Tag Archives: Revelation

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The Watcher on the Wall

Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.   He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.   But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. (Ezek 33:4-6)

Through the ages, armies have always kept a watch. From the watchtowers of old to walk watches today. Ask a historian about the watcher on the wall and you will be told that he had the most important job. It was the watchman’s duty look for any sign of the coming enemy. Once something was seen or heard, the watchman would sound the alarm for the rest of the troops. If he failed to do his duty, the fort fell and the men died.

As a watchman for Christ, it is duty to sound the alarm. In Israel, the shofar (ram’s horn) was the sound heard when the enemies of the Israelite nation approached. Today, we Christians (in the sense of bowing to Christ as King and Savior) are to blow the shofar. The enemy has not only approached, but has entered the gates of even the church.

Charles Spurgeon said that Satan is most effective in the pulpit. And when you look at mainline churches, of all denominations, this Satanic enemy is dressed as a pastor. And the pews are full of those that seek not Jesus as our Lord and God, but seek a false and weak Jesus that has nothing to do with the Jesus of Holy Scripture.

Churches have replaced doctrine with a watery feeling of acceptance. They have replaced hymns with songs that have no solid foundation in Christ. Hillsong has a worship song that sounds like a good song for the church. The tag line in it tells a different story. The tag is ‘ your fire fall down on us’. If you read scripture, fire falling from God is judgment.

Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven;   And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. (Genesis 19:24-25)

And Elijah answered and said to the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And there came down fire from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty.   Again also he sent unto him another captain of fifty with his fifty. And he answered and said unto him, O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly.   And Elijah answered and said unto them, If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty. And the fire of God came down from heaven, and consumed him and his fifty. And he sent again a captain of the third fifty with his fifty. And the third captain of fifty went up, and came and fell on his knees before Elijah, and besought him, and said unto him, O man of God, I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty thy servants, be precious in thy sight.   Behold, there came fire down from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former fifties with their fifties: therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight. (2 Kings 1:10-14)

And when the Lord Jesus returns upon this earth, His judgment will come the same way as it came in the days of the patriarchs and prophets.

And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,   And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.   And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. (Rev 20:7-9)

However, don’t be fooled. Satan, through his earthly representative, will also look to perform this to deceive those who don’t have a solid faith in Christ.

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.   And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.   And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men,   And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. (Rev 13:11-14)

As one sees, they have replaced worship with worldly concerts. Churches look like party venues. And the worst, men calling themselves preachers, apostles, prophets, and women who think they have the ability to preach and produce prophecy, lead people to hell not heaven. They preach acceptance of sin in the name of love. We are to bring the sinner to hear the Word of God. When the Holy Spirit convicts them to a point that they have to to turn to Christ, that person is not left living in a sinful state.

We want revival like the days of Wesley and Edwards. But they allow sin, false teaching, false teachers, and worldly songs into the house that belongs to God alone. You can’t pray for revival and sing like the world. You can’t preach revival and accept what God calls sin. You can’t love the person and say living in sin is okay (pre-martial relations, lgtbq, the idea that all paths lead to heaven, that all faiths are acceptable, etc).

You can’t have revival while preaching that you have the power to speak things into being (only one is the creator of all things). You can’t have revival when you preach life will be all wine and roses (Christ and the Apostles tell us that tribulation, trial, and even death is coming for those who truly believe).

Where is true revival? Look at Africa, the Middle East, the Far East. These places see true revival. These places see true conversion. These places see true worship in Christ. What brought that kind of revival? Was it worldly music in the church? Was it acceptance and love of sin? Was it belief in the word of faith movement or life/health/wealth? No. It is tribulation. Its is hardship that is building the muscle of faith. And it is still having faith in Christ when they are called to be martyrs. It is sing praises and evangelizing to a captive audience when they are thrown into prisons.

All of this weak and powerless type of western church is condemned in scripture.

I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:   Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.   But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.   As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. (Gal 1:6-9)

Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake.   Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. (Luke 6:22-23)

We are watchmen of the wall. It is our duty to sound the alarm. We do that knowing that we will not be liked. We do that knowing that we will be ‘canceled’. And eventually, we will do that as we face the ultimate testament of our faith. The ability to praise God alone while facing death.

One can hate or like me. I quit caring about those opinions. I would rather be judged by man than by God. Yes, I mess up and need to repent. Yes, I fail and need to seek God’s mercy and grace. You can call me a hypocrite. Join me, the church can use you too.

I am blowing the Shofar from the walls. The time of Christ’s coming is at hand. The day and time are not known by any but God alone. The signs of His approach are being seen.

Turn to Christ and from sin as if He is coming today. I’d rather you be upset with me all the way to Heaven (only through the blood of Jesus the Christ) than be happy with me as you enter the gates of hell.

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Christianity, faith

From the Darkness

I needed some time to contemplate my life and faith. I was raised with protestant parents, saved in a protestant church but became Roman Catholic in the last year of the 20th century. Since then, there have been times when I have stepped from the church to get air so to speak. But this was different.

Catholics, and maybe protestants as well, have a period known as the dark night of the soul. My definition and tradition, this is where one thinks God has stepped from your life and you seek Him in earnestness. The fall of 2021 was mine.

I had gotten back into my faith fully in the last couple of years after issues that affected me and ended the family unit I had known for 20 years. At that time, the stress had caused my health to falter and my spirit to cry out. For the first time since being a Catholic, I hit my knees, wept, and prayed. It led me into my Catholic Christian faith unlike before.

But for some reason, this fall had played havoc within my mind and spirit and I needed to refresh, think, and clear the cobwebs. So, while not leaving my faith, I stepped away from the building that had become my church home. I had only planned on it being about a month. What it led to was something I had not really expected.

What it led me to, instead of free wheeling life and secular enjoyment, was deeper. It led me to deeper scriptural study. Instead of just one translation, I started using multiple including translations like the King James, New American, and New International. But it also included the Stone edition Tanach and the Douay-Rheims. In the mix of these, I started finding new influence and messages that hit my spirit and mind. It called me to self examination. This then led to a deeper prayer life. And to deeper study.

For all of this time, I had attended a Methodist church with a couple of my children and found that, like the Catholic faith, believed not in only a bread and juice remembrance of the last supper of Christ and His apostles, but in the beautiful truth of the words of Christ himself when He spoke “This is My body…and this is My blood”.

This self imposed sabbatical and longing search went beyond the month I had expected and lasted until the 3rd week of Dec this year. A former priest had passed and I went to his viewing, out of the respect that I had for him. As I stepped into the first parish I ever attended, and my Catholic home for most of my time in the faith, the noise and chaos faded away. There is that sanctuary, among the scent of the decades of incense and visuals of the life of Christ and the saints, that small still voice came. Not like a voice or whisper, but something more distant yet comforting. Only 2 words, “you’re home”.

This, the 4th Sunday of Advent, I returned to the little parish I had stepped out of months ago. As I sat there, taking in the visuals of Advent and the liturgical music and homily, I found myself with an inner peace that I had not had in awhile. Like someone who had left home and traveled the world, only to return to the place he was raised, I had indeed come home. That type of peace can only truly be found in a home.

During my 50 plus years I have been protestant and Catholic, Christian and pagan. During my walks outside of the faith of Christ, the pagan pantheons never answered, spoke, or given me any divine inspiration. And of my 25 years as a Christian, first as a protestant Christian and now as Roman Catholic Christian, this is the first encounter with that small still voice.

While the pagan pantheons are once again raising their heads, and yes infighting between Christians and the Pope himself having and promoting heretical ideas, have I seen for myself that one light and hope in this world of darkness. An old country tradition is to leave a candle lit in a window to guide home those that wander off from the homestead. Mine was the only light brighter than a million suns. When others have dimmed and gone out, this light will shine for an eternity.

The revelation of the Apocalypse witness and recorded by St. John on Patmos said that the Light of God will be so bright in Heaven and the new Jerusalem that there will be no need of a physical sun. That is the light that leads me, that calls me, and the comforts me.

What I thought was to be only a few weeks brought me back at a perfect time for a new beginning. What a better place and time to start a new and refreshed path than at a little cave hewn out as a place of birth for beginning of our Salvation. To behold the One that created the whole of everything and yet started His human life the way we all do.

May God the Father always guide you, bring you unto Himself through Christ the Lord, endow you with the Holy Spirit in wisdom and guidance, and comfort you on your journey through this temporary landscape of life.

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Christianity, faith

Chasing Dragons

A song released in 2016 is a huge Tik Tok trend tune. The title of this song is Suga Boom Boom. Part of the song says “Suga Boom Boom, I’m chasing dragons, this dragon’s got my hands. Suga Boom Boom, I’m robbing people but I’m an honest man”. The song goes on to talk about being on parole. But when you look at just the first couple lines, it shows the oldest war in human history, God and Satan. And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne (Revelation 12:1-5).

So what this song does, without knowing it, tells the plight of man. In this case, man is chasing the dragon (Satan). To understand this, one needs to understand original sin. Although not a popular topic today, original sin is inherent in all sin the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned (Romans 5:12). For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). And because of that inherent sin, man is evil and following Satan’s path.For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please (Galatians 5:17).

Today, many people who claim to follow Christ have forgotten His teachings. They say, don’t judge. And in a way they are right. A Christian isn’t to judge the heart of a person, but they are to watch a person’s actions and determine how the person acts, within righteousness or evil. Men like Joel Olsteen preach God’s love. They do forget that love of a parent comes with chastisement. These are false teachers and prophets. And we are warned against them. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths (2 Timothy 4:3-4). Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them (Acts 20:28-30). The ones who fit this description are preachers like the prosperity preachers and preachers who only preach love or say you can get to God ONLY because you are a good person with a good heart.

But, there is true hope in this world. You don’t find it through politics. You don’t find it through any misguided gospel. You find it only through the blood stained cross of Jesus Christ. No man on this rock is, or has been, perfect but God in the flesh, Jesus. For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens (Hebrews 7:26). For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings (Hebrews 2:10).

So here is the question one must ask. Are you going to continue to chase the dragon? Or are you going have faith to ask Jesus Christ to free you from the burdens of sin? Only one leads to Eternity in Heaven.The other leads to destruction. You can be free from original sin through the perfect sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

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