Anon,

You chose to quote the following.

And Benjamin Franklin said: "If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution.  The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practiced it on one another.  The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Romish Church, but practiced it upon the Puritans.  They found it wrong in Bishops, but fell into the practice themselves both here (England) and in New England."

For reasons we both know Ben Franklin will not ever be the best example of a person moved by New Testament Christianity or the Royal Law of the Scriptures (Mt 22:36-40) which is to Love God with all the heart and our neighbors as ourselves. But he along with many new believers escaping the horrors of the dark ages, tyranny and the insanity of the inquisition were but fledglings. They were growing and learning along side the rest of civilization. The word of God and the Royal Law had just been released so to speak.

The idea of loving our neighbors above ourselves and even our enemies was new to a society that thought Gods best was kept in the secret annuls and depositories of the papacy and was to be let out by the initiated and well indoctrinated. What came forth from it prior to the release of the gospel for the common man was pure religion, not pure love.

Ceremony, indulgences, et al don’t have much to do with the Royal Law, not then or now. Religion may be the poorest choice of words but it is easier for those in a secular world to understand. The mix that works is the Love of God and man with all civil advances for the health, welfare, education and social advancement of everyone in a nation. No one guided by love is going to injure his neighbors or fellow citizens.

As Christianity grew in America so did other areas of governance and scientific inquiry not to mention patriotism. Civilization likes to credit itself with growing up or more accurately growing out of things like, repressive government, barbarism, ignorance etc. but it does not allow itself to see Christianity growing as the scriptures were freed from the dark back rooms of old cathedrals where the hand scribed versions were both chained and off limits even to all but a few priests of the papacy.

Along came men like Martin Luther who after viewing but a few pages of writ was willing to put his life and future against the entire power of the papacy, to proclaim the freedom the scriptures declared belonged to every man, from tyranny as well as bondage to personal sin.

The list of reformers is too many for this space but lets pop ahead to just one (Tyndale) who was burned at the stake for finally putting the Latinist autographs into English for everyman to read. Not long after that Europeans began seeking both freedoms from the oppression of the religious extremes of the Roman church and were not content to live amidst their detractors and persecutors. Thus the first steps toward the new land. They were forming a new country just as surely as a woman grows a child in the womb.

Some excesses did occur among the new arrivals but let’s not overstate it. Eventually, as they advanced together these things were discontinued. Yet, the nations and the civilization they left behind were still moving nowhere in its own dark mix of civil tyranny and religious error.

Those nations had yet to see their share of despots even after largely shedding the full weight of the papacy’s interventional fiasco with civil rule. Under Britain’s King James the first sign of new freedom was seen. Perhaps England did not learn fast enough after casting of her Roman taskmaster and a whole new breed, a new land and a new start were the only answer. We know the rest of the story. Or do we?

If we are too selective we may tell the story with extreme naiveté, and it will sound like the smooth fairy tale of tyranny, handsome princes and living happily ever after. If we tell the story with extreme prejudice we will make something or someone the dragon (in this case Christianity) and proceed to slay it one blow at a time. Like the swipe you used to start your reply with from Ben Franklin.

While fledgling Christianity grew and flourished in America Europe was yet to see its wars and power shifts and the likes of Bonaparte, Franco, Mussolini, Hitler and others. Where Christianity was all but banned, came others like Mao, Pol Pot, the Emperor of Japan, Joseph Stalin et al. Here is where we see the slaughter not of thousands or even of tens of thousands but millions upon millions. Where the character changing aspects of the gospel were not mixed into the fabric of society it dissimulated into tyranny and disregard for life not just the dunking of a few Puritans.

America had its own Civil war but even that speaks of something different. In fact it may be the only war in world history that was fought over a moral principle. I am among those willing to say that part of that principle was based on the equality of all men and the call to love that is found only in the Bible. Slavery certainly does not fulfill the Royal Law of scripture and I would add to my assessment that if the laws of God had not been allowed to reflect against the laws of our land we may be involved in slavery to this day.

You offered this as a conclusion… “The point of my original comment is to highlight that even today, the words of our Founding Fathers ring true: Religion and politics do not mix.” And “What have we seen of late other than the Christians of this nation lay down the cross in exchange for the carnal weapons of this world?  If only Christians would live like Christ instead of trying to force their "superstition, bigotry and persecution" on others?” (As Madison refers to it.)

Take careful note of the fact that from the ancient Roman Coliseum to the present day persecution of Christians in Egypt, Pakistan, India, Russia, Columbia and many Muslim countries Christians are yet being held, tortured and killed. Where is the force of superstition, bigotry and persecution to be found here except in Godless secularisms brutality and indifference, God forbid we mix some Christian love into those governments, regimes and dictatorships?

“Superstition?” We can put a man in jail for life with only one witness to a crime. But we choose not to believe the record of twelve decent men who spoke of and wrote of the miracles, the extraordinary life and the resurrection of the Savior. But even if we don’t believe that, an entire nation saw these things. This is no Area 51 conspiracy or the reported sightings of the Yeti; this is part of history and a very long way from anything that even vaguely resembles a mere “superstition.”  I hear echoes of Luke 16:31 here in the answer Jesus gave to those who wanted to be sure with a sign instead of a mere superstition, “And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”

Lets me say as respectfully as I can, we both well know that reams of quotes could be used in the argument to the contrary. And there would have to be a separate place just to list them or this blog would be inundating with them. I won’t resort to a preponderance of material to either make an argument or attempt to smother yours. But I will conclude with a few quotes I have carefully selected.

"Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” George Washington

Benjamin Franklin in a pamphlet for Europeans titled "Information to Those Who Would Remove to America," 1754. "Atheism is unknown there; Infidelity rare and secret; so that persons may live to a great age in that country without having their piety shocked by meeting with either an Atheist or an Infidel. And the Divine Being seems...pleased to favor the whole country."

“To the distinguished character of patriot, it should be our highest glory to add the more distinguished character of Christian.” George Washington

”It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ.  For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here." Patrick Henry

"The greatest glory of the American Revolution was this: It connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity." John Quincy Adams

Heretofore I have been speaking as a blogger let me now take a short excursion into the calling I was assigned to as a messenger or prophet of the Lord Jesus Christ and with no uncertainty let me say this. To the degree that we extricate Christian principles, scriptural guides and the clearest teachings of the Lord from the fabric of our society we will see our demise in equal and direct proportion to that apostasy.

We have already begun a trek into the slaughter of the innocent unborn and are presently considering the idea of assisted suicide as being offered in the Obama health care proposals. These ideas, inclinations and life threatening ideas are coming from a Godless socialistic ideology not from adherence to Christian principles.

When Biblical principles, cease to mix with our law making as a moral guide we will all live in the result or outcome of that chosen direction. Already it seems more each day to be pointing to Armageddon, and death and hell itself. It is only a mix not a marriage I am espousing because up to now it has historically worked out well to create what has been the greatest nation in world history. What follows after this is a subject for another time.

Rev Michael Bresciani

http://www.americanprophet.org

Americans may be showing a bit of emotion in response to the proposed Health Care bill but they are not the slightest bit impressed with the theatrical sideshows at the Obama Townhall meetings. Michele Malkin who offers a closer look at the meetings has compiled an illustrated guide to the attendees and questions proffered at the Obama meetings on her website entitled ‘The illustrated guide to Obamacare human props.’

Everyone in these meetings exhibits the quality of having been chosen, rehearsed and choreographed. What America do these people come from? Do they come from the same America that the dissenters who were kept outside of the meetings do?

When Republicans were in the majority and conservatism flourished they kept partisanship alive by drawing a circle around themselves large enough to take in the Democrats and liberals. At one of the most recent Obama town hall meetings one of the perfectly orderly attendees stood up to ask the question of whether it would be expedient to just bring in the Health Care package without the Republicans. Now, the circle is being tightened to exclude those who do not agree signaling both the death of partisanship and worse the death of yet more disposable Americans.

Did the Jesus that Barack Obama said he wanted to know more about address this seemingly modern or contemporary issue? Without resorting to the difficult theological explanation of plenary verbal inspiration we can answer with an unequivocal, yes.

When asked about his youth and what standing he would have against the ancient and revered patriarchs such as Abraham, Jesus replied with “…Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.” (Jn 8:58) It is not the only scripture passage that confirms that Christ was pre-existent and co-eternal with God the Father but it is one of the clearest. What this means is that when the Ten Commandments, the moral, ceremonial and hygienic laws and all prophetic utterance of the prophets were given it was Christ speaking.

Exactly what did The Great Physician (Luke 4:23) say about the elderly and the ailing and how did he deal with them both in the ancient world and during the time of his public ministry?

Crowds instinctively knew that Christ was the great healer and they brought the sick, the lame and the diseased to him by the thousands. His response; he healed them all.

This show of compassion lasted three years and was seen everywhere across the land of Israel in almost every major town and city. It is this example that has inspired some to become doctors or to seek service as medical missionaries throughout the world. It is what inspired some to pray through for some individuals and see vast improvements in the sick or total healings just for praying.

It is the kind of compassion taught by Christ’s example that gives hope to anyone who is seriously sick, that those around him will do anything and everything they can, at any expense to preserve their lives. This is the Christ our President said he would like to know more about!

Regardless of what clinical language is used the idea of offering the elderly an option for an assisted suicide is insulting to a life well lived and it is the evidence of a society that has decayed to the point of reprobation.

Not only may some elderly people be in the early stages of senility or dementia and unable to make informed decision but they will have to endure the frightening signal that their lives are no longer considered worth the living. Aging is difficult enough for the elderly, now will we add the emotional strain of knowing that those around them see them as expendable, disposable?

But what did Christ say about the elderly. Exactly what is God’s view of the geriatric citizens of our nation? Here is where we want to read very carefully.

“And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs (white hairs) will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.” (Isaiah 46:4)

No one but Barack Obama himself can say what he learned in the Muslim schools in Indonesia or sitting at the feet of Rev Jeremiah Wright for twenty or more years but if he really wants to know Christ as he said, then he will come to this knowledge; Christ represents life. He healed the sick, raised the dead and condemned no-one before the time. He said, “…I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

On a visit to a nursing home some years ago I had the privilege of meeting a man who explained how he had served our country by flying in the Army Air Corp in both WWI and WWII. He was confined to a wheel chair but when he spoke of his service to the country it was as if he grew wings and took to the sky yet once again. My life has been made richer for meeting this man and I am grateful no one offered him a dignified exit strategy to end his wonderful life before I got to meet him and hear his story.

It is safe to say that there are thousands of nursing homes and elderly manors across this nation brimming with people who have similar stories. There are women who labored and worried night and day to bring their children up in safety while trying to steer them to make a good life for themselves. There are hard working men and heroes. They are all American and they all deserve to live out their lives in a natural and dignified manner without being offered a means to end their lives by government.

No, President Obama, we will not trade the dignity of our elderly Americans for the chance to sit in a room full of hand picked people who are only enamored with your dignity be it feigned or real. If you ramrod this bill through in a moment when America is off balance you will have to live with this mistake forever.

If you really want to know this man Christ better, as you said, then take a cue from these sayings made by the great Physician as he spoke through the ancient prophets and lawgivers. It says that rather than bowing to Saudi Kings you would gain more by rising in respect to acknowledge the elderly in your own nation who have helped to make America the great nation that she is.

The hoary head (white hair) is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness. (Proverbs 16:31)

Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD. (Leviticus 19:32)

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and has over two million readers and counting.

The star of the film The Gods Must Be Crazy died in 2003 after returning from a brief stint as an actor, to his life on the dry plains as a herdsman. He brandished an almost constant but compelling smile that made it seem easier to deal with the fact that practically no one on earth except other Bushmen could understand his Kalahari language which consists of clicks and pops rather than voweletic sounds.

The story begins with the pilot of a small aircraft thoughtlessly throwing a cola bottle out the window of his plane. N!xau  thinks the gods have thrown him a gift from the heavens. He takes the bottle back to his village where the Bushmen delight in finding various uses for it but they soon begin fighting over it. In time N!xau  decides to bring the bottle to ‘the end of the earth’ and throw it over the edge thus returning it to the gods. The entire film is based on the hilarious exploits and travels of N!xau as he makes his long journey.

The physical likeness N!xau shares with Barack Obama is purely coincidental and there are no other shared commonalities between them with the exception of one. The cola bottle seemed to fall from the heavens and with no way of identifying the source or origins of the bottle the herdsman concluded that it had to be a gift from the gods.

Not everyone would agree that Barack Obama is a gift from the gods but now millions both in America and around the world are as stumped by his appearance out of nowhere as the bushman was with the bottle. This is where we move away from tongue in cheek and the movies to some cold hard facts; or the lack of them.

The controversy about the yet unseen doctor signed long form of Barack Obama’s birth certificate takes on a more stimulating aspect when set side by side with the list of other documents that are also unseen by attorneys general, election commissioners and the general public. This growing list is taking on a sense of mystery that can only be likened to the official theme of Gods Must Be Crazy film found on the movies posters which was by the way ‘An Epic Comedy Of Absurd Proportions.’

Here’s a list of documents not seen by anyone except those who are holding them.

Long form birth certificate

Passport files

Harvard Law School records

University of Chicago records of scholarly articles

Columbia University records and senior thesis

Occidental College records

Punahou School records, fifth grade thru high school

Noelani Elementary School records

Files and schedules for years as Illinois state senator

Client list while practicing law with Davis, Miner, Barnhill and Gallard law firm

Adoption records

Obama /Dunham marriage license

Soetoro/Dunham marriage license

No one, The United States Justice Foundation, Joseph Farah of World Net Daily, Ambassador Alan Keyes, Attorney Mario Apuzzo, Attorney Philip Berg, Arlen Williams, Rush Limbaugh or John Q public has been granted so much as a peek at the mysterious invisible documents.

Doesn’t it seem that Barack Obama just fell out of the skies like the cola bottle? Is he a gift from the gods? Americans love their fantasies as Hollywood fare attests but this is not what is supposed to happen when allowing a citizen to assume the highest office in the land. What have we done, what have we missed is their a way to correct it?

Whether known as ‘birthers’ or just ordinary citizens those who are asking to see these documents are not using the appellation ‘Mr. Transparency’ to mock the President. He made the promise to be fully transparent but now uses attorneys and political clout to cover the most basic revelations about his life and personal history. It is his un-kept promise that serves to mock.

Some have undergone ridicule, scolding, character assassination and threats to their careers and livelihoods to ask the questions that now upwards of 40% of Americans also want answers to. Now there are reports that even their safety may have been threatened.

Award winning journalist and editor Judi McLeod of Canada Free Press and Douglas Hagmann, director, Northeast Intelligence Network,  have reported that the result of an investigation by the Northeast Intelligence Network has concluded that the cover-up of the documents and the effort to squash any discussion of them goes all the way back to November of 2008.

McLeod and Hagmann said in an article August 4, 2009 entitled ‘Media Blackout on Obama eligibility dates back to November’ “Today, after an extensive eight month investigation, the Northeast Intelligence Network and Canada Free Press are breaking their silence and revealing explosive information about a widespread cover-up that began at the earliest stages of the Obama presidential campaign. The cover-up traces back to some of the most powerful and influential people in the U.S. and continues today.”

In the heat of debate sometimes names are hurled out and tempers flare but in the cold light of day even a child would ask ‘what’s the big secret.’ What is it about common birth and school records that has to be so carefully guarded? It raises yet one more question if we are going to use the term ‘conspiracy’ where would it fit best. Would it fit best when speaking of those who are asking for the documents or with those who are concealing them?

For all their faults, foibles and foolishness no one would ever dare say the American people are dumb. Some would go so far as to say that America is the birthplace of what is called ‘common sense.’ It is the birthplace of Barack Obama that is a great deal harder to ascertain.

Attorneys and armies of cronies notwithstanding; it is both the citizens and common sense that are asking the simple question ‘where are the documents?’

It seems as if President Obama does not understand that while most Americans always respect the ‘office of the President’ they don’t necessarily automatically respect the President; that respect must be earned. What he does in office and how he handles himself in domestic and foreign affairs is how he is judged. What we have in Barack Obama is a president that has not yet declared and proven where he is actually from. Where is the foundation on which to build trust?

Posting a certificate of live birth on an internet site is not far from throwing a bottle out of an airplane and expecting America to believe that the gods have given us a gift.

The American people deserve the ‘transparency’ that was promised to them by the President but beyond that they deserve nothing less than the truth. People who value freedom are those who also know there is no freedom without the truth. Jesus Christ said it this way “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” (Jn 8:32)

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and has over two million readers and counting.

The President’s stand on abortion and the newly discovered provisions found in the Health Care Bill for assisted suicide for the elderly indicate that the ‘one’ who promised to heal the divisions in the nation has not only ignored that campaign promise, but has sailed his ship way outside of that empty promise to create a class of entirely disposable citizens. Can we now add the group often being referred to as the ‘birthers’ to the ever growing list of disposable citizens? No healing here.

The question raised by the title of this article can be answered with a simple, yes but to be fair we should examine the plight of the birthers. (Those who are demanding to see the long form of President Obama’s birth certificate) More importantly, why hasn’t the President put a stop to it with a simple showing of the document?

Anyone who surfs the web has by now become at least nominally aware that a rapidly growing segment of America is quite dissatisfied with the vetting of the President. The question is largely centered on Barack Obama’s refusal to release what is known as the long form of his Hawaiian birth certificate.

The birth record is only one of many documents that have raised suspicion about the President’s past. It is ridiculously un-complicated because the commonality of every document in question is the same; they are still missing, or at least unseen by anyone except those who are reported to be holding them.

Perhaps there is nothing at all to the entire matter but until the documents can be seen no one will believe that. In a nation founded on laws, evidentiary procedure and documentation for almost all grievances and complaints, applications or identification, missing documents just won’t do it.

I will not enter the fine details of all that has been done to procure the records but rather I will try to keep this perusal of the matter on a strictly philosophical basis. I know it is impossible to have a Will Rogers kind of trust in people, a Glenn Beck style of appeal to common sense, all at the same time we are saying that the laws of the constitution may have been breached by the person who holds the highest office in the land. This is a tightrope for anybody to walk.

Hawaii has just hit the news and said that they have not destroyed any paper documents just because they have gone into electronic record keeping. It would seem safe to say that the document still exists. What does not seem as safe is that anyone should ask to see it. Newsman Lou Dobbs recently underwent a scolding according to sources for his mention of the missing documents and others have had to endure ridicule and outright scorn for the mention of it.

Every day thousands more Americans are joining those who are now calling for the proof but the White House has danced around the issue, the President remains mysteriously silent and the birthers have had to endure the scoffing, belittlement and pooh-poohing of their efforts by everyone in the Obama sphere and some outside it.

Equally disconcerting is the fact that some high profile conservatives like Bill O’Reilly and Governor Mike Huckabee think Obama is perfectly OK with the COLB  he displayed on Snopes.com We have to wonder why they are so sure about something they have never seen either.

We are all quick to point out that Obama supporters hang on his every word like they were hypnotized but are reticent to openly disagree with conservative big boys like O’Reilly who has often said Obama, is very smart. What is smart about creating doubt in the hearts and minds of several million Americans?

Concealing the facts about a simple document comes under the heading of ‘pinhead’ not ‘patriot.’ Shouldn’t someone be willing to tell Mr. O’Reilly that? We can all appreciate the stand O’Reilly has taken on many issues but even his word can’t substitute for the constitution and its obvious requirements for the vetting of a Presidential candidate.

Thanks for the stand and the tee shirts but the matter of vetting cannot be dismissed by the waving of your hand at the end of a ninety second segment. Grassroots movements require years to gain adherents and strength and no one can wave them off in a second. I am no more of an expert than O’Reilly on the ‘birthers’ but I would bet the farm that they are in this for the long haul and will not be easily dismissed.

Struggling to find the truth must never be confused with mere partisanship or labeled as a conservative or liberal cause. It is several levels above simple politics and can never be settled in the endless debates of pundits and news figures. If we could refer the question to the founding fathers I’m sure they would concur that this is the reason they gave us the constitution to begin with. Calling the birthers some less than flattering names shows that we have missed the point entirely. It is the constitution that is primarily calling for the truth not the birthers.

Here is the rub. Those who say the document has been seen are wholly unwilling to admit that it not only has been alleged to be a fraud but it is by any standard, totally unusable as an instrument of identification and or verification. The reason it has been rendered useless has more to do with the means by which it was presented rather than the assertion that it is fraudulent.

It could not be used to get a passport, a job, a security clearance, a travel visa, a credit card, a bank account, or a tryout for the little league. What it can be used for is to get a direct and unhindered passage to the White House. Should we really be surprised by the doubt it has raised in the minds of millions of Americans? Please don’t insult your own intelligence with a glib answer of yes.

The more important question is why is the birth certificate posted on the internet useless? Here is where vetting 101 helps us along with the basics. No document posted online can be used to vet anything or anyone; think about it!

When you go to help your child get their first drivers license or when you go to the interview for the much coveted job you trained for all too many years, or when you make your next application at the bank for a loan try this. Just tell them they can look up all the pertinent information on you on your website, on your Facebook or Twitter page or wherever it is posted on the World Wide Web. If you are not laughed at you will at least be shown the door.

The internet is still the one media that gets laughed at as it pertains to accuracy and reliability. Here is the media that is home to a billion pages of filth, porn and general gobbledygook. The web is a long way from fully establishing its credulity as a news source but there is where our President chose to show the nation his papers. Yes, most reasonable people would tend to doubt this, how dare we label them ‘birthers’ and assign them to the fringe. Going from Snopes to a posted COLB and directly to the White House without passing go; that is what’s fringy.

Most of us won’t order a twenty dollar music CD from an internet website unless it has a major outlet like Amazon or EBay behind it with some kind of triple strength encryption on the check out page. But hey, want to be the President of the United States just post your birth certificate online and start spending the $600,000,000 in your campaign coffers to gain the White House. I am not trying to make it sound absurd, it doesn’t need my help to sound that way.

The Presidents silence continues to drive a wedge between the rapidly growing number of Americans who want to see the certificate and those who just don’t give a hoot. His credulity is suffering but no one seems to be advising him that if he continues to lose their trust it will undoubtedly show up hard against him in the 2012 election results. The million or two votes and growing cast against him for his indifference will be well earned and could be the difference between a second term and early retirement.

So what is the bottom line? Is it a court order to produce the document; is it a Senate or Congressional hearing to demand the papers? Can you snuff your nose at millions of Americans for four years and think it will all just go away like the fading of the morning glory at the rising of the sun? No one can say what series of complicated legal maneuvers will actually work to produce the big secret document but one thing is a foregone.

Before they were called ‘birthers’ they were called citizens. Until the constitution is completely discarded it is the citizens who have to choose and work with their President and it is the President who has to deal with the citizens. So deal with them Mr. Transparency!

President Obama has shown us that he has never met a minority that he doesn’t like. He comes from the black minority and has shown special care to Latinos, immigrants and gays. Are the ‘birthers’ the one exception to the rule. Oddly they are the one with the simplest problem and it can be solved in a New York minute. What part of the simple request to see the document does the President not understand?

If he wants the whole matter to just go away he could obtain the document submit it to a few reliable news sources and put the entire matter to bed. Adding to his promise to become Mr. Transparency, Barack Obama has also earned the title of Mr. News Conference.

Why not shut the mouths of the naysayers with a single stroke, a single news conference and thereby perhaps pick up a few votes in the process. Holding up the highly disputed document for all to see and perhaps with a smile and a ‘hey boys, look at this’ would nip the entire matter in the bud. Birthers would go home silenced but happy and the confidence of several million Americans would be restored. All that remains after that is to see if the President invites people like Philip Berg, Mario Puzzo and Orly Taitz along with some of the most vociferous birthers to the White House for a beer.

But even if it takes until someone finally locates the documents for the inauguration of the new Obama Library the truth will one day be known. What will that legacy be?

I said that I will keep the approach here on a purely philosophical level but I cannot leave the room without at least one small item lifted up from the theological level. If nothing should happen on the Obama birth certificate question until the very end of time there is one who will demand a look see; and he will get it.

Christ said, “For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad.” (Mt 4:22)

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and has over two million readers and counting.

When we misplace our keys or our glasses the first question we ask is ‘where did I have them last.’ The comedy of such a question is that if we knew where we had them last they wouldn’t be lost.  There is little comedy attached to the misplacement of lost love, lost youth or lost fortunes. Herein is proof that what is forgotten has far more weight than the common proclivity to forget.

Although I was born a Yankee I was drawn to the culture of the Deep South at an early age. Amidst the beauty of moss covered oaks and antebellum homes there exists something not so attractive about the southland’s historic involvement with slavery. In time anyone’s worst behavior becomes almost subjective in nature and perhaps that is how we learn from our mistakes. We can hold our behavior at a distance and examine it in the clear light of reason.

It is clear to many of us that with the help of the clear reasoning, appeals to our better nature and with the help of iconic figures like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. that our history with slavery is now seen as a period of our worst behavior.

In normal personal relationships when we have recognized that we have wronged somebody we give it the old one, two, three.  First is acknowledgment that a wrong has been done. Second we stop what we are doing and change course which may include apologies and reparations where possible. Thirdly we must begin a course toward forgetfulness.

This kind of forgetfulness is not associated with denial but it is directly akin to growth. No person and no nation can move through the present or the future very swiftly or efficiently while dragging the baggage of the past along behind.

In America we may have well reached the juncture where our effort to forget for the sake of gaining the future is beginning to pay off; but not for all. It is easy to say that it is incumbent upon the black man in America to forget the past and move on, but we are the offenders and they are the offendees. Have we rushed the matter?

The almost 100 years between the Emancipation Proclamation and the civil rights laws of the sixties does make it look as if we were dragging our heals. But now almost a half century after the visitation of Martin Luther King it is the black man that seems to be dragging his heals.

When an old wrong is constantly referred to in a domestic argument between spouses it is called nagging. When the infractions of the common criminal are filed and categorized for law enforcement to refer to it is called record keeping. But when the sins of the fathers are held over the heads of many future generations it is called excuse making. Thus is born something known in the modern vernacular as ‘the race card.’

When the race card is pulled out for every purpose great or small in a last ditch effort to define both crime and motive it does more than get old, it begins to look like what it is. It is a device to shift blame, to confuse an issue or worse to ignore the truth of a matter entirely. The race card in America is beginning to lose its punch. It is fast becoming the card the cheating gambler has hidden up his sleeve and pulls out by sleight of hand when he knows he’s holding a losing hand.

When special acknowledgements or events occur year by year in America to honor the blacks we in the white majority show our willingness to help the black man remember. We do not take offense and we don’t counter with a ‘white history month’ or worse. We want to remember along with African Americans the great contributions and achievements that blacks have added to the American dream. That inclusion is what makes it America to start with. Not only must the past be forgiven but it must now be used as the springboard to the future; that too is uniquely American.

In my high school there were only two black families in the entire town with high school aged children. One of them was my best friend. I surely would not claim to understand the black culture or the horrors of slavery because of this brief friendship. I could not see the difference between my black friend and any other student. I had not yet learned of the history of slavery or the trials of the black man; all I knew was that my buddy was cool.

In perhaps one of the only mildly violent incidents in my life I once clobbered my dear friend in an argument. Although he was not seriously hurt, later that night I could not sleep. I lied in my bed with a powerful sorrow gripping my heart for hurting my friend. Not once did I ever consider the pain that I caused him to be worse because he was black. I apologized to him the next day and we went on as friends until time finally sent us in diverging directions in life.

My humanity had offended his humanity, my selfishness and callousness had offended our friendship and only my own one, two, and three could restore it. Isn’t it time for the black man in America to respond to our collective one, two, and three?

Learning tolerance and diversity may speak of maturity in relationships but it is not what makes a friendship. Friendship is born out of recognition of every man’s humanity and an attraction to each mans specific expression of that humanity often known as a personality. It is what made me think my young black friend was cool.

Perhaps cool is a weak starting point but it led to friendship and retrospectively I can say it led to love. Enduring friendships are often used to define love.

In our Bibles the word love is broken into three distinct categories by use of the Greek language. The first is Eros love which is obviously pure physical love. Second is Philos love which is brotherly love or general friendship. The last is Agape love, the unconditional love that is like God’s love.

While friendship falls into the category of Philos love it does not define it. In the English language there is one word for love. In the far more expressive language of the Greeks there are over forty words used to express the powerful nature of what we call love. Even at that, a finer definition can be found only when expressing the use of or, the actions of love.

Christ asked his disciples, who was a friend to the battered man found on the side of the road beaten and bleeding? The disciples concluded it was not those who passed by and ignored him but the one who stopped to help him. The example of the Good Samaritan shows us that action is always the best example and the best definition of love or friendship.

Refining this definition took the deeply spiritual insights of another man we know as the Apostle Paul. He declared that love was not only shown by what we do but also by what we don’t do. In what has long been referred to as the ‘Love Chapter’ Paul lists the attributes of genuine love. Among them is this one. Paul said love, “keeps no record of wrongs.” (1 Cor 13:5 NIV)

Is it time for black America to give up its record keeping and get on with something else? Maybe we can’t jump, dance or look hip in the hood but there’s got to be something about the white man you can find cool, start with that and maybe friendship will follow. Does it sound like I’m saying ‘let’s just be friends?’ Don’t you think its time?

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and has over two million readers and counting.

The clues are starting to come in at an alarming rate because many Americans are sitting down and actually reading the bills the congress doesn’t seem to have time to study. The stimulus, healthcare, and hate crimes read like a cross between a child’s fairy tale and the dark musings of Jean Paul Sartre. Proposals that bounce between the silly and the frightening may hold our interest but what do they do to preserve the American way of life, our founding principles or the constitution itself?

It is more for relief than revenge that many voters are looking forward to the 2010 congressional elections. We have begun to read the script for this all new socialistically leaning production of the “Bright New America” and it looks like its time to hire new writers.

Gallup polls are not something every American finds good reading but it is impossible not to take note of their latest findings. In June the approval rating for the Congress was at 19% but in July it dipped to 14% which is the lowest rating in the 34 year history of Gallup polls. These raw facts are obviously due to some raw legislative acts recently passed (stimulus) and those subsequently proposed. Let’s take a look see.

Many loyal and honorable conservatives, largely Republican have been joined by the emerging so called ‘Blue Dog Democrats’ to resist the latest insanity in the congress but perhaps it will only be resolved by the changing of the guard in the elections of 2010 and 2012 respectively.

The stimulus bill not being read by anyone in Congress is now the behemoth that we are saddled with and our grandchildren will not thank us for, but now that it is coming under greater scrutiny it takes only a cursory examination to see it is the most wasteful surge of spending in our history. It holds only the promise of future debt and all discussion of future legislative acts to improve the fiscal finery of the nation may well be moot because of it. America may be groveling in survival mode rather than reveling in prosperity in the years ahead.

Having expended more effort to get our children to read The Cat in the Hat than to get our representatives to slow down and read the stimulus bill has resulted in our un-willingness to allow any more stimulus spending proposals and a tabling of the health care bill until it too is more carefully scrutinized. Here at least is a sign that good old American common sense is beginning to re-emerge.

It seems more like a non-sequitur to say that the democrats are in control of the House and the Senate with new proposals coming to the floor that decry the assertion that anyone is in control at all. For example The Matthew Shepard ‘Hate Crimes’ Amendment, now known better as the ‘Pedophile Protection Act’ proposed by Senators Leahy and Levin gives protection to over 500 sexually oriented deviant behaviors and reads like the directory page of an internet porn site. How does anyone come to the knowledge of these behaviors? Deviant behaviors may be studied as part of psychology but it will not be found in the curriculum of any school offering a major in political science.

So the question remains, how did our honorable representatives come by this detailed list? An even greater question is; are they aware that most Americans have never so much as heard of many of them. The only honest question left is; are they protecting us or are they promoting something we need protection from?

It is with great disdain that I must list any of them here but I must so no one will think it is an exaggeration. Some of the behaviors the Senators think we must protect are urophilia - arousal from urine, coprophilia – arousal from feces, necrophilia – relations with a corpse and pedophilia – sex with an underage child. This short list alone should be enough to make us cringe if not hang our heads in shame. Is this lawmaking at its best? Has this anything at all to do with the American way of life? Can we show this to our children or the rest of the world and be proud?

Is it unreasonable to say that after a century of Hollywood assurances that it’s ok for the nation to get drunk with sexual obsession that Congress has decided to go into the business of stills and breweries? Should lawmakers be thankful that the same first amendment right that even allows them to suggest that such behaviors be protected is what keeps anyone from viewing the inner hidden details on their personal computers?

Since such information can only be found in either psychiatric journals or textbooks or on the internet the question is why they are looking in either to make civil laws. Just how many deviants are there in the U.S. that have contacted their reps and demanded protection via the law?

To be fair since legislators are now ignoring the tens of thousands of letters, emails and faxes asking them not to pass bills like Matthew Shepard would the handful of people who have asked for help be willing to concede that they are out voiced? Would the Congress and Senate be willing to admit they are on the pathway to absurdity and America is beginning to notice that?

Then along comes the Congressional Health Care Reform Bill replete with provisions for tax payer funding of abortions and a chance to start euthanizing our elderly if they are willing. No you have not read wrong.

The healthcare fiasco contains a section called the tri-committee health care bill and in section 1233 ‘Advance Care Planning Consultation’ is a call for the creation of a group of professionals who can counsel the aged on how to end their lives sooner by assisted suicide. Who would have thought we could go from the green planet movement to the beginnings of an assisted suicide bent ‘Soylent Green’ world almost as fast as you can say Al Gore.

Over three decades past I began to warn that as the “love of many waxed cold” (Mt 24:12) America would begin considering euthanasia to add to the scourge of abortion. This is not “I told you so” but it is a call to resist the inclination to hold the lives of any class of citizens as disposable. I can safely say from a theological and Biblical perspective that the future of all our lives will depend on it.

Christ said that if we met the needs or ignored the needs of even the lowest citizens we were doing so or conversely not doing so to him. Is it unreasonable to think that to disregard the lives of the unborn or the aged would not also be covered in the admonition given in Matthew 25:35f?

The Congress and the Senate need only ask one question concerning any of their decisions. What choices and what legacy are they leaving the next generation. If they continue on the present course the choice to live without debt has already been lifted from the next generation as they will be asked to pay for the spending we are doing today. The freedom to choose our own doctors and health care providers will also dissolve if the Obama reforms are put into law.

Should we be thankful that at the least they have left a legacy of about 500 choices of sexual orientations that our children can choose from and live in without fear from others. Will any one in the next generation, if there is one, stop to thank the Senators or Congressmen who leave only these choices behind. It doesn’t take a prophet to know the answer to this question.

Beyond that in another day and time will they be able to look into the eyes of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Roosevelt or Eisenhower and confess that they had done well in their service to the American people and her constitution. This is a question only they can answer but for millions of Americans viewing the latest legislation out of Washington the answer would not be flattering.

I believe that if Lincoln or any of the founding fathers could be heard today the simple admonition they would give would be simply, don’t leave the constitution behind, don’t leave good judgment behind and most of all don’t leave the American people behind.

We all know that at the heart of politics there must be compromise but we ask you to consider that if you choose the friendship of only your colleagues and fellows and not that of the American people you will leave public office friendless.

“I desire to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end… I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.” Abraham Lincoln

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and has over two million readers and counting.

The President is among other things the chief law enforcement official in the land. It is un-nerving if not completely mind boggling to hear him refer to the actions of a police department as ‘stupid.’ Even if their actions were completely asinine couldn’t we expect a little more self control and reserve from the top law enforcement official in the nation?

While news sources are getting to the facts of the matter as time goes on, no one has yet remarked on the general demeanor of the President as he addressed the incident at his press conference. There was clearly an angry tone and angry rhetoric in use at the press meet but it is far from the first time

Obama has previously displayed this kind of open disdain. The last time he admitted that he was good and angry with AIG and within days officials at that corporation had to stay home or seek personal protection in order to work.

Obama modified his statements later and said that things would have gone better if everyone in Cambridge that night had kept a cool head. Is this the place where we ask the President if he wants us to do as he says; but not as he does?

The President said many things about the incident but when he summarized it succinctly with a one, two, and three that’s when it hit the fan for the media. The President said “Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home; and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately. That's just a fact,”

Let’s peruse each aspect of the one, two, and three and keep in mind that the President preceded the statement with the words “Now, I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts” and that was followed by “But I think it's fair to say…”

Hasn’t this non-sequitur cancelled any statement that follows it? If you don’t have all the facts then it is not ‘fair’ to say anything about the matter except that you don’t have all the facts. You remember, it was covered in diplomacy 101!

The most basic definition of prejudice is 1. opinion formed beforehand, 2. holding of ill-formed opinions and 3. irrational dislike of someone. In fact, the North American Dictionary of English says prejudice is “A pre-formed opinion, usually an unfavorable one, based on insufficient knowledge, irrational feelings, or inaccurate stereotypes.” Didn’t we hound and lambaste President Bush for not getting all the facts on WMDs before entering into a war with Iraq? Is it time for Barack Obama to also take a little dose of this medicine?

For his number two, the President concluded that the Cambridge police acted ‘stupidly.’ To avoid repeating the same mistake Mr. Obama made let’s not make a judgment call at all until all the facts are in, instead let’s just focus in on his use of the colorful and highly descriptive adverb ‘stupidly.’

President Obama waited a week to condemn the brutal slaughter of Iranian protestors after the recent elections in that country and all but ignored the missile lobbing Kim Jong-Il of North Korea but didn’t waste a minute to slam an entire domestic police department with a single word.

There is more excoriation in this single word than in an entire volume of angry dissertations. The reason is blatantly obvious. It’s not the word but the source; it is the President of the United States putting down the cops, not a late night comedian or political pundit. Whatever happened to Presidential protocol?

For his number three the President said “what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African-Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately.” Not many Americans would dispute this statement but to load the weight, the culpability by association or the raw guilt on Police Sgt James Crowley at a moment when heads were hot and facts were not, is indeed anything but Presidential.

After all the facts are in it will be easier to determine if Sgt Crowley followed police procedure than it will be to determine if President Obama followed Presidential protocol. What is certain is that Obama’s admission of bias because of his friendship with Gates will automatically serve as a negative bias against the Cambridge Police if a law suit is sought against them. This is an unfair disadvantage by any measure.

Gates has called for an apology and Crowley has emphatically stated it won’t happen. In fairness if Crowley is being asked to apologize to Gates should Obama be asked to apologize to Crowley? Is there a protocol for this? Perhaps Obama will create one when he gets a little ‘cooler head?’

The President did say he may have been a bit biased about the whole matter because Professor Gates was a personal friend of his. But in fact Mr. Gates, friend or not, will never be asked to do what Sgt. Crowley or any officer of the Cambridge police force could be asked to do. At any given time night or day they may be asked to stand between a citizen and the criminal intent of another person and give their lives to protect.

One can only imagine a moment of fear that ran through Sgt. Crowley’s mind just approaching the front door of the Gates residence. If there was indeed a burglar or thief in the residence, the knowledge that the person inside might simply kill Sgt. Crowley in order to avoid capture was clearly a possibility. This knowledge did not keep officer Crowley from doing his duty. Use the adverb ‘bravely’ here as it concerns the actions of this police officer.

Such an analogy would not be complete without referencing the fact that Sgt Crowley, the entire Cambridge police department and any other cop in America may be asked to give their lives in a heartbeat to protect the President. Doesn’t that make Sgt. Crowley one of the President’s friends as well? To be ‘fair’ as the President says, the following verse spoken by Christ in John 15:13 clearly says Sgt. Crowley may be one of the best friends a President could have.

“Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and has over two million readers and counting. Download your copy of Rev Bresciani’s eBook ‘An American Prophet and His Message’ absolutely free at http://donaldjamesparker.com/sosFreebies.aspx

Formed and committed to the establishment of international Islamic empire the group linked to Hamas known as Hizb ut-Tahrir is holding its first public meeting for recruitment in the windy city of Chicago. The group which functioned clandestinely for years are now out in the open some are saying it is due to the ultra relaxed and highly touted PC tolerance of the Obama administration.

Hizb ut-Tahrir is not on the State Departments terror list allegedly but you have to wonder if it is on anybody’s watch list and if not, why not.

On July 19, 2009 the group will endeavor to grace the Grand Ballroom of the proud Hilton in a suburb of Chicago with a conference whose theme and title is "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam." IPT news July 17, 2009 said “According to the conference website, the program includes a question-and-answer session and two panels; one entitled "Capitalism is Doomed to Fail," the other "The Suffering under Capitalism."

The group is said to have only a few hundred adherents in America but as high as 100,000 in Indonesia and many thousands more in other Muslim countries. The real question is not how many adherents they now have but how many recruits will they gain if allowed to conduct meetings like this one.

Naturally they insist that they are meeting under the auspices of first amendment rights and the freedoms afforded to all Americans in a richly pluralistic society.

No one doubts that during the Bush years enough pressure would have been applied to such groups to make such a meeting impossible. But under the ‘tip toe through the tulips’ PC rhetoric of the Obama administration and now with the new call to change the word ‘terrorism’ with the phrase ‘man made disasters’ all bets are off.

Combing through the news out of Indonesia, where only a few days past both Marriott and Ritz Carlton Hotels were ripped with terrorist bombs resulting in eight deaths and over fifty injured, the term ‘man made disasters’ appeared nowhere in the news casts. It is a phrase that is not taking well here in America either.

Many Americans labor under the false notion that Christianity is opposed to the Muslim religion because it wants to be the preeminent religion of the world. Nothing could be further from the truth. It is the foundational principles of true Biblical based Christianity that shows what the all important difference is.

Christianity with all of its faltering steps and human errors is after all a religion of life. It is against abortion because it stands for life. It is against abuse of women and children because it regards their lives as precious in the sight of the Lord. Most of all it is firmly against both the harming and the hatred for other human beings.

Jesus Christ labored successfully to keep an adulterous woman from being stoned to death. (John 8:1f) He healed the sick, raised the dead and preached a gospel of hope and love to the rest. No death here, no hatred here.

True Christianity does not call for the downfall of capitalism, democracy or any other established system or ideology. It calls for the establishment of a kingdom that starts within an individual and exists to show love and brotherhood to a troubled and dying world.

The very tenants of Bible based Christianity are in conflict with both the Koran and any religion that believes it can be brought into acceptance through hatred and death. Nothing says it better than the following verse of scripture taken from the epistles of the Apostle John.

If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? (1Jn 4:20)

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and has over two million readers and counting. Download your copy of Rev Bresciani’s eBook ‘An American Prophet and His Message’ absolutely free at Sword of the Spirit Publishing  

Farrah Fawcett and Ed McMahon are reported to be Catholic while Michael Jackson was a Jehovah’s Witness and Walter Cronkite was an Episcopalian. Some who belong to these religions may feel assured that because of their respective religious affiliations all is well with each of them.

The Biblical view is that they may have ended up with God after death not because of their religion but in spite of it. The Bible view of salvation is quite explicit and involves no requirement to belong to any specific religion. While that may be a subject for another time it does well to remind ourselves of the thief on the cross who died next to Christ at the crucifixion.

The thief on the cross had no time to be baptized, join a religion or become familiar with scripture but Jesus promised him that he would be with him in paradise that very day. (Lk 23:43) The childlike faith that consented to the belief that Christ was not only innocent but that he was exactly who he was reported to be was all it took. That is still all it takes.

Religion and the faltering reasoning of mankind always create entrance requirements for heaven that is wrong. The Biblical view stands alone to correct this error. The most common belief is that God holds us up daily and places our lives and actions on an imaginary scale to see if our ‘good’ out weigh our ‘bads.’ This paints a picture of God that is ridiculous. He is not that frivolous.

In a phone conversation I had with an old friend in Washington the day after Michael Jackson’s death I was to surprised to hear my friend remark that Jackson must be OK with God because he gave to over 39 separate charities. Having been well taught in scriptures I was amazed to hear my friend use the imaginary scale in the sky idea to console him self about Jacksons death.

Was Jackson redeemed because of his giving and in spite of his connection to a religion that mainstream Christianity often views as a cult, or a life that may have left a lot to be desired? My answer is simply “I haven’t a clue.” If I knew Michael Jackson well enough to say whether he answered the all important Biblical question then I could say with perfect clarity where the soul of the pop icon is at this very moment. I will leave both the question and the answer in the hands of the Almighty for now and I will not presume.

The same rule applies in my thinking as it concerns the rest of the souls of the departed icons who have drawn our attention of late. Regardless of their religious affiliations or the lack of them I can’t say that each of them did not have a moment in time when they asked the all important Biblical question in their own words and in their own way. Only God knows that.

Christians are so worried that Jackson may have slipped away without reckoning with God that they began to believe a rumor floating around the internet that famed singer Andre Crouch and his wife ministered the question to Jackson shortly before his death and he responded positively. A recent report in Charisma magazine dispelled the rumor with a categorical denial from Crouch that anything like that ever happened.

When life’s greatest difficulties are all around me and I ponder my own mortality and the brevity of life I always think on the great question. Yet it is not the question alone that stands as the great comforting thought in my darkest moments. It is the answer I chose to make well over four decades past. So what is the question?

As the Apostle Paul and his young disciple Timothy travelled through ancient Macedonia they stopped to preach the gospel in the city of Philippi. They were well received until they cast an evil spirit out of a young woman who was being used to make prognostications (fortune telling) for two men who made good money for themselves as a result. For this they were thrown into a prison where they were held in chains.

They filled the night with prayer and singing praises to God which resulted in a divine intervention. There was a brief earthquake and the prison doors all flew open. The Phillipian jailer knew that to allow even one prisoner to escape would cost him his own life under Roman law so he was about to kill himself instead of waiting for a sure public execution. Paul seeing what was about to happen called out to the warden and told him that everyone was still present and accounted for and that he should not harm himself.

The Philippian jailer was so moved by the events that he came in and threw himself at the feet of Paul and Timothy and cried “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30) This question is to this day the most important question any human being can ask of God. It is the crux of any true relationship with God and it cannot be replaced by religious tenants, conscience giving or imaginary scales in the sky.

The answer given by Paul is the difference between eternal life and eternal separation from God. It is a question that neither regards a person’s status in life, poverty or riches, fame or obscurity or any other condition. Paul said “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.” (Acts 16:31) The jailer did believe and his wife and family followed suit.

In the quiet and deeply personal moments of anyone’s life this question is still paramount. It is the question of the ages with an eternal result. What would your answer be?

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and has over two million readers and counting. Download your copy of Rev Bresciani’s eBook ‘An American Prophet and His Message’ absolutely free at Sword of the Spirit Publishing  

While we reel from the loss of our celebrities and pop icons a Washington based organization known as the TVC (Traditional Values Coalition) is fighting almost a lone battle against the passage of a hate crimes bill that could effectively protect a pedophile but punish a preacher. Finding news about that organizations fight would be very hard to do in the mainstream media. The interest in one story over the other is proof positive that the entire direction and purpose of the nation has changed.

The culture war is no longer a war between the neo socialists and PC advocates who think the war of ideas is won by just being nice and conservatives who don’t like America being tinkered with. It has heated up to the level of a social civil war where even though no shots are fired and no blood is shed there are nevertheless real victims and casualties wounded and laying around the perimeters. The saddest thing is that we are too busy following the latest pop craze for it to get to us.

Throughout history the one universal deterrent to the rise of any nation is civil war and strife. It can stop a nation’s growth but conversely it can bring it down from the lofty heights of power. In America both our national life and the churches are divided almost to the point of no return. Where is this going?

Some of my articles have ended up on astrology and religious web pages but I did not intend for that to happen. I have put them before the general public in the best online and print publications I could find and purposely declined to submit them to all but a few religious or prophetic sites. This fulfills the calling of my ministry but it also brings the message to the civilian population. It is in that sector that the fate of America will be determined.

I have wasted little time by entering into the church’s debate about true and false prophets. Reams of material is available on that subject but unfortunately the church is so busy labeling and putting down the false prophets they have failed to tell the nation who we should be listening to. In that process some certified ministers and their ministries have been hurt ignored or completely destroyed. God doesn’t call any of his prophets to play the role of sheriff in the kingdom of God.  A true prophet is sent to proclaim not disdain.

False prophets can be cunning and deceitful charlatans but the average American is not easily fooled by them. Those who speak in God’s stead for ulterior or spurious reasons are like an eighteen wheeler coming down the road with all the night lights blazing. You can see and hear them coming from miles away.

Some are more subtle than others but certain things remain the same about all of them. The false prophet wants something from you and is very upfront about what that is, usually. How many wonderful offers of new information regarding America have been touted as the deepest, the most shocking and the only legitimate inside info there is, only to be offered to you for the introductory price of $39.95 or more? Is God’s message for sale?  In a word, never!

Yet sometimes it isn’t remuneration that is sought but only mere reaction. Pay attention to me, follow me, come to my church or read my materials are the motive. I wouldn’t make it an ironclad rule but my experience has shown that real prophets could care less whether you pay attention to them personally or not.

The single most effective form of false prophecy is not based on a lie but overemphasis on a truth. If I can show you chapter and verse where God wants you to be prosperous and happy I have told you no lies. If after weeks, years or perhaps a lifetime you hear me saying only that, you may need to find another minister.

In a time of deceit, upheaval or encroaching national danger the message of the happy and prosperous life is a distraction that if not brought into balance with other admonitions of equal importance becomes the grand lie of omission. No lie has any genuine prophetic quality even if it is popular.

Many legitimate prophets would prefer to live their own life outside of the public eye. Rather than being anti-social or indifferent it is the knowledge that people are going to approach what they say with skepticism and an attitude of I’ll take it or leave it if I want to. Many of the Old Testament prophets actually argued with God about doing the prophet thing.

Some prophets claimed speech impediments, said they were too old, too young, had farms and trees to dress and a plethora of other excuses were offered. One prophet pouted and got mad with God because after preaching the need to repent to one city, (Nineveh) they surprised the prophet Jonah by repenting! He was so reticent to speak to them in the first place that he had his heart and imagination peaked only with the thought of their destruction. A thought he was not ready to let go of easily.

The litmus test of a true prophet is provided in detail in the Bible but two items stand out above the rest. The first is that they will never say anything that God did not say, for any reason. The second is that if the perceived message does not line up with or adhere to the prior revelation (The Bible in its entirety) they will reject it out of hand.

As for the personalities or social standing of the real prophets it is safe to say they come in all sizes and models. Their most basic commonality is that they are ‘no respecter of persons.’ They are not swayed by dignitaries or the basest of all civilians. Arguments about their message are fluffed off because they realize they are in greater danger if they refuse to tell the message than from the naysayers who may not like the message.

The question that is far more important than true v. false prophecy centers on heeded versus unheeded prophecies. Most legitimate messages aren’t rejected they are simply ignored. Even after healing the sick, the blind, the deaf and the dumb and raising some from the dead Christ was forced to say “And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” (Jn 5:40)

There are as many reasons for rejecting true prophecy as there are people. Near the end of time it is the collective reasoning born out of the pop or common wisdom of the day that is the most commonly accepted reason to reject the message. When the right stuff is replaced with fluff and the rap pulls the ear to the trap you can’t fool with the cool, that’s the pop illusion. The real picture is more like once pop gets to the top, the cool of the cool, is the cool of the fool. Kno-m-sayin?

In a world that has decided that we have evolved from lower forms of animals and we are now on our way to the stars, all appreciable accountability to God has been seriously deferred. Oddly, this too is prophecy. The extended time between the first and second coming of Christ is one of the reasons along with the pride of a bit of new found knowledge about our world that emboldens unbelief in the prophetic promise of God’s ultimate intervention and judgment of mankind.

These two reasons coupled with a predicted rise of deviant and prurient interest worldwide are said to close the ears of many millions of unsuspecting victims of the last day’s demise of man. The Apostle Peter warned “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” (2Pet 3: 3-4)

In America the new penchant is to claim that the messengers and their message is socially harming or defaming certain people, groups and their respective behaviors. Even while no prophet can actually physically harm another person under the commandment of Christ they feign character assassination, social rejection or as in Canada they need only claim their feelings have been hurt. Poor babies!

Many warnings are now emerging about the rise of the dreaded antichrist and they should be given attention. Unknown by many is that the Bible predicts that the spirit of antichrist long precedes the actual revealing of the man. It doesn’t take rocket science to discern what comes from the antichrist spirit. As the word implies it is anything that is opposed to Christ, his gospel and the words and admonitions of his apostles and prophets.

Our President may not be the antichrist but when he claims that the teachings against homosexuality found in the Bible are merely obscure verses that need not be taken seriously, that is the spirit of antichrist. The compunction or the inspiration that guided the nine justices of our Supreme Court to put Roe v. Wade in place against the warnings of scripture that clearly says all life is sacred is antichrist.

When Europe decided to give abortion and virtually every sexual orientation a wide open field and subsequently to disallow membership into the Union if nations didn’t comply, that is antichrist. The list is too long to complete here but the result is sure. When enough antichrist inspired rules, laws and popularly accepted notions are in place the only thing left is the actual appearance and seating of the antichrist himself.

To borrow a phrase from the commercial world of free enterprise “you get what you pay for.” To use a phrase from writ that even better defines the outcome of the trend toward the antichrist spirit, check out what the Apostle Paul had to say about it. “And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:” (2Th 2:9-11)

How convenient is the latest trend among Christians reported by pollster and writer George Barna. Reports are that many are now giving up not only faith in Christ as the one and only way but the belief in a literal satanic personality the Bible refers to as the ‘god of this world.’ Just in time for the big push toward Armageddon and acceptance of every backward trend civilization can conger.

In America we have grown tired of our prophets and we set aside their warnings that no amount of tinkering with the market, the economy or health care concerns can offset the damage that is being done by America’s obsession with sex, pop culture and interests that can only be driven by the oncoming spirit of antichrist. No nation in history ever fell into conflict with God over its economy, it was always their morality. The two are inextricably linked but that may be deeper prophetic utterance than most can bear.

The prophet Jeremiah warned the ancient Israelites for an entire generation that their idolatry, prurient interests and preoccupation with material things would be their demise. In one of his final warnings to them as a few of them tried to escape from the Babylonian (Iraq) King Nebuchadnezzar they protested his prophecies with the retort that they had it pretty good while they were doing all the things Jeremiah said they shouldn’t be doing. (Je 44:1f)

They actually could not believe that God would take away all their goodies for what they were doing but associated their behavior with their former economic good fortunate. The very end of their nationhood was dismissed as some sort of bad luck, poor planning, relentless enemies or economic misfortune. Sound familiar?

No perversion is more perfect than to think it is our worst behavior that gets us our wealth and economic standing. The Bible is replete with warnings that only God can bless a nation with wealth and prosperity and only God can take it all away.

At a time when the media is still sucking news from the big wave of pop star Michael Jackson’s short and fiery life Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announces her resignation. News sources are in a frenzy to define the implications of her resignation all the while ignoring the real question of their own bad behavior.

At last Michelle Obama finally found some pride in America and with the help of Barack Obama the gays now have June as an entire month to celebrate their pride thanks to Obama’s proclamation that it is ‘gay pride month.’ While no one has officially announced it the election year of 2008 and the 2009 inaugural year of the Obama Presidency might be called the years of shame for the media. No proclamations are likely.

The stories about Sarah Palin are fair game but the twists and spins added to them are not and will never be. Move over homophobia now there’s Paliphobia. Is the media so afraid of the potential of the Palin run in 2012 that they thought only a four year beating until the starting gun was fired could assure them they won’t get kicked out of the bed with the Obama administration?

After enduring the onslaught of newsmongers with insatiable hopes of dirt and sleaze directed both at her and her family, Palin’s resignation may be the only act that still has an ounce of dignity in it in the last two years. Republicans may not be too happy with her decision but her family came long before her career as a politician.

The jokes of David Letterman and the article in Vanity Fair perhaps were the straw that broke the camels back but it is the total lack of fairness the media showed that is a scathing indictment against them. If the country had a media czar it would seem appropriate that at this point he or she would be offering a public apology to Palin and that very humbly. Perhaps the czar could hang his head in shame as the proxy for the entire band of media thugs who reveled in the indignities.

We have a media that thinks the story of the congressional race where the candidate has been known to dawn diapers in comedy skits is real news and the photo snaps of the President on the beach is titillation for the rest of us. Who are these heavily biased lug nuts and what have they done to the once respected field known as journalism?

The stories the media now ignores have become what real Americans are rolling around in their heads and they don’t care if a pop culture icon steals the front page they are more concerned that one has stolen the oval office. It isn’t just the question that World Net Daily’s Editor Joseph Farah has raised, ‘Where’s the Birth Certificate’ but now after the first 100 days many Americans are asking ‘where’s the Presidency?’

Our President has likened himself to Lincoln, JFK and FDR but is stuck with the label he has earned as a direct result of his actions. Cozying up to the gays recently he laughed and giggled and referred to them time and again as ‘you guys.’ That level of familiarity with that minority is juxtaposed against the growing coldness he is fostering with the average working taxpayer who now may not be working at all as the nation is seeing the highest un-employment rate in its history with the exception of the great depression period.

It is the waste, the pork and the nine trillion dollar deficit he has laden on the next generation of Americans that is foremost in the thoughts of the rank and file not whether the gays have finally come into their own. Is the media covering that honestly in all of its details…too risky?

If a person is known by their fruits as Christ said then names don’t count for much. Looking at the first months of the Obama administration comes off as more of a full length featuring of Larry, Moe and Curly rather than Honest Abe, JFK and FDR,  but to show it that way would make the media fruit look rotten as well.

Here is a far more important saying that applies to both the sickening bias the media has shown the Obama administration and the personal attacks and general disregard for the privacy and dignity of the Palin family. “…whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” (Gal 6:7)

The great law of reciprocation may not be recognized by everyone but it ignores no one. We will get back what we put out and that includes the media. The callous and undignified pursuit of sleaze and debate in today’s media is already earning its keep. It is earning the well deserved deep mistrust of the American people.

Bowing to the King of a Muslim Nation, Proclaiming America is not a Christian nation while in Turkey and romping through Europe apologizing for arrogant Americans, Obama returns to an insulted and belittled nation. Will we get an apology? Not likely!

Liberal historians and secular academicians in the U.S. may have of late been able to re-write history and plug it to a generation that is graduating from high school with fifth grade reading skills. They have not been allowed to erase the voluminous works of U.S. history archived and protected so far by law. That history defies, denies and decries the lie that America is not a Christian nation.

It is those revered documents that when contrasted to Mr. Obama’s rhetoric in Turkey before the public and President Abdullah Gul that tend to leave a sick feeling in the stomach and a feeling of betrayal in the heart.

Mr. Obama said ““Although…we have a large Christian population, we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation, or a Jewish nation, or a Muslim nation.  We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.”

The only way to mitigate the outrageous statement made by the President is the consideration that he may have missed American History 101 while attending Muslim Madrassah schools in Kenya, or Indonesia.

With over three fourths of Americans claiming to be Christian and a landscape dotted with Catholic cathedrals and Christian churches from rural to urban America we have only to wonder if the President was speaking about another America as he toured the world.

Perhaps, Barack has decided that his popularity is a mandate to proclaim that there is another America. With a touch of magic liberal progressive stardust to sprinkle on the minds of those who can’t tell the difference between a reality TV series and a deadly national political shift toward socialism Obama gets applause and reality gets the boot.

Obama says that America has been arrogant. But here is arrogance. Obama says it; liberals believe it and that settles it, history, prolific Christianity, historical records and national pride notwithstanding.

Here is arrogance. That no commitments were made by any nation in the world to send combatants to Afghanistan but in America a commitment was made of continued presidential support for an army of medical professionals who are standing by to suck the life blood out of unborn babies at the rate of 4000 a day. Here is an army we can be proud of.

Here is arrogance. A wife who is not proud of America, a flag that is not worthy of a pledge, appointees to the judicial bench who think Sharia law might work in America and political appointees that openly profess and practice homosexuality. All this capped off by the latest appointee to the Presidents “faith based” initiative of an openly gay person. Glibly labeling the summarily disgusted as ‘homophobes’ and then barreling blithely down the gay agenda highway to the new world order. This is super arrogance.

Here is arrogance. Sitting at the feet of a minister who ‘damns’ America, pillaging America’s treasury and castigating CEOs for bonuses even while spending multi-millions of dollars on the most extravagant inauguration party in American history.

Here is arrogance. The obfuscation and denial of the Christian foundations of America and the predominant practice of Christianity in this country even while Obama’s own history remains in question including a fully signed birth certificate, the missing school records and the mysterious name change from Barry Soetoro to Barack Hussein Obama.

Here is arrogance. Allowing the re-writing of American history while disallowing anyone to uncover the personal history of only one man by using a team of legal experts to block school records, birth records and travel documents.

Here is the ultimate arrogance. To traverse the world garnering accolades and applause while labeling those in America as divisive and arrogant and return to carry on in business as usual. To ignore the insult to those living today and the untold millions of souls who gave their lives to defend this nation and its principles. To disregard the blood shed by Americans to deal with the scourge of fascism, communism, totalitarianism, bully-ism and megalomaniacal dictators even while Europe danced to the big bands and Nazi-ism waited in the wings.

It is safe to say that while the number is not known for sure a conservative guess would be that there are many millions who would be served and placated in some way by an apology from President Obama for the apologies that have insulted us not in one place but throughout the entire world.

The word haughty is used synonymously for the word arrogant both as the dictionary definition and in the Bible. It is often defined as pride but in many cases it is used to describe the business of putting someone down to lift your self up. It’s rarely effective because it usually results in others seeing you as condescending and deceitful. The rest of the world will have to answer the question of whether Mr. Obama is either of these things but for many Americans the question is already answered.

The Bible has a more universal answer that warrants serious attention because it is a condition usually associated with the demise of a man or an entire nation. Its usage in this particular passage has to do with the ensuing final intervention of God in the affairs of men and judgment. To wit, “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.” (Isaiah 13:11)

With the unanswered questions about his past, socialistic policies to glaring to hide, a dismal voting record as a state lawmaker and his mind boggling initial policies as a President, Mr. Obama’s apologies for America’s arrogance would be better addressed by a New Testament passage spoken by Christ himself and often quoted in this ‘non-Christian’ nation known as America.

“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?” (Luke 6:41)

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and now has millions of readers throughout the world.

Besides being asked to leave Great Britain on his arrival there outcast Wilders is also slated for trial for his recent video production of his anti-Koran piece called “Fitna.” Wilders is a common sense kind of man with a strong heart for the principles of free speech and an eye for anything that smacks of the strangling of freedom under the feigned hypocrisy of political correctness.

While the trend in conservative reporting in media is full of dire warnings, the Obama administration is barreling ahead with a socialist doctrine and fiscal quackery that seems little affected by anyone’s warnings. Top conservative shows are laced with pop quizzes, comedy and laughing at left wing absurdities and general debate Wilders seems more focused and his warnings point back to the social trends of pre-war Germany. Those trends gave the world the Nazi menace that cost the lives of millions, shouldn’t we give Wilders center stage and our ears?

Wilders has clearly stated that he does not hate Muslims but he hates Islam. In America where our very foundations are all Christian and biblically based the slow apostasy of American Christendom has eroded our understanding of our own Christian beginnings. How then can we be expected to understand Wilder’s statement about Islam?

Wilders contends that the Koran is a fascist book on the same level as Hitler’s Mein Kampf and that Islam is a Trojan horse that has already been received by Europe and the belly of that horse has already spilled out on the continent with the Islamification of Europe proceeding in all haste. Europe may well become Eurabia according to Wilders if the current coddling of Muslim extremists and the courting of Sharia law are not stopped.

Wilders has made note that while he sees free speech being throttled for the sake of “peace with the Muslims,” a Muslim cleric can pronounce a jihad on a country or an individual with relative impunity. It is reported that al-Qaeda called for the assassination of Wilders immediately after the release of his film and his reward from his own country was a lawsuit invoked by what the Netherlander constabulary sees as an attempt to “incite hatred.”

With Islamically driven honor killings on the rise worldwide, the misuse of women and the anti-Christian laws being imposed across the globe in Muslim countries, Wilders should be heralded as the voice of warning and common sense to the entire free world. Yet it would seem the free world is too busy with economic crisis, global warming and political correctness to notice.

Geert Wilders should be given every chance to bring his message to bear on America during his visit with us. He should be accorded hero status and every ear should be tuned to hear what he has to say. Only recently a koranically incited honor killing happened in Buffalo New York, should we wait for even more of this kind of horror before we get wise?

Regardless of the mistaken folly of the ancient crusaders or the dark period of the inquisition true biblical Christianity never endorses the killing of anyone or the abuse of women. Had the scripture not been suppressed during the dark ages the world would have known this? Since the advent of the printing press and now modern high speed communications technologies there is little excuse left. Christ does not call for nor endorse the killing of anyone in the name of any religion.

If the modern world embraces a religion of death it will do so in spite of Christ’s warnings to the contrary; “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.” (John 10: 10-11)

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and now has millions of readers throughout the world.

Barack Obama will finish his term of office in only four years if he is re-elected he will have four more years. No child born here in the U.S. or abroad will reach voting age before he finishes his term of office. Those aborted will never so much as hear who is running for office. The pro-choice voters of America male or female can vote now and since the repeal of Bush’s ban that constituency has been well played, prepped and pandered to for Obama’s second term.

We don’t need to ask the pro-choice crowd what they think of Obama’s first act as President and we can’t ask the aborted babies. If we could reach out to some place where their voices could be heard what would they say?

On the question of Rod Blagojevich being ousted as Governor of Illinois for allegedly trying to sell Obama’s vacant senate seat I’m sure they could care less. We actually might hear some of them say “whatever the price the seat was going for it is still cheaper than the price we have already paid” They might even say it’s too bad the seat wasn’t for sale a long time ago to someone who was pro-life.

As for President Bush they may say they are thankful for the ban he provided so no U.S. taxpayers had to foot the bill for their murders. They might also ask him why he hadn’t noticed that in his search for weapons of mass destruction he didn’t look a little closer to home. Roe v. Wade is the single greatest weapon of mass destruction to come along since the creation of atomic weapons. It has resulted in almost fifty times more loss of life than laid on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WW II. They might add that “these are American lives not the lives of our enemies” as if we didn’t know that.

They might ask Barack Obama that since he stated in the Saddleback Forums that the “question of when life begins” was “above his pay grade,” now that he gets $250,000 per year as President, is that now enough pay to decide that life does ‘not’ begin at conception,” which is exactly what he has done.

Can the deceased or aborted of one generation actually rise up and witness or testify against those of another generation? Let’s see.

When the religious leaders thought to demand a sign from Jesus to prove his claims he rebuked them by saying, “The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and condemn them: for she came from the utmost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.” (Lk 11: 31, 32)

It may be above Barack Obama’s pay grade to answer the question of when human life actually begins but is not above of his pay grade to answer when it should end. All that is left is the question of whether it is above his pay grade to answer if those aborted humans may one day “rise up” as Jesus said and condemn his actions. I don’t know for sure if that will happen but I would not want to be the one who is gambling that it won’t.

Suffice it to say that more people have died at the hands of abortionists than all the lives Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot or Adolph Hitler took prior to modernity’s liberal slaughtering of the unborn. Under the auspices of modern mans narcissistic proclamation of science enlightenment and advances they yet choose to hide behind the incongruous and cowardly thin veil of “I don’t know when life actually begins.”

This is my answer and my pay grade is zero. I get nothing for writing these articles and I am still overpaid because I have the pleasure of believing that my voice in some small way is the voice of the unborn children of this generation. My answer is; life begins at the beginning. Every second thereafter it is a new life, a human being, already living and developing and crying out for only what we already have; a chance for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

The last time I mustered the nerve to view an actual abortion video what I saw was mangled body parts and what seemed like rivers of blood. While I could not say for sure just what the voices of destroyed infants are saying I am sure that what I saw was real human blood. Innocent blood!

I am also sure that one of the most recurring and heavily emphasized teachings of the Bible is that God is always angry about the shedding of innocent blood. In an impassioned appeal to King Zedekiah the prophet Jeremiah warned the King of Judah by saying, “Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates: Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place.” (Jer 22: 2, 3)

I have never doubted that America is no different in Gods eyes than any ancient civilization and there will be a reckoning in our future. Socialism, immorality and unbridled love of material things are the very least of the reasons we will soon encounter judgments. The actions of doctors and nurse practitioners tucked away in silently run houses of death in rural and suburban spots around the country are not unseen, the cries of the innocent may not be heard by the busy throngs but their blood calls to God night and day.

Roe v. Wade is a pretense for scientifically endorsed, politically and judicially backed genocide. Coupled with newly rescinded presidential orders and sweeping legislative proposals to extend abortions worldwide and at anytime during a pregnancy, now it is defiant mockery to the warnings of God. The fact that we have slid by without too much intervention is proof of only two things. One is the enduring patience of God, the other is the surety and closer proximity of an impending judgment that we will have indeed brought on ourselves.   

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and now has millions of readers throughout the world.

Between Hollywood, the new craze for Christian novels (fiction) and the old series of “Left Behind” flicks the average person, Christian or not, has been shown a picture of last day’s figures and personalities that is anything but accurate.

Pictures of the antichrist and the false prophet, the major players in the last days, range from dark robed characters leading an all new religion to a leader with 666 tattooed somewhere on his head. Not even close!

When Christ spoke of the last days deceivers he clearly inferred that they would be almost perfect in their deception. This eliminates the idea and the very possibility that they are fringy, off the wall, spooky or obviously spurious in appearance, behavior or rhetoric. Christ said “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.” (Mt. 24:24)

In spite of a recent Barna report that says as much as sixty percent of evangelicals and other Christians from Pentecostal to Catholic have voted for liberal policies and liberal people like Barack Obama that doesn’t mean the “elect” have been deceived. What it does mean is that not everyone who talks the talk; walks the walk. They were no doubt not among the “elect” to begin with. As to the question of “how do you deceive the very elect, you don’t, it is not possible!

It must be noted that there are major and minor figures in the last day’s panorama and Christ wanted us to notice all of them even if we could not see the key figures until the very last. Both the Apostle Paul and John warned that the spirit of antichrist was already at work in the world and would produce many antichrists. Spotting someone who labors under the spirit of antichrist is as easy as observing what fruit or result their labors produce. “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.” (Mt 7:20) No rocket science needed here.

What is the fruit of liberalism in politics, what is the fruit of Hollywood, what is the fruit of pop culture, what is the fruit of pornography, what is the fruit of secular education, what is the fruit of violent games and media, the new penchant for gambling and the new morality? I will not insult anyone’s intelligence or their spirituality by adding the obvious answer here.

In politics secular liberalism produces the fruit of abortion, cloning, euthanasia, Godless education, legalized gambling, gay marriage and a list of other things too numerous to mention here. All of these things appeal to the flesh on various levels but all have to do with either fostering personal irresponsibility or fleshly indulgence. Gee, that’s some great fruit.

Here’s the rub. Those espousing these things make them look great and they themselves may look pretty great too. Deceivers are not clad with red robes, pitchforks and horns but most likely they will be well dressed and completely normal and attractive people. Enter the politicians.

The antichrist will no doubt be a political, military figure who will look as normal as apple pie and come up through channels of normalcy and proper education. Oddly, according to the Prophet Daniel, he will be an orator of unparalleled ability and will also harbor an unquenchable hatred for God.  He will be able to suppress showing the hatred to the public for a while but as the world plunges toward Armageddon he won’t even try to hide it.

It would be easy to conclude that this “highly educated” generation would not allow such a person an inch of ground. Think again. It is modern secular education that actually helps to pave the way for his entrance and subsequent success. Progressive education has been working on the removal of all accountability to God feverously for the last sixty or so years. It has successfully knocked out both ends of the accountability question namely where do we come from and where are we going?

Modern minds think we come from apes and we are going to the stars to populate thousands of planets. In one generation secular education has managed to convince our children that they have no creator except time, a lightning bolt and a one cell amoeba and they are just about ready to carry themselves into the celestial bodies for ever. Whoops, there goes God!

Let’s not confuse our modern geniuses with facts. Like the fact that the entire theory of evolution is based on “prior philosophic postulation” which mocks the very definition of empirical science which is “repeatable and observable experimentation for the gathering of data,” not possible when speculating about what took place millions of years ago. We would need a world class team of physicists to explain to the average high school student (if they can get beyond reading 101) the problem of interstellar space travel is in a word “time” not space.

All of the aforementioned is a more classical way of saying something else found in the scriptures. Although the biblical explanation is far more simple it is yet much more profound. It relates to the antichrist and the very nature and power by which he manages to hoodwink the whole world by a series of very subtle deceptions. Top politicians, world class scientists and false prophets of every description are included in this single warning. “Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:” (2th 2: 9-11)

Strong delusion implies that they will not be seen as abhorrent creepy religious quacks or fringy politicians with little or no standing in the minds of most people. They will indeed be the greatest leaders and orators of the age but with a message of a whole new life but sadly in the end it leads to death.

It would seem to some that these warnings are veiled inferences to the results of recent political events in the United States. To those who are spiritually cognitive I need not explain anything but conversely to the unbelieving all the explanation in the world would not suffice. I can use the simplest adage to correctly answer the question if I must, “if the shoe fits, wear it.”

I cannot express the gratitude I feel for those who have encouraged me over the years of this prophetic ministry. I can also say openly to the naysayers that I am not merely a grumpy kind of guy who just can’t seem to see anything hopeful in the present world. I not only see hope but my eyes are on the only real hope of this or any age before it. That hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. His finished work on the cross and his promise of salvation to all who will receive it will shine through even the darkest days of the rule of antichrist. The world offers no such hope nor can it ever.

I look forward to the day when I can throw off this mantle that requires me to address a world of unbelievers with a message that they doubt or disdain. I will do that when the Creator God plants the feet of his only begotten Son firmly on the Mount of Olives from where he first ascended back to his Father after his resurrection. That’s my day, what’s yours?

http://www.americanprophet.org is the place for news, articles, movie and book reviews and other insights for life. Rev Bresciani is a columnist for online and print publications and now has millions of readers throughout the world.