In my first semester as a freshman in college, I stared death in the face while clinging to a cliff almost 100 feet off the ground. With no ropes, no protection, and no skill, my friend Matt and I impulsively went for an early morning climb before class. Just think; I was free soloing long before Alex Honnold was even born.
After a radical conversion in the Christian faith during High School, my launch into the unrestrained world of campus life quickly eroded those convictions and resuscitated some familiar demons. With my fingers one-knuckle-deep in a crack and my feet stacked on a matchbox-sized nub on a near-vertical face; I realized I was perilously stuck — both physically and spiritually.
Unable to go any higher and with no option to downclimb, I watched Matt scurry down the scree in doubtful hope he could find help.
What ensued next in that arena of isolation was an hour-long internal deliberation that spanned the gamut from emotional, to spiritual, to a full mental breakdown. All of this with gravity straining to peel me off my perch.
One thing was abundantly clear: I had abandoned my first love and God had me right where He wanted me.
How long will you continue to limp between two opinions?
This past Sunday’s sermon cut deep into my heart and reminded me of this exploit because the preacher spoke on the prophet Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal. It is a magnificent portrayal of the firepower of God and the impotence of imposters.
At the time, Israel was a deeply divided nation under duplicitous King Ahab. While he had a heritage of faith and knowledge of God, his rulings and behavior were notoriously evil. By the time Elijah comes on the scene, the people of Israel were suffering immensely amid a three-year drought.
Elijah said to the accusing King:
I have not brought disaster upon Israel. You and your dynasty has because you abandoned the Lord’s commandments and follow the false god, Baal. ~ Old Testament I Kings 18
Isn’t this typical? When calamity and chaos beset a nation, people’s first instinct is to blame the same God they ignored during the prosperous seasons. Similarly, we don’t start praying until we’re hanging from a cliff.
Listed as one of his phantom powers, Baal was believed to control the weather. Despite generations of miraculous signs, wonders, and the favor of God, the fickle-minded people subscribed to the prophets of Baal as the source of their hope.
So Elijah set the stage on Mt. Carmel: An incendiary showdown to once and for all determine the false god from the real God by calling down fire from heaven to consume the sacrifice.
After gathering all the people, including the 450 prophets of Baal, Elijah declared to the assembly:
How long will you continue to limp between two opinions? If the Lord is the true God, then follow him. But if Baal is, then follow him. ~ Elijah to the people of Israel, I Kings 18
It’s the same question God asked me on that cliff. It’s the same question He’s asking our nation today. It’s the same question He might be asking you right now.
There has always been a varied proportion of partisan divide separating our citizenry into political factions. But today’s brand of division is so ruinous, I am watching marriages, families, lifelong friends, and even churches become mangled and severed.
I am disquieted that these seismic slips tearing beneath our shared humanity are not merely rooted in disagreement. Rather, they are being caused by insidious lies, devilish deception, and coordinated treachery being perpetrated across the country by today’s prophets of Baal. These false prophets could not have gained such unabated credence unless God was first removed as our cultural centerpiece.
Surely, you say, there are no such prophets of Baal in today’s civilized, Western, post-Christian America?
May I Present to You: The Davos World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Leaders.
Unlike Las Vegas, what happens in Davos happens across the globe. Founded in 1971 by Klaus Schwab, the WEF is the premier forum for government leaders, global corporatists, and international oligarchs.
The WEF’s documents describe its mission as:
Shaping global, regional, and industrial agendas through economic, societal, geopolitical, environmental, and technological reset, including, in particular, advancing global governance, accelerating digital transformation, and tackling climate change.
The most important word you just read was: Reset. Don’t let the surrounding snazzy verbiage dissuade you: The WEF’s diabolical goal of world domination includes destroying Western Civilization as we know it. Can’t you feel it happening already?
Last year, I wrote about the new Environmental Social Governance Scoring System (ESG) being quietly implemented across our financial institutions. I also predicted you would personally know what ESG is by Spring, 2022. I stand by that prediction.
The world threw a hissy fit when President Trump pulled out of the Paris Accords, but he knew precisely what he was doing. The billboards for the Accords advertised Climate Change, but the fine print was all about implementing ESG across the global financial systems.
Why? Control. The global elites want to control finance, production, labor, and commerce across the globe and ESG is the first step in seizing control of the banking system. Ask Nick Vujicic and Mike Lindell what it was like to wake up and learn their bank had closed all of their accounts, canceled their cards, and revoked their credit.
Did they break a law? No, it was far worse. They violated ESG policies by donating money to a pro-life group and conducting research about an election. Behold the drops of rain before the downpour.
You might agree that they deserved to be shut down, but ask yourself: What happens when you inevitably violate one of these unpublished policies?
The WEF took full advantage of SARS-Cov-2 and accelerated their mission faster than imaginable. It is estimated that nearly 35% of small businesses were closed by the lockdowns and will never come back. Yet, corporate behemoths like Amazon, Home Depot, WalMart, and others were able to leverage the pandemic and grow to record size.
Can you cite a time in world history when a massive consolidation of power and wealth through subjugation ended well?
By 2030, the WEF projects there will be no more personal property. They don’t want you to own a car or a home. The food supply will be controlled by the government and only the elite will be able to afford meat (which might explain why the vast majority of U.S. farmland and ranches are now owned by either Bill Gates or China.)
Our money will be replaced with a digital currency that will be exchanged at a rate commensurate with your ESG score. Individual banks will be eliminated and all financial transactions will be conducted solely through the Federal Reserve Bank. (You heard these radical ideas spouted by Biden’s failed nominee for Banking Regulator, Saule Omarova.)
Klaus also established a Global Leaders program to indoctrinate and promote hand-selected priests for his kingdom of darkness. Perhaps you will recognize the names of some of Klaus’s anti-freedom alum:
Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Eric Schmidt, George Stephanopoulos, Pete Buttigieg, Gavin Newsome, Tony Blair, Justin Trudeau, Angela Merkel, several Rothschilds, and even a Soros.
This is only an appetizer for what the WEF wants to do. They insist it’s for our own good and the good of the planet. They promise the ever-elusive Utopia is finally within reach, but let’s be very clear; these are not the Founding Fathers. This unelected, all-powerful, slithering oligarchy has no reference to biblical faith or fear of the Lord.
If the twentieth century taught us anything: Utopia without God is hell.
Don’t Let Go
After a torturous hour and no sign of Matt, my fingers were begging to slide out of that crack. I let go with one hand and one foot and leaned out from the wall trying to determine where my soon-to-be broken body would land,
Suddenly, my attention was hijacked by two girls walking through the woods far beneath me. I quickly grabbed back on and yelled; Hello! Up here! I’m stuck, can you go find help?
They simply waved back.
At that exact moment, I heard the sound of a motor and wheels rolling up the mountain path. Next, a bullhorn. If you can hear me, help is on the way. We have a rescue team, just hold on.
Had those two angels not appeared to me in the woods, I would have been half-dead at the base of the cliff listening to my rescuers — five seconds too late.
Choose This Day!
After I shared this story at an event many years ago, a gentleman asked me, “Do you know the name of the mountain you were rescued on?” I said, “No.” He charged me to find out, and I did.
It is named, Mt. Carmel.
The 450 prophets of Baal failed to deliver and were exposed as powerless frauds in front of the entire nation. Elijah called down the consuming fire of God as a sign to the people and released a deluge to end the drought. Who we pledge our allegiance to matters — it’s a matter of life and death.
This day I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice, and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life ~ God. Book of Deuteronomy, Ch. 30
May we no longer follow the crowd but follow the Lord. May we be brave enough to break our well-worn patterns of thinking and discern the false prophets of today. May we stop limping between different opinions: If the Lord is the true God, then follow Him. But if Baal is, then follow him. And may we be strong enough to not let go of what we know is true, no matter how hard it gets.
Originally published at https://www.winepatch.org on January 27, 2022.
