Rage and Vain Things :: By Rob Pue

I’m starting today in Psalm 2, verses 1 through 5. “Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.’  He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure.”

As Solomon once noted, “there is nothing new under the sun.” Still today, the heathen RAGE. In fact, they are raging more intensely than I’ve ever witnessed in my entire life, and it’s growing worse every day.  And the people IMAGINE many vain things. Note here that the HEATHEN rage, and the PEOPLE imagine a vain thing. Who are the “heathen?” Obviously, this speaks of the ungodly — the God-haters.  And who are the “people?” I believe this refers to those who consider themselves God’s people, those who honor Him with their lips, but whose hearts are far from Him.

Some time ago, I spoke about the word “Imagine,” the root word of which is “Image.” When we IMAGINE, with our own simple human minds, we create an image in our minds, and it should be noted that all sin flows from the heart and then begins in the mind. This is why Paul told the Corinthians that we are to “CAST DOWN imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” In other words, when those thoughts that are contrary to God’s will enter our minds, we are to take them captive — and make the conscious decision to turn away and choose instead to follow the commands of Christ. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

The problem with the wild imaginations of the heathen is that instead of taking every thought captive to Christ, they break the second commandment, essentially creating for themselves “graven images,” “engraved,” if you will, in their minds. They are SO ENGRAVED, in fact, that they form their worldviews, and now today, even their perceived personal identities. Thus we have people “identifying” as “transgender,” for example.

They have IMAGINED vain things, created false gods and ideologies which they now worship instead of God, believing lies instead of truth. Identifying as “homosexual” or “transgender” or “pro-choice” or “Democrat” or “Republican” IS their god. As the Scripture says, “They take counsel together,” UNITED against the Lord and His anointed, saying, ‘Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us.’” This is the demonic theology of secular humanism and “moral relativism.” “If it feels good, do it.” “What might be right for you may not be right for me.” “That’s fine if that’s what YOU believe, but it’s not what I believe, and that’s fine.” There is no moral compass, no absolute truth.

But this is all vanity. The “heathen” RAGE, while the “people” IMAGINE a VAIN thing. Have you noticed the utter impotence of the Establishment, Institutional “churches?” While the heathen rage, the church people, with no courageous, Godly shepherds to lead, teach and train them up, are left to their own devices; and because they are biblically illiterate, they imagine vain things.

And what IS a “vain thing?” According to the dictionary, “vain” or “vanity” means: “excessively proud of or concerned about one’s own appearance, qualities, achievements, etc.” And PRIDE in, or concern about one’s appearance or qualities.” And “vain” and “vanity” have other, equally important definitions as well, including: ineffectual or unsuccessful, …futile.” And without real significance, value or importance;  baseless or worthless.”

Salt that has lost its savor, good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled on by men… those heathen that rage against God and against His anointed are prideful, narcissistic, self-centered, “entitled,” and the ideologies they IMAGINE are ineffectual, unsuccessful, futile, baseless and worthless.  And today, we have more “church people” than ever being wooed along just the same as the God-haters, and they are embracing the same vain imaginations.

Today, vain, evil and useless ideologies have taken root, setting themselves against God and His anointed… and the church people are going along with it. The kings and rulers of the earth take counsel together, against the Lord. The “powers that be” behind the social revolution taking place mysteriously behind the scenes are part of this too. And they all believe they can “break the bands of the Lord and His anointed asunder and cast away their cords.” Not gonna happen. Because their rage is in vain. Yet they still continue to rage. Because it’s all they know.

Recently, I spoke on the topic of “hypocrisy.” I talked about the origin of the word “Hypocrite,” and explained that the literal definition of “hypocrite” is “an actor or performer.” I gave several examples of the hypocrisy of our Hollywood heroes — actors, entertainers, performers — those who are the primary players in the forming of the worldviews of our young people. Indeed, it seems, ALL the people, young and old, God-haters and “church people” alike, take their cues from cultural trends. Those trends are molded and set by celebrities, performers and entertainers, and their fervent advocates among leaders in government, the mainstream press, and the public educational systems. They are all working hand-in-hand, setting themselves against the Lord.

It’s not my intention to propagate a “conspiracy theory” here. But it’s not a conspiracy theory if it’s true.  I believe that God recently opened my eyes and revealed something to me that is very important and very real. It explains why so many of our young people — and even so many of our adults — are turning their backs on God and choosing to embrace lies.

First, let me go back to the words of Moses in Deuteronomy 11.  He said: “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you rise up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates….” Moses was speaking here of God’s Commandments. He went on to say, “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse…the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God…the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you by following other gods, which you have not known.”

As always, God gives us the freewill to choose. The “bands” that the godless want to break asunder and the “cords” they desire to cast away are the commands of God. As fools, we can certainly choose to DO that; but the result is a curse on our house, our children, and our children’s children. In other words, exactly what we are seeing taking place in our world today.

For those pulling the strings and orchestrating all this behind the scenes — yes, CONSPIRING together to create a new one-world, godless Utopia — it has been a long, slow process. But it has now come to fruition, and the “curse” that God said would come is here: depraved minds, seared consciences, the love of many grown cold, as God has “given us over” to suffer the consequences of the choices we have made.

Here is how this demonic plan, put into motion many years ago, has played out: In June of 1962, the United States Supreme Court decided that prayer in public schools violated the First Amendment because it constituted the establishment of religion. So even though, from the foundation of this nation, prayer before the school day began was the standard of a respectful and reverent student body, it suddenly became “illegal” and forbidden.

A year later, the Supreme Court forbid public school students from reading their Bibles. Even though all of our nation’s schools and colleges were not only founded on biblical principles, but the Bible was the standard textbook from which many students learned to read and the Book from which they gained their moral compass, the simple decision of a few men rendered it, too, forbidden.

Ten years later, the Supreme Court decided the murder of unborn babies would now become “legal.”  There were many other Supreme Court decisions along the way that seemingly became the “law of the land,” even though the Supreme Court has NO authority to make laws. Yet we quietly acquiesced to each one.

Then in 2015, another landmark, as the Supreme Court DECIDED it was now the “law of the land” that men may marry men and women may marry women, and anyone who opposed this was labeled a “hater.” “Love wins” was the smug, spiteful response of the deranged sodomites. Meanwhile, the church people simply rolled over and continued to sleep, just as they have since 1962.

Today, our Creator has been thrown out of public education entirely, as our Godly heritage and history is sandblasted from public view. One may not even speak the name of Jesus, unless it is used in its accepted context — as a CURSE WORD — without incurring the wrath of the State. Today, our children are indoctrinated with the demonically delusional “science” of evolution from the youngest of ages, and the sodomites cannot get their hands on our children early enough — “the earlier the better,” they say, hoping to normalize this perversion even among preschoolers.  By the time your children endure preschool, kindergarten, 12 years of public school and four years of college, they’re completely brainwashed and you no longer even recognize them — even if, and sometimes ESPECIALLY if, you took them to church and Sunday School every week.

Their minds have also been poisoned with entertainment and social media. As parents, we allowed them to watch what we considered “wholesome” television. The cute little girl, Lindsay Lohan, was adorable.  Preteen daughters grew up with her, had posters of her in their bedrooms. Then there was Hannah Montana, whose real name is Miley Cyrus. And of course, all the kids watched the entertaining “Bill Nye, the Science Guy.” They grew up watching these people and became “hooked.” These were their childhood heroes, and parents considered it good, wholesome entertainment.

But as our kids came of age, so did these actors…. and our kids continued to follow and emulate them.  Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus, all those “boy bands” the Moms thought were so cute… all became sexualized and depraved in high definition living color, and our kids followed along. Now, “Bill Nye, the Science Guy” has a new program targeted to adults called “Bill Nye Saves the World.” But this is no savior. This man, whom our children adored as toddlers and pre-teens, now has one of the most perverse television programs out there, extolling the “virtues” of sodomy, still railing against God and Creation and selling the most dangerous lies possible as scientific truth. And who is he talking to now?  The SAME kids — only now, they’re in college.

Is it any wonder our colleges no longer tolerate diversity of ideas, and they RIOT if a conservative speaker has an opinion? Is it any wonder many of our college students now need “safe spaces” with Play Doh, coloring books and free condoms?

“Hook ‘em while they’re young,” they say. And so they have. And thus, we no longer recognize most of our children today. Their minds were captured when they were just babes, and we let it happen, because we were too blind to see what was really going on. We practiced our vain form of religion faithfully once a week, thinking “our church isn’t like those others; our church is ‘good,’  — and it has a GOOD ‘youth group.’” All the while sending our kids to public school indoctrination centers every day, thinking “our school isn’t like those others — our school is good.”

Mere frogs in the pot as the water temperature rose; and we, as the church, enjoyed the warm, comfortable bath water, until we found ourselves boiled. It’s our own fault, my friends. We let this happen. We did not fix God’s Word in our OWN hearts and minds; we certainly didn’t tie them as symbols on our hands or bind them on our foreheads. We didn’t teach God’s commandments to our children, talking about them when we sat at home and when we walked along the road, when we went to bed and rose up. We didn’t write them on the doorframes of our houses or on our gates… No. We left all THAT up to the youth group and the church. We had before us a choice of blessing and cursing, and we chose the curse. We let our children be led by the hypocrites of the entertainment world and vain religion, and we ourselves forgot God.

Today, as we see our children’s’ lives and our world self-destruct, the Lord speaks to us in His wrath, and we are “VEXED in His sore displeasure.”  Why on earth would we expect any other outcome?

There IS hope, but you MUST take this seriously now. TURN BACK, people! Remember God, and if we seek Him in true sorrowful repentance, He will hear from heaven and have mercy on us. He IS merciful and gracious and full of love for those who truly seek Him. But time is short. RIGHT NOW is your time of decision. Hear me:  RIGHT NOW IS YOUR TIME OF DECISION! Tomorrow you may step into eternity. He has set before us blessing and cursing. It’s OUR choice.

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Audio CDs and transcripts of this message are available when you call me at Wisconsin Christian News, (715) 486-8066.  Or email Rob@WisconsinChristianNews.com and ask for message number 199.