A TRUMPET IN THE WILDERNESS

Jack Hunter, Editor

Newsletter 46

March, 2007

Blow a trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm on My Holy Mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near.

Joel 2:1

Mailing Address:

P.O. Box 1752

Denton, Texas 76202

Telephone:

(940) 479-2653

Internet:

trumpet1@airmail.net

www.atrumpetinthewilderness.org

OUR MISSION

We have a Gentile and Messianic-Jewish focus. We are calling the Church to be holy, and prepare for the Great Tribulation, for it is at hand.

We will trumpet out warnings of wickedness in the Church, our nation, and the world. We ask the United States to stand by the nation of Israel and to pray for the peace of Jerusalem. We stand by our brothers and sisters in the persecuted Church and warn that persecution is rapidly approaching this country. We will be focus on the cross life and living the life that reflects the life of Yeshua. We will proclaim the Word of God, calling all mankind to come to the cross and be washed in the blood of Yeshua.

Desensitization is a sure way to get someone to stop believing and satan has used this method throughout the centuries. We can trace satan’s methods of desensitization throughout history and how they have affected us in our Western society. For us to comprehend the milieu of our society, for us to take its temperature, we can route its history in science, philosophy, arts, entertainment, and theology. Such a study would be time consuming, but profitable. Yet we can also look at the Church, its values and beliefs, or lack thereof, and get a good synopsis of where we are as a people. This is part three of a three part essay on belief. In part three I want to submit to you how satan has used events, laws, and the liberal Church to hinder and weaken our beliefs and unless we grab a hold of this word “belief” with an intensive and firm grip it will slip completely away from us. I ask in this article, as I have in the previous two: Do you believe – I mean really believe?

The adage that reads: “Between love and hate there’s a very thin line” is often true, especially if one’s love is based on feelings alone. That is why we too often read stories of someone killing another that they supposedly love in a fit of a jealous rage. An analogous thought pertaining to belief could be stated this way: Between belief and doubt there is a very thin line. This can be just as tragic, and just as the adage on love and hate is true, the statement on ones belief is just as true if their belief is based on feeling.

So many today are tossed around by every wind and doctrine that they have a manic-depressive belief which is in reality a form of non-belief.

Just as real love would do no harm because love could only love, real belief will never doubt because it’s genuine belief and not a pseudo-belief. Belief, I mean real belief, is action - the kind of action that will attempt to duplicate the actions of Yeshua.

I subscribe to the “Voice of the Martyrs” magazine. The articles therein are accounts of real life faith in which people are not only persecuted on a daily basis, but through extreme measures of torture, imprisonment, and death.

While somehow their horrifying ordeals have deepened their faith; we in the West have had our faith beaten down by seemly far less measures, but perhaps more deadly.

Satan’s assaults have not stopped since the garden; his attacks are to whittle away at ones belief.

Over several decades satan has used the influence of the media, arts, sports, and theology to challenge and weaken our beliefs. The Christ–centered dominated conscience that the West once held has been greatly damaged. Instead of a Christ–centered dominated conscience we have a self-centered dominated conscience. Menacing influences have filtered into our society and have stripped away what we as a nation and we as a Church once believed.

In 1947 one of the worst decisions by the Supreme Court invented the modern “separation of Church and state”. This decision has to be ranked in the top ten of deranged, idiotic, harmful, and down-right stupid decisions ever rendered. That decision gave fuel for a later repugnant decision on June 6^th 1963 banning school led Bible reading and prayer. As the result of the filtered down wickedness the case of taking lives became part of our lives on January 22, 1973 when murder became legal. Roe verses Wade has been an albatross hanging around the necks of America for thirty-four years. The only case Henry Wade ever lost was when he argued for life but the Supreme Court choose death.

Filtered in this time were the humanist dogmas of men like Carl Sagan, the eminent atheist/astronomer of Cornell University. Forerunners like Charles Darwin poured poison into text books and our society drunk more toxic lies. These ungodly, unsupported, spurious teachings were adopted and are now mainstream in our universities and college classrooms today. I remember in the early 70’s people thought they appeared intelligent when they called themselves agnostic. They were under the false impression that not knowing if God was or was not, made them seem a little deeper than the rest. The term “agnostic” was coined by a British scientist Thomas Huxley, who was a close personal friend of Darwin. This was just another method that satan used to whittle down ones belief. As life took on less meaning, men began to search for it. As nihilism filtered into the minds of our youth, men arose with their brand of answers. Such was a man by the name of Timothy Leary, a Psychologist at Berkeley in the 60’s. He found his life to be meaningless and began to introduce himself and thousands of young people to drugs.

Leary wrote that “Drugs are the sacraments for a new religion.” While many names could be mentioned and their audacious behaviors listed the point is that the die had been cast and our Western culture has suffered greatly.

While the Church has not adopted all the spurious ideologies, they have in part, especially the liberal wing of the Church, and the Church as a whole has been influenced by them.

“As a man thinketh, so is he”. In other words a man’s actions are based on what he thinks. A man’s world view is expressed through his actions. Man’s actions individually and collectively influence and impact the world in which he lives.

If a person’s views are founded on the absolutes/truth of the Bible then he will have the strength to resist changes in his world view when exposed to the pressure of life.

However, if a person’s views are not based on absolute Truth, then they will change to conform to the present cultural and religious practices and principles of the day.

Early Christians, even in the West held so tenaciously to the absolute Truth of the Bible that they were able to resist the pressure to alter their views to conform to the diverse cultural and religious practices and principles of their day. They stood against the pollution and dilution of their beliefs.

However, today those that claim to be Christians do not seem to be grounded in the Truth of the Bible which is necessary to withstand the influences of our humanistic culture. We have forsaken the absolute Truth as our world view, for to retain it would require us to live sacrificially, to dare to offend another, to get out of our comfort zone.

We, as a whole, are a people that want to maintain personal peace and affluence at any price. We feel we can call ourselves Christians and tolerate or accept a variety of diverse and perverse beliefs that others uphold/embrace as long as we ourselves do not engage in such actions dictated by those beliefs. We justify this by saying the foundation of Christianity is love and love is equitable to the acceptance of each person and the tolerance of the beliefs that person maintains.

When I first entered the ministry in the early 70’s an old man gave me some wrong but well meaning advice. He said “Jack leave politics out of your preaching, just preach the Bible.” It sounded good and for the most part I followed his advice and I regret that I did. A great number of preachers are following that same thought and we are paying the price.

“Church is NOT for politics...it is for the Gospel.
The church is NOT a political action committee, it is an instrument to spread and live the Gospel.
We can all worship and serve together...if we will put love and respect and mutual submission over our own beliefs. I firmly believe this is pleasing to God.”

His email looks great on the surface and it’s certainly written well but I disagree with it for I think it side-steps strategic moral issues and as a result of his silence I believe his belief is being compromised and jejune and that can be deadly.

Today we have two key political issues that are extremely lewd, violent and wicked. They are homosexuality and abortion.

Because pastors are keeping silent on moral political issues our total belief system is being challenged. What if those like Elizabeth Fry, Lord Shaftesbury, and William Wilberforce, (who just had a movie made of his life, entitled: Amazing Grace which depicts his long battle against the slave trade in England) kept silent because they didn’t want to offend the slave traders? There were men before these who spoke against evil in the government. John the Baptist raised his voice against the personification of power in the person of King Herod. By his voice being lifted his head was lifted off his shoulders, but his voice had to lift so sin could be exposed and brought down.

Today too many voices are silent, especially in the pulpit. By not speaking out against these so-called political sins we are giving tacit approval. In the United States seventy-five percent of our Churches have one-hundred and fifty or less in membership but there are thousands of Churches with this membership and when combined memberships are in the millions. But too many voices are stilled by the winds of political correctness.

I am not even addressing the false churches that abandoned all morals and openly embrace the homosexual agenda. These churches are evil and a strategic tool in satan’s arsenal. The agenda of the homosexuals has not only invaded our classrooms but has found a home there and it’s the fault of closed-mouth Pastors!!!

We must start believing again; I mean a real. no comprising belief - a belief so strong that we are willing to sacrifice our very heads if necessary. Our words and actions must have a galvanizing effect to call believers to action to expose evil, not condone it.

Christians will continue to be attacked from the media. Movies like the DiVinci Code and the latest lie, the documentary entitled: “The Jesus Family Tomb” are reflective of this. These and more bogus attempts will bombard our thinking and unless our belief system is firmly grounded we will be swept away. The Bible says the elect will be challenged for we will find ourselves enmeshed in a war of false concepts, nefarious schemes, and plots. A strong delusion is coming. We must get grounded in God’s Word again. We must study to show ourselves approved. This means we do not put our minds on hold and go with some type of sanctimonious ethereal flow of a so-called spiritual high. The Christian thinker must be sagacious and smart. We need to be deeper in our intellect than those who want to silence us.

When we consume the pseudo- politically correct belief we starve real belief to death.

I have never felt more strongly to challenge my readers to either discover or rediscover what belief really means. To really believe means your very life.

We must find our backbone and stop compromising. I speak to preachers and pastors first. A man wrote in my Bible once and I wish it were written in every Pastors Bible. “I loved the people so little that I gave them what they wanted instead of what they needed.”

We must speak out against immorality at all cost, even if it costs us everything including our ministry or even our 501c3 status.

We can no longer pretend all is well. Islam is a real and dangerous enemy and will not rest until they rule. We must be equipped. Please hear me if we compromise on certain immoral issues will we not also compromise on issues with Islam, like any old god will do? Then we will spread the lie that we all worship the same God.

The most important thing you can do is to ask the Lord to help you believe. Real believing will produce all the fruits of the Spirit.

Real belief will produce not only peace with God, but the peace of God. We will have the kind of peace Yeshua spoke of My peace I give to you; Peace I leave with you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor let it be fearful John 14: 27

Real belief will produce a new wardrobe. The armor of God will never be removed. It will remain in place, clean and durable, resisting anything satan is able to hurl.

When you really believe you will begin to have the mind of Christ. You will obey His commandments, including the most powerful:

And He said to him, You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself

You will duplicate his actions including overturning some tables. When you really believe you will walk in holiness – you will begin to hate sin and strive to hate it with the same intensity that God does. You will find a new kind of boldness, in that while you love the sinner you will detest their sin as much as you love them. You will produce a life that will reflect an image of Yeshua. Although a mirror image will never occur the attitude and desire will never cease. Yeshua overturned some tables and so must we, even if turning over tables cost us our reputation, our ministry or our very lives.

If we compromise our belief, then the words of Ezekiel are indeed haunting. If we continue to side-step current immoral issues then our hands will drip with blood and on that day all we can do is stand in the shadows and scream. Please read these words carefully and take heed!!

Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and wan the people; Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand. So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul. Therefore, O thou son of man, speak unto the house of Israel; Thus ye speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live? Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

…. But if the wicked turn from his wickedness, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.

Much awaits us and unless we believe, fear will consume us if sin doesn’t. Actually fear and sin walk hand in hand. In Mark 9 Yeshua spoke His Word to the frantic father of the epileptic. The man felt such a burden for his son but he also had an overwhelming sense of the inadequacy of his belief. He feared his belief would not measure up to what Yeshua previously said: “…If You can? All things are possible to him who believes.

The father wanted to believe and in part he did. He cries out in verse 24 of chapter 9 “I do believe; help my unbelief.” Faith is not always perfect faith and often belief and unbelief are mixed, but we have to start somewhere. Yeshua heard his prayer and the boy was healed. The same Yeshua will hear our prayer even if we pray: LORD I believe; help my unbelief.

Begin now and walk out your prayer moment by moment. Your actions will demonstrate your belief. Start somewhere with the faith you have and as your belief is manifested daily it will also increase.

Note: This author does not capitalize satan although I know it’s grammatically incorrect not to do so. I refuse to give him any more recognition than necessary.