Late last week, I noted how a dispassionate moral foundation is inexorably being laid which would justify the killing of babies past the ninth month of pregnancy — i.e., literal infanticide.

Today, in a short pieced entitled ‘What Dead Kids’, Mark Steyn notes how one has to read British papers to learn the details of the horrifying story taking shape at the murder trial of Philadelphia abortion ‘doctor’ Kermit Gosnell.

‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

(Philadelphia is known as the ‘City of Brotherly Love’)

A medical school graduate has given a graphic account of working at a Philadelphia abortion clinic and how he routinely saw babies born alive and then killed… he saw about 100 babies born alive and then ‘snipped’ with surgical scissors in the back of the neck, to ensure their ‘demise’… ‘Fetuses and blood all over the place. It is literally a beheading. It is separating the brain from the body,’ [he said].

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. (Revelation 20:4)

What kinds of people are a) beheaded for their life-and-death testimony*, and b) guaranteed not to have worshiped the beast or its image or received his mark? The unborn…

*(Recall that it was the same Edomite dynasty — the Herods — who had John the Baptist beheaded for his plain-spoken call for repentance and went on a baby-killing spree in an attempt to eradicate Jesus. See Mark 6:14-29 and Matthew 2:16-19.)

Think about it: From the hijackings of the early ’70s onward (time of Roe v. Wade), America has come under increasing pressure from Islamic terrorists.

Their notorious signature means of killing: beheading.

Related: 180 Movie

ISAIAH 5:18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood, who draw sin as with cart ropes, 19 who say: “Let him be quick, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near, and let it come, that we may know it!” 20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight! 22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine, and valiant men in mixing strong drink, 23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right! 24 Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will be as rottenness, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the law of the LORD of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. 25 Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against his people, and he stretched out his hand against them and struck them, and the mountains quaked; and their corpses were as refuse in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still.

Killing babies no different from abortion, experts say
(UK Telegraph, February 29, 2013)

(‘Experts’ in what, one might ask…)

The article, published in the Journal of Medical Ethics, says newborn babies are not “actual persons” and do not have a “moral right to life”. The academics also argue that parents should be able to have their baby killed if it turns out to be disabled when it is born.
…
The article, entitled “After-birth abortion: Why should the baby live?”, was written by two of Prof Savulescu’s former associates, Alberto Giubilini and Francesca Minerva.

They argued: “The moral status of an infant is equivalent to that of a fetus in the sense that both lack those properties that justify the attribution of a right to life to an individual.”

Rather than being “actual persons”, newborns were “potential persons”. They explained: “Both a fetus and a newborn certainly are human beings and potential persons, but neither is a ‘person’ in the sense of ‘subject of a moral right to life’.

(‘Moral right’ as determined by whom? one might ask)

“We take ‘person’ to mean an individual who is capable of attributing to her own existence some (at least) basic value such that being deprived of this existence represents a loss to her.”

As such they argued it was “not possible to damage a newborn by preventing her from developing the potentiality to become a person in the morally relevant sense”.

The authors therefore concluded that “what we call ‘after-birth abortion’ (killing a newborn) should be permissible in all the cases where abortion is, including cases where the newborn is not disabled”.

They also argued that parents should be able to have the baby killed if it turned out to be disabled without their knowing before birth, for example citing that “only the 64 per cent of Down’s syndrome cases” in Europe are diagnosed by prenatal testing.

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This site provides useful context for where we are going next:

Leo Alexander, an American psychiatrist, was a consultant to the Secretary of War and serving with the office of the Chief Counsel for War Crimes in Nuremberg during 1946 and 1947.

In his “Medical Science under Dictatorship” (pdf), published in the New England Journal of Medicine, July, 1949, Dr Alexander observed:

“Whatever proportions these crimes finally assumed, it became evident to all who investigated them, that they started from small beginnings. The beginnings at first were merely a subtle shift in emphasis in the basic attitudes of physicians.

“It started with the acceptance of the attitude, basic to the euthanasia movement, that there is such a thing as a life not worthy to be lived. This attitude in its early stages concerned itself merely with the severely and chronically sick.

“Gradually the sphere of those to be included in this category was enlarged to encompass the socially unproductive, the ideologically unwanted, the racially unwanted, and finally all non-Germans.”

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Ironically, the Telegraph article provides a foundation on which to unveil what ought to be self-evident: that life is life is life — all of it precious as God’s creation. The authors of the article write:

“The goal of the Journal of Medical Ethics is not to present the Truth or promote some one moral view. It is to present well reasoned argument based on widely accepted premises.”

I urge you to note two things: 1) Truth is capitalized in the original, and 2) the admission that this argument is based on “widely accepted premises”. Without the person of Jesus Christ — Truth Himself — mankind will operate on “widely accepted premises” — i.e., what seems right in our own eyes. That way leads to death. Always has. Always will.

RELATED: “So What if Abortion Ends Life” (Salon, January 23, 2013). Brazen. Chilling.

I know that throughout my own pregnancies, I never wavered for a moment in the belief that I was carrying a human life inside of me. I believe that’s what a fetus is: a human life. And that doesn’t make me one iota less solidly pro-choice.

Today’s devotional post (‘The Pay Day’) from the late David Wilkerson is exceptional.

Excerpt:

Our nation’s heart is divided. Americans pay lip service to God and religion, but they do not worship the Lord in truth. That has led directly to the breakdown of all our hallowed institutions.

When you lose faith in God and place your trust in something else, that thing becomes an idol. This is happening in our nation today.

Our society no longer trusts God, turning instead to the government, the President, the educational system, Social Security—all to try to find some kind of stability.

God is saying, “If you won’t trust Me, I’ll make all your trusted institutions fail.”

It’s hard not to view this in light of the unprecedented official thefts and other restrictions on bank deposits in Cyprus over the last two weeks (a phenomenon likely to spread widely, the only question being when). Every day we pass around currency which states “In God We Trust”. Most of us don’t. As such, we lie.

As a nation, we have given to Caesar what is God’s (our time, energy, thoughts, and aspirations). At the same time, many have given to God that which is Caesar’s (our money) and stopped there, thinking it will buy us something enduring. It won’t. To quote a certain ex president: “This will not stand.”

[SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATES through Resurrection Sunday morning, March 31st]

“‘Star Wars’ Religion: Temple Of The Jedi Order Ordains Ministers, Performs Weddings”

Abbreviated version (3:47 video)
Full version (27:08 video)

(H/T: a terribly confused former client who, in his Facebook posting, thanks atheist Richard Dawkins)

Sadly, this is not a joke… or a surprise.

How many individuals do you know who profess the name of Christ, perhaps including yourself, who can quote lines from Star Wars more readily than they can quote from the words of eternal life — from God’s Word? (Younger folk can ask the same question about films such as Harry Potter. Nearly everyone nowadays can say the same about pop music lyrics.) How many do you know who are more comfortable quoting such things in more situations and with more people than they are quoting God’s Word? (I stand convicted of having done this myself.)

My heart breaks for those lost, thirsty souls drawn in by this polluted spring — just the latest in a long string of many re-packagings of the original, deadly-attractive lie, offered-up by the crafty one, inviting pride to blossom: “Did God really say…?” (Genesis 3:1) Even sadder is that many flee to this (or things like it) because the ‘churches’ they’ve tasted have offered them something other than the pure, refreshing gospel and true fellowship with it — spiritual waters almost as polluted by the world as this man-made fantasy.

2nd Timothy 4:1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word ; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

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From the Temple of the Jedi Order website:

Jediism is the religion of The Force. We are not fictional Jedi from the wonderful Star Wars movies, neither are we role playing. Jediism is not the same as that which is portrayed within the Star Wars Saga by George Lucas and Lucasfilm LTD. George Lucas’ Jedi are fictional characters that exist within a literary and cinematic universe.

The Jedi discussed within this website refer to real people within this world that live or lived their lives according to the principles of Jediism, of which we recognize and work together as a community to both cultivate and celebrate. Jedi Apprentices, Knights, Scholars, Masters, and High Councilors embrace Jediism as a real living, breathing religion and sincerely strive to seek out and emulate real life examples of Jediism in the long rich history of mankind. Jediism bases less of its focus on myth and fiction and more upon those real life examples of Jediism.

We believe in Peace, Justice, Love, Learning and using our abilities for Good [note the caps] so it’s unlikely that our way conflicts with your beliefs and traditions. [Ungrounded assertion number one; in fact, it does conflict. Christ makes the unilateral claim to being Truth it/Him self. In the footnotes, they cryptically refer to "a handful of destructive cults which have had an overall negative effect" likely including true Christianity, in their view.]

A real Jedi may belong to any Church or no other Church as long as s/he takes a true oath to follow our Creed and Code. [Just as a 'real' (crafty) serpent can inhabit any garden, most syncretistic mystery religions don't mind if you dabble with others. Note though their superficial tolerance (a form of pride: 'look how tolerant we are!', undergirded by an insistence on taking their oath to follow their man-made, antichrist creed; my emphasis added throughout]

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Luke 18:19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good ? No one is good except God alone.

1st John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

UPDATE I: I’d forgotten about Obama’s strange recent reference to Star Wars (and ‘Trek’) theology: “I should somehow do a ‘Jedi mind-meld’ with these folks [Republicans] and convince them to do what’s right.’”

UPDATE II: I’ve been stunned, over the last few days, to see how many people I know who are not only posting the logo of the homosexual marriage movement on their Facebook page (a pink ‘equals’ sign on a square red background), but replacing their own image with it, i.e., making it their profile picture. In a sense, they are subsuming their own identity into this issue. They are stating (in effect) that gay marriage is more important than they are — revealing that this issue, in their minds, is at the level of religious dogma. The reason I mention all that in the context of this post is because of the following (below), which a dear old friend posted this afternoon:

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Think about what this means. My friend (who through conversation after conversation has ostensibly eschewed all things related to any religion) formulates his worldview based on the koans of a billionaire Hollywood writer/director who, not quite forty years ago expressed his pagan religious beliefs through the mouth of a green, polystyrene puppet? And people say there’s not enough evidence to trust Jesus…

(Doubling the irony is the fact that the picture was originally posted (or at least popularized by its presence) on the Facebook page of George Takei — the homosexual activist actor who played Lieutenant (later Commander) Sulu in the original Star Trek series and subsequent films.)

It is said that truth is stranger than fiction. What happens when fiction decides it cannot tolerate truth?

UPDATE III: Here’s another fiction-inspired variant which a relative of mine put as their profile picture:

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UPDATE IV: I figured someone would come up with this eventually (from the Facebook page of a friend of a friend) –

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UPDATE V: What do you even do with something like this? (a mockery of ‘liberty and justice for all’):

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UPDATE VI: Or this…

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UPDATE VII: OK, last one… promise. This is perhaps the best of the bunch in that it references scripture. (The Word ought always to trump images, including moving ones such as the ‘Bible’ TV series.) –

Deep, nuanced, honest, convicting. Highly recommended, all the way through.

(The book is at least as good! Just finished it (Sunday 3/24) – an unconventional ‘must read’.)

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Here are a few articles that convey some of the same content. (Though the video is still well worth the time!)

From Christianity Today (‘My Train-Wreck Conversion’, February 7, 2013) –

The word Jesus stuck in my throat like an elephant tusk; no matter how hard I choked, I couldn’t hack it out. Those who professed the name commanded my pity and wrath. As a university professor, I tired of students who seemed to believe that “knowing Jesus” meant knowing little else. Christians in particular were bad readers, always seizing opportunities to insert a Bible verse into a conversation with the same point as a punctuation mark: to end it rather than deepen it. Stupid. Pointless. Menacing. That’s what I thought of Christians and their god Jesus…

I continued reading the Bible, all the while fighting the idea that it was inspired. But the Bible got to be bigger inside me than I. It overflowed into my world. I fought against it with all my might… I fought with everything I had. I did not want this. I did not ask for this. I counted the costs. And I did not like the math on the other side of the equal sign.

But God’s promises rolled in like sets of waves into my world. One Lord’s Day, Ken preached on John 7:17: “If anyone wills to do [God's] will, he shall know concerning the doctrine” (NKJV). This verse exposed the quicksand in which my feet were stuck…

I wrestled with the question: Did I really want to understand homosexuality from God’s point of view, or did I just want to argue with him? I prayed that night that God would give me the willingness to obey before I understood. I prayed long into the unfolding of day.

When I looked in the mirror, I looked the same. But when I looked into my heart through the lens of the Bible, I wondered, Am I a lesbian, or has this all been a case of mistaken identity? If Jesus could split the world asunder, divide marrow from soul, could he make my true identity prevail? Who am I? Who will God have me to be?…

Then, one ordinary day, I came to Jesus, openhanded and naked… Jesus triumphed. And I was a broken mess. Conversion was a train wreck. I did not want to lose everything that I loved. But the voice of God sang a sanguine love song in the rubble of my world. I weakly believed that if Jesus could conquer death, he could make right my world. I drank, tentatively at first, then passionately, of the solace of the Holy Spirit. I rested in private peace, then community, and today in the shelter of a covenant family, where one calls me “wife” and many call me “mother.” I have not forgotten the blood Jesus surrendered for this life.

From ‘Baptist Press,’ March 19, 2013 –

More than just a story of her own spiritual journey, Butterfield offers an important critique of the Christian bubble that too often shields evangelicals from engaging with those with whom we disagree — and, therefore, limiting our opportunities to see Christ’s transformative work as demonstrated in her life… “My journey out of lesbianism was messy and difficult. I spent a lot of time in prayer — and still do,” she writes.

Butterfield has strong words for Christians who counsel acceptance of homosexuality, like a Methodist pastor and dean of the chapel at Syracuse University who advised her she “didn’t have to give up everything to honor God.”

“I’m grateful that when I heard the Lord’s call on my life, and I wanted to hedge my bets, keep my girlfriend and add a little God to my life, I had a pastor and friends in the Lord who asked nothing less of me than that I die to myself. Biblical orthodoxy can offer real compassion, because in our struggle against sin, we cannot undermine God’s power to change lives,” Butterfield writes.

JOHN 3:3 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

2nd CORINTHIANS 5:1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened–not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.

5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

March 12, 2013 11:58 PM, LONG BEACH (CBSLA.com) — It appears burgers and cigarettes aren’t entirely to blame for clogged arteries. Heart disease was recently discovered in 4,000-year-old mummies, according to a new study. Dr. Gregory Thomas, the study’s senior author… said he initially didn’t believe the mummies would show any signs of atherosclerosis, or hardened arteries. [Said Thomas:]

“I believed the Egyptians wouldn’t have any blockages at all. There’s no cars, no transportation, they had to walk everywhere. Their diet was all-natural, no trans fats, there’s no cigarettes… [but] we found that 34 percent of the mummies actually had blockages. Of those over forty, half… had blockages… I don’t think we understand heart disease as well as we thought we did.“

GENESIS 6:1 When the human population began to grow rapidly on the earth, 2 the sons of God saw the beautiful women of the human race and took any they wanted as their wives. 3 Then the LORD said, “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, they will live no more than 120 years.”

Guinness World Records: The greatest fully authenticated age to which any human has ever lived is 122 years 164 days by Jeanne Louise Calment (France). Born on 21 February 1875… [she] died at a nursing home in Arles, southern France on 4 August 1997… Asked on her 120th birthday what she expected of the future, she replied, “a very short one”.

I.e., Ms. Calment was the exception that proved the rule. All else is vanity.

MATTHEW 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. 25 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Yesterday, someone sent me an article about how brown rice contains significantly more arsenic than white rice. OK. Fair enough. Not exactly new news. But still, a fact.

What is one to do? Eat one and get cancer due to the poison. Eat the other and get cancer due to low fiber. Eat something else and embrace some similar set of problems and trade-offs. (The whole thing about mercury being in higher concentrations in the same kinds of fish which contain the highest proportions of ‘good’ fats is just another example.)

Are we to be diligent in how we maintain our earthly ‘tent’ — for believers, the temple of the Holy Spirit?

Yes, of course.

But scripture is clear: Our tent exists to bear witness about the One Who created all life, the One Who Is life itself. Bearing witness to Christ Jesus, God Himself, is our purpose, full stop.

We are not to fret and worry, spending the only precious resources we have in this life (time, attention and aspiration) on fine-tuning something which is bound to collapse. (Hey, let’s paint the tent!)

Anxiety and body-fixation (of all types, and there are many) are sins. Our modern cultural obsessions with health and fitness, fatness and thinness, lifestyle and life-extension are at least as sinful as first-century (and third-world) worries about things like starvation. Are those problems real? Of course they are. I do not mean to diminish them. Yet they are not to be elevated above the power and purpose of a holy God.

I’m sure I will offend some, but the Bible is clear. They are gross idolatry — a fixation (metaphorically speaking) on how we turn, spin and pike in the air as we plunge from the thirty-meter tower into the water below.

PHILIPPIANS 1:20 …it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. 27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ…

ROMANS 8:18 …I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.

Why write about this this morning? Today marks the eighth anniversary of my little brother being rushed to the hospital by ambulance in a raging snowstorm to start chemo for acute leukemia, saving him from what (given his off-the-charts blood counts) would have been certain death within forty-eight hours.

Here’s a partial re-post of what I wrote about that night, just a few months after it happened, but while he was still with us, unsure of the final outcome:

I got the initial call from my sister-in-law at 12:15AM on a Sunday: “We’re at the hospital. They’ve run some tests. They think he has leukemia. We’re heading to the hospital in a few minutes by ambulance. They’re concerned his heart might stop [because of the extra cells clogging his system.] They’re pretty certain of the diagnosis. They’ll confirm and probably start chemo this afternoon.”

Me, wide awake in a way I hope never to be again: “OK. OK. I understand. Are they sure? OK. Got it. Should I come now? OK. I’ll wait ’til morning. Tell him I love him.”

Of course I couldn’t sleep. I prayed a little, then got on the Internet and read. It was the only thing I could control. About 3AM, I finally dozed off. Around 7AM I drove in to see him.

I don’t remember a lot about that first visit. He looked awful. I could tell he was in a lot of pain – his bones aching from the hyper-production of ‘blast’ cells trying to get out, clogging his system. The real possibility of cardiac arrest loomed large. Or stroke. Or kidney failure. His blood readings had maxed out the experience of the senior nurse on the unit. In 20+ years, she’d never seen anything that high. I didn’t ask how many such patients survived.

Leukemia is fundamentally a disease of the bone marrow. With billions of evil, useless white cells cramming the inside of his bones and more coming along behind them, his bones were literally under pressure from the inside. They didn’t fit together right. My brother told me it was like the worst case of arthritis imaginable, combined with a triple hangover – all over his body, all at once. When the docs did a bone marrow biopsy to confirm the diagnosis… Well, you get the idea. Enough clinical stuff.

Just the previous afternoon he’d had a headache and fever. Tired from a business trip he thought he had the flu, or at worst maybe meningitis. Leukemia? It never entered our minds. My brother is (was) a healthy guy. He went to the gym regularly. He ate organic, highly nutritious food to a fault. He wasn’t overweight. He never smoked; seldom drank. “This just happens and we almost never know why”, the doctors told us. Don’t even try to find a reason. You won’t. I held his hand and hugged him, but I don’t know how much support I was right then. We were all reeling. In a sense, we still are.

Now here’s where it gets interesting…

I left the hospital to drive to a church meeting. I told just those three people what was going on. I had my eyes on them the entire time until the service began. They talked to nobody else. We left the meeting in a hurry only a minute before worship. None of us saw or talked to our pastor. Nobody had called him. It had only been a few hours.

I really needed to be in church. There was little I could do for my brother that I hadn’t already done. Now it was about gathering myself – gathering strength. It was going to be a long haul. How long, we were only beginning to guess, but it seemed grim.

As the scripture readings began, I was only half paying attention. Ezekiel, Chapter 37 seemed like an obscure choice. Then I sat bolt upright:

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.

Bones? How often does the Bible talk about bones, much less ones that aren’t working properly and will be “brought back to life”? When was the last time I heard anything from Ezekiel? Coincidence? Maybe…

Then the second reading was from John, Chapter 11:

Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.” When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

…When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

Brother? Illness? Come quickly? Might die?

By this point, I was shaking. I get goosebumps just retelling it. OK, John 11 is a relatively common passage, particularly for that time of year. But the sermon went on to emphasize exactly what I was going through: the faith-amidst-illness angle and how Mary, as the sibling of Lazarus, must have felt on watching him get sick and being able to do nothing to help him – her despair, her anger, her confusion, her helplessness, her sorrow… and her faith.

Coincidence? No. Just no.

Not “maybe”. Not “possibly”. No. Time and Newsweek can both print “God is Dead” on their covers every week until I’m in a nursing home and I will not believe that that morning’s events were a ‘coincidence’, or of earthly origin. The improbability of the passages in juxtaposition is high enough based on simple statistics. The particular story line our pastor chose to take is even more improbable. That it all went down that morning… well, you decide.

And that’s the beauty of it, isn’t it? Our relationship with God, I mean. Even when He’s so close and so direct that you can feel His breath on your face, we still have the choice to say, “coincidence”; to say “I don’t believe it”; to say “go away”; to reject God. But why bother? He wants each of us. He is the ultimate provider of second and fiftieth chances. He makes it so easy if we’re willing.

The assurance of that awful/beautiful Sunday morning is like a light that won’t go out. As bad as it’s been for my brother – and as bad as it may get – I know with utter certainty that it’s all part of a much larger plan.

“Thy will be done…” “Thy will be done…”

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Ed was less than a week shy of his 39th birthday at the time he got sick, in 2005. He died seven months later.

Was that a tragedy? On one level, yes of course. Death is awful. Death at a young age immensely more. Yet on the only level that ultimately matters: No. Emphatically no. It was not a tragedy. ALL things work together for the good of those who love God. (Corollary: all things work together for bad for those who don’t. Think about it. In that little passage sits the entire doctrine of heaven and hell, salvation, damnation, and eternity.)

The whole painful process led my brother to Christ in powerful and undeniable fashion — four and a half months after he got sick, and two and a half months before he departed this life. He is far better off than he would have been if he’d lived to 120 and never known Christ.

As I said to a friend over breakfast the other day, too often we play ‘nickel poker’ (small games) both for ourselves and with those around us. We obsess about things which won’t last. All the while, the clock ticks, both for us and for those who would hear the gospel we ought to share. (The harvest is ripe… The workers are few…)

What use is it to feed a man for a day (or a year, or a lifetime) if at the end of it he starves in a far more fundamental way (for the Word of God, Christ) for all eternity? (See for example Luke 16:19-31, Amos 8:11, and John 4:13-36.)

What use indeed?

One of the great joys of reading scripture with the Holy Spirit leading — leaning over one’s proverbial shoulder, as it were — is that familiar passages open up in new and glorious ways. Such was the case this morning as I read Luke’s gospel, the tenth chapter. I felt moved to share.

25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him [i.e., Jesus] to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Most of the time, when I’ve heard this passage preached, emphasis is put on what follows — the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Even those who want nothing to do with Christ or His church know the phrase, and the basic outlines of the story. We are to define ‘neighbor’ far more broadly than we are inclined to. We are to be lovingly merciful in practical ways in the ‘horizontal’ (human-to-human) realm, caring extravagantly for the sick, injured and helpless, whatever the cost.

Those things are not wrong. In fact, they are crucial.

Yet… I’ve missed much… How and why we love our neighbor matters greatly.

Please bear with me.

Note that the lawyer completely ignores the first part of his own answer (the Sh’ma, a.k.a., Deuteronomy 6:5). He appears to simply assume that he is, in fact, loving the Lord his God with all his heart, soul, strength and mind… even as the Lord his God is standing right in front of him.

The most impossible part of the Law — the part no one has ever done properly for even ten seconds — this man seems to take as a given… the basis for his own righteousness.

By virtue of standing up where countless others have fallen on their face at the Lord’s feet (under both the Old and New Covenants), weeping, shaking, like as dead men, worshiping only by virtue of being bathed in God’s grace, transformed by a new awareness of their (our) own deep sinfulness versus His utter holiness, the lawyer fails utterly at doing what he himself says is most critical.

The lawyer knows the right answer, yet before the conversation even gets to the neighbor bit (the part we all tend to focus on and remember), he is shown standing in the same attitude Satan took six chapters earlier when he put Jesus, God incarnate, to the test in the wilderness!

Jesus overlooks this gross sin of public pride and presumption, engaging the lawyer on the neighbor part, and doing so with relative gentleness. Jesus exhibits levels of grace we can scarcely begin to imagine.

30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

The first mention I can find of oil and wine together, in the same verse, occurs in Exodus 29:

38 Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day regularly. 39 One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. 40 And with the first lamb a tenth seah of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering.

The context involves the consecration of priests. The lamb offered in the morning (typologically, Jesus as well as his true church, following him in the path of suffering) is to be offered up with these two highly symbolic elements (oil = Spirit; wine = life/lifeblood) along with fine flour, a ‘pointer’ to the crushed wheat, sowed planted and reaped as per the ‘Sower’ and ‘Weeds’ parables of Matthew 13, among others).

To a Jewish audience who knew their Torah, Jesus was not only admonishing folks to be “Good Samaritans,” he was implying that Samaritans (the outcast half-breeds) could serve in the role of priests. Outrageous!

He was saying what Peter would write later, in his first letter, the second chapter, verse nine:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Not only that, he was hinting at the fact that Jesus Himself would be the man beaten, robbed, stripped and left for dead. Think about it. Jesus the God-man had already ‘gone down’ from the heavenly Jerusalem, humbling himself in human form with no fanfare, condescending to dwell with us, Emmanuel, down here in ‘Jericho,’ the rebellious walled city of the planet earth, under the power of the evil one.

Like Moses and the burning bush, He awaits those who will open their eyes and turn aside, pausing in the course of their busy agenda to focus attention on him. Hold that thought.

The man left for dead serves not only as a plain, simple and literal lesson, admonishing us to jump in where others will not to care for physical ailments, but also as a parable-within-a-parable. It is meant to point us also to the spiritual battering and nakedness which is the condition of those without Christ in this world. I.e., those battered by the accuser/adversary, at least in a spiritual sense (though all too often also in a physical sense as well).

(E.g., see Jesus’ letter to the apostate church at Laodicea in Revelation 3:17 — “pitiful, poor, blind and naked” vs. this man who is at least pitiful, poor and naked. That’s just one example of the symbolic linkages. Another is the demoniac among the tombs in Luke 8:26-39, a.k.a., the incident of the deviled ham, a modern version of which seems to have happened in just the last few days in China (H/T: JW). Or Adam and Eve being clothed with the skins of animal sacrifices in Genesis 3:21. Check out the rest for yourself.)

38 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” 41 But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but [only] one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Something I’ve found useful recently is to ignore the section breaks in my (ESV) Bible, asking the Holy Spirit why adjacent stories are in the order they are. That is, how are the Bible’s stories (and not just the gospels), interrelated even though, on the surface they may seem unrelated, like a string of pearls?

Here we see Jesus telling Martha that she is sinning. In His extreme grace, we often miss that, but He is.

Elsewhere he commands us not to worry or be anxious but to walk simply, day by day, praying for our daily bread — trusting that our worldly needs are already well known and provided-for by the Father.

Without using the precise words his brother James (actually ‘Jacob’) would use later, in his epistle, Jesus is warning Martha that she is “doubting… like a wave of the sea… driven and tossed by the wind[s]“ of earthly cares, “double-minded… unstable.” He does so with extreme gentleness, but he’s essentially telling her that, unless she drops her dead works (well-intended and ‘practical’, but wood-hay-and-stubble nonetheless)… unless she obeys his gracious invitation to sit at His feet like her sister Mary, taking care how she hears, desiring to have her faith increased so she may come closer to loving the Lord her God with all her heart, soul, strength and mind, like the lawyer assumed he was doing but wasn’t, thereby laying up treasure for herself in heaven that will not rot, rust or perish (unlike the pots, pans, food and stomachs she, that is Martha, was serving) she should, “not suppose that [s]he will receive anything from the Lord.” 

As they’re wont to say on the airlines: put on your own oxygen mask first, before helping others.

And here the whole sweep of the story loops back on itself in amazing fashion. For only in sitting at the Lord’s feet, (reading his Word, enjoying co-missional koinonia partnership/fellowship in mission with other believers, praying and abiding in the very God of Creation) are we in any way equipped to do anything truly useful.

We need the oil of the Holy Spirit (like the five wise virgins), and the best wine in abundance (like the wedding at Cana, itself a real-life allusion to the bountiful salvific feast of Isaiah 25) else we cannot perform the priestly function for which we were saved and to which we are called. Only by taking the whole of the lawyer’s statement at face value and in order can we hope to do any of it. We can only truly love our neighbor in the sense Jesus means it if we have experienced the overwhelming love of Christ Jesus.

This recent lead story on CNN (‘Surrogate offered $10,000 to abort baby’, March 4, 2013) came to my attention via a dear sister-in-Christ who, after the blessed birth and adoption, last June, is now related (albeit indirectly) to the child in question (a little girl, now almost 9 months old).

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The number of angles and implications to the story are staggering, highlighting how late and dark the hour is (too few are aware of how the outlines of legal frameworks the story highlights mirror Nazi Germany in the mid/late 1930′s) but more importantly how much in need of Salvation the human heart is in any era. (E.g., see Jeremiah 17:9).

Before diving in, I recommend praying for a heart of compassion for the desperate lostness and depravity of some in the story whom we might be inclined to despise, remembering that we are all wicked sinners, saved by grace alone. (See Matthew 5:44, Jude 9 and Proverbs 24:17-18, for example.)

Among the more riveting elements I noted were:

The biological parents’ relentless desire to ensure the child’s death even at a steep financial price, and even when they were absolved of responsibility, all driven it would seem out of fear and dread of what the future might hold, both for her and for them. (See 1st John 4:18, Matthew 6:11 & Matthew 6:34)

The amazing grace poured out on the biological parents, leading to what would seem a change of heart. (One of the primary purposes of babies, I believe, is to soften our hearts, helping us to understand better God’s profound love for us and His desire to see us removed from filth and grow up into mature, full-statured heirs, in Christ.)

The degree to which cold financial calculations, negotiations and perverse legal maneuverings took hold, tempting all involved, often successfully, almost obscuring the fact that this child, like every child, is an image-bearer of the Most High God, YHWH and that our Christ, like this child, was profoundly marred and broken on our behalf.

How much the concept of “leading a normal life” has become an idol in our society where ‘normal’ really means health and wealth. What is ‘normal’ anyway? Last I checked, all of sinful mankind is destined to die, oftentimes slowly, prematurely and/or painfully. What we sense and long for is the truth of our eternal existence where health and wealth have been promised us if we will only submit and follow our Lord. What humanism would turn all that into is a physical existence in imitation of that, without God. In my fellowship Bible-study group we discussed the fact that so many in the most prosperous parts of the world are desperately unhappy (though few would admit it) and yet how often one encounters happy people in situations of grinding poverty.

The extent to which men’s ever-changing laws, increasingly divorced from God’s immutable Law, create the conditions under which perverse and agonizing situations like this can metastasize. (One thinks immediately of the well-known story of Solomon’s proposed baby-splitting, in 1st Kings 3:16-28 — something he never intended to carry out, but only used to draw out the deep waters of the hearts of those involved.)

How much biological ‘innovation’, particularly in the realm of reproduction, has unleashed a Pandorra’s box of unintended consequences, highlighting what happens when human hubris (masquerading as ‘wisdom’ and ‘progress’) is elevated above the Word of God. One does not need to be a Luddite (anti-science, anti-technology) to recognize that without the guidance of the Creator, things run awry. (The equivalent would be staunch refusal to consult an owner’s manual on the grounds that one felt one’s automobile had come about spontaneously and that any such document purporting to be an owner’s manual must be a fraud designed to enslave the vehicle’s owner.)

God’s Sovereign, Providential provision leading not only to this baby’s birth (praise God!) but the emergence of this as a national story (no doubt generating both prayer and financial support).

The birth mother’s flight from ‘Egypt’* (Connecticut) where the baby could have been cynically grabbed by the aforementioned biological parents and then ‘dumped’ as a ward of the state.

*(I do not make the Egypt-Connecticut analogy lightly. Texts such as Daniel 10:13-20 make clear that ‘territorial’ spirits exist, and that they fight fiercely to have darkness prevail over their domains. If I’ve got my timeline right, the birth mother’s flight from Connecticut took place some time last Spring, a few months before the Newtown massacre of children.

From the CNN story:

DePrimo [the birth mother's lawyer] received a phone call from Fishman [the bio parents' lawyer] telling him the parents had changed their minds. They now planned to exercise their legal right to take custody of their child — and then immediately after birth surrender her to the state of Connecticut. She would become a ward of the state.

DePrimo explained to Kelley that this was no empty threat. Under state law, they were the parents, not her, and under Connecticut’s Safe Haven Act for Newborns, parents can voluntarily give up custody of a baby less than a month old without being arrested for child abandonment.

Kelley couldn’t stand the thought of the baby in foster care. She’d heard the nightmare stories.

She felt like her back was up against the wall.

There was one more option, DePrimo told her. She could go to a place where she, not the genetic parents, would be considered the baby’s legal mother. That place was 700 miles away.

Over the years, states have developed different laws about surrogacy. Some, like Connecticut, say the genetic parents — the ones who supplied the sperm and the egg — are the baby’s legal parents. Other states don’t recognize surrogacy contracts, and so the baby legally belongs to the woman who’s carrying the baby.

On April 11**, in her seventh month of pregnancy, Kelley and her daughters left for one of those states — Michigan. While she was gassing up her car to leave, her lawyer informed the parents’ lawyer about her plans.

“Once I realized that I was going to be the only person really fighting for her, that Mama bear instinct kicked in, and there was no way I was giving up without a fight,” Kelley said.

**(April 11, 2012 was the 19th of Nisan, the fourth day of Passover — two days after the anniversary of Jesus’ resurrection on the 17th.)

Remind you of anything? E.g., Matthew 2:13-18.

Now when they [the Magi] had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.”

Does the fact that the birth mother’s name is ‘Crystal’ mean anything? (Referred to as ‘Kelley’, her last name, above.)

I don’t know, but it sure is interesting…

“Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.” (Revelation 21:9-11))

One does not have to be physically assaulted to be ‘killed’.

Social, cultural, political and economic ostracism will do the trick on multiple levels if you are not standing firmly on the rock of Christ, steeped in His Word, filled with His Holy Spirit.

Do not be surprised or shaken when such things come at your from the most unexpected directions, especially from within the self-proclaimed ‘church’.

Did you ever wonder why the commandment not to take the Lord’s name in vain is so prominent? (Exodus 20:7, Deuteronomy 5:11, and, less directly but just as clearly: Psalm 139:20) Often viewed as pertaining merely to a certain too-oft-heard curse-phrase (and it does), the much fuller sense is that of ambassadorship and affiliation. Whose interests and reputation are you representing to the world? When the rough play begins, whose team are you on? Where do your deepest loyalties lie?

Don’t call yourself a member of a team if you think of the coach’s words are optional. Don’t enlist in the Army if you think that the drill Sergeant is there for your personal edification. Don’t call yourself a Christian unless you are ready and willing to carry whatever cross he may ask you to carry, grateful beyond words that Christ already carried and was nailed to a much heavier one on your behalf.

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” (1st Peter 4:12) “Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.” (1st John 3:13) “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19)“They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God.” (John 16:2).  “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2nd Timothy 4:3-4) “…they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:9-13)

Paul Washer: ‘Persecution or Great Awakening’ (3:41), circa late October, 2008 (an oldie-but-goodie)

God is bringing a great awakening… He is raising up young men who are strong in trust in the Providence of God to be able to wade through the hell that’s gonna break loose on us and it will be on us before we even recognize it… Be ready to lose your homes, your cars, and everything.

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Kevin DeYoung: ‘What Someone Needs to Say’

At some point (and many points actually), Christians need to simply take it on the chin, not back down, affirm the truth, put in a good word for Jesus, and keep on smiling.

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Dr. Michael Brown: ‘Confronting the Error of Hyper-Grace’; ‘Hyper-Grace Horror Stories’

One of the foundational doctrines of the hyper-grace message is that… the Holy Spirit never convicts believers of sin, that believers never need to confess their sins to God, and that believers never need to repent of their sins, since God sees them as perfect in his sight… [One woman writes of having], “joined a small group three years ago that went from having regular prayer meetings and living holy connected lives together to stating ‘prayer is a work and denies grace’ and ‘sin allows grace to do its great work.’ All of our prayer meetings and Bible studies were traded in for game-nights and nights out at the bar to ‘witness’ where many from the group got plastered … all in the name of ‘grace.’”

I’d never even heard the term ‘hyper-grace’ until I read these articles, yet I recognize the phenomenon from having witnessed very similar things at a previous church — things I had trouble contextualizing at the time… things which made me think I was the crazy one. For example, a lengthy Bible study/prayer session at a retreat which slipped seamlessly into an enthusiastic late-night poker tournament with copious alcohol, and Led Zeppelin  (‘Stairway to Heaven’) blaring in the background; nights at the pub led by the pastor, ostensibly for ‘outreach’ and ‘evangelism’; serious consideration by pastors of bringing yoga into the church, with similar rationale.

ADDENDA:

Andrée Seu Peterson, ‘Culture Creep’ on the quiet campaign to normalize pedophilia. (H/T: KPM)

…mercy unmoored to truth corrodes to leniency. Relinquish the word “wrong,” accept the softer “reasonable difference of opinion,” and the camel’s nose is well under the tent… Then someone will say, “You say potato and I say potahto, let’s call the whole thing off,” and no one will care anymore. Polymorphous promiscuity will prevail.

That first bit is a great turn-of-phrase. I’ll have to remember that.

Preface:

Jude 9 — “But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, ‘The Lord rebuke you.’”

Romans 12:19 — “Beloved, never avenge yourselves [even in your heart!!], but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”

Proverbs 19:21 — “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.”

Psalm 2 — “1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, 3 ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’ 4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 ‘As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.’”

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The Gist:

President Obama’s upcoming trip to Israel is timed and choreographed so as to mimic Jesus’ (Y’Shua’s) triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and with it the predictive ‘echo’ event all Jews should recognize: Joshua’s (Y’Shua’s) crossing of the Jordan with the Israelites into the Promised Land, led by the Ark of the Covenant.

Obama’s trip is also timed so as to coincide precisely with the Vernal Equinox, a pagan holiday predicated on the principle of equality and eternal balance between light and darkness — a concept wholly at odds with scripture.

The president’s arrival in the land, and entry into Jerusalem marks the only year and the only day within a span of nearly two centuries when such a confluence of the Vernal Equinox and Triumphal Entry would be possible.

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Important background:

• “It’s Him” (July 13, 2009), and
• Know Your Enemy Part 43 & Part 44 (8 & 12 minute videos)

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February 5th, 2013, NY Times (the initial announcement)–

President Obama plans to travel to Israel this spring for the first time since taking office… Israeli news media reported that Mr. Obama would arrive on March 20…

Nisan 10 begins at sundown that same evening (17:51 Israel time in Jerusalem).

From Hebrew4Christians:

Jesus’ last Passover began some time before the Festival actually began (see John 12:1-33). After visiting his friend Lazarus and his sisters in Bethany, He went to Jerusalem just before the city became filled with pilgrims coming to celebrate the holiday. On the 10th of Nisan He [Y'Shua, a.k.a., Jesus] entered the city [of Jerusalem], riding on a donkey to announce His Messiahship (this was the time the korban Pesach was being selected for the sacrifice). Examined for four days before His sacrifice (execution) for the sins of the world, He was found to be the true Lamb of God (seh haElohim) without spot or blemish.

JOSHUA 4:19a The people came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month.

I.e., the Israelites, led by Joshua (a.k.a., Y’Shua) crossed into the Promised Land on Nisan 10.

JOSHUA 3:7 The LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. 8 And as for you, command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, ‘When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’”

JOSHUA 4:19 On that day the LORD exalted Joshua in the sight of all Israel, and they stood in awe of him just as they had stood in awe of Moses, all the days of his life.

February 18, 2013, CNN –

When President Barack Obama visits Israel next month, he’ll be awarded the Presidential Medal of Distinction, Israeli President Shimon Peres’ office announced Monday.

Obama, the first sitting U.S. president to receive the recognition, will be awarded the medal for making “a unique and significant contribution to strengthening the State of Israel and the security of its citizens,” according to a release announcing the news.

He’ll receive the award at a dinner at Peres’ residence in Jerusalem, slated to be attended by senior figures from Israeli public life and the Obama administration.

The award is given to “private” individuals and organizations that have made “outstanding contributions to bettering the world.” …Obama bestowed Peres the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, last year at the White House. Twelve others also received the award in 2012.

Obama is scheduled to arrive in Israel around 12:00 Noon on March 20th. That’s within minutes of the Vernal Equinox (13:02 Israel time that day, or 11:02 GMT) — a significant pagan/occult/wicca holiday, the origins of which trace back to Babylon. The Druids were one of many cultures known to have celebrated the Vernal Equinox (literally ‘equal night’). The Druids also made human sacrifices. Many others still celebrate it… including Freemasons.

This is the first time since the establishment of the modern state of Israel that the Jewish calendar has skewed this early relative to the Gregorian. The last time was 1899. The next time will be 2089. (H/T: Daniel Eggers.) I haven’t had time to check it out, but a Jewish friend told me, several weeks ago, and entirely unrelated to this story, that the Jewish calendar is never earlier.

In other words, 2013 is the first year in the lifetimes of all but a tiny handful of extreme-elderly people alive today that these two days coincide so closely — one dark and pagan, the other full of light and life… glorious beyond measure. The next time it will take place is seventy-six years from now, when most alive today will be dead.

February 12, 2013, YNet News –

Jerusalem and Washington have set the itinerary for President Barack Obama visit to Israel. Obama is scheduled to land in Ben Gurion International Airport [near Tel Aviv] around noon on Wednesday, March 20 [Nisan 9]. He will be welcomed by a State reception which will include speeches by President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by the American president himself.

Obama will then fly to Jerusalem directly to Peres’ residence where he’ll again be ceremoniously received. He will continue with Peres and Netanyahu to Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, where he will lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance.

The next stop will be Mount Herzl, where Obama will lay a wreath on Herzl’s tomb as a gesture to Zionism. Obama will continue to Yitzhak Rabin’s tomb, laying a wreath there as well.

In the afternoon [of Nisan 9] the entourage will arrive at the prime minister’s house, where Netanyahu and Obama will meet with small delegations to discuss issues such as Iran, Syria, the peace process and Jonathan Pollard. Following the meeting a joint press conference will be held, after which the two and their staff will dine together. [Presumably after sunset, thus Nisan 10.]

The following morning [March 21 -- Nisan 10] Obama will depart for Ramallah to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Obama will return to Jerusalem by noon [on March 21 -- Nisan 10], when he will be taken by Netanyahu to examine a model of Second Temple Period Jerusalem. They will continue to the Shrine of the Book, where Netanyahu will show him the Dead Sea Scrolls. The American President will continue to see an exhibition in the Israel Museum, which will show Israel’s latest developments in high-tech, bio-tech, nanotechnology and agriculture.

At this point, I would strongly urge readers to pause and take time review this scripturally-based chronology tracing Jesus’ comings-and-goings during the days leading up to his crucifixion on Nisan 14 (Pesach) and resurrection, three days later.

Among other things, note that each goes into Jerusalem then retreats a short distance away to spend time with friends and supporters — Jesus’ to Bethany, with Mary, Martha and Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead, and Obama to Ramallah with ‘Palestinian’ President Mahmoud Abbas.

The word ‘Ramallah‘ is composed of two parts: “Ram,” an Aramaic word that means “high place or mountain” and “Allah,” the Arabic word for their ‘god’. I.e., Ramallah means “height of ‘god’”. The Hebrew word translated as “ascend” is pronounced ‘allah’ as well. It appears twice in Isaiah 14, where YHWH condemns Satan’s prideful ambition to mimic and replace him:

12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend ['allah'] to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend ['allah'] above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’

15 But you are brought down to Sheol, to the far reaches of the pit. 16 Those who see you will stare at you and ponder over you: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, 17 who made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities, who did not let his prisoners go home?’ 18 All the kings of the nations lie in glory, each in his own tomb; 19 but you are cast out, away from your grave, like a loathed branch, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a dead body trampled underfoot.

(Parenthetically, in consideration of the various riches which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will show Obama, I’d also recommend a refresher skim through 2nd Kings 20, from v12 on, and Isaiah 39.)

In the afternoon [of Nisan 10] Obama will address Israelis in a public speech in the Israel Museum or in the International Convention Center in Jerusalem. The Americans have requested the presence of at least 1,000 Israelis. Later, Obama will be hosted for a ceremonial dinner by Peres. [recall details, above]

Friday, March 22, Obama will breakfast with Netanyahu in his home or in King David Hotel. The two will go to visit an Iron Dome battery, where Obama will meet with the soldiers manning the battery. At 13:00 a farewell ceremony will take place in the International Airport, from which the president will depart to meet King Abdullah in Jordan.

I’ll note in passing that March 22 is a day positively soaked with (demonic) significance for Freemasons, while the number thirteen, throughout scripture, is associated with “rebellion, apostasy, defection, corruption, disintegration, revolution, or some kindred idea.”

March 22, 2013 marks the 33rd anniversary of the Georgia Guidestones being erected (a chillingly death-centric, Satanic ‘alternative’ to the Ten Commandments).

Jesus was 33 years old when he entered Jerusalem to go to the cross.

The 33rd degree is the highest in Freemasonry.

March 20th will be the 33rd day after the meteor explosion over Russia (February 15th), another hint (as if we needed one) that we’re living in days like Noah’s. (See here and here, and think about them together; see also Matthew 24:37 and Luke 17:26. H/T: Jeffrey Goodman.)

February 17, 2013, Arutz Sheva –

The English version of the code name chosen for the operations surrounding the upcoming visit to Israel by U.S. President Barack Obama, scheduled for March 20, is “Unbreakable Alliance.” The Hebrew name is “Brit Amim,” which means, literally, “an alliance between nations.”

See Deuteronomy 7 for why this is a problem.

Further adding to the intrigue is speculation that Obama might visit the Temple Mount and/or Dome of the Rock.

February 24, Arutz Sheva –

Palestinian political and religious leaders on Sunday stressed that US President Barack Obama should not visit the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem in a way that might compromise its “Muslim sovereignty.” Sheikh Akrameh Sabri, head of the higher Islamic council and former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, said that Obama must enter through a gate that was not under Israeli auspices.“Any visitor is welcome to Al-Aqsa, but they should follow the regulations of the Waqf and enter through the Lions’ Gate and not through Mughrabi Gate, to ensure Muslim sovereignty,” he said at a press conference in east Jerusalem. “The visit shouldn’t have a political theme to it because Al-Aqsa belongs to Muslims only and it is their place of worship and we refuse that any Israeli official accompanies the visitor,” said Sabri. [More here and here.]

Interesting… that bit in bold. (E.g., See Matthew 7:12-14 , John 10, and Revelation 5:5).

I don’t believe he needs to go there to fulfill prophecy though, and here’s why.

In Matthew 24, Jesus famously warns:

15 So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

Jesus’ words had an obvious physical-literal fulfillment in 70 AD when Roman forces sacked Jerusalem and burned the Temple. None of those who had placed their trust in Messiah Y’Shua (Jesus Christ) were harmed however, for they had had a desert-like thirty-eight years to consider, understand, recognize and heed the warning when it came to pass. They took God’s Word seriously. They took time to let its meaning soak in with the help of the light of the Holy Spirit. They were wise virgins who did not need to seek Spirit-oil to light their spiritual lamps at the last minute when it was too late. They already had it inside of them.

As literal residents of literal Judea, they fled to the literal, geographic mountains for refuge, as instructed. Yet in doing so in obedience to His Word, they were also fleeing to the refuge of the mountain of YHWH — the mount on which His Christ reigns (see Psalm 2, at top). The obedience (to Christ) is the main thing. We ought not get too caught up on the physical fleeing itself, a particular instruction by Christ to a particular people at a particular time.

Does that mean that this part of Jesus’ prophecy in Matthew 24 (and Mark 13 and Luke 21) can be safely packed away and ignored? I don’t think so. Our God and His Word are unparalleled in their ability to put the same things to use in multiple ways, over vast spans of history, and all to the same end: sinful man reconciled to his God by the cross; Christ with His Bride, wedded eternal in the New Jerusalem.

In the past, I’ve conjectured various other ways in which the phrases “standing in” and “holy place” could be interpreted in idiomatic or symbolic terms, e.g., this and this. (Virtually all of scripture has this dual literal-symbolic aspect to it.) As such, I will not insist on the following interpretation. You’ll either see it or you won’t — and I could well be wrong. Be an Acts 17:11 skeptic. Consider everything carefully yourself in light of the Word of God.

Very simply, I have come to believe that “standing in the holy place” means imitating and usurping the role (i.e., the rightful image, office and authority) of the Holy One, YHWH’s Christ: Jesus.

Such an interpretation would be consistent with the definition John gives for antichrist (both plural and singular) in his first epistle, 2:18-27. (Just think about the common usage of the term ‘stand-in’, e.g., an understudy in a play, a back-up quarterback, a temporary corporate executive, an Olympic team alternate, a substitute teacher, a babysitter, etc. Only incidentally does the idea refer to the ground on which one’s feet happen to be placed. Primarily, it refers to performing the functions of a person who normally and properly performs them when all is in its right order.)

We’re so used to political parody that we forget: imitating a perfectly holy God entails mockery, i.e., blasphemy. It is in an important sense the same profound sin Satan committed. Submission and obedience to Christ are the believer’s route to supernatural (‘born again’) transformation, the ultimate, God-driven and proper form of imitation (being re-created, by his grace and Holy Spirit, into his image, over time and through testing and trial). Direct imitation without those elements, for one’s own purposes, amounts to usurpation and opposition. It is rebellion.

Because Jesus’ ministry was based in Israel, centered ultimately on Jerusalem and the Temple, geography is an essential part of of the abomi-nation’s “standing” — but only a part. It is but one aspect of a much larger ‘frame’.

Just as the gospel began in Jerusalem and went out to all the earth, so does the New Jerusalem. So does the temple of Jesus’ body, the church. So do the imitators, usurpers and rebels who would ascend to be like the Most High. And so does the ultimate man of sin, antichrist. His usurping role, office and self-aggrandizing ambitions are what define him. Geography is simply a base he needs to tag to round that out. I strongly suspect that is what Obama’s trip is all about.

For those steeped in a reading of prophetic scripture which requires the re-building of a physical-literal-geographic stone temple and Holy Place with human hands before the man-of-sin can stand in it, this may be hard. It’s been quite the trip for me also. Yet scripture must be our guide. As such, I urge you to consider the foundations of that assumption carefully (pun intentional) as you weigh this larger idea which could well incorporate it, but doesn’t have to.)

In our day, I believe, “those in Judea” refer to those in Christ.

See Revelation 2:9 and 3:9 about the fakes. See also:

Romans 2:29 — “…a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.”

Galatians 3:28 — “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” and Colossians 3:11 — “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.”

In our day, I believe, “flee[ing] to the mountains,” refers to our fleeing to YHWH, e.g., see Psalm 11. We are to “come out of her [Babylon]” (a city built on a plain – Shinar, in Iraq) and flee ‘up’ to the New Jerusalem. We are to flee to the refuge of Christ’s body, the fellowship of his Word and Spirit, embodied in his true (invisible) church, sheltered under his out-stretched, nail-scarred ‘wings’ — the ones he would have used to protect the original Jerusalem as a hen gathers her chicks (Matt 23)… but they would not.

In the same vein, speaking of one whose “heart shall be set against the holy covenant” (v28) the prophet Daniel is told to write (in chapter 11):

31 … And they shall set up the abomi-nation that makes desolate. 32 He shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.

I.e., by telling people what they want to hear, the abomi-nation (perhaps a male person, see v32) will talk unbelievers into a grand lie. (The exact same idea is reflected in 2nd Thessalonians 2:9-12, (“strong delusion so that they may believe what is false”), echoing Romans 1:18+ (“God gave them up”) and Isaiah 6:9-10. (“do not understand… do not perceive”). (This is the main reason I’ve lost all interest in politics. What we have witnessed the last several years in that arena is symptomatic of Divine judgment already working. As such, it is a fools errand to attempt to overturn or reverse it with anything other than sincere repentance, and obedience to the gospel of Jesus Christ.)

Daniel continues (ch. 11):

33 And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder. 34 When they stumble, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join themselves to them with flattery, 35 and some of the wise shall stumble, so that they may be refined, purified, and made white, until the time of the end, for it still awaits the appointed time.

36 And the king shall do as he wills. He shall exalt himself and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak astonishing things against the God of gods.

Recall Isaiah 14, above. Contrast this also with Joshua 3 & 4, also cited above, wherein YHWH is the one doing the exalting (of Joshua and, later, Jesus) as a result of their obedience to Him.

Recall also, in contrast, Obama’s statement at the 2009 White House Correspondent’s dinner — a statement profoundly ‘astonishing’ to anyone who knows their Bible and fears YHWH –

“My next 100 days will be so successful,
I will complete them in 72 days.
And on the 73rd day, I will rest.”

Not only was Obama’s statement a blatant blasphemy against YHWH (which, tellingly, garnered laughter from most of the audience) but it also served as a direct and potent reference to Islam — one almost no one in the West has fully understood, even now.

Correspondent ‘DT’ clued me in in an e-mail (see text about halfway down this post): 72 is the number of virgins which Islamic martyrs are promised in ‘paradise’ for acts of murder-suicide which take out infidels: i.e., anyone who does not bow the knee to ‘allah’; 73 is the Islamic number of perfection. Now, go re-read Obama’s statement with that understanding (72=virgins in payment for murder-suicide; 73 and perfection in the false demon-god ‘allah’). If you are not shocked to the core by what he was really saying, you were not paying attention.

Daniel continues (ch. 11):

36 He shall prosper till the indignation is accomplished; for what is decreed shall be done.

I.e., the man of sin will remain in power, contrary to all earthly reason, e.g., men’s political calculations. (Paradoxically, this fact should reassure all believers. The Most High God, YHWH is in thoroughly and permanently in charge of everything. Satan is a created being, restrained according to YHWH’s good, wise, sovereign, omnipresent and omnipotent control. We must not fear him who can only kill the body.)

37 He shall pay no attention to the gods of his fathers, or to the one beloved by women. He shall not pay attention to any other god, for he shall magnify himself above all.

I’ve read this passage dozens of times. I think it’s much simpler than many make out.

Consider: Anyone who seeks to unite the world’s faiths, either in their own mind on a small scale, or in Jerusalem on a grand scale (as Obama has said he’d like to do) is by definition staking out higher ground than any of them. (This realization should set us in awe regarding the patience and long-suffering of the One True God, YHWH, and His Christ, Jesus who does not delight in the death of the wicked and would wish all to come to saving faith.)

We’re so used to this kind of relativistic, little-o-this, little-o-that, tolerant-of-outright-falsehood thinking in our day that when someone rises to power who embodies it, we scarcely notice.

It’s the same common philosophy that holds that truth is relative to each person, and that all religions have a part of the truth and do not really conflict with one another in their essentials (a rather silly and willful obfuscation of the plainest and most basic tenets of each).

It’s the same philosophy that leads many to “roll their own” nowadays, selecting aspects of different religious philosophies to suit their tastes, making themselves little gods while denying each one, including the Real One. (I recently learned the term ‘Bu-Jew’ which some ethnic Jews following fashionable Buddhist teaching apply to themselves while denying the authority of Old Testament.)

38 He shall honor the god of fortresses [Babylon and physical force] instead of these. A god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. [Hanuman?] 39 He shall deal with the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god. Those who acknowledge him he shall load with honor. He shall make them rulers over many and shall divide the land for a price.

That last line is the key thing to watch.

Will Obama’s trip result in a deal to divide Israel?

We shall soon see…

************

Addenda:

I don’t claim to understand this bit yet, but it seems notable that the Vicar of (literally, the stand-in or substitute for) Christ, i.e., Pope Benedict XVI, should resign suddenly just six days after Obama announced his trip to Israel.

The latest date rumored for the conclave to choose the next (and allegedly last) Pope to succeed him is… March 20th… the Vernal Equinox… the day Obama is set to arrive in Israel.

To put it another way, the Pope’s exit process is framed by Obama’s trip. In such a context, Revelation 13 seems of increasing interest, i.e., regarding the co-temporal interplay between the two beasts (antichrist world systems stretching across time, the powers of which are concentrated in certain men). (Recall the material Mark Fairley puts forward regarding the Satanic interplay of light and darkness.)

————

Given the timing of Obama’s trip, I’ve been looking with new eyes at Jesus’ words to his disciples in Matthew 24:20 regarding the start of the unprecedented Great Tribulation, a.k.a., Time of Jacob’s Trouble:

Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath.

Winter ends in the Northern Hemisphere on March 20th, at 11:02 GMT, an hour after Obama’s plane is scheduled to land in Israel. I.e., his flight into Israel will be in Winter.

Any ‘flights’ others may take as a result of what he says or does there (whether those ‘flights’ be physical or spiritual) will not be in Winter.

In other words, if his trip marks the start of the Great Tribulation (and I’m still keeping this one in the ‘if’ category), those praying as Jesus told us to will have their prayers answered. They will not have to ‘flee’ it in Winter but in Spring, Summer or Fall.

Further, Obama is scheduled to depart five hours before the start of that week’s Sabbath — Shabbat HaGadol, the Shabbat right before Passover. In no other year since 1899 would such a connection of those two things be possible on a three-day trip.