Awaken Biblical Prophecy Commentary – A Hard Heart

Awaken Biblical Prophecy Commentary – A Hard Heart

Transcript:

Doing what I do in this blog is a public endeavor that puts my beliefs and thoughts out for all to see.  As you can imagine, that results in both positive and negative feedback.  One has to develop somewhat of a thick skin to take the various darts and arrows.

One other thing I do on rare occasions is to comment on other people’s postings.  It’s not a regular practice with me since I have enough to do without fueling more interactions.  In recent weeks, however, I decided I had to comment and push back on something that was extremely derogatory toward God.  He doesn’t need me or anybody else to protect Him, but there are times I believe we need to act as Biblical apologists.  Of course, just to be clear, apologetics is not about apologizing for God, but in defending the faith with Scripture, logic, reason, and trust in Him.

I’m on a mail list from a secular author who wrote an excellent novel a couple years ago that has been very well received about a group of people in Canada who rebelled against their government’s COVID agenda.  I enjoyed his book and recommended it.  As many authors do, he sends out periodic musings to his subscriber list to keep them engaged.  As part of that, he wrote a couple articles that raised up in me the need to respond to his hostile attitude toward God.

For your edification this Commentary presents the email dialog we had.  I hope you’ll find it useful to understand the mindset and heart attitude of someone who has decided he has no use for God and has no desire to have his bias challenged.

After a couple days of back-and-forth my wife said I should just cut it off.  My response was that I would certainly do that when I felt the Spirit leading me to the point that nothing more could be gained from the interaction.  What you’ll hopefully see is that I made every attempt to convey a Biblical perspective and ultimately give him the Gospel.  Once those things have happened, and there’s no softening, then it’s time to move on.

I could very well make this author’s name public in this post, but I decided not to.  As you’ll see, he didn’t afford me the same courtesy as we went down this road, but I’m a big boy and can handle it.  For purposes of identification with his emails to me I’ll simply refer to him with the initial J.  I’ll identify my comments with my initials GWR.

Here we go.

On February 4 J sent out an email to his list.  It reads as follows:

J: “God sounds like a psychopath,” my son said to me after I read him the first two books of the Bible.

I could not disagree.

Many Christians and Jews claim that Western civilization’s success has been built upon the Bible, its God and his Ten Commandments. Yet Yahweh seems guilty of many of the crimes that we, in the freedom movement, accuse politicians and globalists of perpetrating today.

For example…

The story of the flood was nothing short of mass genocide at the hands of Yahweh.

Then the Book of Exodus contains plenty of child sacrifice — with God sending an angelic serial killer to murder the first-born sons of the Egyptians. Yes, the Egyptians were enslaving the Israelites, I know. But isn’t murdering a baby — because his parents had slaves — critical race theory at its worst?

And then there’s the scene when Moses comes down from the mountain and finds God’s “chosen people” worshipping a relatively harmless (when compared to Yahweh) golden idol. Forget about freedom of expression, anyone who wouldn’t immediately recant was no longer among the chosen and had a sword put through his or her belly.

Another shocking scene, albeit on a smaller scale, is where Moses’ nephews, newly ordained priests, make a mistake during their first religious ceremony. Without delay the Bible says, “Fire, therefore came forth, from the Lord’s presence and consumed them, so that they died in the Lord’s presence.”

I don’t particularly find this kind of behaviour God-like or spiritually uplifting. It’s not the type of being I would want any state to bow down to.

Feeling like a “heretic,” I did some searching and discovered the writings of Father Seán Ólaoire. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1972 but has since been excommunicated for questioning how the God of the Torah could warrant our adoration.

In his book, Setting God Free: Moving Beyond the Caricature We’ve Created in Our Own Image, he has this to say about  the above-mentioned scene where God kills Moses’ nephews:

“This is the most extreme case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder that I’ve come across, accompanied by a homicidal rage that took the lives of two newly ordained, enthusiastic priests for messing up a detail of the liturgical event.”

Did I mention Father Seán has a PhD in transpersonal psychology? His psychological assessment continues:

“Without batting an eyelid, Moses immediately orders two of his first cousins — Micheal and Elzaphan, neither of whom were priests — to carry the corpses outside the camp, while warning Aaron himself and his other two priest-sons to show no sign of shock or bereavement lest they further infuriate God and bring about their own deaths and, perhaps, collateral damage.”

Is this [the] type of God that should have supremacy over a nation (as is stated in the Canadian Constitution) or in whom a nation should put its trust (as is stated on American bills)?

Father Seán concludes: “Moses, knowing God as ‘an intimate,’ is afraid that if Aaron reacts to the murder of his two sons, God may completely lose it and murder a whole bunch more of the Israelites. Maybe Moses was afraid that God would vent His frustration by shooting up the nearest schoolyard. Are you really a follower of — or even a believer in — this cosmic psychopath?”

Any individual who wants to accept this “cosmic psychopath” as the “one true God” is free to do so — as long as they don’t drown, stab or ignite anybody who disagrees. But it’s not a depiction of the Divine that I could worship, no less argue that a nation should pledge allegiance to.

Much like many politicians and tyrants, who have the attitude of “rules for ye, but not for me” this Old Testament tyrant should take note of his own “thou shall not murder” injunction.

Seán Ólaoire’s book, Setting God Free reads like a novel — where Yahweh and Moses are put on trial for crimes against humanity. Despite the horror it unapologetically examines, Father Seán manages to add so much humour and clarity that I find it hard to put the book down.

—

GWR: You’re already beginning to see where this is going.  It gets worse.  The next week on February 11 J sent another missive to his subscribers.

J: Last Sunday, I sent out a post titled “Was the God of the Old Testament a psychopathic tyrant?”

The next day, I received this email from a Jewish-born doctor:

“Pardon my French, J, but holy f**k… [heck]. You have now… as they say… jumped the shark!

I am sitting here shaking my head east to west.

Not in anger but in amazement.

You… went there!

I have believed intuitively what you are saying here for years but have suppressed the urge to point it out.

I was born Jewish so I know a little about the Old Testament .. But… I always figured… This cannot be true.

Noah had to build an ark just to save two of everything from this psychopath… Let that sink in.”

I’m glad he didn’t find it offensive. It certainly wasn’t an attack on Judaism. Indeed, there are many Jewish thinkers whom I admire, like Dennis Prager, who say that the “fear of God” is what some people need to keep them from stealing, murdering and committing adultery. So if the Old Testament God, slaughtering thousands of people, motivates you to be a better person — that’s great.

I guess I prefer carrots over psychopaths with sticks.

The good doctor also asked: “Please let me know how [your post] is received by your disciples. I wonder if you will have any left after this one…”

So far, the response has been largely positive. The “harshest” message I’ve received was from one subscriber reminding me that “God gets better in the New Testament, so don’t stop reading.”

Well, the bar was set pretty low in the Old Testament — Jesus didn’t need to do much to surmount it. But there are even moments where the “lamb” of God has a few harsh reactions. The scene in the Bible where Jesus refuses to help a Canaanite woman simply on the basis that she’s not an Israelite has never felt right to me.

Fine. If he wants to specialize in only healing Jewish people, I won’t fault him.

But it’s the part where Jesus tells that woman that helping a Canaanite would be like “taking the children’s bread and tossing it to the dogs.”

The first time I read that, I thought, did Jesus just call her a bitch?

How can this not be interpreted as utter racism?

Jesus only agrees to help her when she accepts the insult, saying: “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.”

It’s certainly an improvement over the Old Testament God promising Moses (in almost every chapter of Exodus) that he’ll destroy all the Canaanites upon the caravan’s arrival in Canaan. But it’s not a great improvement.

So either:

1) The Bible is wrong: Jesus didn’t really call her and all her relatives dogs.

2) Jesus was actually a big dog lover and meant it as a compliment.

3) Jesus, like any human, had his faults — in this case, he was a bit of a bigot.

4) The divinity of calling an entire race of people “dogs” is too profoundly spiritual for me to comprehend.

In the end, I think it comes down to every person extracting what they find true, useful and meaningful from the Bible (or any other source) and constructing their own “cosmology.”

—

GWR: That was enough for me, so on that same February 11 I responded with the following:

As a follower of Jesus Christ I will lovingly say that you have no idea what you’re talking about regarding God and the Bible.  I’d love to give you a theology lesson, but unless you’re really seeking the truth, it would be a waste of time.  God reveals Himself to those who desire in their hearts to know Him; otherwise, they are blind.  Matthew 13:10-15 explains this:

The disciples came to him [Jesus] and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.  In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’

You see, Jesus knew who would seek the Kingdom of Heaven and who would not.  (He’s omniscient, after all.). Those who don’t, cannot see or hear the truth – although God greatly desires that all come to know Him personally and relationally so that they do not perish, but rather have eternal life.

You will find the truth only by turning to the One true God, the maker of heaven and earth through His Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross – shedding His blood – for the sins of mankind, that all might have the opportunity to live.  If you decide to pursue Him, He will make Himself known to you.

God bless.

(As they said in the X-Files: “The truth is out there.”  Unfortunately they didn’t know where to seek it either.)

—

The next day of February 12 J wrote me with:

J: So because I have a different perspective than you on the Bible I must be wrong, nonspiritual and not seeking the truth? Is that what you’re are saying?

—

Responding that same February 12, I said:

GWR: It’s not what I say.  It’s what God says in His Word.  You appear to be contending with God by thinking your truth trumps His.  That’s a dangerous position to take.

I am nothing without God, and I acknowledge it.  A little humility toward God and His ways is a wise thing for someone who does not know Him.

And yes, if one really wants to know the truth, he seeks it from the One who created Him and knows all truth.  All other sources lead to destruction.  If a person wants life, and life more abundantly, only Jesus provides that (see John 10:10).

—

The next day February 13, J asked:

J: And how do you know that every word in the Bible is the “Word of God”?

—

On February 14 I gave him the straightforward answer:

GWR: Very simple.  All the prophecies in the Bible that were to be fulfilled by now have been 100%.  There is no other religion or source that can claim that.  Only the God of the Bible who is outside of time is omniscient and sees the end from the beginning.  (There are some 300 prophecies fulfilled about Jesus as Messiah and Savior – impossible odds unless from God.). There are still prophecies to come regarding these last days (some of which are being fulfilled right now).  Here are a couple:

2 Timothy 3:1-9

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

2 Peter 3:1-7

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

In regards to coming Judgment, I think if you’ll take the time to listen to this Prophecy Update by Pastor JD Farag, that you’ll find much common ground with what he says (vaccine related plus some other things).  There will be things he talks about that you won’t agree with because you don’t understand God’s Word, and there will be those things that you may question and desire to learn more about.  If you have such questions – not in mocking but in truly desiring to understand – I’m happy to try to point you in the right direction.

You can skip to 26:30 to avoid the worship and get right to the message:

Link to JD Farag 2-11-24

https://www.jdfarag.org/bible-prophecy?sapurl=LytkNmtjL2xiL21pLytqcDhwdnNuP2VtYmVkPXRydWUmcmVjZW50Um91dGU9YXBwLndlYi1hcHAubGlicmFyeS5tZWRpYS1zZXJpZXMmcmVjZW50Um91dGVTbHVnPSUyQjgyeXhwOGY=

—

GWR: Did he listen to Pastor JD’s Prophecy Update?  I don’t know.  J didn’t acknowledge it one way or the other.

Instead on February 15, he asked the reasonable question:

J: Are you saying that the Old Testament predicted Jesus’ life as depicted in the New Testament?

—

The next day February 16 I responded:

GWR: Absolutely.  Read Isaiah 53.  Interesting thing about that is when Jews today read it (it’s not a standard practice in Judaism because it’s too dangerous a passage), those Jews think they’re reading the “Christian” New Testament.

Quick Google search: this website lists many of the key prophecies: https://www.jesusfilm.org/blog/old-testament-prophecies/

—

GWR: Things start going off the rails at this point.

On February 17 J questioningly declares:

J: A book that predicts its own ending doesn’t sound all that miraculous, does it?

And even if it was making major predictions about future events beyond its pages — how does that address or justify the horrific acts it ascribes to God in the Old Testament?

—

As an aside. On that same February 17, J says:

J: Gary, in 1996 I moved into a monastery, where I lived for 3 years. Since then, every day, I spend an hour praying, chanting, meditating, reading scriptures (not just Christian ones, the Gita is my favourite). And the God I feel within isn’t the God I read about in the Old Testament. Judge me however you like, but, it’s only proving my point.

—

GWR: Because J said something to me in this overall dialog about judging others, I wanted to be sure he understood my position with him.  More than that, because his perspective on the Bible and why God did what He did was highly skewed, I wanted to give him a different lens by which to interpret God’s Word.  Still on February 17, I said:

GWR: It’s not my place to judge unbelievers – that’s for God to do.  Believers are to judge those within the church who profess Christ, but that’s obviously a very different circumstance.

Funny thing about Christianity: it’s rightly considered a religion, but it is far more and different than typical religions.  Those are man’s attempts to reach out and touch God.  In true Christianity, it’s a very personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  We surrender fully to the Lord, acknowledge our sins and ask for His forgiveness.  When we do this with a true heart, and faith that Jesus is God, then He forgives us.  We call upon His Name and confess Him as Lord and Savior and something unique happens.  God – in the form of the Holy Spirit – enters us and dwells within us: God within.

What you relate about God in the Old Testament goes under the heading: Is God a Moral Monster?  In reading the OT, one might come away with that impression, but that’s because there is a lack of Godly wisdom and understanding of the overall narrative.  Here it is briefly:

[Following this I provide a nine-paragraph outline of the entire Bible.  For brevity’s sake, I won’t read this as part of my audio Commentary, but if you’d like to see what I said, this section is in the Transcript on my website blog.] àEnd

God created the heavens and the earth.  Before He created man, He created heavenly beings, aka sons of God, aka angels.  He gave both of these creations free will.  Some of the heavenly beings rebelled because of pride.  It was one of these beings that led Adam and Eve astray.  Because of their rebellion and disobedience, they were cast from the Garden.  God placed a curse on the serpent/Satan.  That curse foretold that Satan would bruise the heel of a Savior to come, and that Savior would eventually crush the head of the serpent, i.e. destroy him.

Because of that curse by God, Satan has done everything within his power since then to try to foil the prophecy.  After all, if he could do that, then God would be proven a liar.  Thus began a millennia-old battle.  Satan had to destroy this Savior in some manner, so he tried to destroy the human line in which He would come.  God chose Abraham to be the father of that genetic line from which Mary – Jesus’ mother – eventually came.

In the meantime, Satan was very busy trying to kill off the people who became the Jews out of Abraham.  Among other things, he incited a rebellion in heaven of other rebellious sons of God.  These are often referred to as fallen angels.  They came out of heaven and procreated with human women; this resulted in a genetically hybrid line of giants known as Nephilim.  These creatures because they were not fully human could not be saved by Jesus then or in the future because only humans with pure DNA can be saved.  The fallen angels almost wiped out humanity with this genetic corruption but God brought the flood and destroyed them all, leaving only Noah and his family which still had pure human DNA.

Subsequently this DNA in some manner (I have a hypothesis) continued after the flood and many tribes on the earth had either giants among them or were carriers of the hybrid genes.  You’ll notice when you read the OT that God required the Israelites to “devote to destruction” certain tribes and not others.  In some instances, He commanded that even children and animals be completely destroyed.  Why?  Because they were not fully human or genetically pure and God could not have them intermarry with the jews to corrupt the genetic line.  God knows all.  He is omniscient.  He knew who had the corruption and who did not.  He also knew of the animals that had been genetically manipulated.

The story goes to the time of Jesus.  Satan incited King Herod to kill all the baby boys around the time of His birth – missed Him.  Satan tried to tempt Jesus to follow him – no good.  When Satan got Judas to betray Jesus, he thought that by crucifying the Son of God, he had won.  Nope.  That was exactly what had to happen for Jesus to become the Savior of the world.  His blood had to be shed to atone for the sins of mankind.  He died in our place – that which should have been meted out to us.  When Jesus rose from the dead, that sealed the deal.

We must accept this sacrificial gift in which Jesus paid the price – the debt – for our sins by His death and resurrection.  We must turn our lives over to Him as the ONLY One who can save us.  Since all of us are sinners from birth, and there’s not way we can clean up ourselves to be presentable to God, this is why true Christianity is different.  We understand that this cleansing must be an act of God and not of ourselves.

Moving into these times, Satan is about to make his last ditch effort to destroy the prophetic promises of God.  You’ll like this part: The faux vaccines in response to the manufactured “pandemic” of C-19 are likely a precursor of the Mark of the Beast that will occur during the 7-year period known as the Tribulation.  My sense is that this seven years will begin in 2030 – imagine that.  What else is forecast for that timeframe?

The book of Revelation is the account of what will occur in the Tribulation.  It will be the most horrific period ever on the face of the earth.  Very few people will survive.  Some will make a confession of faith to Jesus Christ and survive, the rest will make a confession of faith to the Antichrist – possessed by Satan.  They will take the Mark of the Beast in professing loyalty to him so as to be able to eat, etc.  By doing so, they will seal their fate by their complete dismissal of God.  They will all perish for eternity in the Lake of Fire.

If you’re still with me, you can see the difficulty of someone going into the Tribulation which is very close at hand.  Christians have the command and obligation from God to bring others His Word in the hopes that they will turn to Him in salvation and not perish along with the rest of the world.  Here’s the amazing thing about all this: Soon, sometime before the Tribulation begins, God will disappear those from the earth who truly believe in Him.  This is called the Rapture.  It’s a supernatural event that naturally the world – and even many Christians – deny will happen.  Well, good luck in that belief.  Because God loves those who have become His children through salvation, because of His character, He will not allow us to enter that Tribulation period.  Believers are also called the Bride of Christ.  In the Rapture, we will be with Him in heaven for the entire seven years of the Tribulation consummating the wedding of us as the church with Him as our Bridegroom.  Would a Bridegroom ever countenance His bride to be beat up and killed like what will happen in the Tribulation?  Of course not.

[End for Commentary audio]

[I finish that outline by saying:] There’s more, but this is plenty for now.  The narrative in the Bible is vast and overarching, and all under the sovereign control of God.  He allows things to happen but always guides the process to accomplish His purposes.  When we say that God is a child killer or a moral monster, we have no idea what we’re talking about.

Jesus is truly the only way out of this mess that the world has become.  It’s just as He said, that the world hates us who love Him.  This world is not our home – it is an alien and hostile place that has no use for God.

What will you do in response to this?  That is the ultimate question for you.  I’ve made my decision and I know where I’m going.  If I die sooner than later it doesn’t matter because either way I’ll be in the presence of the Lord.  What about you?

—

GWR: Was that too much?  J is quite intelligent.  One might think he’d take a step back and consider what I outlined.  But no.

On February 18 he sent out another of his missives to his email list that said:

J: Gary Ritter is a minister and the author of Christian horror novels. When I first heard of Christian horror, I thought, that sounds like a unique genre.

But then I paused and thought about all the horrific stories in the Bible, and realized maybe Christian horror isn’t all that unique after all.

For example, in chapter 15 of the Book of Numbers, God tells the Israelites to stone a man to death. His crime? Was he a murderer? No. Did he steal, covet his neighbour’s wife, worship a golden iPhone or sodomize a goat? None of those.

So then, what did he do to warrant immediate execution?

He collected firewood on a Saturday.

For that, God commanded Moses’ entire congregation to pelt him with stones until he was dead. Considering there must have been two million of them, I wonder how they organized such an execution. Did they take turns?

It’s doubly ironic, since, later in the Bible, apparently the same God becomes incarnate as Jesus and tells the Jews that he’s now okay with them taking care of necessities on a Saturday (“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”)

Anyway, back to fellow novelist, the reverend Gary Ritter. He sent an email, in response to my heretical post — Was the God of the Old Testament a psychopathic tyrant? — letting me know:

“As a follower of Jesus Christ, I will lovingly say that you have no idea what you’re talking about regarding God and the Bible. I’d love to give you a theology lesson, but unless you’re really seeking the truth, it would be a waste of time. God reveals Himself to those who desire in their hearts to know Him; otherwise, they are blind.”

This is the typical response I get from many Christians. Instead of explaining why Yahweh is acting like a psychopath, they tell me that there’s something wrong with me. They say I’m not interested in seeking the truth. They tell me that I have no desire to know the Divine. They call me blind.

Just because I can’t blindly believe that every word in the Bible is a 100% perfect reflection of a Divine and Ultimate Reality hardly means that I am not “really seeking the truth.”

Similar to how only a black person, in today’s culture, can question the Black Lives Matter movement, only an ordained Christian minister seems to be able to question the Bible without being labelled an atheist.

So here is another quote from Father Seán Ó’Laoire’s daring book, Setting God Free, that demonstrates why one would have to be blind to not question the way God is depicted in the Old Testament:

“Before Moses, dies, he has two more jobs to do, two more slaughters to supervise. First, God tells him to ensure that His regular supply of meat continues: animals must be sacrificed every morning, every evening on the Sabbath, at The New Moon festival, at Passover, at Pentecost, on New Year’s Day, on the day of Atonement, and on the Feast of Booths. It’s no bloody wonder that the Israelites had no meat left for themselves. I wonder what God’s BMI was.

“Can you imagine the stench, the bedlam, the breathing and bellowing of the terrified beasts who can smell each other’s fear? The urine and dung and the ubiquitous blood? The hordes of flies settling on everything and then cross-pollinating by crawling over people’s bodies and into all the orifices? Is it any wonder that plagues were a regular feature of life in the desert? Didn’t God know anything about hygiene? Or He just didn’t give a damn as long as he could smell roasting flesh and taste mammalian blood?”

Call me blind, but it looks like a horror novel to me. Sorry, not a God that I care to know.

—

GWR: After the lengthy description I gave J of what the overall Biblical story actually is, I felt he’d pretty much stabbed me in the back by being completely unfair with what I’d said to him.

On February 19 I wrote:

GWR: You didn’t tell the whole truth.  In my last email to you I gave you the Biblical outline absolutely explaining the reason behind my statement.  Why did you neglect that in this post?  You owe God an apology for not heeding His Word offered through His servant.

—

GWR: At this point we were a little out of sync because he came back to me on this same February 19, first repeating what I said to him and then commenting about that:

[GWR:] It’s not my place to judge unbelievers – that’s for God to do.  

J: Unbelievers in every word of the Bible or unbelievers in God? It’s a bit of ambiguous term.

I read your email and respect your viewpoints, but still don’t agree with them or find them aligned with my own experience of the Divine or a satisfactory answer for the actions attributed to God in the Bible.

You may be right, but I have to follow my own conscience. Mine tells me the Bible is not 100% accurate and trustworthy. Yours says otherwise.

—

GWR: One of the things that J continually did in this exchange is to make all this about me and what I believe – as though this is simply a subjective conversation.  It definitely was highly subjective for him, but I thought I took great pains to continually point at God and to keep the focus off of me.

Continuing still on February 19, I wrote him:

GWR: Life has all these funny little things attached to it.  One of the most interesting is that Satan has convinced people that he doesn’t exist.  Another is that he’s the good guy in the eternal struggle.  Or, it’s like the professor in the movie God’s Not Dead who declared, “God doesn’t exist!  And I hate Him!”  Hmmm.

Ultimately we all have the free will choice to accept the truth of God and His Word or to reject it.  Sadly, when folks reject it, they are siding with His adversary.  Satan is not on a par with God.  God created him.  However, due to the choice Adam and Eve first made to listen to the lies of the enemy, they gave dominion of the earth over to Satan for a time.  That time is soon going to come to an end (surely you can see that something big and bad is happening in the world, can’t you?) and God’s plan for the ages will straighten things out.  At that time there will be an accounting: Who chose to follow God and who chose to reject Him and the salvation He offers through His Son?

Perhaps you’ve heard of Pascal’s Wager?  From Britannica:

Pascal applied elements of game theory to show that belief in the Christian religion is rational. He argued that people can choose to believe in God or can choose to not believe in God, and that God either exists or he does not. Under these conditions, if a person believes in the Christian God and this God actually exists, they gain infinite happiness; if a person does not believe in the Christian God and God exists, they receive infinite suffering. On the other hand, if a person believes in the Christian God and God does not exist, then they receive some finite disadvantages from a life of Christian living; and if a person does not believe in this God and God does not exist, then they receive some finite pleasure from a life lived unhindered by Christian morality. As Pascal states, “Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is. Let us estimate these two chances. If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is.”

Making the wrong choice and choosing to side with Satan is to cozy up to the one being in the universe who hates your guts with an intense, irrational hatred.  Who in his right mind would try to be buddies with the one who wants to destroy him?  Yet that’s the choice you say that you’re making, whether you realize it or not.

God loves you, J so deeply, you cannot even begin to imagine.  It’s why He sent His One and only Son to die in your place, taking your sins upon Himself, and paying your sin debt that leads to death for you.  That’s a wager with 100% odds of winning, but even if you think the odds are less, the question is: Why would you bet on eternal life by trusting Satan?  It’s either one or the other: heaven or hell.

My prayer is that you consider the consequences and turn to the only person worthy of your trust who will preserve your very life.  His Name is Jesus Christ.

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GWR: Going forward, if J’s hard heart was previously apparent, it definitely shows itself next.

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On February 21 J repeated my accusation to him and then offered his take:

[GWR] You didn’t tell the whole truth.

J: Well, first of all, I don’t think it was “His Word” but yours — so I won’t be offering God any apologies.

Secondly, I didn’t feel they offered any convincing proof — as the arguments were stacked upon beliefs.

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GWR: In his response, J completely ignored the issue about hating God and embracing Satan, along with the consequences of Pascal’s Wager.  Nothing apparently pricks his conscience.  You may be wondering by now, when I was going to get off this train.  The time was certainly coming.

Same day, February 21 I stated:

GWR: You’re showing your Biblical ignorance in saying:

[J] Secondly, I didn’t feel they offered any convincing proof — as the arguments were stacked upon beliefs.

If you were to actually read the Bible with any understanding, you would see that I simply repeated the Biblical narrative in simple layman’s terms.  What I wrote were not my beliefs – you keep going there, and I think deliberately misunderstanding me.

None of this is about me.  It’s about God, His Word, and your reaction to it.  I’m not judging you; this is an observation: you have a very hard heart.  For proof, we only have to consider the case of Pharaoh in the time of the Exodus.  His heart was already hard against God, and God allowed it to harden even more.  In so doing, great calamity came upon him and all of Egypt.  You are treading on very dangerous ground, and I’m trying to warn you.

With that said, sometime in the not-too-distant-future some very strange things will happen here in this world.  Remember my warning.  You will have, hopefully, a final opportunity to turn your life over to God through His Son Jesus Christ.  If you don’t, you will doubtless end up taking the Mark of the Beast, which ironically for you could be related to a vaccine.  When you take that Mark, it will indicate your allegiance to the Antichrist who will say that he is god.  Even you will submit to him unless you have chosen Jesus as Savior and Lord.  Mock this all you will, but heed my words.  If you chose Antichrist, you will choose eternity in the Lake of Fire.  God doesn’t want that for you because of His great love for you, but if you continue down this current road, that’s where you’ll end up.

Again, your apology isn’t necessary for me.  You need to get right with God, and that begins with repentance toward Him.

Respond more if you want, but I don’t know that there’s anything more I can say or do to point you in the right direction so that your soul will be saved.

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GWR: That was my au revoir, my sayonara.  I had determined that there was no further point in continuing this dialog.  That didn’t stop J, however, in getting the last word.  Actually, two last words, as you’ll see.

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On February 21 J wrote:

J: So, if anybody disagrees with your views on the Bible they are automatically siding with Satan?

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GWR: He then followed up on February 22, apparently just to make sure he got his point across:

J: Your belief is that the Bible is the Word of God.

And you claim to know what is in people’s hearts.

And you condemn those who don’t agree with you, in the name of God.

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GWR: From this last it’s apparent that J continues to think everything is subjective with God’s Word.  Thus, it’s his position versus mine.  Even with the Bible itself, his perspective is more moral since God to him is an abusive old man.

This is so sad because it’s representative of the way of the world in this last hour.  People can’t read Scripture without imposing their biases which come from their wicked hearts.  They are as gods, and thus know more and better than what’s in this dusty old book of atrocities.

Well, I tried to warn J, but he wasn’t having it.  Just as I told him, however, a day will come that will take him by surprise.  Will he be one who turns to Christ in the Tribulation because he’ll remember what I told him?  Or will his hubris continue to be so great that he dismisses it all and follows Antichrist to perdition?

Many of us have these same issues with family members and friends.  We do what we can in bringing them the Gospel, but at some point, we have to knock the dust off our feet and accept the inevitable.  We cannot change them.  Only a move of God in their hearts convicting them can make any difference.

It was with good reason that Jesus said the way to destruction is broad and many will go that way.  Conversely, the way to eternal life is a narrow path with a straight gate through which few enter.

This dialog is a good illustration of that as it reveals what’s truly in this man’s heart.  It’s not pretty.  It’s hard and cold.

Someday J will bow down before the Lord.  Sadly, it will likely be for damnation rather than for salvation.  He can’t say he wasn’t warned.