That verse, from Romans 12:21, was put in front of me last night after I prayed, “Lord, give me a Scripture verse to guide me.”
Sometimes, occasionally, I feel overcome by evil. But here, I reasoned, is a way to counter it. I can overcome evil when it comes against me by doing good. It does not have to overcome me—and get me down.
Another verse, earlier, verse nine, says “Let love be without dissimulation (hypocrisy). Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.”
I am wondering how exactly to read these verses; in what context? Well, certainly, as it is here, it is regarding evil men of the world. But in a broader sense we can take it as all the evils of the devil and the world and the flesh. It all will overcome us if we let it. How many ways can evil overcome us? Many ways! But we can overcome it all by doing good—in the will of God and empowered by the Holy Spirit. I think there are as many good things we can do as there is evil. And in every good deed there is prayer behind it, and hospitality. And in all the good we do we are loving God and are looking up to Him. If we are weary and feel beaten down, we can have hope in Him and rely on Him in all we do and in all we think about.
After John Wickliffe, the battle against the evil Pope of Rome, which they regarded as the great Antichrist of Europe, came to Sir John Oldcastle, knight, Lord Cobham, leader of the Lollards. The king at first supported him in his beliefs, but soon he gave into the church and insisted that Lord Cobham go to the Pope and be corrected.
So he submitted himself and was fully examined in what he and his brethren, the Lollards believed. And, as it was also with John Wickliffe, he spoke straight out boldly, even to call the Pope the Antichrist! So, he explained both how he believed and also how he did not believe in many of the doctrines of the Pope (the church at that time).
They required him to speak concerning four points: 1) On the sacraments; 2) on the need to join the Catholic church; 3) that the power of the Papacy was given to the church by St. Peter; and 4) on the requirement to go on a pilgrimage to view holy places, relics, and images, etc. To all these four points Lord Cobham gave them the wrong answer, but instead said that he saw no commandment of God in the Scriptures concerning any of those points. He also said, “I will no otherwise believe in these points than what I have told you here before. Do with me what you will.”
And with that answer the archbishop stood and read a bill of his condemnation. They charged that he was a heretic in his own person as well as a heretic of the church of Rome. They also denounced as many as were in favour of him and defended him.
To that condemnation Lord Cobham responded “with a most cheerful countenance:”
Though ye judge my body, which is but a wretched thing, yet am I certain and sure, that ye can do no harm to my soul, no more than could Satan unto the soul of Job.
Then, because of Lord Cobham’s good response, they feared that maybe they were too cruel in the eyes of the people and the king, so they gathered together to make him look bad. Well, after one false accusation did not work, they tried another. They set out to bring a pack of lies about him to the king and so to set the king against him. And it worked.
And so, the true Christians were betrayed both by the church of Rome and also by the king. And as it happened, the king ordered that all who read the Scriptures according to Wickliffe’s translation, would forfeit land, cattle, body, life and goods forever. And so, they were condemned as heretics and as enemies to the crown. And if they would not repent and recant, they would suffer death by hanging for treason against the king, and then be burned for heresy against God.
So, as it was, many of the Lollards did suffer cruel death. But many fled out of the land and to other countries. Lord Cobham also escaped and fled into Wales. But after four years they found him and brought him back to London. There he had his Arms bound behind him; and after he fell down upon his knees, he in prayer forgave his enemies; and then he stood and exhorted them in a godly manner to follow the laws of God. He was then hanged by the middle and also was consumed alive in fire. And all the while he was praising the name of God as long as his life lasted.
My Comments
As I thought about how the Papacy set out to make themselves look good and to make Lord Cobham look bad with lies, I thought about how this also happened at our Lord’s trial. It was the same. And it was by the same Pharisees. But it is also being done today. There are many evil doers like the Clinton’s and like the Obama’s and like the Biden’s. They are constantly telling lies in order to make themselves look good and others look bad. Yes, it is interesting how evil is repeated over and over again through the centuries. And it is so interesting how those in high positions take such great pains to plot their evil schemes. It was done many centuries ago, and it is still being done today. I think how President Trump was plotted against, saying that he was aided by Russia. And then, the latest and most damaging evil scheme is the voting fraud. And it seems that there is nothing stopping it—because there are so many ways that this evil is being done: by rigging the voting machines, by not counting votes, by duplicating votes, by counting the votes of the dead, by discarding ballots, etc.
And soon we will see true Christians being tormented and martyred just as was done in Rome and then by the church. Well, it is being done in some countries now by Muslims. But soon it will be done world-wide by the state and the church, by the Antichrist and also by the false church. Yes, as soon as the true church is taken up to God, these things will begin. I think this evil action is closer to us than we think.
Afghanistan has been in the news lately. A tragedy! My thoughts are this: We never should have even thought about pulling out. I’m sure there are different things we could have done, but my view is that as long as there is evil in the world, good governments have the responsibility to resist evil—even by war. Yes, it is the role of a nation’s government to resist and fight against evil forces. We find this over and over again in the bible. Also, I believe God has put a war-like spirit in the heart of every man to fight against evil. It is a holy and righteous desire to fight and be victorious over evil and evil governments. I am not a war-monger. I am a realist and one who desires peace and righteousness for all. As long as there is evil in the world, war is necessary. I do think peace talks are good; however, when evil reaches a certain point to where talk is pointless, then groups like Isis and AL Qaeda and the Taliban, the only thing they will listen to is war. They need to be destroyed.
I think it is good every once in a while, for a blogger to stop and evaluate what he blogs on, especially for a Christian blogger, because he has a grater responsibility before God to present the truth before God and others.
Here are four different blogging themes I would like to evaluate.
1. Blogging on the evils of our day.
2. Blogging on the necessity of fellow believers to be grounded in the word.
3. To expound on the great truths of Scripture.
4. To present my own testimony and the testimony of others.
Blogging On the Evils of Our Day
Every once in a while, I am compelled to do this, both for my own understanding (through my research) and to inform others. As Christians and as good citizens I think we need to be aware of what’s going on in the world. How can we be discerning unless someone warns us? And how can we be protected from evil unless we know what that evil is? And how can we pray against evil unless we know what we are praying about?
But though I think it is important to be warned of certain evils, I caution myself and others not to spend too much time on it. As a Christian our meditation and delight should be on the word of God and His truth. Also, we would not even understand what evil is, and we would not have a healthy warning of it unless we were informed of it from the word and by the Holy Spirit.
Blogging On the Necessity of Being Grounded in The Word
It is always good to remind myself and others to be grounded in the word—to be constantly reading and meditating on and memorizing the word. The Psalms are especially good for this; verses like Psalm 119:105, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.”
Blogging On the Great Truths of Scripture
This I think is most important; but at the same time, we have a greater responsibility to get it right—to expound the word correctly. We should always take our time and make sure we speak the truth. Sometimes I think it is better to just quote the Scriptures instead of trying to explain it in our own words. In my writing I often depend on a good commentary—someone trustworthy.
Blogging My Own Story or the Story of Others
We all enjoy hearing a good story. Sometimes a testimony will encourage another more than anything else, because it is something that can’t be denied. It is what happened to a person.
I think I should use this blogging method more than I have. It is easy and it is effective.
There will come a time (during the Tribulation) that evil will not be restrained—when the restrainer (the Holy Spirit) is “taken out of the way” and when evil dominates the world (2 Thess. 2:7-8). During that time, in his book, “What On Earth is Happening?” Ray Stedman wrote,
The arrogant pride of humanity will break out into the open as the Antichrist steps forth and claims to be God…Evil will reign in triumph…lawlessness will fill the earth…men and women will stubbornly refuse to repent. Fear will not drive humanity to prayer but to further defiance. The human race will not wish to be delivered but only to be destroyed. People will take no delight in good but will celebrate the triumph of evil.
But that has not happened yet, and will not happen until the Tribulation. As long as believers are in the world, evil will not be allowed to dominate. Stedman said,
[In this world now] only the good is really acceptable. Evil must dissemble and disguise itself to gain acceptance. Once evil is unmasked, it is rejected by the world. This fact alone is ample proof that even the massive power of evil that we see on every hand is still in check by the even more massive power of good… Evil is powerful, but hemmed in by forces of good.
As a Christian, I see so much evil going on in the world, and sometimes I get discouraged and can hardly see any good. But, as Stedan indicated, overall, only the good is acceptable, and evil is masked and sort of hidden—but still we can see the results of it. Evil is now kept in check because of the salt and light in Christians. As Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13-14). “Salt [said Stedman] doesn’t merely add savor to food. It is also a preservative, halting the process of corruption.”
This puts a grave responsibility on us as Christians to be in the word and in prayer, so that we remain salty and light—so that evil will continue to be unmasked and hemmed in. I fear, and I can feel that we as Christians are becoming less and less salty and evil is becoming more and more bold. The spirit of Antichrist is on the rise. So, let us battle against it. He is coming soon!
Let this vandalism represent the corruption of evil.
So how will the evils of today be stopped? This is the question many are pondering. It seems that evil is rampant and ever growing, and no one is putting out much effort to stop it—not even our highest elected officials or our judges. Our police forces are being defunded and stifled, and as a result the crime rate is sky-rocketing—thefts, murder, rape and more. We have allowed mail-in-voting, and as a result we have voter fraud that has jeopardized the results of our elections. A tragedy! We have a media that is covering up crime and corruption so that many are not even aware of what is going on. We have an entertainment industry that makes a profit on feeding the flames of lust and greed and murder.
We indeed are living in the last days and Paul’s list of evils (2 Tim. 3:2-4) definitely can be seen today. Here are the ones I see most clearly: Men are “lovers of self, lovers of money… ungrateful, unholy…without self-control…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”
Later in verse 13, Paul says, “But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse.” We definitely see this happening. Evil, if left unchecked will multiply. If there is one bad apple in the barrel that is not removed, soon the entire barrel will be rotten.
Let me say as strongly as I can: unless we deal with those that have corrupted out elections, unless we find and prosecute them, many more will be encouraged to do the same thing and our election system will never be the same.
Similarity, unless we restore and correctly fund our police department, and thus crack down on crime, we will continue to see wide-spread crime all over our country.
Unless we are able to vote out (by fair voting) the corrupt and evil people in our government, we will continue to see corrupt and self-seeking power grabbers in our leadership, which in turn will leave out society defenseless against crime and evil.
I want to say as strongly as I can that God sees what is happening and He cannot be mocked.
He will judge evil. No one will get away with anything. Soon, very soon all true Christians will be taken from this world and the rest will be left to be judged by God. You who have rejected Him will experience His wrath for 7-years or until you die. Then you will be resurrected and judged by God to be cast into the lake of fire forever.
Here are three Scripture passages that describe the soon-coming 7-year Tribulation, which is also called “The Day of the LORD.” I will highlight the words I want to emphasize.
Isaiah 24:3-6
[In that Day] The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the Lord has spoken this word. 4 The earth mourns and withers, the world fades and withers, the exalted of the people of the earth fade away. 5 The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. 6 Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left. NASB
Zephaniah 1:14-18
Near is thegreat day of the Lord,
Near and coming very quickly;
Listen, the day of the Lord!
In it the warrior cries out bitterly.
15 A day of wrath is that day,
A day of trouble and distress,
A day of destruction and desolation,
A day of darkness and gloom,
A day of clouds and thick darkness,
16 A day of trumpet and battle cry,
Against the fortified cities
And the high corner towers.
17 And I will bring distress on men,
So that they will walk like the blind,
Because they have sinned against the Lord;
And their blood will be poured out like dust,
And their flesh like dung.
18 Neither their silver nor their gold
Will be able to deliver them
On the day of the Lord’s wrath;
And all the earth will be devoured
In the fire of His jealousy,
For He will make a complete end,
Indeed a terrifying one,
Of all the inhabitants of the earth.
NASB
Revelation 6:12-17
And I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; 13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. 14 And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. 15 And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; 16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand?” NASB
This is your doom! This will be God’s wrath upon you unless you change your ways, unless you give up your sin and turn to Him. Yes, God will eventually be the one to stop all the evils of today—His way! If you don’t want to experience His wrath you must repent now before it is too late.
We are now beginning to see the planned destruction of America. I heard just yesterday in my own city of Minneapolis, Mn, that someone had spray painted, “THE END OF AMERICA” on a store front wall during a riot. This is plain evidence that this is what is on the mind and agenda of evil people today. It is also a reminder of what Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:13, “But evil men and imposter will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”
And this brings me to what I meant to say in this post: of what is going on now—voter fraud. We see it mainly in Democrat run states; in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and others. And it is clear to me that it was planned. And they even announced it when they said that when it looks like a Trump win, don’t give up, because when the mail in ballots come in late, they will mostly be for Biden. Well, how would they know that, unless they were planning to cheat?
Well, wouldn’t you know it, that is just what happened. Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania were all going for Trump, but they all at the end got taken over by Biden votes from late mail-in ballots. How did that happen? You can’t tell me that only Democrats voted by mail-in ballots.
We were told all along that mail-in voting was a recipe for fraud; and that is just what happened. I’m not sure that there was a specific evil plan. I tend to think that the devil spread his evil and deception over many people in many different ways—like evil dust.
I heard a report just today that a postal worker saw his boss singling out and dumping republican ballots.
There as a report today that, in Pennsylvania, legal ballot watchers were allowed into a voting establishment, but could not be any closer than 50 feet of the ballot counters. How could anything be seen from 50 feet? That is not right.
I had problems voting myself. When I went in to vote I was told that I was not on the list of registered voters. Then I went to another person and she found my name on the list—the same list. What was that about?
So, it seems to me that there have been efforts to prevent Republican votes from coming in, and also efforts made not to count Republican votes. And also, there is clear deception going on to deceive the American public through the media, telling us that mostly Republicans vote in person and mostly Dems vote by mail. I don’t think so. That’s a lie.
And this big lie, this voter fraud, is all for the evil purpose of destroying America and making us into a Communist country. And Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are the devil’s puppets to bring us there. To bring us into and down that path of destruction.
Oh, this makes me so angry. But I know that God is the ultimate judge and He will take vengeance on all wrong doers. Soon, very soon, He will bring His wrath on the earth against all evil.
And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; 17 for the great day of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand” (Rev. 6:16-17)?
This passage is referring to the 7-year Tribulation, which the church will escape in the Rapture. But all others will face His wrath—wrath like never seen before in history. Many evil ones who are alive today and who have been part of the evil which has gone on in America, may enter into this Tribulation to be tormented for 7 years. There God will bring down His wrath on them. And we (Christians) will be avenged!
I may be writing much more on this subject of the Tribulation very soon. For a while I didn’t want to, but now since I am feeling so angry about what is happening, I seem to be more revived to do it. I think it is necessary for these times—to warn people of what is to come.
I have been feeling kind of bleak this morning in terms of the election results. My candidate is not doing as well as I thought he would. But I found good news in Psalm 112. For those who fear the Lord they can be happy and look up—even when facing bad news. I will highlight the verses that stood out to me (from the NLT).
v. 1. Happy are those who fear the LORD.
v. 4. When darkness overtakes the godly light will come bursting in.
v. 6. Such people [the righteous] will not be overcome by evil circumstances.
v. 7. They do not fear bad news; they confidently trust the LORD to care for them.
v. 8. They are confident and fearless and can face their foes triumphantly.
The most recent Hunter Biden news is that Hunter abandoned his laptop at a Delaware repair shop in 2015, and only now we are hearing that the FBI has retrieved the very damaging information; and the shop owner also gave copies of the emails and intimate photos to Rudi Giuliani. I can’t go into any detail about what was in those emails, only that it is very damaging to the Biden’s. But I want to say here that this…
News that recently came out in the Washington Post, wouldn’t be that reliable if it wasn’t for the following reasons:
1) The obvious coverup by Facebook and Twitter. Almost immediately they shut down the Washington Post story, broadcasting to the world that there was definitely something very damaging that they don’t want the world to discover about the Bidens, and really the entire Biden family, headed by Joe Bidden.
2) The obvious deception (the spin) by the News Media. Though very reliable investigations are telling us that the emails are true and untouched, most Dems and the media are saying that Giuliani can’t be trusted and that Russia has hacked the emails. I just heard today that recently Adam Shift is saying publicly that the Russians together with Trump are behind the damaging emails and videos—that they manufactured it all. Here we go again. The Dems and the media are once again putting their lying spin on the News and putting the blame on Russia and Trump.
They want Trump out of office so bad that they are willing to go to any evil lengths to do it.
I can’t help thinking that there is something very diabolical going on with the prevention of hydroxychloroquine in the United States. I keep hearing of very good reports from very good doctors and scientists of how good and safe hydroxychloroquine is. Yet, for some reason these reports have been banned from the internet. And also, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U. S. has clamped down on it, issuing their safety rules, which I find not true. Their June 15 Update states:
Based on ongoing analysis and emerging scientific data, FDA has revoked the emergency use authorization (EUA) to use hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat COVID-19 in certain hospitalized patients when a clinical trial is unavailable or participation is not feasible. We made this determination based on recent results from a large, randomized clinical trial in hospitalized patients that found these medicines showed no benefit for decreasing the likelihood of death or speeding recovery. This outcome was consistent with other new data, including those showing the suggested dosing for these medicines are unlikely to kill or inhibit the virus that causes COVID-19. As a result, we determined that the legal criteria for the EUA are no longer met.
That finding is interesting (especially the part which I have put in bold) based on the real evidence, particularly in many African countries where the people have been using hydroxychloroquine for malaria because of so many mosquitoes.
For example, in Uganda where the population is 45, 927, 340 the deaths due to Covid-19 are only 22. That makes the death rate per million at .5.
In Tanzania there are similar numbers. The population there is 59, 956, 393 and the deaths due to covid-19 are 21, making the death rate per million at .4.
But in the United States where we are so careful not to takehydroxychloroquine, our population is 331, 288, 117, and our deaths due to covid are 180, 622, making our death rate per million at 545.
So, we can see that there is quite a big difference. Basically, we can say that those who are taking hydroxychloroquine are not dying and those who are not taking the drug are dying.
What is going on? We see the evidence. We see how hydroxychloroquine is working. So why is hydroxychloroquine purposefully kept from us? Here are three reason:
1. To make Trump look bad. When so many people die this makes Trump look bad. Who ever is in control of the FDA, they are killing people in order to make Trump look bad. But it isn’t just the FDA, it is the Democrats along with the media who are keeping hydroxychloroquine from us.
2. To make money for the drug companies. Hydroxychloroquine is cheap and, in many countries, you can buy it off the counter like candy. Big drug companies know they can make a lot of money on other drugs and vaccines, so they are pushing to get rid of hydroxychloroquine.
3. Evil will reign in the last days. These are the last days, when people will call good evil and evil good.
Stephen Nielsen 