I have not written in a very long time. Not for lack of words, oh the cycles of history and empire are indeed still converging in this moment, or season if you prefer, there are many words that could be said, but I have not felt inclined to write them. I do, however, feel compelled in this moment to write about truth, true truth, first principles, and deception. Fear not, I will not revisit the boring foundational parts of that; those essays were written in a simpler time, and you may find them here somewhere if you care to. As we watch genocide and war occur and notice the approaching famine that will no doubt follow very soon for many in the world if things do not change very soon, I think it is time that we do a bit of self-reflection.

The American Empire, like all empires before it, is evil. I say this not as a hater of my own kind, but I say it from a rational, objective standpoint. We are and always have been warlike. We are not unique in this; it is the nature of empires and power. I served in uniform 33 years, and I know about duty and loyalty. We are not talking about flag burning and all that. The United States has been used by God for his purposes; we did a lot of good mixed in with our constant wars. But we ought to at least be honest at this point, we are not the global good guys, we are not righteous, we are not honest or fair with others and we are not special – we are only special in that we exist in a place and a time that provided us the benefit of vast resources and two oceans, we were and are very blessed, but we are not good. That is it, that is all. People often forget this when wars come along; it is not disloyal to sometimes ask, “Are we doing the right thing”?

Of course, asking hard, self-reflective questions is hard in normal times, but I suspect these are not normal times. I, in fact, know they are not normal times; this is the period when three big cyclic engines of history collide at the same time, which in and of itself makes it not “normal times”, it makes it extraordinary and rare. But there is more. Our minds are polluted. Yes, we can say it is “social media” or “education” or any of a large number of other things, but that is not all. There is, I am convinced, a spiritual nature to the pollution.

Take Trump for instance, the easiest object we can use to prove this. In the summer of 2020 when I wrote here, “Trump is not the man you believe he is,” the reaction was predictable. People called me all manner of names on social media and even on comments here just for that innocuous and provably true statement. Fast forward to Trump’s second term and we find a man who looks the same, but acts very differently. Oh, the narcissism, vulgarity, and hubris he previously showed are there, but there is more. From refusing to place his hand on the Bible during his second inauguration to having a witch as his “spiritual advisor” to his utter vulgarity and desecration of Easter on Easter…there is something to notice. This of course, ignores his utterance about committing atrocities against the Iranian people or supporting in a full-throated way the continued genocide of Palestinians and now Lebanese. A decent people, not overtaken by a deception of a metaphysical level would see this and be repulsed – yet, many defend this, and many more sit by silently.

We see now that some of the most “devout” among us are nothing more than modern representatives of the religious Jews Jesus spoke out against in his day. On the extremes, KJV-only Dispensationalist Zionist, these people make an idol of the editorial work of men and disrespect the actual inspired Word but worse than that, they make an idol of the literal Synagogue of Satan and imagine that Satan himself will direct God and the time and season of the end of it all. Trad Catholics are no better, and in fact, very similar to KJV-only idol makers, in form at least; they make worship of something different. Both of these extreme camps are very religious and also filled with hate and vitriol; there is no spirit of Christ in most of the firebrands.

But it is not just the extremes. If we merely stick with the deception of dispensational Zionism it is easy to see and prove where those ideas emerged from, how it spread, and who over time, supported it and ultimately benefited. It is a self-licking ice cream cone. Misread scripture that builds prophecies that men then seek to fulfill. Yet…from that witch Paula White to Congressmen like Randy Fine and many of those evil men in Trump’s circle that misquote and misapply scripture. For years, kind Christians called dispensationalism merely an annoying error. When it was first invented, men like Charles Spurgeon called it what it is and has proven to be, a heresy that is contrary to the actual meaning of the Gospel. It is of Satan…and many, very many Americans accept it.  By accepting it, they, in their minds, can look at a literal apartheid, genocidal, war-mongering geopolitical entity and say, yes, we ought to hang that flag in our Church.

When this is all said and done, the world will look at Christianity as a whole and conflate what these demons that shout and scream as they hold up the Star of Remphan and blow Shofars and declare “it was those people that caused this global famine, the genocide and the war” They will likely look at the Apartheid state of Israel and say the same. The brutal irony is, the dispensationalist Zionist believed they needed to assist the enemies of Christ in rebuilding a temple that stopped working when Christ came and will never again work but in the end probably the nation state of Israel will cease to exist (in its current form at least) and authentic, biblical, historic Christianity around the world will be reviled as it will be associated by the heretical idol worshiping dispensationalist. When they arrest and hang Pete Hegseth, it will not be long before people who do not believe or think like him at all are punished also. This possible future is not far-fetched. God punishes the disobedience and sloth of a people. We were blessed, and most of us know all of this is wrong and so few have ever really spoken out about it. You had more idiots preaching about “social justice” in 2020 than have ever spoken out about child sacrifices to Moloch or unjust wars abroad. These failures just may come home to roost in the form of severe judgment soon.

Of course, we cannot know what the future definitely holds, but we can know, based upon how the cycles of history unfold and God’s proven record of blessing a people for a purpose and punishing their disobedience, that we are in a time of massive change.

Live in peace. I do, I plant seeds and fruit trees because that is what we do, we live in this world. I pray for wisdom, for the suffering of the innocent to be lightened, and for God’s will to be done. I rejoice that even though my church slipped a bit in 2020, getting carried away with social trends of “social justice” and what not, the gospel, the full Gospel, is preached in 2026. Institutions have, are, and will continue to fall by the wayside, but the truth of God will never depart from us. It will simply get worse, in the aggregate, over time until the end. But in those moments, life, love, and joy occur.

I pray the United States does not carry out the worst of what Trump seems to be implying. I pray this all ends soon; the idea of billions around the world being short of food is uncomfortable to think of. I pray that if and when they finally claim they have been consorting with “aliens,” that the wise within the Body of Christ realize Agustine was wrong about a few things and notice these “aliens” for what they are. But, ultimately, we ought to maintain the witness of the joy that is within us so that we may tell others. It is all pretty bad out there, much worse than most realize – but this was the time God intended for you to live, so live in His Peace and Joy.