Will You Please Shine the Light Over Here, I think I Lost My Prejudice

After many years of witnessing the belief systems of people, including my own, I am convinced that real, original thinking is impossible to achieve. Something is going on all right, but it is not free thinking.

As a youth, I looked at formal logic and thought that this is a way to achieve pure truth. You can see how naive I was. If two people plug in the same facts concerning a problem, we can expect totally different results. We will be haunted by the ghost of "I still say."

Then I thought that certainly philosophy was the answer to truth finding. More incurable optimism on my part. I guess it resulted from my being more familiar with books than with human nature. After all, who did I think wrote those wonderful books I trusted in, and who devised the systems that I once believed could lead to truth? Pig headed, perverse, Satanicly twisted people--like me!

It got so bad that I despaired of finding Absolute Truth at all. This, of course, was before the age of computers, which are currently the object of so much trust. And these computers are marvelous indeed, until you ask the Big Ones, like one of my favorites--"If a man die, shall he live again?" Try that on your laptop.

Job asked this, oh so long ago, and his answer did not come from logic, philosophy, or even a computer. Rather, Job proved that if you seek to escape from human nature, and deeply inbred prejudice, you must go outside the whole damned system. Even scientists know this.

Don't ask someone if they are smart or good-looking. They do have a tendency to say "yes". But as a young man, I was unable to go outside the system. Or rather, I was unwilling. I knew there was a perfect Source of truth, but I feared Him and His judgement of me.

Mr. Science Lover just couldn't humble himself to believe in God. After all, ignorant country people could do that. So I had to be broken like the wild horse I was. And life sure did that for me. I had no way to escape except to submit to God.

How patient He has been, to work on me. I did not just need improvement. I needed a whole new heart and a whole new nature. While I vainly searched for truth, He had searched for me, and found me.

This Little Piggy Went to Market

And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly broken. Daniel 2:42

Imagine if we had a chart of the future world governments, right up to and including the return of Jesus Christ in power and glory. (Oh, no, not another chart!) well we do have one, but it is purely visual. No x or y lines. Ironically, for this split screen imagery generation, it is very easy to interpret, though it was first revealed around 586 B.C.

God wants us to know what to expect in the way of future world governments. So, in Daniel chapter two, He shows us an image often called the "polymetallic man". It's quite simple really, only four metals, four parts of a statue, to remember. I say simple, though it took me two years to see what God was revealing. I had the "insufficient background blues". If you look at a map of Barcelona, it helps if you can read Spanish.

Finally, I got the message, and I have loved it ever since. For Daniel 2 is one of the rare Old Testament prophecies that we are in. In fact we live in a period of time that corresponds to the Great Image's legs, might I even say feet. Only the toes remain to be formed, and some think that we are in the process.

Regretably, this has been said to be the time of the "ten nations of united Europe". This by people that are totally fixated on Europe. Even an amatuer (and these people are amatuers) knows that this all-European interpretation leaves out Israel, and Israel and the nations holding power over it, are what Daniel 2 is all about.

Don't forget the Middle East and North Africa. God does not. He has much to say about them throughout the Bible, because of how they relate to Israel. So, the image represents countries of three continents.

Where are we in all of this? We may not be in the image nations. We may be from Asia, for example. But no matter where we live, we are in the times of the gentiles, and these times are rapidly coming to an end. It is shortly to be "Kingdom Time". Only the toes remain to be formed and their duration will be brief.

I have been called loveless and stoic. A sentimental "devotional" passage may leave me unmoved. But after all these years I get tears in my eyes as I read these words by the prophet Daniel:

the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. Daniel 2:45

Don't Blame Wars on Religion, Jesse

For the love of money is the root of all evil: 1 Timothy 6:10

I just watched a video where Jesse Ventura blamed all wars on religion. I like Jesse, even though he does bend the truth when he says he was a Navy SEAL. There were no seals when he served. He was in Underwater Demolition. I even like him though he proclaims he is an athiest and hates all religion.

He has proven himself as a governor, running on an independent ticket. He is a plain-spoken, down to earth man who understands politics. But Jesse has been taken in by one of the Devil's great scams. He says that all wars are caused by religion.

People of very different religions have coexisted in many places in total peace. Of course, when they are hungry or otherwise stressed, religion can be used to incite them to violence.

But who would gain from such activity? Who always makes money out of war? And who never goes to the wars that they create? It is not farmers. Their sons die in them. It is not the whole spectrum of people of every occupation who will be called to die--in or out--of these wars.

So let's see, profit from wars. Of course, munition and weapon manufacturers. But they don't cause them so much as supply them, often both sides. Based on the quotation from 1st Timothy, and going right to the top, I would say it is the international bankers.

Do they use religion to create wars? Yes, and anything else, like ethnicity, or territory. Anything to help settle debts that nations owe. Can't pay? They will "collect" like any other system that can foreclose.

I remember my first book on this subject. What a shock to my young mind! It's thesis: see who owes the most to whom, and cannot repay. Then, expect a change of borders, a seizing of assets, another financially motivated war.

So, who do those in the U.S. owe the most to? There is already a land grab. Perhaps a war will come. Like someone betting on all the race horses, these guys can't lose. Not until God ends their tragic game.

See the following:

• Jesse Ventura Says "I'm An Atheist"
• Jesse Ventura I Think Religion Is The Root Of ALL Evil

The Upside Down "J"

Hold my hand, I'm a stranger in covenant land.

I had the temerity to teach the Biblical doctrine of the "catching away" of the saints by Jesus, also known as the rapture. People who teach the Bible with no fear of losing their jobs know the rapture is revealed from Genesis to Revelation. No problem there.

But there is a huge lobby that will not hear of it. These are people highly respected in the corporate church structure. They have a lot of power on their side--tradition, originating in the Middle Ages, the god of money, and multiple layers of academic degrees. Sounds formidable, doesn't it?

Yet with all the above weapons, those who deny the doctrine of the rapture can easily be taken down by such as you and me. I did it, so I know. For these Worldly Wisemen lack the one great essential needed to deny the truth. They lack basic knowledge of the Bible.

They are, rather, equipped as spokesman for the corporate elite. If they ever had a thorough study, it might well be titled "Wise Investing, or How to Be a Millionaire by Age 25". I have stood outside a preacher's study and heard just such talk. For these people, we are now in the millennium, and wealth represents a sign of God's favor. Calvinists have long been marinated in this idea.

Though I am a Calvinist, there is something else I have learned. It is the imminent return of Jesus, to take us out of a world that will be destroyed--yes even silver and gold, even the stock market.

But what about the upside down "J"? In covenant theology the church will rise in the air to meet Jesus, then return with him to the earth! Maybe they think He will rescue the stock market?

A little girl I knew rode in a shopping cart. Pinned to her garment was a bronze pin showing a "J" right side up. It represented, in the leg of the letter, Jesus descending from heaven with a shout to gather His saints alive and dead and take them home.

Though she was very young, she knew what the pin stood for. I know, because her father was my best friend. We did home church together. What does this prove? That a well taught four year old girl understands this great doctrine better than a Ph.D. in the Presbyterian church.

In Praise of the God Who Made Me

I anticipate dying pretty soon. This can be a blessing when you are falling apart, and it will be for me. Right now, I feel fine. Life is easy. Friends take care of all my needs. But I forsee the day when I will need lots of pain medicine. Leaving will be a relief in lots of ways. I have never felt at home here on earth--never fit in.

As I learned the Word of God, I found that He has a wonderful plan for me and for all His children. First, He chose us to be His before the world was made. Then He gave us a wonderful Savior to die for us, to pay for our sins. His Holy Spirit keeps us sealed and safe. His Word, the Bible, instructs and comforts us.

To those who rely on human effort, there will always be the poisons of pride and anxiety. But for those who depend on the mercy of God, there is peace. Every thing that we need is in God's plan. So I look forward, not with grim resignation, but with joyful anticipation of being with God and all His people, forever.

60 Years in High School?

Of course, this would be ridiculous. With all their many faults, our schools at least teach you how to read before you leave. Then you can educate yourself. Now wouldn't it be wonderful if churches would do something similar?

Imagine a church that, instead of just reading the Bible to you, as an opening theme for a sermon or Sunday School lesson, would teach you how to study for yourself? Then you soon would learn how little they have taught you, and how much of that is in error.

They do not teach you how to study on your own. Many corporate churches don't even have a church library. So, wait patiently each week for the little they are willing to feed you. It will be mighty thin gruel indeed! Because their jobs are in danger if you learn anything "too much".

People commonly attend churches for, say, 30 years, and learn nothing new. Had they listened to a 15 minute sports broadcast for the same period of time you may be assured that they would learn much, much, more than Ty Cobb's batting average.

Are you content with what they give you on one day of the week? Can you put your head down each night with assurance of your salvation? Are you willing to be fed with pagan myths interspersed with parables and the sermon on the mount?

The deep things of God are now open to us all. Like ripe fruit on a beautiful tree, you can pick them for yourself.

An Unpaid Pro

Sounds like a contradiction, does it not? But I only meant unpaid in this world. So what enterprise are we thinking about? Most professions are sealed up and not available to "amateurs". But there is one open to Christians. Imagine yourself becoming a professional grade Bible teacher without spending time and money to attend a theological "cemetery".

It's been done. Blackstone, known as W.E.B., did it. A man without credentials wrote a book on a Bible theme that no one can contradict, though some would like to. He wrote Jesus is Coming Again, a jewel of a book.

He has been called, along with Scofield, a Zionist. Kind of like saying the polar bear is a tropical animal. The opposite is the case. These two men did teach that Israel will be restored, but after the church is complete and raptured.

Point being, that God can use uncredentialed people. There has never been such a time as now, when you can become a pro in Bible teaching. God calls and equips teachers. The resources are there to enable you to do a good job. Your pay will be waiting for you in heaven.