Category: Uncategorized

Over the weekend we learned that the Irish voted to legalize abortion. They join other Europeans and the U.S. on the path to demographic collapse.

Just the week before the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics announced that the 2017 U.S. fertility rate hit the lowest level in history and the number of births sank to its lowest level in 30 years. Now the fertility rate is half of what it was in 1960, before the sexual revolution and 60 million abortions, and the birth rate is falling below the population replacement rate. At the same time, the population is aging, leaving fewer young workers to meet the needs of society. The process, which is further advanced in Europe, is known as demographic collapse.

Demographic Collapse, in addition to being a spiritual and human tragedy, is an economic disaster. A shrinking population means that economic growth is reversed, causing stagnation and then contraction. Economic contraction means lower tax collections and a reduction in national finances and power. Even worse, the decrease in young workers means that social welfare programs such as government funded retirement and medical benefits become unsustainable. So societies which murder their own children are actually killing their own future.

Unlike Europe, the U.S. has the opportunity to avoid demographic collapse for one simple reason: immigration. Immigrants tend to be younger and therefore productive, adding to economic growth and paying into our government welfare systems. Skilled immigrants have helped the U.S. maintain its technological edge, while unskilled immigrants form the backbone of our agriculture, construction, and other industries. As far as America is concerned, increased immigration is the price we must pay to replace the 60 million babies we have aborted.

As we hope and pray for a revival of family values, we must look at America’s immigration problems from the perspective of the Kingdom of God. After all, the world’s mission fields are coming to our neighborhoods, and we will have the opportunity to love them into the Kingdom. Many Latin American immigrants are already Christian, with strong family values, and we should reach out to them to help them assimilate and strengthen the Kingdom in America. God may have sent them to help save America.

Let us never forget God’s command to treat the aliens among us fairly and love them (Leviticus 19:33-34). This is especially true for the “dreamers”, the innocent children of illegal immigrants who have known no other home.

Let us pray that God will save America from Demographic Collapse, and ask for His wisdom to solve our immigration problems.

One of the mysteries of history is why, after the Roman Empire accepted Christianity,  God allowed the pagan Germanic people to overrun Christian Western Europe two hundred years later.

The Roman Empire was, of course, not fully Christianized and was suffering from demographic decline and corruption.  The Empire was also weakened militarily and had shifted to defensive posture.  But the real problem was the Church, which had also adopted defensive posture and was no longer focused on taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

With the Church unable and unwilling to move beyond it’s borders, God had to do something.  So he allowed the barbarians to invade the Empire’s borders to bring them into contact with the Church.  Amazingly, the pagan Germanic people came to accept Christianity and became the foundation of Christian Europe.  Thus, the defeat of the Roman Empire actually led to the expansion of the Kingdom of God.

In America we have (so far) been spared from barbarian invasion.  God is continuing to bring people who may be otherwise unreachable into contact with the Church through immigration, student visas, and now as refuges from ISIS terror. For example, a Syrian Muslim who has been prevented from hearing the Gospel in his own country can be given the good news about Jesus while working or studying in the United States.  Those who accept Christ can carry the Gospel back to their countrymen, expanding the Kingdom of God more efficiently than Americans could.

An excellent tool to present the Gospel has been developed by a U.S. ministry, Christ for All People. They have made Jesus film DVD’s available in many immigrant languages, allowing our immigrant friends to learn about Jesus in their “heart” language. Check out their website at www.christforallpeoples.org

For our part we must remember Peter’s admonition to explain our faith with gentleness and respect. (I Peter 3:15) Christ For All Peoples suggests packaging the Jesus film with other goodies as a Christmas present.

What better time than Christmas to help an immigrant family learn why “Jesus is reason for the season.”

                A lot of attention has been focused on St Francis of Assisi after Cardinal  Bergoglio took the name of Francis upon his election as Pope. As well we should, because St Francis taught his followers to share the Gospel more by what they do than what they say.

But today, on April 8, we mark the life of another Francis who, it is believed, is also a role model for the new Pope. On that date in 1541 Francis Xavier began his extraordinary missionary journey to the East. Over the next ten years he traveled through 50 kingdoms and baptized over 1,000,000 people. He founded churches from India to Japan, earning the title “Apostle to the Indies.”

Francis Xavier lived in an age of upheaval, when Europeans had begun challenging the Pagan kingdoms of the East for commerce and, later, military supremacy.  The European traders were interested in gold, not God, but they undermined the power of the Pagan Kings and the Pagan Gods they claimed to represent. The traders also curtailed the power of the Islamic merchants and stopped the Islamic expansion into the Far East. As a result, societies which had been closed to Christianity became more open, and Christian missionaries were able to present the Gospel. For Francis Xavier, a million baptisms followed.

These European powers eventually spread their empires throughout the world, replacing pagan kingdoms in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. While these nations were seldom, if ever, interested in spreading Christianity, many missionaries followed in the footsteps of Francis Xavier and brought Christianity to the colonized peoples. Today there are thriving Christian communities in the Americas, Africa, and Asia because of these missionary efforts.

Also, today, we find that it is Europe which has abandoned  its Christian roots and fallen into darkness. So it seems somehow to be fitting that the new Pope taking the name Francis would come from a place which was Christianized by missionaries like Francis Xavier, and would now return to Europe to preach a new evangelism to the lost Europeans.
We pray for Pope Francis, a man of the Spirit and a uniter Christians, that he will help lead the whole Church to challenge the European societies and open them to the Gospel like the Europeans did to the Pagan world 500 years ago. We pray also for the unity of the Church and a spiritual awakening of the Church to enable it to be faithful in our generation as Francis Xavier was in his.

            Most Christians recognize Nimrod as the builder of the Tower of Babel, but few know the whole story and recognize his influence down through the ages.

The historical Sumerian Kings list records him as “Enmer Kar”, a name which translates into vowelless Hebrew as “NMR” (Nimrod) with the name “Kar” meaning “The Hunter” (as Nimrod is known in the Bible).  The Sumerians credit him with introducing the worship of the “Queen of Heaven,” a false pagan goddess which has come down the ages as Inana, Asherah, Isis, Venus, and numerous others.  The Tower of Babel was a Ziggurrat, or a magical model of heaven, where the pagan “Gods” from heaven could be contacted.  Josephus tells us that Nimrod rebelled against God because he hated God for judging mankind in Noah’s Flood.   His name “The Hunter” indicates a violent disposition, and many believe that he was a Tyrant who hunted men.

Nimrod had set himself above the plans and purposes of God.  After the flood God had commanded mankind to fill the Earth, but Nimrod kept them under his thumb in Mesopotamia.  Nimrod went so far as to set himself up as the “Seed of Woman”, the Messiah promised in Gensis 3:15, to cement His political power.

But God sent the Tower of Babel judgment, producing a civil war which overthrew Nimrod and scattered humanity over the Earth.  Sadly, however, many ambitious men had learned from Nimrod and took the Nimrod Spirit with them to enslave their fellow men.

So we see the Nimrod Spirit echoing through the ages in rulers like the Pharaohs of Egypt, the Kings of Assyria, Babylon, and Persia, Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Genghis Khan, Napoleon, Stalin, Hitler and Mao Tse Tung, to name a few, following Nimrod’s path to power.  The Nimrod Spirit comes upon those who want to rule over other men, establishing tyrannical government and putting themselves above God and His purposes.  The Nimrod Spirit deceives the followers of the Tyrant through a false religion such as paganism, or a false philosophy such as Communism, which legitimizes the power of the Tyrant.  For those who are not deceived, the Hunter rules through fear and terror.

Even today, the Nimrod Spirit controls most of the nations of the Earth. Nimrod is constantly looking for ways to subvert those nations with shared power or democratic institutions, as in the African tragedies of “one man, one vote, one time” after Colonialism or the subversion of Russia by Putin. Religious tyranny from the Nimrod Spirit can be seen in ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, and in many Islamic nations such as Iran.  Even in the United States individual liberties are being eroded by an increasingly powerful government.  Outside of government the Nimrod Spirit is active in large businesses and social institutions.  The Church is also plagued by the Nimrod Spirit as many pastors and leaders are more intent of building their own kingdoms than in building God’s Kingdom.

The answer to the Kingdoms of the Nimrod Spirit is to move into the Kingdom of God.  God’s Kingdom comes within the believers, giving them discernment to see through Nimrod’s deceptions and power to overcome the fear weapon of Nimrod.  Christians should be on guard against the Nimrod Spirit in their churches, remembering that Jesus established a standard of Servant Leadership which is diametrically opposed to Nimrod.  Churches are to be run by the mothers and fathers, called Elders in the Bible, who are interested in the outcome of their flock, rather than Nimrod Spirit leadership which is often interested only in the income from the flock.

Let us begin our warfare against the Nimrod Spirit at home by praying that the Nimrod Spirit will be exposed and driven out of our churches.  Pray for a revival of Servant Leadership and a spirit of Unity between church leaders which will bring them together to advance God’s Kingdom, not their own.

Beyond the Church it is easy to identify the Nimrod Spirit in action.  Washington, D.C. is full of Nimrods, as are corporations, unions, universities, and the media.  Even Christians have been deceived by false philosophies such as Socialism or the attempt to submerge individual rights into group rights, as in some labor unions, which create group leaders who are often little Nimrods.  We are desperately in need of a Christian Awakening to remove the blinders and drive the Nimrod Spirit out of our government before it is too late.    Only a revival, expanding the Kingdom of God, can save us from the Nimrod Spirit.

Throughout the world the Nimrod spirit continues its bloody march through history, keeping billions of people in tyranny and the resulting poverty.  In the last few weeks we have seen bloody results of the Nimrod Spirit operating in France, Ukraine and Nigeria. As in America, the only answer is the Kingdom of God, which has liberated some two billion of us from the Kingdom of Darkness ruled by Satan, the ultimate Nimrod.   In the end Satan will rally the Nimrods of the Earth to fight against Jesus as He returns to establish the outward Kingdom of God, and then Nimrod Spirit will final be broken.

Until then, we must use the spiritual weapons of our warfare to keep praying for the expansion of the Kingdom of God and freedom from the Nimrod Spirit.

                This week, January 10 holds the dubious distinction of being the anniversary of the convening both the League of Nations in 1920 and the United Nations in 1946.

The League of Nations was formed in the aftermath of World War I as an attempt to bring dialogue to the nations and avoid war. Progressive U.S. President Woodrow Wilson pushed the idea, apparently believing that tyrants could be talked out of tyranny. Americans were unconvinced and never joined. Tyrants in Japan, Italy, and Germany ignored the League of Nations and it collapsed in the flames of World War II.

After the war the League of Nations was resurrected as the United Nations. In the beginning the U.N. was somewhat successful, and even supported the formation of Israel in 1947. The U.N. also supported the Korean War against communist aggression in 1950, but only because the Russians were boycotting the U.N. when the vote was taken. Thereafter the Cold War overwhelmed most U.N. opportunities and the U.N. became largely a propaganda entity.

The end of Colonialism and the birth of new nations brought a burst of hope to the U.N. However, most of the new nations were taken over by tyrants and the U.N. became something of a club for authoritarian governments. While the tyrants use the U.N. for their propaganda purposes, putting countries like Iran on the human rights committee is not calculated to produce any real advances in human freedom. Naturally, the tyrants oppose the freedom agendas of the U.S. and the other Democracies.

A particular target of the authoritarian governments of the U.N. has been the democratic state of Israel. Acts of terrorism, wanton attacks on civilians by rockets, and military aggression against Israel is routinely ignored, while Israel is condemned for defending itself. Recently things got worse when the tyrant majority granted Palestinians, including terrorist Hamas, observer status. Now the Palestinians are planning to accuse Israel of war crimes at the U.N. court, while expecting the U.N. to gloss over their terrorist rocket attacks and murders.

Why do the nations rage? The Bible says that they want to throw off the restraints on their evil activities (Psalm 2:1-3). They are at war with God’s plans and purposes, especially as it relates to Israel.

The only force consistently standing against the tyrant majority in the U.N. has been the U.S., which has a Security Council Veto. We must pray that the U.S. will continue to stand up to the tyrants and enemies of Israel.

And let us not forget to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

                Now that the facts and the Grand Jury have shown Officer Darren Wilson to be innocent of murdering Michael Brown, perhaps it is time to ask who really killed Michael Brown.

How was it that 18 year old Mr. Brown came to believe that there was nothing wrong with stealing those infamous cigars from a convenience store? Was he taught by the same people who taught the “Protestors” in Ferguson, Missouri that looting liquor stores was the right thing to do?

Someone taught him that it was fine to rough up a much smaller store clerk who tried to prevent his theft. Apparently he thought he could do the same thing when he attacked Officer Wilson. Did the violent “Protesters” follow the same teaching as they fought and burned their way across Ferguson? Why is violence accepted as a way of life, producing a black murder rate 10 times higher than the white murder rate, with 90% of those being blacks killed by other blacks?

Finally, who convinced Mr. Brown that he was above the law and the authorities? Sure, there was a history of injustice and lynching in prior generations, but now the forces of lawfulness require facts and proof before punishing a criminal. Yet, in Ferguson we see a modern day racial lynch mob “Protesting” against the very rights which protect them from police abuse. Mr. Brown and the “Protesters” have been duped into attacking the foundations of their own civil rights and freedoms.

Michael Brown died resisting arrest, killed by his own lawlessness and rebellion. Nobody taught him the wages of sin is death (Ro 6:23 a). Michael was deceived, and the Deceiver who caused his death is Satan, the father of lies, and his followers. It was Satan who murdered Michael Brown, along with the thousands of other rebellious young black men who die violently every year.

Our hearts should be broken over the death of Michael Brown and the many other young men who are dying without Christ. We must bring light into their darkness, and love into their hate. The only remedy for this death by deception is Jesus Christ, Who gives God’s gift of eternal life. (Ro 6:23 b).

Let us pray that the tragedy of this young man’s death will send the Church into action and open the eyes of the Church and society to the plague of lawlessness which infects many black communities.

Pray for the Lord to bless those headed for Death through lawlessness with eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to know God before it is too late.

One of the mysteries of history is why, after the Roman Empire accepted Christianity,  God allowed the pagan Germanic people to overrun Christian Western Europe two hundred years later.

The Roman Empire was, of course, not fully Christianized and was suffering from demographic decline and corruption.  The Empire was also weakened militarily and had shifted to defensive posture.  But the real problem was the Church, which had also adopted defensive posture and was no longer focused on taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

With the Church unable and unwilling to move beyond it’s borders, God had to do something.  So he allowed the barbarians to invade the Empire’s borders to bring them into contact with the Church.  Amazingly, the pagan Germanic people came to accept Christianity and became the foundation of Christian Europe.  Thus, the defeat of the Roman Empire actually led to the expansion of the Kingdom of God.

In America we have (so far) been spared from barbarian invasion.  God is continuing to bring people who may be otherwise unreachable into contact with the Church through immigration and student visas. For example, a Pakistani Muslim who has been prevented from hearing the Gospel in his own country can be given the good news about Jesus while working or studying in the United States.  Those who accept Christ can carry the Gospel back to their countrymen, expanding the Kingdom of God more efficiently than Americans could.

Recently we were presented and excellent tool to present the Gospel by a U.S. ministry,

Christ for All People. They have made Jesus film DVD’s available in many immigrant languages, allowing our immigrant friends to learn about Jesus in their “heart” language. Check out their website at www.christforallpeoples.org

For our part we must remember Peter’s admonition to explain our faith with gentleness and respect. (I Peter 3:15) Christ For All Peoples suggests packaging the Jesus film with other goodies as a Christmas present.

What better time than Christmas to help an immigrant family learn why “Jesus is reason for the season.”