At some point, we must offend.

There are reasons the original 12 were so bold.  There are reasons they preached letting the chips fall where they may.  They understood that at some point, they must offend.  They disregarded their personal safety—and for good reasons.  Those reasons escape today’s motivational-speaker-preachers who live not to offend.  They just don’t get it.

At some point, we must offend

By Mario Murillo

There are reasons the original 12 were so bold.  There are reasons they preached letting the chips fall where they may.  They understood that at some point, they must offend.  They disregarded their personal safety—and for good reasons.  Those reasons escape today’s motivational-speaker-preachers who live not to offend.  They just don’t get it.  Here is how A.W. Tozer described the true preacher, “they serve God and mankind from motives too high to be understood by the rank and file of religious retainers who today shuttle in and out of the sanctuary.”

Before some lazy reader jumps to a wrong conclusion let me say—we are not to try to offend.  We are not to give offense.  My point is that leaving truth out to avoid offending is a disaster—when it is wildly successful, it is an even greater disaster.  Spurgeon said, “It is a very ill omen to hear a wicked world clap its hands and shout ‘Well done’ to a Christian man.”

It is a great evil when congregations reward you, yea enrich you, and raise you to superstar status because you keep God’s rightful demands off them.

When you take aim at a vastly successful far-flung enterprise, you are easily rejected because how can you deny its effectiveness?  How can you keep from sounding petty and jealous?

The reason it is hard to see why it is valid to criticize attraction churches is because we don’t know what might have been.  We don’t know how America would look like today had we obeyed the Holy Spirit instead of the laws of marketing.

They did not offend and they also did not stop the moral avalanche.  On their watch, we lost marriage—we lost millions of unborn—we lost so much that we cannot even recognize America.  And most ironically, after all the efforts to avoid offending, the public hates the church more than ever.

Here are the reasons we must offend:

Preaching the entire Gospel releases power. 1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

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…”

Why is the phrase power of God in two verses that deal with the offense of the Gospel?  Why would Paul even use the qualifier “I am not ashamed?”  Because, as a top-flight intellectual, he was keenly aware of the parts of the Gospel that tweak the human brain, and offend “proper society.”  He welcomes the tweak because it releases great power.

The American Church has a day of reckoning with American culture.  The clash is inevitable because our society has become an open sewer, a bastion of banality where madness has the microphone.  We have the one message that should not be hidden or redacted.

When the suffering soul tastes peace that passes understanding, and joy unspeakable—when marriages are healed—when suicidal teenagers are filled with a will to live—when the lame walk, the blind see, cancers vanish and addictions break in one-step instead of 12, then the Cross, the Blood, and repentance become—what they truly are: the best thing humanity has ever heard.   We must offend in order to heal.

WE WON’T FORGET

We won’t forget how you bloodied people because of the shirt or hat they wore.  We won’t forget how you burned and looted.  We won’t forget how you torched freedom of speech.

We Won’t Forget

By Mario Murillo

We won’t forget how you bloodied people because of the shirt or hat they wore.  We won’t forget how you burned and looted.  We won’t forget how you torched freedom of speech.

Schumer, Pelosi, and you gaggle of Dem leaders who remain silent in the face of anarchy—do you honestly think we will forget?  We will remember your tacit approval of these riots.

We aren’t fooled by your support for open borders.  It’s not about equality…it’s about staying in power.  How can we forget that?

You hapless Hollywood haranguers who spewed murderous venom—comparing Trump to Hitler, and for calling not only for his death, but for the death of his entire family—will not be forgotten.

You nattering nabobs of journalism will live in infamy.  CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post and The New York Times…you have sold your souls to override the will of the people.  Thanks to the internet, social media, and yes, bloggers, you will be fact checked into irrelevance.  How rich!  You complain that Russia hacked the election…while you were the hack of the century for Hillary.   We will never forget how you are still trying to manipulate reality.

We will remember how you all thought you were a resistance movement.  No one said it better than John Feehery in his article for The Hill entitled Dem resistance is futile:

“America is not on the brink of civil war. Trump is not Adolph Hitler or Benito Mussolini. Nor is the so-called “resistance” really a resistance. It’s a political movement.

It’s certainly no French Resistance, which arose after the Nazis invaded and then occupied France in 1940. 

The French resistance movement started slow but picked up steam as the German regime revealed itself to be a murderous, plundering, racist group of thugs. By 1944, the resistance became a full-fledged army, capable of going behind enemy lines, cutting off telephone lines, blowing up train tracks and otherwise causing mayhem.

The Democratic resistance movement isn’t capable of stopping Trump’s efforts to appoint his own Cabinet officials because Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) helpfully changed Senate rules right before he retired. 

Nor will Democrats be able to stop Trump from appointing his highly-qualified pick to the Supreme Court. 

They aren’t much of resistance movement because Trump is not a Nazi and because the United States is not Germany in the 1930s.

An imperfect understanding of history is every bit as harmful as complete ignorance of history. 

The Democrats, and more than a few Never Trump Republicans, imagine themselves to be brave, solitary figures standing against the rise of a brutal dictator.

That ridiculous. 

We not only have plenty of institutional checks and balances arrayed against any potential dictator. We also are, as a people, a nation that takes its liberties pretty seriously. 

We are not the Weimar Republic. We don’t have inflation hitting 300 percent. Unemployment is not at 30 percent but at 4.8 percent. 

We might have our fair share of disagreements, but we have a constitutional process to resolve them amicably, without bloodshed.”

We will not forget how thugs, thieves and liars tried to pawn themselves off as guardians of liberty.

We are only two years away from having to remember.  We will not loot, lie, or burn… we will vote.  We will enter the booth with vivid images of both your lawless behavior and the politicians who sided with you.

But there are other things we will not forget: 

We will not forget the soldiers who died to give us the freedom of speech that you are so wholeheartedly abusing.

We will not forget the unborn whose rights—in the name of rights—you have so blatantly disregarded.

Most of all, we will not forget that we are one nation under God.  We will never forget the holy advantage prayer has been in every national crisis.  We will never forget the Bible—the sacred scriptures that formed the character that made us great.

Lastly, we won’t forget the power of forgiveness.  Many young hearts, because of peer pressure, are being swept up in a frenzy of deceit.  We know Christ has the power to open their eyes and give them new life.  We will never forget compassion and the Good News!

The media’s war on “fake news” will destroy them. Here’s why

When Journalists took sides in the election and let Hillary Clinton dictate their campaign coverage they began to self-destruct.  Here’s why their war on fake news will finish them off.

In a piece for Market Watch by Darrell Delamaide, just days before the election predicted their implosion:  “Newspapers have long since been doomed by the digital revolution and the collapse of their economic model. New waves of buyouts and layoffs recently announced by the New York Times, USA Today and the Wall Street Journal mark another step by print media toward extinction.

Broadcast networks, too, face severe difficulties as new technologies and changes in viewing habits transform the television industry and bring new challenges to news operations.

But it is the bias of the establishment media so blatantly in favor of the establishment candidate, Hillary Clinton, that may strip these news organizations of their last claim to value — as an objective and authoritative source of information — and hasten their demise.”

You would think when the media was outed as biased and dishonest they would changed their ways.  As Frank Luntz said, “After Election Day, the media promised to improve substantive reporting and focus on real issues. They have learned nothing.”

Their mental disconnect is stunning.  Derek Hunter said, “You hear it all the time – MSNBC and CNN hosts and pundits can’t fathom the concept of their policies being unwanted any more than they can accept that they don’t work. Their losses have to be caused by other factors.

Since the election, Democrats have blamed everything but a comet, a plague and the death of Prince for the GOP winning the White House and holding Congress. A couple more appearances by Howard Dean on TV, and you probably will start to hear about comets and plagues.”

If being in the tank for Hillary began their doom…here is what will seal it: THEIR WAR AGAINST “FAKE NEWS.”  Back in October, Obama—flush with overconfidence that Hillary would win—said “there is no way to rig the election.”  Now he believes the election has been rigged.  The media agrees and they are pushing the fake news narrative.

What they are purporting boggles the mind:  Wikileaks was more powerful than all the liberal media!

Think about it…the left just levelled the greatest insult ever to NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and all the other legacy news media.  How weak are you when your combined influence is less than one lonely website? But it gets even more mind-numbing.

The Gallup poll says 68% of all Americans say the liberal media fakes the news, yet they have started a crusade against fake news.  Hypocrisy does not begin to cover this. This is irrational.

Irrational people will not listen to reason. They don’t care about rational explanations. They want to fulfill a need right away.  The media will behave irrationally until that need is fulfilled.  The media needs to be right but America says they are wrong.  America is telling them that if you do not want to tell the truth we will not buy your product.

A sane person or company would heed that warning.  The fact that the media is pushing the fake news narrative—which is astoundingly embarrassing and without merit—proves they would rather die than admit they are wrong.  Sadly, they will get their wish.

However, this opens a gigantic door for the Gospel in America.  This is because the message of Jesus was a prime target of the media.  Being the mouthpiece of secular progressives and Hillary meant they had to discredit and lie about Christianity.

The media called the Gospel sexist, homophobic, Islamophobic, anti-science, anti-immigrant and on and on.   Christian values became the all-purpose thing to be offended by.  It was the last legal prejudice.  But something has changed!

I tested this fact by saying deliberately saying Merry Christmas to someone I knew didn’t like it.  At first, they gave me a scowl.  Then they caught themselves.  I could see it in their eyes.  That moment of recognition.  Thinking this wonderful gesture is a symbol of oppression is a silly thing of the past.

But it goes much deeper than that.  People tried to protest churches for supporting Trump.  That is gone.  The insults have gone.  The late-night comedians feel the fatigue of a public that is sick of leftist rants.  It is not funny anymore.  Teachers don’t get away with class rants against God and America anymore.

College students—millennial snowflakes who whimper, cry foul at anything Christian and run to safe spaces look real pathetic to the public.  Something has changed.  The shift is unmistakable.

A door to share the love and power of Jesus has opened.  But it will not stay open long.  We have this golden moment of opportunity for a handful of years.

The left will come back like a rash.  They will regroup and once again try to control the nation.  They cannot help themselves.  In the meantime, we must preach the Good News without apology or hesitation.  Revival–heaven sent true revival–will build a new nation under God that will stand the test of time.

 

Should Christians Vote for Trump?

Should Christians Vote for Trump?

By Eric Metaxas

Over this past year many of Donald Trump’s comments have made me almost literally hopping mad. The hot-mic comments from 2005 are especially horrifying. Can there be any question we should denounce them with flailing arms and screeching volume?

Trump’s behavior is odious, but Clinton has a deplorable basketful of deal breakers.

This question should hardly require an essay, but let’s face it: We’re living in strange times. America is in trouble.

Over this past year many of Donald Trump’s comments have made me almost literally hopping mad. The hot-mic comments from 2005 are especially horrifying. Can there be any question we should denounce them with flailing arms and screeching volume? I must not hang out in the right locker rooms, because if anyone I know said such things I might assault him physically (and repent later). So yes, many see these comments as a deal breaker.

But we have a very knotty and larger problem. What if the other candidate also has deal breakers? Even a whole deplorable basketful? Suddenly things become horribly awkward. Would God want me simply not to vote? Is that a serious option?

-What if not pulling the lever for Mr. Trump effectively means electing someone who has actively enabled sexual predation in her husband before—and while—he was president?

-Won’t God hold me responsible for that? What if she defended a man who raped a 12-year-old and in recalling the case laughed about getting away with it? Will I be excused from letting this person become president?

-What if she used her position as secretary of state to funnel hundreds of millions into her own foundation, much of it from nations that treat women and gay people worse than dogs? Since these things are true, can I escape responsibility for them by simply not voting?

Many say they won’t vote because choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil. But this is sophistry. Neither candidate is pure evil. They are human beings. We cannot escape the uncomfortable obligation to soberly choose between them.

Not voting—or voting for a third candidate who cannot win—is a rationalization designed more than anything to assuage our consciences. Yet people in America and abroad depend on voters to make this very difficult choice.

Children in the Middle East are forced to watch their fathers drowned in cages by ISIS. Kids in inner-city America are condemned to lives of poverty, hopelessness and increasing violence. Shall we sit on our hands and simply trust “the least of these” to God, as though that were our only option? Don’t we have an obligation to them?

Two heroes about whom I’ve written faced similar difficulties. William Wilberforce, who ended the slave trade in the British Empire, often worked with other parliamentarians he knew to be vile and immoral in their personal lives.

Why did he? First, because as a sincere Christian he knew he must extend grace and forgiveness to others, since he desperately needed them himself. Second, because he knew the main issue was not his moral purity, nor the moral impurity of his colleagues, but rather the injustices and horrors suffered by the African slaves whose cause he championed. He knew that before God his first obligation was to them, and he must do what he could to help them.

The anti-Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer also did things most Christians of his day were disgusted by. He most infamously joined a plot to kill the head of his government. He was horrified by it, but he did it nonetheless because he knew that to stay “morally pure” would allow the murder of millions to continue. Doing nothing or merely “praying” was not an option. He understood that God was merciful, and that even if his actions were wrong, God saw his heart and could forgive him. But he knew he must act.

Wilberforce and Bonhoeffer knew it was an audience of One to whom they would ultimately answer. And He asks, “What did you do to the least of these?”

 

It’s a fact that if Hillary Clinton is elected, the country’s chance to have a Supreme Court that values the Constitution—and the genuine liberty and self-government for which millions have died—is gone. Not for four years, or eight, but forever.

Many say Mr. Trump can’t be trusted to deliver on this score, but Mrs. Clinton certainly can be trusted in the opposite direction. For our kids and grandkids, are we not obliged to take our best shot at this? Shall we sit on our hands and refuse to choose?

If imperiously flouting the rules by having a private server endangered American lives and secrets and may lead to more deaths, if she cynically deleted thousands of emails, and if her foreign-policy judgment led to the rise of Islamic State, won’t refusing to vote make me responsible for those suffering as a result of these things?

How do I squirm out of this horrific conundrum? It’s unavoidable: We who can vote must answer to God for these people, whom He loves. We are indeed our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.

We would be responsible for passively electing someone who champions the abomination of partial-birth abortion, someone who is celebrated by an organization that sells baby parts. We already live in a country where judges force bakers, florists and photographers to violate their consciences and faith—and Mrs. Clinton has zealously ratified this. If we believe this ends with bakers and photographers, we are horribly mistaken. No matter your faith or lack of faith, this statist view of America will dramatically affect you and your children.

For many of us, this is very painful, pulling the lever for someone many think odious. But please consider this: A vote for Donald Trump is not necessarily a vote for Donald Trump himself. It is a vote for those who will be affected by the results of this election. Not to vote is to vote. God will not hold us guiltless.

You better be praying because tonight’s debate is totally rigged

Mario wrote this before the debate. Everything he said happened the way he said it would.   If you haven’t read it read it now.  If you have read it—read it again…the most widely shared blog in our history.

You better be praying because tonight’s debate is totally rigged

There will be no fairness tonight.  There will be no balance.  You are about to witness a kangaroo court.  Hillary will get zero tough questions.  Trump will get only loaded questions.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that a plurality (46%) of Likely U.S. Voters believes most moderators will try to help Clinton in the upcoming debates. Only six percent (6%) think they will try to help Trump instead. Just 32% say most of the moderators will try to be unbiased, while 15% are undecided.

The entire night will be an infomercial for Hillary.  She will be declared the most experienced person ever to run for president. Trump will be portrayed a virtual Adolf Hitler.

Nothing will be said about Benghazi, Emails, Whitewater, The Clinton Foundation, and the 20 other scandals she has created.  You will only hear remarks about Trump that “prove” he is hateful to women, racist and lacks the temperament to be president.

The goal of tonight’s debate is to rescue Hillary and to repudiate Trump.

Here—by the numbers—is why I am right about tonight:

1. Lester Holt will go Candy Crowley.  Remember the 2012 debate? Candy Crowley repeatedly interrupted Mitt Romney and gave Obama much more time to speak.  When Romney raised a killer point about Obama, Crowley literally shut him down and went to a commercial.

Lester Holt has already signaled that he will do what Candy Crowley did.   CNN’s Brian Stelter says Lester Holt is signaling to his NBC colleagues that he may enter the fray in Monday night’s presidential debate as a participant rather than a moderator — thanks to intense left-wing backlash over Matt Lauer’s performance at the “Commander in Chief Forum” weeks ago.

2.  The left will destroy moderators who are fair to Trump.  Matt Lauer was eviscerated by the left for being fair to Trump in the Commander in Chief forum. All of the moderators are under intense pressure to see Hillary win the debate.  They know they it could be a career ender to let Trump win.

3. Obama. He ordered the FBI not to recommend an indictment against Hillary. He ordered the Justice Department to stone wall congress and refuse to release evidence that would incriminate her.  Obama has protected her every step of the way.  He has—without a doubt—exerted extreme pressure on the moderators to let her win.

4. Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, You Tube, Twitter, USA Today, The New York Times, NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN and PBS are all firmly in Hillary’s camp. They will take tonight’s debate and spin it into a fair fight that Hillary won fair and square. Any reporting to the contrary will censored.

5. Total desperation: All of the people and media outlets I have named are now totally desperate.  They realize that Hillary is a terrible candidate.  They will gladly risk the appearance of bias if it is only the only way to save her.  It is now a no-holds-barred smack down of Trump by a band of bloodthirsty leftists who will stop at nothing to get her elected.

For his part Trump only has to do three things to win tonight and to become president.

1. He has to remind America that her treatment of women is a basket of deplorables.  She—rather than blame her husband—has worked to ruin women that her husband raped.  I do not know any way to treat women worse.

2. He has to show that she will not keep America safe.  She has promised to make the Supreme Court a leftist activist arm of government. She will increase the number of Muslim immigrants from Syria by 500%.  She has promised to continue the failure of Obama in dealing with ISIS. She has sided with rioters against the police.  She will not hear America’s cry for help any more than she heard the cries of the 4 Americans who died in Benghazi.

3. He must expose the lie of her experience. The very experience she touts as qualifying her for the White House is—in fact—the very reason to reject her. She has been in government for 30 years and cannot point to one accomplishment.  Her record is a blank slate.  Now she says she is going to do all of these things if she is elected.  Why would anyone believe that?

In my opinion these are killer points that will destroy her candidacy.   If Donald Trump calmly makes these points, it is over for her.  It’s just too bad that he will not be allowed to make them…unless of course, there’s a miracle.  Pray.

Mario Murillo Ministries: Stopping the Nation Killing Machine

Stopping the Nation Killing Machine

By Mario Murillo

Hollywood, pop singers, sports figures, politicians, tech giants like Google, Apple and Amazon along with countless college professors are turning our children’s minds into a nation-killing machine.

This coalition has untold billions of dollars at their disposal.  They control the airwaves—and through Obama and Clinton, the FBI and the IRS.  They can rig elections.

Months ago this would have sounded like a tinfoil cone conspiracy—not anymore.

Now let’s talk about what God is doing.

As a kid, I liked monster movies.  (We are indeed in a monster movie right now.)  Those of you old enough to remember the black and white monster movies featured giant insects, aliens and people.  The culprit was almost always the A-Bomb tests.

There were two elements in those movies: 1. A dark moment of hopelessness when all weapons failed.  2. A controversial scientist who worked out of a barn.

The military reluctantly had to use the weapon from the barn…the monster was defeated.

I freely admit that Mario Murillo Ministries is that scientist working out of the barn.  When this beast of political correctness first oozed out of the swamp, we started warning the church.  

We declared that signs and wonders and the conviction of the Holy Spirit are the only weapons for a brain-washed generation.

We declared that we needed to stop fearing politicians and call them out.

We said young minds needed to hear why the teaching of Jesus is divine and they needed to hear the truth about American history.

Then the name-calling and ridicule began.  We were told it would never work.  We were roundly criticized and rejected.  None of this stopped us from finishing our divine training under the Holy Spirit.

Then came the summer of 2016.  The weapon came out of the barn and leaders began to see how it is exactly what is needed.  

The images you see in this blog are snapshots of outreach this summer.  It was a summer of supernatural transformations and no compromise.

Leaders see how the make nice gospel is only making things worse.  Influential pastors are breaking with tradition and joining us on the frontline.  Most of all…there is a growing recognition that this weapon can kill the monster.

In an added piece of exciting news…phase one of our World Headquarters is now complete.  We have secured…and paid cash for a suite of offices in Sparks, Nevada.  The name of our offices is The War Room.  This is our new “barn” and brain center for the next phase of our national invasion to bring Living Proof to the youth of America.

Breaking news about Mario Murillo

 

 

 

On November the 9^th there will be a big change at Mario Murillo Ministries.  This announcement has been in the planning stages for years but Mario feels that now is the right time to go public.

We have reached a historic milestone:  2 million people have now read Mario Murillo’s blog.

This does not include videos—this is people sitting down to read.  The fact that reading is dying—especially on social media which is overrun by video blogs—makes this achievement even more amazing.

We also know that the blog has been quietly censored…even throttled.  This means that our actual readership is probably much higher.

This blog was one of the very first Christian blogs to openly oppose Barack Obama.  At the time, Obama had a 68% approval rating and it was uncool to criticize him.

Some pastors told Mario he was no longer welcomed in their pulpits.

A large Christian network took him off the air because of his oppositional papers on Obama, Islam and same sex marriage…yes, same sex marriage.

Mario’s blog was one of the very first to publicly support Trump for president—another unpopular stance.   He did not call it prophetic…just common sense.  Once again, the blog endured critical headwinds…but readers kept coming back and the audience kept growing.

Astoundingly, the blog has been read in 174 of the 176 nations of the world.  (Why embarrass the two tiny nations that have not read the blog).

Now Mario is making another ground breaking announcement.  He says that the mantle for his political commentary is being lifted by the Holy Spirit.  He even has a date for the blog’s transformation: November 9^th.

It’s not that his writings will never again rebuke government it’s just that he feels something will change drastically on November 9^th.

When pressed he could only speculate on why the Holy Spirit will lift this mantle of warning, correcting and exposing the corruption of Washington:

“I believe God had me speak out because America was on the brink of an unalterable disaster.  On November 8^th, we will either be rescued by Trump or driven into the ground by Hillary. 

If we are rescued, then my work in this arena is done.  I must leave this kind of commentary to others.

If Hillary wins, we must assume we will become the underground church.  Her appointments to the Supreme court will be the finishing touch to the already contaminated IRS, FBI and Justice Department.   How can anyone suppose that freedom of speech or freedom of religion will survive her?  How can anyone think this is not our last free election if she comes to power? 

Her unholy alliance with Google, Facebook, Apple, Youtube, Twitter and Hollywood will guarantee that any opposing thought will be smothered.  They will be the propaganda machine to justify criminalizing Christianity.

In such a case, I must proceed as if I am in Russia, China or even North Korea.  I must weigh my writings for the impact they will have on the church under a government that will openly punish citizens for reading ‘subversive material.’

When she refers to us as ‘deplorables that cannot be redeemed’ how do you think she will treat us when she has the power?”

So what does he think he will write after November 9^th?   “I will occasionally rebuke government.  However, I must declare signs, wonders and miracles more than ever.  I must speak fire and faith to the soldiers of God who may, by then, suffer beneath the lash of a hostile government.”

In either case…November 9^th is the start of a whole new kind of blog from Mario Murillo.  Stay tuned!

-MMM