Bad Days Getting Even Badder

The scene of another shooting on a Chicago area expressway

Count them: There have already been 16 shootings on Chicago area expressways since the beginning of the year. Last year, the total was 40. In 2010, there were only six.

The latest shooting involved a young man and woman who were shot dead as they traveled in the northbound lanes of the Kennedy Expressway in the early morning hours of May 15.

Their vehicle, a silver Chevy Tahoe, was riddled with bullets, indicating that the shooting was likely gang-related. Police found a semi-automatic weapon on the floor of the SUV, which reveals the murder victims knew they were targets. 

It's gotten so bad these days on Chicago expressways that the Illinois State Police have dispatched special patrols to watch for shooters and road rage incidents. State Police Captain Tad Williams says that "people should not have to worry about their safety while driving on the expressways." 

But in fact, they are worried because things are getting much worse. Chicago is home to hundreds of violent, heavily armed gangs that have taken control of the streets and are terrorizing residents who are too old, infirm or poor to escape the city for safer venues. 

How bad has it gotten in the Windy City? 

Murders in the nation's third-largest city are up about 72 percent, while shootings have surged more than 88 percent in the first three months of 2016 compared with the same period last year, according to data released by the Chicago Police Department. The grim rise in violence comes after the Chicago Police Department reported 468 murders in 2015, a 12.5 percent increase from the year before. There were 2,900 shootings in 2015, 13 percent more than the year before, according to Police Department records. 

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama's mini-me, typically blames the increasing violence on the availability of guns rather than on the obvious; a godless and immoral culture. Here's what mini-me said: 

We have a challenge right now, specifically but not limited to the South and West Sides. We have a level of shootings and gun violence that's unacceptable and must come to an end. It means we have to have a leadership and lead from the front and get not only our officers' morale level up but our violence level down.

That's political speech that means absolutely nothing. Getting rid of guns and increasing leadership won't get rid of violence. But instilling biblical Judeo-Christian values such as the fear of God and respect for authority will. Emanuel won't say that because he knows what would happen if he does. And so, he takes the easy way out by mouthing empty platitudes that are politically-correct bull-sheist.

Certainly, the increasing violence isn't limited to Chicago. It's increasing all over the United States and the world, which isn't an anomaly. It's the fulfillment of ancient biblical prophecy that warned of terrible times in the end times directly preceding the return of Jesus Christ. In fact, Christ said this: "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved." (Matthew 24:12-13)

The apostle Paul also warned that the last days will be exceedingly wicked: 

But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

The increasing wickedness is directly related to the increasing godlessness that's spreading across the world like a deadly malignancy. Though many folks love to complicate things, it's really very simple: People can't live without God. When God's laws are impugned and mocked, people turn to evil. And yet tragically, most people can't figure that out.

What's equally tragic is the fact that where the epicenter of violence exists in Chicago's inner city neighborhoods, you can find dozens of churches from simple storefronts to ornate buildings. And yet very few of those churches have any impact on the streets. Most are surrounded by drug dealers, prostitutes, alcoholics, drug-addicts and gang-bangers. The inner city churches lost their influence over the culture a long time ago.

But don't worry. The government will ride to the rescue with draconian laws that will spy on everyone, seize their guns and smother their freedoms. That eventually leads to Martial Law which eventually leads to totalitarianism. And that eventually leads to an oppressive global government where we're headed toward, according to biblical prophecy. (Daniel 7:7, Revelation 13)

Why Evil Triumphs

The Nuremberg Trials

The Holocaust Remembrance Day was recently observed throughout much of the world. For many older folks--whether they're Jews or not--the Holocaust was one of the darkest periods in human history. Ten million people perished during that nightmare--six million of them Jews.

In Israel, where many Holocaust survivors eventually ended up, the day is known as Yom Hashoah V’Gevurah. And, as those survivors who are still around well understand, had Adolf Hitler not been stopped by the brutal Russian winter of 1941, there would be no Israel because the Jewish people would've likely been eliminated from the world. Completely.

However, for many younger people, the Holocaust is just ancient history that doesn't mean anything to them. They weren't around when it happened, so why should they care? It's completely irrelevant.

But it shouldn't be. Why? Because the Holocaust provides a us with a valuable lesson concerning what happens to people who completely reject God and embrace evil. They become vile and wicked. Let the apostle Paul explain it: 

"Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." (Romans 1:28-32) 

Paul's revelation helps us understand Hitler and his Third Reich that rejected God as a myth conjured in primitive minds. Oh sure, the fuhrer often referenced God and invoked the name of Jesus Christ in his hypnotic speeches.

But that was merely for propaganda purposes. Germany was a predominantly Lutheran and Roman Catholic nation in the 1930s. The fuhrer knew that in order to gain the confidence of the German people, he had to speak their language. He pretended to be a Christian in order to gain the votes necessary to become Germany's Chancellor in 1933. And once he accomplished that, the mask came off.

And when the mask came off, Hitler revealed his true persona. He was an atheist who believed that he had a responsibility to make the world a better place by cleansing it of undesirable groups such as Jews, Slavs, Poles, the mentally and physically handicapped, and homosexuals. He would then repopulate the earth with a master race of Aryans selectively bred from the finest human stock.

Though Hitler was considered a reactionary, he was in fact a leftist who embraced evolution. He saw human life as nothing more than the end product of millions of years of random evolutionary forces. To the fuhrer, human life was cheap and meaningless. It was no more significant than ant life or plant life.

Though Hitler is frequently invoked by the left as the epitome of evil, the left's worldview is identical to the fuhrer's worldview. The left supports eugenics, population control, totalitarian government and the eradication of "undesirables" such as Christians, Jews, conservatives, the elderly and the infirm. Those were Hitler's views.

One of the left's heroes is Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood who was an arch-racist who advocated for the elimination of blacks, Jews and eastern Europeans from the world. Concerning the mentally infirm, who she despised, she said this:

We are failing to segregate morons who are increasing and multiplying...the dead weight of human waste...an ever-increasing spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all.

Sanger wanted to eliminate her undesirables through sterilization so they couldn't procreate. Those who managed to procreate would be "encouraged" to abort their unborn babies so they wouldn't contaminate the world. Hitler admired Sanger's ideas. But he believed that mass murder was quicker and more effective than sterilization.

I want you to look closely at the picture above. It contains many of the faces of Hitler's henchmen such as Rudolf Hess, Hermann Goring, Joachim Von Ribbentrop and Wilhelm Keitel who were charged with crimes against humanity at the Nuremberg Trials.

They weren't haters. Rather, they sold their souls to evil. They bought into Hitler's delusion that their leader was commissioned by fate to lead the world into 1,000 years of peace and prosperity. And they went to their graves believing that.

How is that relevant today? We have the same belief system operating today. There's a group of international elites who possess the same worldview that Hitler possessed. They want to resurrect the fuhrer's Third Reich, and they'll eventually accomplish that. And then the world will be as one. Under the dreaded Antichrist and his tyrannical world government. 

Cultural Pedophilia?

An Islamic tradition: Child-brides

Though there are many differences between Christianity and Islam, one of the major differences is the definition of marriage. In what way? Christianity condemns polygamy while Islam approves of it.

But it doesn't stop there. Islam not only allows Muslim men to marry several women, it also allows them to marry extremely young women. How young? As young as eight or nine years-old.

Where did Islam's tradition of child-brides originate? It originated with its founding prophet Muhammad who had 18 wives, with Aesha being the youngest at nine years-old. Yes, that's right. Muhammad's youngest wife was a mere nine-years old when he added Aesha to his harem.

Western civilization has historically forbidden prepubescent girls to be taken in marriage, and rightly so. Nine year-old girls aren't physically developed to have sexual relations with adults. 

Young girls not only can be physically harmed by sex with adults, they can also be emotionally damaged. However, that's of no concern to Islam that views women as inferior beings that were created by Allah to be used by men.

The Muslim world generally denies that Islam condones adult-child weddings, and it accuses westerners of spreading propaganda to tarnish that religion's image. But while Islam doesn't outwardly condone adult-child weddings, it doesn't condemn them either. 

In Pakistan for example, a bill that was first introduced in 2014 to ban that barbaric practice was recently struck down. From www.rt.com:  

Legislation to ban child marriages was struck down in Pakistan as the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) said it was "anti-Islamic" and "blasphemous." The new law failed at the first stage of the legislative process.The Child Marriage Restraint (Amendment) Bill 2014, which would have made it more difficult for children to marry, was quickly withdrawn by Marvi Menon of the Pakistan Muslim League party. The decision to pull the plug on the anti-pedophilia bill was triggered by CII speaking out against the idea. The council provides advice for lawmakers on whether the newly proposed laws comply with Sharia laws. The proposed legislation was shut down in its infancy on "purely religious grounds." 

 CII Chairman Mohammad Khan Sheerani said the proposed law opposed Islamic teachings: "Parliament cannot create legislation that is against the teachings of the Holy Quran or Sunnah." 

What does the Quran say regarding adult-child weddings? While it doesn't directly mention them, it does say this: "And test the orphans [in your charge] until they reach a marriage­able age; then, if you find them to be mature of mind/sound in judgment, hand over to them their possessions…" (Quran, 4:6)

How does the Quran define a "marriageable age?" It doesn't, leaving that up to the individual to determine when a girl is of "sound mind and sound judgment" to be taken as a wife.

Do you think that someone who burns with lust for adolescent girls is truly going to consider whether or not a girl is physically and emotionally ready for marriage? Of course not. If she turns him on, he'll try to marry her.

Still, Islam's apologists condemn anyone who suggests that their religion encourages adult-child marriages. One such apologist website says this:

It is absolutely clear from the Quran that child marriage is something God never authorized. Child marriage is detrimental to the overall well-being of children, and quite frankly, is another form of slavery. The psychopathic mentality that allows this is a sign of a very sick and disturbed mind, something that seems to be much abundant within the clergy-class. Any rational person can immediately identify the evils of such an oppressive act. It surprises me to see how a beacon of light is manipulated by a bunch of misogynistic individuals to enslave billions around the world!

By characterizing those who marry young girls as "misogynists" with "sick and disturbed minds," the author blasphemes Islam's founding prophet who took a nine year-old girl to be his wife. Muhammad set the standard, of which many of his followers throughout the centuries have followed.

Islam's apologists don't want you to know that their religion encourages such evil. And it encourages other evils such as suicide bombings, the wholesale slaughter of Christians, Jews and other non-Muslims, and even the beheadings of innocent children who aren't Muslims.

The apologists want you to believe that Islam is a religion of peace that's been hijacked by a few nuts and radicals who've besmirched that religion's impeccable reputation. Only ignorant fools choose to believe that.

Concerning those who oppress young children who are created in the image of God, Jesus Christ said this: "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea." (Mark 9:42)

Indeed. Prepubescent girls are too young to be in marriage. And those who force them into marriage under the guise of culture and religion are nothing but sexual predators or pedophiles. That's evil that can't be apologized away. 

The Case for Capital Punishment

Brian Dugan (Top), L-R, Jeanine Nicarico, Donna Schnorr, Melissa Ackerman

What does the Bible say concerning the death penalty? It says this: "Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man." (Genesis 9:6)

It says this: "He who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death." (Exodus 21:17) And it says this: "He who kidnaps a man, whether he sells him or he is found in his possession, shall surely be put to death." (Exodus 21:16)

And it also says this: "Now a man or a woman who is a medium or a spiritist shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones, their blood-guiltiness is upon them." (Leviticus 20:27)

Certainly, the biblical laws concerning capital punishment were applied to the ancient nation of Israel through the Mosaic Covenant. God so hated evil that he wanted it completely purged from the Jews who were chosen by the Lord to be His priesthood to the world.

Can you imagine if the biblical laws concerning capital punishment were applied to our modern world? There would be a lot of death. And conversely, we wouldn't be witnessing the prophetic explosion of evil that's sweeping across the world today like a flood of sewage. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Is the death penalty a good thing? Of course it isn't. However, it's necessary. Why? Because the human race is tainted with evil, and there are those who are so desperately wicked that they can only be restrained by the threat of capital punishment. 

Of course, many folks will argue that capital punishment doesn't work. It's cruel and barbaric. And when we execute someone for committing a heinous crime, we are no better than than perpetrators who committed murder. We're told that the death penalty is nothing but revenge.

But that's a fallacious argument. It's not about revenge. It's about punishing those who take innocent lives; especially the lives of those who can't defend themselves. And it's about instilling the fear of God in those who reject good and embrace evil. The Bible says this: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." (Proverbs 1:7)

One such fool was a man named Brian Dugan who murdered three people many years ago before he was finally caught. Those three people were a 27 year-old nurse named Donna Schnorr (1984) and two young girls; seven-year old Melissa Ackerman (1985) and 10-year old Jeanine Nicarico (1983).

Dugan abducted and raped all three of his victims before he murdered them. He was finally caught when one of his potential victims--a young girl named Opal Horton--managed to escape Dugan's car and give the police a detailed description of the vehicle.

When Dugan committed his crimes, capital punishment was legal in the state of Illinois. However, former Gov. George Ryan placed a moratorium on the death penalty in 2003 while Dugan was on death row, and Gov. Pat Quinn abolished capital punishment in 2011. And so, Dugan is now serving life terms for the three murders.

Dugan's been labeled a psychopath. Psychopaths, we're told, are people who have no empathy for anyone but themselves. Psychopaths, we're told, ignore their consciences and live for self-gratification. Psychopaths, we're told, have no respect for human life. If those are the definitions of a psychopath, then we have a huge population of them.

Concerning his attitude toward others and authority, Dugan said this:

I've changed to a point, but I'm still dangerous. He (violence) still lives in me. ... Nothing's changed except what I've tried to do for myself. I'm a threat to other people to a certain extent, I realize that. I know I'm a psychopath.

Is Dugan a psychopath? Rather, he's a sinner who rebelled against God and His established authority. If he was truly a psychopath, then he wouldn't recognize that he's done terrible things to other people. And he wouldn't care either.

Dugan deserves the death penalty. He should've been executed for his crimes. And he would've been had the police and DuPage County, Illinois prosecutors not botched the Nicarico case by charging the wrong men with murder.

Two of those three men--Rolando Cruz and Alejandro Hernandez--were wrongly convicted of the murder and received the death penalty. They came within days of being executed before their sentences were finally overturned.

I realize that Christians are supposed to be about life and not death. We rail against abortion, and rightly so. Abortion is murder. Shouldn't we also be against the death penalty? Isn't it always wrong to take someone else's life?

Not if it's merited. Certainly, Dugan needs to get right with God by confessing his sins and accepting Jesus Christ into his life as his Lord and Savior. And maybe he has. That would spare him the ultimate death penalty of eternal damnation in hell. That's the destiny of all sinners who reject God's ultimate grace and pardon for their sins. You don't have to be a murderer to receive that death penalty.

But God's grace doesn't mean that people should be allowed to walk away from their vile deeds. David, who was perhaps the greatest human king who ever lived, and highly favored by God, was severely punished by the Lord for committing adultery with another man's wife, and then having the man killed to keep him from finding out. (2 Samuel 11-12)

In a perfect world, there would be no need for a death penalty because there wouldn't be any evil. However, we don't live in a perfect world. And as long as there are those such as Brian Dugan who reject good and choose evil, then we must have capital punishment.

Hallow Evil

Anneliese Michel: A portrait of demon possession

Many folks are convinced that Halloween is just a harmless holiday that's celebrated in the mid-fall when the trees are changing colors and winter is knocking on the door. Halloween's a time of witches and goblins and pumpkins and parties and trick-or-treating and tons of candy.

But Halloween also has deep roots in the demonic that trace back 1200 years to the Celtics in ancient Europe who believed that the so-called veil that separated the living and the dead vanished around October 31, allowing the dead to visit and mingle with the living.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica: In ancient Britain and Ireland, the Celtic Festival of Samhain was observed on October 31, at the end of summer…. The souls of the dead were supposed to revisit their homes on this day and the autumnal festival acquired sinister significance, with ghosts, witches, goblins, black cats, fairies and demons of all kinds said to be roaming about. It was the time to placate the supernatural powers controlling the processes of nature. In addition, Halloween was thought to be the most favorable time for divinations concerning marriage, luck, health, and death. It was the only day on which the help of the devil was invoked for such purposes.

Halloween wouldn't be the popular holiday that it is today without the help of the Roman Catholic Church. During the 9th century, the Catholic Church incorporated that pagan holiday with the celebration of All Saints and All Souls: By the 800s, the influence of the Catholic Church entered into Celtic lands. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV had already designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honor saints and martyrs. Later, the Church would make November 2 All Souls' Day, a day to honor the dead. The eve of All Saints', All Saints', and All Souls were celebrated with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils. 

What makes Halloween so deadly is its promotion of abominable occult practices such as necromancy, sorcery and witchcraft that bring curses and God's judgment upon those who engage in them. Consider this: "Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God." (Deuteronomy 18:10-13)

Though that law was given by God to the ancient Israelites, it's a universal law that applies to everyone. And yet very few people know or understand how dangerous occult practices are. And tragically, many occult practices become quite popular around Halloween.

Such as the Ouija Board that promises to help its practitioners make contact with the spiritual realm. The Ouija Board led to the demon possession of a young man named Roland Doe (a pseudonym) who lived in Mt. Rainier, Washington in the 1940s.

Why did Doe use the Ouija Board? He wanted to contact his deceased grandmother who had initiated him into the occult. Shortly after Doe attempted to make contact with her via the Ouija Board, he began acting peculiarly and speaking in languages he had never learned. Doe's behavior deteriorated until he had to be chained to a bed. Even then, the chains couldn't hold him and eyewitnesses recall seeing obscene words appear on his chest.

If Doe's story sounds familiar, that's because the classic horror film The Exorcist was based upon it. And Doe's story and the film never would've happened had Doe not used the Ouija Board.

Certainly, most people who dabble with the Ouija Board or attend a seance probably won't become demon possessed. However, they will have given Satan and his demons a legal right to come into their lives to influence and oppress them.

And mark my words; anyone who has been involved in any sort of occult practice will eventually experience trouble in their lives. The antidote for that is repentance from such practices and a true confession of Jesus Christ as Lord and a life dedicated to worshiping and serving Him.

And so, does everyone who celebrates Halloween come under a curse? Of course not. But consider Halloween's roots. Why celebrate something that came from the unholy? Rather, why not celebrate something that glorifies God?

Or, as the prophet Isaiah wrote over 2,700 years ago: "When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn." (Isaiah 8:19-20)

Evil in the Church

Methodist and Episcopalian ministers lend their support for abortion

During an encounter He had one day with a group of Pharisees that had challenged his authority, Jesus Christ said this: "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:10)

Christ made that statement in the context of His mission on earth; that He had come to bring eternal life to those who put their faith and trust in Him. But He also taught a universal and unchanging truth: That the One and only true God is all about saving and protecting life. Remember that Allah commands Muslims to persecute and kill those who reject Islam. So it's important to understand who God really is and what His word commands us concerning life.

For nearly 2,000 years, the Christian Church upheld God's word concerning the sanctity of life and the preservation of those who were either defenseless, weak or too infirm to protect themselves against oppressors. However, in recent years, that's changed as a growing number of churches have astonishingly jumped on the "Pro-Choice" bandwagon.

Pro-Choice is a synonym for abortion, and it's also a misnomer. You're either pro-life or you're pro-death. There is no middle ground. Pro-Choice is nothing but a sophistic term that's used to sanitize evil. Thus, any church or para-church organization that claims to promote the Bible as the absolute word of God and yet supports abortion isn't Christian at all, no matter what it says. 

Jesus Christ is all about life. Abortion is all about death and destruction rather than about family planning. Those who encourage and support abortion are just as guilty of murder as those who perform that ghastly procedure. 

However, Laura Young, a pastor with the United Methodist Church doesn't agree. She not only supports abortion, but she also condemns Christians who want to do away with that barbaric practice. Young skewers the biblical definition of love by claiming that it's hateful to protest at abortion clinics: Christianity, like most faiths, is founded on love. Watching protesters shouting judgment and hate based on what they call religion is horrible. Is that loving God? Is that loving your neighbor as yourself? 

What kind of love encourages the murder of those who can't defend themselves? Where does the Bible advocate the slaughter of unborn babies in the name of love? Young condemns Christians who try to dissuade women from getting abortions. When an abortion occurs, both the pregnant woman and the doctor who performs the procedure are guilty of murder. And yet Young labels Christians as haters who try to prevent that from happening. How sad and tragic.

Jeffrey Walton, a spokesman for an organization called the Institute on Religion and Democracy believes that all people of faith should support abortion, and those who don't and protest at abortion clinics are really in the minority.

Here's what he said: As faith leaders committed to justice, honesty, and liberty, we are troubled by the decades-long campaign of harassment against Planned Parenthood and those they serve. Our faiths demand care for those marginalized by poverty and other oppressions (Sic). Faith leaders have supported Planned Parenthood for nearly 100 years because of our shared goals: every person — regardless of income, race, or religion — deserves access to safe, affordable, high-quality health care. 

That's high quality bull. Abortion isn't health care--it's murder. And Young, Walton, et al. who promote abortion under the guise of high quality health care and Christian love should be ashamed of themselves. There's simply no place in the church for such an abomination.

The very fact that such evil is tolerated and promoted in the modern church is a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. Nearly 2,000 years ago, the apostle Paul warned that "in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons." (1 Timothy 4:1) Only a demonic spirit in the service of Satan would teach that God approves of abortion.

And Paul followed that up with this: "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

Finally, Christ warned that in the last days, "many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people." (Matthew 24:10-11) 

You aren't a Christian if you support abortion. And those who call themselves Christians who support that procedure have fallen away from Christ and have betrayed the unborn who they're commanded by God to protect. Shame on them.

The Increase of Wickedness

The police sketch of a dismembered child found in a Chicago lagoon

Chicago's Garfield Park has certainly seen better times. Named after James Garfield, America's 20th president, the park sits in the midst of Chicago's deteriorating Near West Side. It still retains its charm and beauty that's provided folks an oasis from Chicago's dust and stink for nearly a century and a half.

Certainly, when the park opened in 1869, you didn't find the empty muscatel bottles and the discarded needles used by drug addicts and the used condoms that contaminate its landscape today. While the Chicago Park District does its best to hide the symptoms of the relentless moral rot that's killing Chicago and America slowly, it can't erase them.

And tragically, the beautiful lagoon that sits in the middle of the park couldn't hide something hideous that someone tried to hide beneath its sparkling waters recently. Someone dumped the body parts from a dismembered child into the lagoon in the hopes that the child and his memory would vanish forever. When someone spotted the child's foot floating in the water, they became hysterical.

The police arrived and sent divers into the water to search for more parts. They found the child's other foot and both hands before they decided to drain the lagoon in hopes of finding the rest of the child. 

Forensic experts said the body was likely that of an African-American boy between 8 months and 4 years of age. But they cautioned that a “mixed race heritage” and the possibility the body is that of a girl cannot be ruled out. And the age could be closer to between two and three years old.

That child was an innocent human being created in God's image. He--or she--was at the complete mercy of someone who decided to destroy the child's life and then dispose of the body like garbage. Of course, the politicians wagged their fingers before the cameras and the clergy clowns dressed in their finest Armani pontificated about poverty and despair and violence, and the media trotted out the big-time psychologists to analyze why someone would do such a horrible thing to a young child. 

Why? Here's why. Because the world's turned away from God and has forgotten His laws. Whoever murdered and dismembered that child has no fear of God and no concern for what eternity brings to those who commit such heinous acts. Nearly 3,000 years ago, Solomon wrote this: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and understanding." (Proverbs 1:7)

While many people are still focused on the nightmare of the Garfield Park lagoon, they've conveniently forgotten about Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion butcher who proudly displayed the dismembered parts from aborted babies in jars that sat on his clinic's shelves. Or, those Planned Parenthood officials caught on film calmly discussing selling organs from aborted babies like street vendors selling vegetables from a produce truck.

And so, what's worse; the tragic murder and dismemberment of a young child? Or, abortion industry executives and doctors who treat aborted babies like merchandise? They're all wicked.

When a society no longer fears God, it defecates on His laws. As such, human life is considered no more sacred than the life of a worm or an ant. A world that treats human beings--young, old, infirm or handicapped--as disposable goods, is a world that's deserving of God's judgment. And that judgment's coming. In fact, it's already happening in many places.

The world's descent into evil and depravity isn't an anachronism; it's prophetic. Nearly 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ said this concerning the end times: "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved." (Matthew 24:12-13)

The apostle Paul issued this prophetic caveat concerning the last days, and decide for yourself whether this sounds like the time we're currently living in: "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people." (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Paul warned of a frightening end time world. If the murder and dismemberment of a young child doesn't bother you, then reread 2 Timothy 3:1-5. Because that describes you and your ilk.

A World Without God

A snapshot of evil: A Nazi soldier kills a young woman and her child

What does the world look like without God? Actually, we don't have to imagine that scenario because we're witnessing that world in the multiplied murders, rapes, robberies, shootings and assaults that are plaguing the planet.

Cynics will argue that religion causes much of that, and they'll point to the Middle East and Africa where ISIS savages are committing countless atrocities in the name of their god Allah. And who can argue with that?

In the western world, the atrocities are being committed by street gang savages who get their inspiration from the morally depraved elites who control the music, film and television industries. There's big lucre in sex, violence and sadism, and the elites are selling that depravity to the uneducated savages who embrace it like an alcoholic embraces a quart of Jim Beam.

And so, who was it that pointed out the myopia of self-righteous do-gooders who can't seem to look in the mirror when they pronounce judgment on the unwashed masses? It was Jesus Christ who said this: "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye." (Matthew 7:3-5)

In this case, the self-righteous do-gooders are those who blame religion for the woes plaguing the western world. But religion's not to blame because the Christian church in the western world has done a marvelous job of making itself irrelevant over the past 100 years. You'll notice that if you attend almost any fellowship in western Europe on most Sundays where the empty seats usually outnumber the people. In America, the pews are a bit more populated, although the numbers have been shrinking steadily since the 1950s. 

Thus, the ultimate paradox: Depravity and evil motivated by religion dominate one part of the world while depravity and evil motivated by godless secularism dominate another part of the world. How do we reconcile that? Or, can we reconcile that?

Certainly, we can. Religion compounds sin because it attempts to overcome it with a smorgasbord of man-made rituals, traditions, customs and good works. Or, it offers heavenly rewards to its adherents for persecuting and murdering those who refuse to convert. 

Godlessness (atheism, secularism etc.) compounds evil because it either denies its existence, or it blames it on exterior circumstances. In what way? By turning people into the victims of just about anything and everything. 

For example, the alcoholic is the victim of an alcoholic parent; the child-molester is the victim of a child-molester, and a violent, antisocial person is the victim of low self-esteem. The religious answer for such behavior is adherence to customs, rituals, traditions, sacraments etc. The secular answer for such behavior is psychotherapy.  

But what's the real solution for evil? We must be born again. That begins when one recognizes his or her own sinful condition that has separated them from God and condemned them to eternal damnation. It continues with repentance from the behavior that led them into depravity. And it's completed when one truly dedicates his or her life to Jesus Christ. 

Christ said this: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son." (John 3:16-18)

And here's what the apostle Paul said: "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all." (Colossians 3:5-11)

True Christianity is a faith rather than a religion. Religion is nothing but man's attempt to reach God on man's terms. That always fails. Faith makes us completely dependent upon God for our salvation, spiritual growth and eternal life. And true faith forces us to become introspective and look at ourselves the way God sees us rather than the way we want to see ourselves. When we do that, it isn't a pretty sight.

That's why religion and secular ideologies such as psychology almost always fail. They either ignore the problem of sin, or they offer the wrong solution for it. Concerning the hypocritical religious leaders of ancient Israel who chose the wrong solution, Christ said this: "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness." (Matthew 23:27-28)

Evil emanates from within the human heart. (Jeremiah 17:9) And we can only overcome it by being born again into eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ. Nothing else will ever do.

Evil People and Their Wicked Causes

Louis Farrakhan

While millions of people throughout the world remain in shock over the recent murders of WBDJ7 news reporter Alison Parker and cameraman Adam Ward, few folks are probably aware of something that occurred three weeks prior to their deaths that may have triggered the tragedy.

What was that? It was a Facebook posting made by Louis Farrakhan, an arch-racist and the leader of the of black militant Nation of Islam who wrote this: Retaliation! If the government won't intercede in our affairs, then we must rise up and kill those who kill us; stalk them and kill them and let them feel our pain.  

Farrakhan's a notorious race-hustler who blames whites and Jews for the predicament of blacks in America. It's very possible that Vester Lee Flanagan, the man who shot Parker and Ward to death on August 26 while they were on assignment in Moneta, Virginia, was inspired by the fire-breathing minister. 

Farrakhan posted his inflammatory Facebook message in response to the tragic shooting that took place in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17 when white supremacist Dylann Roof murdered nine African-Americans at a church in that town.

Though Farrakhan's now an old man, his racist fire seems to have been rekindled since Barack Obama was elected to the presidency in 2008. Here are some of his more notorious quotes: 

• "The Jews don’t like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that’s a good name. Hitler was a very great man."
• "You see everybody always talk about Hitler exterminating six million Jews. That’s right. But don’t nobody ever ask what did they do to Hitler."
• "America is in trouble, and I say God is about to wipe this nation from the face of the Earth. I’m not crazy, I’m not drunk, how long do you think a nation can do evil and not face the wrath of god?" 
• "White people are potential humans – they haven’t evolved yet."

One of Farrakhan's closet friends is the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the incendiary pastor who led Chicago's Trinity United Church until he retired about five years ago. Wright promoted Black Liberation theology, a racist ideology that teaches that blacks will never prosper and be free until they become completely independent of whites. Of course, BLT blames whites for the predicament of blacks in America and in other parts of the world.

One of Trinity United's members during Wright's tenure was Barack Obama who attended that church for 20 years until he was elected to the Oval Office. Wright wasn't the only person who influenced Obama. America's 44th president was also an ardent admirer of Harvard professor Derrick Bell, one of the founders of Critical Race Theory. Bell saw America as a hopelessly racist nation where blacks would always be considered inferior to whites.

Since Obama was elected to the presidency in 2008, race relations have deteriorated significantly in America. Am I suggesting that Obama and his administration created the climate for the Moneta tragedy? You bet I am.

Not only have we seen the rise of the New Black Panthers and the Black Lives Matters Movement since Obama took office, we're now seeing an uber-racist movement called F**KYOFLAG. This is a movement that encourages blacks to attack and kill whites. Here are two comments by members of this radical movement:

• "When those mother f**kers are by themselves, that’s when when we should start f***ing them up. Like they do us, when a bunch of them ni**ers takin’ one of us out, that’s how we should roll up.”  He said, “Cause we already roll up in gangs anyway. There should be six or seven black mother f**ckers, see that white person, and then lynch their ass. Let’s turn the tables."
• "Find a mother f**ker that is alone. Snap his ass, and then f***in hang him from a damn tree. Take a picture of it and then send it to the mother f**kers."

The escalating racial violence in America and across the world is part of the increasing evil that biblical prophecy warns us will prevail in the last days. (Matthew 24:12, 2 Timothy 3:1-5) And sadly, some of that racial unrest has been created by a man who promised to heal the planet and bring people together.

Barack Obama claims to be a "Christian." If he truly believes that he is, then he ought to be familiar with this statement that Jesus Christ made 2,000 year ago: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." (Matthew 5:9) True peacemakers bring people together. But evil people with wicked intentions create strife and foment violence. What best describes Obama?

The Demonic and Evil II

Consider this prophecy Jesus Christ revealed concerning the end times: "At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved." (Matthew 24:10-13)

Christ tied the rise of evil in the last days with the fall of Christianity and the appearance of false prophets. We certainly see the correlation between the decline of true faith in God and the rise in evil. But what does the appearance of false prophets have to do with the rise in wickedness?

False prophets not only lead people astray by promoting aberrant doctrines that deny the true God of the Bible and His transcendent moral laws, but they also lead people into wickedness through spiritual deception. And when Christ warned of false prophets, he wasn't speaking about people such as Nostradamus or St. Malachi. 

Rather, he was speaking about people such as William Branham, Paul Cain, Paul Yonggi Cho, Kenneth Hagin, Benny Hinn, Bob Jones, Norman Vincent Peale, Robert Schuller, William Seymour and John Wimber. All these men have played a significant part in luring multitudes of Christians away from the true church to follow a counterfeit Christ and a false gospel.

How did they accomplish that? Let the apostle Paul explain it: "For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4)

These are just some of the false prophets that Christ warned us about. They deceive people by pretending to be Christian prophets and teachers, and then they introduce destructive heresies that point people toward hell. Here's what the apostle Jude wrote: "For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord." (Jude 1:4)

For example, Peale and Schuller denied the need for repentance and promoted a gospel of self-esteem. Cho promotes a new age gospel that claims everyone has the ability to create their own reality while Seymour and Wimber promoted a gospel that based salvation not on faith in Christ, but rather on one's ability to manifest miracles such as speaking in tongues.

But the decline and decay of the end time Christian church is just one manifestation of the rise of evil in the last days. Certainly, while crime has increased significantly since the mid-20th century, so has moral depravity in the form of sexual immorality, alcoholism, drug abuse and gambling.

There's a significant, although often overlooked factor in the rise of evil in the end times. And that factor is the increased contact that the world has made with the demonic. But how? Through hallucinogenic drugs, occult practices and eastern mysticism. How is the increase in evil related to these factors? Because they are conduits to Satan and his demons who spread their lies through people who make contact with them.

Certainly, Satan and his fallen angels hide their identities to those who encounter them. They will masquerade as Christ, Mary, Moses, Muhammad, Buddha, apostles such as Paul or Peter or Hindu avatars. And they will persuade people to reject God's revelatory word in the Bible for an amoral message that promotes hedonism and debauchery, and denies sin, judgment after death and the existence of hell.

Concerning those who willingly pursue falsehood, Paul wrote: "They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness." (2 Thessalonians 2:10-12)

Tragically, many people have embraced powerful delusions that come from the demonic. We see this in professing Christians who embrace new age and occult techniques disguised as Christian practices. We see this in those who consult with fortune-tellers and psychics, despite the fact that God's word condemns those who seek counsel from such people. And we see that in the growing interest in pagan and occult practices such as Kabbalah, Transcendental Meditation, Sufism, Wicca, necromancy and the Ouija Board.

The growing spiritual darkness throughout the world is indeed prophetic. And it's tragic as well. Paul gave us this warning: "Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith." (1 Timothy 6:20-21)

The Post-Christian United States

Che Obama

Occasionally, I'm criticized because I don't promote conservative political candidates "who'll turn America around and take back our nation!" I'm chastised because I spend too much time "in the Bible and not enough time promoting conservative political candidates."

First of all, you aren't going to turn America around at the ballot box. Secondly, how are you going take America back when godless humanists control much of the government, the public schools, media and the entertainment industry? And thirdly, the very reason why the United States has become a post-Christian nation is because too many folks who profess to be Christians spend very little--if any--time reading and studying their bibles.

Nearly, 3,000 years ago, King Solomon wrote this: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." (Proverbs 1:7) Nearly 80 percent of Americans claim to be Christians, and yet their actions clearly betray their declaration of faith. A growing majority of professing Christians today support such anti-biblical causes as same-sex marriage and abortion.

How can you claim to be a Christian when you support godless causes that the author of your faith condemned? What? Jesus Christ never condemned abortion or same-sex marriage? Jesus Christ is called the Word who became flesh (John 1:14), meaning that He's the One who wrote the Law and the 10 Commandments and revealed them to Moses. Thus, those who claim that Christ never publicly condemned such sins are completely ignorant of the Bible and its author.

Politics is the lazy person's way of promoting the faith. Promoting political candidates is much easier than promoting the gospel because that involves engaging people on the street and challenging them to get out of sin and commit their lives to Christ. Although political candidates may be able to limit crime and moral decadence via the laws they write and pass, they can't solve the problem of sin that's the cause of all crime and moral decadence.

The reason why so many Christians continue to put their faith in the ballot box is because until recently, it generally worked. Back in 1980, millions of Americans denied the ultra-liberal and thoroughly inept Jimmy Carter a second term in the White House and chose a conservative named Ronald Reagan. Reagan reversed the damage that Carter had done to the nation at home and abroad and made America the most powerful nation on earth once again.

Reagan was succeeded by George H.W. Bush, a moderate conservative who was then succeeded by Bill Clinton, a liberal who was moderately conservative on certain issues such as welfare reform and traditional marriage. And Clinton was succeeded by George W. Bush, a professing evangelical who governed very much like a big government liberal. And of course, we know who succeeded George W. Bush.

The political leaders of nations are a direct reflection of the people who elect them. If the people are righteous and godly, they'll elect righteous and godly leaders. But if the people are depraved and evil, they'll elect wicked leaders after their own hearts. Thus, Barack Obama is a direct reflection of the morally depraved culture he came from. He's a liar and a Marxist and a virulent racist. And tragically, that's a pretty good synopsis of many Americans today.

And so, whoever succeeds Obama isn't going to change America anymore than any powerful politician is going to change America. America won't be changed until her somnolent Christian community wakes up and begins to exert its influence once again on the culture.

Sure, that's hard. That'll bring persecution and even death. If you want to know how it's done, then read the Book of Acts and the apostle Paul's epistles to the early churches. The apostles gave up all their worldly possessions for Christ because they knew that a far better place awaited them in Heaven after they left this fallen world. They put their faith completely in Christ. And their faith wasn't blind--it was based upon hard evidence.

Here's what Paul wrote in his second epistle to the early church in Corinth: "We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything." (2 Corinthians 6:3-10)

That's genuine faith. That's the kind of faith that changes cultures and civilizations. And that's the kind of faith that's needed to turn America back from the brink of destruction. Because without it, America is doomed.

The Beautiful Mask of Evil

Margaret Sanger: The founder of Planned Parenthood

When you realize that we're living in the last days, as foretold by biblical prophecy that was recorded nearly 2,000 years ago, you can understand why so many things that were historically considered evil and satanic are now promoted as beneficial and good.

For the record, here's what the apostle Paul predicted concerning the end times in his second epistle to fellow apostle Timothy: "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of Good--having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people." (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Certainly, there's a cause and effect relationship between the ignorance of God and the rise of evil in the world. Paul revealed what happens to people when they turn away from God: "Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." (Romans 1:28-32)

We saw yet another example of Paul's revelations fulfilled recently with two high-ranking officials of Planned Parenthood who were filmed calmly discussing the sale of body parts taken from aborted babies. 

For those who are familiar with the Holocaust and the Nazis callous disregard for human life, the rhetoric that came from the mouths of those two Planned Parenthood officials sounded eerily similar to the rhetoric of Nazi demoniacs such as Josef Mengele, Josef Goebbels and Heinrich Himmler who often discussed making lampshades and other items from the skin and body parts of Jewish corpses. 

The very title Planned Parenthood is a classic leftist misnomer. The only thing that Planned Parenthood "plans" is the mass murder of unborn babies. The term "pro-choice" and the phrase "a woman's right to choose" are leftist misnomers that are used to sanitize infanticide by cheapening murder in order to promote personal freedom.

Margaret Sanger, who founded Planned Parenthood, was an evil person and an arch-racist who wanted to exterminate certain groups such as blacks. In Woman, Morality, and Birth Control. New York: New York Publishing Company, 1922. Page 12., she said this: We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities.  The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members.

And in “America Needs a Code for Babies,” 27 Mar 1934, she said this: Give dysgenic groups [people with “bad genes”] in our population their choice of segregation or [compulsory] sterilization. Those are the words of an evil person who covers up a demonic face with a beautiful mask.

Murder is never a choice; it's always a moral abomination. And the claim that the lives of unborn babies must be snuffed out in order to save a pregnant woman's life is nothing but an excuse for murder. Modern medical technology has made deliveries safe. There are procedures available to safely deliver a baby and protect a woman's life when her health may be at risk.

A society that has such callous disregard for human life and refuses to defend the unborn is a society that's on the verge of self-destruction.

Thomas Jefferson, one of America's founding fathers said this: The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government. Saint Basil said this: The hairsplitting difference between formed and unformed makes no difference to us. Whoever deliberately commits abortion is subject to the penalty for homicide. And A.L. Barry, president of the Missouri Synod of the Lutheran Church, said this: Just because something happens to be legal does not make it moral, ethical or right.  Abortion is perhaps one of the most dramatic examples of a situation where something is legal, but is very much a sin against God. 

Indeed. When people deny God's existence, they don't believe that they're morally accountable for their behavior. The rise of the abortion death industry is the direct result of the world's increasing denial of God and its rejection of His laws and commandments. That explains why Planned Parenthood officials discuss the sale of body parts from aborted babies as casually as people discuss the sale of stocks and bonds. It's disheartening and nauseating.

Nearly 2,800 years ago, the Lord spoke these words to the prophet Isaiah concerning those who promote evil as good: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." (Isaiah 5:20)

There's a curse on everyone who promotes and profits from the death of unborn babies. And unless they repent of the heinous sin of infanticide and stop doing abortions, their souls will burn in hell for eternity. You can count on that.