The Temple of Baal is not coming to Times Square in New York City next month. This is great news, and it represents an incredible victory for Christians in the United States.

As you will see below, the New York Times, Snopes and a whole host of other mainstream news sources reported last month that everything was on track for reproductions of the giant 48-foot-tall arch that stood in front of the Temple of Baal in Palmyra, Syria, to be put up simultaneously in Times Square in New York City and Trafalgar Square in London during the month of April. But now that will not be happening.

The only arch that will be going up will be in Trafalgar Square, and it won’t be the one from the Temple of Baal. Instead, the Institute for Digital Archaeology has changed plans and will be putting up a reproduction of the Arch of Triumph which the Romans originally built in Palmyra and that has nothing to do with Baal. So why has there been such a dramatic change in plans?

On Friday, I received an urgent message from a contact that has been investigating this, and she told me that she had talked directly to someone from the Institute for Digital Archaeology and that she had been informed that no arch was going up in New York during the month of April.

I pressed her for confirmation, because every mainstream source that I could find said that the arch from the Temple of Baal was indeed going up next month. So her information would definitely change everything, but I needed to be able to confirm this.

Well, confirmation came in the form of an article from the Telegraph, which is one of the most important news sources in the United Kingdom. On Friday, they reported that the original plan to put up the arch from the Temple of Baal in New York and London simultaneously had been scrapped.

When the IDA revealed last December that it was intending to use its data and expertise to build not one but two replica Palmyra arches – to be unveiled simultaneously in Trafalgar Square in London and Times Square in New York – it generated headlines across the world.

Since then there has been some backtracking on the original idea. There will be no simultaneous unveiling in New York – they may transport the London arch there later, or build another one – and the Palmyra arch that is being reconstructed is no longer the entrance to the Temple of Bel (which survived an attempt to blow it up in August 2015) but the Arch of Triumph (partially destroyed in October) formerly located at one end of the Great Colonnade.

As you can see, this report confirms what they were originally planning to do, and this represents a massive change of direction.

Just a few weeks ago, everything appeared to be all set for this arch from the Temple of Baal to go up in Times Square in April. For example, the following is what the New York Times reported on March 19:

NEXT month, the Temple of Baal will come to Times Square. Reproductions of the 50-foot arch that formed the temple’s entrance are to be installed in New York and in London, a tribute to the 2,000-year-old structure that the Islamic State destroyed last year in the Syrian town of Palmyra. The group’s rampage through Palmyra, a city that reached its peak in the second and third century A.D., enraged the world, spurring scholars and conservationists into action.

Of course the New York Times was far from alone in reporting about this. The New York Post had also reported that this was a done deal.

A towering arch of an ancient temple in Palmyra, Syria, that has been mostly destroyed by ISIS terrorists will be recreated by a huge 3-D printer and put on display in New York City this spring, officials said on Monday.

The life-size model of the original 2,000-year-old structure, known as the Arch of the Temple of Bel, will stand approximately 48 feet high and 23 feet wide.

And as I write this article, Snopes is still reporting that the arch from the Temple of Baal is going to go up in New York and London.

While it is true replicas of Palmyra’s Temple of Baal arch are being constructed for temporary display in New York and London, the project solely involves reproducing the structure’s arch and not creating a functional building. Moreover, interest in reproducing the demolished antiquity is archeological in nature, not religious.

The big question is this: Why has there been such a sudden change in plans?

First of all, why is no arch going up in New York next month at all?

Secondly, why has the arch in London been switched to an entirely different arch?

Could it be possible that the alternative media has played a role? Since the original New York Times story last month, a massive firestorm has erupted in the alternative media and this story has gone megaviral all over the Internet.

Could it be possible that they have backtracked because of how much negative attention this story has been receiving?

Of course let us not underestimate the prayers of God’s people. Once this story went viral, Christians all over America started praying against this arch. From personal experience, I know that the prayers of righteous men and women are extremely powerful, and we may never know how much of an impact they had on this situation.

So let us celebrate this victory, but let us also understand that what this country is facing is not going to fundamentally change unless there is true repentance. Because even though a monument to Baal is not going up in New York City next month, we continue to embrace the ways of Baal as a nation.

Since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, more than 58 million babies have been murdered in America, and of course this was a key feature of Baal worship in the ancient Middle East. One place where we find this in the Bible is in Jeremiah 19:4-6.

“Because they have forsaken Me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocent, and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into My mind— therefore, surely the days are coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter” (emphasis added).

Another key feature of Baal worship that we see reflected in modern society that I discussed in a previous article is the public exhibition of sexual acts. In ancient times, there would be crazed bisexual orgies around the altars of Baal, and large crowds would gather around to watch. And of course today we are a nation that is absolutely addicted to watching other people have sex. In fact, it has been estimated that 68 percent of all Christian men watch pornography on a regular basis.

Unless we change our ways, it is inevitable that the judgment of God is going to hit America extremely hard. This is one of the topics that I cover in my new book entitled The Rapture Verdict. God keep calling us to repent, but we keep shaking our fists at Him as a nation.

At some point, time will run out.

For the moment, let us celebrate this victory over the Temple of Baal.

But let us not relax one bit, because there is an enormous amount of work that needs to be done to try to wake this country up while we still can.

I have a confession to make. I messed this up often when I was a senior pastor and still slip up today. Where is this area of weakness? I often forget to enjoy the moment.

The vision that God has given me burns deep within me and I am very achievement oriented. This is a strength of mine, but our strengths are many times the place where we are vulnerable as well. By seeing clearly the direction I am headed and having the ability to quickly slip into task mode, it is easy to forget to celebrate the victories of today.

When I was a local pastor, this struggle was even worse. As the team lay exhausted on the ground after a great event where victories had been won, I was already charging up the next hill. Rather than enjoying the opportunities that the size of our church had at that moment, the vision of the future pushed me on while missing golden opportunities.

I was reminded of this when I had breakfast with Al Jones, pastor of New Life Assembly of God in Cokato, Minnesota. This is a growing church of about 100 in size. He shared with enthusiasm how once a month the church would have a fellowship meal (read potluck). They would eat together and spend time together for hours.

He shared how they were capitalizing on the fact that they were still small enough to do this and it was a tool for discipleship and deep ministry. Since they were small enough, they could just sit around on a Sunday afternoon and ministry could happen. Way to capture and enjoy the moment, Al!

Rather than just build the next small-group program, they were enjoying each other’s company and the church was going larger and deeper in the process.

This was a great reminder that although we are to pursue with passion the calling God has given us, we must never forget to celebrate, capitalize and mine the opportunities of the moment God has given us as well. This is true not only for ministry leaders but for life in general.

When we are little kids, we can’t wait till we get to go to school. When we start school, we are anxious to get our license and get into high school. In high school, we are tempted to dream about heading off to college. While in college, we dream of leaving college and starting our “lives.” And the story goes on until we hear senior citizens talking about how much they missed in life.

Yes, continue to grow. Build your business. Lay down your life to see the kingdom of God expanded in the world. Let’s finish the Great Commission in our lifetime. Let’s see countries excited to pray.

But as we serve God with passion, let us celebrate where we are along the way. Thanks for listening to my confession! {eoa}

Kevin Senapatiratne is head spiritual pyromaniac for Christ Connection. Kevin speaks around the United States, helping Christians find the fun of prayer. He is the author of Enjoying Prayer. You can learn more about his ministry at .

Dear Bruce,

As a resident of North Carolina since 2003, I read with interest that you decided to cancel your April 10th concert in Greensboro because of HB2, the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act.

In your statement, you explained that, in your view, the bill is “an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress.”

You added that it was time for you and your band “to show solidarity for those freedom fighters” (speaking of transgender activists), and you ended your statement with these powerful words: “Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry—which is happening as I write—is one of them. It is the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backward instead of forward.”

I also read that your guitarist Steven Van Zandt, has likened HB2 to an “evil virus” that is spreading through the United States in the form of similar legislation.

These are strong words, and they represent strong convictions.

So let me first commend you and your band members for putting your principles before your livelihood, even to the disappointment of your North Carolina fans.

I have read that you regretted not performing at the 1985 Live Aid concert in Wembley, and perhaps this is your way of saying, “I do care, and I’m here to make a difference.”

Whatever your motivation, I admire anyone who puts morality before money.

My question to you and your band is simply this: In boycotting North Carolina and siding against HB2, did you really side with morality? Are you truly standing with “freedom fighters”?

I’m assuming you read HB2 for yourself and you’re not just listening to media reports attacking the bill or, worse still, getting your talking points from biased lobbyist groups like the Human Rights Campaign. (If you’re not really familiar with the bill, then click here and here and here.)

So please allow me to ask you some questions.

First, how do you know if someone is really “transgender” or not? Is it determined entirely by how they feel about themselves? If so, do you think that it might be hard to make laws based entirely on how people feel? Did you ever stop to consider that?

Second, what’s the difference between someone with “gender dysphoria” (or, as it used to be called, “gender identity disorder”) and someone, say, with schizophrenia or “multiple personality disorder” or some other psychological condition? In other words, if a man is a biological and chromosomal male but believes he is a woman, is he actually a woman, or does he have a psychological disorder?

If he does have a psychological disorder, should we try to treat that disorder or should we celebrate that disorder? And is it right to call biological males who feel they are women and biological women who feel they are men “freedom fighters”? Perhaps that’s not the best use of the term.

If you are deeply offended that I would dare suggest that many transgender individuals are dealing with a psychological disorder, could you kindly point me to the definitive scientific literature that explains that these biological males are actually females and these biological females are actually males?

I’m not saying they don’t deserve compassion.

To the contrary, I’m saying that’s exactly what they deserve: compassion, not celebration.

But perhaps I’m being too abstract here, so let’s get really practical.

Let’s say that a 6′ 4″ male who used to play professional football and who has secretly agonized over his gender identity for years finally determines that he must be true to himself and live as a woman.

Do you think it might be traumatic for a little girl using the library bathroom to see this big man walk into her room wearing a dress and a wig? Should we take her feelings into account, or is she not important? What if that was your granddaughter? Would you care if she was traumatized? And when you speak of “the human rights of all of our citizens” does that include little girls like this?

I understand that this gentleman will have difficulties should he decide to dress and live as a woman, but that is still a choice he is making, and it is not fair to impose his struggles on innocent little children, is it?

And what if this same man, whom we’ll assume is not a sexual predator, wants to share the YMCA locker room with your wife and daughter, standing there in his underwear as they come out of the shower stalls wrapped in towels. Is this fair to them?

Let’s take this one step further.

If any man who claims to be a woman can use women’s bathrooms and locker rooms, then how do we keep the sexual predators out? I’ve asked people to watch this short video, giving examples of male heterosexual predators who donned women’s clothing to get into the ladies’ rooms, and I’d encourage you to watch it too.

Without HB2, rapists and voyeurs and pedophiles would have free access to our women and daughters in the safety of their own bathrooms and locker rooms.

Since you don’t like HB2—indeed, your guitarist called it an “evil virus”—what’s your plan to keep the predators out? How can we tell the difference between a “genuine” transgender person and a sexual predator? Since everyone knows you as “The Boss,” what would you do to keep the ladies and children safe?

And one final question.

When you booked the concert in Greenboro, the laws in North Carolina were just as they are today: In public facilities, people had to use the bathrooms and locker rooms that corresponded to their biological sex.

Why, then, did you agree to come in the first place? Why cancel the concert when things today are just what they were six months ago?

Again, I appreciate your sincerity, but I question your judgment.

In your zeal to do what is right, you have actually done what is wrong.

“I am optimistic that we will see this nation come back to God.” So states Britain’s Pastor Agu Irukwu of the Redeemed Christian Church of God. His group was founded in Nigeria but now has 600 congregations across the U.K.

Nearly 800 British churches have closed in the last six years, but Pentecostal or charismatic churches are taking their place. For instance, Hillsong Church London holds four services every Sunday, attended by 8,000 people. More than 5,000 churches have been started in Great Britain since 1980. God is moving in a country desperate for spiritual awakening.

READ: Why These Closing Churches Are Fueling the Charismatic Movement

Meanwhile in America, Southern governors are facing increased pressure to compromise on religious liberty or lose business for their states. Colleges are spending millions of dollars to deal with an escalation in sexual misconduct cases. And the U.S. government will spend an additional $22 million to fight an epidemic of heroin and painkiller abuse.

Does our nation need moral and spiritual renewal?

Our first president observed that “of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. … Virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.” Apparently our sixth president agreed.

Writing for Foreign Policy, James Traub profiles John Quincy Adams. Adams was the son of our second president and our only chief executive ever to serve in Congress after his presidency ended. Traub highlights Adams’s brilliance (he read from Cicero, Tacitus and Plutarch by the age of 7) but focuses even more on his character.

Traub says Adams fashioned his entire life around principle. That’s why he was unwilling to make political compromises that could have ensured greater political success. And it is why he could humble himself by returning to Congress to continue his commitment to public service.

However, Traub notes that our age is different from that of the Founding Fathers: “Our household gods are not Plato and Aristotle—philosophers of a fixed cosmos—but Darwin and Freud.” Darwin taught our culture that we are the product of evolution, not creation. Freud taught us that we are the product (and sometimes the victim) of our subconscious mind and instincts. Neither believed in a personal, transformational God.

The fact that Traub’s essay nowhere mentions Adams’ fervent personal faith is evidence that Darwin and Freud remain his “household gods” as well. But his admiration for Adams’ strength of character is clear. And his conclusion is poignant: “I do not expect anyone to follow [Adams’] example today. I would very much, however, wish for us to revere it.”

We can revere Adams’s example—or, with Jesus’ help, we can follow it. The future of our culture depends on our decision: “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” (Prov. 14:34).

I must admit, one of the most interesting—and humorous—aspects of covering the 2016 Republican presidential race has been watching the Washington establishment of both parties writhe in pain over the prospect of either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz winning the Republican nomination.

As the months went on and Trump’s poll leads turned into real votes, real victories and real delegates, many Republicans decided about a month ago (just prior to Super Tuesday) that something needed to be done to stop him. Hence, the birth of the #NeverTrump movement coupled together with some limited peace overtures towards Trump’s one remaining viable contender, Ted Cruz.

Many in the establishment now look to be on board with the conservative Texan, though it’s still difficult for others to come to grips with getting behind what they believe to be a force counter to their own selfish interests and power base.

Sean Sullivan and Paul Kane of the Washington Post report on their struggles, “In Washington and across the country, many mainstream Republicans who despise Trump—including many supporters of former candidate Marco Rubio—are still declining to support the senator from Texas, whose antagonism toward GOP leaders has been the centerpiece of his political rise.

“The lukewarm reception highlighted the difficulty Cruz faces in recasting himself as a bridge builder after years of bridge burning. Many top Republicans remain strongly opposed to both Cruz and Trump and hold out hope that long-shot candidate John Kasich, or perhaps another Republican not in the race, can somehow clinch the nomination.”

Hence, the humorous part in all of this. These people are so emotionally conflicted they’re repeatedly lying to themselves in holding out hope that some miracle from establishment heaven is going to mysteriously materialize to save them from their worst nightmares.

If only Paul Ryan had run! If only Mitt Romney had given it another shot! What happened to Jeb Bush? Can we bring him back?

If anyone doubts Ted Cruz is still viewed as a serious threat to the establishment, please read Sullivan and Kane’s article. There’s anguish out there, folks.

A lot of the suffering originates with Cruz’s Republican colleagues in the Senate, many of whom are still seething over Ted’s scathing remarks concerning the fecklessness of the party leadership in battling the Obama agenda.

Yes, the truth hurts and those wounds clearly haven’t healed with the GOP inner circle.

Maybe Cruz’s fellow Republican senators should look at it this way: If Cruz wins the Republican nomination and beats Hillary Clinton, he’ll permanently be moving down Pennsylvania Avenue, and they won’t have to worry about seeing him every day. Cruz will certainly continue to be a thorn in their sides, but he’ll be preoccupied with foreign policy and various other executive duties rather than tormenting them alone.

Meanwhile, Marco Rubio’s continued silence regarding Trump and Cruz is very curious. The Florida senator did argue shortly after pulling out of the race that Cruz was the only conservative left to battle Trump, but hasn’t said a whole lot in the weeks since and gives no indication an endorsement is forthcoming.

Rubio’s not running for re-election to his senate seat, so he wouldn’t be holding back for political reasons … or would he?

It could be Marco’s maintaining hope to be a “consensus” candidate in Cleveland. Or maybe he hasn’t yet released his delegates to keep them from falling to Trump. Hopefully we’ll know the answer soon.

Whatever Rubio’s personal motivation for staying out of the fray, some of his former donors are now enthusiastically choosing Cruz.

Nicholas Confessore and Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times report, “Bolstered by Mr. Cruz’s overwhelming win in Wisconsin on Tuesday, his campaign is moving aggressively to take advantage of the thaw, reaching out to some of the party’s most prominent donors to seek a hearing. Many—though not all—said they were now far more inclined to take the senator’s calls.

“Former backers of Jeb Bush and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida have hosted fund-raising events or meet-and-greets for Mr. Cruz, even while some privately concede that they have their doubts about his temperament.”

There’s no question Cruz, should he win the nomination, will have work to do in uniting the party—and I’m not just talking about trying to win over Trump’s legions.

Right now, the anti-Trump forces have a common enemy to combat and Cruz is looking awful promising in potentially fulfilling their mission to stop The Donald. Once that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” mentality goes away, however, the various factions of the Republican Party will be making their own demands on Cruz.

Cruz is extremely smart and practiced at packaging his message. It seems to me most in the GOP will come over to his side on his terms—since they really won’t have much of a choice at that time.

Ted is fortunate in one sense—Hillary Clinton is a very powerful unifying influence. It won’t be hard at all to make the sale that she must not become president. But the healing process starts now—and it’s nice to see Cruz making the effort to do it.

Make no mistake, Ted Cruz will give Democrats all they can handle.

Another “humorous” part of the 2016 presidential race has been the amount of media attention devoted to the infighting on the Republican side with comparatively little given to the increasingly contentious Democrats.

For sure, the Republican race has been much more interesting, with only two cranky retirement-aged white candidates to write about for the Democrats, but that’s no excuse for the press to be virtually ignoring the serious rift between the party establishment under Hillary and the leftwing fringe nutcases who love Bernie.

Naturally, the arrogant Democrats themselves have taken every opportunity to assail Donald Trump and Ted Cruz as out of touch, racist, sexist … you know, the standard Democrat talking points that every party member is required to memorize.

But the funniest element of the Democrats’ blather is their fevered insistence they’ll beat either Trump or Cruz in November.

True, polls show The Donald doing poorly against either Democrat, and both lead Cruz in hypothetical matchups, though the margin is much smaller. You can’t compare Trump’s electability with Cruz’s for a multitude of reasons. But perhaps the most important one is the candidate himself.

Take Ted Cruz lightly at your own peril, Democrats.

David French of National Review writes, “Democrats underestimate Cruz in part because they stubbornly overestimate Clinton. Republicans shouldn’t sugarcoat Cruz’s chances. He will face immense challenges winning over a majority of Americans, and he does have a daunting 53 percent unfavorability rating. But Clinton’s rating is actually two points worse. Mitt Romney had the misfortune of running against a man Americans largely liked. Cruz will have the good fortune to face a woman most Americans dislike.”

French is correct in saying it will be hard for Cruz to unite not only his own party behind him for the general election run, but the American people as a whole will require additional persuasion.

That doesn’t mean Ted can’t do it, however. French says Americans will almost feel grateful toward the man who just spared them from Trump—which could be true.

But the most convincing argument in favor of Cruz’s electability concerns his ability to outthink and outmaneuver his opposition.

Cruz is a winner, first and foremost. Let’s not forget he’s in the Senate because he was able to rally grassroots support in Texas to overcome an extremely well-funded and popular establishment candidate (David Dewhurst) to win the Republican nomination in a runoff election.

Add the fact he will have managed to take on and defeat more than a dozen Republicans to win the party presidential nomination and you’ve got a very impressive competitor who knows what it takes to win.

In contrast, Hillary Clinton will have lost badly to Obama in 2008 and barely beaten Bernie Sanders to win the Democrat nod this year.

There’s no doubt Cruz faces a tough road to the White House in November. But for the Democrats to react with glee at the prospect of running against him is just making the same mistake dozens of losers have already made.

Better watch it, Democrats.

Jeffrey A. Rendall writes for several publications, as well as for ConservativeHQ.

John warns and instructs us in 1 John 4:1-6, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world. You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world, and therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. We are of God, and whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not of God does not listen to us. This is how we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.”

To protect ourselves in these last days we are to test the spirits. The enemy’s messengers will come especially to those whom they have witnessed do not judge what appears to them, for these people are easy prey for the enemy to devour.

We are not to be gullible, but responsible and try the spirits. Paul warns us in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15, “For such are false apostles and deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.” He is warning us that there are false prophets and false teachers and that their numbers are increasing in these last days, but they will appear to us to be of Christ. So just because we see or hear something amazing, does not mean it is of God.

Peter also warns us in 2 Peter 2:1-3, “But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with deceptive words. Their judgment, made long ago, does not linger, and their destruction does not slumber.”

As I meditate upon these warnings, I think of a time I was taking a nature walk and enjoying the beauty of the rain forest. I bent down to pick up an old rusty bucket that was in the weeds. As I reached out to grab the bucket, I realized that I was right on top of a venomous snake in the grass. It held its head and upper body so still that it blended in perfectly with the tall surrounding grass. I didn’t recognize it until I was very close to it and looked it in the eye. But as soon as it knew I had seen it, it dropped and slithered quickly away, deeper into the thicket of the woods.

Right after my encounter with this snake, our son, Joaquin, was down by the pond and he cried out, “Mom, there is a big snake!” The snake he saw was different from the one I just saw. Then later that morning our son, Andres, was walking down the path and he saw a snake, and it was a different species. Then the next day my husband, David, was working outside and he too came across a snake. We all came across snakes within a two-day span of time, each one a different species, but still they were snakes and we did not spot them until we were right on top of them.

Beware, for there are highly venomous spiritual snakes camouflaged within the body of Christ today. As we draw close to the end of this age, their numbers will increase and their poison will become deadlier than before.

Becky Dvorak is a prophetic healing evangelist and the Destiny Image author of DARE to Believe and Greater Than Magic. Visit her at .

Dick Eastman never intended to travel the globe 100 times with the gospel of Jesus Christ—he actually wanted to practice law. But when he was 20, Dick says, God gave him an almost unbelievable prophetic promise in his prayer closet about millions of souls coming into the kingdom through his ministry—and he’s been legislating in the courts of heaven for the lost ever since.

“When God spoke, I thought it was my imagination at first,” Dick told me, recalling the 1964 experience. “The first person I thought of was Billy Graham. I asked the Lord if I was going to have a ministry like Billy Graham’s and—this was one of the first times I really heard the Lord speak—He told me a million souls would be prayed into the kingdom.”

Nevertheless, Dick set what would become a nation-shaking prophetic promise on the shelf because “it seemed preposterous.” After college, he worked with Christian youth in Wisconsin before heading to California to minister in the Jesus Movement. During the outpouring that brought in an overwhelming harvest from the hippie counterculture, Dick, 72, says God told him in 1971 to start planting what he calls “prayer corps.” These prayer corps were predecessors to the 24/7 International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Missouri.

“I’d go to youth conferences and encourage young people to give a year of their lives after high school—and raise their own support—to come to our prayer center in Sacramento and pray day and night for the nations. That’s how our ministry began,” says Dick, international president for Every Home for Christ. “Over four years, God gave us 100 young people that never stopped praying a special prayer we called ‘the gap’ based on Ezekiel 22:30. They prayed in shifts. I still remember the night the Lord told me to call the world to prayer. I had no clue there would be a literal aspect of this, but I claimed the year 1971 would be the start of winning 100 million souls for Christ.”

Calling the World to Prayer

Nor did Dick have any clue that Jack McAlister, founder of Every Home for Christ, an international missions organization dedicated to the Great Commission, was watching his work. When McAlister charged Dick with taking his prayer corps model to the nations, he joined Every Home for Christ and launched a Change the World School of Prayer that within a few years gathered people from more than 100 denominations to teach prayer.

That was 40 years ago. Since then, over 3 million people in 120 nations—including the likes of Mike Bickle and Lou Engle—have participated in Dick’s prayer schools. His book, The Hour That Changes the World, has sold 1.5 million copies globally.

In 2010, Dick, who also serves as the president of America’s National Prayer Committee that organizes the National Day of Prayer, saw his prophetic declaration come to pass. Every Home for Christ reported over 100 million responses to its gospel campaigns. The ministry has planted more than 3.6 million gospel messages from home to home worldwide since 1946, resulting in more than 139 million follow-up decision cards.

“For the Great Commission to be fulfilled literally, the church must go where people live. Every Home for Christ has precisely this vision, already conducting systematic, house-to-house literature campaigns,” said the late Dr. Bill Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, now Cru. “Per dollar investment, there are few opportunities that can match the distribution of evangelical literature.”

Reaching Every Home for Christ

The strategy is simple: Everybody lives somewhere, so missionaries go door to door and systematically share the gospel home to home, using Christian literature. In the past four years, the ministry has reached over 400 million homes and followed up to disciple over 70 million people who have responded to the gospel through these tactics. Currently, more than 1 million people are responding every month—and it’s all undergirded in intercessory prayer.

Patrick Johnstone, co-author of the prayer and reference guide Operation World, warns not to underestimate the power of Christian literature in the quest to win souls for Jesus. “Some reckon that over half of evangelical Christians attribute their own conversion, at least in part, to Christian literature,” Johnstone says. “Here I will only describe what I regard as the most globe-covering literature vision the world has ever seen—that of Every Home for Christ. The vision is very simple, but its outworkings have had extraordinary coverage and impact.”

Of course, living up to its name—reaching every home for Christ—is a daunting task. But it’s a labor of love for Dick, who has seen God move in ways he could hardly believe 50 years ago. Although many people are not home when missionaries come calling, they can leave gospel tracts behind and rely on their prayers and the power of the Word on the printed page to plant the seeds of salvation.

“Dr. Bill Bright once told me that if God gave him superhuman strength so he could go to every home on Earth physically and speak for an hour about Jesus or go to every home on Earth and leave a very clear presentation of the gospel in print, he would choose the latter,” Dick says. “When you leave the printed page, the Holy Spirit can speak to people anytime a person picks it up.”

Dick has found this to be true, especially in less developed nations—even if it takes decades for the seed to take root. People respond in one of two ways to the Every Home for Christ’s gospel literature: Lost souls either (1) read the message, pray the prayer to accept Christ and check a box on the card asking for material that helps them understand what to do next or (2) check a box on the card asking to know more about Christ. That means a response is not necessarily a conversion but Dick has heard enough testimonies to see the ripple effect.

Here’s just one example: An Every Home for Christ director in Zambia went to visit the bishop of a denomination there to garner his support for the ministry’s gospel campaign in the nation. It turned out that this bishop, who oversees 100 churches, was saved through the ministry’s tracts in 1972. Dick is sure there are countless such stories he’s never heard.

“As I have traveled around the world, I have become convinced that one of the greatest needs in the missionary enterprise is to scatter the gospel by the printed page in every part of the world, something that is central to the work of Every Home for Christ,” says evangelist Billy Graham. “May God continue to bless Every Home for Christ.”

Planting Home Churches for Christ

Reaching every home for Christ is not enough. Discipleship is a key focus of the ministry, which started forming Christ Groups—baby New Testament church fellowships—in 1965. From 1965 until 2014 (the latest statistics available) Every Home for Christ has planted over 217,000 Christ Groups, making it one of the most rapidly spreading church movements in the world—and it all started with prayer and gospel literature.

“We need to dedicate our lives to those things that are eternal,” says David Green, founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby Stores. “I don’t know of any ministry I have been involved with that is doing this better than Every Home for Christ.”

Perhaps that’s because Every Home for Christ is founded on three unalterable convictions. The first is that believers must take the Great Commission literally. Jesus clearly commanded us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15).Every Home for Christ goes home to home so the ministry can measure how effective it is at fulfilling its part of the Great Commission. The second conviction is unity.

“Without unity, the task is impossible,” Dick says. “One denomination, one ministry, one organization—no matter how strategic they may think they are—can’t fulfill the Great Commission alone. We’ve got to unite together. We’re looking for cooperation that emerges out of unity, not necessarily agreeing on every fine point of theology. We just need to believe that Jesus is Lord and that Jesus is the only way to salvation and can transform lives.”

The third conviction is where the power comes from: believing prayer will remove all obstacles. Dick describes these convictions as the main thing (the Great Commission), the necessary thing (unity) and the key thing (prayer). Without any one of the three convictions, the strategy will not bear abundant fruit that remains. Still, there are challenges, and Paul the apostle outlined the root of resistance in 1 Corinthians 16:9: “For a great and effective door has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.”

“All over the world you see movements like ISIS,” Dick says. “There’s tremendous opposition to the gospel in some regions of the world, and some believe persecution is greater today than ever. There is a vast array of obstacles in the way, especially when our workers are in remote areas going into villages where, in some cases, there has literally never been a Christian presence.”

Depending on the power of literature, Every Home for Christ has established mobile printing shops to help get Bibles into the hands of new converts. The ministry also deploys mobile training centers—Bible schools manned by two teachers with materials to equip the saints to live for Christ and do the work of the ministry in their area. Every Home for Christ has 413 mobile training centers that each train 85 leaders a month. Statistics like that amaze onlookers.

“Dick is one of the most outstanding and perhaps least-heralded Christian leaders in the world today as measured by his walk with God, as measured by the results of the ministry he’s headed up—and not just in terms of causing people come to know Christ but actually seeing lasting and multiplying fruit,” says Paul Cedar, chairman of Mission America Coalition, a coalition of Christian leaders who have united to mobilize the church for praying, caring and sharing the gospel. “I am amazed at the work of Every Home for Christ.”

Praying the Walls Down

Again, prayer is the key thing. Dick says Every Home for Christ has seen its efforts multiplied by the millions since he launched the Jericho Center for Global Evangelism—the international headquarters for Every Home for Christ and other Christian ministries—in 2003. The Jericho Center fosters continual prayer for the nations and unity in the body of Christ as it works toward fulfilling the Great Commission.

“The idea is to bring together coalitions of different ministries that are involved in the Great Commission and cover them in prayer,” Dick says. “We started praying day and night.”

From the Gap Prayer Room, intercession is lifted up to heaven six days a week. Inside the Watchman Training Center is the Watchman Wall, which serves as a symbol that aims to inspire intercession. There are 12 small rooms within the wall called prayer grottos where up to five people can make intercession using prayer and worship tools. Meanwhile, the Harp and Bowl Prayer Rooms are dedicated solely to prayer, and the Watchman Training Center hosts large prayer and worship gatherings, the monthly school of prayer and a weekly commission service.

The impact of adding more prayer hours and equipping has been staggering. From 1946 to 2003—a 57-year period—Every Home for Christ saw 59 million salvation responses. From 2003 to 2015—a 12-year period—the ministry received 131 million responses. The church-planting effort also multiplied. From 1965 to 2003, 29,000 Christ Groups were formed. From 2003 to 2015, 181,000 Christ Groups launched. In the last six years in particular, the ministry has seen over 20,000 new groups established in the nations.

Bringing the Gospel Home

Now, after focusing on the nations of the Earth for decades, Dick is laying out a plan to target America.

“Two years ago, the Lord began to speak to me about our culture and has put it in our hearts to launch an Every Home Campaign in the United States,” Dick says. “We’re laying strategic groundwork with the goal of mobilizing 60,000 churches.”

Indeed, because as Every Home for Christ missionaries go door to door, the local church will engage in follow-up. Dick’s team is breaking the United States into 17 zones and mapping every zip code. This all-important campaign will launch in 2016, at a time when many intercessory prayer leaders believe we’ll see a move of God hit America. Dick has also launched the American Center for Prayer and Revival, a hub designed for day-and-night prayer in Washington, D.C., with the sole focus of asking God for a spiritual revival.

As for Dick, he won’t stop praying. After walking prayer circles around the Supreme Court during oral arguments in the Hobby Lobby case—a religious liberty battle to protect Hobby Lobby and the Green family from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services mandate requiring the company to provide and facilitate abortion-inducing drugs in its health insurance plan—he asked the Lord what it would take to heal our nation. He says he heard Psalm 107:20: “He sent His word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction.”

“At that moment, I felt like the next great awakening is going to be engaging America with the Word of God,” Dick says. “Of course, the living Word is Jesus, so they have to get engaged with Jesus and what the Word says. That can only happen through a spiritual awakening. Programs don’t make that happen. It’s got to be supernatural.”  

Jennifer LeClaire is senior editor of Charisma, director of the Awakening House of Prayer, a senior leader of the New Breed Revival Network and author of many books, including The Next Great Move of God. Visit her online at .

Watch as Dick Eastman teaches how to engage in practical prayer that really works at .

President Obama loses his bully pulpit and billy club on Jan. 20, 2017. That means he has less than nine months to destroy as much of the Constitution as he can, and “fundamentally transform” the United States into something the Founders would not recognize. 

We’ve already seen what his IRS has done to squash the free speech of Tea Party groups, which probably gave him the 2012 election. Despite all the negative publicity and Lois Lerner’s wretched invocation of the Fifth Amendment before Congress, the IRS continues to deny conservative groups at a prodigious clip and to leave other conservative groups twisting in the wind. 

The IRS rejected a total of 67 tax-exempt status applications last year, and 57 of them were from religious groups. Another 5,681 applications were left in legal no-man’s land, which has exactly the same effect as a flat-out denial. 

Obama’s minions on the Federal Elections Commission are doing their part. According to the Washington Examiner, three Democrats on the FEC tried to punish a conservative filmmaker, Joel Gilbert, who recently produced a film critical of President Obama.

Wrote the Examiner, “While he acted on his own, and with no ties to political groups or parties, an FEC complaint was filed claiming he violated reporting rules, prompting him to seek the standard media ‘exemption.’ But despite giving the same exemption to liberal movie makers like Michael Moore and Daily Kos, the Democrats recently voted against Gilbert in a February action, reviving their bid to punish conservative media, a campaign initially targeting online news outlets like the Drudge Report.” 

Fortunately, the three Republicans on the commission voted for the First Amendment and blocked the move. 

Republican Commissioner Lee E. Goodman said, “Freedom of the press isn’t so free when three government commissars vote to punish a filmmaker for distributing a documentary film.” 

The free speech plank in the First Amendment was put there by the Founders primarily to protect robust political speech and debate. The fledgling Union had just emerged from an era in which the Crown had attempted to stifle all political commentary that was critical of the central government. 

The Founders wisely said they were going to bind down the tyrannical powers of America’s new central government “with the chains of the Constitution” so that kind of repression would never be repeated here, ever. 

While the First Amendment had been left in tatters by the Supreme Court long before Obama came into office, he’s trying to run what’s left of it through his Oval Office shredder. 

Bottom line: He must be stopped between now and November and then replaced by a new president who has a profound veneration for the Constitution the Founders gave us. Or else it may be too late.

Bryan Fischer is host of the two-hour weekday “Focal Point” program on American Family Radio.

NOTE: This is part one of a two-part series.

As far back as I can remember, people have been speculating about the identity of the “Antichrist,” an evil figure referenced in portions of the New Testament.

After President Ronald Wilson Reagan was shot and miraculously recovered in 1981, people made the ridiculous assertion that he was the prophesied evil figure of “end times.” It didn’t help that his first, middle and last name all had six letters (666). 

At that same time, others argued that the Antichrist was Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev or Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. Less than a decade later, evangelical and Pentecostal Christians were insisting that the “Man of sin” was actually Iraqi Saddam Hussein in the land once known as Babylon. 

Later, I learned that previous generations believed that the Antichrist was Benito Mussolini, Prime Minister of Italy, or Adolf Hitler of Nazi Germany. The actual listing of individuals identified with this role is quite long and ludicrous. Whatever nation happens to be the current enemy of America (or Israel) usually supplies us with the current candidate for the Antichrist.[1]

Obviously, there’s a lot of misunderstanding and misapplication here. Many of our collective anxieties and fears are coloring our readings of the Bible. We’re bringing into the text things Scripture never actually articulates. Much of this happens because of our confusion about the Bible and ignorance of the apocalyptic genre. We don’t comprehend its intended meaning or its use of fierce imagery and symbols.

Where’s the “Antichrist” in the Book of Revelation?

I want to begin this exploration by pointing out that there’s no direct reference to the “Antichrist” in the book of Revelation. The term “Antichrist” only occurs five times in the Bible and all references are in the epistles of John. In the singular form, “Antichrist” is found in 1 John 2:18, 2:22, 4:3 and 2 John 1:7. Surprisingly, John also speaks of many antichrists (plural) in 1 John 2:18. Talking about this identity and role, John declares the following: 

“And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is already in the world” (1 John 4:3).

In this passage, the “antichrist” is depicted as a type of “spirit” that affects unrighteous people and that it was already in the world in the first century. On the basis of this verse alone, we see that this term has a much different meaning than what popular religious thinking espouses. 

The “Beast” of Revelation

As I previously mentioned, the term “Antichrist” isn’t found in the book of Revelation. However, many have observed what they consider to be a comparable term—”Beast.” This depiction, found in chapters 13 and 17, describes a demonically inspired political leader who subverts God’s people. Revelation’s depiction of the “Beast” is the one that keeps people awake at night—fearful about the future.

As we move into this study, I must acknowledge that much of the data about the Beast is difficult to understand, mainly because of the literary style John employs. As already suggested, there’s a lot of symbolism and fierce imagery. The words just aren’t composed in a form that we’re used to.

The question we are really trying to answer is “Who is the Beast of Revelation?” Is he some futuristic political leader or something else? Are we looking for him to come forth in the future or did he already come at some point in the past? In the following, we are going to look at aspects of the Bible and history to answer this question.

When we pose the question of the meaning of “beastly imagery” in the book of Revelation, we find that it shifts between the generic and the specific. Sometimes the Beast is pictured as a kingdom and sometimes as an individual leader in a kingdom.

For example, in some passages, “the Beast” has seven heads, which are seven kings collectively considered. In Revelation 13:1, John declares that he “saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads.” A few chapters later, he specifically declares that the seven heads represent “seven kings.” 

“Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while” (Rev. 17:9-10).

Seven kings are to rise in chronological succession; some have already died, one is now reigning, one is yet to come (Rev. 17:10-11). Thus, the Beast is, on some level, portrayed as a “kingdom.”

However, “the Beast” is also spoken of as an individual. John urges his readers to “calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man” (Rev. 13:18). This is an important passage that we’ll come back to a number of times as the identity of the Beast is explored.

5 Key Indicators 

There are a lot of different directions that we could go with this, but if we are going to clarify the meaning of the “Beast” of Revelation, then we need to genuinely engage the Bible. Only the perimeters of the text should be allowed to define our understanding—not popular cataclysmic myths.

Let’s take a look at five key indicators from the book of Revelation.

1. The beast must be “a man” (Rev. 13:18b).

2. This man must be someone of an evil, idolatrous and blasphemous nature.

3. This man must also possess “great authority” (Rev. 13:2, 7). This demands that he be a political figure, particularly in that “upon his heads are ten diadems.”

These first three indicators correspond to what people were thinking in my childhood. These are descriptors that are shared by those driven by apocalyptic concerns. People have certainly applied this to Hitler and Saddam Hussein. Yet there are some other attributes that must also be considered if we really want to know the identity of the Beast of Revelation. We are going to look at them in the next two indicators.

4. The Beast must be one of John’s contemporaries. This is due to the immediacy of John’s vision. He makes it very clear in a number of passages that the events of Revelation are to occur “soon” (Rev. 1:1) because “the time is at hand” (Rev. 1:3). He understood that “The Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel to show to His servants the things which must soon take place” (Rev. 22:6). John clearly saw this figure as someone within his lifespan.

5. The “Beast” must be an individual who is relevant to first-century Christians in the seven churches John wrote to (Rev. 1:4, 11). John expected people from these churches to listen and respond to what he was writing (Rev. 1:3). If it had no relevance to them, this wouldn’t make any sense. He also asked them to actually calculate the Beast’s number (Rev. 13:18). How could they do this if the Beast were some shadowy figure far removed from their own situation?

Be sure to read part two of this article, where I reveal who best fits John’s description of the Beast. {eoa}

[1] People wrongly assert that Kim Jong-un of North Korea, along with Ali Khamenei or Mahmoud Ahmandinejad of Iran, are current candidates to be the “Antichrist.” I wonder who it will be next decade? 

J.D. King is the director of the World Revival Network and associate pastor at World Revival Church.

The state of this nation is far worse than what many have imagined. Public outcry continues to build as corruption is exposed and back-room deals are revealed. We are now past the point of simply electing honest leaders or redefining our laws through conservative legislation. The sins of this nation are no longer simply wrong choices or liberal ideology. They are demonic strongholds that must be uprooted and displaced by radical obedience, unity in purpose and a God-ordained authority from heaven.

Those who minister in deliverance understand the principles. Oftentimes when someone has a stronghold in his life, we first look at his belief system and the lies and wounds of the past in order to heal the cracks in his spiritual formation. The presenting issues usually uncover deeper ungodly roots that must be addressed first in order to gain freedom. If we see progress and freedom come by identifying these roots and “converting” these ungodly beliefs into truth, we rejoice at the turn-around and subsequent godly fruit.

However, there are times when the stronghold is no longer just a bad habit that can be broken by changing patterns. When continual sin has taken root and an individual has allowed it to manifest and grow, it opens the door to a demonic force that now holds them captive to this sin. You can tell it’s a demonic stronghold when even prayer and confessing the Word no longer bear fruit. It is at this point that deliverance is the only way out. Because of the ongoing disobedience, the demonic hold has been given legal access to the individual and will not let go without displacing that legal foothold. It starts with repentance and uprooting ungodly beliefs, but also requires heaven’s authority over that root issue in order to break free.

Our nation is at this point. Four years ago, we may have had an opportunity to change the collective mindset and worldviews of our citizens by electing a president with, at least some, moral and biblical integrity. That didn’t happen. Christians did not engage in the process by voting, nor was there the level of corporate ownership and prayer that was able to tip the scale. Now, four years later, the strongholds have become so entrenched we are now being held captive by forces that cannot simply be legislated away by laws. It is no longer simply “voting our values.” It is breaking covenant with the enemy.

Many of the presenting issues that Christian believers are concerned about are simply the fruit of these ungodly roots. Abortion, same-sex marriage, racism and other issues are the results of stronger and more powerful demonic forces at play. Manipulation, Deception, Greed and Pride are but some of the underlying roots, with one of the biggest ones being Control, which is spiritual witchcraft.

These forces have been at work for decades, slowly digging into the foundations of our nation and taking hold while the church at large has been preoccupied with building man-made kingdoms and divisive theological camps. Many have not spoken up out of fear of rejection by others who would call them extremists. Thankfully, it’s not too late. Christians are finally engaged, praying, watching and hopefully learning. The level of corruption in our government is not only political but spiritual. The underlying network and systems of global domination by corrupt leaders are only being fed by demonic forces. We cannot bury our heads in the sand any longer.

I believe God has raised this nation up to be a signpost to the nations of the world. History has already shown that when America does or says something, others follow. There is a prophetic mandate on this nation, and God is giving us an opportunity to experience a kind of deliverance that will usher in God’s glory so that all will know that He alone is God. Though we only have one Deliverer and Redeemer, the Lord has also been preparing leaders for this very hour. There are those who have a mantle of authority on them from heaven to address these specific strongholds, not controlled by any party, movement, pocketbook, or people group. These prepared leaders are not bound to a fear of man that would snare or trap them. They cannot be swayed by the shifting winds and doctrines of the times but will set their faces like flint to accomplish what needs to take place. Some of these leaders are not even Christian, yet. God alone knows the heart of man and who will be flexible in His hands to accomplish His purposes.

This is not just a national issue. It will have worldwide implications. We haven’t seen the worst yet. God has been answering our prayers and has been at work preparing the kind of leader who is going to be needed in the days to come. His favor is already at work if we dare to see it. I pray we recognize what God is doing and start working together, through our prayers, our words and our actions.

I believe God has already decided who the next president will be. Our prayers, however, will determine what kind of president he becomes.