Run For Cover - Run For The River A vampire is allegedly a citizen of hell that has been summoned to roam the world, suck the life-sustaining blood from its victims, and destroy them and their influences from off the face of the earth. This is the myth that spawned Dracula, Frankenstein, and their co-legendaries, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Horror films filled with such saga have long been the Friday or Saturday night thrill, and they so frighten their screaming viewers they keep coming back for more week after week after week. Oh - how they love the suspense, the splattering of blood, the killing of innocents and the terror of the demonic and repulsive dead... Suppose - just suppose I were to tell you these myths are not based on fantasy alone - that such things exist, and though they delightfully haunt you as movies today, the day is coming when they will roam this world for real on the streets of our cities and in the confines of our homes? Suppose I were to tell you they are not just a hangover from the 30s, 40s, and 50s, when every Friday night they had a horror flick at the Royal Theatre and for a dime you could see this week’s episode of the current serial, the horror movie, and have a chance to win the jackpot prize? Every week the theatre was packed to capacity, mostly with kids and young adults but, of course, no one really believed that stuff - unless they had to walk past the cemetery on their way home...and I did... Although I was a member of the First Baptist Church, and familiar with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, I was nevertheless a youth with a youthful mind, impressionable and imaginative. The world around me had presented me with a doctrine of death and resurrection of a different kind and no one bothered to tell me it was dangerous to acknowledge these frightening specters from hell. Not even the local church had a word against it… I confess that when I was in high school, and a girlfriend spent the night, the favorite entertainment was a late night walk to the old country cemetery down the road where a couple of collapsed graves allowed us a forbidden encounter with the unknown. We always took a flashlight for viewing the bottoms of the collapsed graves, but of course, seeing anything at all was speculation or imagination because the dirt had collapsed into the grave, onto whatever boards remained of an old wooden coffin. We saw one of those half-decayed wooden boards one night and the sight of it, coupled with the smell of wet and musty earth (it had rained the day before) sent us fleeing back to the road and home again. I believe that was the last time any of us visited the old cemetery at night… I outgrew the fantasies and fears of my youth at some point past the age of twenty when I decided such things didn't exist. Then, in the years to come, I had to come to terms with the realization that there are vampires after all - the walking dead - the summoned of the 20th and 21st centuries that have simply modernized their approach, but whose results are as deadly as those performed on the Victorian streets of old London, Paris and the Balkan states of superstition and wizardry, as seen in the old films. The truth surfaced and soon, out-of-control rampages against common goodness and all decency began to spread across the land. America was facing its own Jack the Ripper, its home-grown Boston Strangler, stalkers, serial killers, serial rapists and the sick-and-sickening predators of children. Today we witness so much violence on the street and in the home, the murder of expectant mothers and their unborn babies is no longer a shock to our senses. In fact, violence has become so prevalent we surf the channels for news of a less sensational nature, just to temporarily escape the horror, and we flee to the news of wars and rumors of war in the Middle East or the disgraceful and disgusting butchering of U.S. politics… We've heard the sordid details so many times we have learned how to tune them out and still be informed. It doesn't mean we are heartless and cold, for Americans have never been heartless. It simply means we are sick and tired of a culture that somebody – the Legislators, the Attorney General, the Courts, Congress perhaps - or some force of justice - has failed to put down and discourage with a hard and fast warning to all would-be assailants: “We are resurrecting long overdue and lawful punishment that finally fits the crime...so beware...when you are caught, you will surely suffer the utmost for your utmost behavior…” Yes! I believe in capital punishment. I also believe in mercy when it is moved by repentance and genuine remorse. The punishment must fit the crime. And it’s long past time for our Legislators and our courts to awaken to the contagion of our violent run-away culture and if the courts won’t step out to fix it, the American citizens will have to. We will have to impeach – we have to pull down and throw out liberal Legislators and judges and appoint tough ones. Americans who care will have to take this country back if it is going to be cleaned up at all. Take a good look and listen to the current political candidates and you will see what I mean. Not one – not one that I have heard – has mentioned the run-away violence and the blood-letting that plagues our American streets and homes…not one recognizes or dares to mention the dangers that face our children every day in their schools, on their playgrounds, even in their churches… And of course, the responsibility for many of our social ills rests with the failures of the Church as well… There are the spiritually dead - these are those that died without Christ and went to hell, those whose Godless influence and wickedness lives after them. Because they have rejected Jesus Christ as Savior, Son of God, King of kings and Lord of lords, they are rejected by God, the Creator of all things. They will not be resurrected until the day of God’s White Throne Judgment, following a thousand-year-reign with Jesus Christ on David’s throne in Jerusalem. Their only roaming is not of this earth, but is in the sides of the pit. Their eternal residence will be the Lake of Fire. There are the walking dead - these are people who are spiritually dead while they live, for they live and walk without Christ in this world and, except they repent and are born again, they will one day join the spiritually dead to live without Him in the next. There are spiritual vampires – these are demonic entities who are assigned to drain the life-giving and life-sustaining truth from our hearts, minds, souls and spirits. Their ultimate goal is to blind us spiritually with doubts and perverted truth, then they will destroy us with our own denials and celebrated deceptions. They seek to separate us from the blood that gives us life – the precious blood of Jesus…the blood that flows like a river to cleanse and save every soul that will run to it…the pure blood that was shed at Calvary and lives today to be poured out on the heads and hearts of genuine seekers. Just one drop is sufficient to transform a broken life. Just one drop is sufficient to heal the hurting… Oh, how the deceived glory in their vanity. In ignorance they gather to themselves thorns and thistles, believing they are great cedars, chosen to be the pillars of the Temple of God (Revelation 3:12). Jesus said, “If it were possible, even the elect would be deceived” (Mark 13:22), but you see, it isn’t possible. The elect, the genuinely saved, the faithful Bride know the Bridegroom’s voice and a stranger they will not follow… Acts 20:30 – “Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.” Paul was saying to the Ephesian elders: “From among your own fellows, men will arise speaking perverted truth, twisting the Word of God to suit their fancies and purposes, compromising the will of God for the will of men, drawing away with false teachings good men and women who are yet babes in Christ, not fully mature with understanding, and making them into disciples of Satan.” Of such beware, for Satan is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He has been loosed upon the earth and is on the prowl listening to our words, watching our behavior, observing our private moments and weaknesses, crafting temptations to allure us, and snares to entrap us. He is the worm we will marvel to look upon on that day, but in the meantime he is crafty, he is desperate and he hates you and me with a passion. Remember too – he has no authority over you and me… he has to bow at the Name of Jesus…he will flee when we resist him and speak God’s Word, and he will scream in pain as he flees when we mention the blood… We must wear the armor daily, we must be on the offense at all times, continually praising our Lord, continually speaking His Word (Your words shall be in my mouth at all times, Lord) and, at every opportunity, sharing with someone the incomparable awesomeness of the Almighty God and the love of Jesus. In the past, as it is today, horror films boasted of heroes and heroines, but there were no real lessons to be learned. Most of these movies were based on scientific blunders, or horrific scientific discoveries, though there were more than a few that centered solely on the evil powers of a thoroughly possessed anti-Christ. These were as demonic as anything one could produce in a Peter Lorre graveyard. And yet, they were not that far from the truth… When I think about it, it was a missed opportunity for Hollywood. If only they had explored both sides of mans’ spiritual history – past and future – as written in the Holy Text. If only they had realized the forces they promoted on the silver screen were a very real introduction to the forces that will one day ride through the cities and towns of this world to torment millions (Revelation 9:1-12). John the Apostle saw them as a great and invincible army of locusts. He called them locusts because there was no other sight on this earth more terrifying… In Scripture, locusts are the symbols of destruction. The fact that these “locusts” of Revelation 9 are not real locusts is proven by the identification of their leader, (Abaddon in the Hebrew, Apollyon in the Greek – or as we know him, Satan) and, of course, the abyss that they come out of. These are demons that, like scorpions, will sting the mortal flesh of the rebellious with a great torment. They will be summoned out of the bottomless pit to do just that, for five months, and at that time men shall seek death and will not find it. This is the judgment that follows the sounding of the fifth trumpet and it will happen during the Great Tribulation when God’s wrath will be poured out upon a thoroughly wicked generation. Be cautious my brothers and sisters in Christ. Be alert and be wary for these are the days of the great apostasy and men and churches have for several years been drawing away the weak and the gullible. When you hear something you know is not of God – is twisted Scripture or is not of the truth you feel in your gut – then get up and walk out – quickly! Ask the Holy Spirit to cover and protect you from the lies, and to guide you to the truth. He is your teacher, He is your comforter, and He is your constant companion. Rely on Him for your spiritual needs, obey and thank Him without hesitation when He reveals a truth to you or gives you an instruction. Oprah Winfrey is sponsoring a year long study on New Age. HAVE NO PART OF IT! Oh, I know she is calling it something else – something fancy, deceiving and alluring, but it is of Satan, a Babylonian cult that God has already cursed and condemned as a daughter of the Great Whore of Babylon. Run – don’t walk – run for cover, run for the shadow of the Almighty. Run to the river of the blood of Christ, jump in and keep on swimming, don’t look to the right or to the left, just keep your eyes on Jesus, and follow Him… Joan Krempel
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