I think the book should be read by anyone studying WW2 or by anyone who is breathing and can read these words.

The book is not about elements of the Third Reich comparable to events unfolding today.  It is a Biography of a man.  However, as I am reading this book, it is impossible for me not to see the similarities in our day.

First of all, the book was given to my son by my mother.  It is a book with 500+ pages but STAY WITH ME!!!

You don’t have to read the entire book.  I have only completed chapter 11 (Nazi Theology).  There are 31 chapters.  If one reads only the first 170 pages, it is enough.

I have always wondered when America began its moral decline.  I know that we have never been a perfect nation.  I think there was a time when we could be considered a Christian nation.  Not to long ago Christian prayers and the study of the Bible began each day in public schools.  There was a time when abortion was illegal.  I know some Christians still think America is a Christian nation because we were founded on many Christian principles.  I will not argue this.  Yet, I just don’t understand how anyone can call today’s America “Christian” when its laws allow the murder of the most innocent.

I know that in the 1840’s, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously agreed that Bible study in the public schools was a good thing.  So, although Christians had not yet become vocal enough about the subject of Southern Slavery, Bible reading was encouraged at the highest levels of our government, even in the Judicial Branch.   Today, judicial tyranny is common, but that’s a subject for another post.

The German subject of the book writes about his experience at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.  It was 1930.

“There is no theology here….They talk a blue streak without the slightest substantive foundation and with no evidence of any criteria.  The students – on the average twenty-five to thirty years old – are completely clueless with respect to what dogmatics is really about.  They are unfamiliar with even the most basic questions.  They become intoxicated with liberal and humanistic phrases, laugh at the fundamentalists, and yet basically are not even up to their level.”

The book talks about the theological battles of 1930 and how John D. Rockefeller built a church just a stone’s throw away from the Seminary for one of the most liberal preachers in America, Harry Emerson Fosdick.  Fosdick had preached an infamous sermon in 1922 entitled “Shall the Fundamentalists Win?”  In the sermon, Fosdick questioned the virgin birth, the resurrection, the divinity of Christ, the atonement, miracles, and the Bible as the Word of God.

Since you have seen the picture above, you know that the book is about Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

On page 106 he states:

“In New York they preach about virtually everything; only one thing is not addressed, or it is addressed so rarely that I have as yet been unable to hear it, namely, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the cross, sin and forgiveness, death and life.”

He thought this until he visited the Abyssinian Baptist Church and heard Dr. Adam Clayton Powell Sr.  The church was in Harlem and the pastor and his flock was mostly African American.

“Powell combines the fire of a revivalist preacher with great intellect and social vision.  He was active in combating racism and minced no words about the saving power of Jesus Christ,” writes the author Erik Mataxis.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer spent the rest of his Sundays in New York at Dr. Powell’s church.

I have mentioned this brief part of the book because it helps me to see that the decline of the belief in simple Bible basics was already alive and well in America in 1930.

When one reads of the “masterful” propaganda program of the Nazi’s and the dumbing down of Christian principles in the German Churches, it seems to me that the same thing is happening before my own eyes.

Mr. Bonheoffer would disagree with the title of the Book.  It calls him a prophet.  Yes, Mr. Bonheoffer saw clearly when others did not, but he was not a prophet and would have been upset to know that someone had called him that.  The extended title calls him “A Righteous Gentile.”  You or I might call him that, but he was a humble man.  I don’t think he would have ever called himself “righteous.”

I am reading this book to my 17 year old son.  His grandmother gave him a great gift.  It is a view of the past with strange similarities to the present.

I hope you have the opportunity to read this inspirational and educational biography which received a Christian Book Award.  The chapters are 10-20 pages long; perfect for reading aloud or as time allows an individual.  Some will have a bit more free time this summer and this book would be a good way to spend part of it.

I look forward to reading the remaining chapters.  I know parts of it are sad as I have heard of Mr. Bonheoffer’s fate in this world.  However, I know that Mr. Bonheoffer will live eternally.

What a satisfying thought.

CR

I owe all my happiness since then to the same plain doctrine.

Now, suppose that I were to say, ‘I have read a great many books, and there are a great many people willing to hear me. I really could not preach such a commonplace gospel as I did at the first. I must put it in a sophisticated way, so that none but the elite can understand me.’
I should be—what should I be? I should be a fool, writ large.

I should be worse than that, I should be a traitor to my God; for if I was saved by a simple gospel, then I am bound to preach that same simple gospel till I die, so that others too may be saved by it.

When I cease to preach salvation by faith in Jesus put me into a lunatic asylum, for you may be sure that my mind is gone.”

-Charles Spurgeon

Source: http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2012/04/simple-gospel.html

I remember Tony Robbins as a guy who used to have answers for people.  To his credit, he doesn’t pretend to have answers to our nation’s problems and he does a good job in this video of putting them in perspective.

The answer to the title of this post is: “He won’t.”  If the Hebrews were taken into captivity, what makes us think we can escape it?”

Jesus is our only hope.   Will we turn back to Him?  Most of the time I think the answer is no.  I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to go home.  To live is Christ, to die is gain.  We continue to run the race until we are called home.  I think the race will be ending soon.

God’s blessings,

Chris

While visiting a friend’s blog, I found that he had posted an amazing 4 and 1/2 minute video of God’s creatures doing their work.

I hope that you have a chance to view Manny’s post called Wonders from the Creator.

God’s blessings…

cr

Gary Stearman and his guest, David Brennan, discuss the reason most Christians support the Nation of Israel.  Mr. Brennan’s statement about the identification of the 4 horns is interesting but quite speculative. Skip Gary’s stated ad if you wish.

While you are at the Prophecy in the News Channel, you should also watch “A Difference of Opinion.”  Gary speaks of the U.S. government’s current, different opinion than Israel when it comes to Iran.

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Why Do We Support Israel? and A Difference of Opinion

Related:

Obama – The Anti-Israel President (After clicking on title, scroll down to view video)

The Preoccupation with Israel Gary Stearman sits down with Jimmy DeYoung.

Amazing Grace

“At Carnegie Hall, gospel singer Wintley Phipps delivers perhaps the most powerful rendition of Amazing Grace ever recorded.  He says, ‘A lot of people don’t realize that just about all Negro spirituals are written on the black notes of the piano.  Probably the most famous on this slave scale was written by John Newton, who used to be the captain of a slave ship, and many believe he heard this melody that sounds very much like a West African sorrow chant.’”

Amazing Grace

I would like to thank Madge Franks for this very inspirational and instructive video.

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All alone drifting wild/Like a ship that’s lost out on the ocean

Everyone’s a homeless child/And it’s not hard to understand

Why we need a Father’s hand

(C) There’s a rainbow somewhere/And you were born to be there

But you’re just running in circles

Till you reach out your hand to the King of Hearts…

Pockets full of pain and fear/That’s a load there’s just no need to carry

Let it go and leave it here/Now there’s no price that’s left to pay

With one more mile or one more day. (C)

You can try to catch the wind/But in the end you’re only wasting precious time

Life can really be so kind/Once you find the truth and follow, go on follow, follow (C)

Randy Stonehill, 1976

I’ve been curious about the identity of this “Babylon.”

“Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls;

“For in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!”  (Rev. 18:16-17)

The title of this post (Rev. 17:5) is written on the forehead of a woman sitting on a scarlet beast.  She is clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls.

The Bible calls this writing “a mystery.”

Will this “Babylon” be an actual city as Dr. Henry Morris (well-known author of The Genesis Record) speculated in The Revelation Record? (The most literal interpretation of Revelation I’ve read.)

Or will this “Babylon” be something else?

It is amazing to me that the mainstream media has spent so much time on the sex-abuse scandal at Penn State.  Yet, the godless mainstream is silent when 10-year-old boys parade rainbow flags down the streets of American cities wearing nothing but their underwear.  I believe the term connected with these events is “gay pride.” The participants seem to get younger every year.

How could incidents like the one at Penn State not be happening?

A 13-year-old boy raped an 8-year-old the other day.  I know because a reliable source told me.  It happened in the town in which I live. My source also told me that the boy had no remorse.  I couldn’t help but think of the verse in 1 Timothy (4:1-2) that notes that in the “latter times” consciences will be “seared as with a branding iron.”

After listening to Pastor Hoggard’s thoughts in The Sacred Feminine, I may be closer to my answer about the identity of the “Mother of Harlots.”

I had read Christian sources that tell the two stories that Pastor Hoggard shares towards the end of his report.

How much longer will it be before God says “ENOUGH?”

“God’s timepiece” (Israel) is under great stress; the world is broke and looking for a savior.

People are turning to the wrong spirits for help.

It is happening in “Christian” churches of every denomination.

It is obviously difficult for Pastor Hoggard to speak of such things.

It is difficult to hear of such things.

As I refuse to deny the blessed hope that I have in Jesus Christ my Lord, I cannot bury my head in the sand and deny the earth is wearing out like a garment.

I don’t know when Jesus will return and I don’t know how it will all play out.

I do know that there will be a new heaven and a new earth someday.

There will be no more tears.

There will be no more death.

There will no longer be mourning,

or crying,

or pain.

He who sits on the throne will make all things new.

cr

THE SACRED FEMININE

A recent article by Kevin Johnson entitled Revelation: The Time is at hand -XXXV gives a few opinions on this subject.  I hope Mr. Johnson is correct that the “rapture” takes place before the great tribulation.  I know the rapture and the great tribulation will happen because of Matt. 24 and 1 Thess. 4:16.  While hoping for a “rapture” before the great tribulation, I don’t have a definite opinion on the “when” of the event.

Here’s Mr. Johnson’s view of Revelation 18: Revelation The Time is at hand XXXVI (Published 12/6/11) He lines up with Dr. Morris when he writes:

“Babylon will not only be restored as a city, but will become the commercial center of the world, and then will be destroyed at the end of the Great Tribulation.”

He later states:

“This ‘spirit’ of Babylon has the world firmly in its grip today.”

Mr. Johnson goes on to say:

“Keep in mind there are two Babylons of Revelation. There is the religious or ecclesiastical global “super church” comprised of all of the world’s religions, including apostate Christianity, then there is the commercial Babylon.”

Will Mr. Johnson and Dr. Morris be right about a literal Babylon?

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AMEN!!!

cr (People don’t talk like that anymore in more ways than one.)

This is the description given by the authors of the “Sola Sisters” blog at

http://solasisters.blogspot.com/2011/10/good-o-meter.html

It is where I found this interesting video:

CR