The Second Chronicles 20 to 24 Factor
Aside from all those notes I've been jotting down to translate into a few more decent blog posts related to the Jeremiah 50 Factor and the Romans 6 Factor, I just now came across this interesting page from ZeroHedge a brief piece written by Caitlin Johnstone at Medium.com. It has 15 questions kind-of asking about all the instances preeminent political activity is observed to be so impotent.
Indeed, let's face it, these questions have been asked for millennia. They are really nothing new. Even when people lived in contemptible squalor, death, and despair, while trudging through life under some vassal in some benighted fiefdom back in 1300 or whenever --
These questions were asked.
In whatever form they were asked, they were asked.
One of the most significant is that one Mr. Johnstone has there at No. 7:
"If the above is the case [that government behavior doesn't change no matter who is elected], then who is it [the ones in positions of influence]? Who's really calling the shots in this country?"
I've spent nearly 20 years writing about the answer to that very question, in my webzine and in this blog effort. It is the answer, but I write that here with great humility because I'm not spouting about how smart I am or more observant I am. I'm not. I just pay a little bit of attention, and always pray that I am seeing what I see with the eyes Christ gave me. Anyone can see it if they just ask Him to.
To find out, first and foremost look at Scripture. Read your Bible every day. You'll see the answer there. Excuse me, you'll see Him there to give you the answers. I've been getting deep in the two books of Chronicles in my devotional time, and I'm at the part where Jehoram and Athaliah have been ruling over Judah, and they've been pretty ruthless. Even in what-should-be a pretty nice place for God's chosen people to live, they've made it a hellscape. Go ahead, read about it.
The key thing they did was allow pagan religious practices to thrive, as many of those potentates did, and those practices involved human sacrifice. These practices are happening still today, but they are because God has allowed Cain's Legacy to legitimately operate in order to manage the sinfulness of a populace that requests it. God brought severe judgments against Jehoram and Athaliah, and at least the priest Jehoiada had a heart for hoping to see some reason and justice for Judah in the highest levels of government. Alas, the instrument of judgment that was Babylon would still impact all of Judah a couple hundred years later.
What does all that look like today? It isn't much different, with God using the same World System as an instrument of judgment against a reprobate populace -- one of the reasons it really doesn't mean a lick of difference who you vote for in this so-called democracy.
Want more answers to those questions? Head over to my latest home page piece, and please read the very last part of it, the part where I share the conclusion to Tupper Saussy's Rulers of Evil. In fact, even better, read the entire book, it is right here in PDF. Please, take some time and read the whole thing. Even if you don't like history, skim through all that and focus on what he shares it all means.
You'll get your answers. They're there. And those answers have been available to see all these millennia. The writers inspired by God to put His words in Scripture, Tupper Saussy, Caitlin Johnstone, the ZeroHedge guy who likes to be called Tyler Durden, hundreds of others who are seeking. looking, and passionately wondering about it all and then sharing it with so many others -- it's all there for anyone to see. It always has been.
The question is, do you truly have a heart for the truth? Will you take off the World's blinders that have been tightly screwed into the sides of the heads of so many? If by chance you can tear them off you'll discover who put them there -- and perhaps even gain a deep sense of lasting contentment understanding it all as you may.
Otherwise, I was going to get deep into so many other things, especially related to these two other pieces I recently found. Check out Todd Hayen's piece "Killing US Softly" over at Off-Guardian. He gets a bit deep into the institutionalized human sacrifice practices all around, and he is getting closer and closer himself to the answers to Mr. Johnstone's questions. Would love to delve into this more, but again there are so many ramifications.
He even offers up suggestions related to the pushback necessary to stem the implosion, but the key problem is the typical lack of identification of the ways that pushback can happen.
There are only two.
It comes either from the World, or from the Kingdom.
Those are only the two ways. Always have been. There will never be any other no matter how much people think all the ways in this first one are really that much different from one another.
The World has its myriad ways -- voting, petitioning, lobbying, marketing, boycotting, rent seeking, tribute paying, indicting, impeaching, rebelling, insurrecting, seceding, bribing, assassinating, looting and pillaging, shrieking like rabid banshees with a whole bunch of other rabid banshees -- I don't know, a bunch of other ways industriously encouraged by those who like it when people do that stuff because it just feeds their power.
The Kingdom has one way, only one -- Jesus Christ. Those who follow Him do nothing else but ask Him what ways they can see His Kingdom come in the lives of those with whom they have to do. Ways that demonstrate not just His power to overcome any of the effects of a wicked World gone even more maniacally haywire, but the mercy and grace and forgiveness and healing and deliverance and strength and wisdom and salvation and peace and restoration and renewal and resurrection and joy in the lives of those who finally want out of the harrowing maelstrom Caitlin Johnstone and others like him see so very astutely.
Maybe they'll see Him. Right there. And grab His outstretched nail-scarred hand.
I can't neglect to mention what happened before and after the whole Jehoiada and Athaliah incident. Before Jehoshaphat saw his nation surrounded by the enemy, and he realized he and his nation could do nothing against the threat. So he did the one thing he knew he could do.
He prayed, acknowledging that the battle was the Lord's, not his.
This didn't mean his people did nothing. They went out to face that enemy, all the while simply singing praises to God, and sure enough the opposing armies started fighting amongst themselves, thrown into such a lethal state of confusion that they defeated themselves in an almost comical fashion.
God was faithful to Judah, keeping His promise of preserving it and protecting it even though it didn't necessarily deserve it.
Afterwards when the evil queen Athaliah was removed from her unauthorized position, there was rejoicing and calm. The good priest Jehoiada had significant influence to do things to draw the people to God by renewing their commitment to God through restoring the temple. This didn't mean after that not-so-good things didn't happen, but it did mean when people genuinely turn to the Lord in repentance and obedience they will truly experience God's blessings.
Today I am convinced that means perceptively seeing what the World System is and what it does, leaving it do those things as it must, and ministering to those who want to live richly by the Kingdom from the Kingdom.
Would love to know there're a lot of people fervently praying Jehoshaphat's prayer, today...
"Lord, the God of our ancestors, are You not the God Who is in Heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in Your hand, and no one can withstand You..."
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Nancy Pearcey has a new book out, The Toxic War on Masculinity. The tweet screenshot refers to an article in City Journal about the raging cancel culture, and I added it here because I could relate. Over the past five years I was dismissed from a number of full-time teaching jobs, a couple at supposedly Christian schools, because I shared hard truths with my students, respectfully and graciously in every instance. But still. Cancel culture is an ugly thing, so I get it. The painting is Proclaiming Joash King (1815) by Edward Bird RA, the "RA" for Royal Academy of Arts of which he was an official member.
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