NOTES ON ST. TIMOTHY’S ‘PERILOUS TIMES:’ A THEOLOGICAL PROFILE OF TRUMP’S HISTORIC MAGA CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS

SCRIPTURE. “But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times [of great stress and trouble] will come [difficult days that will be hard to bear]. For people will be lovers of self [narcissistic, self-focused], lovers of money [impelled by greed], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane, [and they will be] unloving [devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of self-control [intemperate, immoral], brutal, haters of good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of [sensual] pleasure rather than lovers of God holding to a form of [outward] godliness (religion), although they have denied its power [for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith]. Avoid such people and keep far away from them.” – 2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5, AMP

MAGA. “‘Make America Great Again’ or MAGA (/ˈmæɡə/) is a campaign slogan used in American politics popularized by Donald Trump in his successful 2016 presidential campaign. Since its popularization in the 2010s, the slogan has been accused by some of being a loaded phrase. Multiple journalists, scholars, and commentators have called the slogan racist, regarding it as dog-whistle politics and coded language. Some have rejected the racist characterization, saying that the slogan is instead ‘[Hyper] patriotic or American Nationalist.’” – ‘Wikipedia,’ Dec. 5, 2022; edited

QUOTATIONS

FLIES. “We’ve got to have rules and obey them. After all, we’re not savages. We’re English, and ‘the English are best at everything.’” ― WILLIAM GOLDING, ‘Lord of the Flies,’ 1954

DREAM. “America is an Idea, a Dream rooted in a Directed Vision that boldly declares that life is not simply meant to be endured but enjoyed through ‘our pursuit of happiness;’that liberty and justice are not granted by a privileged few but earned by the oppressed through their devotion toward a more perfect union; and that the progress of inching ever closer toward the sanctity of what America must be takes a multigenerational marathon of endurance, vigilance, and, above all, responsibility.” ― MICHAEL C. HAYMES, Author of ‘Remember Who You Want to Be,’ 2022; edited

TRUTH. “And if they had been thinking of that ‘country’ from which they departed [as their true home], they would have had [a continuing] opportunity to return. But the truth is that they were longing for ‘a better country,’ that is, a heavenly one. For that reason, God is not ashamed [of them or] to be called their God [even to be surnamed their God—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob]; for ‘He has prepared a city for them.’” – PAUL THE APOSTLE, Romans 13:15-16, Amplified

Selah.

1. FIRST THOUGHTS

At considerable risk of wearing out an already well-worn phrase: ‘America is at an Epochal Crossroad today.’ I would go so far as even calling it ‘Existential,’ since what we decide in just the next few months and years as a country will largely determine our ‘Telos’ [τέλος], or our ‘Prophetic Aim or Final Purpose’ for which we were intended.

Pretty big stuff, wouldn’t you say?

ORIGINS OF THE AMERICAN VISION. Once again, I turn to the formidable thinking of a man referred to as “The Father of American Conservatism,” RUSSELL KIRK. In his epic work, ‘The Roots of American Order’ (1974), he opens the second chapter with stirring words that I shall never forget since reading them for the first time over 30 years ago.

“‘The Tap Root of American Order runs deep into a Levantine desert;’ it began to grow some thirteen centuries before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Through Moses the Moral Principles that move the Civilization of Europe and America and much more of the world first obtained clear expression. By an extraordinary perception, the Israelites came to understand the human condition as it had not been understood before. Through Moses, the Hebrews learned more distinctly that there watched over them an all-powerful Intelligence which gave them their moral nature … [JOHN] ADAMS wrote in 1809. ‘If I were an Atheist, and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument of civilizing the nations.’”

Those words fire my soul still today! It was upon that great Sinaitic Edifice that the American Founders would assemble their brilliant, Biblical political philosophy first expressed in the timeless words of our Declaration of Independence, cannoned ‘cross the face of the whole earth on July 4, 1776 (edited).

“‘We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,’ that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,–That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

CRACKS IN THE FOUNDATION. And yet, into this near perfect Vision of Freedom was to be found FOUR FISSURES that would haunt the American experience until this very day. I wrote of these Four Fractures in an essay entitled, “A Reckoning on Christopher Columbus and the End of Days” on October 22, 2022.

• SLAVERY. “The Constitution’s biggest flaw was in protecting the Institution of Slavery. Many constitutional provisions did this … [Even today’s] Amendment 13, Section I [states]: ‘Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, “except” as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.’”

• SLAUGHTER. “From the time Europeans arrived on American shores, the Frontier – the edge territory between White man’s civilization and the untamed natural world – became a shared space of vast, clashing differences that led the U.S. government to authorize over 1,500 wars, attacks and raids on Indians, the most of any country in the world against its Indigenous people … The bloodiest and most defining illustration of racial predilection is in the genocidal ‘Trail of Tears’ event of 1838, in which President Andrew Jackson authorized the Cherokee people to be forcibly taken from their homes, incarcerated in stockades, forced to walk more than a thousand miles, and removed to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. More than 4,000 died and many are buried in unmarked graves along ‘The Trail Where They Cried.’”

• STEALING. “The United States conducted an extended campaign of territorial acquisition against its southern neighbors in three premeditated and ruthless military operations — the expropriation of Florida from Spain in 1819, the covert political and military machinations in Texas that ultimately led to annexation in 1845, and the infamous War of the United States on Mexico in 1846 that ended with the ignoble ‘Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.’ The ‘Gadsden Treaty of 1854,’ secured by bribery and extortion, transferred even more Mexican territory into U.S. hands. The great American land-grab was one of the most successful in history — by the end of this thirty-five year period the United States had stolen more than 2.6 million square kilometers (over one million square miles) of land and the birthright of the Mexican people. The driving force of American imperialism in the South and Southwest was to establish an empire for the institution of Slavery.”

• SACRILEGE. In a somewhat tangentially related Fissure in our Foundation is America’s long history alongside ‘Freemasonry.’ Beginning with GEORGE WASHINGTON, our first president who had reached the level of Master Mason, a large number of other presidents followed in suit.” Here’s a brief sample of some of the Core Beliefs of American Freemasonry (from Encyclopedia Britannica, ret. Dec. 11, 2022; edited). “Freemasonry has always been religious in character, though it subscribes to no particular orthodoxy. To become a Freemason, the applicant has to be an adult male and must believe in the existence of a supreme being and in the immortality of the soul. The teachings of Freemasonry enjoin morality, charity, and obedience to the law of the land. It is not, however, a Christian institution, though it is often taken to be such. In fact, Freemasonry has received considerable opposition from organized religion, the Roman Catholic Church in particular. In practice, some lodges have been accused of religious prejudices, specifically against Jews and Catholics. They have also been accused of anticlericalism in Latin American countries. In Anglo-American countries the membership consists of mostly white Protestants; some lodges have been accused of prejudice against nonwhites.”

ETHNIC NATIONALISM. Now I want each of you to take a very careful look of each of these Four Fissures in the American Founding. If you cannot see the clear and present unifying thread through all four, then it’s time to open your eyes. These Original Fault Lines constitute the foundation not so much of a gallant American Order, but rather of an ‘American Proclivity for that White Protestantism’ cited by Mr. Huntington.

I flatly propose to you that the current juggernaut of Trump Nationalism that has infested our Church has its original justification in these arcane, misplaced yet undeniable First Presuppositions that have tried, unsuccessfully, to exist side by side with our Principles of Freedom from our founding documents.

Selah.

1. RISE OF THE MAGA CHURCH

Today in 2022 on the cusp of 2023, almost all Americans associate the phrase, “Make America Great Again” with DONALD JOHN TRUMP. On close examination of American political history, however, this is not the case, as Wikipedia makes clear in its report of December 5, 2022.

• ALEXANDER WILEY. Republican Senator Alexander Wiley employed the phrase in a speech at the third session of the 76th Congress ahead of the 1940 presidential election: “America needs a leader who can coordinate labor, capital, and management; who can give the man of enterprise encouragement, who can give them the spirit which will beget vision. That will make America great again.”

• BARRY GOLDWATER. The slogan was found in some advertising associated with Barry Goldwater‘s unsuccessful 1964 presidential campaign.

• RONALD REAGAN. “Let’s make America great again” was famously used in Ronald Reagan‘s 1980 presidential campaign. At the time the United States was suffering from a worsening economy at home marked by stagflation.

• BILL CLINTON. The phrase was also used in speeches by Bill Clinton during his 1992 presidential campaign. Clinton also used the phrase in a radio commercial aired for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential primary campaign.

• DONALD TRUMP. In December 2011, Trump made a statement in which he said he was unwilling to rule out running as a presidential candidate in the future, explaining “I must leave all of my options open because, ‘above all else, we must make America great again.’” Also in December 2011, he published a book using as a subtitle the similar phrase “Making America #1 Again” – which in a 2015 reissue was changed to “Make America Great Again!”

TRANSFORMATION TO “QMAGA.” in a riveting piece by ALEX HENDERSON writing for Salon on September 26, 2022, we are instructed of the chilling evolution from mere political narrative to Dark Spiritual Cultism that began to take place. The very title of his article speaks volumes:

“The Rise of ‘QMaga’: Conspiracy Theorists, Christian Nationalists Unite as MAGA Movement Gets Darker.” What Mr. Henderson describes in detail is rightly heralded as a GAME CHANGER.

“During his 2020 campaign, former President Donald Trump made a point of being vague when discussing the far-right QAnon Movement. Trump refrained from overtly promoting QAnon and its conspiracy theories, but he wouldn’t say anything critical of them either and claimed that he “didn’t know much about” their Movement.

Times have changed. Trump is now openly promoting QAnon and is using exact phrases associated with the group, including ‘The Storm’ [American coup d’é·tat] and their slogan ‘Where we go one, we go all.’ And Trump is hardly the only MAGA Republican who is embracing QAnon. Mother Jones’ DAVID CORN describes the intersection of QAnon, MAGA and “Christian Nationalism” as ‘QMaga,’ attacking it as an Authoritarian threat to U.S. democracy in an article that was originally published in his ‘Our Land’ newsletter and was republished by Mother Jones on September 23. Extremism in the GOP is a subject that Corn also tackles in his new book, ‘American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy’ [Sep. 2022] …

The fictional ‘Evildoers’ that Corn is referring to are, according to QAnon’s outlandish Conspiracy Theory, an International Cabal of child sex traffickers, pedophiles, Satanists and cannibals who have hijacked the United States’ federal government. Trump, as QAnon sees it, was elected president in 2016 to fight the Cabal — and QAnon believes that Trump’s battle against the forces of Darkness didn’t end when he lost the 2020 election. Members of QAnon were among the Far-Right Trump supporters who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 …

‘The irrationality has spread from the evidence-free belief that sinister players — China, Venezuela, the CIA, the media, Democrats, voting machine companies — conspired to steal the election from Trump to the conviction that American politics has become a clash between patriotic Christians and cannibalistic Satan-worshipping pedophiles,’ Corn explains.”

Thus, we are immersed in the darkest and most sinister False Reports perhaps in all of American political history. And it has a name.

SYNCRETISM. “Religious Syncretism often takes place when foreign beliefs are introduced to an indigenous belief system and the teachings are blended. The ‘New, Heterogeneous Religion’ then takes a shape of its own.” – EDITORS, ‘Got Questions,’ ret. Dec. 12, 2022; edited

I want you all to pause for a most serious and sober moment here, to absorb the historic impact of what has taken place in only six years in the vast majority of the American Church – as I often say – either by Heretical Affirmation or Timid Silence. Beloved, there is only one possible interpretation of these hard facts:

The majority of the American Protestant Church is becoming Apostate.

Many Scriptures come racing to the forefront of my thinking about all this, but there’s one in particular that I often quote in my online Commentaries and side notes attached to this Great Debate over the soul of both Church and State.

“Do not be unequally bound together with unbelievers [do not make mismatched alliances with them, inconsistent with your faith]. For what partnership can righteousness have with lawlessness? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? ‘What harmony can there be between Christ and Belial (Satan)?’ Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?” – 2 CORINTHIANS 6:14-15, AMP

COME OUT! If you are sitting in a church that espouses Trump Christian Nationalism in any form or by any justification or excuse, or if you are sitting in a church that turns its gaze away from it and ignores it in cowardly silence, then by God’s incandescent Word, you must leave!

And more, if you hold even slight communion with, attachment to or approval of, directly or passively, with these ‘doctrines of demons’ (1 Timothy 4:1) in a sustained way without Repentance, you shall surely perish at The Judgment.

Selah.

1. THE TEACHING

SCRIPTURE. “But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times [of great stress and trouble] will come [difficult days that will be hard to bear]. For people will be lovers of self [narcissistic, self-focused], lovers of money [impelled by greed], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane, [and they will be] unloving [devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of self-control [intemperate, immoral], brutal, haters of good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of [sensual] pleasure rather than lovers of God holding to a form of [outward] godliness (religion), although they have denied its power [for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith]. Avoid such people and keep far away from them.” – 2 TIMOTHY 3:1-5, AMP

MAGA PROFILE. So now let’s go straight to these razor-sharp points regarding Christians who lift the Banner of Trump’s Christian Nationalism in any fashion. By their TRUMP-LIKE CONDUCT, they match Paul’s Epistle to Timothy to the letter, jot, and tittle.

The sobering application is made brilliantly by theologian and academician, WILLIAM MACDONALD, in ‘Believer’s Bible Commentary’ (1995, p. 2120; edited).

• LOVERS OF THEMSELVES. Self-centered, conceited, egotistical.

• LOVERS OF MONEY. Greedy for money, avaricious.

• BOASTERS.  Braggarts, full of great swelling words.

• PROUD. Arrogant, haughty, overbearing.

• DISOBEDIENT. Rebellious, undutiful, uncontrolled.

• UNTHANKFUL. Ungrateful, lacking in appreciation.

• UNHOLY. Impious, profane, irreverent, holding nothing sacred.

• UNLOVING. Hard-hearted, unnaturally callous, unfeeling.

• UNFORGIVING. Implacable, refusing to make peace, refusing efforts toward reconciliation.

• SLANDERERS. Spreading false and malicious reports.

• WITHOUT SELF-CONTROL. Men of uncontrolled passions, dissolute, debauched.

• BRUTAL. Savage, unprincipled.

• DESPISERS OF GOOD. Haters of whatever or whoever is good; utterly opposed to goodness in any form.

• TRAITORS. Treacherous, betrayers of oaths and covenants.

• HEADSTRONG. Reckless, self-willed, rash.

• HAUGHTY. Making empty pretensions, conceited.

• LOVERS OF PLEASURE. Rather than lovers of God- those who love sensual pleasures but not God.

• BLASPHEMERS! Evil speakers, profane, abusive, foul mouthed, contemptuous, insulting (‘Diabolos’ [διάβολος]: To be of the Devil, ‘a hater of God and Truth;’ properly, to derive their origin from the Devil, tropically, to depend upon the Devil in thought and action, to be prompted and governed by him). DK. Therefore, spawned from and obedient to the Spirit of Antichrist.

• OUTWARD. These people seem religious. They make a profession of Christianity, but their actions speak louder than their words. By their ungodly behavior, they show that they are living a lie. There is no evidence of the power of God in their lives.

• FROM ALL SUCH PEOPLE. Timothy is severely exhorted to: ‘Turn away!’ These are the vessels described in the previous chapter from which he is to purge himself. Among the corrupt men of the last days, Paul now singles out a particular group, namely leaders and teachers of false cults.

And yes, my friends, I am declaring exactly this: That the very heart and soul and dark purpose of TRUMP MAGA NATIONALISTS constitute nothing less than (1) The Overthrow of Constitutional Rule; by (2) The Resurrection of Godless Fascism in America. Indeed, what in fact the Scriptures clearly define as:

‘A Cult of Antichrist.’

COMMENTARY. The eminent Welsh theologian MATTHEW HENRY captures the enormity of this Doctrine in just a few words:

“Nothing so much prevents men from entering the Strait Gate, and becoming true followers of Christ, as the carnal, soothing, flattering ‘doctrines of those who oppose the Truth.’ They may be known by the drift and effects of their doctrines. Some part of their temper and conduct is contrary to the Mind of Christ. Those opinions come not from God that lead to sin.” – An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

DK. Beloved, can there be any doubt in any thoughtful Christian’s mind or even among our unbelieving friends, in the wisdom and veracity of these sayings? I cannot imagine there would be, but I also know there yet shall be from those who are pierced through by them.

Pray for them, until the time comes as it must, when God says: “Stop, pray no more!” – cf. Jer. 7:16; 11:14; 14:11

1. LAST THOUGHTS

Given this rather endless and steady Drumbeat of dreadful portents for the Nation and the Church, a central burning QUESTION screams to be addressed: “What’s a person to do?”

Well, I have some very, very Good News for all of you true Christians. And for all those who sincerely aspire to become one. The beginning of our Answer is to be found in an eloquent Declaration by Dutch Reformed theologian, political leader and Christian journalist, ABRAHAM KUYPER.

“There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, ‘Mine!’”

While I do not agree with all of Kuyper’s Calvinism, I do strongly agree with his assertion here. THE PSALMIST provides solid doctrinal support that is often quoted in association with this idea by the late DR. FRANCIS SCHAEFFER: “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness of it, the world and they who dwell in it” (24:1, Amplified Classic Edition).

THE PRINCIPLE. From this we understand the inexorable theological claim: There is not a single issue nor a single problem nor a single crisis nor a single opposition of any kind that cannot be overwhelmed and overcome by the combined force of ‘God’s Word of Truth and the power of the Holy Spirit.’

Not. One!

While pondering all of this just a few mornings ago I came across a wonderful passage that seemed to go directly to the heart of what I want to share as we begin to address that Question: ‘What can we possibly do about all this?’

THE ANSWER. ‘Live your life before God with zeal, order, honor, truth, courage and compassion.’ Here again is Paul’s Letter to the Church at Ephesus.

“Therefore see that you walk carefully [living life with honor, purpose, and courage; shunning those who tolerate and enable evil], not as the unwise, but as wise [sensible, intelligent, discerning people], making the very most of your time [on earth, recognizing and taking advantage of each opportunity and using it with wisdom and diligence], because the days are [filled with] evil.” – EPHESIANS 5:15-16, AMP

• WALK CAREFULLY. From the Greek, ‘Akribós’ [ἀκριβῶς], meaning: “Diligently, exactly, strictly, distinctly; circumspectly; by a most thorough investigation and inquiry; cautiously; with watchfulness every way; with attention to guard against surprise or danger [as with a soldier on guard duty].”

• BE WISE. Here the term is, ‘Sophos’ [σοφός], or: “The ability to apply Spiritual Truth to one’s life; learned, cultivated, skilled, clever; expert; governed by piety and integrity; forming the best plans and using the best means for their execution; respectful of Divine Principles; practically skilled in the affairs of life exhibiting knowledge and insight.”

• REDEEM THE TIME. Defined by the word, ‘Exagorazó’ [ἐξαγοράζω]: “To rescue from loss of opportunity; take full advantage of; buy up or purchase; to ransom; to liberate or rescue from captivity or bondage, or from any obligation or liability to suffer or to be forfeited, by paying an equivalent; to rescue, recover or deliver from.”

• RECOGNIZE EVIL. From the Greek, ‘Ponéros’ [πονηρός]: “That which is toilsome, bad; wicked, malicious, slothful; properly, pain-ridden, emphasizing the inevitable agonies (anguish, misery) that always go with evil; degeneracy from an original virtue; calamitous, diseased, derelict; vicious, grievous; wicked.”

COMMENTARY. “‘See then’ — That you may be fit to reprove sin in others; ‘that ye’ — Yourselves, upon whom the light of Christ already shines; ‘walk circumspectly’ — Ακριβως, ‘accurately,’ with the utmost exactness; making His will, as made known to you in His Word,’ your rule, and His glory your end, in all your actions, cares, labours, and pursuits; taking the most attentive heed to every step, and conducting yourselves, ‘not as fools,’ who have no understanding of their duty or interest, and who consider not what they are doing, in what way they are proceeding forward, or where it will terminate; ‘but as wise’ men — Who know the worth of their immortal souls, the snares that are or will be laid to entangle them, by their subtle and powerful enemies, the many pressing dangers they have to avoid, and the important ends they have to secure. 

‘Redeeming the time’ — With all possible care, εξαγοραζομενοι, ‘buying it up,’ as it were, as a most precious commodity, (though held cheap by many,) out of the hands of sin and Satan, of sloth, ease, pleasure, and worldly business, which may be done at the expense of a little self-denial, watchfulness, zeal, and diligence, which will be amply recompensed in time and in eternity; or endeavouring to recover and buy back, (as the word may signify,) as far as possible, what has been lost, by diligently making use of what remains, especially in embracing every opportunity of receiving and doing good, and studying to improve every one to the best purposes.

And this the rather, ‘because the days are evil’— Days of the grossest ignorance, immorality, and profaneness; so that being surrounded on every side with bad examples, we are in danger of being corrupted, and are at the same time exposed to various persecutions and perils, and know not how soon we may be deprived of our liberty or lives. ‘Wherefore’ — Since the times are so evil, and the danger so great; ‘be ye not unwise’ — Ignorant of your duty and true interest, negligent of the concerns of your immortal souls, and inconsiderate as you formerly were; ‘but understanding what the will of the Lord is’— In every time, place, and circumstance.” – JOSEPH BENSON, ‘Notes on the Holy Bible,’ 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

CODA. Therefore, the GOOD NEWS is that there is a way to not only survive ‘This Present Darkness,’ but also to master and conquer it! But all of it, beloved, every single inch of ground that we must walk in these Days of Treachery, must be marked by one organic, root-level ability in unfailing obedience:

“Love is to be sincere and active [THE REAL THING—without guile and hypocrisy]. Hate what is evil [detest all ungodliness, do not tolerate wickedness]; hold on tightly to what is good.”- ROMANS 12:9, AMP, emph. added

Yes, my friends, ‘God is Love,’ certainly. But that part of the Canon that the American Church has at first diluted, then increasingly marginalized, and today has utterly annihilated it from the American Gospel is the equally important Truth that ‘God also Hates.’

As passionately, by the way, that He loves, does our God hate and detest and make war against all Evil – most especially when He finds it in His own House. This is precisely why the Apostle Paul wrote this severe warning:

“‘For it is the time [destined] for judgment to begin with the household of God;’ and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not respect or believe or obey the gospel of God?” – 1 PETER 4:17, AMP

THE LAST WORD. “People Get Ready” is a 1965 single by the Impressions, and the title track from the People Get Ready album. The Gospel-influenced track was a CURTIS MAYFIELD composition that displayed the growing sense of social and political awareness in his writing. – Wikipedia, Nov. 9. 2022; edited

Here are the powerful opening words to the song.  

“‘People get ready, there's a Train a comin.' You don't need no baggage, you just get on board. All you need is faith, to hear the diesels hummin.' Don't need no ticket, you just thank the Lord.”

RICK MOORE, writing for American Songwriter (2020), beautifully sums up the song’s Core Meaning.

“‘People Get Ready’ is a song about boarding a Train for the Christian Afterlife without ever actually mentioning the names God or Jesus, and feels like a song that wasn’t intentionally crafted, but was composed during a period of inspiration. From the album of the same name, ‘People Get Ready’ was released during a time of civil unrest in America, when the country was in turmoil over race relations and the Vietnam War just as Mayfield was beginning to infuse his work with social commentary.”

I submit to you all that America is again inside the Belly of the Beast in turmoil over race relations, the seeming inevitability of war overseas and Civil War here at home, the explosion of Anti-Semitism everywhere from the highest to the lowest places in our culture, the wholesale abandonment of Sound Doctrine by the White American Church, and finally, a sensual desire for things to return to the Party Spirit of the 1960’s.

LIKE FORMER DAYS. “And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built;  but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” – JESUS OF NAZARETH, Luke 17:26-30, New King James Version

It is coming, beloved! As sure as the sun shall rise tomorrow, it is coming to us all. The Lord is Coming, and the terrible Darkness of Day turned to Night. When all God’s true servants shall be swept up to be with Him in the clouds, and all sinners shall enter into Hell come to the Earth. Therefore, I sing:

“‘People get ready, there's a Train a comin.' You don't need no baggage, you just get on board. All you need is faith, to hear the diesels hummin.' Don't need no ticket, you just thank the Lord.”

Ever your servant, DK

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