Tag: president

The Signs of the Time (to Come)

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I rarely talk about political issues on this website because I believe in the separation of church and state, so to speak, and this ministry is a teaching ministry, not a political one.

However, I do want to talk about the political divisiveness in our country, as well as the socio-political upheavals within Europe.

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Many countries in Europe have been overrun with Muslims, and they are literally taking over the countries they have migrated into through social reforms (if you can call despotic Sharia law reforming) resulting in the existing governments beginning to capitulate to their demands. Their population is growing at a phenomenal rate, while the indigenous populations are not only growing much slower but in fact, are not even growing at a rate that will be able to sustain the population. Some have predicted that at the current rate of population growth in many European countries, within just a few decades the indigenous peoples will no longer exist in their own country.

In America, the divisiveness over whether or not the President is good or terrible (there doesn’t seem to be any “grey” in this argument) has caused many people, even from the moment he took office, to call for his impeachment. There have been a number of accusations, but in the end, none have been proven viable, and some of the accusers later admitted to having lied.

All of this is, to me, a spiritual sign of the time; not really the times as they are, but the times to come.

The Antichrist will first come as a sort of peacemaker, someone who will bring us together, promote peace and social communion, and offer a program of government that will appeal to everyone. This is always a good thing, but when it is promised within the current environment of social, political, and economic unrest, it is significantly more appealing. After all, if we are doing well as a country, who needs what we (seemingly) already have? However, when people are so divided that even within families they argue vehemently, the promise of a universal solution to all our problems is like a drink of cool water after being in the desert for a year.

The Antichrist is supposed to create peace for 3 1/2 years, then will expose himself (or herself) and demand to be worshiped as God. By then, the mark will have been distributed, those who remain faithful will be persecuted, and the world will follow the Beast.

All of this, I believe, will be predicated upon the entire globe looking for a solution to the social, political, and economic unrest it has been suffering for years. I believe what we are seeing now are the “birth pains” that Yeshua talked about in Matthew 24:8.  We are seeing the foundations for a one-world government and one-world economy already being poured and formed. Eventually, there will be a one-world religion, as well, which may not be religion as we think it is, but a different type of religion. Maybe technology will be our new god and become a new religion (I think that is a definite possibility, if not already here) or sports, or something else that unifies people and promises them worldly rewards and pleasures. Whatever it is going to be, when politics, economy, and religion are controlled by the Antichrist, it will be too late for anyone to do anything about it.

At that point, we will be able to do nothing but maintain our faith and wait for Yeshua to sort it all out.

So, that is all I wanted to say today. I see the end of the world, as we know it, sinking in the West and in the East, the world as Revelation tells us it will be appearing on the horizon.

What do you see?

 

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Please don’t hesitate to donate to the Ugandan Messianic Synagogue project I am running, which I will be closing at the end of this week. It is to send Bibles and Bible study materials to congregations in three Messianic synagogues in a rural section of Uganda, who all want to better know God and the Torah. Anything you send will help; here is the link to that Gofundme campaign:

Ugandan Messianic Help

Until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!

 

Enough already!!

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I really don’t want this ministry to become a political sounding board, but I am going to make an exception today because of what I see happening.

It doesn’t have to do with any policies or choices that President Trump (yes, he is- deal with it) has recently initiated, or with the controversy (ongoing and most likely, never stopping) associated with the past election, but with the reactions of the people to these events.

I have read about a shooting in a Canadian mosque where the main things written about the shooter is that he is pro-Israel and pro-Trump. Maybe those were his motivations, but I think he was probably anti-Muslim before he decided to be pro-Israel or pro-Trump.

In fact, what I think is this (and please comment below if you agree or disagree, although I will not let this discussion get out of hand): anyone who has a grudge against a people or a religion have it for their own reasons and not because of who is in charge. What they do, though, is use the person in charge as their excuse for taking the actions they would have done, anyway. And the media? They eat it up!

Was it Jodie Foster’s fault that John Hinckley, Jr. tried to assassinate President Reagan? This attack against a mosque has no more merit to it than that excuse did.

When the American diplomat’s in Iran were taken hostage, many Americans attacked and brutally mistreated many Arab people living in America. No one protested that.

During the Second World War, Japanese Americans (who, for the record, were Americans that were of Japanese descent) were herded up and forced into concentration camps (yes, that is what they were) for years until the war was over. It was a despicable event in our history (just one of many), but no one protested or attacked President Roosevelt for doing it, at least not on the same level as what is happening today.

When the world seems to be falling apart (or maybe we should say, tearing itself apart) the best thing to do to seek answers to what we, those who worship God, should do is to look in the Manual and see what God has told us to do:

Proverbs 24:21-22– My son, fear the Lord and the king, and do not join with those who do otherwise, for disaster will arise suddenly from them, and who knows the ruin that will come from them both?

Hebrews 13:17- Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Titus 3:1- Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work,

1 Peter 2:17- Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.

(OK, let the jokes fly about ‘Trump’ and ‘Emperor’ in the same sentence)

Romans 13:1-7- Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.

Some of these may be a little out of context, but what Yeshua (Jesus) tells us, as well as God, is to obey God, and trust in God that the rulers He has appointed over you will also be judged by God. This, of course, is culturally a little different today, since in the biblical days the rulers were not elected. As such, in our day, because we elect the rulers we do have a responsibility to ensure that our rulers are just and true, subjecting themselves to the laws that govern all of us.

As a life-long student of history (my undergraduate degree specialized in early American history), I have to say that more often than not, our rulers have fallen short of that ideal. And when they have, to the extent that it is known, we have taken action: President Johnson (Andrew, not Lyndon) was impeached, President Clinton was impeached, and President Nixon was (essentially) forced to resign. Thomas Jefferson has been quoted as saying that the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of revolution, which today is more peaceably accomplished through demonstrations and protests, as we have seen since the election results of last year.

So, what’s the point? The point is that God is in charge, and if you believe that then you need to show it by accepting and respecting His choices.

We all complain, and we all seem to want someone else to do something about it. So, unless you are willing to do something against the leadership that God has placed above you, just give it a rest! I am fed up with all this hullabaloo about Russians hacking our systems- they’ve been at it for decades; the Chinese hack into our networks to gain political and military secrets and the Russians have their pharmaceutical websites to rip off the world. They have been doing this for years and will continue to do so. The media is making a big deal out of it not because it is a recent development, but to ride the wave of discontentment that had this country nearly split apart, politically.

I believe in our American system of jurisprudence, and I also know from my study of history that we have done more to promote justice, fair treatment and democracy than any other country in the world. We have our problems, and we will always have our problems; you can never please everyone. Now here’s a rose-colored glasses viewpoint, if ever there was one: if everyone was willing to go along with the majority and work together for the common good, we would be as close to an ideal form of government as human beings could ever create.

I am waiting for the only truly perfect government: a pure theocracy with Yeshua sitting on the throne over the earth as King of kings. It is coming, and until then all I can do is respect what rulers we have (if not the person, then the position) and work with them to try to make this country better. And if I disagree with the policies, and think I have a better one, then do something about it within the legal system. When I was in management and someone didn’t like what I was doing I would ask them for a better plan. If they had one, I would be willing to consider it (asking for suggestions doesn’t mean having to take them) and if they only wanted to complain, I didn’t want to hear it.

I am still the same way- either put up or shut up!

God is very much like that, too; He is always willing to listen to prayer; however, if you only complain about something, but won’t walk in faith to make change happen, God will not be going out of His way to support you. Prayer is asking God to make something happen, but we have to work towards it in faithful expectation.

In Matthew 21:22 , Yeshua tells us that we can pray for anything, and if we have faith, we will receive it. Yacov tells us (James 2:17) that faith without works is dead, so put these two together and we what we are being told is that when we pray for something, faithfully believing it will happen, we will receive it, and the way we show faithfully believing is to perform works, i.e., do what we prayed to receive as if we already have it.

So, if you want to change the legal system, write a bill and start getting the requisite number of signatures to put it before the Congress. If you want to change a policy, come up with a better policy and begin to get support, legally and respectfully.

In the meantime, respect the authority placed over you by GOD and work with it to make things as good as they can be.

Parashah Shofetim (Judges) Deuteronomy 16:18 – 21:9

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The laws covered in this portion of the Torah refer to the appointment of judges at all the gates of the cities, with admonitions against judging unfairly, for any reason. Warnings, again, against idolatry, rules for a king, should they choose to ask God to appoint one, rulings about the Levites, their lack of inheritance and proper due from the sacrifices, regulations and warnings about prophets, both true and false, criminal laws and rules of engagement for battle. It ends with instructions regarding cleansing the town of blood guilt when there is an unsolved murder committed there.

What I want us to discuss today is about what God tells us a king should be. The king must, first and foremost, be a native, be chosen by God, and be benevolent. He must not gather up riches (for himself), multiply horses (to make war) or have many wives who may turn his heart away from following the Lord.

Most important, I believe, was the regulation that the king had to have a copy of the Torah (arguably, some say just the book of Deuteronomy) that he must read daily and keep with him, literally next to him, always.

David did that, Solomon did that, most of his rule, but he did multiply wives that turned him from the law. The kings of the Northern tribes, Shomron, never really kept to this commandment about the kings keeping the Torah laws, and we know what happened to them. The kings of the Southern tribes, in Judah, usually kept to the Torah but in the end they fell away, especially after Manasseh, and they were destroyed, too.

Today, our king, the President, along with our judges, the Supreme Court, have all fallen away from the law. They have kicked God out of the courts and out of the government. They have multiplied horses with wars in the Middle East, Asia and South America. They are amassing riches by playing with tax laws, screwing up health reforms and the country, itself, is so litigious that we are destroying our ability to afford insurance because the courts appoint ridiculous awards to stupid people for hurting themselves, then blaming the manufacturer for not warning them against being idiots.

We have disobeyed God in the way He said the government should be run. This is what we saw in First Century Judea- the king (Herod) was not a native and most certainly didn’t study or care about Torah (although he did let Yochanan the Immerser set him straight on things, now and then), the judges weren’t always Levites, many being appointees of Herod, and I don’t think anyone can argue that Herod’s wife did not turn his heart to ungodliness.

I love this country, I served in the Marine Corps, and still believe it is one of the most righteous and fair-minded countries in the world. The government we have is still, despite it’s failings, one of the most successful, non-monarchical governments in history.  Yet, I am almost ready to divorce it because it is becoming a godless (even god-hating) rule by sin instead of rule by God. As I said, the Supreme Court has ruled God has no place in our justice system. The Ten Commandments must not even be seen anywhere near a courtroom. Did you know that when you take an oath in a courtroom you do not have to swear on the Bible? You can simply affirm that you will tell the truth. I guess that makes sense, doesn’t it? When the government (king and judges) doesn’t respect or honor God, why bother expecting it’s citizens to do so? And throughout history governments that reject God have suffered and been destroyed, haven’t they?

I am an American, and for better or worse, I am still an American. But I am ashamed of my country, and I know from reading God’s Word that this country will fall, as did Shomron, as did Judah, as have Rome, Babylon, and Greece. Just as all the major kingdoms of the Earth that have rejected God have fallen, my country, which I love, will fall, too.

We live in the End Days- the people are being regathered to Israel and the judgement of the Nations is coming. America will be judged for her godlessness and disobedience. It is sad, it is more than sad, it is terrible! It is terrible that we were once a nation formed by those seeking to worship God, and we have ended up as a nation which rejects God in everything we do.

God told Jeremiah when the kingdom of Judah was about to be destroyed for it’s disobedience, do not pray for it. I think that we should follow that advice and not pray for America. It is too late, we are already done for, the judgement is coming and we who know God’s word should know this, yet the country will not listen and they, frankly, do not care. All that is left now for Believers to do is try to turn as many individuals back to God as we can before the ax falls.

It’s sad and I sound pessimistic, but I am really being optimistic. The worse it gets in the world, the closer we come to the return of Messiah Yeshua, His millennial rule, and the new creation where we spend eternity in the glorious presence of the Holy of Holy’s.

Many of us are going to get dirty when this all happens, but God is waiting at the other end with a hot shower, plenty of soap and a brand new body. Just stay on course, friends, just stay on course.