General Articles

Pandemic! Martial Law! Close the Churches! :: By Gary Ritter

Published on: by RR7

Just think if Hillary Clinton was president at this moment in time. Can you imagine the response from the Leftist-Socialist-Marxist crowd given this crisis? As Rahm Emmanuel famously said, they should never let a crisis go to waste.

President Trump, over these last several years, has been roundly criticized for wanting to close our borders. In the wake of the coronavirus, because it originated in China, he put severe travel restrictions on that nation. That was naturally called racist and xenophobic. Actually, at this stage, the mere mention of China and foreign and virus by Trump in the same sentence is considered highly inflammatory and nationalistic on his part.

The Democrats are in high dudgeon against Mr. Trump by declaring that THEY have the answers and wouldn’t be as stupid as he in dealing with the situation. Nothing he can do could ever measure up to their response in a crisis. Really?

Ten years ago, when the H1N1 swine flu hit this country with President Obama and Vice-president Joe Biden in charge, according to the CDC, some 60 million Americans were infected, with almost 300,000 people hospitalized. From that epidemic, more than 12,000 people died. (https://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/estimates_2009_h1n1.htm).  As Rush Limbaugh asked, “Does anybody remember that?”

The answer is, of course, no. The reason is because of who was in the Oval Office. The media is the Left. Leftists love big government, and Mr. Obama was the personification of all their hopes and dreams. To make a huge stink out of so many people dying at the time would have been to criticize the one they loved, adored, and considered a messianic figure, let alone that the government wasn’t truly the answer to the problem. But that was then and this is now.

If the Left held the reins of power in this nation right now, what might happen? Already we have major sports leagues postponing parts of their seasons. The NCAA basketball tournament has been cancelled.  Universities and many other schools have cancelled classes and are going online. Amusement parks have closed. Although, to date in the United States as I write this, the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, the official name for the virus, is only 1336 people infected. Of them, 36 have died (https://ncov2019.live/data). That’s a tragedy and I don’t want to underplay that, but frankly, those are miniscule numbers. Yes, the virus is highly contagious. But the media-induced panic seems somewhat misplaced.

Regardless, consider Hillary Clinton in the White House. The Left has been trying for years to change our electoral process, the latest effort being to delegitimize Donald Trump from the 2016 elections.

What a perfect scenario this would have been for Ms. Clinton. With the media craze in full bore, I can easily imagine some of the steps she might take. How about a presidential address from the Oval Office similar to that which Mr. Trump did, but quite different?…

“My fellow Americans. Because of the dangers of the highly infectious COVID-19 pandemic sweeping the globe, which as we’ve recently learned, the United States had a hand in propagating, tonight I am declaring Martial Law in our country. Effective midnight tonight, all U.S. Armed Forces will be on high alert to respond as needed to my orders. All National Guard units are being called to the ready. Every police and sheriff’s office around this great nation will be placed under federal jurisdiction.

“We have determined that churches in this country have proven to be ground zero for virus infection and incubation. Because of this, I am ordering all churches in every state, county, and municipality to close and remain closed indefinitely. By this federal order, and enforced by whatever means necessary, no churches may gather for any reason. Any violation of this order will result in severe penalties.

“In addition, I am issuing an Executive Order that all firearms must be surrendered immediately to federal authorities. Under Martial Law it is unconscionable that any individuals would have the means to disrupt the peaceful means by which we are getting this virus under control. When federal agents come to your door asking for your firearms, I expect everyone to comply. This is a critical and well-reasoned step we are taking for the safety of all in this nation. Failure in this effort is not an option. Resistance is futile.

“This is all I have to say for now. We’ll have many more updates in the days ahead. Just remember, all these actions that we’re taking are because I care for you. May whatever god you worship be your guiding light in these dark and troubled days. Thank you all and good night.”

If this is conceivable, how about some time in the near future when Donald Trump isn’t president anymore and the levers of power are in the hands of the Democrats? If we’re to believe Bible prophecy—which I certainly do—I think it’s inevitable that the party of wickedness that celebrates the shedding of innocent blood through abortion will hold that position at some point soon.

Maybe it’s not a Hillary Clinton; it almost doesn’t matter who from the Left. Given a panic situation, of which there will certainly be more as the days grow darker and lawlessness increases, we’ll inevitably have a person of her stripes or worse.

Do you think Martial Law is beyond the pale? Do you really believe that these people wouldn’t take the first opportunity to shut down Christianity as they know it once they can? Or that they wouldn’t take our guns?

All this is coming in one form or another. The Bible tells me so.

For those of you washed by the blood of Jesus and looking forward to His soon return, isn’t that a joyful expectation?

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Gary W. Ritter is a lay pastor, Bible teacher, and serves as Missions Director at his church.  He is also a prolific author.  His Whirlwind Series is comprised of three books: Sow the Wind, Reap the Whirlwind, and There Is A Time.  These books are contained in the collected volume of the Whirlwind Omnibus.  Gary has been given the Christian Redemptive Fiction award for two novels: The Tattooed Cat and Alien Revelation.  He has recently released Looking Up – Volume 3, a non-fiction work that contains essays and devotions on end-times and prophetic events.  Gary’s intent in all his writings is to bring a strong Christian witness to what people read.  You can reach him at his website: www.GaryRitter.com or his Facebook Author page:  https://www.facebook.com/gritter3390.  You can also see his video Bible teachings on his Gary Ritter YouTube channel – look for the fish symbol.

Vapor in the Wind :: By John Lysaught

Published on: by RR7

“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14).

In the grand scheme of eternity, we, as humans, are just a vapor in the wind. We may feel time drags by and that we will live a long and healthy life in this world, but in reality, and regardless of, our time is short, just a wisp of air in a timeless universe.

We may try to fool ourselves, but we are in this world for a very short time, here and gone in a blink of an eye, bound to leave this world through death or the rapture in an instant, when we think of eternity and our time in this world.

We all yearn to be home with our Father and Jesus, but in our everyday lives, time seems to move slowly. Yet, when we look back on our lives, the reality is that time has quickly conquered us, and we begin to realize as we age that our lives are very short and, in fact, time has been wasted on needless thoughts, worries, and activities.

We look at time as a burden as we rue lost time and complain that we need more time to do and complete the things that we want to do, and do for the Lord. We sit in today and proclaim that we will do this or that… maybe tomorrow… or down the road, only to be overtaken by time and missed opportunities to serve our Lord and Savior.

What we do with our short time on this world matters – it really does. We waste valuable time doing things that are truly not important in our short time on earth. We empty out the hourglass, chasing down what we think is important in our personal lives or waste it with irrelevant activities such as watching television, stressing out over things we can’t control, and satisfying self-gratifying desires that are contrary to the Will of God and through the ignored unction’s we receive from the Holy Spirit.

What is important and a priority in our lives will be what we spend our time doing. If we are not faith-centered, valuable time is lost. Oh, you may say you have to compartmentalize activities with God and without Him for the things we do, such as work, or home life, or spending time with worldly friends, but it shouldn’t.  When we are faith-centered and God-focused, all our time can be for the betterment of our sanctification.

We cannot exclude the Triune God in the separate functions we do each day. We cannot leave Them out in our lives until Sunday morning. They must always be involved in all aspects of our lives. There is no time in our existence that does not need our Father, Christ, or the Holy Spirit.  Each and every moment of our waking time should be with Them at the forefront of our motives and actions.

To close the door on our faith in any aspect of our lives and time on earth leads to sin. When not faith-centric all day, each day, we open ourselves to the wiles of the Devil to pry into our lives and take the precious time we do have away from our love of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.  If you are doing something that you believe They are not involved in, or should be involved in, then it is time to turn from that and do something else.

When we sin and continue in sin, we are taking time away from our relationship with God who wants us to rely on and love Him so we can be of service to Him in our short time here in this world. We don’t know when our time is up here in the world, so we need to make the most of it, not for self, but for our Father in Heaven.

I’ve never met someone who didn’t think they weren’t going to live a long and fulfilling life. I’ve never met someone who told me they planned on getting incurable cancer, a heart attack, or die in a car accident today, or ever, that would shorten their time here. But it happens; therefore, we must take heed of what we do with time in our lives.

We don’t know what the rest of each day has for us. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring either.  I’m not being a pessimist, but only being realistic. We get into routines in life and assume that life will roll on day after day without a glitch or bump in the road. From experience, we all know this is not true, but we live this way anyway. We forget we are just a vapor in the wind.

We, as believers, know that in terms of eternity, our lives are short. The people of the world don’t have that same perspective. They say time is on their side, but is it? They make plans for a future that may not come to fruition. They go each day about their business not worrying about time or how little time there is left in this world.

The world ambles around aimlessly each day without the realization that their lives can end at any moment. They are blind to what we as believers know – time is short, especially in these end times. The world believes that time is their friend when, in reality, time is a crutch in their wandering lives.

Satan wants people to waste time. He wants people to live for tomorrow, even though tomorrow is not a guarantee. He perpetuates this idea that it is all about the future – retirement, growing old, vacations, and such. He has the unsaved believe that time spent on self is time well spent. This is a lie, because we are not timeless on this earth, and worldly people are destined to die and spend eternity outside the comforting arms of our Father in Heaven if they don’t change and turn from this lie.

Does this mean we shouldn’t hope for a long life or plan for future events? No, not at all, but it is about the attitude you have towards time that matters. If our priorities are for worldly ends, a reevaluation needs to be done. If the means to the end is God-focused, then we are on the right track.

We, as saved sinners and believers of Christ’s redeeming sacrifice, know we can’t stop time, but also that time is not under our control. We need not worry about tomorrow or stress-out about what the future can bring us, for we know what our destiny is, regardless of if our time runs out tomorrow or next week, in 10 years, or beyond.

We should have hope for tomorrow, yes, but that hope needs to be Kingdom-centric, not worldly-centric. Spiritually, our hope is in the Lord, not the world.  Our time spent here on earth needs to be well spent on the things of God and doing His will in our lives. To live otherwise begs the question of what you are living for.

johnflysaught@gmail.com