BETHEL, NAR, AND THEIR COUNTERFEIT REVIVAL

 

In Counterfeit Kingdom, Holly Pivec and Douglas Geivett have written:

•    [Bill]Johnson and [Chris] Vallotton are regarded as apostle and prophet, not only at Bethel in Redding, but over the international Bethel Church movement. They also claim to be giving new “revelations” to the global church, critical truths the church once had and later lost. These lost truths are now being restored by Johnson, Vallotton, and other “apostles” and “prophets” so that all Christians can develop miraculous powers.

Kris Vallotton had written:

•    There is a new epoch season emerging in this hour. Much like the Protestant Reformation, there is another reformation coming that will unearth the very foundation of Christianity. This move of the Spirit will absolutely redefine your ideologies and philosophies concerning what the Church is and how she should function.

Vallotton claims that he has come to this conclusion through his personal experience and not Scripture, unlike the Reformation. However, Scripture claims that we shouldn’t go beyond what the Scriptures have presented:

•    I have applied all these things to myself and Apollos for your benefit, brothers, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up in favor of one against another. (1 Corinthians 4:6)

By going beyond the Scriptures in things that pertain to God and man, they have opened the door to an anything-goes “Christianity.”

Instead, we should glorify our God by speaking His Words:

•    whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 4:11)

Well, perhaps Vallotton is a prophet of God. If He is, then every one of his prophesies should have been accurate:

•    “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.” (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)

However, Vallotton has been wrong, most famously by prophesying that Trump would be re-elected to a second term. Nevertheless, according to Pivec and Geivett, he continues to head the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry—a three-year, full-time program with 2,600 students.

Spiritual pride is highly seductive. The Bible provides many warnings against it:

•    Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. They say continually to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’” For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened? “I did not send the prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied. But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.” (Jeremiah 23:16-18, 21-22)

To listen to Vallotton and an increasing company of self-proclaimed Apostles and Prophets is to disregard the Word of God. Therefore Isaiah had written:

•    And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn [light]. (Isaiah 8:19-20)

The false prophets had always provided an attractive message, not one of repentance. Consequently, Johnson’s and Vallotton’s New Apostolic Reformation claims 750 million followers worldwide. What a contrast to the martyred Prophets of God who preached an unpopular message!

TO KNOW GOD IS TO TRUST AND LOVE HIM

 

 

Psalm 9:10 And those who know [You] put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.

Abraham was a prime example of this principle. His life had been characterized by spiritual failures. Instead of trusting God for an heir, He named his servant, Eliezer, as his heir. Years later, he followed his wife Sarah’s suggestion to raise an heir by his servant girl Hagar. Meanwhile, he required his wife Sarah to say she was only his sister as they sojourned throughout the Promised Land, that it “might go well for Abraham. Even after Yahweh had appeared to him and promised that Sarah would have her promised child in a year, he once again allowed the king to take his beautiful wife into His harem. Yet God struck down the entire Philistine nation of Gerar with a life-threatening disease. God then came to the king in a dream to instruct him to return Sarah to Abraham lest the entire nation die. God also warned that AbrahAm was His prophet, and he would have to pray for Gerar lest they all die.

Wisely, the king returned Sarah but asked Abraham how he could do such a thing to his nation. Shamefully, Abraham explained:

·       Genesis 20:13 And when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, I said to her, ‘This is the kindness you must do me: at every place to which we come, say of me, “He is my brother.”’”

Although Abraham had been a spiritual failure, Scripture presents a different picture:

·       Romans 4:18–21 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

How do we reconcile these two very different  portraits of Abraham—one as a spiritual flop and the other as a giant of the faith? Evidently, Abraham was growing in his faith and the assurance that God was able to provide:

·       Hebrews 11:17–19 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

·       Romans 4:20…but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

Abraham now knew, after 40+ years of following Him, that his God would once against deliver Him. Therefore, God remembered him for the man of faith Abraham had become! Even Job, the most righteous man in all the earth, had failed God and was reprimanded for the accusations he had been bringing against Him:

·       Job 38:2 “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”

After Job had repented twice, God dealt with his three friends who had brought accusations against Job:

·       Job 42:7 …the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”

How could Job had spoken of God what was right? God had reprimanded him of not speaking what was right! Did He contradict Himself? No! Instead, Job’s confessions of sin made him righteous in the sight of God (1 John 1:9). Paul also came to know God through what he had suffered:

·       2 Corinthians 1:8–10 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

Because God has delivered us, we become convinced that He will continue to deliver us:

·       Psalm 91:14 Because he holds fast to me in love, I will deliver him; I will protect him, because he knows [me].

To know our Lord is to stand against adversity:

·       Daniel 11:32–33 [The anti-Christ] shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant, but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. And the wise among the people shall make many understand, though for some days they shall stumble by sword and flame…

Daniel also came to know His God as trustworthy and was able to stand against the wrath of the king to survive the Lions Den.

As we come to know our God and to trust in Him, we too will be enabled to “stand firm and take action.” Therefore, Jesus had prayed:

·       John 17:26 “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

How then do we come to know God? Only by seeking Him and His wisdom above all else:

·       Proverbs 2:3–7 yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity,

PROPAGANDA, PRESSURE, INSANITY, AND TRANSITIONING

 

A London psychiatrist, Dr. Az Hakeem, authored Detrans: When Transition is Not the Solution. He had spent 12 years working with children at the United Kingdom's government-funded Tavistock gender clinic:  

•    "I say affirmation therapy is not therapy—it's grooming" them to accept the idea they were born in the wrong body, said Dr. Hakeem, a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and honorary associate clinical professor at University College London Medical School.

•    He predicts in the next 5-10 years, society will see a massive number of so-called detransitoners, people who try to reverse steps they took in an attempt to medically change their gender. That's because of an expected 8,000-fold increase in patients undergoing procedures and taking medications meant to try to alter their gender.

Hakeem explained:

•    “When a person is feeling confused about his or her identity, he or she may assume that it has to do with gender, especially with the current climate of affirmation of that kind of thinking.”

•    "It's the only medical intervention that I know of for which there was no evidence," Dr. Hakeem said. "There are no outcome studies for this."

•    “To medically castrate children with hormones or surgery is akin to the use of lobotomies or thalidomide in the 1950s and 1960s.

•    The mental health profession has been captured ideologically, he said, even to the point of affirming children's beliefs that they are cats and dinosaurs.

•    "We know that most kids who are gender nonconforming or questioning their gender grow out of it, especially at puberty."

Hakeen has to be applauded for his courage. However, he no longer counsels patients on matters of gender identity because it's "too politically dangerous.”

Why repression and intimidation by our previously most trusted institutions? I think that it is the result of the perfect storm of many factors including:

1.    Hatred of Constraining Traditional Values
2.    Hatred of any Voice that Reinforces Their Already Guilty Consciences
3.    Twisted Ideas about Compassion and Love
4.    Self-Righteousness—the Need to Believe Themselves Virtuous Having Rejected the Christian Means of Righteousness
5.    Marxist/Leftist and Islamic Desires to Bring the West Down
6.    Jealousy, Fear, and Hatred of the System
7.    Complacency of Those who Know Better

This has all been prophesied:

2 Timothy 3:1–5 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.


Republished by Tyler Durden, Dec. 19, 2023 (https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/psychiatrist-gender-clinic-warns-gender-affirming-care-will-lead-mass-sterilization) from an article authored by Darlene McCormick Sanchez via The Epoch Times.

What Power and Authority Do We Have? How Should We Regard Ourselves?

 

The Christian life is one of weakness, infirmity, and dependence upon our Savior. In this world, we are an insubstantial mist, but a mist that ironically loves to boast of our power and authority:

•    James 4:13–16 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

Boasting of our power and authority, as do the Word of Faith Movement (WFM) and the New Apostolic Reformation, is to practice evil! In contrast, Jesus submitted to His Father’s will in all things, even to death on the cross:

•    Matthew 26:39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

•    John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

Jesus came to us as a servant. We too are servants! We are here, not to live a fulfilled life, but to serve our Savior. Therefore, it is wrong to believe that God has given us a blank prayer check to receive anything we want if only we have enough faith. Instead:

•    1 John 5:14–15 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

Do we exercise power and by making authoritative declarations as Elijah had done? Instead, Elijah had been merely following the Word of God:

•    1 Kings 18:36–37 And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. Answer me, O LORD, answer me, that this people may know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.”

God’s will is the very thing that the WFM leaves out and acts as if this life is our final resting place and reward. Instead, He honors those who honor Him through obedience:

•    James 4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. (James 1:6-8)

•    1 John 3:22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

Let us repent of our presumption of power and authority, which had only been given by Jesus twice for a special occasion. These are things that even angels lack:

•    2 Peter 2:10–11 (NLT) He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority. These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling. But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings.

•    Jude 9 (NLT) But even Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels, did not dare accuse the devil of blasphemy, but simply said, “The Lord rebuke you!”…

Nevertheless, WFM Kenneth Copeland assures us that:

•    After you have prayed to God and taken authority over Satan, you should take authority over your physical body.  Speak to it in the Name of Jesus and command it to conform to the Word of God that says it is healed by the stripes of Jesus.  I have done this and had my body shape up immediately.  (He Did it All for You, 59)

While Copeland is correct that Jesus had accomplished all on the cross (Matthew 8:17), we have not yet received its fullness. Here is just one example:

•    Romans 8:23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Do we have the authority to get whatever we want and when we want it? Instead, we are “afflicted in every way” to teach us to trust in God:

•    2 Corinthians 4:7–8  But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair.

Consequently, all good, including healing, comes from the Lord, according to His will, not because we are entitled or have certain rights before the Lord (Romans 6:23):

•    2 Corinthians 3:5  Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,

Why regard ourselves in such a lowly way? According to Jesus, this is the way we must regard ourselves:

•    Luke 17:10 “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

When we recognize how unworthy we are, we grow in our estimation and gratitude of our God. When I had high self-esteem, I believed that I deserved more than what I had, including my wife. However, as my self-esteem took a nosedive, my esteem and appreciation of my wife grew along with gratefulness for her. This also pertains to our relationship with our Lord and Savior, as John the Baptist had declared: “He must increase, and I must decrease!”

It is our Lord we must trust and not ourselves. It is from Him that all good things come (James 1:17):

•    Matthew 23:12 “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:11; 18:14; 1 Peter 5:5-6)

Paul to had to repeatedly learn the humble lesson of self-despair, lest he become proud because of the many revelations he had received. Consequently, God refused to heal him of his affliction:

•    2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore, Paul learned to boast not in his power and authority but in his weaknesses and infirmities and the love of God to shelter him (2 Corinthians 1:8-10):

•    2 Corinthians 12:10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Our weaknesses and infirmities enable us to be strong through our reliance upon the Lord, as we push forward in our holy calling:

•    1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Instead of boasting in their weaknesses and complete reliance upon our Savior, the WFM and the New Apostolic Reformation boast in their presumed power and authority.

CHRISTMAS SERMON

 

• And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.  But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in [swaddling] cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:8-12)

What a surprising message! The promised Messiah – the hope of Israel – would be born in a filthy, smelly, fly-infested animal stall. No humbler circumstances could be envisioned! But there was another feature of this announcement that was even more startling. The Savior would be “wrapped in swaddling cloths” as a “sign” for them. How would this constitute a sign? Babies have to be clothed in something, don’t they? Why not in swaddling cloths? Well, swaddling cloths conveyed a shocking message. According to one source:

·       Swaddling clothes were typically used on new-born lambs that were bred for sacrifice. The shepherd would swaddle [or wrap] the lamb and place it in a manger until it settled down from the birth. This would protect it from possible injury that would disqualify it as a sacrificial lamb. 

The sacrificial lamb had to be perfect, without blemish. The swaddling cloths were used to protect the lamb against possible injury or blemish. Since these cloths represented death, no parent would ever think of wrapping their newborn in these cloths!

For the shepherds, this sign was unmistakable. In the most dramatic way, the cloths informed the shepherds that, instead of their sacrificial lambs, this Child had come to die for their sins!

The angel had disclosed the divine identity of this Newborn, but he did not disclose to the shepherds where to find Him, other than in “the town of David” – Bethlehem. No address was given, but perhaps none was needed. The renowned theologian, Alfred Edersheim suggests that they would have known the address. How? Through the rabbinic writings and also the prophecy of Micah 4:8:

·       And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem."

The shepherds knew this tower. It was their tower, which they used to watch over their sacrificial lambs. Reportedly, it had a sheepfold on the bottom floor. However, the shepherds were presently “out in the fields” with their sheep, leaving the sheepfold empty and unattended – a welcomed invitation to a desperate mother ready to deliver.

Consequently, the shepherds didn’t need to ask the angel for traveling instructions. They knew exactly where to go, and therefore they “hurried off” to the sheepfold, according to Luke 2:16. Afterwards, they spread the Good News abroad that the awaited Savior has finally arrived.

The shepherds, who already understood the Law, knew that there had been no real peace between Israel and her God. He remained  distant and foreboding. The Temple signified the fact that Israel could not enter the presence of God; nor did they have the courage or desire to do so. The endless sacrifices signified that this God continually required blood, signifying that they were never truly free from their sins. Therefore, grieving over their sins clung to them as a ball and chain, relieved only by one thought – the advent of the promised Savior who would utterly take away their sins and grant them peace – the very Good News of the angel!

It is this Good News that sustains me and gives me the courage to confidently face my shameful sins.

The more I have come to know my Messiah and my own unworthiness, the more I have come to adore Him. Oddly, the more my own self-esteem dies, the more my esteem for this Child grows. In my poorness of spirit, I have been blessed, and through my mourning, I have found freedom.

What Power and Authority Do We Have?

 

 

 

The Christian life is one of weakness, infirmity, and dependence upon our Savior. In this world, we are an insubstantial mist, but a mist that ironically loves to boast of our power and authority:

·       James 4:13–16 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

Boasting of our power and authority, as does the Word of Faith Movement (WFM), is evil! In contrast, Jesus submitted to His Father’s will in all things, even to death on the cross:

·       Matthew 26:39 And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”

·       John 6:38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me.”

Jesus came to us as a servant. We too are servants! We are here, not to live a fulfilled life, but to serve our Savior. Therefore, it is wrong to believe that God has given us a blank prayer check to receive anything we want if only we have enough faith. Instead:

·       1 John 5:14–15 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

God’s will is the very thing that the WFM leaves out and acts as if this life is our final resting place and reward. Instead, He honors those who honor Him through obedience:

·       James 4:8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

·       1 John 3:22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

Let us repent of our presumption of power and authority. These are things that even angels lack:

·       2 Peter 2:10–11 (NLT) He is especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire, and who despise authority. These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling. But the angels, who are far greater in power and strength, do not dare to bring from the Lord a charge of blasphemy against those supernatural beings.

·       Jude 9 (NLT) But even Michael, one of the mightiest of the angels, did not dare accuse the devil of blasphemy, but simply said, “The Lord rebuke you!”…

However, WFM Kenneth Copeland assures us that:

·       After you have prayed to God and taken authority over Satan, you should take authority over your physical body.  Speak to it in the Name of Jesus and command it to conform to the Word of God that says it is healed by the stripes of Jesus.  I have done this and had my body shape up immediately.  (He Did it All for You, 59)

Do we have such authority? Instead, we are “afflicted in every way” to teach us to trust in God and not in any alleged authority:

·       2 Corinthians 4:7–8  But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair.

Consequently, all good, including healing, comes from the Lord, not because we are entitled or have certain rights before the Lord (Romans 6:23). Our sufficiency depends entirely on the will of God:

·       2 Corinthians 3:5  Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,

Why regard ourselves in such a lowly way? According to Jesus, this is the way we should regard ourselves:

·       Luke 17:10 “So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

When we recognize how unworthy we are, we grow in our estimation and gratitude of our God. When I had high self-esteem, I believed that I deserved more than what I had, including my wife. However, as my self-esteem took a nosedive, my esteem and appreciation of my wife grew along with gratefulness for her.

It is our Lord we must trust and not ourselves. It is from Him that all good things come (James 1:17):

·       Matthew 23:12 “Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 14:11; 18:14; 1 Peter 5:5-6)

Paul to had to repeatedly learn the humble lesson of self-despair, lest he become proud because of the many revelations he had received. Consequently, God refused to heal him of his affliction:

·       2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

Therefore, Paul learned to boast not in his power and authority but in his weaknesses and infirmities and the love of God to shelter him.

LONELINESS AND SELF-ACCEPTANCE

 

 

New findings regarding the prevalence of loneliness reflect the findings of many recent studies:

•       The results show that 25 percent of respondents between 15 and 18 years old feel "very lonely" or "fairly lonely."…among those aged 19 to 29, 27% reported “significant levels of loneliness.” Only 17% of those over 65 reported significant levels of loneliness. https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/one-four-young-people-world-feels-lonel
  

However, we might suspect that the 65+ group, with their greater incidence of physical isolation, the death of friends, loss of hearing, and mental awareness would make this group far more susceptible to loneliness.

Why then the greater prevalence of loneliness among the younger generation, especially now with their many ways to communicate and congregate? What resources does the 65+ group have that the younger groups lack?

Many explanations are brought forward to explain this. Some cite America’s legendary pioneering spirit and our emphasis on self-reliance. Others suggest that loneliness is a product of our frenetic pace. However, these explanations fail to explain the recent nose-dive in levels of intimacy, since we have always been self-reliant and frenetic!

Depression is strongly associated with loneliness. James Buie found that “Depression…for those born after 1950 is as much as twenty times higher than the incidence rate for those born before 1910” (Edward Welch, Depression: A Stubborn Darkness, 113). Again, what does the 65+ group have that the younger groups have lost?

I fear that I am going to say something now that will make most people stop reading. Despite their many liabilities, the 65+ group is far more inclined to have one thing that the younger folks generally lack—something that many older folks credit for transforming their lives—Jesus Christ!

You might ask, “How can Jesus cure the problem of loneliness apart from simply going to church?” When we know that we are beloved by Him, it doesn’t matter as much what others might think of us. Why? Knowing that we are valued and loved, we  no longer crave these affirmations from others.

This frees us to enjoy others and the company of others without worrying what they might think of us. We become less self-conscious and can toss aside our masks and our self-defeating strategies to win the approval of others.

Besides, it is not fun trying to relate to a mask, someone trying to prove themselves at the expense of others. I’ve been there and have known the desperate need to maintain an image of ourselves as happy, successful, worthy of love, and competent. But sometimes, we can feel so bad about ourselves, we feel uncomfortable allowing others to see us as we are. Saddled with self-despair, we’d rather isolate ourselves, even though at great personal cost.

Instead, if we know that God accepts us, we can begin to accept ourselves and even boast and joke about our faults and failures. By unmasking ourselves in this way is refreshing and even liberating for all involved. We thereby invite others into our lives by making them feel at home with us and even with themselves. They too can now remove their masks without fearing what others might think of them. Freedom can become infectious, while wearing a mask is often a barrier and a prescription for loneliness.

Instead of obsessively trying to promote ourselves, the love of God enables us to accept ourselves despite our many faults. Once we accept ourselves, we can become other-centered and accept others as they are. Once we are convinced that our Savior is centered on us, we can be centered on others. However, when we are centered on ourselves, we project subliminal signals that we seek affirmation. Eventually, this will drive would-be friends elsewhere.

When we seek from others what only can come from God, they will feel burdened by this “demand,” and will likely keep their distance. I wonder how many mass murderers have been driven by loneliness into anger, depression, and violence.

We are social beings who need close friends to love and be loved. However, sometimes it is beyond our strength to reach out to others, but our Lord knows of our suffering:

•       “Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced; for you will forget the shame of your youth, and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off,” says your God. (Isaiah 54:4–6)