Just days after a distinctively special gathering of God’s people, earnestly expressing repentance and intercession for this generation, I was invited to watch something that I absolutely must share with you. It sounded like nothing I ever heard before. And that’s because our current context is a time like none of us have ever experience before. But, even more, it’s because witnessing the broken, heart-felt contrition of a large number of fellow believers from all over the world in a single public gathering is truly unique.
Hundreds of people gathered for this Day of Repentance in D.C. on Jan 31st and many more watched online. According to co-leaders Jim Garlow and Tony Perkins, “God showed up.”
If you’d like to watch a replay of the National Gathering of Prayer and Repentance, you can do so here: https://ngpr.org/.
Today, I pray the Lord will help me share with you at least a taste of this exceptional prayer time. I’ll say right from the start, that if you have even a single hour in this coming week to give yourself to praying with others to sincerely call out to God for help in our national time of need, you WILL be profoundly rewarded with renewed hope, and invigorated to invite others to a more intimate time with your God and Savior, Jesus, our Messiah and LORD.
Lincoln’s 1863 Prayer & Fasting Proclamation
Do you remember ever reading or hearing President Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation? Though it’s over 160 years in our past, How well does it apply to our nation today? Hear an excerpt of the text of Lincoln’s Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day, in March of 1863:
“We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”
Every one of us who recognizes the desperate and seemingly hopeless condition of our world and nation in our time, can be tempted to fear, to extreme grief, and even cowardice and capitulation to the enemy.
Pastor Jim Garlow spoke some of the sobering realities of our time of global crisis.
Rabbi Jonathan Cahn speaking at 2024 D.C. Prayer & Repentance gathering
Rabbi author of the book, The Return of the Gods, Jonathan Cahn, was introduced by Pastor Jim Garlow to give a brief teaching to set the tone of the five-hour meeting. If you haven’t yet read that book, I think you’ll want to get a copy as soon as you possibly can.
Tony Perkins praying for congressmen 2024 Repentance gathering
After the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, reminded us of the prayer of Israel’s King Solomon for wisdom in the face of his challenging time, a slate of several dozen members of our nation’s civic leadership, particularly our congress, without formal introduction, were given time to give their sincere prayers of repentance and need. It’s fascinating to listen to the sincerity and brokenness of these men and women.
After that, time was given to several different types of group leaders. First were pastors who have stood boldly up to tyrannical persecution. You might recognize some of them for the courage they’ve shown to the world in recent times of unlawful government suppression, like Canada’s pastor Artur Pawlowski.
Many of those who prayed at this special prayer meeting that was hosted by the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., have suffered and experienced God’s miraculous deliverance from seemingly hopeless situations. A whole string of young people in various parts of society were also given time to pray on behalf of their generation.
Significant time was given to let representatives from many of the countries of the world pray on behalf of their nations. This was precious to me, just knowing some of the difficult situations that the people of those lands are enduring. It’s not just the US that has been enduring painful fruit of evil and tyrannical oppression.
When you take the time to actually sit down, listen and personally join in with the prayers of your brothers and sisters in Christ – even for a recorded, Spirit-anointed prayer meeting – it’s indisputably amazing to sense the presence of God, and be stirred in your innermost being with the reality that He is moving on people all over the world to call out to God for His mercy and intervention for His deliverance and salvation.
After listening and joining these many fellow believers in prayer, in the very heart of Washington D.C., I’m sure you will sense, as I did, that God IS not only stirring His contrite servants to voice their dependency on Him, but He’s also raising up a generation of courageous watchmen and warriors to stand for righteousness and expose the works of darkness. And that’s just the kind of providential intervention that will confound the works of the devil and all his minions. He’s raising up Daniels to influence rulers. He’s positioning Esthers to intervene and in the complex workings of governments. He’s preparing ordinary people to use their God-given gifts and positions of influence to change the battleground for a different outcome than our adversaries have planned.
There’s a tremendous difference between a generation of apostasy and a generation of humble ‘Image-Barrers’ of their Creator who cry out for God’s deliverance… even if it’s just a remnant.
As evil and dark as the horrible things being done by perpetrators of the enemy in our world ARE, yet God is using his humble children to stand against the wicked deceivers. That’s why we must not faint or give up in distressing times. This prayer and repentance gathering is a beacon of hope for us to share with others. Too many people that you and I know, don’t even know that such a meeting even happened. And they won’t ever know about it until you tell them.
Though we see all around us, what seems like an overwhelming ocean of destructive evil and godlessness, ours is unlike the time when God’s prophet Ezekiel had to prophecy a message of complete judgment and destruction upon Jerusalem. He said:
“And I searched for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found no one. Thus, I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; their way I have brought upon their heads,” declares the Lord God. (Ezekiel 22:30-31).
God was looking for intercessors then but found none.
He’s looking for intercessors now, and many are rising up in humble repentance. As they are hearing like what Isaiah heard,
“Who shall I send and who will go for us?” Isaiah replied, “Here am I, send me!” (Isaiah 6:8).
There is a reason for the big difference between then (in the time of ancient Israel) and now. By His resurrection, Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18) and He has given to us His awesome authority over all the power of the enemy. He is still building His assembly, His family, His Ekklesia… and as they receive His authority and use it against the illegitimate powers raised up against the knowledge of God (2 Corinthians 10:5), they will prevail over the gates of Hell and over all the deceptions of the evil rulers of this age.
The man unquestionably regarded as the wisest in history, King Solomon, wrote: “To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven…”
That means even a time for war… and our time for war has arrived.
When we read Solomon’s famous statement about the seasons of life in Ecclesiastes (chapter 2), we’re faced with the disturbing reality that life is a continuing roller coaster of ups and downs. In light of God’s word, we’ve got to draw our security and peace from the sheltering rest of our confidence in God through all of those ups and downs. As Solomon wrote, there’s…
2 A time to be born, And a time to die;
A time to plant, And a time to pluck what is planted;
3 A time to kill, And a time to heal;
A time to break down, And a time to build up;
4 A time to weep, And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, And a time to dance;
5 A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;
6 A time to gain, And a time to lose;
A time to keep, And a time to throw away;
7 A time to tear, And a time to sew;
He ends with…
A time to keep silence, And a time to speak;
8 A time to love, And a time to hate;
A time of war, And a time of peace.
How would citizens of a country know that their country is in a war?
One of the oldest Chinese strategies of the art of war is the ultimate strategy. It’s simple. Get your enemy to think that he’s not the target of war, even when you’re maneuvering his collapse.
Bible believing Christians generally recognize the armor of the believer in the spiritual battle in Ephesians six. They’re familiar with the allusion to the weapons of our warfare in 2nd Corinthians 10. But how are they conditioned to think about being on their guard against actual physical enemies that are no doubt inspired by demonic forces?
2nd Timothy 2:4 tells us plainly, “No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, (so) that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” This should alert us to the need to be prepared for war as Christ’s ambassadors and warriors when war comes.
The Bible isn’t really intended to be a manual for the art of war. But, observing God’s providentially guided history of His people as recorded in the Bible can teach us valuable lessons for the chaotic times we’re in now.
So, what would be some evidences in our society that we’re under siege in extreme warfare? Consider a few observations.
Clues to a Secret War
Large segments of the population are being censored from participating in public debate.
Wholesale mental conditioning has marginalized peaceful and thoughtful members of society.
Normally accepted standards of freedom are suspended in the ruse of the “common good.”
People are being called on to monitor their neighbors for normal trustworthy behaviors.
Personal health decisions are being denied from otherwise sensible people.
Fear is tactically observed as a wide-scale intimidation of standard channels of information.
Supply chains are compromised by incentivizing workers to stay home from employment.
Shortages of basic needs are prevalent even when there is no shortage of raw supplies.
Long-term public mobility is limited by various means for highly debatablebeliefs about factors that can actually be tested intelligently to reveal there is actually no reason for such restraint.
Freedoms are demanded to be sacrificed in the name of highly debatable expert opinion.
50+ years ago, The Lord used evangelist Mario to have a profound impact on my tranquil life. With his input and also many others at that time, God began opening the eyes of my heart so powerfully that I’ve never been the same since. Thankfully, and amazingly, God is still giving him energy and anointing to speak into the lives of many whom God is raising up to be spiritual warriors in our troubled times. He recently posted a challenging message that is so timely, I thought you would appreciate hearing about it. He titled his short post: “You are now a wartime pastor.” It was featured on the Intercessors For America (IFA) daily national prayer letter… so it must be really important and worth sharing with you today. You need to share this, but with your pastor, only if you discern that he is open to receive it. Some of this has (by now) already become reality. Some of it is yet possible.
September 30, 2021 | From Mario Murillo Ministries (9/14/21)
Lord, help us to fully engage and prevail against the gates of hell with the spiritual weapons you have given us, confident of Your victory. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.
You believe you have a choice. But reality and circumstances have made the choice. You can try to stay out of the war, but you will be labeled a traitor. I am not calling you a traitor–but the situation will. Things are deteriorating fast. The battle lines are drawn so clearly. Your silence will label you a turncoat.
There is a powerful pull to remain a peacetime pastor. Nostalgia and the yearning for simpler times are strong temptations. But there is no going back. Like it or not, reject it or not, you are now a wartime pastor.
“So, what should a wartime pastor be doing right now?
One: A wartime pastor will face the fact that our nation is being led by evildoers. The same villains who led the disastrous exit from Afghanistan are in control of the pandemic. [they are a relatively small group… you’ve heard them labeled as “elites” or “elitists”] They do not care about people’s lives. They do not care that they are despised by most of America. They are dedicated to their Marxist agenda and are bent on destroying this nation. They are reckless and depraved. It is only after a pastor realizes that those who are in power now are totally evil, that they [those pastors] will make the right choices for the good of their own people.
“Two: A wartime pastor will educate their congregation as to the evils of Critical Race Theory, transgenderism, and abortion. They will do it early, emphatically, and will not back down. They know that it is better to cut your losses now than to allow a congregation to fester in cultural compromise. Proverbs 28:23 says, “He who rebukes a man will find more favor afterward than he who flatters with the tongue.”
“Three: A wartime pastor will organize his people, immediately. They will get EVERYONE down to the school board meeting, the county commission meeting, and the city council meeting. Because this is war, you will get your people to start working together. Pastor, they are looking to you and you must lead them! [true shepherds will recognize and deal with all the dangers that are threatening to assault his sheep – not just the job of feeding them in the pasture or stalls]
“Four: A wartime pastor will deal with the hard questions—the unavoidable questions.
“What will you do when your unvaccinated members won’t be able to be treated at the hospitals? They won’t even be let in the front door. It is already happening.
“The Church will have to take care of them. Are you ready for that?
Some of your people are going to be fired from their jobs. They may have trouble finding any gainful employment. They’ll need help. A kind of help you haven’t ever dealt with before. And there could be a lot of them. Are you preparing to take care of them?
“Five: A wartime pastor realizes that they will soon be coming after your money. They failed to keep the church locked down. The church came roaring back. Now they will go after your money. Government bureaucrats are already planning to turn the IRS into a weapon against freedom of religion.
“Lastly, a wartime pastor realizes that the church is built on the Rock and the gates of hell will not prevail against it! [Jesus said, in Matthew 16:18, “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock (your confession that I am the Christ), I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”]
The wartime pastor is fighting with the weapons of God. They’re confident of victory because of the Cross, the Resurrection and the Holy Spirit.
“However, a peacetime pastor has no part in that promise. The promise to prevail against the gates of hell is the exclusive domain of a pastor who is fully engaged in war―and not the preacher who either has their head in the sand, or is running away from it. [he’s a warrior willing to defend the defenseless and respond to the call of Psalm 94:16 to stand against evil-doers and workers of wickedness].”
What is the Lord speaking to you through this message? tell someone with ears to hear what you’ve learned.
There’s a pivotal Bible verse about understanding the times. It’s the description of the descendant of Jacob’s son Issachar in the days when David gathered his mighty men of Israel at Ziklag in forced defiance of king Saul. In times of war, do you think God’s people need warriors with strategic insight to know the right moves to make?
1Ch 12:32 “of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do… (their chiefs were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their command);
When it comes to understanding the times, we’re reminded of God’s wise gifts to men like Daniel and his friends. Note…
Dan 1:20 “And in all matters of wisdom and understanding about which the king examined them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers who were in all his realm.
Also note…
Dan 2:21 “And He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and raises up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.
Eph 5:17“Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”
So, when will we understand what the will of the Lord is?
Start with Romans 12:2. What is the goal?
“That you may prove what the will of God is, that which is acceptable, and good, and perfect.”
And how does that happen? How about starting with the first part of the verse, when we obey the command: “do not be conformed to this world?”
And what’s the first part of that obedience?
“But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
The challenge in finding the perfect will of God begins in our minds. And in a world filled with propaganda and generations of cultural conditioning, how do we get to the objective of a renewed mind… a refreshed mind… a clean and pure mind that is receptive to the wisdom and discernment of Almighty God?
Go back to Proverbs 2. In verse 5 we’re told when we “will discern the fear of the LORD, and discover the knowledge of God.” The instructions for “when” are simply laid out for us in detail, starting in the first verse.
“My son, if you will receive my sayings, and treasure my commandments within you, make your ear attentive to wisdom, incline your heart to understanding…” It’s a process, isn’t it? We must devote our listening to sources of proven wisdom… not poisoned wells of deceptively ‘sweetened’ water that temporarily refreshes but gradually weakens our God-given common sense. Go on.
Verse 3 says, “If you cry for discernment, lift your voice for understanding; if you seek her (God’s wisdom) as (you would for) silver (your paycheck), and search for her as for hidden treasures….”
Did you get that? Does that sound like a desperate pursuit of something? And yes, when you get right down to it, if we are desperate, we WILL get emotionally involved in the pursuit of God’s will, His truth, His deliverance, His insight, His discernment, … and His answers for the puzzling challenges we face.
Now read the rest of Proverbs 2:6-22.
6 For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;
7 He stores up sound wisdom for the upright; He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;
8 He guards the paths of justice, And preserves the way of His saints.
9 Then you will understand righteousness and justice, Equity and every good path.
… When?
10 When wisdom enters your heart, And knowledge is pleasant to your soul,
11 Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you,
12 To deliver you from the way of evil, From the man who speaks perverse things,
13 From those who leave the paths of uprightness To walk in the ways of darkness;
14 (to leave) Who rejoice in doing evil, And delight in the perversity of the wicked;
15 Whose ways are crooked, And who are devious in their paths;
Now stop right there. Did you hear some specific promises that clearly relate to some of the distortions, deceptions, confusions and controversies that swirl around us today?
God’s wisdom provides favor for those who “walk uprightly.” They do what is right. They stand against what is wrong. They stubbornly refuse to go with the flow, submitting to corrupted peer pressure (verse 7). His promise of protection and preservation is for those who take the courage to do justly (verse 8).
I’m reminded of a wonderful verse from Micah 6:8 that I’ve treasured as an axiom of life.
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you… but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Write that down. Put it on a card and stick it to the mirror so you’ll see it when you get up in the morning. That’s the kind of diligence Proverbs 2 is talking about.
So, when will you… “understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path?” (verse 9).
Verse 10 tells us, “When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul…” your mind and emotions. Does that tell you something about our need to have purity and integrity in our soul – our mind – our desires?
And what’s the result? Verse 11 tells us plainly: “Discretion will preserve you; Understanding will keep you,” Isn’t that the perfect peace-giving solution to our primary problem? We want to be preserved by making discreet decisions. We want the safety of good understanding… everybody does… but not everybody is willing to pay the price, are they? The question is, are you willing to pay that price?
If you are, then God’s promise is to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things. If there ever was a time when evil and perverted communication was rampant in the paths of everyday life, it’s now. And we’re not just talking about basic moral daily behavior like lying, cheating and stealing. We’re talking about people all around us who are constantly listening to corrupted influencers. They’ve given themselves to an agenda that is literally bent on destroying humanity. They are determined to shame otherwise good people with the pressure to conform. And that should be a red flag to anyone who’s thinking.
Compliance with absurdity is not virtuous.
When you take the time to “test all things” you discover that the widely promoted narrative is rooted in the satanic objective to destroy those for whom our Savior gave His perfect life to redeem. That’s the personal warfare to which every one of us must diligently submit ourselves. Our commander in chief is up all night so we can greet Him to receive our assignment every morning.
If you’re observant you connect the dots and see the big picture of how this war has been orchestrated.
America can’t have an honest election ever again unless a large segment of honest voters who cherish American values resolve to not just vote, but influence other honest voters to vote also. Our focus can’t just be to “Make America Great Again.” Restoring Godly righteousness and publicly recognizing God’s sovereign justice must be paramount.
Potential crisis IS ahead for all of US in the near term: financial collapse; food and supply shortages; energy crisis; foreign policy disasters that could let China take advantage over all countries;
Citizens must assume risk and become involved wherever they have opportunities and doors open to influence local policy-making affairs. Maximizing potential requires acceptance of calculated risks. People in their mid-50s and up must get involved, not retire, because we’ve allowed the young generation to be captured by enemy influences.
You don’t get censored in a democracy … Censorship happens in fascist regimes.
The psy-op campaign is against citizens who seek truth. That’s why you and I are needed to alert others to the fact that we’re all targets of a disinformation war. The enemy’s goal is the elimination of righteousness and truth from the whole earth!
1st Peter 5:8 says “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
We must put on the whole armor of God as never before – including God’s spirit of discernment to understand the times and what the people of God around us should do.
If you’ve not yet seen my friend Brian’s HealthImpactNews.com, you’ll be well-informed when you see a recent post that asked:
Now that we realize that we’re living through the Greatest Scam in history…
We see that it’s morphed into the biggest cover-up ever, as vaxx-injured people who’ve taken the experimental gene therapy shots are filling hospitals, while the government and the media lie to the American public and blame it on the unvaccinated.
There’s no way to hide the fact. The media continues to outright lie about it.
The CDC public data base called VAERS is well-known to be GROSSLY under-reported. They publicly admit over 37,000 recorded deaths following COVID-19 shots. Hundreds more are added weekly. That’s more than four-times ALL the deaths from all other FDA approved vaccines over the last 30+ years… [before the COVID shots were issued emergency use authorization in December of 2020] (Source). There are also 69,000+ permanent disabilities. Some people are waking up to realize the whole COVID narrative has been a scam… they see they’ve been lied to about the alleged safety and effectiveness of the COVID injections. But most people are still in the dark. The agenda at play, and how the politicians are puppets, carrying out the Globalists’ agenda isn’t even on their radar… if they even knew they had a radar to check.
A Eugenics Campaign?
This is a eugenics campaign to setup their New World Order and significantly reduce the world’s population. It’s no conspiracy theory anymore. They’ve openly published this agenda for anyone with eyes to see and ears to hear. We’re living in the presence of EVIL, and if you don’t wake up and recognize it soon, it’ll destroy you and your family.
The entire COVID Global Plandemic was simulated weeks before it ever started. Similar events that have yet to happen have also been recently simulated. See:
You probably already know that none of the experimental COVID-19 shots has any long-term safety studies! That includes the one that was “approved” by the FDA. The control groups that were involved in the original trials, have intentionally been lost. The media actually reported it in February 2021. Here is NPR reporting on it.
So, those of us that are still unvaccinated ARE THE CONTROL GROUP now by default! And you can be sure that Big Pharma wants to get rid of us as much as possible to keep their multi-billion-dollar artificial plague profitable.
NOW is the time to prepare and start expecting these things to happen.
Learn how to take care of yourself without the Healthcare system. At the very least, start supplementing with Vitamin D. Increase your dosage in winter months or when confined indoors [note: at least 5,000 IU daily before bed].
Whatever supplements or medications you depend on today, stock up now.
When people realize that their society is at war, the most important thing they must do is to take care of their children! Government schools are the most dangerous place they can be. You can’t be certain that they will not vaccinate them – with or without parents’ approval. Unvaccinated parents are already seen as domestic terrorists in many places. They could just take your children away from you, as they have been doing through medical kidnapping for decades now, but it could be at a much higher rate with the unvaccinated.
The evidence is clear. The shot will sterilize many surviving children or lead to offspring that are severely handicapped by auto-immune diseases.
Like we saw in 2020, public panic, and breaks in the supply chain can be sparked overnight. So, stock up now with what you need before panics start.
In this war, we’re all learning that bizarre things can happen. “False flag” events could be blamed on the unvaccinated.
Stay vigilant. Protect your children. Seek the wisdom of God in these very dark days
If you are being blessed in some way by the insights we have provided, please tell others to listen at ReclaimYourLegacy.com. You can even link to your favorite podcast platform there for listening at your convenience. And if our Lord directs you to share the burdens of costs to deliver these messages to you, I want you to know that your generous support is deeply appreciated andneeded.
Remember that “our times are in His hands.” Don’t ever stop abiding in the peace that Jesus promised the Comforter would always be with you to provide.
What happens when 3 billion voluntarily poisoned people suddenly have a yet-undiagnosed heart disease called myocarditis?
Ephesians chapter 5 exhorts us to: “Pay careful attention, then, to how you live — not as unwise people but as wise — making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So don’t be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. (Eph 5:15-17).
Most of society who are still stuck in the make-believe horror story of main-stream media have not seen the results of a June 2022 preliminary survey sponsored by Steve Kirsch, Executive Director of Vaccine Safety Research Foundation (www.vacsafety.org). See the details in the notes for today’s show at ReclaimYourLegacy.com.
The projections from this survey’s results are so disturbing that nobody in the corporate media will touch it.
Have you wondered recently… how much longer the insanity of absurdity can continue in our generation? What used to be understood as ‘fantasyland’ and ‘make-believe,’ has so badly dissolved many people’s ability to think rationally, that they lack the capacity to figure out that boys can never be girls and spider-man is just imaginary.
The unfortunate consequence is that we have had a large segment of society that for years has actually supposed that stores wouldn’t sell us poisons in our foods, and that corrupt politicians and unelected bureaucrats know what’s best for our well-being.
Like the separatist Pilgrims who fled religious persecution in their homelands to courageously face an untamed wilderness 400 years ago right now, we are facing a challenge of giant proportions. Can we dare to proclaim, “Thank you Almighty God for your abundant mercy and your grace to lead us on?”
With spiritual eyes, it is clear that the outrageous corruption of politicians is demonically inspired. So, how are the righteous to respond? The widespread deception of the news media is demonically inspired. The open dishonesty that has prevailed in this country’s indoctrination institutions that we call public education is demonically inspired. All this, now publicly obvious distortion of reality is crystal-clear evidence of a long-term war between Truth and lies. It can be a discouraging discovery of the spiraling conflict of good and evil – destroying liberty and increasing smothering captivity. It’s the very confrontation of devilish attacks against the kingdom of God, the King of all kings.
November every year in America is historically a time of remembrance and Thanksgiving. What other culture in the world has a tradition like that?
To better appreciate the roots of this special season for us as a people, let’s unravel the chain of events that helps us understand the implications of what led to the divinely innovative beginning of a whole new national identity.
Nobody I know does that better than my friend Bill Federer – Listen as he describes parallels between the treacherous 16th century time of the Pilgrims and our time 400 years later.
Kings typically killed some of their own country’s population that they didn’t like
The St Bartholemew’s Day Massacre described.
John Calvin wrestled with Romans 13. What do you do when the authorities have a mandate to kill your wife and kids?
Eph 6 .. children obey your parents… is he required to obey an ungodly parent’s demand to do something against God’s expressed will.
Martin Luther King comments on unjust laws… obey government as long as it lines up with God’s word.
If you remove a king… chaos results. Another king comes in to change things… followed by more chaos. how do you remove a king to restore order without another chaos?
The Pilgrims, following Bible concepts, began a “Covenant” form of government, where everyone follows a covenant with God and with each other. Everyone is taught the “law.” What motivates them is that they are personally accountable to God. Second, everyone is in a covenant with each other and with God.
05:35 The Pilgrims looked to ancient Israel as their model – particularly the first 400 years after Israel’s exodus from Egypt, before King Saul.
After Joshua’s time, there was no king in Israel for 400 years.
The kings of England adopted the ‘divine right of kings’ paradigm from the Biblical time of kings Saul and David and afterward.
06:35 The Calvinist puritans of New England looked to the pre-King Saul Bible period.
Kings of England were a theocracy. The king was head of the church. From 1535 onward people were required to take the “oath of supremacy” which forced all English subjects to obey the King in all matters, even of a religious or spiritual nature.
King James had several attempts on his life because of the discontent fomented by royal heavy-handedness.
Guy Faux assassination attempt.
King James was paranoid of dissenting groups whom he feared might assassinate him. This included the Pilgrims.
America’s founders came to get away from a “theocracy.”
09:36 Book of Common Prayer… The government raided those who prayed without this book being used to pray. Dissenters were officially condemned as ‘heretics’ and branded without fair trial because they dared to defy the king’s regulations of even their thoughts and prayers.
10:54 Conventical Act became The Riot Act in England because the government feared the “covenanters” could be planning a riot in their secret meetings as Christians wanting to gather in their homes to worship God.
John Bunyan was subjected to arrest and imprisonment for 12 years because of his boldness to meet privately in his home church.
Jesus clearly made following his teaching completely voluntary
Covenant churches were made of those who had no bishops and no requirement to bow to government authorized priests. They decided to not meet in church buildings but in the open fields.
17:18 The idea of having to believe the way the government believes prompted one group to buy passage from England to the Netherlands (the Pilgrims).
Federal is Latin for ‘covenant.’
The constitution is a way to prevent a president from ruling through mandates.
Thanks to Bill Federer, we can better see the powerful influence that rulers have over an oppressed people.
Do you think Jeremiah’s prophetic words speak to our generation today?
“Thus says the LORD, ‘Stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; and you shall find rest for our souls…’” Jeremiah 6:16
“Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts” Zech. 8:16
“Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason toward my country.” Patrick Henry
If liberty has any genuine meaning in our age of deception, it certainly carries the right to tell people the truth – even when they have been conditioned by their trusted teachers to think they do not want to hear it.
“The LORDis my helper; I will notfear; What can mando to me?” Heb 13:6
Never before in our lifetimes have we been so obviously confronted by what appears to be such a threat of ultimate foreboding loss of freedom, that even the most optimistic Pollyanna must concede that we are all at a crossroads of choice. Will we choose to bow to God or bow to men who deny their Creator? Which choice do you take right now for yourself?
Have you ever missed a turn on your road to somewhere and then had to make a mid-course correction?
Sometimes when you go too far down the wrong road, you can never completely retrace your path. You might even get blown off course through no fault of your own. Then you have to find a completely new course to your desired destination. We might not have felt particularly like giving thanks for those detours at the time we went through them. Maybe today we’ll discover some thoughts to help us reconsider – thanksgiving for mid-course correction on the master’s path for our life – the providence of God.
Proverbs 16:9 says “The mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” This is called the Providence of God. God guides his children and God provides for their way. It’s one of the key characteristics that all of our nation’s founding men and women knew about their Creator and Savior.
As the battle for the outcome of the most revolutionary election in American history concludes, the sharply divided ideologies couldn’t be more obvious. Will secular ideals increase or will Biblical principles be restored?
The last day of October is Reformation Day, obscured in our misguided culture by ‘Halloween.’ But election day is just a few days later. So, I’ve prayed for God’s timely insight on the wisdom He would have me share with you today. I trust you’ll be encouraged and refreshed by what you hear.
