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As Christians we are not free agents. If we claim the blood of Christ and a regenerated heart, we are under certain authorities. You and I are not a free agent.

We cannot make personal decisions without considering the authority we are under. And when we sin, we hurt those with whom we have relationships, known AND unknown. We are not independent.

1. We are under authority of Jesus Christ.
for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:20

Barnes’ Notes says of the verse:

as the Christian is thus purchased, ransomed, redeemed, he is bound to devote himself to God only, and to keep his commands, and to flee from a licentious life.

2. If you’re married, you are under authority of your husband.
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. Ephesians 5:22.
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. Colossians 3:18

The verse is a fact, we are to submit to the husband’s authority. This is an absolute truth whether the husband is a belligerent oaf or the most Godly man in the world. The biblical command to submit does not change depending on the character or the behavior of the husband. The Lord gave spouses one legitimate out from a marriage, adultery. You are a wife under authority of the husband. You are not a free agent. (Note John MacArthur’s biblical answer to physical abuse here)

3. You are a member of a church. Therefore you are under authority of your pastor.
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you. (Hebrews 13:17).

Gill’s Exposition says of the verse:

These the apostle exhorts them to “obey”: by constantly tending upon the word preached by them, and hearkening to it; by receiving it with faith and love, as it appears agreeable to the Scriptures; for a contrary behaviour is pernicious to souls, and highly resented by God.

4. You are one with the brethren. What you do affects us all.
so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. (1 Corinthians 12:25-26)

You are not a free agent. Certain behavior is expected of you.

Just as when one member is honored, we are all honored, the implicit adverse is that when one member DIShonors, all are dishonored. All the brethren whether collected in one local congregation or all over the world, are connected. What one does, affects all.

4. You are under authority to the elder women who are teaching you, if you are being discipled.
Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. 4Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, 5to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God. (Titus 2:3-5).

Sometimes when in the throes of a heated decision we’re making, one might forget the authorities to whom we are submitted. Our decisions, actions, and even sins affect one and all. We are one body. 2 Peter 2:2 says that  int he last days false teachers’ teachings will incite some to bring the truth into disrepute by their behavior.

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. (2 Peter 2:1-2).

2 Peter 2:18, Jude 1:4 also speak of some of the faithful whose decisions bring disrepute onto Jesus. Please be mindful that we are not free agents in this world. We need to remember that both our sins and our good works affect all of us. Our bond-servanthood to Jesus and our life and labors under authority of various people are not a hardship though. Rest easy my sisters, because Jesus declared,

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:29-30)

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, (2 Timothy 3:1-2a).
The list that Paul outlines in this verse and the next three verses are devastating. Here they are:

lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.(2 Timothy 3:2b-5).

There are many objectionable behaviors that are listed in those verses which Paul says will be symptomatic of the last days. It’s terrible even to think about.

There are two kinds of last days that people think of when they think of ‘last days.’ There are the Last Days which are now, in between Jesus’ ascension and His return. Most people do not think of these as the last days, but they are, complete with wrath, too. Romans 1:18 says God is now revealing His wrath against all ungodliness. Ephesians 5:6 says not to be deceived by anyone with empty words, “because of such things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience.”

Then there are the last days that most people think of when they think of last days- the Great Tribulation. Unlike now, when God’s wrath is being revealed indirectly, during the Great Tribulation God’s wrath will be poured out directly. It will be a time of distress that will be unlike any previous time in all of history. (Matthew 24:21).

The Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21), is also known as the Time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 3:7), and The Day of the Lord or just The Day (Isaiah 2:12, Isaiah 13:6, Isaiah 13:9, Isaiah 34:8, Jeremiah 46:10, Lamentations 2:22, Ezekiel 13:5, Ezekiel 30:3, Joel 1:15,Joel 2:1, Joel 2:11, Joel 2:31, Joel 3:14, Amos 5:18, Amos 5:20, Obadiah 1:15, Zephaniah 1:7, Zephaniah 1:8, Zephaniah 1:14, Zephaniah 1:18, Zephaniah 2:2, Zephaniah 2:3,Zechariah 14:1, Malachi 4:5, Acts 2:20, 1 Corinthians 5:5, 2 Corinthians 1:14, 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 2 Peter 3:10).

You can see by that list of verses above that the Last Days doctrine is mentioned numerous times in scripture. The Last Days is a big theme in the Bible. We do well to study it.

So, these are all the last days- it’s the time now and the time to come when God will directly punish the unbelieving world. Thankfully, the Church will have been raptured prior to the end when the wrath is poured out. (Revelation 3:10, FMI go here).

Today I’ll focus on the last days warning that people will be lovers of self.

The Greek word for lovers of self is a compound word, defined by Strong’s Concordance:

phílautos (an adjective, derived from 5384 /phílos, “lover” and 846 /autós, “of self”) – properly, a lover of self, describing someone preoccupied with their own selfish desires (self-interests). It is only used in 2 Tim 3:2.

A characteristic of the last days is that the time between Jesus’ ascension and His return the world will become worse and worse. (2 Timothy 3:13). One of those ways the world will become worse is that people will increasingly be lovers of self. In modern psychological terms this is called narcissism, which is defined as,

Narcissus (1590s) by Caravaggio

“…the pursuit of gratification from vanity or egotistic admiration of one’s own attributes. The term originated from Greek mythology, where the young Narcissus fell in love with his own image reflected in a pool of water.”

We’re all used to the regular kind of selfishness, love of self in the stead of love of God is the root of all base sins. We’re today inundated with selfies, selfie sticks, the “Me Generation” and all that. That’s what sinners do- they love themselves. The last days characteristic of people being lovers of self is more than that.
Barnes Notes brings clarity to the section of the verse:

For men shall be lovers of their own selves – It shall be one of the characteristics of those times that men shall be eminently selfish – evidently under the garb of religion; 2 Timothy 3:5. The word here used – φίλαυτος philautos – does not elsewhere occur in the New Testament. It means a lover of oneself, “selfish.” Such a love of self as to lead us to secure our salvation, is proper. But this interferes with the rights and happiness of no other persons. The selfishness which is condemned, is that regard to our own interests which interferes with the rights and comforts of others; which makes self the central and leading object of living; and which tramples on all that would interfere with that. As such, it is a base, and hateful, and narrow passion; but it has been so common in the world that no one can doubt the correctness of the prophecy of the apostle that it would exist “in the last times.”

Therefore, the Timothy verse points this selfishness of a worse kind. As Barnes said, this is selfishness under the garb of religion. I can think of nothing worse than a sin parading as righteousness.
Here are a few examples of this kind of love of self that plagues the church. In today’s church world the brethren are grieved by a new fad called narcigesis. It comes from a combination of the aforementioned definition of narcissism (narci-)and the proper term exegesis (-gesis). Exegesis is explained by GotQuestions– “the exposition or explanation of a text based on a careful, objective analysis. The word exegesis literally means “to lead out of.” That means that the interpreter is led to his conclusions by following the text.” Christians are called to properly exegete a biblical text. Of course, we are not called to be narcissistic in any way. The opposite in fact, we are to think of others higher than ourself. (Philippians 2:3).

Stand Up For the Truth explains the term narcigesis:

When we force the Bible to mean that we are at the center of the story, and when we are taught that every teaching, every command and everything God asks His people to do becomes about our own personal faith journeys, that is what is known as narcissistic eisegesis, and it is a type of teaching prevalent in the Seeker Friendly movement sweeping the United States and the world.

Apostasis Lexicon also explains this fad and adds to it:

Narcigesis – A biblical hermeneutic where one reads themselves into the bible and writes God out of it.
Narciguesswork – A biblical hermeneutic used when a preacher not only reads himself/herself into the text, but encourages the audience to guess how they too can read themselves into the text.

We are loving ourselves so much in these last days that we are inserting ourselves into the Bible so we can love ourselves even more. Of course, the more we loves ourselves, the less we love God. As a perfect example of narcigesis, with the above definitions in mind, we have preacher Beth Moore narcigeting a text from Acts 16:14. That text is recounting how Lydia from Thyatira, a seller of purple, became converted. In this clip from Moore’s “teaching” onActs 16:14, at the 1:10 minute mark and the 2:15 mark she says,

You and I are about to personalize it [the biblical text], and adapt it to ourself. We’re about to put ourselves in the storyline because that’s what Jesus is after today. …You are the woman in the story today.

No we are not the woman in the story today. I am not from Thyatira. I am not named Lydia. I do not sell purple dye. I am not the woman in the story and Moore has no business teaching 11,000 women in her audience to be so narcissistic as to believe we are.
Narcigesis such as Moore’s and others’, teaches that sometime Jesus changed His mind about scripture pointing to Him, (Luke 24:27) and now these false teachers say, scripture points to you. I think not. I also do not think that Beth Moore knows what “Jesus is after”. Note that she is teaching 11,000 women from her inside personal knowledge of what she says Jesus wants. In that, Moore is also demonstrating a massive love of self. It takes a high amount of love of self to be so confident that you regularly hear from and have visions of Jesus and go forward with teaching from this direct revelation and not the Bible.

Of course Moore is not the only false teacher preaching ourselves into the Bible. It just happened to be a perfect recent example of religious love of self. This fad has become so widespread, that new Apps are being developed to support it. The ToYouBible is now here. Touted as,

The Bible that reads in your name™”A personalized Bible app for smartphones and tablets. Just enter your name and gender and read the Bible with your name.

Listen to this clip, and no it is not a parody.

Secular Psychologists say that as narcissism increases empathy decreases.

Narcissism is a serious social and psychological problem. The term refers to an inflated view of the self, coupled with relative indifference to others. People who are high in this trait fail to help others unless there is immediate gain or recognition to themselves for doing so; often think they are above the law and therefore violate it; and readily trample over others in their efforts to rise to the “top,” which is where they think they belong. A world full of narcissists would be a sad world indeed.

Look back up at the terrible characteristics Paul listed which will be prevalent in the Last Days. It is a world which is full of self-loving, brutal people. And I’m talking about the church. Not the true church of course, but it means the church and the people in the church that have a form of Godliness, but deny its power. It is a sad world indeed.
The good news is that the world ahead for true Christians is gloriously awaiting us and it is a place where we will be gloriously joyful. At a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall be changed into imperishable and raised through the clouds to meet Jesus in the air! (1 Cor 15:52, 1 Thess 4:17). We will not miss the sermons and ‘teachings’ that focus on us, making it all about us. We will gaze into the face of Jesus and everything, every day we will see Him, the most glorious Person in the universe. With Jesus in the Bible to learn about now, and with the anticipation of seeing Him and being with Him forever (1 Thessalonians 4:17), why, WHY, would anyone preach about us? Oh well, the heart is sick, who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9).

As a strategy to combat the tendency to love one’s self, the Bible gives us urgings and advice. Here are a few. Humility is key.

Galatians 5:26
Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying one another.

Ephesians 5:21
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Philippians 1:17
The former, however, preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing they can add to the distress of my chains.

Colossians 3:12
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

1 Peter 3:8
Finally, all of you, be like-minded and sympathetic, love as brothers, be tender-hearted and humble.

Once again, God’s word helps us. At the beginning we have a warning about people who love themselves, and at the end we have several of many verses advising us to be humble and loving. Humility is hard, so ask the Spirit for help. Loving others is a choice. Choose love, choose humility. This honors Jesus.

This week I’m going to write about the prophecies regarding the Last Days. I hope to shed some Biblical light on these prophecies. I’ll do my best to show through scripture what the last days are, when they are, and why they must happen.

There are two kinds of last days. There are the Last Days which are now and which the Lord is not directly pouring out His wrath upon the unbelieving world or punishing Israel. Some people separate the two kinds as distinct and other people put them all into one general time frame.

There are the last days after the rapture when Jesus will pour out His wrath upon the unbelieving world and punish Israel. That time is also known as the Great Tribulation (Matthew 24:21), the Time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 3:7), and The Day of the Lord or just The Day (Isaiah 2:12, Isaiah 13:6, Isaiah 13:9, Isaiah 34:8, Jeremiah 46:10, Lamentations 2:22, Ezekiel 13:5, Ezekiel 30:3, Joel 1:15, Joel 2:1, Joel 2:11, Joel 2:31, Joel 3:14, Amos 5:18, Amos 5:20, Obadiah 1:15, Zephaniah 1:7, Zephaniah 1:8, Zephaniah 1:14, Zephaniah 1:18, Zephaniah 2:2, Zephaniah 2:3, Zechariah 14:1, Malachi 4:5, Acts 2:20, 1 Corinthians 5:5, 2 Corinthians 1:14, 1 Thessalonians 5:2, 2 Peter 3:10).

Personally I think of the two as one general time frame, the wrath being generally revealed now in these last days (as per Romans 1:18) and then wrath being directly poured out during the Great Tribulation after the Rapture, as all one “last days”. I think this because it is all the time between Jesus’ two appearances, from His ascension to His second coming.

In the New Testament, Hebrews 1:2 acknowledges that “last days” are now and that God has spoken to us by His Son. 2 Peter 3:3-4 mentions the last days, so does 1 Peter 1:20, and Jude 1:18. John MacArthur preached that the last days are now, in the sermon Understanding the Seducing Spirit. MacArthur also includes the Millennial Kingdom as part of the Last Times.

All of these verses tell us that the last times are the times after Christ came in His first coming. When Christ came, He began the last times, the Messianic era. The Messianic era begins with the coming of Jesus Christ. So we are now living in the last times, between His first coming and the Second Coming when He sets up His glory on the earth and then into the eternal Kingdom, all of that is the last times. We are living then in the last times. “My little children, it is the last days now.” It is the time of Messiah, He has already come, He is now building His Kingdom in the hearts of men and will return to establish it on the earth and then throughout eternity. We are living in the last times.

Over all, you can see that the last days are not some mysterious future days but are in fact happening now.

One distinctive quality of the Last Days is God’s wrath when it is directly poured out. It is not popular to speak of His wrath. Christians today like to focus on His love. That is all well and good, God’s love is a fine, wonderful thing. But so is His wrath. It is God’s wrath that Jesus mentioned. It is wrath that we are warned to flee from.

His wrath is a holy, justified, perfect wrath that will cleanse the earth of sin and sinners and perversity and putridness it has been cursed with since the Fall. It will restore the earth to its perfect state, it will show the Lord holy and just. We must pay attention to the wrath. We must include the wrath in the Gospel message and warn that these are the last days.

God’s wrath is part of the Last Days. Since the last days are now, the New Testament speaks of the wrath that already abides on those who do not believe, (John 3:36), rests on those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18), on those with impenitent hearts who are storing up God’s wrath (Romans 2:5). The Lord has created vessels of wrath prepared for destruction (Romans 9:22). And much more. Do a BibleGateway search in the New Testament for wrath and you will find 36 verses discussing it.

As for the Bible’s discussion of the wrath on the Day of the Lord, that also is sobering. Pasted below are all the verses I could find which speak of the Day of The Lord in the last times when His vengeance will be poured out. The Day of the Lord’s anger is a real, coming event. He is holding it back now, and showing it only in indirect ways. Only the Lord knows when it will begin directly, and thankfully, Christians won’t be on earth to bear it. However, just reading about the Last Days and His promise of destruction of those who live in unrighteousness is a very serious thought, which pierces my heart and makes me shudder.

Book of 1 Thessalonians discusses it at length

Book of 2 Thessalonians discusses it at length

Isaiah 2:12 For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

Isaiah 13:6 Howl ye; for the day of the Lord is at hand; it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty.

Isaiah 13:9 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

Isaiah 34:8 For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

Jeremiah 46:10 For this is the day of the Lord God of hosts, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiate and made drunk with their blood: for the Lord God of hosts hath a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.

Lamentations 2:22 Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the Lord’s anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

Ezekiel 13:5 Ye have not gone up into the gaps, neither made up the hedge for the house of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord.

Ezekiel 30:3 For the day is near, even the day of the Lord is near, a cloudy day; it shall be the time of the heathen.

Joel 1:15 Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.

Joel 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

Joel 2:11 And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?

Joel 2:31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord come.

Joel 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

Amos 5:18 Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.

Amos 5:20 Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it?

Obadiah 1:15 For the day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.

Zephaniah 1:7 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God: for the day of the Lord is at hand: for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice, he hath bid his guests.

Zephaniah 1:8 And it shall come to pass in the day of the Lord’s sacrifice, that I will punish the princes, and the king’s children, and all such as are clothed with strange apparel.

Zephaniah 1:14 The great day of the Lord is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly, even the voice of the day of the Lord: the mighty man shall cry there bitterly.

Zephaniah 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land.

Zephaniah 2:2 Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you.

Zephaniah 2:3 Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.

Zechariah 14:1 Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.

Malachi 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord:

Acts 2:20 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come:

1 Corinthians 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

2 Corinthians 1:14 As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.

2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

The Lord’s anger is burning against people now in these last days, he has revealed it in consciences and in circumstances and in weather…but then will come a day when all that dwell on the earth will know it is the LORD who is causing the earth’s problems, and then, who can stand in the great day of His wrath?

Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, 16calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17)

The takeaways are:

• The Last Days are happening now
• The wrath of God already indirectly abides on the earth and the unrighteous
• The wrath of God will be directly poured out at the end of the Last Days during the Great Tribulation
• Don’t avoid talking about the wrath- both the OT and the NT promise it during the Last Days and the Great Day, so we should heed the warnings and include it in the Gospel Message.

I watched two documentary series on Netflix, one was imaginatively called The Sixties, the other was called The Seventies. I was born in 1960 and my first memory was in February 1963, I was 2 years and 2 months old. I remember the 60s from that point on, very clearly. It was a terrible decade. The protests, chaos, riots, marches, cultural decline … it was chaotic to my young eyes. But when I watched The Seventies documentary, I was surprised to learn that decade was in fact much worse. The groundwork satan had laid in America during the rebellions of the 1960s came to ugly fruition in the ’70s.

In one episode of the documentary The Seventies in particular, the Feminist marches and Feminist agenda was covered. What came with that was the sexual revolution. What came with that was the homosexual revolution.

The homosexual revolution is acknowledged to have begun in 1969 at the Stonewall riots. America of the 1950s and 1960s was legally against the sodomites and the lesbians, and Stonewall was the catalyst to their militant journey to forcing America to accept normalization of their perverse sexual behavioral choices.

According to Wikipedia about Stonewall,

Very few establishments welcomed openly gay people in the 1950s and 1960s. Those that did were often bars, although bar owners and managers were rarely gay. At the time, the Stonewall Inn was owned by the Mafia. It catered to an assortment of patrons and was known to be popular among the poorest and most marginalized people in the gay community: drag queens, transgender people, effeminate young men, butch lesbians, male prostitutes, and homeless youth. Police raids on gay bars were routine in the 1960s, but officers quickly lost control of the situation at the Stonewall Inn. They attracted a crowd that was incited to riot. Tensions between New York City police and gay residents of Greenwich Village erupted into more protests the next evening, and again several nights later. Within weeks, Village residents quickly organized into activist groups to concentrate efforts on establishing places for gays and lesbians to be open about their sexual orientation without fear of being arrested.

Within 6 months of the Stonewall riot, two pro-gay organizations had been formed, and in June of 1970 the first “Gay Pride” parade was held In NYC. The rest of the 1970s was an accelerating snowball of forced homosexual acceptance into society that has never ended to this day.

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, says Newton’s Third Law, and that Law can be applied to cultural movements too. For every 1970s homosexual parade, march, or gay push into the culture of America, there was a push-back. The push back came first in the form of Anita Bryant. Again, according to Wikipedia,

Anita Jane Bryant (born March 25, 1940) is an American singer, former Miss Oklahoma beauty pageant winner, and former spokeswoman (brand ambassador) for the Florida Citrus Commission (marketing orange juice). She scored four Top 40 hits in the United States in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including “Paper Roses”, which reached #5. She later became known as an outspoken opponent of gay rights and for her 1977 “Save Our Children” campaign to repeal a local ordinance in Dade County, Florida, that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, an involvement that significantly affected her popularity and career in show business.

You know the saying, “A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine”? Anita Bryant said that in her commercials. It can’t be stated emphatically enough how popular Mrs Bryant was in the 1960s and 1970s. She was the emblem of American wholesomeness due to her success at the Miss America Pageant, she had a national platform due to her work as Florida Orange Juice spokeswoman, and her music career was a chart success. In 1960 after licentious behavior by Jim Morrison of the Doors, she helped organize and participate in a Rally for Decency. Mrs Bryant was a strong Christian and was public about it.

According to Wikipedia, the homosexual battle with Mrs Bryant at the center began in Dade County, FL.

In 1977, Dade County, Florida, passed an ordinance sponsored by Bryant’s former friend Ruth Shack that prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Bryant led a highly publicized campaign to repeal the ordinance as the leader of a coalition named Save Our Children. The campaign was based on conservative Christian beliefs regarding the sinfulness of homosexuality and the perceived threat of homosexual recruitment of children and child molestation. Bryant stated:

What these people really want, hidden behind obscure legal phrases, is the legal right to propose to our children that theirs is an acceptable alternate way of life. […] I will lead such a crusade to stop it as this country has not seen before

From the vantage point of nearly 40 years of American cultural history, we can see that Mrs Bryant was exactly right. The Dade County ordinance was among the first of its kind in America to pass and the homosexual lobby was elated, but then shattered when it was overturned. From a March 1977 Chicago Tribune article, Mrs Bryant is reported as saying,

According to American Blog,

The victory in [Dade County] Florida is an especially exciting win for gay rights advocates as Florida was the scene of one of the most bitter battles in American gay rights history, when singer and former Florida orange juice spokeswoman Anita Bryant organized the successful repeal of Dade County, Florida’s new ordinance prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation. After winning in Florida, Bryant then went national, and led several battles across the country against gay rights. I’ll let Ms. Bryant speak for herself:

“As a mother, I know that homosexuals cannot biologically reproduce children; therefore, they must recruit our children” and “If gays are granted rights, next we’ll have to give rights to prostitutes and to people who sleep with St. Bernards and to nail biters.”

As to the reference to St. Bernards, well, haven’t we seen people advocating for the right to marry their pets, as for one example? And don’t we know from the Bible that sexual deviancy knows no depths? Leviticus 18:23 forbids the practice of bestiality. Left to their own devices, bestiality had become a problem.

From the same Chicago Tribune article in March 1977, Mrs Bryant said,

One legacy Mrs Bryant left during that heated time was that she led a legislative ban on gay adoptions in Florida that held up for nearly 40 years. The legislation forbid homosexuals from adopting children, a ban that was only recently overturned in 2015. In this article we read,

In her book “A New Day,” she stated, “I made a stand, not against homosexuals as persons, but against legislation that would tend to ‘normalize’ and abet their lifestyle and would especially afford them influence over our children who attended private, religious school.” She became the leader of a group called Save Our Children, and her highly publicized campaign against gay rights took off. She was quoted in a news conference that can still be seen on YouTube video clips today saying, “The war goes on to save our children because the seed of sexual sickness that germinated in Dade County has already been transplanted by misguided liberals in the U.S. Congress.”

Again, she was right. The Bible says that once depravity sets in so deeply as evidenced by the deviant homosexual lifestyle, it means they have been given over to a depraved mind. They simply cannot think straight anymore. (Romans 1:26-32).

There was a famous incident that occurred when Mrs Bryant and her husband were being interviewed at a press conference in Des Moines Iowa in 1977. Let me preface this by saying that in the documentary I watched Mrs Bryant emphasize that she does not hate homosexuals. She said in the clip that she loves them as people because like all people, they are made in the image of God. Their sin of homosexuality, like any sin such as thievery, adultery, or any other sin, can be forgiven if the sinner repents. They can then be an ex-homosexual just like a thief can be an ex-thief and an adulterer can be an ex-adulterer. This is a clip I searched high and low for online but have been unable to find. I only saw it on the documentary. I did read in several archived newspaper interviews that Mrs Bryant said her toughest job is to convince people that she loves all sinners and just urges homosexuals and all sinners to repent.

The intolerance of the homosexual lobby is potent. They set out to destroy reputations and crush businesses by any means they deem necessary. They are an intolerant group that bullies with impunity, and seeks to squash the rights of those with opposing views to express them. This is where the famous incident comes in. A man named Thom Higgins from Minneapolis drove to where Mrs Bryant was going to be, which was Des Moines Iowa, and as she was politely answering questions of a reporter, Higgins smashed a pie in Mrs Bryant’s face. Mrs Bryant asked that security not take the man out and she and her husband prayed on the spot for the Lord to deliver Higgins from his deviant lifestyle. Imagine such intolerance. Thom Higgins drove 243 miles, from Minneapolis to Des Moines, just to throw a strawberry-rhubarb pie in her face and humiliate her. That’s a powerful bunch of anger and hatred.

Mrs Bryant continued throughout the decade to work toward legislative change through proper channels. However, her stand against homosexuality took its toll on both her career and her marriage. The intolerant homosexual lobby boycotted Florida Orange Juice (gay bars took the drink the screwdriver off the menu and swapped it for the “Anita Bryant”, made with vodka and apple juice.

The Orange Juice commission declined to renew her contract. Her music career fizzled as the Homosexual Lobby poisoned the well for her name, so the music industry was increasingly reluctant to touch her. And sadly, her Christian witness suffered also. She divorced her husband for unbiblical reasons, and the Moral Majority began to decline inviting her for speaking invitations. Bryant later went bankrupt.

Would you be willing to suffer national humiliation, career destruction, a toll on your marriage, and a name that is synonymous with hate and bigotry (according to today’s culture) just for taking a stand for biblical sexuality? Anita Bryant did. I applaud her for it and I consider her to be an American Christian heroine.

But the homosexuals sure do hate Anita Bryant.

Man has always sought peace and security. In ancient times the safest place to live was in a walled fortress castle or town. Then Henry perfected use of the trebuchet and that was that.

Man tried to use natural geo-forms to protect themselves, the most extreme being the residents of San Marino. Situated in the Apennine Mountains, it is a landlocked enclave, completely surrounded by Italy. They were never defeated, but they never went anywhere, either. They are best known for making tiny postage stamps and being really good with a bow and arrow.

Then man made nuclear weapons, and thought that deterrence would be the peaceful way to security. Or the secure way to peace. The 1960s were rife with nuclear drills and fallout shelters. This was the time in which I grew up. The Soviet threat was real and kids understood that the specter of nuclear war as a present reality. We just expected that someone, somewhere, was going to nuke someone. Fallout shelters were De rigueur. A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designed to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. They made it seem that living in a fallout shelter was a picnic wrapped in a camping trip. Pop culture promoted this thought (Fallout handbooks saying “How You Can Survive a Nuclear War”). The Twilight Zone weighed in with a rare dose of reality with The Shelter. Watch it, the 25 minutes is worthwhile.

The Cuban Missile Crisis didn’t help the mindset, either. Then the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Republics split apart and nuclear was was passe.

Now after twenty years, there is another missile threat, this time, from North Korea. And for the first time ever, even from the bad old fifties and sixties, the headlines touting imminent nuclear bombings are appearing, and plentifully too.

• N Korea defends nuclear programme
• War book reveals how Britain planned to cope with nuclear attack
• Serbs send nuclear fuel to Russia, citing security
• Upheaval in Iran Doesn’t Change Nuclear Calculus
• Iran Nuclear Nightmare
• Al Qaeda & Pakistan’s Nukes: Apocalypse Soon?

Even the staid London Telegraph published a weird comic strip called Operation Blackjack, with no context, rhyme or reason, depicting nuclear conflagration and a new world order. With all the new talk of nuclear war, peace, and security, there is an attendant rise in interest in the topic of fallout shelters. The chart on Google trends shows a 20-fold increase in the topic in 2006 over 2005 and 2006, and that interest has maintained in 2009.

People have always and vainly tried to protect themselves from the elements, from war, from aggressive neighbors. It has never worked, and living in a fallout shelter won’t work either.

“While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.” 1 Thessalonians 5:3

You know what will work? Jesus. There is safety in Jesus. Not in never having to deal with a tragedy or never having your personal safety compromised. Both are likely to happen to you in living a life here on sinful earth. But living under the arms of Jesus means eternal security. “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.” Psalm 91

“The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.”Proverbs 29:25

“Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.’ ” Isaiah 12:2

There are so many more scriptures where God gives us His blessed assurance that whatever fallout we may be experiencing in our lives, He is with us through emotional, physical, nuclear, psychological, any fallout whatsoever. He is with us and gives us His strength and safety in His promises. As for me, I’ll take the Savior’s safety any day, over concrete bunker and stocked up peas and stale bottled water. You can have that safety as well! Perfect peace, that no matter what comes, and it is coming, you can feel free from fear and lay in the cleft of the rock under His care. Here’s how.

OK, this is fun… 🙂

Technion students get ready for Passover, the festival of freedom, and let their imagination run wild. Watch closely as this Rube Goldberg Machine created by students from the Faculties of Mechanical Engineering and Architecture and Town Planning relates highlights of the Passover story. Filmed in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in The Sydney & Shirley Gendel and Emanuel Friedberg Family Creative Design Student Laboratory, a Project of the American Technion Society, Cleveland Chapter

No this is not from The Onion.

From the book synopsis:

Published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the founding of Lakewood Church, this bible is designed for everyday use. It will be filled with years worth of Joel’s inspirational and encouraging insights. It is created to guide both new and old readers of the scriptures in how to apply the life changing principles of God’s Word to their daily lives. The eternal promises of God, combined with the special features of this unique bible will be a daily reminder of God’s purpose and plan for your lives.

Pastor Joel Osteen has a dynamic spiritual presence in the United States and is heard across the globe via the televised broadcast from Houston, Texas. Millions tune in and are able to find a closer connection to God through Osteen’s practical application of Scripture to their lives. No spiritual leader is more in demand than Pastor Joel Osteen, and his audience is hungry for the guidance this new bible will provide. This bible will feature a presentation page with the This Is My Bible statement, book introductions, reading plans, devotional inserts, purposed scriptures, and indices. The text is the New Living Translation.

Sadly, the screen shot from Amazon isn’t satire either.

Source. Splash news

Robin Williams killed himself yesterday. I’m sad about this.

I am not sad because the world lost a brilliant comedian. I’m not sad because the world lost a gifted and talented actor. I’m not only sad because a wife lost her husband or his family is in mourning. I’m sad because he rejected God, mocked Him, and failed to glorify Jesus by believing in Him.

Am I “cold” for saying this? Is my “timing” off? Am I “insensitive”? I’ve been accused of all those on Twitter. I had retweeted the following tweet that someone else wrote.

If #RobinWilliams was not truly a Christian, with life evidence to back the claim, he is damned forever. Think about it. #nosecondchance

Yet…we see a crush on social media saying “He’s in a better place now.” “He is out of pain.” “He was a wonderful man.” Some Christians even say these things. For a long time on Twitter there was a hashtag labeled #RIPRobinWilliams. There is no peace in our eternal rest unless it is in Jesus. Most people don’t mind the platitudes, even if they are wicked corruptions of the truth.  But those platitudes lead others astray.

The bible says,

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, (1 Corinthians 6:9)

And it says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God“. (John 3:18)

Everybody minds talk of judgment, hell, condemnation. It’s always an insensitive subject. Never more than when faced with the dilemma of when to bring it up. Out of the blue while on a picnic? When someone has died? Somewhere in between, like over sandwiches in the work cafeteria? You see the problem.

EPrata photo

When a death or suicide happens, there are always grieving family, friends, or in a celebrity’s case, a wider world facing mortality, discussing the afterlife, asking and searching for answers to the question of “Is there life after life?” Death of a loved one is one of the few times when people actually stop their busy lives to consider their own death and what happens afterward. It is also one of the few times people are gathered to hear these issues explained. Sometimes the gathering is at a funeral. Sometimes that gathering is on Twitter.

Christians have the hope of Jesus. We know that life in Him, though hard, offers HIS strength. There is no better strength to rely on to get through a tough time, a depression, any kind of earthly woe. We also have a perspective of eternity. Any woe or trouble we are experiencing now is but a small moment, a wisp of time, and then glory.

source

“Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun…” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).

In knowing that Jesus has forgiven our sin, that His wrath is not on us, that we have His help for all situations, that His word revives us, that prayer is listened to, and that we possess the future of eternal glory to look forward to, our despair is turned to hope. That is an incredible list of gifts Jesus gives us. The lost have none of those, and must rely on their own wits, intellect, and strength to get through life, all the while that blackening despair creeps in like the tide. Some are overwhelmed by it, as Mr. Williams was.

The Preacher in Ecclesiastes tells us that toil, money, possessions, acclaim, pleasures, advancement, or wisdom, are all meaningless without God. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, (Psalm 86, Isaiah 60:21, 1 Corinthians 6:20; 10:31, Revelation 4:11) and to enjoy Him forever ( Psalm 16:5-11, Psalm 144:1, Isaiah 12:2, Luke 2:10, Philippians 4:4)- Westminster Shorter Catechism).

Of course life is meaningless when we reject God.

“For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” (Revelation 3:17)

In Williams’ movie “What dreams May Come”, his character is killed in a car crash, so he becomes a ghost for a while and hangs around on earth. Yet we know that “absent from the body, present with the Lord,” (2 Corinthians 5:8). In his movie, Williams’ character left heaven to look for his wife in hell, and to take her out of there.Yet we know that “there is a great gulf fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.” (Luke 16:26). In his movie, Williams’ character controlled heaven with his thoughts. Yet we know that it’s Gods thoughts that are supreme. “The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.” (Psalm 103:19). In his movie, Williams’ character and the character of the wife were reincarnated as children. Yet we know that “just as people are appointed to die once, and then to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).

All those are common corruptions of the truth, and are widely disseminated.

No doctrine is more despised by the natural mind than the truth that God is absolutely sovereign. Human pride loathes the suggestion that God orders everything, controls everything, rules over everything. The carnal mind, burning with enmity against God, abhors the biblical teaching that nothing comes to pass except according to His eternal decrees. (source)

I am aware that these were pagan doctrines in a fictional movie that Williams was portraying as an actor, but I wonder how much of it he believed. His carnal mind was burning with enmity against God. How much of all that seeped into him, as he sat contemplating the end of his life…perhaps to try and end the pain (of separation from God).

I wonder most of all, as the family gathers for his funeral, if someone will take the time to tell them of the hope Jesus offers. Hope burns brightly in every Christian’s heart, keeping the wolves of despair at bay and our woes in perspective. Christ triumphed over death, and He offers that triumph to all who believe in Him. It is the best message one could ever hear. But is must be heard on this side of eternity. There are no second chances.