Lonnie discusses three elements that require Christians both read and study the Bible. 1. To become a disciple. 2. To Disciple Others 3. To defend your faith. This is the beginning of laying a foundation for Bible study. Enjoy and be blessed!
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Lonnie discusses three elements that require Christians both read and study the Bible. 1. To become a disciple. 2. To Disciple Others 3. To defend your faith. This is the beginning of laying a foundation for Bible study. Enjoy and be blessed!
The Old Watchman Website
The Old Watchman - Facebook
The Watchman Speaks - Facebook
The Old Watchman - Twitter
Welcome back to the Watchman Speaks. I’m going to continue the discussion
about why you and I should read and study our Bible. I believe that it is important for building a foundation that will support the building process of acquiring biblical knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.
Sometime during the first two decades of the twentieth century, Billy Sunday, a Professional baseball player who would become one of the most influential evangelists of the time, said, “The rivers of America will run with blood filled to their banks before we will submit to them taking the Bible out of our schools.” He was adamant that the church would rise against the powers that be, to whatever extent was necessary, to prevent the Bible to be taken outof public schools.
Well, that didn’t happen because approximately forty years later, in 1962, prayer was eradicated from public schools and reading of the Bible removed from public schools in 1963. Now, the rivers of blood run in the hallways of our schools. I wonder why?
By the late 1960’s the sexual revolution was in full swing. Drugs, sex, and rock ‘n’ roll was themantra of the day. The boundaries of sex being contained within the confines of marriage were erased, and free love swept across America in magazines, on television, and on movie screens. Currently, homosexuality and transgenderism are portrayed on televised commercials, the news media, and runs rampant on the world wide web, movie screens, and social media not to mention our public schools.
In 1973 the Supreme Court decided in Roe vs. Wade that abortion on demand was legally recognized in the USA. Since then, over 60 million babies have died before they had a chance to live thanks to the Abortion industry. That’s right. It’s an industry. It’s not about women, or unborn children, as many claim. It’s about unadulterated Greed.
In 2022, Roe vs. Wade was overturned by the Supreme Court. However, the fight continues to reinstitute abortion on demand in many states.
In 2004 displaying the Ten Commandments was outlawed in Public Schools and in Courthouses by the United States Supreme Court. This is an ironic decision since the Ten Commandments grace the walls of the Supreme Court chambers.
In June 2015 the United States Supreme Court abolishes marriage as a union between one man and one woman and established a legal basis for same sex marriages. In 2023, President Joe Biden signed into federal law that same sex marriages were to be recognized throughout the land. The only caveat was that such marriages would not be forced to be implemented by the church or religious community. When questioned about this aspect of the law, White House Press Secretary, Kerin Jean-Pierre, stated, “Yes, there is still work to be done.” That, to me, Indicates that it is the intention of the present administration to force same sex marriages down the throat of the religious community at some time in the future.
We be living in dark and evil times.
So, how did we, as a nation, supposedly one nation under God, fall into such depravity in just sixty years?
First of all, somewhere along the way, the church that Billy Sunday preached to during the first two decades of the twentieth century lost its backbone. It did not perceive the threat to a godly nation or, if they did, did not take it seriously. Secondly, the church that Billy Sunday preached to had slowly turned its back on God and drifted away.
In the Books of Matthew and Luke we are given an account of what has happened.
Matthew 12:43–45 (NASB95)
43 “Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and does not find it.
44 “Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came’; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order.
45 “Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation.”
These are the words of Jesus, the Messiah.
Luke 11:24–28 (NASB95)
24 “When the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and not finding any, it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’
25 “And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order.
26 “Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”
27 While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.”
28 But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.”
Again, these are the words of Jesus Christ Himself.
America was founded on biblical, Christian beliefs. There were no other gods. However, over time, America drifted away from its foundations. Unclean spirits, or “gods” came back and found America empty and without God. Some of those spirits have returned and manifested themselves in monumental ways. The current state of America is certainly much worse now than when it was founded. Jesus is talking to us. We should listen. These generations currently living are perhaps the most wicked that America has ever seen. However, it is not the first time such wickedness has been witnessed on such a grand scale. To see and understand this, we have only to look back into the pages of the Bible to grasp what has happened.
So, what are these unclean spirits that I speak of that have manifested themselves in our culture and society? They are the “gods” mentioned throughout the Old Testament in the Bible. The Apostle Paul even mentions the primary “god” in Romans when he was quoting the Old Testament. These “gods” were carved or graven images made by the hands of man, but they had real spiritual entities associated with those idols that drove men to create them. The ancient “gods” of the Bible that were banished by Israel and the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ have returned and taken up residence in America because America has turned her back on God. Not all Americans mind you, but America as a nation has drifted away.
These spirits have biblical names, and the names differ according to the people and cultures that they commanded. In the Bible, the most mentioned of these ancient “gods” was Baal. Baal is mentioned by name over seventy times and cities were known that had their own form of Baal. There was Baal-Hadad, Baal-Hermon, Baal-Tamer, Baal-Peor, and Baal-Zephon.
Baal is alive and well in America. The name Baal means “the Owner”, “the Master”. None of the other ancient “gods” stood ahead of Baal. The worshippers of Baal were promised fertile lands for increased crops and prosperity. Fruitfulness, increased financial gain. By the way, Baal is often depicted in ancient cultures as a bull. What do we find at the end of Wall Street in New York? A bronze bull. Baal was the possessor of all and he would demand faithfulness.
It was through Baal that prayer and the Bible were removed from public schools and the Ten Commandments were stripped from Court House walls. If Baal cannot wreck one generation, he will focus on the next. He began with my generation, the baby boomers. If Baal can alienate the children of a generation from God and His Holy Word, he can alienate a nation from the knowledge of God so that they reject that knowledge. If the nation rejects that knowledge long enough, it forgets that it ever knew God. But Baal does not work alone. No, as Jesus warns us in Matthew and Luke, Baal will bring others with him. But before I go on, let me inform you of something that you may not know.
In 2015 a recreation of the arch of Baal, the archway that served as the entrance to the temple of Baal in Palmyra, Syria, was re-constructed and exhibited in New York City and in Washington D.C., here, in the United States! Could we, as a nation, have thumbed our nose at God any more blatantly? Guess where the re-constructed arch was manufactured? China! As Paul Harvey used to say, “And now, you know the rest of the story.”
Baal would bring at least two other ancient “gods” with him to America. Those “gods” were Ashtoreth and Molech.
Ashtoreth was a god/goddess. She was a goddess of war, human fertility, prostitution, and altered perceptions via alcohol and drugs. The priests of her temples were castrated males who performed same sex acts of prostitution with the male inhabitants in her worship. Female priestesses engaged in heterosexual acts for money. In ancient Mesopotamia she is known as Ishtar and every woman in the nation was required to prostitute herself in the temple at leastonce for money. It is quite likely, even more, likely that the spirit of Ashtoreth or Ishtar isresponsible for the surge in homosexuality, bi-sexuality, and transgenderism in the United Statesand around the world.
In one Mesopotamian text it is attributed to Ishtar as saying, “I am a beautiful young woman. I am a noble young man.” She, Ishtar, changes gender between male and female at will! That’s demonic if ever there was a criteria for demonic. Therein, is an explanation for the trans-gender phenomenon that we are currently witnessing.
But this goddess was not just a hard drinking, fast loving, floozy. No indeed! She was a warrior. “No” was an answer that she was accustomed to hearing. In the Epic of Gilgamesh she exhibits a violent temper when she was denied of having her way. Her fury would explode upon whoever dared to question her or her desires. Perhaps this is where the wrath of the LGBTQIA+ come into play when their narrative, rhetoric and ideologies are questioned. Make no mistake about it. It makes no difference by what name she is known, whether it be Ashtoreth, Astarte, Ishtar, Isis, Venus, or Aphrodite. It is no matter whether the worshippers of this god/goddess are aware of this entity or not. The fact that they are aware or unaware is of little consequence. Simply because they may or may not be aware does not make it any less so. This ancient “god/goddess” is alive and doing very well in America.
The next “god” was Molech. Molech was a “god” that Israel and other nations sacrificed their children to. It was a particularly heinous act in which parents would offer their children to Molech for favor and Prosperity. The child would be placed in the “arms” of Molech (a stone statue), slashed with a knife, and allowed to roll out of Molech’s arms into a pit of fire. Gruesome stuff. It’s kind of like abortion on demand in America for the sake of convenience. A woman gets pregnant, she doesn’t want or need the inconvenience of rearing a child. It impedes her ambition. No big deal. Just have an abortion and continue on. Abortion on demand. I guess that it never occurred to them that abstinence at minimum was an option or birth control for that matter. Sex outside the bounds of matrimony? Perfectly accepted in our society, thank you Ishtar. Oh, Molech is alive and well in America. Abortion for the sake of convenience is alive and well. I’m not talking about rape, incest, or medical emergency. Those are instances that are infinitely small in number when compared to abortion for the sake of convenience.
Baal, Ashtoreth, and Molech came to America and found a nation that had drifted away from God and the house swept clean with no God. Having found a suitable residence, they infiltrated the American landscape and sank deep roots. In my humble opinion, our civilization, culture, and society have suffered greatly because of it. Why? Because the church was silent. They no longer remembered the warnings of Billy Sunday, “The rivers of America will run with blood filled to their banks before we will submit to them taking the Bible out of our schools.” They no longer remembered the warnings of the Bible. America had forgotten God’s Word.
Well, they took the Bible out of schools and the blood has flowed in the hallways and across the land through abortion clinics. Go figure.
The two things that kept Israel in hot water with God were the worship of idols, or other gods, moral crimes and sexual immorality. It is the worship of these gods that lead to moral crimes and sexual immorality. These ancient gods, or the spiritual forces attached to them, are alive and well in the United States of America. These spiritual forces, these gods, are very real entities in the spiritual realm. In Hebrew they are known as Shadim. In Greek they are called demonai which is where we get the word “demon” from.
These “gods” have individual names that are identified in the Bible. Their names are Baal, Ashtoreth, and Molech. Let’s look at some of the mentionings of these gods in the Bible. By the way, I remind you that the first Commandment is, “You will have no other gods before Me.” It does not say, “You shall not worship false gods. These are “gods” are real.
As I mentioned earlier, Baal is mentioned more than any of the ancient gods in the Bible. He is mentioned prevalently throughout the Book of Judges, 1st and 2nd Kings, and throughout Jeremiah. He is also mentioned in 2nd Chronicles, Psalms, Hosea, Zephaniah, and in Romans.
Ashtoreth (Ashtaroths pleural) are mentioned some fifteen times by name, but if you add Asherah (a cultic pole carving of Ashtoreth), you can add another eighteen mentionings.
Molech is mentioned eight times, primarily in Leviticus and three other Books. There is another “god”, Milcom, that is thought to be associated with Molech but some scholars identify them as separate entities even though they share many of the same attributes. If you add those, there are four more mentionings.
Now, let’s stop and connect some dots. Let’s go back into the Bible to the time of Abraham and Lot. Lot departed the city of Sodom where homosexuality was rampant (wonder where we get the word “sodomite” from?). He escaped to the small town of Zoar. Afterwards, he and his daughters stayed in the caves in the mountains. There, Lot’s daughters gave Lot wine to drink until he was inebriated. Remember, Ishtar was the goddess of drinking, drugging, and unbridled sexual passion. On consecutive nights the two daughters crept into their father’s bed and bothconceived children.
The eldest daughter bore a son named Moab who was the father of the Moabites. Who were the gods of the Moabites? Chemosh, whose name means “Conquerer” or“Subduer”. Again, Chomesh as well as Milcom, are considered by some to be separate entities apart from Molech. However, I differ in opinion since my research in ancient extra biblical text,indicate that they shared the same attributes.
The younger daughter bore a son and named him Benjamin. Benjamin was the father of the Ammonites. Who were the gods of the Ammonites? Milcom/Molech which means “King”. Remember? Molech was the god to whom Israel sacrificed their children to.
These two sons, conceived in incest, were the patriarchs of kingdoms that fostered gods that were responsible for leading Israel astray. Remember this, Ishtar (Astoreth, Astarte, Dnnana, Venus, Isis, Aphrodite) and Molech (Chemosh/Milcom) do not reign ahead of Baal. Baal must be present.
Chemosh, while considered by some as a distinct entity, is a warrior god as was Baal, as was Ashtoreth (Ishtar, Astarte). Was Chemosh a part of the Baals or Ashteroths? It’s possible.
As I continue in my research I’d say it’s likely.
May I remind you that even Solomon, the wisest king, was lured by foreign wives to build altars In high places so that they could worship these “gods”. So, it has happened now in America.
Now, I can hear some of you shouting, “That’s replacement theology! You’re replacing Israel with America!”
No, I am not. I’m speaking the truth and I’ll prove it to you.
Solomon said, in Ecclesiastes 1:9-11
“That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done is that which will be done. So there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which can be said, ‘See this, it is new?’? Already it has existed for ages which were before us. There is no remembrance of earlier things; and also of the later things which will occur. There will be for them no remembrance among those who will come later still.”
What Solomon is saying is that history, events in history, repeat because it is not remembered! These same events recur throughout the Bible and are repeated even into modern times. So, it’s not replacement theology. It’s understanding God’s time and that the events of God’s time are repeating in these current times. Those of you who are walking in disbelief, understand or be gone! I will not be swayed, nor will I compromise.
Now, for those of you who are still listening, the question arises, “How were the “gods” banished in the first place? If the “gods” came back, from whence did they come?”
I am so happy that you’ve asked that question!
In the Old Testament the priests and followers of Baal and other “gods” were often slaughtered. You can read 2nd Kings 10:18-31 to find one of those accounts. But even after that, Baal and the other “gods” returned. How, or when, were the “gods” banished from the ancient civilizations that they once ruled?
Well, that’s easy. The Gospel went forth! As the Gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus preached and the testimony of our Lord and Savior went forth, those ancient temples slowly became uninhabited and fell into disrepair until they crumbled and fell.
You may ask, “How is that the ancient “gods” have returned when there is no temple for them?”
I’m glad you asked that question.
1st Corinthians 6:19-2
“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore Glorify God in your body.”
So much for the mantra, “It’s my body. I’ll do with it as I please!”
We are the temple! This body that you and I dwell in is the temple of God! Likewise, those who chase after these “gods”, whether knowingly or unknowingly, serve as the temple of those “gods”.
I’m going to make a recommendation. Jonathan Cahn wrote a book that was released in September 2022 called, “The Return of the Gods”. Go to Amazon or wherever you buy books and get that book. It goes into great detail concerning what I’m talking about. I’m not going to provide a link as I have no desire to make a penny from the sale. I will say that I’ve gone back in my personal notes, posts, and journals as far as six years and I’ve been saying the same thing. I thank God that He had Jonathan write this book. It is eye opening.
Why should we read and study the Bible? So that we may see that what is unfolding before our eyes in present day has happened several times before, so that we may be prepared for what is to come.
I am The Old Watchman, Ezekiel. You have been warned!
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