“If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?” The Mad Hatter, Alice in Wonderland

From a faux-impeachment to a CCP-spawned pandemic; from Murder Hornets to massive wildfires; from numerous hurricanes to anarchy and riots; from historic Mid-East peace initiatives to one of the craziest election heists ever seen in American history. The year 2020 will definitely go down in the books as one of the most bizarre, topsy-turvy years on record. Most people (believers and non-believers alike) have been scratching their collective heads trying to make sense of all this. All I can say is that this has been 100 years in the making, and promises to lead to one inescapable conclusion – the Rapture of the Church and the world’s coming appointment with divine judgment.

Since the founding of our nation in 1776, our nation has undergone several significant turning points that have shaped the course of our nation’s destiny. This means had the U.S. gone in the wrong direction, our nation would have never survived. Fair to say, our nation has been under assault by our adversary the Devil since before its inception, and he has been relentless.

The Revolutionary War was the result of our declaration of independence from the world’s superpower at the time. Great Britain, then led by the “mad” King George III, who, either he or his enablers, hardened their hearts against their subject’s pleas for liberty. This led to armed conflict, where thousands lost their freedoms, their livelihood, and even their lives. Satan attempted to strangle this baby republic in its cradle, only to see the church rise up and galvanize the citizens against tyrannical rule.

The next major turning point was the Civil War, America’s bloodiest conflict. This war happened when a Republican Union led by a newly elected president, Abraham Lincoln, fought against the pro-slavery Democrats’ (the Confederates’) attempt to secede and form their own nation. Brother fought against brother over the issue of human slavery, costing this nation nearly 700,000 American lives.

The next two events were World War I (the Great War) and World War II (the Good War). While the U.S. survived the aforementioned events, it did so at great costs. World Wars I and II were no exception. Our history presents us with the view that World War II was fought by the greatest generation, against the greatest evil, and winning the greatest victory. However, we did not come out of this war the same as we went into it.

The Civil War changed us from These United States to The United States, which was/is a subtle yet powerful distinction. Similarly, World War I changed us from being merely those distant cousins from across the pond to new actors on the world’s stage. World War II changed us from being merely actors on the world stage into the world’s premier superpower. The spoils of victory here were and are still self-evident. Our victory gave us global prestige, economic dominance, and military superiority. History tells us the United States and her allies decisively won World War II; but did we really win? Moreover, what did we lose in this victory? How does this play out today in the 21st century, and what does it mean in this contentious election year of 2020?

The answer is both maddeningly simple yet intentionally complicated.

Simple: With our victory, we lost our sense of American Exceptionalism.

Intentionally complicated: We spent the next seventy years heavily investing ourselves in globalism by way of endless nation-building to combat the spread of communism. We oversaw the rise of the military-industrial complex, and we justified it by declaring a Cold War against the Soviet Union. This inevitably led to speeding the rise of increasingly frightening technologies that will one day enslave humanity. This technology led to the rise of extremely powerful and wealthy multinational conglomerates, which began spreading its ties around the world like an impossibly complicated spider web. In other words, the waters got muddied.

However, let me back up a second. By the late 18th century, the American and French Revolutions (followed by numerous others) had influenced much of the European elite that it was perhaps time to sunset monarchial rule. Although Europe has kept their royal families even until today, the true political power began to shift toward nationalist governments by the middle of the 19th century. This, along with the Industrial Revolution, began to play itself out as a time of great turmoil as nations jockeyed to become the number one military power. This escalation and overconfidence in the industrial arms race was a large reason why Europeans were so quick to rush into World War I.

In early 1914, though, it seemed almost impossible that Britain and France would go to war with Germany to defend Russia against Austria-Hungary over a dispute with Serbia. Yet by June 28, war moved straight from impossible to inevitable — without ever passing through improbable. Four years later, 10 million people had died. (From World War One: First war was impossible, then inevitable; Anatole Kaletsky)

Even though World War I cost Europe a generation of young men, it presented itself as the right time to dismantle the old empires and build a new world (e.g., Sykes-Picot Agreement, Balfour Declaration, San Remo Conference, League of Nations, etc.).

The world leaders of the 1920s decided nationalism would be the solution to the world’s problems. This decision turned former colonies into nation-states almost overnight. Most of these former colonies were often ill-equipped for self-governance. Predictably, freedom, when given to people who have never had it, often turns bad quickly as the first strong man to grab the reins often never lets go. Within two decades, the world was filling up with tin-pot, banana republics.

However, even a modernized and civilized nation like Germany was not immune to poorly-thought-out decisions. The Treaty of Versailles, for instance, was so heavy-handed in its punishment against Germany that socialism and communism became the preferred solution to their problems. This allowed for an unknown political entity called the National Socialist German Workers Party, or Nazis, to rise to power. As history has borne out, the Third Reich became the vilest expression of nationalism ever seen. The world once again marched quickly toward war.

Nevertheless, if WWI was the rallying cry to dismantle the old world order, then WWII became the rallying cry to create a new one. The Nazis had just provided globalists the perfect crisis to expose the evils of nationalism and supposed virtues of globalism. This then provided the perfect justification for a United Nations. Even the great British statesman Winston Churchill was not immune to the globalist euphoria sweeping the late 1940s. He took it a step further and proposed creating a united Europe with a single leader. The End state: Globalism good. Nationalism bad.

That was the way of the world for roughly the next forty years until President Reagan came along. In fact, no president since Abraham Lincoln had done more to champion American Exceptionalism than Ronald Reagan.

In asking what we lost by winning, what we really lost was western civilization. With socialism (communism-light), the most predominant form of government in the post-WWII era, one notable change was the subtle yet increasingly aggressive attacks on American history, our civic duties, on Christianity, and the family. This corruption came through the education systems, through pop culture, churches, and the political machinations of both the ideological left and the bureaucratic establishment.

Their goal?

To fundamentally change America.

How would they do it? By corrupting America from the inside out.

Not to be outdone, there was also a war to corrupt America from the outside in. The political, military, and economic interests became multinational in scope and international in reach. From endless wars and conflicts arising from our global nation-building during the Cold War to the industrial empires rising out of the ashes of the old world order. Add in the political and unelected power brokers (Trilateral Commission, Bilderberg Group, Club of Rome, etc.) who began to exert their influence over the elected powerbrokers.

Their goal?

To make America so hopelessly entangled in world affairs that we had no choice but to embrace globalism. Granted, Reagan was not perfect (no president is), but he understood what made America exceptional. It wasn’t our political power. It wasn’t our economic power. It wasn’t even our citizens. It was our Constitution and our shared history that forged us into a nation like no other. After Reagan’s second term ended in 1988, it would be nearly thirty years later until we saw this same mentality rise again, through the likes of the most unlikely of candidates, Donald Trump.

There are six major narratives being spun today that bear sorting through to make any sense of what we are seeing here in the waning months of 2020. One candidate, the incumbent populist/nationalist Republican, President Donald J. Trump, ran against the former vice president, Joe Biden, in one of the most lopsided campaign years ever recorded. Let us go through these together.

1. Illegitimacy: The Democrats spent four years trying to delegitimize the Trump Administration. After four years of complaining, rioting, protesting, boycotting, and investigating supposed Russian interference in the 2016 election surprise victory by Donald Trump, the Democrat Party and its sycophants — the MSM, Big Tech, academia, and Hollywood — are actively working overtime to convince everyone the 2020 election was legitimate. This despite egregious abuses and irregularities that are too obvious to ignore.
2. Suppression: The mainstream media (MSM) ignores the actual outright and blatant election fraud and interference by major social media platforms and news outlets. They are selling this false narrative (polling propaganda) that a candidate who: did not campaign, could not string two sentences together, has promised to pack the courts, continue lockdowns, kill energy industries, and raise taxes, has preemptively won the 2020 presidential election in a historic landslide. In fact, they have all declared him the defacto winner. Joel Osteen would be proud.
3. Scandal: The massive “laptop from hell” scandal broke out weeks before this election. What it exposed rather graphically is corruption at the highest office. More evidence is coming out on how the Democrat candidate’s flagrant abuse of ‘selling influence’ to the Chinese and Ukrainians in the years leading up to 2020 completely compromises him as the POTUS. Furthermore, the Democrat scandals of the outgoing Obama Administration (spy-gate, Hillary’s laptop, Benghazi, etc.) have plenty to lose with a Trump reelection.
4. Desperation: The year 2020 also saw a complete change in our voting processes, which, supposedly due to the global pandemic, meant voting in person was deadly. This was the justification for the universal distribution of unverified, unsolicited mail-in ballots, which blanketed our nation, particularly in swing states. Of course, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) predictably reversed this decision two weeks before the election, despite the fact that mail-in ballots had already been sent out. They presumably did this because they saw the potential for the “red wave” happening. Now numerous states have to contend with “double-ballots” (mail-in and in-person), ballot harvesting, the stashing of blank ballots used as a fail-safe against a Trump victory in swing states.
5. Interference: Technology and its social media platforms are actively being used to alter/interfere with the outcome of this election in swing states. The vote-counting machines (Dominion) in nearly 30 states are linked to the Clinton Foundation. These machines have already demonstrated “glitches,” which automatically switch votes from Republican to Democrat.
6. Bizarro-World: Superman once had an “evil twin” who came from an opposite world called Htrae (earth backward) that did everything the opposite of how it is done on earth. 2020 sorta feels like that. Rioting, looting, and tearing down statues are good, peaceful protests; Trump rallies are evil, super-spreader events. Extended lockdowns, face masks, mail-in ballots are good; economic recovery, no facemasks, and voting in person are bad. Now we all know how Alice felt when she fell into Wonderland.

Most of you already know all this. I am writing this for posterity’s sake so that in the months and years ahead (should the Lord tarry), there will be some evidence of the absolute lunacy we are witnessing today. In addition, I have included the full timeline of the COVID-19(84) viral scheme recently added to this website. https://www.rev310.com/2020/11/petes-mostly-complete-2020-covid-1984-timeline

Conclusion

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
For wisdom and might are His.
And He changes the times and the seasons;
He removes kings and raises up kings;
He gives wisdom to the wise
And knowledge to those who have understanding.
He reveals deep and secret things;
He knows what is in the darkness,
And light dwells with Him” (Daniel 2:20-22).

Belief in political ideologies, whether they be nationalism, globalism, communism, or even something as hopeful as American Exceptionalism, does not occur in a vacuum. Ephesians 6:12 states that there is a spiritual war going on all around us, in which the evil forces are trying to shape and dictate the direction this world will go. There is always a spiritual connection to the ways in which mankind derives his understanding of governance. Ultimately, we know God is on the throne and that our focus should be more on Jesus regardless of who sits in the White House. Still, the election of Donald Trump to the world’s highest office in 2016 seems to run counter to where the forces of evil want this world to go. While it seems their victories are mounting, we also know it is temporary.

We know, according to Scripture, that this world is going to get worse before it gets better (2 Timothy 3; 2 Peter 3). We also know that we should be anxious for nothing, but instead, placing our faith in Christ and His promise to take us where He is (John 14:1-3). We also know that many Christians have suffered far greater fates than we; however, it is not a fair comparison to say that we shouldn’t be outraged at the corruption going on simply because other people have had it worse than us. God places each of us at our appointed time and place, and we are to continue to be the salt and light in an increasingly darkening world.

I believe that Trump’s 2016 election victory was not a fluke, nor accidental, but by design. I believe God put Trump in there primarily to begin moving things along with Israel that are primary to her role in the last seven years. Whether that is the recognition of her capital Jerusalem, or the Embassy move, or even the Abraham Accords. I suppose that if Obama or Bush had done those things already, Trump would have been unnecessary to the grand prophetic scheme. Nevertheless, Trump’s victory, and his subsequent protection since then, has been nothing short of miraculous. I am 46, and I do not know of any other human on the planet who could have endured the 24/7 onslaught that man has had to endure since before he took office.

Furthermore, the fact that he was able to get his Supreme Court candidate ACB through the process at the right time, and also, she just so happens to be a woman of great faith; again, another miracle. Surely, he could not control how long RBG would live, and neither could he predict how his nomination would turn out in an election year, so fortune here favors the one whom God’s hand is upon.

With all these things mentioned, I have four major talking points (with pros and cons) for you to consider regarding the outcome of this 2020 election and whether or not I believe Trump is actually reelected. I believe he will be; however, please consider the following and come to your own conclusions.

[Pro = Trump reelected / Con = Biden elected]

Hardening

1. Pro: Literally, the entire world, save two news networks (and the appropriate government agencies) have called this election for Joe Biden. Considering how deranged the wicked have become since 2016, I am seeing a hardening occur that reminds me of the Pharaoh of the Exodus (Exodus 8-14). Perhaps this is intentional, and God will allow this hardening to continue through a second Trump term… especially when they thought they had this in the bag?
2. Con: Let us say Biden wins the election recount and he is pushed through to become the 46th president regardless of what the courts find. The wicked would party and rejoice as if they had all won the world’s biggest lottery. They will be marrying and giving in marriage. Buying and selling. Finally, they say, “peace and safety.” Well, you know what follows (1 Thessalonians 5:1-9).

I could see this going either way. God could be prepping this last generation by separating, as it were, the wheat from the chaff. He could be hardening them by keeping his man in office. If I were Satan and spent the last 100 years trying to get the world to embrace globalism, and ultimately, a one-world government, I would not want a “Trump” in office derailing all my hard work.

Gog-Magog Part I

1. Pro: According to Ezekiel 38, Israel will be living in a time of prosperity and living peacefully in their land. The only scenario in which I can envision this is if Trump is still in office. They were/are on the way to finally get their dream of normalization with all their Arab neighbors with the Abraham Accords.
2. Con: Given the Obama-Biden Administration’s history with the Arab Spring and Iran, I think the Abraham Accords would all fall apart rather quickly. Biden would remove the sanctions from Iran and get them back on track to building a nuclear bomb. Israel would not be living safely with an empowered Iran.

I believe the Gog-Magog Invasion happens between the Rapture of the Church and the official start of the 70th Week. I am not dogmatic about the timing of this, but I feel like this makes the most sense regarding all that must occur with the rebuilding of the invasion (attempted), the arrival of the Two Witnesses, the building of the Third Temple, etc.

New Babylon

1. Pro: My third reason for believing in a Trump reelection is the creation and/or rise of the new Babylon. We know the Saudi’s have a plan for the construction of a new mega-city called Neom that will border Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt. I do not know if this will be the “new Babylon” or not, but it sure seems like it wants to be it. This is feasible under a second Trump administration, especially given his friendship with the Israelis and the Saudi’s, and his extensive real estate and construction background.
2. Con: If Biden is elected, I think we get the Arab Spring 2.0. I have a difficult time seeing how a Democratic administration, which had already destabilized the Middle East once, somehow shifts U.S. foreign policy back to friends with Iran and simultaneously gets the Sunni’s and Israelis to back any U.S. foreign policy interests.

We know, according to Scripture, that this new Babylon (if it has to be a literal interpretation) should be rebuilt in Iraq; however, Iraq lacks the waterway access to ports and the oceans like Neom would. Perhaps this new Babylon will span (once complete) from Iraq into where Neom will be built through high-speed rail (Iron-Silk Road extension) or some other means of rapid transportation. I could see a political headquarters in Iraq, with its financial districts at Neom. Either way, I do not see a new Babylon coming about under a Democratic Administration.

Gog-Magog Part II

1. Pro: I discussed Israel’s state of affairs under both a Trump and Biden Administration and how different they would likely look. Now we need to go to antagonists for this future drama, namely Russia, Iran, and Turkey. Despite the lack of press coverage, Trump has dealt rather harshly with these three during his first four years. What this has done, in effect, has been to isolate these three from the rest of the world. It has forced these three to become more intertwined, perhaps even more than they even want.
2. Con: I see the policy of appeasement (leading from behind) with a Biden Administration. Historically, appeasement has invited further aggression, which could lend some credence to the Gog-Magog invasion; however, I do not think Israel would fit the profile of living safely in their land were that to happen.

President Trump’s political, diplomatic, and economic pressure on Russia (Gazprom pipeline), Iran (Sanctions), and Turkey (Armenia) has effectively been to stress and further ostracize these three nations. Given the success of the Abraham Accords and Israel’s newfound natural gas exporting endeavors, I believe we are starting to see how the two are going to come to a head in the not-too-distant future. Now, Biden’s presumed policy of both destabilization and appeasement does invite violence, but more terrorism (ISIS) and anarchy (Libya, Syria) and less mass military incursions. The Obama administration’s previous payments to the Iranians gave them breathing room. They would not be as desperate to attack Israel if the sanctions were lifted and other nations were making deals with them once again.

Again, these are largely my prognostications, and I cannot see the future. I, like you, see through the glass darkly. With that said, I could easily end up being wrong. Biden could be elected and largely not do anything in the Middle East. He could serve one, two, three, or four years and then someone else takes over after him. However, I have tried to look at these things from a Biblical, historical, and geopolitical perspective, and hopefully, have given you some things to consider.

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known” (1 Corinthians 13:12).

 

There is the light of a candle in every person relating to goodness. That light connects with the knowledge of good and evil. The good a person has is measured against the standard of man for what is good and evil. That is why the world can say, “He was a good person.” “She did good things.” Goodness is comparative, and its parameters are set by the verdict of man. Man’s judgment is based on standards these days of his own making.

However, what happens when the standard of man has fallen or been perverted by humanism or philosophy? What if the world’s standard of today stands in contrast with the standard of 200 years ago? Today a man is said to be doing good when he works towards the acceptance of homosexuality and the marriage of such practices. 200 years ago, such a man would have been declared evil, jailed or executed.

That shows us the arbitrary nature of the perception of what constitutes good. It has no fixed standard, so the prevailing thought of humanity becomes the standard. They had this problem in Isaiah’s time when good was being accepted as evil, and evil was embraced as good. When there is no standard to measure the continuance of human good with, then the people begin to do what they consider right in their own eyes.

The light of a candle sheds it rays but a short distance, and that is why the conscience of man and his knowledge of good and evil is so limited. When you begin to appreciate God’s perspective on this, then you come to understand that the laws laid down by God for what is right and wrong are eternal laws and decidedly determine the destiny of not only the human race but the individual destiny of individuals. “There is a way that seems right unto man but the ways thereof are the ways of death.”

When the greater light of God illuminates the scene, totally suppressing the candle of human goodness, then we see what is the correct assessment of God in the matter. In Romans, Paul wrote, “There is none that is good, not even one.” Now we have a second standard that is God’s standard. The light of God will show up both the true and the false – what is good in man’s eyes and what is good in God’s eyes. The latter is the true goodness, and by it, all men and women fail. Each one has gone his own way, and each one is corrupt. There is not one good person on the face of the earth.

The candle in man’s soul is of no use ultimately because it is grossly flawed through the old nature that was corrupted at conception, for all are conceived as sinners and bankrupt morally in the light of God. It is no use using the light of man’s candle to determine what is good and evil. To follow the leading of the candle will lead to eternal darkness. It is only when man comes to the light, and he is revealed for what he is in the true light of God, that he can understand who he truly is in the sight of God. That leads to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

Jesus was met one day by an inquirer – Mark 10:17-18 “As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and began asking Him, ‘Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?’ and Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.'” This man wanted eternal life but got a confrontational answer that turned him upside down. At first glance, the response Jesus gave seemed strange in that He deflected the appellation of goodness from Himself to God. However, that is not a problem as He is God, and He is good as He confirmed of Himself in John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. John 10:14 “I am the good shepherd and I know My own, and My own know Me.”

We have established that no one is good in the eyes of God, and God alone is good.

Where do we go from there in wanting to establish goodness? A study of Romans 3 is very damning of the human race – Romans 3:10-18 “As it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There is not even one. Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues they keep deceiving. The poison of asps is under their lips. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their paths, and the path of peace have they not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.'”

Human beings cannot establish their own goodness, for they begin from a corrupt base. The great thing about Romans is that it lays out the progressive steps to man’s righteousness, and therefore goodness.

In Romans 2:4 we read, “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance,” that being “the goodness of God that leads to repentance,” in the KJV.

How does the goodness of God lead to repentance? We know that God uses judgment and hardship to wake people up then lead men to repentance, but can that be termed the goodness of God? J. I. Packer said, “God’s love is an exercise of his goodness toward sinners. As such, it has the nature of grace and mercy. It is an outgoing of God in kindness which not merely is undeserved, but is actually contrary to what is deserved; for the objects of God’s love are rational creatures who have broken God’s law, whose nature is corrupt in God’s sight, and who merit only condemnation and final banishment from his presence.”

Thus it is that God’s goodness is displayed in love, mercy, and above all, in provision. It is that provision that bridges the void between God’s righteousness and man’s utter depravity. What is the evidence of His provision? His provision is this – John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly.” The provision is identical to that given to Abraham – Genesis 22:8 “Abraham said, ‘God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,’ so the two of them walked on together.” God’s provision to Abraham was the lamb, but the antitype of the Lamb was to come – John 1:29 “The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!'”

Provision! That was the first step. Calvary lay ahead, for without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.

The blood of the Lamb secures forgiveness and redemption, the second process of God to complete the full transformation of human beings. The Bible uses different terms for this transaction – from darkness to light, the new birth, saved from sin, and simply but profoundly, “in Christ.”

When a person is born again, does that mean he is then good? Has he passed from bad to good? The old nature is bad, very bad, reprobate, and will always be until it is shed in the very presence of the Lord. We need to be exact here. Man in his own nature and humanity will never be good. Those who go to hell are not good. Men think they are, but that is not what God has decreed.

When someone is born again, many things change. God declares that person to be righteous. “But I am not righteous,” claims someone, “because I have this sin that causes me to swear or steal or lie or dishonor God. How can I be righteous when I do these things?”

The reason for that is the old human nature you will have until the time of your death or the Rapture if you are living.

You have the new nature when born again, and it is that new nature that points out the evil of the old nature.

That causes conflict, as we all know.

It is the new nature in Christ that begins to relate to what is truly good.

The standard of good and evil is found in the Bible and interpreted by the Holy Spirit through the new nature, so you know within your spirit what is of God and good, and what is not of God and evil. You should then be able to understand the stark difference between man’s goodness and God’s goodness. Of course, if you are a carnal Christian whose values are fashioned by the world, then you have whole confused areas in your life when you can’t tell true godliness from man’s goodness.

God’s values are determined by His holiness and righteousness. God’s actions will always be consistent with holiness and righteousness. The original universe was created in holiness and righteousness, but when God refashioned the creation from Genesis 1:3 onwards, at each step, He could say, “It is good,” for everything God does is good. Think about it; even judgment is good because it is in accordance with His holiness and righteousness.

Those two attributes of God, holiness and righteousness, have become the two defining qualities that God clothes His redeemed children with. Our original righteousness is depraved unrighteousness, and our original holiness is depraved iniquity. They sit comfortably with the old nature.

However, our new holiness and righteousness are appropriated. They belong to the new nature and originate with God. The following verse speaks of substitution and appropriation: 2Corinthians 5:21 “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Then there is this verse regarding the Spirit of Holiness granted to us that we might be made holy and truly good – John 16:13 “But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak, and He will disclose to you what is to come.”

The unbeliever judges goodness according to a depraved nature. The believer judges goodness according to the Lord and the Holy Spirit who indwells us, and additionally, the Bible. It makes all the difference. True goodness is to become part of our nature, the outflow of the resources given to us. We all know goodness is contained in this passage – Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

A FEW REFERENCES TO GOODNESS TO CONSIDER

There are several references to goodness in the letters of the New Testament, and I have selected three of them to look at. The first is Romans 15:14 “Concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another.” Paul’s assessment of these Christians at Rome was that they were filled with goodness, a far cry from their original position as Roman idolaters. Of course, they now have the Spirit of goodness, an imparted fruit of the Spirit’s ministry. Goodness is the ability to do good for God and to our fellow Christians, which is probably the way Paul was meaning it. The verse was not unique for that assembly in Rome; it has the same application for all Christians of every age.

How do we do good? It can be a difficult question in difficult circumstances, in hostile settings, but it takes the leading of the Holy Spirit to enact those acts of goodness. Paul elaborated further on this matter to the Galatians – Gal 6:9-10 “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary, ¹⁰ so then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.” Verse 10 almost makes it mandatory for Christians to behave in this way, with special care to do good things for our fellow Christians. Some of us find it easy to do good to those of like mind in our Christian circle but stop short at extending that further to all men, especially the antagonistic ones, and some of us really are uncertain how to do that.

The second reference is this one – Ephesians 5:9 “for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth.” This is an interesting verse because, in Galatians, goodness comes from the fruit of the Spirit, sitting alongside love, joy, peace and five others. Here goodness is the fruit of the light (and not merely light). It was the Apostle John who said in 1John 1:7, “But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

This goes back to the contrast with the candle of humanity; they walk in the light of their own goodness and conscience, though often they even choose against their own consciences. We walk in THE light, that same light that surrounds the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the divine light that guides us, imparted through the Spirit of God. The Ephesians verse also includes righteousness and truth, a most perfect summary of the all-rounded Christian.

It is even more personal than that. Paul states goodness, righteousness and truth.

It is God who is good, and we apply this to the Father. Jesus Christ is the righteous One, and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. That makes us, as we walk in the light, the ambassadors of goodness, righteousness and truth — in other words, the ambassadors of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

The third reference is this – 2Thessalonians 1:11-12 “To this end also we pray for you always that our God may count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the work of faith with power in order that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

To be counted worthy of our calling is to fulfill every desire for goodness. It is one thing to have desires and aims and ambitions, but for some of us, that is all they remain; they never eventuate into the practical fulfillment where goodness is carrying out the work.

The light of man’s candle as to goodness has been explored, and we see on the basis of God’s word that all of the goodness of man, apart from a direct connection with God, is of no use whatever. Does that seem to be unfair that there are “good people” in the world walking in the light of their own candles, doing what the world recognizes as goodness? I suppose to us from the human aspect, it is. God is holy, and good people can’t enter heaven. Redeemed, converted people can, but not “good people” without salvation.

There is a test for their worldly goodness, and that test is according to deeds.

It is outlined by God for the great judgment ahead. This verse is well known and relates to the great white throne – Revelation 20:12 “And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.”

God’s penalty in judgment is commensurate with deeds, and those who were “good” in their deeds according to the light of their candle of goodness, God will acknowledge. Those who extinguished that light, such as the vile, wicked criminals and ones like Chairman Mao Zedong, will face a much more terrifying judgment than the person good in the world’s eyes. God knows the heart and motives of everyone, and all deeds will be judged, whether good or bad.

If you ever read this, and all you have is the limited candle of your own goodness, then we would beg of you to discard that for the all-revealing light of God, which is eternal. It will light up your whole being, to draw attention to your entire lack of goodness in God’s sight, and show you the way to the foot of the cross where you can obtain new life in Jesus Christ. You will obtain the discerning light of the Holy Spirit who will bless you with His fruit of goodness. Amen.

ronaldf@aapt.net.au