Some thoughts on excuses, by Aaron Hecht

Brothers and sisters, the human race is in very bad shape, and the worst part is, we have only ourselves to blame.

Before we go any further, here's this blog's proof text; Romans 1:18-21: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

This passage is seldom read, much less preached on, in churches today, and it's not hard to understand why. To modern, or maybe I should say "post-modern" ears, this passage sounds very judgmental and unkind. A passage that speaks of "the wrath of God" and also mentions words like "ungodliness and unrighteousness" seems to belong to the Old Testament, which many churches don't even touch anymore.

Even in many Evangelical Protestant churches, you're unlikely to hear any sermons on this passage because it's definitely not what anyone wants to hear in this season of history we're in. Churches, like any other institution, need money to operate, and the way they get money is by people coming in and tithing. But if people hear something they don't like, they might stop coming and they'll also stop tithing and then the church won't have any money and it might even have to shut down, in which case it won't be any good to anyone.

So, the pastors stay away from those passages and topics and "controversy" that might cause this chain of events. The idea of teaching and preaching on those passages and topics which people NEED to hear about, rather then what they might WANT to hear about, seems too risky for most pastors and churches.

In other words, they've got some really good excuses.

You see what I did there? There's a lot more where that came from brothers and sister, so keep reading.

Getting back to the passage itself, I actually think that these words are even more true today than when the Apostle Paul wrote them around 2,000 years ago. 

Paul was referring to the people who populated the pagan, Greco-Roman world of his time, saying that they had no excuse not to worship the Creator God instead of the worthless idols of their pantheon, because the evidence of God's existence and His active involvement in the world could be clearly seen in the physical world. That continued to be true for the next 1,500 years, but then in the early 1600's in Europe, the Bible began to be available for ordinary people to read in their native languages, and there was even less of an excuse for these people to fail to see the truth of God's existence and involvement in the world. As the decades went on, the Bible was translated into more and more vernacular languages. Hundreds of millions of copies of this Book were printed in all these different languages, and they became available to almost everyone. Then the internet was invented, and the Scriptures became even more widely available. 

Today, the overwhelming majority of people living on this planet have not only the "invisible attributes" of God right in front of their faces all the time, they also have access to the Word of God in their own native language.

Especially in the English-speaking and reading West, which is where most of the people reading this blog are, there truly is NO EXCUSE to be ignorant of the plans and purposes of God in this season of history we're in. If someone is not declaring themselves to be a follower of Jesus Christ, then they still don't have an excuse, but I'm going to put that issue to the side for a moment, and come back to it at the end of the blog.

For now, I'm focusing on the estimated 2.5 billion self-described Christians living in the world today, especially the estimated 800 million Evangelical Protestants. These people really have ZERO excuse to be ignorant of God's plans and purposes in the world today, and they REALLY shouldn't be actively and deliberately opposing those plans and purposes.

But many are.

The Jewish State of Israel's reappearance on the map of the world in 1948 is the fulfillment of prophecies in both the Old and New Testaments. The ingathering of the exiles, the capital of the country being in the city of Jerusalem, and many other things that have happened in the last 77 years are specifically mentioned in the Prophetic passages of both the Old and New Testaments.

Anyone who calls themselves a Christian should be familiar enough with the Bible to know that.

But many are not, and they have no excuse for it.

Another tragicomic example of this phenomenon is the so-called "Prosperity Gospel," which is not only not supported by Scripture, it is flatly and unambiguously repudiated by it.

So-called "Liberation theology" is another un-Biblical heresy which is widely popular in many Christian circles, and it is especially popular in anti-Israel circles where it is used as justification for opposing Israel, which the Liberation Theologians brand as an "oppressor" and a "colonizer" of the kind Jesus came to set the "oppressed" free from.

On the other hand, White Nationalism, especially the Christian variant of it, is also flatly repudiated by the Bible, as are many other ideas which are tragically very popular in the American Church, and also in other Anglo-Saxon, English-speaking countries. Those who make the triumphalist statement that "Christ is King" never say where on this earth the kingdom He rules over is, but it's obvious that they think it's basically the United States and maybe Canada and Western Europe, and that the kingdom of Christ is under siege from all the other earthly kingdoms, somehow especially Israel and the Jews.

Last but not least, Replacement Theology is not only not supported by Scripture, but it is also specifically addressed and repudiated later in Paul's Epistle to the Romans, especially in chapters 9-11.

Of course, my other least favorite anti-Christ heresy, Dual Covenant Theology, is also specifically addressed and repudiated by Paul's Epistle to the Romans, especially Romans 1:16; For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

Replacement Theology is the anti-Christ heresy Christians who oppose Israel love and the one Christian supporters of Israel love to hate, while Dual Covenant Theology is the one many Christian supporters of Israel embrace on some level and to some degree, whether they want to admit it or not.

What all of these heresies and silly ideas have in common is that the people who teach them probably know that they're not supported by Scripture, while the people who follow these false teachers have no excuse for doing so. The Bible also contains warnings about false teachers and false prophets, and procedures for how you can know when you encounter them, and what to do when you recognize one.

And yet, there are SO MANY cults and false religions, false teachers, false prophets and false brethren in the world today, and they've got tens of millions of followers.

The false prophets and false teachers pushing their false gospels and their false Christs are going to face terrible judgment for what they're doing, but their followers will be judged too.

Neither the false teachers nor their followers have any excuses.

Now there's two more groups of people who are very strongly opposing the plans and purposes of God in the world today, but they're not claiming to be Christians. I said earlier in the blog that I'd come back to them at the end, and here we are.

The first group are the hundreds of millions (and their numbers are ever increasing) of people who are anti-Israel (and often also anti-Semitic) because of one excuse or another. Sometimes it's because they claim to believe that "Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians" or because Israel is "in stolen land" or because "Israel is an apartheid state," or because "the Jews claim to be God's special people and that's exactly what the Nazis said about themselves," and so on and so on. There are SO MANY excuses that people have for being anti-Israel these days, and this phenomenon has gone all over the world.

The excuses people make for being anti-Israel (and despite their vehement denials, this almost always spills over into anti-Semitism) are ludicrously absurd at best.

Some people say they're angry about the USS Liberty incident, which happened in the context of the Six Day War in 1967, 58 years ago. These people will also say that they're not "anti-Jewish," they're just opposed to the policies of the current Israeli government, which wasn't in power in 1967 and actually, many of the people in the current Knesset hadn't even been born back then.

Other people will hold demonstrations outside Synagogues and say that they're not "anti-Jewish" but they are opposed to genocide and Israel wouldn't be able to survive without the support of Diaspora Jews like the ones in those synagogues. They'll also make excuses for their evil behavior by saying that these synagogues are places where "stolen land" gets sold or whatever.

Excuses, excuses, excuses.

I think that on some level these people know that what they're doing is hypocritical, even by their own godless, secular, humanist standards. But they make these fig leaf excuses anyway, to anyone who challenges them, to each other, and most of all to themselves.

Finally, there's one other group of people who make hypocritical, dishonest excuses, and that's the Jewish people. The excuse they make for rejecting Jesus as the Messiah spoken about by the prophets is that He did not bring peace to the earth. I've had conversations with Orthodox rabbis in which I've pointed out that He fulfilled all the prophecies about where the Messiah would be born, what Tribe He would belong to, that He would be a descendent of King David, and many other thins. They don't even try to deny any of this. They just keep coming back to this excuse about how Jesus of Nazareth didn't bring peace to the earth, so He doesn't qualify as the Messiah.

At this point in the conversation, I will point out that Jesus provided the possibility of making the only peace that really matters, between the God who created this world, and the humans that He created, who have been at enmity with Him since the Garden of Eden because of the sin of Adam and Eve. By providing that possibility, He leaves it up to us humans to either accept what He's offering or not.

They've got excuses why they don't want to accept that undeniable fact as well, and if you want to know what the Rabbinically authorized excuses are, you can go ask a Rabbi yourself.

The point is, what all of these excuses have in common is that they don't hold up to serious and/or honest scrutiny. These excuses also won't hold up to the judgment of a holy God.

One of the most terrifying passages of Scripture is Hebrews 9:26-28; He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

The terrifying part is in the middle, " it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment."

Every single human being who ever lived, sooner or later came (or will come) to the end of their mortal life and stepped out of time and into eternity, and they started their journey in eternity by standing before the Judgement Seat of Christ.

The Bible doesn't tell us everything about that experience, but there's one thing I think we can nonetheless be quite certain of, He isn't interested in anyone's excuses.

He's not going to be interested in anyone's lame, silly, hypocritical, dishonest excuses.

Those people who call themselves Christians but never bothered to read the Bible and become familiar enough with it so that they got involved in carrying out His plans and purposes in this world instead of being a hindrance to them are going to have to try and explain why, and if they try to make excuses, those excuses aren't going to work on HIm. They might have worked in this life, but they won't work there.

So, brothers and sisters, I urge you to spend time in His Word in this rapidly approaching new year.

The best way to do that is through the One Year Bible which I recommend every year in the month of December. You can download the App for free and there's still time to get an old-fashioned paper copy before the new year starts.

But whether you read it online or get a paper copy, I commend the One Year Bible to you.

Get to know Him. Get to know His heart for Israel, the Jewish people, the Gentiles, and everything else that's going on in this season of history we're living in. The more you learn, the fewer mistakes you'll make, the more useful you will be to Him and His Kingdom, the less of a hindrance you'll be to His Kingdom, and the less of a stumbling block you'll be to others.

If you read this entire blog, I salute you. I know it's not what most people want to hear, but it IS what this generation needs to hear.

The Justice of Giving Thanks

 Giving thanks is a form of justice.

Those who benefitted us are owed our gratitude. To withhold it -- ingratitude -- is a form of injustice.

Worse still is the person who complains the good they received was lacking in some way; it not only withholds justice, it repays good with evil by placing blame on the benefactor for their good work.

Giving thanks is an antidote to apathy and  discontent. Charlie Kirk said his goal in speaking to college students was to get them to be grateful, even if in some small way, for the rich blessings they enjoy in this great nation. 

Perhaps this is why one of the most repeated phrases in the Bible is, “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good and His lovingkindness lasts forever.”

And if giving thanks is a form of justice, then it is one of the highest callings God has on humanity.

Some Thoughts on Baseball and Human History, by Aaron Hecht

 

I've lived more than half of my life outside America now, and the rhythms of life that were once so familiar are becoming less and less distinct with every passing year. For instance, I found out just this morning by scrolling through my news feed that the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series. I had so completely lost track of things that I didn't even know the World Series was going on, much less which teams were playing in it.

But it got me thinking about the greatest World Series of all time back in 2016, when the Chicago Cubs beat the team from Cleveland (I've also lost track of what the mascots are these days, and whether we're allowed to call them by their former names). It was a thrilling series for all kinds of reasons, including because the Cubs were down 3 games to 1 and then came back to win the whole thing, and it was decided by one run in the 10th (overtime) inning of the seventh game.

But that's not why it was the greatest World Series of all time.

It was the greatest World Series of all time because it ended the longest dry spell in professional sports, as the Cubs had not won a championship since 1908. No other professional sports team in existence had gone so long without winning it all.

Nevertheless, the Chicago Cubs, despite being one of the worst-performing professional sports teams in the entire world, had one of the largest and most loyal fan bases of any professional sports team in the world. At the end of every season, no matter if the Cubs made it to the post-season playoffs (which was rare) or even if they managed to win more games then they lost during the season, there would always be confident predictions made that "we'll win the World Series next year". There are literally people who lived their whole lives saying that same thing every year, and they died having never seen it come to pass.

That's why, when they finally won the World Series again in 2016, the celebrations were so huge.

All of that has been on my mind today, and it makes me very sad, because I compare it to something that's kind of similar, but which is proceeding on a very different track.

I am talking about the Second Advent of the Lord God Jesus Christ to this earth, which was prophesied to happen almost 2,000 years ago. There are today around 2.6 billion people walking this earth's surface who identify as "Christian" in one denomination or another, and every single one of them has been told that "Jesus could come back at any time" just like Chicago Cubs fans tell each other "next year we'll win the World Series."

The prophecies about His Second Coming appear in the pages of the Bible, especially the Book of Revelation, and some of them are very specific. For hundreds of years, people who call themselves Christians have been looking forward to this event with eager anticipation. Sometimes they were too eager, getting ahead of themselves and talking themselves and others into believing that they'd figured out the exact date it would happen, and that has led to a lot of damaged people as well as a great deal of damage to the reputation of the Bible and those of us who point to it as a source of Authority.

This last part is a great tragedy, because the truth is, someday the Rapture will happen. Someday, Jesus Christ WILL return to this Earth, and many of the signs that these events are drawing closer are observable for all to see, but a VERY large percentage of the people walking this earth's surface in November of 2025 are not paying the slightest bit of attention to these things.

Can you imagine if all those millions of people who called themselves Chicago Cubs fans, who said every year, and apparently believed it, that "next year the Cubs will win the World Series" were unmoved in the summer of 2016, when the Cubs had a great regular season, winning 103 games, then advancing to the playoffs and eventually winning the National League Pennant and earning the chance to play in the World Series? Can you imagine all those fans shrugging their shoulders and saying "there's more to being a Chicago Cubs fan than watching as they actually go to the World Series for the first time since before my parents were born. I'm busy. I've got lots of stuff going on in my Chicago Cubs fandom. I can't be expected to get excited just because this is happening."

That, obviously, is an utterly absurd scenario which would never play out in the real world.

But that EXACT scenario is playing out in the world today among Christians.

The signs of the culmination of this Age in human history, which the Bible tells us will come some day, are all around us. The most tangible, visible and undeniable sign is that the State of Israel is back on the map after 2,000 years. That state is doing things that are impossible to explain naturally, and can only be a miracle of God. It is winning wars that it has no business winning, producing inventions that it has no business producing and it has a GDP which is orders of magnitude larger than it has any business having. Last but certainly not least, there is a revival of the Gospel today among Jews, both in Israel and around the world, like we have not seen since the First Century.

Many other events that were prophesied to happen in the Last Days, just before the Second Advent of Jesus Christ to this earth are happening all over the world. But the percentage of professing Christians who appear to be paying attention is very low. Those who are speaking out about it are dismissed as "looney toon" or whatever. To be fair, the previously mentioned false prophets, frauds and charlatans who have confidently declared the date of the Rapture or even Jesus' Second Advent have given Bible prophecy a black eye, and made others hesitant to be seen as making a big deal out of it.

In particular, Christians who support Israel are beginning to face some very strong headwinds in general society and even within the Church.

Tucker Carlson recently called Christian Zionism a "mind virus" and is speaking out more and more forcefully against the idea that Christians should support Israel.

As sad and infuriating as it is to see a man who has such vast influence in American Christian circles saying such things, at least he's talking about it. At least he's taking note of this phenomenon and drawing people's attention to it so that they can have the opportunity to think about it for themselves if they have the courage and ambition to do so.

So many other Christian leaders and pastors are simply ignoring Israel, not to even mention the Revival among Jewish people, not to even mention the large and growing revival in traditionally Muslim countries in the Middle East and beyond.

If you try to bring these topics up, or even talk about those parts of the Bible that provide the prophetic revelations about the Last Days, many pastors shut down. They don't teach their congregations about it, they don't talk about it even amongst themselves. They say it's "too confusing" and "too divisive." They claim that Israel is a "political subjects" and they don't want to bring politics into their congregations.

It is simply mind-boggling.

Going back to my earlier analogy, it would be like someone saying they're a fan of a certain sports team, but they think the regular season will go on forever. There will never be a post-season. There will never be regional, league, or national championships. Just an endless regular season, in which it doesn't even matter much who wins and who loses this or that game, as long as the teams all just keep showing up for the next game.

The whole idea of a "post-season" in which some teams will advance and others won't, and there will eventually be a final event that will culminate in the eternal separation between winners and runners-up up is just "too controversial" or "too political" or whatever for these pastors. So they pretend like it's never really gonna happen, we'll just have an endless regular season forever.

Brothers and sisters, please hear me.

Life has proceeded on this planet for the last several thousand years at a pretty slow pace, just as the regular season of Major League Baseball usually does. But just like the regular season of Major League Baseball has a beginning, middle and end, and is then followed by the post-season, the playoffs, the pennant races, and then finally the World Series, which ends with one team or the other walking away with the trophy, and then baseball season is completely over for the year, so with human history.

The metaphor isn't perfect (no metaphor ever is) but you get the point.

This is not my personal opinion. This is what the Bible very clearly and unambiguously tells us.

It tells us that "in the beginning," God created the physical universe and everything in it, including this planet and the human race. Then, for several thousand years, we had days and seasons, years, decades, centuries, etc., during which there was uneven progress in many different areas of human endeavor in different places all over the world. That was the "regular season" of human history.

For many reasons, which I wrote about in a blog several years ago, I believe 1860 was the year that human history entered the "post-season" and the pennant races and then, with the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, that was the beginning of the World Series.

Brothers and sisters, I can't be certain but it sure does feel like we're in Game 7. 

I don't know which inning we're in, but we're getting very close to the end. The signs of this are everywhere, and the Church of Jesus Christ around the world, especially in the West, DESPERATELY needs to wake up. Like I said before, Tucker Carlson is making the wrong call, but at least he's got his eyes on the ball.

What about you?