Biblical End Time Discussions

A Nation Abandoned by God

What you will read on this website and in these blogs was added in the last months of 2005 and throughout 2006 - 2010. The articles are not listed in the order they were written since I have tried to keep subjects in order. The article below is a transcript of a sermon by John MacArthur. I have listed many of John’s books on the website because he is a man of God and truly speaks for the Lord. He is a man who is not afraid to say what needs to be said – regardless of the consequences. After finishing much of what is written on the website, I came across this sermon and knew, once again, that this wasn’t by chance.

I have read many authors and many articles on the subject of the Lord’s judgment, but none are as clear and concise as this sermon by John. There are many people who will be fearful and will begin to lose hope as events begin to unfold within our nation and the world. They will ask – Why? Why has God done this? How have we let this happen? Where do we go from here? The starting point is learning why. I believe that our nation is being given a choice. If we will truly, in our hearts, return to the Lord, we can become the greatest turnaround story in the history of the world (as John mentions below). It won’t be easy. The world and its spiritual ruler will do everything they can to prevent our turnaround. Our spiritual enemy has deceived us into believing that the world can offer us security and satisfy everything that we need. We are learning that the father of all lies has, not surprisingly, lied to us. If we will, as a nation, overcome this world and its deception, if we will seek God and his Truth…then we can be a source of God’s light in this dark world.

Everything here is based on God’s Holy Word – The Bible. As many things are revealed and explained to you on this website, always remember that all truth flows from one source – God Himself. You will also learn just how deceptive our enemy is and why he is called the father of lies. You will learn who the antichrist and the beasts of Revelation 13 really are. If you think that one evil world ruler is going to take control of the world in the near future, you will find that our spiritual enemy is much more deceptive than what you have been led to believe. The truth is that you see and hear from these beasts every day on the radio and television and read about them in your newspaper and on the internet. Sound unbelievable? It’s because you have eyes, but cannot see – you have ears, but cannot hear. Continue on and you will understand.

You will also learn what the ‘image’ of the beast will be. If you think the mark of the beast is simply going to be a microchip implanted into your right hand or your forehead, you’re in for a surprise. If you think that a secret rapture will take you away from here before things get really bad during a 7 year tribulation period, you’ve got some Bible study and praying to do. You will learn how to discern which leaders are trustworthy and those that are ‘ferocious wolves’. You will learn what it takes to attain true faith and what it takes to go from knowing about God, to actually knowing our Father in heaven and Jesus Christ personally. You will understand what the ‘narrow gate’ really is and why so many of us are on the broad road that leads to destruction. If you will invite God into your life, read His word and pray to Him – He will transform you into someone who isn’t afraid of what happens in this world – because you will be able to see and understand. Fear and death will no longer dominate you. If you read everything that is written here, read the Lord’s Word and seek Him, you will understand everything that I’m telling you.

My journey began in May of 2005. How did it start? As with anyone who has known the Lord, it began with humility. I finally acknowledged to my Creator that I did not know it all, did not understand it all and was certainly not walking in His ways. I prayed to Him that I truly believed in Him and His plan of salvation and would follow Him wherever He led me. He enabled me to overcome the world and communicate what I have learned to you. I will tell you, as any true Christian will, that all of my courage, strength, knowledge and wisdom – everything that is good in me – comes from God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Contrary to what you are told in this world, only God is worthy of our praise. Only He should be glorified.

Much of what is written here will be disturbing to many. Learning (and accepting) the truth can be very difficult – especially when we don’t like it. Many of us would much rather believe a lie than to accept a truth that causes us to examine everything about our lives and the world around us. Some things written here have been told to us in the Lord’s Word for centuries and therefore, will happen with 100% certainty. We will see a worldwide government and a worldwide church that are led by our spiritual enemy and will oppose the Lord. You will also read what I feel has been revealed to me about our nation’s future – here is where I believe we are being given a choice. Continue on our current path and we can expect our fall to continue unabated. If our nation chooses to turn from its evil ways and walk with the Lord, the Lord will heal us and strengthen us to stand in the face of overwhelming odds. I have not always understood all of the things I’ve been asked to do. My mind cannot grasp the enormity and complexity of God’s overall plan. I have simply been obedient. If the U.S. economy crashes at some point and this leads many to what I have written here, you can be sure that this is a sign that we are at a crossroads. Will this nation understand the magnitude of what is happening and ask for forgiveness? Will we humble ourselves, seek the Lord and give up our pursuit of worldly things and truly become a Christian nation – which will lead to our healing. Or will we continue to reject the Lord’s offer of salvation and continue on our own way – which will lead us to our destruction. You can be sure that the Lord will be watching for our decision. Always remember, He loves each and every one of us and His hope is that every one of us comes to repentance.

One final message before John’s sermon. Many professed teachers in the world today will tell you that you only need to ‘accept’ Jesus to be saved – ignoring many of Jesus’ warnings. I have learned, as any true Christian has learned, that the narrow path that leads to life is not an easy path to take in this world. You cannot simply attend church for an hour on Sunday and then lead a secular, worldly life and expect to enter the Lord’s kingdom. How do I know this? Because I used to live my life this way and I know that I was deceived. I knew about God, but I didn’t know Him. I now know the Truth – and the Truth will set you free. Let the Lord reveal the Truth to you and you will never be the same.

How did I know you would be led here to read what I have written? Well, that’s part of this story the Lord has given me to tell you. I will warn you again - the truth is going to be difficult to believe. Why? Because the ruler of this world has told us lies for a very long time. Many lies are now accepted as truth. To truly see and understand, you will need to pray. Even if you’ve never prayed before, even if you’ve never picked up a Bible in your life, the Lord is revealing the truth to us so that we will draw closer to Him. There is a reason why He is doing this now.

My hope and prayer is that your walk with God begins today.

A Nation Abandoned by God
Selected Scriptures
By John MacArthur

It is a real delight to be with you tonight. I want to thank Pastor Hurd and Pastor Al for the opportunity to be here. Thank you, men, so much, this is a...this is a privilege and a...and a joy and a delight to me. I always love the opportunity to teach and preach the Word of God, but especially to meet and greet people who have listened to me on the radio through the years and come to me with all kinds of strange comments about...(applause)...thank you...come to me with strange comments about what they thought I looked like. (Laughter) This is it, better that you had never known. (More laughter).


It's a joy tonight to have my dear wife, Patricia, here. Honey, stand up and let them welcome you. (Applause) This...this is the best earthly gift has given to me by far and I have to take advantage of every moment I have with her in this world because there's no marriage in heaven, so I've got to take advantage of it while I'm here. And I'm delighted to be able to do that. God has blessed us with four children and by His grace they're in Christ and serving with us in our church and they married four who love the Lord and we have 14 grandchildren who are being raised in the things of the Lord. And it's exciting to see that happening. (Applause) We are very, very grateful to the Lord and His goodness in our family, and I say that only to say God has used Patricia in a remarkable way in the lives of our children, to nurture them in the things of Christ. What...what a great blessing to me.

It's not a small thing to have the opportunity such as I have tonight to try to put a little bit of perspective and focus on the issue of praying for our nation. There are so many things that could be said and probably should be said and I certainly don't intend to say them all, by any means. But trying to kind of funnel down our thinking a little bit so that our prayers can be direct is really helpful. I remember one of our kids, I used to go from room to room when the kids were little and pray with them. And one of my daughters, I got into the habit of just because she was sleepy, I think, saying, "And God bless the whole wide world. Amen." And I thought that was a little unspecific, I guess you could say. Needed a little more targeting in her prayers. And if I can tonight, I want to try to target our prayers a little bit as to how we can direct our prayers in what, I believe, is the most needful way...not to the exclusion of any other things, but this, I think, has to be the primary focus. And it may take me a little while to get to that point, and you need to kind of stay with me and you'll see how this unfolds and hopefully it will be helpful. That certainly is my prayer.

One of the most tragic scenes in the Bible and yet one of the most familiar to us is the scene of the strongest man who ever lived, a man by the name of Samson, finding out he had no strength. Judges chapter 16 records this. "When Delilah saw that he had told her all that was in his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines saying, 'Come up once more, for he's told me all that is in his heart.' Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands and she made him sleep on her knees, called for a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to afflict him and his strength left him. And she said, 'The Philistines are upon you, Samson," and he woke from his sleep and said, 'I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.'" And here's the telling line written by God the Holy Spirit. "But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him. So the Philistines seized him, gouged out his eyes, brought him down to Gaza, bound him with bronze chains and he became a grinder in the prison." Sad. He didn't know that the Lord had departed from him. I can't imagine anything worse than being abandoned by God.

To the sons of Israel earlier in the book of Judges in chapter 10, God said this, "You have forsaken me, you have served other gods, therefore I will deliver you no more. Go and cry out to the gods which you have chosen. Let them deliver you in the time of your distress." This was God saying to Israel, "I'm done with you, abandoned by God.

Proverbs chapter 1 records a similar sentiment. "Because I called and you refused, I stretched out My hands and no one paid attention. You neglected all my counsel, you did not want my reproof, I will even laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your dread comes, when your dread comes like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind. When distress and anguish come on you, then they will call on Me but I will not answer. They will seek Me diligently, they will not find Me because they hated knowledge, did not choose the fear of the Lord, they would not accept My counsel, they spurned all My reproof, so they will eat of the fruit of their own way and be satisfied with their own devices." Again being abandoned by God, turned over to the inevitable consequences of sinful choices.

A haunting line is found tucked away in the little prophecy of Hosea chapter 4 and verse 17, and it refers to Israel by the name Ephraim and it says this, "Ephraim is joined to idols," so says God. The next line, "Leave him alone." Sounds out of character for God, doesn't it? "Ephraim is joined to idols, bring him back," might sound a little more like God. "Let him alone?"

People and nations, even the covenant nation Israel can come to a point where they are abandoned by God. Jesus reiterated this in Matthew 15 when He confronted the Pharisees and then described them to the disciples. He said this, "They're blind leaders of the blind. Let them alone." When God lets you go, it's serious. When Jesus pronounces over you abandonment, it's serious.

Now I'm going to say something, you're going to have to hold on to your seat a little bit. I'm convinced beyond doubt that in this same sense, God has abandoned America. I know that's a strong thing to say and I'm going to show you why I believe you can see that clearly in Scripture.

Open your Bibles to Romans 1...Romans 1. Don't be surprised, by the way, by that statement because while you're turning there, Acts 14:16 says this, this is from the Apostle Paul, "In the generations gone by," that's past history, "God permitted all the nations to go their own way." This is not the first nation God has abandoned, nor if Jesus tarries is it the last, or is it now the only. This is the cycle of history and it is this very cycle of history that Paul describes in Romans chapter 1. Here in Romans chapter 1, beginning in chapter 18 running to the end of the chapter, you have the most clear presentation of God abandoning a nation, what that looks like, what happens and why He does it. This is the most graphic and the most detailed and the most comprehensive discussion of what it means for a people, a society to be abandoned by God. And it perfectly describes the moral chaos in our own nation today.

It starts with very familiar words. Verse 18, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven." Now let me stop you there for just a moment. We're talking about the wrath of God and I need to just let you know that in the Scripture and in reality there are five different manifestations of God's wrath. Okay? And you will recognize them. There is eternal wrath. That is that wrath which God unleashes on the unbelieving dead in hell...eternal wrath, suffering forever eternal punishment. That's eternal wrath.

There is also in the Bible eschatological wrath, that is the unfolding of divine wrath at the end of the age described in detail, for example, in Revelation 6 through 19, the pouring out of God's wrath in the breaking of seven seals, the blowing of seven trumpets, and the dumping of seven bowls of wrath...eschatological wrath, that wrath is yet to come as is eternal wrath for all society, yet right now there are many experiencing eternal wrath, all the unbelieving who have left this world are experiencing.

The third kind of wrath is what I guess you could call calamitous wrath. That is that wrath of God which produces calamity in the world and the most notable illustration of that is the Flood which drowned the entire world, only eight people were saved. Massive wrath on the part of God against sinful man.
Fourthly, there is consequential wrath, that's sowing and reaping wrath. That's the natural end of patterns and choices of sin. Whatever a man sows, he...what?...he reaps...that's consequential wrath.

But there's one other kind of wrath that is usually overlooked. We all understand eternal wrath, eschatological wrath, calamitous wrath, we all understand the...in the calamity of the Flood or God destroying Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, etc., etc. Throughout history these calamities continue to even happen and they all fit in the category of God's judgment of sin. But there's this other category of the wrath of abandonment, it is a form of God's wrath in which He lets go of a society and let's it catapult full speed without restraint in the direction of its own sinful desires and devices and choices. That's the wrath being described here. This is the cyclical reality of this wrath that has defined human history and will always until Jesus comes. As Paul said, in all the generations gone by, God permitted the nations to go their own way.

I don't believe we're waiting for God's wrath in this society. We haven't had a massive calamity such as the destruction of an entire city, we certainly don't want that to happen, pray that does not happen, but it could happen and God would be just in any calamity that He brought upon us. We have not entered into eschatological wrath that comes in the end times, we are experiencing, all of us do, consequential wrath of sin. But this massive concept of the wrath of abandonment I'm convinced is now at work in our society. We'd like to talk about the fact that America was founded on Christian principles and God was at the center of it, and all of that, whatever it might have been in our founding, it's no longer the way it is and I want to show you how you know that has happened.

Go down to verse 24. You see in verse 24 the first word "therefore," this means we're now going to see a description that connects to what has been said. If you go back to verse 18, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men," and we could stop at that point. The wrath of God is revealed. And then it goes on to talk about the wrath of God and the reasons for the wrath of God. And then in verse 24 it then describes the wrath of God and here's the description. "Therefore God gave them over, or God gave them up, in the lust of their hearts to impurity that their bodies might be dishonored among them, for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever, amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions, for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural. In the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman, burned in their desire toward one another, men with men, committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do the things that are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, envy, full of...or evil full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, gossip, slander, haters of God, insolent arrogant boastful inventors of evil, disobedient to parents without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful. And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, and not only do them, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."

Now let me break that down for you a little bit. Three times the verb "gave them over" is used...three times. The wrath of abandonment is when God gives a nation over. This verb, paradidomi, can have a judicial sense. It's used often in Greek literature in terms of law courts and criminal courts. It comes down to handing a prisoner over for punishment. It's even used in the case of Jesus being handed over for a crucifixion. Each of these uses of the verb in this text express the fact that the wrath of God has acted to hand over a society to sentence...to hand them over. As the historian Schiller(?) said, years ago, "The history of the world is the judgment of the world." There comes a time in a nation when God has had enough and He literally lets go and turns them over to the sentence that they have passed upon themselves by their incessant sinful choices. To see it another way, they are deprived of restraining grace.

Now how do we know when this has happened? Note the progression. Verse 24, "God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity that their bodies might be dishonored among them." Impurity speaks of sexual sin. The first thing that happens in a nation when it is abandoned by God is a sexual revolution. Moral, sexual perversion, pornographic desire describes the general character of the culture. You can't even count how many million pornographic web sites there are. When a society is abandoned by God, it operates out of its own perverse sexual passion without restraint. You can go back to the 60's and the sexual revolution of the flower children, or Hugh Hefner in the Playboy world and it has gone like a flood since then. It is characterized by, as you look at verse 24, lust coming from inside as Jesus said, "What comes out of the heart of a man is what defiles him," leading to impurity, this means sexual impurity, and to the dishonoring of their bodies. The heart is wicked and the bodies demonstrate it. The body follows the heart. Lust conceives in the heart, James says, and brings forth sin and sin brings forth death.

The first thing you look for in a society you're trying to discern whether God has abandoned that society is whether or not that society has gone through a sexual revolution so that illicit sex, adultery, every form of immorality is accepted as normal in that society. And we're there.

The second step in the progression, verse 26, "God gave them over, not just to passions that are explicable because they're men and women, but to inexplicable degrading passions for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural." You know a society has been abandoned by God when it celebrates lesbian sex. God has given them over...gross affections, unnatural, unthinkable.
So you follow a sexual revolution with a homosexual revolution, and homosexuality becomes normalized. Verse 27 adds the male part, "In the same way the men abandon the natural function of the women burned in their desire toward one another.." And by the way, it is a burning that is just hard to comprehend. There was a man named Halpern(?) who was the coroner for the city of New York and he did, I think, 26 or 28 thousand autopsies in his day. He said we can look at a corpse that had been murdered and tell you whether a homosexual killed that person by the multiple wounds. He's not a Christian, he's a Jewish guy and he just said, "There's something about the passions of that kind of involvement that are not explicable."

But interestingly enough, the Holy Spirit puts the women first here and the men after. Why? The Holy Spirit refers first to the degradation of women because they're usually the last to be affected in the decay of morals because their hearts are so naturally inclined toward a husband and toward the responsibility of nurturing children. But when they lead the parade, God has removed His restraint. And the amazing thing of it is this, verse 27, "The man abandoning the natural function of the women, burning in their desire toward one another, men with men, committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error." Right into this wrath of abandonment comes the wrath, the consequential wrath and even though it generates venereal disease and AIDS, they keep doing it. This is what step two looks like and we know this has come like a flood. But it's not the final step. The final step comes in verse 28, the middle of verse 28, "God gave them over to a depraved mind."

Now the version of the Bible you have, I'm reading the New American Standard, might have a different translation for depraved, so let me tell you what the word means...non-functional. It doesn't work, useless, can't think, can't reason, can't comprehend. And you look at this world and you say, "Rampant sexual immorality, out of control, destroying people willy-nilly even in the church, even in the leadership of the church. Homosexuality, same thing, rampant, out of control, demanding to be accepted as normal and the society rushing to affirm that acceptance. Isn't there anybody in the system who would stand up and call this what it really is, a massive, moral disaster? Can't they see it? Can't they figure it out? No...no. First Corinthians 1 says, "Man by wisdom knew not God." Human wisdom just on its own doesn't get there. Then you add that the god of this world has blinded the minds of them that do not believe and you've got a compounding blindness. And then you add the fact that they are blinded by virtue of the sweeping, dominating elements of their culture and you're just not going to get anybody to rise up and take that position and have people rally around it. You're going to have more people in leadership in the country outing themselves as homosexuals. If you think you've seen a lot of that, you haven't seen any of it yet as it becomes more and more accepted.

A depraved mind in the original language is one that's tested and found useless, therefore disqualified for its intended use. The reasoning faculty has been corrupted by the influences that surround it. MTV did a survey on morality. Boy, there's a...(laughter)...switch. And they took, you know, they took the Middle Ages idea of the seven deadly sins, you know, lust, greed, all those things, and they surveyed their audience about what they thought about that. And basically they thought all those things were virtues. Now they thought they were all virtues. Yeah. And when that happens and your entire sense of morality is warped, then your conscience is ill-informed and it doesn't function. So you have unconscionable behavior. And then you laugh at the Jerry Springer Show instead of falling on your face and weeping at the aberrations. A depraved mind, reasoning faculty so corrupt that it must be rejected as non-functioning. And as a result of that, what happens? God gave them over, verse 28, to a depraved mind. So as a result, they do the things that are not...what?...proper, fitting, sensible, reasonable.
What do they do? They're filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, envy, murder, deceit, malice. What's that? That's the nightly news. It's the local newspaper. Slanderers, haters of God, and on and on and on and on it goes. They're unconscionable. Conscience can only function...conscience is a sky light, okay? Conscience is a device that reacts to your moral code. If you're a Muslim, conscience tells you to blow up infidels because conscience is not a set of moral laws. It's not a set of moral rules. It's a mechanism, like pain. Pain is a mechanism God gave you that responds to your physical condition. It says to you something is wrong with your body. Pain is simply the device that tells you that. And it's a good thing, isn't it? It's a good thing cause it tells you've got a problem with your body you need to deal with. That's what conscience is, it's a mechanism God gave you that accuses you or excuses you, Romans 2 says, but only functions if it is morally informed accurately. And if you have a culture that has developed an aberrant morality, then you have consciences that function off of that aberrant morality. And you get all the stuff, all the inexplicable behaviors. And that's why in verse 32 it says, "Although they know the ordinance of God, all they know...all they know inherently in them, Romans 2, what is right and what is wrong, they who practice such things are worthy of death. They know that. They do them anyway and they give hearty approval to those who practice them.
You know what that reminds me of? Bill Clinton's approval ratings went up in the middle of the Louenski(?) affair. Why? Because a culture like this approves of somebody like that, perfect fit. That's our kind of guy.

So they are without reason, without conscience. This is what it means when God abandons a society.

Sexual revolution, down one more step; homosexual revolution, down one more step; you can't ever get your way out of it because the mind, the cultural mind is gone...it's gone...it's gone. And I would put it this way, maybe simply, there's no surer indicator of a corrupted, wicked and abandoned society under God's wrath than when that society does not tolerate anger against sin. This society will not tolerate you standing up and displaying righteous indignation against sin. How long is it going to be before if you preach against it in your pulpit the government is going to come in and tell you, you can't do that? They've done it in Canada.

One night Larry King said to me, off the camera, he said...he said, "You know," he said, "I like you a lot but...he said...you're all...you're all caught up in the words of the Bible and you miss the message." So I said, "Well, what's a message with no words?" I don't think we miss the message.

It was C.S. Lewis who said, "The last experience of the sinner is the horrible enslavement of the freedom he desired."

So, Paul is unfolding for us this picture of what a society looks like when it's abandoned. It's not my description. Now you see why I said I think America is here going through the cycle of Romans 1.

Why does it happen? Let's go back to verse 18 and find out. Why does it happen? I'm going to give you the short version. Here's why it happens. Verse 18, "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven in this form of abandonment against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men that makes up this society." Verse 18, "Who suppress...what? There it is, that's it...they suppress the truth...they suppress the truth." That's why I wrote the book The Truth War, it's always about truth, always about truth, always. From the Garden, it started out as a war of truth, right? God says you eat the fruit, you'll die. Satan says, no you won't, you shall not surely die. There it is. Adam and Eve believed Satan. They thought God was lying to them. That started the truth war, it's going on today. It's always about the truth. Simple, this happens when you suppress the truth.

What truth? Real truth. As Francis Schaeffer used to say, the true truth...biblical truth. You suppress this, that's where you go. Take the Word of God out of the place of its supremacy and you suppress the truth. Deny that it's true, deny its veracity, deny its authenticity, deny its inerrancy, deny its inspiration, deny its sufficiency, deny its clarity...that's the latest one that nobody really knows what the Bible means anyway, it's a wonderful book, we believe God gave it to us but we have no idea what it means. That's convenient. I mean, you can divide my life, my life up into attacks on the Bible coming from every imaginable angle...the truth is always under assault. This nation has succumbed to that. There are even churches that have decentralized the truth cause they think it offends, it's divisive. It's all we've got, folks. It's all we have. God saves through the truth. You're begotten again, Peter says, by the Word of truth. You're sanctified by the word of truth. Jesus said, "Sanctify them by Thy truth, Thy word is truth," John 17:17. That's all we have.

Of course it's being assaulted by Satan. Of course the critics come along and say it's not inspired, it's not true, you can't believe it. Of course the mystics come along and say no, it's fine, but we have more revelation over here and more over there, and more over there. And the cults all develop out of extrabiblical revelation. And then there are others who come along and say, "Well, the Bible's fine, it's just not sophisticated. You need to add philosophy and other kinds of things to the Bible to fill it out." And now there are those who come and say, "Well, it lacks clarity." And that's an attack on the old perspicuity, the doctrine of perspicuity, that Scripture is clear, that God intended it to reveal not to hide. So the truth is diminished in its place, it's denied, it's rejected. It's amazing how people mock biblical truth today...amazing.

Oh, you can figure out a way to make it so smooth and soft, take out all the hard parts so it doesn't have the sting. But if you give the unadulterated, unexpurgated, pure Word of God, it will generate a negative reaction in many environments. You need to speak the truth in love, but all we've got is the truth. Suppress the truth.

Let me expand that a little bit. Give you four things to think about, four reasons for wrath that have to do with the suppressing of the truth. Number one, revelation. We've been given the truth. "Suppress the truth in unrighteousness because that which is known about God is evident within them for God made it evident to them for since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, eternal power, divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made so that they are without excuse."

What is this? This is not even talking about the Scripture. This is talking about the fact that God has inlayed His truth into the fabric of man's being. He is not without a witness to the truth. Look at chapter 2 for a moment, drop down in to verse 14, "The Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these not having the Law are a Law to themselves in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness." Part of being human like all the other parts of being human, be able to think and to make relationships, to speak and to act in the ways that humans act, those kinds of things are the familiar components of what it means to be human. But another one is, the Law of God written in the very fabric of man's nature so that he cannot plead ignorance. In fact, it says in verse 20 that he has enough of the Law in himself, enough of reason to be without excuse. You cannot plead ignorance, that which may be known of God. What is knowable regarding God. What man can know, what of the light that lights every man that comes into the world, John 1:9, is written in the heart. It is evident in them. Two ways, one, in reason...in reason. Where does reason inevitably take you? Reason inevitably takes you to an ultimate cause. Reason is simply a cause and effect device. Reason is simply thinking our way through patterns of cause and effect. This leads to this, this leads to this, this leads to this, and that's how reason works. And eventually you get back to the first cause of the massive universal effect of creation, so reason is a device given by God to all human beings that leads them directly back to Him...directly back to Him.

Any thinking person knows that. You can't have an effect without a cause, right? I mean, how simple do we have to be? You ask me where this watch came from, if I say, well there's a bunch of tin floating in a box and pulled it out and it started to tick and this is it...is ridiculous. Well how can you explain the universe that way? It's an absurdity. Nobody times nothing equals everything? That's totally irrationality.

I'll give you a little thing to think about. There was a scientist by the name of Van Noimen(?) And VanNoiman invented, or conceived of an invention called the ultimate machine...the ultimate machine. Okay? Called the VanNoiman Machine, all engineers and scientists know about. The VanNoiman Machine, he said, this is the ultimate machine, it is self-perpetuating. It has the capacity within itself to sustain itself. Wow! Secondly, it is self-repairing. Anything that ever goes wrong with it, it can fix. It has within itself the ability to fix itself, to generate whatever new parts it needs to reassemble them so that it functions. And then thirdly, it reproduces itself. It multiplies itself. This would be like having a car that generated its own fuel, fixed itself, and when you came out in the morning there were three little cars sitting next to it. (Laughter) Okay? This is a VanNoiman Machine. The complexity of this machine is staggering. And so it can't be built, it's way too complex. It becomes exponential, almost...almost to infinity to put something together like this, it can't be done. And yet that is exactly what every single organic cell in existence in the biological world does. It's a factory of perfect self-generating, self-repairing, self-reproducing machinery. Don't tell me that one time there was a pile of protoplasm and it decided to become this. My reason tells me there has to be a Creator. And do you know the whole world believed that until Darwin came along? Jonah out on a boat, and the sailors, pagan sailors say to him, "Why is this going on?" He says, "It's my God, He's doing it cause He's punishing me. And so it's my God." And they say, "Well who's your God?" He didn't say, "Well, let's see, He's the Hebrew God, He's the God of the Hebrew people, that's who He is." He didn't say that. He said this, he said, "Well, He's the God who made the earth and the sea." Oh, that's a natural assumption...natural assumption. Go to Mars Hill, Paul's up there, they have a deal there for the unknown god. Paul says, "I want to tell you who this unknown God is." He doesn't say, "This is...this is the Christian God of New Testament." He says, "This is the God who created everything. This is the God in whom we live and move and have our being." Everybody got it. Only in the modern world do we not get it.
You go back to God, the massive first cause of everything. So that's in the fabric of being human. And you know, you have to work hard for a couple of hundred years to convince an entire society that that's nonsense and that what makes sense is nobody times nothing equals everything. And though it doesn't make sense, it works in a totally immoral culture because if there's no Creator, there's no judge. So reason is the first thing that shows you God. The second thing is morality which is built into the fabric of all of us and has again to be cultivated to the point where you've got a society of people whose reason doesn't need God, and whose sense of morality has been totally perverted.

Here we are. Here we are. Even though since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power, divine nature clearly seen, clearly understood so that we're without excuse, this society has rejected God. That's our second point. Point one, revelation, God has revealed Himself to every person. Second, rejection, men have turned away from the truth. Verse 21, interesting, "Even though they knew God," that is humanity, that is society in any given period of time by God's creative design have the knowledge of moral law and reason that leads them back to a moral law-giver and a judge and a Creator, even though they know that innately, they did not honor Him as God, or give thanks, but instead of doing what was reasonable and moral, they became empty in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. And the bottom line is that they don't like the God their reason leads them to and they don't like the God that their innate sense of what is right and wrong leads them to and so they abandon that God and the lights go out. And then you come up with stuff like a rock is a rat is a dog is a boy. Life is random. Truth is relative. People are basically free to do whatever they want. It's all good. Everyone ought to be free to do whatever he wants. The goal of life is self-satisfaction. Live it up and don't let anybody tell you, you can't do anything.

So they didn't honor Him as God. They weren't thankful to Him for what He had given. And the lights went out. They became empty in their speculations, their thinking, their patterns, their ideologies, their foolish heart went black. Empty human ideas, now you can't know God, can't know the truth.
But you think you're smart. Look at verse 22. "Professing to be wise...professing to be wise, they became fools." That's the third step. You go from revelation to rejection to rationalization. Men insist they're doing fine, never did better. We're very advanced. Professing to be wise...reminds me of the guy lying in bed in the nut house, pounding his chest saying, "I'm Napoleon, I'm Napoleon, I'm Napoleon." And the guy in the next bed saying, "Well, I'm God, I'm God, I'm God." Just that kind of insanity. Or the lady who came to the psychiatrist's office with a duck on a string and said, "You've got to help my husband, he thinks he's a duck." This is no perception of reality. In fact, it says, "Professing to be wise, they became fools." The word is moraino from which we get moron, proud morons giving each other Ph,D.s. (Applause)

And finally, it comes down to...goes from revelation to rejection to rationalization to religion. Yeah, religion. That's right. Verse 23, "They exchanged the glory of an incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible men, birds, four-footed animals and crawling creatures." What religion is that? Oh how about environmentalism where you worship...what?...the creation, not the Creator. Wow. Yeah, this is man at his...you say, "Isn't this man at his highest? He's worshiping?" No, this is man at his lowest. False religion is man in the pit. He's gone so far down, he's created the fantasy of false religion. Religion is not man at his highest, it is man at his lowest. The ultimate insanity is to worship any other than the true God, right?

And so we see what happens in a society when God turns them over and we see why He turns them over. And that was just a quick overview. So we look at our nation, our hearts are broken, the mind is depraved, they think they're smart, they're morons. They can't get to the truth, the mind is completely gone. They invent bizarre religions. They become religious. And today they like to talk about being spiritual, right? I'm very religious, I'm very spiritual.

What in the world does that mean? What does that mean? As if you can invent your own worship and your own religion. That's man at his lowest. That's all the way at the bottom, total complete rejection of the true God and the true faith. That's where we are. Now the question is...how do we pray?

Turn to Psalm 81...Psalm 81. And I want the Holy Spirit to give you direction here as we think about this. See if this doesn't sound familiar, verse 11, Psalm 81 verse 11, "But My people did not listen to My voice or My word. Israel did not obey Me." So verse 12, "I...what?...gave them up." Wow. If He would do that with Israel, a covenant people, what do you think is going on in America, we're not a covenant people? "So I gave them over to the stubbornness of their own heart to walk in their own devices. I let them go, I let them go to the consequences of their choices." This is God, He's abandoned them. But look at verse 13, and here's the heart of God that I think we have to grasp in America in this hour, here's God, His words, "O that My people would do...what?...?...yeah, there it is...that they would listen to Me, listen to Me. That Israel would walk in My ways." Right there, folks, is your mandate to pray.

What do you have to pray for? You have to pray for the Word of the living God to be proclaimed across this nation. And if it's not being proclaimed in churches, it's not going to be proclaimed anywhere else. This is not a time for weak men in weak ministries preaching weak messages. This is a time to call on God to raise up a generation of passionate faithful gracious loving preachers of the Word so that a nation can listen to God. That's the answer. Think God might react? He said...I love this, verse 14..."I would quickly.." you like that word? Isn't that a good word? I don't get the picture God's dragging His heels here. "I would quickly subdue their enemies, I would turn My hand against their adversaries and it would be so great that even the people who hate Me would pretend to obey Me." And then I love this, I love verse 16, "And I would feed you with the finest of the wheat and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you." That's metaphoric, I would just drown you in blessing.

God only wants one thing out of a nation. Listen and believe this book. I really get grieved even when I hear evangelical people in the media and the public eye kind of equivocating about the clarity of the gospel. It's all we've got. Or about the clarity of what Scripture says. Your prayer and mine has to be that God would raise up faithful preachers and people who would proclaim His Word across this land. Pray for this generation of young men that God will call and shape and send, pray for pastors everywhere. Pray for lay people, for Christians to be bold. There's only one solution and that's the truth...the truth by which God saves, by which God sanctifies, and if this nation will respond and listen to His truth, God will open the flood gates. We might be the greatest recovery story in history. But there's no other way than that people listen to Me and walk in My ways. It's not going to happen if there's a famine of the hearing of the Word of God. Pray that the Word, as Paul said, would have free course and that it would run with all its power across this land. With all its beauty and magnificence, all its power and grace, that people would hear and believe and be saved and be obedient, all that to the glory of God. I don't know what God's plan is, I just see here what His heart is. "O, that My people would listen to Me," that's the heart of God.

Our Father, we thank You for simplifying things, as You always do even in the midst of what is so profound. It all comes down to the truth again, the truth...the truth...the truth...the truth. Make us people of the truth. May we trust the truth, unleashing it in all its power, knowing that we...we have no..no other weapon but the sword and it is sharper than any other. So, Lord, we just plead with You that Your Word in all its saving and sanctifying and transforming power would explode across this nation, that the truth would replace the lies that abound everywhere, not for us but for Your own glory. This we ask in the name of our Christ. Amen.

Deception and the World

On this website you will read what I feel has been revealed to me about many of the Bible’s end time prophecies. I have spent a lot of time over the past 5 years studying and praying about these prophecies. As you read what is written here, you will find that I do not agree with many popular beliefs regarding many of the Lord’s prophecies. It has become clear to me that many of the popular interpretations of these prophecies are not correct. In fact, I will explain to you in later posts why I believe our spiritual enemy will use these popular prophecy beliefs against us.

There are many people in the world today who consider themselves well-informed Christians. They believe that they fully understand the prophecies and warnings given to us in Daniel, Revelation and other books in the Bible. They are now either sitting back waiting for these things to happen (a secret rapture, an evil world leader, 7 years of tribulation, a peace treaty between the antichrist and Israel, etc) or they are actively proclaiming to the world that they have all the answers – we all simply need to listen to them.

What if many popular prophecy scholars today have it completely wrong? What if they have let worldly pursuits cloud their judgment? What if they have become focused on the world instead of our Lord? What if our spiritual enemy has offered worldly wealth and glory to them as part of his plan to deceive the world and they have unknowingly accepted because they’re not as mature as they think they are? What if there isn’t going to be a secret rapture, one evil world leader (antichrist), or a 7 year period of tribulation when the judgments of Revelation will be poured out on the earth? What if I told you that none of these things are specifically mentioned in the Bible, but are simply interpretations – interpretations that I believe are not true. What if we’re not as smart as we think we are? Our self-righteousness has been used mightily by our enemy.

If things begin to rapidly deteriorate in the world and none of the popular interpretations of prophecy come true, what do you think will happen? There will be many people in the world who are going to feel very lost and alone. This is why I have been given this message. It’s time for all of us to change our focus from the world to the Lord’s kingdom. If you are someone who has been in the church for some time and have believed (as I did for many years) many of the popular interpretations of end time prophecy, you will need to open your mind to the truth and pray to the Lord for confirmation of what I’m going to tell you. If you are someone who has never been in church or read the Bible, now is the time to come home. You don’t need any biblical knowledge to start on your journey to know Jesus Christ and our Father. You only need a desire to know the Truth – a desire to know your Creator and His plan for you.

I fully expect that initially - many non-Christians and Christians alike will not want to believe what is written here. The reason is that the truth is initially going to be difficult to believe. You’ll understand as you read through this website. I want to make something clear from the beginning – there is no personal agenda here. I do not seek worldly power, glory or wealth. The world offers me nothing of real value. Everything in this world is temporary – the sooner we all realize this, the better. The Lord has changed me over the past 3 years and given me knowledge so that I understand what is happening and why. Everything I have is His. I am simply running the race placed before me. So, with that said, we’re going to begin with what the Bible has to say on the subject of deception and being deceived in our world.

Let’s start by looking at what Jesus had to say on the subject of being deceived in this world. I believe that many prophecy scholars are missing something very important that Jesus tells us about our current times.

Mathew Chapter 24 begins with the Disciples asking Jesus about the end times.

“As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"
Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many.” (Mathew 24:3-4)

Jesus responds by warning us against deception. There will be many who claim to know Him and lead ‘many’ astray. Remember – many throughout the world are deceived.

“At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Mathew 24:10-13)

These are very strong words and they speak very loudly to us today. Notice carefully – ‘many’ turn away from true faith (we’ll discuss this in more detail later) and ‘many’ false prophets will deceive ‘many’ people. When Jesus says ‘many’, he’s talking about billions of people – and this includes many professed Christians in the world. Who are these false prophets? These are people claiming to be God’s teachers and preachers who are, in fact, leading people away from the Truth. They are leading people away from true faith in Jesus Christ. They are people involved with false religions and they are people who claim to be Christians, but are not true Disciples. They do not follow Jesus, but follow our spiritual enemy. They have infiltrated God’s true church (more on this later).

“At that time if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or, 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect—if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time.” (Mathew 24:23-25)

Once again, Jesus warns us of false prophets. He adds an additional piece of information here and I feel that it is one of the most important pieces of information given to us. In my years of attending church, I have never heard anyone discuss this – and I think I know why. In verse 24, Jesus tells us that these ‘false prophets’ will deceive ‘even the elect’. Who are the elect? These are God’s true children. They are His teachers, preachers and His true prophets. What Jesus is telling us here is that these false prophets are so deceptive, that they deceive even true believers. Why is this so important? Because it’s happening right now – to us. Our pride and our focus on the world has blinded us.

What we all must realize is that Jesus could obviously see into our future. He’s God – the 2nd person of the Holy Trinity. He could see exactly what would be happening in the world during our time – right now. Does He ever tell us that we would have it all figured out? No. What does He give us? Warnings. Time and again He warns us about deception. At a time when we should all be on guard against worldly and spiritual deception – we’ve allowed ourselves to be lulled to sleep. We are not heeding our Lord’s warnings. We have become self-righteous because we know it all – while the ‘beasts’ are taking control of the world.

What, in the world today, is Jesus warning us about? You will find, as you read through these posts, that Jesus is warning us about many things. He is warning us about the ‘beasts’ of Revelation 13. He is warning us about false religions and their leaders in the world today and most importantly, He is warning us about the condition of the Christian Church. Many of us in the Church today are not true Christians. Many of us go to church and read the Bible – but many have not truly repented. Many have not truly asked the Lord for forgiveness and therefore, have not been born again by God. They have been deceived into believing that living a secular, worldly life is A-OK and that they can ‘believe’ and be saved without really following Jesus. They have not overcome the world and therefore, cannot ‘see’ or ‘hear’ what is really happening in the world around them. Every one of us must take a very hard look at our lives and determine who we are really following. If you are like I was, you’ll find that you are not following Jesus Christ. You have allowed yourself to be blinded by our enemy. If you will ask God to come into your life, your life will begin an amazing transformation – and you will be able to see with a spiritual eye. You will begin to follow the One who is not seen by our physical eyes because you will be able to spiritually discern His will for you.

How exactly, are these ‘beasts’ of Revelation 13 deceiving even God’s true children? How is it possible that we cannot see what’s happening? The truth is that they are right in front of you everyday. They have even told us what they are planning to do – and very few are doing anything about it. Now that’s deception. This is what Jesus could see. This is why we received so many warnings. In addition to Jesus’ own words, the Book of Revelation is clear – these ‘beasts’ deceive the whole world – even the elect.

“And he performed great and miraculous signs, even causing fire to come down from heaven to earth in full view of men. Because of the signs he was given power to do on behalf of the first beast, he deceived the inhabitants of the earth.” (Revelation 13:13-14)

“Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who worked signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.” (Revelation 19:20)

You’ll learn specifics about how events in the world today relate to these prophecies as you continue to read through the posts on this website. You’ll begin to see how they have deceived you your entire life.

For now, let’s continue to learn about our true enemy and how he is deceiving the world.

Who does the Bible tell us is our true enemy? Who is really deceiving the world?


“So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world” (Revelation 12:9)

“We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” (1 John 5:19)

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 6:12)

The Bible is clear on this subject – Satan is the ruler of the world and deceives the whole world. He is our true enemy. You will notice that specific nations are not mentioned – he deceives the entire world. The United States is not immune to this deception. What you will learn is that the U.S. is actually playing a vital role in deceiving the whole world.

Who overcomes this world and its ruler?


“for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” (1 John 5:4-5)

Only those who are spiritually regenerated (born again) by God through faith in Jesus Christ overcome this world and its deception.

In the movie ‘The Matrix’, the main character (Neo) discovers at one point that the world he has lived in his whole life is a fantasy created to blind him from the truth. The parallels between that movie and our world are very similar. You’ll understand after you read everything here. You’ll go through the same transformation that Neo went through in the movie. I know I did. At first, your mind will reject the truth outright. You will say it’s not possible, it’s crazy, this can’t possibly be true. There’s no way I could be that deceived. I’m intelligent. I could see this coming if it were real. As you begin to realize that it is true and that you have been deceived on a global scale – you might just feel physically sick – just like Neo. You will probably even think at some point that you’d rather go back to being completely ignorant of what is happening around you. It would be easier this way – simply ignore the truth. Unfortunately, ignorance is not bliss.

If you will humble yourself, realize that you don’t know everything and pray for knowledge, wisdom, faith, strength, courage – and begin a relationship with our Father and Jesus Christ - God will transform you into someone who isn’t afraid. You will be set free from this world. He is looking for those who will allow Him to turn them into spiritually mature warriors. When the rest of the world is running away in fear and telling you to do the same, you will turn and face your enemy. You will fight when others fall. When your day of evil comes, you will stand. Why? Because the Lord will be with you – always.

If you are in a Christian Church today, then you know that Satan is the bad guy. You know that he is deceptive and evil. You know that he rules over this world. Does it make more sense that his plans would be widely known or that they are being done in secret – very deceptively? Will there be one evil world leader who somehow gets the nations of the world to join together as depicted in the ‘Left Behind’ books? In this deceptive world, does this really make much sense given that the Bible never points to one person as being the antichrist? Will the mark of the beast simply be the act of accepting a microchip implant or will there be deception involved with the mark as well? If you re-read Revelation 19:20 again (above), you’ll notice that those who have received the mark are ‘deceived’. Would the world even allow these things to happen (one evil ruler, chip implant as the mark) given that these prophetic scenarios are so widely known? Or does it make more sense that there is something very secretive, very deceptive going on in the world that will one day take control? In the light of the Lord’s Word, the truth is that billions of people are deceived by our spiritual enemy and because they have rejected the one, true God - their continued deception will eventually result in their eternal death. This lines up with what the Bible tells us about Satan and end time deceptions. This is not a fantasy created by a writer of fiction. This is the truth.

These are the questions that kept me up at night for a long time. I felt that something very important was going on in the world – but I had no real knowledge of it and wasn’t part of it. I came to the realization that what I was lacking was a real faith in Jesus Christ. I realized that I was truly deceived. I came to the startling conclusion that I had allowed Satan to blind me from the Truth. I realized that as long as I relied on myself, I was going to go nowhere. I would continue on the broad path to its tragic conclusion. So, I began to pray and asked God to come into my life and help me overcome the world and its deception. I searched for the Lord – and He revealed Himself to me. I asked – and received. I knocked – and doors were opened.

What I found - what was revealed to me after much prayer – is that the world is truly deceived – just as the Bible tells us it is. Something deceptive is going on right before your eyes. The devil is scheming against us – very deceptively – just as the Bible tells us he will do. He is the father of lies and therefore, his children in this world are liars. They lie because deception is part of the plan - a plan that is told to us by the Lord. Even though Satan wants to keep his plans secret, he (and those he controls in this world) cannot hide their plans from God. Those justified by faith in Jesus Christ know the Truth – they have overcome the evil one. They see through his evil plans because they rely on the source of all truth to guide them – the Creator of the heavens and earth. They are light in a dark world – and the darkness will not overcome them. While the world will tell you that there are many in the world today, I’m here to tell you there are few true believers. There are few who have entered through the narrow gate – just as Jesus tells us. I also believe this is about to change in preparation for the end.

These things no longer keep me up at night. I sleep soundly. Why? Because the Lord watches over me – and the Lord never sleeps.

"He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber;” (Psalm 121:3)

Why is wealth being taken from the United States? When you begin to view the world from God’s perspective - and not the world’s – you begin to truly understand. It’s really very simple. We have allowed ourselves to be deceived. The result is that our lives are squarely focused on the world and we have left our Creator. He’s getting our attention.

"Friend deceives friend,
and no one speaks the truth.
They have taught their tongues to lie;
they weary themselves with sinning.
You live in the midst of deception;
in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,"
declares the LORD.
Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says:
"See, I will refine and test them,
for what else can I do
because of the sin of my people?
Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
it speaks with deceit.
With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbor,
but in his heart he sets a trap for him.
Should I not punish them for this?"
declares the LORD.
"Should I not avenge myself
on such a nation as this?" (Jeremiah 9:5-9)

June 2006

The Weather and God ’s Warnings

In 2004, 4 major hurricanes hit the state of Florida. The city of New Orleans was destroyed by a hurricane in 2005. Drought conditions seem to be worsening each year throughout the United States. Wildfires are increasing in regularity throughout the western U.S. Thunderstorms and tornadoes now develop well into November. In October and November 2005, tornadoes ripped across the Midwest causing extensive damage in Indiana and Kentucky. Summer heat waves are becoming the norm as global temperatures continue to rise. The last decade has been the hottest on record for the world. The following article appeared today, December 3, 2006, on the Reuters news wire:

“Flowers are blooming on the slopes of Alpine ski resorts and bears are having trouble hibernating in Siberia amid a late start to winter that may be a portent of global warming. Rare December pollen is troubling asthma sufferers as far north as Scandinavia, sales of winter clothing are down and Santa Claus has to reassure children his sleigh will take off on Christmas Eve, snow or no snow. From Siberia to Estonia, bears have had trouble going to sleep for their winter hibernation because their hideaways are uncomfortably warm, soggy and damp. Renowned for frosty winters, Moscow started the calendar winter on December 1 with the warmest December day since records began in 1879 -- 4.5 degrees Celsius (40.1 Fahrenheit). From Ottawa to Moscow, temperatures have been way above average at the start of the winter in the northern hemisphere -- with exceptions including a rare snowstorm in Dallas, Texas. Like many places, Austria has had the mildest autumn since records began and many ski resorts have delayed the season's start. Many scientists say a single warm winter is most likely part of the natural variations of an unpredictable climate. Still, years of mild temperatures fit predictions of global warming, widely blamed on human use of fossil fuels.”

I’ve seen a documentary showing how polar bear populations are declining in the northern Arctic due to thawing ice. Glaciers the world over are now receding at levels that are unprecedented in modern times. The strongest Hurricane ever recorded (Wilma) formed in 2005. Whether or not you believe in global warming, something is definitely changing within our world. If you’re like me, you get an uneasy feeling about what the future holds for us. What, exactly, is going on with our climate?

Have you noticed that as our world’s political climate seems less stable (terrorism, wars, etc), the world’s weather also seems less stable? The world will tell you that there is no way the two are related. Weather is weather, and people will be people. How can the weather be, in any way, related to the overall instability of the world? If you look at the world and our weather through natural, worldly eyes – you will never see a correlation. Look at the weather and the world through spiritual eyes – sight given to you through God’s power, and you begin to see a definite correlation. Once again, you must read the Lord’s Word and you must pray to receive true knowledge and wisdom. Let’s take a look at what the Bible says about God’s warnings and what His Word says about weather during the last days.

Does the Bible tell us that God warns before judgment? Yes. The following is Chapter 4 from the Book of Amos.

‘Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, "Bring us some drinks!" The Sovereign LORD has sworn by his holiness: "The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks. You will each go straight out through breaks in the wall, and you will be cast out toward Harmon," declares the LORD. "Go to Bethel and sin; go to Gilgal and sin yet more. Bring your sacrifices every morning, your tithes every three years. Burn leavened bread as a thank offering and brag about your freewill offerings— boast about them, you Israelites, for this is what you love to do," declares the Sovereign LORD. ……"I also withheld rain from you when the harvest was still three months away. I sent rain on one town, but withheld it from another. One field had rain; another had none and dried up. People staggered from town to town for water but did not get enough to drink, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD. "Many times I struck your gardens and vineyards, I struck them with blight and mildew. Locusts devoured your fig and olive trees, yet you have not returned to me," declares the LORD.…..He who forms the mountains, creates the wind, and reveals his thoughts to man, he who turns dawn to darkness, and treads the high places of the earth— the LORD God Almighty is his name.’ (Amos Chapter 4)

This chapter begins with the Lord describing many of the women of Israel. They were rich, reveled in drunkenness and oppressed the poor. They were not living according to the Word and Laws of the Lord. They offered sacrifices to the Lord and occasionally gave tithes – and bragged about it. The Lord is telling us that these meant nothing to Him because they were living lives of sin, pride and arrogance. They took pleasure in sin and boasted about their religious devotion in front of men. They continued to sin against God even after numerous warnings from the Lord. After Israel was conquered, Assyrian pictures engraved on stone portray prisoners being led away with ropes tied to hooks in their nose or lips. The wealthy women of Israel’s capital were led away in judgment like cattle. These words ring true for us today. This chapter in Amos shows us that the Lord will use weather to warn a nation to return to Him. I believe that He is using it to warn the United States and I believe that He’s using it to tell the world that the end of this evil age is upon us.

In Mathew, Chapter 16, I believe that Jesus gives us a clue as to how to read the times in which we live:

‘The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven. He replied, "When evening comes, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,' and in the morning, 'Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." Jesus then left them and went away.’ (Mathew 16:2-4)

Jesus is obviously speaking to the fact that the Pharisees could not see that He was the Son of God. Although they were good at predicting the weather, they could not interpret the times in which they lived. Because they were not close to God, they could not see where they were on God’s timetable and His plan for salvation. They were speaking directly to God and couldn’t see it. This certainly applies to us today. With all of our technological advances, we know more about the natural world than ever before, but we’re still blind to the times in which we live. I believe that the clue to us in this message is Christ’s mention of the weather to the Pharisees, His mention of a ‘miraculous sign’ and most importantly, His mention of Jonah. Many attribute Jesus’ reference to Jonah to mean that He would be crucified and resurrected on the 3rd day, in the same way that Jonah spent 3 days in the belly of a whale. This is certainly true, but I believe there is more to His reference to Jonah. Other than the three days that Jonah spent in the whale, what is another sign mentioned in this Book? A storm.

‘The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me." But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD. Then the LORD sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. The captain went to him and said, "How can you sleep? Get up and call on your god! Maybe he will take notice of us, and we will not perish." Then the sailors said to each other, "Come, let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity." They cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah. So they asked him, "Tell us, who is responsible for making all this trouble for us? What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?" He answered, "I am a Hebrew and I worship the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the land." This terrified them and they asked, "What have you done?" (They knew he was running away from the LORD, because he had already told them so.) The sea was getting rougher and rougher. So they asked him, "What should we do to you to make the sea calm down for us?" "Pick me up and throw me into the sea," he replied, "and it will become calm. I know that it is my fault that this great storm has come upon you." Instead, the men did their best to row back to land. But they could not, for the sea grew even wilder than before. Then they cried to the LORD, "O LORD, please do not let us die for taking this man's life. Do not hold us accountable for killing an innocent man, for you, O LORD, have done as you pleased." Then they took Jonah and threw him overboard, and the raging sea grew calm. At this the men greatly feared the LORD, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to him. But the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights.’ (Jonah Chapter 1)

So, Jonah was running from the Lord (rebelling) and the Lord used a storm to turn him around. Meteorologists will tell you that the increasing number and strength of hurricanes in recent years is cyclical. The U.S. is simply experiencing a cyclical ‘upswing’ in the number of hurricanes hitting its shores. At the same time, we seem to be getting hit with an increasing number of wildfires, torrential rains, floods and severe thunderstorms (with devastating tornadoes) that now extend into November. At the same time that our weather is becoming more intense, we’re facing an enemy that we can’t fight effectively. The ‘war on terror’ has no end in sight. Our leaders tell us it may never end. The war in Iraq is getting worse with no end in sight. What about our economy? It seems that the stock market and our economy are going along just fine. Are they? How long can we sustain a 9 trillion dollar deficit before the bubble bursts? If you read the Old Testament, there is one thing that always seems to precede the Lord’s judgment – prosperity. So, at the same time as our weather seems to be getting more unstable, the world’s political landscape also seems to be much more unstable.

The story of Jonah also tells us that even though the Lord may pronounce judgment, a city or nation can repent and be spared His wrath. ‘The Ninevites believed God. They declared a fast, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.’ (Jonah 3:5). ‘When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened’ (Jonah 3:10). The question we need to ask is this – does our nation realize that it needs to repent and return to God? Is it asking for forgiveness? It doesn’t take much contemplation to realize that the answer to both questions is no.

How many times do we hear someone today asking for a sign from God? His signs are all around us, but you’ll never see them unless you believe in Jesus, pray for wisdom and come close to the Lord. God’s warnings are not limited to the political instability in our world. They extend to everything in the world, including our weather. I believe that both the stability of the nations in our world and our climate will continue to deteriorate as we near the end of this age.

Let’s take a look at some instances where I believe the U.S. has definitely been warned. John McTernan published a book in 2001 entitled God’s Final Warning to America. John has done extensive research into natural disasters, financial collapses and how they relate to how America has turned away from God. I am only going to list a few examples here from John’s book.

1. On Thursday, September 21, 1989, the Washington Post had a front-page article about Hurricane Hugo approaching the United States. The Hurricane was expected to make landfall on Friday (the next day). The Washington Post also had another front page article on September 21st relating to abortion. This article said that the Bush administration only had until Friday (the next day) to make oral arguments before the Supreme Court in the Hodgson vs. Minnesota case. The oral argument was for the possibility of overturning Roe vs. Wade. The oral argument was never made and Roe vs. Wade was not overturned. On Friday, September 22, 1989, Hurricane Hugo slammed into Charleston, South Carolina, causing tremendous damage to the city and the entire state.
2. On June 28, 1992, hundreds of thousands of homosexuals and their supporters attended national Gay Pride day parades across America. On the very morning of Gay Pride day, the fourth and ninth most powerful earthquakes this century in the U.S. hit southern California. These quakes were so powerful, their effects were felt as far away as Idaho. The Los Angeles Times actually reported that the marchers had to brave the earthquakes to get to the Gay Pride day parade.
3. During the late winter and early spring of 1993, heavy rains fell on the Midwest. The Mississippi and Missouri rivers rose and approached flood stage. By mid-June the rivers were at flood stage. On June 25, shipping was halted on the Mississippi river. As Gay Pride day, June 27, 1993, approached, the rains increased until USA Today reported: “Then the skies opened up on June 19-21 filling the tributaries; and on June 25-27, finally putting the rivers over their banks.” The Mississippi and Missouri rivers actually began flooding on the weekend of Gay Pride day. The Great Flood of 1993, the worst in American history, started on Gay Pride day. The flood resulted in over $15 billion in damage.
4. During September, 1994, Vice President Al Gore represented the United States at the World Population Control Conference in Cairo, Egypt. As expected, he promoted abortion as a method of birth control. Abortion was promoted as a universal right. On September 12, the next to the last day of the conference, a powerful 6.3 magnitude earthquake rocked southern California. This was the eleventh most powerful earthquake to hit the U.S. this century.
5. On May 20, 1996, the headlines of the New York Times read, “Worst drought since ‘30’s grips Plains”. The article reported how a powerful drought had gripped the Midwest and western sections of the country. The article pinpointed October 1995 as when the drought started. October 1995 was also designated as Gay/Lesbian History Month by the National Teachers Association. This association passed a resolution for every school district in the nation to observe October as Gay/Lesbian History Month.
6. On February 25, 1997, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to release $385 million overseas into 100 countries for “family planning”. Pro-life forces in the Senate tried to stop the release of the funds because some of the money could be used for abortion. The Clinton Administration backed this release of funds and pushed the date of release of the funds to March 1. On March 1, the legislation was signed into law, and the money released. On the very next day, powerful tornadoes roared across Texas into Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky. The storm stalled over Ohio, and torrential rains caused record flooding on the Ohio River.

I have mentioned Homosexuality a couple of times. Does this mean that God hates homosexuals? No. He hates the sin of homosexuality. In the same way that He hates the sin of pride, worship of wealth or the killing of the unborn. Jesus will forgive anyone if they will turn away from their sin and embrace Him. John McTernan mentions many other examples where severe weather and/or economic events coincided with our acceptance of abortion and homosexual activities. All of this doesn’t mean that if your house is hit by a tornado, you have somehow offended God. We live in a fallen world and Jesus made it clear that tribulations will happen to both believers and unbelievers. The difference is whether we have built our lives on Him and how we respond to these tribulations. I do believe, however, that God is making it clear that our support of abortion and our open acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle are unacceptable to Him. How long will we receive warnings before they turn into His judgment? Only He knows. I feel very strongly that we have passed the point of no return. I believe that the Lord has now determined that the only way to remove the sin from our nation is through judgment.

So, the final piece of this is – does Bible prophecy mention weather in our future? The answer is yes. One of God’s final judgments on the world speaks of the weather. ‘The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was given power to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him’ (Revelation 16:8-9). It sounds like things are going to get very hot on this planet. We see the trends today, but where does it end? We can debate the causes in our natural world (greenhouse gases, fossil fuels, etc) for the increase in global temperature, but the truth is that this world is heading for a period of time where it is going to be very unpleasant – both from wars and from the weather. As the world turns farther away from God, our spiritual enemy will continue to increase his influence. Each of us much choose whether to fight our enemy and proclaim the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ or sit on the sidelines and watch the world’s decline from the sidelines.

Roman Catholic Doctrine vs The Bible Part 2

In the previous posting we looked at how the Roman Catholic Church has made changes to the Lord’s Commandments and how Mary is viewed in an unbiblical manner. In this posting we’re going to look at other Catholic doctrines that have no basis in the Bible. As I’ve mentioned before, this is not a personal attack on Catholics – it is simply a comparison of Catholic doctrine to the Bible. This applies to all forms of religion – if you believe something about God and His ways that are not mentioned in His Word, then you are following man-made religious traditions – plain and simple. Keep in mind Isaiah 29:13-14: "The Lord says: These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Therefore once more I will astound these people with wonder upon wonder; the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish." Since we are living in the last days, it is of the utmost importance that we all take a step back and truly look at what we believe and why we believe it. Do we believe because we are following God’s Word and coming closer to Him or are we simply following religious doctrine that people have told us is correct without checking it against the Lord’s Word ourselves? Our spiritual enemy is deceiving billions of people around the world – don’t be one of them. If you know about Jesus Christ and our Father in heaven, but don’t know them – now is the time to come home. Are you following God’s plan for your life or are you going your own way? Do you seek God’s guidance on the decisions in your life or do you make decisions and then pray about the results later on? If you know God, then you are communicating with Him everyday. You ask Him for guidance, wisdom and knowledge and He answers. Most of all, you know that the Lord is watching over you and you know that He loves you – more than you’ll ever be able to comprehend. You are truly set free from this world – regardless of what happens in it.

The following Catholic doctrines have no basis or mention in the Bible. As such, they are nothing more than religious traditions created by men. God has had no part in these things nor does He approve of such things. If He did, then we would read about them in His Word. If you want to read about what God thinks about man-made religious traditions and rituals, spend some time reading what Jesus had to say to the Pharisees of His day. Throughout His gospels, He consistently rebuked them. They were masters at memorizing and adhering to religious rituals and customs, but they did not know God. Some of them were so far from God that they did not even live according to the words they preached. ‘Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy’ (Luke 12:1). Jesus made it very clear that true believers are concerned with relationship, not rituals. Time and again Jesus made it clear that it is a man’s heart that the Lord desires, not his traditions or rituals. I have heard from many people (friends included) who told me that if Jesus were alive today and asked them to give up everything to follow Him, they would do so. The truth is that Jesus is alive today and His words to Peter and Andrew call out to us from two thousand years ago. ‘As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him’ (Mathew 4:18-20). Will we drop our nets and follow Jesus? Are we willing to give up everything to follow Him? Ultimately, this is the question we all must ask ourselves. If you begin to wonder what others will say if you do, keep this verse in mind: ‘Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ’ (Galatians 1:10). Paul makes it clear – if you are trying to please men, you are not serving Jesus Christ. We must overcome this world and its pressures. Pressure that draws us away from Jesus Christ and His plan for us. Do you think Peter and Andrew had friends and relatives working alongside them? Do you think that a few words were probably said to them that ridiculed their decision? In an instant, they heard the call of God and immediately left their nice, safe profession to follow Christ. Jesus saw their hearts and called to them. They responded. We must do the same today.

Let’s take a brief look at some of the current Catholic doctrines that have no basis in the Bible. I encourage each of you, Catholic or not, to research these things on your own. Most importantly, you must pray to God for wisdom and the truth. Remember, each of us will be judged individually by God. We cannot say at that time that we were misled by our church. We have the Lord’s Word to guide us and correct us.

Here are four of the more prominent doctrines that contradict the Bible:

1. The Rosary – The Rosary, in its current form, was created in 1214 A.D. It was supposedly given to St. Dominic by Mary in a vision. It is a Catholic ritual with no Biblical basis. In addition to the fact that Mary cannot hear our prayers (being a human being as we are), this ritual directly contradicts what Jesus tells us in Mathew 6:6-7 ‘But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.’ In order to pray the Rosary, Catholics are taught to first make the sign of the cross (you will not find this ritual in the Bible) and then recite the Apostles’ Creed. The Apostles’ Creed was not written by the Apostles. It was created sometime around the 5th century A.D. While I believe it is fine to use this creed to tell others about your faith, I don’t believe it should be used in prayers. Why? It’s repetitious as described in Mathew 6:7. Merely saying repetitive words is not how the Bible teaches us to pray. The next prayer of the Rosary is the ‘Our Father’ or Lord’s Prayer. This is the prayer Jesus taught us in Mathew 6:9-13. Jesus taught us this prayer, so it is certainly fine to pray this to our Father in heaven. The question is - should we pray this while clutching rosary beads which are not biblical? By doing so, the Lord ’s Prayer (biblical) is being incorporated into something decidedly unbiblical. Does the Bible say it’s fine to incorporate into our worship something that is biblical with something unbiblical? No. We are warned time and again to stay true to God’s word….completely true. 'Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.' (Ezekiel 22:26) The next prayer of the Rosary is the ‘Hail Mary’. Here are the words: ‘Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.’ Based on Scripture, should we pray to Mary? No. Is Mary the mother of God? No. Can Mary pray for us now or at the time of our death? No. If you believe that you’re not actually praying to Mary, but simply asking Mary to pray with you – are we supposed to try and communicate with the dead according to Scripture? No. According to Scripture, Mary was honored by God to be the human mother of Jesus the man, but nothing more. The next prayer of the Rosary is the ‘Glory Be’. Like the Lord ’s Prayer, there is nothing wrong with the words to this prayer – as long as you pray them from your heart to our Father and are not simply saying these words simply because you’ve been told to do so. After the prayers of the Rosary are finished, the following is recited: ‘Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope! To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary! Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.’ Is Mary a queen? No. Is Mary our hope? No. We place our hope in Jesus Christ and our Father in heaven: ‘May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope….’ (2 Thessalonians 2:16). Mary cannot pray for us or mediate for us. We pray to God and Jesus Christ is our only mediator. ‘For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus’ (1 Timothy 2:5). We violate the first Commandment if we pray to anyone or anything other than God. ‘You shall have no other gods before me’ (Exodus 20:3). We don’t talk through prayer. If you pray to someone or something, you are saying this person or thing is a god worthy of prayer. Only God is worthy of our prayers. The final piece of this is the beads used in praying the Rosary. Are beads mentioned anywhere in Scripture? No. Where did this practice of using beads in prayer originate? It was, and still is, a tallying device known in Buddhism, Hinduism and Islam. The transfer of the name rosary from prayer form to the physical object took place sometime around the 16th century. Regardless of the history, these beads are simply a tallying device used to count the number of prayers recited – prayers that are continually repeated which contradict Mathew 6:7. If the Bible never mentions the counting of our prayers with beads (or anything else), why should we believe that this is acceptable to God?

2. Confession – Catholic doctrine tells us that Roman Catholic priests have the power to pardon sins based on what Jesus told His disciples before His ascension in John 20:23 ‘If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” They believe that Jesus granted his apostles the power to pardon sin and this power was then passed down to their successors – the Catholic Church. This interpretation of John 20:23 cannot be true since God alone can pardon our sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. It is a difficult verse to interpret, nonetheless, the Catholic interpretation of it directly contradicts other verses within the Bible. We should only ask God, through prayer, to forgive our sins as stated in Psalm 103:2-3; Psalm 130:3-4; Isaiah 43:25; Micah 7:18; Acts 8:22; Mathew 9:2; Mathew 9:6. This verse (John 20:23) most likely relates to Ephesians 4:32 ‘And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you’ and Mathew 6:14-15 ‘For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins’. We should forgive those that commit sins against us. We do not have the power or authority to pardon another’s sins against God – God alone has this authority. You will not find one example in the New Testament of Christ’s apostles themselves forgiving anyone’s sins. They simply spoke of the need to repent of sins through the blood of Jesus Christ. ‘Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 2:37-38).

3. Purgatory – According to page 291 of the catechism of the Roman Catholic Church: ‘All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation, but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.’ Is there a Purgatory or a place where we will go to ‘undergo purification’? According to Scripture, the answer is no. There is no mention of a Purgatory in either the Old or New Testament. After we die in this world, the Bible speaks of only two places – those who know Jesus Christ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, those who do not know Jesus Christ will enter Hell for eternity. A few of the verses that speak of our entry into Heaven: Mathew 5:20; Mathew 7:21; Mathew 18:3; Mathew 19:23; Mathew 23:13; Hebrews 9:24-25. A few verses that speak of Hell: Mathew 5:22; Mathew 5:29; Mathew 10:28; Mathew 23:15; Mathew 23:33; 2 Peter 2:4.

4. Transubstantiation – Pope Innocent III declared the doctrine of transubstantiation in 1215 A.D. This doctrine states that Roman Catholic Priests have the power to change the wafer into the body of Jesus Christ for all Catholics to receive as communion. In 1220 A.D. Pope Honorius sanctioned the adoration of the wafer as doctrine. Essentially, the Roman Catholic Church is saying that it has the power to change bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Jesus Christ. They believe that the host (Eucharist) is the true body and blood of Jesus Christ and worthy of worship and adoration. Does the Bible say that we are given this power? No. If you are a Catholic, you may say that you don’t really believe this, that you are taking Communion as any Protestant would do. This is not the official doctrine of the Catholic church: "If anyone denies that in the sacrament of the most Holy Eucharist (communion wafer) are contained truly, really and substantially the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ, but says that He is in it only as a sign, or figure or force, let him be anathema." (An exhausted definition of "Anathema" = to be damned and put to death) p.79, Canon 1. You are probably thinking that this is very strong language from the Catholic Church and would never be put into practice….but you’d be wrong. This church put to death millions during the Dark Ages of Europe and has never asked for forgiveness (This has been documented by both Catholic and non-Catholic historians – I urge you to spend some time researching this topic. If you doubt this, why would various written decrees of the Catholic Church punish heresy with death?). Would Jesus Christ ever force someone to take Communion? Never. God does not force us to do anything. We must willingly accept His offer of Salvation. Remember, all of the Roman Catholic doctrine that allowed the church to persecute people in the Middle Ages still exists today: "The church may by Divine right confiscate the property of heretics, imprison their persons, and condemn them to the flames." (Vatican II). ‘Divine right’? Does this sound at all Biblical? Can you imagine Jesus Christ saying something like this? Absolutely not. The reason is that this doctrine is not coming from Jesus Christ.

Obviously, I’ve only touched on this subject. The purpose of this posting is not to attack anyone, but to show how Catholic doctrine contradicts God’s Word. If a doctrine doesn’t exist in God’s Holy Word, it doesn’t matter who says it’s from God – a pope, a priest, a pastor – it’s not from God. The Lord gave us His Word so that we would know the truth. Always remember that our spiritual enemy is highly intelligent and very deceiving. God gave us His Word so that we would be able to detect deceptions and correct those that have gone astray. Paul even corrected Peter at one point. ‘When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong’ (Galatians 2:11).

Why have I been led to write about the doctrines of the Catholic Church? It’s a good question. I believe that the Lord is revealing the truth to us. The world is presently full of deception and it’s getting worse. We’re nearing the end of this age when things are rapidly going to deteriorate. We’re going to face the ‘beasts’ of Revelation 13 and the Mark. We’re going to face our spiritual enemy at every turn. His tentacles are spreading into a worldwide political and religious system that will oppose God and His saints. It is imperative that we are all prepared. As for the papal system, it goes even deeper. Why? Because I firmly believe that the Roman Catholic Church faces the Lord’s judgment for its unbiblical doctrines. I believe that this is revealed to us in Revelation 17 and 18. In the next few postings we’re going to study Revelation 17 & 18 and how they relate to Revelation 13 and the Roman Catholic Church. Always remember, the Lord wants you to know Him. He desires your heart, not your religion. If you want to learn more about the history of the Catholic Church and its beliefs, I highly recommend you visit Mary Ann Collins' website http://www.catholicismunveiled.com/ . Mary Ann is a former Catholic Nun who is now a Protestant. She does a great job of clearly explaining Catholic doctrine and why she left the church.

Roman Catholic Doctrine vs The Bible Part 1

Before we begin a study of Revelation 17 and 18, I feel that it’s necessary to spend some time discussing specific reasons why I, Steve Wohlberg and others believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the antichrist and the ‘beast out of the sea’ of Revelation 13. We’ve talked about the atrocities committed by the papal system throughout the middle ages, but what is the Roman Catholic Church teaching today that would lead us to believe that they will continue to oppose God? As I’ve stated before, I have no personal agenda against individual Catholics. God loves each one of us and each of us will be individually judged by Him. I have been led to write about the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church for one reason – after much prayer and research, it is clear to me that the papal system is deceiving us. Many of their doctrines are not biblical. If they’re not biblical, where do they come from? These doctrines were created by men, not God. If they were created by God, then you and I would find them in God’s Word, the Holy Bible. What has also been astonishing to me is how deceptively these Catholic doctrines lead people away from a direct relationship with Jesus Christ. How is this possible you ask? How can a church that claims to guide people to Christ actually be leading them away from Him? These are the questions we’re about to answer. As I’ve mentioned before, whether you are a Catholic or not, whether you are now a born again Christian or not, you must put away pre-conceived notions of what you may have been told in the past and open your mind to the truth. You must pray to our Father in heaven about these things and ask him for true wisdom. It took me some time to understand what is happening in the world and the world’s deception. At first, I didn’t want to believe any of it. I didn’t want to believe how deceived the world truly is….but I kept praying for wisdom and understanding and faith. As a result, I now know what is happening in the world and why and most importantly, I now know who our true enemy is. Our enemy is not walking around on this planet scheming against us, he is a spiritual being who is using non-believers of Jesus Christ against us. You and I cannot take on Satan by ourselves. We must follow God’s plan for us to fight the enemy. We fight with spiritual weapons, not the weapons of this world. One of these weapons is Truth. God is going to give you a little more truth today. This is part of God’s plan for me – to show others the truth of what our enemy is doing.

Let’s start with a major change that the Roman Catholic Church has made to God’s Word. We have discussed this previously, but it is of the utmost importance, so we’re going to spend some more time discussing it. Remember what the Lord tells us in Daniel 7:25, ‘And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws…’ Daniel tells us that this ‘little horn’ will change times and laws. Let’s first look at what laws have been changed.

The following are the original Ten Commandments taken from Exodus Chapter 20 (KJV):

1. I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work. But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
5. Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.
6. Thou shalt not kill.
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

Now, let’s take a look at the Ten Commandments according to the Roman Catholic Church:

1. I, the LORD, am your God...You shall not have other gods besides me.
2. You shall not take the name of the LORD, your God, in vain.
3. Remember to keep holy the sabbath day.
4. Honor your father and your mother.
5. You shall not kill.
6. You shall not commit adultery.
7. You shall not steal.
8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
9. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house.

Do you see what has been changed? The Lord’s second commandment has been removed and the tenth commandment has been split into two commandments. What is the second commandment? ‘Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image…’ (Exodus 20:4). Why would the Roman Church remove the second commandment? If you walk into any Catholic church, I believe you’ll see why. I recently participated in a blood drive that was setup in a Catholic Church. I saw tall, prominent statues of the virgin Mary and dead saints. I’ve seen pictures of Popes bowing and praying in front of statues of Mary. Is this biblical? Should we pray to anyone besides God? Absolutely not. I believe that the second commandment was removed because the Roman Catholic Church is violating it. What better way to hide the truth than to simply remove it from your teachings. The Catholic Bible has even removed this commandment. I would not want to try and explain to God on the day of judgment why I changed His laws.

Something else that bothered me when I was inside the Catholic Church is the Crucifix that is used by the Roman Church. It is a cross with Christ being crucified on it. Is this actually Christ on the cross? Of course not. What is it then? It is an image of Christ on the cross. This is also forbidden by the second commandment. It was also hard to ignore that the statues of Mary and the Saints were tall and imposing figures. Christ is depicted on the cross in a humiliating posture. Yes, Christ was humiliated and yes, He was crucified. But when he spoke, ‘It is finished!’….His ultimate sacrifice was over. ‘When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit’ (John 19:30). Is Jesus still hanging on the cross in a humiliating manner? No! He sits at the right hand of God Almighty with all Power and Authority. ‘”But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God”’ (Luke 22:69). So, why would Jesus be depicted in this manner? Why would Mary and the Saints be depicted in such powerful images while Jesus is shown in a humiliating manner? The Bible is clear on this topic – no images.

Let’s continue by taking a closer look at other Roman Catholic Doctrines. The source for these doctrines is the Roman Church itself – the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This was written to summarize the basic teachings of the Roman Church and was approved by Pope John Paul II in 1992.

First, let’s look at the Roman Church’s teachings on the virgin Mary. The Roman church teaches the doctrine of Immaculate Conception. This doctrine states that the virgin Mary was preserved of all stain of original sin from her conception (Catechism, 490-492). What did Mary say in the Bible? ‘My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour’ (Luke 1:46-47). So, Mary was fully aware that she needed a savior. The church also states that Mary, the “All-Holy”, lived a perfectly, sinless life (Catechism 411, 493). What does the Bible say? ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23).‘As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one”’ (Romans 3:10). The Bible is clear – Jesus is the only person referred to in the Scriptures as sinless. ‘For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin’ (Hebrews 4:15).

The Roman Church also teaches that Mary was a virgin before, during and after the birth of Christ (Catechism 496-511). The Bible tells us something different. ‘Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked. "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren't all his sisters with us?’ (Mathew 13:54-56). The Bible even tell us the names of Jesus’ brothers. Other Scriptures that refer to Jesus’ brothers are Mathew 12:46, John 2:12; John 7:3; Acts 1:14; and Galatians 1:19.

This church teaches that because she is the mother of Jesus, and Jesus is God, therefore Mary is the Mother of God. (Catechism 963, 971, 2677). The Bible tells us that Mary was the mother of Jesus the man, not the mother of Jesus as God. According to the Bible, the world was created by Jesus, long before Mary was born. ‘For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist’ (Colossians 1:16-17). Jesus existed before ALL things on earth, including Mary.

According to Roman Catholics, Mary is the mother of the church (Catechism 963, 975). In Acts 1:13-14, we are told that a group of people (including some disciples and Mary) are praying together. Mary is not given any special importance. ‘When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers’ (Acts 1:13-14). It is notable that even though John took Mary into his home after Jesus was crucified, he mentioned Mary Magdalene more often in his writings than Jesus’ mother.

According to the Roman Church, Mary is the co-mediator to whom we can entrust all of our cares and petitions (Catechism 968-970, 2677). According to the Bible, there is only one mediator and He is Jesus Christ. "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus: Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time" (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Simply stated, Jesus does not need Mary’s help to mediate for us. There are other unbiblical Catholic doctrines related to Mary, I will stop here and leave it up to you to research the rest. I have used the website http://www.answeringcatholicism.com/ in researching some of this material and encourage you to continue to research on your own.

I’ll end this posting with words written by Mary Ann Collins. Mary Ann is a former Catholic Nun who now has her own website (http://catholicconcerns.com/).

‘Catholic theologians speak of three degrees of homage, which have Latin words. "Latria" is the kind of worship which is due to God alone. "Dulia" is appropriate for honoring the saints. "Hyperdulia" is appropriate for honoring Mary. It is higher than "dulia" but not "latria". Therefore, Catholic theologians say that Catholics do not worship Mary.However, in the practical, down-to-earth, real world, these theological distinctions don't work. Most Catholics have never heard of these words. Of those who have, how many know how to apply them in practical ways? Catholics are not told how to engage in "hyperdulia" without crossing a line that results in actually practicing "latria" towards Mary without realizing it.When asked about praying to Mary and the saints, I always used to say that actually I was just asking them to pray for me, like I would ask a friend. Well, that is not really accurate, because when I talk to my friends I am not talking to people who have died. Also, I just ask them directly for what I want. I would never begin talking to my friends by saying something like: "Hail holy Queen, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve."I personally participated in many kinds of Marian devotions. ("Marian" means something relating to the Virgin Mary.) I prayed the Rosary, which uses beads to keep track of the prayers. There are ten "Hail Mary's" for every "Our Father" (the Lord's Prayer). The words of the Hail Mary are: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death." I wore the Brown Scapular (two pieces of cloth attached with strings, worn in honor of Mary). I also wore the Miraculous Medal. Both the Brown Scapular and the Miraculous Medal resulted from apparitions of Mary. There are special prayers associated with them. The apparitions of Mary promised to help people who were faithful to these devotions. I went to special services where we recited litanies (a series of titles honoring Mary), prayed to her, and sang songs in her honor, or else recited the words of the songs. I participated in a procession where people carried a statue of Mary, and we all followed it, singing songs in her honor. I visited several Marian shrines. I read books about apparitions of Mary, and dreamed of some day going to Lourdes.I did not realize that what I was doing was actually a form of worship. I thought that it was pleasing to God. I thought that Jesus wanted us to honor His mother in this way. Copyright 2001 by Mary Ann Collins. All rights reserved.’

A Servant of the Lord – Isaiah 49

Anyone who serves the Lord goes through tough times. Hardship is not something that should surprise us in this world. If you’re going to do great things for God – you’re going to go through great trials. This is how you become a ‘polished arrow’ in the verses below. This is how God molds you into His image – this is how He instills His character in you. This is how He prepares you to face our enemy and all of his schemes.

There have been times over the past 4 years where I became so tired and frustrated with my circumstances – I wanted to give up. I was tired of being broke and struggling to pay bills. I was tired of not being able to do all of the things I wanted to do. To be honest – I was tired of being tested – tired of the trials – tired of having the burden of knowing what was coming for us – tired of battling our enemy.

I wanted to walk away.

I argued with God.

Why is this happening to me? I’ve done what you’ve asked and it has led me to financial ruin!

I felt like God was asking me to run the race – with a broken leg.

I wanted to stop analyzing the world’s economic system and what the global elite are doing to the world. Most of the people in the world worship the world and the things in it – let them reap what they have sown. I’m tired of telling people the truth – when they aren’t interested. They are doomed – and I want out of here.

I felt like Job wrapped in sackcloth - sitting on a pile of ashes - wondering why this was happening to me – if I’m one of the good guys.

I think every person who ever served the Lord – has had similar thoughts and feelings about their circumstances and what they have been asked to do. I also think that the Lord let’s us vent at times. This world is hard – which is why our trials are tough – which is why the ‘narrow path’ is the most difficult path to take in this world – which is why few choose to follow Jesus. It’s not easy – and it never will be.

Although I have struggled financially – I’ve somehow always managed to get by. When I thought that no one was listening – I would get an email from someone who was encouraged by what I’ve written.

I rarely received what I wanted – but I have always received what I needed. Remember this.

There have been times when I simply needed something to lift me up. I needed a word from my Creator to let me know I was still on the right path.

Today – he gave me Isaiah 49. (Summer 2009)
______________________________________
Isaiah 49

The Servant of the LORD

1 Listen to me, you islands;

hear this, you distant nations:

Before I was born the LORD called me;

from my birth he has made mention of my name.

2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,

in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me into a polished arrow

and concealed me in his quiver.

3 He said to me, "You are my servant,

Israel, in whom I will display my splendor."

4 But I said, "I have labored to no purpose;

I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.

Yet what is due me is in the LORD's hand,

and my reward is with my God."

5 And now the LORD says—

he who formed me in the womb to be his servant

to bring Jacob back to him

and gather Israel to himself,

for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD

and my God has been my strength-

6 he says:

"It is too small a thing for you to be my servant

to restore the tribes of Jacob

and bring back those of Israel I have kept.

I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,

that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth."

7 This is what the LORD says—

the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel—

to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation,

to the servant of rulers:

"Kings will see you and rise up,

princes will see and bow down,

because of the LORD, who is faithful,

the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you."

Why does God allow misery and suffering?

When discussing God and His relationship to the world, one of the most often asked questions is this: ‘Why does He allow so much suffering and misery in this world?’ It’s a very good question. If you happen to discuss God with someone who doesn’t believe in Him, chances are that you will eventually be asked this question. A standard answer is that human beings invited sin into this world (Adam and Eve) and as a result, the world is in a fallen state. Because we’re living in a fallen world, bad things are going to happen to us. A more specific answer goes much deeper than this. In order to truly understand why God allows suffering and misery, you must begin to understand God’s character. A few months ago I was given a short article written by John Balukian that does an excellent job of answering this question. Who is John Balukian? As you will read, John was a simple man with terminal cancer who was given one last task to do before he left this world. As you will see, at first it seemed like a small thing to do. What John learned (as every Christian does) is that we’re asked to be obedient to our Creator regardless of how small or large we think the task may be. He will take care of the rest. We have no idea how our lives can impact others and God’s plan for this world – but He certainly does. Like every true man of God, John would tell you that this comes from the Lord - he is simply a servant doing what he is asked to do. This will be longer than most of my posts, but I feel strongly that the Lord has asked me to give this to you. As we near the end of this age, suffering and misery will get worse - we need to understand why.
_________________________________________

Dear precious reader:

Regardless of what kind of person you are, regardless of what you have not done, in God’s eyes you are extremely precious. Bring to mind right now the most vile and repulsive person you can think of. Can the same be said of that person? Is that person extremely precious in God’s eyes? Absolutely, positively! What is it that makes a person precious? Connection with God. When the Creator has free access to the creature he will re-create the creature into His own precious image.

This is a letter of introduction to the article I am enclosing. Many people have been greatly helped by this humble article, so please pass it on that others may be helped. Thank you. This material may be reprinted, copied or re-used in any form so long as the original text is not altered or abridged in any way. This is not my message, so please do not change it. This is God’s doing. Those who know me know that I have no natural abilities of this kind and there’s no way under the sun that I could possibly write an article like this.

Briefly, about myself: After losing the battle with Lymphoma, I permanently checked into this Veterans Administration Medical Center Nursing Home in Fresno, California, as a terminal cancer patient with only a short time to live. I just could not understand why god would not heal me! I had diligently studied the laws of health, healing, prayer, faith, total commitment, etc. I was anointed twice by Godly men. And, on top of all this, I had great plans to give our message to thousands of winter visitors who come each year to the warm desert areas of Arizona and California. But human plans aren’t worth anything. The sooner we all learn this, the better.

The greatest surprise I have ever had in my life and the happiest that I have ever been was after my little world fell apart and I was admitted to this Nursing Home, waiting to die. This beautiful, generous gift that God gave to me – this article He impressed me to write – marvelously turned everything around for me. After having failed Him all my life, He very kindly and graciously gives me a gift like this! My parents certainly gave me the right name. In Hebrew, the name John means “God is gracious”. God has certainly been gracious to me. After I go to my “rest”, this paper will keep right on working. When I think of how kind, how generous and gracious God is, and how He is treating me, what can I do but just cry!

It all started when my former roommate told me he was an atheist. I told Charlie that in order for a person to come to an intelligent conclusion about anything, he would have to first look at all the facts – all the evidence. I asked him what evidence he examined that brought him to such a drastic conclusion that God did not exist.

Charlie related stories of tragedies and suffering in his family and friends. Then he concluded with, “If there is a God, would He allow things like this to happen to good people?” (He stressed the word good.) I said excitedly, “Charlie, I have an answer. Just read the first chapter in this book (“Why Was Evil Permitted?), and you will see this whole thing from an entirely different perspective.” His answer was, “No, I’m an atheist and I don’t believe in life here-after.” Poor Charlie. To think that 30 minutes of reading was too much trouble for him! It reminds me of the thousands who died because they refused to just look at the uplifted serpent [Numbers chapter 21]. It was at this time I decided to write a small article showing what God is like and why He had to allow sin and suffering to devastate this world. As I started writing, it was very evident that I was receiving Divine assistance. I had no idea of God’s plan to place this paper around the world. I only wrote it to be used here in the Nursing Home.

Two hours after I started handing out the papers here in the Nursing Home, a patient came to my room with tears in his eyes and told me how touched he was by reading my paper. He asked for written permission to make copies and pass them out. He’s from Atascadero, California. A sister is sending a copy to the Braille Foundation, and if they use it, it will go around the world. My pastor’s wife is sending a copy to the Pacific Press to see if they will put it in booklet form for colporteurs to place in Medical/Dental offices, etc. Many came back for extra copies to give out. Groups are passing them out in their door to door work.

In just a matter of three weeks I have had to broaden my thinking from a small local work here in this V.A. Medical Complex to a work that goes around the world. I am absolutely overwhelmed. I never expected anything like this! God is so good to me that I can hardly stand it. People have offered to give me money for this work. I really don’t want anyone’s money until I use up all my own. Thank you.

When a person sees God as He really is, a God with such unbelievable kindness toward one who is so undeserving, then that person’s prayers change from words to tears. Then the story of Mary washing Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiping them with her hair becomes the most beautiful story in the Bible [John, chapters 11 & 12). When you realize the true sacrifice of God – His willingness to die eternally for you, and your heart constantly overflowing with love and appreciation for Him, it is then that God’s purpose of allowing sin to devastate this world has been accomplished forever.

With my warmest regards,

John Balukian

Now, Do You Believe God?

In your opinion, who is the most controversial person who ever lived? Without a shadow of a doubt, it is God, Himself. Many see God as being tender-hearted, caring, highly sympathetic toward all His creatures and they see that He is not willing that any should perish. And they see that His love and feelings for them are so deep that He willingly allowed His Son to come down from heaven and become one of us and go through terrible sufferings and insults and die for every one of us so that if we wanted to, we could live forever.

Why Didn’t God Nip This Whole Thing In The Bud?

All this is very touching; however, a serious question must be answered before this makes any sense. Why didn’t God nip this whole thing in the bud and prevent all this terrible suffering and misery to come into our world? He could have done it and done it with ease. God knew what would happen if He allowed sin to come into our world, and yet He allowed it. Why?

Many people are puzzled over this and I was too. But now that I have the answer, I can see that what God is doing makes a lot of good sense. And certainly, God is very desirous for each of us to have an intelligent understanding of religion. In writing this little paper to answer this question and others, I am well aware that many different types of minds are reading it. I must be very careful and not take anything for granted and try to write this so clearly that everyone who reads it can’t help but understand.

In the Beginning….Love

So, let’s go back to the beginning and take a look at what life was like under God’s marvelous government of love. We will see also how this terrible problem of sin began and why God, very wisely, did not nip this whole thing in the bud; but allowed it to wreak havoc in this poor world for these last 6,000 years. The Bible tells us that God is love and also His character, law and government is love. The beautiful relationship of God with His children was also one of love. But now, really, what is love?

What is love?

It was after a number of years of being a struggling, up and down Christian that I began to really understand the meaning of this vital word. Love is a small word that is used in a wide range of meanings; from the Hollywood barnyard love to the outstanding sacrifice of God on the cross. Love has deep feelings and emotions. The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13, shares with us the beautiful and noble qualities of love. But in order to grasp a fuller understanding of this word, and how it relates to God’s government and people, let’s define love as a principle.

Illustration of a Principle

To make sure that everyone clearly understands what this word (principle) means, I’ll give an example: Remember the saying, “Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you”? It’s so easy to see the principle involved here and to understand what this word means. Say that your boss treats you harshly and unjustly. According to the principle that’s in this saying, how should you respond? Certainly not the same way he treated you. What a brilliant and beautiful idea. Think of the peace and harmony that would result from following such a simple principle!

The Principle of Love

Now, let’s define this principle that is in love and put it in one simple sentence so that no one can possibly misunderstand it. The greatest demonstration that was ever given, or could ever be given, was when God willingly suffered and died so that you and I would be able to live. We are talking about God – The majestic and awesome Creator of this whole vast universe! As if that isn’t enough to blow your mind, think on this: God was not only willing to die, but to die eternally just so that you could live eternally. (Jesus knew that He would rise up again to life after three days. But in His darkest temptation, when He cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He did not know that he would ever live again, but He chose to save man at any price.) Dear reader, can you really grasp that? Would God die eternally just for Saddam Hussein? Absolutely! But why? Because this is exactly the type of person He is. God is love. He is this principle.

It is not difficult to see the principle in love, is it? When it came right down to choosing to save Himself or His children, He chose to save His children – and at what a terrible price! He put His children first and Himself second. So in one sentence, and in my own words, here is my definition of this principle: “Love is a principle that always puts the other person first.” What another brilliant and beautiful idea! With God and all His creatures living by this principle, no wonder heaven and the entire universe enjoyed such supreme happiness and experienced such peaceful harmony.

The Principle of Sin

But then a completely different principle raised its ugly head and the peace and harmony of the universe was shattered. In this principle, Self is put first instead of putting the other person first. It all began when Lucifer, the highest angel in heaven, wanted to become God. For him to pursue such an insane and impossible ambition, he had to first cast aside this beautiful principle of love and take hold of the principle of sin. So, we see that the principle of sin is self-seeking, selfishness, putting one’s own desires ahead of God’s desires and everyone else’s. Now we have two entirely different and directly opposite principles operating in this world and they are totally incompatible.

The Deadly Blindness of Sin

This raises a very interesting question. What could possibly be the reason why a created being would dare stand up in opposition to his Creator and actually believe that he could take over His throne? We are referring to God, the One who created this whole vast universe; the One who has unlimited power and authority; the One who knows the end from the beginning. And, on top of that, Lucifer knew that to be God, one has to have creative power – power to create something out of nothing. This same power is necessary to sustain all creation. If this power was cut off, the entire universe would immediately disintegrate, which of course, would mean his own death too. And yet Lucifer still wanted it and vigorously pursued it. Why? It just doesn’t make any sense!

Lucifer was not a dummy or a slouch. He was the most brilliant, intelligent, talented, and beautiful of all angels; and also had the highest position (right next to the throne of God). Without even realizing it, Lucifer made a fatal mistake by pushing aside God’s principle of love and taking hold of the selfish principle of sin. What happened when he did that? He actually separated himself from God. Since God is the very source of all light, truth and wisdom; all good judgment, common sense and balanced thinking; when Lucifer turned away, he lost all of this and stepped right into darkness. He was now blind. He became unreasonable and unbalanced in his thinking.

God’s Way of Keeping Pride Out of Our Hearts

If Lucifer had remembered one thing and had taken it to heart, he would not have gotten proud and possibly this whole problem of sin would not have arisen. I mentioned the noble qualities that Lucifer had; his brilliance, beauty, talents, position, etc. Where did he get these? God gave them to him. Every good thing that Lucifer had was a gift from a gracious God. A deadly problem arose when Lucifer began to think of all these beautiful and noble qualities and characteristics that he had as being his naturally rather than as precious gifts from God. That opened wide the door to pride. Pride always brings self into the picture and puts it first. This is the very principle of sin. What a lesson for us! If we would never let go of the idea that every good thing we have is a loving gift from a gracious Creator, we would shut the door to deadly pride.

Who is Telling the Truth – The Creator or the Creature?

Getting back to our original question: Why didn’t God nip this whole thing in the bud by simply putting Lucifer to death? Look at all the terrible misery He could have avoided. Wouldn’t you have done just that if you were in charge? Not if you were able to see the end from the beginning, as God is able. Suppose you were there witnessing all of this. On one side is God, whom you love and worship. Opposing God is Lucifer, whom you respect and admire. God says one thing and Lucifer says the opposite. Who are you going to believe? Remember now, you had never heard a lie before; you have no idea what sin is really like; and certainly to accept the idea that Lucifer, if given the opportunity, would go so far as to actually kill God, would be unthinkable to you!

In this situation, if you saw God kill Lucifer, what would you think? You would consider God to be totally unreasonable and unfair. In fact, you would begin being looked at as a tyrant. You would not serve God any longer because you loved and appreciated Him, but would serve Him because you became afraid of Him. God wants us always to be free, happy and trusting.

God’s Children Were Created to Fully Appreciate Him

Let’s take a closer look at God’s situation. If God had created His children to be mere robots, there would be no problem. All He would have to do would be to program their computers to never sin again. God would never have to be concerned about His children disobeying Him or rebelling. But who would want children like that? God wants His children to have the highest type of life and to never stop growing and developing. In order to have this type of children, God created us in His own image. He created us with the ability to reason things out and come to intelligent conclusions. God gave us a heart that could fully appreciate Him and spontaneously respond to His love and kindness. He made us free.

Change of Name to Fit the Character

When Lucifer rebelled, God changed his name to fit his character. Lucifer means “Light Bearer”, Satan means “Adversary”. So, from now on, I will refer to Lucifer as Satan. Satan toured the vast universe and with great piety and carelessness, he cleverly spread vicious lies about our gracious God. This brought in untold confusion and perplexity. I must remind you again that no one had ever heard a lie before. This will help you to understand why there was such serious perplexity. So we see the deep damage that Satan did by planting the seeds of disturbing suggestions and doubts in the minds of all.

Sin Shall Never Rise Up Again

God promises that after this terrible experience of sin is over, that sin shall never rise up again. Never! Is it because God will not allow it to happen again? No, that would be defeating His purpose. His children are always free to sin any time they want to, but no one will ever want to. Because all these disturbing seeds of doubt have been completely removed and absolute trust and admiration for their gracious God has been fully restored. Since God never used fear or force, what means does He use to accomplish this miraculous feat?

Truth is God’s Weapon

Let’s sharpen the focus. In Genesis 3:4, Satan contradicts God and calls Him a liar. The issue in this controversy is not who has the greater power or anything like that, but the issue is who is telling the truth. Truth is on God’s side. Satan is deathly afraid of truth because it exposes his lies and deceptions and this will definitely be the cause of his total defeat.

What is the topic we hear most about today? Isn’t it how bad everything is getting? Crime, sickness, the insane legislative policies of our politicians, etc. Who wants this type of life? It all started when Lucifer began telling lies about our gracious God. This undermined confidence in God. Before this whole problem of sin can be resolved permanently, total confidence in God must be restored. Truth restores. The truth about God’s character; how He feels about His children; the unspeakable sacrifice and suffering He is willing to go through to save us, and many other truths.

Do You Really Know What Faith Is?

I have come to the place where I don’t take anything for granted anymore. This little word, faith, for instance, is extremely important (“Righteousness by faith”, “Justification by faith”, “Salvation by faith”, etc.). If we don’t understand what this word means, then how are we going to understand how faith in God is restored? I know people who have been Christians many years who flunked this easy, simple, homely test.

Sally was driving through Death Valley in the month of August with the temperature over 120 degrees. All of a sudden, her car quits. After waiting for several tormented hours, a car pulls up with one man in it who is a total stranger. Immediately, another car stops with one man and she knows him real well. He is her pastor. Now, for Sally to best demonstrate what faith is, which car should she get into – the car of the stranger or the car of the friend? You might be thinking, “What kind of question is that? Of course she is going to get into the car of her friend.” But wait a moment. We are trying to clarify what faith is. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” So now, once again, for Sally to best demonstrate what faith is, which car shall she get into, the car of the stranger or the car of the friend?

If you hesitated to answer, chances are you don’t really know what faith is. True faith is not blind. True faith is based upon evidence. How could Sally possibly determine if the stranger could be trusted if she had no experience, no evidence by which to judge him? She couldn’t. She had ample evidence that her friend could be trusted. So in order for Sally to best demonstrate what faith is, she could get in the car of the friend. In order for God to completely gain the faith of His children, He had to give them the evidence upon which they could intelligently judge Him. He gave them mountains of evidence during these past several thousand years which came to a convincing climax upon the cross.

The Cross Tells a Convincing Story

The entire universe looked on in total shock and in complete silence as they watched their Creator dying on the cross. With His last living breath He managed to cry out, “It is finished.” Then He died. At that very moment, God came off victorious. How can that be since He is the One who died? As the universe looked on, their sorrow turned into heart-warming joy as they saw and suddenly realized the truth about God’s willingness to pay the supreme price of dying eternally for his children. This beautiful truth they witnessed with their own eyes, completely removed every trace of doubt that satan planted with the lie; that God did not have His children’s best interest at heart. The truth revealed how fantastic our gracious God is. Their hearts were so touched and filled with love and affection for their gracious God that nothing could ever change it.

Let’s go back to the beginning again and let’s say that God did nip this whole thing in the bud by putting Lucifer to death. We know that this act of God would have been totally unacceptable to you. But how about when you stood before the cross in absolute shock and watched your Creator die? Here is 4,000 years of undisputed evidence and demonstration of how far Lucifer would go and, on top of that, the demonstration of the terrible malignancy of sin. Now, you can see clearly that if God had put Lucifer to death at the beginning, you would have wholeheartedly agreed that He did the right thing. It’s too bad that God had to take the long and painful way around, but it’s the only way that His children could understand.

Sin is insanity

We need to take a closer look at sin to see what it really is. Here is another homely illustration: A scorpion wanted to get on the other side of the pond. He asked a turtle swimming by to take him over on his back. The turtle replied, “Do you think I’m crazy? You would sting me and I would die.” The scorpion said, “Do you think I’m crazy? If you died, I would die too, because I can’t swim.” The turtle thought for a moment and then said, “You’re right. Nobody would be that crazy! Get on my back and I’ll take you across.” When they were about halfway across the pond, the turtle felt a sickening sting on the back of his neck. He turned his head and said, “Why in the world did you do that?” The scorpion replied, “I just couldn’t help it, it’s my nature.”

Why would the most intelligent angel in the universe kill God, since it is God who gives Him life moment by moment? It certainly doesn’t make any sense, does it? The Bible defines sin in several ways, but my personal definition is: Sin is insanity!

A Law of the Mind

It’s a law of the mind that we will become like the one we worship and admire. It’s terribly important then that we know what kind of person our God is. Jesus warned His disciples in John 16:2-3 “Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.” Why will these persecutors resort to violence? Because they think God is this way. God does not force anyone’s conscience. He wins hearts by his gentleness and love. What do you think of a God who created this whole vast universe; who has all this power and authority, yet He is so humble that He willingly washed twelve pairs of filthy feet when His disciples refused to do it? This appeals to me to no end. God is the most humble person in all this universe because He lives by the beautiful principle of love. God always puts the other person first and Himself second.

The true God of heaven appealed to the hearts of His rebellious children with kindness and love. He didn’t use a sword! There are millions of people who believe that the end justifies the means by using force in God’s work. This is what a band of religious fanatics had in mind when they rode into the town of ErZurum over a hundred years ago. They came to take the life of the Christian minister if he did not yield to their wishes. They were not familiar with the weapons of kindness and love. Their weapons were force and fear. They were out to force the Christians to change their beliefs.

They were highly disappointed when they learned that the minister had died. So they did the next best thing by taking the minister’s widowed wife and her three little girls to the town square. Surrounding this poor widow they all drew out their huge, wicked knives. The leader, raising his voice demanded that she renounce Christ and declare before all these people that Mohammed was the true prophet of God.

Everyone knew what would happen if she refused, and with tears they begged her to comply. Speaking in Armenian so that these men couldn’t understand, they said, “We know you love Jesus. God knows you love Him. Please, please do what they say and save your life. Think of your children!” Oh, what terrible pressure! Standing before her were her three little girls petrified with fear. The oldest girl was my mother.

The Sword Never Wins

But my Grandmother didn’t put herself first, she put her God first. She had learned the principle of love. Raising her voice and speaking in perfect Turkish, my Grandmother said, “I believe with all my heart that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.” Without a moment’s hesitation they slashed her to the ground and hacked off her head. My mother’s tender mind was affected for the rest of her life. I remember while growing up, whenever my mother thought of her mother, she would cry.

The Basic Reason Why a Church Would Turn to the State for Power

What would you say would be the basic reason why a church or religious organization would turn to the state (government) for power to force others to accept their religious teachings? Is it because they don’t have power – the Holy Spirit (the power of God)? Why don’t they have the power of God? Because God uses only one kind of power – Love. His method is winning the heart, not forcing the conscience with threats and fear. God’s method of winning hearts is simply putting the other person first. God always has that person’s best interests at heart and He is willing to go through any amount of suffering and to pay any price to save that person. He is not willing that any should be lost. How can a sincere, honest person fight against that?

What Makes a Person Savable?

Just what is it that makes a person savable anyway? The Apostle Paul makes it very clear in 1 Corinthians 13 that even a person loaded with talent, doing God’s work with zeal, making tremendous sacrifices by putting all his means in the work and even going as far as giving his body to be burned is not savable if he does not have love. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand why. Love is a principle that always puts the other person first. God and all His children live by this principle. If you refuse to live by this principle, you couldn’t possibly fit in. You would be out of harmony with the entire universe.

Love is a Gift from a Gracious God

God is very reasonable and understanding. He generously gives us everything that He requires of us. We need love? He will see to it that we have it. Every good thing that we have or will need now and throughout all eternity will be given to us as a gift from a generous and gracious God. We are absolutely dependent upon God for everything and always will be.

There Are Only Two People in Religion

Now we come to the bottom line. The sharp focus is on only two persons: you and God. Oh, if I had only done this years ago I would have avoided many disappointments and discouragements. Never again am I going to allow my religion to become complicated or confusing. One to one contact with God, forming a bond and friendship that can never be broken, is actually what religion is all about. It’s just that simple. Just imagine, the very best friend you have is the One who created this whole vast universe. Wow! Can you bend your mind around that?

Another thing I find extremely helpful is to personify a text. Take Romans 6:14 for example: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” I love the strong, positive, emphatic way this is put. To me, this is saying that, in no way will sin dominate me. Then it goes on to tell why. When I read this text, this is the picture that comes to my mind: I am standing before the law, which I picture as a huge giant, towering over me. I’m a sinner and condemned to die. There is absolutely nothing I can do to appease him or to escape. But the text says that I am under grace. To me, grace means that I’m being treated, not as I deserve, but with unlimited kindness and generosity. There is no such thing as grace without there being behind it a very gracious person. I see, standing nearby, this most gracious person. He says to me, “You’re in deep trouble, but I can help you. Do you want Me to help you?” I say, “Please do.” So, He steps in between me and this giant and He puts His arm around me. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after flesh, but after the spirit.” [Romans 8:11].

The Most Precious Moment of Our Life

At that precious moment, I am safe to save – I am savable. The moment that I accept God’s gracious offer to take over my life and to personally be my Savior, everything is right between God and myself and not one person in all this universe can say anything against me. The law has nothing against me now, because God has taken full responsibility for my becoming fit for heaven. God paid the full price for me by living a life without sinning and by His death, so that I can go clean and free. What a precious gift! And what a precious Savior!

How Can God Save Saddam Hussein?

Saddam Hussein has been portrayed (especially by the West) as being an exceptionally cruel national leader who would not only be willing to exterminate all the Kurds, but would enforce cruelty on his own people to achieve personal power and prestige. He has a lot of blood on his hands! (by the way, does God love Saddam Hussein as much as He loves Mother Teresa? Of course He does!) Say that the Holy Spirit is able to touch Saddam Hussein’s heart and, miraculously, he accepts God’s gracious offer. He is willing now to have God take complete charge of his life and also to take full responsibility of fitting him for heaven. Now, let’s see how God does this.

Saddam Has No Sins?

That’s exactly right! As soon as God is allowed to take over Saddam’s life (and how is this accomplished? Simply by Saddam praying and requesting that God will take over his life and really meaning it), He takes away all of Saddam’s sins. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” [Romans 8:1]. This text means exactly what it says. God not only takes away Saddam’s sins and completely frees him of the responsibility of all the sins he ever committed, but he graciously restores Saddam to his God-given dignity. How is this accomplished? Simply by connection – connection with God. (It’s like a branch that’s connected to the vine). It’s a precious gift from a gracious God. Every good thing we have, or ever will have through all eternity, is a gift of love from our loving Creator. Sad to say, Lucifer lost hold of this precious truth. The wonderful and noble qualities of wisdom, beauty, talents, position, etc., that he possessed, he started regarding these as his naturally, instead of precious gifts from God. We are not only seeing, but feeling, the disastrous results.

Day by day, the more Saddam walks with his God, the more thrilled he becomes as he sees the type of person God is. He sees God as a fantastic person who actually has his best interest at heart. As a national leader, Saddam always put himself first and his people second. What a contrast! And you can be sure that Satan spread enough lies about God to give the people the impression that God was totally selfish and arbitrary. As I mentioned before, truth is on God’s side. As the truth is known about God, there will be such a heart appreciation for this type of God that no one will ever want God to be any different. They will be thrilled to follow Him throughout eternity. This is why sin shall not rise up again – EVER!

One of Heaven’s Greatest Surprises

One of the greatest surprises that heaven will have for us is learning how much it costs God to get us there. Besides God paying a price on the cross that will never be fathomed, God has suffered unmerciful abuse, insults and criticisms of all kinds. He is blamed and cursed for everything. Here, at the nursing home, if the kitchen forgets to put a slab of margarine on a tray, God is cursed. God is even blamed for all the forest fires. In legal circles, it’s called “An Act of God”.

Years ago, I was working with a number of other different tradesmen in a building. Usually, on a job like this, there is a certain amount of swearing going on. But, on this particular day, it seemed that almost everyone was having a problem and God was getting blamed for it all. The cursing was so bad that I stopped my work and just listened. I thought to myself, “If there is this much cursing arising out of this one building, how much is rising out of the whole town of Paso Robles?” I had a very impressive picture of God in deep sorrow, bending over the world in loving concern. With this picture in mind, I visualized millions and millions of angry voices in every language and dialect, in every part of the world, cursing God. There is a deafening roar of curses constantly ascending up and hitting our gracious Creator right in the face.

But love is stronger than hate, and God is bent on saving us no matter what the cost; no matter how much pain He has to suffer; no matter how much He is insulted; no matter how much He is falsely accused; no matter how much He is hated and rejected. Satan would have us to believe that God doesn’t care, but the very opposite is the truth. For 6,000 years our gracious Creator has been lavishing His love upon us under such repulsive conditions. After 6,000 years of presenting all of this evidence – this mountainous amount of visual demonstration, God has one question for you: “Now do you believe me?”

Suffering is Priceless

One of the best things that ever happened to me was when I became terminally ill. When I got sick and was suffering, it made God’s suffering very real to me. I was absolutely overwhelmed that the Majesty of this whole vast universe with all His power and authority would even care about a person like me, let alone go through all that He was going through to save me. God could not reveal His love for me any more powerfully or effectively than by His sacrifice and suffering. This kind and gracious person touched my heart. My religion now is a person. My religion is a God.

Welcome Home

Do you think that you could find one person in God’s vast universe who would be willing to trade places with you, no matter what your condition or how much you are suffering? The beautiful truth is that you could not find even one person who would not be willing to trade places with you. How do I know this? I know this because God is love and love is a principle that puts the other person first. All of God’s children live by this beautiful principle of love. The entire government of God is based on this wonderful principle.

No matter who you are, no matter what kind of life you have lived here, there will be an experience for you in heaven that is one of supreme happiness and total acceptance. Whether you are looking into the eyes of your Creator or rubbing shoulders with the Holy Angels, one message will come through to you loud and clear, WELCOME HOME!!

John Balukian
V.A. Nursing Home

MEMORIAL

John Balukian went to his rest in Jesus on September 27, 1994. One of John’s favorite Bible verses can be found in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18: “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

John’s strength and courage and hope came from a firm belief in this promise. Rest well, Friend.
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It’s hard for us to understand sometimes, but the truth is that we (human beings) invited sin into this world. God gave us a perfect world and we invited satan and sin into it. God did not create a fallen world for us, the world was originally without sin. What you see around you everyday is the result of our fateful decision – violence, death, destruction, misery, etc. We brought this misery upon ourselves. You may think that this was Adam and Eve’s fault, not yours…but we make similar choices everyday. Instead of walking the narrow path and choosing God’s will for our lives and following His paths, we instead choose our own way and choose to sin against our Creator. Fortunately for us, our Creator loves us so much that He has provided all of us a way back to Him. Regardless of what you’ve done, regardless of what is happening in the world....He loves you and wants you to know Him. There is only one way to Him, through faith that His Son Jesus gave His life for you. You do not need anything in this world to be saved. You do not need a church, a pastor, a priest or a religious ritual. True men of God can help you, guide you and teach you, but they can’t save you. The same is true of God’s church. It’s important to remain close to believers, but simply being in close proximity to God’s children will not save you. Only you can believe in God’s offer of salvation and accept it. How do you do this? You can do what I did. Pray to your Father in Heaven. Go someplace by yourself where it is quiet, fall on your knees, and tell Him that you believe that Jesus died for you, that you want to know Him, to see Him, to become what He created you to be. He will hear you. Tell Him your fears, ask Him for stronger faith, for understanding….to be more like Him. Ask Him for help against our enemy. Seek Him. If you truly want to know Him, you will find Him. Believe in the Truth that is Jesus Christ. Pray everyday…..and then listen. Pay attention to the quiet, still voice inside you, pay attention to the circumstances in your life. Expect Him to reveal Himself to you. He knew everything about you before you were ever born….your strengths and weaknesses. He will strengthen your faith, transform you and show you your true purpose….regardless of what you’ve done in your past. He will replace the sand that has been the foundation of your life with the Rock that is Jesus Christ. Your fear of this world will fade away and you will be set free. “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.” Mathew 7:24-27.

It’s not always easy to look past the misery in this world to His kingdom, but that’s what we must do. We must never lose the hope that exists for us. It doesn’t matter how bad things get here, our Father has prepared a place for us in Heaven….never forget this. I’m writing this post in April 2007. I don’t know when you are reading this, but I do know that the Lord has given me these words to give to you. You are reading these words because the Lord is communicating to you….specifically to you. I am simply a humble messenger, doing what I’m asked to do.

Regardless of how bad things may get in this fallen world, never forget:

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him" 1 Corinthians 2:9.

Wealth and the Bible

Let’s spend some time discussing wealth and what the Bible has to say on this subject. It seems our society has become focused on wealth and becoming rich. We’re constantly reminded in this world that being rich is a good and desirable goal. We see this in the Wall Street Journal and listed on the Fortune 500. We read about it in daily newspapers and listen to ‘experts’ talk about wealth on programs such as CNN and Fox News. Most of us invest in the stock market with the hopes that we’ll one day strike it rich or at least receive high enough returns to retire comfortably. American CEO’s are the highest paid corporate leaders in the world with some earning 400-500 times what the average worker takes home. If you’re like me and have managed a business whether on your own or for a corporation, then you know that in today’s world, you’re only as good as your last week, month, quarter, year. Have a good week? Great, now have a good quarter. Have a good quarter? Spend an hour celebrating and then focus on the year. Have a good year? Better start planning a strategy to do even better next year. If you are successful, you receive rewards in the form of raises, bonuses, better benefits, etc. Have you ever wondered, as I have, whether all the time spent on the pursuit of business/working success is worth the time? Of course you don’t need to manage a business to feel the stress of the working world today. All of us are concerned with earning more money, working our way up, receiving better benefits…..and we’re all concerned with job security considering that we could be ‘downsized’, ‘reassigned’ or fired due to ‘synergies’ created by a merger. Even if you’ve been successful and have reached your financial goals, my guess is that you’ve reached the goal and thought - ‘Is this it?’ It probably hasn’t been as satisfying as you thought it would be. Regardless, it’s as though we’re all on this big treadmill that seems to be going faster and faster and we can’t get off and we can’t slow down. It’s as though someone is dangling a carrot in front of our faces that we can never quite reach. What does the Bible teach us about the pursuit of wealth?

“But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” (1 Timothy 6:8-10)

The Bible teaches us that money isn’t the root of all evil (as is often quoted), but the love of money. If you believe that everything in the world is the Lord’s and you’re simply a steward of His possessions, then you won’t fall into the devil’s trap of falling in love with money and wealth. If you begin to view your money as only yours, to do with as you please, then you are starting down a dark path....which is what we, as a nation, have done.

Since public corporations seem to make up over 90% of what we read about in the business world, let’s take a moment and look at the decisions they make and why they make those decisions. As I’ve mentioned before, I have some experience with corporate decision-making. I’ve never been a CEO of a company, but like many others in middle management, I’ve had to execute senior management decisions within my area of responsibility. Let’s start by asking some basic, high level questions. What is the purpose of a corporation? What are the goals of a corporation? What influences the majority of high level decisions within a company?

Don’t worry, I won’t go into a long-winded discussion on microeconomics and financial statements. For our purposes here, we’ll stick to the basics. Obviously, public companies are focused on their stock price and the company’s return to shareholders. Companies initially issue stock in return for capital (cash) that they can use to grow their business, invest in research, etc. They want their stock price to rise so that their shareholders are satisfied and that, in return, benefits the employees of the company in many ways…increased salary, bonuses, stock options, career advancement, etc. The stock price is the focus of any publicly traded company. It is certainly the focus of anyone who invests in stocks or mutual funds.

Have you ever thought about what really affects stock prices? The answer is ....just about everything. Obviously, how well a company is performing financially and operationally impacts their stock price. The problem with stocks is that there are many other things that affect their prices - scandals, fraud, wars, terrorist activity, the overall economy, the overall stock market, interest rates, inflation, Federal Reserve decisions, Federal legislation, etc. If a big investment institution (private equity funds, hedge funds or the big Wall St. banks) buys or sells a big chunk of stock in a company, they have the power to raise or lower the price to some degree (regardless of what you're told, all investors are not the same). Mergers & acquisitions can have a big impact on stock prices. So, even though our society consistently tells us that we should invest in stocks because of past history (we always hear about past 5, 10, 30 years trends), does the past really give us a true indication of the future? As it relates to something as risky as the stock market, the past has absolutely no bearing on the future. Yes, you can see trends, but you can't see if a war is going to break-out tomorrow. You can't see if a terrorist event is going to happen tomorrow. Did 9/11 affect your checking account or savings account? Did the value of your CD's drop? No. How did your stocks do? We are blindly following flawed advice that says you have to invest in stocks in order to save for retirement. The U.S. has invested trillions in the stock market. Where is our faith? Are you placing faith in things of this world or your Creator? What do you think God sees when He looks at the stock market? I have an idea - greed. The truth is that the stock market is a house of cards and it's going to fall. How? I don't know specifically, but remember, only one card (a negative event) needs to fall for the whole house to come down.

For simplicity, if we were to point to one, overriding factor in a company’s stock price, I believe it would be growth. Stock analysts always point to a company’s sales/revenue growth, profit growth, prospects for growth, hindrances to growth, etc. when discussing stocks. Sales and revenue must continue to grow at an acceptable level (10%, 20%, 30+%), profits must grow, etc……in order for investors to continue to invest in a company’s stock. If you’re a CEO of a publicly traded company, you’re focused on (among many other things) how to grow your business through internal growth, acquisitions, etc., while keeping costs as low as possible. You're constantly under pressure to find ways to grow your business. You can't just run a nice profitable business, you must get bigger. The treadmill never stops running.

So, with these things in mind, let’s answer the questions above. What is the purpose of any corporation? We could say that companies provide products and services that benefit us…and that’s a good thing. This is certainly true for some companies, but the one overriding purpose for any publicly traded company is to make money. If you aren’t profitable, how long will your investors continue to support you? I think the Dot Com bust of 2000 showed us the answer. If you have a great idea, you better turn the idea into a profitable business within a couple of years (depending on the industry) or you’re going to find yourself under ever increasing pressure to do so. What are the goals of a corporation? Every publicly traded company has operational and financial objectives that will meet or exceed expectations. They must meet sales, revenue, cost and profit expectations or their stock could decline. What influences decisions within the company? Most high level decisions revolve around whether the outcome of these decisions will have a positive or negative impact on these same metrics – sales, revenue, costs and profits. If we step back for a moment and really think about what drives corporations and their decisions, we see one overriding theme - the pursuit of money. What does the Bible say about spending our lives in pursuit of money? God's Word is clear - pursue God, not money. The love and pursuit of money will lead you into all kinds of evil. If you're wondering how corporations can do evil, you won't have to look far. Remember, the measuring stick is not the world - don't compare yourself or your business to the world and think you're a-ok. The measuring stick is God's Word. Pollution, deforestation, fraud, embezzlement, bribes, 'creative' accounting, oppressing the poor, pursuit of profits above all else, etc. Think about the structure of a corporation. The people at the top are usually wealthy, while the people at the bottom struggle to get by. In fact, corporations are consistently rewarded for paying the lowest wages possible (an example is outsourcing) regardless of whether they are doing fine financially. Yes, people with more responsibility should make more, but not 400 times more and not at the expense of others. Every time you read about layoffs, outsourcing or 'downsizing', who usually loses their jobs? Those at the bottom of the corporate ladder are usually the most affected. Who usually benefits? The people at the top. Wall Street normally applauds these 'cost reductions'....which many times leads to more compensation to those making these decisions. They never mention the lives that are turned upside down because of these decisions. For weeks now (April 2007), I have been reading about how the downturn in the subprime market is causing a spike in foreclosures and mortgage company bankrupcies. Many articles have discussed how this could trickle down to affect many areas of the economy. Not one article I have seen (in the Wall St. Journal or other publications) has discussed the impact to the families who are being evicted due to the foreclosures. I'm sure their are many reasons for the problems - people taking on too much debt, economic downturn in some areas, overzealous mortgage salespeople & companies, etc., but this is how the world looks at things. Very rarely do we read about the human cost. This cost doesn't affect the bottom line. The corporate working world can chew you up and spit you out. God tells us this in His Word - you and I are going to have problems throughout our time on earth (work included). The difference for those that believe in Him is that we know He's watching over us. We will always receive what we need according to His will.

‘Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."’ (Hebrews 13:5)

With all of this said, let’s ask the toughest question of all – is it easy to run a company in today's world based on the principles in God’s Word? I believe the short answer is no. Why? Because the #1 focus of most companies is the pursuit of money. If you were to listen to any publicly traded company’s quarterly earnings call, would the CEO begin talking about how they were following God’s plan? Would the CEO talk about how their success this quarter contributed to the company’s ability to give back to God? It seems a little strange to us to even suggest something like this. In today’s world, we inherently want to separate our working world from our personal world. We don’t think in terms of blessing and cursing as it applies to the companies we work for. Why? We like to think that if I live my personal life according to God’s Word, it’s ok if I let things slip when making decisions for my company. The truth is that God asks us to stand against our enemy in every aspect of our life. One of the benefits of forming a corporation is that employees of the corporation are shielded from liability (this changed to some degree with the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, but we won’t go into details here). If a defect on a car causes an accident, the people involved in the accident don’t personally sue the CEO of the company who built the car, they sue the corporation. This is one of the ‘benefits’ of creating a corporation. In the same way, we feel that God (I was certainly included) wouldn’t ask us to stand against such overwhelming worldly thinking and actions at work. What if we were fired because we didn’t conform? Instead of relying on Him, we rely on ourselves and worry about how the world will react. Never forget, the world wants you to conform to its way of thinking and our workplace is just another conduit for our enemy to get to us. The Bible tells us that we must stand against our enemy - always. God is always faithful and will provide for us.

Let’s look at an example. If you’ve read my initial letters, then you know that I spent a few years working for a cable company. When our company launched our services in Knoxville, we had a few ‘adult’ channels as part of our channel lineup. I simply accepted this as part of being in this business. A couple of years after we launched, our company decided to launch ‘level 2’ adult channels. These are more graphic and the price is higher. I held out on offering these channels until we were the only division without them. Eventually, I gave in because ‘every other division offered them’ and they offered us more ‘revenue’. Once the Lord began to change me, I no longer viewed these channels as ‘revenue’. I viewed them as they truly were – a way for our enemy to lead people down dark paths. What came to mind for me was this – a family man who has never viewed pornography sees an ad for the Playboy channel late at night while watching ESPN. He decides to order one movie…which leads to other movies and possibly the Internet. After awhile, his wife discovers that he’s viewing these things and ……you can guess the rest. All of us are susceptible to this temptation (yes gentlemen, the Lord knows we are weak in this area. He created us to be visual, but only to look at our wives!). If someone is not a strong believer in God, all they need is a little push to get hooked on this stuff. Ask any pastor and they’ll tell you how damaging pornography can be. It can destroy marriages, families, homes.

“Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body also is full of darkness.” (Luke 11:34).

Of course, it only starts out with a movie. This is how the enemy works. It became very clear that I was going right along with the plan. I can tell you that it is a very sobering moment when you see that you are being used by the enemy. Would I have felt responsible if the marriage of someone I knew ended because I decided to show these movies? Of course not, I’m simply trying to earn a living – who am I to push my values on someone else? This line of reasoning doesn’t make much sense to me now. I thought I was doing ok in this world, but I was not strong enough to resist our enemy because I was relying on my own understanding and strength…I failed time and again to resist.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Once I began following the Lord, I was led to this verse:

"Return, faithless people," declares the LORD, "for I am your husband. I will choose you—one from a town and two from a clan—and bring you to Zion. Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding.” (Jeremiah 3:14-15)

Let’s briefly take a look at a few Bible verses that comment on wealth and the pursuit of wealth:

“Then Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 19:23-24)

Is Jesus telling us that if you are wealthy it is impossible to enter God’s kingdom? No. It is difficult for wealthy people to enter heaven because in most cases, wealth and the pursuit of riches becomes their master. They put their pursuit of wealth ahead of God and money becomes the focus of their lives. Are we warned about this? Absolutely.

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Matthew 6:24)

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." (Matthew 6:19-21)

How do you know who you’re serving? It’s not hard. If God asked you to give up everything as part of His plan for you, could you do it? Be honest. Two years ago I could not have done it. If you seek God and allow Him to change you, money will no longer be your master because He will give you true faith. The Lord may bless you with wealth, but you’ll view it as His – you will only be a steward of His money to use for His kingdom. This is how you determine whether money is your master. Do you view it as yours or His?

We are given many warnings about pursuing wealth:

“Looking at his disciples, he said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man. "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their fathers treated the prophets. "But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.” (Luke 6:20-25)

Don’t let the riches and pleasures of this world keep you from maturing spiritually:

“While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown." When he said this, he called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, " 'though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.'

"This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” (Luke 8:4-15)

This is another parable that certainly applies to us today:

"Then he said to them, "Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.' "Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” "But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?' "This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God." (Luke 12:15-21)

What does the world tell us? Acquire all the money you can. There is certainly nothing wrong with having a reserve for tough times, but we are constantly told to store up as much as we can. This doesn’t mean that you should spend everything you earn, but seek God’s guidance on how He wants to use what has been given to you. Don’t store up a lot of money and then sit back and take it easy. We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, so stay close to the Lord, do not put your faith in money.

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own? (Luke 16:10-12)

We’re being told here that if you are faithful with a little, the Lord will give you more to manage for him…and not just wealth, but ‘true riches’. He will give you more authority to carry out His will. Most importantly, we are told that you cannot serve God and money. Don’t think that making lots of money and giving small amounts on Sunday means that you are serving God. If you are truly following the Lord, you are tithing on Sundays and giving when and where He asks you to give. Your focus is on Him.

There are many lessons given to us in James chapter 4. One of them speaks directly to us today regarding how we are living our lives. We pursue worldly business and things with no thought about what the Lord wishes us to do. We don’t ask God for what we need, we try to do it all ourselves.

“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
"God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble."

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?

Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.” (James chapter 4)

We must overcome the world and our focus on worldly things through faith in Jesus Christ:

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)

“This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” (1 John 5:3-5)

"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)

And finally, we are given warnings to those who are focused on wealth in this world and those that have taken advantage of the poor:

“Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you.” (James 5:1-6)

As you think about these things, remember what we’re told from this passage in Luke. No matter what you have done to this point, it’s never too late to allow God to change your life and accept His offer of salvation - until you leave this world. Once we die in this world, there are no more chances. The Bible is clear on this subject.

"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

"Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'

" 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' " (Luke 16:19-31)

I just read a couple of articles about why Americans are never satisfied with what we have. Even though we are the richest nation on earth, we want more. It’s always interesting to read secular articles try to explain these things when the Bible does a much better job in one sentence. In the fallen world in which we live, material gain is never good enough.

“…..the eyes of man are never satisfied.” (Proverbs 27:20)

In the end, we all need to remember why we’re here. We’re not here to live nice, comfortable lives and focus on gaining material wealth. We are here to love and serve our Creator in a spiritual war…just as He loves us. If our enemy has diverted you from your true purpose through worldly pursuits, it’s time to ask God for forgiveness and start on His path for your life. Remember, if you’re reading this, you still have time.

Lastly, it doesn’t take a doctoral degree to see what most corporations focus on – the pursuit of money and power. There’s not a whole lot of difference between corporations and governments in the world today (both are in the business of power and money). In some areas, they actually seem to be blending together. Where is this pursuit of money leading us? The above verses spell it out quite clearly. In addition, the Bible tells us that we will not be able to buy or sell unless we accept the mark of the beast. While I don’t believe that the mark of the beast is technology related (previous post – this is a spiritual mark), I do believe that technology will certainly come into play. How else could the coming political beast prevent buying and selling? By removing cash from the world’s economic system. To buy and sell, you will need to be part of the ‘system’. Who will control the ‘system’? In the physical world, it will obviously be this beast. In the spiritual realm, satan will be in control of this. He will put enormous pressure on us to relent and give up – give up our life in eternity. Now think about this – who is inventing the technology to do this? Our government? No. Private enterprise – corporations. Also remember that as larger and larger mergers & acquisitions take place, more control is placed in the hands of fewer people. The same thing is happening as governments grow larger and exert more control over us. So, fewer and fewer people are controlling more and more of our money supply, economic policies, job opportunities, etc. Does this make you a little uneasy? It should. Bible prophecy tells us that power will be consolidated at the very end of this age. It’s happening right in front of us.

Again, this isn’t an attack, it’s the truth. Corporations make decisions on what’s best for the company and pay no attention to whether it’s the correct, Biblical thing to do. In effect, they are not following God’s plan, but our enemy’s. If you are thinking that it is impossible to run a company according to Biblical principles in today’s world, then you believe our enemy’s lies – just as I did. This type of Godless decision-making will ultimately lead to technology that places the world into bondage. There will remain only one way to get free – Jesus Christ.

If you are someone in a leadership position within a company, ask yourself who you are following. Which team are you on? Regardless of what you’ve been told, there are only two teams. Be honest with yourself. Don’t let our enemy tell you that your life should be used to make money and die rich. If you lead a Godless life in the pursuit of money and never ask for forgiveness – never receive God’s offer of salvation, there will be nothing that He can do for you at that point. You will have rejected all that He did to save you from an eternity in desolation. Worldly success is a deception - don’t be deceived. True success is walking in our Father’s perfect will.

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.” (1 Timothy 6:17-18)

Wealth and the Bible – Wall St. Journal Article

After writing the previous post, I saw this in today's Wall Street Journal:

Wall Street's profit undertow: drugs and anxiety
By Tim McLaughlin 1 hour, 31 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's push for record profits is ruining careers, tearing apart families and keeping drug dealers busy, mental health experts say.
While record bonuses make some Wall Street bankers feel invincible, others become emotional wrecks from pressure to perform and some hit rock bottom, experts say.
Harris Stratyner, a psychologist at Caron's New York Recovery Center, said some executives he treats are experimenting with cocaine, opiate-based drugs, Ecstasy and marijuana, as well as abusing alcohol.

"It's like they're chasing a dream. Even when they make tremendous profits, they're still worried," he said.

Alden Cass, a clinical psychologist who counsels Wall Streeters with drug addictions, said drug abuse and high anxiety are undercurrents to the current boom.
"When things are really good, they feel invulnerable," Cass said. "That can lead to adultery, substance abuse, problems with the law."

When it comes to profits, things are really good.

Six of the largest U.S. investment banks -- Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, JPMorgan & Chase Co., Morgan Stanley and Bear Stearns -- combined for $17.6 billion in first-quarter profit this year. That's after shelling out $28.8 billion for pay and benefits, financial statements show.

Those profit and pay figures are more than double those seen in the first quarter of 2000, the last days before the dot-com bubble burst. New York's comptroller estimates Wall Street's 2006 bonuses will generate $1.6 billion in state tax revenue.

COCAINE AND HILLBILLY HEROIN

"To my knowledge, we have not seen an uptick in drug use," Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Jean Marie McFadden said.
The other five firms declined comment or did not return telephone calls.
But Cass said opiate abuse among his clients is rising and they openly talk about being hooked on prescription drugs like OxyContin, known as hillbilly heroin.

"That's what has changed from previous booms on Wall Street," he said.
Cass and Stratyner said their clients sometimes conceal their habits by taking prescription drugs they get for back surgery or sports-related injuries. The Internet has also expanded the black market for drugs.

Wall Street professionals in their 20s use Ritalin and Adderall, prescription drugs used to treat attention-deficit disorder and hyperactivity, to enhance their performance as they grind out 100-hour weeks, Cass said.

Big bonuses and the need to blow off steam have helped invigorate demand for cocaine in Manhattan, according to two junior bankers who did not want to be named.
Juan Rodriguez, convicted of selling drugs to investment bankers and other professionals, said his clients never complained about the price of cocaine, even as it escalated.

"My customers were all business individuals," Rodriguez said, citing Morgan Stanley bankers as among his clients.

Morgan Stanley said the company has a strong policy against substance abuse and uses random drug testing.

PASSING THE TEST

One hiring manager at a major New York bank said new staff must take a urine test, which is typical for the industry. But he said new hires can choose when to schedule the test during a 45-day period before their start date.

"Our drug test is not so much a test of whether you actually take drugs as it is an intelligence test to see if you can figure out how long it takes to get traces of the drug out of your system," said the manager, who asked not to be named.
The hiring manager said his employer also had a policy of random drug tests for employees but that in several years he had never encountered anyone subjected to such a test.

Drugs are not the only reason for executive meltdowns.

Overwhelming pressure and anxiety to meet profit goals undid star trader David Becker as he rose the Citigroup ladder.
Nine months after becoming global commodities chief, Becker found himself on the fast track to prison. The largest U.S. bank discovered in 2004 that Becker and others conspired to overstate profits by $20 million.

Becker, 41, pleaded guilty and is serving a 15-month sentence in federal prison. He declined to comment.

Before he committed his crime, he sought psychiatric help to deal with the pressure of balancing family and career, court papers show.

A metaphor for his life was a painting he owned depicting a man being pulled by all four limbs, Becker's psychiatrist, Dr. Barbara Deutsch, wrote to the judge in the case.

"He felt enormous pressure to make the group's budget at all costs," Deutsch wrote. "He felt identified with this tortured man."

From Adversity to Destiny

A friend sent this to me today. As we progress through our humble circumstances – it’s always good to remember that there is a plan at work in the lives of those who follow God. It shouldn’t surprise us that God’s way is vastly different than our way.

jg – July 14, 2009
_________________________

From Adversity to Destiny

TGIF Today God Is First Volume 2, by Os Hillman

07-13-2009

"The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his high position" (James 1:9).

Most of us avoid pain. We keep our medicine cabinets loaded with pain relievers. We couldn't imagine major surgery without an anesthetic. We are so averse to pain that we think God must desire that we will experience pain-free lives. After all, a loving God surely wouldn't want us to suffer pain, would He? Although God takes no pleasure in our pain, we have to acknowledge that He sometimes allows painful circumstances to occur in our lives in order to shape us and make us more like Christ. Sometimes our times of despair turn out to be a much needed light into our soul.

I once came across the following poem written by an anonymous Confederate soldier, a devout young man who fought in the American Civil War. The lines of this poem express the soul of a man who has learned to view his times of adversity from a different perspective:

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve;

I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked God for health, that I might do greater things;

I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy;

I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men;

I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life;

I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for but everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am among men, most richly blessed.*


Do we trust God to lead us even though we can't see the pathway in front of us?

Do we trust Him to be all-knowing, all-loving, and all-powerful? Do we believe He does all things well? As Paul wrote, "Everything that does not come from faith is sin" (Rom. 14:23). That's why God leads us through the dark places.

Only in the darkness do we learn to walk by faith.