“Trump will be dead and gone before I am”

That’s a bold statement.

Speaking of U.S. Evangelicals, where are all the millionaire faith healers at?

Is Benny Hinn healing sick patients in Dallas/Ft Worth hospitals yet, the ones not too far from his multi-million dollar compound? He could use is private jet to reach COVID-19 hotspots with comfort and ease.

It doesn’t take a vision to see what effect a pandemic is going to have on an institution that depends heavily on weekly gatherings of people in a single place. FWIW I bailed my 401k out of the stock market three days before it plummeted 20% too, but I do not profess any special insights there either, just a failure to believe an all-time high stock market is compatible with pandemic conditions (a positions I still hold even after the market’s recent recovery).

We’ve already see a decline in the number of Americans who flock to the church in times of crisis. The Gulf War saw quite a bump in attendance, even if it was temporary, but 9/11 had much less of a sustained impact, and given the fact that people can’t attend church at all in this crisis, I suspect any bump in observance is being offset by the habituation of younger people to the idea of spending their Sundays without church (not to mention their observance of the continuing nonsense from the religious right), and that’s going to have a lasting effect over the years to come.

As for this pandemic is God’s way of telling people they should be scared of him, which seems to be a recurring claim you make, that’s just baloney. “Worship me or else I’m gonna kill your parents and grandparents!” is the message of a pathological tyrant, not a loving God, and if and when science provides the ultimate solution to the problem in the form of a vaccine or effective treatment/countermeasures, it will speak only to the impotence of such a message.

It doesn’t take a vision to see what effect a pandemic is going to have on an institution that depends heavily on weekly gatherings of people in a single place. FWIW I bailed my 401k out of the stock market three days before it plummeted 20% too, but I do not profess any special insights there either, just a failure to believe an all-time high stock market is compatible with pandemic conditions (a positions I still hold even after the market’s recent recovery).

We’ve already see a decline in the number of Americans who flock to the church in times of crisis. The Gulf War saw quite a bump in attendance, even if it was temporary, but 9/11 had much less of a sustained impact, and given the fact that people can’t attend church at all in this crisis, I suspect any bump in observance is being offset by the habituation of younger people to the idea of spending their Sundays without church (not to mention their observance of the continuing nonsense from the religious right), and that’s going to have a lasting effect over the years to come.

As for this pandemic is God’s way of telling people they should be scared of him, which seems to be a recurring claim you make, that’s just baloney. “Worship me or else I’m gonna kill your parents and grandparents!” is the message of a pathological tyrant, not a loving God, and if and when science provides the ultimate solution to the problem in the form of a vaccine or effective treatment/countermeasures, it will speak only to the impotence of such a message.

And so I give Warren permission to release my real email address to you if you want to contact him and ask for permission to have it. I would be glad to share this dream or any of the others with anyone truly interested in doing anything other than mocking them.

It is too soon to comment much on this. However, you and Mickey are asking some of the right questions.

I had a similar dream the year before my dad died, which was on the exact same calendar day years later. The first experience was much more than a dream. It was the scariest thing I have ever experienced. It was more real than this life here on earth. I have the whole thing written down and have shared it publicly with any interested in reading through it. I expect few “Christians” would want to read it because they would like to believe something totally else and contradictory.

I have seen a cell in hell reserved for those who think that they are Christians, but are not. It was the most real place I have ever experienced. I do not want anyone to go there myself, but these do exist because some, actually too many, do go there. Jesus warned us about this in multiple places including Matt. 23:33 while addressing the hypocritical religious leaders of His day. II Corin. 13:5, “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!” How tragic it is for any man to fail to obey these instructions from Paul and then suddenly meet his end. Heaven and hell are real places and when someone else dies it is always an opportunity to make sure we are going to graduate up instead of down when our time comes. Time to put aside our own personal cares of this world and go look in the mirror in a healthy way.

This made me think about Jesus words directed at his very own brothers as He talked about His own future death: John 7:6 “Jesus replied, ‘Now is not the right time for me to go, but you can go anytime.'” So what is more disturbing? The fact that someone else died, or that whenever we hear of someone else dying it reminds us of our own mortality?