Does That Scare You?

Post 314

Does that last Post scare you deeply on several points? It should. Suddenly we come face to face with what it really means to be filled with the Holy Ghost and we find ourselves, in our comfortable well-adjusted faith, to be standing far short in naked unbelief. And on a parallel line it makes us afraid to have our familiar comfort-zone of “what is, and is not of God” jerked out from under our feet to find ourselves no longer standing on "the safe side of the fence" boldly poking our sword of the spirit though the slats into the darkness, but rather standing in the center of the field with hordes of evil all around us intent on our destruction (I Samuel 14:14). Then in the confusion of fresh doubts and new uncertainty we also come face to face with the reality of the awesome and terrifying power that God has placed in our little hands. Scared? You bet! And the average Christian will instantly cast down that responsibility as unwanted and undesirable, saying; “I don’t want to be judge!”
But do you not know that we shall judge angels? (I Corinthians 6:2), so how much more the things that relate to this life now? (I Corinthians 6:3). Can you not see the absolute necessity that we be indeed filled with the Holy Spirit, in a way and to a degree that you have been hitherto happily beguiled out of, as you walk safely submissive among the enemy without a useful sword (I Samuel 13:19-22, Matthew 10:34) but rather a very dull letter-opener hidden under your bushel? (Ephesians 6:17+Matthew 5:15).

So what is the consequence of not being filled with the Spirit of God to do the righteous judgment (Hebrews 4:12-13)? Just look around. The Holy-Spiritless judgments of the earth has become a tumbling of anarchy and bloodshed contending with oppression and tyranny. Judgment is being perverted on all sides, Truth is falling in the open streets, Justice has begun to silently retreat in the chaos, and Integrity-- i.e. doing the right thing-- is not allowed… even declared so by the Christians! (Isaiah 59:12-15).
You don’t believe that these passages speak of you; a Bible Believing Christian? Then how would you judge the case that Peter judged if it was in your church today?

“But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things” Acts 5:3-5.

Are you going with the whole; “Peter was an Apostle” bit? How long will you refuse to understand that, as sons of God, you are priests and kings, and the rule is in your hands? (Exodus 19:6, Revelation 1:5-6, [contemplate why Jesus is a prince of kings while humanity are kings: John 5:27]).
So, are you then going with; “Peter didn’t know that that would happen”? Perhaps… the first time, but he sure knew it the second time!:

“And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband” Acts 5:7-10.

So again I ask; How would you judge the same events if they happened in your own church today? (or in your Christian national Government?). I am fully persuaded that nearly all Christians today would respond in mercy, urging to repentance, and extend forgiveness in the name of Jesus Christ. What would cause you to respond as you would?
My argument here is not whether you would or would not judge as Peter did, but why you would make your particular judgment. Because whether we pass “guilty” or “innocent” or “not voting” we all make our judgments by our responses, and the judgment we pass is held up, not just on the earth, but in heaven itself! (Matthew 16:19) …and our judgments are then ours to evaluate by the results as we learn by trial-and-error rather than by obedience to God. This is the eating of the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil (*1).

Oh, How we are failing our jobs since we have become afraid of the Holy Spirit to that degree, because we have been deceived into thinking that anything of that degree of supernatural must be of Hell. “God just doesn’t work like that today.”
Maybe so, But WHY?

“And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief” Matthew 13:58.

So I ask you, seriously, We know that God did those supernatural things in the NT-days of Acts as recorded in scripture, and by those same scriptures, in Acts, we know that God will again do those things in the end times (Acts 2:17-21), and we believe by the signs that we are in the last days (II Timothy 3:1-5, II Peter 3:3-4, I John 2:18, etc.), but we are somehow safely excluded from expecting those things in our lifetime? That doesn’t make any sense! Rather, it’s just a case of unbelief, as Jesus told his Matthew 14:28-31 “water-walking apostles-in-training” was the cause:

“Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief…” Matthew 17:19-20a, (as opposed to the Canaanite woman of Matthew 15:28 who had no training).

“But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” Hebrews 11:6, (as opposed to the Roman of Matthew 8:7-10 whose faith marveled even Jesus).

O dear Christian, do not be content to be an unnecessary Job! In Christ Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit,-- (exclusive of any rare Job-like purposes)-- we now have the power of God to actually make a defense against the works of the destroyer, if we would but use it!

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” James 4:7.

“Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer” Psalm 17:4.

But we have failed to maintain that powerful word in our heart (Psalm 119:11), and so, while we might quote them faithlessly as the hopeful theory of a belief that really isn’t ours,

“The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant. For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us” Jeremiah 4:7-8.

This concept is speaking socially, collectively, NATIONALLY. Yes, I know this is a prophecy of Israel (v.1), but as Christians in a once Christian nation that received their same blessings, how does this prophecy not apply to us if we fail in the same way they failed?

“And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire. And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this great city? Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them” Jeremiah 22:7-9.

“Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation. At least not just. We are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, and a Buddhist nation, and a Hindu nation, and a nation of non-believers…” - Mr. Obama 2008 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmC3IevZiik),
And again in Turkey 2009 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIVd7YT0oWA).

This is not a matter of our belief in God, but what we do with that belief, in faith! If we believe that the Holy Spirit in us is for nothing more than to help us have a good attitude in our suffering as a result of such wicked men in power, what power is that over the very real spirits sent to destroy us while we go down smiling? Do you even have a clue as to who the HOLY SPIRIT is?! He is the very heart of God himself! Do you not understand that with the Spirit of God dwelling within us, WE are the heart of God in the flesh, much as Jesus is the body of God in the flesh? Does a Godly heart have nothing but love? “God is love.” That’s all I ever hear from squishy Christians of unconditional tolerance, which in application is just another word for surrender. Yes, God is Love. But God is also Jealousy! (Exodus 20:5, Deuteronomy 29:20), God is Passion! (Deuteronomy 29:23,28, Song of Solomon 8:6), God is FIRE! (Deuteronomy 4:24, Revelation 1:14,2:18,19:12).
What kind of love does not defend its children from evil? (Nahum 1:2-7). What kind of love tolerates the wickedness that has too long filled our churches and run our Governments of this once great Christian nation, and is even now finishing that destruction while we smile enduringly because we have the faith of Job? THIS IS NOT A JOB ISSUE TODAY! It’s an issue of disobedience, because we continually refuse to make righteous judgments as we sit in the judicial seat that God himself placed us in, intentionally with his Heart, under the blood of Christ! Why have we done this? Because we have abandoned belief that a Christian must be filled with the Holy Spirit of God who would empower us to do the righteous judgment, that by impossibility, we refuse to do righteously without it! (*2).

Who is the Mysterious, Great Whore of Babylon? It is the whorish Christian Church intimate also with the world, that has necessarily abandoned the Holy Spirit of God in favor of a squishy kind of unconditional tolerance in the name of love, whose only archenemy is those that stand against such a “noble purpose” of Global Peace.
Is that you? Are you a Simonised Christian with such a big heart that it covers even the wicked?

“…Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD” II Chronicles 19:2 (read chapter 18 for the context).
* * *

“But, if this “necessary supernatural” proposition is to be believed, then how are we to distinguish the supernatural of God from that of the Devil who wants to destroy us by deception?”
Well, that’s an entirely different topic isn’t it? and here is where I distance myself from the present all-encompassing hard-line view of John MacArthur, (which I expect to see tempered over time with deeper understanding). After all, in spite of the rejected Strange Fire of Aaron’s sons, the priests where in fact required to perpetually offer correct fire to God (Exodus 30:7-9+ Leviticus 16:12-13). The great fear and confusion today among earnest Christians is the large volume of seemingly worthy men making “fire” offerings to God and having no man of God standing in the gap able to make the righteous judgment of “is it strange or not?” (Numbers 16:16-33) and so they simply reject all fire rather than obey God:

“That ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean;” Leviticus 10:10.

Abandoning the supernatural fire because it might be strange is simply surrender in fear. Wisdom says search out the distinction and stand in the gap (Ezekiel 22:30) (*3).
We need the fire!
* * * * * * *

(*1) This is the eating of the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil; it always tastes soooo good, but soon causes great sorrow of life (Genesis 2:17) as we are driven from the garden of sanctuary by natural result, just as the OT Jews were driven from the Promised Land and Americans are now being driven from their NT Paradise due to the faithless desire to experimentally taste the fruit for ourselves. Well, How does the fruit taste now? Sweet at first but then bitter as it sets like a stone in your belly? Yep, that’s it, learn it well!

“And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make they belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey… and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings” Revelation 10:8-11. (See also Ezekiel 2:9-3:3+14).

I submit that the open little book that both Ezekiel and John were told to eat is the available documented history of humanity’s long experimentation with that Genesis 2:9 fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is why he had to take it instead of the angel giving it to him. If we read the book of the resulting history, both past and future, rather than each generation tasting the forbidden fruit for themselves, we can learn, by the hard earned wisdom of others, to avoid the great bitterness, just as God commanded at the very beginning to do without the suffering of bitter experience. (Jeremiah 3:13-15). But that very sweet taste at the beginning is the lusty bait on the hook that we can’t seem to refuse, though it always ends in ruin, time and time again.
That sweetness today is the promise of Global Democracy that is burning down entire nations all over the world. Enjoy that great pleasure while it lasts, and great it will be, but the long bellyache of food poisoning that is coming will quickly overpower the fleeting pleasure enjoyed, as did the seven years of great famine that drove the Hebrews to Egypt’s desirable pleasantries… and into 400 years of bitter slavery a short time after.

(*2) Refusing to judge righteous judgment:
As the condition of our physical world is merely a reflection of the spiritual in the same condition, allow me to make a point: Last summer I was seated on a trial jury, not because I was first selected but because of the many before me that refused to even try to cast a righteous judgment and so were unseated in the selection process. The attorneys on both sides of the case tried hard to get each of them to agree to simply judge the case according to the law as the judge provided it, but time and again they replied that even if the facts made it very clear that the law had been broken, they could not cast a “guilty” verdict because they would feel judgmental and cruel.
While the foundation is often based on “God is love,” this is now a nation of “good and honest citizens” who refuse to obey God, to their own national destruction.

“Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” John 7:24.

It takes the Holy Spirit within us, exercised by practice that enables trust in applying the word, to be able to see with God's wisdom and make the right call that is neither unduly permissive nor unjustly punishing. Judgment and fire are commanded, this is about the kind.

(*3) Distinctions:
One of the primary distinctions that identifies the Holy Spirit is that he never glorifies himself. Any supernatural event that presents itself as of God, will, if it is true, not glamorize or magnify the miracle or the Holy Spirit, but instead glorify the Son of God (John 7:18, 16:13-14).
Other such distinctions are to be likewise searched out in scripture.
*

OH! The Confusion!

Post 313

As I am finalizing the details of my next Post, I came across a very timely confusing issue that is growing in complexity every day:
Some years back, and again just today, I ran across some FaceBook Christians who were/are all excited about the story of a boy who died in a car accident, and while dead, supposedly went to heaven where he met Jesus, the Father, lots of people-- (specifically children and babies), and was given a grand tour of heaven and hell by Jesus himself, before being sent back to earth with a message.
Right from the start I am a strong skeptic and this just smells wrong! But instead of running with my gut reaction and rattling off a bunch of scriptures that refute such things, the first time it came up I refrained from more than expressing caution and let it drop, but this time I decided to investigate the information in order to have proof for my argument. Besides, another person already left the obligatory cautionary comment so I didn’t need to, and he included that the New Age claims Mrs. McPherson as one of their own. This shouldn’t be a tough one to resolve.

So I watched the FaceBook attached Youtube presentation of the Sid Roth; Its Supernatural program with Mrs. McPherson that sparked the excitement (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8w5rF6UPxI). Additionally, let me express that I already find Mr. Roth’s TV program “highly suspect” because he seems to have little discernment in the miracles he promotes as “of God,” or even authenticated as genuine. I am greatly concerned that his program glorifies the miracles and not the God of the miracles, though this focus is not exclusive to him, and seems to be the focus of some of my FaceBook friends as well.

I have to confess that what I heard Mrs. McPherson say was not what I expected. I intentionally overlooked the whole un-provable “trip to heaven,” and the slightly more provable miracle of “providing dead children’s parent’s home addresses to deliver a message,” and focused instead on the message itself that she was presenting to the viewer. I found no scriptural flaw and in fact my spirit confirmed her message. This surprised me. But remembering Mark 13:22, I was still skeptical and began a more serious research looking for the DNA of the devil in the miracles as well as in the details of both the message and means that she didn’t provide in the program,

“For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect” Mark 13:22.

To seduce the elect, one would need a very convincing argument that goes with the signs and wonders. The elect are simply not blind sheep but diligent and watchful Christians full of the Holy Ghost. Therefore, that has got to be some very good deception in order to begin to draw them into a state of risk!

So after a raised eyebrow of favorable surprise over the Youtube presentation on Its Supernatural, I went to her website (http://www.rethamcpherson.com/) to do some more investigation, and read nearly all the pages of her son’s journal letters (http://www.rethamcpherson.com/Letters/AldosLetters/tabid/117/Default.aspx) on that site.
Again, being skeptical and looking for false doctrine that usually accompanies such “trips to heaven,” I was surprised to read letter after letter of nothing but the accurate message of Jesus Christ found in the Holy Scriptures but written by a child. Forget for a moment the miraculous means by which the messages were apparently coming, the messages themselves are of the DNA of Christ Jesus the Messiah. Again, this surprised me as I didn’t find what I was expecting to find. I still struggled with the whole “trip to heaven” and “messages from God” bit, but the messages themselves are scripturally flawless in content and intent (i.e. spirit).

Having not read any of their books and knowing nothing more about their ministry to evaluate, I had a few small concerns and only one serious; It’s the whole “mother and child” thing that bothered me. Where is the dad in all this? This seems strongly to Type the Pagan Nimrod and his mother, and also the Catholic Jesus and his Mother, where the mother becomes the star focus feeding off the son who gets pushed to the back.
So not having yet read their books myself, I thought I would investigate the evaluation of her opposers to see what they have come up with.
* * *

The Opposition:
I found a link that seems to spend a great deal of earnest Christian effort to scrutinize false doctrine and expose false ministries, and from the first page I loaded it addressed the false doctrines of several well known deceivers and demonic “angels of light” that are today deceiving many Christians who think they are of God. That’s a good beginning from which to expect sound thinking, and the web author has written a two-part examination on Retah McPherson and her son Aldo, and their book A Message From God: (http://www.discerningtheworld.com/2013/05/22/retha-mcphersons-message-from-another-god-part-1/). I expected to find the research I was looking for and the evidence of demonic activity, but, while it doesn’t automatically validate Mrs. McPherson’s claims, what I found was a Pharisee’s very detailed evaluation of Jesus according to the Torah, in a modern application. Allow me to explain:

Jesus came to earth in the fulfillment of scripture, but in a way that was not expected by the Jews who seriously studied the scriptures. One of their main arguments was that he made a practice of healing people on the Sabbath: Clearly such a person could not be from God, who ordained the Sabbath rest as a Law! What is alarming in their very earnest evaluation of trying not be deceived by an impostor, is that in their focus of the Sabbath issue they completely overlooked the prophesied miracles that he did in their sight!

“OK fine, so you healed a man crippled from birth, so what; You did it on the Sabbath, so it’s more probable that you’re a demonic deceiver!”

Let’s review one example of this, as written in scripture for our education, that begins with this response to the accusation:

“For the Son of man is Lord even of the Sabbath day” Matthew 12:8.

and ends with a miracle of healing on the Sabbath that concluded with:

“Then the Pharisees went out, and held a council against him, how they might destroy him” Matthew 12:14.

The concept Jesus was trying to get them to see was this:

“If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him” John 10:37-38.

To the ignorant gentile Christians who do not know their Old Testament, such an argument holds little value, but his meaning to the Jews was obvious: the specific miracles Jesus did was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies that validated the Messiah from God (John 9:30-33). This is what Jesus was revealing in answer to John’s query if he was indeed the Messiah even though he didn’t seem to be fulfilling what was expected of him:

“Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them” Matthew 11:4-5.

These were the specific things prophesied that the Messiah would do when he came (Isaiah 35:4-6), but even more; was the visual fulfillment of establishing the unseen kingdom he brought (John 18:36-37). The way Jesus came and the means Jesus used were obviously going to rub the Pharisees wrong, this was the intent, as evidenced by the way it was hidden in the prophecies (John 12:34). And with a pre-conception of what was right and wrong they simply rejected what seemed wrong... just as our critical website author has done in this case on many examples such as this one:

“We do not know all the kinds of New Age teachings Retha was getting involved in before the accident, mostly she does not mention all of it, but one thing is for sure, she was sure into something occult orientated because what happened to her the night of the car accident did not come from the God the bible.”

That’s quite a weight of factless accusations that then become proof that this is not of God, because it is presupposed, without scriptural support, that God would never do such a thing… like sending the Messiah as a human child, do miracles on the Sabbath, or some other such ridiculous suggestion~.
With the very detailed review by the accuser on many such spurious foundations that include scriptures as support, where is the scriptural evidence that the things that happened that night are not of the bible’s God? This is nothing more than an emotional statement that then validates the baseless claim that she had to have been involved in the occult.

Look, I’m not casting stones here, I was pretty much thinking the same thing when I started this investigation. But presupposing without valid evidence is very dangerous! And the website author does a lot of presupposing. Are you really going to tell God that he can’t do what they claim happened that night? I read the very long and detailed 2-part contending article but never saw the scriptures that show God can’t or won’t do that.

Here is just one more of a significantly long list of error on the part of the webpage author whose critical emotions seem to run faster than reason:

“and again Retha thinks that we lay our lives down as a living sacrifice to Jesus, she says[:]
'Jesus is coming for a spotless Bride: those who will lay down their lives as a living sacrifice to Him.' pg 6
This is totally unbiblical, nowhere in the bible are you to ‘sacrifice yourself or our children to Jesus Christ in order to get saved. Jesus Christ is our sacrifice, He laid down His life for us, His blood washes away our sins."

Wow, really? The author has in a single breath combined two different concepts between “This is totally unbiblical” and the irrelevant rabbit trail regarding salvation that followed this declaration as proof that Retah is wrong. But staying on track with the actual topic, may I suggest: Romans 12:1 “Living Sacrifice,” or II Timothy 2:3-7 “Be a good soldier,” or Luke 6:22-23 “Rejoice as outcasts,” or I Peter 4:1-2 “Suffer with Christ,” or II Peter 2:20 “Maintain or fail,” and a plethora of others that demand a living sacrifice as a condition of salvation (Hebrews 12:14):

“…If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it” Luke 9:23-24.

How then does the apparently well-read web author make such a bold statement? I wonder what the author does with all three Johns, for they are literally stuffed with this concept. Dare I ask him/her to read my previous Post? If we are not to sacrifice to the Lord please explain the continued Tithe of our first fruits.
Again let me confirm that I am not casting off this earnest author, and I can imagine that due to past confusions and life experiences, his/her present view is importantly based on the very foundational truth that indeed Jesus did pay it all on the cross with nothing left to be paid. But salvation is not the discussion here, and the zealous defender of the faith has missed the point in the effort to decisively put down corruption of what is so cherished. Can this be the seduction warned about that may almost succeed in seducing the very elect?

Likewise the Pharisees had long missed the whole point of the faith, the scriptures, the Promised Land, and the Kingdom of Heaven. They were so familiar and comfortable with their massive knowlege of the scriptures and law, that Jesus needed to shock their perceptions in order to quicken their dead faith steeped in the religion of scrutinizing the scriptures to death and missing the spirit of those same scriptures as they did it. As Matthew 5:17 says; Jesus didn’t destroy the law but rather fulfilled the law; it was only the religion of the Jewish rulers, who held the law, that Jesus came to destroy! But by thinking they were one in the same they rejected him for it, as the website author has done with the blatant attack of misapplication and emotionally willful misunderstanding.
Again, the reason the web author can so misunderstand Retah’s very biblical statement is because he/she has already determined God cannot bring a child back from the dead to deliver the scriptures in an unusual way, or speak to people today, or download the scriptures into a child while in heaven. With this rock solid belief in protection of the faith as perceived, all that is left is to shred the false teacher, just as the Pharisees did to Jesus, who didn’t actually breach the scriptures at all, but did breach their understanding of it.

The Spiritless pharisaical portion of the Christian church today is again utterly failing to comprehend Christ’s message because in fear of being deceived they are scrutinizing to death the strange and unexpected activity of the Holy Spirit that the scriptures already told us He will do in the last days (Acts 2:17-18, Luke 8:17, 10:22, etc. etc.). And indeed there are many demonic imitations that need to be scrutinized and exposed, the amazement is that without the Holy Spirit to distinguish one from the other, the wrong ones are accepted and the right ones are rejected…but not always! Oh! The confusion in who to trust as the Church devours itself!(Galatians 5:10-15).
The critical spirit of the web author has in this way done a great job of completely missing the point, and by using the scriptures themselves, has added presupposition onto erroneous application on many fronts because of a pre-determined judgment that is so confident of what God wouldn’t do, that the author doesn’t need to find scriptural validation for the accusatory claim but finds lots of scripture to rabbit trial that makes it seem like it has been addressed. And while professing to be of the Spirit of God exposing a false prophet, the website author is the one in error with a spirit of criticism that is blind to Christ’s message in both Jephthah’s prophetic vow and Romans 12:1,

“I Beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” Romans 12:1.

But, as the contender has stated above: “This is totally unbiblical…”~
* * *

A woman’s Word Now:
In continuing my analysis, I watched the first McPherson Youtube video below, and the first 1/4 of the second video below, and I discovered the answer to my “mother and son” concern.
Satan’s religions always corrupt Christ’s true practices and typologies of faith in the effort to make that truth vilified, or at least confusing, to God’s people. And as I watched this mother lovingly interpreting the words of her son that we cannot understand-- both written and spoken-- I saw clearly the Typology of Christians teaching the Word of God to those who cannot understand Jesus Christ in his written word or Spirit. Take the time to watch the first video, and even the first 1/4 of the second and see this for yourself:

Son and Mother (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aBbPK03eF4).
Nephilim (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j66tiHkHme0).

Of course I am not suggesting that this boy is Christ, and neither are they--(as has been suggested by the critical web review); Rather it is but another typology, like Moses, like Samuel, that Christ has given to us in these last days to help us comprehend our Gender Typology jobs as his Matthew 12:48-50 “mother and brothers.” If you can accept it, this is as in Matthew 25:14-15, Christ has gone to heaven and left the bride Church “mother” to listen to him through his written word and the speech of his difficult-to-hear Spirit, and then teach what they comprehend to the world, and thereby increase the Lord’s kingdom for when he returns. If the Typology holds consistent, the dad is probably in the background providing for their lives so that they can minister.

Then as we watch other of her videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUVwfEKH9f4) we see that she has since been filled by the Holy Spirit herself, exercised to proper use, and now, although not departing from her son’s written scriptural messages that he gets from the Spirit of God, she has her own personal Holy Spirit instructed ministry as a part of it that agrees with that of her son who makes no apology for getting it from the Lord Jesus, which message we can confirm in the written scriptures as valid, regardless of how strange it comes. That message:
Repent! Come Clean for Jesus’ Sake! Be ready, because I’m coming soon!
Hardly a demonic message.

And as “unbelievable” as the delivery is, I don’t see that it violates the boundaries laid down by God in his word:

• Jesus raised the dead (John 11:43-44) and he is still Jesus today. So why not now?
• Jesus “downloads” the Holy Spirit of wisdom into us even while we yet live (John 20:22), teaching us all things (John 14:26), and specifically whatever we need to know at the moment (Luke 12:12), but not as frequently freely as in the Early Church days because of Satan’s activity that “disrupts communication” (John 14:30). So why not the Spirit and scriptures while he was free of this "disrupted" domain?
• Even now, we, as momentarily earthbound Christians, are seated in/with Christ Jesus in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6), and having the Holy Spirit within us, it’s hard not to see our unlimited access to wisdom if we would but let Him give it. This boy apparently did.
• Though completely healed and in his eternal glorified body, Jesus still bears the scars of his death. So...
• Jesus Spoke audibly to Paul while still a sinner. So...

All these and more are the scriptural points of possible validation rejected in the contending website that seems to feel free to discredit them as irrelevant in evaluating this case. “Jesus did it then but not now” is the general argument that is simply presupposed as fact and then used to discredit the events claimed as “unbiblical.”
But the bride of Christ has been glorified and given the authority to speak on Christ’s behalf as he spoke on behalf of his Father (John 14:26+15:15-16+Mark 16:15):

“Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” Mathew 18:18.

“Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my father which is in heaven” Matthew 18:19.

“Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained” John 20:23.

But this, only after receiving the Holy Ghost (v.22), and so only applicable to those who have the Holy Ghost, and herein lies the argument with those who think they do but don’t, and those, like the Pope and Catholic priests, who claim this authority to themselves and thereby do great damage to the belief and practice of the scriptures that makes all believers who are full of the Holy Ghost, priests and kings (Revelation 1:5-6, 5:10) with all authority to pass such consequential righteous judgments. It takes the Holy Spirit's nature to handle that much power wisely!

Satan has simply corrupted this Gender Typology concept of “human authority of God” to be interpreted that women should abandon their husband’s male authority in the establishment of their own, which is why many errant women pastors have indeed usurped that of both their husbands and Christ in promoting their own emotional gospel. Mrs. McPherson shows no spirit of this independent err, while she applies her Galatians 3:28 liberty rightly. She is the very example of what God actually meant (Jeremiah 31:22b) as Christ raises up his bride in glory (John 5:20-21), but knew that this last days gift of heart in the ministry of the Gospel would be corrupted by many “double life” harlot brides (Jeremiah 31:22a) doing great damage in the family.

In addition to my wonderful and surprising discovery of the pure message that confirms the McPhersons are valid-- as long as they remain faithful to Christ Jesus and his written word (Galatians 1:8-9)-- I am delighted to also discover (as in the second half of the Nephilim video as one example of many) that our messages are even using the same terms and ideas: “DNA, harlot bride/whore, Nephil activity, etc.,” in our same message to the Bride of Christ:
Be clean before God, in the anticipation of his soon return! Christ has washed you, now stay out of the mud in your bridal gown!
How is this a gospel of demons when Christ himself made the concept clear?

“…And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” John 8:11.

I would simply gently instruct the very zealous web author to realize that God’s methods and ways are far more complex than you could possibly know (Romans 11:33), so be careful about making scripturally unbased accusations of unbiblical activity like; who it is that actually healed his eye (in a way that doesn't make sense to you), or, rejecting an angel because he has a name you don’t recognize, or that God very well may have downloaded the scriptures into this boy while in heaven. And instead I would recommend spending a lot more time analyzing the actual message and comparing it to the whole scripture as a solid means of judging the rest.
And lest you think I am a holly-roller spiritist that always supports such claims like Sid Roth, I stand pretty strong on the side of John MacArthur’s Strange Fire and have never before seen a scriptural message from someone who “came back from the dead,” so I am still skeptical of the whole “trip to heaven” bit, but am willing to let it play out because the message appears to be true (Acts 5:34-39).
Don’t you suppose that this confusion and rejection of what might be real, could be why Satan has produced so many counterfeit “trips to heaven” to nullify a true message from God?
* * *

Retah’s one page sum of her ministry: (http://rethamcpherson.wowinteractive6.co.za/AboutUs/OurStory/tabid/97/Default.aspx).
It is my limited conclusion that there is little doubt, that in spite of all the “questionable” miraculous events and "possible" dark secret meanings and sources of the very unusual presentations of their message that we might imagine, the very simple and clear message of both her and her son as I have read it on their website and seen in all of her videos that I have watched, is the true gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God and his call to his bride to be truly ready by turning away from the “harlot bride” of a double life. The Devil simply cannot give this spiritual message (Mark 3:22-26):

“Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:” I John 4:2.

So, as Jesus himself indicated: if you can’t believe the method, believe the message, and the spirit of the message: Jesus Christ came to die for your sin (the message), and is Risen Alive to make you new! (the spirit of the message).
And to that we say; AMEN!
* * *

[February 19,2014]
Wow! My remaining skepticism was vanquished as I watched these videos:

Walking in the Spirit pt.1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VjlK1YzuWM),
Walking in the Spirit pt.2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMWucHdxG-o),
Walking in the Spirit pt.3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am8ePnbadBw).

And it just keeps going!
Works without faith (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR_WaPnApxM)...
*

Jephthah’s Prophetic Vow

- and the Christian agenda -
Post 312

Required pre-reading: Judges 11
Recommended re-reading: Post 291 “Understanding Yourself” (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2013/02/understanding-yourself.html).

In Post 303 “It’s A Woman’s World Now” (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2013/11/its-womans-world-now.html), we referenced Jephthah’s rash vow to make a point, but what we did not explore is God’s prophetic design for those strange events and how they played out. I suggested in that Post the possibility that Jephthah’s virgin daughter, if not prematurely killed as a burnt offering to God (Judges 11:30-31), might, in the next two months, begin to suffer unspeakable agony of a slow death by cancer or some other such horrible end, but that because we don’t know, we tend to argue with God about the dark circumstances He seems to have favorably recorded in scripture, apparently breaching the very nature of God.
Let me state here that although we can glean some very useful wisdom in application today, it is my belief that, like the Brass Serpent of Moses to the OT people, the full prophecy is for a time yet to come and the application cannot be fully appreciated until the fulfillment reveals its complete meaning.
But before we reveal the amazing perception that we can glean today, which suddenly up-turns the entire troubled mindframe of what we read in this OT dark passage (which we will do toward the end of this Post), we need to more closely examine the Typology of Jephthah’s story. He was a Judge of Israel.

We have already explored in Post 291, the concept that the regressing progression of Judges over Israel-- before the people abandoned the idea altogether and chose to be ruled by a king-- reveals a diminishing-morality trend of the judges as they each did their jobs in their turn. But since we know that these Judges represented the ministers of God, themselves representing the Messiah Jesus Christ as God in the hands of men, Typed by the elders that the Christ-like Moses established to judge in his stead on small matters (Exodus 18:21-23, Deuteronomy 1:15-16), itself a Type of Christians filled with the Holy Spirit to rule our own world as Christ in proxy, and since we also know that Jesus Christ the Messiah is incorruptible, we can comprehend that these judges-- chosen from the people as the people’s morality diminished-- where the progressively worsening “best” of the people from which to choose the representations of Christ, and the result-- like America's preachers and Presidents-- is a trending progression of less Christ-like judges to do the judging of Christ, whom they represent in Type. This is an issue of perception regarding how these judges comprehended their roles and how the people interpret that fulfillment. It is an example of, “You get the government that you deserve” mixed with the Holy Spirit fulfilling his Grand Tapestry plan through them anyway.

But the perception problem doesn’t end there. The Typology of scripture’s historical narrative is also written for us to interpret today for application, and our own perception of what we read and apply is also a likewise example of, “You interpret the scriptures according to your diminishing perceptions” in the same way. This tends to add complexity to confusion, but understanding this condition helps us to earnestly “comprehend what we read” as opposed to what we might “make it say.”
So, aided by the Spirit of God in a pure and earnest search as I read the scriptures comprehending the Grand Tapestry design rather than “confirming” perhaps my own desires of diminished-morality in confusion while straining out an isolated verse, I see the countless interwoven threads of that singular tapestry everywhere. Allow me to show you what I see as it relates to the Grand Design that we have yet to compile, and at the end you can judge for yourself if I have forced it or if it actually fits perfectly into the bigger picture that covers the existence of all history, human and angelic, and the result is a confidently accurate comprehension of how we should perceive and then interact with life.
* * *

Jephthah’s Typology:
It is important in this interpretation to comprehend that the Judges were Judges of Israel specifically. This is a scriptural narrative regarding Israel and is given for the diminished understanding of Israel. The prophecy is for Israel… but I suggest it VERY dramatically speaks to Christianity as it relates to Israel, because this is all about Israel.

“Now Jeph’thah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valour, and he was the son of an harlot: and Gilead begat Jeph'thah” Judges 11:1.

Not a great way to introduce a judge of Israel, but facts are facts. Jephthah was of the best of the people as evidenced by his “mighty man of valor” label, in spite of his questionable pedigree.
Of all the people God might have chosen to do the job, why the son of a harlot? It’s because it represents something important to the Jews, whose logical perception was that Jesus was the son of a fornicator who was obviously pregnant before marriage, and since Joseph, the man who raised him, didn’t claim the child was his, the father was logically “unknown”:

“They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this (killing) did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father (the Devil: John 8:44). Then said they to him, (unlike you;) We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God” John 8:39-41.

See Luke 1:34-35 for the truth that can only be comprehended in faith, though after, can be proven by the many evidences of miracles and prophecies and his resurrection from the dead.
The Jews wholly missed Jesus’ point that they were the ones of questionable pedigree, since, while he did act like the Son of God, they did not act like children of Abraham (Romans 2:28-29, Revelation 2:9b, 3:9). This sheds significant light on the misplaced confidence that our five foolish virgins are actually Christian in the only way that actually matters (Romans 10:6-9=v.10).

As the Judges 11 narration continues we see that Jephthah, in the Type of Christ, was likewise rejected because he was perceived as born of questionable pedigree:

“And Gilead’s wife bare him sons; and his wife’s sons grew up, and they thrust out Jeph’thah, and said unto him, Thou shalt not inherit in our father’s house; for thou art the son of a strange woman” Judges 11:2.

The matching Typology is clear once you comprehend why Jephthah’s life and conduct was so questionable: Jephthah was the son of an harlot because the Jews would perceive Jesus, whom he Typed, to be the son of a fallen women. This perception issue remains true through the historical narrative of a man’s life that represents something else. How that life came to represent its purpose is not the Prophecy; this is the way Typology works; Moses represented the Christ but he certainly didn’t claim to be God (Hebrews 3:1-5). Now let’s continue.

“Then Jeph’thah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob (2897): and there were gathered vain men to Jeph’thah, and went out with him” Judges 11:3.

Tob 2897 Towb; the same as 2896; good; Tob, a region apparently East of the Jordan:-- Tob.

We should immediately see the Typology of Moses in this fleeing from his people in Egypt to Midian in the East, as we saw Moses, himself the Typology of Christ in his first coming who then departed back to the “good land” of heaven for an extended period of time (Post 236 “Are We There Yet?” http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2012/03/are-we-there-yet.html):

“Now when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses. But Moses fled from the face of Pharaoh, and dwelt in the land of Midian: and he sat down by a well (“good” land, where he became a shepherd of "non-Jewish" sheep)” Exodus 2:15.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” Luke 13:34-35.

That’s a pretty good match, but what are we to do with the concept of vain men gathered to him? How does this uncomfortable bit fit into our typology?
Remember David… who fled from king Saul… and vain men were gathered to him?

“And David arose, and fled that day for fear of Saul…David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and when his brethren and all his father’s house heard it, they went down thither to him. And every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them…” I Samuel 21:10+22:1-2.

That sounds like quite a rebel force, and we will not here explore the reason why other than to suggest it was because of the wicked king’s oppression. Are we seeing a repeating pattern of Jesus the Messiah in these? Yes, and still more, as Jesus said:

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” Matthew 11:28.

“…Then the master of the house being angry (at their refusal) said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind (the Matthew 10:5-6 lost sheep of Israel first). And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in (the “unwashed” Gentiles: Isaiah 49:6, Acts 28:28), that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper (the “first generation” Hebrews in Type: Hebrews 3:10-12)” Luke 14:21-24.

By now we should be getting confident with the repeating Typology, and our mind should be eagerly searching for all the remaining types in the effort to comprehend the grand purpose of this telling, as well as the intricacies that are hidden.
So let’s continue:

“And it came to pass in process of time, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel” Judges 11:4.

Well war is certainly nothing new to Israel so how are we to determine just what war this is Typing? We keep reading:

“And it was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to fetch Jeph’thah out of the land of Tob: And they said unto Jeph’thah, Come, and be our captain, that we may fight with the children of Ammon” Judges 11:5-6.

So postulating as we are that Jephthah, as a flawed human, is representing the incorruptible Messiah; When has Israel ever, since Jephthah, sent for Jesus by name specifically as the Messiah (savior) and asked him to be their captain to lead them in victory against their enemies who have made war against them?
NEVER!... yet;

“Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” Matthew 23:38-39.

This is a prophecy that has not yet been fulfilled by their confession that Jesus is in fact he who so came in that name the first time and will so again when asked in this way of recognition, so we can be reasonably confident that the war Typed by this particular attack of the children of Ammon has not yet come. Yet because it is a Type, we see that there have been several cycles that have come close but not quite fulfilled this prophecy. Our current example that has potential to result in a fulfillment in Type, is the war that has been made by the so-called Palestinians-- the children of the Philistine spirit if you will-- who are represented by these children of Ammon, who themselves represent more than that small group of enemies, but rather the separated relative of Israel (removed) who is incestually inbread, by the will of the mother (see Genesis 19:36-38), which we won't develop here beyond documentation:

Ammon 5983 ‘Ammown; from 5971; tribal, i.e. inbred; Ammon, a son of Lot; also his posterity and their country:-- Ammon, Ammonites.

Let’s not here discuses the possible prophetic spiritual meaning of such inbreeding Typed, but remain on target regarding Jephthah’s prophetic vow. It is clear by this Judges passage the reason why Israel will call upon Jesus as Christ, as suggested in the above verses of Matthew:

“And Jeph’thah said unto the elders of Gilead, Did not ye hate me, and expel me out of my father’s house? and why are ye come unto me now when ye are in distress? And the elders of Gilead said unto Jeph’thah, Therefore we turn again to thee now, that thou mayest go with us, and fight against the children of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead. And Jeph’thah said unto the elders of Gilead, If ye bring me home again to fight against the children of Ammon, and the LORD deliver them before me, shall I be your head? And the elders of Gilead said unto Jeph’thah, The LORD be witness between us, if we do not so according to thy words. Then Jeph’thah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jeph’thah uttered all his words before the LORD in Mizpeh” Judges 11:7-11.

It seems only natural that we ask, “Who is, and where is Gilead?”

“The sons of Joseph after their families were Manasseh and Ephraim (Genesis 41:50-52+48:3-6,14=16). Of the sons of Manasseh: of Machir, the family of the Machirites: and Machir begat Gilead: of Gilead come the family of the Gileadites…” Numbers 26:28-33.

Therefore; Gilead is of the half-tribe of Manasseh, who-- being specifically unnamed in the Numbers 32 request for approval-- apparently tagged along on the plans of Reuben and Gad (v.33), who on approval of conditions (vv.16-24), chose the land on this side of the Jordan River as their Promised Land, and named the land and cities after themselves (vv.39-42), and/or perhaps named their sons after the lands they conquered:

“And Moses gave Gilead unto Machir the son of Manasseh; and he dwelt therein” Numbers 32:40.

Gilead 1568 Gil’aid; probably from 157; Gilad, a region East of the Jordan; also the name of three Israelites:-- Gilead, Gileadite.
1567 Gal’ed; from 1530 and 5707; heap of testimony; Galed, a memorial cairn East of Jordan:-- Galeed.
Cairn:… A heap of stones for a memorial.

What historical heap of stones by this name do we know of, that was set up as a memorial on the East side of the Jordan?

“And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there upon the heap. And Laban called it Jegar-sahadutha: but Jacob called it Galeed (1567). And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed; and Mizpah (4709); for he said, The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another… and Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have set cast up betwixt me and thee; This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee…for harm” Genesis 31:46-52.

Mizpah 4709 Mitspah; feminine of 4708; Mitspah, the name of two places in [old] Palestine:-- Mitspah. (this seems rather to be only an orthographic variation of 4708 when “in pause”.)
[This should be distinguished from today’s “Palestinian” complex-confusion of stolen identity, a name originally forced upon the Jews by the Romans to create simple-confusion!].
4708 Mitspeh; the same as 4707; Mitspeh; the name of five places in [old] Palestine:-- Mizpeh, watch tower. Compare 4709.

Is anyone going to argue that this is not the Gilead and Mizpah from which this land East of Jordan is identified as the division line between Israel and Laban (3837) of Nahor in Mesopotamia (*1)? So it seems evident that both parties in this contention are dwelling East of Jordan and not in the officially designated Promised Land of Rest on the other side of the Jordan, but is nonetheless further subdivided between the extended domain of Israel and the not.

“And this land, which we possessed at that time, from Aroer, which is by the river Anon, and half mount Gilead, and the cities thereof, gave I unto the Rubenites and to the Gadites. And the rest of Gilead…I gave unto the half tribe of Manasseh; all the region of Argob, which was called the land of giants” Deuteronomy 3:12-13 (if you want to dig up old giant’s bones, I’m recommending this region).

So historically we see that Jephthah was most certainly of these approved tribes of Israel on the East side of the Jordan, but prophetically we comprehend that the East of Jordan is representational of those first generation Hebrews, who refused to cross over in the 10th provocation discussed in Post 238 “Nine Times Forgiven” (http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2012/03/nine-times-forgiven.html) as we contemplated where that leaves them after refusing to cross.
Now we comprehend that this prophetic contention between the disobedient Jews, and the children of Lot is fought on the prophetic East of the Promised Land boundary; outside of “the kingdom of heaven” but still within “the kingdom of God.” This very accurately represents by onion layer, today’s Jews, who have rejected the Messiah of grace and in stubborn self-righteousness of the law, have refused to cross over into the Lord’s Rest even while attempting to inhabit that land but only able to occupy (like a religious person without salvation), and that, with the perpetual contentions of their Abrahamic distant relatives for the occupation. But it also shows that the breach of the Galeed Heap is the doing of those Non-Jewish inbred relatives, who promised peace by the Heap of Agreement but fight for more land anyway, as we see in the continuing passage:

“And Jeph’thah sent messengers unto the king of the children of Ammon, saying, What hast thou to do with me, that thou art come against me to fight in my land?" Judges 11:12.

We covered this very current so-called Palestinian contention and argument in Post 291 (Preparing The Way Of The Lord pp.634-636) and will not re-cover it here (see: Judges 11:12-28)(*2), though it confirms the footing for our discussion. What we are setting up here is Jephthah’s prophetic vow as it directly relates today.
I propose that Jephthah is both the Type of God who rescued the Hebrews from Egypt, but they then failed to keep their agreement (Joshua 24:17-22/Judges 11:7-10), and he is the rejected Jesus Christ who rescues Israel from their enemies at their later specific request and related promise of sustained Lordship thereafter. But, either way; at what personal cost to Jephthah?
* * *

Jephthah’s Prophetic Vow:
For reasons that the scripture by non-inclusion keeps out of the prophetic Typology, we do not really know the details as to why Jephthah felt it was necessary to make a vow to God regarding a burnt offering of whatever comes out of his house to meet him at his return:

“And Jeph’thah vowed a vow unto the LORD, and said, If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering” Judges 11:30-31.

Very reminiscent of Jacob’s vow:

“And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God: and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee” Genesis 28:20-22.

But the scriptures have not left us clueless prophetically as to just what motivated Jephthah to make such a vow, as the preceding verse declares:

“Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jeph’thah, and…” Judges 11:29.

Although we don’t like it at all, and are even willing to call it rash, it cannot be rightly argued that it was not indeed the Holy Spirit of God that moved Jephthah to make this vow, knowing all the while just who He would also motivate to come out of the house to meet him. We might even postulate that Jephthah knew that it would be his daughter, as he had no other children, and in Type we remember Moses striking the rock to his own hurt, “for the sake of the people.”
The question we are forced to ask then is, “WHY!?”

The scriptures are filled from Genesis 8:20 to Revelation 8:3-5 of burnt offering Types to the LORD in this relationship between Man and God. Burnt offerings are never presented as coercions or manipulations to get God to perform, but are perhaps seen as appeasements to confirm the relationship while asking for or thanking God for help. It is simply a really good idea to offer a voluntary burnt offering to the LORD as a sweet savor (Ezekiel 20:40-41, II Corinthians 2:14-16, Hebrews 13:15) something like a woman who wears perfume for her beloved in anticipation of a Proverbs 27:9 favorable response:

“And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done” Genesis 8:20-21.

We will not rabbit-trail this topic but you may wish to review Hebrews 10:4-10 as our new “burnt offering to the LORD” resulting in our Jephthah kind of anticipation of victory over our enemies found in v.13.

“But why his own daughter?”

While we see a very close similarity of God sacrificing his only Son for the sake of the people, Jephthah’s only child was a daughter and this doesn’t play well in the Typology. Neither does the passage allow us to assume that Jephthah was so power hungry to rule over Israel that he had no qualms about sacrificing his own daughter and only child to get what he wanted, but rather, when she is what came out of his house upon his return it completely broke his heart as it would for any father in such a predicament… which I believe is the point the Lord is making:

“And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! Thou hast brought me very low, and thou art of them that trouble me:…” Judges 11:35a.

What did she do? Is he blaming her for his trouble? NO: although an indirectly direct participant, she is utterly guiltless in the cause of the result;

(Jephthah said:) “…for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back” Judges 11:35b.

Jephthah’s daughter had no guilt in the cause of his trouble, she was simply the price to be paid in the vow made to God on behalf of the “wrong side of the Jordan” troubled nation of Israel as he finally led them into righteousness by the victory over their enemies which granted him the position of Judge for their sake, IF they would remain loyal to their word.
But while it seems certain that nothing can explain away the “insanity” of this situation of events, what is even more startling is the unexplainable defenseless, selfless, reply of his daughter at the news, much as we saw with Abraham’s son at his sacrifice to God, as well as God’s own Son at his:

“And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?...And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an alter there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood”… Genesis 22:7-10 (remembering that his father was a very old man and Isaac was young and strong).

“And she said unto him, My father, if thou hast opened thy mouth unto the LORD, do to me according to that which hath proceeded out of thy mouth; forasmuch as the LORD hath taken vengeance for thee of thine enemies, even of the children of Ammon” Judges 11:36.

(Jesus said:) “Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him…” Matthew 20:18-19a.

What we do see is the direct reasoning that her death as a burnt offering was acceptable to her specifically because God, for the sake of Jephthah’s request, gave him victory of vengeance over the Hebrew’s persecutor the Ammonites. This is quite important to the interpretation.
But the apparent insanity of this whole family has virtually no resolution in OT scripture, much as Moses’ brass serpent that seems to promote the forbidden worship of a god as savior other than God (Post 235 “Something More” http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2012/03/something-more.html). It’s only at the fulfillment of its Type that we are able to suddenly see the mind-numbing concept that comes into play and the “insanity” then makes perfect sense, but only from the perception of faith, just as Mary’s pregnancy. The brass serpent Typed Jesus-- the Son of God; as God. So who does Jephthah’s daughter Type?

“But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able. And he saith unto them, Ye shall drink indeed of my cup (of blood), and be baptized with the baptism (of my death) that I am baptized with…” Matthew 20:22-23.

“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake” Matthew 24:9.

Being that the Christian Church is the promised bride of Christ not yet married, it is not a great leap to see this young virgin as the daughter of the Christ in standing, much as the Apostles Paul and John called their converts of the church, “My little children” (Galatians 4:19, I John 2:1, 3:18) (*3).

“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you…” Galatians 4:19.

We have the Gileadite daughters of Zelophehad to provide the validation for Jephthah’s daughter in the female gender acquiring the male role when there is no male to fill it (Numbers 27:1-7). It is noteworthy that this transference of inheritance to the female gender “with cause” was the last commandment of Moses to the people before he died… exclusive of the confirmation of the two-fold sweet savor sacrifice that is more related than we might think:

“And the LORD spake to Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, My offering, and my bread for my sacrifices made by fire, for a sweet savour unto me, shall ye observe to offer unto me in their due season. And thou shalt say unto them, This is the offering made by fire which ye shall offer unto the LORD; two lambs of the first year without spot day by day, for a continual burnt offering. The one lamb shalt thou offer in the morning, and the other lamb shalt thou offer at even;... It is a continual burnt offering, which was ordained in mount Sinai for a sweet savour, a sacrifice made by fire unto the LORD” Numbers 28:1-6.

While there is so much packed into this command that we cannot cover here, What is this bit about a second sacrifice in the evening?

“And the drink offering thereof shall be the fourth part of an hin for the one lamb: in the holy place shalt thou cause the strong wine to be poured unto the LORD for a drink offering. And the other lamb shalt thou offer at even: as the meat offering of the morning, and as the drink offering thereof, thou shalt offer it, a sacrifice made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD” Numbers 28:7-8.

While the two sacrifices appear identical in every way, the first sacrifice is used as the pattern for the second. And while we are confirmed that Jesus as the human Son of man crucified over the flames of Hell was the Ram lamb of the sin offering offered by Abraham, Typed as Moses struck the rock so that the life-sustaining water could flow as a drink offering, what is this additional sweet-savor offering of two-lambs in kind? Does it relate to Moses’ second, undirected, Numbers 20:8-11 double-striking of the rock as a prophetic vow that must then be paid in this two-lamb offering of early and late events in their seasons?
Jesus, the ram lamb of God (Jasher 23:70-71 (*4), John 1:29,36, Revelation 5:6-10, 7:16-17), often called people sheep, usually lost (Matthew 9:36,10:16), referencing the Jews (Jeremiah 50:6, Matthew 10:6, 15:24), but not always so specifically Jewish (John 21:16-17), and he even called the favorable of his own people gender-unspecified lambs (Luke 10:3, John 21:15), but who has considered that the spotless from among them were to be sacrificed in twin offerings to the LORD in these later days, in the image of the first lamb of God; Jesus himself, sacrificed obligatorily for sin in the beginning of these later days as the example for our own sweet savor offerings?
Yet that’s exactly what Jesus told us to expect (*5).
* * *

The Virgin Daughter’s Response:
In Post 303 “It’s A Woman’s World Now,” I suggested by comparison with Jephthah’s daughter, that we Christians are falling completely short of the right response to our abuses because, like the children of the world, we are focused on our “rights as human beings”:

“Are you telling me that your ‘Man made’ troubles are greater than hers? There is a principle here that even at its worst application is preferable over stubbornness or rebellion (I Samuel 15:23+Job 2:9-10). Let me offer a single possibility among countless others: What if Jephthah’s daughter was going to die of horribly painful cancer beginning in two months anyway? What good would bitter rebellion of self-preservation have done her then but to grant her a bad name and terrible suffering before her inevitable death?” - Post 303.

As long as the contemplation is safely hypothetical we can even tolerate such suggested ridiculous implications as we try to draw out “good theory,” but the second the insanity is suggested to be seriously actually applicable, is the second we put the breaks on and look for another instructor to help us build our temple. (John 6:66 “Backslide”).
That of course is an understandable reaction from a normal, well-adjusted Christian, but by now, if you have been following a serious scriptural exploration of the faith, we are not content with such a mindframe or worldview (as Chuck Missler likes to say in his own words). It is nearly impossible for an American Christian in the West to even contemplate having the reply of Jephthah’s daughter-- even if that father is the Type of Jesus himself-- while in Africa and the Middle East and the Far East, the Church, and history, is full of Christians who live this out in their reality-cut-short as many are martyred every day by the will of the Lord. There is an explanatory passage that I refrained from attaching to my Post 303 comment above, saving it for this Post’s profound revelation:

“The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. He shall enter into peace: they shall rest in their beds, each one walking in his uprightness” Isaiah 57:1-2.

“Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints” Psalm 116:15.

This concept strongly suggests that there is an evil coming that is far greater than even a sweet-savor death through great persecution:

“And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape (through death or Rapture of deliverance) all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” Luke 21:34-36.

“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” Matthew 10:28, also Luke 12:5.

I am suggesting that this is speaking of the Noah-like-flood wrath of God after all his faithful have been killed off by the wicked leaving only the “Noah-family” perfect few to be Raptured before the wrath of God does more than just kill everybody left (Genesis 6:11-13) but also roasts them over the fires of Hell that Jesus himself, by taking our sin upon him, was so reluctant to experience, even for three days (Matthew 26:39,42, Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42= Ephesians 4:9).

Still not seeing the practical application of Jephthah’s daughter in the big picture of the Grand Tapestry? Let me make it more clear:
Romans 11:5-11 tells us that Israel as a nation, by an earthbound focus on the law, failed the Holy Ghost grace, so that we, the Gentiles, could be grafted into the faith through grace, empowered by that Holy Ghost. But while we like to imagine that we are grateful, what if we, in gratefulness, were asked to make a “burnt offering” in return, for the purpose of grafting the Jews back in? What if that burnt offering for their behalf was the sacrifice of suffering, or even the surrender of our very lives as was the Type shown by the daughter of Jephthah and more recently by the Christian church perpetually persecuted since Christ’s coming to save Israel who rejected him and his kingdom in favor of an earthly domain.
What is the actual reason for this consistent reality of persecuted Christians as non-resisting “cannon fodder” of a spiritual war like pawns in a game of chess? Their sacrifice, in the hands of the chess master, has a strategic design that is worthy of the sacrifice of all the pawns if that were necessary.
* * *

Provoking Israel To Jealousy:
Paul makes no effort to hide the actual reason why we Gentiles were grafted in at the stumbling and failure of the Jews at their Numbers 32:15 NT prophetic Jordan Crossing into the elusive land of peace:

“I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall (as the end goal)? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles,…”
wait for it…
“…for to provoke them to jealousy” Romans 11:11.

What earthbound minded Christian today even contemplates that his salvation has an ulterior purpose beyond himself? Just as the liberated Jew’s in their return to Jerusalem see this as the supreme goal, if only they could also find peace. Today’s chess pawns seem to be delighted to be in the game, and love to be touched and even moved by the master, but are utterly blind to the concept that they are not the “target Queen,” and are offended that by his touch they should be sacrificed in the game, and that, for no obvious reason (Matthew 14:6-10).

Along with John 15:1-11 and I Kings 14:7-10, we need to consider all of Romans 11, but will here skip down to v.19

“Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in. Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high minded, but fear: For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee” Romans 11:19-21.

What could possibly cause me to be cut off as they were, after I was grafted in by faith alone?
Obviously the answer is their unbelief exampled.

“Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness; otherwise thou also shalt be cut off” Romans 11:22.

But what could possibly cause me to discontinue walking in his goodness through faith once acquired?
The answer is not so much found in what is intended to provoke Israel to jealousy: i.e. Salvation by faith alone, but in what that Jealousy is jealous of: i.e. a love that transcends the fear of an earthbound focus.
* * *

More than a new worldview:
While the Jews have constantly and very faithfully over two thousand years, encapsulated their entire focus of faith in God by the phrase “Next year in Jerusalem,” Christians have no such immediate target as their focus of faith. Rather Christians-- while very grateful for the peace that the American Christian “kingdom of heaven” afforded in its time-- have no earthbound-minded attachment to this planet because their focus of “home” is wherever the Lord is. The Jews have always been earthbound in their faith, and, as I understand it, every biblical promise to the Jews is earth focused to match their worldview; even in their final kingdom of heaven when their New Jerusalem literally comes down from God to the earth (Revelation 3:12, 21:2). The problem is that this limited earthbound faith is presently subject to all manner of disruption and disappointment, and their very struggle to survive in the face of all dark opposition actually becomes their faith. They don’t so much have a faith in God but faith that they will survive. Christians have no such view, no such struggle, therefore no such disappointment, no way to disrupt the acquisition of their target goal; to be ever in the presence of the Lord (I Thessalonians 4:17, II Timothy 4:18 [in consideration of v.14], I Peter 3:15-17, II Peter 1:10-12) resulting in the right perspective of Luke 21:16-19 that is not earthbound. In fact the sooner you kill me the sooner I get home, and the greater you torment me the greater my everlasting praise when I arrive:

“Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” Matthew 5:11-12.

“For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal” II Corinthians 4:18.

While the Jews have developed a justified but obnoxious persecution complex for their suffering, Christians have always rejoiced, albeit with tears, that they were found worthy to join Christ in his suffering (Acts 5:40-42, II Thessalonians 1:4-5, read: Fox’s Book Of Martyrs):

“But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy”… I Peter 4:13[-14], (also: II Corinthians 1:3-6, Colossians 1:24, I Peter 5:1).

Only in our Christ-like response to our suffering can we provoke Israel-- the nation of suffering-- to jealousy for the purpose of opening their eyes to the true Messiah of eternal peace that transcends an earthly focus. Jesus already told them he did not come to send peace on the world but give us peace in the midst of the world’s calamity that refuses it.

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” John 14:27.

World peace will indeed come later on the rest of the world, when they likewise discover his truth, but we live in his peace now even while they persecute us.

The new problem in the remarkably unique age of formerly American but now called “Western” liberty and social peace, is that many-- dare I say; most-- “Christians” in such an environment have lost sight of this truth and have taken up a love of this here-and-now world of safety and pleasure like the Jews can only dream of. And in this love of the beautiful world comes a fear against giving it up if they follow Christ for real:

“Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution” I Timothy 3:12.

An earthbound focus and fear of temporal loss is not of faith, and is what kept the first generation Hebrews from entering into the Promised Land, and keeps them out still, though they occupy it today.
The whole true reason why the Jews rejected Jesus as the Christ is because he didn’t come at that time to set up the earthly kingdom they expected in rescue from the oppressive Romans by their “It’s all about Me,” here-and-now earthly-minded interpretation of the prophecies. The countless miracles he did in specific fulfillment of those Messianic prophecies went completely unconsidered in the face of his failure to become their earthly king victorious over their enemies in their earthbound mindframe of Jewish domination. In Matthew 18:1& 24:3 this “earthly kingdom now” is the whole focus of the Jewish disciple’s questions when they thought they understood his intentions for an “early departure,” and is the reason for their confusion as to how to accept his actual death without bringing the long-promised kingdom-- which, he actually did (Luke 17:21) as the first important onion layer foundation of what is yet to come.
I am deeply concerned that today’s “Western Christians of luxury” have fallen prey to a similar focus in their all-encompassing “It’s all about Me” Rapture-mentality to rescue us from the persecutors, that has completely missed the personally as well as socially beneficial function of the suffering (Exodus 13:17):

“Foreasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God” I Peter 4:1-2.

The result of this transformation of viewpoint has even far more reaching benefits than in this life now, but today’s liberated comfortable Christians in the Western “land of grace” would respond to me and their father Jeph’thah with; “ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!” just as the first Generation told Moses and Caleb at the river (Numbers 14:1-10) when informed of the dangers they must confront (Numbers 13:26-33). The historic and prophetic example tells us conclusively that these earthbound “Christians” will be rejected from the kingdom of heaven as lepers. The Matthew 25:4 “extra” oil for the lamps of the five wise virgins covers this Revelation 2:9-11 suffering element in the waiting. The oil that endures suffering is the all-consuming Holy Ghost love of the Lord as expressed in Song of Solomon chapter 5:1-8. A Christian simply cannot endure to the end without a consuming passion for their Lord, and the Lord is simply out-waiting those foolish virgins with a “gold digger” self-focused design in the relationship until their oil-of-waiting runs out.
* * *

Today’s Headline examples that turn theory to reality:
Even as I develop this Post, (between other important kingdom work the Lord now has me doing), I find on the news a greatly disturbing current event that gives great weight to the Post’s importance. As has become almost; “situation normal” across the African continent for years, we have watched in disconnected horror over the past ten months as Muslim packs of extremists-- this time under the Selek rebel identity-- reek havoc and mayhem through the Central African Republic (CAR) raping torturing slaughtering and displacing countless helpless populations. But that’s what Islam normally does, it’s written directly into the commands of their Qu’ran. This is not the Mystery; the Mystery is not the Beast.

BBC News, January 13, 2014 “CAR cannibal: Why I ate man’s leg
Religious violence in the Central African Republic has reached a new extreme with an act of cannibalism in the capital, Bangui. The BBC’s Paul Wood has heard a graphic first-person account, which some might find upsetting.
The buses throwing up clouds of red clay dust had yet to rub out the ugly bloodstain in the dirt. A Muslim man had been murdered here a few days ago, by Christians. His limbs were hacked off. Then one of the crowd ate the flesh in a public demonstration of cannibalism.
We were filming nearby when a young man in a yellow T-shirt came up to talk to me. “I am the naughty one,” he said in broken French. Puzzled, I shook his hand and was trying to ease past him when I noticed the machete tucked into his skinny jeans. “I am the naughty one,” he repeated. “I ate his leg, the whole thing right down to the bone - with bread. That’s why people call me Mad Dog.”
With a sickening feeling, I realized I was talking to the cannibal.
A few minutes earlier, I had spoken to a horrified witness, Ghislein Nzoto. He said it began when the Muslim man was dragged from a bus. “People started attacking him, kicking him. They smashed a rock against his head. They kept going even after he was dead.”
He went on: “They set the body on fire. There were about 20 youths. They cut a whole leg off. Then one of them started to eat it. He bit into it four times and swallowed. It was raw, not burned. This was right in front of the Burundian peacekeepers. One of the soldiers vomited. Then he chased people away with his gun.”…
He [the cannibal] told me that Muslims had killed his pregnant wife, his sister-in-law, and her new baby. He saw a man sitting on the minibus - he thought he looked Muslim so he decided to follow the bus. More and more people joined him until he was at the head of a mob.
“We followed him,” he said. “If he reached the intersection, the Burundians would protect him. So we told the minibus driver to stop. The driver said: ‘You’re right. He is a Muslim.’…” and the grisly story goes on. - BBC Africa 1 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25708024).

BBC News Africa, January 30, 2014, “Central African Republic: ‘Scene of absolute horror’
About a million people in the Central African Republic - 20% of the population - have fled their homes during months of communal violence after Seleka rebels seized power last March. In recent weeks there have been more reports of atrocities committed by rival militias in an atmosphere of increasing insecurity. Peter Bouckaert, director of emergencies for Human Rights Watch, told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme he saw French peacekeepers do nothing while corpses were mutilated at the airport at the capital Bangui on Wednesday. The French defense ministry has not commented.
It was an absolutely horrific scene when we arrived at the entrance to the airport in Bangui. We found a large mob of people, and French soldiers at the scene. The crowd was mutilating two bodies of Muslim men that they had just killed with machetes. There were probably about a dozen people involved in the mutilation. They were probably members of the anti-balaka Christian militia. Large crowds of people had gathered, including children. They cut one man’s genitals off and put them in his mouth. It really was a scene of absolute horror. People were filming this on their cell phones and many were laughing. When we left the scene, they said: “Keep on filming, because we’re not yet done.”
No safe area
The French soldiers were there, just sitting meters away, and didn’t stop this horrific mutilation from taking place. The soldiers were heavily armed, they could have easily parked one of their armored cars next to these two bodies, which were about 50m [164 ft] apart, and stood by them until the Red Cross came to collect them. But instead they checked out the scene and then they got back in their cars and drove away. There is no more safe part of the city for Muslims. We see them being killed everywhere in Bangui, and Christians as well.
We were at the morgue two days ago, and it really was a scene out of Dante’s Inferno. They showed us the death records in case after case of people who had been lynched in the street, shot, burned. These scenes are repeating themselves throughout the country, not just in Bangui.
The Christian population has suffered tremendous abuses under the Seleka for the last 10 months. Now the Seleka is leaving, and every position they leave, the Muslim community is attacked, entire Muslim communities are just being wiped off the map. I met the head of military intelligence for the Seleka, he said it was over for Seleka. We saw him drive out of Bangui the next day in a large convoy of Seleka generals, heading for Chad and protected by Chadian peacekeeping troops. They’re not only escaping the slaughter but also escaping justice for the crimes they committed against the population. It is the Muslim community which is facing the wrath of the majority Christian population for the crimes committed by the Seleka. We’re talking about children being slaughtered in front of their Muslim parents with machetes. It really is an orgy of bloodshed” - BBC Africa 2 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-25946920).

Can you see the complexity of this problem? As evidenced by the inaction of the French peacekeeping force; in one moment we are want to at least tolerate the revenge as certainly justified and almost necessary to drive out the evil, but in the next we cannot approve the slaughter of the innocent nor the evil of vengeance that drives the violence. What are we to do? How are we to judge this case with righteous judgment?
And if you think the foundation of this problem is contained in Africa, think again:

BBC China, January 28, 2014, “China’s internet vigilantes and the ‘human flesh search engine’
Last month a Chinese official in charge of internet surveillance gave notice that mobs of web users who turn on individuals and make their lives a misery will not be tolerated. In China it happens often and on a massive scale, earning the phenomenon the title of the “human flesh search engine”.
On Thursday 21 March 2013, the world changed for Yin Feng, a self-described “average guy” who worked as a part-time taxi driver in the western Chinese city of Urumqi. Just after 14:00 his mobile phone began ringing off the hook. The callers all berated the bewildered Yin, screaming obscenities and accusing him of acting like an animal. It took a while for Yin to uncover why the strangers phoning him were so upset. “Finally, some sensible citizens told me a story about me they heard on the radio, or on the internet,” he recalls. Earlier that day, they told him, a driver in Urumqi had rolled down his window to spit on an elderly homeless person lying on the street. Witnesses recorded the first few digits of the spitter’s number plate. The information was quickly broadcast by a local radio station. Thousands then banded together online to track down the perpetrator.
“Driver with the licence plate A36D62, you really humiliate all men,” wrote one angry internet user. “Please forward this post and let’s see what kind of ugly face he has. Let’s extinguish him. Die! Such a disgrace. We don’t even know where he’s from. Get out of Urumqi.” Hours later, they zeroed in on Yin, whose number plate was a partial match, and posted his mobile number online.
The internet vigilantes were wrong, Yin insists. He tried to defend himself to anyone who would listen, explaining he wasn’t guilty of spitting on anyone. But as soon as Yin hung up with one angry caller, his phone would ring again. And again. And thousands of times again. “All of my private information was made public. My ID card number, name, phone number, address, even my mother-in-law’s phone number was dug out and posted online,” Yin remembers. “I even received phone calls blackmailing me, threatening to burn my house down if I didn’t pay them 200,000 RMB [$33,000; £20,000].”
Mr Yin was an unwitting target of what has been named China’s human flesh search engine. At its worst, the ghoulishly named “flesh-searching” phenomenon is cyberbullying on an epic scale, sometimes involving hundreds of thousands of anonymous Chinese internet surfers ganging up to uncover the identity of an unsuspecting target. Users band together to uncover a person’s identity - sometimes a suspected adulterer, sometimes an animal abuser. The phenomenon first scored attention in 2006, when many in China began to turn to the internet for the majority of their entertainment. The use of internet forums exploded during that period. One of the first notorious cases involved the search for a woman who starred in an anonymous video using the high heel of her stiletto to crush a kitten’s skull. The woman, who turned out to be a nurse, was suspended from her job when her identity was revealed. She received numerous death threats and considered suicide, Chinese state television reported.
Hundreds of similar cases followed. With 591 million users, China has the world’s largest internet population. They’re also arguably the most obsessive, picking over the smallest details in photos that capture the public’s imagination. But at the highest levels, it seems the government is taking notice. Last month, Liu Zhengrong, a top Communist official in charge of China’s internet surveillance, said the government believed the human flesh search engine was “illegal and immoral”. His caution was soon echoed in China’s major state media outlets - a signal, Chinese lawyers say, that flesh-searching tactics won’t be tolerated in the courts. Legislation might soon follow. But up until now it has been possible for anyone to find themselves in the crosshairs of China’s internet forums.
In 2009, Zhang Zetian was an ordinary high school student. One day, as she was leaving class, a friend snapped a photo of her with a Chinese milk tea drink in her hand, backpack slung over one shoulder. Zhang’s photo was then posted on Renren.com, a popular social networking site. Complete strangers then forwarded the photo hundreds of thousands of times, proclaiming the “Milk Tea Girl” to be “adorable!” and “fresh faced!”. “A newspaper reporter called me one day and suddenly I realized that people had noticed me on the internet,” Zhang explains. All her personal details were posted online. Years later, Zhang remains an internet celebrity. Photos of her doe-eyed face are in regular circulation. When she was admitted into Tsinghua, one of China’s top universities, her profile rose again. Sitting in a cafe near her campus, Zhang seems embarrassed by her unlikely rise to celebrity status. “No matter where I go, people attempt to take secret photos of me,” she says. People follow her with cameraphones on campus and sometimes in class. Admirers have even tried to break into her university dormitory.
Those who favour increased policing of the internet to stop flesh-searching cite cases like the Milk Tea Girl as classic examples. When so many strangers focus their attention on a single person, some inevitably go too far. Skeptics might point to the fact that it’s in the government’s interest to rein in the practice, since the flesh-searching phenomenon has also targeted members of the Communist Party. The most famous case of political flesh-searching involves the “watch uncle,” a Communist official in China’s central Shaanxi province who was spotted smiling at the scene of a deadly traffic accident. “Who was this man?” many wondered. They soon discovered he was the province’s health and safety chief, a man named Yang Dacai. Some also realized that in every official photograph, Yang was wearing a different designer watch, worth far more than he could afford on his official salary. Days after his smiling face first snagged attention, he found himself without a job. Since then, watch spotting has become an internet sport and “watch uncles” have been outed all over China. Some officials even attracted attention when their obvious tan lines indicated they had just removed their watches before allowing a photo to be taken.
In small ways, the human flesh search engine is forcing Communist officials to change their behavior. By using the internet to police the party, citizens can train their own government to obey the constitution, argues Wu Zuolai, a scholar with the Chinese Academy of Arts in Beijing. “They get criticized every day, and it will become a regular routine,” he says. “Before, leaders locked themselves up in Zhongnanhai [the government leaders’ compound], focusing their minds on how to keep the people in sealed boxes without speaking or moving freely. I believe Xi Jinping’s era will be more open.”
Even if laws appear on the books, Beijing might find it difficult to reign in the public’s appetite for scrutinizing others.” The internet is notoriously hard to control, even in China, where censors regularly delete blog posts and comments the government deems unacceptable. Some targets of flesh-searching have already taken their cases to court, but it’s hard to blame a single perpetrator. ...” - BBC China 1 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25913472) spelling and formatting slightly altered.

By comprehending the foundational DNA of this problem we are better able to identify, isolate, and eliminate, the Leprosy (*6)… or at least avoid contracting the contagion epidemic personally. Simplistically but accurately stated; the leprosy is a self-righteous “Mob Mentality” parading as “liberated democracy,” but this is not its DNA.

If you will remember the case in Uganda (Post 272 http://when-did-reason-die.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-witchcraft-of-uganda.html) the original problem of mayhem and bloodshed brought through Kony and his “Lord’s Resistance Army” was the same as with the recent Muslim “Seleka” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A9l%C3%A9ka):

“Their demonic violence took on a complex nature as the LRA was an organization that believed their spirits were Christian and were led by the spirits of God the Father and the Holy Ghost. The LRA is an acronym for ‘The Lord’s Resistance Army.’
Add to the complexity of a so-called violent-Christianity-of-death-unto-salvation, the fact that the stolen sons were forced into the LRA to do the killing and maiming of their own communities from which they were abducted. So although the leadership was from another neighboring region of Uganda, the actual perpetrators were not strangers from another nation or even from a contending tribal group; the murderers were their own sons forced by fear to kill their own people, and their own stolen daughters became the mothers of their enemy’s children, all while everybody claimed to be Christian, including the driving spirits” - Post 272.

And although presented with a different name yet again today, the spirit behind it is unchanged even as it transfers to a vengefully driven people that the BBC shamelessly proclaims in self-confessed presupposition is the “wrath of the majority Christian population,” who “were probably members of the anti-balaka Christian militia,” much like the spirit of the "well meaning" mass Chinese “human flesh search engine” that screams at the innocent presumed to be guilty; “Let’s extinguish him. Die!”
What we see different in this present case in the CAR and in China, as opposed to Uganda, is the “Christian” reaction. Contrary to the true Christian response that brought a Godly victory in Uganda in defense of even the enslaved participants as well as the victims, the “anti-balaka Christian militia”-- whether actually Christian or not-- has been reported by the BBC’s claim of their actions, to have absorbed the demonic spirit of Kony and the Seleka that they think they are driving out by unrestrained massacre. Even if the BBC has rightly reported their presumption that the new revenge killers are in fact of those called the “Christian militia,” What does Satan care what they call it as long as it brings death and mayhem? But to call it Christian just increases the long-term destruction because it vilifies the only true solution that Uganda chose and proved in the fire of trial. The spirit that drives this current violence as a cure is the same spirit behind the words of Rahm Emanuel, Hilary Clinton, and many of their leftist cohorts:

“You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that is; It’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”- Rahm Emanuel (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs6TgitlNIA).

Satan has organized the great Muslim evil across Africa for the very purpose of soliciting those not creating the destruction to join in under their own “cause” of long suppressed and justified vengeance.
The scriptures, Jews, Christians, and even Muslim Malala, take a different course. And while not every person doing righteousness is automatically a Christian, It simply doesn’t matter what you call it if it’s demonic in nature; it’s NOT Christian, because the Christian bible does not just not promote vengeance; it forbids it on a fundamental level:

“Recompense to no man evil for evil… Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil (so that you become evil), but overcome evil with good” Romans 12:17-21.

But Christianity takes the blame for the violence anyway, because its identity was stolen by an anti-Muslim political party of justified violence, like Yin responding to Yang.

The DNA of this problem that manifests as violent bloodshed in Africa, or the “human flesh search engine” of China, or the democratic Uprisings of Egypt’s people, or the Occupy and Women’s Rights groups of America, is the gender Typology of unbound female emotions of passion that march hand in hand with billboards proclaiming, STOP THE WAR ON WOMEN! while the only ones dying in that war are the babies that these women demand the right to kill in their liberation from presumed oppression that somehow justifies the blood and violence against the innocent.
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Let’s return to consider Paul’s perspective of a right response:
“…Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me to live is Christ (through my flesh as I minister), and to die is gain (to be with the Lord). But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot (know) not. For I am in a straight betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you” Philippians 1:20-24.

Paul, the man who had personally endured multiple significant persecutions and earnest efforts to kill him, seemed actually eager to reach his eternal state because of his “more than a new worldview” perspective of life. And when God finally revealed to him that his time had come, he went to his death with determination, as the patriarch of the martyrs that would follow:

“Then Paul answered, What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus” Acts 21:13.

As we contemplate the godly Christian response from the daughter of Jephthah, that should trigger the joy of recognizing a mutually familiar heart, we can glean even more understanding from another book of historical record, that-- while not contained in the bible as divine scripture for us to look for much more than the historical events-- the scriptures themselves affirm its history is true. The book I reference is the Book of Jasher, itself authenticated in Joshua 10:13 and II Samuel 1:18.

“And Ishmael boasted of himself to Isaac, saying, I was thirteen years old when the Lord spoke to my father to circumcise us, and I did according to the word of the Lord which he spoke to my father, and I gave my soul unto the Lord, and I did not transgress his word which he commanded my father.
And Isaac answered Ishmael, saying, Why dost thou boast to me about this, about a little bit of thy flesh which thou dist take from thy body, concerning which the Lord commanded thee? As the Lord liveth, the God of my father Abraham, if the Lord should say unto my father, Take now thy son Isaac and bring him up an offering before me, I would not refrain but I would joyfully accede to it.
And the Lord heard the word that Isaac spoke to Ishmael, and it seemed good in the sight of the Lord, and he thought to try Abraham in this matter” - Book of Jasher 22:42-45 (*7).

The narration continues most interestingly to provide extra biblical information that gives us strong evidence that Isaac was not simply an ignorant unwilling participant in his own sacrifice, but that from his heart he actually encouraged his father Abraham to do to him what God had required, just as we read in the Holy Bible with the daughter of Jephthah.

And while we modern "Western Christians of female liberation” must accept this chastisement of the Lord for our “It’s all about Me” mentality in our earthbound luxury of life that draws our heart from the kingdom of heaven, Let us not ignore the fact that Ishmael was committed and faithful to God, the God of his father Abraham, in his obedience to the letter of the law with a less than acceptable heart.
Isaac, like the Christians to the Jews, and like the Jews to the Muslims, was explaining to his brother Ishmael that God should expect more from us than proud obedience to the rules. God should expect from us our transcending unconditional love in that obedience… and beyond it. WAY beyond it.

“And they overcame him (Satan v.9) by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto death” Revelation 12:11.

Are you Isaac or are you Ishmael in your suffering for the Lord?
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(*1) (Genesis 24:10) Mesopotamia 763 ‘Aram Naharayim; From 758 and the dual of 5104; Aram of (the) two rivers (Euphrates and Tigris) or Mesopotamia:-- Aham-naharaim.
758 ‘Aram; from the same as 759; the highland; Aram or Syria, and its inhabitants…
5104 nahar; from 5102; a stream (including the sea; especially the Nile, Euphrates, etc.); figuratively, prosperity:-- flood, river.

Therefore, for our use as to the location of the dividing Galeed heap, this identifies the western border of Syria as it met the Eastern tribes of Israel (today well within the territory of Syria), but at one point Mesopotamia (i.e. the land between the rivers), was a bigger-than-Syria part of the larger Assyrian Empire that encompassed the entire region, which included pretty much all of Iraq and Syria, much of Turkey, and even northern Saudi Arabia, commonly called the Fertile Crescent.

Nahor (5152), a city of Syria, is the same name as the Grandfather and likewise a Brother of Abraham (see Genesis 11:22-27).

(*2) Not wanting to divert the present topic, I find it nonetheless important to interject this bit of prophetic insight:
We need to see in the narrative that at Ammon’s provocation of war and Israel’s seeking out Jephthah to respond, Jephthah proceeded through the land of Israel and into the land of Ammon to war with them on their own soil with the intention of conquering them and ending their hostility which caused Israel to seek him out (Judges 11:29-33). And so although this was purely a defensives motivation, the solution was decisively aggressive, and that without mercy. This defensive aggression into the enemy’s territory Israel has little heart or stomach for and so must call out to Messiah to do what they cannot. This is not a wrong choice but is in fact the reason why God sent them the Ammonite hostility, whose hostility, while sent, was the motive of their own black hearts of which they cannot blame God for (Exodus 4:21/Exodus 5:2, Ezekiel 38:10-11/v.15-16= James 1:13-14).

(*3) Daughters of Christ?
Who is Jesus’ daughter but the children of the Christian Church, just as those of Moses are the daughters of Jerusalem (Joel 3:6, Matthew 23:1,13,16=37, Luke 23:27-28, Galatians 4:25, Song of Solomon 2:7,3:5). I understand this concept is a bit sketchy-- like the brass serpent representing Christ-- and here is my initial explanation to be understood later:
This event is in the OT and Jesus was still the Word of God as God, as we are told in John 1:1. This then disallows that the daughter of Jephthah would be Typed as Jesus’ bride-- as the NT makes abundantly clear that we are. Add to that the idea that God’s people are called the children of God in the OT and Jesus as God is the creator of all things (John 1:3), and this theory of interpretation begins to hold water. I suggest that the collective Church as a body, is the bride-of-Christ “city,” while the individual “temples” of that Church can be called the daughters of Christ, since it is he who has given us life by gifting our human “DNA egg” with his Holy Ghost “DNA sperma” to make a complete person viable in the eternal kingdom of God when our birth by death completes the pre-natal process and we are numbered among the LIVING after a 40-year/nine-month delay with reason (Exodus 13:17).

(*4) “And Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, a ram was caught in a thicket by his horns; that was the ram which the Lord God had created in the earth in the day that he made earth and heaven. For the Lord had prepared this ram from that day, to be a burnt offering instead of Isaac” Jasher 23:70-71, (also: Genesis 22:13).

(*5) The ram and ewes; lambs sacrificed and offered for different reasons:
There is a tremendous amount of symbolism buried in the many diverse sacrifices of the Law. And Since the Jews have had no sacrifices for a few thousand years, and the Christian through Christ has been given salvation without the continuing symbolic sacrifices (because this is the age of the actual sacrifices symbolized), our whole world has lost the importance of the symbolized meanings, until the Jews take up that roll again (Isaiah 2:3).
But Jesus, while fulfilling the law of sacrifice for sin, did not fulfill all the various sacrifices that now need not be made (Hebrews 10:1-12), otherwise there would not have been more than one in Type: the Passover Lamb for sin. It is my strong suggestion that happy go lucky Sunday Christians have long neglected their Mosaic studies on the Sabbath in the Synagogues of OT law, suggested by the Apostolic council in Acts 15:19&21.
If you have no idea why two lambs would be identified as a single sacrifice at different times of the day, then explain how Jesus’ death fulfills a two-lamb sacrifice, or why you are content to assume in complete ignorance that it doesn’t matter any more. I am pleasantly suggesting that this is like a wife who couldn’t care less what her husband likes for supper when he comes home from work. “You want a sweet savor? Make it yourself,” and so he does. And while you might eat it when “forced,” you don’t savor it at all; You would rather dine with the Disney Beast’s servants, who spread a table that intentionally delights your sensorial appetite while making you spiritually drowsy (Psalm 106:14-15).
If your spirit hears the word of the Lord in the narration of the scriptures-- such as with Jephthah’s daughter-- the confusing sacrifices of the Law are almost secondary to confirm what you already heard without the law. But now we suddenly have a whole new appreciation for the renewal of symbolic sacrifices in the millennial kingdom that will make it unnecessary for Christians to continue dying day and night (John 11:9-10) as sweet savor unto the Lord!

(*6) Leprosy: noun medical: A serious disease that causes painful rough areas on the skin and that badly damages the nerves and flesh.
Full Definition: 1. A chronic infectious disease caused by a mycobacterium (Mycobacterium leprae) affecting especially the skin and peripheral nerves and characterized by the formation of nodules or macules that enlarge and spread accompanied by loss of sensation with eventual paralysis, wasting of muscles, and production of deformities - called also Hansen’s disease 2. A morally or spiritually harmful influence. - (Merriam-Webster online dictionary).

(*7) The Book of Jasher is declared authentic by the Bible itself, although some specifics of the narration in the book we have today must be held at “arms length” in light skepticism of authenticity, as the translator himself makes note:
From the “TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.
…and this, together with other numerous internal evidences, it is presumed will go far to convince the Hebrew scholar that the book is, with the exception of some doubtful parts, a venerable moment of antiquity; and that, notwithstanding some few additions may have been made to it in comparatively modern times, it still retains sufficient to prove it a copy of the book referred to in Joshua, ch. x., and 2 Samuel, ch. i.” - The book of Jasher, p.iiv., translated into English from the Hebrew, 1840, Published by J.H. Parry & Company Salt Lake City: 1887, Photo lithographic reprint of exact edition, ISBN: 0-934666-25-3
[2/7/14: The danger, then, is assuming that an element we want to use is actually as flawless as the scriptures when we want to use them to support the scriptures in our argument and in so doing don’t notice that we have switched authorities, like as the Mormon “companion to the Bible” is want to encourage. I recently found myself so deceived in my studies on a particular topic until I searched the scriptures deeper and found a conflict with what I was sure was scriptural support. The Book of Jasher is not scripture].
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