Not all Christians believe God’s kingdom is advanced through political activity. Remember Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who opposed Hitler? 95% of German Christians shouted, “Seig Heil!” But some, like Bonhoeffer, stood for Christ. Down through history, millions of Christians have opposed dictators. Think of the Christians who were thrown to wild animals in the CIRCUS MAXIMUS by Nero.
Today, there is a swelling political and religious movement to achieve national greatness. While claiming to be a mouthpiece for God, the new Religious Right is actually a repudiation of the teachings of Jesus, who is conveniently used to give legitimacy to their illegitimate actions. The core of this movement is right-wing Catholicism and Protestantism. The new Religious Right represents a threat to the great principles of decency, benevolence, and liberty on which the American Republic was founded.
Why are Christians so easily deceived? I suggest the following:
Most Christians are Christians in name only. The majority of the faithful have never read a Bible. This is the era of the great dumbing down.
Most professing Christians are attracted to charismatic leaders who promise them heaven on earth and a mansion in Glory, usually by means of the Rapture, which is another myth.
Most right-wing Christians are anti-science, as well as being ignorant of history. Ask them to tell you how a theocracy would benefit America. Ask them about Constantine, the Roman emperor who prepared the world for the Inquisition and the Dark Ages.
Most Christians are easily deceived by television manipulators who promise the moon while giving a bit of moldy cheese wrapped up in a bag of lies.
What shall we do?
I suggest we try reading, for starters, the Sermon on the Mount found in Matthew Chapters 5-7. This describes genuine Christianity. Americans may also want to look again at the First Amendment. Reading and thinking are hard. Ignorant people are easily deceived. Truth is so much more important than propaganda. So said Bonhoeffer.
— John Carter
The American prophet and patriot Ellen White, who wrote during the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century said, “The final movements will be rapid ones.” She was referring to the speed with which Last Day prophecies would be fulfilled. Carefully examine her prophecies about THE NEW WORLD ORDER and see if she got it right. She predicted:
- AMERICA WILL BECOME A TOTALITARIAN POWER and persecute dissidents. Do you see any signs of this development?
- AMERICA WILL DENY HER PROTESTANT HERITAGE and set up a THEOCRACY. Does Project 25, which is Trump’s master plan to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, say anything about a union of church and state?
- AMERICA WILL CEASE TO BE THE SHINING CITY ON THE HILL and will become a totalitarian power, more like Russia and China.
Ellen White, the American patriot, based her unpopular conclusions on Revelation 13, where the Beast with the horns of a Lamb spoke as a Dragon. She wrote her predictions in her best seller, “THE GREAT CONTROVERSY.”
Will present-day politicians actually be the players in the last great drama? Only time will tell. One thing is certain: America is changing, and the revolution has started. Great changes are taking place, the most consequential in the history of the Republic.
— John Carter
Somewhere in the Middle East, some zealots have recorded the essence of their religion:
“WE NEVER FORGIVE AND WE NEVER FORGET.” The justification for this policy of unending violence is plucked right out of the Old Testament that teaches, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” Thus the hatred, violence, retribution, and anger grow and multiply. “You hit me, and I will hit you. You kill 1000 of mine, and I will kill 40,000 of yours.”
As the terrorists strike, and as the inevitable pay-back ensues, so the hatred grows and is passed on from one generation to the next. Little children are born and bred in an unending world of violence. The camps of despairing and desperate refugees are breeding grounds for terrorists who early learn to hate the enemy.
The Middle East has been a seething pot of intrigue and violence for thousands of years.
How could it be otherwise? The Chosen people rejected the prophets and finally committed the greatest crime in the history of the World. They murdered God in the person of Jesus Christ who was the greatest Jew who ever lived. Is there a solution? Yes, repentance and acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Not only is this the solution for peace in the Middle East, it is the only path to peace everywhere on the planet.
The teachings of Jesus are plain, simple, but tough to follow. He said we are to love our enemies, and forgive seventy times seven. He said that no one who hated his enemy would be saved but would be cast into the hell of fire. He also said that only people redeemed by AMAZING GRACE could break the circle of hatred.
If we are tempted to dismiss the GOSPEL OF HIS TRANSFORMING LOVE, try looking at the alternative. Look at the Middle East. Look at Syria. Look at Gaza. Look at Israel. Then look at Jesus. He is our only hope.
— John Carter
NEW YEAR’S MESSAGE
It was Christmas 1939. The outlook was black with foreboding. Great Britain was again at war with Germany. Hitler had worked feverishly to rearm, and his military forces were the most formidable in the world. Britain under Prime Minister Chamberlain had adopted an optimistic view of things and ignored the warnings of Winston Churchill, whose speeches in Parliament had been met with derision. Chamberlain’s announcement that there would be “peace in our time” had comforted and soothed the British people, who dreaded a repeat of the First World War when hundreds of thousands of their young men had been slaughtered on the battlefields.
Now Germany had broken her solemn pledge and invaded Poland. Britain had declared war, and the island nation braced for a repeat of the horrors of the First World War. Especially terrifying was the prospect of bombing raids that would devastate her cities. The prospects were uncertain at best and terrifying at worst.
King George the Sixth, the grandfather of the present King Charles, spoke to his people using the relatively new medium of communication, radio. His hesitant, stuttering voice was heard around the world, speaking words of determination, courage, resolution, and hope. He concluded his address by quoting:
And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year:
“Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.”
And he replied:
“Go out into the darkness and
put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be to you better than light
and safer than a known way.”
Today the world stands on the threshold of unpredictable events. The great dictators are plotting. The scientists are preparing new weapons. Uncertainty fills the air around us. Old certainties that we once relied on are slipping away. Where is certainty to be found? Not in the White House, but God’s House. Not in presidents, preachers, or politicians. But in God. Remember the King’s speech. Remember the King’s God.
— John Carter
DOES IT MATTER?
Most of us were brought up on Christmas trees and gifts to gladden the heart. When I was growing up in Australia that was still suffering the results of the Second World War, I anxiously waited to see what Santa brought me. On one occasion I received a railway engine that my Dad had laboriously crafted from a block of wood at his workplace. Apparently it was not to my liking, and I, ungrateful little brat that I was, registered my displeasure and disappointment. But all in all, Christmas Day was a lot of fun with special food and even ice cream. We all loudly sang Christmas carols and remembered how Jesus was born in Bethlehem on December 25.
I later found out He was not born on Christmas Day. That day was actually an old Pagan feast. For a while, I piously refused to acknowledge Christmas Day, but thankfully the years have mellowed this old stubborn pilgrim. The real truth that defies debate is that the Son of God was born. The Bible doesn’t tell us when, because the date doesn’t matter. What matters is that He was born as a human being, which makes the rest of us humans pretty special. God became a human in the person of Jesus. Humans must be important because God became one. This tells me God must love us lots, and that no one is of no consequence.
You are special to God. Jesus came to save us from this mess that sin created. He has a plan to lift us heavenward one day. The future is glorious. That momentous event we call the Nativity is worth celebrating. His birth changed everything. Let’s celebrate it every day, including December 25.
— John Carter
THEIR GOAL: A NEW AMERICA WITH RELIGION
Pete Hegseth has been nominated by President Elect Trump for US Secretary of Defense. He is an American television FOX presenter, author, and former National Guard officer. He has become a religious zealot who advocates a new Christian Crusade and the remaking of America as a Christian theocracy. He has been married three times and is accused of multiple affairs. He seems an unlikely person to advocate Christian values, especially the teaching of Jesus on marital faithfulness.
But today, it appears to some that the GOP, the party of Lincoln and Reagan, has become the party of lawlessness and immorality. The party of Conservatism is apparently now prepared to condone almost any sin for the sake of power. This is not to suggest that the Democrats are morally better. They are currently led by a man who has no problem with pardoning his criminal son while lambasting the indecencies of his political rivals. These are sorry times for America and the world.
I remind you that we are not talking mere POLITICS but FULFILLING PROPHECY. We are in Revelation 13 territory. BIBLE PROPHECY TEACHES THAT CHURCH AND STATE WILL UNITE IN AMERICA. You may think this is a good thing. But Bible prophecy calls this act of pseudo Christianity THE IMAGE AND MARK OF THE BEAST.
It is time for good people to wake-up, speak up, and act up. NOT FOR PARTISAN POLITICS, BUT FOR JESUS, who taught us that true holiness is a matter of the heart and cannot be legislated. Not even by an American Theocracy that is the product of people like the so-called newly born-again Pete Hegseth.
— John Carter