Last Days Depend on the Holy Spirit Alone!

2 Timothy 3:1-5
"3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult (ragingly insane) times will come. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."

When we realize the word "difficult" translated from the original language should have been more correctly translated as "ragingly insane", we get an idea of how bad it will get. Things are growing worse and worse day by day.

This is a picture of the church because God says, "they have a form of religion but deny God in their practice. Every time we bring up the Bible to clear up error and we are met with rage about it, even rejected, ignored and mocked, we are seeing the rejection of Christ Himself. He is the very essence of His own Word.

Many paid pastors have been taught wrong things in those man-made schools that depend on their own interpretations rather than the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 2:13-15 "…13 And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment.…"

Those educated in man-made institutions where men thought they could teach better than the Holy Spirit Who lives in every believer, attempt to convince their parishioners they could not possibly understand the Word of God without them.

The truth is that no manner of human education can understand the things of God or His Word without the Holy Spirit. Many men in the pulpits today are not born again. They operate on techniques and rules made by men to manipulate the congregations while using intimidation to only listen to them. Most pulpit people are not able to receive correction or rebuke when it is necessary. And, since the congregation depends on the pulpit person to be their guide instead of the Holy Spirit, the congregation will side with the pulpit person against the truth-teller who loves the Lord more than life itself.

Matthew 15:7-9 "…7 You hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you: 8‘ These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. 9 They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ ”…"

This is the reason many church attendees had a hard time during the virus problem. They didn't know how to worship, study the Word or seek Christ on their own without the guidance of the man in the pulpit. They were lost and co-dependent with that pastor who manipulated them to believe he was above them.

Matthew 6:24
24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth."
The passage in Matthew is referring to placing a high value on money above the value of God. However, it refers to anything we hold up as above God. If we cannot seek God on our own while depending on another person to be our spiritual guide then we are denying Christ Who lives in us, unless one is not born again and without the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ had more trouble with religious leaders than He had with anyone else. They resented that the people would look to Him instead of them. This same mentality, although subtle at times dwells in church gatherings albeit much more subtle. Manipulation and intimidation is rampant in the churches today but the people in these gatherings like it that way, it makes them feel safe and they can be lazy at home about their Christianity.

When I was in the Catholic church we observed the "holy days of obligation", they were observed to feel safe and to placate a God to be able to earn their way to heaven. Men made these unbiblical rules and observances and the people loved it because they didn't have to think or figure out anything for themselves.

Jesus Christ invited us to trust in Him so that He would be the One we trust not human beings. He knew that in these last days many false preachers would flatter and schmooze the people into accepting the false doctrine.

The takeaway is, Trust only in the Holy Spirit and no man. Any man that speaks of truth must be evaluated according to the Bible. This man, whoever he is has no power over or no authority to manipulate or intimidate you into his teachings.

If a man tries to play the Holy Spirit for you refusing to allow you to think for yourself through the Holy Spirit, then remove that man and go with God.

Matthew 24:4-5 "4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many."

Finding Jesus in the Book of Malachi

The Evidence of Salvation is the Fruit of the Spirit

Matthew 7:15-20
You Will Know Them by Their Fruit
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them."

The fruit is as follows:

Galatians 5:22-23
"22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

Another evidence of salvation is this:

1 John 3:13-15 "…13 So do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that eternal life does not reside in a murderer.…"

Christmas History: Bible & Pagans - The Truth

We Don't Have to Wonder Anymore

It is no wonder why God said the end times would be fraught with "ragingly insane" thinking?

Sadly this mentality is in the church!!!

2 Timothy 3:1-5
"3 This know also, that in the last days PERILOUS (RAGINGLY INSANE) times shall come.
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

"We live in a society where homosexuals lecture us on morals.
Transvestites lecture us on human biology.
Baby Killers lecture us on human rights,
And, Socialists lecture us on economics." Taken from a poster

Isaiah 5:20
"Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!"

We see this backward and upside-down thinking in narcissists today. They do mean things and accuse others of doing them. All of these tactics are the work of the demons growing worse every day.

Do not do as the Evil One Does!

I understand the feeling that sometimes we cannot respect an evil person. But it is not a license for us to become like them by treating them disrespectfully and hatefully.

We are commanded in the Bible to treat others the way we would like to be treated, there is no exception to this principle.

Also we are commanded to bless those who curse us, in other words, we show them the respect they won't show us.

If we choose to treat someone disrespectfully because of how mean they are, then we have become just like them.

We cannot emotionally enjoy a person who is evil, but we can act Christlike in their presence, not allowing their bad behavior to cause us to do the same to them. Then we are no different from them.

It might help to know that disrespectful people love it when they have made us into their image by snarking back at them in response to their rudeness.

Luke 6:30-32 "…30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what is yours, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. 32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.…"

Romans 12:13-15 "13 Share with the saints who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.…"

Obeying God by remaining Christlike no matter what others are doing will often not influence the mean person to change, that doesn't matter, and its' God's business. We are called to obey even if it has no effect on someone else. Our goal is to grow in holiness ourselves, we have no mandate to work to change another person.

We must tell the truth and when it is not received we are to walk away leaving the other person in the hands of God.

The idea that we should learn "techniques" to manipulate someone into accepting what we say is not biblical and even dishonest. It presumes that people respond to stimuli just like animals. Animals will be loyal when we treat them well and become mean when they are mistreated, this is not true of human beings.

The idea that we can affect another person's heart through manipulation comes from psychology, spawned from Darwinism. Since humans are just another species of animal they must respond the way animals do.

The thinking of Darwin was foolish because even animals are not always loving and kind just because you say nice words to them. A lion will eat you if you approach him in the wild, he doesn't trust human beings, we are their food so they don't care how nice we are to them.

"Hurting people hurt people" is also not Biblical. Bad people hurt people. Many people are hurting and have been treated shamefully but they choose to do differently from the people who were mean to them. They treat people better than they were treated because they have a tender heart and care about others more than they cogitate about how they were treated.

Christ proved this point when He went to the cross. He was brutally murdered by wicked people but chose to die on the cross for the sins of others, even the ones who murdered Him. He could have stopped the events of the cross, He could have blown on His persecutors and made them disappear if He wanted, but He did not.

The takeaway from this article is; don't become like the evil person by exacting revenge or responding in kind to them. Just remove yourself and leave them to God.

There is nothing more wonderful than a clear conscience that comes from obeying God. When we have been reviled we do not revile in return, we walk away clean and full of confidence that God has this!!!

It Only Matters What God Thinks

Have you ever been in a group of people who defended someone because they were corrected?

I have experienced this, even in Christian gatherings. One person will say something unbiblical or rude, everyone else agrees with them and another person will say, "that is not biblical" or "that was rude" and the entire rest of the room defends the unbiblical rude person in an angry manner.

Then the shunning begins, when the group thinkers fear being corrected or exposed they use isolation and subtle ignoring to punish the one who wants more than anything else to obey God and help others grow and desire to grow themselves.

Godly people who love the Lord humbly take a correction. They go to prayer to see if the correction matched the word of God and make changes in their thoughts to obey God if the correction was Biblical.

The rebellious heart rejects correction, raging in anger they attempt to intimidate the person who cared enough to admonish them. If we love someone the best thing we can do is tell the truth, but the world sees this as a personal attack, the very reason most people are offended by a rebuke.

We are not counted as causing trouble because someone else became angry at our correction. It is the angry person who is causing division and trouble.

Because of the lie propagated by psychology that; "hurting people hurt people", many people now, in the culture and in the church coddle and massage the one who sins while beating up the truth-teller who desires to obey God.

Telling the truth is the new hate speech in the culture as a whole. Most people are followers wanting to be accepted by society. Because cultural acceptance is more important than God is, most will defend the ideas of the world they hear every day rather than evaluate them according to the Bible.

Sadly most people who say they believe in the Bible does not read or know it. Even those who have attended Bible colleges repeat the psychological nonsense they were taught in those universities.

Even if the teachers in those institutions claim they do not use psychology they really do because all their instructions, and the way they think is based on their education influenced by all the government school education they have received during the first 12 years of their schooling. The way the teachers relate to the children and their instruction on how to treat people is based on psychology, not the Bible. In fact, when someone brings up the Bible using it to find the truth, they are mocked and dismissed by the world and by Christians in the church.

"More is caught than taught" is an old saying that shows how the teachers handle the children has more influence than her words. Teachers are trained to resist making a child feel bad by correcting them. Teachers use psychology rather than the Bible. They do not train the children in the ways of the Lord but rather in the ways of the world.

Our culture as a whole is psychologically dominated, it drives how everyone operates. And, often it is against God's Word. Even more disturbing is that the Christian church is fully entrenched in this worldly thinking. It is no wonder our country is sliding down the slippery slope of total depravity. We are headed toward destruction thinking we are alright because we do what we want all the time.

Romans 12:2

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

1 John 2:15-17

"Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever."

James 4:4

"You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."

Satan knows how to make error look attractive while its effect is destruction.

2 Timothy 4:2-5

"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry."

Colossians 2:8

"See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ."

Knowing God's Word and being led by the Holy Spirit is our encouragement to the believer. We do not have to wonder if we did or said the right thing, we will be confident. The world will not be able to intimidate us into silence when it comes to the truth. Of course, once we find out someone is a rager and resistant we can remove ourselves to avoid them, but it will not keep us from telling the truth to another person later.

Be full of joy no matter how ugly others act, they cannot remove our joy unless we care more about how others think of us than we do about what God thinks.