A Modern Woman's Perspective On The Kingdom of God on Earth


Showing posts with label False Gods. Show all posts
Showing posts with label False Gods. Show all posts

June 17, 2023

Choose Now Whom You Will Serve ... God of the Bible or Your AI god?


Need we remind ourselves of one of the primary and most important commandments of God almighty, El Shaddai? You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself any idol, or any likeness (form, manifestation) of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth [as an object to worship]. You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous (impassioned) God, demanding what is [rightfully and uniquely mine], visiting (avenging) the iniquity (sin, guilt) of the fathers on the children [that is, calling the children to account for the sins of their fathers], to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me...

In my last post, I talked about the consequences of the iniquity that results from a lack of trust in God. And that is what can happen to each of us, as individuals, when we lose sight of our Creator. But now, in these last days, I am seeing a threat that could exert ungodly influence on the masses, and potentially result in the extinction of mankind, or at the very least, corrupt the personal relationship with our Heavenly Father; the personal relationship that Jesus died to restore to all mankind. 

Frankly, I am shocked at just how rapidly this threat has risen. I'm talking about the dire warning that technology execs and creators are signaling ... warning that "we are creating a god". Notice that both these execs and the God of the Bible use a "little g" when referring to false dieties. Just read what Mo Gawdat, former chief executive of Google X had to say: he believes "that artificial general intelligence (AGI), the sort of all-powerful, sentient AI seen in science fiction like Skynet from The Terminator, is inevitable — and that once it's here, humanity may very well find itself staring down an apocalypse brought forth by godlike machines". 

In the article, Gawdat shared the revelation he received during tests with AI developers to check the dexterity of robot arms trying to pick up a small ball. After a period of slow progress, Gawdat said that one arm grabbed the ball and seemed to hold it up to the researchers in a gesture that, to him, seemed like it was showing off. "And I suddenly realized this is really scary," Gawdat said. "It completely froze me... The reality is," he added, "we're creating God." Now, I'm fully aware that his use of a "big G" for God, in this instance, is entirely misappropriated. No one can create God! He is I AM; he's always been. If Gawdat had said, "we're trying to replace God", I would probably agree with that.

So, while he among others, like Elon Musk, are warning that the advancements in AI technology are potential threats to the human race, there are others who have avidly and aggressively promoted divine attributes to Artificial Intelligence. In 2021, former Google executive Anthony Levandowski closed his artificial intelligence-focused church, called Way of the Future (WOTF). An article on The Verge, reported that Levandowski was interested in pursuing “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), in preparation for the Singularity [and the betterment of society]". Although he closed his "church", it is not too hard to imagine that someone else will pursue that same goal. [NOTE: the Singularity is a hypothetical future where technology growth is out of control and irreversible. These intelligent and powerful technologies will radically and unpredictably transform our reality]. And included in that transformation is the merging of humans and computers; a being with both organic (God-made) and bio-mechatronic (inorganic) body parts.

That brings me to who, in my opinion, is one of the most dangerous men in this technology conversation, senior World Economic Forum (WEF) advisor Yuval Noah Harari. According to an article on Charismamag.com, Harari is "considered by many to be one of the most influential intellectuals in the world today". He is a best-selling author of over 45 million books on the future of science and technology. His opinions are valued by WEF founder and economist, Klaus Schwab, as well as icons like Barack Obama and Bill Gates. But it is his opinions on Creation, the sovereignty of God, and the truth of the Bible that is highly concerning to me. Let me just share a few of his statements:

"We don’t have to wait for Christ’s Second Coming to overcome death. A couple of geeks in the laboratory can do it if you give them enough time and money".

"God seems to be making a comeback, but this is a mirage. God is dead … it just takes awhile to get rid of the body".

"I don’t think life has any meaning. I know many civilizations and philosophies have based the meaning of life on death and what happens after death. But I think these are all fictional stories that people have invented throughout history. They are not the truth".

"You think about the Bible for example. So, in the first book of Genesis, what God does is to create animals and plants and humans. And we now want to gain these abilities ourselves… to manufacture animals and plants and humans. And even go beyond God! Even if you believe in the Bible, the only thing the God of the Bible managed to create is organic beings. He managed to create the cows, and the tomatoes, and the giraffes and the humans – all organic. Now we try to go beyond the God of the Bible and create inorganic life, a thing He never managed to do, according either to the Bible or to biology. For 4 billion years, all life was organic. Now we want to create inorganic life. Divinity is not far enough to describe what we are trying to do"! [NOTE: By "inorganic", he means machines!]

"I think one of the most interesting places today, from a religious perspective, is Silicon Valley. I bet that this is where the new religions of the 21st Century will be created; are being created. And these will be a kind of techno-religions; religions based on technology; religions that make all of the old promises possible of Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, and so forth. They all promised happiness, and prosperity and justice, and even eternal life.  [We can know those promises] here on earth, with the help of technology; and not after we die, but now with the help of super human beings. And in a way, I would say we have already seen the first techno-religion in history, in previous centuries, and that was Socialism".

I think you've read enough to get an idea of where this guy is coming from. And as a faithful follower of Jesus Christ, what he is saying is offensive and alarming. But none is more controversial than his opinion that the Bible needs to be re-written "to correct" the wrong ideas it has presented for centuries. We know that Johannes Gutenberg invented the first printing press and printed a copy of the Bible in the 15th Century. But according to Harari, "it [the printing press] had no ideas of its own about the Bible: Is it good? Is it bad? How to interpret this? How to interpret that? AI can create new ideas [from its opinions]; [it] can even write a new Bible,” Harari declares. “Throughout history, religions dreamt about having a book written by a superhuman intelligence, by a non-human entity". Oh, really? Can you provide some evidence of that, please? 

Are you as aggrieved as I am that this pompous proponent of AI dares to compare human's ability to create with the creativity of the God of the Universe? I am strongly discerning that we are on the precipice of what Scripture prophesies... Because of this God will send upon them a misleading influence, [an activity of error and deception] so they will believe the lie, in order that all may be judged and condemned who did not believe the truth [about their sin, and the need for salvation through Christ], but instead took pleasure in unrighteousness. Now is the time to fortify ourselves for the battle that is coming. We must become clear about what we believe and why, so that we can discern the difference between the delusion God is bringing and the immutable Truth of His Word that we carry in our hearts. 

And again, the Bible tells us that My people perish for lack of knowledge. But it is incumbent upon all us Christians that we make it clear to all within our sphere of influence that the Word is speaking of knowledge as God's Truth, not man's. Mr. Harari is full of knowledge. But his foundation comes from the deception and deceit of the Father of Lies. We must not only stand on the principles of God's Truth, but must be willing to stand against the lies, and correct the false teachings, data, and information that will most assuredly be fomented by artificial intelligence and the humans who unleash AI upon the world. Trust in the Lord to fight for us and protect us as we continue to preach the Word; the unerring, perfect and unimpeachable Word of God to those who love Him and follow His commandments. 

Romans 1:21-23    For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 


January 27, 2023

NYC Golden Graven Image Occupies A "High Place"

There are days I think that "Today is the day" that God will have had enough with our rebelliousness. Surely His cup of wrath will be filled to overflowing with this abominable act in our nation! And each time it seems our arrogance grows stronger as we parade our sin before His eyes. So, what have we done this time? Well, we have not only broken God's First Commandment (You shall have no other gods before Me), but coupled it with breaking the Second Commandment (You shall not make unto yourself any graven images, nor worship nor serve them...). I say, "we" because God makes it clear that He judges peoples and nations. 

What exactly is our sin this time? According to Lifenews.com, a new, 8-foot golden statue was recently installed on top of the Courthouse of the Appellate Division, First Department of the Supreme Court of the State of New York in the city. Its purpose? It pays homage to the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg [including her signature lace collar] "and her fight for abortion". The naked golden woman features braids formed into goat-like horns that come out of her head, as she emerges from a pink lotus ... supposedly to represent "feminity", but these images are often used by The Satanic Temple to represent satan and his influence.And if you're wondering why this piece of "modern art" might be offensive to me or other Christians, it's because "Hail Satan" is sometimes yelled during pro-abortion protests and because The Satanic Temple has also filed numerous lawsuits that challenge laws protecting unborn babies’ lives on religious grounds. The group claims abortion is a religious ritual! [Source: Lifenews.com].

The artist who created the idol as a nod to the pro-abortion movement, explains that she named the statue "NOW" because women’s ability to have abortions is at risk right “now.” She also elaborated: "The female body has a face with its hair braided into spiraling ‘horns.’ The horns mimic the movement of the arms and are there as a symbol of the figure’s sovereignty, and its autonomy. Women in my work are always complex, proactive, confident, intelligent and in their playful stances connected to the past in imaginative ways without being tied to a heteronormative lineage or conventional representations of diaspora and nation...". Hmmm, "connected to the past" like Jezebel, Lilith, Shiva, and Freya, for instance?

Breitbart.com quotes someone named Andrew Beck on Twitter [who is apparently a Brand Consultant for building institutions]. He tweeted this: "A new statue atop a New York City courthouse. The artist says it’s part of an “urgent and necessary cultural reckoning underway as New York reconsiders traditional representations of power in public spaces and recasts civic structures to better reflect 21st-century social mores.” But apparently there doesn't seem to have been any public input to the installment of this golden idol on top of this New York Supreme Courthouse, which is a symbol of governmental and legal authority. Is this an overt attempt to declare that this false goddess now reigns supreme over God's laws? And if this statue represents 21st century morals and substantial support for abortion, then I think we're coming ever so close to representing the Daughter of Babylon in Revelation, Chapter 18!  

 According to DailyCaller.com, CEO and Founder of Elevate Beauty, Amanda Ensing, tweeted, "NYC Courthouse has put up a gold-horned “goddess” statue to symbolize resistance & abortion rights. It literally looks like a demon. America loves celebrating death". And I refer, again, to Revelation 18 which tells us, After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, possessing great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his splendor and radiance. And he shouted with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen [certainly to be destroyed] is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a dungeon haunted by every unclean spirit, and a prison for every unclean and loathsome bird. For all the nations have drunk from the wine of the passion of her [sexual] immorality, and the kings and political leaders of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth and economic power of her sensuous luxury. [A dwelling place for demons; haunted by unclean spirits; kings and political leaders have committed immorality with her; and merchants of the world have grown rich through her wealth and economic power -- (think Wall Street). Sure sounds like New York City, to me].

And in keeping with Biblical prophecy and principles, New York City seems to be becoming the 21st Century representation of the land of Canaan and its pagan worship. The Canaanites were exceedingly wicked; and the essence of their wickedness was their worship of idols. Their abominable idol worship (including the sacrifice of infant children in ovens to a god named Molech) was carried out at what they called "high places". The core purpose of a high place was to be a location for worshiping deities, or idols, other than Jehovah God. God had clearly told the Israelites that they were to 1) worship only Him, and 2) He was establishing the manner in which He wanted to be worshiped, as well as the specific place (Jerusalem).  Idolatry is associated throughout the Old Testament and the history of the nation of Israel with "high places", where idolatrous worship was carried out "on the high mountains and the hills and under every green tree." The top of a Courthouse in New York City, representing the "Lawgivers" surely qualifies as a "high place". 

Even King David's own son, Solomon, who we are told loved the Lord and followed in the statutes of his father, was tempted to sacrifice and burn incense at the high places (1 Kings 3:3). Although the Bible tells us there were righteous kings, such as Asa, who attempted to make reforms and establish Jerusalem as the center of worship, he could not bring himself to destroy the high places. Sadly our elected Presidents and legislators have not fared any better. And we should learn from history ... both the Northern and Southern kingdoms of Israel were taken away in captivity. The leadership of both those kingdoms were a mixture of good and bad kings; those who worshiped the true God and destroyed the high places, and those who ignored them or worshiped at them, themselves. The result: history records a divided nation with a mixture of truth and lies. The lesson is clear: When you begin to depart a little from God's path, you will get farther and farther away from His ways the longer you go in that direction.  

Just like the ancient nation of Israel, the United States is in need of serious reformation.We have grown accustomed to seeing these "high places" erected in our nation, and no one demands that they be taken down and destroyed. So their spiritual influence infects the hearts and minds of those who are easily convinced that they are honoring the "high ground" of tolerance, equity, and enlightened social values. Personal gratification has become an idol, in itself, and any attempt to restrict our fleshly desires is denigrated and maligned. But that road will only lead to our destruction. We must repent and return to worshiping Almighty God only! When we, as a nation and individuals, repent of worshiping "high places" of our own choosing, we will remove barriers that have been holding us back from fulfilling our calling as God's people in the world. But if we continue to glory, and revel, and gloat in idols of our own making, then we can surely expect Revelation 18's prophecy: we will be "completely consumed, for strong and powerful is the Lord God who will judge us".

#highplaces #worshipingidols #pagangoddesses #godsjudgment #worshipingabortion

Isaiah 42:8   I am the Lord, that is My Name! My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved idols.

December 2, 2022

21st Century Child Sacrifice At The Altars of Molech and Ba'al

You have heard King Solomon quoted many times: There is nothing new under the sun. It would be nice for the world if that pertained only to good and moral lifestyles. But sadly [and most abhorrently] this expression still applies to the despicable practice of sacrificing children in the spirit of Molech, the ancient pagan god.

This false god is so old that I could not find any reference as to when he first appeared on the scene. Several websites stated that as early as 1450 BC, when the Israelites were wandering in the desert, they were worshiping Molech (think the golden calf), even before they had entered the land of Canaan. And we know that this detestable god appears multiple times throughout the Old Testament. We also know exactly how God felt about worshiping him... The Lord said to Moses, “Say to the Israelites: ‘Any Israelite or any foreigner residing in Israel who sacrifices any of his children to Molech is to be put to death. The members of the community are to stone him. I myself will set my face against him and will cut him off from his people; for by sacrificing his children to Molech, he has defiled my sanctuary and profaned my holy name. If the members of the community close their eyes when that man sacrifices one of his children to Molech and if they fail to put him to death, I myself will set my face against him and his family and will cut them off from their people together with all who follow him in prostituting themselves to Molech.

Pretty clear, isn't it? So, how did this sacrifice ritual work? Chabad.org gives us the details: "Molech was built outside of Jerusalem in the valley of Ben-Hinnom. It was an idol with the face of a calf and open hands like someone who wants to take something from another. They would light this idol on fire until his hands were scorching. There were seven chambers before him and according to the quality of the sacrifice that is how close one could come to him. If one came with a bird, then chamber one; goat, chamber two; sheep, chamber three; calf, chamber four; cow, chamber five; and ox, chamber six. The priests would say that the one who brought his child was bringing the biggest sacrifice of all. He would enter the innermost chamber and go kiss the Molech . . . The priests would then take the child and place it near the Molech. They would then bang with drums and clap to drown the noise from the child’s screams so that the father would not regret his decision."

While I have no evidence that bronze statues of Molech still exist [with their heads of calves (or bulls) and chests that contain a big fiery furnace], it's not hard to see that Molech worship is still alive and well. Children are still being sacrificed, and it is through the ritual of abortion. What sacrifice is bigger than giving yourself the power to overcome the procreation of God's children? The 21st Century idolators seem to have dropped the argument that it is not a child, but rather just "some cells". But how do they explain their desire to write more comprehensive legislation that would allow the killing of babies up to [and after] birth?

But it is not only abortion that sees innocent children sacrificed. The sexual exploitation of children, child pornography, and sex trafficking are all forms of child sacrifice, and Molech combines forces with the false god Ba'al in the morally depraved culture of the modern world. All you have to do is tune in to the latest scandal involving Balenciaga, the Spanish luxury fashion house that caters to celebrities and the elite. You can find any Kardashian, Nicole Kidman, BeyoncĂ©, Gwyneth Paltrow, and the like, wearing Balenciaga. But their recent ad campaign has revealed the ugly underbelly of how our children are being objectified and becoming pawns in the 21st Century worship of Ba'al. 

The recent ad campaign for Balenciaga was heavily BDSM-centric. What exactly is BDSM? It's official definition is "a variety of often erotic practices or role-playing involving bondage, discipline, dominance and submission, sadomasochism, and other related interpersonal dynamics". That's not my thing, and if adults wish to take part in this "variety" of sex, then that's their free will choice. But the problem with the ads were they all featured children, who when you examined the ads closer, you could see the symbolism in the positions they were placed and the props situated around them. For example, children were seen holding dolls who sported black eyes, and were dressed in bondage gear. A child's drawing of the devil is seen in the background of one photo, featuring a blond-haired little boy with a black hood at his feet, similar to those seen in satanic rituals. And one innocent red-haired little girl is positioned face down on a couch, staring at the camera in what appears a clear depiction of submission.

But that's not all this ad campaign reveals in regard to children. One ad pictures a book in the background by artist Michael Booremans whose works include castrated toddlers. Another ad appears to include photographs of paperwork from a Supreme Court case that upheld part of a federal child pornography law. Are you starting to get the picture? For years now, we've heard of child sex trafficking, and of the hundreds of thousands of children who disappear into sex trafficking rings, and are being used in satanic rituals, and exploited in the underground child pornography industry. It's been hinted at of the kinds of depraved minds that look upon children as commodities to fulfill their corrupted and debauched appetites. Each of these ads also features an innocuous little white rabbit, which some have suggested is used to trigger a response in programmed observers of the ads. And the most blatant "clue" to the "hidden" demonic messages in this campaign is the roll of gold packing tape in which the name "Balenciaga" has been altered to spell "Baalenciaga".

It's almost too much to bear for the righteous! Just as in ancient days, people blatantly followed Molech and Baal openly and deliberately. And today, the immoral and depraved parade their worship of Baal and their wicked mis-use of young children in the faces of the unsuspecting public, daring us to see behind the curtain. Lord God! Please expose the abuse and the sexual deviation that is perpetrated upon our children in this generation. You are the same God who abhorred the worship of Molech and Baal in ages past. Deal with the offenders of these children now, as You did then! Protect them and guard their innocence! Show us how to battle in the spiritual realms on their behalf, and teach us how to pray that this evil ends. Seeing it is not enough -- we want to partner with you to see these children redeemed! Amen!

#molechworship #baalworship #childsexualabuse #balenciagascandal #protectgodschildren #protecttheinnocent #stopchildsexabuse

Ezekiel 16:20-21   And then you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had given birth to as My children, and you killed them, sacrificing them to idols. Wasn’t it bad enough that you had become a whore? And now you’re a murderer, killing My children and sacrificing them to idols.  

 

February 4, 2022

Will Artificial Intelligence and the false god of Technology Replace Jehovah?


No, I'm not trying to be snide or sarcastic. It's a very real question that came to me as I read an article at The Christian Post by Assistant Editor, Leah MarieAnne Klett. In her article, she interviewed theologian and author Wallace Henley. In the article, Henley made this impactful statement: "We are all made for transcendence, God’s overarching glory. As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, God has put eternity in our hearts. St. Augustine said, ‘The human heart was made by God for God and only God can fill it.’ And if we don't fill it with God, we fill it with whatever else we can find … that's what all idolatry is about. The idolatry of the future is going to be the worship of these machines, which has already started, either tongue-in-cheek, or some people literally [and very seriously] worshiping the works of their hands."  

In other words, we were created as incomparable beings [without equal] by God to spend eternity with Him, and worshiping Him only. Eternity with God is literally part of our DNA. But there are scientific men and forces who want to dethrone the Most High God, the Creator of the Universe, and replace Him with a creation of their own. That is called idolatry and results in the worship of false gods. And Mr. Henley warns of the spiritual crisis that is coming [and in reality, is here] as mankind approaches the ultimate idolatry, worship of the machine. This became quite clear, when he heard a technology specialist make the following disturbing statement: "He said, if there is a machine that can go a billion times faster than the human brain, then the only thing we can call it is God.' "

Please don't consider that statement lightly. In 2014, I wrote about the international Global Future Congress 2045. The focus of the Congress that year was "a discussion of a new evolutionary strategy for humanity aimed at overcoming the 21st century's civilization challenges. The strategy is based on carrying out two revolutions: spiritual and sci-tech. We believe this is the only way to overcome existing crises." As I wrote then, being a very spiritual-minded Christian myself, I wanted to see if these scientific minds could, in any way, mirror my concept of spirituality and God. That question was answered in the very next statement of the Congress's objective: "A vision will be presented for the spiritual transformation of humanity, and new technologies will be demonstrated which are likely to form the basis of the sci-tech revolution. The Congress will also showcase our Avatar science mega-project, aimed at accelerating the creation of technologies enabling a gradual transition from our biological bodies to an increasingly advanced artificial carrier of the human self."

That should be chilling to any Spirit-filled follower of Christ! There are so many implications here, and these statements were made in the summer of 2013! How far down the road have these "scientific minds" come in developing possible ways to "transform humanity"? Frankly, it's eerily mindful of the "follow the science" mantra we've heard the last couple of years throughout the virus crisis. And we're yet to find out the long-term effects of that "science"! Are we going to see a meeting of the minds between the health scientists and the technology scientists, resulting in our spiritual transformation? It is incumbent upon us, as God's magnificent creation to be mindful of the ethics of these experiments and developments. 

We are already seeing Artificial Intelligence assuming many of our human tasks -- everything from vacuuming to assembling cars. And human dependency on machines has become so celebrated that we hardly recognize the dire implications -- just think about the rush for the latest version of iPhone. Wallace Henley brings up an important consideration: Who is going to design the ethics that go into these machines? What is the spiritual nature of that person? Could there be, at some point, the elimination of the directive inside that machine that says, "Thou shalt not kill"? What if the machine decides that we, the human race, is the problem, and to maximize its utility, we need to be removed? 

That may seem extreme, and highly unlikely, but isn't that a possibility as our society and the world continues to move towards the worship of technology over our reverence for God? Doesn't that make technology an idol, and the machines "little g" gods? And if you think we have advanced beyond the nature of the Israelites who followed pagan gods and sacrificed to false gods; or the Greeks and Romans who worshiped their gods of war and fertility and prosperity... what makes you think this generation isn't capable of worshiping the gods of technology?

Just consider what I discovered when researching the likelihood that Technology has become a god. I asked the question, "Is there a god who could be considered the god of Technology" and found a website that posed that very question. Here are some of the answers ... One young woman, who called herself a practitioner of witchcraft, stated the god Ogun's domain was technology; everything from teaching birds how to build nests to teaching humans about computers.  Then there was this interesting opinion: a woman who identified herself as a sorceress and consort of another foreign god, who stated that she ascribed to the belief that society creates new gods to control the forces of new things. "So perhaps Tesla can be considered the god of Technology. Or perhaps Technology itself is an entity deified by our reliance on it". [I'm sure she has no idea how close she is to the truth]. And finally, there was the opinion of a practicing witch and Norse polytheist: "Perhaps Hermes? As the messenger of the Olympian gods, he was tasked with the transmission of messages from god to god. Nothing does that task better than instant messaging and social media". 

Can you see how easy it will be for the masses who do not know our Sovereign Lord to fall into idol worship? As Scripture says, in Psalm 115:4-8, Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them. The Bible tells us that the ancient people created and treated these idols as real beings. Haven't we done the same with Siri and Alexa? 

This is a very serious subject matter that the Body of Christ needs to address! Yes, we are to concentrate on sharing and spreading the Gospels of Salvation and the Kingdom of God, but this is an invention that we have allowed to develop [and have become dependent upon ourselves] that threatens to rule us -- or at least become a weapon in the hands of the Anti-Christ to control us physically, emotionally, and destroy our spirituality and relationship with God. As part of my final comments in that 2014 blog post, I wrote that a pivotal objective of the Avatar project of the Global Future Congress 2045 was to become "a positive contribution to building the world as it should be". Not, mind you, as our God would will it, but as these Godless men and women would design it. Their goal was then -- and is now -- to bring new earthly innovations to a science lab near you! We must not be naive Christians to the influence that science and technology have on our society, and, as Spirit-filled Christians and ambassadors of God's Kingdom, be naive of the plans to make AI the object of our worship. We must not let our guard down. And we must acknowledge the One True God in all our ways!

Habakkuk 2:18   What profit is the carved image when its maker has formed it? It is only a cast image, and a teacher of lies. For its maker trusts in his own creation [as his god] when he makes speechless idols.

October 3, 2021

"Will We Stone Those Sent to Us?"


This is the title of an article written by Guy Cohen, founder of the Harvest of Asher Congregation and Ministry in Acco, Israel. He is affiliated with Tikkun International, a global family of ministries dedicated to the dual restoration of Israel and the Biblical Church. Tikkun means restoration, renewal, rehabilitation, and repair [in Hebrew]. It is the cry of the Hebrew prophets for the Messianic Age, and for about 10 years I have been blessed to see the dedication and the work of this organization for the Kingdom of God.

Mr. Cohen's title captured my attention and I wondered if there might be some common ground of understanding between a Messianic Jew in Israel, and a Christian woman in America. Furthermore, I found his religious background interesting, as well. He grew up in an orthodox Jewish religious environment in Israel, studying the Old Testament and rabbinical teachings. Then in 1997, the Lord opened Guy's eyes and he accepted Yeshua as his Messiah! His background and training in the Hebrew Scriptures gives him a unique perspective into the Word of God and the Jewish roots of faith in Yeshua. I am a serious lay student of those same roots in reference to the Christian Bible and my faith. 

The subject of Cohen's article was the prophet Elijah and the environment in which he lived. Elijah was one of the major prophets God sent to Israel to call His people back to Him. But Elijah ran into some formidable foes in King Ahab and his pagan queen Jezebel. According to Scripture, Ahab had done more evil in the sight of the Lord than all the kings who were before him. He built a house for the worship of his wife's false god, Baal, and there he built an altar to Baal and worshiped him. At his wife's instigation, he also built an Asherah pole, a sacred monument and tribute to the Canaanite goddess, Asherah, who was said to be "the mother" of a pantheon of gods with the other "creator god", El. The nation of Israel was tempted to follow these false gods, just as their king had. Elijah could not convince them to choose whom they would worship; their noncommittal attitude only served to greatly provoke the Lord God of Israel. 

But Elijah was anointed by God to confront the idolators, and he fulfilled his mission, gaining a fiery victory on Mount Carmel. As you will recall, the spiritual showdown occurred after Israel had suffered three years without rain, due to their unrepentant idolatry. All Israel gathered at Mount Carmel, where Elijah confronted the evil king and his false prophets. The challenge went like this: Elijah was the lone prophet of the God of Israel. Against him were 450 prophets of the false god, Baal, and 400 prophets of the false goddess Asherah. The challenge was to prepare a bull as an offering to their respective gods. But there was a condition that had to be met ... they could light no fire on their altar. The God who answered with fire from the sky would be declared the true God.  

The fire of the Lord fell and consumed Elijah's offering, after which the people of Israel fell on their faces, saying, "The Lord, He is God"! And after God provided evidence to the people of His sovereignty as the one true God, you have to believe Elijah would be thinking, "I've known why I was sent; to harken the people to the Lord's voice and His presence. How can they not repent and return to the Lord, now?" Instead of what he thought was irrefutable proof of God's supremacy and the truth, Elijah found himself the target of Jezebel's wrath and on the run for his life. The spirits of fear and doubt engulfed him and he ended up in a cave, ready to give up. How dispirited he must have been! He saw his beloved nation forsaking the covenant they had with their God. He witnessed the altars to God being destroyed, and the prophets were all killed. He was the only one left, and they were trying to kill him, too. 

But the Lord did not abandon Elijah. He didn't appear in the grand manner that Elijah expected Him to, but rather as a still, small voice that encouraged him and then sent him back into the spiritual battle. Elijah followed the Lords commands to anoint Hazael as king over Syria; Jehu as king over Israel; and Elisha as a prophetic voice to take his [Elijah's] place. Sadly, both kings failed to do as God bid, and only Elisha carried out his assignment. 

So, why does this ancient situation spoken of in an article by a Messianic minister speak so much to my spirit today? Mr. Cohen fights the battle of speaking as a believer in Yeshua, the Messiah, to a nation of orthodox or unbelieving Jews. He identifies with Elijah in speaking to an unbelieving nation that bows the knee to political Zionism. For me, as a Christian in America, I see how much our governmental leadership and so-called prophetic voices have disappointed. The nation's leaders are as guilty of idolatry and abandoning the true God as King Ahab was. They worship at the altars of power and wealth, and the "voices" of so many prophets assault our ears! What is God's Truth in the midst of all this? Both government leaders and "prophets" battle for their messages to be heard, leading to deception and confusion among the brethren of believers. So what are we seeing? False prophets leading many astray, lawlessness increasing, and love for our fellow man growing cold. 

Did the Lord identify with Elijah, when He said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!"? Today, we often find that Christians don't want a message that interferes with their comfort zone, or troubles their spirit, or challenges their belief system. We need the spirit of Elijah today! We need the true prophets who are willing to call out the false gods this world is bowing down to.  We need an Elijah willing to challenge and confront the false prophets and their empty promises. We need an Elijah to call the Church to account for compromising with the culture and beast system. We all need the spirit of Elijah in us to be bold to declare, "The Lord, He is God"!

It may seem as if we are alone; like Elijah, we may feel like most around us have abandoned this nation's covenant with God; that all our foundations have been torn away. God is no longer welcome in government, our schools, or the public square. He and His statutes are openly mocked by what seems like a growing mob of haters. It may feel like we are facing overwhelming odds. That's how Elijah felt. But God reminded him that he was not serving the Lord alone. In fact, God told Elijah there were 7,000 left in Israel that "had not bowed their knee to Baal nor kissed his mouth". 

I believe God is doing the same in our generation! There is a faithful remnant that echoes the 7,000 in ancient Israel. And it is up to us to discern the ones God has sent, and listen to their words in truth and spirit. We will know them by their fruit! The challenge will be to accept the ones God sends and reject those with messages that draw us away from Him. It will be tempting to listen to those who only preach what makes us feel good. That's the lesson to be learned from the people of Israel, who followed the false prophets of Baal, and rejected the Lord's prophet, Elijah. If we are true followers of Christ, we know the whole agenda ... it includes troubles, hardship, and persecution, BUT concludes with victory, eternal life, and glory to God in the highest! Again, let us be diligent to accept the ones God sends to us and resist "stoning" them if the messages seem uncomfortable. And if the Lord calls us to be His voice, we can be the Elijah, Daniel, and Jeremiah of the generation that sees the return of Jesus! Remember, the Lord was with Elijah the whole way, encouraged him, and provided his successor. May we all receive the same favor from our faithful God!

Luke 1:17     It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous [which is to seek and submit to the will of God]—in order to make ready a people [perfectly] prepared [spiritually and morally] for the Lord.”

 

 

September 4, 2021

The New Religion of Artificial Intelligence

You may think I am just being clever with the title of this blog post. But there is an actual church dedicated to “the realization, acceptance, and worship of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) developed through computer hardware and software.” This church is called Way Of The Future. As ludicrous as this sounds, it is real! None other than Tesla founder and technology guru, Elon Musk, warned in 2017 that there are developers of digital super-intelligence that have plans to create a new religion centered on a "divine AI god". 

The man behind the Way Of The Future artificial intelligence church (WOTF), is Anthony Levandowski, the man who engineered the self-driving car. Although his reputation has been under fire amid allegations of pirating industry secrets, Levandowski leads the way among this generation's godless in promoting the divine attributes of Artificial Intelligence. Just consider this statement in a 2017 article on the Wired website: “What is going to be created will effectively be a god ... It’s not a god in the sense that it makes lightning or causes hurricanes. But if there is something a billion times smarter than the smartest human, what else are you going to call it?” Try calling it God, with a capital "G".

But to emphasize that humankind is still falling for the same old lie that deceived Adam and Eve in the Garden -- namely, that we don't need God -- the self-appointed "Dean" of the Way Of The Future Church goes on to say, “Humans are in charge of the planet because we are smarter than other animals and are able to build tools and apply rules. In the future, if something is much, much smarter, there’s going to be a transition as to who is actually in charge. What we want is the peaceful, serene transition of control of the planet from humans to whatever. And to ensure that the ‘whatever’ knows who helped it get along.”

No, Mr. Levandowski, humans were designed to be in charge of the planet by their Creator; to govern the earth as He governs Heaven. The ultimate control of the planet is in the hands of this One True God of the Universe, YHWH. But because there are humans who refuse to acknowledge His sovereignty, they bow down to whatever they create to be their little "g" god; whether it be Science, Politics, Money, or Artificial Intelligence. This philosophy plays into the hands of the devil, who seeks to overthrow the true God's dominion over man and the earth, and become the "whatever" of godless men's souls. Also, this philosophy is nothing new. What has become known as the idea of "Singularity" has been promoted ever since man discovered the capabilities of technology.

My research takes the understanding of the possibility of Singularity back to John von Neumann, one of the WWII German scientists recruited to work on the Manhattan Project, who commented [and warned] on the "accelerating progress of technology and changes in the mode of human life, which gives the appearance of approaching some essential singularity in the history of the race beyond which human affairs, as we know them, could not continue." In other words, as fast as AI is advancing, there could be a very real danger of human extinction. This "singularity" where men and machines become one, with the machine being in control, has been predicted by modern technology engineers to occur between 2030 and 2050.

But this idea that AI could become a god is especially heinous and abominable. Consider what was written by John Brandon in a 2017 article on the VentureBeat website: "In the next 25 years, AI will evolve to the point where it will know more on an intellectual level than any human. In the next 50 or 100 years, an AI might know more than the entire population of the planet put together. At that point, there are serious questions to ask about whether this AI — which could design and program additional AI programs all on its own, read data from an almost infinite number of data sources, and control almost every connected device on the planet — will somehow rise in status to become more like a god, something that can write its own bible and draw humans to worship it" [my emphasis].

Think it's not possible? In this same VentureBeat article, an expert named Vince Lynch [who builds custom AI] likened Artificial Intelligence to organized religion. In the Bible used by Christians, for example, Lynch says there are many recurring themes, imagery, and metaphors. “Teaching humans about religious education is similar to the way we teach knowledge to machines: repetition of many examples that are versions of a concept you want the machine to learn,” he says. “There is also commonality between AI and religion in the hierarchical structure of knowledge understanding found in neural networks. The concept of teaching a machine to learn … and then teaching it to teach … (or write AI) isn’t so different from the concept of a holy trinity or a being achieving enlightenment after many lessons learned with varying levels of success and failure.”

The article goes on ... Indeed, Lynch even shared a simple AI model to make his point. If you type in multiple verses from the Christian Bible, you can have the AI write a new verse that seems eerily similar. Here’s one an AI wrote: “And let thy companies deliver thee; but [I] will with mine own arm save them: even unto this land, from the kingdom of heaven.” An AI that is all-powerful in the next 25-50 years could decide to write a similar AI bible for humans to follow, one that matches its own collective intelligence. It might tell you what to do each day, or where to travel, or how to live your life.

Again ... do you doubt that this can actually happen? The generation that is now approaching 30 has been surrounded by technology since birth. It's all they know! They've had a cell phone in their hands from nearly day one! From watching videos as children to receiving their news of the world today, they have been subjected to technology as their primary source of information. As crazy as it sounds, those within the digital and AI services community refer to the Bible as "a large data asset pertaining to God in the Old and New Testaments". It is proposed that AI could build algorithms based on the Christian Bible to then communicate what "God might do or say" ... but what "God" would it be promoting?

Granted, there are experts in the field that doubt AI could ever build compassion or the equivalent of a "spirit" as part of its process or operation -- both of which are essential to real faith. The reality of a machine being able to create a divine nature is certainly grounds for skepticism. But could humanity decide to "worship" it, nonetheless? Don't we already? How many people trust and obey their GPS, or ask Alexa for advice? How many of you have had conversations with your children or grandchildren in which they implicitly declare a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, and impartation of information they have received from their cell phone? Could we go a day, a week, a month or [gasp] forever without our cell phones or computers? 

And when you consider that we now willingly implant technology within our bodies, I discern that we must take Elon Musk's statement that "humans will deepen our ties with technology even further, to the point where we become cyborgs, as a way of upgrading our inherent natural abilities". Where does he think those "inherent abilities" came from? And the audacity of the created to think they can upgrade the Creator's divine design! So while, on one hand, Mr. Musk warns of an AI god; on the other hand, he proclaims that "the future of humanity depends on us merging with machines" -- hence his venture into his new company, Neuralink. [See my post on this related subject here]. 

All of these prognostications and warnings all come back to the same idea -- the interconnectivity of man and technology. Will man's desire to be like YWHW, to know as He knows, to create as He creates, be the downfall of mankind? Will we repeat the same mistakes of judgment that took place in the Garden and at the tower of Babel? Will we abandon our true faith to idolize, follow, and worship the false gods of technology and AI, just as the Israelites abandoned YHWH? If, as obedient followers of Jesus Christ, if we are not careful to safeguard and teach God's Truth to this and future generations, then I'm afraid the answers to the above questions are "Yes". And God will not interfere with our free will. 

I appreciate the warnings of men like Elon Musk and the late Stephen Hawkings, that AI is dangerous to the future of humans. But, ultimately, it is our responsibility as the Ekklesia of Heaven on earth to declare the Truth and speak out against the lies. We have an Enemy that is exploiting and corrupting our God-given intelligence; encouraging mankind to be complicit in his plans to build a superhuman controlling power -- plans that could ultimately lead to the extinction of all who do not pledge their loyalty to YHWH. In this case, I advise us to consider the words of the duplicitous Mr. Musk: "With Artificial Intelligence we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like, yeah, he’s sure he can control the demon. Didn’t work out". 

But for those of us whose minds, hearts, and spirits remain firmly fastened to Christ, I solemnly urge you to be cognizant of where we are headed in this age of technology. It will be up to us to declare the Sovereignty of our true Lord and Master. We will find ourselves battling upstream against the culture, but the destiny of future generations depends on us. While it may seem unlikely that humans could ever get so far off base as to worship a cold and impersonal machine, if we are honest with ourselves, we are further down that road than we care to admit. We must take a stand for God and His Divine Truth! The history of mankind has proven that when we stray from Him, we further the devil's plans and strategies. As the old saying goes, "if we don't stand for something, we will fall for anything". And our "something" is none other than Almighty God, Maker of Heaven and earth, and all things visible and invisible! He is above all; from whom all things came and for whom we exist! We praise and worship Him only!

Psalm 135:18     Those deaf to God can only make a deaf image. Dead men can only create dead idols. And everyone who trusts in these powerless, dead things will be just like what they worship—powerless and dead!

 

 

 

March 11, 2021

A Call To The Ekklesia: Stand Against False Gods & Fallen Angels!


There is a stark reality we must face in our nation. We are all aware that for 60 years or more, we have been pushing God out of our national identity -- culturally, socially, and legally. But if we create a vacancy, it is the law of nature, that something will fill that space. Do you remember in 2015, when the powers that be in New York gave permission to an art exhibition called "Projecting Change" to impose the image of Hindu demon goddess Kali on the side of the Empire State Building? Kali is the goddess of Destruction and Dissolution in Hinduism and is known for destroying ignorance. Her name means "The Black One". The meaning of Dissolution, by the way, is termination, demise, extinction. And just five years later, in 2020, we now witness the State of New York updating the number of nursing home deaths from Covid-19 to an astounding 15,000!

When a nation removes God from His central and foundational position, then other "little g" gods are only too willing to take His place. And there are dangerous consequences when we let that happen. I want to make you aware of a new and menacing threat to the Christian underpinning of our country. An article on The Gateway Pundit website on March 10, reported that the state of California has proposed an "ethnic studies" curriculum that calls for the "decolonization" of American society and a "counter-genocide" of white Christians. Now, if we want to, we can just chalk that up to another generation discovering their ethnic roots and wanting to throw off the shackles of "American imperialism". But a more in-depth look at this issue finds a curriculum that includes the worship of Aztec gods and chants that call for human sacrifice and cannibalism.

If you are spiritually attuned to Satan's agenda, his goal is to corrupt and destroy human relationship with the Most High God, and substitute the worship of his company of false gods and fallen angels. It's been his plan since he was expelled from El Elyon's heavenly throne room. And the human race has been so easily tempted to abandon righteousness for wickedness. Beginning with the Book of Genesis, the Bible clearly shows us this precept, and the world's history backs it up. 

The curriculum materials will tell you that the goal is "name, speak to, resist, and transform America's cultural identity of dominance through white European neo-colonial policies". The suggestion is to see a transformation towards "social justice" through ethnic resistance. How is that accomplished? Would you believe that the curriculum teaches that students can become "warriors" of social justice by appealing to the Aztec gods to release a spirit of "revolution"? The problem is, these gods are real!!!  We don't even have to approach the obvious conversation -- that this form of "education" doesn't seek to reconcile and unite the various ethnic groups in our rich American heritage, but rather, to alienate and estrange us from each other.

This is the kind of Anti-Christ agenda that, as the Ekklesia, we must determine to see defeated. This Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum [as it is known] instructs teachers to help students challenge "racist, bigoted, discriminatory, imperial/colonial beliefs" and recommends that they lead their students in a series of indigenous songs, chants, and affirmations, including what is known as the "In Lak Ech Affirmation" which appeals directly to the Aztec gods. Students first chant and clap to the god Tezcatlipoca, whom the Aztecs traditionally worshiped with human sacrifice and cannibalism. Often considered as the supreme god, he took on a bewildering array of names and manifestations depending on where and by whom he was worshiped. Invisible and omnipotent, he was known as a Creator god, the god of sustenance, a patron of warriors and as the bringer of both good and evil, he was the very embodiment of change through conflict. He was seen as a god of war, and in one of the special ceremonies honoring him, a prisoner of war was sacrificed and his heart removed to honor this god.

But Tezcatlipoca is not the only false god to be summoned during this Ethnic Studies curriculum. Students are also taught to chant to Tezcatlipoca's brothers, the gods Quetzalcoatl, Huitzilopochtili, and Xipe Totek. These gods are all supreme deities in the pantheon of Mesoamerican creator gods. All are associated with death, war and human sacrifices, whose blood would feed and strengthen the gods. I ask you, do you see any redeeming value to teaching students to chant and summon these fallen angels-turned into false gods? The chanting comes to a climax when students declare "liberation, transformation, and decolonization" as they are convinced they need to pursue "critical consciousness" of their oppressed state in society. 

But here's what is even more concerning ... this curriculum is not only suggested for college-age students, but also for primary and secondary schools, serving a population of 6 million students! With the ever-increasing number of refugees from Central America [the very countries these gods had influence over], California could see racial tensions and gross social upheaval in its population -- which is exactly what Satan has in mind! It is imperative the Ekklesia stand guard against the gates of Hades who would impose this evil curriculum in our nation's schools! Lest you think these gods are just harmless mythological characters, I will tell you that, as Inner Healing Ministers, the Lord has shown Mark and I their very real presence in the iniquity we find in generational bloodlines of Hispanic Beloveds. 

We have seen tremendous freedom come when we expose the covenants made with these fallen heavenly powers by ancestors, and then stamp them with the blood of Jesus and command the altars be destroyed.  Most people don't know the origin of their bloodlines, so we cover the major ancient civilizations by cleansing their bloodlines with Living Water, and renouncing and returning every form of counterfeit inheritance from the Aztec god Queztalcoatl; the Mayan gods Ah Puch and Kul Kul Kan; and the Incan god Viracocha. As I said earlier, the influence of these gods is still in the world, and their wickedness can be summoned through chants, dance, sacrifice and other forms of worship -- even if you call it "education" or "social justice". Ekklesia, this is a call to fulfill our mandate: to stand in the gates of righteous government for the Kingdom, and to prevail [triumph, overcome, rule] against the forces of evil that would come against God's desire for this nation. This agenda will not succeed!

Isaiah 59:7-8    Their feet run to evil, and they rush to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity, desolation and destruction are in their highways. The way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths. Their roads they have made crooked; no one who walks in them knows peace. 


December 8, 2020

What Is The Spirit of This Nation? Who Is It's god?

Yes, I realize that I have a small "g" god in my title. It was deliberate and the result of a question posed to me by a young man I'm proud to consider a spiritual son. He has found his freedom in Christ and is dedicated to representing the Kingdom of God to as many people as possible. He takes that responsibility seriously, and therefore spends lots of personal time in seeking the Lord and endeavoring to understand the "spiritual mechanics" of how we are to walk in our power and authority as sons and daughters of God, and citizens and ambassadors of our Father's Heavenly Kingdom.

With his goals set before him, this young man is learning how to specifically target his prayers as he wages war in the heavens, and he asked me for some information regarding the evil spirits or principalities over geographical regions in the United States. In light of our current situation in the country, I sure wish other Believers were this tuned in to this particular prayer strategy. So, I would like to share with you what I revealed to him as my understanding.

It should not surprise Christians when I say that there are territorial and regional spirits and forces that afflict and oppress people in communities, states, geographical regions, and even an entire country. In the Book of Daniel, Scripture makes it very clear the archangel Michael is in a spiritual battle with the Princes of Persia and Greece. We don't know what the particular characteristics of those powerful spiritual entities are, but I believe they reflect the sins of the people of Persia and Greece. Let me explain further... 

First of all, I do not have the mind of God, nor am I privileged to have all His knowledge or counsel. From what I have discerned, I see at least two paths for geographical regions and territories to become infiltrated with high-level demons and powers. The first is exemplified by Matthew 12:43-45. This passage tells us that when an unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then when it decides to return to the house from which it was thrown out, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. 

This tells me that cast out demons try to find other avenues in which they can oppress people, regions, or territories where they can go and easily reside [rest]. But if those places are dry and unproductive for their evil proclivities (waterless), they decide to try and go back to the person or place from which they were cast out. Of course, because it is the power of Jesus that allowed them to be cast out, that place [or person] from which they came will be vacant; it will be warm and ready for occupancy again. You see, as soon as that place was rid of the evil influence, that vacancy should have been filled with the Holy Spirit [in case of a person], or transformed into a righteous, moral and virtuous environment [in case of a region or territory]. Tolerance, patience, mercy, grace and peace will characterize both people and territories that are not left void.

A second path that I believe demons and high-level principalities and princes can exploit to enter regions is when spirits and demons gain their power through the sins of the people who live in those places. In other words, a spirit of perversion did not target San Francisco, and come in, forcing people into ungodly lifestyles. Rather, it was the Biblical sins of those lifestyles that began to create an atmosphere that was inviting to demonic spirits; and the spiritual atmosphere of San Francisco became welcomed the spirit of perversion to take up residence. Does that make sense?

So, when asked how to specifically pray over the United States as a nation, I would ask you to consider this: What do we often identify as a feature of our national psyche? Don't we often say that "the spirit of Liberty burns in the hearts of all Americans"? Did you know that imperial Rome's goddess Libertas was fashioned after the Babylonian goddess Ishtar, who is the Canaanite version of Semiramis, wife of Nimrod? And did you know that this spirit of liberty is immortalized in America's Statue of Liberty? In fact, Liberty, also known as the goddess Columbia, and the goddess of Freedom, became a cult symbol for Freemasonry in the early years of our Republic. In fact, the Statue of Liberty was conceived, financed, and built by an Italian Freemason (Frederic-Auguste Batholdi), and envisioned as a statue of Nimrod's wife Semiramis (Ishtar, Isis, Astarte) holding a torch of illuminism to light the way to the land of freedom and opportunity. The only problem is that the people of America would enjoy only the "liberties" that the New World Order allowed them to have. She stands in the harbor of New York City as a symbol of wealth and power; and oversees her empire of greed and corruption.

Sadly, that spirit of Liberty that we Americans have come to idolize is tarnished with the reality that it is more like a symbol of the Queen of Babylon [or Queen of Heaven] than she is a spirit associated with our true freedom in Christ. Consider this passage in the 18th Chapter of the Book of Revelation: "After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, possessing great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his splendor and radiance. And he shouted with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen [certainly to be destroyed] is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a dungeon haunted by every unclean spirit, and a prison for every unclean and loathsome bird. For all the nations have drunk from the wine of the passion of her [sexual] immorality, and the kings and political leaders of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth and economic power of her sensuous luxury.” And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not be a partner in her sins and receive her plagues; for her sins (crimes, transgressions) have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her wickedness and crimes [for judgment].  Repay to her even as she has repaid others, and pay back [to her] double [her torment] in accordance with what she has done; in the cup [of sin and suffering] which she mixed, mix a double portion [of perfect justice] for her.  To the degree that she glorified herself and reveled and gloated in her sensuality [living deliciously and luxuriously], to that same degree impose on her torment and anguish, and mourning and grief; for in her heart she boasts, ‘I sit as a queen [on a throne] and I am not a widow, and will never, ever see mourning or experience grief.’  For this reason in a single day her plagues (afflictions, calamities) will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire and completely consumed; for strong and powerful is the Lord God who judges her."

That pagan spirit of Liberty or Columbia or Semiramis, or whatever name she has gone by down through the centuries in the nations, has consumed our national soul and convinced us that we are a virtuous and upright nation; that we are indestructible and everlasting. But I would venture that Revelation 18 is a pretty good description of a nation so drunk on her own prosperity, that she refuses to acknowledge that it is the Most High God's grace and favor that are responsible for all she has. And there the Statue of Liberty sits in the Harbor of New York City; a natural portal into our nation. And that spirit of Liberty lives in statues across our land, and in every state flag that hangs over every state capital building, perpetuating the myth that she represents God's desire for our nation.

So, if you want to know how to pray for this nation, and how to wage spiritual war against the principalities that have gained such a stronghold in our land, pray that we would acknowledge the spiritual darkness that has crept into the halls of government and the boardrooms of commerce so that we can receive Jehovah Nissi's battle plans and defeat these oppressors of evil. It is not too late to delay the fire of judgment that our righteous God is justified in heaping upon us. We do not have to be completely consumed. But the clock is ticking and the time is NOW to reverse our trajectory. Father God wants to pardon us, but the sins are piled higher than is imaginable, and it is going to take a completely committed, sanctified, and surrendered Body of Christ to turn back His wrath. Don't give up; never give up! God's love endures forever for those who turn to Him in humble submission, acknowledging the sins of our nation and partnering with our Creator to restore our homeland to its Godly origins. Intercede for us King Jesus!

Jude 1:4    For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

 

 

 


December 5, 2019

The History Of Christmas Revisited

     This is a re-post of an article I wrote in 2016 on the History of Christmas. Back in 2013, I had begun doing research on where our Christmas traditions came from and was astounded to find so many pagan roots. I will admit that I was angry that the Church had promulgated so many of the false traditions as religious truth. I had to take my confusion to the Lord and let Him help me work through the feeling that I had been deceived and that God's truth had been compromised to promote a false story about what has become a "sacred" holiday to most Christians.
     I will tell you that I became almost religious in my commitment against the holiday for the first couple of years. And I still am pretty disgusted at the commercialization and the exploitation of our faith. I still do not put up a Christmas tree, but I do put up my manger scene and some meaningful artifacts that celebrate the Lord's birth (even though it was not on December 25th, as you will see when you read this blog post). I have been able to reconcile my sentimental memories of childhood Christmases with my adult understanding of how the Enemy has manipulated man through the institution of this holiday, and I am now at peace with where I stand. 
     I can still enjoy all the Christmas movies and the lights and the songs of my childhood, but I don't pretend that they have anything to do with Jesus. I know that I am viewing them all through the lens of my flesh, while my spirit recognizes how my God wishes to be truly celebrated. I don't need to justify myself or my beliefs, and what someone else chooses to do is up to them. And that is a decision you will have to make for yourself as you read and contemplate the following information. I do not condemn anyone for their choices -- you must decide what you will do with this knowledge. And perhaps the best thing is to take it to the Lord, just as I did. Your spirit will recognize His voice, and let Him counsel and comfort you.

A 1783 painting, titled "Saturnalia" by Antoine Callet
     I know I will be accused of being a Scrooge during this Christmas season, but I must tell you that it is encouraging to me that our society and culture are beginning to deal in Truth.  With each passing year, we are accepting that the origins of our Christmas celebrations have less to do with Christ, and more with modern commercialization, ancient rituals and even pagan practices. While most Christians, like me, have no problem with honoring our Lord's birth this time of year, there are a growing number of Believers who recognize that Christmas, as we know it, evolved out of the Roman tradition of Saturnalia, a festival honoring their god of agriculture, Saturn, on the winter solstice.    
     The date of Saturnalia, -- December 25th -- was celebrated as "the birthday of the unconquered sun" and was also a convenient way for Emperor Constantine to combine his pagan Sun god worship  with his newly self-professed Christian faith.  It was also a way for him to exclude the influence of the believing Jews from the new Christian faith, by declaring the day as a Christ Mass. Though we now celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus Christ, we don’t know the exact date, or even the year of his birth. (Many scholars believe that it was in late September or early October, and associate it with the Feast of Tabernacles). And during Saturnalia, children would often be given gifts of wax dolls – an act with a rather macabre history itself; the dolls were used to represent human sacrifices that Rome had given to Saturn in the past as payment for good harvests. Boughs of certain trees and other plant matter were also common gifts during Saturnalia, and were used to represent bounty and good harvests. So, while I like the idea that gift-giving at Christmas time is associated with the gifts of myrrh, frankincense, and gold that were presented to the Christ child by the three Magi, the reality is that the pagan beliefs were the original impetus for gifts.
     Legend has it that stocking stuffing is rooted in the charitable donations of Saint Nicholas, the forerunner to our Santa Claus.  Nicholas believed that childhood should be savored and enjoyed – but in a time where boys and girls younger than 10 had to work to support their families, this wasn’t always possible. So he decided to ease their burden, and gave what he could in homemade food, clothes, and furniture. The bishop even gave out oranges, which would have been very rare and expensive in Lycia, where he lived. The problem became where to leave these gifts so that the children would find them. According to legends, he then saw girls’ stockings hanging above a fireplace, and ol’ Saint Nick (to paraphrase) thought “Why not?”.  From then on, children would hang stockings up hoping that Saint Nicholas would visit them that night.
     But there is another legend that pre-dates the good bishop.  The practice can be traced back to Scandinavian countries that still held their Pagan beliefs. Children would leave their shoes full of carrots, straw, or other similar foods for Odin’s mythic horse, Sleipnir. When Sleipnir ate the food, Odin would leave candy or other treats in their place.
      Then there is the issue of wreaths and Christmas trees. Although many Christians might say these items are separate from belief in Christ, God still has something to say about our festivals.  Jeremiah 10:3-4 says, For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold...  In fact, Christmas was not among the earliest festivals of the Church.  Early Church fathers, Irenaeus and Tertullian, omit it from their lists of feasts, with Tertullian writing, “The pagan Romans clad their door posts with green and branching laurels.  In the Saturnalia, presents come and go. There are gifts and banquets … yet Christians should have no acquaintance with the festivals of the pagans.”  And then there is God, Himself, who says in Amos, Chapter 5, I hate, I despise your feast days...
      And we can't ignore that the evergreen was also known to have represented the same values to a variety of cultures, including the Egyptians, Chinese, and Hebrews. The worship of trees was also very common in European druidism and paganism. In Christian tradition, trees were often put up in December to serve the dual purpose of warding off the devil and allowing a perch for whatever birds still remained. Evergreen trees decorated with apples and wafers were also used in Christmas Eve plays during the Middle Ages to represent the tree from which Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. Now, I know that no one will admit that we are worshiping our Christmas trees, here in the 21st Century.  But, if we were honest with ourselves, they have become idols.  True, we do not bow down physically before the Christmas tree, but when you consider that they have become a matter of the heart, and how much emphasis we put on them as a symbol of the time we say we are worshiping Jesus... well, sounds like idolatry to me.
     Then there is the tradition of mistletoe, which has an interesting story.  The Greeks believed that Aeneas, the famous ancestor of the Romans, carried a sprig of mistletoe in the form of the legendary golden bough. In Eddic tradition, mistletoe was the only thing able to kill the god Baldur, since it had not sworn an oath to leave him alone. Among other pre-Christian cultures, mistletoe was believed to carry the male essence, and by extension, romance, fertility, and vitality. The history of its popularity as a kissing agent is unknown.
     These are just some of our most endearing Christmas traditions, and I know that there are many of my fellow Christians who do not feel the same as I do about the holiday.  They will tell me, "Fine, I recognize that some of the origins of our modern Christmas celebration come from pagan rituals. But that's not what it means to me, and God knows my heart.  He knows that Jesus is the reason I celebrate Christmas". While I respect their decision, it's not that easy for me.  Because the worship of false gods and idolatry were intertwined with these rituals and festivals, my spirit has a tough time sharing a celebration of my Savior's birth with any other idol or deity.
     The final factor for me is not what the celebration of the Christmas holiday means to me, but what does it mean to my Father in Heaven?  And I want to interject this thought ... Although there is no instruction in the Bible to celebrate the birth of Christ, I don't think He condemns us for wanting to honor our Lord and Savior. But, I don't think it pleases Him that we can so easily dismiss the connections between the Christmas holiday and its pagan roots.
     How is it any different than the justification the Israelites gave for worshiping the Golden Calf? Read Exodus 32:1-6, and see if there isn't a valid comparison.  Didn't the Israelites set something up for their pleasure, and declared that it was from God? Weren't they worshiping a representation of a pagan deity, and had the arrogance to say “it shall be a feast to the LORD”?  Didn't they celebrate, claiming they were thinking about God as they brought gifts, drank and made merry? Personally, this is what I think we do with the holiday of Christmas.  And I understand how difficult it is to separate our hearts (our flesh) from what pleases God.
     Nobody enjoyed the emotions and sentimentality of the Christmas season more than me! And if I say, BUT GOD KNOWS MY HEART and my heart is focused on Jesus... aren't we then making it about US, and what we want, NOT what God has asked us to do?  Are we offending Him by celebrating our own man-made feast, rather than His appointed Feasts, and then saying it's about Him?
     I know this is a tough subject, and I do not wish it to cause division in the Body of Christ.  It is a decision that must be made by each individual -- how you choose to honor the birth of Christ is something you need to be certain about in your spirit.  But you should be honest and uncompromising; don't let the Enemy convince you with sentimental memories and nostalgia. Don't let him combine man's pagan rituals with the holiness of the Christ child, and persuade you they are one and the same.  And one secular website even proposed this idea: "Christmas is the one time of year where everyone (or nearly so) is friendly, generous and gets along with each other, [so] does it matter the inspiration?"  (To read an article from this perspective, click here). In other words, why doesn't all mankind just ignore whether the inspiration for Christmas comes from the birth of the Christ child or from an assortment of rituals honoring a variety of false and pagan gods, and just all enjoy the merriment and good cheer?  That might be fine for the non-believer or agnostic, but if you are a Christian you must ask yourself this question ... Would God agree?  

Matthew 15:8-9    This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.    

October 23, 2019

We Need To Pay Careful Attention to Genesis 6:5-7!!

     I know there will be those who scoff at my Old Testament reference in the title of this post. And they will say, "That has nothing to do with us". But need I remind you that Malachi 3:6 gives us this quote: "For, I the Lord, do not change...?" Or, that Hebrews 3:8 says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever?"
     I feel led to bring this immutable character of God to your attention, along with the Genesis 6:5-7 warning because of the evil I see man perpetuating on the earth. Before I lay out this depravity for your consideration, let's focus on what the Word of God says in Genesis. This particular passage [in the Amplified version] reads "The Lord saw that the wickedness (depravity) of man was great on the earth, and that every imagination or intent of the thoughts of his heart were only evil continually. The Lord regretted that He had made mankind on the earth, and He was [deeply] grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, “I will destroy (annihilate) mankind whom I have created from the surface of the earth—not only man, but the animals and the crawling things and the birds of the air—because it [deeply] grieves Me [to see mankind’s sin] and I regret that I have made them.” 
     If you are a student of the Bible, then you know that these verses refer to the Fallen Angel incursion of Genesis 6:4, and the subsequent defiling of the human DNA, as created by God. But with the following snippets of news that I read just today, I believe that God may be just as grieved in His heart in 2019 as He was nearly 4400 years ago.
     Let me begin with this headline: The Ghastly, Ghoulish Practices of Planned Parenthood, an article written by Michael Brown for the WorldNetDaily website. And I do not relish reciting the macabre and grisly details of what is revealed, but I also do not want to diminish the evil being committed.
Child Sacrifice to the god, Molech
     In the article, Mat Staver, founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel, reports that Planned Parenthood clinics "were taking babies and intentionally aborting them so they could harvest intact organs, some of which were born alive while the hearts were still beating. Hearts were being removed while they were still alive." He continued, "Brains were being removed while the hearts were still beating, and we have evidence where they sliced the baby's face in two with a scalpel and then extracted the brain while the baby was still alive."  
     But that isn't all! This same article reported that companies like Stem Express had full menus on their website where you could make customized choices when ordering your baby parts. "You could actually go on the website and select … that you wanted a certain heart at a certain gestation at a certain size, intact. Then Stem Express would take that to Planned Parenthood that day. They would fulfill that order from those babies that were brought in, never telling the parent, the mom, what was happening with her child in the room next door."
     The Liberty Counsel website carried the headline, Selling Baby Scalps, stating that, "A former board director for the Center for Medical Progress testified during [a] civil trial in the San Francisco Federal District Court that the scalps of babies provided by the abortion industry are being harvested for research in treating baldness."
     Does this sound eerily familiar to the ancient pagan practices of child sacrifice? Apparently Pastor Robert Jeffress of Dallas, Texas thinks so. After he made a similar comparison during a recent interview, referencing Moloch, the ancient god of child sacrifice, this century's pagans responded with sarcastic glee. One tweeted, "ALL HAIL MOLOCH HIS WILL BE DONE." Another wrote, "DON'T MESS WITH OUR GOD, MOLOCH." While, they may have thought they were being clever, they don't realize they are the mouthpiece for the Ruler of this dark world.
     Now, let me take you to another article as presented on TheBlaze.com. This article was titled, Texas Jury Rules Against Father Trying To Protect 7-Year-Old Son From Forced Gender Transition. According to the article, a Texas jury returned a verdict on Monday that will prevent Jeffrey Younger from protecting his 7-year-old son from a forced gender transition by the boy's mom, Dr. Anne Georgulas. Younger had petitioned the court to grant him sole custody of his twin sons, James and Jude. But on Monday, a Dallas jury — by a vote of 11 to 1 — granted Georgulas, his ex-wife, sole custody of the boys, making her the sole decision-maker concerning the medical and psychological care of the children.
     In court, Younger argued that Georgulas was forcing James to undergo gender transition. With the jury's decision, Georgulas is free to give James puberty-blocker medication that results in chemical castration and, ultimately, hormone pills to complete James' female transition to become "Luna."
     As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. 19 Is it I whom they provoke? declares the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own shame? 20 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched (Jeremiah 7:16-20".
The goddess, Luna
     Does anyone else find it curious that this precious child is now going to be named after the Roman moon goddess, Luna, whom the Roman poet Horace called the "two-horned queen of the stars". Along with her consort, the sun god, Sol, this imperial duo represented the magnitude of Roman rule over the world, with the aim of guaranteeing peace. Could she be the infamous "Queen of Heaven" that the Lord speaks to the prophet Jeremiah about? He says, "
     Have we become so depraved in our culture that Feminism has taken mothers to the point where they try to change their sons into daughters?!? How much longer will the Most High God of the Universe suffer His creation to destroy His children?? I'm sorry, but the actions noted in these two articles are not being done by people who are made in His image! They do not have the mind, heart, or Spirit of the Lord in them!
     And consider the Museum of Man in Balboa Park, in San Diego, California, who in 2016 hosted an exhibition entitled Cannibals: Myth & Reality. Built "to inspire human connections by exploring the human experience", the guides didn't describe cannibals as freaks, but as warriors from many cultures, European kings and queens, American and European sailors, American colonists, accident survivors, the sick, and more. In fact, one newspaper review said this: Cannibals: Myth & Reality is a poignant and beautiful experience, the type that you hope to get at a museum. It deftly guides you from one emotional place to another, revealing connections across time and cultures, until you reach a point of deeper understanding. Through history, art, films, interactive displays and games, visitors confront what seems, at first, to be an unthinkable choice. By the end, you might realize that it’s far more nuanced and complicated.”
     I would like to add a postscript to that altruistic review. It is Lamentations 4:10-11, which says, "The hands of compassionate women have boiled their own children; they became their food during the destruction of the daughter of my people. The Lord gave full vent to his wrath; he poured out his hot anger, and he kindled a fire in Zion that consumed its foundations".
     All I have to say about each of these stories is BEWARE! Whether you believe in God or not, there is judgment coming against mankind for these evil acts. Ignorance or lack of knowledge will be no excuse.... we will perish for the lack of it! I used to pray that these depraved people would be able to see the error of their ways and repent, but I'm not so sure that I think that is possible anymore. I believe we may have crossed the spiritual line from which there is no return; only irrevocable commitment and ultimate destruction. Lord, I appeal to the same spirit of justice You rendered to Abraham when he interceded for Sodom ... "I am but dust and ashes; Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?" I would not blame You, Lord! And my heart, too, is deeply grieved.

Ezra 8:21    Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river Ahava, so that we might humble ourselves before our God to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our children, and all our possessions.