Cahn Quotes

America was founded on prayer. Therefore, the removal of prayer from its public life was a central part of its fall from God. A nation that turns away from prayer will ultimately find itself in desperate need of it.

What an amazing day," Bree said, stretching in her seat. "Thanks to me and my weather charm." I said lightly. Robbie and Hunter both looked at me in alarm. "You didn't," Said Robbie. "You didn't," Said Hunter. I was enjoying this. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't." Hunter looked upset. "You can't be serious!" Cahn't, I thought. Cahn too.

God's will is that none should perish. Judgement isn't His desire...but His necessity. The good must bring evil to an end, or else it would cease to be good. And yet His mercy is still greater than His judgement. His heart always wills for redemption. And therein lies the hope.

To act morally is not to act out of fear of punishment; it is not to act as one is commanded to act. Rather, it is to act as one ought to act. And how one ought to act is not dependent upon anyone's power, even if the power be Divine.

A nation that turns away from prayer will ultimately find itself in desperate need of it.

The good must bring evil to an end, or else it would cease to be good. And yet His mercy is still greater than judgment. His heart always wills for redemption. And therein lies the hope

As God was expunged from American life, idols came in to fill the void; idols of sensuality, idols of greed, of money, of success, comfort, materialism, pleasure, sexual immorality, self-worship, self-obsession. The sacred increasingly disappeared, and the profane took its place.

The call of repentance is for the righteous and the unrighteous, the godly and the ungodly alike. If the righteous had been the lights they were called to be, the nation would never have fallen as it did.

On 9/11 people were asking, ‘Where was God?’” “Where was God?” he said, as if surprised by the question. “We drove Him out of our schools, out of our government, out of our media, out of our culture, out of our public square. We drove Him out of our national life, and then we ask, ‘Where is God?

All who seek His forgiveness will find it.

Some would call it tolerance, I said. Yes he replied, the same tolerance that overtook ancient Israel..a tolerance for everything opposed to God, a growing tolerance for immorality and a growing intolerance for the pure-a tolerance that mocked, marginalized and condemned those who ramined faithful to the values now being discarded. Innocence was ridiculed and virtue was vilified. Children were taught of sexual immorality in public schools while the Word of God was banned. It was a tolerance that put the profane on public display and removed nativity scenes from public sight..contraband, as if somehow they had become a threat-a strangely intolerant tolerance. "But still, I countered, how does all that compare to what happened in ancient Israel? America does'nt offer its children on altars of sacrifice? "Does it not? he said. Ten years after removing prayer and Scripture from its public schools, the nation legalized the illing of its unborn.

One heartbeat,” he replied, “one heartbeat. That’s it. That’s all. You’re only one heartbeat away from eternity. Everything you have—your life, your breath, this moment, it’s all borrowed, it’s all a gift. And at any moment it all ends with a heartbeat…just one heartbeat, and there’s no more time. One heartbeat and the chance to be saved is gone. One heartbeat and there’s no more choosing—it’s all sealed for eternal life or eternal death.

And America has done much good. And there's no shortage of nations far exceeding any of its faults or sins. But no nation in the modern world has ever been given so much. None has been so blessed. To whom much is given, much is required. If a nation so blessed by God should turn away from Him, what then? It's blessing will be replaced with curses? Yes. And has America turned away from God? I asked. It has turned and is turning. How? In the same way Israel turned. It started with a spiritual complacency, then spiritual confusion, then the merging of God with idols and then, ultimately, the rejection of his ways. Just as with ancient Israel, America began ruling God out of its life, turning, step by step, against His ways, at first subtly and then more and more brazenly.

Beware of the good Nazi...Because they compared themselves by the standard they themselves created. Each, in his own eyes, was a good Nazi, a moral Nazi, a decent Nazi, a religious Nazi, and a Nazi no worse than the next. For by seeing themselves in their own eyes, they become blind. But their judgement would come in the form of destruction, and their sins would be exposed before the world...You can never judge yourself by your own standards and your own righteousness, but only in the light of His righteousness.

The things we did last summer I'll remember all winter long.

You see, the one who wills for judgment is man, not God. The heart of God wills for salvation. Greater than His judgments are His compassions.

Khesed...mercy...love. It's God's nature, His essence. Don't forget that, through all this, don't forget that. Judgement is His necessity, but His nature and essence, His heart, is love. He's the one always calling out to the lost to be saved.

If America upholds God's eternal standards and follows His unchanging ways, then it will be blessed with His favor...His protection...His prosperity....But if America should depart from the ways of God, if it should disregard His eternal standards, then the smiles of heaven, the blessings of God, will be withdrawn-its prosperity, its protection, and its powers would be taken away. He's giving a warning to the nation: The day America turns away from God will be the day that begins the removing of its blessings.

Which do you think is greater,” he asked, “the moral distance that separates us from the most monstrous of Nazis or that which separates us from God?

Do something for the joy of doing it and pray you wont be punished

You can’t solve a spiritual problem with a military or political solution.

America was founded on prayer. Therefore the removal of prayer from its public life was a central part of its fall from God. A nation that turns away from prayer will ultimately find itself in desperate need of it.

The real danger was not outside its gates but within them. When the nation turned from God, it lost its protective covering.

What you are about to read is presented in the form of a story, but what is contained within the story is real.

Life was no longer sacred. Death was. The sacrifice of children would become a sacrament.

You see, the one who wills for judgment is man, not God. The heart of God wills for salvation. Greater than His judgments are His compassions.

That which God designs, in smiting us, is to turn us to himself and to set us a seeking him; and, if this point be not gained by lesser judgments, greater may be expected…”1

To whom much is given, much is required. Righteousness exalts a nation...but sin is a reproach to any people

You can never judge yourself by your own standards and your own righteousness, but only in light of His righteousness.

The good must bring evil to an end, or else it would cease to be good. And yet His mercy is still greater than judgment. His heart always wills for redemption. And therein lies the hope.

The call of repentance is for the righteous and unrighteous, the godly and ungodly alike. If the righteous had been the lights they were called to be, the nation would never have fallen as it did.

But what does America have to do with ancient Israel? Israel was unique among nations in that it was conceived and dedicated at its foundation for the purposes of God. Ok..But there was one other - a civilization also conceived and dedicated to the will of God from its conception...America. In fact, those who laid its foundations...the Founding Fathers. No, long before the Founding Fathers. Those who laid America's foundations saw it as a new Israel, and Israel of the New World. And as with ancient Israel, they saw it as in covenant with God? Meaning? Meaning its rise or fall would be dependent on its relationship with God. If it followed His ways, America would become the most blessed, prosperous, and powerful nation on earth. From the very beninng they foretold it. And what they foretold would come true. America would rise to heights no other nation had ever known. Not that it was ever without fault or sin, but it would aspire to fuilfill its callings. What calling? To be a vessel of redemption, an instrument of God's purposes, a light to the world. It would give refuge to the world's poor and needy, and hope to its oppressed. It would stand against tyranny. It would fight, more than once, against the dark movements of the modern world that threatened to engulf the earth.

To be heedless when God is speaking, by whatever voice He may address us, is surely iniquitous enough, but to act in deliberate defiance of the Almighty is, by many degrees, worse.9 “Proud defiance of God always brings disaster.

Where was God?” he said, as if surprised by the question. “We drove Him out of our schools, out of our government, out of our media, out of our culture, out of our public square. We drove Him out of our national life, and then we ask, ‘Where is God?

The Almighty has His own purposes…. Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”3

The Shemitah bears witness that the land and, for that matter, the earth, belong to God. It is only entrusted to man as a steward. God is sovereign. His sovereignty extends also to the realms of money, finances, economies, and possessions. These are entrusted to man’s keeping but ultimately belong to God. The Shemitah declares that God is first and above all realms of life, and must therefore be put first and above every realm. During the Shemitah Israel was, in effect, compelled to turn away from these earthly or worldly realms and turn to the spiritual.

No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.

A nation is turning away from God. Its hedge of protection has been removed. Why? To cause them to turn back, to wake up, to save them from a greater judgment. And what are they doing in light of it? Or rather, what are they not doing? They're not returning to God? Exactly. Instead of listening to the alarm, instead of turning back, instead of even pausing for a moment to reexamine their ways, they boast their resolve. It was'nt about rebuilding at all. It was about ignoring the warning and rejecting the call to return. So they missed their warning. They did more than just miss it. The defied it. Notice the words. They weren't vowing just to rebuild what was destroyed, but to make themselves stronger than before, to become invulnerable to any future attack. So what they're saying is this: We will not be humbled. We will not search our ways or consider the possibility that something could be wrong.

What would happen, Nouriel, if a gardener tried to remove a weed from his garden by cutting off its leaves?” he asked. “The leaves would grow back,” I replied. “And if he cut off its stem…” “It would sprout another.” “His efforts would be doomed to fail. You can’t solve a problem by dealing with its symptoms…its manifestations.

So open now your mind, your heart, and your life. For it is only the open vessel and an open heart that can contain the infinity of God.” The Mission: Today, open your mind, your heart, and your life to that which you don’t yet know, that you might contain that which is greater than yourself. Isaiah 55:1–9; Jeremiah 33:3; 2 Corinthians 4:7 Filled

Because it was the very end of 1916. 1917 was coming. And 1917 was the year of Jubilee. And it just happened to be the same year that the British Empire would be placed in the position of determining the future of the land of Israel. And as the Jubilee concerns the return of one’s ancestral land, so world history would now turn to the Middle East and to the land of the ancient inheritance.

The Defiant Rising Revisited In the wake of 9/11, America’s leaders responded, as did those of ancient Israel—not with repentance, but with defiance. Soon after the attack they began vowing to rebuild what had been struck down and to build it bigger and stronger than before. More than one spoke of the rebuilding of Ground Zero as an act of defiance. The nation would not be humbled or repent, but it would vow to rise again stronger than before.

They believed that if America followed the ways of God, it would become the most blessed, the most prosperous, and the most powerful civilization on earth. From the very beginning they foretold it. And what they foretold would come true. America would rise to heights no other nation had ever attained. Not that it was ever without fault or sin, but it would always aspire, one way or another, to fulfill the calling envisioned by its founders at its inception.

If you don’t choose to be saved, then you’ve chosen not to be saved. Your life and your eternity…it all rests on one heartbeat. And what will you do on the Day of Judgment? Remember the question, Nouriel…because in the end it’s the only question. Remember the question…because no one knows when that day will come. The only thing you can be sure of is that it will come, and the only time you can be sure of is now. Now is all you have. And now is the time of salvation.

The justice of God is found in judgment—but the heart of God you find in the cross, in the Lamb. God is love, and the greatest love is that which gives itself, puts itself in our place, bears our pain and sorrows, takes our hell and judgment, that we would never know it, that we would be saved. That’s the heart of God. So when we speak of judgment, remember, God is the One who bears all judgment on Himself that we would never have to. God is the love . . . and love is the Lamb.

The same nation that was formed after the pattern of Israel now follows after the pattern of its moral descent, its spiritual departure from God. As it was with Israel’s descent, so too with America’s. It began with a complacency toward God, then spiritual confusion, then the merging of God with idols, and then, ultimately, the rejection of His ways. Just as with ancient Israel, America began ruling God out of its life, turning, step by step, against His ways, at first subtly, and then, more and more, brazenly.

And what was the place appointed?” I asked. “A little stone church.” “So the first official act of the newly formed government took place inside the walls of a church.” “That’s correct,” he replied. “The nation’s first president, Senate, and House of Representatives were all there inside that little stone sanctuary. The gathering would be recorded in the Annals of The Mystery Ground 203 Congress as part of the first-ever joint session of Congress with an acting president. The inauguration of the United States, as we know it, began with a sacred gathering before God.

The prophet spoke of the Harbingers as symbols. That was a clue. The World Trade Center was a symbol of America’s global financial and economic power. So what would such a fall foreshadow? “An economic…fall?” “As in a financial and economic collapse.” “The collapse that began the Great Recession?” “Yes.” “The collapse of the American and global economy is connected to 9/11?” “Yes.” “But how?” “It all goes back to the prophecy…everything—the collapse of Wall Street, the rise and fall of the credit market, the war in Iraq, the collapse of the housing market, the foreclosures, the defaults, the bankruptcies, the government takeovers—everything—politics, foreign policy, world history—everything that happened after. It all goes back to the prophecy and to the ancient mystery.

What about America? The breach of America’s security manifested in 9/11. But if 9/11 was not just a calamity but a prophetic foreshadower, what is its warning? According to the ancient pattern, the warning would be this: Without God, there is no true security or safety for America. Without His hand of protection, no matter how many systems of defense the nation employs, they will fail just as they did on 9/11. America cannot defy the God of its keeping and expect that protection to continue. “Unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Ps. 127:1). America, without God, is not safe. America, in defiance of God, is even less safe. If it continues down the present course, another calamity may come on the land as on 9/11, and yet on an even greater scale. The Oracle

In America’s greatest moments there was always sin, and in its worst moments, greatness. But there are critical junctures. In the middle of the twentieth century America began officially removing God from its national life. It abolished prayer and Scripture in its public schools. As ancient Israel had removed the Ten Commandments from its national consciousness, so America did likewise, removing the Ten Commandments from public view, banning it from its public squares, and taking it down, by government decree, from its walls. As it was in ancient Israel, so too in America, God was progressively driven out of the nation’s public life. The very mention of the name God or Jesus in any relevant context became more and more taboo and unwelcome unless for the purpose of mockery and attack. That which had once been revered as sacred was now increasingly treated as profanity. And as God was driven out, idols were brought in to replace Him.” “But Americans don’t worship idols.” “No,” said the prophet, “they just don’t call them idols. As God was expunged from American life, idols came in to fill the void—idols of sensuality, idols of greed, of money, success, comfort, materialism, pleasure, sexual immorality, self-worship, self-obsession.

There’s a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and get lost in a sea of blue. A Jersey-accented voice says, “It’s about time, kid,” and Frank Sinatra rattles the ice in his glass of Jack Daniel’s. Looking at the swirling deep-brown liquid, he whispers, “Ain’t it beautiful?” This is my introduction to the Chairman of the Board. We spend the next half hour talking Jersey, Hoboken, swimming in the Hudson River and the Shore. We then sit down for dinner at a table with Robert De Niro, Angie Dickinson and Frank and his wife, Barbara. This is all occurring at the Hollywood “Guinea Party” Patti and I have been invited to, courtesy of Tita Cahn. Patti had met Tita a few weeks previous at the nail parlor. She’s the wife of Sammy Cahn, famous for such songs as “All The Way,” “Teach Me Tonight” and “Only the Lonely.” She called one afternoon and told us she was hosting a private event. She said it would be very quiet and couldn’t tell us who would be there, but assured us we’d be very comfortable. So off into the LA night we went. During the evening, we befriend the Sinatras and are quietly invited into the circle of the last of the old Hollywood stars. Over the next several years we attend a few very private events where Frank and the remaining clan hold forth. The only other musician in the room is often Quincy Jones, and besides Patti and I there is rarely a rocker in sight. The Sinatras are gracious hosts and our acquaintance culminates in our being invited to Frank’s eightieth birthday party dinner. It’s a sedate event at the Sinatras’ Los Angeles home. Sometime after dinner, we find ourselves around the living room piano with Steve and Eydie Gorme and Bob Dylan. Steve is playing the piano and up close he and Eydie can really sing the great standards. Patti has been thoroughly schooled in jazz by Jerry Coker, one of the great jazz educators at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. She was there at the same time as Bruce Hornsby, Jaco Pastorius and Pat Metheny, and she learned her stuff. At Frank’s, as the music drifts on, she slips gently in on “My One and Only Love.” Patti is a secret weapon. She can sing torch like a cross between Peggy Lee and Julie London (I’m not kidding). Eydie Gorme hears Patti, stops the music and says, “Frank, come over here. We’ve got a singer!” Frank moves to the piano and I then get to watch my wife beautifully serenade Frank Sinatra and Bob Dylan, to be met by a torrent of applause when she’s finished. The next day we play Frank’s eightieth birthday celebration for ABC TV and I get to escort him to the stage along with Tony Bennett. It’s a beautiful evening and a fitting celebration for the greatest pop singer of all time. Two years later Frank passed away and we were generously invited to his funeral. A

The Deepening Though in the wake of 9/11 Americans gathered in houses of worship across the land and it appeared as if there would be a national return to God—it never came. In place of the revival was a spiritual and moral apostasy that was unprecedented in its scope and accelerating pace. There was now increasing talk concerning the end of “Christian America.” Polls noticed a growing departure from biblical ethics and values. The turn was most pronounced among the younger generation, portending a future of even greater moral and spiritual departure. In the fall of ancient Israel the nation decided it could rewrite morality and change what was good and evil, sin and righteousness—so too in America. What had once been recognized as right was now attacked as evil, and what had once been recognized as sin was now celebrated as a virtue. Morals, standards, and values that had undergirded not only the nation’s foundation, but also the foundation of Western civilization and civilization itself, were increasingly overturned, overruled, and discarded. And those who would not go along with the change—who merely continued to uphold that which had once been universally upheld—were now increasingly marginalized, vilified, condemned by the culture and the state, and persecuted. And not only did the blood of unborn children continue to flow, as it did in ancient Israel, but the number of those killed was now well over fifty million, a population of many Israels. The nation’s moral descent had now reached the point where the government was seeking to force those who held to God’s Word to go against that Word, punishing resistance with fines, damages, and condemnation. Any deviation from the new ethics of apostasy was swiftly punished. At the same time, the name of God increasingly became the object of attack, mockery, and blasphemy.

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness. —ISAIAH 5:20

If America upholds God’s eternal standards and follows His unchanging ways, then it will be blessed with His favor…His protection…His prosperity…. But if America should depart from the ways of God, if it should disregard His eternal standards, then the smiles of heaven, the blessings of God, will be withdrawn—its prosperity, its protection, and its powers would be taken away. He’s giving a warning to the nation: The day America turns away from God will be the day that begins the removing of its blessings.

The attempt of a nation to defy the course of its judgment, apart from repentance, will, instead, set in motion a chain of events to bring about the very calamity it sought to avert.

9/11 and the Ancient Mystery The link between 9/11 and Elul 29 raises an inescapable point: Had the events of 9/11 not happened, there would have been no collapse of the stock market. And if the attack had not happened at the time it happened, then the stock market would not have collapsed at the time it did. And if the stock market hadn’t collapsed at the time it did, there would have been no great financial collapse in the Year of the Shemitah. Nor would there have been any transformation of the financial realm. Nor would there have been a connection between Wall Street and Tishri. Nor would the mass nullification of the nation’s financial accounts have taken place on the exact day appointed from ancient times for the wiping away of a nation’s financial accounts. It could have taken place in a more precise way. Without the calamity of 9/11 happening when it did, the ancient mystery of the Shemitah could not have been fulfilled as it was fulfilled on the exact day at “the end of seven years”—Elul 29. What this means is that even the timing of 9/11 had to be part of the ancient mystery of the Shemitah. If that sounds like a radical proposition, remember 586 BC when the armies of Babylon brought destruction to the land of Israel. And yet the secret of its timing was tied to the mystery of the Shemitah—so too with what took place in September 2001, the timing was tied to the ancient mystery. The Global Mystery What does it reveal? It reveals that the mystery of the Shemitah touches every realm of life, involves the entire world, and alters the course of history. It is not of natural origin or explanation—but supernatural. In view of this, let’s look again at the description of the Shemitah in its greatest and most far-reaching manifestation: •  It operates on an epic and global scale, transcending national borders and involving every realm of life. •  It involves the political realm, the cultural realm, the sociological realm, the military realm, and even

the history of the American presidency. Clinton would be the first American president to support so gruesome an act. In

THE MASADA MYSTERY WE WERE STANDING in the middle of a large valley, harsh and forbidding. “The prophet Ezekiel was taken in a vision to a valley filled with dry bones, which, by the hand of God, would rise and come to life and become a massive army. It was a prophecy that the nation of Israel, though utterly destroyed, would one day by God’s hand be resurrected from the grave.” The teacher began to walk through the valley, unfolding the mystery as he went. “In the first century the Romans destroyed the nation of Israel. The nation’s last stand took place on a desert mountain fortress called Masada. It was there that her last soldiers would meet their end. So Masada became the grave of ancient Israel. But then, after two thousand years, the nation of Israel was resurrected by the hand of God as foretold in the vision of dry bones. The people were resurrected, the cities were resurrected, and the Israeli soldier was resurrected. And then the resurrected nation decided to return to its ancient grave.” “To Masada? Why?” “To excavate it, to dig it up. The man in charge of the excavation was one of the nation’s most famous soldiers and archaeologists. And Israeli soldiers helped in the excavation. So now on the grave of Israel’s ancient soldiers walked her resurrected soldiers to see what lay hidden in its ruins.” “And what was hidden in the ruins?” “A prophetic mystery . . . a Scripture. It had been buried and hidden there for almost two thousand years.” “And what did it say?” “It was from the Book of Ezekiel, the section that contained the prophecy of the Valley of Dry Bones: ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, O My people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.”’ So the prophecy was hidden right there in Israel’s ancient grave, waiting for ages for the day that it would be uncovered, the day when its words would be fulfilled and the nation resurrected from its grave. You see, God is real. And His will is to restore the broken, bring hope from hopelessness, and life from death. Don’t ever give up. For with God, nothing is impossible . . . even restoration of a nation from a valley of dry bones.” The Mission: Bring your most hopeless situations and issues to God. Believe God for the impossible. Live and move in the power of the impossible. Ezekiel 37:12–14; Luke 1:37 The Masada Mystery

As with Jezebel, Hillary Clinton would wage a war she believed was one of enlightenment.

MAN BORN TO PAUSE AND ASK

In the first attack sexuality was divorced from marriage. In the second it was removed from gender, biology, and nature.

We are now about to enter another realm of the ancient mystery, a realm in which lie specific revelations concerning the days in which we live—a realm in which are found specific details, specific people, specific events, and even the times in which specific events are to take place. Though it would seem an unreal or impossible proposition, what has played out before our eyes in precise detail has already been, and has already been for over two and a half thousand years.

So if you walk in the Spirit,” I said, “life will go from a drag . . . to a breeze.

When Israel’s children were sacrificed on Baal’s altars, the nation deafened its ears to their cries. But God did not. The blood of the innocent would lead to the nation’s judgment. So in the modern case we have likewise lifted up our children on the altars of our apostasy and have likewise deafened our ears to their cries. But even by the most basic measures of morality, the clear and unavoidable truth remains: the killing of an unborn child, the taking of an innocent life, is as wrong and horrific as any human act could be wrong and horrific. And as in ancient times, no amount of words, legislation, or rulings can alter that fact. That we have sanctioned such a thing or have done and said nothing to oppose it is an indictment not only of our present civilization but of all who have sanctioned it or done and said nothing to oppose it.

The apostle Paul?” “Yes. The name Paul or Paulus comes from the root word pauo, which means to pause, to stop, to desist, to cease from one’s course, or to come to an end. So the man whose name was linked to pausing and stopping finally pauses and stops. God caused him to finally stop, to desist, and come to an end. So his whole life, from the moment he received his name, was leading up to that moment.” “And what about his

Proverbs 3:6; Philippians

Elijah was a man of faith and confidence, of boldness and courage against all odds, of a stubborn hope that would not yield in spite of all that was arrayed against it. Despite his circumstances and despite those who sat on his nation’s throne, he knew who was King above all kings and which side it was that would prevail in the end.

America was the most blessed nation on earth, its blessings shielded by a powerful hedge of national protection. As its founders had foretold, if the nation followed the ways of God, it would be blessed not only with prosperity and power but also with peace and security.

So the only solution is to return to God.

What happened to June is another reminder that whenever a nation or civilization or, for that matter, a life turns away from God, it will never remain neutral. It will never stay empty. It will become indwelled by something else, something other than God. It will become inhabited by the gods. Those who had taken part in the removal of prayer and the Word from American public life could not have imagined what it would lead to. But the empty house could not stay empty. A civilization had turned away from its worship of God. Now the sacraments of a different worship had come in. The door was left open; the house was found empty; the spirits came in; the gods returned and with them, their holy days.

over the long run, continuance, consistency, and perseverance overcome everything else. And the small upward steps, taken every day, will end up lifting you to the heights. God has called you not only to love, but to keep loving; not only to believe, but to press on in believing; and not only to do right, but to persevere in doing it. When you do that, then the power of your love, your faith, and your righteousness will be multiplied . . .

A pre-Christian civilization may produce a Caligula or a Nero. But a post-Christian civilization will produce a Stalin or a Hitler. A pre-Christian society may give birth to barbarity. But a post-Christian society will give birth to even darker offspring, Fascism, Communism, and Nazism. A pre-Christian nation may erect an altar of human sacrifice. But a post-Christian nation will build Auschwitz.

Faith is like the air in a balloon. If you've got it you're filled. If you don't, you're empty.

head of the operation, Pop Cahn.

Blessings and Sacraments The following are some of the actual words spoken by those who sanctify the killing of unborn children. Notice the framing of the act in religious and spiritual terms—as well as the word sacrifice: Our culture needs new rituals as well as laws to restore abortion to its sacred dimension.8 Abortion [is] a major blessing, and…a sacrament in the hands of women.9 It is not immoral to choose abortion; it is simply another kind of morality, a pagan one.10 Abortion is a sacrifice.11 Abortion is a sacred act.12 There is nothing else needing to be written here. Nothing could in any way add to or take away from the significance or horror of such words.

if nothing is God, then anything and everything is God.

if one’s personal truth contradicted reality, then it was reality that would have to be bent into conformity

And if one’s personal truth contradicted reality, then it was reality that would have to be bent into conformity.

Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord;

The church must decrease in worldly power that it might increase in the power of God.

When it comes to nouns, if it has two syllables, the stress is probably on the first one. If it’s clearly from French, it might be stressed differently (baguette, ennui), but it has long been the case that as words lose their obvious connection to French, they can shift their stress. This can lead to dialect differences where British and American speakers differ on where they put the stress in ballet or debris, or where some American speakers say POlice or JUly, or “CEEment.” It causes a whole lot of trouble for pecan, which we got from an Algonquian root through French explorers who said paCAHN and English speakers can’t quite decide how to pronounce.

Even for those who know and love the Lord there is fallow ground. Whatever part of your life has not been touched by God’s love and truth—that is your fallow ground. Whatever area of your life remains unchanged, unredeemed, ungodly, and dark, whether of actions, thoughts, habits, emotions, or ways—that is your fallow ground. And the law of the fallow ground says that it is that very thing, that very soil, that very area you haven’t allowed God to touch and change—that will bear the most fruit. It is that part you must plow, and sow, and water. For it is that ground that is waiting to bear a harvest. As it is written in the Prophets, ‘Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord.

At the end of the process, Americans would be championing what they had once forbidden and forbidding what they had once championed.

The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with hewn stone; the sycamores have been cut down, but we will plant cedars in their place.

In the fall of ancient Israel the nation decided it could rewrite morality and change what was good and evil, sin and righteousness—so too in America. What had once been recognized as right was now attacked as evil, and what had once been recognized as sin was now celebrated as a virtue. Morals, standards, and values that had undergirded not only the nation’s foundation, but also the foundation of Western civilization and civilization itself, were increasingly overturned, overruled, and discarded. And those who would not go along with the change—who merely continued to uphold that which

What about now? And what about America? Is there hope? If there was no hope, there would be no harbingers. What would be the purpose of giving warning if there was no hope of responding to that warning? If there is warning, then there is hope. Is there any hope of America averting judgment? If there is repentance and revival, yes. But if the nation continues on its present course, then the answer is no. Does it look likely that America will turn back to God? At present and in the direction in which the nation is now proceeding, no. What about when judgment falls—will there be hope in that day? For those who respond to God’s voice and call, yes. For those who do not, no. And after the falling of judgment or calamity, will there be hope? Yes, for all who turn to God.

As ancient Israel had removed the Ten Commandments from its national consciousness, so America did likewise, removing the Ten Commandments from public view,

The Shemitah thus deals with a particular flaw of human nature—the tendency to divorce the blessings of life from the Giver of those blessings, to separate the physical realm from the spiritual realm, and then compensate for the loss of the spiritual by increasing its claims over the physical world—pursuing more and more things, increase, gain—materialism. This increase of things, in turn, further crowds out the presence of God. The Shemitah is the antidote to all these things—the clearing away of material attachments to allow the work and presence of God to come in.

Do you remember the days that followed 9/11?” he asked. “Of course,” I answered. “No one had to say it. It was as if almost everyone had some sort of sense about it, even if they couldn’t put it into words. It was as if the nation had unconsciously heard a silent voice calling it to be still and to return to the foundation.” “The voice of God?” “Yes, and for a moment, America appeared to be responding. The rush and clamor of its culture were stilled. Wall Street came to a standstill. Hollywood grew silent. Throughout the nation there was a noticeable and massive turning away from the superficial and to the spiritual. Even the name of God was taken out of the closet and publicly proclaimed from Capitol Hill to New York City. Multitudes sang “God Bless America” and gathered for prayer. America’s houses of worship overflowed with throngs of people seeking to find solace. In those first few days and weeks after 9/11, it seemed as if there might be a true national turning, a changing of course, an awakening—even a spiritual revival.” “But then America was turning back to God?” “No. America was not turning back to God. It was a spiritual revival that never came. And even the appearance of turning back was short-lived. It had no real root. There was no real change of heart or course, no searching of ways, no questioning if something could be wrong, no repentance. So it couldn’t last. And it wasn’t long before the moment was lost and things began to return to a form of normalcy. The calls for prayer would fade away, the rush and clamor of daily life would resume, the spiritual searching would be abandoned, and the superficial again embraced. The name of God would again be withdrawn from the public square, and most of those who had suddenly flocked to houses of worship would cease their flocking. The nation would resume its departure from God and its rejection of His ways, only now with increased speed.

if America continues on its present course, its place as the head of nations will fall and the American age and global order will be allowed to collapse.

Any sin, regardless of its nature and no matter its degree, will be infinitely and eternally judged. If we are not then right with God, if we are not then saved, if we have not received the salvation offered us, then there will be only one possibility—eternal separation from God—eternal judgment. In the end it comes down to two destinies—heaven or hell. According to God’s Word, what stands between the two eternities is not how religious we were, not how good or bad we were, or anything else but one thing: Were we born again? This fact could not be more clearly stated in Scripture: “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

Let those who have ears to hear it, let them hear it. . . and be saved.

If there is to come a great shaking, what is the hope? I would answer that it is just the opposite: with no shaking, there is little chance of hope. America has grown so hardened to God’s will and so deafened to His voice, that only something of great magnitude has any hope of breaking through. It is written that God is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). The heart of God is to save, to restore, and to redeem. And thus all things, even shaking and calamity, must be seen through that truth.

The key is to get one’s life, every part of one’s life, inside of Him who is salvation. As it is written: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. —JOHN 3:16

How does one become born again? In the Bible it is also declared that anyone who truly receives Him, truly believes in Him, truly makes Him the Lord and Savior of their lives, and who truly follows Him as His disciple, that is the one who is born again—saved. It can begin with a decision, a prayer, a committing of one’s heart, the answering of a call—the beginning of a new life.

The Shemitah is a reminder that God is the source of all blessings, spiritual and physical alike. But when God is removed from the picture, the removal of blessings will ultimately follow. The Shemitah thus deals with a particular flaw of human nature—the tendency to divorce the blessings of life from the Giver of those blessings, to separate the physical realm from the spiritual realm, and then compensate for the loss of the spiritual by increasing its claims over the physical world—pursuing more and more things, increase, gain—materialism. This increase of things, in turn, further crowds out the presence of God. The Shemitah is the antidote to all these things—the clearing away of material attachments to allow the work and presence of God to come in.

The Shemitah declares that, in the end, all things will pass away, everything will collapse and fall—except this—God, His love, and His salvation. Everything else we sought after or dwelt upon will mean nothing. They will all pass away. But the love of God and His salvation will not fall, nor collapse, nor fail, but will remain forever. And the only thing that will then matter is whether we sought Him, found Him, and became right with Him—in that love and in that salvation.

As ancient Israel had removed the Ten Commandments from its national consciousness, so America did likewise, removing the Ten Commandments from

Of ourselves we have nothing. All our notions of ownership are an illusion; all our pride, a deception. We are not sovereign but completely dependent. Everything we have—our possessions, our money, our riches, every moment of our lives—everything has been given to us. Every heartbeat is borrowed.

On the altars of Baal and Molech, their newfound gods. That’s how far they descended. Everything was now upside down. What they had once known as right, they now saw as outdated, intolerant, and immoral.