There are always people clamoring, asking, looking for signs. Signs of the times. It was no different in Jesus’ time on earth, and He admonished the Pharisees and the people around Him of asking for signs and seeking them when the signs were right in front of them, and they refused to notice, pay attention, or acknowledge those signs;

The Pharisees and Sadducees Demand Signs

And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah.” So he left them and departed.

Matthew 16:1-4

The Greatest Sign of All-Time in world history to that point, and the greatest time in world history period — other than when the Lord Jesus Christ returns a Second Time — was right in front of them and they were blind to that sign, as they were blind to every other sign. Distracted. Self-interested. Stiff-necked. Of the world. Haughty. Imagining they were more sophisticated and learned than those around them. Not unlike most folks alive today in America and in every Western nation and the world, but let’s focus on America and the West, which has a long history of professing to be a Christian nation, or Christian nations.

In war, and nations of this world are constantly engaged in war even if not openly on a battlefield falling dead and bleeding, propaganda, false intelligence, and diversionary tactics are used. Constantly.

The nazis were among the most adept at using propaganda successfully. The American and Allied Forces of World War II were accomplished at false intelligence and diversionary tactics. You may recall that prior to the D-Day invasion on June 6th, 1945 an entire inflatable army was constructed in England, and the American general most feared and respected by the nazi high command, George Patton, was given command over that fake inflatable army. Just as false intelligence was given out freely to keep the nazis convinced the invasion would come at Calais, rather than Normandy. Just as the Americans in the Pacific Theater caught wind of a pending invasion by the Japanese of Midway Island. A key strategic island that could have turned the tide of the war strongly in Japan’s favor, but instead, using false intelligence, the Americans learned their hunch of a pending invasion of Midway was accurate, and they planned accordingly. And The Battle of Midway was the first decisive victory for America in the Pacific.

Why all this history?

Because no less amount of propaganda, false intelligence, and diversionary tactics are used daily, nightly, constantly in the spiritual war every person in America, every person on search is enlisted in. Having been handed the propaganda its all a political, cultural war, and it’s solely entrenched in the valley of Left versus Right, liberal Democrat versus conservative Republican, and even being escalated into now using God and the word of God in vain making it leftist versus professed Christian nationalist, rather than seeing, knowing, believing, and acknowledging what everything taking place truly is — the escalating spiritual war.

And what is written and evidenced in the article below, while presented primarily as part of this political war of left versus right, do not continue to fall prey to that lie. Do not stop there. Do not be lulled and sucked in.

To continue to think, speak, write, or believe what is taking place in America, the West, and around the world is primarily a political or cultural war is to fall for the propaganda of the nazis, the false intelligence of the Americans, the full of hot air false front presented to divert attention from the real forces at work.

All recent reports, surveys, and polls that can be trusted show us that the majority of young people have no problem abolishing the First Amendment. Ridding America of free speech and the freedom of religion. Those freedoms are now viewed as enslavement. Wrongs needing to be righted. By the totally lost and deluded. By a growing number of politicians, and pundits, and full of hot air like an inflatable rubber tank to divert focus from the reality of the situation, where the real enemy lies and can be seen.

Not only among the young. A majority of older and downright old folks see, hear, and make everything political rather than recognizing things for what they truly are — part of the ongoing and escalating spiritual war — and that is among professed Christians! Vainly, foolishly imagining they are the power, they can bring about the kingdom of God on earth! That a sinful mere man or woman politician is the answer. The key to turning things around.

Such blindness! Exactly like a Pharisee, a Sadducee, a person present when Christ walked upon this earth. No different.

The lies, the out and out lies, the propaganda, the false reporting, and the diversionary tactics of the so-called left are at their core the words of the master they serve, the father of lies, confusion, mayhem, distortion, and tearing down of all things, Satan. The Adversary. The Enemy. Of the people.

Not Democrats. Not leftists. Ministers of Satan. Appearing as ministers of light just like their master who appears as a seductive angel of light. And this is not the proprietary domain of leftists, Democrats, progressives, and those involved politically. This same darkness, these same lies exist among the wolves appearing as sheep mingled in the flock. Yes, my friends, even those appearing conservative, registered as Republicans are not pure. Unblemished. Truthful.

Time to discern wisely and well. For the times are growing shorter and more evil by the day. And if you’re sitting around waiting for the Lord to appear and sweep you up into the clouds to spare you perhaps it’s time you took a long, deep, hard look at things. Being otherwise occupied, passive, thinking the Lord is coming soon to spare you any tribulation, further suffering, and the time of the Great Tribulation? Better think twice, and again. Because the Word of God is not definitive on there being a gathering of the body into the air and sparing them what is to come. That is why there are multiple suppositions and beliefs among Christians. Pre-Tribulation Rapture? Mid-Tribulation Rapture? Post-Tribulation Rapture?

How about equipping, preparing today for any and every possibility? How about no longer allowing the world, American media, politicians, co-workers, neighbors, friends, and family rule you and dictate to you and finally place all trust in God, all trust in God’s Word, all trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, all trust in the Holy Spirit and from now on move forward Christian soldier no longer AWOL pressing on in the good fight, seeing, hearing, and recognizing the signs for what they all are?

Below is an excellent article written by Mr. Adam Carrington. An article of clarity, accuracy, and truth. Imagine that in these perverse times of journalism as it is.

The ongoing and growing efforts to remove Constitutional liberties such as free speech and freedom of religion are not being led by leftists, or Democrats, or a political party — but solely by the minions and ministers of Satan. Let’s be clear, finally, shall we? And begin to write and speak accordingly, accurately, fearlessly to that truth.

Ken Pullen, A CROOKED PATH, Tuesday, July 25th, 2023

Is the Supreme Court giving favorable treatment to religion?

Tuesday, July 25, 2023

By Adam Carrington

Reprinted from The Hill

Have religious zealots coopted the Supreme Court? The left seems to think so.

Pieces written about its last two terms, in particular, make various versions of this claim. They’ve said the court allegedly wishes to end the separation of church and state. They’ve said the majority of justices want to give an “elevated” status to religious persons and claims, privileging them over all other principles and laws. The list goes on.

But these claims fall short — a truth we can see by a fair examination of religious cases in the past two Supreme Court terms. Rather than showing an imposition of theocracy, these decisions merely try to give religious persons equal treatment and respect constitutional religious rights.

This summer, one pundit declared that, with the current court, the First Amendment Establishment Clause’s “limits on the government’s involvement with or facilitation of religion … appear to have been smashed.” Wrong. The court has hardly decreed all government interaction with religion constitutionally permissible. Recent decisions, like last year’s Carson v. Makin, have sided with religious claims based on equality, not special privilege. This case, which concerned access to generally available educational funding, said that, once instituted, state governments must permit its use for religious and secular institutions alike.

As much as that claim misinterprets legal texts, it misrepresents the legal context. Far from being a recent shift, the Supreme Court, for 20 years, has consistently found that state governments must afford religious persons and groups the same opportunities as secular equivalents. Consider the 2002 school voucher case, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, which said parents must be allowed to use this government funding for any private school they wished, whether religious or secular. 

Progressives also have attacked the court’s protection of the football coach praying at the 50-yard line after games. The case again included the issue of equality, namely the need to treat religious uses of public employee time similar to non-religious. Neither has the court only now discovered protections for prayer by public employees or in public settings. For example, the 2014 case of Town of Greece v. Galloway affirmed prayer as constitutional when made before governmental functions such as school board meetings.

Regarding accusations of special treatment for believers, let us begin with this summer’s decision in Groff v.DeJoy. The case concerned a postal worker who asked for accommodation not to work on Sundays, as the protection afforded against religious discrimination in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The court revisited the standard for assessing such claims in the 1977 case Hardison v. Trans World Airlines. Courts using this case had far from “balance[d] the competing values,” religious and other, in the workplace. Instead, judges had taken the case to apply a “de minimus” standard whereby the Civil Rights Act did not protect any religious accommodation that involved more than a minimal inconvenience to the employer.

This reading stacked the deck in favor of businesses and against individuals desiring an exemption. It thus relegated religious claims to second-class status behind other classes (like race or gender) that received more robust judicial protection. Therefore, rather than supporting the left’s argument, which says the court gave religious claims unique, elevated status, the court merely took the law’s language seriously. It gave employees a fighting legal chance, comparable to other legal claims, to have religious accommodations.

Or take the court’s COVID-era decisions, which the left has criticized. There, the court demanded equal — not favored — treatment for churches seeking the ability legally to worship. The court generally sided with religious groups here because others had received special treatment permitting exemptions, not them.

Though many of these cases concern equal treatment, we should not concede to the left that religion gets no special legal status. The Constitution has enshrined protections for religious liberty, most famously in the First Amendment. Landmark legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did the same. Religion is not the only protected liberty. But looking at our Founding shows how our Framers saw it as especially precious.

In a 1792 essay entitled “Property,” Madison declared that a person “has a property of peculiar value in his religious opinions, and in the profession and practice dictated by them.” In the same piece, Madison responded to the issue of when “a man’s religious rights are violated” by saying, “Conscience is the most sacred of all property.” The same man helped shepherd the First Amendment — which dedicated two crucial clauses to the subject — through Congress.

Finally, in respecting religious liberty, we still respect equality. Every person should receive the fullest protection afforded to him by law. To protect a religious person’s constitutional rights is to treat them as equal to others by giving them, as others receive, all constitutional and statutory privileges.

Therefore, we should affirm where the left condemns and celebrate where they bemoan. The court is not creating a theocracy or making Christians their specially favored people. Instead, it seeks equality for believers as fellow citizens under the law.

Adam Carrington is associate professor of politics at Hillsdale College.