The Great Riches of Obeying God's Call on My Life

Egyptian King Tut's Gold Death Mask

We are living in a day when most Americans are concerned about how much money they don't have, and other Americans greatly concerned about how to keep the wealth they've accumulated. 

Moses illustrates what it's like for a person to follow God and His will for our lives, deeming God and His call greater riches than all the treasures of this world.

Born 1400 years before Christ, the infant Moses was placed in a basket of bulrushes by his Hebrew parents and set afloat down the Nile River.

The Pharaoh of Egypt had ordered all Hebrew boys killed to cease the population growth of the ethnic Hebrews enslaved in Egypt. Moses' parents had sent their son down the Nile to escape certain death.

When Pharaoh's own daughter found Moses' ark floating in the River Nile, she took the Hebrew baby boy home and raised him as her own son.

Most people know that Moses became the leader of the Hebrew people in their eventual exodus from Egypt to the promised land of Canaan, but few comprehend the privileged and plush childhood and teenage years of Moses.

The writer of the New Testament book of Hebrews says:

"By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." (Hebrews 11:24-26).

There are two important questions that arise from the Hebrews text:

1, What was the reproach of Christ, particularly since the Messiah (Jesus Christ) had not yet come?

2. What were the treasures of Egypt that paled in comparison to the greater riches of the reproach of Christ?

Answer #1: The concept of the coming Messiah was not foreign to the Hebrews in Moses' day. Oral traditions included declarative statements that Yahweh would send to the Hebrew people a deliverer. As the Hebrews worked as slaves among the Egyptians, the excitement for a coming deliverer would run high.

Moses certainly knew that Yahweh would send a deliverer to His people. The Scripture says Moses spoke with Yahweh "face to face, as one speaks to a friend" (Exodus 33:11).

Where Christians get confused when reading Hebrews 11:23-26 is that the phrase "the reproach of Christ" wrongly capitalizes the Greek word christos. In Greek, there are no capitals. The word "christos" is a title, not a name. It translates the Hebrew word messiah, and it means "savior, leader, or deliverer."

Hebrews 11:24 is not talking about Jesus from Nazareth as THE Messiah, but rather Moses from Egypt. the chosen deliverer of God's people as the messiah.

Moses deemed God's purpose for his life greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.

Answer #2:  Moses refused the treasures of Egypt as an adult and identified with God's people (Hebrews) because he deemed God's call on his life to be greater riches than the treasures of Egypt. As the adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, Moses would have been considered a noble of Pharaoh's court, a son of the Egyptian king (pharaoh).

What were those treasures of Egypt that paled in comparison to the call of God?

To understand the immense treasures of Egypt and the riches of Egyptian nobility, one needs to look no further than the wealth of the Egyptian King Tut.

Pharaoh Tutankhamun reigned over Egypt a couple of hundred years after Moses. King Tut died when he was only eighteen, and his abbreviated reign came in the declining days of Egypt’s glory. Moses' adoptive grandfather, Pharaoh Ramses, would have been far richer than King Tut.

Explorer Howard Carter, the discoverer of King Tut's tomb, describes his initial view into the ante-chamber (just outside the burial room) which housed many of Tut’s treasures:

[A]s my eyes grew accustomed to the light, details of the room within emerged slowly from the mist, strange animals, statues, and gold—everywhere the glint of gold (Rapport and Wright 1964, 195).

Carter was the first man in thousands of years to lay his eyes on some of the treasures of Egypt in Tut's tomb. There were over 5,000 articles of pure gold, including "golden beds, gold-covered chariots, carved walking sticks and bows with inlaid gold, and a throne, encrusted with gold, silver and jewels."

In the Pharaoh's chamber, there were three coffins fashioned in Tut's likeness. The innermost sarcophagus was solid gold and over six feet long. In addition, there were six small gold coffins (fifteen inches high) containing Tut’s internal organs. Each small coffin, if melted down today for the gold, would be worth over a million dollars.

The death mask (pictured above left) weighed twenty-three pounds and was made of gold and inlaid with semiprecious stones; it covered the head and shoulders of the mummy.

The mask was fashioned by goldsmiths just after Tut died, and it represents how Tut looked when he died. The 5,000 articles in Tut's tomb illustrate the ancient Egyptian saying that in Egypt, “gold is as common as dust.”

Prof. E. M. Blaiklock writes of these vast treasures:

If the tomb of a boy king could produce the beauty, wealth, and art which has so astounded the world, what must the palace of really great pharaohs such as Ramses II have been like? (1983, 459).

Indeed. Further, the writer of Hebrews said that Moses turned his back on the riches of Pharaoh Ramses' court "for the reproach of doing what God called him to do." 

Moses deemed it more important to turn his back on the treasures of Egypt, experiencing the scorn and ridicule of his Egyptian peers because God's purpose for his life was more important than the riches of this world.

Next time you get too caught up or bent out of shape over the politics and economics of America, ask yourself if you have helped others experience and enjoy the far greater riches of the Kingdom of Christ and His reign in your life.

Be the person God has called you to be.

Be the mom or dad God has called you to be.

Be the neighbor God has called you to be.

Be...God's...imager...on...earth.

You may be the messiah (deliverer) God uses to free others from their bondage to the things of this world. You'll never regret becoming the image bearer of THE Messiah in a dark world in need of your light.

There are far greater riches in obeying God's call on your life.

That's the lesson of Moses.

The History of Female Native American Education and Northeastern Oklahoma State University

Seminary Hall, Northeastern Oklahoma State University

'The Trail of Tears' (1838-1839) culminated in the relocation of over 20,000 Cherokee Indians from Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and North Carolina to Northeastern Oklahoma. Estimates are that 4,000 Cherokee men, women and children died during The Trail of Tears.

Upon settling in Oklahoma at an area called Park Hill, just outside of the present day city of Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the Cherokee Indians began to rebuild their nation.

Within a decade of arriving in Oklahoma, around the same time the Southern Baptist Convention was being formed, the Cherokee people - with the help of missionary Samuel Worcester who came with the Cherokees to Oklahoma - began to establish a system of education for the Cherokee men - and women.

In 1851 the Cherokees at Park Hill began a seminary for women, with rigorous curriculum, patterned after that of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in Massachusetts. The seminary offered no instruction in Cherokee language or culture, but was open only to full- and mixed-blood Cherokee girls. The school was in operation until 1909 and approximately 3,000 girls attended.

These women and their educational experiences greatly influenced the Cherokee Nation and the lives of their descendants. Students at the Cherokee Female Seminary took courses in Greek, Hebrew, Latin, political economy, literary criticism, theology, philosophy and other advanced academic courses. Pupils staged dramatic productions, held music recitals and published their own newsletter. The seminary building was eventually destroyed by fire, but three original columns from the building mark the entrance into the modern Cherokee Heritage Center.

The first woman to receive her Ph.D. in the United States of America, Miss Sarah Worcester, was a descendent of the founder of the Cherokee Female Seminary. Wilma Mankiller, the female Chief of the Cherokee Nation in the 1980's said this about the Cherokee Female Seminary . . .

"The Cherokee Female Seminary was among the first educational systems built west of the Mississippi - Indian or non-Indian. In fact, for a period of time during the mid-nineteenth century, the Cherokee population was more literate than the neighboring non-Indian population”

Cherokee Female Seminary, Tahlequah, Oklahoma

The Cherokees were so successful in educating Cherokee women through the Cherokee Female Seminary that some of the more traditional Cherokee men began to complain that the women were no longer suited for domestic chores.

Eventually, the traditionalists were overruled and the Cherokee Female Seminary was folded into the Cherokee Men's Seminary which had been established in Tahlequah, Oklahoma and the combined schools became what we know today as Northeastern State University, one of oldest institutions of higher learning west of the Mississippi, and still the university with the highest concentration of Indian students in the United States.

Davy Crockett was severely persecuted for standing up for the Cherokee people before Congress in the 1830's at Washington, D.C. Crockett's own political career was destroyed because he supported the Cherokees when everyone else wanted them out of sight and out of mind. Davy Crockett left Washington D. C. and eventually made his way west to Texas where he became a frontier hero and died at the Alamo.

But before Crockett left the nation's capital he made a statement regarding his strong stand for the oppressed Cherokee Indians:

"I would sooner be honestly damned than hypocritically immortalized."

I have long fought for the equality of women in Christian education, churches, and leadership in general. I not only believe leadership is based on gifting and not gender, My feelings are well summarized by Davy Crockett.

I'm proud to be an Oklahoman and an advocate for women in leadership.

Nikola Tesla and the Common Good in Year 2020

Nikola Tesla 

Imagine never having to pay your monthly electrical bill. How would you feel if you were able to simply turn a knob in your home and receive free electrical power through the airwaves, similar to the manner in which you turn on your radio and listen to a radio broadcast for free?

The technology for free electricity existed over 100 years ago. 

But some financial titans in America, including J. Pierpont Morgan, William A. Clark, George Westinghouse, as well as the United States government had too much to lose if electricity were free. They all refused to fund the inventor, a brilliant scientist named Nikola Tesla. Money and power trump the common good every time. 

On January 7, 1943,  a cold, snowy New York Thursday, 85-year-old Nikola Tesla died of heart failure. He died alone and destitute, penniless, and with significant debts in Room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel (now the remodeled Wyndham New Yorker).

Later that afternoon, federal agents entered Tesla's hotel office and took Tesla's scientific papers.

Nikola Tesla's experiments in the scientific laboratory disproved the U.S. scientific establishment's official adoption of Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

Tesla proved free electricity for the world was possible. There was too much to lose if Tesla's papers became public.

Tesla vs. Einstein. These two men represented the scientific battle of minds during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

You've most likely heard of Albert Einstein. But most American's have never even heard the name Nikola Tesla. His name is constantly being scrubbed from the Internet. He's often denigrated by the scientific establishment.  Nikola Tesla had the scientific facts on his side, proven in the laboratory. Albert Einstein only had a theory that could not be proven.

Tesla proved in the laboratory that free electricity through airwaves is possible, and he began building a system to electrify the world. Government, corporate titans, and the scientific establishment stopped him.

Why?

The common good is typically never the motive of people in power. 

Follow the money; observe those in positions of power with profit incentives through patents, contracts, and other financial incentives. Einstein's theory made free electricity to the world scientifically impossible. Tesla proved free electricity was possible in his scientific laboratory.

The establishment chose to follow Albert Einstein's theory and silenced Nikola Tesla's documented scientific conclusions. The establishment promoted the metaphysical mathemetician over the brilliant laboratory scientist.

Ouch. Why?

Free electricity was not loved by those who were about to be paid for the privilege of the common people to use electricity.

Tesla's Wycliffe Power Station, shut down by JP Morgan.

During the 20th-century, the US government only federally funded scientific laboratories that accepted "the establishment position" of Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity.

Einstein's theory, never proven scientifically, makes Tesla's proposal of free electricity impossible in theory. 

According to the Theory of Special Relativity, gravity is the singular most powerful force in the universe and nothing travels faster than the speed of light. To explain how gravity can be so powerful as to keep planets in consistent orbits, black holes have been invented to make the theory's mathematical formula work.

Enter Nikola Tesla, the scientist you've never heard of. Tesla called Einstein's Theory of Relativity utter nonsense. He said:

"The theory wraps all these errors and fallacies and clothes them in magnificent mathematical garb which fascinates, dazzles and makes people blind to the underlying errors. The theory is like a beggar clothed in purple whom ignorant people take for a king. Its exponents are very brilliant men, but they are metaphysicists rather than scientists. Not a single one of the relativity propositions has been proved."

Tesla proved the electromagnetic force of the universe to be 10 to 39th power stronger than gravity. That means that the electromagnetic power of the universe is 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.000.000,000,000,000 more powerful than gravity. 

We live in an electric universe, said Tesla. And if we tap into earth's natural electricity from the sun, everyone gets free electricity. Tesla also proved that cosmic rays move far faster than the speed of light.

In 1896, Tesla measured a cosmic ray from Antares traveling 50 times faster than the speed of light. That experiment alone disproved Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Electronic cosmic rays bursting from the sun have been proven in modern experiments to arrive in earth's atmosphere faster than the speed of light, confirming Tesla's own experiments of 1896.

Black holes don't exist, said Tesla. You don't need to postulate invisible holes of gravity to create a mathematical formula that explains the universe but doesn't cut the mustard scientifically.

Tesla's scientific abilities allowed him to tap into the natural energy of the earth's electromagnetism through scientific observation, experimentation, replication, and documentation in his scientific laboratory. No speculative mathematical theory that postulated gravity as the strongest force in the universe would captivate Tesla.

He knew the science better. Science is about observation, experimentation, documentation, and replication. He'd proven his thesis of free electricity in the lab. 

Tesla knew that he could provide free electricity to the world, using the powerful energy from cosmic rays (e.g. "the sun") in the earth's atmosphere. Electricity moves through the air like radio waves. All that is needed is a transmitter and a receiver to align frequencies and then free electricity would become the worlds wirelessly.

So who was right? Einstein or Tesla? 

Albert Einstein was once asked, "How does it feel to be the smartest man the world?",  Albert Einstein responded:

"I don't' know. Why don't you ask Nikola Tesla."

Tesla's light bulb is lit via wireless electricity Tesla held it.

The responses to Einstein's alleged quote are typically three: 1. It never happened, or 2. Einstein was being sarcastic, or 3. Einstein was being sincere.

Regardless of what you believe about Einstein's quote, common people would not be paying for electricity today if the last 100 years were spent implementing Tesla's proven scientific inventions. But those in power and in control of the political, economic, and scientific establishment will typically never promote "the common good" over individual profit. 

That's human nature.

For it to be the common good, commoners must have as much information as possible, willingly choose for themselves to take a course of action that they deem best through thinking for themselves. "Common" means just that - common. The elite don't have common good as a motive. And for something to be for the common good, the common people must be persuaded that it is good.

Lessons for 2020

1. Every time we turn on our lights, we must remember that "the common good" is only discovered by the common people, never by those with power or money at stake. The profit motive is a great incentive to demand an official narrative and to ensure that any narrative that does not conform is silenced. Demands for conformity, uniformity, and synonymity of the common people are the symptoms of tyrrany, not liberty.

2. It is an old trial lawyer saying that "When the facts are on your side, pound the facts. When the law is on your side, pound the law. When neither is on your side, pound the table." The moment you see the establishment pound a person's character, motive, or mental state, it is a tell-tale sign that the facts and the law aren't on the pounders' side.

3. Distrust of those in power is healthy. Blind trust of the establishment will always lead to oppression. The common man must hold those in power accountable, for history has shown that for those in power, profit motive always trumps the common good.

4. Before you acquiesce to a government demand "for the common good," ask yourself the questions who's at the top, and who's telling you it's for your good, and who stands to profit if you obey? Nature itself might give you a better alternative than those in power.

5. Remember Tesla.

"Unleash Your God-Given Healing" by Ginny Brant

This week's guest post is written by my friend Ginny Dent Brant. Ginny and I served together as trustees of the International Mission Board. Ginny is a speaker and writer who grew up in the halls of power in Washington, DC, the daughter of an insider of the Nixon administration .

Ginny has battled cancer, ministered around the world, and served on the front lines of American culture as a counselor, educator, wellness advocate, and adjunct professor.

Ginny Brant’s award-winning book, Finding True Freedom: From the White House to the World, was endorsed by Chuck Colson and featured in many TV and media interviews.

Her second book, Unleash Your God-Given Healing: Eight Steps to Prevent and Survive Cancer, was released this month, and it is endorsed with foreword and commentary by oncologist and medical researcher, Dr. Robert Elliott. Learn more at www.ginnybrant.com.

Over the past few weeks, I've discovered far more about natural health and the body's incredible ability to heal itself than I ever imagined.  Unleash Your God-Given Healing: Eight Steps to Prevent and Survive Cancer is a tremendous encouragement for any person or family battling the disease of cancer. 

Below is Ginny's story: 

What’s a Nice, Baptist Gal like Me Doing in a Cancer Center?

The Bible tells us that our body is beautifully and wonderfully made. In fact, our body is made with an innate ability to heal. Our God-given immune system functions best when we live and do the right things! When you add lifestyle changes to complement your doctor’s treatment for cancer and address the root causes, your chances of defeating cancer and returning to vibrant health are greatly enhanced.

I read 40 to 50 books. I interviewed doctors, scientists, nutritionists and attended cancer conferences nationwide. My hunger to learn never waned. I was able to pull back the curtain on cancer connecting the dots between the Bible, nutrition, God’s anatomy of the body, and conventional and integrative medicine. It was doctors, researchers, and scientists like Dr. Judy Mikovits who helped me see clearly what was happening to my body. I also heard Robert Kennedy, Jr. speak as a concerned attorney who desperately believes, as does Dr. Mikovits, that we must change how vaccines are produced and administered.

Oncologists treat symptoms and do their best to kill the cancer. They generally don’t address what initially caused the cancer and what you can do to prevent recurrence. Although my life was saved by conventional medicine, my health was restored by finding the causes and implementing lifestyle changes. These changes I learned attending several cancer conferences, reading books, and listening to medical lectures and interviews online.

Taking birth control pills, postponing childbirth, not breastfeeding, taking human-made estrogen hormones after menopause, drinking excessive alcohol, living a sedentary lifestyle, being overweight, and smoking are the risk factors for developing my cancer. Since I had none of these, I was forced to search deeper.

I discovered I was not health nutty enough! After having an integrative medical doctor test the levels of heavy metals and chemical toxins in my body, one main cause stood out above the rest. My body had accumulated high levels of mercury and aluminum (both potentially from multiple vaccines I received going on mission trips), high levels of lead, and high levels of several hormone-disrupting chemicals such as the 2,4-D Agent Orange pesticide and glyphosate (both are Monsanto pesticides used on our crops).

I was living in an estrogenic, toxic world and did not realize it. Dr. Mikovits and several other doctors helped connect the Bovine Growth Hormone (administered to animals to increase milk and meat production) to breast cancer. Other doctors have also connected Monsanto pesticides to increased risk of cancer. At present, The American Cancer Society and breastcancer.org are beginning to mention pesticides as a possible link to cancer.

One in eight women are now diagnosed with breast cancer and 80 percent of those are estrogen-driven. We must look at what is causing this. And here’s a real shocker—90% of men diagnosed with breast cancer are also estrogen-fed. This is further proof that hormones in meat and dairy, hormone-disrupting pesticides used to grow our foods, and household chemicals are having an adverse impact on our health.

I’ve watched as many integrative doctors and scientists are discredited and quickly labeled as quacks. I’ve learned not to always trust our government, the CDC, EPA or the FDA to completely protect my health. There are many individuals who profit from maintaining the status quo in this capitalist world. I’ve learned I am my own best advocate. I must look behind the curtain and discover who is paying for the research.

I don’t personally know Dr. Mikovits, and I’m not qualified to verify any of her scientific claims. I do appreciate, however, doctors and scientists who risk their lives and reputation to speak the truths they discover. And if they don’t adhere to what Big Pharma, Wall Street, and government agencies are promoting, it’s not unusual for these brave souls to be marginalized or persecuted. Many of the doctors and scientists I met were Christians whose dedication to their fields was quite evident. Common sense and lifestyle changes were an integral part of their field of study.

I’ve lost many friends in the cancer journey—some to cancer and some to the side effects and toxicity of chemotherapy. I strongly believe we must use less chemo. Big Pharma prefers we use more. In my opinion, low dose chemotherapy used with nontoxic adjuvants is the future of cancer treatment. This would be a difficult sell in our country because cancer revenues and profits underwrite the expenses of some hospital systems.

I never wanted to write a book about cancer! After all I learned in my journey, I felt compelled to share so others might escape this nightmare. The result is “Unleash Your God-Given Healing: Eight Steps to Prevent and Survive Cancer.” I didn’t write anything in this book without extensive medical research and footnotes. A well-respected oncologist and medical researcher who runs a breast cancer center in Baton Rouge, Dr. Robert Elliott, wrote the foreword and commentary from a medical perspective throughout my book.

My book is written for those who desire to prevent cancer, who are in the cancer journey, or those who want to prevent recurrence. I also have a cancer prevention blog called Lifestyle Changes Beat Cancer (at www.ginnybrant.com) where I continue to share information on health and wellness.

The best way to make your body less susceptible to any illness including cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s or COVID-19 is to make sure your immune system is armed and ready for battle. The eight steps in my book challenge you to change what your doctor has no control over—your lifestyle habits! When you add these eight steps to hand washing, social distancing, isolating those who are sick or vulnerable, and wearing masks in public, your susceptibility for coronavirus is reduced even more. You’ll never hear or read anything from the CDC about maintaining your immune system as God intended.

The Bible tells us that our body is beautifully and wonderfully made. In fact, our body is made with an innate ability to heal. Our God-given immune system functions best when we live and do the right things! When you add lifestyle changes to complement your doctor’s treatment for cancer and address the root causes, your chances of defeating cancer and returning to vibrant health are greatly enhanced.

And this Baptist gal has cancer no more!

Where Modern Science Fails Us Every Single Time

A new religion in America

We live in a scientific age. That's obvious to anyone with a modicum of formal education.

However, it's important to know where science will fail you if you let it. Science cannot speak declaratively on the origin or ultimate end of human life, this world, the universe, or even disease.

God alone governs. Science observes.

The best scientists who have ever lived agree that God alone governs the world. They taught that people should rely on God because He's the transcendent Creator, outside of time, and trust that He's bringing all things in time to an ultimate grand and good conclusion.

Beginning in the late 1600s, mankind's knowledge began increasing through scientific experimentation, observation, verification, and documentation. Scientists began observing natural processes and drew some conclusions from their research. Historians call this time of vastly increasing scientific knowledge the Age of Enlightenment.

My foremost intellectual heroes come from the dawn of the Enlightenment. Men like Isaac Newton (1642 -1726) in physics, John Locke (1632 -1704) in philosophy,  Robert Boyle (1627 -1691) in chemistry, and Christopher Wren (1632 -1723) in architecture and astronomy, have taught me much.

All four men co-founded the Royal Society (established Nov. 28, 1660), the world's oldest scientific institution.

Few people realize that each of these men also loved and appreciated the Word of God. They each had a deep and abiding faith in God as the Creator and Governor of all things. All four are famous for their scientific achievements, but their superb expositions and commentaries of the Bible are also superb, and they all are available to you for free online.

Christopher Wren's iconic St. Paul's Cathedral in London

Isaac Newton taught about the chronology of ancient nations from his study of the Scriptures. John Locke taught the natural mortality of every man, God's gift of immortality, and the importance of faith in God for meaningful human existence. Robert Boyle, the epitome of a man of science and a man of God, taught the nature of humility within scientific reasoning, and he urged everyone to never lose sight that there are some things that transcend a human being's ability to reason. Christopher Wren, the architect of St. Paul's in London, Sainte-Genvieve (now the Pantheon) in Paris, and the major influencer for the later design of the U.S. Capitol, taught that the proclamation (teaching) of God's Word should be the centerpiece of human existence.

Christopher Wren (1672 -1723) also served as the first President of the Royal Society.

He believed that the advancement of knowledge is warranted because the universe is God's footstool, with our transcendent Creator seated above it. When we learn more about our universe, Wren said, we come closer to God.

To these scientists of the Englightenment, nothing happens in our world without either God's permission, or His promotion, or His prohibition. God is bringing about a good and eternal purpose for His Creation.

The most thoughtful scientists are always the most delightful theists. A belief in a transcendent God in charge of the world keeps mankind humble. Listen to these four scientists speak.

Isaac Newton -

"God made and governs the world invisibly...and the opposite of godliness is atheism in profession, and idolatry in practice. Atheism is so senseless and odious to mankind, that it never has had many professors."

John Locke -

"We have reason and Scripture; unerring rules to know whether something is true. The bent of our own minds may favor something as much as we please but this favoring will be no means prove it to be an offspring of heaven."

Robert Boyle -

"A blind man will suffer himself to be led, though by a dog, or a child. In the Bible, the blind man may learn all requisite knowledge, and the most knowing may learn to discern blind ignorance."

Christopher Wren's Tomb

  Christopher Wren -

LECTOR, SI MONUMENTUM REQUIRIS, CICUMSPICE
"If you seek His monument, look around you."
Translated from the Latin on Wren's Tombstone 

The universe is God's, and He's governing all things from an intentional beginning to a purposeful eternity.

Compare the intellectual faith of these four great Enlightenment scientists to what New York City's mayor Andrew Cuomo recently said of his city's success in "flattening the curve" of Covid-19 by bringing the number of deaths and cases down. Governor Cuomo minced no words at his press conference.  "The number is down because we brought the number down," said the mayor. "God did not do that. Faith did not do that. Destiny did not do that. A lot of pain and suffering did that . . . That’s how it works."

At some point, you are going to have to decide whether want God to govern your life or science to govern it. Science will always fail you in its portrayal of the origin and end of all things, including Covid-19.

Nobody's in control but God.

Coronaviruses and God's Plan

When SARS first appeared in  China in November 2002, it rapidly spread throughout Asia. SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) was far more deadly than it's close-cousin COVID-19. People got sick and died within two to three days. The mortality rate of SARS was significantly higher than that of COVID-19. Yet, back in 2002/2003, we didn't lock down the world.

Scientists in 2002 and 2003 feverishly worked on a vaccine for SARS. They eventually thought they had one, but later discovered through scientific testing that if that vaccine had been injected into humans, it would have created a new pathological immunity disease in those who'd been vaccinated.

I'm not against vaccinations. I am, as were all my intellectual heroes of the Enlightenment, against scientists that pretend to be in control of the world.

SARS mysteriously disappeared in the summer of 2003.

Why did SARS disappear? Science cannot tell us, because modern science will fail you and me every single time when it comes to the answers of origin or end. Science can only observe processes and suggest actions.

Science isn't in control of anything.  President Larry P. Arnn of Hillsdale College says it succinctly:

"We must of course listen to experts, but expertise cannot as a simple fact of principle tell us finally what is right to do."

Emmanuel Enid

This Sunday, we are opening our three corporate worship services to the public. We are encouraging everyone to practice personal liberty and either stay home (watching it online) or personally come to one of the services.

At the entrance to all the buildings, be hand sanitizers and masks will be available. You, of course, may bring your own mask if you desire. The choice of wearing a mask or not is yours alone. Nobody will be judged for wearing a mask, and nobody will be judged for not wearing a mask. I will not be wearing a mask, but I will respect the distance between me and you, though I will not be offended if you come close to me, for I am unconcerned about catching the coronavirus.

We shut down our services 8 weeks ago to be a good neighbor. We were told that "hospitals will be overrun with the sick and dying, with no capacity to care for the anticipated surge." If you've been living in or around Enid, Oklahoma these last few weeks, you've seen thousands of people out and about at large box stores deemed "essential" by the government. Not only have our cases not gone up, but our hospitals are also losing money like a sieve and laying off people due to low census. We've had one death attributed to Covid-19, an 86-year-old woman.

Covid-19 is a serious respiratory illness. So was SARS. So will be the next coronavirus that comes our way. Let's learn our lessons now. Let's get prepared as a country with PPE, with new medical equipment, and let's now stock up on other needed hospital supplies. But let's never again shut down the world for lack of medical supplies. Let's be prepared. Shutting down will wind up killing more people than the disease.

Our hearts go out to people affected by Covid-19, just like they go out to families affected by influenza, cancer, strokes, heart attacks, suicide, loss of career, etc.. Our God, who knows the end from the beginning, and He works all things according to His purpose. Take the advice of the Scriptures, and learn from the wisdom of men like Newton, Boyle, Wren, and Locke.

Let God govern you. Not science.

Could I die from COVID-19? Of course. So could you. Could people die from COVID-19 who come to worship services at Emmanuel this Sunday? Maybe. I don't think so, but I'm humble enough to admit I don't know. Unlike modern science, we believe God is the Governor of all that have a beginning and an ending, not science. The weakness of science is anticipation; the strength of science is observation.

I've observed enough in our community to know its time for us to open, and I respect other pastors and churches that don't. I would ask the same courtesy of respect for the choice we've made. You and I could die of influenza next winter. We could die in a violent terrorist attack. We all could die of a new coronavirus that nobody yet knows about, including science, in the year 2022. Science never governs anyone's life very well. God never fails.

I learned to trust in God's governance from some Enlightened scientists who lived a long time ago. They helped me formulate an axiom for my life:

There are many things worse than dying and at the top of that list is the fear of living. 

When it comes time for me to die, and each of us will die,  my faith in a good God who governs the world will bring me to a place where He will reveal "the riches of His grace for eons to come in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7).

If you think this blog is too heavy, I leave you with a video from our staff inviting people to attend our services this Sunday, and with a reminder from a great Scriptural proverb:

"A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones" (Proverbs 17:22). 

Vaccines Used in Africa to Sterilize African Women

Tanya Axisa, DIP, Wikimedia Commons

I'll keep this blog as short as possible. Don't accept my word for anything. Do research for yourself.

PREMISE: In 2008 and 2009, some unsuspecting African women began receiving vaccines from the World Health Organization which contained the contraceptive sterilant Depo-Provera, rendering these vaccinated African women infertile.

The women thought they were getting vaccines to fight common diseases. In reality, they were unwilling clinical subjects for a World Health Organization project, funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to experiment with the birth control drug Depo-Provera before rolling it out through a broad population control campaign on the African continent.

WHO and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation called the population control effort, Family Planning 2020, or FP2020.

WHO named it FP 2020 in the year 2010.

The stated goal of the organizers of Family Planning 2020 was to reduce the world's population, particularly in areas of the world where cultural challenges existed, by the year 2020.

Uganda, an African country with one of the highest fertility rates in the world, was one of the first to sign on to FP 2020. From Nigeria to Kenya, countries across sub-Saharan Africa began signing up for the population control effort led by WHO and Bill and Melinda Gates.

In 2011, a U.S. women's rights group called the Rebecca Project for Human Rights published a report, "Non-Consensual Research in Africa: The Outsourcing of Tuskegee," outlining the unethical medical experiments undertaken by U.S. researchers in Africa.

The Rebecca Project compiled stories written by the press and well-respected non-profits. These reports claimed:

1. HIV-positive women in Namibia and South Africa had been coerced into sterilization by local health-care entities that received funding from USAID.

2. African women who enrolled in a drug trial in Uganda designed to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV had received placebos,.

3. African women coming for vaccinations against specific diseases were unwittingly used as test subjects for Depo-Provera.

Very soon, the motives, backgrounds, and agendas of the leaders of the Rebecca Project were called into question by those in charge of health policy in Africa.

All who have spoken out against WHO and Bill Gates for its contraceptive vaccines in Africa are typically called untrustworthy, or former employees with an agenda, or far-right political activists, etc. For example, read The New War on Birth Control and pay close attention to how those who exposed the secretive contraceptive vaccination rollout in Africa are portrayed.

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,, is a vocal opponent to worldwide vaccination programs. He believes that powerful elites are experimenting on unsuspecting people without consent, or even worse, killing more people through the vaccine than the disease. He recently posted on Instagram his opposition (a post since removed by Instagram censors for "false information."). RFK, Jr., nephew of our former President John F. Kennedy, is a recipient of repeated public character assassinations.

I'm uninterested in assassinating the character of anyone, on either side. I just want to know the truth.

Reverend Clenard Childress, the founder of the website BlackGenocide.org, told reporter Kathryn Joyce, "In the African-American community, if you shout conspiracy, they'll listen, because of the history they've had." True, Rev. Childress. But, if there is a stated desire from powerful elitists in the west to control the population of poor Africans in the east, it can't be a conspiracy that's true. Conspiracy means "to breath with others," that is "to think like others." To have a conspiracy you must have some who think alike and others who think differently, but "the some" impose their ideas on all the others.

Interestingly, nobody denies that population control among poor countries is an agenda of WHO, the Bill Gates Foundation Board, world health leaders, Bill and Melinda Gates, China, and others driving governmental decisions. Everyone is outright saying that population control is the goal.

But the view of the world by those at the top is different than those at the bottom. Ask any woman who wants children if she likes being injected with a contraceptive against her will. If you believe that your desire for the world is nobler than that poor African woman's desire for children, then you can violate her individual liberty for a greater good.

My problem is that cultural elitists are doing hidden and unknown things with the intent of accomplishing their stated goals, believing they know better what is needed. The problem of a few at the top forcing conformity to a worldview on everyone is a much more concerning problem than most people realize. I'll state the problem in the form of a question.

WHO (pardon the pun) gets to determine the greater good for our world?

Libertarianism says the individual should be in control of his life. Liberalism says the government should be in control of all our lives. Capitalism says the economy should be in control of humanity.

Count me a libertarian. Liberty is an inalienable right to every human being, living on any continent, alive at any time in the history of our world.

When those in control of the government, the educational systems, the economy, and the finances (banking system) do what they believe is best, then other good people with a different world view (but not in power or control) start having things done to them against their knowledge. I'm not going to motive of "those in control"  I'll even say "those" are good people with good motives (at least in their minds). Those in control trample on the individual liberties of commoners.

Soon, the process of control grows to the point where the powerful elite begin ordering governments to take action for the people, without the peoples' consent (think "2020 Lockdown"). Those in control are the Knowns, and they believe we are the Unknowns, for we can never know what they know.

They think like this: "We might as well do what needs to be done, using any and all means to accomplish our goal, since we KNOW what this world needs and the UNKNOWNS don/t."

There is a worldwide cultural battle taking place between the Knowns and the Unkowns. Hart Seely wrote a poem about this (edited by Daase and Kessler).

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don’t know
We do not know.
Finally, there are unknown knowns
The knowns
We do not want to know.

We should all live by the principle, "Tell the truth and trust the people." Censorship is the symptom of the disease of the Knowns. The disease is a belief that "I know better than you, and I'll encroach on your liberty, your life, and your property for the good of the world."

If cultural western elites believe they know better than the poor Africans, and if they do unethical things to Africans without their concert, what makes you think it can't happen to us Americans who are the Unknowns.

Americans are rightfully concerned over the death of an African-American male from Georgia who had his civil rights violated and his life taken without due process. But if our concerns over one man are greater than our concerns for a continent of African women forced into sterilization against their wills, we don't understand the real issues that Americans face in 2020. Don't get distracted."

Think big picture.

I am not an anti-vaxxer. I received my flu shot this year. I'm not a "far-right political Republican." My conservative political friends think I'm a "liberal" because I believe in equal rights of women, civil rights for gays and lesbians, and freedom for all Americans to pursue life as they please without government intrusion. I'm not a conspiracist. I think those at the top have stated their intentions.

We must cherish liberty; individual liberty.

Again, liberty is the inalienable human right of every individual, on all continents, at any and all times throughout the history of our world, regardless of race, culture, or creed.

If we don't wake up now, come 2030 every American will start feeling like that African woman who got injected with a sterility shot thinking that it was something else.

If it happened to her, it can happen to us.

I am beginning to Know what used to be Unknown to me.

Give Others God's Blessing and Don't Shake Hands

Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock on Star Trek

Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Spock on the 1960's television show Star Trek, had a signature Vulcan greeting that might be something we consider using in these COVID-19 days. 

In a video for the Yiddish Book Center's Oral History Project, Leonard Nimoy, who died in 2015,  described how as a boy in the Jewish synagogue, he first saw the hand symbol that he later adopted as the Vulcan greeting (see above left). The Jewish hand signal he observed was five fingers forming the Hebrew letter Shin.

Years later, Spock suggested to the director of Star Trek that this hand signal be adopted as the Vulcan greeting along with the phrase "Live long and prosper." I'd like to demonstrate in this post how this hand signal, one that most Americans simply know as a fictitious Vulcan greeting from a 1960's television show, might actually be a great substitute for the traditional American handshake.

The Hebrew letter Shin

The Hebrew alphabet is made up of 22 letters. The 21st letter is Shin (pictured to the right). The symbol for Shin looks like our English letter W, but in Hebrew the Shin is the holy symbol for the Divine Presence. The ancient Jews placed this symbol outside their houses on the doorpost of their homes. They would never leave the house, or enter it again, without kissing the Shin. 

If you ever have an opportunity to watch the epic movie Ben Hur, pay attention as this Jewish young man comes home and kisses the Shin of the Mezuzah after serving as a Roman slave for many years. Jews believe that God is "the guardian of the doors of Israel," and kissing the Shin is an expression of their faith in Him. 

The Jews tell a story of a rich Persian king named Arteban who once boasted about his "unmatched wealth." One day the king sent to a prominent Jewish rabbi a pearl. In return, the Jewish rabbi sent the king a mezuzah with the shin on it (see picture below) with the following note:

"Your gift of the pearl must be guarded from thieves who may harm you, but my gift is even more valuable because it guards us from harm!"

One of the Hebrew words for God is Shaddai שדי, which means "Almighty." The Hebrew letter Shin ש is the first letter of Shaddai (read Hebrew from right to left). Thus, when the Jews left or entered their homes, they professed their belief in Almighty God (El Shaddai), the One who gives them life and prosperity in the face of all their enemies. 

The Shin represented to the Jews the power of their God. Orthodox Jews will never pronounce the Hebrew personal name for God (YHWH) which is translated in our English Bibles as LORD (all capitals) and transliterated into English as Jehovah because they believe 'The Name' too holy and sacred. Refusing to pronounce "The Name" for God, the Jews have for centuries assigned the Hebrew letter Shin as an abbreviation for "The Name" of God. The Hebrew word השם means "The Name" and notice how the Hebrew letter Shin ש is in the middle of "The Name." It is for this reason the letter Shin, which in Hebrew also pictorially represents the 'fire' or 'presence' of God, came to represent "The Name" of God (see Leviticus 24:16). 

I'm sure it will be surprising to many Americans that what they've known as the Vulcan greeting given by Spock on the television show Star Trek is actually the Jewish hand signal for "The Name" of God and represents the belief that God alone provides life, provision and security for His people. 

But there's more.

In II Chronicles 6:6 the Lord says: "I have chosen Jerusalem, that My name may be there, and I have chosen David to be over My people Israel." 

Some Jews do not believe it to be coincidence that the city of Jerusalem has not only "The Name" in the middle of the Hebrew word for Jerushalem (see picture to the left), but the city itself is built on top of three valleys - the valley of Hinnom, the valley of Tyropoeon, and the valley of Kidron (see picture to the right). These three valleys form the letter Shin. 

It can be safely assumed that God is in the business of leaving His mark in the city of Jerusalem. It was in Jerusalem that the Temple (the Presence of God) was built. It was in this great city of the world that God revealed Himself to man. All Jewish synagogues must have an ark of scrolls that face the sacred city of Jerusalem. 

According to the Mishna and the Shulchan Aruch, Jewish daily prayers must be made facing the city of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, where God has inscribed His name. Jews would place Mizrach plaques on the walls facing Jerusalem to always remind them of the direction to which their Jewish prayers should be offered, a custom later adopted by Muhammad's followers they began praying toward Mecca.

But the most astonishing thing about "The Name" of God as represented in the Jewish letter Shin is that it is prominent in the Hebrew name Yeshua. In English, Yeshua is translated Jesus. He is Emmanuel; God with us. The Name of God is seen in His Name.

The Bible tells us Jesus' name was given to Mary by the angels because "He shall save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).  The Savior's name “Y’shua" is the exact Hebrew word for “salvation.” The Infinite became an infant to bring us salvation. Every time someone called out the name Y'shua, they were actually saying “salvation.” 

If someone asks, "From what does Y'shua save us?" the answer would be "shame." The shame of our sin and its judgment. There's too little time to show the incredible connection between the letter Shin in the Hebrew words "shame," "salvation" and "His name," but just know that God saves you from your shame for the glory of His name.

In a city where God inscribed His name in the hills and valleys, a place where He dwelt among men in that first tabernacle, then later the Temple, and ultimately in the God-Man, Jesus Christ, who "tabernacled among men,' we find the incredible true story of One who gave Himself as atonement for our sins in order that we might come to know what it means to have eternal life, real prosperity and Divine security.

So next time you think of Spock's "Live long and prosper" greeting, remember the Hebrew letter Shin and that it represents the grace of God in Jesus Christ.s

An Alarm to a Careless World in the Year of Corona

BernbaumJG / CC BY (Creative Commons)

A series of severe earthquakes shook London, England, in November 1755, causing massive damage.

Those same earthquakes destroyed the city of Lisbon, Portugal, frightening many and causing others to wonder about the unusual seismic activity in a region not typically known for earthquakes.

Though there was much widespread concern over the earth-shaking, few people at the time contemplated the shaking as a temporal warning to consider one's relationship with God.

However, a Christian nobleman in London wrote to his pastor, a man named William Romaine (1714-1795) and appealed:

"Awaken the people and call them from the lethargy in which they have too long lived. Speak to them, persuade them, as one knowing the sudden Judgment of the Lord. Speak to their hearts and consciences with such plainness ... that unless they repent, they must perish."

In response, William Romaine preached a sermon on Sunday, November 30, 1755, entitled An Alarm to a Careless World: A Discourse Occasioned by the Late Earthquakes. The message would later be placed in print, and it became for over a century (AD 1760-1860) one of the most used tools to awaken thoughtless, reckless people to their relationship with God.

Because the message takes time to read, you might choose to ignore it. So, I'd like to entice you by taking from Romaine's sermon The Ten Ways You Can Know People Are Prepared To Meet God:

1. They have no dread, no fear in their minds.
2. They are not afraid of bad news, nor live in fear of tomorrow.
3. They possess peace and joy, which arises from a sense of God's loving them in Jesus Christ.
4. They know their God as the Lord of nature and all men, and He will make all things work together for good, and therefore their hearts are established and they will not shrink though the earth should quake from its very foundations and the hills should be carried into the midst of the sea (Psalm 46).
5. If the entire course of the world changes, they have nothing to fear.
6. God is their friend.
7. They are kept by the arms of the Almighty.
8. In life and death, they can keep their minds on God in perfect peace.
9. You can see clearly that these are Christians in a safe and happy state.
10. For God has promised them this safety and security, and in Him, they rest.

The English language in Romaine's day has dramatically changed. 18th-century English idioms do not resonate with 21st-century American people. Romaine's warning does not register with the modern person because it is difficult to read.

With this in mind, I have modernized Romaine's sermon. I've used 21st-century idioms in place of 18th-century ones, chosen more appropriate words in a few places, and made spelling changes and other stylistic adaptations that make Romaine's warning more readable today.

William Romaine's initial desire was "to speak to hearts and minds with plainness." I trust this updated version will accomplish the original purpose. 

William Romaine was an orthodox Christian, as am I, and our beliefs are summarized in the  Apostles' Creed:

I believe Jesus was crucified, died, was buried and on the third day rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. 

The coming again of Christ to judge the living and the dead is a common theme throughout the Bible and Christian history.  Every disastrous and unsettling event in this world is a shadow pointing us to the reality of impending Judgment for those not at peace with God.

 God uses a growing sense of human mortality as a means to prepare people to meet Him. 

With this in mind, I encourage you to read An Alarm to a Careless World in the Year of Corona.

_______________________________________________________________________________

An Alarm to a Careless World in the Year of Corona

A Warning from Recent Events to Those Living Careless Lives

William Romaine (ed. Wade Burleson)

If you are careless about the way you live by giving little thought of God or His command to love Him and other people as much as you love yourself, you may wrongly imagine your life is safe and under control. But unless you turn from your carelessness, your life cannot be safe.

As long as the One who created you is your enemy, you can experience no real peace. May God open your eyes to see this truth practically, that you may discover your need to be at peace with Him.

The way to find this peace is to appeal to God for it through your faith in Jesus Christ and to stop living a careless life. But we live in a time of violent opposition to this message of personal reform. The world may have more to fear from God's judgment to come than the shaking under us, the sickness around us, or the storms above us.

Our prayer is that God will delay His coming judgment so that you and others will hear the alarm sounding and come to faith in Christ and cease your careless ways of living before it is too late.

"Prepare to meet your God" Amos 4:12

It is essential in light of recent events to call on you to give serious thought to God and His coming to our world. The first time our Lord came to earth He came to visit us as one of us, God appeared among us in the Person of a humble, suffering, dying Savior. But another is coming, not far away, when every person will see Jesus in His full Majesty. He first came to us in human humiliation, but He will come to us again in Divine exaltation. We wait for that great Day when Jesus comes to judge both the living and the dead. Our expectation is that when He comes, we will be given abundant life that never ends because of our faith in Him and our peace with Him. The news is not as good for those who've lived careless lives. 

We do not know or even pretend to know the precise time of His coming, for no man knows the day or the hour.  However, the Judge Himself has given us some signs and markers that provide indisputable evidence that His coming is close, that He may be even standing at the door. These signs are like budding tree leaves that signify the coming of summer.

Whenever we see the Scriptural signs and markers of Christ's coming, we must be faithful watchmen and sound the alarm so that you may be ready. Otherwise, the Lord will come on a day when you are not looking for Him, or in an hour when you are unprepared for Him. It is then that you will be cut off from His goodness, and given a portion among those who shall be found "weeping and grinding their teeth" for your missed opportunities. 

This warning comes at an appropriate time, for many are feeling the world-shaking, both literally and figuratively. "Prepare to meet your God" from Amos 4:12 is chosen as the alarm bell to awaken you to the imminent coming of Christ as your Judge. We hope this verse makes a deep impression on you, and it causes you to think about your future meeting with your Creator.

Prepare to meet your God. 

Prepare to meet the eternal and almighty God who is coming in all His glory to judge you. You will have no excuse for your carelessness; you will stand with guilt for your refusal to embrace Him in faith and to love others more than yourself. You will hear your sentence of death, which is never to be reversed. So unless you desire to face your Judge with no plea but personal guilt and to listen to a sentence commensurate with your carelessness, it is suggested you prepare to meet your God. 

You will meet Him soon, that is certain, and the primary business of your life should be to prepare for this meeting. With proper preparation, when He comes, you will actually enter His presence with the joy that comes from having peace with God. 

There are three things that we must seriously consider from Amos' warning to prepare to meet your God.

1. We must recognize that God, who first came to the world in great humility to visit us as Savior, is now preparing to revisit the earth as Judge. 
2. We must, therefore, be prepared to meet Him as Judge.
3. We must understand the Good News that there is a way to be adequately prepared to meet God as Judge, prepared so well that when the Savior comes again as Judge, we can lift up our heads with joy, knowing that our Savior from judgment is coming.

May God's Spirit, from whom all adequate preparations come, assist us to prepare. By His grace, may we see that the knowledge of the Savior's readiness to come in Judgment is one of the best means of preparing us.

First, prepare to meet your God.

The suffering Jesus who died on the cross was as united with the eternal God as the soul and body of one person are united so that God and man are one in Christ. At His first coming, God visited us in great humility, and the majesty of God was veiled under the covering of humanity. Still, at His second coming, every person will see Jesus is God indeed. Every eye will behold the divine glory of the suffering Savior, and those who once pierced Him at His bitter death will then confess to their everlasting shame that He is the almighty God of heaven and earth.

Because of this, we should be prepared to meet Him. At the time appointed, He came to suffer for the sins of the world, and at the time set, He will come to judge the human race. His second coming is as sure as His first. It was foretold in the Old Testament, promised in the New, and the Scriptures cannot be broken. 

God revealed His coming in judgment in the most transparent manner to the patriarchs of faith. Enoch, the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied of God's judgment by saying: 

“Behold, the Lord comes with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him. These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lusts; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage." Jude 1:14-16

Abraham knew that God was to come to execute judgment upon all people, and speaks of the right manner and conduct of this judgment with confidence:

"Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" Genesis 25:18

Job had the same confidence of Abraham that God would judge rightly when he said:

"I could only plead with my Judge for mercy." Job 9:15

 Solomon, a prophet and one the wisest man of ancient times, plainly described the coming judgment of God toward man when he said,:

"God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil." Ecclesiastes 12:14

And the Judge Himself has given us a very detailed description of that Day in three gospel writers of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), and He has called us, again and again, to be always ready and prepared for the Day of Judgment.

Jesus' apostles appealed to others based on their certainty of everyone's appearing before the judgment seat of Christ and frequently mention "the terrors of the Lord" and how through them, they "persuade men" to believe on Christ and repent of their careless living (see II Corinthians 5:10-11).

And then there is a remarkable fact, which gives much weight to the above prophecies, that when our Lord describes the general judgment, He confirms His account with a promise that He would come to judge the Jewish nation before that generation of Jews passed away (Matthew 24:34).

Accordingly, Jesus came within a generation to judge the Jewish nation (AD 70). There has not been even the smallest prophecy foretold concerning the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple, or the dispersion of the Jews over the face of the earth, that has failed to come to pass. It is a matter of fact that Christ has already acted as Judge over Israel, and He will come again to complete His office as Judge of the world. It is not more certain that the sun will rise tomorrow than that He who judged the Jewish nation will soon come to judge the nations.

Christ's second coming as Judge is as fixed and appointed in the fullness of time as was His first coming as Savior. He will come in His glorious Majesty at the last day. In the meantime, God comes with many singular strokes of vengeance to awaken careless and sleepy people. He visits the inhabitants of the earth with His judgments so that they may learn right living, and He has lately sent some of His heaviest judgments. It is our hope you have been awakened to your need to prepare to meet your God.

Though the day and the hour of the Last Judgment are not known, the marks and signs of His coming are fulfilled daily. The Lord says there are world events that serve as signposts and markers of His certain coming, and these things include wars and rumors of war, great earthquakes in different and unusual places, disease and pestilence around the world, and many other strange and fearful events. But the worst sign of all is the present decay of faith in Christ. This alone renders all the rest more terrible and the world ripe for God's judgment. For Jesus Himself said:

"For when the Son of man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8

The answer seems there will be so little faith, that Jesus will scarcely find any at His coming among those who are living. Those having faith in Him will be diminished from among mankind. Looking around, nations are putting to death those who name Christ as Savior and Lord. Even in countries like the United States and England, religious denominations have sadly fallen from the faith, and have preserved very little more of Christianity than the mere name.

In those churches that keep up "a form of godliness" (Scripture reading, prayer, worship, etc...), there is a lack of power, and even those few persons who live by "the power of the Spirit" are treated as unorthodox or unwanted.

These are some of the sure signs of our Lord's coming in final Judgment. We are assured that His coming is not at a great distance. When we see tree leaves budding, we know that summer is near. And so likewise, when we see these things come to pass, we know that Christ's coming to establish heaven on earth is at hand. It will not be long before the Son of man comes with power and great glory, and because we are confident He will come, and yet we do not know the day nor the hour, we are to always wait in watchfulness and prayer.

Our Lord requires us to always be in this frame of mind, for with His own words, He says, "Surely I come quickly" (Revelation 22:20). "Surely," says the Almighty Judge, "I come quickly for Judgment" - to which those who know the Judge reply, "Even so, come Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22:20).

Would it be wonderful if we all could see the signs of His coming and say, "Amen! Even so, come, Lord Jesus!"?

Are you ready for His coming? Are you not only prepared, do you pray for His coming? Do you wait for it in faith, and are you looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ? If you can say, "Yes!" to these questions, then indeed, you are at peace with God and joyfully expect His coming. But if you do not find yourself at peace and filled with joy at the knowledge of Christ's coming in Judgment, then the next section may be of some help.

Second, prepare to meet your God.

Since Christ will soon come in Judgment, you ought, therefore, to be prepared to meet your God. He will come in all the glory and majesty of God, attended with a multitude of the heavenly host, and before Him will all the nations be gathered. Everyone, including you, must appear before Him. You will meet the almighty God in personal judgment when He comes to take vengeance on His those who have rejected Him and lived careless lives. Should we not be prepared for such a meeting?

You cannot resist the Almighty. You cannot run from His presence. You cannot conceal your secret thoughts from Him. You cannot avoid this meeting. Is it not then in your best interest to make the almighty Judge your friend?

Jesus once gave us a parable about this upcoming meeting with Him as Judge:

"Suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace." Luke 14:31-32

So it is when you have secured terms of peace with your sovereign Judge, and when you are under the protection of His almighty power, then you are prepared to meet Him in Judgment. This preparation to meet Him ought to be the principal business of your life, and you ought to labor to secure His friendship.

But how shall you make God your friend? Your careless living has made Him your enemy. The presence of guilt in your conscience makes the thought of His coming to Judge you a terrible thought indeed. Only those already condemned have no fear of God. But you have a healthy fear of facing Him. You know that if you could take away your failures in life to love God and to love others as you should have done, then your Judge verycould be your friend. But how can you cleanse your soul which is already stained? How can your life be purged of the pollution caused by your failure to obey God in loving Him and your fellow man more than yourself?

Faith in the good news of what Jesus Christ has done for failures like us is the only way of bringing our mind, soul, and emotions into a joyful state of anticipation in meeting our Judge. But the only way you will ever see your need for Jesus is to be awakened with alarm! A sinner often feels secure in sin, One cannot be prepared to meet God until there is an awakening of one's awful condition. You must be deeply convinced of your guilt and danger, and understand the sense of both, before you will ever be humble enough to trust Jesus and not yourself. This is the first step of preparation to meet your God.

The Holy Spirit must open your eyes to see your ruined condition. You must see that the God who created you is at enmity with you because of your rebellion toward Him. Since your God is the God of all nature, even the powers of nature are bent on your destruction because of your sin. If you are to be delivered, it must be of the free mercy of your Judge, for there is nothing in you that can purge the past or change your character.

The religious hypocrites and self-righteous are smug about their standing with God. But you must come to the place where you lack the confidence to even look to heaven. You must see yourself for who you really are, and feel the pain of your careless living, and cry out: 

"Lord, be merciful to me a sinner." 

Under this conviction of a need for mercy, you will labor, feeling the pain of your need and fear from an initial lack of confidence that your Judge will be merciful. Yet, this is the very entrance and door to your deliverance, and it is the first step of preparation to meet your God. Therefore, it is a great blessing indeed when you come to the end of confidence in yourself and your abilities to offer God anything in payment for your past mistakes. It is even a greater blessing to disdain any future promises of reform to God because you don't even trust yourself.  For you see, the deeper and more distressing your self-knowledge becomes, the greater the necessity will it be for you to find mercy from your Judge. You'll begin to seek a solution outside of yourself. The certain promise from God is that when you seek His righteousness, you will find it.

"Blessed is he who hungers and thirst after righteousness, for he will be filled." Matt 5:6

In God's own good time, you will begin to find your interest in this promise. You will have faith to apply this promise to yourself. You will hunger for Christ, and you will find your satisfaction in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and not your own (see Philippians 3:7-11).  The love of God in Christ will begin to fill your heart by the Holy Spirit, giving you joy and peace in believing in Him. The sense of God's love for you in Christ suffering and dying in your stead, rising again for your righteous standing before God, will cast out fear. You will come to know with assurance that Jesus Christ is both your Savior and God. 

You will begin to find daily proof of Christ as your Savior and Lord through a change in the way you live. Your desires will be so entirely changed, that you find yourself loving and delighting in doing the will of God. You will have the strength and grace to live according to His royal command to love other people the way He has loved you (John 13:34) . This commandment will be no burden for you, for it is fulfilled simply by God's love for you overflowing from within you to others. You will come to the place of watching and praying for the Lord's coming, whenever and however He comes (e.g. in your death or in His coming in Judgment to the world), and you are fully prepared to meet Him. Your Judge is now your Friend.

This is the method that the gospel (e.g. good news) prepares us to meet our God.

1. The gospel first convinces us of our predicament because of our sin, a state of enmity with God, and our unpreparedness to meet Him.
2. The gospel then convinces us of our reconciliation with God through the Person and work of Jesus Christ, and we come to trust Christ as our only source of right standing before God.
3. The Holy Spirit then bears witness with our spirits, that we are God's children, and that we have the outward witness of a change of life, loving others the way He has loved us - unconditionally, sacrificially, and selflessly. 
4. We then come to the place of full and complete assurance of our friendship with the almighty Judge, for He has washed us from our sins in His blood, clothed us with His all-perfect righteousness, having delivered us from the fear of Judgment.
5. Our fear in this life and the next is removed for "perfect love casts out fear," and what can we fear when our Savior is our Judge? He will come in Judgement on those who do not know Him, but His omnipotence is our protection. He ushers us into His eternal kingdom, where we enjoy all the blessings of His grace and goodness forever.

Blessed is the person who is prepared to meet God in this manner. Are you prepared? Have you secured friendship with your Judge? When He comes, are you ready to meet Him? Your eternal happiness or misery depends on how you respond to the call to prepare to meet your God. 

We trust that the importance of preparing to meet God has commanded your attention, for you have read the warning to this point. We close with a final lesson.

Third, prepare to meet your God.

You have heard the character of the Judge; He is your God. He is One who inhabits eternity. The Lord of hosts is His name. He is the almighty Creator of all things visible and invisible. He spoke and brought into existence the things which are made.. He commands and they stand fast. His providence rules over all things, and He upholds everything by the word of His power.

This eternal, infinite, and almighty God has appointed a day where He will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know their God and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. He shall punish them with everlasting destruction from His very presence, and from the glory of His power. Such is the glorious majesty of the Judge, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

Are you prepared to meet Him? Is there fear or dread in your mind at the thought He could come tonight? If you should hear the loud trumpet of God calling the world to judgment, and if you should see the Lord of heaven and earth coming with thousands and ten thousands of angels and saints, how would it affect you? 

Consider whether you could stand the shock of it all. Look into your heart and see if you are ready to appear before Christ's seat of Judgment. Put the question to yourself like this: 

"Suppose the Judge were to come at this very hour. Am I prepared to meet my God?"

If you are prepared, then you are happy and at peace. But if you are not, you are and will be miserable unless you can be persuaded to seek to make your Judge your Friend. This will be an attempt, with God's help, in two or three closing remarks.

First, if you do not believe the doctrines that have been laid out in this post, then you must understand the trouble you are in. Many are open enemies to the God of the Bible and His Christ. They have denied that Jesus is God, and they believe they are out of reach of His judgment. I hope you are not in this category. If you are, when events in this life put a fear in your heart, the only comfort you can find till be to listen to those who scoff at the gospel and seek to assure you that all that happens is the result of merely natural causes. Have you considered whether it is any less terrible to be destroyed by natural causes than it is to be destroyed by the God of nature?

It is a poor philosopher indeed who must get rid of Providence behind nature to get rid of fear from nature. For safety, some will take shelter in atheism. They talk incessantly about a Supreme Being in their efforts to deny His existence, and yet they indeed are rank a-theists, for their supreme being is one of nothingness. Don't fall for their poison.

God has been pleased to reveal His essence and personality to us, and His revealedaccount of Himself they deny. Consequently, whatever they set up against Him, be it a God in one Person, or thirty thousand gods, it is all a mere imagination, one supreme being with existence. No wonder they live such libertine lives since they are without God in this world. And what can we do for those like this, people who have adopted a system of practical atheism? All we can do is pray that the eternal Spirit will open their eyes that they may have a glimpse of the truth and see that Jesus is God.

If, however, they continue in their denial of Jesus Christ, and if they continue to refuse to confess Him before men, there is coming a day when they all shall confess that He is God indeed. At the glory of His appearance, these bold blasphemers who now ridicule His divinity will be calling on the mountains to fall on them and the hills to cover them. The majesty of God the almighty Judge will strike them with terror. When they are called before His throne to give an account for their hard speeches against Him, they will stand guilty, trembling, and waiting for their righteous sentence.  The sentence will carry with it inexpressible misery as they hear, "Go you cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." I hope you are not among those on that Day.

Second, it could be that you are moving from carelessness regarding God into consideration of these claims. It could be that you even consider yourself a Christian, but your profession means little since you live for this world and seldom think of eternity. Your own personal pleasure and entertainment in this life is the chief object of your pursuit. You fight for money, honor, and power, that you may enjoy yourself more. Be careful. All without Christ pursue such things, and they go securely on in their sins, careless about any concern of eternity. Even professing Christians can have hearts engaged in other matters than preparing to meet their God. 

Attachment to this world is the greatest obstacle to preparation to meet God. This is why were are forbidden to love this world or the things in it.

"Love not the world, or the things of the world, for if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." I John 2:15

 Of course, if the love of God is not in us, we cannot be prepared to meet Him in judgment. Consider this when you attempt to speak "peace to your soul" while you continue to indulge in your sin against God. You may profess a belief in God, and even that He will one day Judge the world, but you continue in your sins. The Judge may come for you tonight, and you are not prepared. You have no concern about meeting Him, though you should.

You continue to hate others, be unforgiving to others, judge and condemn others, and live an uncharitable, selfish life, and yet you have no concern? What can anyone think of such conduct? Certainly, a person of sound mind cannot act in such an absurd manner. It is against reason. If you were to set out on a journey of several hundred miles, would you not make more preparation for the journey than you are right now doing for eternity? It is against your best self-interest to consider any and all present and empty indulgences in sin as an equivalent for your eternal happiness.

Are you in this state? Are you guilty of these inconsistencies? The Judge may come within the hour, and you are not looking for Him. He may come and find you unprepared as you are at present. You cannot promise yourself an hour to prepare in. His judgments are now on the earth, and they are sent to wake you out of your false security. Oh that you would be awakened by them and see your sense of false security.

Do you not suppose that the inhabitants of the Lisbon, Portugal thought themselves safe the morning of the great earthquake, just as you feel safe at present? They did not imagine that God was going to destroy them that morning. You have heard how they were surprised and overthrown with great destruction. While they were speaking, "Peace, peace" unto themselves, they were called in a moment to Judgment. One had his heart set upon getting a financial fortune that day, and was just sitting down to count his accounts, and was cut off in a moment, called to Judgement with a soul full of the love of money.

Another, intent upon feeding the desire for wild and illicit indulgences had his soul taken in the middle of an act of immorality, his soul brought before the all pure and holy Judge. One with an oath in his mouth was calling for damnation upon his own soul. The earthquake came while the words were in his mouth, and down he will sink in judgment for his sins. It is dreadful to think of how the people of Lisbon were surprised and cut off in their sins.

Suppose such a judgment came upon your city this day, how would it overtake the people of your city? Those with wealth and riches, tired by the diversions and entertainments of the preceding day, would be surprised in their sleep and would awake in the eternal world full of hatred to Jesus Christ and His people, and the holy faith. And the poor of your city, they would be about the devil's work, careless in their sins, lying, cursing, swearing and blaspheming God, but snatched way with some horrid imprecation in their mouths.

Why may this not happen to you in your city as well as to the inhabitants of Lisbon? Why may you not be cut off like this to die in your sins, yes in the very act of sin? You have more reason to fear it than they had, for your sins are greater than theirs. Don't make the mistake of thinking that the people of Lisbon were greater sinners than all others. Jesus says, "Not at all. Except you repent, you will also perish" (Luke 13:3).

The immorality of the Portuguese run even more rampant in our cities. Worse, the contempt of Jesus Christ and His people, as well as opposition to the progress of the gospel at present among us, are crimes of deeper guilt than the Portuguese had to answer for in their lifetimes. The common people of Portugal were in much more darkness than the people of this country, and they had not the light of the gospel shining as clearly among them as you have. Therefore, they were not as guilty of that one damnable sin which makes all other sins so exceeding sinful. When you reject the light of your gospel understandings, and you act contrary to the light you have, and you continue in your sins, your guilt is worse.

God sends His ministers to plead with you, but their counsel you reject with contempt. His good Spirit strives with you, but you resist and grieve Him. You have the Scriptures in your hands, and you may there read the dangers of your careless way of life, but the Scripture has no influence. If none of these incentives prevail, be assured that your guilt will increase in proportion to the advantages you enjoy. The more reason there was for your being prepared to meet your God, the heavier condemnation there will be if He should come and find you unprepared.  May you consider these things in your heart, and by the grace of the Holy Spirit, now resolve to prepare yourself for the coming of the almighty God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And finally, if there is any desire to be prepared to meet God, there is one motive which ought to have a great weight on you, and it is a matter of fact. There are, thank God, many persons in your city who have obtained the love and friendship of the Supreme Judge. Look into their lives, and examine them closely. See how they are affected with the reports of these temporal judgments which are now on the earth. Look what you see in them:

1. You will find no dread, no fear in their minds.
2. They are not afraid of bad news, nor live in fear of tomorrow.
3. They possess peace and joy, which arises from a sense of God's loving them in Jesus Christ.
4. They know their God as the Lord of nature and all men, and He will make all things work together for good, and therefore their hearts are established and they will not shrink though the earth should quake from its very foundations and the hills should be carried into the midst of the sea (Psalm 46).
5. If the entire course of the world changes, they have nothing to fear.
6. God is their friend.
7. They are kept by the arms of the Almighty.
8. In life and death, they can keep their minds on God in perfect peace.
9. You can see clearly that these are Christians in a safe and happy state.
10. For God has promised them this safety and security, and in Him, they rest.

When you see this, how does it affect you? Do you not also wish that you might find the protection of the Almighty God? Whenever God comes to visit a sinful people laden with iniquity, to be glorified in their destruction, you may be exceeding glad, knowing that your eternal redemption is at hand.

Lay all these considerations together, and they may strengthen you. God is preparing to meet you in Judgment, and eternity depends on your being prepared ot meet Him. You have no time to loaf. He may come for you this night. Are you prepared? What will your condition be if He calls you unprepared? 

Come to Him this moment. Go to the throne of grace for pardon in Christ, lest you should be called before the throne of Christ without pardon. Cry aloud for mercy. The Judge may still be called upon before He takes His seat in Judgement. Plead with Him until you are convinced He is your Friend. Remind Him of His love for sinners. Speak of His bloody sweat, His bitter cross and suffering, His cruel mockings, beatings, and scourgings, which He endured all for sinners. 

Plead these with Him and lay before Him the torments and the shame of the cross. Call upon the piercing of His hands and feet, which are the engraving of His love for sinners. Be assured that His tender heart is not wanting of love for sinners, for He bled to death for their salvation. Place your whole trust and confidence in the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ, and doubt not but He will hear your plea and will give you such a taste of His pardoning love, to fill you with His gifts and grace, that you will be fully prepared to meet your God.

We trust that God has answered our prayers for you today, and if it is His will, that will be disposed toward you to grant the grace for you to seek an interest in the Judge of all the earth. We don't think you would have read this far without His mercy.

He is coming in Judgement, and He comes quickly. May the Holy Spirit prepare us all to meet Him! If He should come tonight, how would HE find you? Are you ready? Are you fit to die? Have you prepared? If you should hear a great cry at midnight, and the Savior comes, are you ready to meet Him as a bride her groom? 

And, if you should die in a sudden earthquake, or a heart attack, or a tragic accident, are you confident that the Judge is your Friend? Think of what an awful thing it would be if you were to enter your eternal world this very night where your fate is unalterably fixed. O what continual preparation you should be making for eternity! If you die unprepared, ALL is lost. 

Beg of God, right now, to show you your danger and ask Him to deliver you from it. The door of mercy is still open. Oh, that you will find the entrance and press forward until you receive the grace to prepare you to meet your God. Why don't you look to Him right now, and in the following prayer, ask Him to assist you to "prepare to meet your God."

Prayer: 

"Almighty God, please give me the grace that I need to cast away the selfish works of darkness and to put on the armor of light, right now in this life of mortality, the time in which your Son Jesus Christ visited us in great humility, so that in the Last Day, when He shall come again in glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, I may be prepared to meet him and may rise to  the life immortal, through Him who lives and reigns with You, and the Holy Spirit, both now and forever. Amen."

If you have prayed this prayer, we would love to hear from you. Please email us at istoriaministries@gmail.com