[28] Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. [29] Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. (Mark 13 NIV)

The deep recesses of the human heart conceal the dark designs of man's rebellion against the Kingdom of God. It is from the heart that God's authority is challenged. It is from the heart that man's godless enterprise can find opportunity to flow into history. Human will acts upon the resources of creation as it seeks utility and expression within history. When human agency consorts with the Magician, great plagues are introduced into the fabric of existence.

After the Fall, man's first assault against heaven sought to engineer a means to reach God's kingdom through human reason and strength. God toppled the progress for the tower of Babel by mixing up the human tongue. Reason from this point on is limited and under curse. The relationship between words is what provides the discourse of reason within our minds and between people. Since God's intervention at Babel, words and communication cannot be trusted without reservation.

Human enterprise no longer has a single focus that can be clearly articulated and collectively achieved. The lofty realm of heaven, with its crystalline and unblemished thoughts, will never be experienced through the activity of human will. The only recourse left to the rebel is to secure his cave and prevent heaven from entering into creation. Once again, the resources of creation become the raw ingredients through which human will seeks expression.

Forever prevented from taking heaven by human means, earthen "mortar" and "brick" were again used as the rebel constructed the walls of his cave. The rebel sought to bar the light of transcendence and conceal the debauchery of rebellious living. Today, the walls of the cave continue to stand against heaven. Captive to his prison cave, the contemporary rebel expresses his sense of "freedom" as he continues to use the rhetoric of naturalism to encrust human existence within a meager life fed with straw and stable water.

The walls make human existence cold and dark. There is little light for the godly to use in escaping the evils that lurk among the rebels. Since these evils have seeped into the Church, the Saints are often crushed within the circumstances of their own institutions. Those enabled to resist are being gathered together as they cross denominational lines from all parts of the globe. They are being drawn to the exit of history. They are doorkeepers awaiting the Master's arrival. None are certain as to the hour when their Lord will return. The doorkeepers have filled their lanterns and are ready to receive Him at whatever time He comes. Although uncertain of the hour, they have watched the signs, and the watchmen perceive His footsteps just outside the door.

The Magician also hears the approach of God and has given orders to the Dark Prince. Naturalism is to intensify its deception of humanity at the teleos point of history. "The walls must be made thicker!" cries the Magician. "I will prolong the hour of my ravenous appetite for souls. I will maximize my satisfaction if I must die!"

The Church has become the focus of the Dark Prince's deceptive activity. footnote The watchmen are being silenced. Philosophy and theology together are being used to whitewash the rebel's dark fortress through smooth and slick, politically correct, technologically adept incantations from the spell-book of Naturalism. Grand formulas and eloquent imagery are being used to construct the meaning of God out of straw and stable water. Counterfeit priests are wedding the counterfeit church to the counterfeit Christ. footnote The natural is being painted divinely, and the divine is being captured naturally; the two are being given the appearance as one. An unholy marriage between the anti-church and the anti-christ is meant to confuse and debilitate the children of God. footnote

A cold wind now blows from the chambers of the rebels' hearts. They have begun the omega chant and demonic powers carry the force of their spell into the events of history. The rebels feel safe and securely barricaded against the probing light of heaven. There is a devilish festivity to their work. "Look at the walls of our fortress!" they boast. "They are strong and we understand their construction. Who knows if there is anything beyond them? Who knows if there is a God?" footnote

The rebellious person and priest almost wonder whether there is an enemy at all beyond their walls. They feel as though they are gods--unchallenged in their intentions. Between incantations they say: "We have devised a perfect plan! Surely the mind and heart of man are cunning." footnote

The Lord Jesus foresaw that at the bitter end it would be the Church who would contribute to the persecution of the watchmen. The tremor of the watchmen's travail is increasing, yet it will become worse. The Saints will suffer at the hands of the rebel as God's children continue to return love for hate, peace for violence, and redemption for dejection. footnote In the face of persecution, the Saints are being drawn together for safety and companionship. Gathering at the gates of the wall, where the breaking light of heaven is best discerned through the Word of God, they are searching for the means to break the Magician's spell upon the Church. footnote

I am a watchman. I stand at the gate. I am frustrated as I attempt to speak the words that have been given to me. I find confusion to my right and to my left. There are voices that call down to me from the heights of the Church. Some say that the voice of prophecy has passed. Some say that the Bible is man's book recording a limited encounter with God localized to a particular historical setting. Some say that God will pluck His children into the sky before the end of time. Some call me a doomsayer, and invite me to walk with Pannenberg and Teilhard de Chardin into an evolutionary ascent of man and nature into a bright tomorrow.

These voices--vexations of Hananiah, strike like the lashes of a whip. I must bear them, even though I am innocent. I will speak God's Word, though the messenger often receives the anger of the hearer. The voice of prophecy has not ended! Indeed, St. Luke sees the increase of God-breathed prophecy as a major sign of the "last day." footnote The Apostle Peter speaks of the universal quality of past and present God-breathed prophecy." footnote confirming the declarations of Christ.." footnote Christ spoke of the persecution of the Saints of God at the end of history,." footnote not their removal before the tribulation. Finally, the whole force of biblical eschatology speaks of a radical end to this planet and its history, and a new beginning within God's greater kingdom.,." footnote

This planet will come to an end. The people of God will live within the world until Christ returns because the love of Christ sends His Saints to seek out returning prodigals until there is not one mortal left.,." footnote The hope of the world is not given through the Hananiahs who tempt Christians to rest back upon a self-serving dream that they are not in harm's way. The hope of the world is in biblical truth, and the voice of God calling His people into mission for the sake of the family of Adam.

Yet I hear voices calling down to me, "How do you have the right to claim a prophetic word? Who are you to cry against the high citadels of scholarly theology? What are your credentials? Why should we believe you? You are merely a man, just like us! You are sinful, just like us! Your knowledge is incomplete, more limited than ours!"

To these lashes I can only bend. The truth I declare must transcend the limits of my knowledge, and certainly my virtue. I have feasted upon the deceptions of this generation, and they are part of my chemistry. Clarity of thought and expression are not easy, since my reason also lies under the rubble of Babel's fall. I live in the cave, and claim no ecstatic transport into God's presence. I grow weary as I try to listen to God, even as Abraham once heard the monolithic quality of His voice.

I hear many voices--and that one Voice which I hear seeking to break through the limits of my own existence weighs heavily upon me. I seek to understand the gravity of my function amid others more scholarly, and others more saintly. I carry the weight of all sinner/Saints who must walk by the light of grace in a world at twilight. "It is so very difficult to tell specters from the substance of Your hand, O my God!" I have cried. "I grow faint, and my pen leadens in my hand. How shall I walk the narrow way when the world is so broad? How shall I phrase my words to steer the gaze of the Church from the world of nature to Your face in heaven? Words, O my God, are earthen vessels shattered by the content which I, a broken vessel, must carry to the Church!",." footnote

I am a doorkeeper and I stand at the gates. The city has bolted its doors against Michael's approach. Its dwellers may not believe Scripture, but they do sense danger in the streets of Babylon. They know that destruction of massive proportions lies close at hand. They do not understand the spiritual dimension of the dangers they face. They are unable to see a greater hand that works even evil to a final good. The rebel plots and plans, but God remains in control. Michael is the Angel who will prepare the way for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

I am looking for Michael. Every time I search through the cracks of the heavy barricade, the light approaching this dark city blinds me. It is settled! For now I must look into the city through the lens of Scripture as my only guide. I live with all humanity behind the walls and the hour is twilight. As heaven slips through the walls of our meager existence, I will proclaim what I see by heaven's light as it confirms the revelation of Scripture. Be warned! A plague is growing within the walls of the cave. It will bring death to this creation in the near future unless the Church awakens.

Babylon! The Magician has used the selfish hearts of your denizens to inflict nails into the body of Christ, and has all along intended to destroy you as well. Do you believe that the father of lies has whispered faithfully to you as together you have lain in the bed of deceit? No. He has planned, since Abel's innocent blood cried from the ground, to bring destruction to your house too. All life comes from God, even the Magician's, and the dependency of every power and principality upon God for existence is an offense to hell. The devil is forever cursed with the irony of a burning hate for the source of his being, and he seeks to draw every rebel into the absurdity of his state.

I sound the alarm! Flee Babylon's embrace! The Lord knows my heart and He knows your heart. God considers all of the Magician's influence upon our ways, and He waits to be gracious to you, as He has been gracious to me. God has established His throne in heaven so that all the ebb and flow of this world will not harm you when you are brought into His kingdom. Blessed is that individual who endures to the end! The judgments of the Lord are just and His faithfulness is written within the stars of the sky. Righteous is the man who lives in the Lord. His days shall be without number. But woe to Babylon! Michael is at the gates of the city. A spiritual reality of incomprehensible dimension comes in one who will winnow the foundations of the earth.,." footnote

Cry aloud, O courts of heaven! Has ever such blood been coldly shed since Cain slew his brother Abel? The innocent are put to death. Past theologians who have spoken of the transcendent and miraculous are treated as old team horses good only to be put out to pasture. Theologians of the cave sport the slick and sleek fashion of naturalism to students of the Word. There are fewer and fewer pastors who are trained to proclaim God's life-giving and sustaining Word into the world, and so the planet perishes in blood and perversity.

Let those who have eyes to see and ears to hear answer this: Has ever such gross wickedness and immorality been socially accepted since the days of Sodom and Gomorrah? If you do not discern the features of unholy terror, it is because in them you see the face of your lover. Do you covet your personal demon for the permission he gives to you for satisfying a carnal appetite? How willing are you to live with demons in the heart? Everywhere the rebel consorts with the very demons whose existence he denies, and the face of this globe is covered with such evil that heaven blushes to sentence it, so great is its sin!

From East to West, and from North to South, is there one country that practices righteousness? Not even the heathen nations are innocent of God's condemnation: A court of thieves would sentence them to death for brazenly disregarding the knowledge of God written into heart and creation. The whole world has become a vassal to Babylon and shall share in Babylon's demise.

I have stood at your gates, O Babylon, and I have seen your evil ways. Yes, I too have succumbed to your temptations. Yet my error is no man's vindication! Do not hide your sin behind my own times of rebellion. My sin makes my way longer and fills its path with danger. And now I see, though dimly, just how much danger I have brought to others by my sin, my own most grievous sin. History is a gossamer fixed between heaven and earth; touch it at any one point, and the lightest affection trembles through the whole.

Do you believe, O man, that your conduct is your own affair? St. James has said differently. footnote Have you been so bewitched that you do not see the accumulative effects as your sin is added with the sins of others? I must tell you, though you may protest, that even the sin that you covet behind your closed door adds to the famine of existence for all. You are not autonomous from this creation. Your conduct affects the affairs of all. You are so woven into the mesh of existence that you cannot but help or harm it, and its quality cannot but help or harm you.

I have watched, O man, as you have weighed the flesh of innocence on the scales constructed from nature. Willingly you abort unwanted children at the twentieth century altar to Ba'al. "The weak must die for the powerful," is chanted in the streets. But the Word says that as a man sows so shall he reap.,." footnote Use wrongly your philosophy and science to define what makes a person worthy of life! Use your false priests to shout praise to your dark conceit! Let them whitewash your bloody deeds!,." footnote Speak of the complexities of the problem until the problem overcomes you! But woe to all the earth, for the physician is a murderer and the priest a friend of Ba'al.

And what lesson do the physician and the priest teach? They teach that human life has no value apart from its utility. If an unborn life has no utility in the view of a parent or government, let the child die! If the death of an unborn human being can further careers, enhanced finances, or help maintain population control, let the child die! These are the lessons being taught by the worldly physician and priest, and their lessons are being taken to heart.

Throughout the globe isolated groups within nations and among nations kill indiscriminately to further their respective causes. Let the innocent die! Terrorists kill faces unknown to them as the deaths of these innocent bring utility to their twisted intentions. Let the innocent die! Building after building, commuter after commuter, by-stander after by-stander, is being bombed, gassed, or shot. Let the innocent die!

The devaluation of human life is being taught to the youth. City after city throughout the nations of the world watch in horror as street gangs terrorize the innocent. A woman is shot and killed as she drives in her car. A family is killed as their home is burglarized. A child is shot in the crossfire between rival gangs as they fight it out in the streets. A great storm of juvenile crime is brewing within societies that have destroyed both the nuclear family and the sanctity of human life. The youth have learned that the goal of life is wealth and pleasure, so let the poor and innocent die!

I have watched from my post, and I have witnessed your debauchery. You drain the wineskins and bring drought upon drought to the thirsty poor. The extremely wealthy warm themselves before the hearth heated by the kindling gathered by the very cold and naked. I have warned you that your feasting shall turn to famine, but are you listening? Soon it will be too late, and I fear that I lack the eloquence to expose before you the seriousness of disregarding God's love for all people.

Soon, O man, soon I shall tell you of the fate that lies ahead. You will marvel that this tragedy should be attributed to your own hearts. You will protest against the accusations that point to your part in the destruction of this globe. You will blame God for the judgment that He shall set to your necks. You are a criminal against God and civilization, and yet you will fault the judge of heaven and earth for the work of your rebellion!

It is a subtle point that I seek to make, O man, and I am in heavy labor until it is delivered. Hear again! History is a gossamer fixed between heaven and earth. It records our slightest movement. If you live in Christ you will bring life and newness to creation. If you dwell with the Magician in the rebel's camp, then you will collapse history at the point of its attachment to the earth.

A fiery holocaust will abort this world. As you have sown, O man, so shall you reap!,." footnote The Lord God has given you all the fruits of the earth. He has made you as an angel with the power of will to shape the realm of nature and human existence. It is God, O man, who ordained your telescopes and microscopes. It is the Lord who has prospered so much of your technical and medical discoveries. Do you believe, O man, that any good thing comes but from God? Yet in the darkness of selfish hearts you turn blessings into a curse, and goodness into a great evil.

Is the world of the twentieth century distinguished by the signs of the Cross or the idols of Naturalism? Where is the witness of the Church to be found? Does the Church raise the banner of the cross or the mark of Cain? Do the wealthy and powerful worship God with lip service as they exploit the weak of the world? Does the Church rest upon Christ's eternal covenant of grace only to dance to the tune of Ba'al? Are the world and the Church of our day being cast into the mold of Israel at the time of Amos, and later Ezekiel?

Amos was a simple dresser of Sycamore trees who was sent by God to prune the vine of Israel. If Israel was to be a light to the nations, it must not itself be extinguished by dark living. Yahweh had planted Israel among the nations in the rich and fertile land of Canaan.,." footnote He then tended to her until her people had grown thick and impervious to attack from other nations. The storehouses of the wealthy were loaded with the abundance of material prosperity. Yet for all this, the people began to worship the Ba'als.

The Ba'als which so angered Amos were the idols of a wealthy and prosperous society. Wealth becomes idolized when it is accumulated at the expense of others. It is not an a priori evil. In the covenant that God made with Abraham, it is obvious that God's favor would be revealed to Abraham and his descendants through security and prosperity.

The promise God made with His servant Abraham carried the blessings of land and possessions. In light of the Lord Jesus' view concerning the dangers associated with wealth (cf. Matthew 19:24), we must be amazed at the excessiveness of God's promise given to Father Abraham. The twelfth chapter of Genesis makes it clear that Abraham would experience an awesome blessing as his children would be numbered by the stars and given a great inheritance of land and cattle.

The Israel addressed by the prophet Amos had taken it for granted that their current property was an irrevocable consequence of God's covenant with Abraham. Israel had grown and prospered as God had promised, but the leprosy of selfishness was dividing the one family of Abraham into two parts--the rich and poor. Already in her early history, some two hundred years before Ezekiel's ministry, Israel had begun to rationalize God's covenant as a freedom for licentious living. God had given Israel the vineyard, and selfishly the powerful despoiled it. Amos depicts Israel as a nation controlled by a wealthy elite who would say in their hearts, "evil shall not overtake nor prevent us.",." footnote

Israel lost its ability to leaven the nations because she could not rise beyond her own rebellion. Apostasy and worship of other gods can take many forms. Righteousness can be disregarded equally in the temple as in the streets.,." footnote On the surface, the sins of Israel were not gross. The Israel that Amos knew was outwardly very "religious" and "civilized." The rich supported the temple and paid their tithes according to the Mosaic Law--at least, for the most part. They supported the defense of the state. They honored the cultic festivals and sacrificial ordinances. And all the while, the poor grew poorer and the rich became wealthier. In many ways, they resembled the form that our Western culture has taken from the time of Constantine to this present generation.

O Israel! God called your father Abraham that he might be a blessing to all generations. O man! How is it that your wealthy trample the poor and then drink the wine crushed under their labor? Always the weak must be sacrificed for the powerful! Do you believe, O man, that this inequity shall escape the sword of God's judgment? He shall come with Michael and lop off the corrupt and selfish from the vine. No more will they drink the sweet nectar of creation and grow fat as others perish. But to the true children of Abraham, God will restore all fortune and bestow to their lips two cups which will flow endlessly--one giving a spiritual portion in Christ, the other the bounty of a new creation.

The children of Abraham are those who, in Christ, do the will of God. Every branch from the Vine of Jesse that bears no fruit is taken and burned. Every branch that does produce the fruit of love is pruned that it might bear even more fruit. Jesus is the true Vine and the seed of Abraham are those who abide in Christ. And by this, O man, you shall know them, that they love God and one another within the fellowship of the Cross.

The Fellowship of the Cross has gathered at the gates of the dark city. What do we see? We see that all the earth has been encrusted by the continuous incantations spoken from the rebel's heart into history. A wall has been formed between man and heaven by the accretions of each generation. The existence of man is now like a grain of sand surrounded by the several layers within a pearl. The philosophies of the cave from each generation encompass us, and through occult power the Magician brings them into being and joins them together in an unholy alliance within contemporary society.

We can scarcely imagine the powers that have been joined together within the human heart as history is driven to a fiery holocaust. They are demons, however, and they have proper names: Selfishness, Lawlessness, Licentiousness, Greed, Envy, Hate, Contention, War, Murder, Suicide, Sorcery, and Strife have passed through the rebel's heart into history. Who is not guilty of bringing some of these into the world through their own decisions and choices?

These riders of darkness and doom wear many masks as they perform their father's evil work. As St. Paul points out in 2 Timothy 3:1-13, these powers are masters of deception as they become incarnate within the human heart. Century upon century they have been directed within the heart of the rebel to work havoc within the fabric of society. Today, the Magician is animating all these demonic bewitchments and at heaven's permission, the Four Horsemen ride the horizon of history.

Creation is used like a woman violated and forced to give birth to every imagination of a dark heart. Man contends with man for the prizes of wealth and power. Philosophy debates with philosophy, and each seeks to define the best worldview for understanding existence, society, and justice. Nation contends against nation, and each seeks to assert its politics around the greatest stores of creation. As each country hoards what the world needs in common, inflation steals livelihood from the poor, aged, and destitute. But woe to all the earth as the Fourth Horseman enters the final stage of history! A global Cain has been reincarnated in the terrorist who murders out of a twisted and self-serving passion.

And who will sound the alarm? Who will cry that Death and Hades are behind the walls? The whole world is in disorder and the watchmen grow weary at the gates. How long, O Lord, how long must we hold sentry? Nihilism is worshipped instead of Your holy law honored. And the Church in Babylon considers our refusal to join in their fanfare as a rejection of You and of Your "new word" within history.

I am a watchman and I have witnessed Your hand. I know, my Lord and Creator, I know that You continue to surprise us with new insights. Blessed is the man who has eyes to see and ears to hear! But I have considered the new freedoms that are offered as fruit from Your Vine, and I have found these to be clay made from the soil of naturalism.

Lord, my words seek to be a song in praise of Your glory. Yet if I deny their works they will say that I deny You. If I come with the thunder of heaven to break their earthen idols, the Church in Babylon will claim that I defile You. I am the least of men crying at the gates of the city, and why should the rebel listen? Their priests are great in the wisdom of the cave. My Lord, they will say that I seek to take away their freedom in You. It is not true, but they discern in error because the subtle and living power of the Gospel they choose not to see. They prefer a paler meal and so they whitewash licentious and lustful living and call it "Freedom!" The Gospel of Christ is made into a byword for egocentric habits and appetites. Let the innocent die!

Those who equivocate have turned the Gospel of Christ, O man, into a whore. They deviate from its real meaning in order to make it serve the lusts of their heart. The words of the false priests are not representative of the freedom offered in Jesus Christ. Even revolutionaries claim Christianity so that they might justify the spilling of blood as they support one class over-against another class. Therefore comes this word of God to you: Do not trust in these deceptive words, "This is the Gospel of the Lord... the Gospel of the Lord... the Gospel of the Lord!" Behold the crucified and risen Lord and He will make known to you the true Gospel. But beware of that "gospel" which echoes up from whitewashed tombs that is filled with dead men's bones!

This "gospel" is really an indulgence that fattens the purses of worldly priests. They are cunning and sell to the people of Babylon what they want to hear. "If you feel oppressed," they strategize, "then it is all right to draw blood. The Gospel calls you to freedom. Anyone not with you, is against you. Let the innocent die!"

"Sexuality is a gift of God," they continue, "the Gospel sets you free to explore your human appetites to the fullest. There is no limit to your menu. There is no difference between love and lust. The Gospel calls you to freedom. Abortion is your escape from responsibility. Let the innocent die!"

The end of all their words is that grace abounds so that permission is given to sin all the more:

[3] For the time will come when men 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. [4] They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4 NIV)

The true Gospel is not a reflection of the rebel's heart. It is not the concealed face of the Magician sitting at the Rebel's table. It is not known by hearts that condone the death of the innocent. Only those whose heart has been made alive in Christ know it. Only those attached to the living Vine experience the sweet nectar of the Gospel, and it flows through them producing the fruit of Sacramental love. Sacramental love brings life, not death. Freedom, as Martin Luther states, is being set free from our self-centered sin so that we might love our neighbors and enhance their quality of life. It is also, said he, a spirit unfettered by its errors and released to stand guiltless before God.

The natural man cannot stomach an existence lived on the meaty course of true freedom. He wants a "gospel" which gives him permission to express his carnal appetites, not empowerment to serve others. As Luther brilliantly argues in his commentary on Galatians, Christian freedom is a freedom in conscience and not a libertine declaration. In His book Christian Liberty he explains that freedom in conscience allows us to truly love our neighbors. In the Gospel we are freed from the penalty of the law in order that we might produce the intention of the law: "For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous." (1 John 5:3.) Therefore, Christian freedom is a freedom to responsibility.

Christ's work has not negated the orders of creation or the intention of the law, not even an iota. "For the whole law," proclaims St. Paul, "is fulfilled in one word, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself'." (Galatians 5:14.) Christ came to enable the world to experience true love. He did this through His own presence in the Incarnation, and he continues to do this through the Saints whom He seeks to win from the world.

The rebel who resists the true Gospel will abuse the work of Christ to his own doom. He compounds sin upon sin. He seeks to use grace in order to sin all the more. He seeks to use grace to rationalize his disregard of past revelations by arguing that Christ's work has removed the orders of creation. "Humanity," says the worldly priest, "is free to carve its existence from the amorphous universe. Questions of right and wrong are either irrelevant, situational, or determined by taking a survey."

The Saint, however, is in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit. The Saint is assured that from his heart of faith will flow the fruit of love and life into a starving, dying world. The Saint understands that God's ordering within creation is not something external to who mankind is, but fundamental to his identity and society. Because God has placed order within creation, the children of God are set free from bondage to futility and the destructive forces of anarchy. Because God orders creation, including human society, human existence can experience the beauty of an autumn woods as it transports the human spirit to that realm where such colors are witnessed without the blood-red tooth and claw of our present and fallen creation. The law tells us that God creates order within nature and human society, the Gospel proclaims its redemption. Law and Gospel are God's creations, but easily misused by man.

As a watchman, I have seen that there are two types of bondage which enslave the rebel. On the one hand, there are those who are self-righteous in their hearts and use the law to support their autonomy from God. These Pharisees know well the weight of legalism and willingly bear it as a testimony to their own fortitude. They would gladly let their own daughter drown if she should unluckily fall into a well on the Sabbath day. Through their twisted works these Pharisees deny the need for a savior, and yet they are chained to pride and hard bondage within the cave. Only Christ has the power to set them free--free to love Him and their neighbor.

At the one extreme, there are the Pharisees who use the law to be independent from God and Christ's work upon the Cross. On the other extreme, there are the Greeks who acknowledge no law at all. They claim freedom on the basis of natural revelation, humanistic principle, or theological abstraction. The naturalist claims to know only what science can affirm. The humanist pursues what man can fashion within his own society. The abstractionist argues that the work of Christ has ended both the orders of creation and the demand of the moral law. These paths lead back to the Magician sitting within the rebel's heart as he enslaves human existence under the spell of Naturalism. The Dark Prince becomes incarnate through human agency. St. Paul spoke of this as bondage to the flesh.

Existentially speaking, the rebel cannot be confronted with God's law or Gospel without misinterpretation. Either he will use the law to establish a false self-righteousness, or the rebel will abuse the Gospel and experiment with contrived alternatives that deny the validity of a God-given blueprint for ordering human society. In either case, the error of the rebel is that he aspires to a self-centered existence apart from the meaning of God and His truth. God seeks to set His people free from bondage within the twilight of the cave. The true Gospel brings this freedom--freedom to love... freedom to serve... freedom from disorder and death... freedom in conscience... freedom from the penalty of the law.

Since the law is misused by the Pharisee and disregarded by the Greek, is it then corrupt? No. The law is holy and good. An evil dictator did not inflict the law, but rather it was given by a guiding Shepherd. It is only through sin that the law finds opportunity to deceive and judge. The law exposes the Pharisee because sin causes him to miss the deeper meaning of God's intention: The Pharisee sees the law as a means to force God to do him good, but not as a reflection of God's goodness. Like a child who will do anything for candy, the Pharisee uses the law to gain rewards from God. He does not consider his actions in terms of God's glory. The Pharisee is not ethical; he is pragmatic and self-centered.

Sin deceives the Pharisees who seek to use the law as a means to a self-serving existence. On the other hand, the law sentences the Greeks who rationalize truth on the basis of their deductions within the cave. Greek-thinking philosophers and theologians end up sponsoring great and unholy crimes because they explain sin as ignorance rather than willful disobedience. Sin is not the absence of knowledge, but rather it is the presence of evil in the hearts of men.

It is sin that brought Christ to the Cross. Christ did not come to give a secret knowledge. Christ did not come because the law was evil to good men. Christ did not come because men were ignorant. Christ died on the cross because evil men could not live through a good law. Christ came to disclose the mystery of the ages! Christ died and rose because human reason was a slave to the lusts of the heart. Christ imparted the Holy Spirit who alone allows the intention of the law to be accomplished through love. Divine love sets that soul free! Only in the Fellowship of the Cross do we find a people free in conscience and free to be bold through righteous deeds.

But the whole world is becoming more and more entrenched within the rebel's camp. Transcendent truth is barricaded outside so that evil conduct is not exposed before the courts of heaven. Through a bent will, past revelations restricting evil conduct are declared passe. Righteousness crashes to the earth and is broken into pieces! There are no boundaries! The Magician declares freedom to his rebel friend and so the rebel serves the devil to the end. Is this not damnable folly? Through this devilish "freedom" the rebel is enslaved to Lust, Murder, Hate, Ambition, and the other demons of his heart. The rebel's best allies are the false priest and prophet who promise him this worldly freedom.

The worldly freedom of the rebel is the worst form of slavery. It is an infernal and unholy matrimony between the rebel and those deathly specters of his heart, and it is the worldly priest who does the wedlock service. If only the rebel could see beyond the spell to the far horizon: Death! Death! Death! Every path away from God leads only to death! If only the eyes of the rebel could discern that his lovers are decaying corpses made lovely at the hour of twilight. He would shutter if he saw his many lovers in the light of heaven! The rebel killed the incarnate Light so His dance with death could be feigned as courtship with life. To their eternal death the rebels listen to their worldly ministers: "They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity-- for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.,." footnote O my God, what can I say to these priests of Babylon who serve within the Church? A raging and wild tempest meets me as I seek to plumb their depths. Nature storms out of control within them! I am thrown and tossed up from the ground of their being. I seek to reach them before a greater storm breaks out and consumes the earth. I cry out! I say to them, "Yield to the Holy Spirit as He seeks to unbar the door of your heart! Bathe your soul in the Light of heaven before the darkness of the age overcomes you; with none to bring you comfort."

If I were an angel I could speak the language of heaven and weave the rebel into its holy spell. Remember, spells are also used to break enchantments! The spell of heaven is like the power of the sun that rises upon a troubled night and through its light scatters specters and bestows the gift of sight. O man, open your heart and you will see! God is at your heart and seeks to set you free from darkness and perversity. God is love, and He yearns with a lover's passion to dwell with you forever in Paradise.

Who will prefer the rebel's temporary dwelling? Who will eat straw and stable water and refuse the bounty of heaven? O man, the path of your life ends only in heaven or in hell. Close and bar the door of your heart to heaven, and you will be led through another door, down a deeper way, that leads to hell. The dark path of rebellion swallows up not only the future, but brings famine to the rebel's existence within the world.

Turn back before it is too late! Close off that infernal pathway! Let the Light of heaven into your lives. Pattern your lives according to God's revelations! Walk with Abraham according to the promise and purpose of God. I am a watchman and I have seen that it is through dark hearts that the powers for closing history are now riding up out from the abyss of hell.

As in the past, so it is now, God will use the rebel's heart as the instrument of execution. The walls that the rebels have constructed will fall at the pouring of the Seventh Bowl from heaven. O man, judge if you know justice and look if you have sight! What is taking place within history? What is happening through the agency of the rebels? What will God do to those who bring rebellion?

In poetic justice, O man, you will see that the many lovers of the rebel will be exposed as jackals, and their final kiss will suddenly tear out their throats. Their lovers' embrace will finally smother them beneath the consequences of sin. History will be torn from the face of the earth:

[12] Therefore, this is what the Holy One of Israel says: "Because you have rejected this message, relied on oppression and depended on deceit, [13] this sin will become for you like a high wall, cracked and bulging, that collapses suddenly, in an instant. [14] It will break in pieces like pottery, shattered so mercilessly that among its pieces not a fragment will be found for taking coals from a hearth or scooping water out of a cistern." (Isaiah 30 NIV)

The wall of the rebel's fabrication will fall on him as the dark force of his will is fully animated. The whitewashing of worldly priests will not prevent its collapse. Do you still doubt, O man, that it is your personal sin that contributes to the avalanche descending as fire upon history? I am a watchman, and I have seen my heart and yours, though dimly, and I know clearly that we are all in need of a great Savior to shoulder us above our errors and rebellion. Open your heart to His love and grace. Join the Fellowship of the Cross before the hour glass is spent and time escapes and history ends.

The Fellowship of the Cross is a wretched crew and it is formed by people who have done very evil acts within history. We are a fellowship of prodigal children who squandered the Father's love at Calvary and now lean on it to carry us home. I have heard of children who have killed their dog by beating it to death. I have been amazed that a creature's concern could be so great for a cruel master that it would endure death rather than strike back.

We are wretched and cruel creatures who have killed the Master! By the endurance of God's love we have seen through tears the depth of our sin. Humbled and humiliated, we have decided to return to our heavenly Father, for the terror of our crime cries against our conscience and we would rather die under God's justice than continue to live in our sin.

So we of the Fellowship are returning prodigals, and what do we experience at our journey's end? We feel love and acceptance. The Father is not angry, but longs for us to come into His embrace. We are welcomed home. We are given the gifts of the Kingdom in celebration of our homecoming. We were dead, but now we live!

Unchained from the specters of our past, we are sent back into the world for a time. We continue within the valley of shadows as caretakers and reborn lovers of creation.

Creation is dark and in decay, not of its own, but because the soldiers of darkness are many, and the soldiers of light are few. The Fellowship of the Cross is soldiers carrying shovels and hoes to sow their love into a ravaged and parched world. We listen to the Word and we work, though often poorly, to bring life and order within the vineyard. We live through the light of Christ's resurrection as it lies beyond Calvary and casts the shadow of the Cross into our daily endeavors. We live in the shadow of the Cross: A symbol of death to the world, but a beacon of life for the Saints. The Cross is a Sacrament of sacrifice in a camp of selfish rebels.

The watchmen see their existence in the light of the vacant Cross. The promise of the Resurrection stands as a brilliant light beyond the valley of the shadows and death. At twilight, the Saint lives in the shadow of the Cross as it stretches the length and breadth of creation. It is a shadow from heaven, but in the rebel's camp, it glows! It establishes a radiant love in a darkened world. The Fellowship of the Cross has had their hearts opened to heaven. Each heart has been made an open tomb from which the Saint has already passed, leaving death, and entering the fullness of eternal life.

The rebels' hearts, however, are catacombs filled with the aroma of death. Death! Death! Death! Every path away from God leads only to death! Why, O man, do the rebels' not see that the caverns of rebellion are the dwelling place of existential and eternal death? Do you? If you will not walk with the Saints, then you will go to your many lovers who await you in the darkness of your heart and the dimmed streets of Babylon. Know this! The leprosy of sin even now sets the rebels' hearts into a condition of decay, and they are being transformed into the image of a corpse. Are you? O man, are you? If so, it's not too late for life!

I am a watchman and I have witnessed to a world of walking death. Dead men hide in the shadows of Babylon and they will not let God resurrect them from the tomb of their own hearts. When I proclaim to them the Word of God, they make mockery of my message. They say to all watchmen, and me, "Who has ever seen this word of yours?"

Who has ever seen the Word! The same who have seen the life in a rose, or the joy in a child. The life in the rose is neither witnessed in a part of it or in the sum of its whole. I have observed that a cut rose, as well as one made from plastic, is denied the gift of life. And I have watched children who have been sucked dry of joy. Life and joy are qualities not inherent to the material universe, but both are available. When life and joy (not inherent to the material universe) are taken from human existence, then existence for man becomes mournful and deathly.

Christ alone is the Word of true life and lasting joy. Even in the Incarnation, however, there were those who could not see the power for life present within Jesus. The rebel today does not see the power of Jesus and he does not discern the life of Christ as He incarnates the Fellowship of the Cross. Naturalists will not join the ranks of the Saints because they cannot measure Love, Joy, and Life. They claim that these are merely the affections of human chemistry to be manipulated one way or another. They believe that creation is the source, rather than the object, by which these are known. The naturalist is trapped by his doctrine of perception as he lives in the world of the cave. The Christian, on the other hand, is in the world but he is of the transcending Kingdom. The rebel denies heaven, and therefore he withholds from the world the power of Christ: The world is bereaved and perishes!

I am a watchman and I weep for all the earth. The children have despoiled the vineyard under the direction of their false shepherds, and it is now only good to be chopped down and thrown into the fire. I mourn for the beauty of creation, as it will be brought to ashes. The tears of heaven have fallen like rain upon the desert of human existence--reduced and dried up through the fruitless worship of Ba'al.

You have worshipped the gods fashioned by your hands, O rebel, and for this you are sentenced under death. Your crime is great against heaven, and the spirit of civilization cries up like the blood of Abel to the court of God. Judge for yourself, O man, if you know justice, and look if you have sight, at all the things that you have fashioned out of the dust of nature: What you make you declare your Maker, and worship and serve it! You are so drunk, O rebel, with delusion that you vomit it up and all must wallow in it with you.

I am a watchman and I do not wish to look anymore! I am ashamed of all the harlotry of man on the earth. I am shocked as all of the media drift toward the shore of sexual and moral perversity, and you, O man, willingly ride ashore. I have not been blind. I know how innuendo is used by you to flirt out worldly lovers. With these lovers you have lost the height of human sexuality. You know neither true intimacy nor the privilege of procreation. Even the sweet passion of play is denied to you as you, O man, seek to join with worldly lovers like animals in endless heat.

O man, you eat and eat, but are never satisfied, so you hunger for more. The world is filled with gluttons! Food is given to strengthen the limbs that the creature might be powerful in caring for creation. God has blessed our food and it is sweet to our lips. But man turns the blessing into a curse. He eats the food because its flavor gives him pleasure, and then he grows fat and sleepy as the vineyard starves for care.

Sexuality is God's awesome gift that draws a man and a woman into intimacy, and then sends them out into the world through procreation. God blessed human sexuality and made it joyous and delightful. But you, O man, are a glandular animal who seeks to feast upon pleasure for its own sake. You exploit the sexual orgasm without fidelity, intimacy of soul, and the desire to procreate. You are one with a plastic people and prefer plastic flowers! And woe to the child of God conceived within your plastic wombs, for steel knives will cut this child of God to pieces, or burn its flesh with saline solutions.

The rebels' ways are as old as the devil is evil and crafty. When unwanted pregnancies occurred after the fertility festivals in ancient Canaan, the nature cult provided a solution: The prostitutes and people brought the fruit of the womb to the altar of Ba'al. There the stone knife of the priest, dripping with the blood of Abel, was turned upon the heart of the baby child, and it was gutted. Or, worse still, its tiny body was lain in the red-hot arms of Molech where it would scream and squirm until burned to death in the demon's embrace.

Today the worldly doctors and priests provide for an antiseptic solution to fertility inconveniences. We are told that the fruit of the womb belongs to the woman and that it is merely an appendage of her body. Cry out mother earth! We are told that a pre-born child is not yet a true man. Aristotle said that we do not reach our essence as men (we do not become true "persons") until the age of thirty. Should we, according to the argument of development, abort unwanted individuals until Aristotle's fabricated line? Cry out Jeremiah!

I have seen with my own eyes a society that is so cold that they force women to abort their children. Let a young woman become pregnant, and out of wedlock, and she will be so shamed by her Pharisaic parents, or pressured by the hapless father, that she will seek out an abortion. Why do you not see, O man, that this young woman's sin, and the sin of her mate, are real and unfortunate sins, but that all of us are sinners and in need of forgiveness. If each person wore his sins as obviously as that young girl, then who would dare to go out in the open? Yet for this one sin of passion and confusion, society sentences a child to death, makes the mother into a murderer, and covers both crimes under a rhetoric of naturalism.

Flee watchmen! Flee all innocence to the Fellowship of the Cross and meet at the gates of the city. Death and Hades have entered the city through human hearts and they roam the streets in search of blood. Narcissism and Nihilism have gone before them to prepare their way. Come to the Cross all who have killed or committed evil. Repent, for forgiveness awaits you at Calvary! Flee now from the streets, for the rebels are at each others throats and there is no standard of value for maintaining order within the rebels' camp.

There is no objectivity in a rebel's den. What the rebel calls "objective" is merely that which he can make with his hands from the dust of nature. The rebel can not make God and so God, and His law and Gospel, are not "objective" to him. The idols of man's making he can worship, for these he can measure and are thereby "real" according to his standards. Whatever pleasures the rebel seeks, he merely fashions a natural standard which "objectifies" his end and each man does what is right in his own eyes.

The bewitchment of this age has hardened the rebel's heart to the true blessings of heaven: "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 NIV.) Society is overflowing with rebels who find pleasure in pornography and perversity. No longer is sexual union an expression of a man and women in a committed relationship for a lifetime, but lust spawns on-again and off-again sexual liaisons between men and women, men and men, women and women, man and beast, adult and child, and the list goes on!

Lust has placed its boot against the throat of love, and the search for pleasure defiles God's blueprint for family. If you, o Man, want to know, though dimly, the true joy of human sexuality, then look to the Fellowship of the Cross. They know the fun and romp of playful passion. They know how to provide a secure environment for their children. They explore through their loving encounters the satisfaction of intimacy as they are drawn into the heart of one another. But the rebel cannot bear to look into the heart of another rebel! This is why our generation has so much promiscuity. It is the surface pleasures that the worldly lover seeks. The world loves plastic. The rebel paints the features of his face, and practices the art of pretense, then looks for another rebel. Two rebels then meet in the twilight of Babel and enjoy the counterfeit constructions of each other's heart. If the real heart is discovered, they flee as if they have lain with a corpse and seek out another superficial relationship.

How blessed are those who dwell in the Fellowship of the Cross. Here a man and woman drink and drink still deeper. If for a time human imperfection brings a drought to their feelings, they remain faithful to one another trusting God to restore their intimacy and joy. Only the Saints will drink the wine that grows sweeter with each new sip. The further the Saint moves toward the heart of his mate, the more heavenly becomes the relationship.

This is not to say that a Christian marriage is without problems. The Saints are also tempted within the shadows of Babylon. They also discover that their spouses have some devilishness in their hearts. None of us are free of all the specters that haunt the heart of fallen man. But I ask those Saints older and wiser than myself, has it not been your wife or husband who has vanquished some of your ugliest ghosts? Is it not true that through the love and grace of Christ revealed in the heart of another, that the power for forgiving and changing one's self has been found?

The Fellowship of the Cross is a wretched crew who have seen the holy love of God and the dark pit of human sin, and are now prodigals returning home: "We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one." (1 John 5:19 NIV.) The Christian is unlike the rebel, because he hates his sin.,." footnote The rebel, however, delights in his sin and uses creation as a means to maintain his hellish activity.

The rebels have made a dark city in which to dwell. Behind the walls of Babylon travel Suicide, Murder, Licentiousness, and Anarchy. These specters of evil are propagating a monster of iniquity. Formed under the banners of Nihilism, Narcissism, and Naturalism, these four are now embodied in the child of their courtship: The Terrorist has come with new weapons and will be instrumental in collapsing the walls of the city as it hails down destruction for all. Blood will flow in the streets. Only the Church, if she awakens to God's truth, can delay this holocaust.

The terrorist is the most difficult of all criminals against civilization. He is too hidden and too deluded to be threatened by reprisal. He is formed in the mold of Satan and is antichrist. He will use every demon of the heart and justify it on the basis of his conceit. The terrorist is the rebel in essence, and he has been created out of Naturalism from the dusts of Nihilism and Narcissism. Soon the monster of the rebel's heart will turn upon his maker and destroy the city of Babylon.

As I write this monster is only a child, with child-like weapons of death. The young monster is the political bombing a building of innocent victims to make his point. The young monster is the juvenile killing an innocent person in order to be initiated into a street gang. Now the monster is only a child using little weapons, but this evil menace is growing into maturity. Blood now trickles in the city, but soon it shall flow down its streets! Violence now severs life from the few, but soon it will crush life from the many. Death is everywhere, and I hear the voice Abel building within the cry of the tortured innocence until my ears ache. I see the body of Abel lying in a pool of blood, and the pool of blood is growing as the body of Abel becomes millions of men, women and children mutilated and dead.

I am a watchman and I do not care to go any further into the rebel's heart. My own poetry is offensive to me and I can no longer bear to look at the portrait of perdition. If you, O man, believe that I have painted the picture too grimly, then I will show you yet another vision. I will open up to you the future. If I have captured falsely the power within the rebel's heart, then you have nothing to fear of the "Seventh Bowl" which I see in our future.

For my part, I fear that I have only too faintly captured the light and dark contrasts of heaven and hell as they are revealed in the human heart. I worry that my words have not exposed the deadly evil now being delivered into our generation. If the Church does not return to the Word of God as it breaks into our existence, then the Seventh Bowl will be poured out upon the not too distant future. The day is coming, though we do not know the hour, when the rebel will be sentenced and the Saint will be tested and then delivered:

But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. (2 Thessalonians 3:3 NIV)


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[All contents copyright © 1980, 1998 David Anderson]