NOTES ON THE PROMISES OF GOD: THE DIVINE SEARCH FOR THE GAP STANDERS IN THE LAST HOURS OF HISTORY – (WITH VIDEO)

1. THEOLOGY

SCRIPTURE. “So shall My word be that goes forth out of My mouth: it shall not return to Me void [without producing any effect, useless], but it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” – ISAIAH 55:11, AMPC

KEY TERMS:

• “ACCOMPLISH.” ‘Asah’ [עָשָׂה]: “From a primitive root meaning, broadly, ‘To do or make happen;’ also, to advance or appoint; to become [that which is promised]; i.e., ‘to complete of fulfill.’” NOTE: “The Hebrew verb ‘asah’ is a versatile term that broadly means ‘to do’ or ‘to make.’ It is used in various contexts throughout the Old Testament, signifying actions ranging from creating and fashioning to executing and performing. The word encompasses both physical creation and the execution of plans or commands. It is often used to describe God’s creative acts, human actions, and the fulfillment of commandments or duties.”

• “PROSPER.” ‘Tsalach’ [וְהִצְלִ֖יחַ]: “Also a primitive root meaning, ‘To push forward or advance;’ to break out or break through mightily; to succeed or thrive.” NOTE: “The Hebrew verb ‘tsalach’ primarily conveys the idea of prospering or succeeding. It is often used in the context of achieving success or advancement, whether in personal endeavors, leadership, or spiritual growth. The term implies a sense of Divine Favor or Blessing that leads to success [that is powerfully mitigated by the faithfulness and contrition of the follower to carry out the Divine Mission in obedience].”

QUOTATION. “The best Praying Man is the man who is most believingly familiar with the Promises of God. After all, prayer is nothing but taking God’s Promises to Him, and saying to Him, ‘Do as Thou hast said.’ Prayer is the Promise Utilized. A prayer which is not based on a Promise has no true foundation.” ― CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON, “The Secret Of Power In Prayer,” Jan. 8, 1888; edited

COMMENTARY. “‘So shall My Word be’ – All the Truth which God reveals is as much adapted to produce an effect on the hard and sterile hearts of men as the rain is on the Earth ‘It shall not return unto Me void – It shall not return to Me without accomplishing that which I intend. And it shall prosper’ – (See the note at Isaiah 52:13). This proves:

One: That God has a design in giving His Word to people. He has as distinct an intention in His Word as he has in sending down rain upon the Earth Two: That whatever is His Design in giving the Gospel [or a Promise]: ‘It shall be accomplished!’ It is never spoken in vain, and never fails to produce the effect which He intends.

‘The Gospel is no more preached in vain than the rain falls in vain.’ And though that often falls on barren rocks, or on arid sands; on extended plains where no vegetation is produced, or in the wilderness ‘where no man is,’ and seems to our eyes in vain, yet it is not so. God has a Design in each drop that falls on sands or rocks, as really as in the copious shower that falls on fertile fields. And so the Gospel often falls on the hard and barren hearts of men. It is addressed to the proud, the sensual, the avaricious, and the unbelieving, and seems to be spoken in vain, and to return void unto God. But it is not so. He has some Design in it, and that will be accomplished. It is proof of the fullness of his mercy. It leaves people without excuse, and justifies Himself. Or when long presented – apparently long in vain – it ultimately becomes successful, and sinners are at last brought to abandon their sins, and to turn unto God.

‘[Yet] It is indeed often rejected and despised.’ It falls on the ears of people apparently as the rain falls on the hard rock, and there are, so to speak, large fields where the Gospel is preached as barren and unfruitful of any spiritual good as the extended desert is of vegetation, and the Gospel seems to be preached to almost entire communities with as little effect as is produced when the rains fall on the deserts of Arabia, or of Africa. ‘But there will be better and happier times.’ Though the Gospel may not now produce all the good effects which we may desire, yet it will be ultimately successful to the full wish of the widest benevolence, and the whole world shall be filled with the Knowledge and the Love of God.”– JOSEPH BENSON, Notes on the Holy Bible, 6 vols., 1811-1818; edited

II. PRELUDE

Beloved, I am quickly reminded here of my daughter Christina’s Life Promise Prayer against her life-long, sometimes desperate struggle with Crohn’s Disease:

“[What, what would have become of me] had I not believed that I would see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living! Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord.” – PSALM 27:13-14, AMPC

I recall one agonizing night a couple of years ago when she was still living with us hearing her literally shrieking in pain from her middle of the night bathroom, tears streaming down her face: 

“God! No matter what, I will never abandon You!”

I have no idea if I have that sort of faith and pray that I do in the days before us, should I be called upon to suffer for Christ. I know I have despaired on occasion about whether or not I can continue this Circuit Ride Mission but have resolved – at His Instruction – that ‘I shall never, ever stop!’ Unless God Himself of course, tells me to lay down my pen.

Christina has a Divine Promise for healing. I have a Divine Promise that the Circuit Ride-Peloton Mission shall increase and succeed, despite overwhelming opposition. Or in the word of one of our Courageous Predecessors who stood before another Renegade Religious Authority over 500 years ago:

“Since your most serene majesty and your highnesses require of me a simple, clear, and direct answer, I will give one, and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the Pope or to the Council, because it is clear that they have fallen into error and even into inconsistency with themselves. If, then, I am not convinced by proof from Holy Scripture, or by cogent reasons, if I am not satisfied by the very text I have cited, and if my judgment is not in this way brought into subjection to God’s Word, I neither can nor will retract anything; for it cannot be either safe or honest for a Christian to speak against his conscience. ‘Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.’” – MARTIN LUTHER, The Diet of Worms, April 18, 1521; edited

THE SEARCH.  ^“I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for [the sake of] the land, that I would not destroy it, but I found no one [not even one]. Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; I have repaid their way [by bringing it] upon their own heads,’ says the Lord God.” – EZEKIEL 22:30, AMP

To the Point of this Essay, beloved. ‘God is still looking for a man among us” who shall Stand in the Gap before Him.’ The Outcome of such Intercession is not up to us – only that God can identify such Men of Valor.

America’s lamentable condition is captured by JOSEPH BARNES’ Commentary on Israel’s similar dismal circumstance over 2,500 years and more ago. “The Land might be said to perish for the lack of such interpositions as saved their forefathers when Moses ‘Stood in the gap.’ This was a proof of the General Corruption, that there was not in the city sufficient righteousness to save it from utter destruction. ‘Prince, Prophet, Priest, all fail!’” – Notes on the Holy Bible, 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

So WHY would God today continue to search for the Gap Standers if the Nation could not be saved? I have said it many times, beloved, in the timeless Words of JUDE THE APOSTLE:

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit,keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.” – 1:20-23, NKJV

Friends, in these Waning Hours of History as we have known it, we are ‘On Mission’ To: (1) Keep ourselves in Christ, in order to (2) Rescue the lost – both outside the Faith and, sadly enough Inside God’s House as well.

Not to build houses and make mounds of money nor have more vacation time. No! No! ‘To fulfill the Great Commission,’ best we can, with the moments left to us.

Selah.

III. THE GAP STANDERS

“STANDING IN THE GAP.” ‘To actively protect or advocate for someone else, especially when they are vulnerable or in danger.’ Essentially filling in a space where protection is needed, often used in a religious context to describe ‘fervent prayer’ on behalf of others; the phrase originates from the Biblical image of standing in a breach in a city wall to defend against attackers.” – AI Summary, ret. Jan. 12, 2025; edited

THE QUESTION. ‘Does the American Church possess any Conservative White Gap Standers for Righteousness in 2025, who shall Protect and Defend Christ and His Canon that are currently under unprecedented assault?’

After nearly a 10-Year Search for such men and women, as of January 2025, I have found: TEN. These individuals have at one time or another taken a visible stand against Trump or Trumpism, or continue to do so. I shall briefly Profile each person so that you can add these to your own lists of courageous voices who have taken their stand against this present and pervasive Trumpian Darkness.

They are, in no particular order of importance, as follows. I consider this unofficial list of AMERICAN HEROES – To the Cause of Biblical Truth. Though none are, by any measure, perfect. Nonetheless stepped up, stepped out, and risked all to tell the truth of Donald Trump – and paid the price.

1. DR. RUSSELL MOORE. Pastor, Editor-in-Chief, ‘Christianity Today.’
2. David French. Author, attorney, journalist.
3. Brother James Key. YouTube Bible Teacher.
4. Brother Paul. YouTube Bible Teacher: “Antichrist 45.”
5. Beth Moore. Anglican evangelist, Bible teacher: “Living Proof Ministries.”
6. Pastor Pat Kahnke. YouTube Minister: “Culture, Faith & Politics.”
7. Amy Hawk. YouTube Bible Teacher; Author, ‘The Judas Effect’ (2024).
8. Mark Galli. American CatholicAuthor, Editor; Currently on sabbatical.
9. Doug Pagitt. Progressive Evangelical Pastor, Author: “Solomon’s Porch.”
10. Tim Alberta. American Journalist and Author: ‘The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory’ (2023).

NOTE. By most official estimates, the United States counts approximately 370 million citizens, 100 million self-proclaimed Protestant Christians (Mainline, Evangelicals, Pentecostals, Charismatics). From those populations, there are about 10,000 full time Pastors in America. Now please take special note:

I can count ONLY TEN men and women of Truth concerning the Trump Phenomenon. Beloved, that is by my calculation: Only 1/1000^th of the entire Christian Pastor-Teacher-Influencer community in America today, is willing to preach the Whole Truth about the Abomination of Donald Trump’s single-handed Usurpation of American Christianity.

Yet the Evidence is undeniably clear:

“Let no one in any way deceive or entrap you, for that day will not come unless THE APOSTASY comes first [that is, the great rebellion, the abandonment of the faith by professed Christians], and the MAN OF LAWLESSNESS is revealed, the son of destruction [the Antichrist, the one who is destined to be destroyed], who opposes and exalts himself [so proudly and so insolently] above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he [actually enters and] takes his seat in the temple of God, publicly proclaiming that he himself is God.” – 2 THESSALONIANS 2:3-4, AMP

Now it must be true that there are many more out there, but if so, why can we not identify them? Why are their voices not being heard on a regular and prominent basis?

IV. WHY SO FEW?

To take this important conversation home in response to that Vital Question, I turn once again to the arguable Dean of Christian Resistance to the Trump Juggernaut, DR. RUSSELL MOORE, who currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of Christianity Today. He recently penned a truly thoughtful piece in that journal, titled, “Evangelicals Don’t Love Trump Enough” (June 7, 2024; edited).

As is my practice, I review his MAIN IDEAS in the Bullet Point Summary that follows for your convenience.

• OPEN. “For the first time in history, a former [and now 47^th] President of the United States is a convicted felon. A jury found that Donald Trump falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment to a porn star, with whom he had an affair, in order to keep the story from hurting his 2016 presidential campaign. If only President Trump could have seen the reaction from many White Evangelicals to his sexual crimes and misdemeanors, he could have saved some money.”

• DEVOTION. “One might reasonably ask how White Evangelicals could possibly love Trump more. The most visible Evangelical supporters of the former President have been willing, since at least 2016, to wave away criticisms of his character, from the Access Hollywood tapes onward. Many of these voices defended the former president as fit for public leadership, even after a jury found him liable for doing just what he bragged about in those tapes of yesteryear: groping a woman’s genitals against her will. And now this. But all of that is precisely what I mean by asking about ‘Love.’”

• QUESTION. “The question has been on my mind since I read the galleys of a brilliant book on former President Richard Nixon, by Christianity Today journalist DANIEL SILLIMAN … ‘[He observes that] there was at least one Evangelical Pastor who spoke hard truths to Nixon.’ JOHN HUFFMAN, a Presbyterian Pastor in Florida, who had revered Nixon since his days as a young Republican at Wheaton College, preached to the President as he sat in the pews of his church in the midst of Watergate, calling both publicly and privately for Nixon to confess the truth. What’s most surprising to me is not that there was at least one courageous voice of integrity—I’m sure there were others too—but the reason that Huffman gave to Silliman for why he didn’t sidestep the question of guilt with Nixon:

‘I really loved the man!’” [Selah].

• INTEGRITY. [“Moral soundness or purity; incorruptness; uprightness; honesty.” – N. Webster, 1828]. “This, Silliman argues, is what made the difference. This Pastor didn’t see Nixon as a transactional figure for whom one should trade unquestioning loyalty for a set of policy positions—much less the proverbial seat at the table. ‘He saw him as a human being’—a person loved by God, and a person who would ultimately stand, as all of us will, before the Judgment Seat.”

• REALITY. “The former President’s defenders are too smart to believe what some of them imply—that Trump never really knew Stormy Daniels and that he was paying her six figures of hush money to keep her from talking about something that never happened. So what message does it send when—like every other political constituency—we find ways to minimize that by suggesting that the cultural and political stakes are too high to worry about such minor matters as keeping one’s vows or telling the truth?”

• • LOVE. “Some of us believe strongly in the separation of Church and Trump. ‘But maybe the problem is not primarily that so many Evangelicals love Trump but that they love him so little that they are willing to say to those who follow his direction, “This is fine, so long as you give us what we want.’” Is it really love to use someone to achieve one’s goals—never even asking what the transaction is doing to that person? And then to just pretend that all of it never happened, and, if it did, everybody does it so it’s okay? … ‘God loves those who will wreck their lives following his moral example. That’s not in doubt. The Question is—Do we?’”

V. LAST THOUGHTS

PASTORS. Therefore, in the Spirit of Hard Truth and Tough Love, I must remind us all of the incandescent Words of our King: “If you [really] love Me, you will keep and OBEY My commandments.” – JOHN 14:15, AMP

As a student of the Sacred Canon and Gospel of Christ, and after ten years of close observation of the American Pulpit, I can only conclude the following:

“Gentlemen, you do NOT love nor fear God nearly enough! Rather, you fear man more than Him, and particularly One Man: Donald Trump, Antichrist, and the Last President of a dying Nation, the United States of America. Therefore Repent! And draw near to the One who still forgives and restores the Humble but remains an Enemy to the Proud. Time is nearly spent. Do not delay!”

THE PROPHET EZEKIEL. “Therefore tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord God, ‘I will put an end to this proverb, and they will no longer use it as a proverb in Israel.’ But say to them, ‘The days draw near as well as the fulfillment of every vision.’” – EZEKIEL 12:23, AMP

I sincerely submit this to the very Court of Heaven, and to His Word and the Remnant Church, to be adjudicated as He will. God help me!

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/Uy05maf8UKU