The Gospel Light And Truth Crusade – Page 7 – Holding fast the faithful Word (Titus 1:9)

The True Meaning of Christmas 2015

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Grace and peace, Saints.

Well, another Christmas is upon us, and, again, millions of people will be spending money they don’t have to buy presents they can’t afford for people who neither appreciate nor need them. The line between the haves and the have nots will become broader and bolder, and people everywhere will remember why they always hated Christmas. Arguably, no other time reminds people just how poor they really are like Christmastime.

I can remember when I first came back to Germany, after getting out of the military, back in December, 1998, about a month before Christmas and about a week before the birth of my middle daughter. My then girlfriend, who is now my wife, and I had gone to the shopping mall to “window shop.” The mall was teaming with cheery people and screaming children, and the smell of cookies, cakes, and pies, and other baked goods filled the air. I was more grateful about being reunited with my girlfriend than I was about the approaching Christmas season, because she and I had been separated for about six months prior to this. As we walked hand in hand, perusing all the beautifully decorated confectionaries and bakeries with all their cakes, chocolates, pies, and cookies on display for all to see, it suddenly dawned on me that as beautiful as all of this was, none of it was free. Everything these stores had to offer cost money. And if you didn’t have the money to buy any of these things, then you were out of luck.

That was my situation: my wife and I were flat broke. And the better the food smelled, the more beautiful and sparklier the decorations were, and the happier the people looked, the broker I felt. And the fact that my wife was with me did not help matters at all. In fact, it made things worse.

My wife used to be a very cheap date. She just didn’t ask for much. But one thing she has always loved is roasted walnuts. And the time my wife most loves roasted walnuts is during the Christmas season. Now, roasted walnuts are always available somewhere in Munich year-round, but during the Christmas season, roasted walnuts are prolific. Everywhere you turn, there is someone selling roasted walnuts. Everywhere you walk, there are bags of roasted walnuts somewhere on display. And every five minutes, you are bumping into someone eating roasted walnuts. At Christmastime, roasted walnuts are literally everywhere.

So you can probably appreciate my chagrin as we passed store after store, confectionary after confectionary, and nut stand after nut stand, while the smell of roasted walnuts wafted through the air. But the only thing I have in my pockets is lint. Again, my wife used to be a cheap date, and she would understand if I didn’t have the money to get her what she wanted. She well understood, however, that she was a cheap date. And she knew that as a woman, she deserved a lot more than I could offer her. So, when my wife wanted roasted walnuts, she got roasted walnuts.

That day, however, there was absolutely nothing I could do. I was flat broke. So broke, in fact, that I couldn’t even pay attention. So broke, that if it weren’t for the lint in my pockets, they would have been completely empty. So broke, that if I had passed one of those Santa Clauses on the street corner ringing his bell asking for donations, he might have had a problem. Yes, I was that broke. And that wan “That’s OK baby” smile on my wife’s face didn’t help matters at all.

All this came back to me a couple of weeks ago, when I went to the mall and saw all the beautiful decorations, nativity scenes, and all the candy and baked good vendors situated in the center of the mall thoroughfare. And again this week, as I watched a news story on “Christmas stress,” and the fact that most people are highly relieved when Christmas is over, with its hustle and bustle of shopping for presents, decorating the house, and sweating over a hot stove cooking dinner for dozens of family and friends, not to mention the traffic jams and crowded airports that characterize the Christmas travel season.

As I considered this, I realized that Satan was at the bottom of it. Who else, but Satan, that old serpent and the father of lies, would take Christmas–the greatest day in the history of the world–and twist it, pervert it, and profane it, by turning it into a day that poor people dread, “middle-class” people regret, and rich people profane. Satan hates Christmas, not because the name of Jesus is glorified that day, because you and I know that that is certainly not the case. Satan hates Christmas because Jesus was born that day. And Satan knows that if Jesus had not been born, then Jesus could not have died. And it was Jesus’ death and the shedding of His blood that set you and me free from the curse of sin. The Bible says:

“Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, [Jesus] also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil;

“And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14-15).”

Satan is a defeated foe. He has been conquered by the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I, as Christians, are also conquerors through the blood of Jesus. Satan has no power over us except that which has been granted him by the Lord Jesus.

Satan is not happy about this at all. Of all days, Satan hates Christmas more than any other day. He would like nothing more than to wipe that day from history and from memory forever. He cannot, however, so he ops for the next best thing: to profane Christmas: to twist it, to pervert it, and, above all, to commercialize it. Satan makes Christmas about everything but Jesus. Christmas is not about Jesus. Christmas is about money—spending money, that is.

If you’re going to put up a Christmas tree, unless you live in or near the forest, you have to buy a tree. Then, unless you have the lights and ornaments from the previous year, you have to buy those. Then you have to buy lights and ornaments for the house. Then you have to buy presents for family and friends. Then you have to buy a “Christmas goose” or a ham and other food for the Christmas dinner. And, if you’re going to have family over who live in another state (or states), you might need to buy extra blankets, pillows, or even an extra bed or mattresses. And we can’t have people sitting on ten-year-old couches, can we? KA-CHING!

You may even have to buy a plane or bus ticket for a family member who is unable to do so. And if you have children, you may have to buy a Christmas present or two or three for them to give to their classmates at school. Add to that the box of chocolates for the mailman, the teachers, your boss, etc. etc.

Christmas is only a day long, yet the reverberations from this day can and often do reach all the way until the next Christmas. As you can see, Christmas is not at all about Jesus. Christmas is about MONEY. If you have money, you celebrate Christmas. If you don’t have money, you dread Christmas. This should not be.

As Christians, we need to think about why we do what we do. Romans 12:2 says that we should not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. We should not be celebrating Christmas the same way the world celebrates Christmas. We should not have a Christmas tree, we should not be spending a lot of money on presents, and we should not be telling our children that Santa Claus is coming to town. The only thing we should be on Christmas is thankful that Jesus Christ was born into the world to take away our sins. We should be grateful for our salvation.

Christmas is nowhere to be found in the Bible. The Apostle Paul said that one man believes one day to be more important than others, while another man believes all days are the same. He went on to say that every man should be “fully persuaded in his own mind.” In other words, it is not necessary for Christians to celebrate Christmas, as Jesus never mandated we celebrate the day of His birth. I believe the reason He didn’t do this is because He knew that men would legalize His birthday the way the Pharisees legalized the Sabbath. And Jesus is about liberty, not slavery.

Now, there is nothing wrong with celebrating the birth of our Savior, especially in the antichrist climate in which we now live. But Jesus did not command us to celebrate His birthday. In fact, the first-century Church didn’t celebrate Christmas.

Whose idea was it then, to celebrate Christmas? Did you know that Christmas stands for Christ Mass? And who celebrates the Mass? Why, the Roman Catholic church. And the Roman Catholic church is a pagan institution. Christmas is pagan.

Let me illustrate. Did you know that the practice of giving and receiving presents is Satan’s perversion of the story of the wise men of the East, who came to visit the family of our Savior (when he was about two years old) and gave presents to the young child Jesus? Listen to Scripture:

“And when [the wise men] where come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped Him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto Him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh” (Matt. 2:11).

Did you see that? The wise men gave gifts unto Jesus. Why? Because they knew that Jesus is God Almighty in the flesh, and that He was born to take away the sins of the world. Why, then, do we give each other gifts? Did any of us die for the sins of mankind? No, we did not. Then we ought not to be giving each other gifts, should we?

We don’t give Christmas gifts in our house. That’s for birthdays.

Let me share something else with you: Did you know that putting up and decorating a Christmas tree is an ancient pagan custom? Hear what the Bible says:

“For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

“They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

“They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good” (Jeremiah 10:3-5).

You will note that the verse addresses the fact that the Christmas tree can neither speak nor move, and that one must not be afraid of it. This would be a very strange thing to say, unless you understand that, in those days, the Christmas tree was an idol. It represented Nimrod, the first king of ancient Babylon. Nimrod was called “The Oak,” because of his great stature and strength, and was symbolized by trees, among other things. Gold and silver are representative of the sun and the moon, and represent Nimrod and his wife, Semiramis. Nimrod and Semiramis were both deified as the Sun God and the Moon Goddess, respectively.

People would erect the tree in their homes, deck it with silver and gold, and make their petitions of it. If they wanted something, they would write their petition on a piece of paper and attach it to the tree. In come cases, they would fashion a model of the desired object and set it under the tree.

And get this: the star, which people set atop the Christmas tree, represents Semisramis, the wife of Nimrod, and the queen of ancient Babylon. The star is a symbol of Semiramis in her aspect as the ancient Phoenician fertility goddess, Ashtoreth. The ancient Jews, including King Solomon, worshipped Ashtoreth with a star. Listen to this:

“Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god, Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them” (Acts 7:43).

Moloch is another name for Nimrod, and Remphan, according to the Oxford Dictionary of the English Language, is an “Egyptian goddess of the moon.” That would identify Remphan with Isis, who was also the Egyptian goddess of the moon. By now, you should know that Remphan is really Ashtoreth, who is really Semiramis, the wife of Nimrod.

Ashtoreth is the same goddess you see on the Starbucks logo with the star on her crown, only there she goes by a different name.

So, with the star on top of the Christmas tree, you have Nimrod and Semiramis, the first King and Queen of ancient Babylon, the worldwide center of paganism for thousands of years, in your living room.

1 Corinthians 10:19-20 of the Holy Bible says that behind every idol is a demon. Since the Christmas tree is really an idol, then once you set up a Christmas tree in your house, you are inviting a demon into your home. Now, is there any wonder that so many murders just happen to occur on Christmas in homes all over America every year? Remember Jon Benet Ramsey?

We don’t have a Christmas tree in our house: that’s for idolaters.

Finally, most people of European, and, especially German descent, know that Santa Claus or Sankt Nikolaus, is an old European folk character, which went house-to-house accompanied by a demon called Krampus (sometimes there were two such creatures), of which elves are merely a symbol. And everybody was scared of him.

We don’t recognize Satan Claus in our house: that’s for pagans.

See what Satan has done? He has completed perverted and distorted the true meaning of Christmas and turned it into something that only the rich and pagan can relate to. What a shame!

I said all that to say this: What people call Christmas is not really a celebration of the birth of our Savior. Christmas, as the world celebrates it, does not glorify God: it glorifies Satan. Satan hates Christmas, so he does his level best to destroy what should merely be a day of gratitude and joy that Jesus came into the world to take away our sins. Satan makes Christmas about everything but Jesus. Christmas is not about all the things that it has been associated with. Christmas is about Jesus Christ and His triumph over sin and Satan.

So, if you are not where you would like to be financially this Christmas, don’t worry. If there are no Christmas presents, don’t worry. If you have not been invited to Christmas dinner with friends or family, don’t worry. If you don’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend with whom to cuddle up in front of a Christmas fire, don’t worry. If you are in a tent in Afghanistan, Iraq, South Sudan, Syria, or any of the other trouble spots in the world, far away from family, don’t worry. If you don’t have a “Christmas tree,” don’t worry. If there is no snow where you live, don’t worry. If you are homeless and sleeping in a shelter, on the streets, in your car, or at a friend or relative’s house, don’t worry. If you are a police officer, an emergency room surgeon or staff, a nurse, a fireman, a pilot, a bus driver or taxi driver, or anyone else who can’t be at home because of your job or other responsibilities, don’t worry. And if you are just plain alone this Christmas, don’t you worry. Christmas is not about any of these things. Christmas is about one thing or should I say one Person: Jesus Christ.

The only thing that makes Christmas important is that Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world, was born in a manger in a little town called Bethlehem of Judea. Jesus Christ is God Almighty and was born into this world for one reason and one reason only: to die for the sins of the world, including yours and mine. If you think about it, the only people to whom Christmas really means any thing are Bible-believing Christians. If you are not saved, then you probably have no idea what Jesus did for you. And if you do know what Jesus did, but aren’t saved, then you probably couldn’t care less. You’re probably just happy you get a day off from work, right? But, if you think about it, even this is something you should thank the Lord Jesus for.

The best thing you can do for yourself this Christmas is to really get to know the Man for whom the day is named: You can talk to Jesus about anything. I talk to Jesus all the time, and I never worry that He is going to go and tell somebody what I told Him. That’s because, unlike our fake friends, Jesus really cares. Jesus is Holy. He never sinned in His whole life. But He was born into this sinful world just like you and I were, and He was tempted just like you and me. So He understands what you and I are going through.

Jesus wants to have a relationship with you today. But in order to have a relationship with Him, you have to come to Him with a true heart.

The Bible says, that if we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord shall not hear us (Ps. 88:7). Our sins are the only thing standing between Jesus and us. But if we accept what Jesus did for us, His death and the shedding of His blood on the cross for our sins, then Jesus will come into our hearts and be our Friend. The Bible says that Jesus sticks closer than any brother. Once you got Jesus for a Friend, you truly have a Friend.

If you are ready to make Jesus your Friend today, just close your eyes wherever you are, and talk to the Lord Jesus. This is called prayer. Say something like this:

“Lord Jesus, I understand now that Christmas is not about food and family gatherings, Christmas parties, presents, or a Christmas tree. I understand now that Christmas is not about being with friends, or cuddling up with a loved one in front of the fire. Christmas is about you and the sacrifice you made for me. I accept your sacrifice for my sins, Lord Jesus. Please come into my heart and be my Lord and my Savior. My friend.”

If you prayed that, or something like that, then you are now a Christian, and next Christmas, you will celebrate Christmas for the right reason and in the right way.

Thank you for joining me for this special Christmas 2015 edition of the Gospel Light and Truth Crusade. Find us on the web at www.GospelLightAndTruth.org. You can also visit our blog at www.TheStillMan.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel and also our podcast on iTunes, soon to be on Spreaker and other podcast venues. For your convenience, you may download the podcast of this article below.

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And, as always “Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

He Said/She Said – December 17, 2015

“We’re standing here on the brink of a whole new world.”

—Christiana Figueres, U.N. Climate Chief, in an interview with CNN’s Christianne Amanpour, on December 15, 2015, with regard to the “historic” agreement reached at the COP21 climate summit in Paris last week. The agreement called for the limiting of global warming to two degrees.

Did Jesus Die For My Future Sins?

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Grace and peace, Saints.

I recently received an email from one of our readers who had read our article on generational curses. I responded to her email, and she wrote me back later that day asking me a very interesting question. I want to share our correspondence with you drawing particular attention to the question she asked in her second email.

I must make it perfectly clear that we do not share anyone’s personal information with you. Though the situations are real, we use pseudonyms to protect the person’s identity. Because we are all looking for answers, we share this information in the hope that it will minister to others out there who may be going through the same thing.

[Begin letter]

Hi, its interesting to read your explanation as I notice there are generational curses resulting from my ancestors’ sins. I am [a] born again Christian and, lately, I have been lazy reading my Bible and praying. I also read some signs of generational curses one of which is chronic unemployment and broken relationships. I release this pattern in my life.

Also as a Chinese descent, my parents didn’t accept me as their daughter and I was almost aborted as a baby. Adoption was my mom’s option, but I was raised in this dysfunctional family. My mom suffered chronic illnesses before she died as she consulted paranormal fortune tellers and prayed to dead ancestors. Money was her idol as in my late father’s life. I don’t want to suffer the consequences of generational curses.

I think God directed me to your site as I asked Him how I can be delivered from curses. I’ve been unemployed for a long time, and when I would apply for jobs, my late dad would pronounce a curse on me so that I wouldn’t get the job. Is this spoken curse by God’s authority or by the spirit of limbo? It affects every relationship that I have had, and all contacts I have with other Christians. My mom used to say I would be divorced if I ever married and that even if I did manage to marry, I would not receive blessings from above. This is the word that she received from a fortune teller.

I need to know how to break these curses or generational curses. My siblings robbed me of my inheritance when my parents died. Thats another abuse. People in asia think women should carry burdens of aged parents and it’s normal to abuse daughters. I have God’s calling but I realise I can’t be effective as a Christian or receive God’s plans for me if I have to serve others.

[End letter]

This was my response:

Hello, Lilly.

You are correct when you say you cannot fulfill God’s calling on your life when you are in bondage to sin, as a generational curse is bondage. God can and will still use you, but for you to have the testimony God wants you to have, then you will have to break free of the generational curse that is holding you back.

Fortune telling is a form of witchcraft called divination, and praying to dead ancestors is another form of witchcraft called necromancy. It is also idolatry. Since your mom was guilty of these things, then you are bearing the burden of this activity. If you want to enjoy true freedom in Christ Jesus, then you will have to confess these sins to the Lord Jesus so that He may forgive them and set you free.

These curses that your mother and father spoke against you regarding marriage and employment were not spoken with God’s authority. God doesn’t curse people out of spite or hatred. God only curses us when we commit those sins that He hates because when we commit those sins against His prohibition, we are saying, in essence, that we hate Him (Exodus 20:5).

If the curses they pronounced are having an effect on you, it is only because you are under a curse already because of the sins of your parents. When we are in a right relationship with Jesus Christ, no curse, spell, hex, or incantation can have any effect upon us, because Jesus protects us.

What you need to do therefore, is to confess those sins that brought the curse upon you in the first place. You must understand that although you may not have practiced witchcraft, because your mother did, God is punishing you for her sin. That is how a curse works. However, God tells us in Exodus 20:5 that He will curse a descendant with the same sin that the parent committed. In other words, if a parent is guilty of witchcraft, God will punish the children of that parent with that sin. So the child will practice witchcraft just like the parent. Now it does not necessarily mean that the child will cast spells like the parent did, but she may smoke cigarettes, which is also witchcraft, according to the Bible. She may also merely be rebellious, and the Bible teaches that “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft” (1 Samuel 15:23).

I said all that to say this: to break free of this curse, you will have to confess your parent’s sins that you of AND your own sins, since you will also be guilty of committing the same TYPE of sin, if not the same sin per se. I hope you understand what I’m trying to say here. For you to do this, you will have to have a knowledge of what sins God hates, which can be difficult, because we are such a sinful society. You, however, should have no problem doing this, as I perceive in you a knowledge of spiritual things above the norm, and you have the requisite honesty that you will need to confess your sins to The Lord Jesus Christ. Just ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you those things that are sin, and He will reveal them to you.

Regarding your culture’s views on women, I understand how difficult that must be for you. But I am confident that with the Lord’s help you will overcome even this. You are not alone in this, Nancy. I perceive the hand of God on your life. The Lord Jesus has plans for you, sister, and nothing anyone says can alter His decree.

I will be praying for you, Nancy. Please keep me informed of your progress and do let me know if there is anything else that you need. I will help in any way The Lord directs me.

Your servant in Christ Jesus,
Tony

[End response]

Lilly wrote me back within the hour, saying that she will do what I suggested. But she expressed confusion as to why she should confess her parents’ sins and

Here is what she wrote:

Dear Still Man,

Thank you for [your] reply. I’m going to pray for God’s forgiveness on the part of my ancestors’ sins. However, I just want to know why if I’m born again I have to break off from the sins of my parents or ancestors? After all Jesus died for my past sins and future. Anyway, what I am trying to understand is why if we belong to Jesus when we accept Christ, some people still bear the ancestral curses. I’m sure my previous ancestors up to 10 generations had done evil in God’s eyes. None of them I knew.

Yours,
Lilly
Lilly’s question revealed a fundamental misconception regarding salvation. She asked how it is possible that some Christians are living under a generational curse if they have accepted Jesus as their Savior, as Jesus died for our past AND future sins. When I read this, I realized that many who have disagreed with my belief that Christians can be under a generational curse have believed the same thing, only they did not come right out and say so as Lilly did.

It is not true that Jesus died for our past and future sins. Jesus’ death remitted 1. Original Sin: that is the sin of Adam and Eve and 2. those sins that we committed before we got saved. For proof, let us go to the Holy Word of God. Let us first establish that because adam sinned, we all have sinned (Original Sin). The Bible says:

“Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all mean, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12).

Next, let us see that Jesus’ death cleansed us from Original Sin:

“For if by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous” (Romans 5:19).

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).

Now let us see that Jesus’ death also cleansed us from the sins that we committed before we got saved:

“God hath set forth [Jesus] to be a propitiation (substitute) through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” (Romans 3:25).

As you can plainly see, Jesus death and the shedding of His blood redeemed us from our past sins: that is, the sins that we committed before we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

It is important to understand that though Jesus paid for all our sins with His blood, when it comes to our future sins and generational sins, that payment does not take effect automatically. In other words, in order for Jesus’ blood to be applied to our future sins and generational sins, we must confess those sins to God.

So, though Jesus died and shed His blood for all our sins—past, present, and future, all sins committed after our conversion, as well as generational sins, must be confessed in order for the blood of Jesus to be applied to them.
Let me prove this. The Bible teaches that in order for us to be saved, we have to 1. Believe on Jesus Christ: that is, that He died and shed His blood for our sins:

“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 4:38).

“If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Romans 10:9).

And we see the manifestation of this with the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. The Holy Spirit told Philip to go up to an Ethiopian man who was returning to his land from worshipping at Jerusalem. A brief exchange led to Philip giving the man the gospel of Jesus Christ, whereafter the Ethiopian received Jesus Christ as his Savior. The Bible tells it thus:

“And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?”

“And Philip said, If thou believest [on the Lord Jesus] with all thine heart, thou mayest [be baptized]. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.”

“And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him” (Acts 8:36-38).

The entire event is recorded in the Book of the Acts 8:26-39. So the Bible makes it clear that in order to be saved one must only believe on the Lord Jesus and confess Him as Savior.

Now, in my experience, those who believe that all our sins are forgiven at conversion, including generational sins, do so because of a faulty interpretation of 1 John 1:9:

“If we confess our sins, He [Jesus] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

1 John 1:9 is an if/then statement, where the first action must be completed in order for the second action to take place. Therefore, if we confess our sins, then Jesus will forgive them. Conversely, if we do not confess our sins, then Jesus will not forgive them. Because 1 John 1:9 says that we must confess our sins in order for Jesus to forgive them—and we do not need to confess sins in order to be saved—then this verse cannot be talking about salvation, as one need only believe on the Lord Jesus to be saved.

If 1 John 1:9 is not talking about salvation, then what could it be talking about? I submit that the sins that need to be confessed in order to be forgiven are generational sins and the sins we commit after we are saved (future sins). We have already proven that, according to Romans 3:25, Jesus’ death on the cross obtained forgiveness for our past sins. So, because we will continue to sin until we receive our glorified bodies in the resurrection, we need some way to get forgiveness for those sins we commit after we get saved. This is what 1 John 1:9 is talking about. If we confess those sins we commit after our conversion, Jesus will forgive those sins. He has already paid the penalty for them on the cross at Calvary; all that is needed is for us to acknowledge and confess those sins to the Lord Jesus for His blood to be applied to them.

1 John 1:9 also covers generational sins. Generational sins are a special category of sin which God calls an abomination. Webster’s Dictionary defines an abomination as “something hateful and detestable.” An abominable sin, therefore, is a sin that God hates and detests. The Bible teaches that all disobedience is sin, but an abomination is something that God hates and detests so much that he will curse the descendants of anyone who is guilty of this type of sin. Examples of abominable sins can be found in chapters 8 and 9 of the book of Leviticus and include idolatry, murder, fornication, witchcraft, adultery, and homosexuality.

I believe that before Jesus paid the blood at Calvary, when God cursed a person’s descendants, that family line stayed cursed until someone came along who would repent of his family’s sins and ask forgiveness of God. Because God says in Exodus 34:7 that he would “by no means clear the guilty,” I believe that God would allow a curse to skip a generation because of that repentant individual. But even so, the curse would return upon the next generation. One reason I believe this is because of the aforementioned verse, Exodus 34:7:

“The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth…”

“Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.”

Notice that unlike Exodus 20:5, where God says that He would punish a person’s descendants unto the third generation, this verse adds “unto..the fourth generation.” I believe the reason God says this is because he is willing to allow a curse to skip a generation because of the faithfulness of one person. I could give two examples of this, but I discuss this in greater detail in our podcast on generational curses.

If you truly want to be free, then you won’t have a problem confessing any sins, that’s for sure. I have known people to be so resistant to this teaching, that they refuse to confess any sins. Consequently, they continue to suffer the effects of their curses and become bitter and cynical, and constantly ask God why they continue to suffer when they are saved. Some, I would not be surprised if some have even left the faith for this reason. What a pity!

Confession of sin is important because we will continue to sin as long as we are in this sinful body. Sin is an obstacle in our way, blocking us from enjoying all the benefits of a right relationship with Jesus. Thankfully, God has provided us a way out by allowing us to confess our sins to Him and remove the obstacle blocking our path.

Do you now see that Jesus’ blood washed away our past sins, but for us to be forgiven our future sins, that is, those sins we commit after our conversion, we must confess them.

This is one of the reasons Christians are suffering even though they are saved. They believe Jesus died for their future sins and don’t understand that 1 John 1:9 is telling them to confess their sins so that they can be forgiven. So, even if they are not under a generational curse, they are not confessing any sins and are, therefore, living in sin, which is just as bad as being under a curse.

Can you now understand why the Christian Church is not as powerful as we ought to be? We are almost in as bad a shape as the unsaved. This ought not to be.

The podcast for this article is available for download at the iTunes Store. Subscribe to the Gospel Light and Truth Crusade podcast today! For your convenience, you can also download this episode below.

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Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh,

The Still Man

Doctrines of Devils: Global Warming

Grace and peace, Saints.

This morning, one of my daughters remarked that this winter in Munich has been unseasonably warm. She’s right: this is the warmest winter I have ever experienced in this city. Usually grey and cold this time of year, Munich has seen the sun shine practically every day since summer began.

I told my daughter that someone may be tampering with the weather, because the COP21 Climate Change summit was held last week in Paris, and it’s just possible that the string-pullers wanted to make sure that, while the world’s attention was on Paris, the actual weather supported the stated agenda of COP21.

This was a lot for my daughter to handle. She doesn’t understand that the true state-of-the-art of technology is much more advanced than what we are led to believe. That it may actually be possible to manipulate the weather was something she could not yet get her head around.

When I explain things to my children, I try to make sure that whatever I’m saying can be backed up by the Bible. It is very important to me that my children understand that the Bible is not a book only to be picked up on Sunday and disregarded the rest of the week. The Bible is the breath of the Living God: it is the book of Life, and, as such, it is a roadmap through life, especially in these perilous times. If we trust in the Word of God, we will neither be misled by the myriad deceptions running amuck in the world, nor troubled by the fear-mongers with their false doctrines and arguments of science, falsely so-called.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any biblical proof that the weather can be manipulated through technology. What I could prove, though, is that Global Warming, according to the Bible, is a hoax.

So, I told my daughter that God promised Noah there would always be four seasons: a planting season (Spring), a hot season (Summer), a harvest season (Fall or Autumn), and a cold season (Winter). If this is true, I said, then Global Warming (and the theory of a coming ice age, depicted in the movie, “The Day After,” for that matter) is a lie. True to form, my daughter asked me where she could find that in the Bible. I directed her to Genesis 8:22 where God says,

“While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

My Bible says that God is not a man that He should lie, nor the son of man that He should repent. When God says something, you can take it to the bank. Global Warming then, is a lie.

If Global Warming is a lie, then the world is spending billions of dollars for nothing. Everyone is crying about the global hunger problem, when it could be solved overnight by taking the money that is being wasted in “green” research, technology, and programs (and paying the salaries of those involved in those endeavors) and applying it to the hunger problem. It could be used, for instance, to subsidize farmers, and help them stave off losses experienced during times of drought, flood, freeze, blight, plague, etc. This would keep the cost of food production down and the benefit would trickle down to the consumer the same way farmers’ losses (which translate to higher food prices) trickle down to the consumer. Moreover, because many plants and factories have to be refitted to comply with new “green” environmental regulations, the cost of food production increases to pay for these modifications, and food prices have to be increased accordingly. By raising the price of food, you make it that much harder for many to survive.

And don’t forget the poorer countries, many of which are bound by the Kyoto accords to implement the same green technology the richer countries have to implement. These countries are already broke, so whose going to pay for this? We are: the United States and other western countries. The problem is that the U.S. is already trillions of dollars in the hole. We can’t handle such a financial obligation. Nevertheless, that is exactly what’s coming. COP21, I’m sure, has seen to that. Global Warming, then, besides being used as a tool for the redistribution of wealth, or socialism, will be used to bankrupt the United States and other countries. Goodbye middle class. Hello slavery.

It gets much deeper than this. But even this cursory view of the effect the Global Warming hoax is having on the economy ought to convince you that while we are killing ourselves supposedly to save the environment, we are destroying the global economy and starving millions of people to death. What good is the planet without people to inhabit it? Global Warming, then, is a means of population control.

Now you know that there are some pretty smart people who have already figured all of this out and more. That they are still going forward with the Climate Control agenda, therefore, means that they know exactly what they are doing. That should worry you, because many of the people you voted for have signed onto the Climate Control agenda. Don’t you just love how your tax dollars are being spent?

Global Warming is not only bad, it is satanic. And why wouldn’t it be, when it is contrary to the Word of God?

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Was The San Bernardino Shooting A Set-Up?

Grace and peace, Saints.

Saints, the media’s coverage of the San Bernardino shooting left more questions in my mind than it answered. It bothered me so much, in fact, that I had to do a video on it and share my insights with you. There are no astounding revelations here, but it should make you question what the media told us. Because when you really look at it, everything just does not compute.

Dead Priests Tell No Truths

Grace and peace, Saints.

If a church is made up of people, and people “are human and have failings,” why does the Roman Catholic church call itself infallible (perfect)? If Roman Catholic priests “are human and have failings,” why do people confess their sins to them? If God is the only One who can forgive sins, shouldn’t we be confessing our sins to Him only?

Could one truth-telling priest have made a deadly mistake?

Strange Bedfellows: Buddhism and Roman Catholicism

A few days ago, I returned home from a week’s hospital stay for a light stroke I suffered the Saturday before last. A couple of days before I was released, I went to the hospital coffee room to write and to get out of my room for a while. For a hospital coffee room, especially in a ward supposedly full of stroke patients, who need peace and quiet to make a good recovery, it was as crowded and noisy as Starbucks on a Saturday night. This, however, is very common in my experience. After about a half hour, the crowd had dwindled to a group of women seated at a corner table by the window. I decided to go witness to these women.

As I approached them, I gathered that this may have been a family, as there was a young girl, probably about sixteen or seventeen years old, a women in her twenties, and an older woman of middle age. The teenager wore pajamas, so I gathered she was a patient in the hospital.

I walked up to the women, and, after giving the greeting of the day, asked them if they were Roman Catholics. When all three answered that they were not, I asked them what religion they were. The women replied that they had no religion, while the young girl said that she was a Buddhist.

Now, I’ve been living in Munich since 1998, and I can tell you that if there is one thing that every single person has in this town, it is a religion. Munich is about two-thirds Roman Catholic and one-third Muslim. And Roman Catholics and Muslims are nothing if not religious. In Munich religion is everything.

Notwithstanding, I told the ladies that it was great that they had no religion, because I could then tell them about Jesus, who, I told them, was coming soon. At that, the young girl interjected, saying that she was a Buddhist, and that there was no Jesus. I told her that whether she believed in Jesus or not, He was coming, and she should get ready for that. I added that as a young person, it was always a good practice to listen to as many varying opinions as you can. The worst that can happen, I said, was that she would walk away more confident in what she believed than before. She insisted that she didn’t want to know what anyone else believed, so, before she could further protest, I handed each of the ladies a gospel tract, thanked them for their time, and went back to my seat.

From my chair, however, I asked the young lady what Buddhism taught. At this question, her attitude completely changed, and she rather enthusiastically began to explain to me what Buddhists believe. The gist of her explanation was that Buddhists believe they are on a journey towards perfection, and that this journey involved being reincarnated into this world and, in the course of successive lifetimes, balancing one’s karma, or evil deeds (what Christians call sin), with good deeds. When one’s good deeds outweigh one’s evil deeds, she said, the individual reaches a state of perfection called Nirvana. I asked the girl how long it took for the average Buddhist to balance out his karma, and she said that no one knows. I next asked her when the Buddhist would know he had reached Nirvana, and when she said she didn’t know that either, I asked her what constitutes a good deed. She replied that there was no rule for what is good and that “it depends on the person.”

Amazed, I told her that according to Buddhism, the murder of over six million Jews under Hitler could be considered a good thing, because Hitler personally thought that by killing the Jews, he was doing a good thing.* The countenances of all three women dropped perceptively at this revelation (especially that of the mother), as they no doubt realized that this was absolutely true.

I then asked her how one could know what bad is, if one doesn’t even know what good is? In other words, how does one know how to counterbalance one’s evil deeds with good deeds, when there is no standard for good and evil? Visibly perturbed at this point, the young lady said that she was recuperating from a stroke and didn’t feel like talking anymore.

This was one of the most enlightening encounters I have ever had in my evangelistic travels. And It made my whole hospital stay totally worth the time. This girl, without even knowing it, strengthened my confidence in the Bible. She made me realize how blessed we are that the Lord Jesus Christ has paid the price for sin at Calvary, and that there is nothing that the Christian need do to overcome sin except trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior.

Think about it. The Buddhist is taught, through the doctrine of reincarnation, that he is on a perpetual wheel of life, being constantly recycled into this sinful world for the purpose of working off his evil karma (what Christians call sin) by doing good deeds. Only, if this girl can be believed, there is no standard for what constitutes good and, conversely, what constitutes evil. Good and evil, therefore, for the Buddhist, are subjective, and “depend on the person.” The problem with this is that though the Buddhist can determine for himself what is good and what is evil, he cannot determine for himself when he has done enough good to have compensated for all the evil he has done. Without an objective standard for what is good and what is evil, the Buddhist will continue to be recycled into this evil world, but will be no more moral in the next life than he was in the previous. The wheel of life, therefore, is actually a perpetual wheel of death.

When I thought about it, I realized that Buddhism is a great deal like Roman Catholicism, which also stresses good deeds (which the Bible calls works). Though Roman Catholicism professes to acknowledge Jesus’ death and resurrection for the sins of mankind, what Roman Catholics practice suggests that Jesus’ death and the shedding of His blood on the cross at Calvary was not enough for one to obtain complete forgiveness of sins.

Former Roman Catholic, Monica Farrell, in the book, From Rome to Christ, writes:

“I knew the Lord Jesus died on Calvary, and had He not died nobody could get to heaven. What I did not know was that because He died anybody could go to heaven.

We were told that the death of Christ opened the gate to heaven, but that you had to work your own way in…” (“From Rome to Christ,” p. 24).

To “work his way in,” the Roman Catholic, like the Buddhist, must perform good works. Unfortunately, like the Buddhist, a Roman Catholic can never know when he has done enough good deeds.

A few years back, while witnessing to a Roman Catholic, I asked her if she was confident that she would go to heaven if she were to die at that moment. She told me that she didn’t know if she would, because she didn’t know if she had been “good enough.” The fact is that the Roman Catholic is taught that he can never be good enough. Purgatory, therefore, is inevitable.

Additionally, the Roman Catholic is taught that in order to receive the grace of God, he must do it by keeping what they call the “seven sacraments,” or the “seven channels of grace.”

The seven sacraments are:

1. The Sacrament of Baptism (which happens when the Roman Catholic is a baby).

2. The Sacrament of Penance (confession, where the Roman Catholic confesses his sins to a priest).

3. The Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist (the “unbloody” sacrifice of the Mass, where Roman Catholics eat a wafer they believe contains the body, blood, soul, and divinity of the Lord Jesus).

4.The Sacrament of Confirmation (when the Roman Catholic is made a citizen of Rome).

5. The Sacrament of Matrimony.

6. The Sacrament of Holy Orders (reserved for priests, nuns, and monks)

7. The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick (formerly called Extreme Unction, given when the Roman Catholic is on his deathbed).

If he doesn’t receive enough grace through the sacraments, the Roman Catholic is taught that he will have to get the rest in Purgatory. Purgatory is a mythical place of torment, where the Roman Catholic goes to have his sins burned off. Once his sins are purged, he is taught, he may enter into heaven: or so he thinks.

Now get this: the Roman Catholic is taught that he can only receive God’s grace through keeping all seven sacraments. If he misses one, then he will have to go to Purgatory. But here is the kicker: the average Roman Catholic cannot receive the sacrament of holy orders, as it is reserved for the clergy. And, because of the un-Scriptural doctrine of celibacy, priests, nuns, and monks cannot receive the sacrament of matrimony. Furthermore, even if, by some miracle, the Roman Catholic receives all the sacraments, he is still taught that he is sinful and can therefore never be “good enough.” All Catholics, therefore, have to go to Purgatory.

And like the Buddhist, who doesn’t know how long he will be on the Ferris wheel of reincarnation, the Roman Catholic has no idea how long he will be in Purgatory. According to former Jesuit priest Alberto Rivera, there are popes that have been in Purgatory for over a thousand years, and priests are still saying prayers for their souls.

The fact that Buddhists determine for themselves what is good and what is evil also made me realize that Buddhism is a satanic religion. In the garden of Eden, Satan told Eve that if she ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then she “would be as gods, knowing good and evil.” In other words, Eve would be able to determine for herself what was good and what was evil. In saying this, Satan actually told a half truth (which is the only kind of “truth” he is capable of telling).

You see, only God knows what is good and what is evil, because, as sinful humans, we could never make that determination. The Bible says that “the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). We could never determine for ourselves what is good, because we are inherently evil. It takes someone inherently good to determine what is good, and God only is good. To try to determine for ourselves what is good, therefore, is to attempt to usurp the authority of God. We could never be as God, however, because we are created beings, while God is the Creator. Satan knows this, which is why instead of saying that Adam and Eve would be as God (big G), he said that they would be “as gods” (little G). Slick, ain’t he?

Which brings me to another point. Because Buddhism teaches that man can perfect himself: that is, solve the problem of sin without going through Jesus, then Buddhism essentially exalts man into the place of God: man becomes his own Savior. Roman Catholicism, if you think about it, does the same thing. With it’s mass, emphasis on good works, and unbiblical Purgatory, Roman Catholicism declares the sacrifice of Jesus to be of none effect. The Roman Catholic must therefore save himself. This is the false promise of Satan to Eve.

I don’t like getting sick. And I certainly don’t like going to the hospital. But, on this occasion, I’m glad I was in the hospital on Friday, November 13th, 2015. (?)

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

*”As for the Jews, I am just carrying on with the same policy the Catholic Church has adopted for fifteen hundred years…and perhaps I am doing Christianity a great service.” –The Nazi Persecution of the Churches, by J.S. Conway, p. 25, 26, 162.

The Parliament of the World’s Religions and the Gun Control Agenda

Grace and peace, Saints.

You may be interested to know that the Parliament of the World’s Religions is meeting this Thursday October 15, 2015 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Their first meeting was in 1893 in Chicago, and their last meeting was 2009 in Melbourne Australia.

The Parliament’s website says that they are part of the Global Interfaith Movement, which you and I know is merely code for the One World Church. Since the Bible says that the one world religion will be headed by the Antichrist, and the Antichrist is Pope Benedict XVI, then we know who is behind the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

It’s interesting that the Parliament is convening roughly three weeks after Pope Francis pushed his interfaith agenda while addressing the joint session of the U.S. Congress. The Pope also addressed gun control, which, ironically (or not), is also on the Parliament’s agenda. The Parliament has a program entitled “Faiths Against Hate,” which campaigns to “transform fear and anger into peace, love, and interreligious harmony.” It should be noted, however, that while they claim to be concerned with hate speech and attacks on religious minorities, they also mention the fact that:

The number of armed militias [in the U.S.] have doubled (TIME).
2.5 million more Americans bought guns for the first time in 2011 (FBI).

It would seem, therefore, that the Parliament of the World’s Religions is not just interested in promoting interfaith fellowship and harmony. Like so many other groups these days, they are also interested in Americans’ Constitutional right “to keep and bear arms.”

I remind you of Pope Francis’ words during his speech to Congress:

“[Interfaith] cooperation is a powerful resource in the battle to eliminate new global forms of slavery…”

He said this after saying “We must be mindful of every type of fundamentalism” and “We must combat every form of polarization.” Since both fundamentalism and polarization were veiled references to biblical Christianity, then one of the “new global forms of slavery” is doubtless Christianity.

It is important to note that Bible-believing Christians–many aware that the Second Amendment exists not only to enable law-abiding citizens to defend themselves from criminals, but also for all Americans to defend themselves, should the need arise, against a tyrannical (read fanatical) government–are some of the staunchest supporters of the right “to keep and bear arms.” Pope’s Francis’ words, therefore (and the Parliament) should be considered in the context of The Roman Catholic Takeover of America, since disarmament is a major step in the takeover.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

P.S. You may want to read the bios of the women who will be speaking at the “Inaugural Women’s Assembly,” which includes at least three avowed goddess worshippers and a Wiccan priestess. One of the women, a professor of philosophy and religion, who teaches courses on the “Eleusian Mysteries” (Babylon), says she is “interested in promoting dialogue between Goddess people and God people” (actual quote).

So you see, in order for Christians to have a “dialogue” with these people, we would have to be “unequally yoked” with unbelievers. They know we would never do this, of course; and for this reason we are considered a threat to global peace and harmony.

–TSM

The Incredible Truth About the Mark of the Beast

Grace and peace, Saints.

We have just completed what will probably be the most important video we have ever done. It concerns the truth about the biblical Mark of the Beast and it is guaranteed to blow your mind. By the time you are done watching this video, you will wonder why you never saw yourself what has always been sitting right before your eyes.

Saints, watch this video and please, share it with everyone you know, especially your friends and loved ones. The Mark of the Beast will be offered very soon as the cure for the global economic crisis that is looming on the horizon. But the Bible teaches that everyone who takes the Mark will be doomed to eternal flames.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

My Thoughts on Pope Francis’ Visit

Grace and peace, Saints.

Well, the Roman Catholic pope came to the United States amid much fanfare, pomp, and gaiety. The American press hailed it as possibly the greatest moment in our country’s history. I, however, believe it to be the most tragic moment in America’s history: the moment when America gave a hero’s welcome to one of the greatest enemies of freedom in the history of the world.

CNN dedicated much airtime to the coverage of the pope’s visit, and I couldn’t help but notice that they did everything they could to differentiate their coverage of the pope from their coverage of any other world leader.

I’ve talked to my children at length about why CNN dedicates so much airtime to covering the Roman Catholic pope. As I told them, the Roman Catholic church believes that it’s pope is the substitute for Jesus Christ on earth and that he is actually God on earth. Now, if you love God, then everything that God says and does will interest you. Therefore, if you believe that the pope is God in the flesh, then everything the pope says and does will interest you.

CNN has always had an intense interest in all things popish. On one of CNN’s promotional commercials, Christianne Amanpour even addresses Pope Francis as “Holy Father!” Now, a non-Roman Catholic does not have to address the pope as Holy Father, as it is a spiritual title. Only one who acknowledges him as his spiritual authority would address Pope Francis or any pope as Holy Father. A true Bible-believing Christian certainly would not address Pope Francis as Holy Father, because it is a blasphemous title. Holy Father is reserved for God the Father ALONE. The title of Holy Father occurs only once in the entire Bible: Chapter 17 verse 11 of the Gospel of John. In this verse, Jesus is praying to God the Father on the behalf of the Christian church. Listen to what He says:

“And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be as one, as we are.”

Jesus says several times in the Gospel of John that He and the Father are one. That is why Jesus has almost every title that God the Father has: Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, Savior, Lord, etc. Etc. The title of Holy Father is the one title which Jesus Christ does not claim for Himself. In John 10:39 Jesus says, “My Father…is greater than all.” Though Jesus and the Father are one, Jesus places God the Father above Himself. The title of Holy Father places God the Father at the head of all righteousness. For the Pope of Rome to allow himself to be called Holy Father is to blaspheme the name of God the Father.

One could simply address Pope Francis as Pope Francis just as one may address a president named Smith as President Smith, a king named Jones as King Jones, or a judge named Johnson as Judge Johnson, though they may have other titles. When one therefore, calls Pope Francis Holy Father, he is doing more than acknowledging the pope’s position; he is acknowledging him as his spiritual leader. Christianne Amanpour represents CNN and is one of their highest-regarded journalists. When Amanpour addresses Pope Francis as Holy Father, therefore, she is not just speaking for herself; she is speaking for CNN. It should therefore be no surprise that they would dedicate a great deal of time covering Pope Francis.

The only religion in the world that does not have a human leader is the true Christian Church. The Roman Catholic church has its pope, Buddhism has the Dalai Lama, Islam has its imams, Hinduism has its gurus, Jehovah’s Witnesses have their presidents, Mormonism has its prophets, and on and on it goes. The only religion that has no human head is Bible-based Christianity. Our head is God Almighty, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

Now, if you watch CNN, you will notice that though they do occasionally cover the major doings of some religious leaders, they never cover any other religious leader like they do the Pope of Rome. This makes sense if CNN not only believes that the Pope is God, but that he is the spiritual leader of every other religion on earth. CNN wouldn’t so brazenly publish this belief if they didn’t know that all other religions (except true Christianity) believe the same thing. They are promoting Pope Francis as the greatest spiritual leader on earth.

So when Pope Francis, the greatest religious leader on earth came to America, CNN went to great lengths to do more for him than they have done for any other world leader that has ever come to the U.S. CNN, as well as virtually every other news outlet, always covers when a world leader first sets foot on U.S. soil, and is right there when the leader lands at a U.S. Airport or military base. However, to distinguish Pope Francis from every other world leader and to give him the ultimate star treatment, CNN did something that to my knowledge they have never done for any other world leader. CNN actually announced that Pope Francis had entered U.S. Airspace!

That was truly a first.

On September 24, 2015, Pope Francis made history by addressing a joint session of Congress. The significance of the United States Congress allowing the Pope of Rome to address them was not lost on me. For you must understand that for Roman Catholics, the voice of the Pope is the voice of God. Pope Francis, therefore, didn’t fly all the way to the United States and appear before Congress in the nation’s capital just to give us his opinion. As the Pope of the Holy See, the Pope was putting the full weight of the Vatican, the most powerful organization in the history of the world, behind whatever issue he was speaking on. And he spoke on several issues.

We published on our YouTube channel, The Gospel Light and Truth Crusade, the Fox News coverage of Pope Francis’ address. In the description box I listed a number of quotes the Pope made relative to the issues he addressed that I thought were rather revelatory and that held particularly ominous portent for the future.

Francis begins by implying that biblical Christianity (also referred to as “fundamentalism”) is the source of friction and discord in the world and a hindrance to global unity:

12:00 – “We must be mindful of every type of fundamentalism.”

13:40 – “We must combat every form of polarization.”

Then he makes a reference to the ecumenical agenda:

15:00 – “We must move together as one in solidarity.”

16:57 – “We must pool our resources and talents, and resolve to support one another with respect for our differences and our convictions of conscience.”

Francis then implies that all religions need to work together to combat Christian fundamentalism. After pointing out that all religions have contributed to making America great, Francis says:

“[Interfaith] cooperation is a powerful resource in the battle to eliminate new global forms of slavery…”

Because this statement was still in the context of fighting fundamentalism and polarization, he is implying that Christianity is a form of slavery that must be eliminated.

He then implies that new legislation and social programs need to be put in place to aid in this battle:

“…which can be overcome only through new policies and new forms of social consensus.”

Don’t overlook the fact that Pope Francis is addressing the United States Congress, the highest legislative body in the United States. So when he speaks of new policies to combat Christian fundamentalism, Pope Francis is urging the Congress to enact laws to curtail the activities of Christian fundamentalists. In that our main activities are evangelization through preaching and witnessing, then Francis is suggesting that laws be enacted to stop those activities.

But there’s more. Preaching and witnessing are protected under the First Article and Amendment to the United States Constitution: it is protected speech. In order to curtail protected speech, the First Amendment would have to be eliminated or drastically altered. We ought to be on the lookout for this. Moreover, since the authority for our activities is the Bible, then you can also look forward to seeing legislation that will further demonize and even outlaw the Bible.

Francis then goes on to imply that the ultimate goal of the political process is to build a a New World Order, free of the prejudices of fundamentalism (Christianity):

18:11 – “Politics is instead an expression of our compelling need to live as one in order to build, as one, the greatest common good…”

The “greatest common good” also called “the greater good” is a code word for democracy, which is a code word for the New World Order. You must understand that a democracy is not the same as a republic. The United States was founded a republic. In a republic, the rights of individuals takes precedence over the rights of the whole. In other words, the belief was that if you take care of the needs of every individual, then by extension, you will meet the needs of everyone. The individual was the most important factor. In a democracy, however, the needs of the whole–the majority–supersede the needs of the individual. In a democracy, individuals are only needed to support the state. It is from democracy that we get the term “human resource.” The individual is only seen as a resource, a commodity, which needs to be managed like every other resource: to be planted, harvested, consumed, and discarded. Webster’s Dictionary says that a democracy is the last step before communism. In short, a pure democracy is socialism.

It is from democracy that we get the terms minority and majority with respect to society. Blacks are considered minority, not because they are fewer than whites, but because in a democracy, the needs of blacks are secondary to the needs of whites, who are considered the majority. So, even in a city like Washington, D.C., where the majority of its inhabitants are blacks, they are still considered the minority.

Christians will not be welcome in the New World Order because the New World Order, like the Tower of Babel, will attempt to exalt itself above all that is called God.

Now let’s get back to Pope Francis’ address. This is where it gets scary. Francis then defines the New World Order:

“…a community that sacrifices particular interests in order to share, in justice and peace, its goods, its interests, its social life.”

You must understand who is speaking and what he is saying. If you substitute “eliminates” for “sacrifices” and “whoever doesn’t fit into our utopian society” for “particular interests,” then it is clear that Pope Francis is suggesting that Christians and all who will not bow down to the Roman Catholic pope and his idol will not be allowed to share in the benefits of the New World Order utopia they are trying to build. They will be eliminated. This is a literal fulfillment of biblical prophecy!

But it doesn’t stop there. Francis then turns his attention to the global disarmament agenda:

“Why are deadly weapons being sold to those who plan to inflict untold suffering on individuals and society? Sadly, the answer, as we all know, is simply money. It is our duty to confront and stop the arms trade.”

In most parts of the world, weapons ownership by private individuals has been severely curtailed. Only in America is gun ownership a legal right rather than a privilege. So, Francis was really voicing his desire to eventually ban gun ownership in America as well as the world. We can look for him to reiterate this sentiment when he addresses the U.N. General Assembly, during his visit to New York. It is through the United Nations that Pope Francis will eventually decide the gun issue in America. Disarmament is Step Four of Phase Three of the Roman Catholic Takeover of America.

In her book, “Ravening Wolves,” Christian evangelist Monica Farrell gives the blueprint for the Roman Catholic takeover of a nation, which she observed when the Nazis (who were the political and military cell of the Roman Catholic church) took over the former Yugoslavia. The phases of the Roman Catholic takeover are as follows:

A crusade of prayer, claiming a country for the Virgin Mary
Formal dedication by the Roman Catholic church of that country to the Virgin Mary.
A Holy Warfare to possess that country.

Phase Three occurs in five steps:

Secession: The Roman Catholics declare an independent state within the formal country. This is what happened in the United States and which preceded the Civil War. The Roman Catholic South, supported by the Vatican, seceded from the mostly Protestant Union and declared war upon it by firing upon Fort Sumter. It also occurred in Yugoslavia, according to Farrell, when the Roman Catholics seceded from that country and formed the Independent State of Croatia.

The formation of a Roman Catholic army supported by other Roman Catholic armies. The current manifestation of this is the United Nations Security Council. Most, if not all, of the member nations in the Security Council are Roman Catholic or Roman Catholic friendly, including the United States. This is why most units in the United States army wear the blue U.N. beret and our army fights in wars that have nothing to do with defending the United States. Our army now belongs to the United Nations, which is headed by the Vatican. It goes where and does what the Pope says it goes and does.

The government, which is by this time almost entirely composed of Roman Catholics, publishes a notice that only Roman Catholics may serve in government. This is about to happen in the United States. Our government has an “unusually high Catholic representation,” and virtually every candidate for President in 2016 is a Roman Catholic. Vice President Joe Biden is a Roman Catholic, and Barak Obama is a secret Roman Catholic.

CONFISCATION OF ALL WEAPONS. This was the purpose for the University of Texas shooting; Columbine; Virginia Tech; Sandy Hook; Oslo, Norway; the shootings on military bases around the country and overseas, and every other mass shooting that has occurred in the United States. The Vatican wants to demonize weapons so that there will be a global outcry to ban weapons in the United States. This is in preparation for Step Five which is…

The Inquisition. In Croatia, the Roman Catholic USTACHI (Catholic Action), led by priest, nuns, and monks, swept through that nation and horribly massacred the Bosnian Serbs, who are Eastern Orthodox. Interestingly, they did nothing to the Croatian Muslims. In fact, in the Independent State of Croatia, all religions were outlawed EXCEPT ROMAN CATHOLICISM AND ISLAM. This will happen in the United States.

You must understand that Pope Francis is not the friend of the United States. Pope Francis is the first Jesuit pope in the history of the Roman Catholic church, and that is no small matter. The Jesuit Order was specially commissioned by the Council of Trent to destroy the Protestant Reformation and Christianity. Though it was a pope who instituted the Jesuit order, the Society of Jesus, as the Jesuits are formally called, became a danger to all constituted authority in the world, including the Catholic Church. They have been thrown out of virtually every country in the world, except the United States, which gave them a safe haven from which to operate. They were finally disbanded by Pope Clement X, but they resurfaced again and have been tirelessly working ever since to complete their goal.

The warm welcome Pope Francis received by the American people showed just how far down the road to apostasy we really are. America, the former Protestant nation, welcomed the Roman Catholic pope with open arms. We will soon regret that move.

I will have more to say on the Pope’s visit and it’s implications for America in the coming days, God willing.

Click here to read more about the Roman Catholic Takeover of America.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Is Anybody Still Out There?

Grace and peace, Saints!

I am so excited and happy to be writing to you again after a rather long hiatus from writing. I cannot say why I have not written anything of substance in such a long time, though there’s no doubt that to a certain extent my spiritual battles have played some role in this. Whatever the reason, the end result is that I have not been writing as often as I should. And the bad part is that just as when you write constantly you get so used to writing that you cannot see yourself not writing, when you write infrequently you get so used to not writing that you cannot see yourself writing anymore.

That is what has happened to me. Even writing this was work for me, and I had to make myself sit down and do it. This is deadly for a writer. And, though I am a preacher first and foremost, I am still a writer. You would not believe how many articles I just shelved and never wrote. The “Incoming” folder of my Evernote account has more than a hundred drafts articles and pieces of research in it, just waiting on me to take action. How terrible!

This is a terrible dilemma for a writer, but for a preacher and teacher, this is more than terrible–it is disobedience! The Lord Jesus has commanded us through the Apostle Paul to make full proof of our ministries: that is, we must use our God-given talents and resources to the fullest extent possible to fulfill the Great Commission.

I have not done that. I haven’t even come close.

I ask therefore brothers and sisters, that you pray for me that I would break through this Satan-Induced slump that I have been in for almost two years. The Gospel Light and Truth Crusade must go on!

I apologize to my brothers and sisters for not remaining faithful. I’m sorry I have not consistently kept you educated, edified, and encouraged. If there are any of you still out there who have faithfully waited for me to get over this hump, I am happy to tell you that I have finally turned the corner, and I thank you for sticking by me.

Carolyn and Tom M., you have not failed to drop me a line or an encouraging word every now and again. I thank you for your fellowship. Sean, thank you for hanging in there too. Pastor Owak, thank you for your fellowship as well as Evangelist Babu. If this ministry has helped you, would you be so kind as to drop me a line and let me know? I’d like to get to know you.

I have taken the first step in breaking through this slump by writing this to you, because I did not want to write this to you. But I just had to get my fingers moving as well as my spirit. Experts say that bloggers should blog every day. Can I do that? I doubt it. But I can write at least once a week, can’t I? Pray that I will. I have a lot to say.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

We Need To Talk About Sandy Hook

Grace and peace, Saints.

We are again sharing with our readers the expose on the Sandy Hook massacre entitled, “We Need To Talk About Sandy Hook,” a video which presents a very compelling case that Sandy Hook may have been a completely staged media event.

YouTube had originally disabled the video because of a copyright infringement claim made by the HONR Network, a group that claims to represent the interests of the families of the alleged victims of Sandy Hook. I filed a counter claim against the HONR Network, because they were neither the copyright owners of the video nor an authorized agent thereof. Today, YouTube again made the video available on our ministry’s YouTube channel.

Because the alleged victims of Sandy Hook were children, many get upset when anyone suggests that the alleged shooting may, in fact, never have happened. This is understandable. Americans, in general, seek to protect society’s most helpless and vulnerable members, and rightly take offense when children are abused or mistreated in any way.

It must, however, be understood that things in America right now are not what they should be. A foreign and hostile government is in the process of destroying America–the last bastion of Protestant Christianity in the world–and everything this country originally stood for. The Roman Catholic Takeover of America is in Stage Four of Phase Three. Phase Three is “A Holy Warfare,” while Step Four is the complete disarmament of the American people. Sandy Hook may very well have been a part of this plan.

The Bible teaches that it is folly to pass judgment on a matter before hearing all the facts (Proverbs 18:13). Therefore, please withhold judgment until you have seen the video. View it and weigh it in the balance of your heart. And then decide.

I should add that Step Five of Phase Three of the Roman Catholic Takeover of America is The Inquisition. If you know anything about the Roman Catholic Inquisition, then you know that the future is not looking too bright for America. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

https://fb.watch/1MdJ9q92mJ/

The Book of Mormon: Another Testimony of “Another Jesus”

Grace and peace.

A couple of days ago, I was going through some of my books, compiling a bibliography for a book that I am working on, when I came across the Book of Mormon. I had not looked at this book in at least five years, so I decided to just peruse its pages. On the very first page, I came across this:

As any Christian with even a smidgen of discernment knows, Mormonism is not a denomination of Christianity and, in fact, is not Christian at all. Mormonism is a mystery religion: that is, its source is not Jerusalem, but ancient Babylon. It’s “Jesus,” therefore, is not Jesus the Christ, but Jesus the Antichrist–another Jesus. Proof of this is the Cult of Mary hand sign that “Jesus” is displaying with his right hand.

Now, we know from the Bible that every person on earth as well as every religion on earth will worship the Antichrist as well as Satan. And, as I have alluded to before in articles such as House of the Virgin Mary, the common denominator that will be used to unite these religions will not only be their worship of the Antichrist, but their veneration of the Roman Catholic Virgin Mary.

The Bible teaches that the Roman Catholic church is “the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth” (Revelation 17:5). This means that the Roman Catholic church is the modern representative of Babylon on this earth and the fount from which every ungodly religion, organization, belief, dogma, and philosophy springs. If this is true of Mormonism, then we should be able to find some commonalities between Mormonism and Roman Catholicism.

We have already seen one of those commonalities: the Cult of Mary hand sign. This means that Mormonism also revers the goddess called the Virgin Mary. But there are other similarities.

We know, for example, that though it purports to worship Jesus Christ and revere His Word, the Roman Catholic church, in reality, worships the Virgin Mary and places their tradition on par with the Holy Bible: for the fourth session of the Roman Catholic Council of Trent (1546) decreed:

“[The Roman Catholic church] receives and venerates with a feeling of piety and reverence all the books of the Old and New Testaments…

“[A]lso the traditions, whether they relate to faith or to morals, as having been dictated either orally by Christ or by the Holy Ghost, and preserved in the Catholic Church.” (“Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent,” by Rev. H.J. Schroeder.)

As a great many, if not most, of the traditions of the Roman Catholic church come from the writings of the so-called Church Fathers, then this decree, in effect, places the words of men on an equal footing to the Words of God–the Holy Bible. To place human traditions on par with the very words of God is to actually exalt the words of men over the Word of God.

The Mormon Church does this exact same thing with its Book of Mormon, which it bills as “another testament of Jesus Christ.” Notice below that the Book of Mormon is purported to be “comparable to the Bible” and that Joseph Smith, the founder of the LDS Church, is quoted to have said that by abiding by the precepts of the Book of Mormon, “a man would get nearer to God…than by any other book.” Mormonism, therefore, places its holy book–written by Joseph Smith, a man–over and above the Holy Bible: the same thing the Roman Catholic church does.

There are many other similarities between the Mormon and Catholic religions, some of which we cover in our discussion of the Roman Catholic Charismatic Movement. I strongly suggest that you read it and consider it.

In these deceptive last days, many religions claim to have the truth. But those who know their God know that the real Truth can only be found in the True Church of Jesus Christ, which cannot be found in any temple, church, dojo, hall, cathedral, lodge, or any other building made with hands, but in the hearts of those who love Him.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

P.S. I had never before considered the link between Mormonism and goddess worship, but I will ponder this and devote further research to it, if God wills. –TSM

Election 2016 and the Roman Catholic Takeover of America

Roman Catholic “Patriotic Flag”

Grace and peace, Saints.

Many of you are aware that the Roman Catholic Takeover of a country involves three phases:

1. A crusade of prayer, claiming a country for the Virgin Mary,

2. Dedication or consecration of that country to the Virgin Mary,

3. A Holy Warfare to claim that country for the Virgin Mary.

Phase Three, A Holy Warfare, occurs in five steps:

1. Secession: (The formation of an independent Roman Catholic state)

2. The formation of a Roman Catholic army to pound the populace into submission

3. A governmental decree that only Roman Catholics may serve in government

4. Confiscation of all weapons

5. The Inquisition

As we discuss in The Roman Catholic Takeover of America, the plan to take over the United States for Rome has almost reached fruition. Steps one and two have already been accomplished (Washington D.C. is in Maryland–MARY LAND–and the U.N. Security Council has every army in the world, including our own, at its beck and call), while steps three and four are progressing steadily.

2016 is set to be a monumental year in Catholic government, as the following video will show. As Stephen Schneck says, “All three of the major branches of our government have extraordinarily high Catholic representation.”

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Munich Occult Symoblism – New Photos

Grace and peace.

We have added new photos to our montage of Munich’s Occult Symbolism. You want to see these.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

A Letter To Jack (Epilogue)

Grace and peace, Saints.

Last week, we received an answer to our last letter to Chick Publications regarding occult symbolism we discovered in some of their gospel tracts. Again, it was from Karen Rockney, Jack Chick’s secretary. Here it is:

So there you have it. The official position of Chick Publications on the matter of occult imagery in their gospel tracts is that Jack Chick was responsible for only one of those tracts, and that the inclusion of the occult hand signs in their gospel tracts was not intentional.

Here is my response:

Those of us who care about the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ in these perverse last days should be encouraged by this development: not only because Chick Publications has promised to correct this issue, but because Chick Publications, now that they know we are paying attention, will be careful what they print from now on.

They realize that many of us in the body of Christ are awakening from our blissful slumber. They realize that, in this climate of apostasy, they can ill afford many incidents that cast doubt on the faithfulness of their ministry. Let’s pray that others will also take notice.

Saints, let this be our wakeup call. Let us take seriously the Bible’s commandment for Christians to “watch in all things.” Let us become the Watchmen we are supposed to be, for the glory of God and of His Christ.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

Mother’s Day Woes

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Grace and peace, Saints.

On Mother’s Day, I received an email from a very despondent mom, whose plans for that day were ruined when her daughter became ill. I sometimes get emails from Christians whose trials may be causing them to experience a crisis of faith or doubt the goodness of God. But this was the first time someone admitted that her trials are causing her to actually hate God.

Hate is a word that people don’t normally throw around as lightly as we do the word love. When someone says they hate something or someone, that is usually exactly what they mean. So when Gretchen said she was beginning to hate God, that really got my attention.

Here is her email:

“Hello, Still Man. I found your website when I did an internet search on curses.
Today is Mother’s Day, as well as my 18th Wedding Anniversary. My husband, daughter, and I had very special plans for celebrating two such special occasions today. I was SO excited and happy. I had been listening to a series of sermons by Andrew Wommack, that were recommended to me, and I was feeling so peaceful and happy, and growing so much spiritually.

“Then yesterday my daughter became sick, so all our special plans had to be cancelled. I had prayed and pleaded the blood of Jesus that she, would be protected from getting sick, and that we would all have a wonderful time today.

“This sort of thing happens EVERY TIME we have special plans. Either one of the three of us gets sick (usually my daughter), or something else will happen to ruin our plans. I am sick of ALWAYS being disappointed.

“Every time I start getting closer to God and Jesus, very disappointing things happen. I am starting to hate God. He doesn’t answer my prayers, and I really don’t think that He wants me or my family to be happy. I have already renounced my sins, and become born again.
Regarding Catholicism, I have Catholic friends and family who glide through life on a perpetual cloud of happiness.

“All I asked for was for 1 DAY OUT OF THE YEAR not to turn out to be a disappointment, but apparently that’s too much to ask.

—Gretchen” [CAPS in the original, boldface mine]

This was my response:

Hello, Gretchen.

I understand how tough this must be for you. And I can understand the temptation to blame God for your troubles. But you shouldn’t hate the Lord Jesus or believe He doesn’t want you to be happy. The Bible says that God wants you to have an abundant life, not a life of misery.

Understand that the Christian life, though a wonderful existence, is not all fun and games. Jesus Himself said that it is given to us who are saved not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake (Philippians 1:29). I can testify that this is a gospel truth. Suffering is part of the Christian experience.

The Apostle Paul loved the Lord with all his heart and soul and couldn’t wait to die so that he could be with the Lord. And Paul suffered more than all the Apostles, losing everything he had just to follow Jesus. Did Paul complain? Not hardly:

“I count all but loss (I’m willing to lose everything) for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them (the things he lost) but dung (poo-poo) that I may win Christ” (Philippians 3:8). [Parentheses and boldface mine.]

Those are pretty strong words from the Apostle. But he meant business. Suffering is part of the Christian walk. In fact, Paul goes on to say that to know Jesus is to know “the fellowship of His sufferings” (3:10). Only when you have suffered for Jesus’ sake do you truly come to know the Lord, because He is going to take you through the fire to perfect you. And perfection is had through suffering.

Even Jesus suffered. And the Bible says that Jesus “learned obedience through the things that He suffered.” This is exactly what happens to us when we suffer. God doesn’t let us suffer because He gets a kick out of it. God allows us to suffer for our good and for His glory.

I believe this may be part of what you are going through. Note that you said every time you start getting close to Jesus, “very disappointing things happen.” This happens to all of us. In Jesus’ parable of the sower, He describes the seed that fell among stones as the person who gladly receives the Gospel, and rejoices. But as soon as troubles come, he becomes weary, and Jesus becomes an offense to him (Matthew 13:20-21).

Don’t let this be you. Don’t confuse the Christian life with what many have made it out to be: all fun and joy and no tribulation. This is not biblical. Remember, Job was a righteous man in all his ways, who hated sin. Yet, God allowed Job to suffer. God allowed Satan to kill Job’s children, bankrupt him, and destroy his health. Satan was sure that when he was finished with Job, he would “curse God to His face.” Yet, the Bible says, “In all this, Job sinned not with his lips.” Job said, “The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

The Bible says that our trials are no different than what the average person goes though (1 Corinthians 10:13). The difference, however, is that Jesus is with the Christian every step of the way. He won’t allow us to suffer more than we are able, but “will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that we will be able to bear it.” That’s why you don’t hear about true, Bible-believing Christians committing suicide. God either stops our trials before they break us, or strengthens us so that we can handle them.

You shouldn’t worry about your Roman Catholic friends and relatives who are “gliding through life”, as you put it, as not everything is what it appears to be. Besides, the Apostle Paul says that we err when we “measure ourselves by ourselves and compare ourselves among ourselves” (2 Corinthians 10:12). We shouldn’t be looking at the person to our right and left and comparing what we are going through to what they are going through (or not). Keep your eyes on Jesus. Whatever you are going through, has nothing to do with them and vice versa.

It may very well be possible that you may be placing too much value on everything being just right, just perfect, on that special day. You may instead consider putting less emphasis on the day and more on the person. For example, Mother’s Day is a day to honor mothers for the special sacrifices they make every day to take care of their families. I get that. But, at the end of the day, isn’t it more important that mommy is around to hear her husband and children say “Happy Mother’s Day?”

Believe me when I tell you that there are many daughters out there who are very sad on Mother’s Day, because mom is no longer alive to receive her daughter’s love and appreciation. If your daughter or anyone else gets sick, and you are unable to do what you had planned, just switch to Plan B. (You should always have a Plan B.) And plan B should be a very scaled-down version of Plan A. Something that maybe doesn’t even require you to leave the house. Just stay home and watch some videos like “Mommy Dearest, “Throw Momma From the Train,” or “Stop, Or My Mom Will Shoot!” LOL.

If you are a Christian, then Jesus is allowing this to happen to you. And if He is allowing it to happen to you, then He has a reason. It could be that the Lord Jesus feels you are putting too much importance on “special occasions.” The Apostle Paul said, “One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind” (Romans 14:5). What Paul meant by this is that, at the end of the day, these days were not ordained of God, but by men, and they are not as important as we make them out to be. It is like the Pharisees, who put so much importance on what you couldn’t do on the Sabbath, that just about everything was a violation of it. Jesus told them that the Sabbath was made to serve man, and not man to serve the Sabbath.

One last thing: Satan is very aware of the importance you place on days like Mother’s Day and your wedding anniversary. You can count on him, therefore, to do all he can to derail those days for you. The way you thwart him is to not put so much emphasis on those days. That way, he can’t spoil it for you. All Christians have enemies, and many, if not most, of those enemies are witches. A witch will watch you, study you, and learn you. A witch will know when you have a birthday coming, or an anniversary, or a family outing, etc., and when that day approaches, will go into action, casting a spell on you, someone in your family, or someone else with whom you have to do. They will either try to make you sick, be in a bad mood, or argue with someone, in an effort to ruin that day for you. This happens to me all–and I do mean ALL–the time. So I know what I’m talking about.

Whenever a birthday is coming in my family, for example, I take it in stride, placing more value on the fact that whosever’s birthday it is lived to see it, than I do on all the trappings. There is always a cake (even a burnt one that I made) and, if possible, at least one present and a party. But it is not always under the best of circumstances.

On my youngest daughter’s 1st birthday, for example, my wife and I were at odds, so she didn’t attend the party. On another daughter’s birthday, a month later, we were still at odds, so I didn’t attend the party. Did it stop anything? No sir. Would it have been more fun if everyone had been there and getting along? Of course. But you must understand that we are in a war, and in a war, nothing is sacred; even birthday parties. At my son’s birthday party, my wife and I were still not speaking, but we both were at the party. And because we respected one another and dealt with one another amiably, everyone had a great time. The next day, my wife and I reconciled (briefly). (My wife is a Roman Catholic and has many many spiritual problems. So we are almost always at odds.) My children understand very well the spiritual warfare that is raging, and they always have a good time, under the circumstances. We have learned to lower our expectations, and we have redefined what makes a day special and what makes it fun.

In closing, I would like to say that I do not believe this is a curse at work. What I believe is that you may be placing too much importance on special days, and, in so doing, you are serving those days rather than letting those days serve you.

One last last thing. Don’t hate the Lord Jesus, and don’t feel He doesn’t want you and your family to be happy. I can tell you, as someone who has had things happen to him that my daughter says could make a bestseller, that the Lord Jesus loves you very very much. Just ask Him what His purpose is for all that is happening to you. If you are sincere, He will answer. And He will tell you what to do.

And please, please repent of hating the Lord. It could be a whole lot worse than a spoiled Mothers Day. You should be thankful it isn’t.
Your servant in Christ Jesus,

Tony

I appreciated this lady’s sincerity, and I’m sure the Lord Jesus does too. Now, someone reading this probably thinks it is the epitome of evil to hate God because of something He allows us to go through. But, in my heart, I believe this lady is not alone. My spirit tells me that it is probably very common for someone who names the name of Christ to hate Him, when the going gets tough.

Doubtless, all of us know something about God. But I would argue that very few of us actually know God. Because, once you know Him, it is impossible to hate Him; for to know God is to love Him. To hate God would be to hate goodness. To hate God would be to hate truthfulness. To hate God would be to hate honesty. To hate God would be to hate love. In short, to hate God would be to hate everything that is good in the world; for every good thing comes from God, the Father of Lights (James 1:17).

I don’t believe, therefore, that Gretchen really hates God, because I don’t believe she really knows Him. And the first clue that she doesn’t really know Him is that she doesn’t mention His name once. God has a name, and that name is Jesus Christ. If she knew God, then she would have no problem naming the name of Jesus.

The second clue that she doesn’t know God is that she says He doesn’t answer her prayers. If this is true, and God hasn’t answered any of her prayers, then it may be because He hasn’t heard them. Jesus said that anything we ask in His name He will do (John 14:13-14). Again, she doesn’t mention the name of Jesus once in her email, so one has to wonder if when she prays, she does so in the name of Jesus.

It may also be possible that Gretchen is not saved. Note that she never said that she was saved, but that she has “renounced [her] sins and been born again.” Not everyone who says they are born again means that they are saved.

Christianity is not the only religion in the world whose adherents claim to be born again. Freemasons, for example, are “reborn” during the ritual of the third degree, and some Freemasons, will tell you that that they have been born again. Freemasons are not Christians.

It is not enough to simply claim to be born again. One must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and confess Him as Lord and Savior. The Bible says,

“If thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou wilt be saved. For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (Romans 10:9-10).

I don’t like to question anyone’s salvation, but, in these last days, when deception is at an all time high, one must, because there are many who have been deceived into believing they are saved, when, in fact, they are not. I was one such person. We must believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that He died on the cross at Calvary and shed His blood for our sins, in order to be saved. Then, we must confess Jesus to the world.

When we confess Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are showing what we believe in our heart: that He is Lord of all. If you are not trusting in the shed blood of Jesus for your salvation, then you are not saved. And if you cannot say with certainty that you are going to Heaven, then you are not saved.

Renouncing our sins is also not enough. We must confess our sins if we want forgiveness for them. The Bible says, “If we confess our sins, He (Jesus) is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

Renouncing our sins is a good start, but we must confess our sins if we want the Lord Jesus to forgive them. Sin in our lives is the number one reason God doesn’t hear our prayers. The Bible says, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord shall not hear me” (Psalm 66:18).

The Bible says that we all sin. But, as Christians, we must confess those sins right away to the Lord Jesus (not to any man) if we want forgiveness. Unconfessed sin creates a wall between God and us—a barrier—through which prayers cannot pass. If we want to get a prayer through to God, then we must make sure that we are in a right relationship with Him. And one way to make sure that we are in a right relationship with God is to make sure that when we sin, we confess those sins to the Lord Jesus as quickly as possible.

The Bible says that we must examine ourselves and determine whether we are in the faith (2 Corinthians 13:5). When we feel that God is not answering our prayers, we need to first ask ourselves if we are in a right standing with Him. And if we are living in sin, then we are not.

We also need to make sure that when we pray for anything, that we want for God’s will to be done first. The Bible says:

“And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petition that we desired of Him” (1 John 5:14-15).

God’s will is perfect. And everything that He allows in our lives serves a purpose, even if we can’t see it. Even Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, ended His prayer with “But not my will, but thine, be done.” Gretchen said that she prayed and pleaded the blood of Jesus that her daughter would not get sick and that everyone would have a great time. But, because she was so disappointed when things didn’t go the way she planned, I wonder if she prayed for Jesus’ will to be done. Scripture says that if we want God to hear our prayers, then we must pray according to His will.

The Bible also says that we receive that which we ask of the Lord if we “keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:22). God’s commandments can be found in both the Old and New Testaments, and it behooves us, as Christians, to find out what the Lord Jesus wants and expects from us and to do it. If we don’t know what God’s commandments are, then we can’t keep them. If we can’t keep God’s commandments, then we cannot do those things that are pleasing in His sight. We will, therefore, not receive the things we ask of Him.

The third clue that Gretchen doesn’t really know God is that she believes He doesn’t want her to be happy. God wants us all to be happy. The Word of God commands us to rejoice, and to rejoice again (Philippians 4:4). The Bible says that God will not withhold any good thing from those of us who seek the Lord (Psalm 34:10). And happiness is a good thing. But it is important for us to understand that God’s version of happiness is a lot different from ours.

To us, happiness is getting everything we want. To God, happiness is getting everything He wants. And what God wants for us is not always exactly what we would want for ourselves. Just because something seems good to us, doesn’t mean that it’s good for us. And even something that is good for us may not be good for us all the time. The Bible says that there is a season for everything. What may not be right for us today may be right for us tomorrow. Only God know when the time is right.

I believe this is the root of Gretchen’s problem. She has unrealistic expectations of what happiness is—unrealistic, that is, in the Christian sense. The Apostle Paul said that we should be content with such things as we have, and that we should not grumble or complain about our lives. If God will not withhold any good thing from us, then, if we are in a right relationship with Him, we are exactly where He wants us. To be in a right relationship with God should be every Christian’s desire, and, ultimately, that is what should make us happy, even when everything else in our lives seems to be going wrong.

Knowing that you are in a right standing with the Lord Jesus can often be the only silver lining in an otherwise dark cloud. When everything else seems to be going wrong: when you are forsaken by your friends and family, when your husband or wife has turned their back on you, when your children are misbehaving, when things are not right at work, when your money is acting funny, when you just keep on getting sick, and when it seems that no one cares whether you live or die, it is knowing that God Almighty is watching over you and allowing these things to happen to you, but will not put more on you than you can bear, that helps you to get through each and every day.

True happiness, then, is being dead center in the will of God, and knowing that regardless of how things are going, the Captain of our Salvation and the Author and Finisher of our faith is at the helm. And He will guide us into a safe haven.

The Bible says, “All things work together for good to those who love God and who are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

Note that the passage says all things work together for good. All means all. That means even the bad things that happen to us serve a purpose, working together with the good things to fulfill God’s purpose in us. And the Lord Jesus has promised us that ultimately things will work out for our good. That means we can’t lose!

Don’t let Satan steal your joy. Sanctify yourself and avoid sin and those who sin. Don’t give a witch power over you. “Greater is He that is in us, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

In closing, we shouldn’t have unrealistic expectations of the Christian life; for when we do, we set ourselves up for disappointment. The Christian life is not all fun and games. Job said it best when he said, “Shall we [only] receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” (Job 2:10). Jesus is God Almighty, yet the Bible says that Jesus was “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” Life was not all fun and games for our Lord either.

Truly, the servant is no greater than his Master.

The podcast of this teaching is available for download at the iTunes Store. Subscribe to our podcast today! For your convenience, it is also available below.

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“Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame; and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds” (Hebrews 12:2-3).

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

A Reply From Jack (well, almost)

Grace and peace, Saints.

As you may recall, back in February of this year, we wrote Christian publisher and cartoonist, Jack Chick, concerning occult images we discovered in his gospel tracts.

We first wrote about this subject back in 2012, in the article, Man, You Don’t Know Jack! after discovering a Cult of Mary hand sign in the gospel tract, Why Is Mary Crying? At that time, I considered writing Jack Chick about this, but thought better of it, for several reasons, not the least of which was the fact that at that time, I had only found the hand sign in that one particular tract.

But when I later discovered that same hand sign in two other Chick tracts, namely The Choice and The Storyteller, I decided that it was time to write Jack Chick and find out what was going on. So, I did, in a letter which you can read here.

Well, shortly thereafter, I received a letter from Jack’s secretary, which you can read below:

As you can see, Ms. Rockney denies that the occult images were placed in the tracts intentionally, and even attempts to explain them away by saying that “sometimes a picture is just a picture.”

Well, here is one of the images in question. I’ll let you decide if it is “just a picture.”

I have responded to Ms. Rockney’s letter, answering some of her claims in turn. You can read my response here.

Saints, pray for discernment. Chick Publications is probably one of the largest, best known, and most trusted Christian publishers of gospel literature out there. And if they are controlled by the forces of darkness, then it will manifest in some way. So, I admonish you to take a good hard look at Chick Publications. I already have.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man

The Truth About President Abraham Lincoln

Grace and peace, Saints.

How many of you know that tomorrow, April 14, 2015 is the anniversary of the assassination of the sixteenth President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln? If you didn’t know, don’t feel bad: you had a lot of help not knowing. The same people who killed him are the same people who own the media and the educational establishment. So it’s no wonder many of us didn’t know.

Satan hates Abraham Lincoln because he opposed and successfully defeated his plans to take over the United States and destroy forever it’s Constitution and the hard-fought liberties Americans hold so dearly. Lincoln also passed the Emancipation Proclamation and pushed through the legislation that led to the passing of the 13th Article and Amendment to the Constitution, forever breaking the chains and fetters of the slaves and making them free. And it cost him his life.

Most blacks pay no tribute at all to President Lincoln. His birthday and the anniversary of his assassination come and go without many of us even noticing. This is a shame, especially in light of what he did for the Negro. If anyone should remember Honest Abe Lincoln, it should be blacks.

It would enough of a tragedy if everyone had forgotten Lincoln. But a greater tragedy–nay a crime, has been perpetrated by some who choose to remember him; for in remembering him they dishonor him, even making him look like a buffoon.

Is this right? I submit that it is not. Abraham Lincoln should be revered by all Americans as the man who held the Union together, and the man who made it possible for blacks to share in many of the blessings of this great country. At one time, he was; but not anymore. Lincoln has been maligned in the media, in the history books, and by Martin Luther King in his “I Have A Dream” speech. How could we stand by and let this happen?

All the blame shouldn’t be heaped upon Americans, however. An alien government actually shares in the blame, the same alien government that was responsible for Lincoln’s death. And you probably didn’t even know they were involved.

On the 130th anniversary of President Lincoln’s assassination, I pay tribute to him by narrating an excerpt from Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, a very important book that reveals who was behind President Lincoln’s assassination. The book’s author, former Roman Catholic priest, Charles Chiniquy, shares some particulars about Lincoln and the circumstances of his death that you likely never learned in school or anywhere else.

The discussion is available at the iTunes store at our podcast The Gospel Light and Truth Crusade. Subscribe to our podcast today! It is also available for download below.

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It is my hope that by the end of the podcast, you will have a renewed respect for the man, Abraham Lincoln, and that his noble sacrifice on behalf of the great country that was America and especially for the Negro, will not be forgotten.

Be encouraged and look up, for your redemption draweth nigh.

The Still Man