It’s amazing the lengths folks will go to pretending that they expect things to go back to normal. Tomorrow after this latest aberration we can get on with our lives. This is just a passing thing, and a new day will show that everything will be okay. This is the way people have evolved to think – sure, this is a genuine calamity, but the economy will recover, and new jobs will appear. Kids will finally be able to move out into a house of their own. Maybe that old foundry – yeah, the one with weeds growing through cracks in the sidewalks, that one – will roar back to life, or the paper mill that’s been stone silent for near two decades now, will start seeing pulp wood trucks lined up at the gate again.

I remember a time when this country was in it’s prime and I could stop by my sister’s house on the way to work for a bowl of her famous chicken and dumplings. She and her husband – who also worked in the factory – lived only a few blocks from the plant and the sulfur-laden odor from the coke-fired blast furnace wafted through the neighborhood. I had just recently gotten married, and my world was beginning to take shape. The foundry where I worked made castings for marine gears and oilfield pumping units which were in high demand back then and being sold all over the world. We operated 24/7 and had a backlog of orders that would keep us operating for years.

Back in those days folks had reason to hope in the future. The country was booming. People could afford to buy a house. Things were looking good back in the seventies, but something behind the scenes was beginning to take shape which would eventually take our prosperity away. One didn’t need to look too hard to see the dark times ahead, but truth be told, no one cared to look. Everyone was out for their own personal benefit, but back then no one thought it was that big of an issue because there was plenty of pie for all of us.

A while back there were tax laws in place that were skewed in favor of working people, and I guess that was due in a large part to the work of labor unions. There were still plenty of rich people, but they apparently weren’t satisfied by sharing the pie. Those in control of things, the media, the politicians, learned that by catering to the rich they could become rich themselves. Of course, and especially during the Saint Ronnie Reagan years, there was a full-frontal assault on labor. Union leaders weren’t immune to the temptations of lucre, and the big guys knew it. The propaganda against the working class was so effective, I well remember hearing blue-collar people of my ilk talking down on unions and how the greedy auto workers were making twenty bucks an hour back when five dollars or thereabouts was the minimum wage and factory workers like us (with far weaker unions than UAW and Teamsters) were doing good to get seven or eight bucks an hour, but the point is that the whole country was fiscally sound back then. The rich managed to stay rich even with the high taxes, and even with our piteous wages, regular folks had their own houses and could buy a new car once in a while.

There was a new phenomenon afoot that also started during the Reagan years that promised to generate wealth hitherto unheard of for the barons and moguls. They, through machinations of bought-and-paid-for politicians began to avail themselves (and their corporations) of the cheap labor that could be utilized overseas and thus began to transfer American jobs to Asian sweatshops. That’s what started our downhill slide, I don’t care what the propaganda meisters spin it up to be. Rich American businessmen abandoned their own country. Almost overnight, wealthy businessmen in the USA transferred millions of jobs overseas and left America to a service economy. Folks who had previously done well economically were faced with unemployment or flipping burgers.

Something else was beginning to take shape that almost no one noticed. A social phenomenon was evolving which would have it’s own effect here. Think of the dragon and the woman in the 12th chapter of Revelation. There was a vision of a pregnant woman being pursued by a dragon whose purpose was to kill her baby as soon as it was born and to destroy her also. The Child however, was protected by divine intervention, and the dragon was unsuccessful. After the birth and ascension of her child into heaven, the dragon turned on the woman who fled into the wilderness where she could survive.

I think the woman, who represents Jesus’ Church, ended up in large part in the new land away from Satanic forces and from the influences of versions of the corrupted church (which the dragon had infiltrated) and new (and some uncorrupted old) denominations took hold here which largely accomplished the nurturing and growth of true Christianity. These were the good old days that some of us older folks remember.

Satan is by no means ignorant. He knows that the greatest weakness of humans is their insatiable lust and greed. He used these tools effectively – especially the greed – to pursue the woman and overcome the church. I was watching a documentary just recently which exposed just how many empty and abandoned churches in dying communities around America and it’s staggering. Rich people didn’t realize (nor care) what their greed would eventually do in America, but one facet of it would be to damage the very stability of families and individuals throughout the country – and a lot of people with ill-conceived notions of how God works, blamed God for their impending poverty and left the church.

It didn’t take long for Satan’s wealthy minions to learn that they could purchase political power with their money and they earnestly set to doing that very thing, even to the point of making it so that the highest court in the land would make it possible for rich men to gain absolute control of the government. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Google Citizens United. When this control was established, the wealthy began to install all kinds of malicious, greedy tyrants into positions of power where they would ultimately wield their weapons against the proletariat. This was where the churchgoers were largely found. This would be you and me. And we are, and have been for decades, led by greedy tyrants who have no intention of improving the lot of the working class, regardless of whether or not one is religious, but Christians are the ones these tyrants are out to break.

Most of the empty and abandoned church buildings were frequented by hard-working, Christian Americans, a species that has gone almost extinct by now. Most of their members, having served the highest of purposes for the woman, now rest in the silent churchyards that grace the countryside. The few of us who are left now face the monumental task (and greatest privilege) of the continuity of the existence of the woman. This can only be done with absolute and unwavering dedication to our Lord Jesus Christ. We have buildings still. Their foundation is of solid Rock and guaranteed to hold through to the end of all things.

As of today, our greatest challenge comes in the form of whether or not to comply with the demands of those who serve Satan. Remember they all have but one purpose – to destroy the woman. When they began to dismantle the factories and plants where we earned our livelihoods, even the vulture capitalists themselves didn’t realize what the effect of their actions would have on the church, but as things progressed, they found that by threatening the financial security of the population, even good folks could become hopeless and very compliant, now all they had to do was to engender a financial system whereby they could gain complete control. It’s in the works, folks, and those rich guys couldn’t care less about your well-being, in spite of what they tell you at campaign time.

I remember a time when we got paper checks from our employers that we took to the bank and manually deposited ever how much of it we wanted into our accounts. Some folks never opened accounts and just took cash. Then in order to get everyone into financially vulnerable situations, banks started charging fees to cash payroll checks and of course it was only a matter of time until direct depositing came around. At first, it was optional, but I’m pretty sure every employer requires it now. And the government and even the banks have the authority to “freeze” (or steal) the money in our accounts. And don’t even try to carry cash, because of “asset forfeiture” theft, cops are allowed to take your money even with no charge against you and this is by design to make it where it costs as much or more to recover your money through the courts than they stole in the first place. Data centers that monitor financial transactions could and probably do tell the police when you have a wallet full of money. This is clearly Satan’s design to create despair. He is assailing the woman in every way he possibly can, and even the most ardent church-going Christians need their money to survive. He’s also quite willing to deprive non-churchgoers as collateral damage in his quest.

After all this gloom and despair, you might be surprised to learn there is hope. If you’re not surprised, then you are truly one of the narrow gate entrants. The truth is, we have no reason to fear the enemy, for our hope is to be realized with the succor of One who is more powerful than all the minions of the enemy that are aligned against us. He will return with justice, which will be to the chagrin of the bankers and mighty men. They will wail in terror at the sight of the Lamb of God in His glory! How they will tremble! How we will rejoice!

For now He entrusts us with His greatest and most powerful weapon, and we must never be reluctant or even slow to wield it. The Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ bestows on His followers the gift of love. Recognize it and learn of its power! We learn from the Scriptures that God is love, but none of us can grasp the implication or the reality of His love. Different ones of us are graced with differing degrees of appreciation, of understanding, of gratitude for, what the love of Jesus Christ really is. When we begin to absorb and adequately appreciate what a truly remarkable gift this precious love is, things like Satan’s control of our finances and evil police states are rendered to be things for non-believers to worry about. The dragon becomes powerless against the faithful. The disciples knew this. The Christians being murdered in the coliseum in ancient Rome knew it. We can know it too.

Love sets us free from fear. Love covers a multitude of sin. When we learn to love – even, and I guess especially – our fiercest enemies, there’s no need to despair anymore, for even in the darkest of Satanic times, even when we don’t know whether or not we’ll survive – we will have already conquered.

It’s like throughout this life we realize there is a looming dark wall ahead of us. There’s no doubt that each and every one of us will reach it. The difference between the believer and those who don’t believe is that as we get older, the believer gets glimpses of what’s on the other side. There are two gates in the wall – one is wide and one is narrow. When we start to realize there are some remarkable things waiting for us if we can but find that narrow gate, and just what some of those things are – eternal life, living water, being in the presence of Jesus and the Father, joy beyond imagination!, our dread of passing through that big old scary wall gets to be less and less. The true followers, the called, chosen, and faithful followers of Jesus Christ already know exactly where that narrow and precious gate is.

The longer this life goes on, what with the increasing evil all around us, the less we need to dread it all ending. In fact, we should rejoice that it will end.

May the blessings of the Almighty Father find and keep us.

MK