What are you talking about?

Cover of Frank Zappa

OK, I admit it, I was almost a hippie. I lived through the Vietnamese war coverage, Timothy Leary, the Chicago riots during the convention, Abbie Hoffman, the Weatherman underground, and Frank Zappa. So when someone puts up a Facebook post the other day with a quote from Frank Zappa, I was intrigued.

The quote:
"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it is profitable to continue the illusion. At the point that the illusion becomes to expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater." Frank Zappa

I re-posted it and added a simple comment. Several clicked on like , I suspect because they were almost hippies too.

This engendered a response from a Facebook acquaintance. I believe this response is typical of the world in general; that includes the 50% of religiosity that Matthew 25 points out will miss the first bus, then having to endure the horrors of God's wrath intended for the Godless. If and when you find yourself there, know this, you put yourself in it due to your lethargy.

The interaction went like this:
Me - "Guess what is happening now? Who would have thought, so long ago, that Frank Zappa would have seen this coming.

(Vague, but intentionally so. I pay attention to what is going on in the world and this nation. Our President is working very hard at throwing out the constitution and the bill of rights. If you are not aware of this then you have lived in a hole.)

Response - "Are you talking about something specific, or just in general?"

(Just in general. It would not have mattered what I said, I have interacted with this social religionist on previous occasions, and it is the same thing. They are right and I am wrong. Oops, did I just say 'I am wrong', especially when they are really challenging God. You think that was a stretch in the logical argument? If God says it is so, and you don't like it, but you can't throw a rock at him; what do you do, throw the rock at me?)

Me – I am only showing you a partial quote, as it was about three paragraphs. "You, of course, are aware of recent news about our president. Here is an excerpt. 'The president said it could be considered judicial activism if the high court strikes down his health care law.' ..."

(What would that mean in the long run? There are already clear cut definitions of activism that the current administration is, and will be looking for, and these activities, such as post on blog sites, will get you arrested under martial law. If they can deem justices to be activists, they will do away with constitutional rights, and due process (already a done deal), and they will round you up, for little to no reason. The day will come when killing you, the religious, will be deemed a good thing in this nation.)

Response - "Well, his comment was correct ... it would be an unprecedented step of overturning a law passed by a majority of congress. The normal way of overturning that would have been for congress to do it. Congress elected by the people ... not judges appointed by Presidents past and present. That's a bit scary when judges can do that, and they're appointed for life. Just think of all the scary things they could do. Little dictators appointed for life."

(This same person has said similar things against our president when responding to someone they liked, that does not tell them that Jesus died for their sins, that Jesus loves them, and wants them to have a personal relationship with them. This also means that I do not know they don't have kind of relationship, but reality demonstrates that the fruit does not fall far from the tree, and, in this case, the fruit is bad.

Jesus told the disciples, in Matthew 24, therefore telling us, NOT to be deceived.
Webster's dictionary defines deceit as: "a catching or ensnaring . Hence, the misleading of a person; the leading of another person to believe what is false, or not to believe what is true, and thus to ensnare him; fraud; fallacy; cheat; any declaration, artifice or practice, which misleads another, or causes him to believe what is false."

This is exactly what Hitler did. The transition of Hitler into a dictator was planned and progressive. Clearly, in my mind, another of Satan's anti-Christ's. Whether it is true or not, I do not know, but the idea of putting the Lobster into the pot of comfortable water, and then turning up the heat until it is too late holds true here. Folks, open your eyes; we are in the pot, and the heat has been turned on for a while now.)

Response - [They immediately added another response after the above, attempting to excoriate me.] "The last time the federal government applied martial law was in Hawaii during WW2 after the Pearl Harbor attack. The National Guard is always prepared for enacting martial law during crisis and many said it should have been used after Katrina to stop the looting and injuries. It's not meant for getting rid of activists ... unless activists are shooting, killing, or otherwise acting in a dangerous way."

(While I believe that the path this nation is on was well on its way toward today when WW2 broke out, the martial law of that time period would make a tremendous amount of sense. During a time of declared war on this nation! We cannot have rioting in the streets like they did after the Rodney King decision. We cannot expend resources in multiple directions effectively. Wow, that is a tough pill to swallow considering the path this nation has taken since President Obama came into power. We were fighting wars in two nations, hunting a national terrorist, and supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, by aiding in the death of Libya’s dictator.

If you are not aware, the internet group called 'anonymous' has openly declared war on the United States through their internet site. Glen Beck played the clip on his internet driven show. What makes 'anonymous' any sort of legitimate threat? The fact that as a collective of activists they have hacked secure governmental sites, stolen information, planted information, pointed out the damage they are capable of, and are actively being hunted by the cyber crimes task forces of this nation. In light of declared war, what prevents the President from declaring a state of martial law at any moment? Little to nothing, but this is like a chess game, and God controls the board. More on this later.)

I have not responded back, and most likely will not.

Do you not understand that we are not to get involved in vain and foolish arguments.
Webster's dictionary, once again. Vain: 1. Empty; worthless; having no substance, value or importance.

With the above dictionary definition you have make an assessment, in light of God's word, does this interaction have the potential of producing fruit? If so, then is it worthless? I certainly am not worthless; that type of thinking is demonic and conflicts with what God has said about me, and you. Before the world began, I knew you, and had a plan for you.

But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once, and then warn them a second time. After that, have nothing to do with them. You may be sure that such people are warped and sinful; they are self-condemned. (Titus 3:9-11 NIV)

You need to understand something. I am going to say this in a strong way. It is time that we get a backbone and stand up for something, and God is that something. We have a hope! Certainly not in our government saving our hides, but in the promise of life with Christ and the Father. Here I am posting this on advent weekend, on the 'day' that they put our savior on the cross. He died there on that cross, and three days later he rose again. For what????????? That we might live with him. That promise, proofed by his rising from the grave, and later seen alive by over 400+ people, is real. He is coming, and it is very soon. All you need to do is call upon Jesus as your own. Sure, turn from the horrid things you were doing, and run to him, but don't hesitate.

The world talks about the process of forgiveness, declaring that it takes time for people to process what has happened to them, and access whether that person deserves their relinquishing the payment that the offended feels the offender owes. Seriously! They can never pay you back for the damage they did. Even if you kill them you will never gain the relief you hoped for. You will go to your grave in agony, despondent over hurts you feel. Why? Because you chose not to forgive.

What is it to forgive?
1. Something that the world cannot understand. If they did, then they would understand God's heart and actions toward us, a world that did nothing to gain forgiveness. Born into sin, we could do nothing to alleviate that burden, until that day. What day? That day on the cross.

2. To forgive is quick and extraordinarily freeing. You merely make the conscience decision to release them from the debt you feel they owe you. As I said, they can and never will be able to pay. And even if they did, your memories will never let them up. You will try to oppress them as long as you live.

3. One of my brothers has lived this process, as well as I. He has a daughter that, though she talks, at one moment like she is a prophet of God, the next minute she is telling the Facebook world which nightclub to find her at, and acts like she hates her dad, and has nothing to do with him.
Does God condemn us for that? We have been forgiven, once, for all time. You will not be judged for sin on that day, and if you are anxiously awaiting his return you will be caught up to be with him in the air, to forever be with him. Get serious about this, and don't go fighting with me because you cannot agree with God. If we have received Him, then we are flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone. I understand this, but I am stuck down here on this earth, fighting with this flesh until the day I die, or leave this place. Even the rocks cry for their day of redemption.

For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to son-ship, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:19-23 NIV)

4. The process of forgiveness is only embroiled in you choosing to give up control, and stop trying to play god; you are not, and we are not to judge, you don't know how. If there is a process, it lies in the amount of time that you take finally realizing the God's word is true, and that you must give him back his control (like you could ever take that from him). He did put us upon this earth, and give us the right to dominate it. Sin, I am sure corrupted that dominion concept, and now we use it to keep people in their place.

Once you have decided to do the right thing, and release this person from your mental death grip, you have another process you get to practice - the art of clearly remembering that you forgave that person, and that they do not owe you anymore.

Does this act of forgiving make some of these people safe? Not at all. If you have been assaulted, CALL THE POLICE. We have clarity and common sense on so many things. God is not asking you to be stupid, he is asking you to let him and the courts take care of the judicial aspect.

I will give you Jonah as an example of forgiveness: God sent him to Nineveh with a message: Repent within forty days, -

(something significant here, for Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness; Israel spent forty years wandering; Moses spent forty years before he heard the call of God, and Israel has been a nation, an direct prophecy, in excess of forty years (ok, that was a stretch)

or be destroyed. Jonah, (read the story) was all in favor of God wiping these blood thirsty people off the map, and had no intention of forgiving them; I am not sure he knew how. Sadly for Jonah, that was not in the immediate plan; God's mercy, which happens to be beyond our comprehension, was.

I wrote about this saga of Jonah and handed a copy to the leader of a bible study that I used to attend. While the Jonah aspect was a minor aspect of the paper, he made it a major concern, and stated that God forgave Nineveh, and did not bring judgment against them. WRONG! God merely relinquished for the moment, because Nineveh's actions were quick and evident. They repented, put on the horrid clothing representing their acknowledgment of wrong done, and covered themselves in ashes, apparently in an act of humbling and submission. There has to be more to this, but God, who sees the heart saw theirs and decided this was real.
History proves that within 22 to 45 years Nineveh went right back to serial acts of torture and blood shed. Nineveh, by the way, was considered: Assyrian; Persian, and in the northern regions of Iraq, near Mosul. Why is Mosul somewhat significant?
Eventually becoming a part of the Ottoman empire, and then the Roman empire. After Alexander the great passes away, Seleucid gained control of this region. This area is also describe as the region from which the beast comes. During the second Iraq war that America plunged into, we had an acquaintance, a young lady, that ended up in Mosul. While, we in America heard of high impact towns like Falujah with consistency, Mosul was a shocking surprise. Mosul seemed quiet and then overnight became on of the most violent cities to operate in. Every vehicle became a potential bomb hurtling at you, and pedestrians on the street could not be trusted. Stress levels were extremely high.

Back to the quote.
"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it is profitable to continue the illusion. At the point that the illusion becomes to expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater." Frank Zappa

Far deeper than I thought possible for a drugged up musician, (see there, I am judging too), and 40+ plus years ahead of his time, in terms of where this government was going to go, he is speaking about an aspect that most will not tie together with the end times. Oh sure, we tend to love the conspiracy theories of life, but sadly they are probably all based in some form of truth.
Watch this.

Revelation 17:1-6 NIV One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. (2) With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries." (3) Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. (4) The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. (5) The name written on her forehead was a mystery: BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. (6) I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God's holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.

We should have a ball park idea of who the beast is. The clues are scattered all though out the bible.
The beast is identified as: The anti-Christ; the man of perdition; the Assyrian; the rider on the white horse; the man of lawlessness, and so many more.

Here is an aspect that hangs up so many people.

1 John 2:18 NIV Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. This is how we know it is the last hour.

How many years ago was this written? A couple of thousand? Does the time frame make the message any less valid? NO! It merely means that those that fight against Christ, trying to defeat him, will always be with us until that day. The word anti-Christ, in Greek means: an opponent of the messiah.

Here is the huge difference. Satan empowers this man, and because of, I suspect several things, people then worship Satan because he empowers this guy. Something to contrast this idea with. Jesus told us that in this world we will have tribulation. The car breaking down, no money in the bank, lay offs at work, you get the picture, but Jesus made it clear the tribulation of the last days would be hugely significant. It is called the Great Tribulation, and we are told that were it not for God shortening time, no one would survive.

But there is something that is keeping all this at bay, and yes, that includes the United States.

2 Thessalonians 2:6-12 ASV (6) And now ye know that which restraineth, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season. (7) For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only there is one that restraineth now, until he be taken out of the way. (8) And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of his coming; (9) even he, whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, (10) and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. (11) And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie: (12) that they all might be judged who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Something is keeping the anti-Christ, the man of perdition, this government of ours from falling apart, martial law from being declared, rioting off the streets, and the flood of wrath attributed with the Great tribulation.

In these passages is another aspect that brings about much confusion. Something is holding back the dam. Let's look at the words the ASV used to describe that entity:

• "that" - Not very clear, and open ended.
  
• "one" - Now we might be able to narrow this down, but who is the one? More on this in a moment.
  
• "until he be taken out of the way" - A "he", don't get all down about this ladies. These are just clues leading somewhere.
  
  Based upon these clues, what can we learn? Many would tell us that it is the Holy Spirit that leaves with us, the believers. I disagree, for even after the rapture people continue to be drawn to Christ, and this is an action of the Holy Spirit. A second reason I disagree is partly based in a message that Peter gave on the day of Pentecost. Preaching, spontaneously, to the crowd of mockers, he quotes Joel the second chapter.
  Joel, prophetically speaks of the last days, and although we are there, these are days that are yet to come. Joel tells us that the Holy Spirit would be poured out on our sons and daughters in these last days. Again, something hugely significant seeing as the Holy Spirit empowers.
  
  When we came into relationship with Christ we were adopted into him.
  
• Ephesians 5:30 KJV For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
  
• 
  To make a long story short. I believe that we the Church, infused into Christ, are caught away with him on that day when we are caught up to be with him forever, are the personage that is holding back the onslaught of evil that is coming.
  
  How do we do that? By prayer, strong prayer, faith, speaking out prophetically, in faith, that as long as your feet are standing upon the soil of this nation, it is not crumbling underneath me.
  
  Father I ask now, as people across this globe read these words that their spirits resonate in agreement with the Spirit of God, and that they see that they have the right and authority to speak out in declarations of dominance that the soil under their feet does not fall into the hands of the evil one while they stand upon it. In the name of Jesus I declare boldness upon you like you have never known before. I declare upon a you an insatiable desire for God's word. I declare upon you a peace that passes your understanding. I declare upon you the spirit of prophecy that speaks and acts in boldness.
  
  Live a life on the edge, bring healing and health to people by laying your hands upon them. Give people hope, and show them the merciful loving God, Jesus Christ, the risen one.