So it Snowed

Line-by-line Jeremiah 26-27
November 10, 2012
Post 275

I told you it would snow and now it has snowed.

“Your right!” you mock behind your sniggering, “Amazing that you saw that coming… since it ALWAYS snows in the winter!”

And sure enough, we have another liberal president. We have had many liberal presidents before; it’s simply a natural process, so why am I all; “IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD! And stuff,” now at this election?
That would be a good question, but the problem is not the question. The problem is the mocking opposition without earnestly asking my reasoning behind the seemingly over-reaction to a normal thing.
“So it snowed; what’s the big deal?” should be the honest question asked.
This is the question I will answer:
* * *

First Snow:
I now have about a foot of snow at my place. And while that may seem like a debilitating amount to many cities across America, there are many others that scoff at it as wholly unworthy to even mention for its insignificant volume. Why is that?
Obviously it is because of familiarity and nothing more.
Communities familiar with eight feet of snow through an average winter will comprehend my declaration of a foot based on their familiarity with snow and react with boredom, while communities that virtually shut down when they get two inches have a different comprehension of what a foot means. Exactly the same declaration but received in comprehension very differently.

Now by my use of snow and winter as idioms for the events of discomfort in a period of violence, we begin to see that the comprehension of what that actually means is quite diverse, depending on the familiarity one is to discomfort and violence.
I imagine the street thug in New York City might shrug at my warning of violence because he believes I have no idea what violence is by comparison. And likewise I imagine the family farmer of a small sleepy Midwest town pictures violence as perhaps his son coming home from school with a black eye.
But while we might want to spend time analyzing this unknown variable of just what I meant, my point goes far beyond that. My declaration was that when it comes, this excessively strong winter will last for something like a prophetic 70 years! By my use, in the perspective of how long a winter normally lasts, you can comprehend that my meaning of 70 years is not a calendar period of counting days, it is an eternity by comparison of normal.
And here is where I get my first public opposition.

While publicly forecasting specific details of winter severity is so “50/50” as to possibly being correct that no one will voice an argument even if they think them wrong, it is quite safe to publicly decry the fool who proclaims that this winter will last for 70 years!
That just doesn’t happen. Everybody knows that doesn’t happen. You don’t have to be a trained meteorologist to know that it doesn’t happen. And so the common person who has never even looked at a barometer in their entire life can still voice confidently that such a proclamation is utter foolishness… even when the person making the declaration is in fact a pathological meteorologist with a huge volume of technical data to back up his claim. It just doesn’t happen.
Such was the case in which we find Jeremiah who as God’s meteorologist declared that particular winter would last 70 years if they did not repent:

“In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word from the LORD, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Stand in the court of the LORD’s house, and speak unto all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD’s house, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them; diminish them not a word: If so be they will hearken, and turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of the evil, which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their doings” Jeremiah 26:1-3.

(“OK, deep breath, here we go:”)
In the first year of Obama the Lord sent me to speak, just outside the organized Church while to the American Christian (represented by the conservative Southern tribe of Judah as the house that followed the Lord while the Northern tribe, the liberals, was running wild without God). In the Type of Jeremiah and the spirit of Daniel I have done faithfully what I was told to do and I gave you this warning in great detail by my own words as I got them from the Lord through his word:

“And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you, to hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I sent unto you, both rising up early, and sending them, but ye have not hearkened; Then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth” Jeremiah 26:4-6.

Have I not made this message clear by many, many words in a context and format that today’s information age can easily comprehend?
As evidenced by the number of hits on my free and public blog I know the people have at least had access to it via a necessary word of mouth, which did not happen. Even most the readers who accepted and believed my work were too afraid to share it with others lest they be classed as radicals. These Christian people are the priests as I have shown in the previous post. I also sent my book and several manuscript portions to several of the best-known prophets of American Christianity, without a single reply.

“So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD” Jeremiah 26:7.

I will give you that all the Christian people have not heard my message, in fact, by the pathetic counter volume, it could be said virtually no one has heard it. But here’s the thing; I am not Jeremiah. Jeremiah already presented his message and it is included in the Holy scriptures for every Christian to read and hear, so actually in the spirit of Belshazzar’s no second chance, my repeat of Jeremiah’s previous message is not actually even needed, it is only a bonus reminder if you will, helping the world see the connection from then to now. This isn’t about me and you don’t need to hear my specific message to be accountable to Jeremiah’s, which you do need to hear. Since every Christian in America has a bible, every Christian (represented by the worshipers of the southern house) has had access to the message and this verse is checked off as fulfilled.

So what was the reaction of “the faithful people of God”; the “Conservative Christian” if you will, of the Southern house?

“Now it came to pass, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak unto all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him, saying, Thou shalt surely die” Jeremiah 26:8.

Well now there’s a fine How-do-you-do!
Jeremiah didn’t go into the North and attempt to deliver his message from the alter of the golden calf; he gave God’s message to those who were most likely to receive it; God’s self-declared people of faith, reminiscent of Jesus taking his message first to the Jews to be rejected by them as “worthy to die.” Are you seeing the cycles here? Not as carbon copies of exactly the same details but fulfilling exactly the same concepts. This is what it means to be a Type.

After four years of writing this public blog (but not yet finished speaking all that the LORD has command me), on the first day after the Black Spirit of Violence was officially seated as the new god of America, I finally get my first series of verbal opposition…and all the opposes are Christian Americans. Of course they are; it’s right on cue:

“Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD” Jeremiah 26:9.

Remember, these were not the Godless calf worshipping sinners on the streets of the North, nor were they the sinners on the streets of the South who knew God even if they didn’t go to his temple to serve him. No, these opposes of Jeremiah were the publicly “faithful of God” who attended church every Sunday, they were the common bench warming attendee, the pastors of the Church and the ministers of prophecy; The entire organized Church was very angry at Jeremiah’s message of gloom. But the curious thing is that they didn’t even know why Jeremiah would say such things!

“God is a God of love, not an angry God as you describe! We are the faithful of God so why do you come here of all places to preach this angry message? Jeremiah you obviously don’t know God, and so in the spirit of protecting God’s holy name we must destroy you and your message of hate!”

OK, so here, within a week or so, is about where we are on the obscure timeline of Jeremiah’s prophetic events as there is but a foot of snow on the ground. In all reality a foot of snow is just a normal wintry inconvenience and nothing to really get worked up over. Some hear my message of the first foot of snow and come fully unglued because to them a foot is devastating, while others blow-off my message as the ravings of a religious whacko that has no significance on their circumstances beyond “Put on your boots it’s getting deep in here!”

Fair enough, it’s only a foot.
* * *

The Next Few Feet:
Verse 10 begins as the Federal public servants get involved;

“When the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from the kings house unto the house of the LORD, and sat down in the entry of the new gate of the LORD’s house” Jeremiah 26:10.

From 1963-64 up until Obama, there has been a very strong wall of separation between Church and State. I am not making a judgment, just an observation. But from the very beginnings of Obama’s political career, he has brought “his anti-Church church” along with him to directly affect the State (*1). Again, not a criticism, just an observation.
Almost overnight we saw a new turn in political policy as Nancy Pelosi from her public office of Speaker of the House rambled-on in her “eye-winking” religious confusion regarding The Word, which is now apparently “acceptable” back in the halls of Congress in spite of the Church/State segregation. Hollywood too suddenly began a whole new approach to religion and faith, and while formerly using them only as targets for mockery, now plies them in the same Nancy Pelosi confusion. A new futuristic global conglomerate of strange faith is now being pushed like drugs on the street as a thing desired.
So the President sends his CIA agents to the Church to talk things over with the hierarchy in the solidarity of this New Gate of political religious order:

“Then spake the priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people, saying, This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears” Jeremiah 26:11.

We get no impression that the Government agents had anything to say; they went to listen… apparently. It was the Church leadership that proclaimed to the Agents, and to the public, what was true and false; “The official Church has spoken on this matter.” Again we see the amazing Type of Jesus’ trial played out in the repeating cycle.
So did the Government agents have any influence on the Church administration? You bet it did, just as Rome had taken up rule over the Sanhedrin while allowing them to “Rule” with a new mindframe of the way things should be. Today we see the Government directing the fundamentals of the Church while allowing it the allusion of self-governance:

“No Hate speech,” “You must ordain women and Sodomites,” “You cannot stand against abortion or stop the government from giving your daughters contraceptives, etc., etc." “Ok, so now tell us about this Jeremiah guy.”

“This man is worthy to die; for he hath prophesied against this city, as ye have heard with your ears.” (See Mark 14:63-64).

Why did the priests and the prophets determine that Jeremiah should die? Because he blasphemed God? No. Because he broke their laws? No. This was purely a political game to cover up the real reasons they wanted this man dead. They artfully used a concept that the Feds had jurisdiction over in the New Gate of the Church:
National Security via Hate Speech legislation to provide a cover for shutting him up.
Oh that is smooth! But more shocking is how accurately it Types America today.

Now get this; Jeremiah did not make a public apology or even call the UCLJ to ply the law and get him acquitted for the crime of Hate Speech! Rather he confirmed his message:

“Then spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and to all the people, saying, The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that ye have heard.
Therefore now amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; and the LORD will repent him of the evil that he hath pronounced against you.
As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do with me as seemeth good and meet (3477) unto you” Jeremiah 26:12-14.

Meet 3477 yashar; from 3474; straight (literally or figuratively):-- convenient, equity, Jasher, just, meet(-est), + pleased well right(-eous), straight, (most) upright(-ly, -ness).

Note also that Jeremiah did not make his reply to the Church leadership. He knew that they were not interested in the law or what was morally right and wrong or even what was scripturally true, they wanted him dead because he offended their authority.
Jeremiah spoke his message to the Feds and the people; to the Feds because by his message they could evaluate for themselves whether it broke the secular law or not, and to the people because in the power of democracy they could if they wanted to, stop the proceedings, but primarily Jeremiah repeated his message to them because getting the message out was the most important element. He did not give a defense; he preached his message!
How hard is it to figure out how this applies to you if you are a Christian spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a setting where that is offensive to the powers that be?
Why did it not matter to Jeremiah what they did to him? Because he knew full well that he was the embodiment of the message of God. Again, the Type of Christ!

“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake” Matthew 24:9.

“If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” John 15:18-19(+).

Jeremiah WAS the message, how they treated him was how they responded to the message. Jeremiah knew that it was not about him but about the message.

“But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears” Jeremiah 26:15.

Now we can fully comprehend that Jeremiah was not pleading for his life; he was pleading for theirs!

“Then said the princes (Feds) and all the people unto the priests and to the prophets; This man is not worthy to die: for he hath spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God” Jeremiah 26:16.

In an unexpected turn we see that the Feds actually sided with the common Christian against the Church leadership in defense of Jeremiah’s message that made sense (Luke 23:14). This does not mean they actually believed it, only that they believed Jeremiah was convinced that his message was actually from the same LORD God that they figured they served in their temple worship. Obviously the common Christian saw this argument differently than the Church Authority, and the Secular Law administrators seemed to agree with the people.
THEN, for reasons they do not make clear, some of the well-renown and long established social leaders finally joined in to share their two-cents on the matter (Mark 15:11):

“Then rose up certain of the elders of the land, and spake to all the assembly of the people, saying, Micah the Morasthite (Micah 1:1) prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah (just before Babylon’s first conquest), saying Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of a forest.
Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? Did he not fear the LORD, and besought the LORD, and the LORD repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them? Thus (if we kill him) might we procure great evil against our souls...

It looks like Jeremiah has an ally in the leadership!... but their oration continues:

...And there was also a man that prophesied in the name of the LORD, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjathjearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the (same) words of Jeremiah: And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men, and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death: but when Urijah heard it, he was afraid, and fled, and went into Egypt; and Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan the son of Achbor, and certain men with him into Egypt. And they fetched forth Urijah out of Egypt, and brought him unto Jerhoiakim the king; who slew him with the sword, and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people (apparently with no consequence to themselves)” Jeremiah 26:17-23.

So just what did these elders suggest? Apparently NOTHING! They simply presented the “non-biased; Fair and Balanced” history of similar events with different responses. They apparently offered virtually no council; “leaving the choice to the people” …But:

“Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death” Jeremiah 26:24.

Well that was a close call. “Nevertheless” suggests that these community elders had seen the tide turning in Jeremiah’s favor and stepped in to sway the crowed back against him, it’s hard to say. All we know is that Ahikam was the guy that persuaded the Government agents not to let the people kill him. But make a special note who it was that would have put him to death; the people. Not the Feds, not the Church authority, but the democratic power of the faith-based people.
But… having the Jesus trial in the New Testament as a post-Type reflection of this trial, we can see that it was indeed the Church authority that moved the people to demand the Feds kill Jesus. So Ahikam stayed the emotionally fickle people susceptible to the will of the Church leadership of the elders.

Who was Ahikam? Well he was no ignorant youth. We see him first show up in II Kings 22:12 after his father Shaphan in the lineage of the scribes, served eight year old Josiah the king (II Kings 22:1-3). It was Shaphan who read the lost scriptures to king Josiah (II Kings 22:10) and his son Ahikam was already among the next generation young scribes of the king, who were sent to enquire of the LORD on behalf of the king and the people concerning the wrath of God proclaimed in the book against the same city and people to whom Jeremiah is now preaching (II Kings 22:12-13). Ahhikam, now the elder scribe, has got some serious first-hand familiarity with this old message as he saw the child king stay God’s wrath from a very troubled nation by simply responding to the warning! (II Kings 22:17-20 a must read!). Knowing that God made a special stay of destruction for Josiah, Ahikam most certainly had to have known that this king and people would not hear the warning that Josiah did!
* * *

Same Snowstorm, Different Day:
As we learned in recent Posts regarding the Genesis 7 multi-layered accounts of Noah, we see Jeremiah 27 does not begin a narration of a different time but rather different details of the same events of chapter 26.

“In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,” Jeremiah 27:1 (see 26:1 for comparison).

So why the second run-through rather than include all the details in one telling? The reason is because the first telling was a direct Type prophecy of Jesus Christ’s own message and trial while the second telling had important information that does not fit that Type. In the first telling Jeremiah even prophesied the putting to death of Jesus the innocent blood and the burden born by the people because of it! And like Abraham’s Isaac, his actual sacrifice was not required to make the point of the Type.
So were the elders right in thinking it didn’t matter to the outcome of the city whether they killed him or not? Hardly! What they hadn’t figured out is that they were still in the middle of a singular concept and in killing Urijah the city was judged but simply had not yet come to the time when it paid for it. Jeremiah was a third warning because while they listened to the first messenger, they killed the next one and poorly treated another in the image of Matthew 21:35-37 before the LORD sent his actual Son Typed by the previous messengers. It’s all the same message to the same city (yes, specifically Jerusalem in one layer but); the world’s people of God we now call the Church. I will later expound on the multi-layered complexity of this telling but for now let’s just follow the passage as it gives us more information of the same event:

“Thus saith the LORD to me;
Make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck” Jeremiah 27:2.

The bonds of course are straps and anchors to ensure the yokes stay connected in place, and the yokes were then, and still are today, large beams of wood specially crafted to fit the necks of large animals (often Oxen) from which are strapped instruments of plowing fallow ground in preparation of planting seeds. Speaking to a farming people they easily understood the significance of this “word picture” description using props.

The farming Hebrews knew that Jeremiah’s “so called” word from the LORD was telling them that whoever was declared to be wearing this yoke image was being prophesied to be the hard labor servants of Nebuchadnezzar, and once strapped into the get-up there is no chance of escaping that job. I say; “so called” because we will soon see that his prophecy was questioned as actually from the LORD, but let’s wait until we get there.

“and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hand of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah; And command them to say unto their masters, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say unto your masters;” Jeremiah 27:3-4.

By this very specific list of nations we know that God was not being generic here. This is not some vague all encompassing arching of the hands to mean a general concept; Jeremiah had apparently made several copies of the yoke he wore as an example and told these messengers to return to their kings strapped up as he was and deliver his message to them. Those nations specifically were prophesied to become the beasts of labor unto the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar: But before we just jump to the message itself we should pause to note this strange setting; What were these national messengers doing coming to Zedekiah in Jerusalem?
Isn’t it obvious? These were delegates participating in an EU Summit to discuss this new Babylonian threat. Jerusalem was at the time the renowned seat from which God provided wisdom to the world leaders, Zedekiah was the President of the EU so to speak, and these nations were at least connected to God through Israel. In otherwords; they knew who God was and came for counsel. Jeremiah’s message was not the message of protection they expected from the EU Summit looking to God.
What? You thought our modern sophistication of international coalition is uniquely advantaged over the backward nations of the ignorant ages of the past? That arrogance is why we continue to repeat their mistakes!
Picture Jeremiah walking to the podium in a business suit carrying scale models and overhead projections of Nazi Concentration camps as props to show the EU delegates what Islam is projected to do to a specific list of current nations and you just might get the reality of his presentation.
NOW with a great new serious interest in the matter you lean forward and scan the list of nations on his hand-out to see if yours is on it! But don’t get too relieved yet when you don’t find it, he has a whole lot more to say in his “six hour long” presentation that affects far more than his short list before you now, and he will be back several more times throughout this summit to report new updates of intelligence from the LORD (feel free to jump ahead of me and read the whole book of Jeremiah!).

So now, what was the message Jeremiah gave to the specific delegates instructing them to return it to their kings?

Thus shall ye say unto your masters; “I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are upon the ground (including Daniel 7’s Four Diverse Beasts), by my great power and by my outstretched arm, and have given it (the earth) unto whom it seemed meet unto me” Jeremiah 27:5.

It is important to note here that these national delegates were not coming as personal worshipers of Israel’s God, just shirttail worshipers through Israel. Jeremiah is presenting to the EU conference information regarding the very real threat of the Babylonian GDE (Global Dominate Empire) to many nations, much as, not long ago, America was the top “respected opinion” in the UN because the wisdom of our God seemed to work in reality.
He starts off with the basics that perhaps they didn’t know, that is; Exactly who is in control of world events. Like today’s footnotes and resources quoted, I imagine Jeremiah presented a lot of historical and factual data to support his presentation but because we are so far removed from that summit the details are left out so that we don’t get confused about events not relevant to us today. In my “reenactment” of Jeremiah’s presentation I have included many such supporting evidences and documentations as to make my hard-to-believe proclamation at least palatable if not completely believable. Now that those foundational facts are out of the way he continues:

“And now have I (God) given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant; and the beasts of the field have I given him also to serve him.
And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come…” Jeremiah 27:6-7a.

The reason why I end v.7 mid sentence is due to the complexity of the multi-layered use of this prophecy. In the time of Jeremiah this prophecy was very specifically given to them of his day and would affect them of his day. But the prophecy is also for us today. The cycle of the prophecy remains consistent to the same problem; it’s still the same God and the people still have the same propensity of unbelief, and the iniquity is still the same, and so the consequences are still the same. God is even so kind as to keep the players all basically the same while including with each unique cycle, satellite players that qualify under the same criteria of knowledgeable unbelief. Today unfortunately that includes America.
So God proclaims that he has given this large region of lands into the control of the king of Babylon. Historically this was a GDE located in the land we now call Iraq whose headquarters was a city of the same name as the Empire and found along the Euphrates River located just a few miles south of modern Baghdad. But note the authority with this hand is not the city or even the nation itself but the king. This allows for the prophetic cycle to include another king that rules over Babylon at another time. I will not develop this concept here but just point out that the last king of Babylon is also prophetically called The Assyrian (which you will note Assyria is not located in the region of Iraq), and you will note that this future Assyrian and Babylon are often spoken of in the same breath. Let’s call the Assyrian a Perfect Storm and Babylon a Super Storm. The last days combination…

But in this particular version of the multi-layered narration of Jeremiah 27 God is specifically speaking of the 590-588 BC triple fall of Israel and includes the surrounding nations to the GDE of Babylon (Jeremiah 39:1-2). In this particular event the prophecy Jeremiah was presenting to the EU was that the duration would last to the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, which we now know by the evidence of archeology was in fact Belshazzar just as Daniel reported first-hand in Daniel 5 about 538 BC (according to the questionable date of the bible helps).

We have already covered the details of this period (*2) and so in this post I simply want to point out that Jeremiah prophesied that this God-ordained ruler of this region would extend for an undisclosed period that spans through three specific kings but does not prohibit perhaps even more unnamed kings between them. Now let’s finish that verse while contemplating perhaps a mystery that is yet to be fulfilled regarding the cryptic wording of; “the very time of his land come” before continuing with their specific event:

“…And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.
And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand” Jeremiah 27:7-8.

“…And all nations shall serve him, and his son, and his son’s son, until the very time of his land come: and then many nations and great kings shall serve themselves of him.
And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand” Jeremiah 27:7-8.

“The same Nebuchadnezzar” is a specific key phrase to bring their current events back to the front and so we should be careful not to assume this section would be written for future cycles; Today any Nebuchadnezzar as the king of Babylon would not be “the same Nebuchadnezzar” they faced. So what difference might that make? Namely that God is not requiring a subsequent cycle of people to submit to Nebuchadnezzar as he demanded of Jeremiah’s specific EU nations to do. This possible confusion is reflected as God sent the Hebrews into Egypt the first time to be their servants 400 years but any later cycles of people were actually forbidden to reenact the same path by returning to Egypt.
Why is this significant?
First off, don’t jump to imagine that God has forbidden any future cycles to go into Babylon as he did with Egypt, I find no such prohibition. But neither do I find any directive to submit to any future king of Babylon lest you fall under this curse of God to punish those that refuse. Are you confused yet?

Here is the point:
If…no, WHEN a future king of Babylon rises and calls himself Nebuchadnezzar (I mean besides Sodom Hussein) I find we are neither instructed to submit or denied to submit, apparently it is for us to determine this time. So how do we make that determination?
Ohhhh there is a good question!

The scriptures have intentionally left it cryptic for the purpose of making us dig for the answer and in so digging we will get an unintended wisdom that we will desperately need at the time! I purpose to spend many Posts expounding on the scriptures relating to the nature of this Babylon in order to help that generation make that choice with wisdom…because that is a very, very dangerous choice fraught with many ruinous pitfalls that are very nearly impossible to avoid. So why would any of God’s people choose to make that choice? It's because the alternative, though less complex, is a more sure and swift destruction. I believe America just made the sure and swift destruction choice. For the rest of the world, have a good watch because it may just persuade you to make the other (which is not in itself a good choice).
And now we are back to the Jeremiah prophecy that proclaims:

And it shall come to pass, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve the same Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and that will not put their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, saith the LORD, with the sword, and with the famine, and with the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand” Jeremiah 27:8.

By whose hand comes these several forms of being consumed? God is the one speaking here so it can be none other than the king of Babylon. So is this Nebuchadnezzar a savior or a killer? He is both by complexity. Submit and he might not kill you, rebel and he will kill you. And here we find the deep no-right-answer of Uzzah in II Samuel 6. The real issue of warning in this passage is that they had no business transporting God’s Ark on a cart rather than on shoulder carried staves written into the law of Moses. They made this mistake by following the example of the Pagan Philistines who got their hands on God’s holy ways and seemed to be almost miraculously successful at the return of it. Uzzah had no right answer in his time because he should never have been in that circumstance which his authorites put him in.
Likewise America had no business getting themselves to the place where their only two choices were Obama and Romney. Instead of letting the Ark fall and living without God’s Holy oracle we chose to touch the Ark and die instantly. Think Hitler, for both the German soldiers doing the killing and the Jews being killed. Think Uganda. Are you getting the picture of this new America under Islam?
OK, I am getting ahead of the passage so let’s continue:

“Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets, nor to your diviners, nor to your dreamers, nor to your enchanters, nor to your sorcerers, which speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon;” Jeremiah 27:9.

The EU delegates look at each other and shrug; “What? Who said anything about prophets diviners dreamers enchanters or sorcerers?”

What they don’t yet know, that Jeremiah does know, is that after the Summit these delegates will all return home to their kingdoms with the message and props from God’s Prophet, and in reply there will come out of the woodwork a myriad of prognosticators that will refute Jeremiah’s prophecy as wrong.
There will be a whole collection through many different means all confirming that Jeremiah did not hear from God. Jeremiah pre-knew this because God had shown it to him, so he continued his warning of this:

“For they prophesy a lie unto you, to remove you far from your land; and that I should drive you out, and ye should perish. But the nations that bring their neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him, those will I let remain still in their own land, saith the LORD; and they shall till it, and dwell therein” Jeremiah 27:10-11.

You can just picture the King of Judah sitting smug in his “Speaker of the House” special chair feeling separated from the “Lesser Pagan Nations” before him as he listens to his countryman and prophet Jeremiah give them the “what-for.”
Then Jeremiah turns to him directly:

“I spake also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live. Why will ye die, thou and thy people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD hath spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?” Jeremiah 27:12-13.

Oh he has got to be squirming now as he does a double-take from gloating as “on Jeremiah’s team” to finding himself in the same boat with the other nations! He’s thinking to himself; “What just happened here? I didn’t see Judah on his short list.” Except it is there; cryptically for the affect of shock (see Jeremiah 26:3). But while he is dazed to comprehend the inclusion of Judah, God’s special seat and pet nation, Jeremiah continues speaking to him directly:

“Therefore hearken not unto the words of the prophets that speak unto you, saying, Ye shall not serve the king of Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you. For I have not sent them, saith the LORD, yet they prophesy a lie in my name; that I might drive you out, and that ye might perish, ye, and the prophets that prophesy unto you” Jeremiah 27:14-15.

God is really not being cryptic about this point; the LORD actually intends to destroy these nations and is setting them up for it. IF any of them seem to have a moment of wisdom and follow the advice of lone Jeremiah, God’s personal delegate to the Summit, then they can save their homes in a captive nation, but the cards are stacked fully against them as they will have every other voice in their nations telling them an opposite outcome. A few phone calls on the red-phone and they will quickly find an international coalition of collective thought confirming that they can beat this Nebuchadnezzar mad-man if they band together.
As a point of curiosity, note that the king of Judah does not have all the pagan advisers of mystical origin, he only has other “prophets of God” that agree with all the pagan wisdom on this matter. Jeremiah is quite alone in his “radical” presentation, regardless of his models, overheads, and large wooden props.

Verse 16 provides quite a lot of significant detail as to the exact timeframe in which Jeremiah made his public presentation before the EU:

“Also I spake to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Hearken not to the words of your prophets that prophesy unto you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the LORD’s house shall now shortly be brought again from Babylon: for they prophesy a lie unto you. Hearken not unto them; serve the king of Babylon, and live: wherefore should this city be laid waste?” Jeremiah 27:16-17.

It becomes clear that this Summit was arranged after a significant experience with this Babylon and we see that the first siege of Jerusalem had already occurred and a good portion of the Temple instruments had been hauled away. It seems that even though Babylon had already conquered Judea but allowed then to stay, the general “spiritual” consensus was that a revival would soon break out and all would be restored. This is nothing new; they had been saying the same thing even before the first siege (Jeremiah 5) and Jeremiah had been consistently proclaiming that Judah would fall with the Pagans because of their unrepentance (Jeremiah 9:25-26). Reading through these early chapters we see several times God’s complaint was that the pastors were leading the people into a false security that actually kept them from the LORD (Jeremiah 2:8, 7:28, 10:21, 12:10, 22:22, 23:2). Now Jeremiah challenges the Hebrew people to test their prophets of God:

“But if they be prophets, and if the word of the LORD be with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, go not to Babylon.
For thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, and concerning the sea, and concerning the bases, and concerning the residue of the vessels that remain in this city, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took not, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem (including Daniel);
Yea, thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem;
They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place” Jeremiah 27:18-22.

Jeremiah provided a multi element proof of just who was speaking from God and who was speaking from emotion. First he told the confused people to challenge their prophets to ask God to bring back the Temple vessels as they said that he would do anyway. Jeremiah was saying; “Yes, by all means, appeal to God, cry to him and beg, go through all your regular religious activities and see if God will hear you. I am telling you that he will not, because this is what God told me; All the stuff left in the city; even the really big stuff like Solomon’s Brass Bath and the Temple’s two brass pillars, will go to Babylon as well. Yes, your prophets are right; they will be returned, but not this year or the next as they say, No, not for many, many years.”

Then the Summit was over and everyone dispersed.
* * *

How did Jeremiah tell them earlier to identify a true prophet of God?

“I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil ways, and from the evil of their doings” Jeremiah 23:21-22.

Comforting everyone and telling them; “God loves you, everything will be alright” is a warm-and-fuzzy Rob Bell thing to say but it is a very destructive lie in that it inoculates them from repentance due to fear by recognizing the very real consequence of sin. If you don’t actually repent in earnest then most certainly everything will NOT be alright!
Glenn Beck keeps faithfully showing us how very bad everything really is, but then washes all the useful fear away by telling everyone that if we just treat people with warm-and-fuzzy hugs and kisses of community service and handing out bags of groceries to total strangers not knowing if they actually need it, the bad will all go away because thoughts of good always prevail.
Mr. Beck’s information is extremely accurate and desperatly needed, and for a long time I honestly thought that he was sent by God to warn America, and maybe he was, but somewhere he got his wires crossed with a false Jesus of good-will, and inoculates his listeners against the focus on true repentance that the fear should naturally bring. He rightly brings the fear but falls short of the answer.

“The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD. Is not my word like as a fire? Saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” Jeremiah 23:28-29.

Am I not using enough of God’s word? Am I presenting one-verse theology to support my proclamation, or am I actually opening the very spirit of prophecy to reveal the foundational need for true in deep repentance before we can expect ANYTHING from God but wrath? Glenn Beck doesn’t even believe it matters which god you turn to, as long as it makes you a better person. What kind of faith in Jesus Christ is that?

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed…For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” Galatians 1:8,10.

I pray that Mr. Beck might repent of his generic Jesus of Good-will and return to the singular person of Yeshua the Son of God that brought him from a worthless life to a new life, before he confused the person of Jesus with “an idea.” Until then, harsh as it sounds, let Mr. Beck be accursed lest you become confused yourself by the truth he uses to powerless ends (see Post 227 On Tongues http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2011/12/on-tongues.html).
* * *

How personal can Jeremiah’s message apply today?
I am not kidding; today as I write this I got a phone call from the Conservative Majority organization who are all geared up to unseat Obama with new information discovered about his Birth-Certificate treasonous activity and several other rock solid issues that are sure to impeach him… if only I would send them $150.00 to support their work.
I actually had to laugh.
But honestly, how do you say no to their request? What conservative could refuse to send them money in such a time of national need as this?
The reason I laughed and said “no thank you” is because I understand where we are in the scriptural prophecy; If there is no national repentance there will be no unseating of God’s specially sent destroyer, it doesn’t matter how much money or diligence or well wishing you throw at it…unless of course God is just replacing him by a worse one.
I laughed, and then explained to the caller that these are issues that needed to be won in the previous 4 years when there was still a chance, if it wasn’t done then, there is not a chance on this planet that it will happen now. Sending your daughter’s cold corps to rehab for Heroin overdose is simply a waste of money in foolish denial. America OD’d four years ago, she is officially pronounced dead on November 6, 2012. November 11 is just a little late to start a new and improved detox program; I will send my $150 to Uganda where it can still do some good.

Does the Conservative Majority actually mean well and think they can really do some good now when they couldn’t in his first term? I don’t know. But if they do, they are simply ignorant of reality, but who can tell them that without looking like the defeatist? And if they are really just leaches collecting money from the fearful then they have a really good scam going. Either way, it’s a waste of money to send it to them now.
Does this sound negative and defeatist? You bet it does, and that is going to work in the favor of the leaches feeding off the fearful and the hopeful who have no foundation but hope to stand on. How long are you going to perform CPR? America didn’t just swallow a grape that stuck in her throat a moment ago; she has been dying of aggressive cancer for many years. You don’t bring someone back that died from cancer by blowing air into her lungs, and it’s not defeatist to say so. Defeatism or Moving forward, are two perspectives of the same response. So the argument of perspective then simply becomes; “Who do you believe?”
It’s an; “I say it’s too late to save it,” “They say it’s not,” kind of thing. So who is right?

This was the dilemma faced by Jeremiah’s EU. And just as is done today; the winner is usually the opinion that gets the most democratic votes. But does a majority vote really determine what is actually true or false? Of course not; it only determines the response of action based on opinions of what is perceived to be true. Truth must be found elsewhere. And since the dilemma is regarding a future set of events, that truth is sought from those who are best skilled at projecting the most probable outcomes. That turns out to be; “prophets, diviners, dreamers, enchanters, and sorcerers.” Do you really think the Bible is outdated? The US Conservative President Ronald Reagan’s wife consulted Astrologers regularly for her husband, and yet Christians lauded him as the Godly Leader he presented himself to be, as they indeed should, and as he was (*3).

“And it came to pass through the lightness of her (the liberals) whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah (the conservatives) hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly (8267) saith the LORD” Jeremiah 3:9-10.

Feignedly (8267) sheqer; from 8266; an untruth; by implication, a sham (often adverbial):-- without a cause, deceit (-ful), false (-hood, -ly), feignedly, liar, + lie, lying, vain (thing), wrongfully.

Now when you are a solid Christian nation it’s easy to choose to believe the predictions of Prophets over those of; diviners, dreamers, enchanters, or sorcerers, but it’s not so easy when in the opinion of the leadership these pagan predictions are elevated to the same or greater degree of probability.
The question must be asked;

“How did they get elevated to this degree?”

The answer is two-fold:
First; the Prophets began to provide a poor track record of accuracy, and Secondly; they were not rebuked for it (Deuteronomy 13:1-5).

So while they retained their status as supernatural diviners of the future, the pagan prognosticators, by a comparatively similar degree of correctness, were no longer mocked for their own percentage of failure to be right, so now everybody stands on the same shaky ground of uncertainty; prophets, diviners, dreamers, enchanters, and sorcerers, are all equally to be “trusted” and “not trusted” like a superstition that is not believed but still followed in belief. And so a wise collection of all their various predictions is collected, collated, and then voted on by the authority to determine the most probable outcome of future events. Without apology this is why I am not ashamed to be found wrong in my speculations; I am not a prognosticator or even a prophet to foretell the future in that way. Like Daniel, I am simply reading the writing of God’s prophets and figuring out what they wrote (Daniel 9:2-3). And while my emotional speculations remain provably untrustworthy, my understanding of God’s prophet’s writing is showing a promising record. Like Paul’s thorn in the flesh, this has a strong tendency to keep me quite humble and alert to my own ever-present potential of error and therefore a diligence to remain true to the actual text exclusive of my emotional input.

Jeremiah was God’s Prophet, he was not using his emotions or mental opinions as the other prophets did; Jeremiah was getting his info straight from GOD…and he knew it. The problem is how to get the people and the government’s leadership to believe that? The only real means was a public boldness to declare it so; as in “Thus saith the LORD,” and a challenge to back it up. Let’s review that challenge in yet another telling of those same events:
* * *

“And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,”... Jeremiah 28:1.

Don’t get confused about the new inclusion of dates; it’s still the beginning of Zedekiah’s reign and still in the “week” of the national convention after the EU Summit, we just now know the dates of that convention according to the calendar. Now let’s continue with the public declaration of the prophet Hananiah:

“Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD’s house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon: And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon” Jeremiah 28:2-4.

You simply cannot argue with his delivery; according to most every Christian today this “pre-New Testament” presentation passes the “Is it of God? smell test” of trying the spirits (I John 4:1+2-3). Hananiah a known prophet in Judah, publicly and plainly gives the credit of his prophecy to the God of Israel, calling him “the LORD of hosts” to make clear to which God we really are attributing this message; “This is God’s hope-filled message to his people.”
Oh what a joy to hear! Such a message to receive from an offical prophet of God just warms your heart as sure as today’s known bible scholars are prophesying the Rapture in our day! It’s a wonderful hope to cling to through the fearful times we now face.

But then that stick-in-the-mud Jeremiah cannot leave well enough alone and he has to take the podium to spew his negativity!
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Honored Guests, Mr. Speaker, Governors, President;”

“Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD, Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen...” Jeremiah 28:5-6a.

After a momentary silence of shock, the crowd erupts with cheers and standing ovations all around! Flash bulbs going off like strobe-lights as press-agents rush out to the phones. This is a glorious day indeed as the infamously negative prophet of God; Jeremiah, confirms the prophet Hananiah’s proclamation of “good and well-being” for Israel’s near future escaping the great shadow of Babylon!
But as Jeremiah quiets the crowd with his stoic silence, and the applause dies down to hear him, Jeremiah continues;

“Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD’s house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place” Jeremiah 28:6b.

And a second round of cheers and applause erupts, the elation is overwhelming! The air is electric with excitement. And Jeremiah stands patient as he waits for the applause to again die before he continues;

“Nevertheless hear now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people;
The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old (like Charles Finney and David Wilkerson) prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.
The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him” Jeremiah 28:7-9.

The room is deathly silent as his words try to sink in. What did he just say? What does that mean in light of the proclamation of peace? What does he mean? And finally a slow and quiet murmur grows from the crowd, as they finally comprehend his meaning; Jeremiah simply said; “Wait and see. A prophet of God’s peace is only a prophet of God when the peace he prophesies actually comes true.”

What Jeremiah just said in today’s language would be; “I sincerely wish you are right, but ‘I don’t think so,’ and you will all learn that soon enough.”

Suddenly the great wood yoke prop still on the neck of Jeremiah comes fully into focus in the minds eye. Until now, it was a silly prop that by long seeing it there on his neck through this conference in his formal dress suit, was soon ignored as “over-the-top” drama, but now it is seen as if “real” for the first time. Hannaniah saw it too, and it visually mocked his prophecy loudly, but he suddenly got a brilliant idea as if a revelation from God himself;

“Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke from off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck, and brake it.
And Hananiah spake in the presence of all the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Even so will I break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years. …” Jeremiah 28:10-11a.

Now we love to picture Hananiah as coming into the conference in a black suit and stepping up to the podium with ominous music playing and an evil glint in his eye, but this is not true. Hananiah was the son of a prophet and in line for the family business; he went to prophet’s seminary and studied under the best, he even was among the top in his class. But having never actually heard the voice of God in his life, poor Hananiah had no real experience from which to evaluate his prophecy. Hananiah actually thought a prophet of God was simply a man who had a good education and familiarity with scripture and then came up with ideas that just made sense to him. Hananiah was quite genuine and earnest, the only problem is that he was dead wrong.

The arguments have all been made, the two sides; both claiming to be the voice of God, have made their statements. Jeremiah knew that any more would just become a fruitless argument between improvable opinions.

“And the prophet Jeremiah went his way” Jeremiah 28:11b.

I know of a very small minority of prophetic men of God who are preaching this same message as I, In fact regarding the delayed Rapture and or the already deceased America, I don’t know of any.
But here is what I do know. There will be a growing number of ministers springing up in confidence to proclaim from scripture that Christian America will escape the evil to come by a revival. My FaceBook private message system already has several, quoting scripture to me telling me that I am wrong. My recommendation is just wait and see. But while you wait with hope that I am wrong, there is a very serious problem that occurs. I know this because we have an insight into the events before they happen, because we have the prototype to examine:

“Then the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the prophet, after that Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
Go and tell Hananiah, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Thou hast broken the yokes of wood; but thou shalt make for them yokes of iron. For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; I have put a yoke of iron upon the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him: and I have given him the beasts of the field also” Jeremiah 28:12-14.

By believing that they could win their freedom from Nebuchadnezzar, these EU nations will unite in a failed attempt to throw him off. What might have been a “peaceful oppression of wood” now becomes the crushing of iron rule not only by periodic oppressive nations but an entire GDE as the Daniel 7 last beast of the field.
The amount of effort or diligence applied does not determine who wins the contest, the determining factor is wholly if it is God’s will. “But what determines God’s will?” That is a question so few actually ask, but the true answer to the unasked question is what determines God’s will. Therefore God’s will in the matter of oppression or freedom actually lies wholly in our own lap, but not how Glenn Beck makes us think! This is what the Northern Ugandan Christians figured out the hard way. Can we apply this concept to the Armenian Genocide or the Jewish Holocaust or what is about to repeat here in America? Are we simply innocent victims unaided by God without cause, or is freedom a thing divinely provided through a people living out obedience to Him in the wise governance of his land as the stewards he created us to be? God does not want passive victims of Allah but involved activists in obedience to God BEFORE we become victims. How do we not see this?

Jeremiah’s personal proclamation to Hananiah provides extremely valuable insight as he concludes with:

“Then said the prophet Jeremiah unto Hananiah the prophet, Hear now, Hananiah; The LORD hath not sent thee; but thou makest this people to trust in a lie.
Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will cast thee from off the face of the earth: this year thou shalt die, because thou hast taught rebellion against the LORD.
So hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month” Jeremiah 28:15-17.

If you are a solid Christian who has an emotional confidence in Christ that things will not turn out so bad or the Rapture will come and save us all from the horrors to come, I strongly urge you to keep your emotions in check and be very cautious of using scripture to publicly support your emotional opinions lest God become angry with you as with Hananiah.

God fully intends to destroy America for her abundant iniquities, and he will use Islam to do it. A personal sackcloth-and-ashes kind of repentance from your spirit is the only right answer to prepare for what’s coming. Consider your flesh already dead; your spirit needs immediate attention (Psalm 34:18, 51:17, Proverbs 25:28, Isaiah 61:1-3).

“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God” Colossians 3:2-3.

Sure it snowed, but as first snow is really little more than an exciting diversion from the familiar summer, the long Winter has not yet even begun to bite! …But it will.
* * * * * * *

(*1) Excerpts from Post 003 Prove Me Wrong (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2009/07/prove-me-wrong.html):
Obama has publicly mocked the Bible in specific ways.
Obama mocks the Bible -
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi-V_ilJu0w&feature=related),
Obama mocks the Bible long version -
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXcvbnzNIjg&feature=related),
Yet quotes the Kor'an with great respect. Obama honors Islam -
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoQkMHg_oWg&feature=related).

(*2) The Babylonian Captivity Period:
Post 093 Babylon Cliff-notes (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2010/10/babylon-cliff-notes.html),
Post 180 Seventy Years (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2011/04/seventy-years.html).

(*3) The Reagans' Astrologer:
“When the news broke last week that Nancy Reagan regularly consulted a woman astrologer about the President's schedule, reporters immediately scrambled to discover the mysterious seer's identity. Who was this "Friend" from San Francisco who had so much influence in determining when the President of the U.S. would -- or would not -- hold press conferences, deliver speeches, journey abroad? Not even Donald Regan, whose new book tells of the First Lady's reliance on the seer, learned the answer during his two years as White House chief of staff…” - (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,967410,00.html), (http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20099022,00.html).

Regarding Reagan’s Presidency; see II Kings 17:33.
A familiarity with the kings of Judah before the destruction by Babylon, shows that while some kings were wholly bad, and very few were wholly good, others were somewhere in the “attempting to be good but barely succeeding” class. These, like the Reagans, provided a good share of God’s blessing “mechanically” while not succeeding in turning the nation to God. (See II Kings 21:1-2 + 24:3-4 = 23:24-26 as one example of the complexity of combined affect).
I often and publically praise President Reagan for his Godly leadership and wisdom in leading this nation well. I applaude him for it. But that does not mean I am ignorant of his less than Godly choices as well. A very good president? Yes! A great president? No.
I think he was as great as the people allowed him to be.
*