RSS

Category Archives: Today’s World

Jonathan Cahn’s Inaugural Message to President Joe Biden

01 Feb

 
Jonathan Cahn's Message to Joe Biden

Prolific author, teacher, and Messianic leader Johnathan Cahn has produced a 13-minute video titled A Prophetic Message to Joe Biden. His ministry distributed it on all of the many social media outlets in which they participate, and it was there that I first viewed it. I was mightily impressed and deeply moved.

Unfortunately, it seems that the video’s meteoric rise in popularity would soon be overtaken by its sudden disappearance. Here is what Cahn and his ministry wrote to us about it:

          Immediately after its posting, the video went viral. By the end of the first day, over 600,000 people had seen it. By the middle of the second day, it had surpassed a million views.
          That’s when things got strange. It turned out that “Big Tech” was trying to suppress the video. The only places it remained were on the sites of those who had reposted it in the first 24 hours (most of those sites were small). The video no longer came up in searches. Readers had no way to get to it. It just disappeared and was as if it had never existed.

 
We have no way of knowing if President Biden has viewed this special message, but in my opinion all of those who call upon the name of God as Father and of Christ as Savior will find this video uplifting and inspiring. It comprises a message that is not only timely but also vital for our country.

So, in an effort to make Cahn’s message available in at least one more location, I have provided a link to the video, which may be watched right here in this essay. I have also transcribed the entirety of Cahn’s message, and you may read it here, as well. (See below.)

May God stay with our country, continue to bless it, and send a mighty wave of His Spirit throughout the land to turn the hearts of everyone — most especially our leaders, for whom we pray daily — back to Him.

With special thanks to Jonathan Cahn, whose call for Repentance and Return is one we all should heed, here is his message.

Jonathan Cahn (author of The Harbinger and The Harbinger II)

DAILY VERSES MINISTRY
To read today’s verses and
to get a free daily email subscription
CLICK HERE

 
Jonathan Cahn Inaugural Message, 2021

Transcription by Grover B. Proctor, Jr. (1 February 2021)

This is Jonathan Cahn.
Two hundred and thirty-two years ago, in the first ever presidential inauguration, the nation’s first President addressed a jubilant multitude, in a nation that was united in shared values and a common hope in America’s future. In that first ever presidential address, George Washington gave the newborn nation a prophetic warning. He said this:
“The propitious smiles of heaven cannot be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right that heaven itself has ordained.”
In other words, if America followed the ways of God – His eternal rules of order, and right – the blessings of God would remain upon it. But if America should ever depart from the ways of God, then His blessings would be removed from the land.
And now, January 20th, 2021, another presidential inauguration takes place, and the nation’s capital city, named after that first president, has become a military zone. For the first time in American history, a presidential inauguration is devoid of people. Instead of a jubilant crowd, 25,000 American troops stand guard over the National Mall, in which flags stand in for the missing people, and barbed wire surrounds the halls of American government.
There is no war. There is no overt threat from beyond its borders.
Rather, the threat comes from within. Division infects the land, as does a plague that has kept its citizens masked and locked in their houses, as the nation’s functioning has been in large part, paralyzed. For months, America’s cities have seen protests and riots and doors and windows shuttered and buildings set on fire. And the nation’s most revered edifice of government, the Capitol building, taken over by an angry mob with the nation’s leaders fleeing for safety.
And so, the prophetic warning that was given on that day of that first inauguration, the smiles of heaven are being removed from the land. And so, the question must be asked: Have we then disregarded the eternal rules of order and right that heaven has ordained?
America, as did ancient Israel at the height of its prosperity, has turned away from God. We’ve driven Him out of our public squares, out of the schools of our children, out of our culture, out of our lives.
And as did ancient Israel, in place of His absence, we’ve let in other gods and serve them.
We’ve rejected His ways and embraced the ways of immorality. We’ve called evil good and good evil. And as did ancient Israel, we’ve lifted up the most innocent among us, our babies, and shed their blood. Israel sacrificed thousands of its children. We’ve sacrificed millions – 10s of millions – unborn children who are not here this day, this inaugural day, because we took their lives. And their silent screams ascend to heaven, and their blood is on our hands.
We’ve passed down rulings from Washington DC that war against the eternal laws of heaven, on human life, human nature, gender, marriage. We’ve indoctrinated our children against the ways of God. We have done as we were warned not to do, and then we wonder why the blessings of heaven are being removed from our land.
When judgment came to ancient Israel, it manifested in the form of an enemy attack, a strike on the land, a wake-up call. It came to America on September 11th, 2001. And it came to the very place where George Washington stood and prayed on the day of America’s first presidential inauguration.
The biblical template of national judgment then ordains a period of years in which the nation is given the chance to return to God, or else head to judgment. In the case of ancient Jerusalem, that period – from that first enemy strike to the year when the greater shakings began – was 19 years. From the strike on American soil in 2001 to the 19th year brings us to the year 2020, the year when the Great Shakings began.
The danger that this window of time is drawing to an end is now upon us. We stand in a most critical moment.
Mr President, President Biden, you have called for unity and peace. But how can a nation have unity and peace when it wars against the very foundation on which it stands? How could a nation have unity and peace when it has turned against the God who brought it into existence?
And it has turned. The nation that once led its schoolchildren in prayer and taught them of His word now declares such prayers and teachings to be forbidden, and now instructs its children against the ways of God.
How can that nation have unity and peace? How can we have unity and peace in America, if we have no unity and peace with God?
We are a house divided against itself, and a house divided against itself cannot stand.
Mr. President…
► How can you place your left hand on the Bible – the word of God – and then with your right hand sign laws into existence that war against His word?
► How can you place one hand on the word that ordains human life as sacred, and in the image of God from conception, and then with the other hand sign laws into existence that will promulgate the killing of that human life, of those children?
► How can you invoke the name of God in your oath and lay your hand upon His word and then implement laws that will suppress the going forth of His word – that will censor His word and those who advance it?
► You plan to enact laws that will disregard the distinction between male and female, man and woman. Did not the warning of our first president involve that very thing – if we disregard the eternal rules of order, that heaven itself has ordained?
► You plan to enact laws that will specifically neutralize the protection of religious freedom.
► You plan to strike down the Hyde Amendment so that more children will be murdered and those Americans who recognize abortion as murder will be forced to support the act of murder with their taxes.
► And you plan to empower the act of killing unborn children, not only within the borders of America, but throughout the world, to the end that yet more rivers of blood will flow.
How does one do such things and name oneself as a believer in God and a follower of Jesus? How does one sign the sign of the cross and then sign decrees that rage against what God has so clearly set forth in His word concerning life and death, holiness and sin, righteousness and immorality, good and evil.
To you, Mr. President, and all who have joined you in this agenda – from the Vice President to the leaders of the Senate and the House and all who sit in halls of power and have embraced this agenda – heed this warning.
This day will pass. The applause of men will fade. This administration will inevitably be over. This world will pass away. But you will stand before God and give account. For it is written in His word that we will each stand before God and give account. And on that day, all the power you once wielded will be gone, and all of the world’s approval and praises will have faded away, and all the fame and glory you receive will amount to nothing.
In the day when the Book of History is closed and the Book of Life is opened, none of that will matter. It will be you and Him And you will be required to give account of what you have done. Did you follow the will and word of God, or did you not? If you pursue these things, then you did not, and the blood of children will be on your hands, and then will come eternal life or eternal judgment.
The voice of God calls out to you and to all to turn and follow Him with all your heart, Who gave all His heart and life that you might be saved.
As for America, the problem is not social or economic or cultural or political. The problem Is ultimately spiritual, and so must be the answer.
America has turned away from God. And its only hope is that it return to God. Choose true greatness and lead in that return, or continue in this departure from God to destruction and judgment.
As for those of you who love this nation and are burdened and fearful for its future, America’s only hope is revival, return. Without it, the nation is lost, and revival only comes through repentance and return.
It’s time to pray as never before that return and revival would come. But it’s time not only to pray for revival, but to choose revival, to choose to live in revival now.
And for that we must each commit to return to God – to put away from our lives that which must be put away – and take up that which must be taken up, and walk in His ways, and live in His spirit, as we have never done before.
“For the eyes of the Lord search to and fro, throughout the entire earth, looking for the one whose heart is completely His, to show Himself mighty on their behalf.” [2 CHRONICLES 16:9]
Let us be that people and revival will come.
And if the darkness must come, whether by persecution or disorder or disintegration or apostasy, do not fear. For God is still on the throne, and the darkness cannot overcome the light, but only magnify it. And if the darkness should grow darker, then it’s time for the lights of God to shine even brighter.
For it is no longer the time of the candle in the day. It is now time for the candle in the night. We are now the candle in the night that shines against the darkness and lights up the night – the world – with its radiance.
We pray that the civilization that was established and consecrated to be a city on a Hill – America – would once again shine with the light that once illumined it. But whether or not it does, it is time that each of us shine with the light of His glory.
It is time to live unhindered, uncompromised, unbound, bold, and all out on fire, and mighty in the power of the living God.
For thus says the Lord, “Arise and shine for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. Deep darkness shall cover the earth, but the glory of God shall rise upon you.” [ISAIAH 60:1-2]
In the name above every name that is named – the name of Yeshua Ha Mashiach, Jesus the Messiah – the way, the truth and the life, the King above all Kings, the Lord of all, the hope of the ages, and the answer to every life, the star of Jacob, the Prince of Life, the glory of Israel, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the name that will remain above all names when all is passed away – Yeshua Jesus – the same yesterday, today and forever! Amen.

FOR MORE INFORMATION FROM, ABOUT, AND BY JONATHAN CAHN,
CLICK ON HOPE OF THE WORLD.

 
 
 
 
 

 
3 Comments

Posted by on February 1, 2021 in End Times, Jonathan Cahn, Today's World

 

Tags: , , ,

Murder of the Innocents

11 Jul

LET THESE NUMBERS SINK IN !

President Bill Clinton once said his goal was to have abortion become, among other things, “rare.” No matter how you read the statistics below, the one thing it has not become is rare.

As of today, it has been 16,972 days since the Supreme Court handed down its 7-2 verdict in Roe v. Wade. “Jane Roe” has repented of her decision, but the Supreme Court has not.

These sobering, chilling statistics I have calculated scream from the page, documenting the world’s modern holocaust.

Normalizing abortion and promoting it as acceptable public policy is nothing more than humanistic, cultural, ethnic, misogynistic, cynical, public health, political, judicially authorized, damnable, premeditated
MURDER OF THE INNOCENTS.
GOD HELP THESE MOTHERS AND HEAL OUR NATION!

 

1.25 abortions every second!
 
I realize there are some people out there for whom abortion is permissible, commonplace, and natural. A few even profess to believe, in some few cases I’ve read about, that abortion is supported and endorsed by Scripture. As a way of reminding ourselves that abortion is a crime against nature and an insult to the God of Creation, let us prayerfully go through a Bible study on the subject of birth, babies, and beyond.

God invented, ordained, and blessed the bearing of children as part of His plan for us humans.
  Genesis 1:28. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”
 
1 Timothy 5:14. Therefore, I want younger women to marry, have children, manage their households, and give the adversary no opportunity to accuse us.
 
The giving of new life through human birth is understood as a joy-producing, direct blessing from God and a sign of His love and power.
  Deuteronomy 28:10–11. Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by Yehovah’s name, and they will stand in awe of you. Yehovah will make you prosper abundantly with children, the offspring of your livestock, and your land’s produce in the land Yehovah swore to your fathers to give you.
 
Psalm 113:9. He gives the childless woman a household, making her the joyful mother of children. Hallelujah!
 
Psalm 127:3–5. Sons are indeed a heritage from Yehovah, children, a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the sons born in one’s youth. Happy is the man who has filled his quiver with them. Such men will never be put to shame when they speak with their enemies at the city gate.
 
John 16:21. When a woman is in labor she has pain because her time has come. But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world.
 
Scripture tells of the “in-the-womb” life of these tiny human beings.
  Genesis 25:22–23. But the children inside her struggled with each other, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of Yehovah. And Yehovah said to her: Two nations are in your womb; two people will come from you and be separated. One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger. 

Luke 1:41–44. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped inside her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she exclaimed with a loud cry: “You are the most blessed of women, and your child will be blessed! How could this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For you see, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside me!”
 
God has always made it clear that He knew, formed, and selected His people while they were still in their mother’s womb.
  Job 31:15. Did not the One who made me in the womb also make them? Did not the same God form us both in the womb?
 
Psalm 22:10. I was given over to You at birth; You have been my God from my mother’s womb.
 
Psalm 139:13–16. For it was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I will praise You because I have been remarkably and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful, and I know this very well. My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was formed in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.
 
Isaiah 44:2. This is the word of Yehovah your Maker who formed you from the womb; He will help you: Do not fear.
 
Isaiah 49:1. Coastlands, listen to me; distant peoples, pay attention. Yehovah called me before I was born. He named me while I was in my mother’s womb.
 
Jeremiah 1:5. I chose you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
 
The parent-child relationship is holy (set apart) by God as special and as a teaching symbol of what our relationship with Him as our Father will be.
   
Exodus 20:12. Honor your father and your mother so that you may have a long life in the land that Yehovah your God is giving you.
 
Proverbs 1:8–9. Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction, and don’t reject your mother’s teaching, for they will be a garland of grace on your head and a gold chain around your neck.
 
Proverbs 6:20. My son, keep your father’s command, and don’t reject your mother’s teaching.
 
Proverbs 13:24. The one who will not use the rod hates his son, but the one who loves him disciplines him diligently.
 
Proverbs 15:5. A fool despises his father’s discipline, but a person who accepts correction is sensible.
 
Proverbs 17:6. Grandchildren are the crown of the elderly, and the pride of sons is their fathers.
 
Proverbs 22:6. Teach a youth about the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
 
Proverbs 23:22–24. Listen to your father who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old. Buy—and do not sell—truth, wisdom, instruction, and understanding. The father of a righteous son will rejoice greatly, and one who fathers a wise son will delight in him.
 
Isaiah 49:15. [God asks:] “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or lack compassion for the child of her womb? Even if these forget, yet I will not forget you.
 
Romans 8:14. All those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons.
 
Ephesians 6:1–4. Children, obey your parents as you would the Lord, because this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with a promise, so that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life in the land. Fathers, don’t stir up anger in your children, but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
 
Colossians 3:20. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
 
1 John 3:1. Look at how great a love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children. And we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know Him.
 
Jesus the Christ (Messiah) taught (1) that blessing children is a sacred act, (2) that harming children deserved death, and (3) that rescuing them is the natural and blessed act of a divine shepherd.
   
Matthew 18:12–14. What do you think? If a man has 100 sheep, and one of them goes astray, won’t he leave the 99 on the hillside and go and search for the stray? And if he finds it, I assure you: He rejoices over that sheep more than over the 99 that did not go astray. In the same way, it is not the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones perish.
 
Matthew 18:5. And whoever welcomes one child like this in My name welcomes Me.
Mark 9:36–37. Then He took a child, had him stand among them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them, “Whoever welcomes one little child such as this in My name welcomes Me. And whoever welcomes Me does not welcome Me, but Him who sent Me.”
Luke 17:2. It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
 
Matthew 19:13–15. Then children were brought to Him so He might put His hands on them and pray. But the disciples rebuked them. Then Jesus said, “Leave the children alone, and don’t try to keep them from coming to Me, because the kingdom of heaven is made up of people like this.” After putting His hands on them, He went on from there.
Mark 10:13–16. Some people were bringing little children to Him so He might touch them, but His disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw it, He was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to Me. Don’t stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I assure you: Whoever does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” After taking them in His arms, He laid His hands on them and blessed them.
Luke 18:15–17. Some people were even bringing infants to Him so He might touch them, but when the disciples saw it, they rebuked them. Jesus, however, invited them: “Let the little children come to Me, and don’t stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I assure you: Whoever does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
 
The sacred cycle of conception, birth, and maturing is blessed by God as a method of both continuity and preservation through time of His word, His will, and His law.
   
Deuteronomy 6:6–7. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
 
Deuteronomy 11:19. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
 
God sanctified the process of human conception, gestation, and birth by having His own divine and eternal Son experience it as a human.
   
Isaiah 7:14. Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.
 
Isaiah 9:6. For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.
 
Luke 1:30–33. Then the angel told her: Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.
 
And, lest we forget, God has reserved some of His fiercest anger for the pagan nations, and even for the peoples of Israel and Judah, because they murdered (by burning alive; incineration) their new-borns on the altar of Molech/Baal.
   
Jeremiah 32:35. [God:] They have built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Hinnom to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molech—something I had not commanded them. I had never entertained the thought that they do this detestable act causing Judah to sin!
 
2 Kings 16:3. [The King of Judah] walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even made his son pass through the fire, imitating the detestable practices of the nations Yehovah had dispossessed before the Israelites.
 
2 Kings 17:16–18. They abandoned all the commands of Yehovah their God. They made cast images for themselves, two calves, and an Asherah pole. They worshiped the whole heavenly host and served Baal. They made their sons and daughters pass through the fire and practiced divination and interpreted omens. They devoted themselves to do what was evil in Yehovah’s sight and provoked Him. Therefore, Yehovah was very angry with Israel, and He removed them from His presence. Only the tribe of Judah remained.
 

 

Please…

  • Let us pray fervently that this sin will be wiped out of our society.
  • Let us pray with the greatest love and sympathy for women facing a situation which might end in the death of an unborn child. And when we encounter such a woman, let us—in love and humility—redouble our previous efforts to help her, and to give her the ability to see the larger picture and future consequences of her choices.
  • Let us pray with urgency for those men and women working tirelessly to offer safe and life-preserving alternatives for these women.
  • Let us pray for a strong resurgence of the Holy Spirit, to bring an end to the current epidemic of willful ethical blindness that seeks to remove God and His will from all the earth.
  • And let us pray that God will forgive each of us for what we failed to do in this life that has allowed us to come to this time.

 

Mother Teresa on Abortion

 
1 Comment

Posted by on July 11, 2019 in Bible Study, End Times, Law of God, Today's World

 

Tags: , ,

Conspiring Against Yehovah

08 Aug

 

H E A D L I N E :
“The Rise of Xi Coincides with
Crackdown on Christian Worship in China”

“Under President Xi Jinping, China’s most powerful leader since Mao Zedong,
Christian followers are seeing their freedoms shrink dramatically,
even as the country undergoes a religious revival.”
(ASSOCIATED PRESS, IN MIAMI HERALD)

There is a documented hunger for (and a burgeoning of) the Christian faith inside China today. And that has become a most inconvenient truth for the country’s “President for Life” Xi Jinping. His actions against the Chinese Church are moving from harassment, to intimidation, and on to persecution — all in the name of collectivist, statist absolutism.

Chinese Christian funeral procession

(History tells us the Roman Emperors felt and acted the same way as Xi. Here we are, 2000 years later, and the worship of the God of the Bible has swept around the world. And where are the emperors? They remain with us merely as marble busts in museums. Is Xi doomed to repeat?)

Xi understands quite well that he will not be able to eliminate the worship of God, as he might wish. Christianity has, after all, been in China for over 1400 years now, and his “glorious” Revolution isn’t even 70 years old. From his position of power, therefore, his plan appears to be to force Christianity to incorporate and teach his own set of values — “Christianity with Chinese Characteristics,” it has been called.

Xi and the Burning Crosses

Xi Jinping and the Destruction of Crosses

These dubious values include forcing the Church to embrace and teach abject loyalty to the Communist Party and its leaders. As anyone who has even thumbed through a Bible must realize, this type of overt politicization of Christianity is absurd and heretical. “Rendering unto Caesar” [Matthew 22:21] is one thing, and our command to be “in subjection to the governing authorities” [Romans 13:1] is similar to it. But if Xi were successful in his goals, and the Chinese Church became merely a minor Ministry of Jesus with Chinese Characteristics, the resulting new religion would clearly not be Christianity anymore. Nevertheless, Xi’s elevation to “lifetime power” and his jingoistic chauvinism have deluded him into thinking that he and his comrades can successfully “conspire together against Yehovah and His Anointed One” [Psalms 2:2]

ChinaAid is a highly respected international not-for-profit organization, committed to promoting religious freedom and the rule of law in China. Their leaders have called the existing and proposed regulations on religious affairs in China “the harshest and most strict policy on controlling religions and religious affairs since the time of Cultural Revolution.” Here are a few of the persecutions currently being inflicted upon Chinese Christians:

  • Teachers and soldiers are forbidden to become Christians.
  • It is illegal in China to give children a religious education, or in any other way to “indoctrinate minors with superstitious beliefs.”
  • Priests are forbidden to pray for the sick and dying in hospitals, and patients are not allowed to pray or read the Bible.
  • These are all against the law: “organizing citizens to attend religious trainings, conferences and activities abroad”; “preaching, organizing religious activities, and establishing religious institutions or religious sites at schools”; and “providing religious services through the internet.”
  • Christians are banned from traveling abroad for religious purposes, and they are forbidden from taking teaching positions outside the country.
  • Chinese authorities raid a worship service

    Chinese authorities raid a worship service

    There are strict bans against the wave of underground churches which are thriving throughout the country. Raids on these churches have brought hundreds of arrests and imprisonments. Witnesses described one female church official being pushed into the back of a patrol car, being slapped across her face, and being grabbed by the scruff of her neck.
  • Local governments have been given the authority to close down and demolish places of worship, on the flimsiest of charges, with the result of numerous churches being bulldozed and crosses torn down. (See photo at bottom of this article.)

According to ChinaAid, for Christians in China, there is “no legal room for the existence of the house churches and Bible reading as well as prayer meetings without explicitly being approved by the Chinese Communist Party-controlled patriotic associations and religious affairs bureaus.”

And as if all of the above restrictions on people and their activities weren’t enough, a recent order from the Central Government threatened that “if unregistered churches are not willing to be managed by the government or guided by China Christian Council, the government shall guide and transform their thoughts.” This new trend of taking a hard line on “extreme religious thoughts” and “external influences” conjures images of “thought police” and inquisitions.

Our Lady of China painting by Chu Kar Kui

Our Lady of China painting by Chu KarKui

And it’s being sold to the Chinese people and the world in the (seemingly) harmless name of “Christianity with Chinese Characteristics.” Notice the beautiful modern painting (in an ancient style) of the Madonna and Child, dressed in Qing Dynasty robes — “Chinese characteristics” indeed. After all, in our art galleries we see that Western Renaissance artists painted Biblical characters wearing 16th-century European clothing. Really, we nod knowingly, how bad can that be?

But, no, that’s not what Xi has in mind.

We saw something similar to what Xi has in mind four decades ago. In 1978, leader Deng Xiaoping recognized the need to allow markets to inspire and produce strong economic growth, as had happened universally in Free Market, Free Enterprise, Limited Government, Capitalist economies throughout the world. Unwilling to give up the centralized power and control that China’s brand of Communism afforded, Deng labeled his Western-style reforms “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics.” The markets worked, the Chinese economy took off, but Socialist-style central planning kept its thumb firmly on the process.

The tyrant’s creed: If you cannot defeat it, change how you name it, and fight heresy as you define it.

God will, of course, dispense His grace and implement His plan anywhere He wills (Exodus 33:19; Romans 9:15). But you must understand that the current leadership in China fears Christianity, which teaches that God deserves His followers’ highest loyalty and most fervent worship — above and beyond any human or humanistic governmental system. The Central Government will fight (with force) any and every effort for God’s truth to be preached and believed in China. We are seeing the beginning of a very hard and systemic tribulation for our Chinese brothers and sisters in Christ.

Follow this in the press, discuss it with your pastors, and pray for the Christians’ protection from persecution in China.

Remember the prisoners, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily. (Hebrews 13:3)

Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. Look, the Devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will have affliction for 10 days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. (Revelation 2:10)

 
As important in the overall scheme of things as Xi believes himself to be, 3000 years ago a writer of Psalms described people like him and foretold their fate perfectly. Here is Psalm 2, showing on the left side who is speaking in each section.

PSALM 2 (HCSB)

Psalmist: Why do the nations rebel and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers conspire together against Yehovah and His Anointed One [Christ, the Messiah]:
Kings & Rulers: “Let us tear off their chains and free ourselves from their restraints.”
Psalmist: The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord ridicules them. Then He speaks to them in His anger and terrifies them in His wrath:
God the Father: “I have consecrated My King on Zion, My holy mountain.”
Messiah: I will declare Yehovah’s decree: He said to Me,
God the Father: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father. Ask of Me, and I will make the nations Your inheritance and the ends of the earth Your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; You will shatter them like pottery.”
Psalmist: So now, kings, be wise; receive instruction, you judges of the earth. Serve Yehovah with reverential awe and rejoice with trembling. Pay homage to the Son or He will be angry and you will perish in your rebellion, for His anger may ignite at any moment. All those who take refuge in Him are happy.

Destruction of Chinese Christian Church

SOURCES:
ChinaAid.org
Mansfield, Katie, “Chinese government shuts down underground churches to ‘transform thoughts’ of Christians”, 28 August 2016
Mansfield, Katie, “China launches ‘religious winter’ in bid to destroy Christianity in fierce crackdown”, 30 September 2016
Mansfield, Katie, “Christians fightback as China wages war to destroy Christianity and wipe out religion”, 8 October 2016
Wang Yanan, “Christian heartland opens window into fight for China’s soul”, 7 August, 2018
 
PHOTO CREDITS:
(PROCESSION) PETER PARKS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
(CROSSES) DAILY AND SUNDAY EXPRESS/GETTY IMAGES
(POLICE RAID) CURRENT NEWS, DAILY CATHOLIC NEWS
(MADONNA AND CHILD) CHURCH OF OUR SAVIOUR, BEIJING
(CHURCH DESCRUCTION) CHINA-AID

 
 

ARTICLE © 2018, DR. GROVER B. PROCTOR, JR. — ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 8, 2018 in End Times, Today's World

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

… With Your Face Toward the Ground

03 May

 

Today is America’s annual National Day of Prayer.

 
This year’s theme is “Pray for America — UNITY,” and the National Day of Prayer Task Force has taken a small snippet of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians as its motto. (See the “media graphic” below.)

Here is Paul’s entire thought (which is broader and far more profound) from which the short fragment was taken:

“Therefore I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, accepting one another in love, diligently keeping the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us. There is one body and one Spirit — just as you were called to one hope at your calling — one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”
— EPHESIANS 4:1-6 (HCSB)

We call on all Americans today to “bow with your face toward the ground” — in humble “prayer and supplication with thanksgiving” to the “one God and Father of all.” Here is the promise we have been given:

“If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the grasshopper to consume the land, or if I send pestilence on My people,  and My people who are called by My name humble themselves, pray and seek My face, and turn from their evil ways, then I will hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”
— 2 CHRONICLES 7:13-14 (HCSB)

In other words: “Be humble, seek God through prayer, and stop sinning as a Nation” is promised to bring personal forgiveness and national blessings. Looking around at the state of our country today, I think it’s about time we took the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob up on that promise.

National Day of Prayer - 2018

The National Day of Prayer was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S Truman. In 1988, the law was unanimously amended by both the House and the Senate and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on Thursday, May 5, 1988, designating the first Thursday of May as a day of national prayer.
Every president since 1952 has signed a National Day of Prayer proclamation.

 

A Prayer for America

 
Our Father and Our God,
         We praise You for Your goodness to our nation, giving us blessings far beyond what we deserve.
       Yet we know all is not right with America. We deeply need a moral and spiritual renewal to help us meet the many problems we face.
       Convict us of sin. Help us to turn to You in repentance and faith. Set our feet on the path of Your righteousness and peace.
       We pray today for our nation’s leaders. Give them the wisdom to know what is right, and the courage to do it.
       You have said, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” May this be a new era for America, as we humble ourselves and acknowledge You alone as our Savior and Lord.
       This we pray in Your holy name, Amen.

— Billy Graham

 

 

COPYRIGHT 2018 DR. GROVER B. PROCTOR, JR. — ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 

 
1 Comment

Posted by on May 3, 2018 in Today's World, Worship

 

Tags: , , ,

Billy Graham (1918-2018)

21 Feb

The elder Billy GrahamToday we learned of the death of Billy Graham, lauded by many as the greatest Christian preacher of the 20th century. He died at his home in Montreat, located in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina.

During the many decades of his evangelizing around the globe, broadcasting in all media, authoring books, and being the unofficial “Pastor to the Presidents,” his effect on the spiritual life of the entire world was incalculable. Never afraid to hold up a mirror to sin, Graham unabashedly and fiercely called everyone to repentance.

From the church pulpit or the podium inside a 50,000-seat coliseum or in city streets and parks, he had a powerful and polished speaking style, to say the least. He was able to bring emotions up to peaks of joy and expectation of God’s love, and take them down to the burning conviction of our own sins. Tears were common at his revivals, even from seemingly tough, steel-hardened men of the earth and the factories. When Mr. Graham believed that the audience had been fully convicted of their need for repentance and salvation, he would invariably issue an altar call, which usually brought huge numbers of penitents and converts.

But any outsiders looking into one of these arenas (or viewing a television broadcast, appropriately titled The Hour of Decision) would be totally in error to conclude that Mr. Graham’s ministry comprised only emotion and fervor. Anyone reading printed transcriptions of his sermons would immediately conclude they were theologically as well as logically sound, based on doctrines straight from Christian orthodoxy. His emphasis was always on examining oneself, the act of repenting, accepting the saving grace of God, and living a life in which one’s relationship with God is the most important thing in the universe.

Mr. Graham was a keen observer of the issues of the day, but his interest in them was solely limited to a Christian perspective. Trying to classify him as Left, Right, Conservative, Liberal, Democrat, or Republican (or any other similar label) was as nonsensical as trying to assign a gender classification to the Sun. Case in point — We would all do well to deeply consider this prayer of Graham’s which summarizes his view of this nation and the world:

Billy GrahamHeavenly Father,
We come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance.
We know Your Word says, ‘Woe to those who call evil good,’ but that is exactly what we have done:
We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.
We have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.
We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.
We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.
Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free.
Amen!

Mr. Graham lived the Christ-centered doctrines of love, repentance, and forgiveness that he preached. He told it like it was, even before that became a thing. And he was uncompromising in his Christian views on even the most controversial topics. A prime example was his early stand on issues related to the country’s racial problem.

    Billy Graham & Martin Luther King, Jr.

  • At a 1953 Tennessee rally (think about that date!), he himself physically tore down the ropes that the organizers had put in place to keep the audience racially segregated. When confronted about his actions, Mr. Graham informed the organizers that they were to leave the barriers down “or you can go on and have the revival without me.”
  • He once warned an all-white audience “We have been proud and thought we were better than any other race, any other people. Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to stumble into hell because of our pride.”
  • As documented by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, “Billy Graham and Martin Luther King, Jr. experienced a unique friendship that dates back nearly 60 years. In the summer-long 1957 New York Crusade, the two friends took the stage together in Madison Square Garden and boldly took a stand to help end segregation in the United States. ‘I think both Dr. Graham and my father were trying to make the world a better place,’ said Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr.”

This morning, Mr. Graham joined all of “those who sleep in death” awaiting the Resurrection to eternal life as Paul described it throughout his writings.* Though parted from this life, this great modern evangelist has left a legacy of preaching total submission to God, abject repentance for sins, undeniable certainty of God’s grace and our need for forgiveness, constant service to our brothers and sisters, and the daily calling to mirror God’s love to the world.

We need that today perhaps more than ever.

A Tribute to Billy Graham (5:51)
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association

“When we reach the end of our earthly journey, we will have just begun.”
WILLIAM FRANKLIN GRAHAM, JR.
(1918-2018)

NOTES:
* ROMANS 13; 1 CORINTHIANS 11 & 15; EPHESIANS 5; 1 THESSALONIANS 4 & 10
PHOTO CREDITS: (TOP) CHRISTIANITY TODAY; (MIDDLE) BILLY GRAHAM EVANGELISTIC ASSOC.; (BOTTOM) BILLY GRAHAM EVANGELISTIC ASSOC.
VIDEO CREDIT: BILLY GRAHAM EVANGESLTIC ASSOC.

 

COPYRIGHT 2018 DR. GROVER B. PROCTOR, JR. — ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 

 
1 Comment

Posted by on February 21, 2018 in Today's World, Worship

 

Tags: , ,

An Abominable, unGodly Leap

19 Feb

 
What I’ve written below concerns an article which begins this way:

 

Thanks to Screening and Abortion,
No Babies With Down Syndrome Are Born In Iceland
by Jenny Rapson, For Every Mom

       “Yesterday I read this ‘crazy’ quote on a pro-life website, alleging that no babies with Down syndrome had been born in Iceland in the last five years, because 100% of expectant moms undergo pre-natal screening for DS and 100% who get a positive result abort. I was absolutely SHOCKED by this, and set out to research whether or not it is true.
       “And now I sit here at my computer screen, tears streaming down my face…”

(A link to the entire article is at the bottom. But first, let me vent…)

Wait a minute… Iceland has purposefully worked toward this result (as reported by the BBC), and as a nation they are PROUD it of?   HAPPY about it??   This is a national VALUE???

All Christians should tremble and weep at this news.

From Catholic and Orthodox to Episcopal and Anglican, from Coptic to Sabbatarian, Protestant to Reformed, Pentecostal to Evangelical, even monastics to cultists — we all share the same 66 books in the Word of God. Can we not read? Are our hearts and minds not moved?

I fear we’ve taken the following abominable, unGodly leap:

FROM THIS—
God knowing us before we were born:
   • God chose you before He formed you in the womb; He set you apart before you were born. (Jeremiah 1:5)
   • God knit me together in my mother’s womb. (Psalm 139:13)
   • Yehovah called me before I was born. He named me while I was in my mother’s womb. (Isaiah 49:1)
   • God filled the child with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother’s womb. (Luke 1:15)

TO THIS—
“We jabbed you with needles while you were in your mother’s womb, and what we discovered made us decide to kill you. We made that decision because we saw you as imperfect, and therefore unworthy and incapable of a meaningful life. Oh yes, and you would be a severe burden on your parents, not to mention a huge financial hardship to all of society.”

Pray fervently and without ceasing that God will blanket the entire world with a powerful spirit of humility and repentance that will Stop the Abortion Holocaust!

Click Here to read the rest of the article I referenced above, from ForEveryMom.com.
Click Here for the original BBC article, well worth reading.

God help us all.

—————————————–
         “The word of Yehovah came to me:
‘I chose you before I formed you in the womb;
     I set you apart before you were born.
     I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’ ”
       — Jeremiah 1:4-5
—————————————–
“Considering how often throughout history
even intelligent people have been proved to be wrong,
it is amazing that there are still people who are convinced
that the only reason anyone could possibly
say something different from what they believe
is stupidity or dishonesty.”
       — Dr. Thomas Sowell
—————————————–

 

 
2 Comments

Posted by on February 19, 2017 in Today's World

 

Tags: , , , , , , , ,