When Bert and Ernie Go Gay, All Is Lost

I absolutely hate the leftist term progressivism. As a philosophy, it is based on the idea of progress, which asserts that advancements in science, technology, economic development and social organization are vital to the improvement of the human condition. In reality, it’s the same debaucheries that have destroyed many previously great empires.

Our society has been progressing on the sexual revolution for several decades. We never arrived at a state of tranquility because lust leaves a void that can never be filled. Temporary satisfaction can only be achieved by going from one vice to another.

About a year ago, former Sesame Street writer Mark Saltzman said he had written scripts thinking of Bert and Ernie as a gay couple. The fixation to make these two characters homosexual lovers dates back to the beginning of the show. But in response, Sesame Workshop said that “Bert and Ernie are best friends” and that even though they have human characteristics, “they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.”

This children’s program has a history of introducing new muppets that reflect the current liberal culture. I remember they had one muppet that was homeless, another one came from a broken home, and recently they had one with a family member that had a drug problem. The only reason why Bert and Ernie are sleeping in separate beds is that Sesame Street executives know that parents would currently go ballistic if they made such a move now.

A poll from my birth state of Iowa shows how rapidly moral standards are changing. Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is 9 points ahead of the four other leading Democratic presidential candidates. It’s not that he is an openly gay mayor that is remarkable. What is stunning is that we’ve reached the point where a candidate’s sexuality is no longer a factor.

The fast-food chain Chick-fil-A has been a favorite target of the left. After what one company executive called “years of taking it on the chin,” referring to the decades of hectoring leveled at the firm by gay activists, the press, and cities and universities with a liberal bias, the chain announced its decision to withdraw support from Christian charities with traditional Christian views on human sexuality.

Beginning next year, Chick-fil-A will move away from its current philanthropic structure. After donating to more than 300 charitable organizations this year, the Atlanta-based fast-food chain will instead focus on three initiatives with one accompanying charity each: education, homelessness and hunger.

The motivation for Chick-fil-A’s announcement has it come out the resounding loser in what the liberal media has labeled the chicken-sandwich war. For several years, the press has promoted chicken products from various other fast-food chains. When Popeyes came out with a sandwich that could match the quality of the one sold by Chick-fil-A, the liberal media acted like Popeyes had just discovered a cure for cancer.

I think the change in Chick-fil-A’s donation plan is a huge mistake. The company had already done this several years ago. The new philanthropic policy appears to be strictly secular to avoid supporting any Christian organization that may have a sexual view that the left can disagree with.

Chick-fil-A is still under attack because the LGBTQ people need an enemy to make into a scapegoat. No amount of public display of contrition will ever suffice. Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), for instance, expressed predictable dissatisfaction with Chick-fil-A’s gesture. The organization’s director of campaigns, Drew Anderson, released a statement noting that, while the company has stopped “financially supporting anti-LGBTQ organizations, Chick-Fil-A still lacks policies to ensure safe workplaces for LGBTQ employees and should unequivocally speak out against the anti-LGBTQ reputation that their brand represents.”

A key problem with the LGBTQ agenda is that there is no way for believers to make peace with this movement. The folks at GLAAD will never be happy until all companies renounce their Christian heritage. If Pete Buttigieg became president, he would demand that Bert and Ernie get married, and he would pressure Chick-Fil-A to fly the rainbow flag.

“For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet” (Rom. 1:26-27).

–Todd

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Blueprint for Delusion

Even a cursory observation by those paying attention, if they are honest, should induce them to acknowledge that this generation is encompassed by attempts to delude. I was in the advertising and public relations business for a number of years before my eyesight problems forced me to turn to other pursuits. The Lord saw to it that I landed softly enough in the field of writing books–for the most part, books on Bible prophecy.

I am most thankful for His providing that parachute into the field of trying to determine truth from lies about unfolding issues and events of these last days.

The advertising business is filled with lies, misconceptions, diversions and delusions of many sorts. The whole objective is to separate consumers from their hard-earned money. Actually, the objective is to get into our wallets, regardless of how the money is earned.

Government regulators now stipulate much more stringent parameters in advertising than they did during my day. For example, you’ve heard that line of mumbling of impossibly-fast-to-be-understood words after some drug company commercials. It sounds like gibberish. Actually, the lines are complying with governmental regulations by explaining possible side effects or other points of information the regulators insist the consumer be given. I’m surprised the government will allow those follow-up announcements to be given in such a hard-to-understand way.

The thing I’m trying to point out is that advertising and public relations are, by their very design, intended to seduce people into buying products and services, or whatever.

This is a form of delusion. Billions of dollars are spent in ad buys and other ways to produce these seductive messages. Campaigns can be long and ongoing in a building propaganda process to construct and establish product identity.

Think, for example, of the diet food industry. Marie Osmond seems to be on the TV screen every hour, on the hour, lauding the praises of Nutrisystem. America’s airways and cable systems are inundated with such commercials.

Whether the product advertisements are truthful in every case or not, the attempts to seduce the buyer are never ending. This is but one step away from deluding the consumer–deluding us to make us believe that something that might or might not be true is almost certainly a fact.

When it comes to spiritual matters, the Bible is absolutely true in every case. And God’s Word speaks powerfully to the matter of false advertising in the spiritual sense. Heaven’s forewarnings about one coming delusion is unmistakable for anyone who will heed the alert.

Satan has a blueprint for delusion. The Bible forewarns about this devilish plan. We are in a time when this forewarning is crucial. The Christian must not ignore the flashing red lights that are bursting all around us today.

Paul the apostle tells through prophecy that God will, following the Rapture of the Church, allow this delusion to come upon earth’s rebels, and they will believe Satan’s big lie. Believers of this Age of Grace must be wise to Lucifer’s evil deception. 

This is why we, collectively, wrote the book we released recently. Discerners: Analyzing Converging Prophetic Signs for the End of Days is designed, we believe, by Holy Spirit influence, to give the Christian a comprehensive  look at signals of how near we are to the time of Christ’s Second Advent, thus to the Rapture of the Church.

Satan wants to foist upon humanity seduction that will delude his victims to believe one particular lie. Regarding the matter of the blueprint for the delusion that our title cocoons, Jeff Kinley has framed the matter in excellent fashion.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Thessalonians,
Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; ⁹ that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, ¹⁰ and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. ¹¹ For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false, ¹² in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

2 Thessalonians 2:8-12 (italics mine)

So, it is clear from Scripture that there is coming a time in history when the whole earth will fall under a grand delusion. The means through which this global deception will take place is the Antichrist, the man of sin. And he himself is directly energized by Satan. Paul says this devilish activity will take place in force during the last three and one-half years of the tribulation. And with his signs (whether they prove to be illusory in nature or actual miracles), he will nevertheless convince the world that he is indeed “God.” And billions will worship him as such (Revelation 13:8,11-15; 14:9,11; 16:2; 19:20; 20:4). This is the culmination of Satan’s long-sought objective—to be worshiped as God (Isaiah 14:13-14). And through the Antichrist, he will finally realize that depraved desire.

But what makes this bizarre phenomenon so potentially perplexing is that it is God Himself who initially sends this delusion. One may be inclined to think this sounds either uncharacteristic, cruel, or antithetical to God’s essence and character. After all, doesn’t He want people to come to faith in Him? Doesn’t Scripture say as much in 2 Peter 3:9? And if this is true, why would He then cause the world to be deceived by lies that will effectively prevent people from salvation? These are fair and legitimate questions, and ones that, fortunately, are answered for us in God’s Word. (Jeff Kinley, “Descending Dark Delusion,” chapter 3, Discerners: Analyzing Converging Prophetic Signs for the End of Days)

Jeff goes on to illustrate that God’s plan is in every case perfect, and that the Lord will deal with mankind through the delusion. That is, God will make understandable the horrendous lie that will assault people during the Tribulation.

If I may, I suggest you read that chapter and all others in our book. It’s a great book because of superb writers like Jeff and fifteen others who are, themselves, spiritually attuned discerners of our times. That’s not just the old ad man in me coming out. It really is a book that will greatly edify your study as we watch this delusion build, leading up to the Rapture.

And, I do believe we are seeing it build. It will manifest fully once the Church is in Heaven, but that prophesied delusion is increasing now as God’s cup of wrath is filling for pouring upon a world of rebellious unbelievers. Meantime, while we are witnessing the things develop that God’s Word tells us are signs to look for preceding Christ’s return, we are to adhere to the following Scriptural commands. They are from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself:

“And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch” (Mark 13: 37).

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh”  (Luke 21: 28).

–Terry

The Mexican Murder Meltdown

Mexico is quickly becoming a nation ruled by violence. Our southern neighbor had record murder rates in 2017 and 2018. Figures for the first nine months of 2019 suggest that this year’s homicide toll could surpass that of last year.

In December 2006, then-President Felipe Calderón launched a “war on drugs,” deploying more than 50,000 soldiers and federal police officers. Since that campaign began, over 300,000 people have lost their lives. In 2018 the number of people killed was more than four times that in 2007.

The liberal media have a set agenda of downplaying the bloodshed. Because Trump cited the violence in Mexico as justification for building his wall, the press has had a blockade on all negative news from that nation.

The violence in Mexico occasionally reaches a level that forces the liberal media to report the truth. About two weeks ago, nine Americans were killed during a highway ambush by drug cartel members. The victims were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that have lived peacefully in Mexico for over 100 years.

The situation keeps going from bad to worse because violence has reached the point where it feeds on itself. Impunity in Mexico, where 95% of killings go unpunished, has spurred more people to take up arms — and carry out their own justice.

The Justice system in Mexico is simply rotting away. Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, commonly known as “El Chapo,” was sent to the U.S. primarily because Mexico had become so corrupt, it could no longer contain the man. El Chapo was able to escape two major prisons in spectacular fashion largely because the guards were paid to look the other way.

In October, one of El Chapo’s sons, Ovidio Guzmán López, was freed on the orders of the Mexican government after Sinaloa cartel gunmen flooded the city of Culiacán and surrounded security forces to press for their boss’s release.

Even the wife of El Chapo has gotten into the act. She will be appearing on VH1’s reality TV series “Cartel Crew.” The wealth she enjoyed was from drugs that destroyed probably over a million people, and she is being glamorized as a drug kingpin’s celebrity.

The end point of the Mexican drug trade is America. You don’t hear any talk about our moral responsibility for the carnage we create with our collective hunger for drugs. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics finds that the number of overdose deaths involving cocaine almost doubled in two years — jumping from 5,892 in 2014 to 11,316 in 2016, the most recent year for which data was available.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration’s 2018 National Drug Threat Assessment, the rise in cocaine use can be attributed to increases in availability. The Drug smugglers are always a step ahead of DEA ability to uncover the means of distribution. When we find all the drug tunnels between Mexico and America, the Cartel is now moving drugs to the states by way of cheap submarines. Eventually, the package of cocaine that DEA agents posed with for News shots will be sold on the streets the next day because the feds are on the payroll of the Cartel.

We do have a fake drug crisis that can put the public’s mind at rest. Doctors that overprescribe opioids to Grandma for legitimate pain are being sent up the river. Many politicians are ready to blame the whole Prude family for being the source of the Great Opioid crisis. Meanwhile, a ship with enough fentanyl to kill 30 million people arrives in Philadelphia and gets little coverage when the ship is impounded.

I don’t think Mexico’s problem is that it needs an elite force of untouchables to clear out the corruption. When the whole nation is in moral bankruptcy, no one will tolerate a group that interferes with the system. The cop that arrested El Chapo’s sons was shot 155 times. His fellow officers must have just shrugged and wondered why he didn’t just take the bribe like everyone else.

God is in full control of all world events. As we get closer to the tribulation hour, the Lord is slowly granting Satan more freedom to do the evil things taking place in Mexico. At some point, God will say enough is enough, and He will trigger the rapture. There is no way to second guess the greatest Being in the universe. Anyone with an IQ above 70 would know that his patience is likely to run out in short order.

“The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10).

–Todd

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Catholicism’s Conundrum

Let me start by saying I have family and friends who are Catholics. I believe most of these I love and know well are genuine believers –that is—they Know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. But these are “in Christ” in spite of their Catholic beliefs, not because of their Catholicism.

Let me make a case for the above opening.

Pope Francis is at it again. Some months ago he declared on several occasions that there are many ways to God and Heaven. He later pronounced that there is no place called Hell and even more recently the Catholic pontiff proclaimed that even atheists will be in Heaven.

Now he is putting forth that Christ didn’t resurrect from death–at least not in the way the Bible tells us He arose.

Some of the Catholic clergy call these pontifications by this prelate heresy. Heresy, of course, is any teaching that varies from doctrinal positions to any major extent. While Catholic doctrine certainly is, in a great many cases, far from fundamental, evangelical, Protestant doctrine, we agree with those traditional Catholics that these declarations by Francis are heresy according to any fundamentalist, Christian teaching. That is, the pope’s expressed thoughts on these matters are not only unbiblical, but, I would say, they are anti-biblical.

CNS News reported the revelations made by an apparent friend of Pope Francis. Eugenio Scalfari, a left-wing atheist journalist, published the remarks in the periodical La Repubblica. Scalfari also wrote about the pope’s declarations in a new book.

Scalfari states in the November 5 edition of La Repubblica and in the introduction to his new book that Francis said: “He [Jesus] was a man until he was placed in the tomb by the women who recomposed his body. That night, in the tomb, the man [Jesus] disappeared and came forth from the grotto in the semblance of a spirit that met the women and the Apostles while still preserving the shadow of the person, and then he definitely disappeared.”

When asked about the strangeness of Francis’ variance from Catholic doctrine, the true nature of the Roman Catholic Church became overwhelmingly apparent. The Catholic Church’s PR/information establishment gave a ring-around-the-rosaries answer. The response said: “As already stated on other occasions, the words that Dr. Eugenio Scalfari attributes in quotation marks to the Holy Father during the interviews he had cannot be considered as a faithful account of what was actually said, but rather represent a personal and free interpretation of those who listened, as appears completely evident from what is written today regarding the divinity of Jesus Christ,” the Holy See statement said.

I.e., the official Vatican response was NOT a denial, rather was a confutation filled with gobbledygook that left it open to interpretation to the reader or hearer of the pope’s words.

According to CNS News, there has been “no clear denial, no demand that Scalfari correct his article or retract it, and no denial by the Pope himself.”

CNS News reported further that the Vatican’s response was similar when Scalfari reported that Francis told him in 2018 there is no Hell and, recently, when the journalist claimed the pope told him that once Jesus Christ became incarnate, He was a man, a “man of exceptional virtues,” but “not at all a God.”

Now, we are seeing some extremely combustible possibilities seeping from the once seamless confines of the Vatican walls. Most distinct among these is the question: Just how Christian is the Roman Catholic Church?

If this Vicar of Christ has an infallible side, as claimed of popes down through the history of that supposedly Christian body, where does that infallibility fit within this pontiff’s statements denying the very words of Jesus Christ?

Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father but by me” (John 14: 6).

Yet Pope Francis says there are many ways to God.

Pope Francis declares that there is no place called Hell. Despite the biblical truth that Jesus Himself talked about that infernal place even more than He talked about Heaven (Mark, chapter 9, for example).

This pope says Jesus didn’t resurrect in bodily form as Jesus claimed. Yet Jesus proved on many occasions after the resurrection that He rose from the dead bodily, not merely spiritually. Remember, for instance, His confrontation with doubting Thomas.  (And, Jesus is the Word, John 1:1, so He cannot lie.  )

This pope has proclaimed that even atheists will be in Heaven. By doing so, Francis nullifies the very reason Jesus came to die on the cross, be buried, and resurrect to life so that the lost who accept God’s grace offer can be redeemed.

All of that said, the Catholic Church’s conundrum, as implied in this commentary’s title, goes much deeper than the heresy of this particular pope. That religious body is faced with the truth in God’s Holy Word that is completely antithesis of what the Vatican has always proclaimed.

The conundrum could not be more starkly presented or illustrated than with the following Scripture: “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).

One evangelist who came out from deep within Roman Catholicism to preach the solid Word of God on every issue affecting humanity writes the following:

“All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness” (2 Tim. 3:16). This verse establishes the supreme authority of God’s inspired, infallible, inerrant Word, which can be used to correct and reprove the teachings of Catholic bishops and religious traditions.…

Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He (Jesus), “having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb. 10:11-12). When the Lord Jesus finished His perfect, all-sufficient work of redemption, He cried out in victory, “It is finished!” (John 19:30). Catholic priests, who continue on altars what Jesus finished on the cross, are leading their congregations in the idolatrous worship of the Eucharist. (Mike Gendron, “God’s Word Continues to Set Catholics Free,” info@proclaimingthegospel.org, November 2019)

Neither the lost nor the saved need go to a priest, who then goes to Mary, and then who goes to Jesus, who then goes to the Heavenly Father. When the Temple veil rent from top to bottom at the very moment Christ gave up His life to death, Heaven’s throne room–following Christ’s resurrection on the third day–was open to all who repent, who seek reconciliation through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Mike Gendron writes further: “Not only is Mary not a mediator, she was also a sinner who needed a Savior (Rom. 3:23). She said, ‘My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior’ (Luke 1:46-47).”

A growing number of Catholic theologians are beginning to question whether Pope Francis might be the second beast of Revelation chapter 13. I, personally, don’t think he is. The apostate pronouncements he consistently makes, though, are certainly in alignment with those things that one called the false prophet will espouse.

Catholicism’s real conundrum, however, isn’t having to deal with a rogue pope. Its most pressing conundrum is having to strive to confute the very Word of God.

–Terry