Summary of Bible references on the Rapture

Jeremiah 25:38 The first rapture

38 Like a lion he will leave his lair, and their land will become desolate because of the sword of the oppressor and because of the Lord’s fierce anger.

On the one hand the first rapture is likened to a bridegroom coming for His bride, but what about the foolish virgins who are locked out of the feast? On one hand it is likened to reaping the harvest to the barn, but what about the crops that are not ripe yet? On one hand it is likened to the Lord returning from a long journey to settle accounts, but what about those Christians who buried their talent? The rapture is likened to both Noah being rescued and Lot being rescued. Noah is in Hebrews chapter 11, Faith's hall of fame, as a "preacher of righteousness". Lot is not in Hebrews chapter 11, he is called "a righteous man". Even though he was righteous he buried his talent, kept his mouth shut, didn't make waves. We see this in Genesis when they treat him with scorn "who are you to tell us what to do?" Hey, if you were a man of God you would have been taken in the first rapture, God doesn't want you, why should we listen to you.

On the one hand it is the sword of the oppressor, or the totalitarian regime. They hate the church, everyone needs to worship them, listen to them. They are completely against free thought or free speech. People are treated like dumb beasts of burden who work to build up their kingdom until they can’t and then they are killed. Look at the numbers of those killed by this pandemic closely, it is almost exclusively the elderly and the infirm. Those that are costing the State money. Their death has saved the state money in healthcare costs and pension costs. Secondly it's because of the Lord’s fierce anger. You rejected His word. You rejected His warnings.

2 Thess 2:1-8 -- The Rebellion comes first

1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him,

These are two things, the Lord’s coming and our being gathered to Him, what we refer to as the rapture. It appears that the Lord comes secretly immediately before the rapture.

we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.

Everyone should be very clear that a rebellion occurs first and the man of lawlessness is revealed. There has been some wonderful exposition of Isaiah that the US is the transplanted vineyard of the Lord, the vineyard He surrounded with hedges to the East across the sea. Some have even overlaid the pattern of the temple and the items in the temple over the US and the pattern is quite fascinating. So let’s look a little closer at this, the antichrist who is to come, the “man of lawlessness” will be “impudent and brazen”. To a lesser degree we saw this with Hitler, but it will be on full display with the man of lawlessness. Second, he will be a master of intrigue. You would have to be to make a peace treaty between Israel and the Arab nations while also dealing with Iran, China, and Russia. But then Daniel says that he will destroy the mighty but not of his own power. The antichrist is used to destroy Jezebel. That is the rebellion that must take place first, it was Jezebel’s corruption that the Lord is going to judge. The antichrist destroys the mighty, destroys Jezebel and all of her confederates, but not of his own power. It will be the Lord Jesus with his saints as His army. They are the ones who are restraining the evil Jezebel. According to the type she hired 400 prophets of Baal, she controlled the media. Meanwhile a hundred prophets of the Lord were hidden in a cave. So it is the Lord that destroys Jezebel, but it is the antichrist who takes credit for it and as this unfolds he is revealed.

4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

We just shifted from past tense to future tense. Before the day comes the rebellion takes place and the man of lawlessness is revealed. That takes place before we are gathered to the Lord, i.e. raptured. But in the future, after the rapture, He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshipped. It does not say that he does this prior to the rapture. That is not how he is revealed. He is revealed because he is uniquely impudent and brazen, because he is a master of intrigue, because he destroys the mighty, and finally, because he receives a head wound and is resuscitated, allowing an evil spirit to enter into him. However, after he is inhabited by that evil spirit he will oppose God, even setting himself up in the temple and proclaiming himself to be God. He doesn’t destroy the mighty with his own power, but he does take full credit for it.

5 Don’t you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? 6 And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time.

We know what is holding him back. We may not be “master’s of intrigue”, we may not know the deep things of Satan, but all Christians know Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God. This is what is holding him back.

7 For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.

We are the salt and the light. When we speak the word of God it restrains evil and holds it back. We must continue to do so right up until we are taken out of the way during the rapture.

8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.

So if we are paying attention to current events what we are seeing is a rebellion. The allegations of voter fraud is based on a software company that is owned and operated by Diane Feinstein’s husband, and by Nancy Pelosi’s aid, and by Hillary Clinton’s foundation. But it must be much more widespread than that. Many Governors, mayors, and the Democratic party must be involved. The scale and scope of this is truly amazing. Laws were passed all over the country, often while the election was taking place. Judges were used to institute these changes. Polls were used to manipulate the impression of the election while the mainstream media has done everything in their power to create a narrative of fate accomplished. Tech giants have censored all stories that might be contrary to their narrative. Google, Facebook and Twitter are clearly pushing this agenda. What we are witnessing is a rebellion with Hillary Clinton at the epicenter. However, those who are fighting this battle are Christians. You can see them in prayer for the country. They aren’t fighting for Trump or Biden to win, but rather that the election be legitimate and not stolen. They are standing for the constitution to be upheld and honored. There are also hundreds of people making signed affidavits. Again, they may not be a supporter of one candidate of the other, rather they are offended at the crime of stealing this election. It is interesting that thousands of dead people have voted. It is the Satanic version of the dead being raised to help support Jezebel and now these same dead that voted for her will also escort Jezebel back to hell with them. God is omnipotent, that means He can use anyone to accomplish His will. We will see the mighty hand of God as He executes judgement on Jezebel. However, it will be the antichrist who will take credit for it and that in turn will set the stage for further judgments on those who would not receive Jesus.

Isaiah 53 To whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

Isaiah 53:1Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2Thess 1:1 Paul, Silas and Timothy,

We need to remain in the fellowship of the apostles. It is a sure word. It has stood the test of time. The arm of the Lord has been revealed to them and they will help us to also to see.

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,

To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: 2 Grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The apostles had the vision that the church, this tender shoot would grow up into the fullness of God. Think about what the church was at the time of Paul and what it has grown into today, that will strengthen your faith. At the time of Paul it might seem absurd to think that the church would become so mighty that the gates of Hades could not prevail against it, but look at how much it has grown. Paul had this faith because the arm of the Lord had been revealed to Him.

and like a root out of dry ground.

3 We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing. 4 Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring.

The church has grown like a root out of dry ground. Consider the persecutions and trials we have endured these last two thousand years. The apostles are boasting about the endurance of the church. We have grown out of dry ground. But because of that our roots are deep, we can make it through intense droughts. We are equipped to endure this coming trial.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3

He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

5 All this is evidence that God’s judgment is right, and as a result you will be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are suffering.

When you seek His kingdom and His righteousness there is nothing to attract you. The church is composed of those despised and rejected by mankind. The church is composed of those in low esteem. God’s judgement begins with the house of God. Therefore God is right to count you worthy of the Kingdom for which you are suffering.

4 Surely he took up our pain

and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

stricken by him, and afflicted.

6 God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7 and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well.

The prosperity gospel says that our wealth and success attract people to the church, but that was not what attracted us to the Lord. We thought He was being punished by God, stricken by Him, and afflicted. We were like Job’s friends. But when we were troubled we were able to partake of the fellowship of His sufferings, this is our daily salvation.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed.

This is what we believe, He came as a peace offering for us, to heal us and save us. Those who have rejected this peace offering will be punished with an everlasting destruction. We also believe that the Lord is coming to be glorified in His holy people. We will be “to the praise of His glory”.

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

Yes, this includes us. We were sheep that had gone astray and Jesus was our sin offering. He healed us, saved us, and made peace with God for us. This is not a one time occurence. We are prone to go astray. The secret is to believe the testimony, the fellowship of the apostles. Obey that fellowship and we too will “be to the praise of His glory”.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

Yet who of his generation protested?

For he was cut off from the land of the living;

for the transgression of my people he was punished.

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

and with the rich in his death,

though he had done no violence,

nor was any deceit in his mouth.

11 With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may bring to fruition your every desire for goodness and your every deed prompted by faith. 12 We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you are worthy of His calling you will be counted worthy to suffer on behalf of His name. If you want Jesus to be glorified in you then you will need to drink the cup that He drank and take up your cross and follow Him. Our prayers are that you would be worthy of His calling. His calling includes taking up our cross and following Him.

Good explanation of the Star of Bethlehem

Hebrews 10:1-10 -- Let's fix this once for all

Quick review of where we are. There are two kinds of covenants, two kinds of priesthood, two kinds of law. If this was just talking about Israel and the Jewish nation it would be out of place here in the New Testament. I will use my experience as a teacher to demonstrate these two kinds of laws, but it applies to any work that you do and it applies to governments. There are essentially two systems. In the one system the vast majority of people are “slaves” or “employees” who do what they are told. In the other system you are “the boss”. You walk by faith, you need to pray for wisdom. The ministry of Paul gives us the elemental teachings of the new covenant, James pushes us to maturity. In the elemental teaching you are justified by faith, as you go to maturity faith without works is dead.

1 The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3 But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins.4 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

The offerings were “an annual reminder”. There is a regular “reset” where you must start over and over. This is because this system is not sustainable. We see this with all the empires. Egypt, Rome, Greece, Meso Persian, Babylonian, etc. They all fell and became dust. There is a fundamental shortcoming in all these empires, they treat people like they are bulls and goats; beasts of burden.

5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; 6 with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased.

This is exactly the same way I feel. Every year the school system has professional developments and a variety of activities to improve the experience for students and yet it seems to me like a hamster wheel. They don’t actually achieve anything. You would think that the goal would be simple, say to improve our test results from the 50th percentile to the top 10 percent. Every year we make small but incremental improvements toward that goal. Perhaps we have 4 or 5 different initiatives, we carefully monitor their impact. If three had a positive impact then we roll out those three schoolwide and come up with three new initiatives to test. In a school with 40 teachers you find the four who showed the most improvement and have them discuss what works and push those strategies out to everyone else if they are practical. But that is not what they do. Instead it is as though every year we are “reinventing the wheel”. Never once in all my experience in the public school have we had teachers at our school step forward and say this is what we did last year that was very effective. Now that is not completely true, we do have meetings and teachers do discuss things they are doing that are effective and this in turn does get shared with the whole school. But they will ask things like “what did you do last week that worked well”. There is no rigorous testing it is all anecdotal, and you can’t tie that to a goal like improving the results on the exam because how do you know if what you did last week will have a positive impact on an exam that is six months away? They treat the teachers like they are dumb beasts of burden. The Lord looked at this situation and said this is not what God desires. God wants results, He wants a perfect work. So what did the Lord have? He had a body, He had a life, instead of giving a cow or goat He gave himself. He put His life on the line. When you become an employee you agree to become a beast of burden, but when you start your own business you put yourself on the line.

7 Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.’”

I have a book that summarizes 400 different pedagogical studies and discusses how effective they were. These studies were done scientifically, with controls and tested and measured the results. I have another book that gives you the ten most effective strategies and it is quite eye opening. These books revolutionized my teaching, why should I reinvent the wheel? Why can’t I just take what they discovered and apply it to my teaching? It is a “perfect work” a “once for all” sacrifice. These studies do not specifically apply to my subject, so I must adjust and modify them. I was not directed to do this so if it doesn’t work my review will suffer. There was another teacher that I worked with. This teacher did exactly what the administrators asked her to do. They loved her lessons. She got top marks on her observations. They held her up as an example of what to do. I would visit her class and observe several times a year. We both taught the same subject. Yet despite this I never felt to adopt anything that she did in my classes. Her results were average whereas my students were scoring far above average.

8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Can you imagine how revolutionary this was? If you do away with the sacrifices and offerings you do away with the Jewish religion. No wonder they wanted to kill Him.

We need to measure our work by the results. Many years ago Bush passed the “No Child Left Behind” act and all teachers needed to use data to drive instruction. That meant we had to look at the results to determine what to do. Failing schools were closed. Administrators began telling teachers how to teach and the approach was called “teaching to the test” and it was a dismal failure. Most school administrators do not have a background in math and particularly statistical analysis. Instead of saying “hey I better study up on this” they just assumed they knew what to do. They would look at your results on the exam, pick out 10% of the questions that the students did poorest on and tell the teachers to spend more time on these. Imagine a teacher is “building a house” over the course of the year. You lay a foundation, you put up the structure, you enclose it by putting the roof on, the doors in and the windows in. You connect the electricity, plumbing, do finish work, paint the walls, lay carpet and you are done. Now the student who gets 100 on the exam has a finished house. Others have a house that is almost finished, but can be lived in, they got an 80 or a 75. Still others have a house that has windows, doors, and a roof. They got a 65. What do you think will be the thing that most students didn’t complete? Maybe they didn’t lay the carpet, maybe they didn’t paint all the walls. So the administrator's instruction was like telling the teacher to spend more time on painting walls and laying carpet?! That is idiotic. But many teachers dutifully did what they were told, got horrible results and then said “teaching to the test doesn’t work”. No, assuming you know statistical analysis when you have never studied it, that doesn’t work. Any reasonable person would look at this process and say “how can we do it more efficiently so that more students will get a house that is at least 65% done or 80% done or 90% done? If the problem is that too many students are failing the exam the answer might be to skip teaching about painting walls and laying carpet altogether. Those lessons don’t help anyone get to 65% they only help you get to 100% from 95%. This is what Jesus Christ did, He made a sacrifice “once for all”. That was the most efficient, the most effective.

Hebrews 10:11-18 Learn from our mistakes

11 Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

It is like they are banging their heads against a wall. Anyone who is honest would realize that they are not getting anywhere. This reminds me of some person working in a cubicle. Day after day you do the same thing and when the year is over you haven’t gotten anywhere. You ran hard like a hamster in a hamster wheel.

12 But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. 14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Jesus' goal was to make us perfect! My goal is that my students would do as well as the very best students in NYC. Why not? Some teachers will argue that our students are not that motivated. I went to an elite university and I can tell you many of the students at the best high schools are not that motivated. During my years in high school my goal was to never take a book home and I didn’t. If I didn’t take a book home I couldn’t do any homework, that was my goal. Others say that the home environment is not conducive for our students. You think being wealthy is more conducive? These kids fly to Europe or to the Rockies for vacation. They have a thousand distractions. No, I am serious, my goal is that my students would perform as well as any students in NYC. There are a number of high schools in NYC that rank in the top 100 high schools in the US, so doing as well as them says a lot. Some might think that these elite high schools have the best teachers, but that is definitely not true. Their students will perform well regardless of who is teaching them and so they don’t have to struggle to score in the top ten percent.

Did Jesus work hard or did He work smart? No doubt for those three and half years He worked very hard. But the last two thousand years He has been sitting on the throne. I began teaching late in life, it is a very difficult job (I teach high school science in the inner city). I was very motivated to work very hard for the first few years but realized it would be very difficult to keep this up for 25 years. So I spent money and my summers writing interactive assignments on the computer. I spent over a hundred hours each summer developing these lessons. It took me about five years before the interactive lessons began to make my results more effective than if I didn’t use them. But after those five years they got better each year as I made adjustments. Meanwhile my workload got less. Best of all I know that my students are getting the very best I have to offer because they are getting the assignments that have been improved from the previous year.

Then when the pandemic hit I was sick with Covid19 for the week that they gave all the other teachers a one week professional development so they could go remote. I was already set up to go remote so missing this training was irrelevant. Many of the teachers were overwhelmed but for me the transition was very simple, very easy.

15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says: 16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”

When I read this I always think about the law of gravity. You could have the fastest horse and the best rider, but even so you could never outrun a car much less a train or a plane. It takes a lot of skill and stamina to ride a horse for a long journey, how much skill and stamina does it take to ride a train on the same journey? The Lord’s laws are like that. If I have the Lord’s laws written on my heart and my mind think of the wisdom that would be there. This isn’t hypothetical. Jewish religious leaders would study for years to become learned in the scripture. By comparison Galilean fishermen were lucky if they could read and write. Yet after three years with Jesus Peter, James and John were able to stand up to the religious leaders and they took note that “they had been with Jesus”.

There was a basic principle, like the principle of gravity, that I based my entire approach on. You learn better when you do than when you hear or see. By using the computer each student is able to do the assignments, experiment, try, and try again. You can sit in the back seat of a car as we drive from NY to Vermont. You will have no idea of how to do it yourself. On the other hand if you have to drive this, again and again, you will become much more comfortable doing this yourself. There is another basic law and that is that every person can know God. When you have a totalitarian government you violate this law. Do what I say short circuits God’s ability to speak to each and every one of us. This is the reason that the US has been so successful as a country and why all the totalitarian regimes in history have collapsed.

17 Then he adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” 18 And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary.

Think of how much more efficient this is. The sacrifices for sin were like being on a hamster wheel, they weren’t getting anywhere. We have a higher law, a law that will perfect us. Likewise, one of the benefits of my approach is that year after year I only saw improvement. It took me five years to get onto this path, but once on it every year my class moved forward with improvement over the previous year. That is not true of any other approach, teachers can have good years and bad years. Also, we have this built into our economy. There are many businesses that have gone bankrupt. We close the account on that and it is not held against that person. Instead we realize that having tried and failed is a learning experience. As long as you use those lessons in your future business plans investors will appreciate that. You are not alone, if you have gone bankrupt they also have had investments that went bad. Warren Buffet, one of the most successful investors in history named his fund after a failed investment. He doesn’t want to forget that mistake, rather he wants to learn from it. Do you really think a successful investor will not appreciate someone coming to them with their failures right out there, not as a failure but as a learning experience.

Hebrews 10:19-39 Let us consider how we may spur one another on

19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

This is the difference between being a slave and being the owner. It is easy to get a job and just do what the boss tells you to do. It is a whole different story when you are the boss and the decisions you make will have serious impact. Employees are held in fear of offending the boss because he might say “you’re fired”. But in an economy of free enterprise everyone knows it is a learning experience and no one is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. One year I thought I had discovered the secret to really improve my results (I had confused correlation with causation). I was mistaken, but I learned from this. I also was a teacher being told by the administrator’s what to do and what to focus on. I realized it was idiotic, as many other teachers did as well, but I stepped out by faith to do what I thought was best for the students. If I was wrong I would have to pay the price because we were being judged based on the results. (Teachers are judged based on two criteria, observations and results. If you do exactly what the administrators say you will get good scores on your observations and don’t have to worry about results. If you ignore advice you feel is bad, then you will suffer on your observations. So everything hangs on your results at the end of the year, it is an all or nothing gamble). It requires more prayer, more careful consideration. Regardless of who you are or what school you teach at there will always be the “bottom ten percent”. So how do you year after year devote more time to that “bottom ten percent”? They don’t give you more time, so what they are really saying is take time away from the 90%. Is this the most important ten percent? No, in fact it usually is the least important. That is why every teacher when told to do this knew it was idiotic, you are asking me to spend more time on the least important stuff and therefore less time on the most important stuff. So yes, I was taking a risk, but I had the full assurance of faith that if I focused on the most important stuff it would pay off.

23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

Wow, this verse looks so different when you read it in context. Right now we know that the “day is approaching”. We know this because in Joel it tells us that a worldwide pandemic that shuts down businesses, schools and churches tells you that the day of the Lord is near. So then consider how to spur others on, should you use Youtube? How about Facebook or Zoom? Do you blog? Tonight I went to a prayer meeting at the national mall. It was from 6:30 to 8:30pm, it was a candlelight prayer. There were ten of us, one was from California, a couple were from Texas, some from Washington DC, etc. I learned about this prayer meeting because I attended the Jericho March in Washington DC. So Paul says “not giving up meeting” even though at this time church meetings are being outlawed. You just have to be more creative and “consider how” to spur one another on.

26 If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think someone deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified them, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know him who said, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge his people.” 31 It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

I am persuaded that it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. I believe that there are many in the world who are like Jezebel was, an evil, corrupt leader that wants to replace the worship of God with the worship of Baal. We were praying about this and I wore a special shirt to this meeting. There is a picture of a referee falling to his knees in front of this football player. My dad won an award for this picture. Under it I put the caption “He is a bad man”. There was a sports announcer who used this phrase to describe the most fearsome football players. To me this is saying that Jesus is that fearsome man, the man to whom every knee shall bow. There are people who have deliberately sinned and keep on sinning even though they have been warned. There are people who are “enemies of God”. They have nothing left but a fearful expectation of a raging fire. They thought they could trample under foot God’s people and consider the blood of the covenant an unholy thing that they could annul. They have insulted the Spirit of grace. When I pray I just remind the Lord that we have a covenant, they are trampling His people, they have been warned and refuse to listen and they are continuing to sin again and again. It is His place to avenge, it is His place to repay them.

32 Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. 34 You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.

I will say that standing up for righteousness and to shine a light on what is going on has resulted in me being publicly insulted and even persecuted. However, it is a great joy to stand side by side with those are being so treated. I am thrilled to be here praying and standing to prevent this house from being broken into by a thief. This is not just my house, the Lord made a covenant with His people 400 years ago with the Mayflower compact that this nation would be a city on hill shining to the whole world. This is the Lord’s house, this is His covenant they are insulting. When they make it illegal to attend a church worship service while keeping Casinos open and big box stores open, that is an insult to the Spirit of grace. When they trample these small businesses under foot and attempt to destroy the middle class and turn them into slaves (employees) then we have a basis to pray for the Lord’s judgement and for His salvation.

36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.37 For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.” 38 And, “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back.” 39 But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.

I learned this in football. You need to plug the hole, stand in the gap. If you shrink back they’ll run right over you. But this takes faith. There were ten people at that prayer meeting last night. We were praying that the election fraud would be overturned by the Lord Jesus. It is easy to think what are these ten people? Who are we? It takes faith to see that we are representatives of the the Lord Jesus who is sitting on the throne. We had someone from the west coast, several from Texas, and several from the East coast. We represented the entire US and the four most populous states. We reminded the Lord of the covenant He made with the people of God with the Mayflower compact. They were only a few people and yet God honored that covenant to make the US a light set on a hill. If you see a coming King, a God who keeps covenant with His people, then it is easy to persevere.

Hosea 4:1-9 -- So, I will destroy your mother

1 Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. 2 There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. 3 Because of this the land dries up, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea are swept away.

We need to understand these three verses because it explains everything that is going on today with these protests. Yet no one wants to say this. There is no faithfulness. The government is not faithful to protect the citizens. We saw that with Vietnam, we saw that with phony WMD’s as a reason to fight in Iraq, we saw that with the mortgage crisis. There is no love. These people who make these decisions whether they are CEOs or government leaders are not doing these things for love of the people, but simply to build and protect their own little empire. Whether it is to sell more bombs or simply to get financial backing so you can get reelected. Finally, there is no acknowledgement of God. I am not referring to the complaint that they removed God from the schools or the other talking points. No one acknowledges that they have sinned, no one acknowledges following their conscience, or following the word of God. Instead we see cursing and lying. Pro abortion becomes Pro choice. Instead of financial aid to developing countries it is called “investment in emerging economies”. These lies aren’t trivial. Weapons of Mass destruction, the threat that the “smoking gun will be a mushroom cloud” was how they justified a phony war that killed many. Not only so, but also how they justified devouring widow’s houses during the mortgage crisis. Their lies lead to murder, stealing and adultery. Violate covenants, destroy families and marriages, all as a result of the lies, murder and stealing. This is why we have climate change. This is why manufacturing has left the US turning Detroit and the rest of the rust belt into desolate cities. Why has the rust belt dried up and the people wasted away. The government wasn’t faithful, didn’t love the people and sure didn’t acknowledge God. They have broken all bounds. Your kids have died, your house has been taken away, your pension fund destroyed and your job disappeared. This is why bloodshed follows bloodshed. The damage is not simply to the economy. Natural disasters, fires, floods, hurricanes and even something called a derecho. Exxon knew about climate change for the last 40 years and has lied about it all this time.

4 “But let no one bring a charge, let no one accuse another, for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.

Two ways to understand this. First, the people are so obstinate they will not receive correction from anyone, not even the word of God. This is supported by the word later that since you have ignored My word I’ll ignore your children. The other way to understand this is that the priests are equally obstinate, there is no distinction between them and the people. This also is supported by the priests exchanging their glorious God for something disgraceful. According to this chapter both interpretations are valid, which is why he says “Let no one bring a charge”. How confusing is this, the two interpretations should be mutually exclusive, but both are valid? We are seeing this in these protests. A 17 year old boy with an AR-15 shoots protestors. It turns out that he was hired to protect a business from the protesters who had rioted and looted the previous night. So the same people calling to defund the police are calling on the police to do something to keep them safe. At a protest over the shooting of Jacob Blake Reverend Jackson lumps the two events together. Jacob Blake was shot in the back seven times by the police sparking outrage and protests over police brutality. The protests turned violent with riots and looting causing widespread destruction. The 17 year old boy was hired because the police weren’t protecting the businesses. So to blame both events on the police is as convoluted as this word in Hosea. NPR reviewed a book that defended looting, but made it clear that the author was talking about mass looting of stores and not someone coming to her house to rob it. Looting is justified as long as you aren’t looting her house. A man wearing a “Blue Lives Matter” emblem is shot and killed by a man saying “there is one of those Trump supporters” in Portland. Many complain that these counter protesters had come to just cause trouble. Portland has had 90 days of protests that are clearly designed to cause trouble and people are even justifying the need to cause trouble, yet these same ones condemn other protesters for “coming to cause trouble”. It is a total confused mess and this verse accurately portrays a total confused mess. Everyone is trying to morally justify what they are doing while proving that the other person is in the wrong. Everyone is trying to use Biblical principles of righteousness to condemn others while ignoring the fact that these same words condemn them.

5 You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your mother—

Who can understand what he is saying if we weren’t actually witnessing this. Jacob Blake doesn’t show up to court so a warrant is issued for his arrest. He does show up at a woman’s house who calls the cops on him. They attempt to apprehend him and he either attempts to flee the scene or else tries to get a knife to hold off a half dozen cops. He gets shot seven times in the back. This is how you destroy his mother. What a horrific tragedy she has to live through. Your prophets are the ones telling you to behave this way. The cops are fascists, defund the cops, and looting is justified. This kind of speaking is destroying the mothers of this land.

6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That is all you need to know. People are rejecting that. “We tried that, they ignored us”. You are admitting that you have chosen to ignore the Lord’s commandment, so in return He will ignore your children. Thousands of children are being killed every year, the parents have ignored the Lord's command, so He also will ignore their children. You cannot claim that God doesn't exist and ignore Him and then blame Him for what happens to your children.

7 The more priests there were, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful.

You know this is true because when you turn to them for guidance you get disgraceful counsel.

8 They feed on the sins of my people and relish their wickedness.

“If it bleeds it leads”. This is the guiding principle of the prophets today. This mess and confusion is fed by the media. They feed on the sins of people, scandal sells news. They relish stories of corruption. Project Veritas just exposed CNN saying this, hoping for a higher death toll, figuring out how to cause fear, and how to manipulate people into voting against Trump.

9 And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.

They will reap what they sow.

Hosea 4:10-19 A scene from a horror movie

10 “They will eat but not have enough; they will engage in prostitution but not flourish, because they have deserted the Lord to give themselves 11 to prostitution; old wine and new wine take away their understanding.

That is the sick reality of sin, just like the poet said "You can check out any time you like but you can never leave". You cannot leave a criminal organization,. Prostitution is when you sell yourself to do sin, ignoring your conscience. They don't understand they have been hooked like fish on the line, they can't escape and soon they will be someone's dinner.

12 My people consult a wooden idol, and a diviner’s rod speaks to them. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God.

Superstitious gibberish. Consulting a block of wood or watching a stick fall to the ground to interpret what the spirits are saying to you.

13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar and terebinth, where the shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery. 14 “I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes— a people without understanding will come to ruin!

The children learn from the adults. Idol sacrifice includes consorting with harlots and shrine prostitutes. There is no punishment for fornication or adultery today because these situations generally involve a lot more than what you see on the surface. The women may have been abused for years. Besides, single parent mothers are the single biggest group in poverty in this country.

15 “Though you, Israel, commit adultery, do not let Judah become guilty. “Do not go to Gilgal; do not go up to Beth Aven. And do not swear, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’

This is the situation today, we need to maintain a clear line of demarcation between what is happening in the street and what is happening in the church.

16 The Israelites are stubborn, like a stubborn heifer. How then can the Lord pasture them like lambs in a meadow? 17 Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone! 18 Even when their drinks are gone, they continue their prostitution; their rulers dearly love shameful ways. 19 A whirlwind will sweep them away, and their sacrifices will bring them shame.

These protests, Black Lives Matter, Antifa, and the white nationalists will all be swept away. Their sacrifices bring shame. Some person shoots people as a “sacrifice” to his cause. They are stubborn, they are joined to idols, they continue to sell themselves to do evil, and their leaders love it and stir them up for more.

So I will destroy your mother. The picture Hosea paints of our society is that of a horror movie more terrifying than any Stephen King book. These mothers are living in a society where there is no faithfulness. Their husband wasn’t faithful, their boyfriend wasn’t faithful, and now they are a single mother. This is a society without love. This woman has to raise a bunch of kids without any help. These kids are like little guppies being thrown into a pool with sharks every day. The movies Boyz in the Hood and Gran Torino depict a world in which gangs prowl like a pack of wolves trying to get young boys into their gang. They murder and they rape with impunity. In each movie they show how the only way to rescue these boys is with a very strong father, without that the boy really has no chance. So these mothers watch their kids grow up, day by day, knowing this, seeing it play out day by day. Their life is like the tense scene in a horror movie where you know something is about to happen. The root of the problem is faithfulness, love and acknowledging God. What are the chances that this will happen in our society today? It is nil. In the UK they want to make it illegal to preach the gospel on the street. In Canada they want it to be illegal to put a Bible verse up on a billboard. It is far worse in China, India, or Saudi Arabia. So there is a distinction. In the church the focus is on faithfulness, love and the worship of God. Yet this chapter ridicules priests and prophets. So you have to see the difference between “Israel” and “Judah”. Israel means prince of God. There are churches where the princes and rulers attend. These priests are used to wash their image much the same way as the cartels have people who wash their money. The rich, the wealthy, the powerful go there and when they need to improve their image they will give a million dollars to the church, they will show up at fundraisers, they will do what is necessary. They treat these churches like the public relations wing for their private life. Judah means praise. There are other churches that are composed of the poor, the outcasts and the offscouring of the world. There are not many wise, or rich or powerful among them. But they are known for their praise of the Lord. They are known for their worship of the Lord. You can still have a single mother with a bunch of kids go there but the pastor will take that role of strong father figure. If their kids get in trouble you call the church. If you need to keep them off the streets you put them in the choir. You can live the real life horror story that is the US or you can live a life of praise and worship which is “Judah”. I have seen this story repeated on the internet but for some reason they always think it is the “black mother’s nightmare”. That is baloney. It is the hispanic mother’s nightmare too. Gran Torino was about an asian gang, it is the asian mother’s nightmare as well. Of course that ignores Sandy Hook, Columbine, and the opioid crisis. It is the suburban mother’s nightmare too. Nothing illustrates how unfaithful and unloving our government is than our situation with guns. I lived in a small city in West Texas. I knew people who got a gun as a teenager and held onto that gun for 50 years. They would go hunt pheasant, deer, geese, ducks, etc. They didn’t need cable TV, they had an enjoyable hobby that provided a lot of food for their family over the course of fifty years. It was a father and son activity. It was something they had done in their family from one generation to another. I do not see any reason why gang violence in LA, or tragedies in Sandy Hook should require them to give up their guns. The solution is very simple if you had love and faithfulness. First, you would digitize all our gun records so that any time there is a shooting the police could determine whose gun was involved in the very first day. We have the technology to do this, we don’t because it is seen as the first step towards the government confiscating guns. It has been ruled that the government should not be allowed to keep this computerized record of every gun in the country. Therefore, the second critical step is to require every gun owner to have liability insurance just like we do with a car. If you have had a gun for 50 years without incidence the cost of this insurance would be negligible. But now you are protected if your son plays with your gun and someone gets shot. If you have your guns locked in a cabinet your cost for insurance would be even lower. But what happens is that the insurance companies keep the digital record. Now when a shooting takes place the police send a request to every insurance company with the digital footprint of the gun, they run it through their computers and come back with the person who owns this gun. But wait, no criminal is going to buy this insurance and even if they wanted to, no insurance company would sell it to them. “Young man with two felonies for armed robbery and possession with intent to distribute wants to buy an AR-15 and needs insurance.” No way, no insurance company wants to be on the hook for the damage this guy can do. So now when the cops find a gun on someone you have two violations: possession of an unlicensed gun and no insurance. But, that gun had to be insured before it leaves the factory. First it is insured by the retail outlet and then it is insured by the buyer. What gangs do is get a guy without any criminal record to act as their go between. He buys two dozen rifles then drives back to the gang and they pay him for them. But no insurance company is going to be on the hook for this guy buying two dozen assault rifles. Once we can start tracing these guns we’ll find out the stores that are selling to this person and who this person is. This allows the police to shut them both down. The solution is simple, why don’t they do it? Because criminals buy a lot of guns! It is very profitable for gun dealers, much more so than the guy who buys one rifle and holds onto it for 50 years. After a criminal commits a crime with a gun they toss it in the river and buy another one. They know that if they are caught with that gun they’ll be convicted of the crime. This mother lives in a world where the person she voted for has cut a deal with the gun dealer so that the gun dealer can get rich and the politician can get powerful, and she can live the nightmare. What is the nightmare? Perhaps her husband was shot and killed, or maybe he died while the police were kneeling on his neck. Maybe her son is shot seven times in the back while being apprehended by the police. Maybe he is shot right in front of her grandchildren. She knew this was going to happen and her life was like watching the nightmare in slow motion.

A warning to us from Nazi Germany

The hyper inflation played a crucial role in creating Hitler. It destroyed the economy but more importantly it destroyed the people’s trust in those running the country particularly the bankers. This allowed Hitler to treat all the rulers disrespectfully but especially the bankers because they were responsible for this and pretended everything was fine. Then he focused that ire on the Jews. That is a warning to us today. When the day of the Lord arrives who are they going to blame for not warning them? The Christians. After the first rapture what would you think about those who weren’t raptured? They are to blame.

Hebrews 11:1-20 -- Who will be raptured? We will remember their words.


1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.


We are hoping to be raptured in the first rapture, or as the Jewish custom is, we are hoping that our names would be written in the book of life. If you want some confidence and assurance about this you need to pray for faith. Remember, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.


2 This is what the ancients were commended for.


Sometimes it is absolutely stunning what some people will say and do. The arrogance and gall is incredible. But no one is commended for that and ten years later they are exposed as liars and frauds, and no one cares. But people with faith, people like Abraham, Paul, Peter, and Jesus, we remember their words thousands of years later.


3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.


This is a very important and fundamental lesson in science. We could not figure out the mysteries of the universe until we were able to see the things that are unseen. No one can explain what an electron is. I teach Chemistry and my students are surprised when I tell them I don’t know what an electron is. I then tell them what we know and then they too will answer when I ask what is an electron: “I don’t know”. However, even though that is true we can do amazing chemistry and make all kinds of substances because we understand that the electrons are critical in telling us how they will all fit together. Every day scientists make things that you can see out of things you can’t. If we do this in a shadow, then surely the reality is that God has made what is visible out of what is not visible.


4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.


Think about that, how powerful is faith. If your words have faith they don’t die just because you do. Today, thousands of years later, we have people all over the globe examining the words of the apostles and prophets and discovering new things every day.


5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.


Enoch is an excellent example. He is a man of faith, he was a type of those who were raptured, and his prophecy is commended as being divinely inspired by many of the New Testament writers. His words still live today.


6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.


If you hope to be raptured then surely you must please God and without faith that is impossible. There are three things you must believe in order to come to God. You have to believe that He exists and He rewards those who seek Him. Finally, you have to believe the Lord’s word that no one comes unto the Father but by the Lord Jesus.


7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.


There are many aspects to the gospel of salvation. The very term “salvation” implies there is something to be saved from which is a sinful world. The act of receiving the gospel and obeying the Lord’s commands condemns the world. You aren’t trying to condemn anyone, but they are condemned for refusing to receive the warning. That implies they have heard the same warning as you and rejected it. So you can see how all of humanity is split by this one matter of faith. Some receive the warning by faith, others reject the warning because they are faithless. The rapture is about taking those that please the Lord, those who have faith, received the warning and obeyed the Lord’s commands.


8 By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.


We have had many smaller experiences of this, but in the grand scheme of things, we obey the Lord’s words and follow Him and ultimately this will include the rapture, where we will be going to a place where we don’t know. We don’t know where it is and we don’t know how to get there.


9 By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.


Living in tents is a big deal to God. The feast of tabernacles celebrates this every year. It gives you a feeling of confidence to know that you could survive in the wilderness.


10 For he was looking forward to the city with foundations,whose architect and builder is God.


They talk about people pulling themselves up by their bootstraps. If you live on the land in a tent while you build the city, that is a great heritage. You are imitating God who called not being as being.


11 And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12 And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.


How remarkable is it that the Jewish people can trace their lineage back all the way to Abraham. People do not forget faith and they don’t forget men of faith.


13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. 14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.


Once again, those who are raptured are those that God is not ashamed of to be called their God. We have been looking for a country of our own and have no interest in returning to the world we left behind when we were baptized.


17 By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18 even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” 19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.


This is the big test. Will you sacrifice everything to obey the Lord’s speaking?


20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.


Can you do everything by faith? Many look at this story as being a story of Jacob deceiving Isaac, yet God tells us he blessed him by faith.

Hebrews 11:21-39 When the end was near they spoke about the exodus

21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.


How exactly did Jacob do this? He had to have known the two kids, prayed for them, and sought God for them. Your faith can be expressed, like Enoch with a prophecy, or like Noah in building a boat, or like Jacob in praying for your grandchildren.


22 By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.


You can pray for your people, and those in bondage.


23 By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born, because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.


Faith can be expressed by civil disobedience, rejecting unjust laws, like Rosa Parks.


24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. 26 He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.


This is crucial, if you hope to be raptured then surely you are looking ahead to the reward and rejecting fleeting pleasures of sin. You are willing to be mistreated and suffer disgrace because you know these are a momentary lightness of affliction compared to the eternal weight of glory.


27 By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.


How is it that some of these guys can persevere? By all accounts Moses life was essentially over when he saw the burning bush. You persevere by faith, because you see the invisible one.


28 By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.


Moses expresses a lot of faith. He is looking ahead for his reward, he sees the invisible one, and he is then able to follow directions precisely in keeping the Passover. When you hear and obey, your ability to hear and obey improves. Eventually you could get so precise you could follow very detailed instructions.


29 By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.


Think how arrogant they have to be to think they could follow after Israel through the Red Sea. Moses was exhibiting a very high level of faith developed over a lifetime and these Egyptians were those who utterly rejected the word of God and were faithless. Moses stepping into the sea was an act of faith, the Egyptians pursuing was an act of faithlessness.


30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.


Faith of who? This is Israel acting as a corporate body in faith.


31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.


I consider Oscar Schindler to be a good example to understand this. He had “prostituted” himself with the Nazi’s selling them products to get rich. But he came to see the sins of the Nazi’s and he feared God more than the Nazis. So he hid several thousand Jews from extermination.


32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah,about David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms,administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.


Yes, they ran out of time, but the Lord gave us 2,000 years to tell these stories. Just because they are not in the Bible doesn’t mean they aren’t in biographies and histories and these words also can build your faith.


35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated—38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.


Foxe's book of Martyrs tells many of these stories. There are websites dedicated to the persecuted church. These are also a wonderful way to build your faith.


39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, 40 since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.


So stop beating yourself up. Stop feeling like a failure. Without us they cannot be made perfect. They are depending on us. Right now they are all in the stands cheering us on. We are on the same team as Abraham, and Noah, and Moses and they are there cheering for us to bring this game home.

Hosea 5 -- Now is the time to seek the Lord in earnest.

1 “Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, you Israelites!

Listen, royal house! This judgment is against you:

You have been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread out on Tabor.

The Equality Act is a horrendous thing. However you look at it you are seeing a despicable act intended to humiliate Christians and make them guilty of funding abortions. It has not yet become law but it has been proposed and it has been passed by the House. How could all of these congressmen and women have been elected without the Christians voting for them. Be clear this is a judgement on the church.

2 The rebels are knee-deep in slaughter. I will discipline all of them.

Abortion in the US has killed sixty million babies, that is a slaughter. If this act becomes law every tax payer in the US will be knee deep in this slaughter.

3 I know all about Ephraim; Israel is not hidden from me.

Ephraim, you have now turned to prostitution; Israel is corrupt.

4 “Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God.

A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the Lord.

There is a deal that has been cut. The churches don’t talk about policies. If they can be accused of being “political” then they can revoke their tax exempt status. The priests allowed the politicians to control what they could and could not say. They didn’t stop there, they now want to control what every person can and cannot say. They censor you, shadow ban you and remove you from their platforms. They also black list books and remove them from sale. The Catholic church has been exposed for being in bed with the CCP, receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from them in exchange for looking the other way as the CCP perpetrates genocide and other forms of abuse on people of faith.

5 Israel’s arrogance testifies against them; the Israelites, even Ephraim, stumble in their sin; Judah also stumbles with them.

6 When they go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord,

they will not find him; he has withdrawn himself from them.

All things are of the Lord. You may think the shutdown due to the pandemic is not based on a valid scientific basis, you may feel they have singled out churches and schools, but nothing happens without the Lord allowing it.

7 They are unfaithful to the Lord; they give birth to illegitimate children.

When they celebrate their New Moon feasts, he will devour[a] their fields.

8 “Sound the trumpet in Gibeah, the horn in Ramah.

Raise the battle cry in Beth Aven[b]; lead on, Benjamin.

9 Ephraim will be laid waste on the day of reckoning.

Among the tribes of Israel I proclaim what is certain.

This is the day of reckoning and there are many, many churches that are being laid waste. We are children of the King, we bear his testimony. Since when do we listen to men rather than God and allow men to tell us what we can and cannot say?

10 Judah’s leaders are like those who move boundary stones.

I will pour out my wrath on them like a flood of water.

The constitution and especially the first Amendment is a boundary stone. The government is not allowed to set up laws that establish a religion or laws that prohibit the free exercise of a religion. Yet that is precisely what the “Equality Act” does. Making all tax payers pay for abortion is to establish the worship of Molech as a national religion. The only way to establish the worship of fornication as a lifestyle is if abortion is legal and subsidized. Denying the genders and allowing anyone who “identifies” as a woman to enter bathrooms and locker rooms of women will prohibit the free exercise of the Christian religion. If you try to stop them the lawsuits will bankrupt you.

11 Ephraim is oppressed, trampled in judgment, intent on pursuing idols.[c]

12 I am like a moth to Ephraim, like rot to the people of Judah.

13 “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his sores,

then Ephraim turned to Assyria, and sent to the great king for help.

But he is not able to cure you, not able to heal your sores.

14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah.

I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off, with no one

to rescue them.

15 Then I will return to my lair until they have borne their guilt

and seek my face— in their misery they will earnestly seek me.”

Now is the time to seek the Lord in earnest.

Isaiah 9:1-17 -- Those who guide this people mislead them

1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.

This chapter is quite interesting. It begins with a reference to the Lord’s earthly ministry when He first began to minister in Galilee. It was at the end of a long dark night, the great light first rose on them. Why? Because they had been humbled.

3 You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as warriors rejoice when dividing the plunder. 4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.

Now this can’t refer to Israel because after the Lord’s earthly ministry they were not enlarged, they were scattered, defeated. Instead this must refer to the gospel going to the four corners of the earth. Jesus' resurrection was the firstfruits, that was when we rejoiced as at the harvest. Jesus’ death on the cross was what shattered our yoke, the bar across our shoulders, the rod of the oppressor. This refers to the move of the gospel during the church age.

5 Every warrior’s boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

Jesus is the Savior, He is also the king. He is the life giving one who redeemed us from sin. He is also the one who reigns on David’s throne. During this age we have seen a lot of wars, a lot of battles, a lot of blood. This is the carnage due to incompetent rulers who sinned and fell short of the glory of God. All of them are destined for burning. But garments rolled in blood reminds me of the “Red coats”. That was a turning point in war. No country would dress their soldiers in red coats today. America defeated the British by hiding behind trees and rocks, by using stealth, by what was considered at the time as terrorism. We targeted the officers, a practice at the time considered barbaric. Today officers don’t want to stand out from the rest of the fighting men in the field. The American Revolution was a turning point in revealing Jesus Christ as King. The US was dedicated at the start to be a light shining on the hill, a place of refuge for the downtrodden, a country established with the ideal of “justice for all”. At one point in history the whole world marvelled that the US was wonderful, they saw this as a great government, they saw that our God was the mighty God. Once we became a world power we had an impact on peace over the whole earth. As much as you might want to focus on the sins and shortcomings of the country, the truth is that the US had a very positive impact on peace for the whole world, at least for a few decades.

8 The Lord has sent a message against Jacob; it will fall on Israel.

And then the Lord sent us a message that this kingdom would fall. 9/11 was a message to repent, it was a message that our hedge of protection had been removed and that the enemy was inside our camp.

9 All the people will know it— Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—who say with pride and arrogance of heart, 10 “The bricks have fallen down, but we will rebuild with dressed stone; the fig trees have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.”

The entire world saw 9/11, everyone knew it. They saw that the mighty nation was no longer invulnerable. God saw it too. He saw the proud and arrogant proclamations that we would “rebuild, bigger and better”. We weren’t humbled like the Galileans that the Lord came to, no we were proud and arrogant. This message didn’t cause us to turn back to the Lord, to repent for kicking God out of our country. Prayer and scriptures have been kicked out of school, public displays of the ten commandments have been torn down, any expression of God or Jesus publicly is almost certainly to be mocking. God was our hedge of protection, get rid of Him and we are now wide open to attack.

11 But the Lord has strengthened Rezin’s foes against them and has spurred their enemies on. 12 Arameans from the east and Philistines from the west have devoured Israel with open mouth. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised. 13 But the people have not returned to him who struck them, nor have they sought the Lord Almighty.

Since 9/11 the foes have not decreased, they have doubled. We have fought several wars in the middle east that have cost us over a trillion dollars. We are in the midst of a trade war with China. We have had a mortgage crisis which has also cost us close to a trillion dollars all told. There has been a realization that this is God’s judgement, there have been national days of prayer. But this is only with the Christians, not with the nation as a whole.

14 So the Lord will cut off from Israel both head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day; 15 the elders and dignitaries are the head, the prophets who teach lies are the tail. 16 Those who guide this people mislead them, and those who are guided are led astray. 17 Therefore the Lord will take no pleasure in the young men, nor will he pity the fatherless and widows, for everyone is ungodly and wicked, every mouth speaks folly. Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

It has become abundantly clear that the people who guide this people mislead them. Trump admitted as much on a taped interview with Woodward. Pelosi railed against the President for not wearing a mask and then was caught in her hypocrisy on camera. Kamala Harris railed against the disrespect to minorities and Blacks and then disrespected her own father saying of course she smokes weed she is from Jamaica. Her own father had to publicly rebuke her for this. She told Biden she believed the women who were accusing him of sexual misconduct and then is happy to forget all about it to run with him for president. Biden’s son got rich because his father was the Vice President. The prophets who teach lies are the media. Fake news and biased news is blatantly obvious. Turn on CNN and you will hear how the latest thing that happened proves how terrible Trump is, change the station to Fox and they will be saying the exact same event proves how great Trump is. It isn’t just them, on social media every mouth speaks folly. Many of us are suffering through all this as the worst punishment, we could not imagine a world, or leaders like this. Yet this has not satisfied the Lord’s anger.

Isaiah 9:18-21 Wickedness burns like a fire

18 Surely wickedness burns like a fire; it consumes briers and thorns, it sets the forest thickets ablaze, so that it rolls upward in a column of smoke.

Is he talking about the protests, riots and looting? Is he talking about the record setting fires in the West? Is he talking about climate change? People got tired of using the term “apocalyptic” and “end of the world” to describe what they were seeing, now the phrase is “a year like no other”.

19 By the wrath of the Lord Almighty the land will be scorched and the people will be fuel for the fire; they will not spare one another. 20 On the right they will devour, but still be hungry; on the left they will eat, but not be satisfied. Each will feed on the flesh of their own offspring: 21 Manasseh will feed on Ephraim, and Ephraim on Manasseh; together they will turn against Judah.

This is what the riots and looting do. They destroy businesses. They refuse to spare one another, even their neighbors, friends and family are collateral damage. They lose their jobs, they lose their business. The police do not know what to do, they can’t calm the situation. If they let them protest the businesses are outraged and hire militia. If they arrest them then the protestors are outraged, videotape it, upload to Youtube and it provokes more protests and more riots.

Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised.

It is definitely going to get worse. Unemployment will be through the roof and if they don’t continue to fund unemployment checks these people will starve and be on the street protesting and looting. The pandemic is not going away so businesses will need to continue to be in lockdown. As a result foreign trade and travel is down 30% causing catastrophic losses to many of our trading partners and countries that depend on travel. China is experiencing an unprecedented year in floods and infestations. This will push them to famine. If they buy up the world’s reserves of food it will push 3rd world countries like Yemen into horrific famine. The fires in the west are not done, October and November are usually the worst months. A major hurricane Delta is going to hit the US tomorrow. It is the first time in US history that ten named storms have hit the mainland. It is only the second time in history we have had to go to the Greek alphabet for named storms and Delta formed about six weeks earlier than Delta formed the last time this happened. Meanwhile everyone is on high alert concerning the 3 Gorges dam which is now at 172 meters, seven meters above the warning level of 165 meters and nine meters from the top. The spillways have been closed, which if they are unable to open could result in this dam collapsing. That would result in a Tsunami 500 feet high sweeping down the Yangtze river, wiping out an area where 400 million people live (that is more people than the US population). But there is more, it turns out that Trump is $400 million in debt and unless he wins reelection he is broke. It is highly unlikely that he could possibly win the election fairly so there is great concern about what will happen in this election. Most people want to mail in the ballot since there is a pandemic, but that could mean weeks of counting ballots after Nov 3 and the concern is that lawyers will lock up the process in the courts. How much will it take before people repent and return to the Lord. This chaotic mess will burn out of control until we return to our God to obey His commands.

Hebrews 12:1-9 -- Why is the church being shut down?

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,

It is wonderful to see that our country was founded by men of faith. They are a cloud of witnesses, our struggle is the same struggle that the Jews and Christians gassed in the gas chambers had, the same struggle that Israel had when they came out of Egypt. If you look at human history there is a great cloud of witnesses that have come before us, all of whom were looking for a better kingdom.

let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

I was with a small gathering to pray outside of Mike Pence’s house. While there people were driving by and screaming at us, “losers” and other things along those lines that I cannot repeat on this forum. One of the guys there got provoked by this, but it is a glory to experience the same things that these heroes of the faith experienced.

4 In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

I learned tonight about the “Black Robed Regiment” during the revolutionary war. The church and the pastors were called the “Black Robed Regiment” by the British because they saw them as the instigators and provocateurs to those who fought in the Revolutionary war. The shot heard round the world was done on the front lawn of one of these churches. The word of God condemns the corruption, it condemns those that would trample on the children of God, and it is the same word that led the children of Israel out of bondage. This is why they must shut down the church before trying a coup.

5 And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6 because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”

Think about that! How can these evil rulers get away with this? How is Pelosi worth $200 million? This is proof that God is not treating them as His children. They haven’t been chastened, they haven’t been disciplined, they haven’t been accepted as sons of God. They will get judged just like the tares, they will be bundled up and thrown into the fire.

So let’s appreciate the Lord’s discipline. Why are the churches shut down? Why would God do that? If you go back to the start of this country it was completely provoked by the preaching in the pulpit. The “Black robed regiment”. Study Valley Forge and you will know this country was born through faith in God. Any reasonable person would look at the situation at that time and say the continental army was dead. The freedom to worship is in the constitution, it is very clear that government has no authority to tell people of faith how to worship. Yet you let them tell you what you can and cannot speak in the church. We have been told clearly that you cannot speak anything that is “political” otherwise you lose your tax exempt status. Which of course is what really surprises me when I hear Jeremiah Wright preach (the guy who preached at Obama’s church) or this Warnock preach (Senator of Georgia). Their preaching is very political. It is hypocritical that you are not allowed to speak on certain topics decided on by the local government unless you also are espousing the platform of the party in power. If the government has no authority to tell you how to worship, how is it that they are telling you what you can and cannot say in the sanctuary? How can we say we don’t care about politics when politics is deciding what our children are taught, when they are deciding that there are multiple genders (I have lost count at this point but I know they are claiming more than 10). They are saying that elementary school age children have the right to declare they are a different gender and even support medical intervention to assist these elementary kids to make that transition. You don’t care who is elected even though one party is rabidly pro abortion?

From my reading of the Bible it is going to be very difficult for Christians to continue to gather as they used to. The whole idea that the lockdown of churches is temporary is a lie. The goal is to turn God’s people into beasts of burden to support the elite (any form of tyranny does this) where these people cannot think for themselves, cannot know God and cannot challenge the power structure. That was Pharaoh’s goal, Caesar’s goal, the emperor’s goal, and the goal of all empires. To accomplish that you must take charge of the education (which they have done). Require all the common people to be indoctrinated with your program (the elites can still send their kids to private schools). And you have to stamp out the church because the Bible is full of radical ideas like “the truth shall set you free” and “the light shined in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it”. China and Russia realized that they had to have complete control over the church otherwise it would shine in the darkness of their rule and overcome it. Sadly many Christians will not wake up until some saints get raptured.

7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? 8 If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all.

The Bible says that we should not forsake the gathering together of ourselves and so much the more as you see the day approaching. I see the day approaching and yet the churches are shut down? Well, I gathered together with 20 saints this evening to pray for this country. I gathered with five yesterday evening and I gathered with two others this afternoon. When you see the day approaching you need to gather together, it will be more difficult, so you need to figure out how to do it. Use the internet, use Zoom, use whatever means you have.

9 Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live!

There are churches who have not submitted to this. I think everyone needs to be fully persuaded in their own mind as to how the Lord is leading you. This verse does not say you have to submit to the authorities, but rather to the Father of spirits. The Lord is speaking, are you a hireling, or a son. When you appear before the Lord will you have to give account of the saints under your care or give account to your tax exempt status? Is your Christian life going to end with a whimper or a bang?

Hebrews 12:10-29 A Harvest of righteousness and peace

10 They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness.

Whatever path you take make sure it is leading you to share in His holiness.

11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

The issue is not which is the easier path to take, the issue is which path produces a harvest of righteousness and peace. Which path will lead to you becoming a trained disciple of the Lord.

12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 13 “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

How weak and feeble some Churches appear. Are they really in the image and likeness of the Lord of all?

14 Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

We are not trying to be disruptive. Since when is prayer and worship disruptive. We do everything we can to live in peace with others. But I have been commanded to not forsake the assembling of myself together with the saints. I want to live in peace but I must be faithful to the Lord and His word.

15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. 16 See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. 17 Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. Even though he sought the blessing with tears, he could not change what he had done.

I believe that many believers like this Warnock have sold their birthright for a single meal. Claiming to be a “pro abortion” pastor is godless. I perceive that Reverend Jeremiah Wright has allowed a root of bitterness to grow up and has become defiled by it.

18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom and storm; 19 to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them, 20 because they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” 21 The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.” 22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly,23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

The tyrants are the ones who are threatening people. There are two systems here, one keeps everyone in line with fear, the other is joyful, full of the righteous who were made perfect. There are two covenants, the better one is mediated by Jesus. Abel's blood condemns this evil satanic system, Jesus’ blood is the way out of this system.

25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?

This is a word of warning. We are being disciplined because we did not stand strong by faith to worship God according to our conscience but rather allowed evil men to infiltrate the church and tell us what we can and cannot say. Their plan is to utterly destroy God’s people just as Haman tried to.

26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

If you still think the US government is unshakeable you need to pray about it. When God shakes the US government and removes those that cause offense the entire world will be shaken.

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”

Our God is a consuming fire. At the end of the age God sends forth the angels to bundle up the weeds and cast them into the fire first. This is before He raptures the wheat to the heavenly barn. On January 6 the representatives must make a stand and choose a side. Wheat on one side, tares on the other. Embrace the truth on one side, hold down the truth in unrighteousness on the other. Holding down the truth is like holding down styrofoam in a pool, you can do it, but it is hard, and it keeps popping up and shooting out of the water.

Hosea 6 -- The Lord is coming as sure as the Sun will rise

1 “Come, let us return to the Lord.

He has torn us to pieces

but he will heal us;

he has injured us

but he will bind up our wounds.

I would hope by now every Christian could see the error in supporting Biden. It isn’t merely Trump supporters who are saying he is unfit for office, we even have 14 Democrats publicly saying they don’t trust him to be the sole person in charge of the nuclear codes. He wants the US taxpayers to pay for abortions not just in this country but around the world. He portrayed Trump’s shutting down traffic to China as being Xenophobic and then denied he said that. Trump was vilified for saying that Hydrochlorquine could treat Covid19, Fauci said scientists had studied it and said it was ineffective and dangerous, yet that was a lie. Scientists have studied it and determined it is an effective treatment. They called Trump a liar when he said he would have the vaccine ready by the election, they said it would be a miracle. He did it. Biden said there was no vaccine when he took office despite the fact he got the vaccine a month prior to that and over 20 million Americans were vaccinated. They said Cuomo was the “gold standard” in how to deal with Covid and now we learned he is probably responsible for well over 4,000 additional deaths in NY by forcing nursing homes to take patients with Covid. Biden and Harris both guaranteed that they would not ban fracking and then banned it the first week in office. He claims to be lunch pale Joe and yet he has killed jobs and thrown the border wide open which will insure lots of people continue to work for minimum wage. For four years Trump did not start any wars and only got us out of wars. In his first month Biden starts up a conflict with Syria that could get us back into a war. Feminists now realize that everything they accomplished in putting women’s sports on an equal footing with men’s sports has just been undone with this Equality Act if it passes. If you don’t realize it now the Equality act will destroy churches and Christian schools. If you don’t abide by this law they will shut you down with lawsuits, if you do you will have no credibility with any genuine believer. We haven’t even discussed the corruption of Hunter Biden that Big Tech and the mainstream media censored prior to the election. Kerry said that those people who lost their jobs when Biden banned fracking and shut down the pipeline and stopped construction of the border wall could work making solar panels. 95% of those panels are made in China. The shut down simple took American jobs and sent them to China. After four years with Trump we were energy independent and after one month with Biden we aren’t any longer. Already gas prices are beginning to rise. Biden promised to give every American $2,000 checks if they voted for the two senators in Georgia, but within a couple of weeks had reneged on that promise as well. This didn’t stop them from sending hundreds of billions of dollars to pay off campaign debts in their $1.9 trillion dollar “relief” bill. This bill is the biggest pork barrel spending bill in US history. It sets a record for the most pork in the first month of any presidency and Biden already is calling for more with his “infrastructure bill”. One Catholic priest called Joe Biden the most aggressively anti catholic president in US history.

2 After two days he will revive us;

on the third day he will restore us,

that we may live in his presence.

I have to think that this is a reference to the end of the age. With one day being equal to a thousand years we are now in the “third day”.

3 Let us acknowledge the Lord;

let us press on to acknowledge him.

As surely as the sun rises,

he will appear;

he will come to us like the winter rains,

like the spring rains that water the earth.”

Again more references to the Lord’s second coming. The Lord’s coming is as sure as the Sun rising. These terms that are translated as “winter rains” and “spring rains” are thought to represent rains that took place in October right before harvest and in the middle of March right after the seeds were sown. It is interesting to note that there are two raptures, one at the beginning of the tribulation and one in the middle. The second rapture is approximately 42 months after the first which would mean they are about six months apart on the calendar just like March and October.

4 “What can I do with you, Ephraim?

What can I do with you, Judah?

Your love is like the morning mist,

like the early dew that disappears.

5 Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,

I killed you with the words of my mouth—

then my judgments go forth like the sun.

6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,

and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

There are Christian organizations, Christian denominations and Christian ministries that are run like businesses. It is all about the money, the sacrifices, the burnt offerings. False prophets like Balaam and Judas are all about the money, that is their focus. The Lord desires mercy, he wants us to treat others with mercy and then he too will treat us with mercy.

7 As at Adam, they have broken the covenant;

they were unfaithful to me there.

If you read Genesis 5 it appears that Adam was the name of the first town.

8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,

stained with footprints of blood.

9 As marauders lie in ambush for a victim,

so do bands of priests;

they murder on the road to Shechem,

carrying out their wicked schemes.

Reminds me of January 6th and the riot at the capital. This wasn’t carried out by a bunch of marauders only. Pelosi helped by making sure there wouldn’t be any security.

10 I have seen a horrible thing in Israel:

There Ephraim is given to prostitution,

Israel is defiled.

Anyone paying attention these last few months has seen a wicked thing. The election was stolen, those who bring forth evidence to support that have been censored, black listed, cancelled, doxed, and accused of insurrection. The pandemic was part of their wicked scheme. Abortions for all are part of their wicked scheme. Putting RFID chips in everyone is part of their wicked scheme. Rewarding big tech by making them immune to liability and leveraging them to censor their enemies is part of their wicked scheme. Bankrupting the middle class to destroy democracy in this country is part of their wicked scheme.

11

“Also for you, Judah,

a harvest is appointed.

“Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people,

The end of the age is likened to a harvest. The tares will be gathered and tossed into the fire. But at that time there will also be a harvest of the wheat into the barn and then the fortunes of the Lord’s people will be restored, just as He led Israel out of slavery and into the good land.

Hebrews 13:1-10 -- Keep on loving one another


1 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters.


There has been a concerted effort for the last few years to divide Americans. They teach that people who support one candidate are “deplorable”, “irredeemable”, “chumps”, “racists”, “fascists”, etc. The basic strategy is to “divide and conquer”. The Lord’s strategy is to “keep on loving one another”.


2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.


I am in Washington DC right now. The mayor has been inhospitable. Prior to the rallies the mayor shut down the city with all kinds of threats and concerns about the pandemic. Much of this is an illogical response. There have been numerous studies that show that viral load is critical in determining how sick people get. The reason people get sick and get the flu in the winter is because they go indoors. When you are indoors it is much easier to get a higher viral load. The Bikers whose event was called a superspreader event was traced back to a bar. Those bikers caught it while sitting in a bar. We have had rallies and protests for months and months and none of them have been superspreader events. These events are human based experiments and support this theory that viral load is much less outside than inside. If people feel they are in a category of most susceptible to the pandemic they aren’t going to come to DC. The rallies take place outside. If these rallies were superspreader events as they pretend then tens of thousands of Trump supporters would be in the hospital as he had massive rallies all over the country prior to the election. If you are outside and there is even a small breeze the virus gets dispersed in a huge volume of air known as our atmosphere. Yes, you can still be exposed to the virus but being exposed with a very small viral load does not make you sick, it makes you immune. It is the exact same concept as why we give people a vaccine. I was at the first rally in Washington DC with over a hundred thousand people. I was at Atlanta, I was at Harrisburg, and I was at the second rally in Washington DC. Almost everyone at these rallies has been to several rallies. Yes it is anecdotal evidence, but anecdotal evidence for hundreds of thousands of people. That is the same thing as experimental evidence. That is scientific evidence.


The mayor has also been pushing privately to have the national guard arrest the protesters for “unlawful assembly”. The national guard has refused. I was stunned at all the boarded up businesses here clearly trying to protect themselves from BLM (they put up signs on the boards saying they support BLM). I learned that homicides skyrocketed by 40% her first year as mayor and I also learned that Blacks have been hurt more by covid in Washington DC than any other city in the US due to her missteps. Still others complain that the schools are a mess with cronyism and elitism allowing preferential treatment for the rich and well connected. On the flip side she is a black woman. This is known as “identity politics” rather than looking at a person’s resume. When I was at the rally one speaker asked who was there from someplace other than DC and it seemed that all the hands shot up. There will be a million or more visitors who will come to this city this week and see her incompetence.


3 Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.


The way they have treated people who were whistle blowers concerning the election fraud is horrendous. They dox them, they threaten them, they attack them and yes, they even imprison them. The US has not yet become Communist China, we are not treated as bad as people in China, at least not yet. However, the politicians that sold us out, sold us out to China, the Great Red Dragon.

4 Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.

The US has become Sodom and Gomorrah. Epstein’s pedophile island has revealed how extensive and widespread this is among the elites, the rich and the powerful. This is one way that they are able to “own” these politicians and judges. One way is simply buy them off, the other way is to have compromising information about them. Suppose a judge went to pedophile island, if that information became public they would be ruined. Therefore they don’t dare go against those that blackmail them with that.

5 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.” 6 So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”

There are many who choose to do the right thing and have had their careers destroyed as a result. There are news outlets that were on Youtube but Youtube censored and banned them. They have gone to Parler and Rumble at great financial loss. There is a price to pay to take this path and the Lord has promised to never leave us or forsake us. Just pray, the Lord is my helper.

7 Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

The Black Robed Regiment is just one example. It is wonderful to study the “biblical history” of the US. By that I mean the words of faith that impacted the course of this nation. Martin Luther King Jr., is a leader you can consider, Nelson Mandela is another, the apostle Paul, Peter, John and James are others. They suffered injustice, they were imprisoned unrighteously, they were slandered, stoned and many were martyred but despite all that they never turned to violence.

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Look at the context of this verse. The things we are going through today are the same as they were a few years ago, a few decades ago, a few centuries ago, and even a few millennia ago. Likewise those who were one with Jesus in these trials were also the same.

9 Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings.

Strange teachings would definitely be teachings that are not in the Bible.

It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so.

The teaching that the bread and wine that we eat during the Lord’s table is magically transformed into the body and blood of Jesus is a strange teaching. Grace will strengthen your hearts, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It is faith that strengthens your heart. Courage is the expression of faith, love and hope.

10 We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.

Remember our altar, the Lord’s table, who gave his body and blood for us. He has made a covenant with us and that gives us a right to eat from that table.

Hebrews 13:11-24 live honorably in every way

11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

If you are following the Lord, if you are bearing your cross and following Him, then surely you will have to go outside the camp and bear the disgrace He bore. This is not about the city we have but rather we are looking for the city to come. Our testimony is that this world is satanic, evil and corrupt. Why would you be surprised that they in turn attack and insult you?

15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.

This is a great test, can you openly profess His name and give a sacrifice of praise? If you are involved in doing something shameful you can’t, if you are doing something that the Lord prohibits you can’t.

16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

Regardless of the situation you can always do good. While being crucified the Lord told one of the thieves that he would be with Him that day in paradise. He saw His mother and told the disciple “behold your mother”, even while dying He is taking care of others and doing good.

17 Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.

Every leader has authority. Your boss at work has authority over you. They don’t have authority over your worship but they do have authority over the work you do in that job. The same is true of government leaders, they have authority over the city, state and federal government. They have the right to issue laws for your good. They don’t have the right to violate the laws of God. Ever since Noah human government has had a covenant with God to deal with murderers and provide a safe environment for us to live in. Rosa Parks refused to submit to a law that violated God’s law, Mahatma Gandhi also refused to submit to laws that violated God’s law. So then, if the law is according to the covenant that God made with Noah you need to submit, if the law violates God’s covenant then you can imitate the people of faith who have gone before us.

18 Pray for us. We are sure that we have a clear conscience and desire to live honorably in every way.

The apostles were slandered and lied about, but the testimony is that they had a clear conscience and desired to live honorably in every way. We should imitate them and we should also pray for those on the front lines, they are taking the brunt of Satan’s attack.

19 I particularly urge you to pray so that I may be restored to you soon.

This is why I think this was Paul. This appears to be written primarily by one person but because the major revelation in this book appears to be something that both Paul and James discovered he may not have felt comfortable attributing this book as from him. There may have actually been many saints who saw bits and pieces that Paul has compiled here.

20 Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 21 equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

This is our prayer, that the Lord’s will would be done. We have been fully equipped, by saying “we” I am referring to the Body of Christ.

22 Brothers and sisters, I urge you to bear with my word of exhortation, for in fact I have written to you quite briefly. 23 I want you to know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he arrives soon, I will come with him to see you.

Again, this appears to be referring to both Paul and Timothy and it also seems they were both imprisoned.

24 Greet all your leaders and all the Lord’s people. Those from Italy send you their greetings. 25 Grace be with you all.