It is possible to be a professing Christian and not actually be in the faith. Paul said, “Examine yourselves, seeing whether you are in the faith” (2 Cor. 13:5a). Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21-23).

If you are reading this after the rapture has occurred, it’s because you weren’t ready. Jesus said in Matthew 25:10 that “those who were ready went in … And the door was shut.”

Let me give you 20 pieces of counsel to survive this terrible time if you miss God’s first roundup, the rapture.

1. Do not believe the explanations given by the secular media.

Christians have not been beamed to some interplanetary spaceship to be reprogrammed. We have not been taken by aliens, and we’re not in Buenos Aires, Togo or Europe. We have left the earth on a cloud of glory to be with Jesus forever.

2. Get rid of your cell phone.

If you do not agree with the government of the final shabua and the charming world leader, you will be hunted. Your cell phone can be tracked. Throw it in a river or lake far from where you are going to be.

3. Do not kill yourself.

Whenever there’s social disorder and confusion, people tend to think suicide is the only way out. It’s not. You probably feel hopeless, but there is still hope. The Holy Spirit will still be working during the final shabua. Pray and ask Him to guide you, give you strength and dwell in you.

4. Repent immediately and make your peace with God.

If you’re reading this after the rapture, you’ve already witnessed many of the events we described. Now is the time to repent. Jesus Christ is the only Savior and only way to heaven (John 14:6). Pray, “Lord Jesus, be merciful to me. I have sinned against you. Save me now. I receive you as my personal Savior.” For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13).

5. Make sure you have a printed Bible.

You will not want any electronic tablets during the Tribulation. God’s Word and promises will still work after the rapture because Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away” (Matt. 24:35). Keep your Bible in a safe place because when the Antichrist’s government takes over, he will eventually try to destroy all the Bibles.

Read the Ten Commandments and follow them (Ex. 20:1-17). God’s grace is still available, but after the church is gone, the age of grace has concluded, and everything reverts to something like Old Testament times.

Make sure you read Daniel 2-12. Chapter 12 will give you the general time Jesus is coming the second time. Read Matthew 24, Mark 13, 1 Thessalonians 5, 2 Thessalonians 2 and Revelation. Everything will begin to make sense to you.

6. Leave your home and get away from the cities, especially the big cities.

You’re going to be tempted to wait and see what happens, but if you do, it will be a fatal mistake, just as it was for the Jews who waited too long during the holocaust years. Go to some remote area. Learn to live off the land. Don’t take your cell phone because you can be tracked down. Disconnect the transponder on your vehicle, or ditch the vehicle altogether.

Make sure your family is safe and in agreement with your decision to leave. Take them if they will come. If not, you must go alone.

7. Pray for God to help you and give you strength.

It’s going to be difficult to survive, but God will still hear you, and He’ll still help you. It won’t be easy, but Jesus said, “He who endures to the end shall be saved” (Matt. 24:13). You’re going to need His strength as you’ve never needed it before.

8. Don’t go to church.

That’s right—don’t go to church or join the world conglomerate religion because it will be under the control of the false prophet (Rev. 13). All true, godly ministers have left the earth in the rapture. Do not believe the lies of the ministers who are left behind. Even if you see miracles and apparent wonders, do not believe them. They are lying wonders (Matt. 24:24; Mark 13:22; Luke 21; 2 Thess. 2:9). Deception will be the order of the day. Delusion will be everywhere, especially in “churches.”

If possible, try to find others who may have accepted Christ after the rapture. You will be able to find ways to support and encourage one another.

9. Get a small, self-powered radio.

If you can’t get the kind you crank by hand, get a battery-operated radio and a good supply of batteries, because you’re going to need to listen. Don’t believe the propaganda, but believe when they tell you about certain events relating to wars and geophysical calamities. You’ll be able to know what will happen next by reading Revelation 6-19.

10. Keep praying for your loved ones who are unbelievers.

God will still answer prayers during the Tribulation. Your prayers may be the key to seeing your loved ones again after this period of supreme agony is over.

11. Leave copies of this list for as many people as you can.

Perhaps this will help others survive and come to Christ. Be discerning, however, in giving out books like this if the rapture has already occurred. Jesus said in Luke 21:16-17 that people will be betrayed by parents, brothers, relatives and friends, and some of them will cause you to be put to death. He was talking about the period you are living in right now if you missed the rapture.

Copyright © Dr. Dave Williams-All rights reserved.

A story is told of a fire in Scotland that destroyed the farm. In the aftermath of the fire, a farmer went into the barn to assess and make sense of what had happened. In the process, a farmer kicked one of the dead chickens and under the chicken wings were six live chickens the mother died protecting.

Another story is told of the forest fire that had been brought under control, and the group of firefighters were working back through the devastation making sure all the hot spots had been extinguished. As they marched across the blackened landscape between the wisps of smoke still rising from the smouldering remains, a large lump on the trail caught a firefighter’s eye.

As he got closer, he noticed it was the charred remains of a large bird, that had burned nearly halfway through. Since birds can so easily fly away from the approaching flames, the firefighter wondered what must have been wrong with this bird so that it could not escape. Had it been sick or injured?

Arriving at the carcass, he decided to kick it off the trail with his boot. As soon as he did, however, he was startled half to death by a flurry of activity around his feet. Four little birds flailed in the dust and ash then scurried away down the hillside.

The bulk of the mother’s body had covered them from the searing flames. Though the heat was enough to consume her, it allowed her babies to find safety underneath. In the face of the rising flames, she had stayed with her young. Her dead carcass and her fleeing chicks told the story well enough–she gave the ultimate sacrifice to save her young.

The lesson here is not all chicks can run to their mothers in times of danger. Some panic or try to find a way to save themselves and they get devoured. Worse still the mother hen cannot run around gathering them individually. They have to come to her. Most of the chicks that survive the attacks from cats and foxes stay close to their mother and all they have to do is run under their mother’s wings and they are covered.

The hen in the story was the only chance those chicks had for safety; she, being willing to spare her own life, had gathered them up under her wings to herself. At the point of terrible pain and death, when she might still have saved herself, she chose to stay through the ordeal. It is been noted that the “mother hen instinct” is a feeling that someone has, that they must “take care of somebody.” Anybody. A mother hen demonstrates behavioural habits that are different from a normal hen. Her priority shifts from her personal survival to protecting and ensuring the survival of her young. She puts her heart and soul into her chicks, educating them and protecting them from all predators. The Bible tells us:

At that very hour, some Pharisees came up and said to Him, “Leave and go away from here, because Herod Antipas wants to kill You.” And He said to them, “Go and tell that fox that sly, cowardly man, ‘Listen carefully: I cast out demons and perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I reach My goal.’ Nevertheless, I must travel on today and tomorrow and the day after that—for it cannot be that a prophet would die outside of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones to death those messengers who are sent to her by God! How often I have wanted to gather your children together around Me, just as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were not willing! Listen carefully: your house is left to you desolate abandoned by God and destitute of His protection; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord (Luke 13:31-35 AMP).

The greater story that is illustrated is the true story of our Creator Who made a way to save His wandering children. The Lord stretched out His arms on the cross and took the pain so that we didn’t have to. He stood between death and us and fought for us sinners like a hen protects her chicks. In other words, in a dangerous situation, when a fox is on the loose and the chicks are vulnerable, the mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings and fends off the fox as best as she can. Jesus gave His life to protect those whom the fox would destroy. We now live in the shadow of His wings and under His wings we find refuge (Psalm 91:1-4).

The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who walk in the Spirit. Christ lives again in His redeemed followers the life He lived in Judaea; for righteousness can never be divorced from its source, which is Jesus Christ Himself. The ethics of Jesus cannot be obeyed or even understood until the life of God has come to the heart of a man in the miracle of the new birth. Our Creator has made a way to save His wandering children.

Let us not forget that there were once two brothers. They lived in a society that had not had time to develop the many social evils we know today. Yet one killed the other because sin was there. If two brothers in the morning of the world could not get on together, how can we hope that the gentle teachings of Jesus can ever bring brotherhood to a race filled with complex iniquities, where men inherit hate and where the souls of all are lacerated by jealousy, murder, envy, egotism, greed and lust?

According to the Bible, the human race is morally fallen, spiritually alienated from God, lost and under the severe sentence of divine judgment. In sharp contrast to this, the Church is a body of regenerated persons who have withdrawn from the world in spirit and heart and have thrown in their lot with Christ to own Him as Savior and to follow Him as Lord.

The hope of the human race is that Christ shall come again to earth. I am reminded of this quote from CS Lewis:

When the Author of Life walks on the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then? When you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else … something that never entered your head to conceive—comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left. For this time, it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing; it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not. Now, today, this moment is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it.

God’s covenant love to His people is: ‘I love you so much, I will never let the devil have you. I won’t let him take over your life, even when you fail me. It is impossible to stray too far from God’s love. There is no place in heaven or earth where you can escape it.’

Corrie ten Boom is well known for offering forgiveness to the guards who held her captive during the Nazi regime. She touched millions of lives through books and speaking tours before dying on her ninety-first birthday. She often recalled her sister Betsie’s hope-filled words: “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.” Do you think Satan wants to keep driving you into the loving arms of Christ to find mercy, love, and grace? No–The only sin he can tempt you with now is to attempt to turn you away from God’s incredible love. That’s where a hard heart comes from–not falling back, but from continually rejecting God’s love.

Even so, Lord, come quickly.

There is no specific instruction to celebrate or observe Easter in the New Testament. Easter is not about “Easter eggs” or wearing pastels. All these are pagan practices.

To a Christian, Christ is risen and alive ‘every day’, and his life should be enjoyed and celebrated as such. Christians also have a Passover meal regularly, for the Lord’s Supper is a Passover Meal, commemorating the liberation of Christ.

In fact the feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and the First Fruits foreshadow the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:20 tells us, “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

He also speaks of keeping the feast and getting rid of the yeast or leaven because Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7).

What is more Jesus died at 3:00 P.M, “Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour” (Luke 23:44). This was the very time when thousands of Passover lambs were being slaughtered (see Exodus 12:18-20).

This is confirmed in the gospel of Luke “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be slain” (see Luke 22:7-20).

Jesus said that He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfil it. So you cannot understand the New Testament without the Old.

That is why so many of the words in Exodus are used again in the New Testament-words such as law, covenant, blood, lamb, Passover, Exodus, leaven.These words are used in the New Testament but derive their meaning from the book of Exodus (see Exodus 12:1-11; 12:43-47).

Another example is six months before Jesus died on the cross He was 4,000 feet high on top of Mount Hermon in the north of Israel, talking with Moses and Elijah. Luke’s Gospel tells us that they talked about His exodus from this world, which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem (see Luke 9:28-31).

John the Baptist who was the forerunner sent to prepare the way before Christ intoduced Him with the words: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  (John 1:29).Thus he proclaimed Jesus as the appointed Savior whose sacrificial death and shed blood would accomplish all that had been foreshadowed by the Passover lamb.

Therefore, Christ is our Passover Lamb the one who has been sacrificed for us so that the angel of death would pass over those who trust in Him.

He rose from the dead on the third day and His resurrection liberates us from death, just as the Hebrews were liberated from slavery on the third day after the Passover. So we celebrate resurrection Sunday because:

The Tomb is Empty

The Gospels talk of Jesus being in the tomb three days and three nights, but traditional Friday-to-Sunday interpretations leave us with one day and two nights! Some Bible scholars believe that Jesus died on the Wednesday afternoon. For instance, prominent Bible teacher David Pawson explains:

We have assumed that Friday was the day he died, because the text tells us he died on the day before the Sabbath. But in the year in question, it was not the Saturday Sabbath. John’s Gospel tells us that the Sabbath was a special High Sabbath (see John 19:31-36).

The Passover began with a Sabbath and, in the year AD 29, which was almost certainly the year Jesus died, the first day of the Passover was a Thursday, with the Wednesday being the eve of the Passover.

This fits all the evidence better than all the other theories. So if he died at 3 o’clock on the Wednesday and he rose between 6 p.m. and midnight on the Saturday, every bit of the Gospel evidence fits.

The 12 Apostles and the Resurrection

When Jesus Christ chose the twelve apostles, their role was to confirm by their words and their lives the reality of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

After the arrest, trial, and death of Jesus Christ, these men initially fled in fear. They were devastated by His death because death seems so cruel and final.

They must felt terrible when they saw their Lord, whom they had left everything to follow, being crucified on the cross.

One of the twelve apostles known as Matthew records that immediately after Jesus had died, the tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep in death were raised to life.

And coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many people (see Matthew 27:52-53). He also gives an account of the guarded tomb and the report by the soldiers that the body was stolen:

When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day (Matthew 28:12-15).

The divine side of Christ’s death, however, is also brought out in Mark, for Jesus was sure from the very beginning that he had come to die. He predicted his death, and his resurrection, more than once.

Following the resurrection. He records Jesus’ return to Galilee and his meeting with the 11 disciples and more than 500 at one time (see 1 Corinthians 15:5).

Luke a doctor by profession from Antioch, Syria and the only Gentile writer in the Bible had a keen interest in researching the events surrounding the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He describes that, after Jesus had physically risen from the dead, three women who were friends of the disciples went to the tomb early Sunday morning to anoint His body with spices.

When they arrived at the tomb, they were shocked to find the stone rolled aside and the tomb empty. It was only the linen cloths in which Jesus’ body had been wrapped that lay empty in the tomb. The two angels told them:

Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again (see Luke 24:1–25).

The Bible tells us that, until then, they still hadn’t understood the Scripture that He must rise again from dead (see Psalm 16:10). “And they remembered His words. Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.”

In John’s intimate account, Peter and John decided to go and see for themselves where Jesus was buried. Indeed, they too were also surprised that Jesus was not in the tomb.

As Peter and John returned home, Mary was still standing at the tomb crying, and as she was weeping, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. Suddenly, the angels asked her why she was crying, and she replied that it was because they had taken away her Lord and she didn’t know where they put Him.

She decided to leave but saw someone standing there. Thinking it was the gardener, she asked Him where He had put the body of Jesus. The man then called Mary by her name. At that moment, she realized that she was not talking to the gardener but to her risen Lord.

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.”

Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her. (John 20:16–18)

That Sunday evening, the disciples were meeting in secrecy behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus appeared to them.

As He appeared to them, He said, “‘Peace be with you.’ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord” (John 20:19–20).

Soon after Christ had appeared to His disciples, they told Thomas, who was absent, that the Lord had appeared to them. Thomas refused to believe them, saying he needed to see and touch Christ’s wounds and His side before he could believe such a report (see John 20:25).

He did not want to accept their account on the basis of faith only.

The faith of Thomas, much like the disciples’, was gone so he could not believe by mere faith alone. The time of three special years of personally walking with the Messiah had come to an end. Jesus was dead, so were the dreams that were once filled with hope and purpose.

So unless he could put his hands into Jesus’ side where he had watched the spear being thrust into the breast of his Master, he could not believe. He wanted concrete evidence.

Eight days later, the disciples were again in the same room, and this time Thomas was present. And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!”

Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:26–28).

We tend to think of Jesus doing nothing between his death and resurrection, being just unconscious, inactive in the tomb. But it says only his body was dead. His spirit was very much alive. He went to the world of the dead and started preaching as recorded by Peter in his first letter:

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water (1 Peter 3:18-19).

Death Is Not Final

To the Christian, death is not final. A believer simply falls asleep in Jesus and wakes up instantly in the presence of God. But those who die without the Lord Jesus Christ are referred to as “the dead.”

Someday the dead will stand before the Great White Throne of God and be judged according to the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.

They will then be cast into the lake of fire. “This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15).

Some say that when Christians die, they sleep in the grave until Jesus returns and raised the dead. However, Paul said, “To live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).  To sleep in the grave would not be gain!

Paul knew that physical death would allow him to “depart and be with Christ,” which, he said, is very much better (Philippians 1:23).

We will be fully conscious one minute after we have died. We will know who we are, we will have our memory. It is only our body that dies, not our spirit. Death separates body and spirit. Later, spirit and body will be reunited in the resurrection.

When Paul talks about putting off our earthly tent, he says to be “absent from the body” is “to be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:1-9).

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, he refers to those who have died in Christ as having “fallen asleep in Jesus” because this is what death is to the believer- falling asleep and waking up in the presence of our Lord.

Because Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, the Christian will not see death. This truth caused Jesus to proclaim,

I am Myself the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on) Me, although he may die, yet he shall live; And whoever continues to live and believes in (has faith in, cleaves to, and relies on) Me shall never actually die at all (John 11:25-26).

Death is conquered! The Tomb is Empty! Jesus becomes the Giver of Life (John 20:21-23). This is the Good News that Paul preaches to us. “It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course you believed something that was never true in the first place” (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-2).

Jesus Christ is the divine, eternal Son of God, who became a member of the human race by virgin birth. He led a sinless life, died on the cross as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of humanity, was buried and rose again in bodily form from the grave on the third day.

He ascended into heaven, whence He will return to earth in person; to judge the living and the dead. Everyone who repents of sin and trusts in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ receives forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life.

Daniel Kolenda in his book Live Before You Die tells the story of an American soldier in the Vietnam War who was about to step on an anti-personnel landmine that was hidden from his sight. His comrade across the battlefield, who could see the impending disaster from his vantage point, stood up from behind his protective barricade and shouted a life-saving warning to his friend. At that moment the brave young man received a gunshot wound that ended his life.

A couple of years later, at an honorary memorial service in the United States, the soldier whose life had been saved from the landmine had a chance to meet the wife and son of his deceased friend. The son, who was only seven years old, had never gotten a chance to really know his father. The soldier could tell that this boy’s heart was broken, so he knelt down next to him and put his hand on the child’s shoulder. “I want you to know,” the soldier said, “your father saved my life.” The little boy looked up at him with tears streaming down his cheeks. “Sir,” he said, “were you worth it?”

Another minister who disguised himself under the name of George tells in his book about God’s Underground the following incident:

A Russian Army captain came to a minister in Hungary and asked to see him alone. The young captain was very brash and very conscious of his role as a conqueror. When he had been led to a small conference room and the door was closed, he nodded towards the cross that hung on the wall. ‘You know that thing is a lie,’ he said to the minister. ‘It’s just a piece of trickery you ministers use to delude the poor people to make it easier for the rich to keep them ignorant. Come on now, we alone. Admit to me that you never really believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God!’  The minister smiled. ‘But, my poor young man, of course, I believe it. It is true.’

I won’t have you play these tricks on me! Cried the captain. ‘This is serious. Don’t laugh at me!’ He drew out his revolver and held it close to the body of the minister.’ Unless you admit to me that it is a lie, I will fire!’ ‘I cannot admit that, for it is not true. Our Lord is really and only the Son of God,’ said the minister. The captain flung his revolver on the floor and embraced the man of God. Tears sprang to his eyes. ‘It is true!’ he cried. ‘It is true. I believe so, too, but I could not be sure men would die for this belief until I found it out for myself. Oh, thank you! You have strengthened my faith. Now I too can die for Christ. You have shown me how.’

When the Russians occupied Romania, two armed Russian soldiers entered a church with guns in their hands. They said, ‘We don’t believe in your faith. Those who do not abandon it immediately will be shot at once! Those who abandon your faith move to the right!’ Some moved to the right and were then ordered to leave the church and go home. They fled for their lives just like the disciples did when Jesus was arrested on the night of His crucifixion. When the Russians were alone with the remaining Christians, they embraced them and confessed, ‘We too are Christians, but we wished to have fellowship only with those who consider the truth worth dying for.’

The Cost of Discipleship

When Jesus Christ chose the twelve apostles, their role was to confirm by their words and their lives the reality of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. After the arrest, trial, and death of Jesus Christ, these men initially fled in fear. They were devastated by His death because death seemed so cruel and final. They must felt terrible when they saw their Lord, whom they had left everything to follow, being crucified on the cross.

Historical records of the first century clearly prove that every one of the disciples apart from the Apostle John later faced a martyr’s death without denying their faith in Jesus Christ as their Saviour. The only reason why these men were transformed from defeated cowards to courageous men of God within a few days of the death of the Saviour was their personal intimate knowledge and experience of the facts surrounding the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Non-believers, atheists, agnostics, etc… have suggested that the disciples, during the decades following His death, simply invented their accounts of Jesus. But these apostles were continually threatened and pressured to deny their Lord during their ministry; especially as they faced torture and martyrdom. However, none of these men who spent time with Jesus chose to save their lives by denying their faith in Him. Each of the apostles was called upon to pay the ultimate price to prove their faith in Jesus, affirming with their life’s blood that Jesus was the true Messiah, the Son of the Living God and the only hope of salvation for sinful humanity.

Most of the information about the deaths of the apostles is derived from early church traditions. The Church historian Schumacher researched the lives of the apostles and recounted the history of their martyrdoms.

Andrew died on an X-shaped cross in Patras of Achaia, Bartholomew (Nathaniel was flayed alive in Armenia, James (brother of John) was beheaded by Herod Agrippa in Jerusalem, James (son of Cleopas and Mary) was stoned, Jude (Thaddeus), the half brother of Jesus was shot with arrows in Armenia.

Matthew was slain by the sword in Parthia, Mark died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead. Peter was crucified upside down in Rome because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die in the same way that His Master and Lord Jesus Christ had died.

Stephen the first Christian martyr was stoned to death after preaching one of the longest sermons in the Book of Acts. James the Just and half-brother of Jesus was captured and taken to the very pinnacle of where the devil took Jesus in Matthew chapter 4.

He was told to blaspheme Christ, or be thrown off! James the Just replied: “I see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of glory!’’ So they threw them off. But the fall didn’t kill him, so they started to stone him. As he lay there, with his bones broken and the stones being thrown at him, he said, Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they do.” Finally someone, out of sheer mercy, got a big wooden club and clubbed his head, and he died.

John was the only one of the 12 apostles left after the others had already suffered a martyr’s death. He became a political prisoner on the island of Patmos because of his exclusive devotion to the word of God and the testimony of Jesus which was taken as treason by the Roman authorities. He subsequently faced martyrdom when he was boiled in a huge basin of boiling oil but was miraculously delivered to become the only apostle of the 12 to die a natural and peaceful death.

The Early Christians

We also know that thousands of the early Christians and those of later ages suffered violent death, mutilation, burning and other processes that marred and destroyed their physical bodies. Nero persecuted Christians by daubing them with pitch and burning them alive as torches for his nightly garden parties or sewing them in the skins of wild animals to be hunted by dogs and lions.

One notable Christian who was martyred in about 155 under Antonius Pius was Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna and once a student of the apostle John. Forced into the stadium, Polycarp was asked by the Roman proconsul to swear by the genius of the emperor and to curse Christ. He replied,

Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?

Before the day was over, he was burned at the stake. Like all martyrs before him and the multitudes after him, he had been transformed by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

All this happened because His message and His physical resurrection transformed His early followers, who did not pick up the sword to defend themselves even during the brutal persecutions, but rather went about spreading His love and the need for repentance and forgiveness of sins to all regardless of their race, sex, ethnicity, poverty, or wealth.

They did so because they believed with all their heart, soul and mind the Words of Jesus: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). This echoed the conviction of Peter’s words spoken to his fellow Jews:

And there is salvation in and through no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by and in which we must be saved (Acts 4:12).

There have been countless people who have been transformed by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. These followers have produced revolutionary changes-socially, politically, economically, and culturally.

As someone has said, Christianity is not a religion; but a revolution against the kingdom of darkness.” And as George Sarton has said, “The birth of Christianity changed forever the face of the Western world.” Despite widespread persecutions, Christ’s transformed followers, especially during the first few centuries, effected that change because Christ’s life and teachings challenged almost everything for which the Roman world had stood. The Christians rejected the pagan gods of the Greeks and Romans.

These gods, said the second-century Christian apologist Aristides, were man-made and thus not gods at all; moreover, they were given to all of the weaknesses and sins common to mankind. Some of the gods, according to Roman mythology, committed adultery, murder, sodomy, and theft; others were envious, greedy, and passionate; still others had physical impediments; some had even died.

But Christians said Aristides, worship and honour God who is neither male nor female, whom “the heavens do not contain…but the heavens and all things visible and invisible are contained in Him. This had already been confirmed by Paul’s famous sermon at Athens on Mars Hill.  The Bible tells us while Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy at Athens, his spirit was grieved and roused to anger as he saw that the city was full of idols.

So, Paul began to preach to them about Jesus Christ, a man who had recently been crucified in Jerusalem. He drew their attention to a natural debate before he could engage them about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. These Epicurean and Stoic philosophers thought that Paul was trying to be an announcer of foreign deities because he preached Jesus and the resurrection (see Acts 17:18).

Paul concludes that God overlooked people’s ignorance about these things in earlier times, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. In the past God permitted all nations to walk in their ways, but He did not leave them without any evidence of Himself and His goodness. He sent rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying their hearts with nourishment and happiness.

However, the appointed time has come when He expects and charges all men everywhere to repent and turn from their ignorance, idolatry, and superstition because He has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man Jesus Christ, whom He has proved to everyone who this is by raising Him from the dead (see Acts 17:19-31).

Death Is Not Final

To the Christian, death is not final. A believer simply falls asleep in Jesus and wakes up instantly in the presence of God. But those who die without the Lord Jesus Christ are referred to as “the dead.” Someday the dead will stand before the Great White Throne of God and be judged according to the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.

They will then be cast into the lake of fire. “This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15). Some say that when Christians die, they sleep in the grave until Jesus returns and raises the dead. However, Paul said, “To live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).  To sleep in the grave would not be gain! Paul knew that physical death would allow him to “depart and be with Christ,” which, he said, is very much better (Philippians 1:23).

We will be fully conscious one minute after we have died. We will know who we are, we will have our memory. It is only our body that dies, not our spirit. Death separates body and spirit. Later, spirit and body will be reunited in the resurrection. When Paul talks about putting off our earthly tent, he says to be “absent from the body” is “to be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:1-9).

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, he refers to those who have died in Christ as having “fallen asleep in Jesus” because this is what death is to the believer- falling asleep and waking up in the presence of our Lord.

Because Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, the Christian will not see death. This truth caused Jesus to proclaim,

I am Myself the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on) Me, although he may die, yet he shall live; And whoever continues to live and believes in (has faith in, cleaves to, and relies on) Me shall never actually die at all (John 11:25-26).

Death is conquered! The Tomb is Empty! Jesus becomes the Giver of Life (John 20:21-23). This is the Good News that Paul preaches to us. “It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place” (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-2).

Jesus Christ is the divine, eternal Son of God, who became a member of the human race by virgin birth. He led a sinless life, died on the cross as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of humanity, was buried and rose again in bodily form from the grave on the third day.

He ascended into heaven, whence He will return to earth in person; to judge the living and the dead. Everyone who repents of sin and trusts in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ receives forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life.

A fascinating piece appeared in The Wall Street Journal concerning the skill levels of new hires. Or, rather, the lack of skills, even in fields such as engineering.

Firms are taking in new graduates only to discover that while they might know much, they can’t actually do anything, not even basic things that every engineer is supposed to know. The reason is that most of these kids have only done Zoom classes. They have no practical experience.

Think of this. The freshman class of 2020 got hit with virus mania in the spring, and in-person classes ended. Their sophomore year was awful, just staring at a screen. When they came back, if they did, they had to wear masks and get jabbed and jabbed again. Their junior year was more of the same nonsense, with off-and-on classes but seriously truncated experiences. Then they graduated.

So much for college. So much for the six figures of debt they accumulated in these years. And so much for learning by doing.

It all serves as a reminder. Skills come from what we do, including screw-ups, failures, adaptations, and gradually getting better at something, anything, whatever it is. Without hands-on experience, the only skill you learn is rote memorization and gaming the system. To be sure, today’s college graduates are very good at that, but their skills are severely lacking in many practical areas of life.

What are young people prepared for? Maybe a Zoom job pretending to work in a management position—exactly the sort that’s vanishing as major corporations are desperately cutting labor costs by purging management of its outrageous excesses. It goes on daily. When CVS announced huge layoffs, it made it clear that there would be no losses among the people who are “customer facing.” Those people remain in huge demand.

But how many of today’s college graduates are even prepared to stand behind a checkout counter and speak coherently to people, much less handle money or deal with scanning codes and the like? Not many.

I’m sure you have noticed this in general since the onset of the digital age, when everyone was tempted by the idea that we would migrate to the cloud and dispense with the burdens of physical reality. It turns out to be one of the greatest lies ever told. The costs are huge.

Real skills are what make the world work. We’ve got an entire generation, or maybe two, that simply lacks skills we once took for granted.

Let’s just consider one example: ironing clothes. It so happens that I’m a real expert in this skill, at least as compared with most other people I know. This is because I worked in clothing stores for years and learned under real experts. I developed the skill myself and now do all that’s involved without thinking about it.

But, yesterday, I was ironing a white cotton shirt and began to think through all that could go wrong but didn’t go wrong. There are so many variables. Steam or not? Starch and, if so, how much? What’s the right temperature setting? How does one know if the fabric is getting too hot and on the verge of being scorched?

Should the sleeve have a crease? And what of the cuffs? And do both sides need to be ironed or only one? What’s the best way to navigate around buttons without accidentally popping them off? How can a collar be positioned on the ironing board in a way that’s most effective and efficient? How long should ironing a shirt take—5 minutes or 25 minutes—and what’s the reasonable expectation?

It might all seem easy by description, but it simply isn’t. I’ve spent years screwing up every aspect of this process. I’ve scorched collars, broken buttons, creased cuffs, and clumped up the starch. My skills improved gradually over time by virtue of making errors. And this is with only one type of clothing. Taking on a wool suit introduces a full range of other problems.

Honestly, I can’t think of anyone I know under the age of 30 who knows how to do any of this. As a result, most people don’t iron at all. They just mill around with rumpled clothing or only wear stuff that requires no ironing at all. The skill itself has experienced a cultural atrophy, so far as I can tell.

But that’s just the beginning of it. Real expertise takes years and stakes that are much higher. Engineering is an obvious case, but there are less obvious ones. There’s a butcher in town of whom I’m in complete awe. He runs a bone-cutting machine that’s the meanest and most potentially vicious thing I’ve ever seen. Someone will order a rack of ribs, and he grabs a big carcass from the refrigerator. He throws it on the machine and shoves it this way and that, moving the bones and meat with incredible expertise.

I watch him because it’s at once terrifying and wildly impressive. It seems like he’s hardly paying attention and moves like lightning through all meats: chickens, goats, lambs, or anything. It’s awesome. And consider: one wrong move, and he would be missing a finger, a hand, or an arm. Just observing his work makes one’s heart race. It’s utterly beautiful.

You think you’ll never need this skill because others have them. Fine. But real skills are needed in everyday life. Cooking is an example. Just making a burger in a skillet isn’t as easy as people think. You have to know how to shape the meat, and it depends on how lean the mince is because that determines how it will respond to the heat.

You need to know how hot the skillet should be. You need to know when to deglaze the pan so that the sugars in the fat will adhere to the meat and become more delicious. You need to know when to take the burger out of the pan with knowledge that it will continue to cook as it cools.

None of this knowledge comes from ebooks or screens. It’s simply not possible to learn to cook this way. Even recipe books are of limited value. You can’t just follow a list of ingredients and cause a dish to magically appear.

For years, I baked bread. I started in college to use the resulting loaves as a tool in bartering for services. I did this because I was poor. It mostly worked. More importantly, I gained a life skill. Perhaps, I followed a recipe early on but gave it up quickly. I haven’t looked at a recipe in many years. I’ve taught others to bake bread, but only by showing and doing. It isn’t possible to learn how to knead dough by reading about it. It’s something that one has to do.

The loss of skills is having a profound effect on our lives. Sales of older homes are taking a dramatic dive simply because there are no workers available to do the necessary repairs. The few people out there who know plaster repair, wiring, or roofing are too expensive, and the wait is too long. Instead, people are buying new or just renting.

It’s true in car repair, too, which is why you have to wait a week or longer to get even the simplest task done. The loss of skills is even affecting the vaunted transition to green energy. If there aren’t enough engineers who can do things, it simply can’t happen.

And, yet, the economic transition away from bloated management structures back to doing actual work is happening very quickly, leaving an entire generation raised on TikTok and Zoom at a loss. We somehow managed to rob millions of the ability to be useful to others. This is true regardless of how many degrees they carry.

From 2020 to the present, people without actual medical skills, but rather only theories plus force, took over public health in most parts of the world. Look at the mess they made! This is what happens when abstract knowledge overrides real experience. You can destroy the world this way.

How to repair the problem? Start small. Iron a shirt. Make a hamburger. Clean a bathroom. It doesn’t matter what it is precisely. Just be useful, and see just how hard it truly is.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Watchman Research Media

Copyright © 2023 Jeffrey A. Tucker Author

Isaiah prophesied that a king would come who would reign like no other. Details of his reign are given: his birth; his ministry in ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’; his lineage, from the line of Jesse; his anointing to do God’s work. Anyone who doubts the validity of Christ’s claim to kingship needs to look back to the accuracy of Isaiah’s predictions.

For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and of peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from the [latter] time forth, even forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this (Isaiah 9:6-7).

Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold, the young woman who is unmarried and a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel (God with us) Isaiah 7:14).

In scripture we find the word “Mashiah” which means “anointed one”. The term was applied to the High Priest (Leviticus 4:23); the King (2 Sam 1:14) and also prophets of God (Psalms 105:15). It speaks of these men being set apart by God for God, and with the power of God helping them. However, at a later date we find Daniel predicting that after the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem which was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, a period of time would pass after which the Messiah (meaning Anointed one) would come (Daniel 9:25).

In this prophecy he uses the word “Messiah” as a title. This caused the Jews to speak freely of the one to come as The ‘Messiah’. Scripture reveals that the one to come will be the supreme Anointed One. He will be the one who fulfills the offices of prophet, priest and king, which were only shadows that pointed to Him.

Biblical prophecy (including Messianic prophecy) is unique amongst all the religious books of the world. It covers a vast period of time and includes all the nations involved in the history of Israel. The prophecies reveal God as the only God of history.

He is the Master of all events and can work through both good and bad to bring about His purposes. One example of this perfect mastery of all events is seen in Micah’s prophecy foretelling the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. Micah went on to say that the King is going to come from the little village of Bethlehem:

But you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you are little to be among the clans of Judah; yet out of you shall One come forth for Me Who is to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth (origins) have been from of old, from ancient days (eternity) (Micah 5:2).

Beth means ‘house’ and lehem means ‘bread’, so the name literally means ‘house of bread’. It was this little village that supplied corn to Jerusalem, as well as lambs for sacrifice. The above prophecy refers to Christ is seen from Matthew 2:1

After Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men astrologers from the east came to Jerusalem, asking, Where is He Who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east at its rising and have come to worship Him.

When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. Herod conferred with Jewish hierarchy about their prophecies to ascertain Bethlehem from Micah 5:2.  The Jews and wise men would have been familiar with Daniel’s prophecy (9:25-26) and known the timing was upon them for the Messiah.

That it Might be Fulfilled

Matthew refers to the Old Testament more than any of the other Gospels. One of his favorite sayings is ‘that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets’. This is seen in particular in Matthew’s birth narrative.

He takes a long time explaining why Jesus was born in Bethlehem–because the prophets had predicted that Bethlehem of Judaea would be the birthplace of the king. During the time of the Roman Empire, several special taxations were ordered. Under the rule of Caesar Augustus one of these taxations was levied for years before the birth of Jesus. The Jewish people protested against this order, yet were overruled. However this delayed the enforcement of this taxation order for four years, bringing us to the time of Jesus’ birth.

Under the order Joseph and Mary were required to be present in Bethlehem (Luke 2:1-7) and so prophecy was fulfilled. Mary and Joseph later returned to Nazareth, thus fulfilling Messianic prophecy that stated the Messiah would be called a Nazarene (Matthew 2:23).

Yet this would be crucially important for Jews wondering if this was the Messiah God had promised long ago. “Behold, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel—which, when translated, means, God with us (Matthew 1:23).

Matthew is keen for readers to understand that the prophets spoke of the birth to a virgin, the slaughter of the innocents, the flight into Egypt and the return to Galilee. The phrase ‘that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophets’ occurs 13 times in the story of Jesus’ birth, where Matthew quotes Micah, Hosea, Jeremiah and Isaiah.

From the very beginning, Matthew focuses his readers’ attention on Christ’s ancestry in the royal line of David, describing how his birth fulfils prophecy and has the marks of God’s involvement, heralded by archangels and welcomed by an angelic choir. While Luke includes the shepherds, it is Matthew who records the worship of the child by wise men from the east.

The Wise Men

Most people are familiar with the Wise Men who followed a star to Bethlehem. Whilst they have been commonly regarded as Gentiles, it is more likely that they were descendants of the Jews who had been left behind in Babylon after the Exile.

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen, from David to the Babylonian exile (deportation) fourteen generations, from the Babylonian exile to the Christ fourteen generations (Matthew 1:17).

They had remembered the prophecy of Balaam that a star would arise out of Israel to be the King of the Nations. I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but He is not near. A Star shall come forth out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel and shall crush all the corners of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth…. (Numbers 24:17).  So when the wise men or astrologers from the east saw His star in the east they followed it. Their presence in Matthew’s birth account says much about the importance of Christ’s incarnation.

It is interesting that there will be signs in the sky because the sky responds to significant events on earth. This doesn’t mean that when Wise Men followed the star, it proves astrology is all right. Astrology believes that the position of the stars influences a baby at the moment of birth, but at Bethlehem, it was the position of the baby that influenced the stars!

The Beloved Physician Luke

Luke was a doctor by profession – the apostle Paul refers to him as ‘the beloved physician’ when writing to the Colossian church. Because of his medical background, he was able to bring his considerable skill as a writer and physician to search out diligently and follow all things closely and traced accurately the course from the highest to minutest detail and record what actually took place, even when it was outside medical knowledge or ability.

The birth of Jesus, for example, is told from Mary’s angle. She made her life available to Jesus Christ and she was willing to trust God’s plan for her life. Here was a young girl around 13-14 years old, who is approached by an angel, and he tells her that she is found grace with God and she will become pregnant and will birth to a Messiah she will call His name Jesus (see Luke 1:30-32).

Here again, Matthew’s birth narrative says:

And her promised husband Joseph, being a just and upright man and not willing to expose her publicly and to shame and disgrace her, decided to repudiate and dismiss (divorce) her quietly and secretly. But as he was thinking this over, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, descendant of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of (from, out of) the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus (the Greek form of the Hebrew Joshua), which means Savior, for He will save His people from their sins that is, prevent them from failing and missing the true end and scope of life, which is God (Matthew 1:19-21).

In first-century society, this would be a total disgrace! That’s why Joseph had decided to divorce her quietly and secretly. And yet, Mary basically says, Here am I. Do with me as you please.” Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be done according to what you have said (Luke 1:38).

Many times, we wonder what the will of God is for our lives. Let me suggest that you simply say, “Lord, I am willing to obey, even though I don’t completely understand what it is that You’re asking me to do.” That is what Mary did. She didn’t fully understand what the angel Gabriel was telling her, but she obeyed just the same. She took a leap of faith. This is the attitude God looks for in His servants: childlike faith and obedience.

Luke also gives further details of the virgin birth, Jesus’ circumcision, and mentions the swaddling clothes or diapers – all the kind of things a doctor would be interested in. Some doctors are sceptical about anything which is outside the natural, physical realm, but God used a doctor to report the supernatural!

Medicine had been developing for 400 years and doctors received careful training. Luke needed to be observant, analytical and careful in his records – skills which he also uses in giving intimate details of the conception and delivery of Jesus Christ.

And this will be a sign for you by which you will recognize Him: you will find (after searching) a Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger (Luke 2:12-13).

Luke also records the involvement of the shepherds in witnessing and broadcasting news of the birth of Jesus. He records that Mary and Joseph brought pigeons to the temple for sacrifice at the birth of Jesus. This was the cheapest possible sacrifice allowed under Levitical law (see Leviticus 12:1-4).

And when the time for their purification the mother’s purification and the Baby’s dedication came according to the Law of Moses, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord—As it is written in the Law of the Lord, Every firstborn male that opens the womb shall be set apart and dedicated and called holy to the Lord (Luke 2:22-23; see also Exodus 13: 1-2, 12; Numbers 8:17).

The greatest miracle that has ever taken place happened when our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, left His throne in glory and choose to born in a cave in Bethlehem. He could have been born in the most elegant palace on this planet, but instead He was born in a stable in Bethlehem which was cold and damp.

He could have had aristocratic parents who boasted of their status. He could have heard the finest clothes from the most exclusive shops. But He had none of that. Instead, Jesus chose to humble Himself and became poor that through His poverty we might become rich (2 Corinthians 8:9).

Our Savior did not come as a Monarch draped in gold and silk, but as baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.  He went from the glory of God to a stable filled with animals. Someone has said that history swings on the hinge of the door of a stable in Bethlehem. Jesus took His place in a manger so that we might have a home in Heaven.

As you enjoy your Christmas today with your loved ones, take time to contemplate what Christmas is really about. It was the day Christ Jesus came into the world to bring us salvation, the most wonderful gift anyone could ever have-and it’s completely free!

For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He even gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.

For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge (to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on) the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him (John 3:16-17 AMP).

The most wonderful and most powerful miracle opened the way for the miracle of rebirth –when you are “born again” When you are “born again”- your whole life changes because, just as Jesus came into the world, he comes into our hearts. He came not to condemn us, but to save us from eternal damnation.

Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas!

In her book Treasures in Dark Places, Leanna Cinquanta shares a powerful, haunting story of an encounter she had with Jesus Christ. It’s worth recounting here because she came face to face with the suffering Messiah so clearly revealed to us in the prophecy of the suffering servant described in Isaiah 53:

Face-to-Face A new year had begun—1986. March arrived, attended by melting snow and warmer breezes after six months of Minnesota deep freeze. Cocky as ever, I aimed to enjoy another summer of mischief and pushing limits. But my plans were about to be invaded. The downstairs of our bi-level apartment behind the airplane shop consisted of kitchen, living room and Mom and Dad’s bedroom.

Upstairs were two rooms. Mom’s sewing machine and my art materials occupied one. The other, situated nearest the stairwell, served as my bedroom. In my room a narrow walkway separated my bed from a cot where my friends slept when they stayed overnight. The night of March 27 began like every other.

After an uneventful day at school, I had pitched my backpack on the couch, grabbed a cookie and made a beeline for the barn to ride my horse. After supper, I burned through my homework then studied horsemanship books till bedtime. Around five o’clock in the morning I awoke. Premature rays of light filtering through the window sufficed to reveal slightly more than shadows in the room. Teenagers love to sleep late, but the responsibility of feeding the horses had molded into me a habit of rising at 7 a.m. Nevertheless, 5 a.m. was too early.

Turning over on my back, I stared indignantly at the ceiling. Sleep had departed for good. Two long hours of tossing and turning lay ahead. Prone to the typical teenaged negativism when life didn’t cater to my wishes, I breathed a swear word and muttered, “This sucks. Why did I wake up so early?” “THERE’S SOMEONE IN THE GUEST BED.”

A voice had spoken out of the darkness! An audible voice! “Who is in my room?” A man’s voice? Oh my gosh! Someone had gotten into my room! Terror shrieked through my bones, immobilizing me, freezing my heart. No, I was not dreaming! A moment earlier I might have still been drowsy, but now I was fully and widely awake. I flipped over onto my stomach, and my saucer-wide eyes strained into the blackness—the far corner of the room from whence the voice emanated. No figure. No movement.

But it was so dark, anyone could be there. Anything. Would someone—or something—emerge from the shadows? I waited, fists knotted with the blankets, my heart not daring to beat. When nothing moved or appeared, the words I had heard began to register. . . . The voice had informed me, “There’s someone in the guest bed.” Almost too frightened to look, I found my eyes turning toward the bed barely a foot removed from mine. What I saw injected a shot of adrenaline. Before I could think, I was cowering back against the wall ready to scream.

There was a hump under the blankets! My heart jackhammered in my throat. A thousand terrors tumbled over themselves as I realized again . . . This is not a dream! This is real! Questions swirled. Who is in my room? How did a strange person sneak into our house? Did we forget to lock the door? What might this person do to me? The figure lay motionless, as if asleep. What is it? I thought. Human? Not human? I had on occasion watched a scary movie, and now visions of monsters crawling out from under people’s beds rushed at me in dreadful imagery.

Raw terror sucked my skin corpselike and clammy. A scream pushed up into my throat, obliging release. I had to do something. I could not remain passively sitting here on this bed. Eyes riveted on the mysterious sleeping figure, I began to creep over the front end of my bed toward the door of the room. The bedsprings squeaked. I froze, eyes riveted on the hump in the guest bed. No movement. I placed one foot on the floor, then the other. Gingerly I stood. The floorboards creaked. I froze again, certain that whatever was in the bed would come roaring to life.

Step by step I inched my way across the room to the light switch. I stood there with my hand on the switch. If I turned the light on, the sleeper would awake. That possibility was too scary. I didn’t turn on the light. The logical action I suppose would have been to go downstairs and rouse my parents. Instead, after standing there for a long, tense moment, I found myself slinking back to my bed. Taking great care to make no sound, I climbed back over the front of the bed and pulled the covers up so I could pretend to be sleeping.

There I cowered, waiting and watching. The figure moved. Swallowing another urge to scream, I stayed still. He sat up on the side of the bed. There my fear ended. The person was Jesus! Artists picture Jesus as a stately Caucasian blond or brunette, head and shoulders above the rabble, with blue eyes, a spotless white robe and a halo over His head. That is not how I saw Him. Being of Jewish descent, He was average in stature with black hair and olive skin. But I could not tell whether He was handsome or homely because of the state in which I saw Him.

Right before my eyes, I saw Jesus in His time of suffering. His face was bloody and bruised and His eyes blackened from repeated beatings. Blood caked His hair and trickled from wounds on His head. His clothes were tattered and blood-soaked. According to history, Jesus was beaten 39 times with a bone-laced whip. This instrument of torture had shredded not only the garment, but also His flesh.

With vehemence far eclipsing my former terror, now a revelation exploded through my being, igniting every sinew and synapse. Truth like an injection shot into my soul. Questions were obliterated and three grand and indisputable facts blazed neon-bright in my vision:

GOD EXISTS.

JESUS IS REAL.

THE BIBLE IS THE WORD OF GOD.

In that moment I knew that were I the only person in the world, He would have suffered this for me. He endured this for every person, no matter how good or bad. This knowledge exceeded a mental persuasion.

A surgical implantation had been sutured into my soul, a laser operation straight from the supernatural realm. Usually, if you do wrong and hurt someone, the person is angry with you. But in the bruised and scarred face of Jesus, there was no condemnation, no anger, but pure forgiveness and compassion. I could endure only a brief look in His face. My mind swooned.

Every muscle felt like water. I am . . . in the presence of God. God in the form of a man . . . and He has suffered terribly to purchase my freedom! The reality of it swirled in my mind and my body went limp. I fell on my face on my bed, weeping. The intensity of that moment is unexplainable and beyond words.

My tears arose not so much from anguish as from awe and reverence, the single possible response for a mortal when found in the presence of the Holy One. But they were also tears of grief that such divine beauty had to be so marred for my pardon. Then something happened that drove the experience still deeper. He touched me.

He reached out His hand and laid it on my right shoulder. “My child, don’t cry.” His voice was gentle but strong. My arms trembled as they lifted my torso from the bed. It’s too much for me, I thought. I cannot look into His eyes again. But I knew I must. Like magnets, they drew me. He had more to show me, more to impart.

In His countenance, so tortured and yet so selfless, I beheld a love that no human can imagine. But enthroned upon that love, a still higher revelation now pierced my soul. His sufferings’ accomplishments exceeded personal pardon. A victorious light shone from His battered face, an aura of triumph and glory, the persona of One who has conquered all and now reigns supreme. The suffering He had endured constituted the price to rescue the world.

I was witnessing the battle scars necessary to break the power of evil. In a communication superseding words, buoyed up with a joyous lilt like the song of angels, I heard Him declare, I’ve broken the power of darkness. The citizens can be set free forever. Then His love was flowing into me, washing over me, waves of splendour engulfing my soul.

Placing my left hand on His while it rested on my shoulder, I felt the hole, where His wrist had been nailed to the cross. This is not a dream! My mind swooned again with the repeating fact. This is real. I am not asleep. This is real. I am face-to-face with God! Awe and reverence once more overcame me. I gazed upon the One who had suffered for our freedom, the One who conquered death.

For love, He had subjected Himself to this unfathomable suffering—love for me, to ransom my life. I gazed into the eyes of a being who embodied self-sacrificing beauty, a being for whom no word but one could suffice. . . . He was . . . holy. The weight of it overpowered me. Unable to contain or bear up under the glory of His presence and the dreadfulness of His pain, I again fell facedown on my bed weeping.

Golden rays kissed my tousled locks. Daylight! As if ejected off my mattress, I found myself on my feet. Knees shaking, I stood between the two beds. The whole encounter rushed back before my eyes. Mottled bright spots of sun beaming through tree branches outside the window illumined the guest bed.

It was neat and perfectly made. It bore no visible sign of the presence who had lain there a few hours earlier. But for me, the bed was now sacred. I feared to touch it. Something was different. Something had changed. For a long, strange moment I stood gawking about the room, not daring to move a muscle. Against the wall stood my dresser, deep chestnut-varnished oak with great round mirror above.

There were my three Breyer horses, the only childhood treasures I had managed to confiscate the night we had picked up and left Arizona. My half-finished mural of a great black steed still leaped over the mirror and the paintbrushes lay atop a nearby stool, awaiting my next bout of artistic inspiration. “I am alive.” I dared to draw a tremorous breath. “And this is my room. I am on Planet Earth.”

But I felt so other, so strange, like a worm that goes to sleep in its cocoon and wakes up a butterfly. Like my operating system had been rebuilt and reprogrammed. With these thoughts another terror crept over me. Had I undergone a physical transformation? Had I become something or someone else?

The image of Alice in Wonderland drifted into my mind, and I impulsively touched my body, examined my hands, my arms. “Flesh. Alive. Me.” I dared another breath. But what about my face? With terrified eyes I stared across the room at the mirror. A few paces would reveal the dread answer. My legs trembled. What would I see in the mirror? Had I metamorphosed into another person, or—creature? Sick with fear I summoned enough courage to step in front of the mirror. Whew! I still looked like me.

But I didn’t feel like me. I felt sparkly inside, a crystal vase from the dishwasher squeaky clean. I must have eaten breakfast because if I hadn’t my parents would have inquired as to my manner of illness, but I could not tell whether I ate cereal or pancakes or eggs. During those few minutes downstairs I learned, to my further awe, that today was Good Friday. I had seen Him on the very day when followers of Jesus commemorate His death. Throughout my uneasy time in the presence of normal humans, I kept checking my body and worrying. I felt like a light bulb, as if the brightness

brightness within was glowing through my skin. Surely others could see it. What if my parents exclaimed, “You look different!” What would I answer? If I had attempted to speak I would have stammered. The world reeled. I feared to walk, certain my steps would resemble a plastered wino. I have to get away! my mind cried. Let me find a place alone, secluded, and attempt to process this.

Withdrawing to my room, I opened my paint cans, climbed on my stool and dabbled at the mural. Downstairs, Mom had the radio on, as was her habit while cooking. She usually played a Christian station, which I had trained myself to ignore. But now my paintbrush froze in midstroke when Petra’s “The Coloring Song” wafted through the air and into my ears. The lyrics vividly described how the blood had flowed down the face of Jesus, God’s own Son. “The only one that can give us life,”

He shed His blood to make my sins white as snow. A jolt like electricity buckled my knees and I toppled from the stool. The words of the song paralleled what I had seen, and the reality of it hit me with the force of a tsunami—God is real. Jesus is real. He is fearsomely and wonderfully real, and I saw Him face-to-face.

I had been allowed to witness Him in the throes of the greatest act of love ever performed in the history of the cosmos, the act that defies nature, and confounds reason—the cross.

When I read this in Leanna’s book, I believed this to be a genuine and real appearance of Jesus Christ, who is alive and still reveals Himself. The same Jesus who appeared to Leanna in tattered glory in her bedroom on a cold Minnesota morning in 1986 desires to reveal Himself to you and me in a deeper, more intimate and more remarkable way.

Jesus visits us not to harm us but to reveal the depth of His indescribable love. The question is: Will you allow Him to reveal Himself to you?

Back in 1921, a missionary couple named David and Svea Flood went with their two-year-old son from Sweden to the heart of Africa—to what was then called the Belgian Congo. They met up with another young Scandinavian couple, the Ericksons, and the four of them sought God for direction. In those days of much tenderness and devotion and sacrifice, they felt led of the Lord to go out from the main mission station and take the gospel to a remote area.

This was a huge step of faith. At the village of N’dolera they were rebuffed by the chief, who would not let them enter his town for fear of alienating the local gods. The two couples opted to go half a mile up the slope and build their own mud huts.

They prayed for a spiritual breakthrough, but there was none. The only contact with the villagers was a young boy, who was allowed to sell them chickens and eggs twice a week. Svea Flood—a tiny woman of only four feet, eight inches tall—decided that if this was the only African she could talk to, she would try to lead the boy to Jesus. And in fact, she succeeded.

But there were no other encouragements. Meanwhile, malaria continued to strike one member of the little band after another. In time the Ericksons decided they had had enough suffering and left to return to the central mission station. David and Svea Flood remained near N’dolera to go on alone.

Then, of all things, Svea found herself pregnant in the middle of the primitive wilderness. When the time came for her to give birth, the village chief softened enough to allow a midwife to help her. A little girl was born, whom they named Aina.

The delivery, however, was exhausting, and Svea Flood was already weak from bouts of malaria. The birth process was a heavy blow to her stamina. She lasted only another seventeen days.

Inside David Flood, something snapped in that moment. He dug a crude grave, buried his twenty-seven-year-old wife, and then took his children back down the mountain to the mission station. Giving his newborn daughter to the Ericksons, he snarled, “I’m going back to Sweden. I’ve lost my wife, and I obviously can’t take care of this baby. God has ruined my life.” With that, he headed for the port, rejecting not only his calling, but God himself.

Within eight months both the Ericksons were stricken with a mysterious malady and died within days of each other. The baby was then turned over to some American missionaries, who adjusted her Swedish name to “Aggie” and eventually brought her back to the United States at age three.

This family loved the little girl and was afraid that if they tried to return to Africa, some legal obstacle might separate her from them. So they decided to stay in their home country and switch from missionary work to pastoral ministry. And that is how Aggie grew up in South Dakota. As a young woman, she attended North Central Bible college in Minneapolis. There she met and married a young man named Dewey Hurst.

Years passed. The Hursts enjoyed a fruitful ministry. Aggie gave birth first to a daughter, then a son. In time her husband became president of a Christian college in the Seattle area, and Aggie was intrigued to find so much Scandinavian heritage there.

One day a Swedish religious magazine appeared in her mailbox. She had no idea who had sent it, and of course, she couldn’t read the words. But as she turned the pages, all of a sudden a photo stopped her cold. There in a primitive setting was a grave with a white cross-and on the cross were the words SVEA FLOOD.

Aggie jumped in her car and went straight to a college faculty member who, she knew, could translate the article. “What does this say?” she demanded.

The instructor summarized the story: It was about missionaries who had come to N’dolera long ago…the birth of a white baby…the death of the young mother…the one little African boy who had been led to Christ…and how, after the whites had all left, the boy had grown up and finally persuaded the chief to let him build a school in the village. The article said that gradually he won all his students to Christ…the children led their parents to Christ…even the chief had become a Christian. Today there were six hundred Christian believers in that one village…

All because of the sacrifice of David and Svea Flood.

For the Hursts’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, the college presented them with the gift of a vacation to Sweden. There Aggie sought to find her real father. An old man now, David Flood had remarried, fathered four more children, and generally dissipated his life with alcohol. He had recently suffered a stroke. Still bitter, he had one rule in his family: “Never mention the name of God-because God took everything from me.”

After an emotional reunion with her half brothers and half sister, Aggie brought up the subject of seeing her father. The others hesitated. “You can talk to him,” they replied, “even though he’s very ill now. But you need to know that whenever he hears the name of God, he flies into a rage.”

Aggie was not to be deterred. She walked into the squalid apartment, with liquor bottles everywhere, and approached the seventy-three-year-old man lying in a rumpled bed.

“Papa?” she said tentatively.

He turned and began to cry. “Aina,” he said, “I never meant to give you away.”

“It’s all right Papa,” she replied, taking him gently in her arms. “God took care of me.”

The man instantly stiffened. The tears stopped.

“God forgot all of us. Our lives have been like this because of Him.” He turned his face back to the wall.

Aggie stroked his face and then continued, undaunted.

“Papa, I’ve got a little story to tell you, and it’s a true one. You didn’t go to Africa in vain. Mama didn’t die in vain. The little boy you won to the Lord grew up to win that whole village to Jesus Christ. The one seed you planted just kept growing and growing. Today there are six hundred African people serving the Lord because you were faithful to the call of God in your life…

“Papa, Jesus loves you. He has never hated you.”

The old man turned back to look into his daughter’s eyes. His body relaxed. He began to talk. And by the end of the afternoon, he had come back to the God he had resented for so many decades.

Over the next few days, father and daughter enjoyed warm moments together. Aggie and her husband soon had to return to America—and within a few weeks, David Flood had gone into eternity.

A few years later, the Hursts were attending a high-level evangelism conference in London, England, where a report was given from the nation of Zaire (the former Belgian Congo). The superintendent of the national church, representing some 110,000 baptized believers, spoke eloquently of the gospel’s spread in his nation. Aggie could not help going to ask him afterward if he had ever heard of David and Svea Flood.

“Yes, madam,” the man replied in French, his words then being translated into English. “It was Svea Flood who led me to Jesus Christ. I was the boy who brought food to your parents before you were born. In fact, to this day your mother’s grave and her memory are honored by all of us.”

He embraced her in a long, sobbing hug. Then he continued, “You must come to Africa to see, because your mother is the most famous person in our history.”

In time that is exactly what Aggie Hurst and her husband did. They were welcomed by cheering throngs of villagers. She even met the man who had been hired by her father many years before to carry her back down the mountain in a hammock-cradle.

The most dramatic moment, of course, was when the pastor escorted Aggie to see her mother’s white cross for herself. She knelt in the soil to pray and give thanks. Later that day, in the church, the pastor read from John 12:24: “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” He then followed with Psalm 126:5: “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.”

This is an excerpt from Aggie Hurst, Aggie: The Inspiring Story of A Girl Without A Country Springfield, MO: Gospel Publishing House, 1986.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is acknowledged to have played a role in one of America’s First Great Awakening and he experienced the first revival in 1733-1735. He is also known to be one of America’s greatest intellectuals and philosophical theologians. He wrote many books including The Life and Times of David Brainerd, which continues to be published today and which has inspired thousands of missionaries and generations of believers.

It has been reported by one historian that in the larger world of the rapidly growing colonies, the church of Jesus Christ was already well into spiritual decline. It was nothing like modern America, of course, but gone were the days of tightly knit bands of fervent believers who were seeking refuge from English persecution. More and more, immigrants were coming for the economic hopes of fertile and cheap land, and less for their unconditional devotion to Christ.

Most people in a colonial town such as East Windsor were church members, often attending every Sunday morning and going through the rituals. But a decreasing percentage had Christ in their hearts. For them, the church was more traditional than being part of the body of Jesus. And the more people who immigrated from Europe, not from persecution, the more the churches were diluted of committed Christians…… They could still give correct answers to the catechism, but their hearts were fixed not on God, but on land and trade. The decline naturally manifested itself in community life, also.

The Puritan ways had all but disappeared and were increasingly being mocked. Many pastors saw this trend and the problem, but they did agree on the solution: the power of God to revive the spirits of the people, starting with their spiritual leaders. We have to understand that the only religion in those days was always referred to as Christianity. There was no other. And therefore, for this pouring out of the Holy Spirit, Jonathan Edwards and many others prayed diligently.

E.M. Bounds in his book Weapons of Prayer writes:

Jonathan Edwards must be placed among the praying saints—one who God mightily used through the instrumentality of prayer. As in the instance of the great New Englander, purity of heart should be ingrained in the foundation areas of every man who is a true leader of his fellows and a minister of the Gospel of Christ and constant practice in the holy office of prayer.

A sample of the utterances of this mighty man of God is here given in the shape of a resolution which he formed, and wrote down:

Resolved to exercise myself in this all my life long, with the greatest openness to declare my ways to God, and to lay my soul open to God—all my sins, temptations, difficulties, sorrows, fears, hopes, desires, and everything and every circumstance. We are not surprised, therefore, that the result of such impassioned and honest praying was to lead him to record in his diary: It was my continual strife day and night, and my constant inquiry how I should be more holy, and live more holily.

The heaven I desired was a heaven of holiness. I went on with my eager pursuit of more holiness and conformity to Christ. The character and work of Jonathan Edwards were exemplifications of the great truth that the ministry of prayer is the efficient agency in every truly God-ordered work and life. He himself gives some particulars about his life when he was a boy. He might as well be called the “Isaiah of the Christian dispensation.

There was united in him great mental powers, ardent piety, and devotion to study, unequalled save by his devotion to God. Here is what he says about himself:

As a boy, I used to pray five times a day in secret and spend much time in religious conversation with other boys.I used to meet with them to pray together. So, it is God’s will through his wonderful grace, that the prayers of his saints should be one great and principal means of carrying on the designs of Christ’s kingdom.

Pray much for the ministers and the church of God. The great powers of Edward’s mind and heart were exercised to procure an agreed union in the extraordinary prayer of God’s people everywhere. His life, efforts and character are exemplification of his statement:

The heaven I desire is a heaven spent with God; an eternity spent in the presence of divine love, and in holy communion with Christ.

At another time he said:

The soul of a true Christian appears like a little white flower in the spring of the year, low and humble on the ground, opening its bosom to receive the pleasing beams of the sun’s glory, rejoicing as it were in a calm rapture, diffusing around a sweet fragrance, standing peacefully and lovingly in the midst of other flowers.

Again he writes:

Once I rode out in the woods for my health, having alighted from my horse on a retired place, as my manner has been to walk for divine contemplation and prayer, I had a view, that for me was extraordinary, of the glory of the Son of God as Mediator between God and man, and of His wonderful, great, full, pure, and sweet grace and love. And His meek and gentle condescension. This grace that seemed so calm and sweet appeared also great among the heavens.

The person of Christ appeared ineffably excellent with an excellency great enough to swallow up all thought and conception, which continued, as near as I can judge, for about an hour. It kept me the greater part of the time in a flood of tears and weeping aloud. I felt an ardency of soul to be, what I know not otherwise how to express, emptied and annihilated, to lie in the dust to be full of Christ alone, to love Him with my whole heart.

As it was with Jonathan Edwards, so it is with all great intercessors. They come into that holy and elect mind and heart by a thorough self-dedication to God, by periods of God’s revelation to them, making distinctly marked eras in their spiritual history, ears never to be forgotten, in which faith mounts up with wings as eagles, and has given it a new and fuller vision of God, a stronger grasp of faith, a sweeter, clearer vision of all things heavenly and eternal, and a blessed intimacy with, and access to God.

Here is a conscience summary of the Edwards from the pen of Leonard Ravenhill:

Jonathan Edwards achieved greatness as an American preacher-evangelist, principal of a college, mystic, and revivalist. For us to see Jonathan Edwards ascend his pulpit today, a candle in one hand and his sermon manuscript in the other would cause a titter in the congregation. His tongue must have been like a sharp two-edged sword to his attentive hearers. His words must have been as painful to their hearts and consciences as burning metal on flesh. Nevertheless, men gave heed, repented, and were saved.

A thin crust, a very thin crust of morality, it seems to me, keeps America from complete collapse. In this perilous hour we need a whole generation of preachers like Edwards. ‘Oh Lord of hosts, turn us again; cause Thy face to shine upon us, and we shall be saved.’

Contrast this great man of God with his contemporary. This again is from Ravenhill in his book Sodom Had No Bible:

There was an atheist named Max Jukes and a godly man named Jonathan Edwards. Max Jukes, the atheist, lived a godless life. He married an ungodly girl, and from the union there were 310 who died as paupers, 150 were criminals, 7 were murderers, 100 drunkards, and more than half of the women were prostitutes. His 540 descendants cost the State one and quarter million dollars. But, praise the Lord it works both ways! There is a record of a great American man of God, Jonathan Edwards. He lived at the same time as Max Jukes, but he married a godly girl. An investigation was made of 1,394 known descendants of Jonathan Edwards of which 13 became college presidents, 65 college professors, 3 United States senators, 30 judges, 100 lawyers, 60 physicians, 75 army and navy officers, 100 preachers and missionaries, 60 authors of prominence, one vice-president of the United States, 80 became public officials in other capacities, 295 college graduates, among whom were governors of states and ministers to foreign countries. His descendants did not cost the state a single penny.

The Bible says: “The memory of the uncompromisingly righteous is a blessing, but the name of the wicked shall rot” (Proverbs 10:7 AMP).

We were warned, but nobody listened.  I’m referring to the warning about how nefarious forces have been planning America’s demise for many decades now.  Specifically, how our once-great nation, founded on Godly principles by Godly men and women seeking true freedom and liberty would eventually be destroyed from within — by Communism.  In 1958, W. Cleon Skousen, a former FBI employee, published a book titled “The Naked Communist.”  Five years later, in January of 1963, Albert ‘Syd’ Herlong — a member of the House of Representatives from Florida — and a Democrat — stood before Congress and listed the “45 Current Communist Goals,” which were entered into the official Congressional Record.

What was going on in America in January of 1963?  Well, just six months earlier, the Supreme Court had rendered it’s decision that prayer in public schools would be outlawed.  In June of ‘63, the Supreme Court proclaimed that Bible reading in public schools should be done away with also.  Of course, there was some pushback from this, but American Christianity had already started to lose much of it’s influence, and with the Johnson Amendment entering into the tax code nine years prior, many pastors were already beginning to tuck their tails between their legs and remain silent on all things that might be construed as “political,” as the weaponizing of the IRS had begun.

World War II was still a fairly recent event, having ended less than twenty years earlier.  And we were still mourning the bloody Korean War, which ended just ten years earlier leaving three million people dead — and cold war tensions high.  We had seen first-hand the brutal effects of Socialism, Communism, Fascism and Marxism.  Many were warning that although the wars had ended, we still faced the dangers of creeping Communism in this country.  But it seemed absurd to most people because surely America would never fall under the tyranny of such an evil, tyrannical ideology.  After all, our military heroes in uniform had just recently fought, bled and died in foreign lands to put an end to those evil regimes and assure that would never happen here.

Still, we were warned.  Let me share a few of those Communist Goals from 1963, that I believe have been very effectively accomplished.  Among them: “Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.”  (Done). “Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.” (Done).  “Get control of the schools.  Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda.  Soften the curriculum.  Get control of teachers’ associations.  Put the party line in textbooks.”  (Done).

Also: “Infiltrate the press.  Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.” (Done).  “Gain control of key positions in radio, TV and motion pictures.” (Done).  “Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them ‘censorship’ and a violation of free speech and free press.” (Done).  “Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.” (Done).

More Communist goals: “Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as ‘normal, natural and healthy.’”  (May have seemed impossible but they got that done too).  “Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with ‘social’ religion.  Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity.” (Done).  “Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools.” (As we’ve seen, that one was checked off the list that very year).  “Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a world-wide basis.”  (Done).

“Discredit the American founding fathers.  Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the common man.” (Done).  “Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture, education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.” (Done). “Infiltrate and gain control of big business.”  (Done).  “Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies.”  (Done).  “Discredit the family as an institution.  Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.” (Done).  “Emphasize the need to raise children away from the ‘negative influence’ of parents.”  (Done).

Believe it or not, the Communists accomplished pretty much every one of their goals, which were designed to destroy America from within.  And they did it so slowly and so stealthily that nobody really noticed.  Those who did and sounded a warning were shouted down as crazy conspiracy theorists and fanatics.  So here we are, today, scratching our heads and wondering what in the world happened to the country we grew up in.  We were warned.  Nobody listened.

Who would have ever believed that the idea of “Democratic Socialism” would even be taken seriously in America?  But now, according to polls, 39% of American adults said they would prefer socialism.  That number jumps to 54% for those age 18-24.

When I first heard about the idea of “The Green New Deal,” I thought it was one of the most ridiculous things the Leftists had come up with yet.  No more vehicles with gas or diesel engines; imposing a new ‘carbon tax’; everyone guaranteed a job with a universal basic income; free college for all; free healthcare for all; elimination of private homes in favor of ‘green’ multi-unit residential facilities; more public programs, eliminating personal or private property.

Now, we have Klous Schwab of the World Economic Forum — and thousands of his minions embedded in every American state and countless cities across the country — stating boldly that by 2030, we will own nothing and we will like it that way.  That sounds like Communism to me.  But again, the idea of American freedom has been so villainized by the Left while Communistic ideals have been purposely spoon-fed to our children in our public schools and college campuses for so long, I honestly don’t think it’s going to take that long for them to gain complete control.

Our young people have been trained to hate their country, their history and heritage, especially if they happen to be white.  They’ve also been trained to believe that God is dead and Christians are hateful bigots.  In just the past two years, we’ve seen the destruction and removal of statues and monuments honoring America’s historical heroes.  Yet in Seattle, Washington, the statue of the Communist dictator Vladimir Lenin remains the pride of the city.

Law and order is gone.  George Soros-selected District Attorneys are turning criminals loose and crime is not prosecuted. We have the  highest rates of violence ever in this country right now.  Not to mention homelessness, drug abuse and mental illness. Meanwhile, a full-scale invasion of foreign soldiers is taking place on our southern border.  Of course, not all who are entering this country illegally mean to do us harm, but a significant number are coming here just for that purpose, and we’re rolling out the red carpet for them.  Our government is transporting them to cities and towns across America under the cover of darkness so that citizens won’t so easily notice.  Once they’re settled in, the government “Welcome Wagon,” funded with our taxpayer dollars, supplies them with free housing, food, healthcare, education and cash.

We’ve purposely shut down our energy production, and now we must beg our enemies for help.  Freedom of speech is gone, for all practical purposes, because even though we’re still able to speak words that defy the regime, few ever will, for fear of retribution from friends, family and neighbors — or any number of three-letter agencies that have been weaponized by the Globalists.

Along with the deliberate destruction of our economy, energy resources and supply chain, we’re also seeing the start of a planned world-wide famine.  Farmers are being paid by the government NOT to plant their fields.  Millions of chickens and turkeys are being destroyed due to a supposed “bird flu” outbreak.  The Banksters are buying up massive amounts of farmland and the “climate change” police are calling for the culling of millions of heads of cattle — in order to mitigate CO2 emissions.  Bill Gates wants us to eat insects.  And what’s going on with all the mysterious fires at food processing plants throughout the country, all happening just in the past few months?

And millions have been forced to take an experimental injection of poison that’s been proven, now, to have over 1291 adverse side effects — which the snake oil salesmen KNEW ABOUT before the jabs were released on the public, evidence they’d hoped to hide for 75 years.  Yes, 1291 adverse side effects — not the least of which is DEATH.  Millions of Americans have been forced to either take those jabs or lose their jobs.  Many have lost their lives, others have been forever crippled.

The American Library Association’s newly-elected president proudly proclaims herself as a ‘Marxist Lesbian.’  Emily Drabinski, who will take office next summer, has promised to “Queer” the libraries across the country.  Expect an exponential growth of “Drag Queen Story Times” coming soon to libraries nation-wide.

In 2015, the Supreme Court validated homosexual so-called “marriage,” but that wasn’t enough for the powers that control and manipulate American thought.  Now, citizens had better be careful what they say and what they think, and they’d better celebrate sodomy enthusiastically and pridefully, or they may be severely prosecuted for a “hate crime.”

In the last dozen or so years, the numbers of young people “coming out of the closet” and declaring themselves to be homosexual has skyrocketed.  This is a direct result of homosexual “grooming” and encouragement to embrace all manner of sexual deviancy — by their teachers, youth leaders and every area of media, art and entertainment.  Newly brainwashed young people who declare themselves to be homosexual are considered “courageous” and “heroic” among their peers.  They don’t realize how horrifically they’ve been lied to, manipulated and used as throw-away pawns by child sex predators.

Meanwhile, “transgenderism” has become the latest “hot, new trend.”  This is pushed everywhere you go.  Again, our children are directly targeted by this agenda.  And pity the poor soul who refuses to go along with this game of “dress up” or uses the wrong pronouns.  Those who do face instant retribution and punishment.

All this sexual deviancy is not just happening “organically.”  It’s been specifically designed by the LGBTQP+ mafia to indoctrinate and lure young people into sexual activity and gender confusion at the youngest of ages.  Some of the players include the big bully known as the Human Rights Campaign, the taxpayer-funded Planned Parenthood, and even the once wholesome, family-friendly Walt Disney Corporation.  Parents who desire to protect their kids from these predators are now labeled “domestic terrorists.”

This is all part of the plan for a New World Order.  Next up: the death of the US dollar and the “need” for a One-World digital currency, embedded under the skin.  Those who refuse will be outcasts, or forced to live in captivity, if they’re allowed to live at all.  Regardless, the coming Great Reset and New World Order will have to be Communist in nature.  It will be sold to us as it’s been sold to countless billions of naive people in the past: as “power to the people.”  But the only ones with the power will be the tyrannical dictators.  The “people,” rather than being empowered, will lose any last vestiges of freedom they may have ever thought they once had.

George Orwell’s book, ‘1984’ was required reading when I was in high school.  I always found it odd that of all the books out there, ‘1984’ was required.  Perhaps the Globalists wanted us to see what our future held.  Remember: these demons always tell us what they plan to do before they go ahead and do it.  I doubt Orwell meant the book to be an instruction manual, but that’s what it’s become.  We were warned.  But we didn’t listen.

© 2022 Rob Pue – All Rights Reserved