DELUDERS DISEMINATING THE DELUSION TO THE DELUDED

 Every Sunday, thousands of the deluded fill church auditoriums. On other days, thousands fill coliseums night after night. At assorted hours, millions buy books, all with a common refrain. In each case, whether in church auditoriums, coliseums, or Books A Million, it's the same thing:: they're craving more money and the excesses of success. Another thing they have in common is that they believe that Christianity in general and biblical principles specifically will fulfill their dreams. 

But, as the title of this essay suggests, they're the deluded. They're the willfully ignorant. They're miles away from mindset of the noble Bereans. (cf. Acts 17:10-11) Deluders disseminate the delusion to the deluded by saying, "Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." 

In other words, they proclaim, "If you truly believe it, you can write your own ticket with God; all you have to do is name it and claim it." "It" refers to a raise in salary, a new car, and a new home along with a promotion. One of those who preaches to the deluded puts it this way, "My Father is not in the used car business." (That sounds like a real applause grabber as well as blasphemy.)

But unlike the noble Bereans, the willfully ignorant don't "search the Scriptures to see if those things are true." Instead, they pay their money for the books, the CDs, and their stadium tickets to hear the same old same old version of name it and claim it. The deluders never steer the deluded to the qualifier of John 16:23: "Truly, truly I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you." To ask in Jesus' name is to ask according to His character and will. 

Neither does the deluder let them roam over to I John 5:14:"This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us." Therefore mansions and BMWs are not to be assumed as answers to a prayer in which one names it and claims it. To say it in a theological way, the deluder never lets the deluded use what's called, the analogy of Scripture, that is, Scripture interprets Scripture.

The deluded need to read two clincher verses that put the deluders in embarrassed retreat. The first is a text about foxes and ornithology: "And Jesus *said to him, “The foxes have holes and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” The deluded should read the verse and conclude: "If it's God's will that every Christian be rich, Jesus wasn't a very good example of it." (Jack Kuhatschek)

Then there's an entire paragraph that should make the name it and claim it crowd blush with shame at what they've done to delude the willingly deludable: Paul wrote,"Up to this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed and roughly treated and homeless; ¹² and we labor, working with our own hands; when we are verbally abused, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; ¹³ when we are slandered, we reply as friends; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now." (I Cor. 4:11-13) Paul was a long way from most people's idea of success.

We might add the 13th step* to the health and wealth gallows where Paul writes about his critics: "Are they servants of Christ? . . .I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. ²⁴ Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent adrift at sea. ²⁶ I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers; ²⁷ I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. ²⁸ Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches. (II Cor. 11:23-28) Paul wasn't an example of someone's floating through life on a Beauty Rest Mattress.

Those Scriptures are there for the deluded to see, yet they buy the books, attend the services, fill the stadiums, and they, the deluded with itching ears, love to have it so. 

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* If you look closely at old photos of public hangings, you will often count 13 steps to the gallows.  

IS GOD GIVING US MORE THAN WE CAN HANDLE?

 As we look at the state of our nation things seem to be on fire. Our police are being gunned down; people are stabbed, shot, assaulted for no reason other than randomness. Criminals commit their crimes from shoplifting to looting, to murder and then roam our streets shortly thereafter to assault, burn, and kill again with impunity. Thousands and thousands and thousands (and more) walk across our borders without surcease then are flown under the cover of darkness to wherever they want to go at our expense. 

But then we read a text in the Bible like I Cor. 10:13 and we then say that God won't give us more than we can handle. But . . .

 There are three words that without fail, will lead us to misunderstand the Bible, perverting it to say what it's not saying. Those three words are, "Ignore the context." Every word, every sentence, and every paragraph in the Bible occur within a context. The context equals "the parts of a written or spoken statement that precede or follow a specific word or passage." The context greatly determines the meaning of the text.

I Corinthians 10:13 furnishes a case in point. The verse says, "No temptation has overtaken you except something common to mankind; and God is faithful, so He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it." Once taken out of its context, people say, "God will give you no more than you can handle." But . . .

Is that true? What about the Nazi's "final solution," the Holocaust for those who didn't survive it and those who did. Six million  Jews, gone, executed with Nazi efficiency. What about WWI? We see film clips of the Allied soldiers out of their minds, hands and bodies shaking so badly they can't stop it. They're not in a battle nor going into one; they're in a hospital. No matter how hard they try, it goes on and on and on.

Let's look at it another way--if it's true that God gives us no more than we can handle, what do we need Him for? We can deal with everything that comes our way if that's the case. But if we can't handle it, then we learn what dependence, humility, and faith in Him and His Word are all about. 

When we put I Corinthians 10:13 back into its context, then we discover what Paul is saying. We ask the question, "What does 'temptation' mean in the context of I Corinthians 10?"  The answer is that Paul has been writing about the Exodus generation who "craved evil things" (vs. 6), idolatry (vs.7), immorality (vs. 8), and complaining (vs. 9). Those are the" temptations" about which Paul is writing, temptations to sin as the Israelites did.

He's saying that when we're tempted to sin those particular sins and all other sins, God has made a way of escape from succumbing to them. He has given us free will for one thing; it's not foreordained that we sin because God is not the author of sin. We can, as Nancy Reagan said, "Just say no." Or as in the case of Joseph, his way of escape was literally to escape and run out of the room. Or as the Psalmist wrote, "Your Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you." Those are some of our "escapes."

As the story goes, a little boy was in the pantry in which there were many delights to eat before dinner. His mother called for him and asked, "Where are you?". He answered truthfully, "I'm in the pantry." She asked, "What are you doing in there? He replied, "I'm resisting temptation." 

The way to escape the pantries in our lives is either don't go in the pantry or get out of the pantry if you're in it.  

A PROPHECY FOR AMERICA

 Many things that Abraham Lincoln said ring true. In what's known as "The Lyceum Speech" of 1838, given in Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln said:

"We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions, conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty, than any of which the history of former times tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these fundamental blessings.

"We toiled not in the acquirement or establishment of them — they are a legacy bequeathed us, by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors. Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through themselves, us, of this goodly land; and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys, a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; ’tis ours only, to transmit these, the former, unprofaned by the foot of an invader; the latter, undecayed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation, to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. This task of gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively require us faithfully to perform.

"How then shall we perform it? — At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? — Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step the Ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! — All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Buonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years.

"At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

As a companion quote to the above, these words have been attributed to Lincoln: 

"The philosophy of the schoolhouse in one generation will be the philosophy of the government in the next."

The philosophy in our classrooms is humanism and relativism run rampant. Our schoolhouses are training camps, training the youth to live as if they exist during the time of the Judges in Israel--trained to do what's right in their own eyes from K-college. 

Each schoolhouse is hermetically sealed to keep the Bible itself out and any principle or verse derived from or quoted from the Bible is a punishable offense. That is the philosophy infusing the school houses. If Lincoln's right in his assessment, that philosophy is now entering the government.

The long-neglected antidote consists of Deuteronomy 6:6-9;  Matthew 19:13-14; II Timothy 3:15. The principles in those texts produced the Josephs, Samuels, Davids, Hannahs, and Daniels of yesteryear. 

THE SUPERNATURAL INFECTION

There's an infection going around that we're hearing everywhere. It's an infection of the mind which causes our brains to think in an illogical manner. I ran into this infection several years ago in the deep south and then again, just recently way up north, 1500 miles away. 

We can see this lapse in logic by picturing the scenario of a birthday party in which I bring you a gift. During the festive party you unwrap all the gifts and then you come to mine. You unwrap it there you see the gift and hold up for all to see. 

At that point, you then turn to me and ask, "How much do I owe you? What do I have to do to earn this wonderful gift?" 

I'm a bit confused, so I reply, nothing; it's a gift from me to you." 

But you insist and ask again, saying, "I know it's a gift; you just said it was a gift, so tell me, what do I have to do to earn it?" 

This only confuses me farther, so I explain that the very word "gift" means you don't earn it; it's free to you, although I may have paid a great deal to purchase it, it's absolutely free to you. 

You might be thinking that this little scenario sounds absolutely crazy, that  nobody thinks that way, but you'd be wrong, very wrong. You'd be wrong because whether you live in Georgia or 1500 miles away in South Dakota that's the answer we get when we ask this question: "Is heaven a free gift or do you have to earn it?" The answer we often, often, often hear is, "It's a free gift, but you have to earn it."

Go figure. How can this be? How can logical, clear-thinking adults in a birthday situation never ask, "What do I have to do to earn this gift," but then turn around and answer the above question about a gift with "It's free, but you have to earn it?"

I believe the Bible gives us the answer: ". . .  the god of this]world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."

And when we look at another text from the Bible, we read, "Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil." What a scheme, "It's a free gift but you have to earn it!" They say  it almost robotic like not even thinking what a logical error their brain has articulated. No, I don't mean that they're demon possessed, but I do mean that they've come up with nonsense and they don't even realize it. They never think about it unless we make them think about what they've just said. 

INVISIBLE INK IN THE BIBLE

 There must be invisible ink in the Bible, at least that seems to be a possibility. Take for example an erudite author and speaker whom we'll call Didi. Didi is not a Democrat nor is she a Republican. She used to be a Republican, but left the party a decades ago. She trusts no political party and makes no bones about her distrust of both. She considers herself to be a constitutionalist, one committed to the Constitution whose principles do not change with the times. Good for her.

Didi is an author whose booklets and books have sold in the millions. She's written on the Federal Reserve, the income tax, education, Medicare, SS, the critical, and the fraudulent ratification of the Seventeenth Amendment Good for her. Those subjects consume 400 pages of facts and solutions. She's been interviewed on various radio programs  around the country and is a professional journalist. She's of interest to us, not because of her political views, but because of a Christmas essay. 

In her essay, she writes about the birth of the Savior and she quotes the most familiar verse in the Bible, using the KJV to do so. Here's what she writes: "Know what one of the things I think about today [Christmas Day]? I think about the Blessed Mother and her pain of bringing forth a child into the world knowing that one day she would see her son die in the most horrific manner because that is what Almighty God intended." It's here that she quotes the familiar verse: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved."

Two paragraphs later is the place where the invisible ink enters the picture as she writes: "Our Heavenly Father promised us through his son, Jesus Christ, that if we lived by his commandments and repented of our sins, our reward when we leave this human body would be greater than any earthly riches. As I am fond of saying, eternity is a long time. God commands us not to sin: Kill, lie, cheat, steal, commit adultery, worship false gods, honor our parents and so on."

Just a scant two short paragraphs earlier, Didi quoted the words of John 3:16-- "whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." Is invisible ink involved here? Can she not see the word "whosoever believes in Him"? 

There's not a word about "if we live by his commandments and repent of our sins" in John 3:16 nor is eternal life conditioned on living by God's commandments or repenting (in the sense in which she's using "repent"). In every instance in the Gospel of John, eternal life is conditioned on believing, not doing. 

So there must be invisible ink in use when it comes to the word "believe." Many sadly can't see it; their conditioning won't allow it. It's invisible. Our call is to make the invisible ink visible to those whose minds the god of this world (Satan) has blinded lest the light of the  glorious gospel shine unto them. (II Cor. 4:4)  

CHRISTMAS: THE ONE VERSE THAT SAYS IT ALL

 There's one sentence in the New Testament that says it all when it comes to Christmas. Interestingly enough, it's not in Luke 2 or anywhere in Matthew, but it's in one of Paul's letters. To make it more interesting, it's in one of Paul's letters to a collection of churches who are, at the very moment Paul is putting quill to papyri, defecting from the by-faith way of salvation that saved them in the first place. It's there that we come across a sentence that says it all about Christmas. 

Here's the verse: "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law." There it is. It has "Christmas" writ large all over it.

God sent His Son: there is the statement of the deity of the Christ child. God  sent His Son.

Born of a woman: there is the statement of the true humanity  of the Christ child, as well as an implication of the Virgin Birth.

Born under the Law: The Christ Child was born into the human race a Jew. 

There's one other thing of interest, an excursion from the subject at hand, but haven't we  noticed that there are an array of what are called "Christmas Movies," but in our secularized society none of them deal with the Christmas of Galatians 4:4. 

They chronical a boy's desire for a B-B gun, a boy left in his home alone, a Hallmark movie soaked in sentimentality along with Dicken's famous story of the change from being a stingy man to a generous man, and even an elaborate crime's being committed during an office Christmas party. These we classify as "Christmas Movies" none of which have to do with the truths of Galatians 4:4. 

The plots of the movies take place during a time of year called "Christmas" but there's no explanation of the significance of the word or season. 

The secularization has become ingrained. We hardly notice. 

PRESIDENT BIDEN AND THE PERFECT STORM II

In Finland, a 49 year-old Lutheran pastor described as "unassuming and gentle," will go on trial January 24, 2022, to face charges of  “hate speech” for writing and publishing a 24-page 2004 booklet that explains the Christian theology of marriage, which can only consist of one man and one woman, for life. 

Charges are also being brought against a fellow Lutheran for tweeting a picture of a Bible verse. (Yes, you read that correctly.) Coupled with those outrages is the fact that the police publicly admitted their interpretation of Finland’s law would make publishing the Bible a hate crime. (You read that correctly too.)

Let's turn our attention 5,171 miles from the Finns and look at San Francisco where a Nordstrom store in the San Francisco Bay Area was overrun by 80 looters who tore through the place, grabbed merchandise, and fled in waiting cars. Because of Proposition 47 in California, thefts under $950 will not be prosecuted, so the police won't bother showing up.Because of that law,  two men casually walked out of a Los Angeles TJ Maxx with piles of stolen goods and no one stopped them. 

 What has happened in the US of A and in Finland to cause such insanity? And that brings us to Joe Biden and the perfect storm, the storm which had been developing, but has now hit our country as well as others during his administration. 

 As with any perfect storm, the factors are many and they took a while to build, but build they did and did so right before our very eyes. The atheist German philosopher Frederich Nietzsche (1844-1900), of all people, saw the perfect storm as it began to build. 

What he saw as an idea, the idea that human beings could secularize morality, that is, divorce ethics from Christianity and there would be no problems. And with that, the perfect storm began to form. The philosopher wrote, "What these moral fanatics don't realize is how conditional their morality is on the basis of the religion [Christianity] they profess to discard.And it is only because of the persistence of that religion that, for the English, morality is not yet a problem."The word, "persistence" is important.

We can visualize it this way: a country, such as the U. S. has a history of being Bible-soaked. We named our towns with names straight out of the Bible: Salem, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Palestine, Texas, et. al. Our politicians could quote and allude to the Bible without having to explain the reference such as Lincoln who said, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." We hear an allusion to "the prodigal son,"" a David and Goliath situation," or "giving the widow's mite," or referring to "a good Samaritan" and we understand the mention immediately. We were a people who read and knew our Bibles and the morality it contained.

But then came the aforementioned divorce: prayer removed; the Bible removed; the Ten Commandments removed. The so-called "separation of church and state" became the standard for by which we systematically removed all references to God and His Word in the public arena. 

So, as the storm built, the divorce papers were served and morality was cut off from its foundation: Christianity. Darwin made his contribution to the storm, and man became one more animal taking up space on the planet. Divorced from the Bible, situation ethics (right and wrong depended on a person's situation at the time) thundered over the land. Not only the situation, but feelings, dictated morality, how each person felt became a standard of right and wrong, so we have the situation of "each man does what's right in his own eyes," a statement of relativism.

We must recognize that the storm we're seeing today took a long time to make landfall, that is, it took a long time for morality to become a problem in a Bible-soaked land. And why is that? Leo Tolstoy said it loud and clear: “The attempts to found a morality apart from religion are like the attempts of children who, wishing to transplant a flower that pleases them, pluck it from the roots that seem to them unpleasing and superfluous, and stick it rootless into the ground. Without religion there can be no real, sincere morality, just as without roots there can be no real flower."

The perfect storm in which we live today, does not have its roots in political parties; our educational system, our mass media; it has it's roots in that idea that we can divorce morality from Christianity and there will be no problems. So, what do we see? Insanity: "The fear of the Lord (a positive response to God and His Word) is the beginning of knowledge."

It takes a while for cut flowers to die, but die they do and then comes the perfect storm. Our leadership, starting at the top, are now part of the continual root pulling. Once the roots are gone, there are no rules and chaos descends upon us.