Marxists, Muslims, Mayhem, Mercy, & Martyrs
I’m gonna speak to you tonight on the topic of Marxists, Muslims, Mayhem, Mercy and Martyrs. Turn with me, if you would, to the little book of Nahum, if you can find that little book of Nahum. Tonight we are just going to look at a couple verses in this little book of Nahum and then we’re going to move around to Deuteronomy and Leviticus and Romans.
Nahum 1:11. From you comes forth one who plots evil against the Lord, a wicked counselor.
The story is 150 years after Jonah shows up in Nineveh to tell the people to repent. Most of you know the story of Jonah and that he did not want to go and to tell the people of Nineveh to repent. Jonah felt they deserved destruction. But don’t we all deserve God’s wrath? But through faith and repentance, the righteous life of Christ is imputed or credited to our account, and thus we have moved from judgement into life.
We all know the story of Jonah and the giant fish. He did not want to go. But he finally goes and he preaches that the people of Nineveh should repent before God judges them. And many of them and their leaders indeed did repent.
But it’s now 150 years later and here is the prophet Nahum. And he’s here not to say repent, but he’s here to say, ‘God is going to judge your nation.’ The decision has already been made. Isn’t it interesting that we see in the scripture that God warns again and again and again before He brings judgement? I have to wonder how many times has America been warned again and again and again.
So 150 years after Jonah, Nahum shows up saying it is time for God to judge you. He declares the soon impending judgment of God. It is all laid out in this little book with great accuracy. And we could spend literally several one hour sessions breaking down how God’s judgement was going to occur. However, the major point I want to bring forth tonight is how God used the Assyrians to judge Israel and then yet God turned around and judged the Assyrians.
Today, Nineveh is what you would know as modern day Mosul in northern Iraq. It sits in northern Iraq by the Tigris River. And is Mosul in the news today? Absolutely. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria. And in about 724 BC Assyria conquered Israel and took many of the Israelites into captivity. Over and over again the Israelites fall into the Babylonian religions–the worship of Baal and Ashtoreth. This Babylonian religious system really starts in Genesis 10 and Genesis 11, where we see Nimrod–who is becoming mighty on the earth–and he builds many cities of which include Babel, the home of the tower of Babel.
I have a book out there in the resource hall about this. It’s called The Coming Religious Reich. The word ‘Reich’ means Empire or Kingdom. The coming religious reich really started there in Genesis 10 and 1l in Babylon, and I believe it’s going right back there as described in Revelation 17 and chapter 18. There will be, once again, a one world government in Babylon. Babylon is approximately fifty-eight miles south of Baghdad.
The children of Israel fall again and again into this Babylonian religion and God calls them to repent. And God says, ‘if you’ll repent I’ll bless you once again, but if you don’t, I will bring seven times harsher judgement upon you.’ When it comes to Israel it is the same warning and judgement over and over again. Finally, after many warnings, God allows, in about 724 BC, the Assyrians to conquer Israel and take the Israelites into captivity in Assyria.
Again, isn’t it interesting how our gracious God warns about the impending judgment? Today we don’t have modern day prophets. We don’t have modern day apostles. But we do have people that have the gift of prophecy–if we mean one that speaks forth truth. Your pastor is not a prophet in that he is not getting extra biblical revelation. Jude 3 says that the Word of God was once for all delivered to the saints. Deuteronomy, Proverbs, and Revelation forbid us from adding to the Word of God or taking away from the Word of God. So we don’t have prophets or apostles getting extra biblical revelation today. However, we do have people who have the gift of speaking forth truth or the gift of prophecy. If you’re a pastor here tonight, then perhaps you have the gift of prophecy in that you speak forth truth–not foretelling–but forth-telling.
I believe we have many people in America that in one sense have been prophets in that they are forth telling the truth of God’s word that says, this is what happens to a nation when you deny God over and over and over again. When you suppress the truth in unrighteousness, eventually, this is what happens. And so I think there have been many opportunities for Americans to repent and they have yet hardened their hearts. Sadly, I believe God has already turned America over.
You may say, well, wait a minute Brannon, how’s that consistent with this election we just had in November of 2016 that saw the election of Donald Trump? If God is judging America why didn’t God allow Hillary Clinton to win? Well, I’m gonna get to that. Can God be judging our country while He is also giving a reprieve or some protection to the church? I think they can both be true and not be contradictory.
Here in this little book of Nahum it says that one reason God is now judging this nation of Assyria is because, as it says there in verse 11, “from you comes one who plots evil against the Lord. A wicked counselor.”
In the original language, “wicked counselor” literally would mean a counselor of Baal. Baal is another name for Satan. Thus it means a demonically controlled, demonically inspired leader.
You see, God allowed the Assyrians to conquer Israel in order to punish Israel. The Bible says that whom He loves He chastens, and He loves the Jewish people. God has tried to bring them back again and again. And if you understand eschatology correctly, I believe we understand the whole reason for the tribulation will be for God to get the attention of the Jews whom He loves and to use the tribulation to bring them back to Himself.
Well, He’s doing this here in one sense. He’s using this little tribulation if you will, to get their attention. And He uses Assyria. The capital is Nineveh and their leaders were brutal people. In fact, it was prophetically told by the prophet Nahum that parts of the government buildings, that reveal the extent of brutality of the Assyrians, would be hidden for a period of time. But now gigantic stone pictures from their government buildings called reliefs are available for all the world to see.
The gigantic stones are engraved with stories and history and horrors. These reliefs are available for you to see online, or you can go to the British museum and see them in person. And these reliefs in stone tell the brutality of the Assyrians. I’m talking about brutality so great, having just come from dinner, you would not want to hear about it. But I’m talking about incredible cruelty. Skinning people alive. These reliefs detail people being beheaded. The reliefs detail extreme savagery. It was as though they came up with or plotted ways to be evil.
Nahum 1:11 tells us that the evil that was being done by its leader was of a demonic nature by a wicked counselor under the demonic control of Baal or Satan. And even though God used Assyria to judge the nation of Israel, eventually God had enough when they began to plot evil against the Lord.
My friends, evil is one thing. But when people start to plot evil against God, that’s a tipping point for national judgement.
I believe America is now in a place of plotting evil against the Lord and inventing ways to take part in evil. I think of stories such as sex change operations for four and five year old children. The numerous genders that are now celebrated. The entire LGBTQ agenda and celebration. Consider the sex education curriculum in the schools that is just flat out pornographic. I wrote about the pornographic sex education curriculum in my first book that came out in 1993. Even in 1993, the sex education course that I documented in that first book of mine were so pornographic in nature that I could not read it to you in a public setting or over the radio.
America and many nations of the world seem to be finding ways to invent evil against God, which is one of the tipping points for national and eventually global judgment. And that’s what happened to Assyria. They began to plot evil against God and that was a tipping point. And so God, who used this nation of Assyria to bring judgement on Israel, judges Assyria.
150 years earlier Jonah showed up in Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and preached repentance. But now, the Prophet Nahum shows up and he says that repentance is not an option because God is about to destroy your nation.
Turn with me, if you would, to Deuteronomy 28. While you’re turning there, let me remind you of the warnings that the late Francis Schaeffer gave to America in the 1970s. While I do not agree with everything he taught, I do find that his ministry in America was in many ways a ministry of speaking forth truth and warning America about tipping points for national judgement. In his book, The Great Evangelical Disaster, he said:
[Quote] Something has happened in the last sixty years. The freedom that once was founded on a biblical consensus and a Christian ethos has now become autonomous freedom, cut loose from all constraints. Here we have the world spirit of our age—autonomous man setting himself up as God, in defiance of the knowledge and the moral and spiritual truth which God has given. Here is the reason why we have a moral breakdown in every area of life. The titanic freedoms which we once enjoyed have been cut loose from their Christian restraints and are becoming a force of destruction leading to chaos. And when this happens, there really are very few alternatives. All morality becomes relative, law becomes arbitrary, and society moves toward disintegration. In personal and social life, compassion is swallowed up by self-interest. As I have pointed out in my earlier books, when the memory of the Christian consensus which gave us freedom within the biblical form is increasingly forgotten, a manipulating authoritarianism will tend to fill the vacuum. At this point the words “right” and “left” will make little difference. They are only two roads to the same end; the results are the same. An elite, an authoritarianism as such, will gradually force on society so that it will not go into chaos—and most people would accept it. [end quote]
I contend that the chaos is actually being created on purpose. Now we’re not Israel and I am careful to remind you that we are not Israel. Israel is a distinct nation with a distinct plan. Those today who believe that the church has now taken the place of Israel or the church replaces Israel and that the promises of Israel are now given to the church are people that believe in what is called ‘replacement theology.’ I do not adhere at all to replacement theology. And many people today take verses that are clearly meant for the nation of Israel and they try to apply them to the New Testament church.
Of course, if you’re gonna do that, then you’d have to start following the commands of the scriptures in the Old Testament as to the type of clothing you would wear, the type of material you would wear, when you work, when you don’t work, what you eat. We would be talking about a theocracy as a form of government for the church. And yet it’s interesting–those who believe in replacement theology don’t practice any of those aspects.
So we’re not Israel and we have to be very careful about applying things that are meant for the nation of Israel to us. But with that little bit of warning, over in Deuteronomy 28, I would like to share with you what God said He would do to the nation of Israel if they would not obey Him. And the reason I think this is appropriate for us to look at in regards to America, or any nation of the world for that matter, is because there really are only so many templates by which a nation can be judged. I believe the template that God uses to judge nations is often repeated again and again.
Deuteronomy 28. Look at verse 24. “The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust. From the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.”
What are we talking about? Drought. God uses droughts I believe to judge nations. Look at verse 29. “And you shall grope at noonday as the blind man gropes in darkness. You shall not prosper your ways. You shall be only oppressed and plundered continually. And no one shall save you.”
What are we talking about here? We’re talking about economic distress. I believe one way God judges nations is through economic trials.
Look at verse 30:
“You shall betroth a wife but another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house, but you will not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not gather its grapes.”
This verse is speaking of a man who went off to war and he’s been killed and now someone else is married to his wife and living in his home. But it could also be applied to the loss of one’s home or property. And part of that economic distress is that sometimes we see the loss of homes through foreclosures, loss of land or property.
Look at verse 38:
“You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in for the locusts shall consume it.”
Again, we’re talking about the lack of productivity or a low yield of the crops.
Verse 43. “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you and you shall come down lower and lower.”
Verse 44: “He shall lend to you but you shall not lend to him. And he shall be the head and you shall be the tail.”
My friends, one of the ways God judges a nation is they are invaded by aliens. And I’m not talking about the ones from outer space. Today in America we have an invasion of illegal aliens and we see what it’s doing to our country and our economy and our laws. We also see through various initiatives and organizations that Muslims are organizing to elect Muslims to local political offices.
These various coalitions of Muslims believe most people don’t pay attention to the local elections and they believe that they can win city council seats. They believe that one of their Islamic candidates can become the mayor or that they can win school board offices. By taking the city council and the seat of the mayor they can influence who is the police chief. They can influence police policy. By winning school board elections they hope to influence curriculum so that it is even more pro-Islamic than it already is today.
The end result could be that a group of Christian men come to a town to speak and hold a biblical Worldview Weekend and a man shows up who’s a Muslim and he doesn’t like what the Christian speakers are saying and he films the Quran for 40 seconds and then he pans the crowd. And then he goes to his car and broadcasts on Facebook live and shows weapons, including two assault style weapons and says, “be afraid, be terrified.” And yet the police know about it and yet they don’t want to do anything. As you know, this is exactly what happen to Shahram Hadian and me in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in April of 2017.
When the Muslims have a certain percentage of the population, they become the head and Americans and their local authorities become the tail. The invaders end up being over us as part of God’s judgement.
If you think it’s bad what happened to Shahram and me in Sioux Falls, we have not seen anything yet in comparison to what will happen when they are successful with their many programs across the country and gain more and more power at the local level and begin to run our police departments, our sheriff departments, our schools, and our town halls. But we have to ask ourselves why is this happening? I believe the answer to that is this is one way God is judging America.
Go with me if you would over to Leviticus 26. Now again these verses are for the nation of Israel, but there’s only so many ways you can fillet a fish. There’s only so many ways you can judge a nation.
Leviticus 26 and verse 16 says: “I will also do this to you. I will even appoint terror over you.”
Folks, do we have terror reigning over us today? Indeed we do. I have talked to young people recently and done a program on how many of them say they suffer with anxiety. They have great anxiety. And I thought, what is it that could be going on in the life of a young person that causes them to have so much anxiety? And yet, this is a common theme among young people today.
I talk to parents of teens and they say tell me of how many of their teens claim to suffer from anxiety. Maybe for some, it’s just a good excuse for not taking any responsibility. However, I interviewed some of them in a coffee shop in our town not too long ago. They were in front of me in line when I was getting coffee with my wife. (We went to this local coffee shop so she can get this perfume coffee she likes. I think it is called Pumpkin spice latte or something like that. It’s horrible. It tastes like perfume.)
[Laughter]
It’s too expensive and it tastes terrible, but she likes it. So we were in one of these places one night on a Friday night and these young people are in front of us in line. I began to ask them, hey, can I ask you a question? I host a radio program and I’m wanting to do a program on what young people today are thinking about the future and I understand that many of you have anxiety. And they confessed that indeed they and many of their peers suffer from anxiety. I asked them, ‘what specifically are you anxious about?’ And they began to talk about how they didn’t feel they could measure up. I think some of that is social media and the fake lives a lot of these kids portray on social media.
One student said they were worried about school and paying for school. The gal behind the counter got involved in the conversation. She was working hard to try to get through school and she was scared she was gonna spend years and years in school only to graduate with lots of debt. They continued to list off all the reasons they have anxiety. One of them said terrorism and specifically mentioned ISIS. And I said, well, that’s the number one reason I had in my mind as to why I thought your generation suffered from this reported anxiety. I asked them what year they were born. I asked them how old they were when 9/11 happened. One told me they were still in a car seat. One student said he was just a few months old.
You see, today’s teenagers and college students have been raised with terror appointed over our nation. That’s all they’ve ever known. They’ve seen the images. They don’t remember them. They were little. But they’ve seen the images of the Twin Towers and the planes flying into them and the plane that went into the Pentagon and the plane that went into the field of Pennsylvania.
They hear about terrorist attack and terrorist attack after terrorist attack and they see the images on television of the terrorism that is not only in America but all over the word as terror has been appointed over us. And so they’re anxious. They have no understanding or context for why this is happening, which makes their anxiety even worse.
I think we owe it to our young people to explain what it is that past generations have done that is causing future generations to now have terror appointed over them. We owe it to them to explain that God is judging our country. He’s appointing terror over us because our nation has rejected God. America has surpassed the truth in unrighteousness. America has invented or plotted evil against the Lord. America has found the tipping point for God’s national judgement.
Leviticus goes on to talk about disease. And we’re now seeing many diseases come into our country that had long since been stamped out.
“I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of the hearts.”
Many diseases today that were once stamped out are back.
Verse 17: “I will set my face against you and you shall be defeated by your enemies.”
I saw a poll recently that that declared that over 40 percent of Americans believe the US is losing the war on Islamic state.
I’m not sure that we can win the battle against terrorism today because I’m not sure we have politicians who know how to win anymore.
I’m not sure if we can win the war against terrorism because if God has appointed it, folks, it's gonna happen. Now that doesn’t mean that we just roll over and give up. We’re to contend. We are to occupy until the Lord returns. We’re to protect our families, our churches, our communities. We’re to do the best we can. But we also must understand why this seems to be happening.
Verse 17. Again, “I will set my face against you, you shall be defeated by your enemies, those who hate you shall reign over you. And you shall flee when no one pursues you.”
Notice those who hate you shall reign over you. Today we see Muslims gaining power. We see the Marxists gaining power. We see the progressives, the fascists gaining power. And they’re going to quickly reign over us. And many of them already are and they wear black robes and they hand down decisions based on lawlessness and we wonder why is this happening. These are the signs and the symptoms of what happens to a nation when God is judging it.
A 2017 article from Breitbart News declared that the president or the leader of Turkey, Erdogan, says Europeans will not walk safely on their streets.
Right after this article came out we saw the terrorist attack there in Great Britain. We also have another report from Jihad Watch, and our friend Robert Spencer. The headline says “You’re the Future of Europe.” Erdogan was urging Muslim Turks in the European Union to have at least five kids so they can take over Europe.
Here’s another article. March 20 of 2016. “Montana Democrats vote against bill banning sharia law, call it ‘repugnant.’”
We already have sharia being put into place in America–whether you know it or not. I would contend that what happened in Sioux Falls is proof that sharia is already being put into place as you have a standard for the Muslim and a standard for the non-Muslim. People are now self-censoring for fear of speaking truth and offending the Muslim, and this is one way Americans willingly submit to sharia.
Can you believe Montana Democrats voted against a bill to ban sharia?
Look at verse 22 of Leviticus 26 that says: “I will also send wild beasts among you which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, make you few in number and your highways shall be desolate.”
This seems to be describing an interruption of commerce or economic distress. Our country now is well over 100 trillion dollars in debt when you figure in the on record and off record debt and the unfunded liabilities. Over 100 trillion dollars. Today the American dollar is worth about 3 cents in purchasing power as it was in 1913–the year the U.S. Federal Reserve was founded.
We have many, many times global GDP derivatives being held by banks around the world–derivatives that total many times global gross domestic product. Derivatives are so complex even the experts can hardly explain them to you. It’s just an instrument that derives its value from something else. And in many cases, it’s junk. We’re just teetering on a massive financial crisis.
Look at verse 31 and 32: “I will lay your cities waste and bring your sanctuaries to desolation and I will not smell the fragrance of your sweet aromas. I will bring the land to desolation and your enemies who dwell in it shall be astonished at it.” This is speaking of destruction of cities.
Now go back with me, if you would, to Nahum. So we’ve seen how God judges nations and we specifically saw in Deuteronomy and Leviticus that God warned Israel of what judgment looks like and He called them to repent through the Old Testament prophets. Yet at some point the warnings stop and the judgment comes.
God used the nation of Assyria to bring judgement on Israel. Then God brought judgment on Assyria as we see in this little book of Nahum.
God turned His attention to judging Assyria for their leaders who plotted evil against God. Remember, ‘wicked counselor’ means literally ‘counselor of Baal, a satanic nature in their leadership.’
Look at Nahum 3:19. Nahum 3:19. The prophet says to them, “your injury, your national injury, has no healing. Your wound is severe. There is no healing for this.”
There’s no solution. God’s decided to judge. You’re gonna be judged.
Just as God used Assyria to judge Israel, I believe God today is using the Marxists and the Muslims to judge America. Not only America but the nations of the world. Yet just as God used the Assyrians to judge Israel, God eventually judged the Assyrians. And I believe eventually just as God is using the Marxists and Muslims to judge America, eventually God will judge the Marxists and the Muslims. You see how this works?
Look in Ezekiel 38 and what do you see? I see a long list of nations that form a coalition to come against Israel and it is a coalition of Marxists and Muslims working together.
I believe this Ezekiel 38 coalition of Marxists and Muslims is already being formed. Consider Russia and Putin. Putin is an old KGB agent and he is building a coalition with the Muslims. The demographics show that a huge chunk of Russia is now made up of Muslims. In fact, in the next few years, 50 percent of the military in Russia will be made up of Muslims.
So we see the Marxist and Muslim coalition is forming. We see those nations listed in Ezekiel 38 such as Turkey and Iran and Syria ever present in their calls for the destruction of Israel.
I believe God will use the Marxists and Muslims to judge not just America, but the world. But eventually God will say, enough is enough, and God will turn around and judge them.
Ezekiel 38 says that God puts a hook in their mouth and he draws these nations out to come against Israel. Why? So that the world will know that He is Lord. The Lord God turns and destroys these enemies of Israel supernaturally and the whole world will know that He is Lord.
The dead enemies of Israel lying within their borders are so deep it takes Israel seven months to bury the dead of their enemies according to Ezekiel 39:12.
So finally, after God has used the Marxists and the Muslims to judge America, and in many respects the whole world, eventually God will turn and judge them. I believe God will declare that enough is enough. God used them to judge and now God is going to judge them.
When God decides to judge a nation there’s nothing people can do to stop that divine wrath of God. However I will show you how Christians can use it to further the gospel.
But first, Jeremiah 15:1 says, “even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, my mind would not be favorable toward this people.” Ezekiel 14:14 says, “Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness,” says the Lord God.
Why do I believe there’s evidence that God’s judging America? Well, we’ve done many programs on this but a quick review for those who may not remember, or you’re new, and I know we have many new people this year. Or you’re watching and as this has been filmed and you’re new. And you say, well, Brannon, what is the evidence God is judging America?
Go with me to Romans 1. We see the clear evidence of the template that God uses to judge a nation. When the people suppress the truth in unrighteousness, God finally gives them over.
This isn’t God causing them to do this. God is not the author of evil. He doesn’t cause them to do this. What God finally does is He just steps back and He stops restraining. And He lets them do what’s already in their heart.
Quickly, the five signs how God judges a nation when he gives it over. Romans 1:22. Chapter 1:22. You could mark that in your Bible. “Professing to be wise they become fools.” This literally means they are vain, useless and futile in their thinking. Do we have a nation of vain, useless and futile people at all levels? A nation of fools.
Romans 1:25 explains how they do not worship God. “They exchange the truth of God for the lie and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forevermore.” This is their worship of nature. Pagan spirituality. The belief that all is God is called ‘Pantheism.’ The belief that God is in all is called ‘Panentheism.’ It's New Age. It's Avatar. It’s the worship of Mother Earth. Gaia earth worship. Which, quite frankly, goes all the way back to the Tower of Babel.
In fact, I believe Revelation 17 is describing Babylon as the mother of harlots. She, Babylon, gave birth to these false world religions in Genesis 10 and 11 and God confused their language and they spread throughout the whole world taking this false religious system with them. And then they will all come back together to their mother where they were birthed there in Babylon, just 58 miles south of Baghdad. I believe that one world religious system will be based on the worship of nature. It will be based on New Age spirituality.
Verse 26 to 27 here in Romans 1 describes the acceptance of homosexuality.
Romans 1:28 to 31 describes a violent and debased culture. Is America a violent and debased culture? I’m shocked at some of the things I see on the news. You can have your opinion on the whole situation with the guy dragged down the aisle of United Airlines as to whether he should have gotten up and gotten off the plane or not. Others say, you know he bought the ticket. It’s his ticket. He wanted to go home. That’s their problem. He had a contract. Others say, well, read the small print. He was asked to get up and leave. He should have gotten up and left. I don’t care about arguing that. I will simply say I don’t find justification for treating someone that way who wasn’t a threat to those officers or the people on that plane at that point. And when I watched, I thought, ‘who would do that to another human being?’ Frankly, those officers should have never been brought on that plane, in my opinion. The free market system should have kicked in and they should have started auctioning that seat off and eventually someone would have said it’s worth my time to get off this plane. And I’m not talking about vouchers. I'm talking about cash. Somebody would have eventually gotten up.
But we don’t solve problems hardly any more in America with the free market. We solve it with the police and we put the police in positions they never should have been brought into. It shocks me how many people call the police over the stupidest things that go on in their neighborhood and things that go on with some of the teenagers and young people.
Some of the young teenagers deserve to have the police called on them sometimes. Other times I’m thinking, this is just the kind of thing that the dads in the neighborhood would have dealt with themselves back in the day. Instead, we drag it into the courts and clog up the courts and waste our tax dollars. We’ve become a violent and debased culture.
Verses 28 to 31 describe that. Verse 32 describes immoral and corrupt leaders who encourage others to practice lawlessness. In other words, verse 32 says they know the righteous judgments of God but they don’t practice them and they encourage others not to practice them.
We must hurry along. I want to answer this question. If God is judging America per Romans 1, how does that line up with Donald Trump being elected? Isn’t God showing favor and blessing America with the election of Donald Trump?
The day after his election I went on the air and I addressed this question and it was transcribed and we turned it into an article. The question is, ‘can God be blessing the church or protecting the church while He also judges the nation?’ They can both be true.
Did God allow Donald Trump to become president for the purpose of mercy or for the purpose of mayhem? I believe the answer is both. God is not schizophrenic and I think God could be using Donald Trump to do several things. One of them could be to slow down globalism because it’s not God’s timing yet. Perhaps God is using Donald Trump to slow things down.
God could be, and you notice I’m saying could be, using Donald Trump to give the church more time to preach the gospel even in the midst of national judgement. And wouldn’t that be just like God to keep the pulpit free and the air waves open to preach the gospel and preach a warning even while God judges the nation?
God could be using Donald Trump to draw out the enemies of America for the purpose of national judgment–just as we see God draws out the enemies of Israel by putting a hook in their mouth and then God destroys them. Why could we not believe that God has allowed the election of Donald Trump so that it will cause the enemies of America to come to life?
Before the election and after the election I said if Donald Trump wins, I believe America will enter one of the most dangerous times in its history–not because Donald Trump has his finger on the nuclear button–but because he will likely not be a ‘paper tiger.’
Trump is not likely to be backed into a corner. He’s likely to draw a red line and then actually go through with it. And when he does, with every force there’s an opposite reaction if you will. And if you think you can go after Iran or Russia or North Korea and they don’t have sleeper cells in the US that they can awaken and begin to attack America, then we are not thinking.
There’s already been an attack on a power substation, as you know, in southern California on April 16, 2013. The precision was so great that the head of the federal Energy Regulatory Commission at the time brought in the Navy Seals to examine it. They looked at the bullet casings that had no fingerprints. They looked at the rock piles that were preset so the individuals would know where to stand to shoot out the right coolant system to bring this transmission substation down in just 19 minutes. They said this had to be Special Forces.
Well, many experts like former CIA officer Peter Pry believes it was Iranian special forces sending a message to America and to Silicon Valley with the taking down of that transmission substation in their area. It was their warning to America and Silicon Valley for developing with Israel the computer virus known as Stuxnet that was put onto thumb drives and sent into the Middle East so it would be carried into the nuclear program in Iran and get into their computers and then speed up their centrifuges and cause them to break apart. Literally if you had been in that room at that moment, you would have been killed. Many experts believe the taking down of the transmission substation was a warning from special forces of Iran in our country.
If you think that Trump can go against Iran and not see something happen or go after North Korea or other nations and not see a reaction, then we don’t fully understand how evil and demonic some of those leaders are.
Maybe God is using Donald Trump to bring out the enemies of America for judgment.
God is not the author of evil or confusion. God simply is stepping back and letting these nations do what is already in their heart.
Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery and years later they are before him and he is a high ranking official and they’re weeping for what they have done as they are finally having revealed to them who he is. And he says to them, “you meant it for evil but God meant it for good.”
Did God cause Joseph’s brothers to throw him into the pit? No. God just simply stepped back and let their jealousy and envy take over and God stopped restraining them and let them do what they wanted to naturally do.
Do you think we’d be amazed if we knew how much God restrains the evil in America from actually overtaking us? You think we’d be amazed at how many times God stops the evil from running over the top of us as believers?
Would we perhaps be amazed if Shahram Hadian and I were able to see what that man really intended to do if God had not providentially intervened in Sioux Falls that night?
God does stop certain things from happening. Yet, God also, at times, just steps back. He’s not the author of evil. He simply lets sinful people carry out what’s already in their heart.
There is no reason that God should be blessing America with the election of Donald Trump because America has not repented of our gross national sins. Trump’s election, as some have said, does not mean that God is blessing America. Again, it simply may be that God is showing mercy to the church so we can preach the gospel in the midst of national judgement.
My wife asked the question, why did God allow that Muslim man to come into our conference and do that in Sioux Falls? I have a few theories. One, perhaps, is that God wants us to use the tragedy to warn the church of what is coming and to call them to preparation.
God has entrusted to us a platform that allows us with our email list and our radio show and our TV show and different outlets and friends that we have in conservative media to warn many people. God knows that we would have the ability to tell this story. And it has been told. Maybe it was God being merciful to the church to warn the church of what’s coming by allowing what happened to us in Sioux Falls to occur.
Perhaps God was giving us the chance to warn the unbeliever as to why He’s allowing our national enemies to invade us, to terrorize us, and even to rule over us.
Young people–they’re stressed and have anxiety over terror–but maybe this is the opportunity to say, ‘can I tell you why I believe God is allowing terror?’ We’ve rejected the moral law. Explain to them the moral law that Romans 1, 2 and 3 says is on every heart, every mind and every conscience and thus they are without excuse.
‘Con’ means ‘with’ and ‘science’ means ‘knowledge.’ Every person’s conscience bears witness that they violated the moral law. If you have told a lie, you’re a liar. If you look at someone with lust that is equal to adultery. If you have hatred toward someone that is equal to murder. The moral law reveals we have all transgressed the moral law and God judges nations. However, national judgement is nothing compared to individual, eternal judgement.
Perhaps God is reminding us to invest our lives in what is eternal, for we have no guarantee of tomorrow. Indeed, it was sobering to us to realize that if God had perhaps not supernaturally intervened and stopped the events in Sioux Falls from going differently, perhaps we wouldn’t be here. Are we investing every day for the sake of eternity? Perhaps God is preparing some of us to be martyrs for Him for the furtherance of the gospel.
I believe this could be the finest hour for the church. Who but Christians would protect the moderate Muslim? I don’t believe there is a moderate Islam, but I believe there are moderate Muslims. ISIS is killing moderate Muslims around the world because they don’t practice the Quran and Hadith to the letter of the law. ISIS is actually practicing Islam. Moderate Muslims who will not fund jihad or be involved in jihad are, by the very definition, hypocrites and they are to be killed along with the infidels according to Islamic law.
Perhaps when we start seeing Muslims being killed in America as we are in other parts of the world, maybe it’ll be the Christians who step up and say ‘that’s wrong.’ Maybe it’ll be the moderate Muslim who comes to you or to your home for shelter or protection. Maybe it’s the church that will speak up and say in a community that what these Muslims are doing to the moderate Muslims is not just. And won’t the moderate Muslim be shocked when the Christians are the ones coming to their aid because we understand they are created in the image of God, and just like Shahram, a former Muslim now Christian pastor, we want them to come to Christ?
So perhaps God is using the Christian to protect the moderate Muslim. Maybe God will use the Christians of America to protect the homosexuals as we see ISIS throwing homosexuals off buildings. Would it not be a wonderful testimony when the church says, I don’t agree with what you’re doing and your lifestyle–it violates the word of God. There are heterosexual sins that also violate the word of God. What if it were Christians who stepped forward to protect homosexuals from being killed by Sharia Muslims? What an opportunity to share the gospel as the source of our worldview and values and conduct!
Could it be that even some of our enemies will be shocked when we come to their protection and it is used as a platform for the gospel?
There’s a wonderful quote by Albert Einstein in my book Grave Influence. He said:
[Quote] Being a lover of freedom, when the Nazi revolution came, I looked to the universities to defend it–knowing that they had always boasted of their devotion to the cause of truth. But no, the universities were immediately silenced. Then I looked to the great editors of the newspapers whose flaming editorials in the days gone by had proclaimed their love of freedom. But they, like the universities, were silenced in a few short weeks. Only the church stood squarely across the path of Hitler’s campaign for suppressing truth. I never had any special interests in the church before. But now I feel a great affection and admiration for it because the church alone had the courage and the resistance to stand for intellectual and moral freedom. I am forced to confess that what I once despised, I now praise unreservedly. [End Quote]
Perhaps even the enemies of the church will say that about us in the future.
Peter Marshall, the chaplain for the US Senate, said many years ago, “it is better to fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed than to succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail.”
This can be the greatest hour for the church. And while the world says the church is losing–and while it looks like we are losing,–the church will not lose. The gates of hell will not prevail.
Dr. Lutzer put it this way. “Better to fail within the church than to be successful outside of it. God wins even when the church appears to lose.”
My friends, I believe we are seeing divine national judgment. I believe we are seeing the rise of the Marxists and the Muslims. I believe indeed we are seeing mayhem. And I believe we’re also seeing mercy–mercy through the election of maybe even Donald Trump to buy us some time because we know what Hillary Clinton said she wanted to do to so many of our religious liberties. But aside from the Marxists and the Muslims and the mayhem and the mercy we’ve talked about, I also believe that God is preparing some of us, even in this room, to be martyrs.
It’s hard to believe that we’re having this conversation in 2017 in America. As an elementary student, second grade, third grade, raised outside of Washington, DC for several years, I remember my parents turning on the television one night when there, in northern Virginia, was the documentary by Francis Schaeffer. I can’t remember the name of the broadcast, but it was about what was happening to America. Francis Schaeffer talked about abortion being used to kill millions and millions of unborn children. He talked about active euthanasia. I thought, wow, he’s saying that can come to America in my lifetime.
And today, we see active euthanasia. It’s here folks. It’s being done. We just don’t hear about it.
When I was growing up in the 1970s, men would come to our church who were smuggling Bibles behind the Iron Curtain and they would talk about the Christians who were being imprisoned for preaching truth and being harassed by the government. And then we heard the testimony of Richard Wurmbrand when he was released in 1966 from a 14 year stint in a communist Romanian prison. He said, ‘look out America, it's coming to you and it’ll be also at the hand of religious leftists.’
It’s hard to believe these things have now come that I heard about when I was in early elementary school. And now we are talking about the fact that some of us in this room may find ourselves martyrs. We may find ourselves murdered simply because we are Christians. But martyrdom is the calling of Christians. Yes, even we know that Paul and Matthew were beheaded. Barnabas was burned. Mark was dragged to death. James the less was clubbed to death. Peter, Philip and Andrew were crucified. Thomas was speared. Luke was hung by the neck until dead. And Stephen was stoned.
2 Timothy 3:12 says, “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will have your best life now.” No, it says, “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.”
2 Corinthians 4:8-9 says, “we’re hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed. We’re perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed.”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 says, “therefore we do not lose heart even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction, which is, but for a moment, working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we do not look at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary. But the things which are not seen are eternal.”
Philippians 1:12 Paul says, “I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel.”
In Philippians 1:20-21 Paul declares: “according to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
In Romans 8:18 Paul gives us hope when he writes: “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to compare with the glory that shall be revealed in us.”
Yes, I believe we’re seeing the rise of the Marxists and the Muslims and I believe this is bringing mayhem—it’s bringing judgment. God is judging America. But at the same time I believe God is showing great mercy to the church. He loves the church. But I also believe God is preparing even some of us now to be martyrs. May He give us the grace as we know He will if that is our destiny.
Our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank You for Your Word–that we have that great promise of hope–of life with You eternal. We look at what’s happening in the world and we’re concerned, but we are not crushed–we’re not destroyed. We understand in Whom we trust, and that our soul is kept by You. That yes, no one can pluck us from Your hand.
Lord, we thank You for those who are here who have gathered to listen and to learn and to fellowship because they want to be used by You in this most critical hour of our nation. Thank You that they desire to understand what it is You’re doing, so we might explain it to others and bring the context and reason and logic, so we might use that to explain, no, the world is not spinning out of control. In fact, many of the things that are happening God has ordained that they would happen and here’s why they’re happening. Yes, there is evil in the world. God is not the author of evil. But He does give man a free will to sin all day long. But He also at times restrains them. Other times He steps back and He lets them do what they will to bring judgment. And may we use this national judgment as a pulpit for preaching truth of the gospel.
We give You all the honor and glory. It’s in Your holy name we pray, Jesus Christ, Amen.
