The Three-Part Yin

(Identifying the Enemy)
Post 287

I have struggled in the effort to condense this next study into something less than an entire book. This subject is quite important to the entire concept of the age-changing battle we are now entering, but if not extremely careful the details in the study itself will easily derail the comprehension of the actual topic of identifying the enemy. I ask you to be very careful to refrain from an early conclusion before this several part study is finished because of all the deceptive complexities that must be explored before the proper resolution can be comprehended.
* * *

Before we cross that river and go into battle there are a few more things that need to be cleared up to the degree that there is absolutely NO wavering confusion. And as James states, faith is the key to seating these truths that are only then usefully reliable in battle:

“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways” James 1:5-8.

The problem with today’s Christianity, in applying this preparation, is their perception of “faith” as if it is faith that saves us contrary to Ephesians 2:8, which without investigation seems to contradict Luke 7:50. The common Christian today believes that this faith is anything that bears the name Jesus in which we “really believe,” and herein lies a fundamental cancer as we enter the battle in the confidence of commanded Strength and Courage:

“Be strong and of good courage…” Joshua 1:6a
“Only be thou strong and very courageous…” Joshua 1:7a

We wrongly suppose that strength and courage are internally sourced utilities called faith that we must drum up in our minds by our wills. But where do strength and courage actually come from? The scriptures again provide the answer:

“The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him” Exodus 15:2 (see also v.13).

So if God is our strength (song and salvation) and our courage (determined preparation and historical precedent), why has God commanded us to be strong and courageous? The reason is because we are supposed to put on our father’s God like a vulnerable man puts on a tested, powerfully protective suit of armor to be an invincible knight:

“But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” Romans 13:14.

“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” Ephesians 6:11.

So we see that it’s not a mater of “really believing” that my favorite T-shirt can protect me, it’s a matter of the historically proven ability of the item itself that makes the difference. In this way we see clearly the flaw in Disney’s suggestion to “Believe” as if the believing itself is the key to success. But being a generation of Christians enthralled with Disney productions we have been beguiled to forget our forefather’s God-- who has proven himself able-- and have become confused by what it actually means to be strong and courageous. We don’t know the historically proven works of God to our fathers and now we just “believe” in Jesus as a magic talisman because of our unproven faith. In essence Jesus has become the name of our magic T-shirt in a battle against real weapons of war. This never turns out well:

“And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits” Leviticus 26:20 (*1).

Following the chain of thought; God is our strength that results in success. But forgetting the reality of just who God actually is and what he has already done-- which knowledge provides courage-- we wrongly focus on our belief in God as the power of our faith. It is our belief that becomes God to us and not actually God himself: “That helmet of salvation is heavy and looks dorky with my stylish jeans, so if I really believe my baseball hat is now my helmet of salvation in faith, then it is... just like my magic T-shirt of righteousness!” (Ephesians 6:11-13).
This is how we Christians make our own gods, and then confidently go into battle in “Jesus Christ Faith” that simply and shockingly fails us.
But somehow we never confuse who God really is when it comes time to cast the blame for failing his promise to us! This is further rebellion as we-- God’s people-- then turn to Pagan God’s to do for us what God failed to do:

“And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them” Deuteronomy 31:16.

I’m trying hard not get you tangled up in the many layers of meaning in this passage; this verse is greatly prophetic with much depth that we will not discuss here. But for our study simply note that this is God speaking to Moses as the first Jesus Type, describing God’s people after Jesus is crucified and physically gone. But where did the Hebrews actually go to be among strangers as prophesied here? After Moses they were led by Joshua, the second-part Jesus Type, into the Promised Land… NOT to be among strangers but to utterly remove the strangers and claim the land as their own (Exodus 3:16-17+23:23-25+28-33). So we see that this prophecy is primarily speaking of a time long into their Hebrew future, with several layers of timeline and people-group applications. In this discussion we are focusing on the primary ancient Hebrew application as it then Types our current Christian application. So back to the question: “When did the Hebrews go to be among the strangers?”

In spite of the fact that by failing to disinherit those of the Promised Land and so “went to be among them,” there can be no doubt that the primary application is regarding their three-phase captivity into Babylon beginning in BC 606-587 (according to the dates of calculation presented in Sir Robert Anderson’s 1894: The Coming Prince). The specific dates or even the specifics of the complex event are irrelevant to this discussion, only the fact that they went, and it was there that their faith was fundamentally perverted to the degree that they would eventually break the covenant itself (this is VERY important but we will not discuss it again for some time).
Now don’t get confused; Their lusting after strange gods was nothing new and happened as rebellion long before they went into captivity-- and in fact while still on the desert journey out of Egypt-- but the fundamental perversion of their faith happened while being among their captors. This is important for reasons we are now discussing by application as we prepare to go into the battle with true Strength and real Courage as opposed to the illusion that we so fully trust-- in genuine faith that doesn’t actually work (Romans 10:3 vs. Philippians 3:9).
* * *

The Corrupted Example Of The Corrupted Jews That Types Our Corruption:
The Jewish example of failure is what we really need to explore in understanding our own modern Christian failure, but the confusion today is already so great that our indoctrinated perceptions of the historical Jews refuses to allow the truth in the example and so hides the failure from being discovered as the actual Type that must be used to comprehend our present situation, which we think we know without it. Today all we Christians know is the simplicity that we are commanded to love the Jews and bless them in order to be blessed:

“And I will bless them that bless thee (Abraham and his nation) and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” Genesis 12:3.

Strangely, even in the most simply applied limited understanding of this promise, the promise is historically discovered to be true as evidenced by the trackable relationship between how America blesses Israel and our seemingly disconnected successes, and likewise between how America curses Israel and our seemingly disconnected failures.
Dividing their land or sending significant armament to The Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is a biggie, so watch America’s situation significantly deteriorate if this is not stopped before it is completed…
That’s the simple version of blessing/cursing Israel for no other reason than they are the People of God.

But like the Orthodox Jews wearing those silly boxes on their foreheads and hands as technically commanded, there is a whole lot more to the command than the simple obedience to the letter without having a clue to the real intent (spirit) of the command. It’s the exact same thing with our recent discussion of Sabbaths, Pork, and Christmastrees… as well as circumcision;
Is God really going to punish the Jew for not wearing that silly box? No, just as Christians are not punished for breaking these commands…IF we comprehend and obey the actual point! (Romans 14:2-8). The second-generation Jew got across the Jordan being uncircumcised.

So, to see through the indoctrinated confusion as a result of corrupted perception regarding the historical Jews, we must first use a more recent example, that although has also been corrupted to produce yet another layer of confusion in order to hide the truth from us, we are nonetheless near enough to the history that we can still find our way through the corruption to find the truth.
Are you still with me or did I loose you back there? Simply put; we are going to use the more recent historical corruption of Christianity as and evidential example of the much older corruption of Judaism in order to comprehend the failure of the Jews so that we can comprehend in Type the failure that we are experiencing as a Christian nation.
So without further ado let’s begin:
* * *

"Christianity"; The Most Familiar Yin (Comparable Darkness):
“Why does the world hate Christians?” To the simple Christ follower this is a mystery because Christ is the epitome of Love and Hope and Peace and Patience and Brotherly Kindness (Galatians 5:22-23, II Peter 1:4-8).
“Who wouldn’t want any of that as a neighbor?”
But to the fearful world living with common deception and skepticism as a familiar way of life, they are looking for the underhand with the knife hidden behind the happy presentation;
“What’s the angle? Nobody’s that selfless.”
This fear and skepticism is supported not only by their own deceptive and hateful nature of upbringing, but also by the bloodthirsty history of the Catholic Church that ruled the world from Rome with a “Christian” iron rod. Forget that it made a special glory in burning to death millions of actual Christians (Fox’s Book of Martyrs), the Roman Catholic Church was the “Christian” enemy of “Peaceful” Islam in the Crusades, and that is proof enough that Christianity is evil and must be destroyed as the ultimate blackness of Yin to which Islam is then the white alternative of Yang by default.

Now if we just leave that black-and-white concept of a “duel” Christianity of “Christians” killing Christians, on the surface it speaks huge volumes of reason that can likewise be used to wisely address both Judaism and Islam in the same way, which we will do later. But if we dig deeper into the complexities of the Catholic Church it will startle most Christians to find that most everything the Catholic Church did can be earnestly supported in the Holy Bible as God’s intended purpose for the faith. Now of course we know that is not at all what God had in mind, but by missing the heart of the word, the letter of the word can’t help but be easily misinterpreted and applied fully in a horrific corruption of its actual intent and purpose while remaining confident that it is the written will of God:

“...not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” II Corinthians 3:6.

“They ("the Jew/Christian") shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you (the Actual Jew/Christian) will think that he doeth God service” John 16:2 (see also: Matthew 10:16-23, Mark 13:9-13).

By the Spiritless application of the letter of the law, the Catholic Church may not have been technically flawed in their use of the minute details, but they will be harshly judged by the spirit of the law for their grave error of total misapplication (Romans 2:12, Matthew 6:23, Luke 11:34-35). I will show this is also applied directly to both Judaism and Islam for likewise missing the whole point of the faith while applying it with great diligence and intensity. In this way the earnest inquirer can see a great distinction between the true faith and the illusion with the same name, and the practitioner with a dark heart cannot see the grave error of their “same” faith, while the uninterested world simply condemns in confidence the whole faith as being dangerously “whacked.”
More recently, until the present Administration, the same historical Catholic illusion of Political “Christianity” in power, was found within the “democratic Christian” Church population of reprobates in a democratically run U.S. Government which was called “Christian.” But although harder to identify from the outside than the former powerful Vatican, the distinction is still as great and the consequences are too. There is simply NOTHING Christian about the Catholic kind of “Christianity” except for a grand illusion of Chicken Whaling under the flag of Christ, and to the whole world, Catholicism IS Christianity… brotherhood with Islam (*2), long history of protecting pedophile sodomite priests (*3), and all.

But to complicate the complexities, the Catholic Church puts on a forced show of struggling with condemning these heinous sins while accepting the sinning priests, condemning terrorism while pacting with Islam, etc., and thereby justifies the “Christianity” of itself by its democratically understood “love of Christ” to mean tolerance, and thereby succeeding in completely ejecting the “contending” Christians from globally accepted “Christianity.” In otherwords; the Roman Catholic Church has never stopped “killing” Christians, they just do it now in an indirect way through the Peace of tolerance as Judge, in direct disobedience to the Commands of God while using his very words to do it!:

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;” Matthew 5:43.

Since Christians are adamant that sodomiting pedophiles not be priests in God’s house according to God’s law (Leviticus 18:22, Deuteronomy 23:17, Romans 1:27= I Timothy 3:1-13, Titus 1:7-14), Christians are seen as judgmental and unloving and therefore they must be condemned as socially dangerous-- ignoring the fact that such condemnation is itself the judgmental attitude presumably being condemned in the Christian who simply strives to obey the spirit of Gods word: “Do not sin”! (I John 3:6-10). This is simply a single example of the many complex complexities of a faith so fully corrupted that the true faith is long lost to the masses in the wake of the great whaling ship now bearing that name, plowing ahead with its own complexities to solve as it flamboyantly departs the harbor in grandeur to hunt for public safety a ridiculously insignificant and dangerous prey… the chicken.
* * *

Judaism; The Other Yin (Comparable Darkness):
By understanding the two “kinds” of Christianity, with each version itself struggling with hypocrisy within its ranks-- where the most obvious version is always abominably hypocritical at its core-- we can glean new concepts regarding Judaism:
“Why does the world so persistently hate these people?”
If you are a common Jew the perception is about the long unspeakable suffering and the refusal to yet be allowed equal nation status; “Surely the historical oppressions of Iran, or Pakistan, or North Korea, or Cambodia, or most African Countries, or any number of other nations, is greater than anything the Jews might have done to deserve such long term hatred among the nations.”
But in a paranoid world of common guilt, the world is looking for someone to blame; a Yin to validate their Yang. And the little guy is most easily kicked as the fall-guy. But there is a far darker reason that parallels the powerful “Christian” Catholic Church of hateful oppression. We find that greater darkness embodied in the 22 volume Babylonian Talmud (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud)(http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/talmud.htm) of Orthodox Judaism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_Judaism).

Like the Catholic Church that so successfully replaced true Christianity that the world sees Christianity as that abomination, so Judaism has much longer been adulterated into a similar vial whore. If you think Islam goes to extremes to defend their prophet Mohammad just look through the history of Judaism regarding their Talmud and its Orthodox Rabbis; every criticism of them is historically seen as anti-Semitic and therefore violently rejected outright as dangerous hate-speech against “the Jews” and needful of immediate suppression to defend the faith. This paranoid self-defense protects the crazed perspective of “Judaism” from any reasonable evaluation that might reveal some flaws in an honest effort to help bring it back into reality of God’s intent. Between the Paganized Jew and the Orthodox Jew, are the much fewer Reformed and Conservative Jews (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative _Judaism), and among them are some who hold to the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) rather than the Talmud (in essence the exposition of the Tanakh). The world knows very little or nothing about these who actually try to keep the original faith-- albeit without the temple and sacrifices-- among the many more who support Orthodox “Judaism,” which is the Great Adulteress of all manner of abominations through the Babylonian Talmud (BT), (see Judaism’s Strange Gods - by Michael Hoffman, for a plethora of shocking details of unspeakable depravity). Every wickedness done to the Jew by the Muslim in faith, is already exampled in faith by the Orthodox “Jew” to those not of their faith (*4). The Babylonian Talmud is of the house of Satan himself, but bearing God’s name among God’s people, in the complexity of enhancing the understanding of the real thing (the Tanakh), it masquerades as the Faith of God till in confusion we don’t even know it should be distinguished from the real thing so long ago buried and forgotten in the ruins of their old culture destroyed by God for its transgressions as exampled in the days of king Josiah (II Chronicles 34:15,18-21).

To condense a very large historical study topic; the Babylonian Talmud is the Rabbi’s exposition on the Hebrew bible. And because there is now no temple or sacrifice, the explanations of the Talmud is actually seen as superior to the “obviously flawed” Tanakh that requires a sacrifice for salvation which is no longer possible (without God’s prophesied Christ as THE sacrifice, which they flatly refuse as an option). The additional complexity is that more recently in history Jerusalem and the temple were again destroyed in 70 AD and at this time the Orthodox “Jews” publicly mourned the “obvious failure” of the word of God and so turned even more earnestly to the ancient Judaic works that were drummed up in the Babylonian Captivity of 587 BC while among the strangers and their gods. Not having a Jewish temple in which to sacrifice for the cleansing of their sins they plowed ahead with their Godless interpretation of God’s word and couldn’t help but apply a “Babylonian slant” to their Judaism which thereby fulfilled Deuteronomy 31:16 shown above, resulting in this end:

“…and will forsake (5800) me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.”

Forsaking God. That’s not your typical rebellion against God-- which he can correct with discipline-- No, it’s a relinquishment of what you held… even while thinking to still belong by retaining the name; “God’s People” (Jeremiah 2:10-13). This is folly.

Forsake 5800 ‘azab; a primitive root; to loosen, i.e. relinquish, permit, etc.: -- commit self, fail, forsake, fortify, help, leave (destitute, off), refuse, X surely.

That verbal work of Jewish Rabbis-- while in captivity for their corruption of the faith-- re-wrote the very intent of the scriptures by manipulating the exquisite details word-by-word without God’s Spirit of intent. The results are accurately exampled by the silly boxes and dorky spit curls with religiously warn, and often uselessly tiny, hats (I Corinthians 11:4) that supposedly gets them into God’s good graces by diligent works while their heart is as black as the sides of the bottomless pit, successfully ejecting from the faith all those who actually hunger to know God through the truth of his inspired word. Do you suppose I am a bit harsh and judgmental? I am simply expressing the thoughts in the words of Jesus himself:

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves” Matthew 23:15.

“Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit (see Jude 1:12).
O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” Matthew 12:33-34.

“Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?...” Matthew 23:33+

But to make sure the complexities are good and complex, the Talmud alone is not good enough to pervert the Tanakh beyond recovery; we need even more compounding layers to ensure the actual word of God is left so far behind in perversion that it will never be recovered as the Jewish faith!
And so we see that although the Babylonian Talmud, verbally compiled ironically by iniquitous priests in captivity for their Romans 1:18 unrighteous handling of God’s word, it was finally written into the document it is today by a long chain of later “professionals” who studied it as superior to God’s actual Holy Word. In this long chain of generations are complexities unsurpassed… (until this next age now rising). In the pages of Judaism’s Strange Gods Michael Hoffman does a great job of briefly outlining this long chain as each addition plays against/and with the previous interpretations of the Babylonian Talmud to result in such a quagmire of documents upon documents, which must all be studied, that no one could possibly sort it out to reach God’s intent.

The Mishnah, the Tosefta, the Gemara, the Zohar, all are complex additions and re-interpretations of the works before them as they each try to explain and perfect the Talmud in ever greater detail like the myriad of laws produced every year by each new Congress of the United States as they try to “perfect” the previous works of the Congresses before them in complete forsaking of the original 4 page Constitution. And then in addition the Judicial system of Judges goes about re-interpreting the intent of those laws and interpretations until nobody has a clue what the writers of those additions actually had in mind, let alone the founder’s original laws. In otherwords; the Babylonian Talmud is a living document that can only be correctly interpreted by the Catholic-Priest type Rabbis, which take all those inter-woven layers of older works and add their own agendas while claiming “nearly” divine authority through interpretation.

The Rabbinic Eras (first two centuries AD), the Amoraic Era (300-600AD), the Geonic Era (600-1000AD), the Commentaries of Rashi on the Chumash (1040-1105AD), the Mishneh Torah of Moses Maimonides (1135-1204), The Tur (1250-1328), The Shulchan Aruch (1488-1575), The Bach (1561-1640), The Taz (1586-1667), The Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (1804-1886), the Aruch HaShulchan (1829-1888), and the The Mishneh Berurah (1838-1933), all are works that cannot and do not abrogate the previous works, but simply complex them even more - (compiled and further condensed from Judaism’s Strange Gods p.62-71).

Please allow a single example of the details:
The “Aruch HaShulchan. Compiled by Rabbi Yechiel Michel Epstein (1829-1888).
In Aruch HaShulchan, Epstein cites the source of each law as found in the Talmud and Maimonides, and states the halakhic decision as found in the Shulchan Aruch with the glosses of Rema. When he deems it necessary, he also cites the precedents of other Rishonim (pre-1550 authorities), and especially Acharonim (later authorities). Epstein considers the glosses of the Rema on Rabbi Joseph Karo at great lengths. The Aruch HaShulchan follows the structure of the Tur and the Shulchan Aruch: a division into four large parts, subdivided into parallel chapters (simanim). These are further subdivided into paragraphs (se’ifim). In his work, Rabbi Epstein tends to take a lenient view (lekula), but decidedly without compromising in any form the power and jurisdiction of the rabbis. Aruch HaShulchan is often quoted alongside the Mishnah Berurah. The Aruch HaShulchan refers in number of its sections to the Mishnah Berurah. The Aruch HaShulchan has a wider scope than the Mishnah Berurah.” - Michael Hoffman Judaism’s Strange Gods p.66-67.

And that is only one description in the above long list of interconnected works!

And that is only one description in the above long list of interconnected works! As you can see even without all the additional details, the complexity of Orthodox “Judaism” is extremely complex and this allows the Rabbis to claim that only they and their lifelong devotion to the study can rightly interpret God’s intent, and anyone who dares to argue with them is to be treated with the utmost severity as an ignorant heretic dangerous to the faith. Does that remind you of anything Catholic? or perhaps Muslim? It is identical! “Death to the unbeliever in the name of God!” and that includes internal variations.
But being careful to be open and honest for the purpose of a genuine evaluation, this seems to appear close to my own claims that to actually know God (I John 2:13a) it takes a devoted life that many Christians are simply not willing to choose. Yet the difference, the very important difference, is that I am not claiming exclusive interpretation that you must follow from an unending list of new interpretations that claim they too were inspired, all which make irrelevant the original. In fact I am trying very hard to get you to grow your own relationship with God through the three stages of maturity (I John 2:14-21: children, youth, and then fathers), and after you learn to recognize the nature of God’s voice in His word (even perhaps through exploring my work as you mature), He will then speak His heart to you too, via a voice recognized by the familiarity (John 10:4) of his singular Word.
But like the Jews, like the Muslims, like the Catholics; people claiming to be Christians would rather just blindly follow a leader rather than do the difficult work of actually learning to follow God himself, and we end up with a Calvinism vs. Armenianism/Democrat vs. Republican kind of fighting one against the other in the Palestinian "love-rocket" kind of way against their brothers as mutual sons of Abraham (Mark 3:25, Matthew 12:25). An exposition is NEVER to supersede or replace God’s word as the Talmud has superseded the Tanakh (*5).

So if the majority of religious Jews are Orthodox, and if the authority of the Jewish faith is in agreement, then is Judaism the great darkness that their Muslim neighbors think they see? And just how blessed will we be to blanketly side with a people who have rejected Jehovah’s actual faith originated through Abraham and the Type sacrifice of his son, but utterly lost along the way through a misapplication of the Law of Moses by so many levels of bastardization?
This is a very tough question, and even tougher to answer intellectually. But what we do know clearly is that God actually stands actively against such an organization of corruption (Deuteronomy 4:1-3) and everyone within its reach suffers the effects, innocent or not (Numbers 25:1-3)-- though the innocent don’t get destroyed with the wicked when the judgment of God comes (Deuteronomy 4:4, Numbers 25:11). But don’t forget the thirty six that fell in Ai because of Achan’s sin (Joshua 7:5); obviously there are complexities in the spiritual realm just like there are in the physical; “simple” rarely explains everything in a single sentence though it can provide a general concept that “usually” explains “most” cases.
Generally, the reason for the general suffering is because the people collectively desire the “social authority” as a replacement to the work of personal faith that God requires (just as "Christians" do today). In the time of Christ the Jewish people actually wanted Jesus, not as Messiah but as king, to defend them against the cruel Romans (Luke 19:11) that disrupted their “we’re God’s people” lifestyle of independence. But in the same spirit of following that they offered Christ, they let their “ordained leaders” led them out of their weak personal faith in Jesus, and in willing ignorance they turned their teeth on him crying “Crucify Him!” Such weak faith is incapable of standing on its own feet among social err… even when Christ is the Rock on which they stand! Any wind of doctrine will blow them over (Ephesians 4:14), but it’s a good-looking faith as long as the skies are calm… like they have been in America for more than a full generation now.
But the wind is about to blow like it has never blown before! And the trees are about to fall like timber before the shockwave of Mt. St. Helens (*6). The obvious darkness in the failures of the Jewish and Christian faiths is the Yin that Islam will use to compare its Yang of light to the world in the effort to sell their brand of darkness, which although violent, is far less appearing hypocritically flawed. (To be continued).
* * * * * * *

(*1) The Cursed Earth; Malachi 4:6.
This topic is worth an entire study (PLEASE read Deuteronomy 28:15-68) but the Lord has shown me that my work is not supposed to be a 22-Book Exposition on the scriptures to keep you from searching it out yourself with God. My work is only supposed to be a clear warning against neglecting God and His Book, and a guided example for wetting the appetite to encourage you to hunger after God himself and learn how to hear from his Spirit the secrets he wants to share with you personally.
So along those lines let me simply suggest that the earth was blessed in the glory of the Church Age, when America was organized under the authority and submission to Jesus Christ, and blessed the world’s nations as a byproduct. But that age is at its end and the result is a new reality where good does not always prevail, right does not always have the might, and instead of a natural blessing, even Christians will find the very cosmos seeming to fight against them in their everyday life because the earth is cursed. This is because the Authority and Power of God has again been relinquished to the Devil on an international scale by the American Christians, who were divinely given that Authority to Govern by law but chose to let it slip, i.e. forsake.

“Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s suffering; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” I Peter 4:12-13.

What’s done is done, don’t beat yourself up over your part in bringing this on (other than repent), or don’t spend any time defending that you had no part in it (which simply reveals ignorant pride). It is what it is by national choice and now it’s ours to live out individually. Don’t fret, but instead rejoice by a new focus of perspective: Like giving top military weapons to the Muslim Brotherhood; the giants just got a whole lot bigger! But it’s still our job to cross and enter this war with the same expectation that Yeshua will prevail in his classically unorthodox way, it’s going to be nothing like what we have already seen!
In Leviticus 26:20 It’s not like “their” godless trees will not produce but “your” trees will because you are a Christian, this is a regional thing at best and a national thing more likely, with international consequences until it becomes global, but either way the message is clear that the curse is a universal thing as a result of God’s people failing their job; even faithful Daniel went as a captive into Babylon with the rest of his people that caused the fall. OWN IT for the glory of God, but be careful to justify God in the new undesirable circumstances by understanding that this is our own doing! “If there really is a loving God why would he allow all the suffering in the world?” If you don’t have an answer now, what will you say when things get a whole lot worse?

(*2) Catholic/Islamic Coalition:
“ROME - Proof has emerged for the first time of a Catholic-Muslim pact to forge a common strategy to combat the United Nations plan on population and development. There had been considerable comment about the coincidence of views of the Vatican and many Islamic countries in opposing much of the UN document, especially its provisions concerning abortion and artificial means of birth control.
New evidence shows that this 'Holy Alliance' was carefully co-ordinated, and may signal a new global alliance of the traditional religious authorities to confront what they see as the main dangers facing society today: secularism, consumerism, and the focus on the individual at the expense of the collective.
A three-page document in Arabic secured by La Repubblica (the Independent's sister paper in Italy) records the agreement reached at a meeting on 8 June between senior Vatican officials, including two monsignors, and the representatives of three leading pan-Islamic groups.
The signatories were Mgr Mounghed el Hashim of the office of the Vatican Secretary of State; Mgr Carrascosa Coso Andrez, a diplomat in charge of relations with foreign states; and Father Thomas Michel, head of the Islamic section of the Papal Council for interfaith dialogue. Their co-signatories were Monsef Klibi, of the Islamic Conference Organisation; Abdullah Abdel Shakour of the World Islamic League; and Mohamed al-Bar of the World Islamic Conference.
The three Muslim representatives were invited by the Holy See to the Vatican to discuss the most controversial points of the UN document. They looked at questions of the sanctity of human life, the role of the family and sexual licence. In their common statement they said that they 'opposed the individualistic approach towards life' which pervaded the UN document, to the detriment of family life and the health of society as a whole.” - "The Independent" Thursday September 8, 1994 (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/world-polulation-conference-vatican-and-islamic-clerics-made-holy-pact-on-abortion-interfaith-alliance-forged-in-rome-to-fight-un-strategy-for-termination-and-birth-control-1447440.html).

(*3) Pedophile Case Leads To Civil Lawsuit Against Roman Catholic Church:
“An onslaught of sexual abuse cases continue to tarnish the once pristine name of the Roman Catholic Church. Subsequently, leading society to become more aware of the great struggle and pain that has resulted from the incidents of sexual abuse of minors by the Catholic clergy. August 31, 2011 witnessed a Rancho Cucamonga court room sentence Reverend Alejandro Jose Castillo to one year in jail for molesting a 12-year-old boy in Ontario. Furthermore, the victim has recently filed a civil lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino for knowingly subjecting him to a pedophile. The prosecution of Reverend Castillo is just one of many recent clergy sexual abuse cases that suggest church officials may have knowingly placed children in the custody of repeat sex offenders…Unfortunately, Castillo’s conviction is just one of many clergy sexual abuse cases. An influx of documents have surfaced that detail the accounts of church officials knowingly placing boys in the custody of pedophiles. Furthermore, one of Castillo’s alleged victims has officially filed a civil lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino for knowingly placing him in the custody of a priest who had already confessed to committing lewd and lascivious acts with children. The lawsuit, naming the Rev. Alejandro Jose Castillo, was announced last Thursday at a news conference in front of the Our Lady of Guadalupe school in Ontario…” - "The Senators Firm" (http://www.thesenatorsfirm.com/pedophile-case-leads-to-civil-lawsuit-against-roman-catholic-church).

Los Angeles Catholic officials shielded pedophile priests: report
“(Reuters) - Two Catholic Church officials in California plotted to conceal child molestation by priests from law enforcement as late as 1987, the Los Angeles Times reported on Monday, citing newly released internal Church records.
The records show that Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony, who is now retired, and his top adviser on child sex abuse cases, Monsignor Thomas Curry, worked with other Church officials in 1987 to send priests accused of abuse out of state to avoid prosecution, the newspaper said…The sex abuse scandal has rocked the Catholic Church in the United States, costing it billions of dollars in settlements and driving prominent dioceses into bankruptcy.
The scandal erupted in the United States in 1992 with a series of sex abuse cases uncovered in the Archdiocese of Boston that helped encourage other victims of abuse to come forward.” - "Chicago Tribune" (http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-01-21/news/sns-rt-us-usa-church-abusebre90l06d-20130121_1_internal-church-records-priests-abuse-cases).

(*4a) Jews and Christians are apes and pigs
Qu’ran Suras: 7:166, 2:65, and 5:60:
“But when even after this they [the Jews] disdainfully persisted in that from which they were forbidden, We said to them, "Become apes—despised and disgraced!"” Sura 7:166 (Maududi).
“And you know well the story of those [Jews] among you who broke Sabbath. We said to them: "Be apes—despised and hated by all." 66 “Thus We made their end a warning to the people of their time and succeeding generation, and an admonition for God-fearing people.” Sura 2:65 (Maududi).
“Then say: "Should I inform you [People of the Book (; i.e. Jews and Christians respectively)] of those, who will have even worse recompense from Allah than the transgressors? They are those whom Allah has cursed; who have been under His wrath; some of whom were turned into apes and swine; who worshipped taghut [the devil or idols]; those are the people who are in a far worse plight and who have turned farthest away from the Right Way." Sura 5:60 (Maududi).

“O Muslims, the Jews are treacherous and deceitful people over whom lies the curse and anger of Allah. They permitted what Allah forbade, with the lamest of excuses; therefore, He cursed them and turned them into apes and pigs. Allah sentenced them to humiliation anywhere they might be ...” - Sheikh Muhammad Al-Saleh Al-‘Athimein in a sermon at the Great Mosque in Al-‘Unayza, Arabia: - (http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/1049.htm).

“At the Sheikh Ijlin Mosque in Gaza, Sheikh Ibrahim Mudeiris, employee in the Religious Affairs Ministry in the Palestinian Authority, uses the Battle of Badr (AD 624) as a rallying cry for his fellow jihadists to fight the Jews, who are the descendants of apes and pigs.
Then came the great battle of Badr, where the Muslims grew stronger. This brought the third stage of dealing with the Jewish existence in Al-Madina. “We have tolerated you for a long time - you offspring of apes and pigs! We have tolerated you for a long time.”” - (http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/1089.htm).

These excerpts from a very worthwhile read of fair explanation by James M. Arlandson: “Did Allah transform Jews into apes and pigs?” (http://answering-islam.org/Authors/Arlandson/jew_apes.htm).

(*4b) Gentiles are like donkeys and they exist only to serve Jews:
“Goyim (non-Jews) were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world - only to serve the People of Israel…With gentiles, it will be like any person - they need to die, but [God] will give them longevity. Why? Imagine that one’s donkey would die, they’d lose their money. This is his servant… That’s why he gets a long life, to work well for this Jew. Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat. That is why gentiles were created.” - Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, senior Sephardic posek and head of the Shas Council of Torah Sages. Sermon on the laws regarding non-Jews. Source: “Yosef: Gentiles exist only to serve Jews,” Jerusalem Post, October 18, 2010. [Just one example of many in Michael Hoffman’s work of exposure].

The grave danger in such a detailed examination is that by addressing the serious flaws in the subverted faith of the Jews and Christians it appears as if we are condemning the true Jews and Christians and thereby commending the Muslim faith by osmosis. But don’t forget that it was indeed God himself who sent both the Assyrian and Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to conquer God’s own people for their iniquities. And although fully Pagan and never claimed by God to be a Jew, God nonetheless used Nebuchadnezzar’s own choices to do God’s violent will upon God’s people (Jeremiah 25:9). In effect the Pagan Babylonians were more righteous than the Jews! Today, the Muslims, though worshiping Satan himself under the name of Allah, are nonetheless more righteous than the Christians... because they actually believe in the god of their faith, shown through their works of obedience. God has more mercy upon these than his own willful people… though they will pay a heavy price for the pleasure they take in abusing God’s rebellious children:

“And I (God) am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease: for I was but a little displeased (with my people) but they helped forward the affliction” Zechariah 1:15.

In this way we begin to comprehend our very complex reality as a scripted play, where each actor plays his part with his own “style” that either pleases the director (God) or offends him.
Now note in the above Suras, the interesting specifics of the Qur’an’s additional words “and swine” when referring to the generic people of the book, which includes Christians, while the earlier single use of “apes” alone was used to describe Jews without the Christians. In this way we can see an undeclared distinction that seems to apply with greater depth than an arbitrary selection of a few animal types to describe God’s displeasure. Jews as apes and apes as lesser-evolved beings, describes the Muslims as having an evolved faith beyond the pre-historic faith of the Jews. Christians as swine and swine as the scriptural representation of hypocrisy, describes the Muslims as having a true faith compared to the hypocritical faith of Christians who have abandon everything of the faith but the “free ticket to heaven” and love to consume pork (a “you-are-what-you-eat” kind of thing). This mockery of Christ, I showed described in Post 250 “Beauty and the Beast” (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2012/06/beauty-and-beast_12.html).
Dear Christian, do not be startled to discover that Satan now has the power to prophesy and use truth in his subversion of God’s seat (Ezekiel 28:3 speaking of Satan), which has been his game all along: (“Hath God Said?”). Just DON’T get caught up in the investigation of his material just because it may contain truth, it is VERY corrosive! Much more on this as we continue.

(*5) The Danger of Exposition:
My growing fear for Christianity is the now familiar fall to this danger shown in the long complex work of the Talmud. Today in the genuine effort to help Christians understand God’s word, we have a whole long complex list appearing quite similar to that of the Rabbis:

• The 23 volume “Pulpit Commentary” - Edited by Josheph Exell and H.D.M. Spence,
• The 29 volume “MacArthur New Testament Commentary”,
• The 20 volume “Holman Old Testament Commentary”,
• The 6 volume “Matthew Henry’s” Commentary on the whole bible,
• The 13 volume “Expositor’s Bible Commentary - Revised” featuring the work of 56 contributors,
• The 14 Volume “Church Dogmatics” by Karl Barth,
• Etc., etc.,
• The many “versions” of the bible with intent to make it easier to understand,
• And the countless books that attempt that purpose with less than divine claims.

I am not criticizing these works individually as they can and often do provide great aid to the growing Christian, but somewhere along the way we just might find ourselves with the “Christian Talmud” that supersedes the Bible because “nobody can understand it without such helps” and with them we don’t even need the Spirit of God to explain it! In fact we don’t even need the word of God anymore. I see signs of this already today as some very respected prophetic expositors now hold their former works on “Revived Rome” as at the inspired level held for the Talmud. This is folly.
My warning is that if we are a people that use these helps to understand God’s word, never trying it ourselves, it is because we are not full of the Holy Ghost and therefore in great danger of not even being Christians!
Are you young in the faith as a little child? Use the helps by all means. But never forget that the goal is to become a father (mature believer teaching others) who knows God both experientially and historically, and that you are, even now as a child, more equipped toward that ability than you think!

“I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning.
I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one.
I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father” I John 2:13.

Although the reason seems to be nearly identical for the little children as for the mature fathers, we see in the later details of v.15-17 that John goes into great instruction for the young men regarding their overcoming that is merely noted in this passage, and so we also see that John likewise goes into great detail of instruction for the little children in v.18-29. In that instruction we are surprised to learn that even as little children we have reason and cause to know the father already, maybe not as from the beginning, but we know him!

“But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things. I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth” I John 2:20-21.

So if children know the truth, why is John bothering to write instruction to them? It’s because they are little children! They need intelectual instruction.
But what John is saying in his instruction is that they already have the God provided ability to know truth from the lie in what they hear, if they will just use it. And his instruction uses that ability to confirm his needed instruction of warning:

“Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us” I John 2:18-19.

Did you hear that? The many antichrists were not wild fringe groups of bald guys in orange jumpsuits; No, the antichrists originated from within the Church! “They went out from us.”
John is explaining to the new Christians how to tell the good guys from the bad guys when the bad guys use our own words and doctrines and mutual history! Rick Warren and his “Purpose Driven Church” is just such an antichrist. Pay attention to God’s Holy Ghost unction that resides in your spirit if you are a true Christian. You don’t need to be 40 years into the faith with a monk-like devotion of study to make this discernment! But you do need to be devoted to God and constantly learning.
Remember, all three levels of maturity crossed the Jordan; the fathers, the young men, and the little children. And while the little children might not have fought and overcome like the young men, they had an unction of the Holy Ghost and were used by God in a variety of ways; perhaps providing protection through prayer, or provoking the right military thought by asking the right question at the right time in the innocent “wisdom of a child”, or identifying a double agent within the stuff at the rear of camp because he just “seemed off,” or even as seemingly insignificant as to bringing water and bread to those who needed it to sustain them in the fight (prayer and finances). To God, nobody is insignificant or useless; it’s just that some are more useful than others because they have prepared themselves in the Lord. Although quite useful, it may be a bit embarrassing to be a healthy strapping young man… who can do nothing but “point at the enemy” because you neglected your preparation:

“Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon (the foundation of Christ: v.11), he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” I Corinthians 3:13-15.

While the work done is obviously important, the foundation upon which the work is built is, by far, more important, as we will see in the next Posts.

(*6) Mt. St. Helens (http://www.fs.usda.gov/mountsthelens):
“At 8:32 Sunday morning, May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens erupted and blew down or scorched 230 square miles of forest…”
*

Completing The Preparation

Post 286

As you will remember, we recently jumped ahead in the Exodus narrative ( Post 284 http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-disquieted-earth.html) and crossed the Jordan for some important conceptual information regarding Achan, but that is not where we actually are right now as a nation or as a world environment.
“So where are we then?”
I tremble to even write it and therefore confirm it, but say it or not, it is still true; we are not at the beginning where the people of God are given the land, but rather at the end where the people of God get ejected from the land; we are at the turning point of the earth’s cursing of Malachi 4:6 (Genesis 4:11-12, 12:3, Job 24:13-25, Isaiah 24:5-6, Jeremiah 26:6, 44:7-11, Zechariah 5:3-4) because we have not turned the hearts of our fathers to their children and the children to their fathers, we are failing Luke 1:17 because we are not collectively an army of people prepared for the Lord by turning our disobedient hearts to the wisdom of the just. We are the next generation, Typed as the Jews returned to their homeland after being dispersed for so long but still not prepared to possess it. We are, at best, the children trying to reclaim a land about lost by those parents who raised us. Let’s review these passages:

“And he (Elijah) shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse” Malachi 4:6 [the last verse of the Old Testament].

“And he (John) shall go before him in the spirit of and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord” Luke 1:17.

Therefore, if we actually tried to cross the Jordan now to reclaim the kingdom of heaven as we should, we would experience total failure by the multiplied sins of the Christian masses in the declared principle that even one of God’s people can defile many, just as Achan did:

“Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled; lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright” Hebrews 12:15-16.

“Did not Achan the son of Zerah commit a trespass in the accursed thing, and wrath fell on all the congregation of Israel? And that man perished not alone in his iniquity” Joshua 22:20.

Remember, it was the root of bitterness in the heart of Simon (Acts 8:20-23) that focused on money as the cure for his Hunger just as did Achan (Joshua 7:21), and now we see it all drawing together in comprehension of why Peter was so hard on Simon regarding his iniquity addiction. Peter was deeply concerned for the whole congregation and so had to immediately squelch Simon’s foolishness as quickly as possible lest the trouble of Achan befall them all, or at least many, in a great confusion and falling away (II Thessalonians 2:3).
Remember, after the traumatic failure at Ai, where about 36 Israelites fell and God’s people became fearful in their hearts and Israel fled before their enemies (Joshua 7:4-5), Joshua was greatly troubled and went before the Lord in confusion asking for answers as to why God seemed to fail a righteous people who crossed the river in faith and boldness and went obediently to war at God’s command (Joshua 7:6-9).
The Lord replied, rather curtly:

“And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Israel hath sinned…” Joshua 7:10-11a.

How often we turn to God in self-righteous ignorance asking why he has failed us, when in effect God replies; “Hey, it’s not my doing! I didn’t fail you; You failed you!” And now, like king David at the threshing-floor-slaying of Uzzah (II Samuel 6:6-9), we must go back through the record to figure out what specifically went wrong, because I thought they “could do no wrong” when they trusted God (I John 3:9):

“There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them” Joshua 1:5-6.

So how is it that God seemed to go back on this promise? It’s because you cannot extract only the favorable parts of a covenant to get it the way you want it; that promise has more to it and contingencies are a part of the fulfillment process, even though they are not a factor of whether the promise will be ultimately fulfilled or not. The promise will be kept, but like the Exodus Generation found out; it wasn’t necessarily fulfilled in their lifetime because of their sin, and as Achan found out; not everyone gets to receive the promise, even if you say the magic words (Isaiah 29:13). Those factors are contingent upon obedience to the conditions:

“Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” Joshua 1:7-8.

It is curious how easy it is to miss very important parts while thinking we understand everything. Take this excerpt for an example:

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth;…”, does that mean we are not to repeat what the book says? Obviously not, so why word it like this? It’s because of the importance of the following part;

“but thou shalt meditate therein day and night,…” Putting those together we discover a very curious command with contingencies: “don’t even repeat the words of this book unless you are meditating in it day and night.” Why? The next part tell us:

“that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein:…” What we end up with a new comprehension of this command for expositors and teachers and even laymen who love to instruct in God’s word:

“Don’t even dare quote a passage of this Holy book unless you are very current by application, and deeply intimate with the book by daily study of earnest contemplation in the Spirit of God regarding what it says.”

How’s that for explaining the daily and early collection and use of Manna that melts in the afternoon sun (sin) and grows worms overnight (Exodus 16:15-16,19-26). This is not a command to avoid quoting the Book but rather a command to remain steadfastly seeking and applying its secrets of application on a continual daily basis.
This passage warns us that the Christian who studied the bible back in seminary or Bible school has nothing valuable to say if he has not maintained a constant contemplation of the scriptures daily. In fact, what he does say in his “I already know God’s word” contention of intellectual arrogance will only add worms of destruction not blessing, as the next verse outlines the way of success;

“for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.”

King David figured out, by earnest search, that they had violated God’s command regarding the transportation of the Ark (I Chronicles 15:15 via Numbers 4:15), and Joshua figured out by revelation that Achan had violated his commandment from the Lord:

“And ye, in any wise keep yourselves from the accursed thing, lest ye make yourselves accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it” Joshua 6:18.

How was Achan to know what was and was not accursed?

“But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, (of Jericho) are consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD” Joshua 6:19.

Achan did not do what he did in ignorance; it was because of his bitter Hunger that his heart was not right in the sight of the Lord before he went into the battle of Jericho, and so he had already reasoned away the specifics of the commandment regarding the trifle that he coveted when he saw it…and many fell with him by association in a completely different battle.
“OK, so where does that leave us today?”
* * *

Application:
Yes, the next generation of Christians are at the Jordan River crossing, but we are the children of those who already crossed! This is a Hypercube thing not a linear timeline thing, but by folding the Hypercube into a singular existence of four-dimensions we find our place as Typed on the timeline in more than one location, so we are actually Typed further into the linear narrative by the Children of Judah in the time of Menassah and Amon (II Chronicles 33:1-24). Please take the time to read this chapter as it is itself the Type of Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar of Daniel 1-5, which we discussed in Post 149 America in Prophecy (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2011/01/america-in-prophecy.html).
The second-generation does not get the utter failure and then restoration that their parents got, because the children are suppose to learn from their parent’s experiences (Leviticus 10:1-2). This can only be done when their hearts are united together between father and son, and not in the self-seeking pride of teenage rebellion that America waves off as typical for a child, or in the pride of the father who refuses to admit his own faults that his children so easily see. We are only going to succeed at this if the generations of experience work together with the next generation of present action. As the saying goes;

“Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it” - Edmund Burke.

With that in mind:
Today, the most direct opposition to our God is again rising to rule the Earth. This is not a paranoid theory of Islamaphobia; rather it is openly stated by Islam as the ultimate goal. Therefore, as the second-generation American people of Yeshua it is our duty to stand against this Great Evil in the name of our God as did our forefathers and our Hebrew Type before us. It is our duty to God, and to the planet...But;
We are not prepared to succeed: we have prepared ourselves to fail!

So in our last-minute preparations let’s further examine where we are specifically failing our duty:

In Strength, we started off well and until recently have been doing “so/so” on a downward trend; Temporally in national armament, Politically in international respect, and Spiritually under the name of Christ as a Christian nation. But of late, all these have suddenly been taking-a-dive in the boxing ring; we have simply thrown the fight (*1) and someone other than us gets the payout for it.
In Courage, we have long been failing pathetically, as Christianity has slowly become a passive religion of weak-willed self-serving gluttons who have disarmed ourselves as a matter of faith and transferred our power of protection to God alone while we lounge in our sin, ready to accuse him for failing his grace to us. Lately I have been wondering why the American economy has not yet imploded into hyperinflation, but now it is making more sense; please allow me to present a short chain of observations to make my point:
* * *

Unimaginable Insanity!
In the abundance of evil reports of our Government’s activities, it is easy to become disinterested in more evidence of the same but this one is an identifiable landmark of significant importance:
We now have a non-American Sunni Muslim Marxist occupying the Whitehouse where by law only an American President should sit, and without a national outcry he was reseated for a second term while the judges consistently and unlawfully spurn the many lawful suits constantly challenging his eligibility from before his first “election.” The latest of many suits was unlawfully rejected by a judge who shockingly quoted on record a fictitious judge from the movie; Miracle in 34th Street to validate his lawless decision (*2), which makes it the first time the American Judicial System has so publicly used Fictional Precedent to determine a case without trying to hide it under even the Color of Law. It is uncontainable the degree of open and shameless insanity used by our Government today in our public National Suicide, while our representatives remain mostly quiet on such matters and most of our main-stream-media utterly so!

So, in Obama’s first term, he, while acting as the national leader and voice for the United States, publicly encouraged the removal of Egypt’s President and ally to both America and Israel, which opened the door for the Muslim Brotherhood to obtain power in Egypt as the new national authority, which is the enemy of both Israel and America. The Muslim Brotherhood is directly tied by origin, goals, and funds, to the terrorist organization Hamas, and others (*3), that brought down the Twin Towers and killed some 3000 innocent Americans on our own soil, and governs the very peaceful pretend nation commonly called the Palestinians, that perpetually lob love rockets into Israel as a sign of affection and good will.
Now in his second term, this quasi American President in a heartwarming expression of compassion for life, has declared through his VP that if necessary he will use his executive power to enact some form of gun control against assault rifles as a reaction to the recent Sandy Hook school shooting (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Hook_Elementary_School_shooting) where 26 teaches and students were slain by a deranged American gunman (*4a).
I will refrain from launching into a discussion on the Second Amendment, the actual purpose and intent for private Americans to own assault rifles, or even on the complete failure of the (*4b) attached column’s Florida writer to grasp the unlawful yet destructive authority that Mr. Obama has already implemented via his Executive Orders on numerous issues (*5).
What I do wish to note here is that by his lawless Executive Orders we see a pattern to use America to come to the aid and defense of his special brand of Sunni Muslims regarding their authority and power over nations, as well as the use of America to simultaneously block the non-desirable Sunni and Shia Muslims likewise. If we identify the particular house of Islam in any conflict which Obama uses America (as in his Executive Orders, military involvement/restraint, funding/or lack thereof, etc.,) we will see this pattern emerge and begin to understand his Islamicly driven action/restraint that otherwise makes no sense. With this in mind please review the U.S. Constitution’s specific use of the word Treason (Article III Section 3, II Section 4).

Of course there are complexities in seeing the pattern of loyalties in each Executive Order as it relates to regime changes, coups, population volume of one house vs. the house that is in power, actual loyalties of governments different from registered declarations, etc., but the pattern is quite clear once you understand the goal.
For those unfamiliar with Islam: the Shia are the publicly presented radicals most easily identified with Iran, while the Sunni are publicly presented as the moderate peace lovers, though history and their own religion of allowable deception will show that this front of Peace lightly covers a violent foundation hardly different from the Shia: The left hand waves the assault rifle with flamboyant threats while the right hand kills you with a quiet sword, both hands belonging to the schizophrenic religion of Islam with the same intended goal of global dominance through violence, though with slightly different fronts. It is a classic case of Yin-and-Yang (*6) where the dark side is necessary to makes the other side appear light.

Now that we better understand Mr. Obama’s Islamic use of America, many things begin to make more sense. But while it is obviously important that America defend our relationships and access to the oil rich nations that happen to be Sunni, and diminish or at least resist the more radically violent Shia nations from increasing their power, such as Iran with nukes, it is another thing entirely to use America to aid Sunni Islam’s rise to global power. The one is quite easily masked in the other and therein lies the complexity that allows the train to continue racing toward the gorge with “potentially” good intent that would be embarrassing to challenge knowing that a ready answer of Peace is available… so we all ride quietly to the obvious end of the tracks as the coal is shoved in the boiler at the fastest rate possible by our own foreign conductors wearing an American-flag lapel pin by force of the people who demand the illusion that he is American.

America is now so broke that this administration has greatly reduced the numbers of our military troops and armaments, and at the same time has promised to outlaw guns from the hands of the common American for the sake of 26 lives lost, BUT has no problem with America borrowing hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the manufacture of 200 State-of-the-Art U.S. Abrams Tanks and 20 State-of-the-Art U.S. F-16s… in order to GIVE them to the publicly sworn enemy of Israel and the United States (*7); i.e. the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt who has a happy record of already killing perhaps millions and the proclaimed intent to kill millions more. Where is the slightest sliver of logic or reason in that? It is found in the Islamic goals of domination, which America is now aiding to our own destruction. History will ask incredulously How the American people simply let it happen without so much as a contest.

So if the Sunni Muslims are already apparently controlling the United States Federal Government from the highest office down, why would they collapse the economy until they have bled dry its every resource? Egypt does not have the ability to borrow that kind of money nor the wherewithal to purchase such sophisticated armament…so let’s get America to do it for us!
Of course I could be wrong, it’s only an observation (said dryly).
* * *

By uninvolvement America is not clean, even its Christians are not clean. But we are still Christ’s people like it or not. And so although we will be held accountable to God for our utter failure to defend the world against this global oppression, we will be more greatly held accountable to God for assisting those who openly plan the destruction of God’s people and our sister; Israel (Genesis 12:3, 27:29), regardless if they are walking worthy or not. Today we are not even capable to do the job of global defense that our founders did before us in diminishing the power and reach of Islam, but capable or not it is our job to do and we will be held accountable for how well we did it. (In the next Post I hope to expand on and finalize our shocking utter perceptional confusion that leads to this failure).
As Typed by the Old Testament, we are the “second,” Second-Generation Exodus People but we will either attempt to cross and take the land resulting in the utter failure of Ai, or we will refuse to cross in fear and be sent packing. The problem is that we are not the first-generation to fail this choice at this river, and the second-generation showed us the way of success. Therefore the price of our failure will be catastrophic as God himself will curse the earth because we failed to rise to the occasion that was exampled to us already! America is indeed Belshazzar not Nebuchadnezzar, who came in two parts. (See Post 149 America in Prophecy http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2011/01/america-in-prophecy.html). What is coming our way is truly unimaginable if we fail, but America’s Christians already know that we are not prepared to face it; either politically and spiritually, or nationally and personally. But as long as the ride is smooth and the cushions comfortable it seems silly to create a fuss,
“Would you like some more tea on this lovely train speeding to who cares where?”
* * *

So just what IS the Application?
As I wrap up this transitional section of Posts in preparation for the very different next section, where you stand with God must be firmly rooted as a an unusually-enduring endurable Palm Tree in a SuperPerfect Storm hurricane. The Strength and Courage must be acquired on this side because everything on the other side is designed to test or diminish your strength and courage (Luke 19:26). Why? Because in the overcoming is great reward (Luke 19:15-19).

I have intimately learned that Christ will intentionally set you up to fail in order to see what is in your heart. IF your heart is not right, you will fall, and be crushed (Matthew 21:43-44). But if your heart is right, you might fall, but will not fail! (Proverbs 24:16).
Elijah seemed to repeatedly try hard to get Elisha to stay behind, but he would have none of it (II Kings 2:1-7) and so received the reward. Likewise Naomi’s daughters in law were given a very tough row to hoe (Ruth 1:3-7) and then Naomi repeatedly tried hard to get them to turn back (Ruth 1:8-13) and eventually succeeded in encouraging Orpah to leave, but Ruth would have none of it (Ruth 1:14). Naomi tried one last time to get Ruth to turn back too but Ruth begged her to stop trying to drive her off:

“And Ruth said, intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me” Ruth 1:16-17.

Ruth showed a resolution that retained nothing from her past, and even after death she planned no strings of desire that her body be returned to her people; Ruth was now the daughter of Naomi in far more than marriage to her deceased son.

“When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her. So they two went…” Ruth 1:18-19a.

Ruth ended up married to the greatest man in Naomi’s homeland and even found herself in the paternal lineage of Jesus the Christ! But we are not really shown the struggles these two ladies faced between Moab and that marriage. The reason is because by her steadfast commitment to Naomi, the specifics really didn’t matter. You just can’t picture her complaining to Naomi; “If I would have known how hard this was going to be…” Hard had nothing to do with it, it was simply her allotted life to live as the daughter of Naomi. She never once contemplated a return to Moab.
This is the kind of follower that Jesus is looking for. Not someone that Jesus has to keep begging to continue! Did we ever read of the child Joshua complaining about how hard it was? NO! Joshua felt greatly honored to have been given a commission, a job to do, a part of Moses’ obligations to God! Not as incentive to keep him going but because he was as steadfastly committed as Ruth:

“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him…” II Chronicles 16:9a.

“…Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it” Matthew 7:14.

“For many are called, but few are chosen” Matthew 22:14 (contrary to popular opinion; apparently your clothing choice really does matter! v.12-13).

So ladies, get yourself dolled up because your King is looking for a Bride! And the time is now.
* * * * * * *

(*1) Throw the Fight: 1. tv. To loose a boxing match on purpose. (Boxing. Other words can replace a.): I just know that Wilbur didn’t throw that fight. - Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears. Fourth Edition. Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.

(*2) Muslim Brotherhood And Its Terrorism: (http://www.diplomaticourier.com/news/regions/middle-east/1080).
Though this link is quite informative regarding the condition, it does not “document” the direct ties I reference. In the slippery world we now experience, a simple disassociated name like CAIR (http://www.cairchicago.org/) can and does provide direct financial ties while remaining safely disconnected. Even a little investigation will result in substantial data but the search is not as easily “proven” without reams of paper and boring reads. Glenn Beck did a fantastic job of it some time ago.

(*4) On Gun Control:
(*4a) “(CNN) -- President Barack Obama is exploring executive orders to help prevent mass shootings in America, Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday.
"The president is going to act. Executive orders, executive action, can be taken," Biden told reporters before meetings with groups representing survivors of mass shootings. "We haven't decided what this is yet, but we're compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and all the rest of the Cabinet members."
Legislative action also is needed, Biden said.
"I'm convinced we can affect the well-being of millions of Americans, and take thousands of people out of harm's way, if we act responsibly," he said.
President Obama vowed last month that a new task force overseen by Biden will provide "concrete proposals" by the end of January to reduce gun violence. The group, which includes an array of Cabinet members and government officials, was established in the wake of the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 27 people dead -- 20 of them elementary school children.
In addition to gun laws, the group is looking at mental health care and what the president has described as a culture that often "glorifies guns and violence."” - CNN 1/10/2013 Gun Control (http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/09/politics/gun-control-battle/index.html).

(*4b) “FLORIDA, January 10, 2013 — The debate over private gun ownership has taken yet another turn.
Yesterday, Vice President Biden announced that President Obama could push through new firearm regulations via executive order. Such a bold declaration attracted almost instant controversy which hasn’t seemed to let up since.
Certain Second Amendment fundamentalists chose to make a big deal out of Biden’s remark. More than a few seem to believe that if Obama were to go through with the orders, America would be placed under totalitarian rule.
This should bolster the argument that some people really will believe anything.
In reality, executive orders are quite limited in scope. The Supreme Court ruled decades ago that they cannot exceed Constitutional authority or stand in violation of any legislation passed by Congress. So, the folks who believe that the federal government is about to come for their legally owned guns need not worry.
However, there is room to question whether or not an executive order really is good for bringing about gun control. Considering the necessary immensity of any efficient control program, a strong case can be made that such a thing ought to be decided on by Congress.
Of course, the House and the Senate are each controlled by a different party — and bipartisanship is simply out of style right now. So, it would be wise not to get one’s hopes up about finding a reasonable solution by way of the legislative process.
This, from my perspective, leaves Obama with few other options than the executive order. Something must be done to prevent heavy artillery from falling into the hands of those who are not law enforcement officers or military personnel. If our nation has reached the point that an executive order is the only way of accomplishing this, then so be it. …” - (http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/conscience-realist/2013/jan/10/should-obama-use-executive-orders-enact-gun-contro/).

(*5) Obama’s Executive Orders: The full list (http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/executive-orders/2012.html):
Scan through them and notice the countries named and the beneficiary of the particular Executive Order. Isn’t America supposed to be the primary focus of the President? Without wishing to limit the importance or dangers of those not specifically identified here, the following is greatly alarming in its degree of Governmental power-grabbing rights from America’s citizenry:

Executive Order 13603: National Defense Resources Preparedness .pfd (download it from the above list).“By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered as follows:” - This is the common first paragraph of most all Obama Executive Orders.

But the Constitution does not grant him that authority because he has failed to conform to the Constitutional requirement for eligibility to be President, therefore the laws of the United States of America do not grant him such authority either. Further, IF HE WAS THE PRESIDENT, those laws do not allow him to write law; That’s congresses job (U.S. Constitution Article I Section 8), yet he makes the orders anyway, even though unlawful, and the Nation acts on them as if they were law.
Yet we shouldn’t be concerned about his Gun Control Executive Orders because they must comply with the Constitution to be valid? “Rigghhhhht!~”
Are you seeing yet that America is already dead? (judged). If you actually knew what was coming you would not go quietly as did the people of Kitty Werthmann (Post 108 Example http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2010/10/example.html).

(*6) Yin-and-Yang:
See Post 193 End of Book One and Two (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2011/05/end-of-book-one.html) for an uncommon explanation of this deceptive concept.

(*7) Top Armament to the Muslim Brotherhood:
Independent report: (http://patdollard.com/2013/01/obama-to-arm-muslim-brotherhood-ruled-egypt-with-f-16s-and-m1a1-abrams-tanks-over-gop-opposition/).
Fox News report: (http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/10/calls-to-pull-plug-on-us-gifts-tanks-f-16-jets-to-egypt-grows/).
*

The Dissatisfied Hunger

Post 285

“Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied…” Micah 6:14a
(see also: Leviticus 26:26, Psalm 59:15, Isaiah 9:20).

It is easy to miss the point of this verse; there is not a lack of food, only a lack of satisfaction in eating.
Gluttony is an ugly word so today we just call it “Over Eating.” This is a much more pleasant term because we all know that eating is good for you, so over-eating must be better for you. I know obese people actually proud of how much food they can put away, the reason is because of this mental game by our word usage, much like we do with “Pro-Choice,” which sound so much more user-friendly than Murder. Over Eating is just taking a good thing to extremes and that is far easier to accept than being accused of Gluttony. Call it what you will, but the girth doesn’t lie to the truth… though perspective does! “I’m not fat, I’m large,” and we all know “Bigger is Better.”

VS.

“The meek (6035) shall eat and be satisfied…”
Psalm 22:26a (see also: Deuteronomy 14:29, Joel 2:19,26).

Isn’t it curious that God would claim satisfied eating and meekness are directly connected? What does meekness have to do with food?
With all the weight loss programs out there that actually help you get your self-control in order and the result is a smaller girth, self-control is a form of meekness:

Meek 6035 ‘anav; or (by intermixture with 6041) Aanayv; from 6031; depressed (figuratively), in mind (gentle) or circumstances (needy, especially saintly):-- humble, lowly, meek, poor. Compare 6041.
* * *

But we all know that depression is a leading cause of obesity, so how does that make sense? It’s because we have corrupted the word “depressed” to mean by use what the word does not actually intend. This is where the chain of definitions comes to our aid. The word meek, as used here, is based on 6031:

6031 ‘anah; a primitive root [possibly rather identical with 6030 through the idea of looking down or browbeating]; to depress literally or figuratively, transitive or intransitive (in various applications, as follows):-- abase self, afflict (-ion, self), answer [by mistake for 6030], chasten self, deal hardly with, defile, exercise, force, gentleness, humble (self), hurt, ravish, sing (by mistake for 6030), speak (by mistake for 6030), submit self, weaken, X in any wise.

6030 ‘anah; a primitive root; properly, to eye or (generally) to heed, i.e. pay attention; by implication, to respond; by extension to begin to speak, specifically to sing, shout, testify, announce:-- give account, afflict [by mistake for 6031], (cause to, give) answer, bring low [by mistake for 6031], cry, hear, Leannoth, lift up, say, X scholar, (give a) shout, sing (together by course), speak, testify, utter, (bear) witness. See also 1042, 1043.

I don’t wish to rabbit trail this to ends unrelated but we need to note that although 6031 and 6030 are identical words for meek; they are used quite differently, and even the definitions themselves identify misapplication between them! How odd. Perhaps it’s something like our English dual use of “Record”; where one is the act of making the other.
In the word that the scriptures relate to satisfied eating, we see a self-chastisement; self-control, a willful restriction of self in a way that makes oneself intentionally smaller (pun intended); depressed (John 3:30). The head of IBLP has described Meekness by the working definition:

“Meekness: Power under control.” - Bill Gothard

By misapplying the one definition to the other’s application we actually confuse the meaning of what we are doing and why, and so we over-eat when we are depressed rather than suppress our over-inflated desires and thereby eat less. Go figure! In this corrupted use, our “depression” is an inflation rather than a deflation; we have not depressed ourself but glorified self by “singing out self” in the other definition by mistake for the one supposed. Today’s use of the word “depression” wholly misses the actual point, much as pro-choice implies murder as an honorable desire. The spirit of depression is really just a pity-party crying about my unfulfilled desires, therefore depression is really self-glorification... So you give in to your demands and eat whatever you crave, but your cravings are never satisfied once uninhibited “self” becomes king (worshipped).

Meekness and Depression are now functionally polar opposites when the one is supposed to define the other by the result.
* * *

The war:
The difference between an unsatisfied Hunger and a hunger that can be satisfied is not actually about eating; the eating is simply a physical manifestation of which it is. The war is in the Hunger itself.
In a healthy individual they periodically get hungry when their body needs the fuel and so they eat to fill the need, and are thereby satisfied when the needle shows “full.” But in an unhealthy individual they are always Hungry; the need has nothing to do with the Hunger though it is indeed based on that healthy function with a small “h.” This (H)unger is predatorial in nature, and that distinguishes it from (h)unger, much as in the kinds of clay, or kinds of waters, which have all appearances of the same things, but with fundamentally different natures.

The meek that finds satisfaction when he eats to fill his body’s hunger is a person who has a condition of self-control established in their life. It’s not a matter of vigilantly overpowering the beast; there simply is no war. But does that mean there is nothing to be fought? Hardly, otherwise there would be no need for self-control. Therefore, self-control is the element of power that ensures there is no war; If you don’t feed the Hunger, then you have a war; but if you don’t feed the appetite of the Hunger, the Hunger will become weak through depression (starvation). The shock is to discover that the appetite of Hunger has nothing to do with food! Therefore this works for far more than just eating.

Politically and militarily this concept has long been understood by the phrase; Si vis pacem, para bellum, a Latin adage translated as; "If you wish for peace, prepare for war" - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Si_vis_pacem,_para_bellum).

A practiced self-control of meekness is far more advantageous than for maintaining a healthy weight. Self-control will keep us from the addictions to; Food, Drugs, Tobacco, Alcohol, Sex, Violence, as well as Porn, Bad Friends, Romance Novels, TV, Video Games, Electronic devices, Shopping, Hording, Compulsive Disorders, Craving More money, More toys, and a general Unpleasant personality of a dissatisfaction with life.
But since WWII Americans have been encouraged to fulfill their every desire; “Just Do It” “Look out for number one” “You’ve come a long way baby!” The end result is an entire generation of dissatisfied self-willed proud individuals that have abandon meekness as something for weak people going nowhere.
And the answer is to fine McDonald's for selling fattening foods?
Try again
* * *

So how does this Post relate to the topic we have been covering?
Standing on this side of the river looking over to the other, in the three days given to prepare sustenance for the battle (Joshua 1:11)-- as I have paralleled for the Christian world today-- what is the one commandment that was repeated over and over?

“Be strong and of good courage,” Joshua 1:6,7,9,18.

Of a certainty, this was not the only command given:

“…that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success” Joshua 1:7b-8.

But this section was book-ended between the command to be strong and of good courage. In fact notice what was commanded at the beginning of this passage that was able to keep them from turning:

“Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee:…” Joshua 1:7a.

and again at the end as a confirmation of this source of success:

“Have I not commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest” Joshua 1:9.

This explains the reason needed for the strength and courage: so that they could obey the commandments. If you re-read the entire chapter of self-preparation for crossing into the Promised Land, God’s promise of success was fully contingent upon their strength and courage, which enabled obedience. So how is that a promise?! “I will give you the land if you have the moxy (not so negative as chutzpah: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chutzpah) to take it?”
What is that all about?

Understanding the answer, is aided by the above second definition of meek:

6030 ‘anah; a primitive root; properly, to eye or (generally) to heed, i.e. pay attention; by implication, to respond; by extension to begin to speak, specifically to sing, shout, testify, announce...

Remember it was fear that kept the first generation from acquiring the Promised Land, and that fear was unbelief (Deuteronomy 1:25-32). What we find is a real problem when we misapply our understanding of meekness in the appropriate use, and then misapply that misapplication to the wrong focus for our strength and courage.
And here is where I had fought long and hard to sort this out:
* * *

“It’s not God that I have long doubted; it’s ME.”
As the servant of God I know He is able to do anything he chooses, but because he chooses to use Me, how can I be sure I am not messing up what he wants me to do? I know ME! and I am the last person that I would count on to do the Almighty’s work correctly! You cannot know the very great struggle I face over each Post; to go over and over meticulously looking for error of doctrine via misinterpretation, on my face before God beseeching him to reveal to me any wrong perspective or presentation and yet knowing that it is mine to search out. If I spend any time at all thinking about the fact that it’s “me” as the guy doing this work, I begin to flounder like Peter in the waves. I have no business writing like this to the world! But I got excited at what I saw and asked Jesus if I could join him in this, and he said; “Come” (Matthew 14:29), so I jumped out of the boat fully aware that solid water under my feet was not due to anything on my part but the location of my feet!
“What do you know about that?! I can’t explain it, but it works!”

The key to success is not to bolster my courage and blunder ahead strong as a fool in thinking “I can do this,” as I walk on water; the secret is to humble myself before God in awe of what I see him do in and through me! My strength and courage is found not in myself but in the Lord who guides me to do the impossible.

“And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness…” II Corinthians 12:9a.

And so knowing myself and my great weaknesses, and knowing even more importantly that God is well aware of my weaknesses, yet called me, a mere man, to do God’s great work by the simple word; “come,” I can actually glory in the agreement of experience with the apostle Paul when he says:

“…Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong” II Corinthians 12:9b-10.

If I were a great writer, skilled in the formal training of an author, or a man naturally gifted with great wisdom as one “typically right,” I would appear to have no need to so completely rest in the power of Christ to do this work. But I am no such man, and therefore I need Christ to a degree perhaps “even greater than most” (as if anyone does not need to rely on Christ for all things). Therefore the success I see evidenced in my work, glorifies God even more by my weaknesses marvelously used in his hands! This kind of relationship is far different than demonic “automatic writing”; this allows me, a naturally incompetent, to participate as a surprisingly valuable member of the team in the hands of a magnificent coach, and not just as a puppet on a string.
This is the strength and courage commanded to the children as they were directed in preparation to cross that river in obedience, and conquer a land filled with very real Giants! The strength of God is the obedience they were commanded to take up for that mission, the courage to know that God would not fail himself even through using them, is the courage that they were to put on in obedience to that mission, knowing fully that without God they would utterly fail, much as tiny Israel standing today surrounded by great hostile neighboring nations committed to their destruction. Strength and Courage were not meant to be brought up from somewhere deep inside themselves; but to be placed on God alone working through their actions in a very real way; “My job is to obey in faith while God’s job is to provide the miraculous win” (see Joshua 2:11). The Promise of God is that they COULD NOT FAIL if they did this!

“There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee” Joshua 1:5.

And just in case you want to argue that this was God speaking specifically to Joshua and not the people, Paul covers that argument:

“Let your conversation (5158 mode, style) be without covetousness (Hunger); and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” Hebrews 13:5-6.

In this passage we find the need for a practiced (prepared) meekness, and also the requirement that God will not do for us what is ours to do by his command to obey, but when we do it he promises to make it succeed. The strength and courage needed for this job does not come as a baseless sudden choice, (“I think I will be courageous today”); No, it comes from confidence in God. But confidence of Strength and Courage in God comes by experience of success and not of failure. This was their experience as they obediently followed Moses in the desert, and as their parents with Moses crossed uncrossable water, ate manna where there was no food, drank water where no water was, walked in the light where darkness reigned, and succeeded where they personally failed; these children existed here at this place as proof that their parents experienced those things… even though they were unworthy as they went! Once they finally arrived here as proof that God would indeed accomplish what he started… in spite of them, they were allowed three days to figure out how to apply all this in a very practical preparation before they crossed into battle, still personally uncircumcised yet belonging by choice (faith)!
You don’t get there on your own strength and courage, or on your careful obedience to written rules, or even on your great fortitude and skills; you get there only by faith in God and the savior he provided (Moses/Christ): faith that has hands and feet in your works of obedience to his voice. This is NOT the kind of faith that perpetually experiences failure and God’s wrath for disobedience, God is a REWARDER of those who diligently seek him: (Hebrews 11:6 Post 245 Rewarder http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/ 2012/05/rewarder.html) and this is the kind of clean faith needed for that kind of strength and courage now.

But one small caveat:
Notice that in the above Old Testament command to go and conquer, the New Testament command is to stand and endure. Same strength, same courage, different application (Ephesians 6:13,18), for very important reasons not discussed here (see the whole book of I Peter), it’s a “beginning-vs-ending of-the-world” thing.
Where this post will now divert, seems to completely abandon the topic for a good while, but by the end we will draw it back together to the deep comprehension of the serious distinction between the two different hungers. In the distinction, we find a grave detriment of the Hunger with a capitol H.
* * *

Graceless Kingdom?
[This section makes use of Matthew chapter 22 and chapter 25, both speaking of the same marriage, but don't confuse the applications in the one for the other]:
The preparation before crossing, is vital to success because you cannot fight the giants and your internal demons at the same time, as evidenced by Achan in the battle of Jericho (Joshua 7:1). These self-defeating Hungers of Dirty-Grace addictions must be thoroughly dealt with before we cross, because once on the other side, the grace that overshadowed us in the desert seems to be missing when it comes to Dirty-Grace “mistakes” (Joshua 7:12-13+20-26).
So now it seems that my application of the Jordan as the Type of entering the kingdom of heaven must be wrong;
“Surely, of all places, there must be grace in heaven.”

I am not suggesting there isn’t. But I am suggesting it isn’t the same kind of grace that we Gentiles think we experience in the Church age here in the desert while we follow Christ seemingly without the laws to adhere to. I find this concept in Jesus’ own description of that kingdom:

“And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,”… Matthew 22:1-2.

Again the details will have to be skipped, but between the call (v.3) and the actual wedding (not included), we discover that the Matthew 25 “Ten Virgins” parable is a message for the prospective Brides preparing and waiting for the wedding to come… but this Matthew 22 passage is a message to the Guests:

…“And (the king) sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come” Matthew 22:3.

The first guests that were invited to this wedding refused to come (Matthew 22:3) even after additional invites (v.4), and so, after they didn’t just say; “No thank you”, but instead mocked the whole idea (v.5), then beat, and murdered the king’s messengers of invitation (v.6), he sent his own armies to destroy them and their city in great vengeance (v.7), not against their insolent indifference, but against their unwarranted violence toward what was supposed to be a day and event of Joy for everyone invited; the marriage of the King's own Son... to the ten betrothed brides of Matthew 25… of which only five actually made it to the wedding hall (Matthew 25:10-12).
And so then the king invited others to furnish the wedding with guests instead of those first invited (Matthew 22:9-10) who had been destroyed, not for not coming, but for their violence of wickedness that had no reason to respond in such a way (Genesis 6:5,13) except unadulterated hatred for the king and his son.

Suddenly it becomes very important to discover who these two groups of guests are, as distinct from the two similar groups of brides! One group made it to the wedding and the other group didn’t.
Now before we go on, it is needful to note the Greek definition of the word guests 345.

guests 345 anakeimai; from 303 and 2749; to recline (as a corpse or at a meal):-- guest, lean, lie, sit (down, at meat), at the table.

God is so humorous! Being a guest at the wedding has as much to do with applied merit as the efforts of a corps. If a corps has nothing to offer the wedding but its presence, so it is with the guest. A guest is a guest only because he was invited. As we will soon see:

“…So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad (4190) and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests (345)” Matthew 22:10.

So far so good…BUT WAIT! “What is this bit about “both bad and good” in the halls of the kingdom of heaven? I though the bad were already destroyed in their wicked city.”
Contrary to the general secret underlying feelings of many saved-by-grace Christians, I propose that this might confirm a truth that we do not get to heaven by any good deeds or proper behaviors:

“Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;” Titus 3:5 (seemingly contrary to Hebrews 12:14, Matthew 5:20, 23:13).

And although we all know this verse by heart and feel we know clearly what it means, having bad wedding guests at Christ’s wedding really gives it new definition! A guest's job is to simply enjoy the proceedings that transpire before him without his involvement beyond his presence…
To be frank, the more I study this concept, the more I don’t think this message to the guest has anything to do with the message to the bride.
* * *

What we have learned is that some of Christ’s own wedding-guests are really quite repulsive people who have not yet been trained in good etiquette but have given homage to our Lord just the same! Do you really suppose that Rahab the Harlot (Joshua 2:1-21) was suddenly a refined lady because she found faith in God, or might she have been quite rough around the edges still, even embarrassing herself with old familiar gutter talk that she finds hard to immediately correct? How much more those who are not brides but only guests?

Bad 4190 poneros; from a derivative of 4192; hurtful, i.e. evil (properly, in effect or influence, and thus differing from 2556, which refers rather to essential character, as well as from 4550, which indicates degeneracy from original virtue); figuratively, calamitous; also (passively) ill, i.e. diseased; but especially (morally) culpable, i.e. derelict, vicious, facinorous; neutral (singular) mischief, malice, or (plural) guilt; masculine (singular) the devil, or (plural) sinners:-- bad, evil, grievous, harm, lewd, malicious, wicked (-ness). See also 4191.
Facinorous: [Latin facinus deed, bad deed, from facere to do.] Now Rare. Atrociously wicked.

That sure blows the doors off of getting into heaven “because you were relatively good!” and now we know why the tree of life in the middle of the street and along both sides of the river in the kingdom of heaven has leaves for medicine to heal the nations!... on both this side and that side of the river (Revelation 22:2).
Saved drunkards, child molesters, sodomites, murderers, thieves, etc. are all at first still evil in their mental processes as they learn of the God who Saved them, and they are transformed over time by the conversion of their minds by the scriptures that wash them (Romans 12:1-2)! Give them a break; you were once one too remember? (I Corinthians 6:11). So tell me again dear long-time Christian who looks down on the undesirables for their honest lack of understanding; how do you get into heaven?!

“And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…” Acts 16:31.

Isn’t that INCREDIBLE!?... except for the fact that the scripture makes it credible!

So now we have the brides prepared for the wedding on that Great Day that we believers have been longing for like a romantically inclined young girl… but we also have even unsavory wedding guests… that are not just not good guests, but not brides! What are they doing there at all?
The answer will most certainly offend your Christian sensibilities, but they are Typed as the servants acquired in the Promised Land who did not turn to God in love, but were made tributaries of God’s people in exchange for their lives and homes (Judges chapter 1).

tributaries 4522 mac; or mic; from 4549; properly, a burden (as causing to faint), i.e. a tax in the form of forced labor:-- discomfited, levy, task (-master), tribute (-tary).
4549 macac; a primitive root; to liquefy; figuratively, to waste (with disease), to faint (with fatigue, fear or grief):-- discourage, faint, be loosed, melt (away), refuse, X utterly.

Are you yet finding it a lot harder to simply condemn Islam for this exact thing in the Jizya Tax? (*1) (II Peter 2:11).

If we don’t get to heaven because of being good, do they go to hell for being bad? There is fundamentally something else entirely going on here, and we really need to figure it out!
* * *

NOW let’s continue to the point of the parable:

“And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: and he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.
Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen” Matthew 22:11-14.

I find it remarkable that the king would be so generous as to give the man every opportunity to explain himself. The man obviously made it into the wedding by favorably responding to the invitation, but without the obligatory “wedding garment,” not as a bride but as a guest. God the king called him friend, he asked his question pleasantly in hope of an acceptable answer and waited for a reply, but there was nothing to be said (Romans 1:20), and so he was cast out by force, where it was very unpleasant (Titus 3:10).
Ignoring for a moment the king’s own blaring question that begs another to be asked regarding the acquisition of such a garment;

“How did he get into the wedding at all, without being a bride?”

We already touched on the answer to this unfamiliar concept, but it seems to stand boldly in the face of what we have always seen as the nature of Christ; That is, the topic of accepted though unwilling servants; i.e. tributaries.
Suddenly the floodgates burst open and my mind runs to question many issues previously determined that I understood, example; the slaves of early America, and Washington’s slaves specifically(*2). The captives of the Hebrews (Deuteronomy 21:10-13), and the conquest of the Canaanites themselves (Deuteronomy 4:34a, 7:2-5), or even God sending his own people into real servitude of Egypt (Deuteronomy 24:17-18) and Babylon, etc.
But being very careful; the word slave/slaves is only found twice in scripture; the one is God himself asking if Israel is a slave with the negative being the correct reply (Jeremiah 2:14), and the other speaks of wicked Mystery Babylon selling slaves to buyers of the world (Revelation 18:13). Therefore it’s important that we distinguish the actual words used in scripture, which stand distinctly different from the word slave. In this way we confirm my earlier understanding that while indeed Washington bought slaves, he treated them more like hired servants with nowhere else to go (bondmen). Israel too had the similar concept confirmed as bondservants which could go free, sometimes chose to stay because they valued their situation (Exodus 21:5-6).

We are indeed crossing into dangerous waters with this topic, especially now that our own Christian nation walks in wicked understanding, and Islam looks for any justification against God and his people. But perhaps that is why we are only now exploring this topic; it may be that Islam’s take on the scriptures can provide a dark light that our perverted spirits could not see the contending light of truth without. Wicked Islam is amazingly applying our own scriptures quite accurately against us, and in so doing we have the opportunity to contemplate God’s pure heart in the matter of tribute vs. the perversion of it, much as the now complex concept of marriage is due to the inclusion of Sodomy, which forces a more serious study.
Are you remembering that we are looking to distinguish hunger from Hunger? one being healthy and beneficial, while the other is consuming and self-destructive. The topic of “servitude to another nation” is distasteful, but as long as you remain righteous it’s something you need not concern yourself with. But when you abuse your liberty, God himself will return you to servanthood so you will have an authority to force his discarded will upon you, and thereby teach you the mindframe to be humbly obedient to the LORD’s commands when you’re not a servant (*3).

God sent his own people into Egypt to instill in their very culture the humble obedience of a servant, then he brought them out by the Hand of Moses, and like it or not they followed him as servants are want to do.
Arrogant and destructively free Americans now likewise need a master to manage their lack of self-control, so God is sending us Islam who will do just that. Whether Islam honors God or not is perhaps irrelevant to God regarding the training of America, in fact the lesson will be more readily learned if they are forced to obey non-godly commands rather than commands they know they should follow but don’t. But this is not a “three-year” lesson to endure as an inconvenience; it took Israel 400 years.
While this very foundational destabilizing concept rattles around in your head, let’s continue moving forward in the original train of thought regarding the Dissatisfied Hunger:
* * *

Ancient Israel had a period when they conquered and took captives, (specifically only those nations that God commanded). How they treated those tributaries remains an unanswered question today beyond what we read in the scriptures... which is actually quite a bit more than you would first think (Joshua 19:29-31, etc.= II Samuel 5:10-12, I Kings 5:1, 7:14, II Chronicles 2:3-18, etc.). Hardly slaves!
But, we have to imagine that somewhere along the way, as Israel grew more wicked, their honor and value system must have slipped with it. It’s not unreasonable to assume that they forgot what it was like to be slaves in Egypt and so began to treat their tributaries harshly (I Kings 12:18 amongst the whole relative chapter). America seems to taking this same course with our recent POWs. The fact that Islam does far worse while crying; “Foul!” is irrelevant; God is concerned about the wrong conduct of his own people.

Israel Today, after two thousand years of again having no homeland and dwelling among the nations of others, these homeless people were returned to their land by the hand of God himself (Jeremiah 30:3, Isaiah 48, Psalm 44:3). And, having been so recently abused in the Holocaust these people know how to be gentle to the less fortunate and homeless. What other nation wins a war of defense-- called aggressive by their enemies-- and then immediately returns the conquered land to the adversary for the hope of peace? What other nation actually breaks the law by sending charity to the suffering of the enemy nation while still in a declared war with them, effectively committing treason against themselves in favor of helping the destitution of others? Israel has learned the servant’s heart and now in freedom she displays a glorious heart of love and compassion from the position of self-governance as she falls all over herself apologizing profusely to those who were displaced in her return home, she bends over backwards to find some resolution other than suicide for simply existing (*4).
Today there are many Arabs and Palestinians employed inside Israel itself, welcomed in peaceful neighborliness and mutual benefit, while those same peoples constantly fire rockets into the country trying to destroy homes and families. One nation hungers for peace, the “other” Hungers for bloodshed.
* * *

It is not hard to overlay the marriage of the king’s son onto Israel’s home coming, and in Joy the invitation goes out to all the surrounding nations; “Come participate in our Joy!”
But the response is not a cold; “No thank you”; but instead breached homes and murdered families are the reply. This reply has no justification to the conditions… other than unadulterated hatred for the King and his bride, just as they often make perfectly clear:

“My message to the loathed Jews is that there is no god but Allah, we will chase you everywhere! We are a nation that drinks blood, and we know that there is no blood better than the blood of Jews. We will not leave you alone Until we have quenched our thirst with your blood, and our children’s thirst with your blood.” - Hamas broadcast February 2006 (*5).

Here is God’s direct and modern reply to this modern broadcast:

“Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end:
Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee. Thus will I make mount Seir most desolate, and cut off from it him that passeth out and him that returneth. And I will fill his mountains with his slain men: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in all thy rivers, shall they fall that are slain with the sword. I will make thee perpetual desolations, and thy cities shall not return: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will posses it; whereas the LORD was there: Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee. And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.
Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.
Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate. As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir (The PLO if you will), and all Idumea (The people of “Palestine” today), even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD” Ezekiel 35:5-15.

By long patience God is unquestionably justifying Christ’s own bodycount when he finally comes as Gaston to kill the Beast and his servants.
* * * * * * *

(*1) Jizya Tax:
“Poll tax that early Islamic rulers demanded from their non-Muslim subjects. This tax applied especially to followers of Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism, who were tolerated in the practice of their religion because they were “peoples of the book.” Originally intended to be used for charitable purposes, the revenues from the jizya were paid into the private treasuries of rulers, and the Ottoman sultans used the proceeds to pay military expenses. Many converted to Islam in order to escape the tax.” - (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jizya) [Given in the best light possible!].

(*2) Washington’s Slaves Post 077 (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2010/07/washingtons-slaves.html):
Being a devoted man of God who has shown himself able to rightly apply the word of God into our government’s laws, and, like it or not, slavery was already a reality in the Americas, I cannot possibly imagine other than George Washington earnestly searched the scriptures to learn all that is says regarding the topic of slavery, so that he might conduct himself inoffensively before nature’s God, to whom he acknowledged he would give an account. Having no need for such knowledge today, I am sure Mr. Washington learned far more than I on this subject, and I am confident that I would not disapprove of his actions even though I loathe slavery. Mr. Washington was doing his best to apply God’s laws in a corrupt situation in which the slave needed help from abusers. Buying slaves gave him the power to help them.

(*3) Forced "help" to do right:
Early America and its people were decidedly Christian; it was a Christian nation (*3b). But this does not mean that everyone was in agreement; through history there have always been wicked people amongst the good. But by the fact that the laws and culture in this nation were Christian, even unsavory people were drug along-- even against their will of preference-- to obey the commands of God by “forced obedience” to God’s commands upon which the American laws were based. In this way these “servants” of God conformed to the will of God and were “saved” as guests but not brides, simply by living amongst God’s people. Only those committed to wickedness broke the laws and were punished; like the wedding guest who was found at the wedding but without the proper clothes. Where was the grace then... in the kingdom of all places? This guest is best comprehended by the telling of Achan, who did not conquer his Hunger before crossing the Jordan (Joshua 7:1) and thereby was found in the Promised Land without a wedding garment.
Why is this concept so hard to accept? You already know that God’s archangel Lucifer was cast out of heaven for his iniquity (Ezekiel 28:15), isn’t it about time you took another serious look at your present comprehension of God’s plan, and stop clinging to “three verses” that support your entire view of maintenance-free eternal safety to the shame of Christ? That illusion might have worked to your favor on the other side of the Jordan but it won’t work here in the battle for the kingdom where pretense for courage and actual courage are functionally revealed as very different!

“No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier” II Timothy 2:4.

(*3b) A Christian Nation::
“No purpose of action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, state or national, because this is a religious people… This is a Christian nation.” - U.S. Supreme Court 1892.
(See Religion In Government Posts 050-053 http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2010/01/part-1-of-4-religion-in-government.html).

(*4) Examples too numerous to include all here:
• A History of Israel, 20 2000, p. 453. - Khartoum Resolutions, September 1967 -(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khartoum_Resolution).
• The Avalon Project: -(http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/khartoum.asp). A complex creation/fabrication of documents true and false (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/plocov.asp), with the purpose to the singular aim of Islamic world dominance.
• “Israel 101” p.20 -(www.elshaddaiministries.us/…/israel101distilled_april14-2008.pdf) (a .pdf), Israel as the aggressor, Right!~

(*5) One of a myriad such:
Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook, “Hamas Video: We will drink the blood of the Jews,” Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin, February 14, 2006.
Actual video still found here:(http://www.oocities.org/realtrueactuality/PalestinianSavages.html).

(*5b) Another Sample - Israel 101 Footnotes (https://www.standwithus.com/footnotes.asp), Page 23: The Oslo Accords, The Road Map, The Gaza Disengagement: 1993-2006 notation 2.:
"We Palestinians will take over everything, including all of Jerusalem.... Peres and Beilin have already promised us half of Jerusalem. The Golan Heights have already been given away, subject to just a few details….All the rich Jews who will get compensation will travel to America....We of the PLO will now concentrate all our efforts on splitting Israel psychologically into two camps. Within five years we will have six to seven million Arabs living in the West Bank and in Jerusalem. All Palestinian Arabs will be welcomed by us. If the Jews can import all kinds of Ethiopians, Russians, Uzbeks and Ukranians as Jews, we can import all kinds of Arabs to us...You understand that we plan to eliminate the State of Israel and establish a purely Palestinian State. We will make life unbearable for Jews by psychological warfare and population explosion. Jews will not want to live among Arabs. I have no use for Jews; they are and remain Jews. We now need all the help we can get from you in our battle for a united Palestine under total Arab-Muslim domination!" - Yasser Arafat, in the speech "The Impending Total Collapse of Israel," the Grand Hotel, Stockholm, Sweden January 30, 1996.
From “Israel 101” p.22 a must-read pdf -(www.elshaddaiministries.us/…/israel101distilled_april14-2008.pdf).

(*6) I almost forgot!
In wrestling with the discovery of my early interpretational sloppiness of combining the Brides and the Guests into a single group of “The Saved,” II Peter suggests that my previous interpretation was not actually wrong, just not specific enough; the Brides and the Guests are indeed The Saved, but much as Rome is indeed the Beast kingdom of Revelation 17; there are more details of distinction to be discovered. I believe the distinction is found in Jesus' parable of the workers that were hired at different times through the day (Matthew 20:9-10), the last are perhaps the guests, whose only work is to show up with a grateful heart and receive equal pay (Salvation), but obviously not the same relationship as a day long employee… or a bride.
The concept is found true to form as the Gentile believers are warned not to fall short, since we are not even the natural branches! (Romans 11:21).
Of all people, those later-comers with very little obligation to the affairs, should at least show up in the right clothes!
...and a blood-lust to bump off the other unsavory guests is not the best way to be dressed for a wedding.
Loose the Hunger.
*