion, they would not draw back but would go on to embrace the fullness of the doctrines of the faith, as he is urging them to do.
The other verses—Philippians 2:12 and 2 Peter 1:10—are not nearly so difficult. They merely remind us of what I said earlier: that the fact of God’s perseverance with us does not suggest that somehow we do not have to persevere, too. We do. In fact, it is because God is persevering with us that we will persevere. Remember that Philippians 2:12, which tells us to “work out” our salvation, is immediately followed by verse 13, which says, “for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.” That is, God gives us the desire and then enables us to achieve what he desires.

Category 3: Warning passages.
The final category of problem passages contains warnings, like Romans 11:20–21: “… Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.” Or Hebrews 2:1–3, which urges us to “pay more careful attention … to what we have heard” and ends with “How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?” Or 1 Corinthians 9:27, where Paul issues a warning to himself: “… so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”
The reason for these passages is that we need warnings from God in order to persevere. Or, to put it in other language, they are one of the ways God has to ensure our perseverance. The proof of this is seen in the different ways unbelievers and believers react to them. Do the problem verses I have cited as “warnings” trouble unbelievers? Not at all. Either they regard them as mere foolishness and something hardly to be noticed, or they take them in a straightforward manner but assume that their lives are all right and that the verses therefore do not concern them. It is only believers who are troubled, because they are concerned about their relationships with God and do not want to presume that all is well with their souls when it may not be.
These passages provoke us to higher levels of commitment and greater godliness, which is what they are given for. And even this should encourage us. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, “To be concerned and troubled about the state of our soul when we read passages such as these is in and of itself evidence that we are sensitive to God’s Word and to his Spirit, that we have spiritual life in us.”

God’s Plan and God’s Glory

As I said at the beginning of this study, I have taken a great deal of time to discuss these “problem passages” because I know that they loom large in the minds of Christian people whenever the doctrine of perseverance is discussed. And rightly so. We need to consider them carefully. But there is a danger in such close examination, for then we may give the impression that the related texts are all on the problem side and that there are very few passages that teach eternal security. That is not true, of course, even though in this study I will not balance my treatment of the problems with an equal number of passages on the positive side.
There are many such texts. I am sure you know some of them. There are two in the words of the Lord himself:
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27–28).
“And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day” (John 6:39).
There are also the confident words of Paul that “he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6). And, of course, Romans 8:31–39, the end of the chapter:

What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
  we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Why will we persevere? We will persevere because this is God’s plan for us, and the end of it all will be God’s glory.

Boice, J. M. (1991–). Romans: The Reign of Grace (Vol. 2, pp. 927–950). Baker Book House.

Unbroken Fellowship Essential | VCY

Unbroken Fellowship Essential

lf ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.John 15:7

Of necessity we must be in Christ to live unto Him, and we must abide in Him to be able to claim the largesse of this promise from Him. To abide in Jesus is never to quit Him for another love or another object, but to remain in living, loving, conscious, willing union with Him. The branch is not only ever near the stem but ever receiving life and fruitfulness from it. All true believers abide in Christ in a sense; but there is a higher meaning, and this we must know before we can gain unlimited power at the throne. “Ask what ye will” is for Enochs who walk with God, for Johns who lie in the Lord’s bosom, for those whose union with Christ leads to constant communion.

The heart must remain in love, the mind must be rooted in faith, the hope must be cemented to the Word, the whole man must be joined unto the Lord, or else it would be dangerous to trust us with power in prayer. The carte blanche can only be given to one whose very life is, “Not I, but Christ liveth in me.” O you who break your fellowship, what power you lose! If you would be mighty in your pleadings, the Lord Himself must abide in you, and you in Him.

Past Deliverance Begets Faith | VCY

David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.1 Samuel 17:37

This is not a promise if we consider only the words, but it is truly so as to its sense; for David spoke a word which the Lord endorsed by making it true. He argued from past deliverances that he should receive help in a new danger. In Jesus all the promises are “Yea” and “Amen” to the glory of God by us, and so the Lord’s former dealings with His believing people will be repeated.

Come, then, let us recall the Lord’s former lovingkindness. We could not have hoped to be delivered aforetime by our own strength; yet the Lord delivered us. Will He not again save us? We are sure He will. As David ran to meet his foe, so will we. The Lord has been with us, He is with us, and He has said, “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” Why do we tremble? Was the past a dream? Think of the dead bear and lion. Who is this Philistine? True, he is not quite the same, and is neither bear nor lion; but then God is the same, and His honor is as much concerned in the one case as in the other. He did not save us from the beasts of the forest to let a giant kill us. Let us be of good courage.

https://www.vcy.org/charles-spurgeon/2025/11/01/past-deliverance-begets-faith/

Solomon and the Temple: Dust to Glory with R.C. Sproul

King Solomon asked the Lord for a heart of understanding to help him rule. Yet it was at the height of his wisdom and power that Solomon’s heart wandered from God. In this message, R.C. Sproul considers what went wrong.

Study Reformed theology with a free resource bundle from Ligonier Ministries: https://grow.ligonier.org/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=description&utm_campaign=get-started

This message is from Dr. Sproul’s 57-part teaching series overview of the Bible: Dust to Glory. Learn more: https://www.ligonier.org/learn/series/dust-to-glory/

Source: Solomon and the Temple: Dust to Glory with R.C. Sproul

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2025 | FEAST – ALL SAINTS’ DAY

         First Reading       (Revelation 7:2–8) 9–17
         Psalm       Psalm 149
         Epistle       1 John 3:1–3
         Gospel       Matthew 5:1–12

Index of Readings

FIRST READING
(Revelation 7:2–8) 9–17
[
2 Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, having the seal of the living God; and he cried out with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea,
3 saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees until we have sealed the slaves of our God on their foreheads.”
4 And I heard the number of those having been sealed, 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:
5 from the tribe of Judah, 12,000 having been sealed, from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000,
6 from the tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000,
7 from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000,
8 from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin, 12,000 having been sealed.
]

9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands; 
10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, 
“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” 
11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 
12 saying, 
“Amen, the blessing and the glory and the wisdom and the thanksgiving and the honor and the power and the strength, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.” 
13 Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “These, clothed in the white robes, who are they, and from where have they come?” 
14 And I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. 
15 “For this reason, they are before the throne of God; and they serve Him day and night in His sanctuary; and He who sits on the throne will dwell over them. 
16 “THEY WILL HUNGER NO LONGER, NOR THIRST ANYMORE; NOR WILL THE SUN BEAT DOWN ON THEM, NOR ANY HEAT; 
17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will shepherd them and will guide them to springs of the water of life. And God WILL WIPE EVERY TEAR FROM THEIR EYES.” 

PSALM
Psalm 149

PSALM 149

1 Praise Yah! 
     Sing to Yahweh a new song, 
     His praise in the assembly of the holy ones. 
     2 Let Israel be glad in his Maker; 
     Let the sons of Zion rejoice in their King. 
     3 Let them praise His name with dancing; 
     With tambourine and lyre let them sing praises to Him. 
     4 For Yahweh takes pleasure in His people; 
     He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation. 

5 Let the holy ones exult in glory; 
     Let them sing for joy on their beds. 
     6 Let the exaltations of God be in their throats, 
     And a two-edged sword in their hand, 
     7 To execute vengeance on the nations 
     And punishments on the peoples, 
     8 To bind their kings with chains 
     And their honored men with fetters of iron, 
     9 To execute on them the judgment written; 
     This is the majesty of all His holy ones. 
     Praise Yah! 

EPISTLE
1 John 3:1–3

1 See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we would be called children of God; and we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 
2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not been manifested as yet what we will be. We know that when He is manifested, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 
3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 

GOSPEL
Matthew 5:1–12

1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. 
2 And He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying, 
3 “1Blessed are the 2poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 
5 Blessed are the 1lowly, for they shall inherit the earth. 
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 
7 Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 
8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. 
9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 
10 Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. 
12 “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 

Lutheran Service Book Three Year Lectionary. (2009). Concordia Publishing House.

November 1 Afternoon Verse of the Day

3:14 “I AM WHO I AM” is a very literal rendering of the Hebrew text, expressing God’s real, perfect, unconditional, independent existence. God exists in a way that no one and nothing else does. He is without beginning or end. He is the only Being who is self-existent. All other existence is dependent upon His uncaused existence. Jesus is this same God (cf. John 8:58; Col. 1:15–17; Heb. 13:8; Rev. 1:8). God is not the abstract being of Greek philosophy; rather He is the active, infinite, personal Being who reveals Himself as Redeemer and covenant-making Lord. He can only be defined in terms of Himself, but He is revealed by what He says and what He does (cf. Is. 45:5–7, 18–25). God’s name surely includes the idea of His continuing presence (cf. v. 12). The whole content of biblical history is a commentary on the meaning of this name (cf. Gen. 2:4, note).

Criswell, W. A., Patterson, P., Clendenen, E. R., Akin, D. L., Chamberlin, M., Patterson, D. K., & Pogue, J., eds. (1991). Believer’s Study Bible (electronic ed., Ex 3:14). Thomas Nelson.

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3:14 I AM WHO I AM. The Lord is not defined or determined by any other than Himself. As the self-existent One, His promise is sure; He will reveal Himself in His saving deeds.

Sproul, R. C., ed. (2005). The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (p. 97). Ligonier Ministries.

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3:14 I am that I am The revelation of the personal name of God—Israel’s Creator (Exod 3:15). In Hebrew, the phrase “I am” is ehyeh—a different spelling from yhwh (“Yahweh”). The relationship between ehyeh and yhwh (called the Tetragrammaton) is not entirely clear, but both involve the consonants y and h in the same order and yhwh is used throughout this passage, indicating that both are names for the God of Israel (e.g., vv. 4, 7, 15, 16). It seems that the spelling of yhwh recalls the revelation here.

Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Ex 3:14). Lexham Press.

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3:14 I am who I am. In response to Moses’ question (“What is [your] name?” v. 13), God reveals his name to be “Yahweh” (corresponding to the four Hebrew consonants YHWH). The three occurrences of “I AM” in v. 14 all represent forms of the Hebrew verb that means “to be” (Hb. hayah), and in each case are related to the divine name Yahweh (i.e., “the LORD”; see note on v. 15). The divine name Yahweh has suggested to scholars a range of likely nuances of meaning: (1) that God is self-existent and therefore not dependent on anything else for his own existence; (2) that God is the creator and sustainer of all that exists; (3) that God is immutable in his being and character and thus is not in the process of becoming something different from what he is (e.g., “the same yesterday and today and forever,” Heb. 13:8); and (4) that God is eternal in his existence. While each of these points is true of God, the main focus in this passage is on the Lord’s promise to be with Moses and his people. The word translated “I am” (Hb. ’ehyeh) can also be understood and translated as “I will be” (cf. ESV footnote). Given the context of Ex. 3:12 (“I will be with you”), the name of Yahweh (“the LORD”) is also a clear reminder of God’s promises to his people and of his help for them to fulfill their calling. In each of these cases, the personal name of God as revealed to Moses expresses something essential about the attributes and character of God.

3:14 The name “I AM” anticipates the “I am” sayings of Jesus (see John 8:58), which show his deity.

Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 149). Crossway Bibles.

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3:14 I Am WHO I AM. This name for God points to His self-existence and eternality; it denotes “I am the One who is/will be,” which is decidedly the best and most contextually suitable option from a number of theories about its meaning and etymological source. The significance in relation to “God of your fathers” is immediately discernible: He’s the same God throughout the ages! The consonants from the Heb. word Yhwh, combined with the vowels from the divine name Adonai (Master or Lord), gave rise to the name “Jehovah” in English. Since the name Yahweh was considered so sacred that it should not be pronounced, the Massoretes inserted the vowels from Adonai to remind themselves to pronounce it when reading instead of saying Yahweh. Technically, this combination of consonants is known as the “tetragrammaton.”

MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Ex 3:14). Thomas Nelson Publishers.

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† 3:14 — And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’ ”
We serve the God who is alive, who is present, who is here right now and who gives life and breath to everything that lives (Acts 17:25). He IS, whether anything else remains or not.

Stanley, C. F. (2005). The Charles F. Stanley life principles Bible: New King James Version (Ex 3:14). Nelson Bibles.

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3:14 I AM WHO I AM: The One who spoke to Moses declared Himself to be the Eternal One—uncaused and independent. Only the Creator of all things can call Himself the I AM in the absolute sense; all other creatures are in debt to Him for their existence. But in addition, God the Creator declares His relationship with the people of Israel. The future tense of the Hebrew verb related to God’s name is used in v. 12: The I Am will be with His people. Thus God declares His covenantal relationship with Israel with His name. Many refer to the “I Am” as the covenantal name of God.

Radmacher, E. D., Allen, R. B., & House, H. W. (1999). Nelson’s new illustrated Bible commentary (pp. 92–93). T. Nelson Publishers.

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Ver. 14. I AM hath sent me unto you.—Immutable authority:—
I. Moses on entering upon a great mission naturally inquires the CONDITIONS upon which he proceeds.
II. In the REVELATION made to Moses, “I AM hath sent me unto you,” we have being distinguished from manifestation. “I AM” is the summary of Being.
III. The ANSWER which Moses received from Almighty God was an immutable authority for the greatest of missions. Only let us be sure that we are doing God’s errand, and Pharaoh and Cæsar, and all names of material power, will fall before us, never again to rise. (J. Parker, D.D.)
The great “I AM”:—
I. God is the INCOMPREHENSIBLE One, and yet is revealed in His intercourse with men. The conviction of His unsearchableness lies at the root of all reverence and awe. Before the “I AM that I AM” our spirits lie in deepest adoration, and rise into loftiest aspiration. But we need equally the other side. We need a God revealed in the essential features of His character; and it is in His dealings with men who feared and loved Him that He has made Himself known.
II. God is the INDEPENDENT AND ABSOLUTE. One, and yet He enters into covenant and most definite relationships with men. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
III. God is the ETERNAL One, and yet the God of dying men. Every moment that we have of fellowship with the Eternal God assures us that for us there is no death.
IV. God is the UNCHANGEABLE One, yet the God of men of all different types and temperaments. The same Lord over all. Take these three patriarchs, so closely related in blood—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. How different they were! Yet God was the God of all three, for they all agreed in being seekers of God. (J. Leckie, D.D.)
The great “I AM”:—
The first thought, perhaps, of all which lies wrapped in these two grand comprehensive words, “I AM,” is mystery. Our best worship is in silence, and our truest wisdom when we confess without confession. “It is too high for me, I cannot attain unto it.” The utmost conception of the most exalted intellect of the most heaven-taught man is only a faint approximation thereto. “I AM.” It still lies in the future of a far-off beatitude—“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.” But where do these glimpses lie of the great I AM; and how can we now know Him at all? I believe, first, in nature. The wonderful organization and marvellous system of nature, in the world I live in. Next I look for it in the Holy Word which He has given to me with the impress of His mind and being. But more in that Spirit which dwells in me and which is the reflection of the nature and a very part of the life and the essence of God. Thirdly, and better still in Him, His own dear Son, “the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person,” and who claims to Himself that very name (John 8:58). No created thing could ever say with truth, “I am.” God alone has no other origin but Himself. He depends upon nothing; His life is essential life; all life, from all eternity past to all eternity yet to come. He is “I AM.” Therefore because He is the I AM, all is present time with God. It is the present tense ever. The consequences are tremendous. All our past sins, all our past mercies, all our past promises and vows, all our past life, and all the life that is yet to come, it is all the present moment with God, in all its freshness and clearness and distinctness at this moment—“I AM.” Hence the absolute and perfect unchangeableness! Or take another instance in that great name “I AM.” All life, which is life indeed, must emanate from Him. He is the life. And there is another view which we may take of these two grand words, “I AM.” God does not say what He is. He leaves that to us. We must fill in the blank. “I am whatever you make Me. If you disbelieve Me, if you think little of Me, I am a just God, a holy God, a jealous God, an avenging God, a strict God, a punishing God; I shall by no means spare the guilty, I am a consuming fire. If you are a penitent sinner, if you have left Me and are coming back to Me, if you are sorry for what you have done, if you have grieved Me, and now wish to please Me, I am a forgiving God, full of mercy and compassion, of great pity, passing by transgression and sin more than any one asketh. I am love. If you are really My child, poor, weak, unworthy, sinful though you are, yet still My child, striving to please Me, earnest to serve Me, desiring more and more to see Me and be with Me, telling Me everything in your little heart, trusting Me, loving Me, I am your own dear loving faithful Father; I am yours and you are Mine to the very end. I have loved you and chosen you from all eternity, and I never change. Though I do sometimes hide Myself, yet behind the cloud I am, I AM, I AM. I am thine, and thou art Mine, for ever and ever!” (J. Vaughan, M.A.)
The Divine name:—
I. AS ONLY REVEALED BY THE DIVINE BEING HIMSELF.
II. AS ONLY PARTIALLY UNDERSTOOD BY THE GRANDEST INTELLECTS.
III. AS SUFFICIENTLY COMPREHENDED FOR THE PRACTICAL SERVICE OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. We know enough of God to give strength, responsibility, hope, to our Christian work and life. (J. S. Exell, M.A.)
The name of the Lord:—
The answer is twofold. It repeats the idea that He is the God of their father; but it connects that with the idea that He is Jehovah.
I. THE ETERNAL NAME. “God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM. Say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.” The word is that from which Jehovah comes. It expresses the idea of existence. In announcing Himself by this name the Divine Being excludes all notion of any commencement or termination of His existence, or that He is indebted for it to any other. It is self-existence, necessary existence; His non-existence is an impossibility and cannot be entertained. Jesus Christ “the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.” “The Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.” “He who was, and is, and is to come.” Perhaps the most helpful conception we have of permanence is given by the spectacle of the lofty mountains which stand unmoved and unchanged for centuries and millenniums. We call them the everlasting hills. But He was before the mountains, and will continue His undying existence when they have disappeared in the final dissolution.
II. THE ABIDING RELATIONSHIP. “The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” The two names are closely connected, because He could not be the one God of successive generations if He were not Jehovah—the Everlasting.

1. You will mark that He is not only Jehovah, God in Himself, as He cannot but be; He is the God of the persons here mentioned. Think what a great thing it is that He should be the God of any one! Think what a blessedness and a glory it is to have His almightiness on your side; His love your resting-place; His throne your refuge in distress; His unchanging faithfulness your abiding confidence.
2. Next, observe that He was the God of each of the persons named. God knows how to be the God of all His people however they differ from each other in those subtle shades of character which, like the features of the face, distinguish one man from another.
3. Then observe, further, He was the God of their successive generations. This thought is valuable in connection with the idea that God still has a people. The spiritual seed of Abraham. Also that the children of godly parents should value the blessing of having their father’s God. Fear to forfeit it.
4. Nor must we overlook the important use the Great Teacher made of the statement in our text. Argument for resurrection and immortality in Matt. 22:24–32.
   III. THE PERMANENT NAME. God’s eternity contrasts with our brief life: warrants our confidence in Him: suggests the blessedness of those who are interested in Him. (John Rawlinson.)
   God’s name of Himself:—
   I. PERSONALITY—“I.”
5. We attach three ideas to personality.
   (1) Essential distinctness.
   (2) Individual consciousness.
   (3) Spontaneity.
6. God’s personality—
   (1) Explains the unity of the universe.
   (2) Meets the aspirations of human nature.
   II. SELF-EXISTENCE—“I AM.”
7. The independent amidst dependent beings.
8. The Unchangeable amidst a changing universe.
   III. Unsearchableness—“I AM that I AM.”
9. Mystery is essential to Deity.
10. Mystery is a want of human nature. Stirs intellect, wakes wonder, inspires reverent awe of souls. (Homilist.)
    “I AM”:—
    I. THE HIGHEST INQUIRY OF MAN AS A MORAL AGENT.
11. This inquiry is most reasonable.
12. This inquiry is most urgent.
    II. THE HIGHEST REVELATION TO MAN AS A MORAL STUDENT. “I AM—“what? The Fountain of all life, the Foundation of all virtue, the Source of all blessedness, the Cause, the Means, and the End of all things in the universe but sin.
13. This is the revelation that man as a thinker craves for.
14. This is the revelation which the gospel gives.
    III. THE HIGHEST AUTHORITY OF MAN AS A MORAL WORKER. Lessons:
15. God is. The grandest fact in the universe.
16. God is an absolute personality.
17. God deals with individual men. “Hath sent me.”
18. God makes man His messenger to men. (Ibid.)
    The minister sent by God:—
    I. THE DIVINE EXISTENCE. “I AM.” He who is, and who will be what He is.
    II. THE MINISTRY A DIVINE INSTITUTION. “I AM hath sent me unto you.” This creates the relation of pastor and people.
    III. MUTUAL DUTIES OF PASTOR AND PEOPLE.
19. The duty of the pastor.
    (1) He must preach the gospel in its purity and simplicity.
    (2) He must administer the ordinances.
    (3) He must maintain a wholesome discipline in the Church.
20. The duty of the people.
    (1) Sympathy;
    (2) Love;
    (3) Obedience;
    (4) Co-operation;
    (5) Prayer for their minister. (J. W. Ray.)
    The immutability of God:—
    I. THAT JEHOVAH IS UNCHANGEABLE IS PROVED FROM WHAT WE KNOW OF HIS OTHER ATTRIBUTES. We are assured, for example, that He is infinite in goodness, infinite in knowledge, infinite in power. The simple inquiry before us is, Are these attributes subject to change? Now, change in any being implies increase, or diminution, or entire removal of certain properties. To suppose any attribute of God to cease entirely, is to suppose that He ceases to be God. Change, then, if it occurs at all, must imply either increase or diminution of His perfections. On this principle, it is easy to see that the least change in the degree of His power, for example, must make Him more than almighty, or less than almighty; the least change in His knowledge must make Him more than omniscient, or less than omniscient; in other words, the least change in a perfect and infinite being is inconceivable.
    II. THAT JEHOVAH IS UNCHANGEABLE IS PROVED FROM EXPLICIT AND REPEATED DECLARATIONS OF THE BIBLE. (See Mal. 3:6; Tit. 1:2; James 1:17; Psa. 102:27). The inferences resulting from the truth thus established are so important as to demand the remaining time that can be allotted to this discourse.
21. All conceptions of God which apply time and succession to His existence, are erroneous, “One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.” He is no older than He was from eternity. Age is a relative term: it implies beginning; but God is eternal. It implies change; but God is unchangeable. Time is the measure of created existence; but God is uncreated. Hence, the diversity of views which we have of the same thing at different times, results from the imperfection of our knowledge. Change of opinion implies liability to mistake. Increase of knowledge implies past ignorance; decrease of knowledge implies present ignorance. But neither of these can apply to Him whose “understanding is infinite.”
22. God has no new purposes. This follows, by unquestionable inference, from His immutability. Whatever was His purpose from eternity is His purpose now: and whatever is His purpose now, was His purpose from eternity. Two things then are certain.
    (1) That God is unchangeable.
    (2) That God has purposes. The inference is perfectly conclusive that these purposes are eternal. This argument cannot be evaded. It has the clearness of demonstration.
23. The certainty of final salvation to true believers is a reasonable doctrine, grounded on the immutable truth of God, as implied in the promises of the new covenant. These promises of the unchanging God must be fulfilled.
24. When God is said to repent, it implies no change in His character or purpose.
25. The immutability of God is no discouragement to prayer, but the best ground of encouragement. If Jehovah were fickle, like earthly monarchs, then, indeed, it would be vain to pray. The answer of prayer implies no change in the mind of God.
26. The unchangeable perfection of God is a doctrine full of comfort to His people. This world, with all its concerns, bears the stamp of mutability. Amid these scenes of fluctuation, is there no object then in heaven or earth that is unchanging? Yes, one; God is unchanging. Here is stability.
27. The immutability of God is a doctrine full of terror to His enemies. (E. Potter, D.D.)
    God, the great “I AM”:—
    If I say “I am,” I say what is not true of me. I must say “I am something—I am a man, I am bad, or I am good, or I am an Englishman, I am a soldier, I am a sailor, I am a clergyman.”—and then I shall say what is true of me. But God alone can say “I AM” without saying anything more. And why? Because God alone is. Everybody and everything else in the world becomes: but God is. We are all becoming something from our birth to our death—changing continually and becoming something different from what we were a minute before; first of all we were created and made, and so became men; and since that we have been every moment changing, becoming older, becoming wiser, or alas! foolisher; becoming stronger or weaker; becoming better or worse. Even our bodies are changing and becoming different day by day. But God never changes or becomes anything different from what He is now. What He is, that He was, and ever will be. Many heathen men have known that there was one eternal God, and that God is. But they did not know that God Himself had said so; and that made them anxious, puzzled, almost desperate, so that the wiser they were, the unhappier they were. For what use is it merely knowing that God is? The question for poor human creatures is, “But what sort of a being is God?’ Is He far off? Does He care nothing about us? Does He let the world go its own way, right or wrong? Is He proud and careless? A Self-glorifying Deity whose mercy is not over all His works, or even over any of them? And the glory of the Bible, the power of God revealed in the Bible, is, that it answers the question, and says, “God does care for men, God does see men, God is not far off from any one of us. Ay, God speaks to men—God spoke to Moses and said, not “God is,” but “I AM.” God in sundry times and divers manners spoke to our fathers by the prophets and said, “I AM.” But more—Moses said, “I AM hath sent me.” God does not merely love us, and yet leave us to ourselves. He sends after us. He sends to us. But again: “I AM hath sent me unto you.” Unto whom? Who was Moses sent to? To the Children of Israel in Egypt. And what sort of people were they? Were they wise and learned? On the contrary, they were stupid, ignorant, and brutish. Were they pious and godly? On the contrary, they were worshipping the foolish idols of the Egyptians—so fond of idolatry that they must needs make a golden calf and worship it. Then why did God take such trouble for them? Why did God care for them, and help them, and work wonders for them? Why? Exactly because they were so bad. Just because they were so bad, His goodness yearned over them all the more, and longed to make them good. Just because they were so unclean and brutish, His holiness longed all the more to cleanse them. Because they were so stupid and ignorant, His wisdom longed to make them wise. Because they were so miserable, His pity yearned over them, as a father over a child fallen into danger. Because they were sick, they had all the more need of a physician. Because they were lost, there was all the more reason for seeking and saving them. Because they were utterly weak, God desired all the more to put His strength into them, that His strength might be made perfect in weakness. (C. Kingsley, M.A.)
    God’s memorial name:—
    I. In this memorial name of God WE ARE TAUGHT HIS LOFTY EXISTENCE. “I AM that I AM “is a name synonymous in meaning with Jehovah. This name includes within its vast extent of signification all past, present and future existence and duration.
28. Self-existence is a Divine attribute.
29. Eternity necessarily follows from His self-existence.
30. His proprietorship springs from the fact of His existence.
    II. THE REVELATION OF THIS MEMORIAL NAME TO MOSES HAD PURPOSE, It was a crisis in the history of Moses, and also of that of Israel in Egypt.
31. One purpose it served was to strengthen Moses in executing his work.
32. Another purpose was to check idolatrous practices.
33. It taught Moses the safety of the people.
34. The revelation of this name in connection with the people’s ancestry shows that they were the heirs of immortality.
35. The revelation of this name indicated victory. (J. H. Hill.)
    The greatness and glory of God:—
    The creature is nothing in comparison with God; all the glory, perfection, and excellency of the whole world do not amount to the value of a unit in regard of God’s attributes; join ever so many of them together, they cannot make one in number; they are nothing in His regard, and less than nothing. All created beings must utterly vanish out of sight when we think of God. As the sun does not annihilate the stars, and make them nothing, yet it annihilates their appearances to our sight; some are of the first magnitude, some of the second, some of the third, but in the daytime all are alike, all are darkened by the sun’s glory: so it is here, there are degrees of perfection and excellency, if we compare one creature with another, but let once the glorious brightness of God shine upon the soul, and in that light all their differences are unobserved. Angels, men, worms, they are all nothing, less than nothing, to be set up against God. This magnificent title “I AM,” darkens all, as if nothing elsewhere. (T. Manton, D.D.)

Exell, J. S. (n.d.). The Biblical Illustrator: Exodus (pp. 79–83). Anson D. F. Randolph & Company.

01 Nov. 2025 News Briefing

The ideological virus infecting young Evangelicals: Why anti-Zionism is anti-Christ 
There is an ideological virus rapidly spreading, particularly on social media, infecting young evangelicals. It causes the hallucination that Israel is no longer part of God’s unfolding plan, that Israel no longer has a unique purpose on Earth, and that Israel is no different from Britain, Bahrain, or Brazil. Support for Israel among evangelicals aged 18 to 29 has plunged from 69% in 2018 to just 33.6% in 2021—and the trend is worsening.

Is Tucker Carlson descending into madness? Calling Christian Zionism ‘heresy
antisemitism and vicious anti-Israel rhetoric on the American Left is increasingly shrill and dangerous, I told them—especially from the likes of influential voices such as Senator Bernie Sanders, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, to name just a few. But I also noted that several very prominent voices on the American Right were becoming just as shrill and dangerous. Among them: the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, Candace Owens, and Tucker Carlson.

Vatican to publish document addressing Mary’s role in salvation
It is anticipated that Mary’s role as ‘Co-Redemptrix’ will be alluded to. However, the Vatican’s stance on this is uncertain given that Pope Francis rejected this unofficial title of Mary. While Fernández has not elaborated on the content of the doctrinal note, it is anticipated that Mary’s role as “co-redeemer,” and perhaps her unofficial title “Co-Redemptrix,” will be discussed or alluded to.

Dems cynically keep government shut down past Election Day as SNAP benefits could lapse for millions of poor Americans 
Millions of Americans were set to go hungry this weekend after Senate Democrats blocked a government funding bill 13 times in six weeks — keeping vital food programs offline ahead of the New York City mayoral election and gubernatorial votes in New Jersey and Virginia. “They’re setting everything up for next week. They know they’ve got to get out,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) predicted to Politico Friday of the Democratic strategy. “If they do it before Tuesday, then their base may not show up because it looks like they caved … That’s why they’re setting everything up to open next week. We’ll be open next Wednesday, or Wednesday night, or Thursday.”

Sources: Pentagon approves Tomahawk to Ukraine
The Pentagon gives the green light to allow Ukraine access to the long-range Tomahawk missile,
According to the sources, the Pentagon has assessed that the US stockpile of Tomahawk missiles would not be affected by allowing Ukraine access to them.

Tanzanian opposition: Around 700 dead
Around 700 people have died in unrest that broke out in Tanzania in connection with the elections there … Currently, the number of dead in Dar (es Salaam) is around 350 and in Mwanza over 200. If you add the numbers from other places, the total number is around 700, says Chadema spokesman John Kitoka.

Trump on nuclear weapons words: “Testing if others do it”
Donald Trump is now clarifying his statement that the United States will resume nuclear weapons testing. The tests will be carried out “if other countries do it”. If they do it, we will do it too, he tells reporters aboard Air Force One.

Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, the commoner formerly known as ‘prince’, faces an uncertain future
Andrew Mountbatten Windsor has been stripped of his remaining royal titles in the wake of mounting scandals over his relationship with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and allegations of sexual abuse against the two men. The former prince was no longer listed on the official roll of the peerage as of Friday.

Rudolf Steiner: “The soul will be made non-existent with the aid of a vaccine”
The quote claims he further stated that materialistic doctors would be entrusted with the task of removing the soul of humanity, and that such a vaccine would make people immune to spiritual life, rendering them highly intelligent but devoid of conscience. According to the quote, this vaccine would destabilise the relationship between the human etheric body and the universe, causing people to become automatons incapable of spiritual development. … Steiner was a Freemason.

Sanhedrin Calls for Rallies with Released Hostages, Declaration of Sovereignty Over Gaza
The Sanhedrin issued a sweeping religious and political declaration this week, calling the release of Israeli hostages from Hamas captivity a fulfillment of biblical prophecy and demanding immediate action on three fronts: nationwide gatherings with the freed captives, Israeli sovereignty over all of Gaza, and the execution of every terrorist who murdered Jews. The rabbinic court, which claims lineage to the ancient 71-member tribunal that convened in the Temple, framed the hostage releases as the beginning of prophecies foretold by Isaiah and Zechariah coming to pass before the eyes of the Jewish people. “Our eyes see how many prophecies of the prophets have already been fulfilled before our eyes, and some continue to be fulfilled in our days,” the Sanhedrin declared. “We are certain that the remaining prophecies will also be fulfilled soon.”

Syria Demands Israel Give Up the Golan
Syria has launched a renewed diplomatic campaign demanding international recognition of its claim to the Golan Heights. Speaking before the UN Security Council, Syrian envoy Ibrahim Olabi declared that the Golan “will remain Arab and Syrian” and called for “decisive” international action against Israel. The move is backed by Turkey and several Arab states. In Jerusalem, officials responded that Israel will not surrender “even one centimeter” of the Golan.

New Archaeological Evidence Points to Sodom and Gomorrah’s Location Near the Dead Sea
For centuries, skeptics have dismissed the Biblical account of Sodom and Gomorrah as myth. The story seemed too dramatic, too supernatural to be a historical fact. But new archaeological findings near the Dead Sea are forcing even doubters to reconsider. Dr. Titus Kennedy, a field archaeologist with the Discovery Institute, has uncovered compelling evidence that matches the Bible’s description of divine destruction from above. The breakthrough centers on a geographic anchor that has been hiding in plain sight for millennia. Of the five cities mentioned in Genesis as located in the Jordan Valley, one, called Zoar, was never lost to history. Named in numerous ancient documents and located on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, Zoar provides the key to finding its infamous neighbors.

Israel steps up readiness amid rising threat from Iran-backed militias in Iraq
Both the IDF and Mossad have been refining contingency plans in response to what officials describe as a slow but deliberate Iranian effort to open a new front against Israel. Israel’s security establishment is on heightened alert as intelligence points to growing Iranian involvement in Iraq, where Tehran is building up proxy forces capable of striking Israel by air or land.

New Gaza’ rises: Anti-Hamas militias backed by Israel claim local rule, vow to fight Qatar, Turkey, Iran forces
As Gaza’s ceasefire holds uneasily, four Israel-backed militias fighting Hamas are moving to fill the power vacuum, pledging to cooperate with most international forces involved in rebuilding the enclave but vowing to resist any presence from Qatar, Turkey, or Iran, The Algemeiner has learned. The militias, mainly in southern Gaza, are not part of US President Donald Trump’s proposed plan for a technocratic administration in the enclave.

FBI foils ISIS-linked terror plot in Michigan ahead of Halloween
The FBI announced Friday it had thwarted a potential terrorist attack in Michigan ahead of Halloween weekend, arresting multiple suspects allegedly linked to the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization.
Kash Patel posted on X: “This morning, the FBI thwarted a potential terrorist attack and arrested multiple subjects in Michigan who were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend.”

Houthis to try 43 UN staff over alleged role in Israeli strike on Sanaa
The acting foreign minister of Yemen’s Houthi government, Abdulwahid Abu Ras, announced on Friday that 43 detained local United Nations staff will face trial on suspicion of involvement in an Israeli airstrike that killed senior Houthi leaders in August, Reuters reported. The strike, which targeted the capital Sanaa, eliminated the prime minister of the Iran-backed Houthi-run government along with several ministers. It marked the first Israeli operation to kill top officials in Yemen.

Turkey Expands Regional and Global Ambitions, Raising Alarm Bells in Israel
Turkey is rapidly expanding its regional and global influence — strengthening ties with Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and the Gulf states, while pressing for a role in post-war Gaza — a trend that is raising alarm bells in Israel and the broader region amid shifting Middle East power dynamics.

‘The United States Cannot Stand By’: President Trump Announces Crackdown On Nigeria For Its Unrelenting Massacre Of Christians
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria,” President Trump said in a statement. “Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN’ — But that is the least of it.” “The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!”

Black Lives Matter Under Federal Investigation For Donor Fraud
A probe into the Marxist nonprofit Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation … which was initially opened under the Biden-Harris administration, has seen renewed interest from federal prosecutors in President Trump’s second term over allegations that the far-left group defrauded donors.

Stark Irony: Iran Angrily Condemns Trump’s Call To Resume US Nuclear Testing
In a stark irony, Iran has condemned and lashed out at President Trump’s call to return the United States to nuclear weapons testing “on an equal basis” with other countries like Russia and China. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi called out the move as both “regressive” and “irresponsible”. Iran has of course remained under harsh and expansive US-led sanctions over its nuclear program, which has involved no warheads or other testing, and which Tehran has long insisted is only for peaceful nuclear energy purposes.

Republicans’ Surprising Performances In Key Governor Races
Virginia’s and New Jersey’s gubernatorial races show the Republican candidates currently matching or beating Donald Trump’s past presidential margins. This is big for these state races and for gauging the overall country’s mood. It could be bigger still if it presages a Republican threat to Democrats’ “second blue wall” in 2026 and 2028.

Top Trump officials living in military housing amid safety threats:
A new report claims that at least six of President Donald Trump’s top administration officials have moved into military housing in the area near Washington, D.C., following repeated threats and security concerns. The Atlantic reported that at least 6 Trump officials are currently living in military housing instead of in private homes and apartments in D.C. and the surrounding area due to harassment and threats of violence against the officials.

01 Nov. 2025

Headlines – 11/01/2025

Israel-Saudi deal ‘virtually impossible’ by year’s end, commentator close to Saudi leadership tells NYT

Rejecting normalization, Smotrich bids for right-wing boost at Saudis’ expense

US-Israel rift deepens as senior US official cancels visit – Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen delays signing the gas export deal with Egypt, citing Cairo’s violations of the peace treaty. In response, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright cancels his planned visit to Jerusalem

Trump’s deal traps Israel as Hamas breaks rules – Four converging fronts have put Jerusalem in an impossible position between American pressure, absent international partners, UN political minefields, and an ideology-driven enemy that never stops fighting

Netanyahu once decried ‘daylight’ with Washington, but now he tolerates Trump’s glare – White House publicly expresses frustration with Israel and apparently shapes its actions in a far more significant way than the Biden administration did, with barely any pushback from Jerusalem

Two-thirds of Israelis believe US now calls the shots on IDF operations in Gaza – poll

Commentary: Trump’s peace plan could hand victory to Hamas

Commentary: The Fantasy of a New Middle East – Israel Cannot Destroy Its Way to Peace

Giving Hamas hope, Gaza’s future rests on three somewhat contradictory documents – Trump boasts that the world backs his 20-point plan, but no one even signed it. Hamas committed to the first phase of the deal, but has not said it will disarm

PA premier says Ramallah best placed to lead postwar Gaza, despite Israeli obstacles

Only Muslim soldiers to be allowed to serve as Gaza peacekeepers – Despite plans for former British prime minister Tony Blair to take an administrative role in the Palestinian territory, Ynet reported that no Western countries would be involved in the forc

Police say autistic Arab Israeli teen detained on suspicion of aiding Hamas, ISIS

4 Gazans said killed after Israeli deadline passes for gunmen to leave IDF-held zone

Palestinian teen killed by IDF in clashes near Ramallah; IDF says he had ‘flaming object’

Red Cross says it transferred partial remains of three bodies from Hamas to Israel

Partial remains handed over by Hamas are not of hostages, Israeli authorities assess

Hamas claims Israel asked to examine unidentified bodies, refused samples to check if they were hostages

‘An eye for an eye’: Hamas wrote message to Ben Gvir on hostage Maxim Herkin’s back – Freed hostage recounts in interview how his captors would beat him after far-right minister worsened conditions for Palestinian prisoners; Ben Gvir says allegations part of a Hamas campaign

Erdogan accuses Germany of ignoring Gaza ‘genocide’, Merz reaffirms support for Israel – Turkish President accuses Germany of ignoring “genocide” in Gaza during a tense press conference with Chancellor Merz, who reaffirms support for Israel and urges Hamas to disarm

Ted Cruz to Republican Jews: GOP Faces ‘Time for Choosing’ on Antisemitism

Ted Cruz to Jewish Republicans: Antisemitism is ‘an existential crisis in our party’

Ex-Pussycat Dolls singer Kaya Jones blasts ‘Free Palestine’ hypocrisy on Trump Middle East peace deal – Kaya Jones said she’s been shocked by rising antisemitism on the left and right

Mamdani: Saying NYPD Boot ‘On Your Neck’ ‘Laced by the IDF’ Was ‘Reference to Training Exercises’, Don’t Think They’re Still Hand in Glove

Bill Kristol Endorses Zohran Mamdani for NYC Mayor Despite Him Being ‘Against Israel’

30 years after PM Rabin’s assassination, many Israelis see high risk of political violence – Most Israelis do not believe authorities doing enough to address political incitement

Netanyahu tells Bismuth to withhold Haredi draft bill, likely delaying key Knesset panel debate

IDF’s top lawyer quits; says she approved leak of detainee abuse video

In video filmed next to bound prisoners, Ben Gvir urges ‘death penalty for terrorists’ – Far-right minister brags about harsh treatment in prisons under his leadership, which several freed hostages have said led their captors in Gaza to torture them

Lebanon accuses Israel of responding to negotiation offer by ‘intensifying’ attacks – Meanwhile, Wall Street Journal reports that as Hezbollah rearms, Israel is losing patience with Beirut’s inaction

Lebanese President Aoun orders army to ‘confront’ Israeli incursions after deadly IDF raid in southern Lebanon – FM Sa’ar warns Israel won’t ‘bury its head in the sand’ as Hezbollah rearms itself

Drone strike killed elite Hezbollah operative in southern Lebanon yesterday, IDF says

Defense echelon warns: Iran increasing regional terror activity – IDF and Mossad on alert as Iran Increases regional terror activity in Middle East, prepare for potential ground incursion

Mass killings likely persist in Sudan’s El-Fasher days after fall to RSF, researchers say

UN demands probe into ‘horrific accounts’ of executions, gang rapes, abductions in Sudan – Satellite imagery analyzed by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab shows clusters in Darfur’s El-Fasher ‘consistent with adult human bodies,’ discoloration that may indicate ‘pools of blood’

Syria’s Jihadi President Says Syria Has Raised $28 Billion in Investment in 6 Months

No spoils of war: Syria’s new ruler lays down the law to loyalists

Executions and Mass Casualties: Videos Show Horror Unfolding in Sudan

Al-Qaeda militants poised to take over an entire country – Militants have cut off fuel supplies raising fears Mali could become the first country ruled by the terror group in its four-decade history

Sudan Militia, Armed with Drones, Hunts Down Black Population of Darfur – The country’s civil war is triggering a wave of brutal reprisals, human rights groups say

Influencer of Death: Sick moment TikTok-loving ‘Butcher of the Century’ Sudan warlord kills captives one by one during massacre of thousands – He claims to have personally murdered 2,000 people

Samia wins Tanzania election as hundreds feared dead in unrest

Report: FBI thwarts ISIS-connected Halloween terror attack in Dearborn, Michigan – “This morning the FBI thwarted a potential terrorist attack and arrested multiple subjects in Michigan who were allegedly plotting a violent attack over Halloween weekend.”

Deep State DOJ, FBI Officials Leak Info on Kash Patel’s Decision to Thwart Michigan Halloween Terror Plot

South Korea’s Lee asks China’s Xi for help engaging North Korea – Lee, who was elected in a snap election in June, has promised to strengthen ties with the United States and ease tensions with North Korea while not antagonising China

NKorea: Denuclearization Is ‘Pipe Dream’ Before China-SKorea Summit

Russia uses missile in Ukraine that led Trump to quit nuclear treaty, Kyiv says

Democrats Oppose U.S. Nuclear Testing as China and Russia Expand Arsenals

How Trump’s Comments On Nuclear Testing Sparked Fears, Confusion In US

The Global Drone Wars: How Cartels Learned Battlefield Tradecraft in Ukraine

A New Force in Global Thinking: The World Academy of Economic Diplomacy Launches in Switzerland

President Trump Honored by Time Magazine as Leader of the Entire World – Poses for Iconic Presidential Portraits

Xi says China’s development goes hand in hand with Trump’s vision to “Make America Great Again”

Florida’s busiest airport turns away all flights as air traffic controller shortage hits – Florida, New York airports halt all landings due to air traffic controller shortage

Airlines are feeding air traffic controllers as they miss their first full paychecks

Shutdown freezes health projects for seniors as HUD chief blasts ‘left’s healthcare hypocrisy’

‘Nobody thought it was going to last this long’: Trump increasingly frustrated as shutdown approaches record length – “The Democrats just don’t know what they’re doing,” Trump told reporters Friday. “I don’t know what’s wrong with them. They’ve never done a thing like this. They’ve become crazed lunatics.”

Thune rejects Trump’s call to nuke the filibuster to end government shutdown

Speaker Johnson warns against consequences of using nuclear option to bypass Senate filibuster – “The filibuster has traditionally been viewed as a very important safeguard,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said

Johnson raises shutdown stakes on Schumer as food stamp deadline, Obamacare cliff loom – The House hasn’t been in session since Sept. 19 as the government shutdown enters its 30th day

Speaker Johnson: SNAP Benefits Drying Up As Democrats Vote to Keep Government Shut Down 14 Times

Two federal judges require Trump administration to use emergency funds to partially cover food stamp benefits

Two judges rule Trump admin must keep SNAP benefits in place as shutdown drags on – A federal judge in Massachusetts seemed sympathetic to the arguments made by 25 Democratic state leaders during an emergency hearing over the SNAP benefits

Trump Trolls Schumer, Seeks Court Guidance on SNAP Funding

Trump asking court how to “legally fund SNAP” after judge’s order

Why SNAP benefits can’t be funded without congressional action – Secretary Rollins clarifies contingency fund limitations as states prepare for potential payment delays

Government Shutdown Deepens Hunger Crisis – When paychecks and SNAP distributions stop, the food pantry line grows

SNAP beneficiaries threaten to ransack stores over government shutdown – One mother claims taxpayers must feed her children as SNAP benefits face cuts

Walmart Denies Store Closure Rumors over Threats of Looting as Gov’t Shutdown Disrupts SNAP Benefits

House Republican Tells Food Stamp Recipients, ‘Stop Smoking Crack’

Washington Post Editorial Blames Left for Shutdown, EBT Disruption: ‘It Is Wrong… Democrats Have Held the Government Hostage’

Omar on Dems’ Past Criticism of Shutdowns Over Policy: ‘This Is Not a Policy Fight’ and It’s ‘a Worthy Fight’

Marlow: Government Is Shut Down Because Schumer ‘Afraid AOC Is Going to Get His Job’

Rep. Tenney Blasts Dem Leaders: Bowed to Mamdani’s Marxists – Says Radicals Run the Party, Shutdown Is Their Choice

Charlemagne Tha God: It’s Time Schumer and Jeffries Face Primaries So Socialists Like Mamdani Can Have a Chance to Lead Democrats

Veteran Action Ad Showcases Zohran Mamdani’s ‘Radical Islamic Agenda’

Good Luck, New York: Mamdani Plans to Tax Businesses Even If They’re Based Outside NYC

Top Trump Officials Are Moving Into Military Bases Over Assassination Fears

Would-be Trump assassin seeks imprisonment in state where assisted suicide is legal – or trade him to Iran: “I would like to plan forward for sentencing and request kindly to be placed in a state that has assisted suicide since I am a constant failure”

Kamala tells Jon Stewart that Biden was ‘fully competent’ for second term

Laura Washington: If Donald Trump can run for a third term, so can Barack Obama

Lawless Clinton Judge Blocks President Trump’s Proof of Citizenship Requirement on Federal Voter Registration Forms

‘The View’ co-host says it was ‘wholly irresponsible’ for Newsom to cast doubt on fair elections under Trump – ‘We won’t have an election that’s fair and free if we don’t stand up,’ Gov. Gavin Newsom told ABC News Thursday

Alleged Cash-For-Votes Scandal Unfolding in North Carolina

Lawmakers Move to Impeach Judge Boasberg for Rubber-Stamping Jack Smith’s Partisan Surveillance

Jack Smith Spied on Ed Henry for Helping Produce Song by Jan 6 Prisoners and President Trump- “Justice for All”

Grassley Investigates Gates, Rockefeller, and Ford Foundations Over Alleged CCP Funding

“Germany Is No Longer a Democracy”: AfD’s Deputy Parliamentary Leader Beatrix von Storch Blasts Political Persecution and EU Censorship

Hackers threaten to leak ‘woke’ University of Pennsylvania student data

Amazon Shares Soar on Strong Cloud Growth – a Week After Company Broke the Internet

YouTube Embraces AI, Offers Voluntary Buyouts to U.S. Employees

AI-driven automation triggers major workforce shift across corporate America – Experts say mass job cuts are driven by AI automation, economic climate and post-pandemic right-sizing efforts

Smart Toilet Tech Aims to Make You Flush With Health Data – Plus, housekeeper robots, a drug discovery supercomputer and JPMorgan Chase’s blockchain, in this edition of The Future of Everything newsletter

Elon Musk Is Landing a $2B Space Contract From Trump’s White House

Unknown object crash near Area 51 fuels cover-up claims

Shallow M6.0 earthquake hits southeast Indian Ridge

5.4 magnitude earthquake hits south of the Fiji Islands

5.2 magnitude earthquake hits the South Sandwich Islands region

5.2 magnitude earthquake hits the South Sandwich Islands region

5.0 magnitude earthquake hits the South Sandwich Islands region

5.0 magnitude earthquake hits near Santiago, Philippines

5.0 magnitude earthquake hits near Pondaguitan, Philippines

5.0 magnitude earthquake hits near Rabaul, Papua New Guinea

Ruiz volcano in Colombia erupts to 23,000ft

Sangay volcano in Ecuador erupts to 22,000ft

Popocateptl volcano in Mexico erupts to 20,000ft

Reventador volcano in Ecuador erupts to 19,000ft

Fuego volcano in Guatemala erupts to 16,000ft

Semeru volcano in Indonesia erupts to 14,000ft

Santa Maria volcano in Guatemala erupts to 13,000ft

At least 21 dead after landslide in Wapenamanda, Enga Province, Papua New Guinea

Caribbean islands reel from Hurricane Melissa’s devastating impact as storm heads north

Hurricane Melissa leaves behind unimaginable human suffering in Jamaica as death toll climbs

Vietnam’s tourist sites submerged as record rainfall causes major flooding

LA firefighters claim they were told to abandon site that eventually became Palisades fire: Report

Report: LA firefighters ordered to leave fire that exploded into Palisades Fire days later – LAFD says Palisades Fire was a ‘reactivation of an undetectable holdover fire under extraordinary wind conditions’

Kamala Harris Wants Voter Age Lowered to 16 Because Gen Z Has ‘Climate Anxiety’

Kamala Harris Pushes to Lower the Voting Age to 16 Because of Climate Change – Claims Teens ‘Fear They’ll Be Wiped Out’ and Are Too Afraid to Have Kids

How Bill Gates Gave Up On Saving the World – The tech billionaire used to be a fierce climate advocate. What changed?

‘Deeply concerned’: Dangerous radiation levels detected in San Francisco

Nigerian army dismissed warnings about an attack that killed over a dozen Christians, lawyer says

Trump designates Nigeria as ‘country of particular concern’ over widespread Christian persecution, killings – Open Doors reports nearly 70% of Christians killed worldwide for their faith last year were in Nigeria

Brazil: Death Toll from Gang War in Rio de Janeiro Rises To 121

Mexican Senator: ‘Trump is Right, Mexico Ruled by Cartels’

‘Meth Busters’: CBP officers in Eagle Pass halt massive drug shipment bound for United States – CBP officers discovered 90 pounds of liquid methamphetamine hidden in plastic bottles at Eagle Pass bridge

How Dare You: U.N. Warns U.S. Attacks on Cartel Drug Boats ‘Unacceptable’

‘A Matter of Days or Even Hours’: Reports Arise of Impending US Attacks on Drug Cartel Targets on Venezuelan Soil

FAA Declares Airspace Over Ceiba, Puerto Rico ‘National Defense Airspace’ Amid Rumors of a U.S. Potential Land Strike on Venezuela

Satellites Show US Warships Positioned for Possible Strikes in Venezuela

Trump says he’s not considering strikes within Venezuela

White House responds to reports of Trump preparing to hit military targets inside Venezuela – ‘Unnamed sources don’t know what they’re talking about,’ the White House said

Kirk Cameron Warns Trump’s Troop Deployments Could Backfire against Christians – Kirk Cameron cautions fellow conservatives against President Trump’s deployment of troops into American cities, warning it sets a dangerous precedent that could be weaponized by future administrations against specific groups

DHS says people can’t refuse scanning by ICE’s facial recognition app

“Child Poverty” and the Illegal Immigrant Benefits Scam

Hegseth extends National Guard deployment in DC through February

Mamdani: We Need Less Cooperation with Feds on Immigration So NYPD Can Focus More on Crime

David Marcus: How Zohran Mamdani will turn New York City into Portland – ‘It was the people of Portland who wrecked their hometown by refusing to police the streets, deal with the homeless and addicted’

CNN host compares ICE crackdown to horror movie, suggests parents will be ‘abducted’ while trick-or-treating

‘Happy Halloween!’: DHS spokeswoman responds to report of immigration agents wearing horror masks in L.A.

Sanctuary State Illinois: Illegal Alien Accused of Killing GOP Elected Official and His Wife in Fatal Crash

ICE officer shoots illegal immigrant during Phoenix traffic stop gone wrong, both hospitalized

Speaker Johnson Erupts After Learning Democrats Actually Sued the USDA for Asking How Many Illegal Aliens Are on Welfare

Indicted Anti-ICE Ilinois Congressional Candidate Abruptly Rage Quits Interview After Being Shown a Damning Clip of Her Alleged Crime, Leaving the Journalist Shocked

Horror: Illegal Alien Beats North Carolina Man to Death with a Baseball Bat, Crushing His Skull

Chinese USC PhD student admits to drugging, raping multiple women

FBI Arrests Active Duty U.S. Marine For Allegedly Kidnapping 12-Year-Old Girl He Met on TikTok

Prince Andrew Once Invited 40 Prostitutes to His Hotel, Royal Historian Claims

UK government, public and Giuffre family welcome Andrew’s fall from royal status – Praise for King Charles’s decision to strip brother of princely title, but family of Epstein trafficking victim, who died by suicide, says he should face justice for alleged sexual abuse

Maryland Democrat State Senator Charged with Extortion For Threatening to Release Explicit Video of Former Campaign Consultant’s Affair

Discord, text messages reveal Tyler Robinson’s trans partner Lance Twiggs, took ‘black market hrt,’ drugs, created trash ‘nests’: report

Wikipedia Page Claims ‘Adult Human Female’ Constitutes ‘Hate Speech’ against transgender individuals

Glamour Magazine Fills Its ‘Women of the Year’ Cover with Men

WSJ Op-Ed Acknowledges Transgender Identity Appears To Be Social Contagion – Data continues to show that the popularity of transgender identification mirrors that of a cultural trend rather than immutable characteristics

Two Muslim doctors are accused of performing illegal mutilation surgeries on young girls in Minnesota

Unregulated sperm donor still advertising services despite court warnings to women

Escaped monkeys from Mississippi truck crash puts spotlight on NIH-funded Tulane lab – White Coat Waste Project nonprofit reveals escaped primates were part of NIH program receiving $35M annually

Source: http://trackingbibleprophecy.org/birthpangs.php

Week in Review · October 27-31, 2025

“From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”

ANALYSIS Former First Kids Whine About the White House Nate Jackson Now that the East Wing is gone, Chelsea Clinton and Patti Davis have written op-eds to lament all the precious history that Donald Trump has wantonly destroyed.

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Hysterical SNAP Crowd Threatens to Loot Samantha Koch If you’re able-bodied enough to push a cart full of groceries out of a store without paying, you’re able-bodied enough to push that same cart at work.

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Tucker Carlson Elevates Bigoted Nick Fuentes Thomas Gallatin The normalization of individuals like Fuentes will only lead to more proliferation of Jew-hatred in America, and conservatives should want nothing to do with it.

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Another Self-Defeating Leftist Boycott Douglas Andrews While Donald Trump is taking care of business at home and abroad, his deranged detractors continue to alienate the American people.

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Dems Are ‘Not the Crazy Ones’? Nate Jackson They fight for open borders, abortion on demand, and transing the kids, which are all insane ideas, but they insist they are on the “right side of history.”

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The Demos ARE Crazy Mark Alexander “If that kind of extreme rhetoric is going to continue, [it will result] in extreme kinds of outcomes and political violence.”

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Transing Kids Through Clandestine Medical Records Emmy Griffin Medical providers and gender pathology activists are icing parents out of their children’s medical documents. It’s a recipe for social disaster.

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Inflation Edges Up to 3%, Trump Tariffs Blamed Michael Swartz We’re not out of the economic woods yet, as consumer prices continue to rise at a rate higher than anyone wants to see.

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Reagan vs. Trump on Tariffs Brian Mark Weber After the Canadians ran an ad featuring the Gipper talking about tariffs and trade, Trump responded by cutting off talks and raising tariffs.

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Comparing Grokipedia and Wikipedia Sophie Starkova A few key examples — from January 6 to George Floyd to gender — provide sufficient evidence to show Wikipedia’s gross left-wing bias.

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Radicalization on the Right Thomas Gallatin Conservatives need to be willing to police our own side for extremist and wrong-headed ideas. Otherwise, we risk not only losing the culture war but also the truth.

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We Need You to Continue the Fight! Your Patriot Post team has a critical deadline to meet to ensure our defense of Liberty is funded into 2026. Our mission and operations remain 100% grassroots supported! Please partner with us today and make your gift to the 2025 Year-End Campaign. Thank you for helping us keep the fires of Liberty burning bright in the hearts and minds of millions of Patriots nationwide. —The Patriot Post Editorial Team2025 Year-End Campaign.$0$494,500Support Liberty

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Schumer Shutdown Pain Hits the Democrats Nate Jackson Senate Democrats have hypocritically used the filibuster to block a continuing resolution 13 times, and it’s hitting airlines, food stamps, and their poll numbers.

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Into Mordor Michael Smith Like Frodo in “The Lord of the Rings,” we may not always want to confront the challenges of our time, but the choice we face is what to do with those trials.

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The Conveniently Forgotten Child Street Walkers of LA Emmy Griffin What’s a major human rights violation of our time? The fact that California lawmakers care so little for women that they empower sex predators and traffickers.

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Sixty Years Later Jack DeVine Every now and then, even in these tumultuous times, something happens that makes us feel that all will turn out OK. For me, it just did.

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Profiles of Valor: Col Kim Campbell (USAF) Mark Alexander Her flight leader provided a visual damage report: Her plane had hundreds of holes in the right fuselage tail section and a large hole in her right horizontal stabilizer.

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Visit our archive for more analysis commentary.

Catch up on the latest news headlines with our executive summary.

VIDEOS LA Is Third World He’s Desperate to Hide This… Brutal KJP Interview Reveals the Full Extent of Her Incompetence The NBA Just Lost a Bet! Sports Gambling Gone Wrong See our extensive curated video library for more!

QUOTES Non Compos Mentis “They may be drug runners — we don’t know that for sure — but just because you call somebody a terrorist … doesn’t mean that the military is authorized to go after them. … There will be a Democratic president someday, and all my MAGA friends who are cheering on these illegal killings need to imagine who gets killed when President Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says that it doesn’t matter what the law says.” —Rep. Jim Himes They Want You Dead “So listen up, Democratic establishment: You can either jump on board with this sh*t, or we’re coming after you in the same way that we come after MAGA.” —podcaster Jennifer Welch reacting to a clip of a “No Kings” protestor saying she’s glad Charlie Kirk is dead Inciting Violence “Don’t forget where you’re standing. This is South Central Los Angeles. [Immigration agents] are not the only ones with guns in this city. … Don’t forget that. … The people have every right to defend themselves against masked, unidentified gunmen.” —Unión del Barrio spokesman Ron Gochez Old Man Yells at Cloud “Friends, I can’t sugarcoat any of this. These are dark days.” —Joe Biden Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud “Frankly, [the shutdown] is our only moment of leverage.” —Sen. Chris Coons “It’s the only lever we have.” —Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse Projection “[Republicans] are choosing to cut off food assistance and SNAP to 42 million Americans. They are going to let seniors, children, veterans, and millions of Americans starve.” —Rep. Melanie Stansbury Gaslighting “Serving those that are hungry — it’s not a suggestion in the Old and New Testament. … These guys need to stop the BS in Washington, DC, because they’re sitting there in their prayer breakfasts. Maybe they got an edited version of Donald Trump’s Bible and they edited all of that out. … Cruelty is the policy.” —California Gov. Gavin Newsom Braying Jennies “[Republicans are] people of faith? You go to church on Sunday and pray in church on Sunday and prey on people the rest of the week? What is this?” —Rep. Nancy Pelosi “I was asked if [Trump] was a fascist, and I said yes. And the reason is that I look at what is happening right now, and again, it is what I predicted.” —Kamala Harris “Donald Trump wants to politicize everything in America because he thinks he’s the king in charge.” —Sen. Elizabeth Warren Don’t Believe Your Lying Ears “I haven’t suggested that Donald Trump is Hitler.” —Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker “I don’t think any Democrat has.” —MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace Leftist Hysteria “I personally think that an infrastructure is being built to allow Donald Trump to stay in office indefinitely. I don’t think that what’s being done to the White House —you don’t do that if you think that anybody else is going to inhabit this thing after you.” —Puck reporter Julia Ioffe on CNN “The question weighing heavily on the minds of many Americans is whether Trump will subvert next year’s elections or the 2028 presidential election to extend his reign.” —The Atlantic’s Michael Luttig “All the signs Donald Trump has no intention of ever leaving the White House.” —headline in the Mirror The BIG Lies “The president has time to do everything but what he needs to focus on. In fact, we heard the press secretary say that his main priority is the ballroom.” —Rep. Jasmine Crockett “When the White House press secretary said the top priority is the ballroom, we could not disagree more.” —Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz “[The ballroom] is his main priority. Can you believe that?” —House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Non Compos Mentis II “Don’t even think of seeking the Democratic nomination for president unless you pledge to take a wrecking ball to the Trump Ballroom on DAY ONE.” —Rep. Eric Swalwell Godwin’s Law “Hitler had a large ball room/ reception hall built at the Old Reich Chancellery in Berlin.” —actress Mia Farrow What World Is She Living In? “We should have fought to make sure that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won.” —former White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre Weird Flex “I woke up every day as a black woman who is queer who had never — no one had ever seen someone like me at that podium standing behind that lectern. It was an honor and a privilege to have that job. And I did it to the best of my abilities.” —Karine Jean-Pierre on whether she had any regrets about her time as Biden’s press secretary Political Futures “I am not done. … I have lived my entire career as a life of service and it’s in my bones. … If I listened to polls I would have not run for my first office, or my second office — and I certainly wouldn’t be sitting here.” —Kamala Harris, who is sitting there because she lost “Zohran Mamdani has relentlessly focused on addressing the affordability crisis and explicitly committed to being a mayor for all New Yorkers, including those who do not support his candidacy. In that spirit, I support him and the entire citywide Democratic ticket in the general election.” —House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries with a despicable endorsement Race Bait “No one is going to convince me what the Trump administration is doing against black people and brown people can ever be justified. It is racist. … When you have black babies being thrown in the back of vans, zip-tied in the middle of the night, and masked men sticking guns in the faces of black and brown people, that is nasty, is vicious, is racist.” —Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson “To terrorize people in their homes, to make them afraid to go to church, afraid to go to the market, afraid to go to a restaurant — that’s not what this country is about. There’s only one parallel in history that can I think of that has occurred in my lifetime, and that, of course, would be the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.” —Sen. Dick Durbin Lack of Self-Awareness Award “This is … about a justice system which has been weaponized, a justice system which has been used as a tool of revenge.” —New York Attorney General Letitia James Denialism “We are not the crazy ones, New York City. We are not the outlandish ones, New York City. They want us to think we are crazy. We are sane.” —Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Dumb & Dumber “I want to speak to the memory of my aunt who stopped taking the subway after September 11th because she did not feel safe in her hijab.” —New York City socialist mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, who apparently thinks his aunt was the real victim of 9/11 “No New Yorker should ever be priced out of anything they need to survive. And we believe … it is government’s job to deliver that dignity. Dignity, my friends, is another way of saying freedom.” —Zohran Mamdani “To be Muslim in New York is to expect indignity.” —Zohran Mamdani For more insightful quotes, see our Short Cuts.

MEME Don’t miss the latest memes.

CARTOON Don’t miss the latest cartoons.

“From The Patriot Post (patriotpost.us)”

Harris, Newsom headline this week’s ‘Donkey of the Week’ | The Right Squad

On Friday’s “The Right Squad,” the panel slammed former VP Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom for their inauthenticity and delusions of electability.

Source: Harris, Newsom headline this week’s ‘Donkey of the Week’ | The Right Squad

Pollsters: SNAP Chaos from Schumer Shutdown Has Totally Backfired on Democrats, ‘Country Is Beginning to Shift’

Pollster Matt Towery said Friday on Fox News that Democrats’ efforts to stir outrage over disruptions to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are starting to backfire. As the shutdown […] The post appeared first on The Western Journal .

Source: Pollsters: SNAP Chaos from Schumer Shutdown Has Totally Backfired on Democrats, ‘Country Is Beginning to Shift’

‘WELL HAS RUN DRY’: USDA website calls out Dems over SNAP funding amid shutdown

Congress grapples with finding middle ground as SNAP benefits are set to expire due to the government shutdown.

Source: ‘WELL HAS RUN DRY’: USDA website calls out Dems over SNAP funding amid shutdown

Worldview and Apologetics in the News | Truthbomb

Video – Debunking Myths: Why Christians Should Celebrate Halloween

Video – Richard Carrier Tried to Prove Christianity Is a Delusion — It Backfired

Ex-Psychic Warns How Easily ‘Demonic Doors’ Can Be Opened

The Three Simplest Examples of Cosmic Fine-Tuning

Ex-Shroud of Turin Skeptic Reveals Why He Now Believes It’s Real: ‘Evidence to the Death, Burial, and Resurrection of Jesus’

Information, Intelligence, and Decision: Concepts Underpinning the Theory of Intelligent Design

Video – Homicide Detective Reacts to Modern Conspiracies

On the State of Men and Reading

Christians and Conspiracy Theories: Have We Lost our Minds?

Video – Arguments for the Existence of God by Dr. William Lane Craig

‘The Pulpit Is The Holy of the Holy:’ Prominent Asian Pastor Calls for Sinning Pastors to Repent

Critical Theory and Secular Social Justice

Courage and Godspeed,

Chad

Our last edition is here.

Source: Worldview and Apologetics in the News

Are Democrats Trying To Start A Civil War? | ZeroHedge

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us

Whenever you delve into the modern history of internal national conflict you’re bound to come across post-crisis accounts from people who said “We never saw it coming…” or “The violence hit us from nowhere…” Generally speaking, these were the people who weren’t paying attention and they just happened to survive by sheer luck.

I think of this dynamic a lot these days. I see a large contingent of American society (perhaps 25% of the population) which has been radicalized or brainwashed beyond all reason or repair. These people (leftists) operate deep within a protective bubble of propaganda and zealotry; they function within a hive mind that does not deviate from the demands of their gatekeepers. They cannot be reasoned with, nor can they be satiated. They lust for power and the suffering of anyone who opposes them.

One can see an immediate difference between the sides. Conservatives are so independent we in-fight constantly. We might agree on basic values (even in this we sometimes argue), but in terms of policy and action we rarely shake hands.

For the political left, any disagreement with the majority leads to immediate ostracism. The hive mind does not tolerate individual rebellion. Only the gatekeepers can change the mindset or the mission of the mob.

It is strange then that this dichotomy has resulted in conservatives, with their values of liberty and independence, seeking order. Meanwhile leftists, in their Orwellian uniformity of thought, seek chaos and the deconstruction of civilization. You would think the relationship would be reversed, but this is the way it has always been.

Looking back on the events of the Bolshevik Revolution and the long list of Marxist disruptions in Europe following WWI, it should not have been at all surprising to Europeans that domestic conflict would erupt. It should not have been surprising that people would follow their natural inclination to rally around their founding heritage rather than submit to the cultural and moral relativism of the radical left.

Fascism was popular exactly because it offered shelter from the chaos and degeneracy of communism. The war and brutality that followed was seen as a balancing of the scales. Europeans wanted to ensure that the communists would never get a chance to wreak havoc again.

To be clear, both systems of governance are authoritarian and can lead to monstrous outcomes, but communism’s love for economic sabotage, mob actions and political violence are almost always a precursor to a fascist crackdown. The public does not embrace fascism in a vacuum, they must be compelled by an existential threat.

The question is, can communist subversion be defeated without using “authoritarian” measures? Is a constitutional republic equipped to deal with this kind of threat? When someone wages war on your society internally, is there a way to fight them while remaining civic minded? Probably not.

What we are witnessing in the US and Europe today is, in every way, a Marxist/Communist insurgency. It’s difficult to determine what stage we are at in this war. We have moved well beyond the stage of propaganda and mob influence into the realm of political violence, with multiple assassination attempts and terror attacks against civilian targets.

The gatekeepers for the woke communist movement are obviously Democrat politicians and media influencers. They have been consistently and actively encouraging mass hysteria and violence. They have used media spin to protect activist groups like Antifa, pretending that such organizations don’t exist. Whenever activists cause harm or death, the media and political leaders immediately move to defend that action as if it was justified.

When asked why Democrats are continuing down the path of militancy, their response is that Donald Trump is a “dictator and a fascist.” Yet, these same people can’t seem to come up with a single legitimate example of HOW Trump is acting like a dictator.

Deportations of illegal immigrants? Most countries on Earth have basic immigration laws and enforce them much more harshly than the Trump Administration does. Cuts to federal programs and employees? The President is perfectly within his power of office to reduce waste in the federal government. How about using the National Guard in US cities? Democrat leaders in those cities have aided violent activists, helping to disrupt ICE operations while threatening the lives of agents. If they don’t want the National Guard in their cities they should stop waging war on immigration officials.

From Trump’s remodeling of the White House ballroom to the US troops countering drug smugglers, everything Trump does is blown out of proportion by Democrats into an “end of democracy” scenario. Their useful-idiot followers then take these claims as permission to create even more turmoil.

The government shutdown in particular is becoming a nexus point for this agenda. The Senate needs only five Democrat votes to reopen the government with a clean funding bill, but Democrats refuse to see reason. Meanwhile, they are blaming Republicans for the consequences of the shutdown, specifically seeking public pain as leverage over conservatives.

Trump is already being held accountable for a prolonged shutdown of EBT. The Democrats know their audience well. They know that the free-stuff army is entitled, vicious and easy to manipulate.

I warned about this outcome at the beginning of the month; Democrats are fighting hard for the shutdown to continue because it creates greater fear in their constituency. However, if Republicans fold then Democrats will use the same threat of civil unrest over and over again. The government will be under their control even though they lost the elections.

Democrat rhetoric has been even worse than usual.  DNC Chair Ken Martin recently argued on MSNBC that:

“The Democratic Party’s job right now is to win elections. That’s our focus. But we may be nearing the moment where we are truly in a dictatorship and an authoritarian regime here has completely shredded the Constitution. Then elections don’t matter, and then the resistance looks completely different. And we may be nearing that moment.”

Senator Chuck Schumer also made provocative statements calling for “resistance” against Trump:

“This is tyranny. This is what happens in dictatorships… I don’t care if you’re Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, moderate – people should be forcefully rising up against this…”

In an odd and obviously inciting discussion on MSNBC, Joy Reid and Jasmine Crockett sent out multiple signals to leftists, barely disguising their intent:

Joy Reid: “We’re in a moment where the MAGA crowd is armed to the teeth, and they’re not shy about it. So, everybody needs to pick up a weapon – whether it’s a vote, a protest sign, or whatever it takes – because this isn’t just politics anymore; it’s survival.”

Jasmine Crockett: “Absolutely, Joy. This is a war, this isn’t a battle. We’re talking about the soul of this country, about whether democracy survives or gets crushed under fascism. And yeah, we need to arm ourselves with everything we’ve got—truth, turnout, and tenacity. The other side declared war on us long ago.”

Numerous Democrats across social media are announcing, in no uncertain terms, that they want conservatives dead and Trump allies humiliated or eliminated. When they return to a government majority and get power back, they say conservatives are going to pay a terrible price for daring to oppose them.

But if we’re living under a fascist regime as they assert, then how could they possibly expect to return to government power? If elections are still an option, then leftists must not be too serious about their claims of fascism.

A perfect example is the New York mayor’s race, which is is going much like I predicted months ago.  Zohran Mamdani (a champagne socialist/communist with wealthy parents) is holding a steep lead in polling over all other candidates. As I noted when the race began, Mamdani is the natural end game of the political left – A combination of all the groups that hate western civilization, concentrated into a single man.

Democrats are doubling down.  Mamdani proudly mentioned this in a recent campaign speech, arguing that the correct path of Democrats is to blindly charge forward. In other words, they should not self reflect on their long list of failures, but dive headfirst into radical chaos.

Prominent Democrats like AOC and Bernie Sanders are openly endorsing Mamdani. Like it or not, this is the course that their party is taking, which means violent conflict is inevitable.  If Dems are being honest in their rhetoric to “get revenge” on conservatives once they return to power (there’s no reason to think they are joking), then the rules of survival dictate that leftists can never be allowed to return to power.

If Democrat leaders continue on the path of disrupting deportations of illegals and threatening immigration officials, then Americans will increasingly support National Guard intervention. The public may even support the arrest of those same politicians.

If leftists incite mass violence over the loss of SNAP benefits, the gatekeepers will have to be arrested or removed from the country. One can question the constitutionality of the reaction, but the path that led us to this is undeniable. Leftists are provoking these responses; they are making peaceful resolution impossible.

They have gone so far over the top in their behavior, I have to ask: Are they doing this on purpose to trigger a civil war, or an authoritarian response? Do they really believe they will be able to use national instability as a weapon to get what they want?

My long running theory ever since Trump ran for office in 2016 is that he represents a perfect scapegoat for a leftist/globalist induced collapse of the US. In fact, for many years I have posited that if real conservatives and patriots (not Neo-Cons) ever gained legitimate government power, the elites would simply crash the system around our ears and make it look like it was our fault.

This plan seems to be unfolding right now. Progressive gatekeepers are using far-left activists as cannon fodder to induce a crisis, or a domestic war.

Think about the Bolshevik Revolution: The gatekeepers spurred a revolution of the poor and the working class, yet Lenin and Trotsky both came from upper-middle class wealth (like Mamdani). Hell, Karl Marx came from an upper middle-class family and married into his wife’s riches. When his debts and refusal to work a steady job caught up with him, he lived off the money of rich benefactors.

The gatekeepers of the left rarely share the struggles of the downtrodden workers they purport to represent, they only use the working class and the poor as tools to gain power and destroy their ideological enemies.

This is what Democrat leaders are doing with the mentally ill rabble they have accumulated. They are aiming the naive and unhinged horde at the guts of the country and they are hoping to create enough mayhem that Trump, conservatives, nationalists, all of us get blamed for the uncompromising response that follows.

Maybe they are hoping that in the process, conservatives will haphazardly jump on the bandwagon of totalitarianism; that we will look like the villains. I think the progressives are underestimating the average American’s resolve to see order restored. Playing the victim may not help them garner much public empathy this time.

It’s hard to say what the end result will be, but I’m finding it difficult to see an outcome that doesn’t include considerable conflict and, unfortunately, bloodshed. And, to be frank, most of it is likely to befall the leftist side. For the sake of their own self preservation, I hope they realize they’re only being used to further an agenda, and their gatekeepers don’t actually care what happens to them in the end.

Source: Are Democrats Trying To Start A Civil War?

Harris Faulkner: This is about to get INFINITELY worse

Senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram reports the latest on the government shutdown as SNAP benefits are set to expire and holiday travel concerns loom. Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., joins ‘The Faulkner Focus’ to weigh in. #foxnews #politics #governmentshutdown #usnews

Source: Harris Faulkner: This is about to get INFINITELY worse

School districts adopting lefty prof’s curriculum teaching history through lens of oppression

Public schools across the country are directing teachers to use curriculum resources from a nonprofit that teaches American history through the lens of racial and sexual oppression.

Source: School districts adopting lefty prof’s curriculum teaching history through lens of oppression