NOTES ON THE GOD WHO NOW ROARS: THE LION OF THE TRIBE OF JUDAH READIES HIMSELF FOR WAR

SCRIPTURE. “The Lord will go forth like a warrior, He will stir up His zeal like a man of war; He will shout out, yes, He will raise a war cry. He will prevail [mightily] against His enemies.” – ISAIAH 42:13, AMP

SHOUT. “To utter a sudden and loud outcry, usually in joy, triumph or exultation, or to animate soldiers in an onset. A loud burst of voice or voices; a vehement and sudden outcry, particularly of a multitude of men, expressing joy, triumph, exultation or animated courage. It is sometimes intended in derision.” – NOAH WEBSTER, ‘American Dictionary of the English Language,’ 1828; edited

QUOTATIONS

“When three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow, and they shouted, ‘A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!’ Then each stood in his place around the camp; and the entire [Midianite] army ran, crying out as they fled.” – GIDEON’S ARMY, Judges 7:20-21, AMP

“Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on, To venge me as I may and to put forth My rightful hand in a well-hallowed cause. So get you hence in peace. And tell the Dauphin His jest will savour but of shallow wit when thousands weep more than did laugh at it.— Convey them with safe conduct – Fare you well.” – WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, ‘Henry V,’ 1599, 1.2.292-294; pp. 304-310; edited

“I got nothing to lose for it has all been given to Christ making me ready for the Fight of My Life, ready to fight running into the Darkness to show another the way to the Cross of Christ. Ready to fight for all that is right with my last breath”
― JOHN M. SHEEHAN, ‘Purgatory; A Place of Pruning Book 1,’ 2020; edited

FIRST THOUGHTS

When I began commenting online in earnest around 2012 while serving as professor of communication and media arts at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, most of my posts were fairly standard:

Light-hearted, apoliical, encouraging, lots of stuff about how much God loves us and will always remain faithful to us no matter what. Uplifting to be sure, or so I had believed. On reflection, ‘perfunctory.’ Something was missing, beloved, though my intentions and my theology was relatively intact, but somehow, ‘incomplete.’

Significantly, I wrote very little, if any, of hard times or hard ball politics. Wasn’t supposed to.

I am not sure of all the reasons for that, though several come to mind. To be sure, my family and I at the time were experiencing hardships as all Americans do, but ‘nothing out of the ordinary,’ to use a phrase. All seemed pretty, fairly ‘normal.’

FIRST CANARY IN THE COAL MINE. Then came March 2016, in my tenth year of service at LU, and the devastating email that my contract was terminated, despite nearly perfect 5.0 teaching ratings. Now I am not going to retell the story, but I was to become the first of many more sacrificed on the secular altar at Liberty who did not ‘toe the line’ for then presidential candidate, Donald Trump.

My world (and yours) was about to change forever that dark day, though I hardly realized it at the time.

Seems America was entering upon its most tortuous, divisive and destructive period in its history – including, I am convinced now, the Civil War. My reason for such strong statement is that in 1860, the Nation, both North and South, was largely, ‘Biblically Literate,’ though clearly misled on certain points.

Today, that is devastatingly not the case in a de facto Atheist America, as the her Church has nearly completely abandoned the Biblical Canon, utterly collapsing under the dark weight of a New American Order defined and nearly unbelievably executed – and that’s the word – by a rank swindler and rapist.

HOW COULD THIS HAPPEN? We have been over this ground before, but let me take you momentarily back to a quotation from the EDITORS of the ‘Holocaust Encyclopedia’ in a piece entitled, “The German Churches and the Nazi State,” retrieved on February 9, 2022 (edited).

“How did Christians and their churches in Germany respond to the Nazi regime and its laws, particularly to the persecution of the Jews? The racialized anti-Jewish Nazi Ideology converged with Antisemitism that was historically widespread throughout Europe at the time and had deep roots in Christian history. For all too many Christians, traditional interpretations of religious scriptures seemed to support these prejudices …

The attitudes and actions of German Catholics and Protestants during the Nazi era were shaped not only by their religious beliefs, but by other factors as well, including: Backlash against the Weimar Republic and the political, economic, and social changes in Germany that occurred during the 1920s; Anti-Communism; Nationalism; Resentment toward the international community in the wake of World War I, which Germany lost and for which it was forced to pay heavy reparations …

These were some of the reasons why most Christians in Germany welcomed the rise of Nazism in 1933. They were also persuaded by the statement on ‘Positive Christianity’ in Article 24 of the 1920 ‘Nazi Party Platform,’ which read:

‘We demand the Freedom of all religious confessions in the State, insofar as they do not jeopardize the State’s existence or conflict with the manners and moral sentiments of the Germanic Race. The Party as such upholds the point of view of a Positive Christianity without tying itself confessionally to any one confession. It combats ‘the Jewish-materialistic spirit’ at home and abroad and is convinced that a permanent recovery of our people can only be achieved from within on the basis of the Common Good before individual good.’”

AMERICA’S ‘POSITIVE’ CHRISTIANITY. Not to belabor the hideous and obvious point, I continue to argue that in the American Church’s unquestioned collapse into Trump’s powerfully materialist, White Christian Hyper-Nationalism Movement, we see the dark fruit of the ‘America Right or Wrong’ faux patriotism as ‘Worship of the State.’

Here is PAUL D. MILLER, writing for ‘Christianity Today,’ “What Is Christian Nationalism?” on this historic Departure, or Apostasy, from the faith (Feb. 3, 2021).

“Christian Nationalism is the belief that the American Nation is defined by Christianity, and that the government should take active steps to keep it that way. Popularly, Christian Nationalists assert that America is and must remain a ‘Christian Nation’—not merely as an observation about American history, but as a prescriptive program for what America must continue to be in the future. Scholars like SAMUEL HUNTINGTON have made a similar argument: That America is defined by its ‘Anglo-Protestant past’ and that we will lose our Identity and our Freedom if we do not preserve our cultural inheritance.”

Catastrophically, this New American Vision has replaced Canonical Christianity. And the Church alone is overwhelmingly responsible for it. Selah.

To put a capstone on this brief indictment, I refer to a review of MARK NOLL’S recent work, who I used to despise, frankly, but somehow now makes more sense than a thousand pastors today.

“The historian mark noll’s 1994 book, ‘The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind,’ will be rereleased next year. In the forthcoming preface, which Noll, himself an Evangelical, shared with me, he argues that in various spheres—vaccinations, evolutionary science, anthropogenic global warming, and the 2020 elections, to name just a few—’White Evangelicals appear as the group most easily captive to Conspiratorial nonsense, in greater panic about their political opponents, or as most aggressively anti-intellectual.’ He goes on to warn that ‘the broader Evangelical population has increasingly heeded populist leaders who dismiss the results of modern learning from whatever source.’ And he laments the ‘intellectual self-immolation of recent evangelical history.’” – from PETER WEHNER, “The Evangelical Church is Breaking Apart: Christians Must Reclaim Jesus from His Church,” ‘The Atlantic,’ October 24, 2021; edited

RACIST AMERICA? Are you getting this, beloved: America, as with Germany a century before, is what my Fullbright Scholar son Christopher Cañete Rodriguez Kelly calls, ’Severely Racialized.’ That is, our very American Identity is inseparably fused and rooted in our ‘Anglo (White)-Protestant past.’

And we have increasingly canonized its ‘Anglo’ aspect, instead of the ‘Protestant’ component of our Forebears Christian Worldview. Nothing else can explain our brutality toward Africans, Mexicans, Asians, and the Native people groups of our Land of Opportunity – for some more than others.

All of which is currently on abominable display in the New Trump Tower Christianity of American Evangelicalism in its undisguised contempt for people of color. Radical, you say? Indeed, it is, as I aggressively search for the real Origins of our present Despair.

What was it that the inimitable Pogo cartoon character created by Walt Kelly said generations ago: “We have met the enemy, and he is Us.” We have done this to ourselves, beloved, and much blood is on our own hands more than many others.

JESUS said it this way:

“And that servant who knew his master’s will, and yet did not get ready or act in accord with his will, will be beaten with many lashes [of the whip], but the one who did not know it and did things worthy of a beating, will receive only a few [lashes]. From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and to whom they entrusted much, of him they will ask all the more. I have come to cast fire (judgment) on the earth; and how I wish that it were already kindled!” – LUKE 12:47-49, AMP

GOD’S NEXT JUDGMENT. I tell you the Truth of it: God’s Fire is already kindled, and well on its way to American shores in the days ahead, though I wish to God it were not so. And its First Blows shall fall upon what the White Church seems to value above all else.

“Therefore because you tread upon the poor and take from him exactions of wheat, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.” – AMOS 5:11, AMPC

Do you see it, beloved? All that they have worked for shall be taken away: Houses, material possessions and pleasures, and employment – their very means to all of it. What HERBERT SCHLOSSBERG in 1993 called, ‘Idols for Destruction.’

WHY GOD MUST ROAR

There is one issue that American Christianity is facing that I have never treated in any detail, that reveals the soft underbelly of the American Church in devastating and deadly ways. We dare to go there now.

THE CHURCH & VAX HESITANCY. By all reasonable assessments, it appears that the Evangelical Church is asleep at the switch, as we used to say it. That is, it continues to ‘Resist’ becoming Awakened from her dreadful Doctrinal Slumber, despite the countless Divine warning signs all around her. She nods off, as it were, while feeding her flocks the same old stale, false reassurances that all will yet be well, just like the good old days.

So long as they tithe and attend and praise God every Sunday.

A recent report by LEVI PULKKINEN, writing for ‘US News & World Report’ on August 10, 2021, published his tell-all title describing our most current, breathtaking moral failure: “White Evangelical Churches and the Crisis of Vaccine Hesitancy.”

Yes, beloved, beyond the unprecedented corruptions of Donald Trump, beyond the January 6 Insurrection and the crazy weather anomalies and myriad supply line disruptions lies the present CORE ISSUE of today’s burgeoning Crisis:

‘To vax or not to vax,’ that seems to be The Question.

Unbelievably, it is the American Church that has led the way against it! Listen to the cry of one Jewish journalist’s voice shouting in the today’s wilderness of Church Indifference to the plight of her neighbors.

“In White Evangelical Church congregations, the problem of ‘Vaccine Hesitancy’ is real. When vaccines against COVID-19 became broadly available in early 2021, hesitancy was high across a spectrum of demographics: Black Americans and Latinos, conservatives and rural residents all expressed skepticism about receiving the shot.

In the ensuing months, inoculation numbers have climbed significantly – with a few persistent outliers: Among them, White Evangelical Christians, whose vaccination refusal rates have remained high even as similar figures for other groups have fluctuated or decreased. The difference underscores how Religion has emerged as a ‘Key Fissure’ between those who will get the shot and those who refuse.”

FISSURE. ‘A cleft; a narrow chasm made by the parting of any substance; a longitudinal opening; as the fissure of a rock; To cleave; to divide; to crack or fracture; that which ‘splits apart or separates’ one side from another.’

With over 900,000 Americans dead from the Virus, 2,500 more dying each and very day, which projects another 1,000,000 dead by year’s end, THIS FACT: The White American Church is the primary ‘Stumbling Block’ to the rest of the nearly 40% of American citizens who need to become vaccinated, if we are to reach the nearly sacred, ‘Herd Immunity’ (80% or so of the population).

THE POINT: The Church is killing its own people, to say nothing of its Witness.

In light of that stunning spiritual and medical reality, consider the Words of John the Apostle about loving or hating one’s brother.

“The one who loves and unselfishly seeks the best for his [believing] brother lives in the Light, and in him there is no occasion for stumbling or offense [he does not hurt the cause of Christ or lead others to sin]. But the one who habitually hates (works against) his brother [in Christ] is in [spiritual] darkness and is walking in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” – 1 JOHN 2:10-11, AMP

THE ‘SCANDAL’ OF STUMBLING BLOCKS. It is gripping to realize that the Greek term for “Stumbling Block” is, literally, ‘Skandalon’ [σκάνδαλον]: “The trigger to a trap set for the purpose of ambush, harm or ruin of a person; leading one to fall or sin; generally refers to a snare or a serious offense; a rock of offense that is hidden and leads to great suffering [or even death].”

To this most serious of interpretations by eminent English theologian JOHN GILL. Consider his words most carefully, Christian; they go the heart of the ‘Consequences’ of being a Stumbling Block.

“‘But he that hateth his brother is in darkness’ — As is before expressed in 1 John 2:9, to which is added, ‘and walketh in darkness’; he goes on in it, and takes delight in it, as dangerous and uncomfortable as it is: ‘and knoweth not whither he goeth’; he cannot discern between good and evil; he puts darkness for light, and light for darkness.

He sees not what is before him, nor what Stumbling Blocks lie in the way; he is not aware of the snares, pits, and traps he is in danger of falling into; nor does he know and consider what these paths of darkness, of sin, and ignorance, and infidelity, lead unto, even ‘unto utter darkness,’ where is weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth: And the reason is, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.” – ‘An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments,’ 9 vols., 1746-1763; edited

AMERICAN ABOMINATION. Here we have in America in the very center of the COVID-19 Maelstrom, an American Church literally leading multitudes to blindness, great harm, final destruction and even into “utter darkness,” which is a clear and unambiguous reference to ‘Hellfire.’

Selah. Selah.

Pulkkinen quotes Kansas City Calvary Temple Baptist Church’s African American Pastor ERIC D. WILLIAMS, who said it plain enough: “This is a public health crisis. If we don’t address this, our pews will be empty. Those who used to sit in those seats will be dead.”

IN SUM. Therefore, beloved, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah is left with no other options anymore, other than ‘TO ROAR’ at His own people, to awaken them from their deadly treachery of His Highest Commands: “To love God with all your heart, and to love your neighbor as yourself” (cf. MATTHEW 22:37-39).

THE TEACHING

Let’s now go to those KEY TERMS that further define where we are, and where we must soon go if we are to rescue so many lost – even inside the walls of God’s sanctuaries.

LIKE A WARRIOR. This important descriptor of the Last Days character of the Messiah is taken from the Hebrew, ‘Gibbor’ [גִּבּוֹר], or: “Strong or mighty one; ‘Dread Champion’ or Chief (cf. Jeremiah 20:11); exceedingly powerful; valiant warrior; bold, audacious who shall magnify himself; a person who fights in battles and is known for having courage and skill; associated with the Old French ‘guerrer’ meant ‘war,’ it led to the word ‘Guerreor ‘ for someone who wages war.”

STIRRED UP ZEAL. Here the Lord will quite intentionally ‘stir up’ [‘Ur, עוּר] something, or “arouse, awaken” to a new intensity and focus. His object is, ‘Qinah’ [קִנְאָה], meaning: “Holy jealousy, as in ‘El Qinah,’ or ‘the God who is jealous over you;’ ardent zeal, anger or indignation ‘as strong as the grave;’ strong passion [against all rivals]; fierce love for His people, especially in battle; passionate ardor in the pursuit of anything; in general, zeal is an intense eagerness or desire to accomplish or obtain some object, and it may be manifested either in favor of any person or thing, or in opposition to it, and in a good or bad cause.”

SHOUT OUT. As the Lord gains fervency at what He sees occurring on the earth and in His houses, He begins, in the Hebrew, to do this. From ‘Rua’ [רוּעַ]: “To raise a loud shout, give a blast [like unto a trumpet or shofar]; to raise a battle cry, sound an alarm, or send up a signal flare for war or a fast march to battle; to cry out in distress; literally, to split the ear with a loud sound; to vociferate in a war-like manner over a conquered enemy; a mournful cry yet of triumph.”

HE SHALL ROAR! Here is the essence of the Teaching; taken from the Hebrew term, ‘Tsarach’ [צָרַח]: “Literally, to roar; whoop; to be unmistakably clear in tone; to bellow as an angry lion; to raise a war cry; to rend open by a loud sound; to cry with a full, loud, continued sound; to bellow, as a beast; as a roaring bull; a roaring lion; to sing or shout with full force; a violent shouting.”

THE COMMENTARY. “‘The Lord shall go forth’ — Namely, to battle against his enemies. ‘He shall stir up jealousy’ — His fierce indignation against the obstinate enemies of his Son and gospel. ‘HE SHALL ROAR’ — As a lion doth upon his prey, and as soldiers do when they begin the battle. ‘I have long time held My peace’ — I have been long silent, and not interposed in behalf of My cause, but have suffered Satan and his servants to prevail in the world, to afflict My people, and hinder the entertainment of My Doctrine and worship among mankind; and this My forbearance has increased the presumption of My enemies. ‘Now will I cry like a travailing woman’ — Now I will no more contain myself than a woman in the pangs of travail can forbear crying out: but I will give vent to my just resentments for the injuries offered to Myself and my oppressed people, by bringing some exemplary punishment upon their oppressors. ‘I will destroy and devour at once’ — I will suddenly and utterly destroy the incorrigible enemies of My Truth.” – JOSEPH BENSON, ‘Explanatory Notes on the Holy Bible,’ 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

DK’S TAKE. If this is the Lord as I ‘heard’ this Scripture early in the morning last week, not knowing what I would find, then we are about to see Jesus, the Lion of Judah, begin to ‘lay waste’ that which has opposed Him, either brazenly or timidly.

Yehoshua is, dear friends, ‘about to Roar.’

LAST THOUGHTS

So do we come down to the real point of this Commentary: Just what does it mean when Jesus Christ ‘Roars’ as Judge and Jury – for America, for the Church, and for you and me individually?

To extend the Biblical Metaphor, it means that God is about to “Pounce.” That is to say: He has had quite enough, waited long enough (120 years; Genesis 6:3) , and is finally and formally entering into Final Judgment of the United States of America.

According to one Evangelical pastor, it actually began on November 8, 2016, with the Election of Donald John Trump as President.

FÉLIX CABRERA. On March 4, 2016, as the dark clouds of the Presidential Election of 2016 began to form, this comparatively unknown Latino Baptist pastor, writing for the ‘Christian Post,’ published A Question that is in the hearts of the Remnant Church today in a piece entitled:

“Is Donald Trump God’s Judgment on America?

As America and our northern partner Canada continue to unravel at almost light speed in early 2022, it is tragic that we did not heed the few Voices of Warning being sounded back five years ago. Here are some of his main points in this prescient, no holds barred article.

Quoted at length to make my closing argument crystal clear.

“The Republican primaries have occupied most of the headlines and are the topic of the moment. Much of the spotlight has been on Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. The billionaire magnate from the real-estate industry is making his second presidential run (he ran as a Reform Party candidate in 2000). Trump leads comfortably, with 661 delegates. If these trends continue, he will win the Republican nomination …

And his support among ‘Evangelicals’ calls into question just who is identifying as Evangelical. I would go so far as to say that many who claim to be Evangelical actually are not. What is my basis for this argument? My answer is simple:

Donald Trump is racist, nativist, xenophobic, fascist, classist, narcissistic, arrogant, disrespectful, irreverent and a man without God. A self-proclaimed “Christian” who has said he never had to ask God for forgiveness …

My conclusion is that Donald Trump has awakened the ‘Sleeping Giant’ of this Nation — that racist, nativist and exclusivist feeling that dominated the United States of America for years. With the argument that we should make America ‘Great’ again, Trump has sold a ‘Hope’ to make America white, narcissistic, exclusivist and racist again …

Each debate, caucus and state election process that I see reminds me even more the words of JOHN CALVIN: ‘When God wants to judge a nation, he gives them evil rulers.’ So no, Trump is not the problem. ‘The problem is you and me.’ May God have mercy on us!”

CODA. Mr. Cabrera makes my case rather passionately, and powerfully, which is appropriate to the topic under discussion: WHEN GOD ROARS. More personally, I have been roaring increasingly and uncharacteristically for five years now, with greater vehemence and volume, and I cannot any longer apologize for it. And why?

Because my King has lifted up His Voice, and so must I.

I am here reminded of a favorite Psalm, one with which you are all likely familiar. It describes the ‘Roar of the Lion of Judah’ in poetic song, with both Terror and Hope – depending on where you stand in relation to Him in this Holy Hour.

“The nations raged, the kingdoms tottered and were moved; He uttered His voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our Refuge (our Fortress and High Tower). Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]! Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has wrought desolations and wonders in the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow into pieces and snaps the spear in two; He burns the chariots in the fire.” – PSALM 46:6-9, AMPC’

Whether our Royal Lion shall ‘Pounce’ upon you in the Days to Come, or run to ‘Embrace’ you from the jackals and serpents of our Enemy for your courageous stand, is indeed entirely up to you, beloved.

THE LAST HOUR. But know this: It is far beyond a time for choosing. Antichrist is coming and already here. It is rather a Time for Final Preparations – for settling accounts and getting one’s house in proper order for the Battles ahead. This do, in honor of Him, and for your families and neighbors and even strangers who are still lost. – 1 JOHN 2:18

“[For] The Lord will thunder and roar from Zion and utter His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be a refuge for His people and a stronghold to the children of Israel.” – JOEL 3:16, AMPC

Ever your servant, DK

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