Archive for the 'Religion' Category

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” – Galatians 6:7

Independence Day? America isn’t independent; it’s a primary component of the Global Order. The US has sown its seeds for a century, creating problems all around the world, and it’s going to come back home, all of it. America can’t fight Russia; the proposition is absurd. The US Military isn’t fit. I don’t mean physically fit, although that’s probably true, it’s not fit in any respect; knowledge, equipment, leadership, capabilities. It’s pathetically led, full of soft perverts and freaks at all levels. America is way over its head in UKR.

The continued promotion of the idea of East-West conflict is ruinous. The threat the northern peoples face is from the south, yet our leadership insists that Europe and America be overrun with heathens having no regard for European history or culture. The European peoples are in a deep crisis, and making total war on each other will have disastrous consequences. It’s all being done on purpose and probably can’t be stopped at this point. If not war with Russia, it’ll be something equally destructive and hollowing to civilization.

“37 But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: 38 That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? 39 Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, 40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 41 These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him. 42 Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: 43 For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” – John 12:37-43

In this section of Scripture, we see several prophecies by Isaiah referenced in speaking of the first century Jews being blinded to Christ. Verse 38 of John 12 refers to Isaiah 53:1 and verse 39 to Isaiah 6:9. Verse 42 refers to Isaiah seeing the glory of the Lord; that’s likely Isaiah 6:1.

God has at times blinded the eyes of those under judgment. This is an interesting topic today because so many claim to see, but they can’t, or won’t, discern causality as though they are blind to the sin of America and God’s judgment. Part of the problem is the “end times” prophecy business, and it is a business that has so coopted the topic of God’s judgment that Christians rarely consider that what’s coming upon America is simply a regular judgment of God for our disobedience to Him. The determinations of God for disobedience are horrible and involve pestilences, wars, famines, and the like, often over several generations. The problem in understanding the occasion of judgment is that there are similar features in Scripture when God brings it.

The devil-possessed people running the world aren’t the problem or the cause of the looming judgment of God. God uses human instrumentation to carry out His determinations. Throughout Scripture, God uses the enemies of good to bring wrath upon those He is correcting.

A component of the arriving takeover by those filled with evil is society’s inability to recognize that sin has bloomed both because they allowed it and deserve the consequent corruption. You are perhaps intensely aware of the growing wickedness, but God blinds the eyes of those under His judgment, lest they repent and be saved.

“The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.” – Proverbs 16:4

Those used by God in judgment are later the worse recipient of His wrath for it. Though evil may have its day, there will be recompense. Nobody will tell you this stuff. God looses the forces of evil to judge His people, and when He has satisfied His wrath against them, He destroys those evil ones with even greater power.

God blinds the eyes of those upon which He will bring His manifest judgments. The problem in America is Americans! You are the problem. You want everybody else to stop sinning while you maintain yours! The New Religion in the American Church won’t tell you this lest they lose the mortgage money they pay to the Global Banking Cartel, the same people Jesus scourged. The New Religion would empty the “Churches” if they started telling the truth; nobody would believe it. This message, and it’s true, has never been popular. Nobody wants to acknowledge it. Blinded to the reality of the power of the Gospel, they stoned the prophets of old and hanged Jesus Christ on a cross for telling the truth.

God holds back the spirit of antichrist, and that’s the only way an upright civilization exists. God in His mercy sometimes waits for several generations. Still, eventually, God blinds even His own that have warranted the forces of darkness to come upon them that they may reap the whirlwind of their own creation.

So what can Christ’s men do? Plant seeds that later generations will nurture and grow. God’s word indicates that He will always have a people. We must prepare as many who will listen to lead the people back to God. If you know these facts, leave a pure remnant, trained, organized, and equipped to rebuild upon a blessed day that Holy God stays His hand, allowing the wrath and reign of evil no more.

Be the remnant planning, preparing, and training the young so that God may use your children’s children to re-institute just law under God. Perhaps they’ll hear of you, those crazy few who believed the promises of God and refused to let the teaching of Christ die on the vine. Be of those that made a covenant with God to never back down in the face of evil, purposing in your heart never to deny the Lord who bought you. Plant a seed, water, and nurture the next generation teaching them how to build a civil, just, and functioning nation under God. Be the solution, willing never to see the harvest reaped that you’re sowing in this life.

The devil would have no power except that which Christ allows, which means several things. The first is that Christ defeated the devil (John 12:31). Therefore, this must mean that the evil now growing manifest on a global scale is the will of God. And, thirdly if God has loosed evil upon us, it must mean that we deserve it. God is not a petty tyrant. He exacts that measure necessary to work His plan. Here’s the part that you will take the most exception to, since it appears that the judgment of God is upon us through human instrumentation, which is His most often chosen means, then we can correct the course that we’ve taken; to end the judgment. Christians ignore the solution because analyzing the problem is much easier than doing the hard work that Christ commands. “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” – John 14:15

Christians don’t even know what our weapon is and God’s chosen manner to employ it, nor do they know the person who accomplishes the work. Christians in America deny the power of the Word of God and deny that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation; they deny the power of the Holy Spirit as anything other than that annoyance to keeps telling them to stop watching porn, and always they seek to escape the Holy Spirit quenching Him all the day long and living no differently from the lost sinners all around them. They must; we can only recon, be blinded to the Gospel. Saved and blinded, is that even possible? Something is desperately wrong with American Christians.

The Pharisees were blinded, so they rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ when He would have personally delivered them! And for denying Him, Christ destroyed their religion, country, and entire way of life and scattered them to the wind. And America is doing the same thing, rejecting the word of God, the Gospel as the power of salvation, and the ultimate ally, God Almighty. If only the American Churches would teach this lesson.

Judgment, it would seem, is arriving, and Christians blame the devil by his human agents, or democrats, or anybody else when it’s their fault for unbelief. America is awake to the problem and blind to the cause.

“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.” – Hosea 8:7

“But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.” – Matthew 13:8

“IT seems to me that there is a higher joy in looking at a body of believers than that which arises from merely regarding them as saved. Not but what there is a great joy in salvation, a joy worthy to stir the angelic harps. Think of the Saviour’s agony in the ransom of every one of His redeemed, think of the work of the Holy Spirit in every renewed heart, think of the love of the Father as resting upon every one of the regenerate: I could not, if I took up my parable for a month, set forth all the mass of joy that is to be seen in a multitude of believers if we only look at what God has done for them, and promised to them, and will fulfil in them. But there is yet a wider field of thought, and my mind has been traversing it all this day,—the thought of the capacities of service contained in a numerous band of believers, the possibilities of blessing others which lie within the bosoms of regenerate persons. We must not think so much of what we already are as to forget what the Lord may accomplish by us for others. Here are the coals of fire, but who shall describe the conflagration which they may cause?

We ought to regard the Christian Church, not as a luxurious hostelry where Christian gentlemen may each one dwell at his ease in his own inn, but as a barracks in which soldiers are gathered together to be drilled and trained for war. We should regard the Christian Church, not as an association for mutual admiration and comfort, but as an army with banners, marching to the fray, to achieve victories for Christ, to storm the strongholds of the foe, and to add province after province to the Redeemer’s kingdom. We may view converted persons gathered into church-membership as so much wheat in the granary. God be thanked that it is there, and that so far the harvest has rewarded the sower; but far more soul-inspiring is the view when we regard those believers as each one likely to be made a living centre for the extension of the kingdom of Jesus, for then we see them sowing the fertile valleys of our land, and promising ere long to bring forth some thirty, some forty, some fifty, and some a hundredfold. The capacities of life are enormous, one becomes a thousand in a marvellously brief space. Within a short time, a few grains of wheat would suffice to seed the whole world, and a few true saints might suffice for the conversion of all nations. Only take that which comes of one ear, store it well, sow it all, again store it next year, and then sow it all again, and the multiplication almost exceeds the power of computation. Oh, that every Christian were thus year by year the Lord’s seed corn! If all the wheat in the world had perished except a single grain, it would not take many years to replenish all the earth, and sow her fields and plains; but in a far shorter time, in the power of the Holy Spirit, one Paul or one Peter would have evangelised all lands. View yourselves as grains of wheat predestinated to seed the world. That man lives grandly who is as earnest as if the very existence of Christianity depended upon himself, and is determined that to all men within his reach shall be made known the unsearchable riches of Christ.

If we whom Christ is pleased to use as His seed corn were only all scattered and sown as we ought to be, and were all to sprout and bring forth the green blade and the corn in the ear, what a harvest there would be! Again would it be fulfilled, “There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains;”—a very bad position for it,—”the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.” May God grant us to feel some degree of the Holy Spirit’s quickening power while we talk together, not so much about what God has done for us as about what God may do by us, and how far we may put ourselves into a right position to be used by Him.”

[…]

“Ye are not under the law, but under grace:” hence you do not obey the will of God because you hope to earn heaven thereby, or dream of escaping from divine wrath by your own doings, but because there is a life in you which seeks after that which is holy, pure, right, and true, and cannot endure that which is evil. You are careful to maintain good works, not from either legal hopes or legal fears, but because there is a holy thing within you, born of God, which seeks, according to its nature, to do that which is pleasing to God.”

-Charles Spurgeon, The Soul Winner, excerpts Chapter 11, https://thesoulwinner.org/

Yes, what he said!

“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.” – Proverbs 11:30

The void left by atheism is easily filled by father government. The promoters of this must know that.

“The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) was officially titled ‘DRL FY20 IRF Promoting and Defending Religious Freedom Inclusive of Atheist, Humanist, Non-Practicing and Non-Affiliated Individuals,’” Banks and the Republicans wrote.

And this news: Supreme Court declines religious challenge to COVID-19 vaccine mandates in New York

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Thursday declined to take up a challenge to a vaccine mandate for health workers in New York that does not include a religious exemption, the latest decision in which the high court has allowed state health requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic to stand.

That’s not good at all. Having long-term authoritarian implications, you can be confident the government(s) will use it against you again.

We’ve long held that reliance on government is a religion. This piece with video explains it well.

Since the birth of totalitarianism in the 20th century much has been written about this form of rule and millions have read George Orwell’s depiction of it in the classic novel 1984. But what is often overlooked is that totalitarianism is more than just a political system, it is a fanatical religion, and this religion is spreading across the globe with a ferocity not seen since the mid-20th century. In this video we are going to investigate the religious nature of totalitarianism in the recognition that we must know our enemy if we are to defeat it. Shortly after fleeing Nazi Germany, the political scientist Waldemar Gurian wrote the following:

“The totalitarian movements that have arisen after the First World War are basically religious movements. Their aim is not only to change political and social institutions, but also to remodel the nature of man and society.”

Waldemar Gurian, The Totalitarian State

Note: The linked site has videos about religion. This post does not constitute agreement with their theology.

Many thousands in America profess baptism as the evidence of salvation and even the means of salvation. It breaks the heart. This problem exists across the former Bible Belt and elsewhere. When asking the reason for men’s hope of eternity, we run across those professing baptism as their knowledge of salvation. In response, we can ask, why did you decide to get baptized?

We’ll look at three sections of Scripture often misapplied to salvation by baptism.

Acts 2:14-40 is a sermon preached by Peter at Pentecost. We’ll start in verse 36.

“36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. 37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

– Acts 2:36-38

Starting in verse 14, Peter has preached the Gospel under the power of the Holy Spirit. This sermon was among Jews who had taken the curse upon themselves and their children for the blood of Jesus Christ (Matthew 27:25).

Jesus gave himself to be a ransom for all. On the cross, Jesus gave up the Ghost having commended His spirit back to the Father. The Holy Spirit of God makes the lost sinner aware of their sin and the cross.

Arriving at verse 37 of Acts 2, it says they were “pricked in their heart.” They were convicted of their sin and came to believe that Jesus was the resurrected Christ of God. What does the Holy Spirit by Peter tell them to do? Repent. Surely they couldn’t go back and un-crucify our Lord. And anyway, He is alive! He was resurrected! Repentance is a change of mind by a change of heart upon conviction. What’s to repent about? Being convicted (pricked) in their heart by the Holy Spirit, they have to change their mind about who and what Jesus is. They were to repent of the greatest sin of all, rejecting Jesus Christ after having heard the Gospel.

Next, Mark 16:16: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”

Please read it carefully. Belief is the first thing. If you believe in Jesus, you are commanded to get baptized. If you have been baptized (or any other ceremony, rite, or ritual) without belief, you are damned because of your unbelief. “…he that believeth not shall be damned.” The function of the ceremony doesn’t damn you, nor does it save, a man is damned by unbelief, condemned already (John 3:18), and nothing can save their soul but faith in Christ (John 6:47). If you believe in Jesus, you should be baptized as soon as is practicable.

In First Peter chapter 3, start reading in verse 12. Context is king. We’ll take a look at a few things beginning from verse 16.

“16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. 17 For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. 18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. 21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.” – 1 Peter 3:16-22

In 1 Peter, there is bad news and good news. The bad news is, for those thinking a tub of water can save their soul, 1 Peter 3 is written to believers about first-century persecution of the church. And some may not like this, but 1 Peter is probably written to Jews (1 Peter 1:18), although we can and should make application from this section of Scripture where appropriate.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is woven into this book of Scripture by the Holy Spirit at the hand of Peter. In Chapter 1, verses 18-19, we learn that the audience of this letter is redeemed, believers.

In our text, we learn they have a “good conscience” (1 Peter 3:16); although they are spoken of as evil by persecutors, they are spreading the “good conversation” (the Gospel and manner of living) in Christ. They’re sharing the good conversation, proclaiming Christ in word and deed by the Holy Spirit, while being falsely accused of some evil thing. Americans are so far from this, but your day is arriving. If you haven’t already, you’ll soon face the choice: go underground or take the abuse. We pray you to do the latter keeping a good conversation in Christ.

As many sections of Scripture do, Peter looks back at the flood because it is constructive for teaching.

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” – Genesis 6:8. Two chapters before the flood Noah got saved the exact same way all men get saved, by the grace of Almighty God.

Although we believe the flood happened, the typology and symbolism of Noah and the flood are just that; not a mode of salvation but instruction in righteousness, lessons in His grace, and forgiveness toward those that love Him and keep His commandments. And well understood is the judgment against every living thing for all the world had turned to sin and violence (Genesis 6:11-13) rejecting Holy God. Noah, having been saved by the grace of God (Genesis 6:8), being a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5), the world was overflown by the flood as the judgment of God against the wicked. Those at the flood had told God to depart and that He couldn’t do anything for them; they had made themselves a god, condemning themselves to darkness and eternal death.

Here is 1 Peter 3:20-21 (no markings): “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” – 1 Peter 3:20-21

Even if you say, wrongly, that Noah is the like figure and not the overflowing of water, Noah had already been saved by the grace of God before the flood. They were saved as a practical matter, not spiritual salvation, by having a boat. The flood buried the sins of that whole world, so too, the sins of the believer are symbolically (a like figure) buried with Christ in baptism (Colossians 2:12). Having been forgiven of our sin and saved by Jesus Christ, baptism is (the answer of a good conscience toward God); baptism is a figure of our salvation representing the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the believer.

You are in trouble if you’re relying on a tub of water to get you into the final resurrected estate. We beg of you not to rely on water baptism for salvation. Rely upon the earnest of the promise of the resurrection, which is the Holy Spirit in the heart and soul of the believer. Baptism is in response to a “good conscience toward God.” We’re sure the lost sinner is condemned for eternity (Romans 8:1), as in the days before the flood; what conscience does a lost man have toward God?

“Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh”!!! Salvation is not by quitting sin. You are a sinner; you can’t stop your own corruption, although the saved believer should try to live upright before God, seeking forgiveness all the day long, praying to holy God to deliver us from our desire to sin! Salvation is of the soul; the resurrection by the Spirit now is also a type of the resurrection of a new glorified (sinless) body.

“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like [the believers baptism is a figure, type, or symbol] as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” – Romans 6:4

“that like” as Christ was buried into death and raised from the dead, baptism is a ceremony representing our burial (the old sinful dead man) with Christ and resurrection into a new spiritual life as His disciple. Baptism is a serious thing and a great celebration. It’s a first work of obedience toward Christ that God will honor and use to grow the newly converted.

This post is about the doctrine of salvation by grace, the hope being that it will help you who are assuming baptism is sufficient for salvation. Call upon the Holy One and be saved. And it may help you, who, as a witness for Jesus Christ, must account for the need of grace through faith to those souls putting their eternal hope in a ritual or rite with water. As the Lord’s Table does not save, neither does baptism; these are ordinances of observance for believers in the New Covenant.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Apparently, that means pornography everywhere, Islam co-equal with Christ, sodomites dominating public policy, and communistic fascism as the form of government and society.

Christiandom is so overrun with easternism that Christ’s people have lost knowledge of what Christianity is. In easternism, yin and yang exist, and the living soul ostensibly interacts in every aspect of life, aware they should choose the good thing in what they are doing.

Christians in the west are living the same way. They move within work, home, entertainment, government, business, culture, and other spheres of life, accepting the evil, thankful for Christ perhaps but not enough to know that all aspects of creation are His. Christians have authority in these realms but have, in an eastern way, decided to accept being with the evil, never trying to change those environments by their works for Christ.

Communists fully expect their converts to change everything about themselves and take over every aspect of life on earth. So too, the Musselman is expected to radically transform and conquer everything in their path. Even “atheists” demanding separation of church and state get it; they are set for the conquest of the government sector and, through its law, imposing their religion on the whole country.

Only modern Christianity expects nothing of its “adherents” but an occasional visit to a corporate location for a pop phycology pep talk and leave a check – thanks for coming. Not even easternism is this dilapidatedly lame and willfully ineffectual. Christians are the only ones who deny the notion of operating and dominating all domains of life and society, and they are wrong; that’s not what the Bible teaches or what Christ said.

Communism, Islam, and atheism are frauds of Christ’s kingdom power on earth. The church has completely lost the mandate given to the disciples and retaken by the reformation. Christ expects you to be fully converted to the way, everything about you changing from the heart outward. And under His commission, we are to teach all people of every nation to obey Him. The scriptures are about theological penetration into the whole of society that you might not sin against God, to further that it may go well with you in the land.

Christians shouldn’t care what the Supreme Court says. They are part of the communist regime that claims false rule over Christ’s domain. Christ’s people shouldn’t care what the left thinks about the separation of church and state. Those words are not in the Scriptures.

Only Christians with an actual mandate from the creator Himself, written instruction on how to carry it out, and the indwelling Holy Spirit to lend weight and power to the mission have authority to take every domain on earth for their King. Christians are supposed to be priests and kings. The kings of this world are supposed to be Christ’s men doing His good pleasure. The church is supposed to take over the state, and since Christ’s men aren’t doing it, the devil’s minions will.

There is no such thing as separation of church and state. (Here, we use the word religion broadly, meaning belief system.) There can’t be. Whatever the prevailing religion a majority of society holds, even entertainmentism as Americans today have, will permeate everything in that society. Society is made up of the people; what lives in their heart of hearts is that society’s religion and every aspect of that society begins to reflect the belief system. The government is people (insert Soylent Green joke); they have the prevailing faith system whether anybody likes it or not. That religion is supposed to be Christian, according to God Almighty.

The title of the idiotic video at CNN is “Supreme Court further erodes the separation between church and state.”

The legacy media, and as for that matter, the cast majority of Americans, really lack any historical understanding of the nation or how and why it was founded.  Quoting R. J. Rushdoony:

“The establishments and settlements in the constituent states were definitely and specifically Christian.  In most states, single or plural establishments prevailed.  Where no church was established, Christianity as such was nonetheless firmly established.  There were religious requirements for citizenship and suffrage, religious oaths, laws prohibiting blasphemy, laws requiring a trinitarian faith, or a firm belief in the infallibility of Scripture, and laws barring unbelievers as witnesses in court.  Court decisions sometimes cited biblical law where civil law did not entirely fit the case.  In many areas, laws against unbelief were on the statute books.  A man could be imprisoned for atheism.”  Rushdoony, “The Nature of the American System.”

It’s absurd to claim that the constitution prohibits a prayer during a public event.  The very ones who signed the constitution were the ones who grew up in, and were part and parcel of, the political system Rushdoony just described.

But then, Americans don’t study history any more.  I made it through American History 101 at Clemson University without learning a single thing about American history.

Note: Tagged Gospel Witness with the other posts in this series.

Acts 8:26-35

“32 The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: 33 In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth.” – Acts 8:32-33

In the conversion of the Ethiopian Eunuch, God shows the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) fulfilled in accordance with God’s broader purposes and specifically within its establishment. From the structure in Matthew 28:19, We know that Philip had taken the training of our Lord and obeyed the command to go (“Go ye”), listened to the promptings of the Holy Spirit of God, and shared Scripture with a lost man teaching (“teach all nations”), by the word of God, how to be saved. The Ethiopian believed and was baptized (“baptizing them”) into the faith.

We don’t learn when or where the Ethiopian was afterward trained in the faith to keep all that Christ commands (Matthew 28:20). This instruction is provided to Christians throughout Acts and the New Testament letters; indeed, the entire Bible is for our education. This does happen, sometimes a lot; a soul will be converted as you share Scripture with them, yet did the Lord have other plans for their training and to which group of believers they would attach. Invite converts to Church for sure, but pray for them over the next several days or more, that the Lord would train them up at the place He desires.

In Acts 1:8, all disciples of Jesus Christ are commanded to be witnesses unto the uttermost part of the earth. We are to tell of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Mark 16:15, Christ’s disciples are told to preach the Gospel to every creature. But it’s Matthew 28:18-20 that has the structure of the Great Commission; to teach all nations and, upon conversion, baptize them into the faith in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Then converts are to be instructed to keep all that Christ commands.

In Acts 8:26, the angel of the Lord prompts Philip where to go. Note that Philip is not given a 3-point outline, interim milestones, and a Church growth plan with a building fund as the measure of success; although, he did get taught by Christ and prepared for the mission. And nobody (if you do find somebody hold on fast) will teach you how to be a disciple; you’ll have to pray and study the Scriptures and try the mission; in this, you will find Christ is faithful. God called the disciples, and they followed, so follow on.

Philip is faithful to go. We can say with assuredness that if you do not pray like you mean it, and study your Bible as though your life depends upon knowing it, and serve in spirit and in truth among a group of serious and committed believers, that the Holy Spirit cannot use you, and may never prompt you to go because you remain an infant in your faith being untrained and unprepared. Many in this condition do, however, hear the prompting of the Spirit of God. But as Matthew 10:32-33 below indicate, they tell God no in their heart because they are not serious about the work of Christ in the Kingdom of God to see the fruit of the greatest reward for our labor, the conversion of souls to the faith.

“32 Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. 33 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” – Matthew 10:32-33

Now to our text. We’ll lightly cover a few verses in Acts to set a framework for being a witness for Jesus Christ within the Great Commission.

Verse 27 of Acts 8: says in part, “behold, a man of Ethiopia.” Here we find the principal reason for Philip to be attending to the mission of Christ in the region of Gaza. The word behold in verse 27 indicates that God has now revealed the purpose to which Philip has been sent.

In verse 29, we see that AFTER he was dutiful to be first at the appointed place and time along the road headed south to Ethiopia, the Spirit prompts Philip to the specific duty he must carry out. How many, God help them; have rejected the initial prompting of God to go, the work remaining undone. If Philip had not gone, how does the Gospel get to Africa? The Ethiopian was a man of great authority. You never know with whom you’ll share the Gospel.

If you pray for the power of the Holy Spirit, attend to preparation by the study of Scripture, and have your heart set to serve and your mind purposed to the task, God will give you teed-up softballs ready to hit out of the park. There is the Ethiopian, reading Isaiah and asking to be shown what it means. That’s what happens to the faithful serving within the Great Commission. Sometimes God will reveal His sovereign power to you who have shown faith to believe that He goes before you. This is a time of celebration in the Spirit and to further walk worthy (1 Thessalonians 2:12 / Colossians 1:10), growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. The reward of faith is a greater faith by the revelation of God to us through Christ, leading to ever more extraordinary service of Him.

So there, in verse 30, Philip asks the Ethiopian if he understands the Scripture, and in verse 31, the Ethiopian asks a great teaching question for us; “How can I, except some man should guide me?”

In verse 35, the word of God says that Philip “began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.” We know where he started but not the course he took or upon what verse he ended, but the Gospel to save, bringing forth faith to the hearer, under the power of conviction by the Holy Spirit of God, is right there in the text he read to Philip.

Not so much technical instruction, but here are a few tips and ideas to help you enter a conversation about God or the word of God and move the conversation forward to Christ crucified for the shedding of blood, remission of sin, and resurrection unto life eternal. The section of Scripture that the Ethiopian was reading is Isaiah 53:7-8. We don’t know what Philip said to the Ethiopian or how he explained this section of Scripture, but if you’ve done the groundwork in prayer and study, the Lord will be faithful to answer. The Lord already told Philip to go, upon which command Philip went. When he arrived at the place, “Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.” So why would a Gospel witness doubt the Lord now? Philip went and started talking to the Ethiopian. God will speak to lost souls, bringing their faith unto conversion to life everlasting; we just deliver the good news of salvation.

The Ethiopian desired a “guide” to show him the meaning of the Scripture. This is soul-winning 101; get your Bible open so they may hear the word of God, building their faith (Romans 10:17). A soul winner should be instant in season and quick with the word of God, to start at a question about Scripture or God and preach Jesus Christ. The first thing to do is slow down and read that section of Scripture. Within every passage of Scripture are God’s purposes in judgment, grace, and instruction in righteousness. Philip “began” at the same Scripture. It’s not hard to open the Bible and begin at any section, only for those in earnest desire of God, guided by you, to arrive at the foot of the cross and into eternal life as a born again son of God. This is what Philip did. If you have to move to a different book or section of Scripture, such as Romans or John, then take the lost sinner there to arrive at the cross.

But praise God for the fatness of the pitch that Philip received. Isaiah 53 is the prophecy of the torture of Christ, the coming Gospel, fulfilled not long before Philip and the Ethiopian met. Because Philip was trained, prepared, and faithful, he came upon a man who asked; can you show me what the Bible means? If only they were all that easy.

You might object that the Holy Spirit didn’t prompt you to go, but you are without excuse; we are commanded in Acts 1:8, Mark 16:15, and the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20 to do this work. If you start this work, God will be with you. And, it’s a blessing. We are so prone to sin there is nothing we could say that would make you serve this way. You have to experience it to see it. You’re missing out on one of the best aspects of life in Christ when you don’t share the Gospel seeing lost sinners come to faith. When the power of the Gospel to convert a soul under the Holy Spirit comes upon a lost sinner, it’s mighty to behold.

So, the Ethiopian got saved, and baptized, then proceeded to carry the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with him into Africa. If you’ve been saved and baptized, don’t let that good news go to the grave with you; share the Gospel. This is why Christianity in the west is dying; millions, having heard but refusing to share, are the dead end of a former Christian civilization. Philip was not a dead end.

Matt Lewis writing at Daily Beast.

If you think Rep. Lauren Boebert’s conservative political philosophy is perverse, wait until you get a load of her version of Christian theology.

Speaking at a Christian Family Camp Meeting last weekend, Boebert revealed her mangled interpretation of Christ’s crucifixion: “On Twitter, a lot of the little Twitter trolls, they like to say, ‘Oh, Jesus didn’t need an AR-15, how many AR-15s do you think Jesus would have had?’” The Colorado congresswoman added, “Well, he didn’t have enough to keep his government from killing him.”

First, he writes like a second grader, and additionally, he blasts out how much he detests her conservative political philosophy right off the bat.  This doesn’t set the foundation for good analysis.

This might be one of the most un-Christian things a person could say—and not just because guns are bad, or whatever else might viscerally repel secular progressives. Consider the biblical account of Jesus’s arrest, after he was betrayed by Judas (as recounted in the Book of Matthew):

“[O]ne of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?’”

Now, compare the Gospel of Jesus to the Gospel of Boebert.

First, Boebert assumes that Jesus wanted to prevent his own crucifixion. Of course, this is true—in a sense. Before his arrest, Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” But he hastened to add, “Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Second, as Jesus told his disciples, he could have summoned “twelve legions of angels” to save himself and kill his captors. He didn’t. And the idea that Jesus simply needed more firepower denies one of the central tenets of Christianity—which is Christ’s divinity and omnipotence.

What is more, Boebert (and everyone else who claims to be a believer) should be thankful that Jesus did not take the easy way out of an excruciating death. As Jesus said, “how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled?”

Christians believe that God sacrificed his only son to atone for our sins. No sacrifice, no atonement. Sure, a bloody Tarantino-esque revenge scene might have felt very satisfying for his disciples, at the moment. But consider the eternal consequences.

Now, maybe you think this entire crucifixion story (never mind the resurrection) is one big absurd fairy tale—and that’s your right. But for those claiming to be Christians—as Boebert ostensibly does—getting this fundamental part of the story so badly wrong suggests it was either (a) a sacrilegious joke meant to score political points about the need to use guns against one’s government, or (b) evidence Boebert has a fundamental misunderstanding of basic Christian theology.

Either possibility should exclude Boebert from speaking publicly before a Christian audience.

But there’s something else here, too. By botching the events after Jesus was betrayed, Boebert betrays a worldview that has become ubiquitous during the Trump era: the hunger for a political savior.

It’s important to understand that the desire for a political savior (who will smite your enemies), while simultaneously overlooking the spiritual savior (who will change your heart and crucify your flesh), is a major theme of the New Testament.

“My kingdom is not of this world,” Jesus told Pontius Pilate during his trial. “If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

Yet, what we see time and again in the Gospels—as evidenced by Peter cutting off the ear of an arresting officer—is that Jesus’s own disciples constantly struggled to understand this.

Indeed, most of Jesus’s disciples were anticipating a savior who would rule over Israel and liberate them from Rome. Instead, they got a “servant leader” who washed other people’s feet, and told them to turn the other cheek. They got a king who was forced to wear a crown of thorns.

Someone with a Trumpian ethos might even look at Jesus and conclude that he preaches weakness. “What a sap,” they might think.

Today, a lot of evangelicals are making the same mistake. They are so desperate for a political savior that they are missing the real-life spiritual savior.

Some are attempting to Trumpify Jesus—to change Him instead of letting Him change their hearts. Others are steering their passionate adoration toward an earthly king: Donald Trump. This, of course, is a form of idolatry.

This trend is being perpetuated by Trump disciples like Boebert, who advance this perversion of the faith—and by Christian organizations who baptize this warped worldview when they give it a platform.

We should all be thankful the Gospel of Boebert didn’t end up in biblical canon. Simply put, it’s a sin.

Second, readers here are no stranger to the notion that no politician will save us.  Only the King of King and the Lord of Lords can do that, both individually and nationally.

But Matt’s analysis has run off the rails, and badly so.  His bias has so clouded his judgment that he isn’t perceptive enough to notice it.

Ms. Boebert’s silly statement is a rehash of what has been seen and available over various blogs, Twitter accounts and elsewhere for months now.  She didn’t make it up.  It’s an attempt – a poor one – to cast weapons ownership in the light of self defense.

I am a Calvinist.  The events that surround the Crucifixion were ordained from before the foundation of the world, and could not have happened any other way.  God was saving His people from their sins.

That’s why I have never used this silly one-liner, and never will.  But I assume that Matt isn’t a Christian.  He gives me nothing in this article to assume that he is.  It’s always amusing to me to see non-Christians try to hold Christians accountable for living within the framework of their own world and life view.

They rarely accomplish that task because they don’t really understand the world and life view of the Christian.  To say that God’s kingdom is not of this world has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with whether the rulers of the world are to “Do homage to the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way” (Ps 2:12).  It has nothing to do with whether God expects His people to pursue righteousness in their vocations, witnessing, and laws they help enact.  It has nothing to do with whether He will hold accountable those rulers who make ungodly laws and lead men and women in ungodly ways.

By 325 AD (anno Domini), Christianity had so conquered the known world that Constantine the Great convened the Council of Nicea to address the Arian heresy and affirm Athanasian doctrine.  There was sitting no back and quietly praying among Christians.  They worked to change the culture.  Nero was throwing them to the lions.  By 325 AD they had taken the Roman empire.

Another mistaken notion with Matt is that he conflates weapons with evil, or Trumpian doctrine, or something (we don’t know what).

Trump has nothing to do with this, and isn’t in Boebert’s statement.  We consider Trump to have been a failure because of all the awful people with which he surrounded himself, and his failure to root out the rot in the bureaucratic state.  Boebert’s statement has much to do with something entirely different than what Matt assumes, and his dragging a past-president into the conversation is weird and bizarre.

Finally, he of course thinks that Jesus is supposed to be a long haired, Bohemian, peacenik, flower child hippie, like so much of today’s Christians and non-Christians alike.

Remember though, it was Jesus who ordered His own disciples to go get themselves swords, in complete violation of the Roman laws of the times.  Jesus quite literally ordered His own disciples to become law breakers in order to effect self defense.

Our history of Christians and weapons is extensive (see here for one of hundreds of such examples).  We won’t recapitulate that here.  But suffice it to say when Matt decides to sus out Christian doctrine again, he needs to hire someone who is actually a Christian and believes Christian doctrine.  He also needs to learn quite a bit about Christian theology before weighing in again.

This article was a complete failure, and Matt is as much an ignoramus on Christian doctrine as Boebert (if in fact she wasn’t just trying to be cute with her response).

Ephesians 2:1-10

“1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;”

To be brought to life in Christ Jesus by the resurrection of your dead soul for your trespasses and sins against God Almighty is, without hesitation, the principal object at the outset. The world has a system for you, no grand purpose nor calling, but striving after the desires of the body and mind blindly following nothing much but living according to the course of this world. The world is full of people having little more worth than a self-licking ice cream cone consuming themselves upon the lust of the flesh, living for nothing, and dying alone. Every man dies alone.

It’s a complicated world, having trespassed against the Living God while remaining in self-serving sin. A life such as that is pointless; never to understand the power you perceive is the spirit that works disobedience, making yourself an heir of perdition.

“2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:”

There is a prince of this world, all the evil among men becoming glaringly evident, wickedness on every media and medium luring and enticing only to leave you dead, hell-bound, but this is God’s world; he made it and you. He owns it, so while living according to the law of trespass against Him, you offend His holiness, never seeing or even desiring to understand the war in the dimension of spirit at the root of the grave evil taking hold all around you.

“3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.”

But you’re not alone; you are a sinner as all men are before the Holy One, and He is the true power, having already conquered your sin, death, and hell. You had not sought the good before sin took root in your conscience; how could you, having been born into sin. There is none that seeketh after God…there is none that doeth good. Fulfilling your desires with wanton disregard for God’s plan, you are by your very nature a child of wrath, for the wrath of God abides on all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Sin is blinding. It’s not simply blinding to those that are aware; it’s so pervasive, so thorough that those blinded by sin are blinded to not only the immediate presence of sin but may never know that sin exists. Sin is not simply the sum total of all the unfit thoughts and deeds accumulated as you serve the spirit of disobedience; it’s what you are; you are a sinner. If you could stop sinning, you never would have started. And God is awakening your blinded soul to your condition.

“4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,”

The two most lovely words ever spoken are, but God. But God is drawing and calling, making space in your mind that His word might penetrate to your core need; you need mercy, for He is full of love and rich in mercy. “We love him, because he first loved us.” – 1 John 4:19.

His great love is shown round about you, a little at the first; His revelation shows you the evil of this world and the evil in yourself, revealing the need for His great forgiveness. Even dead in sin, it’s God that brings alive the eternal soul to the realization of Christ’s blood sacrifice, for without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin to bring about everlasting life together with Christ. God does this of His own accord, which seems quite absurd to have to say, but far too many, God help them all, are counting upon some sense of being a good man. Too late, you’ve already sinned against God; there’s no meter in heaven; it’s Christ or the death of eternal torment.

You are a sinner, condemned already in your trespasses and sins. Only the Almighty, the Creator, gives life and new life by mercy and grace unto the everlasting hope of heavenly places with riches beyond understanding, imputing worth for the soul by Christ Jesus to those that call upon His holy name.

It’s the heart of a man, your heart, not your deeds, that God desires. Not as corruptible things, silver or gold, or keeping commandments that men heap upon themselves as though impressing their neighbors gets the attention of God’s good graces. God is not impressed with you; He’s God. “The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.” – Proverbs 17:3

“5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:”

You can be raised to walk in the newness of life, through Christ, by the resurrection of the spirit in your soul; the Father in heaven offers forgiveness of sin and salvation from the wrath to come. “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.” – 1 Peter 1:23.

Jesus Christ took your sins to hell with Him and buried them there for you; Christ speaking of His own life, declared, “I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.” In authority to lay down His life paying your sin debt to the Father, and He took it up again. He raised Himself from the dead on the third day, leaving your sins behind.

But, it’s more than a spiritual resurrection, which is incredible enough. Having ascended to heaven, at the right hand of Power, it is He who makes the way of life eternal. Those sealed unto redemption in Christ, seated with Him in heavenly places now through the Spirit of God, when the last trumpet sounds, we shall see him as he is and abide in His presence; death shall be no more. Your soul, if you are His, will be altogether in the company and glory of Holy Almighty God.

He created you for this: to know Him and to be with Him, and you, wasting another day, taking another lick at the ice cream cone, would you call upon His holy name?

“7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

God’s riches are exceeding. They are exceeding what? They’re God’s riches; what manner of silly question is it to ask what they exceed, for there is nothing but a long ugly slog before you of growing old, and if you make it that long getting sick, only to return to the dust from which God formed you. Preparing for contingencies is wise, but what is your final contingency? How can you save yourself? Remember those two great words, but God? God’s riches are exceeding anything and assuredly anything of this world; His grace in kindness by Christ Jesus is what you need.

“8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

But God, in His mercy by the grace of His good pleasure, offers salvation unto those who would hear, for Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost. If it’s not of works, and salvation isn’t by works, then eternal life must be by grace. If you take upon yourself the duty to work for eternal life, rejecting the gift of His mercy in love, you make the grace of God of no effect. What an end of those ones, God help them.

But if it’s by grace, and it is, then the grace of God’s eternal pardon is what you need. Well, it says it in the Holy Bible, right there in verses 8 and 9; by the grace of God, through your faith in Christ Jesus, and not of works as though you could boast before God of anything whatsoever. Salvation is a gift to those who hear the call of Christ, and His call to you is now!

“10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Every day people try to repair the sin-scarred planet, to fix each other, all the while circling the drain. Those that are Christs, we’re not saved for nothing; having received a new life by God’s great mercy in Christ Jesus, we show that same mercy to others. You know that you have kindness and charity of heart within you; God made you this way. In Christ is where that work has meaning and eternal value; one day, in heaven, we’ll see the fruits of those labors.

So there are works and good works, but none gaining the favor of He that is holy except and unless you be quickened with the Spirit of God for it is His own Son that the Father sees when He looks upon those raised up together with Christ. Without Christ, you are an unclean thing, vile, unworthy. Why did God allow His own Son to be tortured to death if you could satisfy His wrath on your own by some good deeds? Every religion of good deeds mocks Christ, for without Christ’s sacrifice unto salvation for us first, your works come short of the glory of God, raising no worth in heaven.

Jesus didn’t stay dead; it was not possible for Christ to see corruption. So many get this backward; that’s how deadly the sin of pride is; we’re predisposed, through sin, to misunderstand the simple truth of the sovereignty of the Almighty. We want to do it on our own, but Christ is incorruptible, and you are only corrupt. Every man convinces himself that he is a good man. The most grotesquely wicked souls on earth consider themselves good men by doing what they perceive to be good things.

Thinking that there must be something you can do to win salvation, what are you next to God that you should attempt to steal His throne, making yourself a saint by your own good graces? God makes saints! Without Christ first, you are as a son of perdition, a worker of iniquity, a child of disobedience, run by the prince of the power of the air, bound by your sin to burn in hell. No man can keep the whole law, and no man can disannul by works the miracle of the glorious grace of the Lord God Almighty unto salvation by the suffering of Christ Jesus on the cross; who do you think you are that you can buy heaven with your merit?

But God, the master craftsman of all that are His by faith, having created you, has ordained for you a service to Him that you should walk therein. No longer to serve the wasteful and repetitive grind of the long march to the grave and hell, but created in Christ unto good works, having first received mercy from the throne of His judgment by grace, to be made a child of the King. God gives results of eternal importance and purpose; your soul finally being fulfilled; it’s Christ that fills that void, that hole in your heart where you know, knew all along, good must be able to live there.

It’s a new life and life everlasting, for by grace are ye saved through faith. Call upon Jesus, seeking forgiveness from sin, beseeching upon prayer the throneroom of heaven, for mercy by His grace to enter into the exceeding riches of His glory through God’s lovingkindness; asking that you would be quickened in Christ. Receive His mercy from wrath, life today, and the end of your faith, the salvation of your soul for eternity, that you might know His exceeding abundant grace in the ages to come. Forgiveness unto salvation is nothing to forgo or attempt by any manner of your own concoction. It’s grace; it’s all grace; behold, now is the accepted time: Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ.