Mormonism, the Rapture, and the End of the Age

IN TODAY'S NEWSLETTER... 
 
 

• Featured Article: Mormonism, the Rapture, and the End of the Age 
• Are We About to See the Biggest Purge of Conservatives from All Levels of The Federal Government in U.S. History? 
• Nearing Midnight: Instagram: The Vanguard of Vanity 
• How Woke Culture Is Spreading Anti-Biblical Messages 
• Daily Devotion: Stupidocrisy: Mask or no mask 
• Daily Devotion: Salty in a Good Way 

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Mormonism, the Rapture, and the End of the Age – Pete Garcia - https://www.rev310.net/post/mormonism-the-rapture-and-the-end-of-the-age
 
When Mormon Prophecy Finds its Fulfillment
 
Mormonism is not silent on the subject of Bible Prophecy. If we were to put Mormon eschatology into a category, we could label them decidedly Pre-Millennial, Post-Tribulation. What that means is they believe Jesus will return after the Rapture/Resurrection at the Second Coming to set up his kingdom on the earth. They firmly believe the LDS church must go through the seven-year Tribulation.
 
I have sworn in my wrath, and decreed wars upon the face of the earth, and the wicked shall slay the wicked, and fear shall come upon every man; And the saints also shall hardly escape; nevertheless, I, the Lord, am with them, and will come down in heaven from the presence of my Father and consume the wicked with unquenchable fire (Doctrine and Covenants 63:33, 34).
 
Unfortunately, they are correct…they will go through the Tribulation. It probably also explains why so many sects within Mormonism tend to lean "prepper." Nevertheless, Fairlatterdaysaints.org, a Mormon Apologetics site that provides answers to tough questions for Mormons has much to say about the end times. Citing their Doctrine and Covenants (a select group of revelatory sermons serving as an addendum to the Book of Mormon), they say this regarding the timing of the Rapture: (emphasis mine)
 
It also states that "in the day of the coming of the Son of Man... cometh an entire separation of the righteous and the wicked" (D&C 63:53-54)—not before!
 
Again in D&C section 88 the Lord warns, "prepare the saints for the hour of judgment which is to come; that their souls may escape the wrath of God, the desolation of abomination which awaits the wicked both in this world and in the world to come" (DC 88:84-85).
 
"And the saints that are upon the earth, who are alive, shall be quickened and be caught up to meet him. And they who have slept in their graves shall come forth for their graves shall be opened; and they also shall be caught up to meet him in the midst of the pillar of heaven—They are Christ's, the first fruits [of the resurrection], and they who shall descend with him first, and they who are on the earth and in their graves, who are first caught up to meet him... (D&C 88:96-98). Thus begins the resurrection of the just and the millennial reign of Christ on the earth (see DC 88:99-101; Revelation 20:4-6). Those who are caught up are not taken into heaven but reign "with Christ a thousand years" on the earth.[3] Thereafter, "they shall reign forever and ever" with him (Revelation 22:4-5).
 
As it is not my intent here to bash Mormonism for all the errant and heretical doctrines they promote, my intent is to serve as a warning to those who remain after the Pre-Tribulation Rapture of the Church. After the Rapture, those who are of age within the Latter Day Saints movement will be left behind.
 
Some of the most wonderful people I’ve ever met have been those from the Mormon faith. I mean, these people were such decent and honest people that they would put most Christians to shame. Yet, however wonderful these people are, they are being wonderfully deceived by a belief system that has some MAJOR doctrinal problems. Although outside the purview of this article, I will list the four major damnable heresies Mormonism promotes as true, and why they are NOT Christian. These sources are from LDS material:
 
Promotes works-based salvation (salvation by grace through faith is insufficient without the full efforts of the one being redeemed - 2 Nephi 25:23)
 
Promotes the idea of polytheism (i.e., the existence of multiple gods) (Source)
 
Promotes the idea that God (the Father) was once a flesh and bone man as taught by Joseph Smith and Lorenzo Snow (Source)
 
Denies the Trinity, and the divine nature of Christ as being co-equal with the Father (Jesus inherited his divinity from the Father [Source])
 
See here for an in-depth, cited, and well-researched expansion on each of these by a non-LDS apologetics ministry.
 
Mormons will be left behind primarily because of the issues they have with who Jesus really is, and what salvation really means. The world presents many variations of Jesus. Religions offer many different types of Jesus. The ONLY Jesus who can save you, is the Jesus of the Holy Bible. This is not my opinion, Holy Scripture is very clear that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and that no man comes to the Father, but through Him (John 14:6).
 
The Bible is also clear that our salvation is by grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast (Eph. 2:8-9). There is nothing we can add to what Christ did on the cross. His grace is sufficient, His sacrifice perfect. If man could save himself through any other means, Jesus needn’t come in the first place to die a humiliating and painful death on the cross (Matt. 26:39). Jesus, being fully God and co-equal with the Father, took on the form of a man through the incarnation (the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary), and also became fully man. It is this divine hypostatic union, by which Jesus became our Kinsman Redeemer to become the ONLY one worthy in all of existence, to claim the sealed Scroll from the right hand of the Father (Rev. 5).
 
After the Rapture, the world will be reeling from the second and third-order effects of millions of people suddenly disappearing. First of all, the world will be in shock at what just transpired. It will be like science fiction just became science faction and there will be a quick rush to say (by the media and government officials) that it was aliens or Gaia.
 
The truth is, Jesus will come and take His bride (the Church) home just as He has promised (John 14:1-3). Not just the Church but also those who are not of age (the age of accountability), and the mentally invalid (i.e., those who are incapable of making decisions on their own behalf). Bottom line, when the great disappearance happens, just know that it was Jesus who came to take His bride home, not anyone else. If you are still here, it is because your salvation was not true, and you have been following the wrong Jesus (Matt. 24:3-5).
 
So what happens after the Rapture?
 
Well, there will literally be seven to ten years of hell on earth. Most of the world’s population will not survive. There will be 21 divine judgments unleashed upon the earth, and just know from the outset, these judgments are from God. More than likely, the internet will be shut down or heavily censored by the elite to control the message they want to send out. We are seeing that even now with social media platforms censoring conservatives and Christians seemingly at will. Now magnify that censorship by 1,000 and the whole world’s access to the internet will mirror that of today’s communist China.
 
Your church leaders will attempt to come up with some explanation as to why many are missing and they are not. This is called deflection. They will seek to spin the disappearance as a negative thing- it is not. It was the Rapture of the Church. While the word rapture is not in our English bibles, the English equivalent is the words “caught up,” which we get from the Greek word harpazo.
 
We get the word Latin word rapture from the Greek word harpazo by way of the Latin translation of the Bible by Jerome in the 4th-century. He used the word rapio to convey the sentiment of the words “caught up.” The first major usage of the English transliteration of rapturo, was in 1739 by Reverend Philip Doddridge in a commentary he wrote on the New Testament. This word rapture was later used by the Rev. John Gill in 1748 and has been used ever since. All that to say, the Rapture of the Church is real, and the events which will follow are also real.
 
Author’s Note: The Pre-Tribulation Rapture has been taught long before Doddridge and Gill in the 1700s. See here for more historical references.
 
Understandably, if any Mormon reads this before the Rapture, it will likely be shrugged off as nonsensical. However, please take care to note that most prophecy seems nonsensical until it happens. After the Rapture (or the great disappearance), this will make more sense. This has all been foretold. It’s not happenstance. It’s not aliens or Gaia. It was Jesus taking His church home to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:1-10).
 
The Church (Greek-ekklesia- called out assembly) is not a denomination. It is not Roman Catholic, Protestant, or Mormon. The Church is the universal, corporate, unified body of believers from the Pentecost (Acts 2) until the Rapture, who are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of redemption (Matt. 16:18, Ephesians 1:13-14, 4:30, 5:23). As a reminder, the rapture itself is a signless, imminent event. No man knows when this will happen exactly, primarily, because no one knew when Israel was going to be revived as a nation. But since that happened, watching believers can see the season approaching (1 Thess. 5:1-4, Hebrews 10:25). Furthermore, some of Jesus' final words to us is that we should know roughly when it is about to happen because of the signs of the Tribulation piling up all around us.
 
Remember therefore how you have received and heard; hold fast and repent. Therefore if you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief, and you will not know what hour I will come upon you. Revelation 3:3
 
The Prophetic Timeline
 
The Pre Tribulation Rapture- this just happened. The Church is rescued and evil is no longer restrained on the earth.
 
The Time Gap- we don’t know how long this gap will last, perhaps months or even a few years, but there is a window of time between the Rapture and the official start of the Tribulation. While we can't be dogmatic about where the Bible is silent, there are a number of things that must happen (logically and logistically speaking) that simply can't be done in seven years. During the gap, there are some things we think will likely happen:
 
1. Pt. I-The Sunni Muslim nations surrounding Israel take advantage of the global chaos and launch an attack against her, and are defeated greatly expanding Israel’s present borders (Psalm 83). Pt. II- Russia, Turkey, Iran, Libya, and Sudan (Gog and Magog) will attempt to invade Israel to take her vast natural gas fields and her great wealth. God supernaturally defeats them. (Ezekiel 38-39). These two events fundamentally destroy Islam as both a belief system and as a political power bloc. It is at this point, presumably, the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque is destroyed, clearing the way for Israel to begin to rebuild her third temple on the Temple Mount.
 
2. After the Rapture, the world economic system will collapse due to the collapse of the United States. The world will have to reorganize into ten regional powers. This global system becomes known as The Beast and is aided by advanced technologies (5-6G networks backed by Artificial Intelligent or Quantum based systems) that will monitor all activity on the earth. After the Rapture, there will also be a great push to unite all the religions of the world into one, ecumenical belief system.
 
3. Out of the ten regional governments, three will be overthrown and one man (the Antichrist) rises to power. He will be aided by another known to us as The False Prophet. He will be able to do supernatural signs and wonders. They create a mark that is put on either the hand or forehead to buy or sell. DO NOT TAKE THIS. Remember, these two men will not appear evil at first. (Revelation 6, 13)
 
4. Two Witnesses also arrive during this time. They will have supernatural powers and will preach from Jerusalem for 3 ½ years. They cannot be killed or destroyed until the 3 ½ years are completed. (Rev. 11)
 
The Tribulation (Revelation 6:18) the official name for this is the 70th Week of Daniel (Daniel 9:27). It is a seven-year period, which God will unleash 21 divine judgments upon the earth. Over 1/2 of the world’s population dies as a result. The purpose for this time is laid out in Jeremiah 30:7-11 and Daniel 9:24. The Antichrist is given full authority to wage war against the saints and to overcome them (Rev. 13:7). There will be nowhere to hide. Only the Two Witnesses and the 144K Jews from the Twelve Tribes of Israel will be sealed and protected. The seas are turned to blood, fresh drinking water is turned to blood, and the sun and moon cease to give their light. A contract between the Antichrist and the nation of Israel begins the 21 judgments.
 
The Seven Seals (Revelation 6): 1/4 of the world’s population dies
 
1. The White Horse (Antichrist-false peace)
2. The Red Horse (War)
3. The Black Horse (Drought/Famine/Economic disaster)
4. The Pale Horse (Plague/Disease)
5. Martyrdom of those who refuse to worship the beast (slaughter of the Tribulation saints)
6. A Great Earthquake that causes such a geological disturbance, the dust and smoke obscure the sun, stars, and moon
7. Silence in Heaven
 
The Seven Trumpets (Revelation 8-11): 1/3 of the world’s population dies
 
1. Hail and fire mixed with blood
2. A great mountain cast into the sea and 1/3 of the oceans turned to blood
3. Wormwood- a meteor that poisons (makes bitter) a third of the fresh waters
4. A third of the sun, moon, and stars darkened (great cold, darkness)
5. First Woe (Demonic Locusts plague those who take the mark)
6. Second Woe (one-third of mankind killed by a demon-possessed army)
7. Third Woe (Lightning, Voices, Thunder, an Earthquake, and Great hail.)
 
The Seven Vials/Bowls (Revelation 16)
 
1. Grievous Sores on those who take the mark of the beast
2. The rest of the seas turn to blood
3. Rivers and fountains turned to blood
4. Great heat
5. Great darkness over the seat of Beast Kingdom
6. Euphrates River dries up
7. Massive earthquake and vast earth changes
 
The Battle of Armageddon (Revelation 19)
 
At the end of the seven years, the Beast’s armies, along with the kings of the east, gather in the Megiddo Valley (Israel) to try to destroy what remains of the Jewish people. The skies are rolled back and Christ returns in power and glory, followed by the Armies of Heaven (this is where the Church returns in victory with Christ). He destroys the armies gathered there. The Beast & False Prophet are cast alive into the Lake of Fire.
 
The Judgment of the Nations (Matthew 25)
 
Christ judges the remaining nations. Those who aided Israel during this 70th Week, are allowed entrance into the earthly, millennial kingdom, of which, Christ rules as the undisputed King. Those who attacked or did ill towards the nation of Israel (and her inhabitants), are cast into outer darkness and await judgment.
 
The Millennial Reign of Christ (Revelation 20)
 
Christ will reign upon the earth for 1,000 years. The world is released from the curse of sin and becomes a paradise. People will be given unnaturally long life spans. If a person does not choose to follow Christ, they will die at the age of 100. At the end of the 1,000 years, Satan is loosed for a season and is cast into the Lake of Fire.
 
The Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:10-14)
 
The unsaved/unredeemed dead from all ages is brought before Christ and are judged according to their works. Everyone here not found in the Lamb's Book of Life is ultimately cast into the Lake of Fire because their works cannot save them. What is determined here is how severe their torment will be in the Lake of Fire for all of eternity. Death and hell are also cast into the Lake of Fire.
 
Eternity Future (Revelation 21-22)
 
A new heaven and new earth are created, as the former ones are passed away. For the redeemed, eternity future will be a glorious adventure. One filled with worship of God will being in His presence, exploration (seeing all that God has been working on these past two thousand years), of peace, joy, comfort, happiness, contentment, and love forever.
 
Rules for the Remnant
 
Do place your faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.
 
A- Admit you’re a sinner and need a Savior (Romans 3:23, 6:23)
 
B- Believe in your heart that the Lord Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and God raised Him from the dead (John 3:16, Romans 5:8)
 
C- Call upon the name of the Lord, trusting on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation (Romans 10:9-13)
 
Do NOT take the mark of the beast. This means you will not be able to buy or sell anything, but if you take the mark, you are damned forever. Better to struggle for a few years than to suffer for all eternity. (Revelation 14:9-11)
 
You will probably be martyred. The Beast’s systems will be vast; artificial intelligence, global surveillance, robotic weapon systems, as well as supernatural forces (demons) aiding them. Do not fear the first death (physical). Do fear the second death (spiritual). The first death is not the end, only the beginning of a glorious future with Christ. If you die spiritually as well, you will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire.
 
Endure to the end if you can. Run, hide, pray. If you survive the seven years, you will enter into the Millennial Kingdom.

 


 
Are We About to See the Biggest Purge of Conservatives from All Levels of The Federal Government in U.S. History? - by Michael Snyder - http://endoftheamericandream.com/are-we-about-to-see-the-biggest-purge-of-conservatives-from-all-levels-of-the-federal-government-in-u-s-history/
 
The fateful decision that Joe Biden just made will have consequences for many years to come. On Thursday, we learned that the Biden administration is going to require all employees of the federal government to either be vaccinated or to “submit to regular testing and mitigation requirements”. Needless to say, there are large numbers of federal employees that will never take a COVID vaccine under any circumstances, and most of them are Republicans. In fact, a recent Washington Post survey found that less than 5 percent of Democrats say that they will definitely not get a COVID vaccine, but for Republicans the number was nearly 40 percent. So as federal employees start quitting over this new mandate, the vast majority of those that will be leaving will be conservatives.
 
And we aren’t talking about a small number of people. Today, there are millions of Americans that work directly for the federal government…
 
The federal government numbers include active duty military personnel and U.S. Postal Service workers. The U.S. military has about 1.4 million active duty service members and another 800,000 reserve forces. There are approximately 800,000 postal workers. Beyond the military and the postal service, 2 million people—just over 1% of the U.S. workforce or 0.6% of the total population—are permanently employed by the federal government. More than 70% of the federal workforce serves in defense and security agencies like the Department of Defense, the intelligence community agencies, and NASA.
 
When I first learned about this, I was stunned that the Biden administration would be willing to go this far.
 
But apparently this is really happening. Just a little while ago, CNN reported the following…
 
President Joe Biden will announce on Thursday a requirement that all federal employees and contractors be vaccinated against Covid-19, or be required to submit to regular testing and mitigation requirements, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter.
 
The announcement will come in remarks where Biden is also expected to lay out a series of new steps, including incentives, in an attempt to spur new vaccinations as the Delta variant spreads rapidly throughout the country. It will also follow the decision by the Department of Veterans Affairs to require its frontline health care workers to be vaccinated over the course of the next two months.
 
This came just hours after it was first announced that the Biden administration was “considering” such a move…
 
President Biden on Tuesday said his administration is considering making it mandatory for federal workers to get the coronavirus vaccine.
 
The president’s comments, which echoed those of his press secretary hours earlier, came one day after the Department of Veterans Affairs announced it will require its front-line health care workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
 
This is how the Biden administration operates.
 
First they float something to evaluate public reaction, and then they do it.
 
So how many federal employees will quit their jobs due to this new mandate?
 
Will it be thousands?
 
Will it be tens of thousands?
 
Could it be hundreds of thousands?
 
What we do know is that the number of Republicans that will quit will be far greater than the number of Democrats that will quit, and that could fundamentally alter the composition of the federal workforce for many years to come.
 
I think that it will all come down to the nature of the “regular testing and mitigation requirements”. If those requirements are not too burdensome, the number of federal workers that quit may be relatively low. But if those requirements turn out to be quite painful, I could see very large numbers of employees quitting.
 
On Tuesday we also learned that the CDC has decided that it is time for all Americans to start wearing masks again…
 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Tuesday that fully vaccinated people begin wearing masks indoors again in places with high Covid-19 transmission rates. The agency is also recommending kids wear masks in schools this fall.
 
Federal health officials still believe fully vaccinated individuals represent a very small amount of transmission. Still, some vaccinated people could be carrying higher levels of the virus than previously understood and potentially transmit it to others.
 
This seems rather odd, because we were promised that life would go back to normal for those that got their shots.
 
But it turns out that vaccinated individuals that catch COVID “have just as much viral load as the unvaccinated”…
 
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said recent studies had shown that those vaccinated individuals who do become infected with Covid have just as much viral load as the unvaccinated, making it possible for them to spread the virus to others. Based on that finding, Walensky said the CDC is also recommending that all school children wear masks in the fall.
 
And in California, officials have discovered a very curious pattern…
 
A new analysis finds several counties with above-average vaccination rates also have higher COVID case rates, while case rates are falling in counties with below-average vaccination rates.
 
Statewide data analyzed by the Bay Area News Group found five counties, Los Angeles, San Diego, Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco, have both a higher percentage of people who are fully vaccinated than the state average and a higher average daily case rate.
 
All of this appears to directly contradict a lot of the promises that our leaders were making.
 
So what is the truth?
 
Needless to say, the truth is that you have been fed a whole bunch of lies.
 
This pandemic is far from over, and it is just a matter of time before even more “pestilences” come along.
 
Sadly, global leaders have responded to this current “pestilence” by resorting to full-blown tyranny.
 
The Biden administration knows that there are huge numbers of conservatives that would quit their jobs rather than be bullied into taking a COVID vaccine.
 
But they are going ahead with this mandate anyway.
 
And now that the federal government has done this, it is probably inevitable that countless other employers will follow suit.
 
What a dark day this is for America.

 




 
Nearing Midnight: Instagram: The Vanguard of Vanity – Todd Strandberg - https://www.raptureready.com/category/nearing-midnight/
 
The first king of social media was Myspace, then came Twitter and Facebook, and now a new site is taking over the reins. Instagram is a site primarily used for posting pictures and short videos.
 
Originally launched for iOS in October 2010, Instagram rapidly gained popularity, with one million registered users in two months, 10 million in a year, and 1 billion as of June 2018.
 
Instagram is owned by Facebook, which bought the company for $1 billion in 2012. With the firm now said to be worth $100 billion, Mark Zuckerberg did quite well on his investment.
 
As of June 2021, the most followed person is Portuguese professional soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, with over 300 million followers. The most followed woman is American singer Ariana Grande, with 251 followers. I found a list of the top 50 accounts on Instagram, and over 90% of the list is dominated by people who are known for their looks.
 
I’ve spent a couple of weeks trying to understand the platform. Because I normally work with PC, I quickly realized this domain is meant to be run on a smartphone. I also made the determination that Instagram sets a new low in self-worship. I would call the site the Vanguard of Vanity. If you are considered to be eye-candy, you can join the club. If you have no talent or looks, you can go somewhere else.
 
The primary goal on Instagram is to get the highest number of people to follow you. You post pictures and hope for a large number of likes. People can also post comments, and these can lead into the thousands. The average comment is not in any language. People mostly post symbols of hearts, fire, and an assortment of smiley faces.
 
On Kylie Jenner’s account, she has images that have been viewed millions of times, and there might be 30,000 comments to her post. There is almost zero chance that Jenner is going to see the posts. I looked on dozens of posts and couldn’t find any comment that Jenner gave any response.
 
I probably lost a few IQ points skimming through Instagram pages. On 4 January 2019, someone posted an image of a bird egg with the caption, “Let’s set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram.” Within days, the egg photo got 54 million likes.
 
For every Justin Bieber with 183 million followers, there are millions with hardly any followers. I found one guy who works as a model who had one million followers. I did some test inputs by responding to some of his posts. At first, I was amazed that he liked my comments, but I quickly learned that he likes everyone’s comments. He and millions of other people are wasting huge amounts of time on this site.
 
I read a few articles that said this model was having mental health issues. I posted my concern on his Instagram account about his mental well-being, and not a single person shared my concern. One woman said he was “thriving,” and I should check on my own mental health. He may be thriving at age 24, but where will he be at age 34? At some point, the phone is going to stop ringing because his looks have faded, and younger models have taken his place on the catwalks.
 
You don’t get to be a star on Instagram for very long. The singer Madonna only has 16 million Instagram followers. If this were 1985, she would likely have over 200 million followers. Instagram fame only lasts as long as you remain very attractive.
 
If social media had existed in the 1800s, the top accounts would be by authors, ministers, and politicians. Today, you can have an IQ of 70 and be a star on Instagram.
 
Social media sites like Instagram have driven people to levels of self-promotion that God never intended. Many people have become slaves to what the public thinks of them. It’s nice to be famous, but it doesn’t guarantee happiness. God’s word says that pride generally results in a negative outcome:
 
“Pride leads to destruction; a proud attitude brings ruin” (Proverbs 16:18).
 
Anyone who tries to promote their own greatness does not deserve any respect. Greatness can only come from the praise of other people. The only lasting praise is what God thinks of our lives.
 
“Don’t praise yourself. Let someone else do it. Let the praise come from a stranger and not your own mouth” (Proverbs 27:2).

 


 
How Woke Culture Is Spreading Anti-Biblical Messages – Dan Heart - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4867
 
In November 1957, towards the beginning of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s leadership of the civil rights movement, he delivered a sermon at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. In describing the biblical importance of loving one's enemies, he said this:
 
When you come to the point that you look in the face of every man and see deep down within him what religion calls "the image of God," you begin to love him in spite of. No matter what he does, you see God's image there. There is an element of goodness that he can never slough off. Discover the element of good in your enemy. And as you seek to hate him, find the center of goodness and place your attention there and you will take a new attitude.
 
This profound message of reconciliation, rooted in the gospel, was at the heart of King's monumental "I Have a Dream" speech in the summer of 1963 that laid down the foundations of what race relations in America should strive for.
 
Ever since the end of segregation and Jim Crow laws and the signing of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, the road to racial reconciliation and progress for black people in America has steadily improved. In the 50 years since then, black people have seen a 60 percent increase in high school graduation, a 20 percent increase in college graduation, a poverty rate that has been cut in half, a record low unemployment rate, a 1,325 percent increase in members of Congress, a twice elected president and a sitting vice president of the United States, and almost universal agreement among all races on the positive impact of the Civil Rights Act, to name just a few indicators of progress.
 
To borrow a phrase from an old tag line, "You've come a long way, America."
 
However, over the last year, views on race in America seem to have gone haywire. The idea of "wokeness" -- believing that America is, as we speak, a "systemically racist" country -- has steadily pervaded almost every corner of American public life, from academia to corporations to the mainstream media.
 
Even professional sports have succumbed, much to the dismay of fans. Perhaps even more concerning are signs that "wokeness" is now hijacking the gospel and is creeping its way into churches across America.
 
Owen Strachan, Senior Fellow at FRC's Center for Biblical Worldview, joined "Washington Watch" to discuss his latest book Christianity and Wokeness: How the Social Justice Movement is Hijacking the Gospel -- and the Way to Stop It. He related examples of what is happening in our culture.
 
"When you are told that white people are 'white supremacists,' you are hearing wokeness talking," Strachan said. "When you had, for example, a LinkedIn training session some time ago that asserted that white people should try to be less white, that was woke teaching.
 
When you hear people say that white people have 'white privilege,' that's wokeness. When you hear a critique of 'heteronormative capitalist sexist white oppression' in any form, you are hearing wokeness talking."
 
As Strachan went on to observe, what has become clear from this movement is the central role that guilt plays in advancing its cause.
 
"Guilt is absolutely the currency of wokeness," he underscored. "It really is targeting white people. It wants white people to feel tremendous guilt for past evils. And those are real evils, things like slavery and Jim Crow law, things that no person in their sane mind is going to support. But wokeness says the past is not the past.
 
Basically, the crimes of yesterday burn today. You can smell them in the air ... we need to impute guilt to white people today because their whiteness implicates them in this whole systemic order of racism. And if we can successfully make them feel guilty, then we will advance our ideas and we will succeed in flipping the culture, which is really what this movement is about.
 
It's not about promoting true unity in the gospel of Jesus Christ ... it's about making predominantly white people feel guilty for being white and then mobilizing that guilt to leftist social ends."
 
Strachan made it clear that the leftist tactics being used by the woke movement fly in the face of any semblance of a diverse, civilized society, and that the gospel is the only way out of the mess we're in.
 
"What I make clear in my new book Christianity and Wokeness is that rioting isn't going to work for our culture. Arson is not a strategy for the public square, nor is it going to work in the church. This is not going to produce unity. This is not going to produce peace. This is not going to produce healing.
 
This system produces division, resentment, and alienation; whereas when you go to Scripture, when you go to truth, when you go to the gospel of grace, that's where you actually can now find forgiveness and oneness and unity."

 


 
Daily Devotion: Stupidocrisy: Mask or no mask - Bill Wilson – www.dailyjot.com
 
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Tuesday unintentionally condemned the effectiveness of COVID 19 vaccines by reversing its previous reversal to require vaccinated people to wear masks indoors. The CDC actually said that due to recent spikes in the Delta variant of COVID 19, people who are fully vaccinated should wear masks indoors in areas of high transmission. Everyone is jumping on the CDC for reversing direction once again. A very careful study of the CDC website indicates that this leading source for COVID information is all over the board regarding vaccine safety, mask safety, and effectiveness of the vaccine. If any government agency should be consistent and truthful, it’s CDC, but…
 
Under CDC’s Frequency Asked Questions section [ https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/faq.html] is the question: “Do I need to wear a mask and avoid close contact with others if I am fully vaccinated?” Answer: “No. Fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance. If you are fully vaccinated, you can resume activities that you did before the pandemic.” In the “What You Can Do” section [https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html ] it says that if you are fully vaccinated, you need to wear a mask indoors to reduce the risk of being infected with the Delta variant and possibly spreading it to others.
 
On March 8, 2020, Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci said “there’s no reason to be walking around with a mask,” according to Reuters—but this was before the CDC updated its guidance on April 3, 2020 to voluntarily wear masks. In a congressional hearing Wednesday, September 16, 2020, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, held up the disposable surgical mask he had been wearing and declared that the simple covering may ultimately be better than a much-hoped-for vaccine. He dramatically said, “This face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine.”
 
Fauci wrote in a February 5, 2020 email obtained by Buzzfeed and The Washington Post that “Masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection…The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through material. It might, however, provide some slight benefit in keep out gross droplets if someone coughs or sneezes on you.” Proverbs 28:26 says, “He that trusts in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walks wisely, he shall be delivered.” Use your God-given common sense to protect yourself because these government agencies and the learned people who run them can’t get on the same page, and this is not only disturbing, it is, say it with me…Stupidocrisy.

 


 
Daily Devotion: Salty in a Good Way - by Greg Laurie – www.harvest.org
 
Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? —Luke 14:34
 
https://harvest.org/resources/devotion/salty-in-a-good-way/ Listen
 
In the Roman culture, salt was extremely valuable. It was so valuable, in fact, that salt was a form of payment—hence the expression, “He’s not worth his salt.”
 
Jesus said, “Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? Flavorless salt is good neither for the soil nor for the manure pile. It is thrown away. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!” (Luke 14:34–35 NLT).
 
Jesus was saying that you’re valuable, and your life makes a difference. On the other hand, what good is salt that isn’t salty? It’s like Christians who aren’t making an impact on their culture.
 
Obviously, salt makes a difference. A little pinch of salt in something can help enhance its flavor. Among other things, salt stimulates thirst. When you’re eating popcorn during a movie, for instance, you realize that you’re really thirsty.
 
In the same way, when you’re living a godly life, you should stimulate in others a thirst for Jesus Christ. People should be able to look at your life as a believer and know what you stand for and what your convictions are. It also should cause them to want what you have.
 
So when Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth, He was saying that our lives should make a difference wherever we are.
 
Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “Clearly, you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you. This ‘letter’ is written not with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. It is carved not on tablets of stone, but on human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:3 NLT).
 
We are the only Bible that some people ever will read. I hope that we’re pointing them to Jesus.

 


 


 
FROM THE HEART
    
Let Us Make the Short Time We have Left,
Count for ALL of Eternity!

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