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Post 291
Finally; by knowing the nature of your enemy, and intimately knowing your God, you will have the tools to begin the process of understanding yourself. This is not really something that can be taught, it must rather be learned, and in the learning there are the swings from anarchy to bondage and back again as you learn to apply in practice an apparent duality that seems theoretically impossible; which is that this is a two-party marriage between you and your God, and while you can’t do your marital duties alone, Christ won’t do them for you (Deuteronomy 31:7-8):
“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” Ephesians 5:14.
* * *
What’s The Right Way?
Have you ever wondered, “What was God’s purpose for including the Judges in the Scriptures?” Those shameful historical records describe some very confused people and are as difficult to properly comprehend its meaning and purpose as when reading Ecclesiastes!
Remember, after Joshua led them across the Jordan River and initially conquered the Promised Land (Judges 1:1), the Judges of “pre-national” Israel preceded the national kings of Israel, much as America had about 200 years of “pre-national” existence before the U.S. Constitution created an official Federal Union-of-the-many-States for the next 200 years or so.
We like to think that universal organization of law is superior to regulationless freedom when it comes to societies, and the embarrassing record of the pre-king Judges of Israel seems to confirm this truth… but at the end of the period of Judges, God’s response to Samuel really confuses that perception:
“But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD.
And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them” I Samuel 8:6-7.
The meaning of this response from God can be found when we combine a sound knowledge of the three factors; Know the nature of your enemy, intimately know your God, and understand yourself (I Corinthians 11:28, II Corinthians 13:5, I Corinthians 11:31).
I dare say most Christians today have no idea who they really are, nor seem to care to find out. But a Saving repentance cannot be had without knowing what must be repented of (Romans 10:21). The Judges are a fantastic study that distinguishes between God’s involvement and man’s involvement “in the same person” of the Judges in the resulting events for the nation, in a time before the external governance was introduced. The Judges pictorially explains the human failure that made the external force of law necessary though it was not the better way.
Explained with an example: the external law of a king is like the chain put on your dog because it frequently runs away. And while the chain generally solves the problem, God is far more interested in having a dog that wants to stay home.
The thing to note specifically is that instead of learning self-discipline, the dog is the one asking for the chain. Strong evidence of a significant lack of character and a nature that openly says; “I refuse to learn.” How does a master train such a dog? He doesn’t. So he puts on the chain.
* * *
The first Judges:
After the death of Joshua and the entire second-generation of Exodus people that crossed the River (Joshua 2:6-10), the first homeborn generation of Israel returned to their natural evil ways:
“And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Ba’alim: and they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger” Judges 2:11-12.
So how is it possible that they so quickly reverted to other gods? Judges chapter 1 explains that in detail; they failed to obey God, to disposes the resident people in the land that God had given them, just as God had prophesied through Moses only one generation previous:
“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.
(We will come back to read more of this Mosaic prophecy when we get to the Judge Gideon, but for now let’s move on).
In a recent post we discussed the fuller fulfillment of this prophecy when they later were dispossessed from their land and taken to Babylon (Deuteronomy 29:22-28), but before that pivotal event they went through periods of mini-fulfillments for one main reason; They failed to cleans their land as they were instructed:
“Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: and ye shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein: for I have given you the land to possess it” Numbers 33:52-53.
We cannot blow-by this very important and key concept, because a thorough initial clean up in full obedience is extremely important to your future rest:
“…Because that this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice; I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died: That through them I may prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the LORD to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out hastily; neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua” Judges 2:20-23.
If you will remember, God told them he would drive out the nations little by little:
“I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land” Exodus 23:29-30.
So we see that Joshua did not fail his mission; he brought them in and established their presence by possessing the land in general, and God designed it in this way that they should continue the work as they settled and expanded through the generations. As long as they remained faithful to the goal, God would continue to faithfully drive out their enemies before them. This is a Type of your driving out your old sins after conversion.
Too often we imagine salvation is a one-time event that ends all of the quest as a completed purpose in itself, but God has made clear that entering the Land is simply the beginning of a way of life that must be secured over time. Abandon the intended way of life and eventually you find yourself also dispossessed (Leviticus 18:24-28).
So what’s my point? It is that even when you start off well and strong and full of courage to obey God in all things, there comes a point when you begin to grow comfortable as a resulting byproduct of the blessing. In the comfort will come the temptation to allow an insignificant corruption to remain because you are pretty sure you can handle it, and in fact it can even be seen as an asset:
“And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites to tribute, and did not utterly drive them out” Judges 1:28.
Not a good idea. God’s word by historical example tells us that this never turns out well; we must remain vigilant while we are strong, to complete the work originally begun, and be wary of compromises that become welcome through acquired comfort, because the fight to remove it is now distasteful and seems unproportionally costly to the advantage of having it gone.
This is the prep-work established in Judges chapters 1 and 2 that create the perpetually compounding atmosphere through the rest of the Judge’s history.
Remember; they have the Mosaic Law, but they are supposed be applying it personally in their relationship with God on their own. IF they can do this there is no need for a king to govern them, just as a dog that does not run away does not need a chain to tie him down. God is giving them that chance of freedom, and as they fail, he provides ever-increasing degrees of sorrow and regulating confused assistance, with the intent that they will figure out they don’t like it, and stop running away.
The problem is that the chain itself becomes the regulation and so when it is removed the perception is that it’s now OK to run! Watch for this concept as you read through the Judges who are like a pre-chain periodic leash-and-collar in the effort to train the dog.
* * *
Another sudden fall to evil and a sure guide back:
The first Judge of Israel, after their first fall and cry to God for help, was Caleb’s nephew Othniel (Judges 3:9), a mighty man and an obvious choice (Judges 1:12-13), who by this time was one of the last “old guys” between generations as it were, who though young at the time, was actually there in the war led by Joshua himself! What a guy to lead them, and it would be an honor to follow his experienced guidance.
One of the significant repeating things that seems so easy to miss, is that God is the deliverer.
Humanity seems so badly to want to believe that God is an idea, while we and our circumstances are our own deliverer, yet the scriptures show repeatedly that our deliverance from our oppressors has nothing to do with our circumstances and everything to do with our appeal to God. God’s Spirit empowered Othniel to deliver them (Judges 3:10-11).
* * *
A third return to evil and another guide back:
After Othniel led them in Godliness and God took him away to see what they learned, the people lacked self-control and returned to their evil ways (Judges 3:12), until the resulting oppression caused them to again cry out to God for help (Judges 3:14-14).
So God sent them Ehud to deliver them… but he was not as Godly as Othniel as we see by his crafty subterfuge to accomplish his task (Judges 3:16-30). (This is yet insignificant until we see a pattern emerge).
Although having a great victory battle, Shamgar seems to get nothing more than a sidebar as he was apparently a #2 tagteam-deliverer with Ehud for reasons I don’t yet understand.
* * *
A fourth return to evil and a woman to guide them back:
As soon as Ehud died, the people returned to their evil, almost as if they were just waiting for the day! (Judges 4:1). And God in his faithfulness returned them to oppression until they cried “uncle.” It is noteworthy that this time it took them 20 years to come around rather than the 8 years each time previous. It seems they might be getting comfortable with oppression, or maybe they weren’t crazy about following a woman.
As is his habit, God sent them a deliverer when they cried for help, but this time there is a bit of complexity; Judges 4:4 tells us that the prophetess Deborah was already their judge through the 20 years of mighty oppression, so why didn’t they take her lead earlier? I’m guessing it has something to do with her gender. Can you see that with each fall to evil God sends them a less favorable deliverer? Not less favorable to God but less favorable to their pride as “God’s people.” The narration of Judges 4 seems to dwell on the embarrassment that a woman would deliver them, in spite of the fact that they would not be delivered without the man Barak as their representative. I admit I am doing a lot of “interpreting” on this one but the passage seems to encourage it.
* * *
A fifth return to evil and a slight change of normal operating procedure:
About this time it seems the LORD is becoming less willing to continue this game of responding every time they cry out. Like the dog’s leash being finally removed, the oppression is supposed to encourage them to stop doing wrong when God lets them up, but by God’s willing rescue whenever they have had enough they seem to be learning that some oppression can be worth the disobedience.
So this time when they cried out to God he sent them a prophet to review the terms:
“And it came to pass, when the children of Israel cried unto the LORD because of the Midianites, that the LORD sent a prophet unto the children of Israel, which said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel,
I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all that oppressed you, and drave them out from before you, and gave you their land;
And I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice” Judges 6:7-10.
And that’s it.
You have to wonder how long a period they were left to stew on that, perhaps thinking this time the LORD would not deliver them.
* * *
Gideon, A reluctant deliverer:
I am now keenly aware that every detail in scripture has a purpose, so it is curiously unexplained why we are told that God’s angel came and sat under an oak tree-- perhaps to watch Gideon for a time-- before we are told that the angel then appeared to him for the purpose of speaking:
“And there came an angel of the LORD, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Mideanites.
And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him, and said unto him, The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour (2428)” Judges 6:11-12.
You would think the reaction from this special man of valor, raised up by God to deliver the people, would have been one of ready comprehension of the salutation. But instead Gideon; the man hiding his produce from the Mideanite tax collectors, replies with:
“…If the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us?...” Judges 6:13.
What? Does Gideon not know his scriptures? Remember the above Deuteronomy 31:16?
“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 thy go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them.”
That passage continues and explains the answer to Gideon’s confusion:
“Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us? And I will surely hide my face in that day for all the evils which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods” Deuteronomy 31:17-18.
It’s easy to put a lot of concepts together and come up with a theoretical answer after all the data is in, but when you are living out the consequences the answers are far less important to the question; “Where is God?”
Gideon was living with the obvious, and I’m pretty sure he knew the scriptures, which seemed to confirm that God had indeed forsaken them, and so his question to the angel is valid; What do you mean the LORD is with us?”
I have intentionally separated out two concepts in this prophecy; one is a trouble that solicits a return, and the other is a trouble that is an intended punishment to endure. The punishment comes after the return loses its value by regular abuse. The question becomes; “Which level of fulfillment am I experiencing now?” so that I know what to expect from God when we cry out.
Sorrow quickly breeds hopelessness and so when things are bad you get hopeless rather than shake awake to say; “NO! Let’s not allow this to continue!”
The confusion of a regular cycle of rebellion, oppression, returning and deliverance just to rebel again, becomes so great that the cause-and-effect of their situation is no longer understood even by God’s people... nor by the man of valor that God raised up as a Judge to deliver them! The result of unexplained circumstances is that even His faithful people begin to doubt God’s faithfulness by what they see. This is simply a case in lack of passed-down knowledge (Hosea 4:6) to those who could have used it in their faith (Psalm 119:92-93, Proverbs 29:18). This concept is important for us today to comprehend in our effort to respond to God within a wicked society who asks; “If there really is a God, why does he allow all the suffering?”
Gideon was only one step away from this question when he asked the angel; “Where is God in all this?” But that step is a big one!
In what way was Gideon a “mighty man of valor” if he doubted God’s faithfulness? The answer is more clear when we understand the meaning of valour:
valour 2428 chayil; from 2342; probably a force, whether of men, means or other resources; an army, wealth, virtue, valor, strength:-- able, activity, (+) army, band of men (soldiers), company, (great) forces, goods, host, might, power, riches, strength, strong, substance, train, (+) valiant (-ly), valour, virtuous (-ly), war, worthy (-ily).
The passage continues, and Gideon’s reply to the angel makes clear that his valor is not comprised by many of these meanings:
“…Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house” Judges 6:15.
Gideon’s valor; his “force,” is found elsewhere than in his family position, his wealth, or his courage (Judges 6:17,22,27,36-39, 7:2-7,10), yet by the angel’s reply to his argument we see that his valor is indeed expressed by his own actions as he obeys the LORD (*1):
“and the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man” Judges 6:16.
The source of this valor, that the angel apparently saw as he sat under the oak tree, and commended in a man who doubted God’s presence because of the circumstances, is perhaps found in the reply of his father to those who confronted Gideon’s actions of tearing down the alter of Ba’al as God commanded him to do (Judges 6:27-30):
“And Joash said unto all that stood against him, Will you plead for Ba’al? will ye save him? he that will plead for him, let him be put to death whilst it is yet morning: if he be a god, let him plead for himself, because one hath cast down his alter” Judges 6:31.
That really took some moxy from Gideon’s father to invoke testable reality among a people emotionally driven to defend a loved idol in the land. Gideon’s valor obviously stems from his father’s faithfulness to God in a land so unprotected by God that the man’s own son is confused between his own faith and the reality he sees around him. God commended Gideon’s valor not because of his confidence or even his understanding, but wholly because of his obedience in the face of sure repercussions. Did it bother God that Gideon chose to obey God at night where he could get away with accomplishing the task before being found out? No. Gideon obeyed God in his creative way, and that was all that was asked. His valor was in his willingness to do it, and his success was in God’s presence with him just as promised (v.16). Gideon’s confidence grew as he saw God enable him to succeed, but each success was a reach of faith before the results came in.
Be comforted that God’s pleasure in you is not found in your “deep knowledge” but in your simple obedience to what you know… Yet even ignorant Gideon had some foundation of obedience in knowledge as we see him prepare a gift-offering before the angel (Judges 6:18-21) that conforms to the Mosaic law of burnt offerings (Exodus 29:1-3 and Leviticus 3:11-12,4:28,5:6) offered where the LORD commanded (Deuteronomy 12:13-14 vs. Judges 6:20).
Obedience is not obedience unless the instruction is given and heard before it is applied. After obedience, comes enlightenment and understanding of things complex… like why God has allowed this mournful condition if he really is with us.
In a period of national rebellion, the confusion in the best of God’s people becomes significant (Judges 11:30-35), and while the consequences of their confusion can be unspeakably horrible, the fact that they are God’s people doesn’t change. This is the strange marriage between legalism and eternal security that God’s confused people today can’t seem to figure out. The simple solution is a perfect heart toward God (Deuteronomy 28:47), but for some reason people keep looking for another more complex solution that also allows for self-serving lust.
Good luck with that.
Gideon’s faithfulness to God was not the problem in Israel and he served God obediently to the deliverance of his people, but what was going on in Gideon’s head when he made the golden ephah from the earrings of the conquered (Judges 8:22-27)? Like Moses’ brass serpent and the Catholic’s infatuation with the powers of artifacts, these people will worship anything but God himself!
* * *
Abimelech a Judge?
The progression of troubles and confusion continues as Abimelech, Gideon’s only son of a concubine, killed all but one of Gideon’s 70 other children (Judges 8:30-31+9:5).
Now Gideon had made it clear that he nor his children (*2) would be Israel’s ruler (Judges 8:22-23) but after he was dead Abimelech pursued other plans, and he used the thought of all 70 of Gideon’s other sons as rulers to make his singular reign suggestion seem a lot more pleasant. It’s the classic “create an imagined bad scenario to make provision for your imagined solution” Governments today do this often to get what they want.
My point here is that Gideon was the first time in which Israel began wanting a king, and Abimelech his son was the first one to attempt to fill the order (Judges 9:22), but God had other plans that did not yet include a king for Israel (Judges 9:23).
Abimelech’s rule was a self-serving mess that foretold the nature of kings, much like the present administration of Obama over America. Will we heed the warning of history or fall to the same ends? The answer will be found in our response to the oppression because of our evil ways. But remember, I already showed by interpretation that America does not get multiple chances because we have an example that we are supposed to learn by.
* * *
A few free Judges:
Now for some reason, after Abimelech, Israel had two more successive judges without an apparent oppression that solicited a cry for help. The total span of these was 45 years (Judges 10:1-4) and apparently these Judges kept Israel from wandering, perhaps an American-style gift of God to encourage a familiarity with the lifestyle they should adopt. I have no more information to shed light on this, but after they were removed Israel returned to do wickedly. You really have to wonder why God would stay with a people so bent on serving other gods, yet they are so quick to accuse God of abandonment when he turns them over to evil for their sins, in an attempt to encourage a return.
So can you really blame God when he has finally had enough?
* * *
That’s just about enough!
“And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him” Judges 10:6.
OK, you can maybe understand when for one reason or another a strange god catches your eye and you find yourself enthralled with something you didn’t see coming… but how do you explain an entire flock of gods while at the same time failing to serve your own God who has already done so much for you?
Not to rabbit trail this, but what do these many gods have that Jehovah doesn’t? It has to be an appeal to your otherwise forbidden lusts; these gods encourage what your sin nature already wants to do.
And as before, God’s anger was kindled hot and he sold them into oppression (Judges 10:7-9), which as always, resulted in a cry for help:
“And the children of the Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Ba’alim” Judges 10:10.
Now I don’t want to get nit-picky here, but after hearing this kind of repentance for the 7th time, you would think God might get a bit critical. So having just read that they turned to at least 12 gods (declared plural of each nation listed) they have the chutzpah to admit serving just Baal? I’m sorry but that just doesn’t sell well at this point. Rather I get the impression that they had found that a bouquet of flowers makes everything better, and now they are using it expectantly to get away with anything they want. Now perhaps I am reading too much into this but God’s response seems to support my perception:
“And the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Am’mon, and from the Philistines?
The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand. Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more.
Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation” Judges 10:11-14.
“Well that’s not the normal response; This could be serious this time!”
You think?~
So they reply to the LORD with a bit more seriousness:
“…We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day” Judges 10:15.
And to show that they were really serious this time:
“And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD:…” Judges 10:16a.
OK, hold on a second! Am I reading this right? They first asked God to help them by “repenting” through confessing their sins… but only after that didn’t work they actually put away their strange gods?
It really does seem apparent that because of God’s great love for us, he in fact does put up with a lot of game playing, just like a husband with a self-centered wife whom he loves!
“…and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel” Judges 10:16b.
The wording of this seems to indicate that he did not immediately fix their problems this time, though it really hurt him to watch them suffer.
Now because we have it all written down in a neat history of the events, we can see that God did in fact send them their deliverer, but he did so in a way that took a while and that they didn’t see his hand in it while they fretted.
Notice as chapter 11 opens, we see Jeph’thah actually play the argument of God as they ask for his help when they need it, after having rejected him previously. Jeph’thah queries that if he helps them and succeeds, will they accept him as their head? The elders swore they would, with the LORD as their witness, and Jeph’thah reported all this back to God.
Next we see an accurate pre-play of the Palestinian argument today. The Ammonites came to fight on Israel’s land and Jeph’thah asks why. The response is so Palestinian:
“And the king of the children of Am’mon answered unto the messengers of Jeph’thah, Because Israel took away my land, when they came up out of Egypt, from Arnon even unto Jab’bok, and unto Jordan: now therefore restore those lands again peaceably” Judges 11:13.
I guess it has only been a few thousand years so you really can’t expect them to get over it that quickly, but the details in their memory seems to still be confused as ever:
“…Thus saith Jeph’thah, Israel took not away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Am’mon: But when Israel came up from Egypt, and walked through the wilderness unto the Red sea, and came to Kadesh; Then… Israel sent messengers unto Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said unto him, Let us pass, we pray thee, through thy land into my place. But Sihon trusted not Israel to pass through his coast: but Sihon gathered all his people together, and pitched in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. And the LORD God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. And they possessed all the coasts of the Amorites, from Arnon even unto Jabbok, and from the wilderness even unto Jordan” Judges 11:15-22.
But very applicable today, Jeph’thah takes his reasoning argument even further:
…”While Israel dwelt in Heshbon and her towns, and in Ar’oer and her towns, and in all the cities that be along by the coasts of Arnon, three hundred years? Why therefore did ye not recover them within that time?
Wherefore I have not sinned against thee, but thou doest me wrong to war against me: the LORD the Judge be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Am’mon” Judges 11:26-27.
The Palestinians are not a people, have never been a people, and until Israel reclaimed their own wasteland, had no interest in the land of “Palestine.” But now they come to Israel claiming they took away their land and want Israel to give it back peaceably. The story never changes, and neither do the confusions of just who is the aggressor; The Avalon Project (http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/plocov.asp).
It is really easy to box the scriptures into a non-relevant category of literature and thereby safely miss the actual implication of real-life application. Do you suppose Am’mon had allies that concerned Jeph’thah? I’m sure they did, but Jeph’thah was the deliverer sent by God because they asked for His aid to solve their very real oppressions. The one thing that the former Israel knew by multiple experiences is that God would and could deliver them if they would but ask in returning to Him as their God. Today’s Israel has no such long experience and therefore no such faith to apply. Are you beginning to see the usefulness of this history now? And why God allowed them so many returns in grace? Did God deliver them because of their faithfulness or because of His? Can today’s Israel today take this history to heart?
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life” Romans 5:8-10.
Return to the God who loves you, look to him alone to deliver you from your sorrows, God is waiting with longing to help you. And as the Creator of all things and peoples, everyone is welcomed home if they but ask. But don’t expect much from a God whose beloved Son and deliverer you reject (Matthew 23:39).
* * *
Understand yourself:
There is more to the Judges story and we have not yet even reached the truly pitiful part, God’s patience and longsuffering with Israel is extreme and he can work with and through virtually any nutjob such as Samson to deliver a very messed up people. The trick to a successful relationship with God is to know full well that it’s not based on your goodness. God actually wants to be God to you… so let him!
“For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. In that he saith, ‘A new covenant’, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away”... Hebrews 8:12-13.
But you really need to read the previous verses!
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
and they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for (because) all shall know me, from the least to the greatest” Hebrews 8:10-11.
Have you experienced the unction of the Holy One until you find security in His rest? The key remains the same as always: you just have to choose who will be your God. When you get that decision unshakably solid, you will be ready for the age to come.
* * * * * * *
(*1) The Oak Tree Insight:
After further investigation we can conclude that like the period of Ezekiel, the Jews of this period all worshiped idols by offering sweet savor to them until they filled the land with alters for that purpose:
“Then shall ye know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savour to all their idols” Ezekiel 6:13.
This is not just under specially selected trees; but almost like a game to find an unused tree, they offered their incense to their idols under EVERY thick oak. Comparable history of idol worship shows that they remain set up there beneath those trees on altars. It reminds me of Mexico where out in the middle of the desert you can find a gnarly shade tree, more often than not, with several miniature Catholic shrines set up with idols of Mary where incense has long been burned. Pictures and prayers and trinkets trash the place with a recognizable “décor” of beseechment.
So now if we are told specifically that the LORD’s angel sat under an oak tree under the authority of Gideon’s father (Judges 6:11), we must conclude that this particular oak was big enough to provide shade but had no such incense burnt under it or God would not choose to be present there:
“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” I John 1:5.
Now if every thick oak in the land was used to burn incense to idols, and yet this oak was idol free, so that the angel reclined in its shade, we have to ask; “Why?”
As the narration develops we learn why; it’s because Gideon and his father remained unusually true to Jehovah in a land of idol worshipers. The angel declared Gideon a man of valor because his family remained true to God; this was the source of his force that the angel commended.
(*2) Son, not Children:
“Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son also: for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian.
And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the LORD shall rule over you” Judges 8:22-23.
The passage actually says son, which indicates that in spite of having more than 70 living children, Gideon already knew that his son Abimelech had sights on the throne in rebellion to his fathers will and faith, and that the men of Israel were really only interested in being ruled by Abimelech, who was like them, in contrast to the other 70 who were like their father.
*
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Knowing God
Post 290
Besides knowing the very nature of your enemy, there is another point that must be firmly seated before we cross our river into the unfamiliar war (Joshua 3:4). I feel it is important to expand on the passage of I John 2 which we lightly discussed recently in footnote *5 of Post 287 The Three-Part Yin (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-three-part-yin.html). This additional point is the intimate knowledge of God (Colossians 1:10):
“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord” II Peter 1:2(+3).
* * *
John did not break up his letter into chapters; that was done much later for our benefit of study. So as Chapter Two opens with “My little children, these things write I unto you…” it is clear that John is speaking of everything he is including in the whole five-chapter letter we now identify as the book of I John: John is calling “His little children” all those believers that are learning from his letter.
The significance of his meaning becomes more pronounced when in verse 12 he begins to distinguish between the faith of little children from the faith of mature fathers (v.13a) and makes a further refined distinction between those two by including the faith of young men (v.13b) as yet a separate “level” of maturity in the faith.
So does this mean that because I am transitioning in my faith from young man to mature father that John’s letter to little children doesn’t apply to me? Of course not, John says clearly that he is writing to fathers as well, even though in faith those mature fathers are little children to John’s unique Jesus experienced faith that has something inspired to tell them as instruction from an experienced father to an inexperienced child.
Now if we use this perspective and go back and read Chapter one, we see a marvelous thing happen; as mature intellectual fathers in the faith we become open minded little children in the faith as John reminds us of the simplicity of Salvation in Christ Jesus who was from the beginning.
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” I John 1:1-3.
The Apostle John is our father in the faith if for no other reason that he walked with Jesus Christ in the flesh! But that is not the only reason; The Holy Spirit through John tells us this same Jesus-- that John himself walked with-- is the same one which was from the beginning, and which they had heard and touched. So what does that mean? It means that this same man of the flesh-and-blood Jesus was revealed in the very earliest writings of Scripture and the prophets had pre-declared, it was this Jesus that these apostles were long taught in the Synagogues to watch for. I expounded on some of this in Post 232 New Old Commandment (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-old-commandment.html).
John makes it clear that a child-like comprehension of faith is important to maintain in order to properly handle the intellectual details.
Jesus Christ himself warns:
“…Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” Matthew 18:3-4.
Everyone; young men, fathers, disciples, and even Apostles, were included in his warning; we are all to become as humble little children in the faith of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul reflected this instructional warning:
“And that from a child thou (Timothy) hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” II Timothy 3:15.
“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” Galatians 3:26.
“Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham” Galatians 3:7(+).
Don’t misread Paul’s admonition to Timothy as if it automatically applies to you because you are a Christian, Timothy was taught the Holy Scriptures (Old Testament) from childhood and he knew them well. This Old Testament education is what was able to make him wise unto salvation, specifically through the fresh New Testament faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
So what about you if you don’t know the Old Testament knowledge that pre-declared the Son of God? II Timothy 3:15 doesn’t apply to you until you do. But do you need it to be saved? Not if in the Spirit of God you accept in a child-like faith Jesus Christ, in the knowledge of the New Testament revealing of that same Son of God (see the above Galatians 3:26). This is little child-like faith that is good enough! It really doesn’t matter if you don’t know the details of how this links you to Abraham; it is faith in Christ alone that makes you so (see the above Galatians 3:7). A child of Abraham is anyone who believes in Jehovah like Abraham believed (Genesis 18:19+Matthew 3:9=Romans 9:6-9+).
John is writing to us all, even all the well-educated and knowledgeable “Timothys,” that the faith still must be held simplistically as in the eyes of a little child:
“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you,
that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:” I John 1:5-6(+).
It’s just that simple; It’s as simple as light and dark, Love and Hate, Good and Bad… Sin and Don’t Sin.
“My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not.” I John 2:1a.
(“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” James 4:17).
But John does not end his thought there, though the sentence and meaning does end there. While John is declaring this instructional information is to restructure our mindframe to forbid the thought of permissive sin by intellectual rationalization, what if we do sin, are we forever lost?
So John continues with an additional instruction of comfort to the earnest believer, which is also basic to the yet unbeliever:
“And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation (2434) for our sins: and not for our’s only, but also for the sins of the whole world” I John 2:1b-2.
Propitiation 2434 hilasmos; atonement, i.e. (concretely) an expiator:-- propitiation.
Propitiate: …To appease and render favorable; conciliate… - Webster’s.
Atonement; (Exodus 29:19-33+Revelation 1:6 = John 6:53-57 [in a strange preparation for a yet future post-Crucifixion Type sacrifice prophesied in Ezekiel 39:17-24, but don’t miss the rest of the chapter for the event’s final completion and purpose!]).
So where is the wrathful God in John’s VERY inclusive grace of forgiveness if anyone would but turn to Jesus Christ our sacrifice after we have sinned? The wrath of God is discovered when we refuse to repent and accept his one-time, life-changing, cleansing Sacrifice of Propitiation as is shown in the above referenced Ezekiel passage.
If we accept that we are sinners and therefore separated from God by our sin, then in simplicity we can gratefully accept his atoning sacrifice that reunites us with the Perfect God in whom is no sin, and by consuming the very being of Jesus Christ to nourish our very fiber (John 6:51-63), we become sanctified priests of God. Exodus 29:33 makes very clear that anyone not a priest of God (exclusively devoted to His way) shall not participate in consuming the Ram of Consecration even though the atonement was publicly made.
I know this sounds all technical, and if you can simply grab ahold of “Do not sin” as the instruction to a child, then you perhaps don’t need the technical details… but what child does not constantly ask; “WHY?” In otherwords; “I want more information so that I can understand how to rightly apply the instruction.” This is how a child matures, to practice his learned faith in the real contest of warfare as a young man.
False theories blindly followed become defenseless when attacked. And while the child simply obeys blindly in expectation that the instruction is sound, the young man observes the success of obedience in practice, and the fathers have a history of success to be confident of their understanding.
* * *
Fathers and Little Children:
So if we are all to approach God through the humble obedient faith of a little child, what then makes the difference between the simple inquisitive child and the informed father? By John’s inclusion of them both in his “little children” address of the simplicity and importance of salvation, we know that the approach to salvation itself is not what makes the distinction. So let’s explore the specific distinction that John provides:
I write unto you little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake” I John 2:12.
Again, to John we are all his little children and each of us are to approach the forgiveness of our sins in the simple obedience of a little child. But for whose sake are we forgiven? Not our own, read it again.
And a child wants to know why, so John is writing to the child-like faith; The Why mechanics of their salvation. They already have salvation in obedient faith, but what does it really mean?
“I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning” I John 2:13a.
Like Timothy these fathers know a lot about the Son of God, and that intellectual knowledge describes Him (Christ) as being from the beginning:
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;” I John 1:1.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made” John 1:1-3.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…and God said, Let there be light: and there was light” Genesis 1:1-3.
This is just a simple presentation of how the entire Old Testament proclaims the Son of God from the beginning. But you have to know the Old Testament to know that the One you know is he that is from the beginning:
“I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning…” I John 14:a.
Now as a child, you may have a Holy Ghost unction that this is true (I John 2:18-20), but the informed fathers are the ones who know this by tested information i.e. experience. So how is the information tested?
These fathers were once young men, which is the second half of the verse:
“I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one” I John 2:14b.
Why the sudden past tense “have written” “have overcome”?
The answer is found when we see again that we all are being called the little children in the present discussion:
“Little children, it is the last time: and ye have heard…” I John 2:18a.
This transitional sentence brings John’s recap topic to the present in application. The simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is extremely important to maintain in the complexity of the time. To the Fathers who have long known the scholarly information and application of Christ throughout history, You know the nature of Christ very well, but don’t forget to maintain that simple faith lest all your knowledge rots your brain by a Spritless intellectual application. You young men who are strong in the Lord and have the recent experience of overcoming the wicked one (2:14b), be careful not to loose sight of the simplicity that your salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ and not in your youthful strength:
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” I John 2:15-16.
Why is this warning important to remember here in this application?
“And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. Little children, it is the last time:…” I John 2:17-18a.
Throughout this work I have shown that the last time which John speaks of, has been an age far longer than the average self-focused Christian has patience for. The Fourth Diverse Beast of Daniel 7 began the last days, and with that several-part Beast, began the several-part rise of the Roman Catholic Church whore which continues through several forms until it finishes as the Great Whore of Revelation 17:1-6.
The warning of I John 2:15-20 is because this is an additional something that appears unwarlike, that sneaks up unexpected in the intellectual or physical battle of the faith. ONLY the child-like faith that knows the Father will discern this additional breach of the faith through the unction of the Holy One (v.20), and John informs us that both the knowledgeable fathers and the strong young men are accountable to have this child-like unction as a part of their spiritual arsenal:
“But ye have an unction from the Holy One and ye know all things” I John 2:20.
“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 2:21.
But here is the dilemma in this present phase of the unwarlike deception; What about all those Christians who think themselves to possess the unction, but nonetheless are swallowing the lie hook-line-and-sinker?! This is not the odd Christian among many but rather the norm, so WHAT HAPPENED?! Did God lie about them having the unction that defends their faith?
Hardly, rather, in believing the lie they have assumed they are Christians in spite of the warning! Today we have a whole generation of unrepentant Simonized “Christians” who fill the churches and by democratic vote they drive out the Peters whom they feel “judge them without love,” just as prophesied they would:
“They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me (Jesus)” John 16:2-3.
So how do these “Christians” get to such a state of warlike antagonism against the saints of God rather than having a Holy Ghost unction that would empower them to recognize even the deception of the unwarlike entity that destroys? Such a state of theoretical faith comes from neglecting to grow in the knowledge of God by testing their faith in a real battle with the enemy to observe the results with realistic eyes. My most regular and vocal detractors are “Christians” who don’t read their bibles, live comfortably in sin, and base their faith upon opinions of what they imagine the bible to say “God is love, God doesn’t judge, God accepts us as we are, you shouldn’t judge, you’re a legalist, you’re unloving”. What can I do? (Psalm 11:3).
Do you suppose John was actually writing to these kind of “Christians” at all, perhaps as simply ignorant little children that just needed to be educated? I don’t think so. I propose that as a co-apostle with Peter (II Peter 2:20-21), John would and does likewise make it clear that a lack of repentance from their iniquity shows a dangerous person who has no idea what Christianity is, but has the ability to destroy it in many real Christians if left unchecked (see Acts 8:9-25, Hebrews 12:15, Ephesians 4:29-32).
Simply put; Christians have the Holy Ghost unction if they are Christians, the problem is that the Gospel has been so loosely scattered by corrupt ministers that many like Simon now believe they have the unction when they don’t. Since the Holy Ghost unction is the thing that confirms you have Christ, how do the righteous convince these Simons that they are not Christian? (Psalm 11:3 again).
So, how can we know if we are Simonized? By getting to know the Father intimately and observing the power of salvation through repentance, in the heat of battle. Do you love the world? Do you love the things in the world? Are you struggling with giving up those little things you know are sin? Like the lust of the eyes because you are deeply and helplessly attracted? Do you take pride in pride as a strength and not an abomination to God? Do you commit sin because “you’re only human”? John tells us:
“He that commiteth sin is of the Devil; for the Devil sinneth from the beginning” I John 3:8a.
Do you believe this is wrong? The Lie tells us that we can be sinners and Christians at the same time, and you can find independent verses of scripture that validate that lie if you want to.
Obviously John would not have written I John 1:4 and 2:1 if a single sin condemned a faithful Christian to hell without remedy, so clearly this verse, in keeping with the enter book of I John and the rest of the Scriptures, is speaking of an unrepentant lifestyle choice of the “Christian” that I am here questioning. These particular so called Christians are not double-agents who know their deceptive rolls, but rather are Manchurian agents of the enemy (*1), thinking themselves to be on the same team against Satan.
* * *
The depth of the meaning in John’s warning against this peaceful deception soon to explode as the “Yang” savior of humanity is the subject of my next work. But here in this preparatory Post we begin to see clearly that the enemy is not actually the Catholic, the Jew, the Evolutionist, or the Muslim, etc.; the enemy is the dark spirit that drives anyone to believe the lie, even “Christians” who by an unrepentant nature follows the antichrist of a (C)hristless but (c)hristfilled peace (*2):
“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… no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” I John 2:18-22.
Today most Christians are so busily waiting for the Antichrist to appear in violence that they have no idea that the spirit of antichrist is already among them leading them astray with Dirty Grace. Will Antichrist actually rise? Yes, but before he does, the prophecy applies to you today, so you better learn it well or be deceived by its peace (Daniel 8:25).
If a sinless Christianity (I John 3:6), secured by our advocate Jesus Christ in the protection of Grace (I John 2:1) is not coupled with a true understanding of the very nature of the enemy, this battle will come to a quick failure.
But almost as important is the knowledge that this war will not soon be won on the temporal plain; we are now going into captivity; not freed from it, and the complexity of simultaneous “peace” and violence will make finding the narrow way even that much more difficult.
“…Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of Salvation” II Corinthians 6:2. (See also Hebrews 12:1-2 &17, 28-29, &…).
The book of Hebrew is a complex study of the simple truth; Jesus is the Christ. But like Allah presenting himself to be that Creator in place of Jehovah, so the Islamic Isa is not this Jesus.
The seeking Jew and the seeking Muslim will find a very enlightening revelation as Hebrews chapters 1-10 directly applies the truth of the Law fulfilled in Jesus the Son of God, and the remaining chapters speak of that faith as it applies to them. But another faith will apply it very differently and the result will be destruction.
So to recap: we have learned that it is very important to go into battle knowing the nature of your enemy and knowing your God intimately.
* * *
Deuteronomy:
Have you ever wondered what the long book of Deuteronomy was for?, it’s basic information was already included in the first four books of Moses.
From verse 1 of the first chapter, to verse 5 of the last chapter, Deuteronomy is Moses’ recap of all that the LORD had commanded his people on the long journey of re-education, and this recap was given just before Joshua led them across the Jordan River into victory. In a very real way Deuteronomy was the John-the-Baptist kind of straightening the crooked paths in preparation of Joshua’s successful work. Moses’ job was finished and he died because all the fearful first-generation Exodus people were now dead; the new people were free to accomplish the job in bold faith with Joshua in a new spirit of fellowship with God… but only as a Type of the Hebrews 8:10 covenant yet to be made!
Deuteronomy came after a whole lot of experience, because only after experience comes mature eyes to be able to comprehend what was heard in ignorance but not understood. But right after Deuteronomy we need Hebrews, because Hebrews is the Joshua of Deuteronomy’s Moses!
I trust you are actually reading these Scriptures, rather than just gleaning insight from the work of others.
* * * * * * *
(*1) “The Manchurian Candidate (1959), by Richard Condon, is a political thriller novel about the son of a prominent US political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy.
The novel has been adapted twice into a feature film by the same title, in 1962 and again in 2004.” - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manchurian_Candidate).
(*2) The Christless Peace:
This is a topic we will be exploring in great detail in the next section.
*
Besides knowing the very nature of your enemy, there is another point that must be firmly seated before we cross our river into the unfamiliar war (Joshua 3:4). I feel it is important to expand on the passage of I John 2 which we lightly discussed recently in footnote *5 of Post 287 The Three-Part Yin (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-three-part-yin.html). This additional point is the intimate knowledge of God (Colossians 1:10):
“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord” II Peter 1:2(+3).
* * *
John did not break up his letter into chapters; that was done much later for our benefit of study. So as Chapter Two opens with “My little children, these things write I unto you…” it is clear that John is speaking of everything he is including in the whole five-chapter letter we now identify as the book of I John: John is calling “His little children” all those believers that are learning from his letter.
The significance of his meaning becomes more pronounced when in verse 12 he begins to distinguish between the faith of little children from the faith of mature fathers (v.13a) and makes a further refined distinction between those two by including the faith of young men (v.13b) as yet a separate “level” of maturity in the faith.
So does this mean that because I am transitioning in my faith from young man to mature father that John’s letter to little children doesn’t apply to me? Of course not, John says clearly that he is writing to fathers as well, even though in faith those mature fathers are little children to John’s unique Jesus experienced faith that has something inspired to tell them as instruction from an experienced father to an inexperienced child.
Now if we use this perspective and go back and read Chapter one, we see a marvelous thing happen; as mature intellectual fathers in the faith we become open minded little children in the faith as John reminds us of the simplicity of Salvation in Christ Jesus who was from the beginning.
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” I John 1:1-3.
The Apostle John is our father in the faith if for no other reason that he walked with Jesus Christ in the flesh! But that is not the only reason; The Holy Spirit through John tells us this same Jesus-- that John himself walked with-- is the same one which was from the beginning, and which they had heard and touched. So what does that mean? It means that this same man of the flesh-and-blood Jesus was revealed in the very earliest writings of Scripture and the prophets had pre-declared, it was this Jesus that these apostles were long taught in the Synagogues to watch for. I expounded on some of this in Post 232 New Old Commandment (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-old-commandment.html).
John makes it clear that a child-like comprehension of faith is important to maintain in order to properly handle the intellectual details.
Jesus Christ himself warns:
“…Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven” Matthew 18:3-4.
Everyone; young men, fathers, disciples, and even Apostles, were included in his warning; we are all to become as humble little children in the faith of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul reflected this instructional warning:
“And that from a child thou (Timothy) hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” II Timothy 3:15.
“For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” Galatians 3:26.
“Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham” Galatians 3:7(+).
Don’t misread Paul’s admonition to Timothy as if it automatically applies to you because you are a Christian, Timothy was taught the Holy Scriptures (Old Testament) from childhood and he knew them well. This Old Testament education is what was able to make him wise unto salvation, specifically through the fresh New Testament faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
So what about you if you don’t know the Old Testament knowledge that pre-declared the Son of God? II Timothy 3:15 doesn’t apply to you until you do. But do you need it to be saved? Not if in the Spirit of God you accept in a child-like faith Jesus Christ, in the knowledge of the New Testament revealing of that same Son of God (see the above Galatians 3:26). This is little child-like faith that is good enough! It really doesn’t matter if you don’t know the details of how this links you to Abraham; it is faith in Christ alone that makes you so (see the above Galatians 3:7). A child of Abraham is anyone who believes in Jehovah like Abraham believed (Genesis 18:19+Matthew 3:9=Romans 9:6-9+).
John is writing to us all, even all the well-educated and knowledgeable “Timothys,” that the faith still must be held simplistically as in the eyes of a little child:
“This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you,
that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:” I John 1:5-6(+).
It’s just that simple; It’s as simple as light and dark, Love and Hate, Good and Bad… Sin and Don’t Sin.
“My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not.” I John 2:1a.
(“Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin” James 4:17).
But John does not end his thought there, though the sentence and meaning does end there. While John is declaring this instructional information is to restructure our mindframe to forbid the thought of permissive sin by intellectual rationalization, what if we do sin, are we forever lost?
So John continues with an additional instruction of comfort to the earnest believer, which is also basic to the yet unbeliever:
“And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation (2434) for our sins: and not for our’s only, but also for the sins of the whole world” I John 2:1b-2.
Propitiation 2434 hilasmos; atonement, i.e. (concretely) an expiator:-- propitiation.
Propitiate: …To appease and render favorable; conciliate… - Webster’s.
Atonement; (Exodus 29:19-33+Revelation 1:6 = John 6:53-57 [in a strange preparation for a yet future post-Crucifixion Type sacrifice prophesied in Ezekiel 39:17-24, but don’t miss the rest of the chapter for the event’s final completion and purpose!]).
So where is the wrathful God in John’s VERY inclusive grace of forgiveness if anyone would but turn to Jesus Christ our sacrifice after we have sinned? The wrath of God is discovered when we refuse to repent and accept his one-time, life-changing, cleansing Sacrifice of Propitiation as is shown in the above referenced Ezekiel passage.
If we accept that we are sinners and therefore separated from God by our sin, then in simplicity we can gratefully accept his atoning sacrifice that reunites us with the Perfect God in whom is no sin, and by consuming the very being of Jesus Christ to nourish our very fiber (John 6:51-63), we become sanctified priests of God. Exodus 29:33 makes very clear that anyone not a priest of God (exclusively devoted to His way) shall not participate in consuming the Ram of Consecration even though the atonement was publicly made.
I know this sounds all technical, and if you can simply grab ahold of “Do not sin” as the instruction to a child, then you perhaps don’t need the technical details… but what child does not constantly ask; “WHY?” In otherwords; “I want more information so that I can understand how to rightly apply the instruction.” This is how a child matures, to practice his learned faith in the real contest of warfare as a young man.
False theories blindly followed become defenseless when attacked. And while the child simply obeys blindly in expectation that the instruction is sound, the young man observes the success of obedience in practice, and the fathers have a history of success to be confident of their understanding.
* * *
Fathers and Little Children:
So if we are all to approach God through the humble obedient faith of a little child, what then makes the difference between the simple inquisitive child and the informed father? By John’s inclusion of them both in his “little children” address of the simplicity and importance of salvation, we know that the approach to salvation itself is not what makes the distinction. So let’s explore the specific distinction that John provides:
I write unto you little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name’s sake” I John 2:12.
Again, to John we are all his little children and each of us are to approach the forgiveness of our sins in the simple obedience of a little child. But for whose sake are we forgiven? Not our own, read it again.
And a child wants to know why, so John is writing to the child-like faith; The Why mechanics of their salvation. They already have salvation in obedient faith, but what does it really mean?
“I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning” I John 2:13a.
Like Timothy these fathers know a lot about the Son of God, and that intellectual knowledge describes Him (Christ) as being from the beginning:
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;” I John 1:1.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made” John 1:1-3.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…and God said, Let there be light: and there was light” Genesis 1:1-3.
This is just a simple presentation of how the entire Old Testament proclaims the Son of God from the beginning. But you have to know the Old Testament to know that the One you know is he that is from the beginning:
“I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning…” I John 14:a.
Now as a child, you may have a Holy Ghost unction that this is true (I John 2:18-20), but the informed fathers are the ones who know this by tested information i.e. experience. So how is the information tested?
These fathers were once young men, which is the second half of the verse:
“I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one” I John 2:14b.
Why the sudden past tense “have written” “have overcome”?
The answer is found when we see again that we all are being called the little children in the present discussion:
“Little children, it is the last time: and ye have heard…” I John 2:18a.
This transitional sentence brings John’s recap topic to the present in application. The simplicity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is extremely important to maintain in the complexity of the time. To the Fathers who have long known the scholarly information and application of Christ throughout history, You know the nature of Christ very well, but don’t forget to maintain that simple faith lest all your knowledge rots your brain by a Spritless intellectual application. You young men who are strong in the Lord and have the recent experience of overcoming the wicked one (2:14b), be careful not to loose sight of the simplicity that your salvation is through faith in Jesus Christ and not in your youthful strength:
“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” I John 2:15-16.
Why is this warning important to remember here in this application?
“And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. Little children, it is the last time:…” I John 2:17-18a.
Throughout this work I have shown that the last time which John speaks of, has been an age far longer than the average self-focused Christian has patience for. The Fourth Diverse Beast of Daniel 7 began the last days, and with that several-part Beast, began the several-part rise of the Roman Catholic Church whore which continues through several forms until it finishes as the Great Whore of Revelation 17:1-6.
The warning of I John 2:15-20 is because this is an additional something that appears unwarlike, that sneaks up unexpected in the intellectual or physical battle of the faith. ONLY the child-like faith that knows the Father will discern this additional breach of the faith through the unction of the Holy One (v.20), and John informs us that both the knowledgeable fathers and the strong young men are accountable to have this child-like unction as a part of their spiritual arsenal:
“But ye have an unction from the Holy One and ye know all things” I John 2:20.
“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 2:21.
But here is the dilemma in this present phase of the unwarlike deception; What about all those Christians who think themselves to possess the unction, but nonetheless are swallowing the lie hook-line-and-sinker?! This is not the odd Christian among many but rather the norm, so WHAT HAPPENED?! Did God lie about them having the unction that defends their faith?
Hardly, rather, in believing the lie they have assumed they are Christians in spite of the warning! Today we have a whole generation of unrepentant Simonized “Christians” who fill the churches and by democratic vote they drive out the Peters whom they feel “judge them without love,” just as prophesied they would:
“They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me (Jesus)” John 16:2-3.
So how do these “Christians” get to such a state of warlike antagonism against the saints of God rather than having a Holy Ghost unction that would empower them to recognize even the deception of the unwarlike entity that destroys? Such a state of theoretical faith comes from neglecting to grow in the knowledge of God by testing their faith in a real battle with the enemy to observe the results with realistic eyes. My most regular and vocal detractors are “Christians” who don’t read their bibles, live comfortably in sin, and base their faith upon opinions of what they imagine the bible to say “God is love, God doesn’t judge, God accepts us as we are, you shouldn’t judge, you’re a legalist, you’re unloving”. What can I do? (Psalm 11:3).
Do you suppose John was actually writing to these kind of “Christians” at all, perhaps as simply ignorant little children that just needed to be educated? I don’t think so. I propose that as a co-apostle with Peter (II Peter 2:20-21), John would and does likewise make it clear that a lack of repentance from their iniquity shows a dangerous person who has no idea what Christianity is, but has the ability to destroy it in many real Christians if left unchecked (see Acts 8:9-25, Hebrews 12:15, Ephesians 4:29-32).
Simply put; Christians have the Holy Ghost unction if they are Christians, the problem is that the Gospel has been so loosely scattered by corrupt ministers that many like Simon now believe they have the unction when they don’t. Since the Holy Ghost unction is the thing that confirms you have Christ, how do the righteous convince these Simons that they are not Christian? (Psalm 11:3 again).
So, how can we know if we are Simonized? By getting to know the Father intimately and observing the power of salvation through repentance, in the heat of battle. Do you love the world? Do you love the things in the world? Are you struggling with giving up those little things you know are sin? Like the lust of the eyes because you are deeply and helplessly attracted? Do you take pride in pride as a strength and not an abomination to God? Do you commit sin because “you’re only human”? John tells us:
“He that commiteth sin is of the Devil; for the Devil sinneth from the beginning” I John 3:8a.
Do you believe this is wrong? The Lie tells us that we can be sinners and Christians at the same time, and you can find independent verses of scripture that validate that lie if you want to.
Obviously John would not have written I John 1:4 and 2:1 if a single sin condemned a faithful Christian to hell without remedy, so clearly this verse, in keeping with the enter book of I John and the rest of the Scriptures, is speaking of an unrepentant lifestyle choice of the “Christian” that I am here questioning. These particular so called Christians are not double-agents who know their deceptive rolls, but rather are Manchurian agents of the enemy (*1), thinking themselves to be on the same team against Satan.
* * *
The depth of the meaning in John’s warning against this peaceful deception soon to explode as the “Yang” savior of humanity is the subject of my next work. But here in this preparatory Post we begin to see clearly that the enemy is not actually the Catholic, the Jew, the Evolutionist, or the Muslim, etc.; the enemy is the dark spirit that drives anyone to believe the lie, even “Christians” who by an unrepentant nature follows the antichrist of a (C)hristless but (c)hristfilled peace (*2):
“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… no lie is of the truth. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son” I John 2:18-22.
Today most Christians are so busily waiting for the Antichrist to appear in violence that they have no idea that the spirit of antichrist is already among them leading them astray with Dirty Grace. Will Antichrist actually rise? Yes, but before he does, the prophecy applies to you today, so you better learn it well or be deceived by its peace (Daniel 8:25).
If a sinless Christianity (I John 3:6), secured by our advocate Jesus Christ in the protection of Grace (I John 2:1) is not coupled with a true understanding of the very nature of the enemy, this battle will come to a quick failure.
But almost as important is the knowledge that this war will not soon be won on the temporal plain; we are now going into captivity; not freed from it, and the complexity of simultaneous “peace” and violence will make finding the narrow way even that much more difficult.
“…Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of Salvation” II Corinthians 6:2. (See also Hebrews 12:1-2 &17, 28-29, &…).
The book of Hebrew is a complex study of the simple truth; Jesus is the Christ. But like Allah presenting himself to be that Creator in place of Jehovah, so the Islamic Isa is not this Jesus.
The seeking Jew and the seeking Muslim will find a very enlightening revelation as Hebrews chapters 1-10 directly applies the truth of the Law fulfilled in Jesus the Son of God, and the remaining chapters speak of that faith as it applies to them. But another faith will apply it very differently and the result will be destruction.
So to recap: we have learned that it is very important to go into battle knowing the nature of your enemy and knowing your God intimately.
* * *
Deuteronomy:
Have you ever wondered what the long book of Deuteronomy was for?, it’s basic information was already included in the first four books of Moses.
From verse 1 of the first chapter, to verse 5 of the last chapter, Deuteronomy is Moses’ recap of all that the LORD had commanded his people on the long journey of re-education, and this recap was given just before Joshua led them across the Jordan River into victory. In a very real way Deuteronomy was the John-the-Baptist kind of straightening the crooked paths in preparation of Joshua’s successful work. Moses’ job was finished and he died because all the fearful first-generation Exodus people were now dead; the new people were free to accomplish the job in bold faith with Joshua in a new spirit of fellowship with God… but only as a Type of the Hebrews 8:10 covenant yet to be made!
Deuteronomy came after a whole lot of experience, because only after experience comes mature eyes to be able to comprehend what was heard in ignorance but not understood. But right after Deuteronomy we need Hebrews, because Hebrews is the Joshua of Deuteronomy’s Moses!
I trust you are actually reading these Scriptures, rather than just gleaning insight from the work of others.
* * * * * * *
(*1) “The Manchurian Candidate (1959), by Richard Condon, is a political thriller novel about the son of a prominent US political family who is brainwashed into being an unwitting assassin for a Communist conspiracy.
The novel has been adapted twice into a feature film by the same title, in 1962 and again in 2004.” - (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manchurian_Candidate).
(*2) The Christless Peace:
This is a topic we will be exploring in great detail in the next section.
*
Sunday, February 10, 2013
The Fall of Satan
From Heaven is the Rise of Satan on Earth.
June 11 - August 22, 2011
Post 214
(February 10, 2013: I enhanced the links of this post and somehow it lost its original order and I can't put it back, sorry.)
Directly following post 202 fifth dimension, we now understand the several temporal events of the Seven Trumpets is the single *1 heavenly 5th-dimensional perspective of the Devil being cast to earth, and the cause of the subsequent Three Woes is the resulting increase of Satanic infliction upon humanity once he and his kingdom finish falling to earth *2, we now understand how the Beast got into the bottomless pit and where he came from.
The beast of Revelation 17:8 that ascends out of the bottomless pit is the actual temporal kingdom of Satan on earth with Satan as its king in the form of the 12th Imam; the Caliph beast of the Islamic Caliphate beast; The beast of Revelation 17:8 is both Satan and his earthly kingdom as one single *1 authority; It is Satan as the falling star of Revelation 8:10 and the dragon of Revelation 12:3,9 with the 7 heads and 10 horns and 7 crowns as the submissive Islamic kingdoms and three too many kings of which only seven have crowns of authority (Daniel 7:8,24). And now you remember that identifying this beast is why we are covering these three woes.
Understanding the spiritual meaning of these three events in Revelation 8 of:
Hail, Fire and Blood, (v.7)
and a burning mountain which is a meteor, (v.8)
and finally an actual falling star, (v.10)
I was curious to consider the physical event of each spiritual application.
* * *
Hail and Fire and Blood:
It is not hard to accept that the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD that fell upon Roman Pompeii for her specific crimes against Jerusalem may have been a fulfillment of the hail and fire and blood prophecy of Revelation 8:7, but such theories are hard to prove at this later point and are of course just wild speculative hypotheses.
But if this hypothesis concept of a physical event for the rise of each part of the Iron beast kingdom is true for the hail and fire and blood over the Empire of Rome, then when did a mountain-sized rock fall to earth presumably in the Middle East during the 1st Islamic Caliphate (661 BC to 1924 AD) as representing the second part of the Iron beast?
Falling mountain on fire:
Through researching the question, I stumbled across the knowledge that in Mecca, at the southeast corner of the big black Kaaba (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaaba), which is the central focal point of Islamic worship and the destination of the required Hajj pilgrimage of every Muslim, is indeed a sizeable Black Stone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stone) *3 that reportedly fell to earth from space and therefore necessarily was mountain sized as it burned down while falling through earth’s atmosphere. (Due to its sacred status it has not been tested to verify its declared cosmic origin). This curious bit of information sure adds a lot of strength to my interpretation of this prophecy especially because I did not find the evidence until after coming to the interpretation of what the scripture is saying.
Falling star:
Should we not then expect a small star to fall to earth as the 3rd temporal event more than just representing the second Islamic Caliphate rising in the near future? I suggest we should. But don’t get too hasty; there are significant things that must occur before the Caliphate can rise to unite the fractured kingdoms of Islam now rising themselves.
Therefore lets take a closer look at the burning mountain that has already fallen.
* * *
The Black Stone:
This present Islamic “meteor” called the Black Stone is of an unknown source and of unknown time and is unknown if it fell into any sea of water even if it is discovered it actually can float (which is theorized by some Muslims), but has anyone simply explored the significance of this Black Stone in Islam?
I find it curious that this stone has no definite origin and no discernible purpose and no distinguished prominence in the faith of Islam, yet still plays a significant premiere part in the worship.
“A well-known hadith records that, when 2nd Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab (580-644) came to kiss the Stone, he said in front of all assembled: ‘No doubt, I know that you are a stone and can neither harm anyone nor benefit anyone. Had I not seen Allah's Messenger [Muhammad] kissing you, I would not have kissed you’”- (from the wikipedia Black Stone link above). Yet still the worshipers have a significant focus on this stone during their required lifetime achievement of their required pilgrimage;
“The Black Stone plays an important role in the central ritual of the Hajj, when pilgrims must walk seven times around the Kaaba in a counter-clockwise direction. They attempt to kiss the Black Stone seven times, once for each circumambulation of the Kaaba, emulating the actions of Muhammad. In modern times, large crowds make it practically impossible for everyone to kiss the stone, so it is currently acceptable for pilgrims to simply point in the direction of the Stone on each of their circuits around the building” - (from the same link).
So has anyone asked why Muhammad kissed the stone in the first place? Beyond speculative traditional explanation does anyone know why it is even located in the wall of the Kabba? What is the reason it is a part of the worship? Can anyone explain why if it has no power it is such a powerful element of the expression of faith? Why is it said the stone was once white but became black as it took upon itself the sins of those who kiss it? If it is not a god, how can it take away sins? *4 (read it now)
Is it possible that the “seven or eight” broken pieces that make up the glued stone are representational prophecy of the seven remaining kingdoms of the Islamic Empire that while still ten, kills the woman riding on the ten before three of the original ten are uprooted leaving seven to rule with the Caliph in a fractured Islamic state recombined into the powerful Caliphate? (Daniel 7:24+Revelation 17:11+12+Revelation 17:16-17+Daniel 7:8) Is there any significance that this worshiped but not worshiped stone fractured into pieces but “glued” back together might represent “And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of iron mixed with miry clay.” As described in Daniel 2:41 after three toes are lopped off?
Though this can be little more than theoretical at this time, there is far too much “coincidence” here not to have significance in the prophecy of scripture. I propose that this Black Stone from space is at least the first layer of the physical fulfillment of Revelation 8:8 spiritually cast into the sea of humanity that began the Islamic violence on the earth in 590+ AD by Mohammed as the second event following the hail and fire and blood that came with Rome representing the era of violence beginning in the day of John the Baptist (Matthew 11:12+ Revelation 8:5+12:12-13).
These three symbolic physical events noted in Revelation 8:7-11 are clearly a prophetic representation of the greater spiritual events showing the physical arrival of the last three Gentile GDEs as the singular Satanic kingdom of Iron and the violence they bring on this world. This part is not speculation. So for the sake of complete exploration lets take a look at some detail of the parts:
* * *
Parts of the Iron Beast:
Note how Revelation 8:8 defines the event: “And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea…” If the event was simply physical in one layer there would be no need and in fact would be inappropriate to include the phrase “as it were” which means “something like but not the actual thing described”.
Since the whole passage is describing the three phases of the kingdom of Satan cast to earth (Revelation 8:5), it is the kingdom that is like but not actually a great mountain. Yet this understanding does not mean the described physical event of an asteroid would not happen just as a representation of the physical Islamic kingdom is the manifestation of the spiritual event of Satan's fall, much as the horses represent the spirits of the winds in our earlier studies; Three layers of the same thing as sure as Revelation 12:1 described the physical stars in the sky in a point in time declaring the actual birth of the Messiah as a human boy who was the manifestation of the Son of God himself come to earth to be our saving sacrifice. Three descriptive layers of the same thing.
We see this representation and manifestation combination concept again in Revelation 8:10 but this time the star seems to actually fall while only the way it burns is given an “as it were” likeness. In this way we need not “interpret” the word star to mean actually something else like a star. This physical item will actually be a self-luminating cosmic body. There is no legitimate reason but doubt itself that should cause us to now doubt the physical element of this scriptural prophecy. We have seen enough fulfilled prophecy now to have the faith to believe those yet to be fulfilled. This is of course open to interpretation at this time but I believe my 5th dimensional perspective of this passage explains the timeline questions quite well.
Though the multiple events with multiple layers of each event is indeed confusing, this interpretation is revealed as the correct pattern by the first three chapters of Revelation itself:
“…what thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.” Revelation 1:11
This is clearly a single point in time as John was directed to send seven copies to seven specific places in time.
But we easily understand a second layer of application that covers seven messages to all churches through all time. We read the book of all seven churches here in Revelation to see which message might fit our specific situation in our specific congregation at this specific time.
But we can also see a third layer to the message in that these are seven stages of the singular church of Christ through time. Since the day John first wrote the letters, the church as a whole has progressed through these seven phases until today we find ourselves in the condition of the seventh church of Laodicea here in the last days.
And so we see again the message in three layers through the 5th dimensional application of the single *1 message given in our 4 dimensional time line, all along the way from John till now. We apply concept outside of a defined point in time to many points throughout time. Each point in our timeline becoming ever increasing in intensity and full fulfillment. This is how I propose the revelation is to be understood. I have shown that we are now entering the final layer of fulfillment and therefore will be the most intense and most accurately fulfilled.
Layers:
Because of this concept of layers I would not be surprised to see an additional layer of Hail fire and blood, and an asteroid, before the falling star, but neither would I be surprised to understand the first two have already been fulfilled and need not be repeated in the future before the star falls. This is simply a question of how many layers to the prophecy much as the Abomination of Desolation by Antiochus Epiphanies (Daniel 11:31) was only a foreshadow of the greater event of the Antichrist (Matthew 24:15, Daniel 12:11) which were both foreshadowed by that of the Jews themselves (Jeremiah 44:22). Three layers of the same thing.
My only hesitation of leaning toward a three layer fulfillment of these specific falling events are that they are only shown once in scripture as the events of the trumpets. Therefore I tentatively suggest they are actually only a single *1 representation of the thing they represent and not the thing itself which actually does come in three phases (Revelation 8:7-10 as the falling kingdom representation discussed, Revelation 12:3 as the sign of the falling kingdom of Satan, and Luke 10:18 Satan himself falling).
In our next post we will continue our study with the second woe as we learn about the kingdom of the beast of Revelation 17 and an exciting revelation of interpretation.
* * * * * * *
*1 Single 573 haplous; probably from 1 (as a particle of union) and the base of 4120; properly folded together, i.e. single (figuratively clear).
[Meaning more than one part woven together to create one; such as a three-cord rope.
From Matthew 6:22, see post 208 Two Masters (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2011/07/two-masters.html)].
*2 The Three Woes: Revelation 8:13- the declaration. 9:12- the 1st, 11:14- the 2nd, 12:12- the 3rd.
*3 The Black Stone: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stone). It is well worth a short internet search to read about this icon of Islamic worship that has every evidence of being worshiped though carefully declared not to be worshiped. This dead rock as the worshiped but not worshiped icon of Islam One, is but the predecessor image of the living falling star that will lead the Caliphate of Islam Two. These are the two falling objects of the 2nd and 3rd trumpets we now know to be the last two of the three-part 4th kingdom of Iron shown in Daniel 2:33, 40-43, 7:7-8,23, Matthew 11:12.
*4 The Brass Serpent of Numbers 21:7-9: The command of God clearly stated that there should be no graven (6459 a formed idol) image set up (Exodus 20:4, Leviticus 26:1,) and no god’s other than God should be worshiped (Exodus 20:3). Yet God himself command the creation of the brass serpent to be placed upon a pole (of a standard), that would heal the people (take away the sins) if they looked upon it for that reason. Later we see that Hezekiah had to destroy the brass serpent because the people were worshiping it (II Kings 18:4). Without the New Testament this mystery remains a confusion without explanation.
So why did God command the presentation of the brass serpent?
We see in the New Testament the Brass Serpent was the image of the Messiah yet to come, who himself must also be lifted up upon a pole of a standard i.e. a cross (John 3:14-15).
Now we see that the brass serpent was but the image of the Messiah and not the messiah himself but was looked upon for "salvation" from the snake bite, as the representation of the one that would come after to provide salvation simply by turning towards him (looking upon him).
and so as Satan’s perverted imitation of God’s idea, The Black Stone is the image of the falling Star yet to come; that dragon who will be worshiped. The parallel is startling! Until the arrival of the one who will be worshiped the image of that one is looked upon for their salvation while not actually a god to them but perhaps confusing to them today. Hezekiah was wise enough to destroy our version after it's use was corrupted in confusion.
I am not saying this stone is the image of Revelation 13:14-15 but a 1st layer of that fulfillment abusing God’s previous pattern. The Black Stone is the image of the Falling Star; Satan himself (Luke 10:18) as the brass serpent was the image of Christ.
*
June 11 - August 22, 2011
Post 214
(February 10, 2013: I enhanced the links of this post and somehow it lost its original order and I can't put it back, sorry.)
Directly following post 202 fifth dimension, we now understand the several temporal events of the Seven Trumpets is the single *1 heavenly 5th-dimensional perspective of the Devil being cast to earth, and the cause of the subsequent Three Woes is the resulting increase of Satanic infliction upon humanity once he and his kingdom finish falling to earth *2, we now understand how the Beast got into the bottomless pit and where he came from.
The beast of Revelation 17:8 that ascends out of the bottomless pit is the actual temporal kingdom of Satan on earth with Satan as its king in the form of the 12th Imam; the Caliph beast of the Islamic Caliphate beast; The beast of Revelation 17:8 is both Satan and his earthly kingdom as one single *1 authority; It is Satan as the falling star of Revelation 8:10 and the dragon of Revelation 12:3,9 with the 7 heads and 10 horns and 7 crowns as the submissive Islamic kingdoms and three too many kings of which only seven have crowns of authority (Daniel 7:8,24). And now you remember that identifying this beast is why we are covering these three woes.
Understanding the spiritual meaning of these three events in Revelation 8 of:
Hail, Fire and Blood, (v.7)
and a burning mountain which is a meteor, (v.8)
and finally an actual falling star, (v.10)
I was curious to consider the physical event of each spiritual application.
* * *
Hail and Fire and Blood:
It is not hard to accept that the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD that fell upon Roman Pompeii for her specific crimes against Jerusalem may have been a fulfillment of the hail and fire and blood prophecy of Revelation 8:7, but such theories are hard to prove at this later point and are of course just wild speculative hypotheses.
But if this hypothesis concept of a physical event for the rise of each part of the Iron beast kingdom is true for the hail and fire and blood over the Empire of Rome, then when did a mountain-sized rock fall to earth presumably in the Middle East during the 1st Islamic Caliphate (661 BC to 1924 AD) as representing the second part of the Iron beast?
Falling mountain on fire:
Through researching the question, I stumbled across the knowledge that in Mecca, at the southeast corner of the big black Kaaba (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaaba), which is the central focal point of Islamic worship and the destination of the required Hajj pilgrimage of every Muslim, is indeed a sizeable Black Stone (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stone) *3 that reportedly fell to earth from space and therefore necessarily was mountain sized as it burned down while falling through earth’s atmosphere. (Due to its sacred status it has not been tested to verify its declared cosmic origin). This curious bit of information sure adds a lot of strength to my interpretation of this prophecy especially because I did not find the evidence until after coming to the interpretation of what the scripture is saying.
Falling star:
Should we not then expect a small star to fall to earth as the 3rd temporal event more than just representing the second Islamic Caliphate rising in the near future? I suggest we should. But don’t get too hasty; there are significant things that must occur before the Caliphate can rise to unite the fractured kingdoms of Islam now rising themselves.
Therefore lets take a closer look at the burning mountain that has already fallen.
* * *
The Black Stone:
This present Islamic “meteor” called the Black Stone is of an unknown source and of unknown time and is unknown if it fell into any sea of water even if it is discovered it actually can float (which is theorized by some Muslims), but has anyone simply explored the significance of this Black Stone in Islam?
I find it curious that this stone has no definite origin and no discernible purpose and no distinguished prominence in the faith of Islam, yet still plays a significant premiere part in the worship.
“A well-known hadith records that, when 2nd Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab (580-644) came to kiss the Stone, he said in front of all assembled: ‘No doubt, I know that you are a stone and can neither harm anyone nor benefit anyone. Had I not seen Allah's Messenger [Muhammad] kissing you, I would not have kissed you’”- (from the wikipedia Black Stone link above). Yet still the worshipers have a significant focus on this stone during their required lifetime achievement of their required pilgrimage;
“The Black Stone plays an important role in the central ritual of the Hajj, when pilgrims must walk seven times around the Kaaba in a counter-clockwise direction. They attempt to kiss the Black Stone seven times, once for each circumambulation of the Kaaba, emulating the actions of Muhammad. In modern times, large crowds make it practically impossible for everyone to kiss the stone, so it is currently acceptable for pilgrims to simply point in the direction of the Stone on each of their circuits around the building” - (from the same link).
So has anyone asked why Muhammad kissed the stone in the first place? Beyond speculative traditional explanation does anyone know why it is even located in the wall of the Kabba? What is the reason it is a part of the worship? Can anyone explain why if it has no power it is such a powerful element of the expression of faith? Why is it said the stone was once white but became black as it took upon itself the sins of those who kiss it? If it is not a god, how can it take away sins? *4 (read it now)
Is it possible that the “seven or eight” broken pieces that make up the glued stone are representational prophecy of the seven remaining kingdoms of the Islamic Empire that while still ten, kills the woman riding on the ten before three of the original ten are uprooted leaving seven to rule with the Caliph in a fractured Islamic state recombined into the powerful Caliphate? (Daniel 7:24+Revelation 17:11+12+Revelation 17:16-17+Daniel 7:8) Is there any significance that this worshiped but not worshiped stone fractured into pieces but “glued” back together might represent “And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of iron mixed with miry clay.” As described in Daniel 2:41 after three toes are lopped off?
Though this can be little more than theoretical at this time, there is far too much “coincidence” here not to have significance in the prophecy of scripture. I propose that this Black Stone from space is at least the first layer of the physical fulfillment of Revelation 8:8 spiritually cast into the sea of humanity that began the Islamic violence on the earth in 590+ AD by Mohammed as the second event following the hail and fire and blood that came with Rome representing the era of violence beginning in the day of John the Baptist (Matthew 11:12+ Revelation 8:5+12:12-13).
These three symbolic physical events noted in Revelation 8:7-11 are clearly a prophetic representation of the greater spiritual events showing the physical arrival of the last three Gentile GDEs as the singular Satanic kingdom of Iron and the violence they bring on this world. This part is not speculation. So for the sake of complete exploration lets take a look at some detail of the parts:
* * *
Parts of the Iron Beast:
Note how Revelation 8:8 defines the event: “And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea…” If the event was simply physical in one layer there would be no need and in fact would be inappropriate to include the phrase “as it were” which means “something like but not the actual thing described”.
Since the whole passage is describing the three phases of the kingdom of Satan cast to earth (Revelation 8:5), it is the kingdom that is like but not actually a great mountain. Yet this understanding does not mean the described physical event of an asteroid would not happen just as a representation of the physical Islamic kingdom is the manifestation of the spiritual event of Satan's fall, much as the horses represent the spirits of the winds in our earlier studies; Three layers of the same thing as sure as Revelation 12:1 described the physical stars in the sky in a point in time declaring the actual birth of the Messiah as a human boy who was the manifestation of the Son of God himself come to earth to be our saving sacrifice. Three descriptive layers of the same thing.
We see this representation and manifestation combination concept again in Revelation 8:10 but this time the star seems to actually fall while only the way it burns is given an “as it were” likeness. In this way we need not “interpret” the word star to mean actually something else like a star. This physical item will actually be a self-luminating cosmic body. There is no legitimate reason but doubt itself that should cause us to now doubt the physical element of this scriptural prophecy. We have seen enough fulfilled prophecy now to have the faith to believe those yet to be fulfilled. This is of course open to interpretation at this time but I believe my 5th dimensional perspective of this passage explains the timeline questions quite well.
Though the multiple events with multiple layers of each event is indeed confusing, this interpretation is revealed as the correct pattern by the first three chapters of Revelation itself:
“…what thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.” Revelation 1:11
This is clearly a single point in time as John was directed to send seven copies to seven specific places in time.
But we easily understand a second layer of application that covers seven messages to all churches through all time. We read the book of all seven churches here in Revelation to see which message might fit our specific situation in our specific congregation at this specific time.
But we can also see a third layer to the message in that these are seven stages of the singular church of Christ through time. Since the day John first wrote the letters, the church as a whole has progressed through these seven phases until today we find ourselves in the condition of the seventh church of Laodicea here in the last days.
And so we see again the message in three layers through the 5th dimensional application of the single *1 message given in our 4 dimensional time line, all along the way from John till now. We apply concept outside of a defined point in time to many points throughout time. Each point in our timeline becoming ever increasing in intensity and full fulfillment. This is how I propose the revelation is to be understood. I have shown that we are now entering the final layer of fulfillment and therefore will be the most intense and most accurately fulfilled.
Layers:
Because of this concept of layers I would not be surprised to see an additional layer of Hail fire and blood, and an asteroid, before the falling star, but neither would I be surprised to understand the first two have already been fulfilled and need not be repeated in the future before the star falls. This is simply a question of how many layers to the prophecy much as the Abomination of Desolation by Antiochus Epiphanies (Daniel 11:31) was only a foreshadow of the greater event of the Antichrist (Matthew 24:15, Daniel 12:11) which were both foreshadowed by that of the Jews themselves (Jeremiah 44:22). Three layers of the same thing.
My only hesitation of leaning toward a three layer fulfillment of these specific falling events are that they are only shown once in scripture as the events of the trumpets. Therefore I tentatively suggest they are actually only a single *1 representation of the thing they represent and not the thing itself which actually does come in three phases (Revelation 8:7-10 as the falling kingdom representation discussed, Revelation 12:3 as the sign of the falling kingdom of Satan, and Luke 10:18 Satan himself falling).
In our next post we will continue our study with the second woe as we learn about the kingdom of the beast of Revelation 17 and an exciting revelation of interpretation.
* * * * * * *
*1 Single 573 haplous; probably from 1 (as a particle of union) and the base of 4120; properly folded together, i.e. single (figuratively clear).
[Meaning more than one part woven together to create one; such as a three-cord rope.
From Matthew 6:22, see post 208 Two Masters (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2011/07/two-masters.html)].
*2 The Three Woes: Revelation 8:13- the declaration. 9:12- the 1st, 11:14- the 2nd, 12:12- the 3rd.
*3 The Black Stone: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Stone). It is well worth a short internet search to read about this icon of Islamic worship that has every evidence of being worshiped though carefully declared not to be worshiped. This dead rock as the worshiped but not worshiped icon of Islam One, is but the predecessor image of the living falling star that will lead the Caliphate of Islam Two. These are the two falling objects of the 2nd and 3rd trumpets we now know to be the last two of the three-part 4th kingdom of Iron shown in Daniel 2:33, 40-43, 7:7-8,23, Matthew 11:12.
*4 The Brass Serpent of Numbers 21:7-9: The command of God clearly stated that there should be no graven (6459 a formed idol) image set up (Exodus 20:4, Leviticus 26:1,) and no god’s other than God should be worshiped (Exodus 20:3). Yet God himself command the creation of the brass serpent to be placed upon a pole (of a standard), that would heal the people (take away the sins) if they looked upon it for that reason. Later we see that Hezekiah had to destroy the brass serpent because the people were worshiping it (II Kings 18:4). Without the New Testament this mystery remains a confusion without explanation.
So why did God command the presentation of the brass serpent?
We see in the New Testament the Brass Serpent was the image of the Messiah yet to come, who himself must also be lifted up upon a pole of a standard i.e. a cross (John 3:14-15).
Now we see that the brass serpent was but the image of the Messiah and not the messiah himself but was looked upon for "salvation" from the snake bite, as the representation of the one that would come after to provide salvation simply by turning towards him (looking upon him).
and so as Satan’s perverted imitation of God’s idea, The Black Stone is the image of the falling Star yet to come; that dragon who will be worshiped. The parallel is startling! Until the arrival of the one who will be worshiped the image of that one is looked upon for their salvation while not actually a god to them but perhaps confusing to them today. Hezekiah was wise enough to destroy our version after it's use was corrupted in confusion.
I am not saying this stone is the image of Revelation 13:14-15 but a 1st layer of that fulfillment abusing God’s previous pattern. The Black Stone is the image of the Falling Star; Satan himself (Luke 10:18) as the brass serpent was the image of Christ.
*
The Third Yin
Post 289
Continuing from Post 287, we can see how both Judaism and Christianity were corrupted in very similar spirits of misapplying God’s intent while putting up a show of earnest, and even extreme, godliness.
Once the highly offensive Orthodox “Jews” and Catholic “Christians” so fully corrupted the faith that the world could no longer tolerate the foundations of these exotic religions, what is the true Jew and Christian to do?
“If the foundations (8356) be destroyed (2040), what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3.
8356 shathah; from 7896; a basis, i.e. (figuratively) political or moral support:-- foundation, purpose.
2040 harac; a primitive root; to pull down or in pieces, break, destroy:-- beat down, break (down, through), destroy, overthrow, pluck down, pull down, ruin, throw down, X utterly.
In this study we have begun to see that there is a difference between the corruption of a faith, and destroying the faith’s very foundation, so note in this verse that the concern is not for those who corrupt the faith but for the righteous. The Catholic Church, while using the faith, murdered millions of Christians, and the Muslims are doing the same still today across the world, but although suffering greatly and even losing their lives, these true Christians still have a most solid foundation on which they stand unmoved in the persecution. Therefore, by this example it seems impossible that the foundation of the righteous could be destroyed, so how are the very foundations of the righteous destroyed as the Psalmist proposes?
Now stay with the concept; If these righteous, who are standing on their foundations, are found to have corrupted their own foundations, then they wouldn’t be called righteous. This is a profound concept to be understood because the verse seems to predict a time when the righteous will indeed find that their foundations have been destroyed by others! What do they do then?
I believe the answer is found in the discovery of how the foundations are destroyed. Can you accept the thought that there are righteous who don’t know and so have no hope, and there are righteous who do? The answer to Psalm 11:3 seems to be to find out how it happens. This is a bit of a slippery concept because if the foundations are actually destroyed then recovery seems to be impossible or the destruction was not successful and the question becomes mute: we are talking foundations here.
This leads to the question; “Can the righteous remain without foundations?” Again, if there were no righteous, then the question of the verse would be empty. So it seems the foundations can be destroyed and the righteous will still remain, though left with nothing to do.
This seems to present another question that the verse pre-supposes we already know the answer to;
“What are the righteous supposed to be doing while the foundations remain?”
“For he (Abraham) looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” Hebrews 11:10.
It seems self-apparent that the righteous are to be spreading the Gospel and filling the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 3:2) on which foundations it is built. The foundations are those upon which this work is done, and when those foundations are destroyed the righteous “don’t have a leg to stand on” in presenting their argument to the lost.
I suggest that the answer is to discover the plans of the destruction before it takes place, in the effort to keep them from being destroyed.
In truth, this is the very end intent of my timely work. If we know the plan, we can identify the destroyer and avoid the destruction, which avoidance is possible by the “IF” of the verse in question.
Yet even today, most in the faith don’t actually know what the foundations look like because they are already badly dilapidated through neglect, so my work to this point has been a familiarization of the solid foundations via the descriptions of Law and Grace as they actually apply in that Kingdom. My next section of Posts is purposed to expose in some detail the plan to destroy what is now dilapidated. That destruction goes so far beyond simple corruption that unless we deeply grasp the actual Kingdom it will be impossible to comprehend the foundations once they are destroyed. Most Christians today have not even contemplated that Kingdom and cannot imagine anything beyond playing harps on clouds, day in and day out for eternity. If you know nothing of the Kingdom then what possible value could the foundations have to you?
“So they are a little tattered, what difference does it make?”
America is the present physical representation of that tattered Kingdom and our willingness to just let it die reveals our complete ignorance of what it was before the foundations became dilapidated and what our world will be like without it. Example: when the blessings of American abundance are gone, how will you feed the poor? Do you suppose Chairman Mao will do it for you?
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3.
* * *
The Third Yin:
Because we have seen a multi-layered pattern emerge in the individual histories of both Judaism and Christianity, as well as in their mutual relationship, it will be easy and natural to project that pattern onto anything that seems to fit.
Enters Islam.
As “Christianity” seemed to be the Yang to the corrupted “Judaism,” and we observe the good and bad contentions within each as its own internal yin and yang, so we see this pattern emerge in Islam between their two houses of Shi’ite and Sunni as the next answering faith that seems to apply the Law of Moses through the Shi’ite house in a more “determined” way than the Jews, and the contending “Christian” counterpart of liberal Grace in the Sunni house. The comparative similarities cannot be denied as the investigation continues, and it is most curious how the term Déjà vu seems to best apply:
The Qur’an is declared to have been “written” by Islam’s Moses/Christ-like prophet Mohammad ( see http://mukto-mona.net/Articles/kasem/quran_origin.htm for more accurate detail). And like the Talmud of the Jews, the later written Hadith and Tafsirs are where the Muslims find their complex interpretations of the Qur’an to make it apply to their desires today. Is the Qur’an really clear on one point? The Hadith/Sunna (the words of Mohammad) can explain it in the complete reversal if they want it to. This both allows them their particular interpretation as well as explains away any element that might be offensive to unbelieving questioners. And like the seeming appearance of Christian Grace to supersede the Law, so the moderate Sunni is presented to supersede the violent Shi’ite. In this way it seems only obvious that the peace-loving Sunni house is the justified “Christian” type house even though it has within it it’s own contending factions of murdering terrorists, that like the Catholic Church, they try to hide from exposure and justice, claiming publicly a separation from them but secretly funding and supporting them. If we attempt to justify true Christianity from the murderous Catholicism, we feel obligated by fairness to justify the moderate Sunni from the terrorist Sunni.
OK fine. Let’s leave that confusion alone for now because it’s an argument with so many complexities that the battle of logic will be long fought without also killing off Christianity and Judaism along with it.
* * *
Don’t get entangled in the insignificant:
Before Mohammad, it is reported that pre-modern Islam was a religion of 360 gods. Mohammad is the prophet who eliminated all but three: the Moon (father), Sun (mother), and Stars (daughters), before later eliminating all but the moon Allah: Al-ilah. In Arabic ilah is reported to mean “moon crescent,” but you will not find any of this on an internet search for legitimate documentation. Archeological evidence shows that the crescent moon cymbal did not originate with Mohammad, and by simple denial it is no longer a viable argument without lots of debate in spite of the fact that their temples and flags are adorned with the crescent moon as the premiere symbol of Islam’s God. Today the Muslims all believe Allah is the lone and single God as the creator… in spite of the fact that every Muslim is obligated to pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their life to worship the black stone embedded in the corner of the Ka’aba (*1), by pointing at the stone on their way around the tawaf if they cannot make their way in the crowed to kiss it (*2); their own Type of their Messiah, distinct from Allah; the One True God. So, again, to avoid a long argument let’s turn our attention to yet another line:
Where did Islam get their Qur’an’s holy law?
Nobody argues that Abraham is not the father of Ishmael; of course he is. But what does Ishmael have to do with Moses and the Law, or the Hebrew prophets, or the promised Messiah? Were the children of Ishmael enslaved by the Egyptians and needing rescue by Moses as God prophesied before the event (Genesis 15:13-16)? Did the people of Ishmael wander with Moses 40 years in the wilderness while learning to apply the Law? No. Yet the very tardy Qur’an seems to be integrally linked to the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) without any indication of how.
I propose the possibility that Jethro, Moses’ Arabian father-in-law (the Priest of Midian) may have been how the Arab sons of Abraham got the Torah when he visited Moses on the way through the wilderness:
“When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt; then Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back, and her two sons…and Jethro, Moses’ father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God” Exodus 18:1-5.
Midian was not related to Ishmael the son of Egyptian handmaid Hagar (Genesis 25:12-15) but rather was the son of Keturah, Abraham’s second wife after Sarah died (Genesis 25:1-6). It is not hard to see the possibility that the 12 Muslim sons of Ishmael may have gotten the Torah from their neighbors the Arab Midianites, and this may be how the Muslim’s faith, as the “other” sons of Abraham, is so connected to the Hebrew’s Bible through Moses while also mixed with their other religions.
In this way we see that the Qur’an seems more focused on the destruction of Jehovah’s people for their failure to obey the Mosaic Law than actually teaching the Muslims to obey it. The Muslims have their own “version” of the Mosaic Law that they obey as we will discuss momentarily.
And here is where it gets interestingly relevant to us.
The Hebrew Jews had the actual Mosaic Law given to them by God himself on the mountain in Arabia (Exodus 19:1-3, Galatians 3:25, NOT the “Sinai” Peninsula). And the Hebrews had God’s man Moses (the Type of Christ) to teach them how to apply it properly in the spirit of self-control through a very long and uncomfortable journey… but they couldn’t seem to get it together for more than a short time before utterly failing into captivity to Babylon for their disobedience.
Sometime later than Moses, by means we are not told, the Ishmaelite Muslims got ahold of the Tanakh including the Mosaic Law to give it a go, but without the Christ of Jehovah God the giver to guide them in the proper interpretation or intent (spirit). Instead they had their own God Allah to show them how, and he provided them with Mohammad as the Christ Type stand-in for a message that was not even his. What we end up with a Jehovahless and Christless attempt to accomplish the job Jehovah commanded, which is exactly how Ishmael was conceived in the first place (Genesis 15:2-6,18+17:19,21 vs. 16:1-4+17:18,20). The result is a “Cain-an” twisted religion of “God’s” violent laws that are geared toward serving man’s sin-nature of natural desires: Lust, Greed, and Violence, accomplished through Rape, Booty, and Murder as commanded by god in the name of God! So how do you then turn the hearts of wicked men who’s naturally loved wickedness is actually commanded by their god using your own God’s commandments?! Are the foundations shaking yet?
Like the Catholic Church with Christianity, they may not be actually breaking the word-by-word specifics of the written law, but nonetheless wholly breaking the intent, and God uses this perversion to correct his own people by showing them the unpleasantness of their own iniquity reflected back to them.
Why didn’t Satan (Allah) come up with his own religion to battle Jehovah’s people? Because that would not destroy the foundations of Jehovah’s intent for the Law. No, Satan needs to so corrupt Jehovah’s Law that it becomes utterly repulsive to His own people. Islam fills that goal as they mush Allah into a “corrected” version of “flawed” Jehovah that brings global violence commanded by “God.”
* * *
The Law in the hands of another people:
“Shouldn’t God’s law apply universally to anyone who wishes to follow it?” Let’s examine that concept to find out.
Jesus confirmed the Law by stating:
“…Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” Matthew 22:37-40.
Now we know that Jesus was speaking to the Jews and therefore it goes without saying that Jehovah is the God to whom he was referring. But today, most Christians don’t see the significance of this concept detail and today we see the Muslims, who have absorbed the Torah into their faith of Allah, and so this command takes on a whole new application while following every word without compromise. Let’s read that first commandment again with this new comprehension of a Muslim’s faith in Allah:
“…Thou shalt love the Lord thy God (Allah) with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” Matthew 22:37-38.
The Muslims, like Saul of Tarsus, takes up this task with vigor, and Jesus himself commanded this by confirming the command in the Torah! But is that really what Jesus was saying? Absolutely not! But can you see how quickly the pure is turned to poison, without changing a single word?
Let’s continue with this foundation while Satan’s people apply the second command of Jesus from the Law of the Hebrew Bible:
“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” Matthew 22:39-40.
If a Satan-loving sodomite fulfilling the first and great command, applies this second command to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” then this command of Christ seems to mean beyond question that you should indeed sodomize all your neighbors in love, because that’s what you would like from them.
And if an Allah-loving Muslim applies this command, then it is actually a command of Christ to blow-up your neighbors because you are more than willing to die for your faith, even at your own hand.
The careful word-by-word application of God’s Old Testament law confirmed by Jesus Christ himself in the New Testament cannot be argued, though the application is wholly in direct opposition to the Spirit and intent of Jehovah who authored it.
You see, the Law of God (Jehovah), and indeed the whole Tanakh and the prophets, with the New Testament, is only applicable to Jehovah’s people, and only then in the Spirit in which it was given (see Post 227 On Tongues http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2011/12/on-tongues.html). Perfect application by others is an abomination, and modifications in order to make it fit better is only further perversion. It’s just that until the 4th beast of Daniel 7 we have never run into this kind of brand cannibalization before; the problems with the faith have always been within the faith.
The Jews without a Temple Sacrifice is the complete breach of the Law; there is no “fix” to this dilemma and the Babylonian Talmud solution is the evidence of a failed try. But that was still within the faith. Now the Muslim’s own attempt to apply Moses’ Law is yet another perversion of what was already perverted by the Jews to the degree that God removed the temple and sacrifice for its ineffectiveness. Now what are they supposed to do? And what do we do with the Muslims
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3.
Without Yeshua Christ as the end (completion, fulfillment) of the Law (Romans 10:4-9) there is no solution to their problem. Christ was prophesied all through the Tanakh to make sure he was not missed when he finally came at the time that the Law was no longer capable of leading a corrupt people because of folly (Hebrews 8:7-9), but the Jews stopped reading the Tanakh in favor of the Talmud many years previous, until today the Jews and the Muslims have completely destroyed the foundation of the Law while trying to apply it:
“For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth”… Romans 10:2-4 (+).
God provided another covenant through the foundation of Christ’s Grace to make their violent and convoluted corruption of the Law obsolete, in favor of restoring the original intent of an Abrahamic kind of faith in God without the burdensome need of oppressive rules to govern their conduct: Love God, and Love your neighbor, can you handle that?
And like the Jewish, and subsequent Muslim, corruption of the Law to the degree that the foundation was utterly destroyed beyond recovery in using it to fulfill their own lusts by “the command of God himself,” The Christians have likewise corrupted Christ’s Grace-solution for the corrupted Law to fulfill their own lusts in the same way; “There ain’t NO LAW ANYMORE! Let’s party like animals in the grace of Christ!” (*3).
Now in turn begins the Muslim destruction of the foundation of this corrupted Grace in the same way that the Law was corrupted, and this is why I say: The mystery is not the Beast.
Oh you have no idea!
* * *
So who is the Enemy?
Is it the Jew? Is it the Christian? Is it the Muslim? To answer that, we need simply to look into our recent history of warfare:
The Germans were our enemy in WWII. They attempted to conquer our freedom and subjugate us to the will of the Third Reich. In response we were obligated to fight them and defend freedom for the world.
The Japanese were also our enemy and they too attempted to destroy us, and we were obligated to fight back in defense.
Are the Germans and the Japanese our enemies today? Not at all, they are very agreeable members of the human world of nations. So what changed? Why were they our mortal enemies at one point but our friends in another? The obvious explanation is their authority. Defeat Nazism and the German people were free to act civil. Crush Tojo Fascism and the Japanese people were able to enter the free world. Today these peaceful nations are great assets to the world because the dark powers that controlled the people were defeated.
Today the dark power that threatens the world is the ideology of Islam. For the most part the Muslim people themselves are caught in the power and under control of their authority in many ways; fear, intimidation, education, culture, and upbringing, to name a few. And while they are our enemies by the circumstances of their aggression against our freedom, the ideology that controls them is the real enemy. Defeat the dark authority by that of the loving and benevolent Messiah of America’s past, and the people are free to act civil if they so wish. But the reverse is also true; fail to defeat that dark authority and we will be forced to become the enemy of our own freedom.
The scriptures were not waxing eloquent when they declared:
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” Ephesians 6:12.
And this explains our very real primary weapons against Islam’s ideology:
“(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled” II Corinthians 10:4-6.
The Qur’an is not simply an odd religion with wild ideas from a crazy doctrine; it is the perversion of the entire Bible, Old and New Testaments. It is the very powerful weapons that you were making in the factory of Post 280 “The Noise!” now in the hands of the Enemy. And while their version of the Law has been “adjusted” to fit their own perspectives, the Law is not the real problem, just like guns are not the problem; The god of Islam is the real problem, which is the same god of Orthodox Judaism and Catholicism, and Nazism, and when presented to Jehovah’s people, that god is proclaimed to be the God that Jehovah claims to be. And when presented to a people already corrupt, it’s a relatively easy sell with time.
How much more so when Allah gets a good hold on Christ’s Grace as well!
Think about it.
* * * * * * *
(*1) Ka’aba:
“The Ka'aba (literally "the cube" in Arabic) is an ancient stone structure that was built and re-built by prophets as a house of monotheistic worship. It is located inside the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The Ka'aba is considered the center of the Muslim world, and is a unifying focal point for Islamic worship. The Ka'aba is a semi-cubic building that stands about 15 meters high and 10-12 meters wide. It is an ancient, simple structure made of granite.” - Ka’aba (http://islam.about.com/od/mecca/p/kaaba.htm).
(*2) The Black Stone and the Ka’aba:
See Post 214 The Fall of Satan (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-fall-of-satan.html).
(*3) Dear Christian,
To continue in sin while applying Christ’s Grace is to be a stranger to God’s word just as is the Muslim or the Sodomite, it simply does not apply to you though you earnestly and carefully apply each word of the Holy text. All the intellectual information, is worse than nothing at all, because in the study you think you are drawing closer to God while you ignore the compromise that separates you and brings destruction.
This functionally might be called Treason, but God calls it Folly.
*
Continuing from Post 287, we can see how both Judaism and Christianity were corrupted in very similar spirits of misapplying God’s intent while putting up a show of earnest, and even extreme, godliness.
Once the highly offensive Orthodox “Jews” and Catholic “Christians” so fully corrupted the faith that the world could no longer tolerate the foundations of these exotic religions, what is the true Jew and Christian to do?
“If the foundations (8356) be destroyed (2040), what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3.
8356 shathah; from 7896; a basis, i.e. (figuratively) political or moral support:-- foundation, purpose.
2040 harac; a primitive root; to pull down or in pieces, break, destroy:-- beat down, break (down, through), destroy, overthrow, pluck down, pull down, ruin, throw down, X utterly.
In this study we have begun to see that there is a difference between the corruption of a faith, and destroying the faith’s very foundation, so note in this verse that the concern is not for those who corrupt the faith but for the righteous. The Catholic Church, while using the faith, murdered millions of Christians, and the Muslims are doing the same still today across the world, but although suffering greatly and even losing their lives, these true Christians still have a most solid foundation on which they stand unmoved in the persecution. Therefore, by this example it seems impossible that the foundation of the righteous could be destroyed, so how are the very foundations of the righteous destroyed as the Psalmist proposes?
Now stay with the concept; If these righteous, who are standing on their foundations, are found to have corrupted their own foundations, then they wouldn’t be called righteous. This is a profound concept to be understood because the verse seems to predict a time when the righteous will indeed find that their foundations have been destroyed by others! What do they do then?
I believe the answer is found in the discovery of how the foundations are destroyed. Can you accept the thought that there are righteous who don’t know and so have no hope, and there are righteous who do? The answer to Psalm 11:3 seems to be to find out how it happens. This is a bit of a slippery concept because if the foundations are actually destroyed then recovery seems to be impossible or the destruction was not successful and the question becomes mute: we are talking foundations here.
This leads to the question; “Can the righteous remain without foundations?” Again, if there were no righteous, then the question of the verse would be empty. So it seems the foundations can be destroyed and the righteous will still remain, though left with nothing to do.
This seems to present another question that the verse pre-supposes we already know the answer to;
“What are the righteous supposed to be doing while the foundations remain?”
“For he (Abraham) looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” Hebrews 11:10.
It seems self-apparent that the righteous are to be spreading the Gospel and filling the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 3:2) on which foundations it is built. The foundations are those upon which this work is done, and when those foundations are destroyed the righteous “don’t have a leg to stand on” in presenting their argument to the lost.
I suggest that the answer is to discover the plans of the destruction before it takes place, in the effort to keep them from being destroyed.
In truth, this is the very end intent of my timely work. If we know the plan, we can identify the destroyer and avoid the destruction, which avoidance is possible by the “IF” of the verse in question.
Yet even today, most in the faith don’t actually know what the foundations look like because they are already badly dilapidated through neglect, so my work to this point has been a familiarization of the solid foundations via the descriptions of Law and Grace as they actually apply in that Kingdom. My next section of Posts is purposed to expose in some detail the plan to destroy what is now dilapidated. That destruction goes so far beyond simple corruption that unless we deeply grasp the actual Kingdom it will be impossible to comprehend the foundations once they are destroyed. Most Christians today have not even contemplated that Kingdom and cannot imagine anything beyond playing harps on clouds, day in and day out for eternity. If you know nothing of the Kingdom then what possible value could the foundations have to you?
“So they are a little tattered, what difference does it make?”
America is the present physical representation of that tattered Kingdom and our willingness to just let it die reveals our complete ignorance of what it was before the foundations became dilapidated and what our world will be like without it. Example: when the blessings of American abundance are gone, how will you feed the poor? Do you suppose Chairman Mao will do it for you?
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3.
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The Third Yin:
Because we have seen a multi-layered pattern emerge in the individual histories of both Judaism and Christianity, as well as in their mutual relationship, it will be easy and natural to project that pattern onto anything that seems to fit.
Enters Islam.
As “Christianity” seemed to be the Yang to the corrupted “Judaism,” and we observe the good and bad contentions within each as its own internal yin and yang, so we see this pattern emerge in Islam between their two houses of Shi’ite and Sunni as the next answering faith that seems to apply the Law of Moses through the Shi’ite house in a more “determined” way than the Jews, and the contending “Christian” counterpart of liberal Grace in the Sunni house. The comparative similarities cannot be denied as the investigation continues, and it is most curious how the term Déjà vu seems to best apply:
The Qur’an is declared to have been “written” by Islam’s Moses/Christ-like prophet Mohammad ( see http://mukto-mona.net/Articles/kasem/quran_origin.htm for more accurate detail). And like the Talmud of the Jews, the later written Hadith and Tafsirs are where the Muslims find their complex interpretations of the Qur’an to make it apply to their desires today. Is the Qur’an really clear on one point? The Hadith/Sunna (the words of Mohammad) can explain it in the complete reversal if they want it to. This both allows them their particular interpretation as well as explains away any element that might be offensive to unbelieving questioners. And like the seeming appearance of Christian Grace to supersede the Law, so the moderate Sunni is presented to supersede the violent Shi’ite. In this way it seems only obvious that the peace-loving Sunni house is the justified “Christian” type house even though it has within it it’s own contending factions of murdering terrorists, that like the Catholic Church, they try to hide from exposure and justice, claiming publicly a separation from them but secretly funding and supporting them. If we attempt to justify true Christianity from the murderous Catholicism, we feel obligated by fairness to justify the moderate Sunni from the terrorist Sunni.
OK fine. Let’s leave that confusion alone for now because it’s an argument with so many complexities that the battle of logic will be long fought without also killing off Christianity and Judaism along with it.
* * *
Don’t get entangled in the insignificant:
Before Mohammad, it is reported that pre-modern Islam was a religion of 360 gods. Mohammad is the prophet who eliminated all but three: the Moon (father), Sun (mother), and Stars (daughters), before later eliminating all but the moon Allah: Al-ilah. In Arabic ilah is reported to mean “moon crescent,” but you will not find any of this on an internet search for legitimate documentation. Archeological evidence shows that the crescent moon cymbal did not originate with Mohammad, and by simple denial it is no longer a viable argument without lots of debate in spite of the fact that their temples and flags are adorned with the crescent moon as the premiere symbol of Islam’s God. Today the Muslims all believe Allah is the lone and single God as the creator… in spite of the fact that every Muslim is obligated to pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their life to worship the black stone embedded in the corner of the Ka’aba (*1), by pointing at the stone on their way around the tawaf if they cannot make their way in the crowed to kiss it (*2); their own Type of their Messiah, distinct from Allah; the One True God. So, again, to avoid a long argument let’s turn our attention to yet another line:
Where did Islam get their Qur’an’s holy law?
Nobody argues that Abraham is not the father of Ishmael; of course he is. But what does Ishmael have to do with Moses and the Law, or the Hebrew prophets, or the promised Messiah? Were the children of Ishmael enslaved by the Egyptians and needing rescue by Moses as God prophesied before the event (Genesis 15:13-16)? Did the people of Ishmael wander with Moses 40 years in the wilderness while learning to apply the Law? No. Yet the very tardy Qur’an seems to be integrally linked to the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) without any indication of how.
I propose the possibility that Jethro, Moses’ Arabian father-in-law (the Priest of Midian) may have been how the Arab sons of Abraham got the Torah when he visited Moses on the way through the wilderness:
“When Jethro, the priest of Midian, Moses’ father in law, heard of all that God had done for Moses, and for Israel his people, and that the LORD had brought Israel out of Egypt; then Jethro, Moses’ father in law, took Zipporah, Moses’ wife, after he had sent her back, and her two sons…and Jethro, Moses’ father in law, came with his sons and his wife unto Moses into the wilderness, where he encamped at the mount of God” Exodus 18:1-5.
Midian was not related to Ishmael the son of Egyptian handmaid Hagar (Genesis 25:12-15) but rather was the son of Keturah, Abraham’s second wife after Sarah died (Genesis 25:1-6). It is not hard to see the possibility that the 12 Muslim sons of Ishmael may have gotten the Torah from their neighbors the Arab Midianites, and this may be how the Muslim’s faith, as the “other” sons of Abraham, is so connected to the Hebrew’s Bible through Moses while also mixed with their other religions.
In this way we see that the Qur’an seems more focused on the destruction of Jehovah’s people for their failure to obey the Mosaic Law than actually teaching the Muslims to obey it. The Muslims have their own “version” of the Mosaic Law that they obey as we will discuss momentarily.
And here is where it gets interestingly relevant to us.
The Hebrew Jews had the actual Mosaic Law given to them by God himself on the mountain in Arabia (Exodus 19:1-3, Galatians 3:25, NOT the “Sinai” Peninsula). And the Hebrews had God’s man Moses (the Type of Christ) to teach them how to apply it properly in the spirit of self-control through a very long and uncomfortable journey… but they couldn’t seem to get it together for more than a short time before utterly failing into captivity to Babylon for their disobedience.
Sometime later than Moses, by means we are not told, the Ishmaelite Muslims got ahold of the Tanakh including the Mosaic Law to give it a go, but without the Christ of Jehovah God the giver to guide them in the proper interpretation or intent (spirit). Instead they had their own God Allah to show them how, and he provided them with Mohammad as the Christ Type stand-in for a message that was not even his. What we end up with a Jehovahless and Christless attempt to accomplish the job Jehovah commanded, which is exactly how Ishmael was conceived in the first place (Genesis 15:2-6,18+17:19,21 vs. 16:1-4+17:18,20). The result is a “Cain-an” twisted religion of “God’s” violent laws that are geared toward serving man’s sin-nature of natural desires: Lust, Greed, and Violence, accomplished through Rape, Booty, and Murder as commanded by god in the name of God! So how do you then turn the hearts of wicked men who’s naturally loved wickedness is actually commanded by their god using your own God’s commandments?! Are the foundations shaking yet?
Like the Catholic Church with Christianity, they may not be actually breaking the word-by-word specifics of the written law, but nonetheless wholly breaking the intent, and God uses this perversion to correct his own people by showing them the unpleasantness of their own iniquity reflected back to them.
Why didn’t Satan (Allah) come up with his own religion to battle Jehovah’s people? Because that would not destroy the foundations of Jehovah’s intent for the Law. No, Satan needs to so corrupt Jehovah’s Law that it becomes utterly repulsive to His own people. Islam fills that goal as they mush Allah into a “corrected” version of “flawed” Jehovah that brings global violence commanded by “God.”
* * *
The Law in the hands of another people:
“Shouldn’t God’s law apply universally to anyone who wishes to follow it?” Let’s examine that concept to find out.
Jesus confirmed the Law by stating:
“…Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” Matthew 22:37-40.
Now we know that Jesus was speaking to the Jews and therefore it goes without saying that Jehovah is the God to whom he was referring. But today, most Christians don’t see the significance of this concept detail and today we see the Muslims, who have absorbed the Torah into their faith of Allah, and so this command takes on a whole new application while following every word without compromise. Let’s read that first commandment again with this new comprehension of a Muslim’s faith in Allah:
“…Thou shalt love the Lord thy God (Allah) with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.” Matthew 22:37-38.
The Muslims, like Saul of Tarsus, takes up this task with vigor, and Jesus himself commanded this by confirming the command in the Torah! But is that really what Jesus was saying? Absolutely not! But can you see how quickly the pure is turned to poison, without changing a single word?
Let’s continue with this foundation while Satan’s people apply the second command of Jesus from the Law of the Hebrew Bible:
“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” Matthew 22:39-40.
If a Satan-loving sodomite fulfilling the first and great command, applies this second command to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” then this command of Christ seems to mean beyond question that you should indeed sodomize all your neighbors in love, because that’s what you would like from them.
And if an Allah-loving Muslim applies this command, then it is actually a command of Christ to blow-up your neighbors because you are more than willing to die for your faith, even at your own hand.
The careful word-by-word application of God’s Old Testament law confirmed by Jesus Christ himself in the New Testament cannot be argued, though the application is wholly in direct opposition to the Spirit and intent of Jehovah who authored it.
You see, the Law of God (Jehovah), and indeed the whole Tanakh and the prophets, with the New Testament, is only applicable to Jehovah’s people, and only then in the Spirit in which it was given (see Post 227 On Tongues http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2011/12/on-tongues.html). Perfect application by others is an abomination, and modifications in order to make it fit better is only further perversion. It’s just that until the 4th beast of Daniel 7 we have never run into this kind of brand cannibalization before; the problems with the faith have always been within the faith.
The Jews without a Temple Sacrifice is the complete breach of the Law; there is no “fix” to this dilemma and the Babylonian Talmud solution is the evidence of a failed try. But that was still within the faith. Now the Muslim’s own attempt to apply Moses’ Law is yet another perversion of what was already perverted by the Jews to the degree that God removed the temple and sacrifice for its ineffectiveness. Now what are they supposed to do? And what do we do with the Muslims
“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Psalm 11:3.
Without Yeshua Christ as the end (completion, fulfillment) of the Law (Romans 10:4-9) there is no solution to their problem. Christ was prophesied all through the Tanakh to make sure he was not missed when he finally came at the time that the Law was no longer capable of leading a corrupt people because of folly (Hebrews 8:7-9), but the Jews stopped reading the Tanakh in favor of the Talmud many years previous, until today the Jews and the Muslims have completely destroyed the foundation of the Law while trying to apply it:
“For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth”… Romans 10:2-4 (+).
God provided another covenant through the foundation of Christ’s Grace to make their violent and convoluted corruption of the Law obsolete, in favor of restoring the original intent of an Abrahamic kind of faith in God without the burdensome need of oppressive rules to govern their conduct: Love God, and Love your neighbor, can you handle that?
And like the Jewish, and subsequent Muslim, corruption of the Law to the degree that the foundation was utterly destroyed beyond recovery in using it to fulfill their own lusts by “the command of God himself,” The Christians have likewise corrupted Christ’s Grace-solution for the corrupted Law to fulfill their own lusts in the same way; “There ain’t NO LAW ANYMORE! Let’s party like animals in the grace of Christ!” (*3).
Now in turn begins the Muslim destruction of the foundation of this corrupted Grace in the same way that the Law was corrupted, and this is why I say: The mystery is not the Beast.
Oh you have no idea!
* * *
So who is the Enemy?
Is it the Jew? Is it the Christian? Is it the Muslim? To answer that, we need simply to look into our recent history of warfare:
The Germans were our enemy in WWII. They attempted to conquer our freedom and subjugate us to the will of the Third Reich. In response we were obligated to fight them and defend freedom for the world.
The Japanese were also our enemy and they too attempted to destroy us, and we were obligated to fight back in defense.
Are the Germans and the Japanese our enemies today? Not at all, they are very agreeable members of the human world of nations. So what changed? Why were they our mortal enemies at one point but our friends in another? The obvious explanation is their authority. Defeat Nazism and the German people were free to act civil. Crush Tojo Fascism and the Japanese people were able to enter the free world. Today these peaceful nations are great assets to the world because the dark powers that controlled the people were defeated.
Today the dark power that threatens the world is the ideology of Islam. For the most part the Muslim people themselves are caught in the power and under control of their authority in many ways; fear, intimidation, education, culture, and upbringing, to name a few. And while they are our enemies by the circumstances of their aggression against our freedom, the ideology that controls them is the real enemy. Defeat the dark authority by that of the loving and benevolent Messiah of America’s past, and the people are free to act civil if they so wish. But the reverse is also true; fail to defeat that dark authority and we will be forced to become the enemy of our own freedom.
The scriptures were not waxing eloquent when they declared:
“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” Ephesians 6:12.
And this explains our very real primary weapons against Islam’s ideology:
“(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled” II Corinthians 10:4-6.
The Qur’an is not simply an odd religion with wild ideas from a crazy doctrine; it is the perversion of the entire Bible, Old and New Testaments. It is the very powerful weapons that you were making in the factory of Post 280 “The Noise!” now in the hands of the Enemy. And while their version of the Law has been “adjusted” to fit their own perspectives, the Law is not the real problem, just like guns are not the problem; The god of Islam is the real problem, which is the same god of Orthodox Judaism and Catholicism, and Nazism, and when presented to Jehovah’s people, that god is proclaimed to be the God that Jehovah claims to be. And when presented to a people already corrupt, it’s a relatively easy sell with time.
How much more so when Allah gets a good hold on Christ’s Grace as well!
Think about it.
* * * * * * *
(*1) Ka’aba:
“The Ka'aba (literally "the cube" in Arabic) is an ancient stone structure that was built and re-built by prophets as a house of monotheistic worship. It is located inside the Grand Mosque in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. The Ka'aba is considered the center of the Muslim world, and is a unifying focal point for Islamic worship. The Ka'aba is a semi-cubic building that stands about 15 meters high and 10-12 meters wide. It is an ancient, simple structure made of granite.” - Ka’aba (http://islam.about.com/od/mecca/p/kaaba.htm).
(*2) The Black Stone and the Ka’aba:
See Post 214 The Fall of Satan (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-fall-of-satan.html).
(*3) Dear Christian,
To continue in sin while applying Christ’s Grace is to be a stranger to God’s word just as is the Muslim or the Sodomite, it simply does not apply to you though you earnestly and carefully apply each word of the Holy text. All the intellectual information, is worse than nothing at all, because in the study you think you are drawing closer to God while you ignore the compromise that separates you and brings destruction.
This functionally might be called Treason, but God calls it Folly.
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