The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse

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Aadhaar, biometrics, camps, colony collapse disorder, drought, famine, fresh water, global pandemic, global warming, Gog and Magog, melting glaciers, Miracles in the Desert, New Generation ID, NGI, peak oil, plague, police state, red tides, RFID, troubled economy, world war

“You’re an old-timer if you can remember when setting the world on fire was a figure of speech.” ~Franklin P Jones

For those of you perhaps unfamiliar with the title phrase, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Bible (Revelation 6; Zechariah 6) were (1) conquest on a white horse, (2) war on a red horse, (3) famine on a black horse, and (4) death on a pale horse. Since almost every era of history—from Egyptian to Roman to the American Empire—has witnessed conquest, war, famine, and death, one may wonder, What’s new? Well, the Book of Revelation tells of a seven-year period called the Tribulation or the Great Tribulation, and the four horsemen of the Apocalypse signal the beginning of that catastrophic End-time event. During their ride, a quarter of the earth’s population will perish.

New Year’s Resolutions

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Afresh, New backbone, New ears, New eyes, New feet, New nose, New soul, New Year’s Resolutions, to be like Jesus

“The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year. It is that we should have a new soul and a new nose; new feet, a new backbone, new ears, and new eyes. Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective.” ~G K Chesterton

William Bradford and John Winthrop: Pilgrim and Puritan

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Bruce Catton, Cotton Mather, David Jeremiah, Francis Schaeffer, John Winthrop, L'Abri, Mark Twain, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Norman Rockwell, Pilgrim, Puritan, Theodore Roosevelt, William Bradford, William Shirer

“If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”  ~Pearl Buck

THE AMERICA I KNEW

Youth and Idealism

Growing up, I was drawn to just about everything American. History. Literature. Music. Art. Norman Rockwell‘s Four Freedoms. Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear—not exactly Constitutional, but pretty good.

Every schoolday began not only with prayer and Bible reading, but also with the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag and the chorus “My Country ‘Tis of Thee.” 

God’s Man, God’s Message, and Government Manipulation

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materialism, ministry, money, taxfree housing allowance

Materialism, Money, and Ministry—Who Controls the Churches?

“The church has a right and a responsibility … to impose mandatory standards on its ministers.” ~Stephen Taber

By underwriting the churches, via the tax code, the Federal government is controlling the churches.  Their man—not God’s man—is filling the pulpit.

And the Land Itself Will Spue You Out

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gender confusion, homosexuality, original sin, pedophilia, sexual orientation

Civilized Calvinists, Illicit Coupling, Condemned Castaways, and an Uneasy Conscience

“We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount. The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.”
~General Omar Bradley

Some years back, I was approaching Greater DC—Connecticut Avenue, Chevy Chase, Maryland—when I saw an older, well-dressed man standing on the sidewalk with a placard: All priests are pedophiles.

Sweeping generalization. Not all priests are homosexual, and, of those who are, not all are predatory.

I wondered why a seemingly sane man would stand there and say such things? Was he part of a special-interest group to defame priests? Had he himself been abused as a child? I doubted it. Abused children do not usually become activists. Whatever he was up to, the attention-seeking behavior said more about him than about priests. 

Stephen Collins Foster and Philip Paul Bliss: American Composers

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Horatio G Spafford, It Is Well With My Soul, Philip Paul Bliss, Stephen Collins Foster, Towanda

Two Men, Two Destinies, and Towanda

Have you ever wondered at coincidences? I do.

If you ever saw the film 1776—rated G, by the way—you probably know that at the Second Continental Congress, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were two men particularly essential to its outcome: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Thanks to them, and a few others, a nation was born July 4, 1776. Fifty years later on the nation’s Semi-Centennial or Golden Jubilee, 1826, Adams and Jefferson both died. Coincidentally, that very day, Stephen Collins Foster, father of American music, was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Rod Parsley and the Pentecostals

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fonw, perry stone, rod parsley, ron phillips, tommy bates

Rod Parsley, Charismatic televangelist, claims to be Pentecostal and associates with Pentecostals, but who is he?

Some good people have said some bad things about Rod Parsley. But they have not said them long enough or loud enough. The critics need to be heard.

Rick Warren and Worship

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Covenant Life, Joel Osteen, Josh Harris, Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren, Saddleback Church

Rick Warren pastors one of the largest churches in America, is a popular inspirational writer, and, in that sense, epitomizes the success of the growing megachurch phenomenon.

Before there was Rick Warren, there was Bruce Wilkinson. Remember him? He wrote The Prayer of Jabez (2000) that sold a zillion copies. Greedy, money-grubbing preachers were beating themselves up because they had not thought of it first. It was, of course, the perfect religious expression for a materialistic, prosperity-gospel-driven church.

L Nelson Bell and the Bible

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Billy Graham, Christianity Today, J Gresham Machen, John Pollock, L Nelson Bell, Pearl Buck, Presbyterian USA, secular humanism, While Men Slept

L Nelson Bell (1894-1973) was a Presbyterian medical missionary to China for 25 years (1916-1941), a practicing physician-surgeon in Asheville, North Carolina, for 15 years (1941-1956), a churchman, a broadcaster, a founder (with Billy Graham) of Christianity Today, a director for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and moderator of the Presbyterian Church, US. In his biography, A Foreign Devil in China: The Story of Dr L Nelson Bell, told by John C Pollock, Bell leaves a large footprint. Someone told his son-in-law Billy Graham, “People may think you’re a big man, but you’ll have to go some to measure up to your father-in-law.” I feel much the same way. 

John Wesley and His Workout

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Aristotle, Daniel Castelo, John Wesley, Keith Drury, workout your own salvation

Recently I came into knowledge of a paper, titled “Perfecting One Another: Friendship and the Moral Implications of Wesley’s Small Groups,” presented at the 2006 meeting of the Wesleyan Theological Society. I did not attend the meeting and do not know how the paper was received; but I know that presenting a paper is a matter of pride with academicians and, no doubt, puffed this young man’s ego at the time. Perhaps when Daniel Castelo (Seattle Pacific University) is older, as I am now, he will look back on it with a different perspective and weep. Perhaps. It is said that John Wesley refused to preach old sermons: “Once in seven years I burn all my sermons; for it is a shame if I cannot write better sermons now than I did seven years ago” (referenced in his Journal).