If you respect the facts and know the truth – this is a maddening and senseless time to be living in.

For those of you like me – who react to lies and deception about as favorably as rolling around in a pile of moist manure – here are some facts to reorient your sanity’s compass during these crazy times.

This is the truth – like it or not.  These are facts – no matter who opposes or censors them, or what they say or how they say it.

In no particular order:

1. Trump won the 2020 election by a record landslide. Most of the left and corrupt RINOs – and certainly all rational Americans – know this.
2. The Democrats engaged in unprecedented fraudulent schemes to put an incompetent, incoherent, and doddering old fool in the White House.
3. The world’s leaders know the current American President is neither legitimate nor capable of governing. They do not respect him.
4. The COVID-19 ‘pandemic’ was planned to have global impact well before any regular person on the street had ever heard of the name Dr. Fauci.
5. Dr. Fauci may be a lot of things, but ‘science’ is not one of them. Nor is ‘ethical.’
6. The COVID-19 virus was generated in a lab in Wuhan, China. It was funded and engineered by corrupt people with malevolent intentions.
7. The COVID-19 ‘vaccine’ is no more a true vaccine than the moon is green cheese. The CDC changed the definition of a vaccine to try to explain away the ineffectiveness of the jab.
8. More deaths and adverse events have resulted from the COVID-19 ‘vaccine’ and its parade of boosters than all other vaccines together for the past several decades.
9. Masking policies were never about reducing the spread of the virus. It’s clear masks don’t work for that – and those who claim they do have left their brains at the door.
10. Masking policies were always about imposing greater controls on society – especially on those the left didn’t particularly like.
11. The current ‘pandemic’ was just the first pass. It was a test trial. There will be more – and like this one, they will also be planned.
12. The present energy crisis in America is 100% on Slow Joe. He inherited a nation that was an energy exporter and was energy independent under Trump’s policies for the first time in 75 years.
13. The present record illegal immigration crisis is 100% on our Charlatan-In-Chief. He discontinued building the wall which had proved to be effective in slowing illegal border crossings.
14. Gas prices had already surged an average of $1.50/gallon under the Biden regime well before Putin ever began assembling his troops on Ukraine’s border.
15. Biden has earned every credential that marks him as weak, senseless, incapable, rudderless, and ethically compromised on the world stage.
16. America is suffering under the militant and ‘religious’ fervor of the radical Green New Deal progressive-socialist climate-control nutjobs who are pulling a lot of Demented Joe’s strings behind the scenes.
17. The goal of the globalists – including those mentioned in points 1, 2, and 16 above – is to weaken America and reduce this nation to a whimpering participant in a new world order. It’s why they hated a “Make America Great” plan.
18. China will invade Taiwan and will force it to become part of China. America will protest this, but it will essentially do nothing.
19. Israel will be forced to deal with Iran’s true nuclear ambitions on her own. In the interests of self-preservation, Israel will do what Israel must do. America will protest this, but it will essentially do nothing.
20. Putin is likely to continue his military campaign beyond Ukraine. His desires are territorial. He wants to restore Russia to the glory – as he sees it – of the former Soviet Union. America will protest this, but it will essentially do nothing.

Want me to continue? I certainly could.

There is much I could add about pro-abortion matters, the gender-disruptive assault on women’s sports, this administration’s disastrous foreign policy positions, activist judges, the blatant suppression of free speech, the media’s true role as propagandists, our record inflation, abandonment of Americans on foreign soil, and all sorts of senseless ‘woke’ postures and tyrannical trends that have sharply surged in JUST THE LAST YEAR!

But I imagine most of you are not reading this with a barf bag handy. I don’t want to inconvenience you.

The overarching truth is that opening statement – this is a maddening and senseless time to be living in.

The parallel passages of Matthew 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21 describe a time in which deceptions will increase, in which pandemics will be prominent, in which famines and food shortages will threaten, and in which ‘wars and rumors of wars’ will increase. They also mention a surge in earthquakes – – have you seen how many of those have been cropping up with greater frequency around the world now?

To be sure, we are seeing the early signs of trends that will ultimately culminate in Jesus Christ’s Second Coming. The Bible makes this clear.

But in the meantime – we all need to find our second wind. We need to straighten our spines. We need to patiently endure.

You see, Jesus says about all these signs, “… but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is not yet.”

So – get a grip. God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). That includes right now.

Here are a couple of bottom-line issues for you and me:

Number one: nothing’s out of control. This is all by God’s design, and Jesus warned us it would be this way. These things are proving your faith.

Number two: this is just the start – it’s going to get a whole lot worse. No, you can’t vote your way out of this one. See point 2 above.

Pick your friends carefully – – – and pick your church the same way. Be extremely wary of those who choose to believe and support the lies and deceptions. This is no time to be propping up anyone who’s not paying attention to the facts but who’s rounding the corners of truth instead.

Those who are shedding their primary responsibilities or who are trying to distract you from all that’s really going on are not ones who have your best interests at heart.

This is no time to be deluding yourself with the notion that things are going to get better, that Biblical prophecy is not important, or we just need to get someone with a red tie in the White House.

This is a time of raging evil. It is animate, cognizant, and calculating – and it doesn’t care about you at all. This evil has been preparing for such a time as this. It’s just getting rolling….

This is a time to be wise. This is a time to be studying God’s Word. This is a time to live alongside others with humility. This is a time to be praying and to be evaluating your own heart before the Lord.

This is a time to be looking up.

 

“If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck….” You get the point. I know most of you have heard this one, and you know what it’s all about.

When someone states they are one thing but they behave differently and mimic something else instead, there are good reasons to not trust them. They’re not being honest with themselves – or with you.

The duck analogy is standard stuff for politicians. They want you to believe they’re the good guys. They claim ‘hundreds of thousands of jobs are being added’ when unemployment is spiking instead and when businesses are closing because people would rather stay home and feed off government checks.

They declare we’re ‘in the middle of economic recovery’ when we have record inflation, unprecedented supply chain disruptions, surging gas prices, and bare grocery shelves.

Our political leaders tell us they’re ‘watching out for us’ as they release hardened criminals from prison to commit more heinous crimes, but they jail those instead who stand up for God and country. Our leaders resound with passionate appeals to protect Ukraine’s border, but they actively assist illegal immigrants to pour across our own southern boundary. Our leaders brand concerned parents ‘domestic terrorists’ while refusing to call REAL terrorists what they are.

The bottom line is nobody believes politicians – ESPECIALLY this bunch that’s fraudulently in power now. They say they’re ‘building back better,’ even as their intentions are to destroy this nation.

The duck thing is also typical for many dyed-in-the-wool liberals. They project lies onto others what is most true about themselves.

Few things underscore this more than the ‘plandemic.’ A recent Rasmussen poll finds that 59% of Democrats would like to confine unvaccinated citizens to their homes. Think about that!

It gets worse. 48% of Democrats would support fining or imprisoning anyone who questions the efficacy of the existing COVID-19 ‘vaccines,’ 45% of Democrats favor internment camps for anyone who refuses to get a COVID-19 ‘vaccine,’ and 29% of Democrats support removing parents’ custody of their children if the parents refuse to take the ‘vaccine.’

Tyrannical stuff like this is not at all uncommon from these same people who routinely call everyone else ‘Nazis.’ It’s patently obvious that many liberals are Marxists at their core.

They are very self-deceived. Like Pavlov’s dogs, they scream ‘racism’ whenever something challenges their agenda, but history is clear. It was the Democrats that advanced the KKK, slavery, segregation, and Jim Crow.

COVID. Afghanistan. Inflation. Masks. Voting ‘rights.’ The Green New Deal. Global warming. ‘Vaccines.’ China. Critical Race Theory. Boosters. Transgender rights. Ukraine. Women’s sports.

Pick your poison. It doesn’t matter. Within the span of a couple of words, a whole new catalog of the same dynamic opens up. Each time it’s rich with ducks – people who pretend to be one thing but show themselves to be another.

There’s another bunch that walks like ducks, quacks like ducks, and so on. It’s getting bigger every day.

It’s the church.

Now – let’s be clear. The church isn’t growing. At least not here in America – nor in a lot of places. That’s not the point at all.

But what IS growing in number are those WITHIN the church who claim they’re one thing but behave like another. You know – “ducks.”

A lot of the time, these are the folks who over-emphasize ‘love and grace.’ Don’t get me wrong; love and grace are essential Biblical virtues. In fact, the church is to be known by love and grace. Paul writes in 2 Cor. 13:14, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” There is no doubt Christians are to be marked by ‘love and grace.’

But this concept has also become grossly twisted in the modern church to become an excuse for relaxed rules, for fewer boundaries, for more permissiveness, and to justify a shortcut requiring less knowledge and prudence. It’s easier to tolerate problems in your own life – or avoid dealing with compromise in someone else’s life – if we all just repeat the mantra of ‘love and grace’ enough times.

It’s more stress-free to file those uncomfortable moments that demand we perform at higher standards into a ‘love and grace’ folder instead. It’s OK to aim low, to allow deception, to permit misinformation, to bend rules, to not deal with problems, and to sidestep accountability if you’re claiming ‘love and grace’ as you do so.

And – here’s a big one! The ‘love and grace’ default mechanism also plays into ‘political correctness’ a whole lot better. It’s the ‘go to’ oil that reduces friction when Biblical truth confronts progressive ideals. One can claim ‘love and grace’ while also subscribing to aspects of a globalist agenda.

What are some of the ways this particular dysfunction shows up in the church? Here are a few examples.

Did your church’s “expositional study” in Romans skip chapters 9 through 11? Is every sermon manipulated to ‘teach the Gospel’ even when the verses under study are moving in a different direction? Are sound themes of Biblical prophecy largely avoided – and even mocked – where you worship?

Have your leaders pushed ‘woke’ talking points like open borders, compassion for illegal immigrants, ‘systemic racism,’ the dangers of climate change, ‘toxic masculinity,’ religious inclusion, and sympathy for BLM? Have they insisted on – gasp! – masks?

If you answered “yes” to those questions, chances are good you’ve got a real problem. You see, it’s often the excuse of ‘love and grace’ that relocates common sense and hard-hitting Biblical truth to the back burner. That way, churches can be ‘community-minded,’ ‘open and accepting,’ ‘relevant,’ ‘socially responsible,’ and ‘inclusive.’

We’ve arrived at a point where many churches feel it’s controversial and unwise to teach on themes like Biblical patriarchy, judgment and hell, heteronormativity, God’s design for nations and borders, two genders, and – – sin!

Many pastors today are more comfortable using the pulpit to advance topics that find their inspiration in a social agenda than they find their source in God’s Word. Too many church leaders would rather their congregants sip doctrine through a straw than run the risk of choking on meat.

It’s been a gradual and insidious process, and the ducks are now generously mingled with the sheep. This same dilemma is now showing up at the highest levels of Christian leadership today.

John Piper is a popular author and speaker. Many pastors routinely quote Piper in their sermons, but they fail to acknowledge this man’s significant liabilities.

In a recent blog, Piper wrote, “A Reason to be Vaccinated: Freedom,” he states, “My aim in this article is to encourage Christians to be vaccinated….” He touts deceptive talking points like the pandemic is one of the unvaccinated, that the jab is really a legitimate vaccine, and people shouldn’t be concerned about “untrustworthy and disreputable government and medical leaders.” In the blog, John Piper sidesteps clear scientific research, and he makes himself a useful tool of a globalist agenda.

Piper is also notable for his anti-Israel stances. He has preached sermons where he states he’s never been to Israel, and he doesn’t ever want to go. He justifies this by saying he feels Israel is nothing special.

But it’s much worse than that. Piper’s clear anti-Israel bias was made evident in an article he wrote called “Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East.” He makes his prejudices clear when he states, “The existence of Israel in the Middle East and the extent of her borders and her sovereignty are perhaps the most explosive factors in world terrorism and the most volatile factors in Arab-West relations.”

Piper struggles with the fact that modern Israel holds great prophetic relevance. He even states in one of his blogs that the Jews have no divine rights to Israel. He doesn’t see that the prophetic Scriptures concerning Israel are some of the most straightforward in God’s Word. The reason he doesn’t see them as he should is because he doesn’t want to.

He wants to state he’s one thing, but he can’t keep himself from behaving like another. See the duck here?

John Piper is also a Council Member of The Gospel Coalition, an organization that, in many ways, is rife with its own ‘duck dynasty’ problems.

Tim Keller, one of the founders of The Gospel Coalition, congratulated Greg Epstein on Twitter on August 30, 2021, for being elected the President of Harvard’s Chaplain group.

It sounds nice. It’s considerate, right? The problem is Epstein is an outspoken atheist. Tim Keller is making big moves these days to support interfaith cooperation.

Tim Keller’s – and The Gospel Coalition’s – problems don’t stop there. A January 2019 article from Reformation Charlotte discloses that Keller and The Gospel Coalition decided in 2010 to make an interfaith American Psychological Association psychologist the go-to guy on LGBTQ issues instead of the Bible.

Tim Keller is also a proponent of “theistic evolution,” a heresy that promotes a false view of Biblical creation. He argues it permits Christians to believe in both creation and evolution at the same time.

In an article published by The New Calvinists, Keller is stated to regard the first chapter of Genesis as a poem, and he therefore feels it cannot be taken literally. The article outlines how, in Keller’s mind, the ‘science’ of evolution is beyond question, and so the Bible must be made to conform to it.

You’d think this kind of information would give pause to many local pastors and church leaders who have enthusiastically lined up to support The Gospel Coalition, who teach the way The Gospel Coalition wants them to, and who quote Tim Keller and John Piper more often than they quote the Old Testament. Yeah – you’d think.

Sadly, many pastors and Christian leaders are not the wise and mature men of God they imagine themselves to be. For one reason or another, they cling to their roles – be it insecurity, a personal delusion, or something more sinister.

They are ducks, and it’s not a compliment. They try hard to be one thing, but everyone can see they cannot help being something else instead.