WOE TO THE SHEPHERDS! THE LION OF JUDAH ROARS OUT OF ZION IN THE LAST DAYS – PART III: FIRST SHAKING

SCRIPTURE. “‘Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!’ says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: ‘You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings,’ says the Lord. ‘But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking,’ says the Lord.” – JEREMIAH 23:1-4, NKJV

KEY WORDS: Shepherds; Scatter; Attend; Remnant

QUOTATIONS

CHEKHOV. “This man, who for twenty-five years has been reading and writing about art, and in all that time has never understood anything about art, has for twenty-five years been hashing over other people’s ideas about Realism, Naturalism and all that nonsense; for twenty-five years he has been reading and writing about what intelligent people already know and about what stupid people don’t want to know–which means that for twenty-five years he’s been taking nothing and making nothing out of it. And with it all – ‘What conceit! What pretension!’” ― Anton Chekhov, Uncle Vanya, 1898; edited

ENGELA. “It seems to me that those who claim to be ‘True’ and ‘Bible believing’ Christians and yet spend all their time and energy spreading unhappiness and hatred for others – and are themselves consumed by it – are by the very definition of the term – False Prophets.” ― Christina Engela, For Love of Leelah, 2015; edited

HITCHCOCK. “The greatest danger to the Church today is not Humanism, Paganism, Atheism or Agnosticism. The greatest danger is not increasing hostility against our Faith from the culture. Our greatest danger is ‘Apostasy on the inside,’ arising from false teachers- theological liberals who deny and distort Biblical doctrine and lead others down the same path.” ― Mark Hitchcock, The Coming Apostasy, 2017; edited

Selah.

1. FIRST THOUGHTS

Teachers are terribly important people, but to listen to some of the popular folk sayings about them, one would not think so. One of the most well-known: “Those who can, do; those who cannot, teach.” This anecdote apparently originated in a play by GEORGE BERNARD SHAW, Man and Superman, produced in 1905.

On the extreme other hand, I have heard over my many years as a university professor that one teacher, or sometimes one lecture, changed the course of a life – for the better! So which view is the more accurate one? Well, ‘both, and’ I must admit.

An inept or corrupt teacher can nearly destroy a life, while a gifted one can bring wondrous focus and direction to a student. So, it all depends, you see. But on what?

TRUTH. There you go again, Dr. Kelly, slam dunking us with this incessant harangue about the importance of Truth. When are you ever going to change your message, Sir? In a word: Never! And here’s why, though I could cite literally dozens more Scriptures upon which to anchor this fiery point.

Jesus Christ taught this without an ounce of qualification: “So Jesus said to those Jews who had believed in Him, ‘If you abide in My word [hold fast to My teachings and live in accordance with them], you are truly My disciples. And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.’” (JOHN 8:31-32. AMPC).

My tirelessly repetitive point is once again, you can ‘Love’ people all you want beloved, but unless you share Truth alongside it, you can literally love them into Hell itself. Which to be absolutely frank with you is what I see the vast majority of the American Church doing today. Lovey-Doveying masses of Church goers into a nearly trance-like State of Delusion, of what the Beatles taught us long ago:

“Love is all you need!” – JOHN LENNON, ‘All You Need is Love,’ 1967

THE CHRISTIAN TRUMP CULT. I have written of this before, but it surely bears repeating given the seismic shift in Church Theology during the past 50 years or so. Below is some of the most stunningly inculpatory evidence for his claim available.

• DOCTRINAL CORRUPTION. “In a world that has become increasingly skeptical of, and hostile to, Christianity, where do Evangelicals stand? What happened to Evangelical churches? What does it mean to be an Evangelical? This paper argues that the Evangelical Movement has lost its way. Despite its creeds and confessions and high view of Scripture, many Evangelicals—including Evangelical leaders—pay lip-service to Biblical teaching. Many Evangelicals no longer steadfastly proclaim Biblical Truth, neither do they appear to expend much effort in preaching the Gospel and reaching the lost. Many Evangelical leaders now seem more interested in being liked by the public or obtaining a media profile, or building mutually respectful relationships with their ideological adversaries. The causes of these disturbing trends are examined and a call to self-examination and Repentance is issued.” – ANDREW S. KULIKOVSKY, “The Theological Corruption of the Evangelical Church,’’ Journal of Creation, 27(2):120–127, August 2013; edited

• THE BOSTON DECLARATION. The Boston Declaration, condemning the abuse of the Christian Faith by many conservatives today, was just written, signed and released by over 300 hundred Christian theologians attending the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, an annual meeting of nearly 10,000 professionals in Religion. In a dramatic press conference at Boston’s famous Old South Church, where many dressed in sackcloth and ashes to call for repentance and change in Christianity in the United States, the presenters were clear that white American Evangelicalism is in a crisis, a crisis of its own making. It has abandoned the Gospel of Jesus Christ … ‘We are here because Jesus taught us to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” We are here because we take the Parable of the Good Samaritan to heart. We are here because we refuse to allow Christianity to be co-opted by the likes of people who support abuse of women, the closing of our nation to the immigrant in need and the normalizing of lie after lie after lie.’” – DR. SUSAN BROOKS THISTLETWAITE, “Repent and Believe in the Gospel!” Huffington Post, Nov. 20, 2017; edited

• TRUMP CHURCH. “If anyone thought that Christian Nationalism would decline with President Donald Trump out of power, they were mistaken. Christian Nationalists believe, in general, that America is Christian, that the government should keep it that way, and that Trump was —and is— their best hope to accomplish that … ‘The only insurrection that happened on Jan. 6 was by the agent provocateurs, paid actors, and corrupt police and FBI,’ [Trump] says, disputing all the evidence made public in the more than 700 criminal cases that the rioters were Trump fanatics … [MURRAY CLEMETSON] would be among the 84% of White Evangelical Protestants who voted for Trump in 2020, according to the Pew Research Center. He is asked if the Patriot Church is a Donald Trump Church. ‘I think it is a Donald Trump church,’ he answers. ‘Donald Trump represented what we stand for as a nation. You go to flyover country and people have good moral values. They love the Lord and they want the best for the country. And that’s what Donald Trump tapped into. That’s what he represented.’” – JOHN BURNETT, “Christian Nationalism Is Still Thriving,” NPR, Jan. 23, 2022; edited

IN SUM. This is what we are up against, beloved. You up for the fight? If not, move aside and let someone who is take your place in line. There’s a War on, you know.

1. IMPACT: COLLAPSE OF THE AMERICAN CHURCH

As with almost all of God’s Judgments, they begin to manifest gradually, then intensify over time. Such is the case with the Collapse of the American Church. In what follows, I am going to review rather overwhelming evidence for that Collapse, beginning with the COVID-19 Pandemic, evolving now into nearly catastrophic decline.

DECLINING ATTENDANCE. Ironically enough, it was JON BROWN writing for Fox News Digital that alerted me to one of the first things to noticed indicating American Church Decline: The Drop in Attendance. He writes this.

“A recent study examining the effects of COVID-19 lockdowns on Church attendance in the U.S. has revealed that the pandemic ‘resulted in an overall depression of religious participation’ as ‘approximately a third of Americans have stopped attending religious services.’ The study, titled ‘Faith After the Pandemic: How COVID-19 Changed American Religion,’ was conducted by the Survey on American Life with the American Enterprise Institute and also found that young adults aged 18 to 29 showed the greatest drop-off in religious attendance of all age groups.” – “Third of Americans Have Quit Church,” Jan. 9, 2023; edited

More important than these surface scratch observations of American Church attendance is found in a deeper dive, asking WHY? Beyond the obvious effect of Covid restrictions upon the confusion over attending church due to medical concerns, what else could explain the now accelerating drop in going to church on regular basis?

CHURCH & POLITICS. I and others have written of this before, but it bears strong mention again here. The entrance of Republican (or “Conservative”) Politics into the bloodstream of the American Evangelical Church has very nearly killed it. The reasons are several, but one of which is its ‘Toxic Divisiveness’ that has reached historic proportions not seen since the American Civil War of the mid-1800s.

One can survey the Internet for hours and find dozens of ‘Reasons’ for this Collapse. ONLY ONE stands out for me in the midst of this myriad of studies along with my own research and observation of the Church-State condition for these past seven years:

Donald John Trump.

And yes, I knew that you knew that I was about to say that! Again. But don’t take my word for it, let’s look for a moment at the excellent analysis offered by veteran religion writer for the Religion News Service, BOB SMIETANA in his point-blank article entitled, “Trump Divided the Nation and Their Church, Experts Say, But Evangelical Fans Have Few Regrets” (RNS, Nov. 13, 2020; edited).

Let’s listen to his thoughtful opening salvo.

“Trillia Newbell believes the Bible tells her to pray for America’s leaders, so after the 2016 election, the Evangelical author and speaker posted an online prayer asking God to watch over President Donald Trump and give him strength and wisdom. Newbell did the same for President-elect Joe Biden last week. It was not well-received. ‘I put a prayer up for Biden/Harris, the exact same one I did for Trump, and someone told me to “Go to Hell,’” she wrote on Twitter …

‘My biggest concern is about those who are watching,’ Newbell told Religion News Service in a phone interview. ‘What a shame it is that people who don’t know Jesus are seeing Christians at each other’s throat.’ The faith that Evangelicals profess commands them to love their neighbors and to share the good news of their Gospel. That good news includes praying and working for the good of the whole country, not just Christians, said the Rev. Bob Roberts, an Evangelical pastor and church planter in Texas.

Roberts said he is thankful for the Trump administration’s support of religious freedom and for nominating pro-life Supreme Court justices. But backing the president has come with a cost, he said. Roberts said evangelicals share responsibility for the racial divides in the country and for taking the attitude that the end justifies the means. ‘I think because the Church is so messed up, our country is messed up,’ he said.”

FIRST SHAKING. Per my Subtitle for this third piece on the American Pastor, ‘God’s First Consequence for‘Going MAGA’is rapidly declining Attendance.’ We have already covered some of the causes of this historic decimation (e.g., Covid), but let me turn to still another analysis, this time by the ADAM GABBETT writing for The Guardian in his recent assessment entitled, “Losing Their Religion: Why US Churches Are on the Decline” (Jan. 22, 2023; edited).

“Churches are closing at rapid numbers in the US, researchers say, as congregations dwindle across the country and a younger generation of Americans abandon Christianity altogether – ‘even as faith continues to dominate American politics.’ As the US adjusts to an increasingly non-religious population, thousands of churches are closing each year in the country – a figure that experts believe may have accelerated since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The situation means some hard decisions for pastors, who have to decide when a dwindling congregation is no longer sustainable. ‘But it has also created a boom market for those wanting to buy churches, with former houses of worship now finding new life’ [Selah] …

But while Covid-19 may have accelerated the decline, there is a broader, long-running trend of people moving away from religion. In 2017 Lifeway surveyed young adults aged between 18 and 22 who had attended church regularly, for at least a year during high school. The firm found that ‘7 out of 10 had stopped attending church regularly.’”

Put in the simplest terms possible: THE AMERICAN CHURCH IS DYING. And, beloved, we have done it to ourselves!

JESUS REDUX. “But I have this [one charge to make] against you: that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first [you have deserted Me, your first love]. Remember then from what heights you have fallen. Repent (change the inner man to meet God’s will) and do the works you did previously [when first you knew the Lord], or else I will visit you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you change your mind and repent.” – REVELATION 2:4-5, AMPC

That is to say: I will close you down, remove your Candlestick from you, and you shall no longer be permitted to teach My Precepts ever again. Ever. Again. Unless you Repent, and quickly!

The Greater Tragedy: I don’t hear even a whisper in the breeze about Repentance in our churches anywhere. It isn’t there, my friends. Therefore, my sad conclusion so pointedly stated by Rev. Roberts: A “messed up Church” is unmistakable Harbinger of a “messed up country.”

If the Church will not do what it must, not even a Trump or Biden nor DeSantis or Haley or Pence or Scott or Rubio or Youngkin or Noem or Pompeo or even a Liz Cheney will be able to repair the fatal wounds.

1. THE TEACHING

SCRIPTURE. “‘Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!’ says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: ‘You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings,’ says the Lord. ‘But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking,’ says the Lord.’” – JEREMIAH 23:1-4, NKJV

CONTEXT. “Jeremiah was born and grew up in the village of Anathoth, a few miles northeast of Jerusalem, in a priestly family. In his childhood he must have learned some of the traditions of his people, particularly the prophecies of Hosea, whose influence can be seen in his early messages … ‘Jeremiah’s early messages to the people were condemnations of them for their false worship and social injustice, with summons to Repentance.’ He proclaimed the coming of a foe from the north, symbolized by a boiling pot facing from the north in one of his visions, that would cause great destruction …

This sketch of Jeremiah’s life portrays him as a courageous and persistent prophet who often had to endure physical suffering for his fidelity to the Prophetic Call. He also suffered inner doubts and conflicts, as his own words reveal, especially those passages that are usually called his “confessions” (Jeremiah 11:18–12:6; 15:10–21; 17:9–10, 14–18; 18:18–23; 20:7–12, 14–18). They reveal a strong conflict between Jeremiah’s natural inclinations and his deep sense of vocation to deliver Yahweh’s message to the people. Jeremiah was by nature sensitive, introspective, and perhaps shy. He was denied participation in the ordinary joys and sorrows of his fellowmen and did not marry. He thus could say, “I sat alone,’ with God’s hand upon him …. Yet there were times of exaltation when he could say to God, ‘Thy words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart,’ and he could speak of Yahweh as ‘a Dread Warrior’ fighting by his side.” – J. PHILLIP HYATT, Professor of Old Testament, Britannica, Jul. 20, 1998; edited

FOUR KEY TERMS. In the interests of some brevity in this far reaching passage and teaching, I’m going to reduce a longer list Key Ideas to just four.

• SHEPHERD. From the Hebrew, ‘Ra’ah’ [רָעָה], meaning: “Figurative of a ruler or teacher overseeing a flock; i.e, ‘a pastor;’ one responsible for feeding and overseeing God’s people; lit., to graze; to pasture; to entreat [to God’s Truth]; a herdsman; in the context of the Christian Faith, a minister of the Gospel who has the charge of a church and congregation, whose duty is to watch over the people of his charge, and instruct them in the sacred doctrines of the Christian Religion.”

• SCATTER. In the Hebrew, ‘Puwts’ [פוּץ]: “To dash into pieces; to disperse or drive away [from God’s Word]; to break asunder; spread abroad [into disparate parts]; to dissipate; to separate or remove things to a distance from each other; to throw loosely about; to throw in random directions [creating confusion and chaos]; to cause to separate widely; fling away heedless; cause to vanish [or cease]; to distribute irregularly; to divide into ineffectual small portions; to cast in all directions; to deflect [from Truth].”

• ATTEND. A complex term, ‘Paqad’ [פְקַד], meaning: “To visit [in context, with hostile intent; to punish]; to oversee in order to avenge; to charge, count, hurt or do judgment; to reckon with or search out [failure]; to number [as in evaluate]; to determine what is lacking or missing; to deal with appointed officers; (pastors, shepherds); to be mustered [as in a roll call for close scrutiny]; to wait for or lie in wait.”

• REMNANT. So, while Jesus is “attending to” the reprobate shepherds, He is at the same time gathering in and assembling the faithful Remnant. From the Hebrew, ‘Sheerith’ [שְׁאֵרִית]: “A remainder or residual; the surviving portion [from a catastrophe or judgment]; those brought into God’s Rest; the few that remain faithful to God; those who escape [wrath]; the Lord’s posterity [or, future generations]; that which is left after the separation, removal or destruction of a part.”

DK. I trust, beloved, you are seeing what I see: an epochal, final, Divine Completion of the Great Sifting that has been taking place in the Birth Pangs runup to the Return of Messiah, to gather His Wheat into the Barn, and cast the rest into The Fire of Perdition.

“His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear out His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat (believers) into His barn (kingdom), but He will burn up the chaff (the unrepentant) with unquenchable fire.” – MATTHEW 3:12, AMP

My great fear for the Church, in the words of a dear friend in conversation just last evening, is that Pastors and Teachers are not taking Christ and Christian Faith seriously. Church has become, in literal terms I have heard from so many pulpits: “A Time to Have Fun!”

What travesty is this that has dared to reduce the Lord of the Cross to a Master of Ceremonies at an unspiritual Festival of Entertainment! In fact, it reminds quickly of “Festivus,” a secular Anti-Christmas celebration held on December 23, to make merry, air grievances, and honor the television character of Seinfeld, who popularized the day on Season 9’s airing of “The Strike” (Dec. 18, 1997).

We are, in the words of the title of a prescient book by NEIL POSTMAN published in 1985, quite literally, ‘Amusing Ourselves to Death.’

THE COMMENTARY. Here is a word of terror to the negligent shepherds. The Day is at hand when God will reckon with them concerning the trust and charge committed to them: ‘Woe be to the pastors’ (to the ‘rulers,’ both in Church and State) who should be to those they are set over as pastors to lead them, feed them, protect them, and take care of them. They are not owners of the sheep. God here calls them ‘the sheep of My pasture,’ whom I am interested in, and have provided good pasture for. Woe be to those therefore who are commanded to feed God’s people, and pretend to do it, but who, instead of that, ‘scatter the flock,’ and ‘drive them away’ by their violence and oppression, and ‘have not visited them,’ nor taken any care for their welfare, nor concerned themselves at all to do them good … ‘Woe be to them’ when God will visit upon them the evil of their doings and deal with them as they deserve. They would not visit the flock in a way of duty, and therefore God will visit them in a way of vengeance.

Here is a word of comfort to the neglected sheep. Though the Under-shepherds take no care of them, no pains with them, but betray them, the Chief Shepherd will look after them. ‘When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord taketh me up.’ Though the interests of God’s Church in the world are neglected by those who should take care of them, and postponed to their own private secular interests, yet they shall not therefore sink. ‘God will perform His Promise,’ though those He employs do not perform their duty.” – MATTHEW HENRY, Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

NOTE. Do not miss the brilliance of Mr. Henry’s observation that this passage implicated Officers of both “Church and State,” inasmuch as the two are enjoined forever in Providential Symbiosis, with the Church always to be in the lead on matters of the judicious and the moral.

As we see it today: A profoundly Compromised Church paving the way for a Corrupt Government, and now very near to electing the most Wicked Ruler in our entire history. Selah.

1. LAST THOUGHTS

TWILIGHT. “‘The faint light which is reflected upon the earth after sunset and before sunrise; ‘Crepuscular Light’ [Pertaining to twilight; glimmering; noting the imperfect light of the morning and evening; hence, imperfectly clear or luminous].” – NOAH WEBSTER, American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828; edited

Rightly or wrongly, but certainly sincerely, I have been writing and warning of the American Decline for the past seven years. I began with reasoned persuasion and moderate, polite exchanges. I don’t do that anymore, since those efforts failed catastrophically during the first two to three years of my conversation with colleagues around the nation.

So now I have come to shout, this time through the eloquence and power of renown theologian, CARL F.H. HENRY, in his magnum opus, Twilight of a Great Civilization: The Drift Toward Neo-Paganism (1988, pp. 180-182; edited).

He wrote these words over 30 years ago, but they might as well have been penned last evening.

“Unless Christian scholars affirm the Truth of Christianity in the context of public reason, rival religions will not respect its claim to Universal Truth or consider it worthy of a universal hearing. It is not enough that Biblical theists mount a soapbox in a pluralistic society to declare that Evangelicals offer their unique perspective on life, that the Christian Outlook has much right to representation as do the multiple modern alternatives, and that we shall blow our trumpet as loudly as others because no one any longer can be sure of the Right Tune …

If Evangelicals believe that the enduring corrective of Modernity’s badly-skewed ethical and epistemic compass is the self-disclosed God and His moral agenda, ‘they had better say so and live so’ in this crucial Turning-Time in America. Otherwise, they may soon find themselves aliens in a once Promised Land. We may even now live in the half-generation before Hell breaks loose and, if its fury is contained, we will be remembered, if we are remembered at all, as those who used their hands and hearts and minds and very bodies to plug the dikes against Impending Doom.”

DK. I clearly see a Church and State ‘dwindling,’ almost by the hour, from a luminescent City on a Hill to the waning half-light found at the End of a very long Day. ‘It’s twilight in America, beloved,’ and to ignore that Historic Reality is to be twice condemned: First by the discipline of Reason itself; Second by the authority of the Scriptures that among many other things command us to be ‘Watchmen of the times’ in which we live.

Thus as with the desert-dusted Sons of Issachar, ‘we shall know what [America] ought to do. (1 Chron. 12:32).

HENRY LUCE, the formidable founder of Time magazine once declared as America entered the Second World War in 1941, that ‘The American Century’ had come! He had no idea, of course, that in just 80 years, we would cascade precipitously from unrivaled greatness to unprecedented shame and weakness, despite all our military strength and nationalist passion.

The Scriptures are unremittingly clear: “No king is saved by the great size and power of his army; a mighty man is not delivered by [his] much strength. A horse is devoid of value for victory; neither does he deliver any by his great power. Behold, the Lord’s eye is upon those who fear Him [who revere and worship Him with awe], who wait for Him and hope in His mercy and loving-kindness, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.” – PSALM 33:16-19, AMPC

So yes, beloved: Our Churches are closing as our Sovereign promised they would if we did not heed His Warnings to the Seven Churches. He has told us over and over again – ‘You have lost your First Light, and I am therefore honor bound to remove your Lampstand and give it to another’ (cf. Rev. 2:4-5).

CODA. And what shall awaken us from this Great Slumber into which we have fallen? When for the first time in all human history, both GOD AND SATAN release their opposing forces to gainsay the attentions of every single soul of the 8 billion on the earth on ‘That Day.’

“I looked when He [Jesus Christ] opened ‘the sixth seal,’ and behold, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became like blood. And the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree drops its late figs when it is shaken by a mighty wind.Then the sky receded as a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved out of its place …

And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” – REVELATION 2:4-5; 12:7-9, NKJV

That War of Wars. It has already Begun, and in a split second, it shall simultaneously explode upon the earth, beloved. It’s coming! And then shall all the world know that there is a Devil after all, but vastly more importantly, there is a God who shall superintend all of it, to the Salvation of as many as shall have come out from the Blood and Fire and Smoke and take shelter in Him.

Ever your servant, DK

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