If you are not troubled by Trump, by press secretary Karoline Leavitt, by supposed prophet Julie Green insisting that judges, if they oppose Trump’s rulings, should be impeached, or as Green suggests imprisoned, possibly even hung, then you are walking in the shadow of those who once destroyed a democracy in 53 days
If it does not strike you as strange that Trump is insisting that the pardons that Biden gave to the January 6th Committee is not valid perhaps you have not followed the Committee’s process as they investigated the attempted coup on that 6th. Perhaps you did not hear the testimonies of the police who were badly hurt—who cannot work now because of those attacks. Perhaps you do not realize that Trump wants to jail many members of the committee. Democracies do not jail members of committees for hearing and listening to witnesses.
In the book of Mattew in the Bible one is told of the great judgement when the Lord Jesus comes in His glory. Jesus speaks of this. First, Jesus already knows that there are both sheep and goats and He divides them putting the sheep on his right side and the goats on his left.
Notice Jesus doesn’t divide them that way because of their good or bad works. The sheep have already been made sheep. That was Christ’s work on the cross. The goats formed themselves into goats, C.S., Lewis would have called them humans becoming monsters such as one meets in a nightmare.
But there are rewards and punishments—the sheep, because they were sheep, gave the hungry something to eat. They gave the thirsty something to drink. They invited the stranger in. They clothed the naked and visited the sick. They went to those in prison.
The goats did none of this!
And Jesus equates the good to others as good to Himself. The lack of caring of others with the lack of caring for Him.
There is a Kingdom, present and yet still coming. There is a King present and yet still coming. I have no doubt that those gifted with His grace will at least eventually see that a stranger went off to a prison in a foreign land and he did not deserve it. Bring him home! I have no doubt that those gifted with His grace will embrace the good judges who want the stranger who had been tortured to be free. I have no doubt that those embraced in the King’s grace because of His cross will, since His throne is set on kindness, truth, and justice, seek only kindness, truth, and justice.
We all experience grief, loss, the feelings of abandonment and even betrayal. I’ve experienced some of that. Losing my mom and dad, a grandma, aunt and uncle, in the midst of birthing four children. I never wanted the telephone to ring again. The last two, children, would come a bit later.
And then there was the time we thought all that we owned would be lost. My husband went with a group of men, camping with the Royal Rangers. An organization much like the Boy Scouts. A young boy went off by himself, fell into the river, and drowned. A hungry lawyer and a hungry reporter brought the whole thing to trial insisting it was the church’s and Royal Ranger leader’s fault. I still remember our friends, we two couples, frighted but prayerful, eating together, playing monopoly, they cheated because I was beating—we laughed until tears ran down our faces. And the next day the end of the trial, the verdict was not guilty, and the jury came down to hug the defendants.
And then there was the time my Church, Journey now Hope, was taken by the PC (USA) denomination because we left in protest of their immoral rulings about marriage and ordination. We lost everything, except our faith. And the next Sunday in a borrowed church communion was blessed. Except my husband had trouble going up to the cup-he was scared he would get lost—and that brings me to my final loss I will write about before I get to my main subject.
My husband had Alzheimer’s, and the first few years were blessed. We shared so much together. We walked, and sung together, visited friends, even made a trip to the bank since my husband could no longer ride his bicycle there. At the time it was the oldest bank in Sacramento, only one. My husband knew everyone there. I took him in to say goodbye and they crowded around him saying goodbye. And then that last week …
Hospice gives you a booklet to help you understand all the signs of death. The legs becoming blotchy, and that final breathing like a fish puffing. That last week he never opened his eyes, did not speak but once, and did not eat or drink water--he could not. And over a few weeks before he had pulled out the hair on his eyebrows and mustache. We sang to him and read scripture, I think he heard.
And then one morning sleeping, after he was gone, God gave me a dream, I was looking out my front window and he was walking up the steps. He had long hair and thick eyebrows, a mustache and even a beard—all of it white. And then I woke up.
And this is to say in the midst of sorrow and grief God gives comfort, hope and peace.
It has been hard to write about this next subject that Timothy Snyder writes about in his On Tyranny. It includes protests and some of them I am bothered by. That is the ones that end with the protestors being violent. I know that is not God’s will. But I know that there have been some that are centered in His righteousness.
Snyder writes:
Practice Corporal Politics.
“Power wants your body softening in your chair and your emotions dissipating on the screen. Get outside. Put your body in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar people. Make new friends and march with them.”
Now I agree with this but there is another way also. The East German Christians protested but they also prayed in their churches. They still followed the Barman Declaration that the Confessing Churches in Nazi times held to. I cannot remember where I read it but as they prayed in their churches and the tanks drove through the streets, many of those in the tanks left them and went into the churches to also pray and that had a great deal to do with how the wall fell.
In Romania the Reformed Churches, in protecting a pastor, were a strong part of the protest, and I have a wonderful movie titled the Singing Revolution in which in Estonia the country virtually, while protesting, sang their way out of the overlords of the Soviet Union.
And very recently the protesters of Hong Kong were greatly carried along by Christians and in the great crowded streets a Christian song was often sung. Hong Kong's protesters adopt Christian hymn as their call to action. This protest was brutally put down, many protesters believed they needed to go into exile, some are still in prison but God has not forgotten.
And that once again brings me to the subject of grief. If we do not grieve the continuing loss of democracy and the many people who are being affected by the loss we will fall into apathy—so we must at least try to understand and grieve with those who grieve.
I just saw an article on Google news that I thought would be funny, "Signs you are in a bad Mexican Restaurant." It wasn't funny, just very good information and made me start thinking about some of my experiences eating Mexican food and wanting some. First of all, l as I have written in my blog Tacos with Grace, my family has eaten a lot of American homemade tacos. but I am thinking about in Mexico.
Years ago when we were often traveling to Baja where my husband's brother worked in an orphanage, I took one trip alone via a bus and then with the lady who founded the orphanage. I came back across the border with a Mexican American couple. They stopped at the outdoor fish market in Ensenada. That was where I had the best fish tacos I have ever enjoyed. And they are eaten with cabbage not lettuce.
Another enjoyable time was when a friend at the orphanage took me and my husband to a stand that served carnitas. My husband had been there before and told me the owner looked like my dad and he did despite the fact that my dad was a mixture of English and Scottish. The carnitas were wonderful, but the funny thing was that on the way my friend, Valerie told me that the first time they went there they became very sick the next day. I did not get sick and neither did anyone else.
Another story connected with the orphanage which I think I have told before was about a house across from the orphanage where the family operated a small cafe. One day my husband and his brother decided to go in and order some food. They entered and sat down at a table and ordered dinner. They were served but found out afterwards that the family had closed the restaurant but simply served them anyway. Such was the great hospitality.
I didn't intend to let this lead into another posting on Timothy Snyder's book On Tyranny but I think I shall. Chapter 12:
Make eye contact and small talk.
"This is not just polite. It is part of being a citizen and a responsible member of society. It is also a way to stay in touch with your surroundings, break down social barriers, and understand whom you should and should not trust. If we enter a culture of denunciation, you will want to know the psychological landscape of your daily life."
This has a lot to do with the hospitality I mentioned above. The orphanage while filled with Mexican children was helped and aided by many different nationalities. at times it could seem like a large Christian conference although at the time it was a very rugged place to be, For instance when we went we always carried a large amount of clothes, canned food, and used tiny motel soap which they used in their washing machines. The orphanage has since grown and modernized as has Baja.
But Snyder's other words about a culture of denunciation may seem unnecessary for now but not so. Today I listened to a video with Jonah Goldberg and Sam Harris. I only listened to the shorter version since I am not a member of Harris's site. It was about the actions of Vance and Trump toward Zelensky and also about senators who needed courage. One of the reasons they needed courage was because some of them have been threatened including their families. That is one of the reasons some have not spoken up.
Last night, Thursday night, I watched a very old movie, produced in 1940. The Mortal Storm with a great many well-known stars, well known if you are in your eighties, include Margret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan, and Robert Stack. The movie is one of the earlier Hollywood movies that addressed the horror of Nazi Germany and was made before the United States entered the war. There are about 10 others.
The Mortal Storm focuses on a German family in a small university town. The family is shattered, torn apart, by the rise of Hitler. The movie is both sad and romantic. It does not have a happy ending. Part of the back information states:
“What may seem small and personal is instead towering, a bold revelation of the brutality of the Nazi regime that so infuriated propaganda minister Goebbels that he banned all MGM movies in Germany.”
This was an interesting time in America, many were unaware of the reality of Nazi brutality toward those in Germany who disagreed with their ideology. Some were more interested in doing business with Germany and some simply agreed with their insistence that some of humanity was less than human. I have written about that here, The Second Coming of Fascism to the United States.
There were several movie producers, Jewish, who produced movies about Nazi Germany while many in the United States continued to fight over which side we should be on, if any. There was even a senatorial committee formed to investigate the producers, seemingly to suggest that their productions were unlawful because they might formant warmongering groups. Two senators started the investigation, Gerald Nye of North Dakota, and Bennett Clark of Missouri. Steven Ross author of Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews foiled Nazi Plots against Hollywood and America writes of that investigation:
“Clark opened the September Senate hearings by condemning the motion picture industry for glorifying ‘England’s Imperialism’ [Remember England was under attack at that time begging America for arms.] and creating ‘hatred of the people of Germany’. Nye joined the vilification by calling Hollywood the ‘most potent and dangerous Fifth Column in our country.’ … Both senators insisted that their investigation was driven by patriotism and not prejudice. Nye declared the Jews have themselves to blame.”
Notice how familiar this all seems. Accusations based supposedly on Patriotism, accusations of hatred because of truth telling against bullies, a nation being accused of “imperialism” although they are the ones under attack. Nonetheless the investigation came to nothing after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Germany and Italy joining with Japan against the United States.
One must read long and well researched materials to understand the truthfulness of what is happening in our world. History and well written journal material is important in crisis times. Here is Timothy Snyder’s 11th point in his book On Tyranny:
Investigate:
“Figure things out for yourself. Spend more time with long articles. Subsidize investigative journalism by subscribing to print media. Realize that some of what is on the internet is there to harm you. Learn about sites that investigate propaganda campaigns (some of which come from abroad), Take responsibility for what you communicate with others.”
Most of the secular news and opinions I listen to are on the internet. The Dispatch, The Atlantic- of course they both have Christians on staff and religious articles. Also, some articles and opinion pieces in the New York Times. I also subscribe to some religious journals, Touchstone, Christianity Today and Voice of the Martyrs. There are religious programs on the internet that deal with both religion and culture as well as news that I find immensely helpful.
The point is there are a lot of good solid offerings to be had but this should go along with the advice from Snyders last point—read books. Most of the views I hold are formed by Scripture reading, daily, and by love of books both fiction and non-fiction. I have always loved history and believe we can not understand where we are at without some knowledge of history.
So often religious groups that are extreme and yet insist they are biblical, using Scripture to under gird their ideology, are dangerous. They pull apart people’s lives, in some cases even endanger their lives. I mentioned in my last posting about a trip I took with a friend going from Sacramento to the Midwest. I will say a bit about that trip as I write about, in this posting, a dangerous movement connected to the MAGA movement.
The trip with my friend was to eventually divide us in Wisconsin. She was dropping me off in Madison where my sister and her two young daughters lived. She was to go on to Indianapolis where she had been invited to live with a friend and the friend’s mother and help with the church they were attending.
All along the way God kept speaking to my heart telling me to go all the way to Indianapolis with my friend.
I kept saying no, she’s a bit cranky and if I do that she will have to turn around and take me back to Madison.
We landed in Madison for the night. My friend with her expensive camera took pictures of my two nieces and then left the next morning. Without her camera. I in the mean time was trying to get a plane out of either Chicago or Indianapolis and found either was going to be almost impossible when she called to see if her camera was there. Needless to say we both left together for Indianapolis and her friend’s house.
Have you ever entered a place and experienced what could be called red lights flashing in your mind. We both did when we entered the home. The next morning after the friend and her mother left for work we went searching for some clue that would explain our concerns. We found a hand written sermon in a kitchen cabinet.
They, the people in the church, were going to Mars!
We spent the rest of the morning trying to get the friend to return to Sacramento, and chasing down the moving van to send my friend’s furniture back to Sacramento. We were unsuccessful with the first and successful with the last.
I should say that I was so thankful for our church, Ware house Ministries, at the time. As we kept in touch with them, getting their advice and feeling their prayers.
So I write all of this to remind all of us that people can sound biblical, give biblical advice and be totally off the wall with heresy and possible hurt. And this is the main message of my posting. I have written several times about the false prophet Julie Green who is a part of the New Apostolic Reformation movement. She is also friends with a large group of MAGA and Qanon people including Clay Clark, Michael Flynn and Eric Trump Jr. the son of President Trump.
Green is often a speaker at the Reawaken Tour led by the three just mentioned. These meetings are filled with many conspiracy speakers and of course their important focus is Donald Trump.
Green reads her prophecies almost daily and listening it is supposedly God speaking through her. Lately with the presidential election she has God continue to give out judgement on most of the “establishment.” They will be fired, and/or imprisoned and this includes judges who supposedly covered up the “election fraud.” In fact, this includes chief Justice John Roberts.
And now she points to Elon Musk’s many firings as proof that her prophecies are true.
I could go two ways with this. Green is being told ahead of time what is going to happen in the Trump government, but that would be pushing conspiracies myself which I despise. But the other way is that it is so much in the heads and hearts of MAGA people that the Democrats are enemies’ intent on destroying Christians and America that such information as the destruction of their enemies is a main theme in their dreams and Green’s prophecies.
So, to hopefully bring some rational questions to this because Green insists the American Christians are like the Israelites in Egypt, in bondage: Are we slaves or citizens in America? Have we been whipped, beaten, imprisoned, starved, burned at the stake, had our heads cut off as Christians in some other places and times have experienced?
No!
Green keeps pushing this and falsely allowing God, supposedly through her, to call down judgement on enemies, even other Christians. She brings all of the promises of God from the Scriptures to her listeners but then places them in a false time of great persecution. She is bringing harm to the message of the gospel; she may eventually bring harm to those Christians who are not aligned with Trump or his followers.
In another posting I did several years ago, I wrote this:
“The Church was born in tribulation, and still endures the tribulation, not in all places but in some places all the time. From Nero to Hitler, from Domitian to Idi Amin, from North Korea to radical Islam the anti-Christs keep appearing and being destroyed by the will of God. And yes, there will undoubtedly be a final anti-Christ destroyed by Christ’s glorious return.
But not out of the tribulation is there safety, rather in the midst of common life and tribulation, normal workdays and dark eras the Christian finds peace, safety and comfort in the arms Jesus Christ. His people are united to him, nourished by him, kept faithful by him.”
If you are a Christian find your peace in Christ and don’t listen to the wild prophecies of MEGA or NAR today. They quote Scripture while teaching a political ideology.
Years ago, yes, I say that a lot, now. But years ago, I took a trip with a girlfriend, actually a friend of the family. I was to travel with her and then fly home while she stayed with another friend. That is a story in itself that I may write about another time. My husband was kind enough to take care of our children, five at home.
When I returned, we took a trip to Mexico to visit an orphanage where my husband’s brother worked. While there my brother-in-law told us that he had been told that I had ran off with another man. A very big lie!
I finally traced that lie to a sister in-law- who had called the day before I left. I told her I was taking a trip with a friend and would be gone for slightly over a week. Sometimes when you are trying to live for Christ those who are not will jump at the chance to make your life colorful in a bad way. Thankfully that lie did not go far.
Timothy Snyder in his introduction to chapter 10 of On Tyranny, writes about holding on to truth. He writes:
Believe in Truth:
“To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true , then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.”
Snyder goes on to give four descriptions of the death of truth in four modes. He writes that he is using the observers of totalitarians, naming one observer, Victor Klemperer. (P.66)
The first is “open hostility to verifiable reality.” Yes he does use Trump and his many lies here. The second is “shamanistic incantation.” And Snyder refers to Klemperer’s note that “the fascist style depends on ‘endless repetition.’ Snyder gives as one example the constant reference to the “Big Lie” about the stealing of the election as well as the constant reference to various people giving them degrading names. And repeating those names over and over. He writes “The Big Lie created its own world, where anyone who pointed to simple truths was the enemy.”
The third mode is, “magical thinking, or the open embrace of contradiction.” Snyder gives several examples. One is, “Liberating the wealthy from taxes will not increase the national debt.” The fourth mode is, “misplaced faith.” That is placing faith in a person who insists they are worthy of that faith. Snyder gives several examples here, but I am thinking of the video Trump placed on Truth Social yesterday where he was implying that he would save Gaza and had multiple images of himself including a huge gold statue that reminds one of the huge statue that Nebuchadnezzar placed on the plain of Dura insisting that all should worship it.
For a Christian misplaced faith is idolatry because there is only One to place faith in and He, Jesus, is ultimate Truth. But every time we accept untruth, even small lies, we are growing toward that idolatry—we are becoming creatures who are walking in a foggy unreality, losing our foothold.
C.S. Lewis wrote of those who were becoming splendors like gods and goddesses or becoming like monsters of nightmares. Truth or untruths under girds such transformations. Tonight, these weeks, a nation, Ukraine is being hurt by the lies told about them and their leader. The monsters have told the lies and others are agreeing because of the fears that lying can cause.
The first time I heard the phrase “the deep state” was from a friend I had worked with in writing ministry, someone I respected and cared about. When I asked her what she was talking about, and this was all on Facebook, her answer was to me gibberish. I did not understand. I still don’t really. Bureaucrats seeking to destroy America! Democrats who are demonic! No, a better word or words might be mythical creatures created by others with dark imaginations. Or, perhaps, paranoid yet dead imaginations.
The real term could be Democrats whose principles I don’t agree with.
And then there is the term “globalist.” Which, according to some means someone who wants The United States to be absorbed into a one world government. But a globalist might simply mean someone who wants peace among nations with all working toward the good of the nations and peoples.
I have told my story before about a ministry that turned toward dark terms partly because of a book the leader wrote, When The World Will be as One. That was someone who had a very definite definition of globalism. It included as he put it, the Jews (money changers) Jesus chased out of the temple who supposedly went out into the world and became the international bankers.
And then we could think about the “enemy within.” Now that could mean extremist groups in the United States, like The Proud Boys or it could mean American citizens who disagree with political leaders. One is something to worry about, the other is not an enemy but friends of so many who care about democracy.
This leads to Timothy Snyder’s book On Tyranny. His 9th chapter begins with this:
Be Kind To Our Language:
“Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books.”
Okay, I need to take a lot of that advice—I spend too much time on the internet. And I could read a lot more.
Snyder lists some books that would be helpful, writing, “Any good novel enlivens our ability to think about ambiguous situations and judge the intentions of others.” Snyder goes on to list some good books to read, And some of my grandchildren will be pleased to hear one is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
Another helpful suggestion is made to Christians. They, “might return to the foundational book, which as ever is very timely. Jesus preached that it ‘is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God. We should be modest, for ‘whoever shall exalt himself shall be abased and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”
Further: “And of course we must be concerned with what is true and what is false: ‘And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free,’”
Now of course Jesus does go on to state that God can make it possible for the rich man to enter the Kingdom and that would be a change of heart, the regeneration of a lost soul. One who becomes willing to give up all for the Lord. And truth should be capitalized since Jesus is the Truth who gives new life and makes us free, free to live a redeemed life. Free to care for the poor, the needy, the prisoner, the immigrants
