Ides of March Still Haunts :: By Terry James

This week—the week of the Ides of March 2021finds the world’s most powerful government, the most powerful government in all of history, in a state worse than that of ancient Rome under Julius Caesar. The difference in the American Empire and the ancient Roman Empire is that the people in power today are laboring under guilt that the election they won under questionable circumstances might have created a nation half-full of patriots who might come for them.

Plutarch wrote that, despite the warning by a seer named Spurinna predicting that the Ides of March of 44 BC harbored danger of assassination, Julius Caesar apparently gave it little thought. It is recorded that Caesar passed by the soothsayer while he was on the way to the Theater of Pompeii where he would be assassinated and joked, “The Ides of March are come.” implying that the prophecy had not been fulfilled, to which the seer replied, “Aye, Caesar; but not gone.”

The people, after all, had been basically convinced to bestow on the great Caesar the designation dictator perpetuo (“dictator in perpetuity”). This was done through the Roman democracy’s elective process. The dictatorial head of Roman government had no reason to fear the people. Of course, there were sixteen senators, one among them a close friend, who didn’t like the idea of having a dictator for life. The results were, of course, that we now view the 15th of March (the Ides of March) as an especially ominous date–thanks much to the Bard, William Shakespeare, and his play, Julius Caesar. 

Getting back to the American equivalent in government to that ancient Roman Empire, the guilt of which I speak, of course, is obvious. Half of the US voting public—and probably much more than half—voted for the other candidate. There is much anger now smoldering just beneath the surface of societal calm that the election was stolen. It is equally apparent that the guilt festering within the ranks of those who won or stole the election, depending on which you choose to believe, has created an Ides of March-type paranoia.

Those in control have since the January 6 hubbub in Washington, DC, when the Capitol and other government buildings were attacked, reacted and continue to react like they fear an Ides of Marchtype Roman Senate assault on them at any moment. DC is a locked-down, armed camp, with National Guard forces and hastily constructed barriers of various sorts walling off the government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

Foreign intruders, mostly illegal, many carrying COVID-19 infections and other diseases, are allowed more and more access into our southern borders. American citizens are locked out, more and more, from interacting with the governmental leaders whose salaries we pay and who supposedly who work for us. The president of the United States is kept from confronting the American people as all other presidents have done. The republic, even more than was the Roman republic all those centuries ago, is in a dire way. This Ides of March indeed looks ominous, going forward.

The following news/opinion editorial illustrates, I think, the guilt-ridden nucleus of leadership.

The Department of Defense on Tuesday agreed to keep thousands of National Guard troops stationed at the U.S. Capitol until late May, extending a posting that began after rioters overwhelmed law enforcement on Capitol Hill two months ago.

The problem for Democrats is when you blatantly flaunt election law and then institute policies that no one wants (e.g. money to Iran, bombing Syria, opening the southern border, putting children in cages, passing a massive spending bill that provides handouts to your friends and pays off your debts, etc), and then install a man as President who doesn’t know where he is and is led around like a geriatric patient, you get scared Americans will see through your corruption.

Democrats complained about a southern border wall but created a wall for themselves.  They demand the military guards it.  But they won’t send the same troops to protect our country’s border! (Joe Hoft, “Military Agrees to Keep Thousands of National Guard Troops at US Capitol for Weeks to Protect Corrupt Democrats Who Are Terrified of the American People,” Gateway Pundit, March 10, 2021)

The reason there is such anxiety among the political entities who have surrounded themselves with protection is a matter of basic character. Americans who consider themselves to have been done wrong in the 2020 elections still believe in the constitutionally mandated way of conducting personal and national life as established by the founding fathers. They wouldn’t perpetrate such violence unless in necessity of defense of life and liberty.

Those who at present hunker fearfully behind the barriers, walls, and weaponry of the National Guard would, themselves, consider assaulting with armed insurrection to get their way. They would utilize the very militant methods of which they falsely accuse the 74 million-plus voters who oppose their proven ideological movement away from traditional American values and traditions. To know this is true, we have only to remember the destructive evil of the anarchists they encouraged and protected while those surrogate forces tore down and burned cities.

There are those who, like Julius Caesars millennia ago, are working toward making themselves dictators perpetuo. But this ambition is not among true patriots who want to retain godly morality and values, and especially constitutional safeguards through law, not lawlessness like that championed by many of those whose political ideology supposedly won the 2020 elections.

The Ides of March this year especially seems to portend growing wickedness for the future. This means, for believers in Jesus Christ, that the blessed hope must be nearing the time of His revealing Himself to an increasingly rebellious world.  

It is good at this troubled time so near the end of the Age of Grace to claim the words of the Psalmist:

O love the Lord, all ye his saints: for the Lord preserved the faithful, and plentifully rewarded the proud doer. Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. (Psalms 31:23–24)

The Very Best News! :: By Terry James

The nation and the world are rushing with unbelievable speed into global godlessness. All the while, only a few seem to recognize the end-times rage. It’s as if there’s a supernaturally imposed blindness that has the scales of satanic deception veiling the eyes even of those who genuinely know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord (the Church).

Those who read this blog are well aware of things going on for the most part, and it’s not from watching mainstream news. Those sources generally paint a picture of complete control over any potential dangers that exist somewhere in the future.

We in America, according to the fawning media, now have the near-perfect administration and governmental agglomeration within the legislative and judicial branches—that is, since the previous, much-hated president and his party associates have lost the White House and majority congressional control.

The media, which helped bring this about—through questionable electoral machinations—now turn their attention away from careful scrutiny of every detail involving Trump. They’ve turned instead to, for the most part, approval, even laudation, of every move of this new government.

They carefully avoid questioning the president on the rare occasions he’s seen in public. They say nothing about the almost nonexistence of his public availability. There is no criticism of his refusal to personally conduct press conferences.

His record-setting number of executive orders meets with absolutely no questioning by an observably unconcerned mainstream press. They seem instead to ask trivial questions of White House Press Secretary Jen Tsaki, throwing “softballs” for her, as it is said.

When Mr. Biden is asked questions, about as hard as they get are queries like: “What does it feel like being president now after being an occasional guest in the Oval Office as vice president all those years?” And the forces now in charge continue to bring this once-great republic ever closer to something that would have been unrecognizable by the founding fathers. For that matter, it’s now already unrecognizable in many ways by someone of my generation. 

There is little chance that this obfuscation of and dearth of truth will change. Alternate sources of news that would tell things as they really are continue to be systematically shut down. We watch almost hourly while websites dedicated to getting real news to the public are demonetized and even deplatformed for the most trivial reasons. And the media tyrants doing the shutting down won’t answer the whys of such shutdowns. They consider themselves above the fray. The reason for their arrogant assurance of their ability to act in such tyrannical ways is that the new governmental “watchdogs” are in cahoots with them in wishing to suppress any and all pushback or resistance to their agenda.

And that agenda is proceeding at a phenomenal pace. Some wonder if there will not be total socialism—even communist-style, governmental tyranny—in our nation by the end of 2021. 

The assault on First Amendment rights (free speech) and plans to assault Second Amendment rights (the right to bear arms) are but two attacks on American citizenry. The war against American liberty coalesces from somewhere that can’t be determined by those without spiritual knowledge. Those assaults are formed by the powers and principalities in high places of wickedness we read about in Ephesians 6:12.

And this is why it is imperative that the pastors in the pulpits of America make their born-again flocks know what we face. The times are getting dark and are destined, according to Bible prophecy, to grow much, much darker.

There is no revival on a massive national or world scale prophesied to occur at the end of the Church Age. The Apostle Paul wrote that “evil men and seducers will grow ever worse, deceiving and being deceived.” The Lord Himself foretold that deception and wickedness would be signs of His return to earth to put an end to the incorrigible rebellion of earth dwellers.

The Bible prophesies that the times will be like they were during the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. Can there be any doubt we’re already at that point?

I was told before going on a radio program in Canada just last week that I couldn’t mention anything about LGBTQ or transsexual matters, or anything to do with such abominations. The station would be fined and punished—possibly taken off the air permanently—if those matters were addressed.

It might just be mere months, I sense, before such regulations will be instituted in our “land of the free.”

The reason pastors and teachers in the truth-bearing, true Christian churches should alert the people in their pews of these things is that they will soon hear it nowhere else. Younger people, who’ve been educated to believe the lies about America’s Judeo-Christian founding, may soon have no chance as they surf their ever-speech-suppressing social media. Soon the light would be quenched, even in the true, Bible-believing churches, if not for one thing.

“The gates of hell will not prevail“ against His Church, the Lord Jesus has promised.

As we observe the gathering darkness, we know that the Tribulation—that last seven years of hell on earth when Satan’s evil will permeate this dying, decaying, world—approaches. Therefore, the light resident within the Church will be removed by Christ Himself, as He calls His Bride to Himself and out of harm’s way (Revelation 3:10).

So, in looking at all the evil gathering—which we can see, but the unsaved world cannot—that moment of rescue must be very near indeed.

It is incumbent upon each of us who follow Jesus as Lord to hold up before the world as much light of the gospel as possible when we have the chance.

Soon, perhaps today, we will suddenly and gloriously stand in some splendid, eternal setting. We will look into the omnipotent, omniscient, eyes of our Lord, who died and was raised again so that we might be saved from the wrath that will then begin pouring out upon the left-behind world of rebels. We will then be taken to our homes He has been personally constructing for more than two thousand years. What magnificent dwelling places those must be!

Now, that’s the very best news imaginable!

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:1–3)