Greetings from Tyler,

No longer hanging fire is the so-called “omnibus spending bill,” which fully funds much that the President campaigned against.  A half billion for Planned Parenthood, grants for sanctuary cities and full funding for every socialist boondoggle known to man.  The spending bill, a pile of paper stacked nearly three feet in height, two thousand some odd pages,  is loaded with legal mumbo jumbo, footnotes and obscure references to obscure references.  In fact no single human being knows what all is actually contained in the spending bill.  Yet it was presented for consideration less than two days before a deadline would bring the dreaded government shutdown if not approved.

Much to our amazement,  the measure zoomed through the House and Senate without drama accompanied by a series of celebratory speeches where those who’ve been in the forefront of bankrupting the nation are boasting that they’ve been able to “accomplish more” than was possible when they were in the majority.  Piling additional debt onto our babies’ futures is no longer a source of guilt for pious “lawmakers.”

Ruinous funding for the “social justice” agenda is the price for rebuilding the military and sinking America another trillion into debt, atop the $20 odd trillion already accrued.  Every conservative voice urged the President to veto the spending and have a televised heart to heart conversation with the American people explaining why we simply cannot proceed down the path of piling up indebtedness at such a clip.  But that didn’t happen. It looks as though he’s the one who got rolled this time, along with all those who’ve supported his agenda.  Brace yourself, the fallout from this expensive faux pas may be well beyond anything the president or his advisors predicted.

But this will be the “last time” the President will sign anything like this, he said.  After all, how much of this ridiculous, wasteful spending, particularly on hand-outs and give-aways, can the U. S. sustain?

You’ve undoubtedly heard of the crazed Muslim ISIS sympathizer who killed three and wounded a dozen others shooting up a supermarket in the south of France.  Impossible, you might say.  With strict gun control laws firmly in place, surely  this kind of thing can’t happen.  But it did.  It took policemen with guns to end the carnage.  Unarmed citizens were merely pawns for the terrorist who ran riot knowing there would be no armed citizens or supermarket employees to slow him down.

Community organizers of radical, anti-American persuasion, have planned and funded mass “gun control” protests for Washington D. C. this weekend.  Sixty’s radicals are taking advantage of the emotional immaturity of thousands of the nation’s adolescents and their desire for adulation and fame to produce a massive crowd of sign carrying, script reading kids.  “I don’t think we want our nation run by people who ride their bicycles to school,” was the hilarious statement made this morning by radio host Chris Plant.  Some will deride such a statement as mean, insensitive, insulting and all the rest.  But, whether it was timing or content, it was funny.  Of course, nothing is allowed to be funny anymore, no matter how funny it may be.  People are insulted and angry, don’t you know.  Thank goodness there are a precious few who, against all odds and in the face of vicious scolding and shaming, still deliver the occasional well-timed punch line.

Those who have any background or experience with the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association and the Intercontinental Church of God know that we don’t operate an authoritarian enterprise.  We don’t have a task-master ministry or an atmosphere of fear where people report on each other and the church takes disciplinary action.   We recently watched a video sermon that my Dad preached in his waning years where he denied being the “spiritual leader” in the church.

He was a great teacher, an accomplished speaker and one who had a grasp, not only of the plain simplicity of the Bible, but broad knowledge on a wide range of subjects, all of which brought understanding and entertainment to his messages.  We simply refuse to be bogged down in the depths of despair, with a simmering outrage that defines our very essence, as has become the norm in mainstream media.  Even comedy can’t be funny anymore, it has to be angry and outwardly insulting to nearly everybody’s intelligence.

We may have to endure dark days from time to time in this life, but they will not define us.  God has given us so many blessings and so much for which to be thankful, we can only hope and pray that those who hate the liberty He has uniquely granted will not be successful in destroying it.  Many of us have children and grandchildren who will bear the burden of errors committed now.  Even the Ten Commandments, the foundation of all civilized law, tell us that the sins of the fathers will be visited upon the children unto the third and fourth generation.  None of us know if this nation or this world will be recognizable three or four generations out, but we do know that we’d better do our part to stand for the immutable truths that made our freedom and prosperity  possible in the first place.

Mark Armstrong

P.S. The next monthly letter has just been mailed out, nearly ten thousand copies. A new edition of Twenty First Century WATCH is complete and will be mailed next week.  And we’re looking forward to the arrival of quite a few guests to observe the Passover (Lord’s Supper), the Night to be Remembered and first Day of Unleavened Bread.  We’re sure that many around the country and across the world are making similar preparations and we salute you!

Don’t know what we are talking about. Tap the photo below to read a very informative article.

https://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/should-christians-observe-easter-or-the-passover/