|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 8, 2023 14:27:03 GMT -5
A Facelift for False Teaching
An appetite for false teaching is never satisfied. It always needs new items on the menu. Fresh revelation is required to keep curiosity alive in the followers.
Kris Vallotton is a skilled craftsman in the art of making new teachings related to prophecy. His latest creation is called “Spiritual Intelligence”. Instead of leading people through the Scriptures to know what God has chosen to reveal to us, Kris is selling the idea that you can skip exegesis and enter straight into the mind of God.
By developing new neural pathways, Kris says you can gain full access to the brain of Jesus.
God has a different opinion on this.
“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?”
- Romans 11:34
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.”
- Isaiah 55:8
If God was speaking to Kris, He would be telling him to repent. The prophets of Scripture didn’t even presume to know the mind of God. But Kris, who can’t rightly handle God’s Word or accurately predict the next president, wants you to buy his book on accessing the mind of God.
Dear friends, flee this kind of teaching and point people to faithful preaching of Law and Gospel. This stuff only leads to confusion, deeper deception, or disillusionment when life goes poorly.
Give people the truth of God’s Word and they will begin to grasp that His ways are truly unsearchable. When false teaching is replaced with beautiful truth, people will come alive with a new appetite that only Christ can satisfy. And they won’t tolerate doctrines that puff themselves up but they will long to see more glory given to the Lord Jesus.
All Glory be to Christ.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 26, 2023 7:15:35 GMT -5
Log In
Trending: Israel 2024 Election Joe Biden Donald Trump Congress Immigration
Commentary
Biden Officially Attempts to Remove God From Thanksgiving With 2023 Proclamation
By Rachel M. Emmanuel, Western Journal
November 22, 2023 at 9:08pm
When we say the word “Thanks-giving,” it presumes the giving of thanks.
But to whom is that thanks given?
Since the first Thanksgiving on Plymouth Rock and its subsequent establishment as a day of thanks on Oct. 3, 1789, the recipient of that thanks on behalf of the United States of America has always been God.
But in keeping with the destruction of everything good and virtuous in this nation, this year, God has been removed as the recipient of thanks on Thanksgiving.
On Wednesday, President Biden released his Thanksgiving proclamation for 2023.
Trending: Ex-Satanist Who Says He Met Terrifying Satan in Hell During Out-of-Body Experience Now Devotes Life to Christ
For the first time in American history, the proclamation completely omitted any reference to God or faith.
As a nation founded on Judeo-Christian values, this disturbing omission shows how far we have strayed from the original spirit behind America’s national day of Thanksgiving.
The pilgrims who celebrated the first Thanksgiving in 1621 were devout Christians fleeing religious persecution. Their celebration followed a brutal first year in the New World, where nearly half their population perished. Despite unimaginable hardship, their faith remained unshaken. They credited God for sustaining them and bringing them their first successful harvest.
Are you thankful to God?
Yes No
Enter your email
Completing this poll entitles you to our news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
This theme carried through the centuries, with presidents honoring God in their Thanksgiving proclamations. George Washington implored all Americans to acknowledge God’s “providence,” and to “unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations.”
On Nov. 28, 1861, Lincoln declared that all government offices would be closed on Thanksgiving Day, writing in his proclamation, “No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things…I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
Former President Donald Trump proclaimed in his 2020 Thanksgiving address, “On Thanksgiving Day, we thank God for the abundant blessings in our lives…I encourage all Americans to gather, in homes and places of worship, to offer a prayer of thanks to God for our many blessings.”
While some president’s speeches may have been more devout than others over the years, Biden is the first president to delete God from his Thanksgiving proclamation altogether.
In his proclamation, Biden declared, “This Thanksgiving, we are grateful for our Nation and the incredible soul of America.”
Related: Tucker Carlson Warns 2024 Will Be 'Like Nothing We've Ever Seen'
Grateful to whom?
Gratitude without a recipient is like a fake Christmas gift under a department store tree. The wrapping is pretty, but it’s ultimately worthless and empty.
Sadly, Thanksgiving has been becoming a more secular holiday with every passing year, and it seems like Biden decided to put the final nail in the coffin.
If we cannot even name the ultimate Source in which all Americans, regardless of creed, are rooted historically, we are adrift from the moorings with no destination and no anchor to hold us firm.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 27, 2023 10:22:35 GMT -5
37-year-old Christian theology lecturer in the United Kingdom is suing his former employer after being fired and allegedly threatened with a referral to counterterrorism authorities for a social media post discussing the Christian view of homosexuality.
“Homosexuality is invading the Church. Evangelicals no longer see the severity of this [because] they’re busy apologising for their apparently barbaric homophobia, whether or not it’s true,” Dr. Aaron Edwards, a theologian who formerly taught at the Methodist-run Cliff College in Derbyshire, England, wrote in a February post on X.
“This is a ‘Gospel issue’, by the way. If sin is no longer sin, we no longer need a Saviour,” Edwards’ post stated.
Cliff College suspended Edwards in March, following the theologian’s social media post, and allegedly threatened to report the lecturer to the British Prevent counter-terrorism program, a claim denied by the college, Christian newspaper Harbinger’s Daily reported.
Edwards was later fired for “bringing the college into disrepute,” according to Harbinger’s Daily.
The lecturer was dismissed for allegedly refusing to delete the controversial social media posts, according to Christian Today, with Cliff College claiming that Edwards’ posts violated the institution’s social media policy.
Cliff College in Derbyshire, England, sacked and threatened to report theologian Dr. Aaron Edwards for a viral tweet in which he said homosexuality is “invading the church.” t.co/SovCf5tpuU
— News Pug (@news_pug) March 20, 2023
The language the theologian used in his social media post “is inappropriate and unacceptable and does not represent either the views or ethos of Cliff College,” the college said in a statement shared with Christian Today.
Homosexuality is considered an “abomination,” according to the Bible, a view held by all major Abrahamic faiths.
Edwards sued Cliff College, seeking damages and accusing the institute of harassment, discrimination, and unlawful termination, Harbinger’s Daily reported.
Specifically, Edwards accused Cliff College of being disproportionate in its handling of the situation, with the dismissal proceedings lacking “requisite fairness.”
“Anyone concerned about academic freedom, Christian freedoms and free speech should be deeply concerned by what has happened to me,” Edwards told British newspaper The Telegraph.
The Christian Legal Center is helping Edwards with his lawsuit against his employer.
Edwards claimed that his termination resulted in him suffering “severe physical distress” and harmed his ability to seek employment elsewhere in the British higher education system, Christian Today reported.
"The tweet was not defamatory; it was not an attack on any colleague or individual; it was not abusive; and it was not an extremist religious view," Edwards said, according to Christian Today.
"It was addressed to evangelicals as a point of doctrine, and it has been misunderstood by many who wish to cause personal and institutional trouble for those who express that view,” he said, the outlet reported.
“As internal processes remain ongoing, we are unable to respond to specific issues,” a spokesperson for the college told The Telegraph.
“As a Methodist institution, Cliff College is committed to being a safe and hospitable place where those with differing convictions are welcomed and encouraged to live and learn together as faithful disciples of Christ,” the representative said, according to the newspaper.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 27, 2023 10:49:51 GMT -5
THE BREVITY AND TRANSITORINESS OF LIFE
The brevity and transitoriness of life are Scripture facts that people avoid and dread to think about. This is true, especially for those who already have much of the things of this world. The more they possess, the more they crave for more. Their insatiability manifests as telling, much like the materially obsessed man (the rich fool) Jesus referred to in Luke 12:16-21.
Abraham Kuyper, one of the most prolific writers and influential theologians of his time, elaborates on his observations about the frailty and shortness of human life in an article in his book, ‘In the Shadow of Death.’ Following is his article:
_____________________________
IN THE SHADOW OF DEATH
‘What Is the Measure of My Days?’
(Thou too must die)
Transitoriness is an easily spoken word, and the thought, expressed therein, is by no one contradicted. But how long it takes, before you apply this transitoriness to yourself, and indeed begin to exist to yourself and before your God as a transient creature.
All men are mortal, this was taught you already at school, but what boy, as he sees this in writing, thinks for one moment that this includes him.
And this not because no children die. Rather mortality among little ones is greater than among adults. But a child does not grasp this. He looks on.
He sees the dear little corpse, and will weep honest tears, but no sooner has he is gone away from it, than your boy again plays and romps, and lives as though he had seen no death.
And he who thinks, that this thoughtlessness occurs only with our little ones, thereby shows, that he knows neither his environment, nor his own heart.
The fact cannot be denied that however dreadful death may be, nothing is so fleeting and quickly cursory, as the impression, which the dying of one of our own and the sight of a corpse makes.
For one moment we are moved; we come together and mourn, our dead is carried out to the grave; and then we go into mourning; but long before the time for mourning is ended, life has resumed its ordinary course, and it happens but all too frequently, that almost no more word is said about our dead.
Sometimes this is different. There are cases of death, wherewith so terribly much went into the grave, and which brought about so great a change in the life of those who remained behind, that a long time all of life holds in memory the departure of him who passed away.
But even then it is ever yet the love or the need that operates after, and also this has nothing in common with the application of the transitoriness to ourselves.
2. David too was troubled by this.
Through what vicissitudes of life and dangers of death had not this son of Jesse passed. How many had not fallen by his sword and been struck down by his side?!
How frequently he had been in danger of death! How oftentimes the dark shadow of death in battle had passed over him!
And still David was not able sufficiently to realize that he himself was a ‘transitory creature’.
He well knew, that no one escapes death. He by no means denied, that his way also would end with the grave. And even that he hoped for a very long life, is nowhere evident.
But what he missed, what he was not sufficiently aware of in his own soul’s perception, was the sense, the inner and continuous conviction, that he himself was but a transitory creature before his God.
Even when in serious illness he lay upon the sickbed, or when dangers of death surrounded him, it was ever yet as though the sense of transitoriness would not take hold of him.
And this troubled him. He felt that in this his position was false. And therefore he prayed, that as a special grace his God would teach him *how transitory he was*.
And to learn this, he prayed in Psalm 39, ‘Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is.’
3. To this teaching every child of God ought to accustom himself.
Not to desire a revelation, whereby we might foretell the year of our death, and like Hezekiah calculate, that we still have so and so many years before us.
That would lead to the very opposite idea.
No, what we have to make our own is, how short our duration of our human life is; how many little flowers wither without unfolding; how many young men and maidens have been cut off just when they were ready to enter upon the fullness of life; how many a man is stricken down as an oak, that still exhibited the glory of its foliage; and how far beyond 65 years of age only 5 per cent are spared of all that are born of man.
Of every twenty people but one.
Just as is said in Psalm 90, that as a rule seventy years is the uttermost boundary, and that only a few, who are very strong, come to eighty.
And when one is young, this seems long, but how short in reality it is?
Of those 60 or 70 years you sleep away 20, 10 are spent in all sorts of insignificant interests and amidst all sorts of idle chitchat; another 10 are spent at the table; and for real life there rests at most some 20 years, even with those who live longest.
And what is this compared to centuries? To the presently 20 countries which went since Bethlehem, and the 60 centuries since Adam?
Twenty years to work, even though one lives 60 or 70 years, what is this
compared with eternity?
And then one must work 8 hours a day, steadily and continuously and who does this?
You at least did not do this in your 10th year, neither in sickness nor when you were on a journey; and this does not include your Sabbaths.
Accurately counted, a good deal is subtracted from these 20 years, and it is much, when a life of 60 or 70 years you can count 15, in which work is done and something is accomplished.
4. Complaint here is of no avail.
Our life is no longer what it is. A third must be taken off for sleep. Meals take time, and time the many little activities, connected with the care of the body. Also against sickness we have no safeguard.
But actually the sum of real life comes down to a very small cipher.
Only one in 20, who 15 years actually accomplish anything, and the others still far less.
But to be up to this, and then ever yet to live on, as though it would go on forever, is a misleading of self that goes too far, an unpardonable shortage of clearness of our own spirit.
With a child of the world this can be understood. When a child of the world dies he loses everything. He is not always afraid of death, some even altogether not. But with death the enjoyment of life ends. And therefore it is so understandable, that a child of the world rather dreams along, in the expectation of after today finding yet another day, and for the rest prefers not to think of the future.
But with a child of God this must be otherwise. For him death does not end all, but only after death it really begins.
He dares to think of his end, because he knows that this end shall be peace.
For him therefore there is no single reason, why he should always sweetly dream life’s dream. He can and must awaken.
Even when he looks into his condition altogether soberly, he is still happy.
5. And then there is indeed no thought, which in works more fruitfully upon his life, than the clear sense, to learn to know himself before God as a transient creature.
Nothing so much as this sense stimulates to restless labor.
‘Let us work while it is day, the night cometh wherein no man can work.’
You are here on earth for a purpose. You have a task. This task must be finished. And then only does God relieve you.
Nothing so much makes generous and loose from earthly goods.
Nothing of what your hand acquired, follows you in the grave. Naked you came from your mother’s womb, and naked you return into the grave. You take nothing with you.
Nothing implies you so strongly to hold yourself fast to your God, since He alone is mighty to maintain you as a transient creature, and when it is done here, with eternal arms of compassion to bear you up in eternal existence.
This transitory life, and that eternal, that follows after, is such a powerful stimulus, not to value too highly what is before one’s eyes, and to reach out after the crown, that sparkles of invisible diamonds.
‘Transitory’ and if then you still desire to live and know that the everlasting is only with your God, then that same sense drives you so mightily, so restlessly on toward the Eternal, and you feel so much more deeply than otherwise, what it says, that He the Eternal, is the only One not transitory, He Who alone has immortality.
And therefore, it is well with you, when the Holy Spirit leads you into this thought, imprints it deeply in your soul, and so penetrates you with the same, that the breath of your life is no more a fruitless hoping, but is in unison with the reality which is hard, and yet so glorious.
– Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920)
_________________________
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 29, 2023 22:58:34 GMT -5
Treasured Gems
2 days ago
·
9 Lessons from God Concerning Sickness ~ JC Ryle
(Trials in general)
Sickness is meant…
1. To make us think—to remind us that we have a soul as well as a body—an immortal soul—a soul that will live forever in happiness or in misery—and that if this soul is not saved we had better never have been born.
2. To teach us that there is a world beyond the grave—and that the world we now live in is only a training-place for another dwelling, where there will be no decay, no sorrow, no tears, no misery, and no sin.
3. To make us look at our past lives honestly, fairly, and conscientiously. Am I ready for my great change if I should not get better? Do I repent truly of my sins? Are my sins forgiven and washed away in Christ’s blood? Am I prepared to meet God?
4. To make us see the emptiness of the world and its utter inability to satisfy the highest and deepest needs of the soul.
5. To send us to our Bibles. That blessed Book, in the days of health, is too often left on the shelf, becomes the safest place in which to put a bank-note, and is never opened from January to December. But sickness often brings it down from the shelf and throws new light on its pages.
6. To make us pray. Too many, I fear, never pray at all, or they only rattle over a few hurried words morning and evening without thinking what they do. But prayer often becomes a reality when the valley of the shadow of death is in sight.
7. To make us repent and break off our sins. If we will not hear the voice of mercies, God sometimes makes us “hear the rod.”
8. To draw us to Christ. Naturally we do not see the full value of that blessed Savior. We secretly imagine that our prayers, good deeds, and sacrament-receiving will save our souls. But when flesh begins to fail, the absolute necessity of a Redeemer, a Mediator, and an Advocate with the Father, stands out before men’s eyes like fire, and makes them understand those words, “Simply to Your cross I cling,” as they never did before. Sickness has done this for many—they have found Christ in the sick room.
9. To make us feeling and sympathizing towards others. By nature we are all far below our blessed Master’s example, who had not only a hand to help all, but a heart to feel for all. None, I suspect, are so unable to sympathize as those who have never had trouble themselves—and none are so able to feel as those who have drunk most deeply the cup of pain and sorrow.
Summary: Beware of fretting, murmuring, complaining, and giving way to an impatient spirit. Regard your sickness as a blessing in disguise – a good and not an evil – a friend and not an enemy. No doubt we should all prefer to learn spiritual lessons in the school of ease and not under the rod. But rest assured that God knows better than we do how to teach us. The light of the last day will show you that there was a meaning and a “need be” in all your bodily ailments. The lessons that we learn on a sick-bed, when we are shut out from the world, are often lessons which we should never learn elsewhere.
~ J.C. Ryle 1816-1900
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Nov 30, 2023 21:16:14 GMT -5
Good Stuff
3h ·
Jessica McDaniel
November 19 at 10:26 PM ·
For those of you who don’t understand exactly what is happening in the Middle East and what’s taking place here on American soil, I’m going to break it down as simple as I possibly can.
Abraham found favor with God. God even called Abraham His friend. Abrahams wife was named Sarah and together they were leaders of a large tribe, community or encampment you could say.
God promised Abraham that his seed (offspring) would be numbered like the sands of the seas.
Sarah, being 99 years old (and folks lived long lives at this time in history), began to doubt Gods promise and suggested Abraham sleep with her very attractive and younger handmaiden, Hagar.
Abraham, being human and born of a sinful nature, agreed with Sarah (because he’s a dude) and slept with Hagar. Soon after it was realized that Hagar was pregnant with Abraham’s first born, Ishmael. True to God’s promise, thirteen years later, Sarah birthed Abraham’s second son, Isaac.
Since the original sin, (Adam & Eve) mankind has disappointed, failed and angered God. It was not Gods will that man fail, it’s has and is always been about choices and free will.
From Hagar came Ishmael. From Sarah came Issac.
True to Gods promise, Abrahams seed became and is as the sands of the seas. However, true to there being consequences for sin, God told Abraham that he must get the sin out of the camp.
Having to banish Hagar and Ishmael from the camp grieved Abraham a great deal. He loved both of his sons like any good father would.
When it comes right down to it, Ishmael was born against the will of God. From that beginning Ishmael descendants have waged war against Issacs descendants.
From Ishmael came the Arab Nations, the prophet Mohammed, who was a fierce warrior and writer or the Islamic Quran, which instructs followers of Muhammad that if Christians or any other faith won’t convert to Islam or the Muslim faith, they’re labeled as infidels and must be killed.
From Isaac came the Jewish nation and eventually Judaism, Christianity and finally Jesus as a blood sacrifice for sin to all nations. This is how the Middle East has been labeled ‘the cradle of civilization’.
Ishmaels decendants don’t believe that Jews and Christians have a right to live. That’s why leaders of Iran, who is the head of the octopus direct the tentacles like Hamas, Hezbola, ISIS and a host of other murderous Islamic terrorist organizations to attack and chant “death to Israel and death to America”
This war, jihad has been going on from the beginning and will be going on when Christ appears for His second coming to wage the final war against evil.
This country has been blessed because this country has been a defender of Israel and the Jews.
As you can see by the siding of the youth of this nation with supporting and protesting on the behalf of terrorists, that we’re only a generation away from turning our backs on Israel.
They’re so misguided, indoctrinated and naive that they don’t understand the weight of their actions.
God chose the Jews for Jesus to take on human flesh and walk among us for 33 years, ultimately becoming a blood sacrifice on the cross. This sacrifice was not just for Christians and Jews, it was for any human who would answer the call to become Christ like.
Remember folks, God said that Israel is the apple of His eye.
I will stand with Israel.
(Can’t hashtag my unpopular opinion anymore, fakebook suppresses it in the newsfeed).
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 2, 2023 12:14:07 GMT -5
Wes Fuller
17 minutes ago
·
Truth 💣 from JC Ryle
“We have hundreds of jellyfish clergymen who seem not to have a single bone in their body of divinity. They have no definite opinions; they belong to no school or party; they are so afraid of extreme views that they have no views at all. We have thousands of jellyfish sermons preached every year, sermons without an edge or a point or a corner, smooth as billiard balls, awakening no sinner, and edifying no saint. We have legions of jellyfish young men annually turned out from our universities, armed with a few scraps of second hand philosophy, who think it a mark of cleverness and intellect to have no decided opinions about anything in religion, and to be utterly unable to make up their minds as to what is Christian truth ....”
J. C. Ryle
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 2, 2023 16:28:05 GMT -5
Divining the Dream Machine: Part 1
Guest Post, November 27, 2023
Share this:
GabFacebookXTelegramEmail
Science-Fiction, Hollywood, and the Technology of Antichrist
by Thomas Millary
Sci-Fi and False Signs
In his seminal work, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future, Fr. Seraphim Rose condemned “the spirit of science fiction.”1 His critique of that literary genre is found within the chapter “Signs from Heaven: An Orthodox Christian Understanding of UFOs.”2 Fr. Seraphim incisively argued that the so-called ‘UFO phenomenon’ would be a major component of the emerging religion of the future, the religion of Antichrist. By examining the descriptions of supposed ‘alien encounters’ and the beliefs of UFO enthusiasts, he demonstrated that an Orthodox perspective can only consider this phenomenon to be demonic. Before launching into this critique, he contextualized it by looking at the sector of pop-culture which had done the most work to prime society to accept outlandish spiritual beliefs about extraterrestrials. He turned to the popularity of science-fiction to answer the question “What were men prepared to see in the sky?”3
This article originally appeared in-full as an essay published on The Ludwell Review on November 8th, 2023. It is reproduced here, in three parts, with permission from the author.
Providing a standard history of the genre, Fr. Seraphim references its prehistory in the work of authors such as Edgar Allan Poe and Mary Shelley, its solidification through HG Wells and Jules Verne, and its flourishing in then-contemporary pop-culture (the second edition of the book was first printed in 1979) through film and television such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. He identified a dangerous underlying philosophy to the genre, listing four traits of science-fiction narratives that lend themselves to the subversion of traditional Christianity and the propagation of the religion of Antichrist. Firstly, traditional religion is absent; the science-fiction universe is either secular or it contains vague mysticisms that are inspired by Eastern religions or the Western occult. Secondly, human meaning is oriented not toward God but toward highly evolved beings encountered in journeys across time and space (sometimes these evolved intelligences are superhuman versions of ourselves). Thirdly, “the standard practices and claims of sorcerers and demons”4 (telepathy, direct human flight, dematerialization, shapeshifting, the creation of illusory environments, augmented intelligences becoming totally free of matter, etc.) are depicted as technological achievements, implicitly or explicitly affirming that the scientific future of humanity is a realization of the longstanding aspirations of the occult. Fourthly, science-fiction is utopian, not usually in the sense of depicting a perfect society, but rather through portraying society as reorganized through encounters with the aforementioned ‘more advanced’ intelligences.
In the decades since Fr. Seraphim’s death, the continued direction of the genre has vindicated his critique. We can see this through the persistence of the anti-Christian traits that he identified, the relationship of those elements to the alternative spiritualities (New Age, spiritual but not religious, occult, syncretic, psychedelic, etc.) that are now closer than ever to the cultural mainstream, and through the highly suspicious ongoing process of Pentagon ‘UFO disclosure.’5 Fr. Seraphim saw science-fictions depictions of UFOs as one major trend among several that heralded the arrival of the demonic religion of the future (others included ecumenism, interest in Eastern religions and their meditation techniques, charismatic revivalism in Christianity, and the proliferation of interest in paganism and the occult). He quotes Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, “The miracles of antichrist will be chiefly manifested in the aerial realm, where Satan chiefly has his dominion.”6 However, the genre holds an even greater key to understanding the religion of the future than described by Fr. Seraphim. Without contradicting any of his insights, it is the purpose of this essay to suggest that in the very name ‘science-fiction’ (which describes the intersection of imagination and technology) we see the blueprints for both the form and content of the rapidly emerging Antichrist religion.
The Machine and its Religion
On his Substack, the Abbey of Misrule, recovering environmentalist Paul Kingsnorth has been warning about the Machine. For many years, he was a high-profile ecological and anti-globalization activist, cofounding the Dark Mountain Project in 2009, which mourned modernity’s destruction of the natural world, while calling into question environmentalist assumptions about progress and technological solutions. His 2021 essay “The Cross and the Machine” describes how his shifting perspective regarding environmental activism was accompanied by a series of successively adopted religious identities.7 Growing up nonreligious with a moribund English Protestantism as his reference for Christianity, he turned first to Zen Buddhism, then to Wicca, and finally to Orthodox Christianity.
Convinced as ever of the deadly effects of technological globalized modernity, Kingsnorth’s newfound Orthodoxy has given him the religious framework to diagnose the true spiritual pathology of our age. “…the rebellion against nature, against life, against God – has […] made us homeless. It has also wrecked and ravaged the living Earth to the point of disaster, in pursuit of a universal human empire of calculation and control.”8 Kingsnorth describes this rebellion as the global instantiation of the Machine, characterized by “the breaking of bounds, the destruction of limits, the homogenisation of everything in its pursuit of its continued growth….to its core, anti-limits and anti-form…The Machine is aimed squarely at what C S Lewis termed the abolition of Man, which is also the abolition of nature itself.”9 The Machine is not a form of wickedness unique to modernity but rather a temptation that societies have faced throughout history, having manifested previously in Sumeria, Egypt, Babylon, Rome, and other eras. Technological advancements from the Industrial Revolution onward have simply provided the mechanisms by which the Machine can now proceed unimpeded across the globe.
In the first entry of his series “Divining the Machine” (a phrase that inspired the title of this present essay), Kingsnorth lists its characteristics, including centralized/hierarchical/large-scale society, bureaucracy (able to order and monitor citizenry), mostly urban/metropolitan concentrated populations, a centrally directed economy with powerful financial institutions, a drive to replace the human with technology, advanced universal communications networks, and a propaganda system that normalizes all of this.10 He then describes its corresponding values – progress, openness, futurism, universalism, individualism, technologism, scientism, commercialism, materialism, and TINA (“there is no alternative”). “The Machine…rips up our roots in nature, in real cultures connected to time and place, in our connection to the divine centre. In their stead we are offered an anti-culture, an endless consumer present…”11 Later essays make it clear that leftist environmentalist critiques of capitalism are not alternatives but rather part of the Machine, the voice of “Machine Greens,” playing a central role in sinister efforts toward the World Economic Forum’s “Fourth Industrial Revolution” and similar totalizing technocratic agendas. “…the left and global capitalism are, at base, the same thing: engines for destroying customary ways of living and replacing them with the new world of the Machine… one attacks the culture, deconstructing everything from history to ‘heteronormativity’ to national identities; the other moves in to monetise the resulting fragments.”12
In a December 2022 essay, “God in the Age of Iron,” Kingsnorth puts his conception of the Machine in conversation with Seraphim Rose’ description of the religion of the future.13 He aptly describes Fr. Seraphim as “a kind of patron Saint of Lost Western People,” as he was an admirer of Jack Kerouac, a follower of Alan Watts, and infatuated with Taoism and Zen before he found his home in Orthodoxy (a journey with some parallels to Kingsnorth’s). Kingsnorth unsurprisingly finds Fr. Seraphim’s analysis of the coming worldwide religion of Antichrist extremely relevant to his own critique of the global monoculture produced by technological modernity. The religion of the future is the religion of the Machine, found in the interface of the trends examined by Fr. Seraphim (UFO cults, witchcraft, neo-paganisms, shamanism, Eastern-inspired mysticisms, etc.) and technocratic totalitarianism. Kingsnorth provides another list of traits, this time as an initial attempt to discern the characteristics of the religious beliefs generated by the Machine– the self-as-idol, “Do what thou wilt,” ecumenism, religious inversion, salvation in this world, creation over Creator, sex as sacred expression, relativism, self-creation through technology, and the transhumanist quest for godhood.
The thread tying all of this together is the worship of self, the promise of the serpent in Eden that we will become like God. Kingsnorth mentions nineteenth century theosophist Helena Blavatsky’s claim that the serpent Satan was the true God of the Genesis story, the light-bringing genuine father of human spirituality, adding that “This kind of talk was probably outrageous in the 1880s, but today it would just make a good few seasons of drama on Netflix, or a funky series of Instagram images…What better symbol of the great rebellion of modernity, after all, than Lucifer-as-liberator: a Fallen Angel, exiled for resisting unearned privilege? Like Narcissus, Lucifer is entranced by his own beauty and power. Like both of them, we gaze entranced at our own avatars in the black mirrors in our hands, unable to tear our gaze away.”
Along with self, he names science and sex as the other two pillars of a triad of Machine values that have replaced the “prayer, people, and place” triad of traditional religious societies14. The heirs of the sexual revolution are relentlessly ‘queering’ all which is normative, while the totalitarian mantra of “trust the science” makes it increasingly easier to imagine the world prophesied in Revelation 13:17, in which “no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark.” A society increasingly defined by scientistic technocracy and unrestrained sexuality allows inhabitants of its digital grid to indulge in unlimited projects of self-creation and experimentation. “How can a human become like a god? By doing what gods do: creating. And how can a human create? Through our unique gift: the power of technology.”15
It is on this note, technology as the means to engage in Luciferian endeavors of self-creation, that I wish to add to the description of the religion of the Machine. Kingsnorth’s essay on Seraphim Rose does not mention his critique of science-fiction that I recounted earlier. That lack of reference is understandable, as Fr. Seraphim does not attribute any special significance to the spiritual pitfalls of sci-fi, viewing it mostly as a literary phenomenon with the function of preparing society for Antichrist-related UFO beliefs and false signs. However, latent within Fr. Seraphim’s warnings about science-fiction is a possible deeper critique, one that unveils a fuller picture of how contemporary civilization was seduced by the Machine. Having examined the science (technology) side of the equation with my brief summary of Kingsnorth’s penetrating essays, we must now turn to the fiction side, to a crucial node of the Machine not much treated by Kingsnorth, one that has worked tirelessly to ensnare our attention and imaginations. We need to look at Hollywood.
Thomas Millary is the president of the Decoding Culture Foundation, a non-profit organization which analyzes cultural engineering and documents the history of collaboration between the film industry and the United States government. He is also the cohost of Psyop Cinema, a podcast about the influence of mind control programs and the occult over pop-culture. Thomas has an academic background in religious studies, concentrating on American countercultural spiritualities and espionage history.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 3, 2023 9:00:03 GMT -5
THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
"Comfort in Dying"
Rev. Carl Haak
(e-mail: Rev. Carl Haak )
November 25, 2001; No. 3073
Dear Radio Friends,
Death is a frightening reality. It is a frightening reality that also comes to the children of God, to you and to me.
There are two things that we must not lose sight of as believers as we consider death. Jesus spoke of them in Matthew 22 . In that chapter there were certain religious leaders, called the Sadducees, who were filled with unbelief and skepticism and thought that they had put the Lord Jesus on the horns of a dilemma concerning the afterlife. They proposed to Him the situation of a certain woman who was married. Her husband died. Then his brother married her and he died. This man had seven brothers. All seven had her for a wife and they all died before she did. The Sadducees asked Jesus, "Now, which one of the seven brothers will have her for wife in the afterlife?"
Jesus calmly and powerfully answered, "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God." The Sadducees, who denied the resurrection of the dead, were all mixed up because they were ignorant of two things: the content of the Scriptures and the unlimited power of God.
In light of those two great truths concerning death, I would like to speak to you for a few moments today.
As we consider death, we must remember, first of all, that we approach death through the Scriptures. We know the Scriptures to be the Word of God. They are the Spirit-inspired, infallible Word of God. Therefore, we have the true and certain comfort concerning death as we know the Scriptures, and only as we know the Scriptures. Only when we are well grounded in the Scriptures and when we testify that these Scriptures are not of men but of God, then alone do we have the truth concerning the reality of death and of salvation in Christ.
Still more, as we consider death we must remember the mighty power of God. We read in Jeremiah 32:27 , "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?" Is God able to give us peace in death, the death of our loved one? Is He able to fill the void in the days ahead when your husband or wife dies? What if He takes from you a child, a teenager? Is He able to bear you in that grief? Can He do that? Yes! "Is there any thing too hard for me?" He is able to give peace, able to make us say, "Have Thine own way, Lord. It is well with my soul." Yes, He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or think.
When we come before the subject of death, then we ask, first of all, the question: What happens at death? Where is my loved one who dies in Christ? The ones who die in Christ, where are they? The Bible answers: For the child of God, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord ( II Cor. 5 ). Or the apostle Paul's words: "For to me to live is Christ; and to die is gain." When the child of God dies, he is with Christ. That is why death is gain.
That is striking language. We can hardly bear thinking about death today. It is the separation of our loved one - our husband, our wife, our son, our daughter, our dear one, our child - and it is so final! Of itself, because death is the sentence of God upon sin, death is too much for us. But now, because of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, for all who belong to Jesus, death has become the door which brings them to the Lord, to the One who has bought us with His own blood. The body of our loved one may be in the casket and then, later, after the funeral, be laid into the earth. But the soul of our loved one in Christ is not in that casket. That soul does not float somewhere in the atmosphere. It is at home with the Lord. Where is the soul of those who have died in the Lord Jesus Christ? The Scriptures are very clear. To be with Christ is far better. There !the apostle Paul piles up words. He says it is far better, it is exceeding better. The moment the soul of the child of God leaves the body at death, at that moment and in that place that God knew all about, then, through the rough door of death we enter into the presence of our God. Death with all of its suddenness and all of its terror and horror, in that moment, God takes us to be with Himself and we join the company of those whom He has made perfect in Christ.
Through the rough door of death
we enter into the presence of our God.
Do you remember in the Bible the stoning of the man called Stephen? In Acts 7 , after Stephen had preached against the Jews of their wickedness and sin and they had rushed upon him and stoned him, we read, "But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God" (vv. 55, 56). Stephen's body was being buffeted with stones. Soon the life would be crushed out of him. But then he saw heaven open. Our Bibles tell us that the ascended Lord sits at the right hand of God. But Stephen saw Him standing. I believe that that means that, so anxious is the Lord Jesus to receive the departing spirit of His children that He stands up and says, "Stephen, come home. I'm waiting to receive you." Do you not stand up to greet a loved one when he enters the room?
Where is the child of God who dies? He is present with the Lord, with Christ.
But you ask, "How can that be?" I answer with one word, no not one word, but one person: Christ. "For to me to live is Christ." The Bible teaches that that means that the risen Lord Jesus Christ, by grace alone, enters into the hearts of His people so that now we might live with Him. Death, you see, physical death, does not change anything really for a child of God. Death confirms what is. Death, by the power of God, perfects what we have in Christ. Death is not the great change for the child of God. To be born again, by grace, is the great change. To be given living faith, to be raised from being a dead sinner, to live in Christ - that is the great change. And that is the change over which the angels in heaven marvel and are stupefied.
We, then, go to be with the Lord in death not because all men go to be with Christ when they die, not because all people by nature are God's children and go to heaven when they die. That is not the truth. We do not go to Christ in death, and we are not saved to eternal glory, because of any work that we, of ourselves, could do to merit or to earn heaven. We do not go there because we were a good husband or we were a good person or we lived in a way that we had respect of our peers. No, God's Word says to us: All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Death, by the power of God,
perfects what we have in Christ.
How do we enter into heaven? Christ. Because of the work of Jesus Christ. Because of being united to Him in a true, God-given faith. Because of the cross of Christ. There the Son of God actually stood in the place of His children, in my place, and in the place of all those given of the Father. There He was forsaken of the Father that we might never be forsaken of Him. To live in Christ is to live in faith in Jesus Christ. It is to live our entire life in trust and obedience and love to Jesus Christ. It is to be united to Christ by grace. Then, in death, all of that is made perfect and we are brought face to face to be with our Savior.
Another question we have in death is why? Why does God take from us our loved one, especially when that loved one might be so necessary, we think, for us? And we might ask the other side of the question: Why does God, we ask, linger when a child of God becomes so helpless and confused and decrepit in age? And yet they go on, perhaps for years, in a nursing home. Why? Why does God come in death?
We might say that today. Maybe you have cancer and that cancer is terminal. And you have many hopes. Perhaps you had hopes for years of service in the kingdom of Christ, and you have fears for your family. It seems as if you are going to be cut off. You say, "Could not the Lord spare me?" We do not want to ask that question irreverently, as though God is obligated to us to give account of His ways, but reverently, with an open Bible, we ask the question, "Lord, give us some light on this. Show us from Thy Word. Why?"
First of all, the answer of the why lies in the all-wise and absolutely sovereign will of God. Death is no accident. It is not something that God has no control over. All things work together for good. God works all things ( Eph. 1 ) after the counsel of His own will. Life and death are in the Father's hands. And it is God's perfect wisdom and love that is done at all times. So we do not say when a child of God is taken, "His life wasn't finished. It was cut off. It was incomplete." No, it went exactly as far as the Lord intended it. It was full. We must remember that. We must rest, when the death of our loved one comes, with Christ, who was fully content to leave all things in the hands of His Father. He said in Matthew 11:26 , "Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight." Shall not God do what is right? So, in death, we press our heart close t!o God and confess that He does all things well. I do know that all is according to God's wise and loving purpose.
The answer of the why lies in the all-wise
and absolutely sovereign will of God.
But there is a second answer to our question. Death comes because it is the desire of Jesus Christ. Listen as Christ expresses His desires before the Father concerning His disciples ( John 17:24 ): "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am." The Savior yearns for His bride, for His people, for those for whom He has given His precious blood. Every time a child of God is taken from this earth to Paradise, it is in answer to Christ's prayer. How many times we find ourselves pulling against the will of Him who has so loved us. Let us bend our knee today and pray: "Father, I will that the Savior's desires might be accomplished according to Thy good pleasure." But very often we pray instead: "Father, I will that my loved one be with me where I am," while Christ is praying, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast give!n me, be with me where I am." When death comes, it is time. When death comes, it is an answer to the prayer of Jesus: "Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory."
In death, we press our heart close to God
and confess that He does all things well.
There is a third reason. That third reason is for us who are left behind. In the death of the children of God, God would press upon us the confession: "For to me to live is Christ." Then we see that it is our Lord and Savior who is so precious to us. When God takes away, He does not do that to be cruel. But He takes away in order that you might see the fullness and the sufficiency that is in Christ, to show you that having Him on earth, there is nothing that you could yet desire.
One more question, then. When we see the death of God's people, what is God saying to us who yet live? The answer to that question is very clear. The only comfort in life and in death is to belong to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ. That is what God is saying. God says that death is a reality. God, in that, says, "What is your life but a passing shadow. Where, in this world, are you going to find anything to comfort you? There is only one Rock and that Rock is Christ, the Christ of the infallible Scriptures." To live is Christ. That is the only comfort. And Christ is not simply a pious word that we throw around. He is the living Son of God. He is the One who lives, and we know that He lives, because He lives within our hearts.
Is that your confession today? Only in the risen Lord Jesus Christ can you stand before the grave, before your sin, and not turn away in despair. Then you see that life is not about money, it is not about beauty, it is not about sex and power and cars and parties and food and drink. If that is all that you have, you have nothing, absolutely nothing but terror. Life is Christ, who was crucified for our sins and is risen for our life.
Do not be afraid, then. As you stand before the death of your loved one or as you contemplate your own death today, do not be afraid, but rejoice in the victory that is in Jesus Christ. And believe that He will give you grace sufficient. For He has promised, "I will not leave thee, nor will I forsake thee." He will give you grace to say, "Death is gain to my soul."
Let us then praise God. As we consider the reality of death, the shortness of this present life, let us together with the apostle Paul in Romans 11 attribute our doxology to God: For of Him and through Him and to Him be all things, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
Let us pray.
Father in heaven, we pray that Thou wilt comfort our hearts as we face the reality of death today and always. We thank Thee for Thy holy Word. We thank Thee for it because it is the light in a dark place. And we praise Thee that that Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path even when that pathway leads us over rocks and over glass that pierces our feet. We pray for the consolations of Thy truth to enter into our hearts. May Thy Word find its mark today. Wilt Thou seal Thy Word in our hearts that we might confess: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Amen.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Dec 30, 2023 10:05:34 GMT -5
The Scriptural Marks of True Israel
August 4, 2022 / Governor-Dossier, JAH Truth / By A. Freeman
There are at least 95 Scriptural “birth-marks” describing the TRUE people Israel, by which to identify them during the latter days. Since ALL Bible prophecy concerns Israel, it’s critically important to be able to positively identify them; otherwise the prophecies are impossible to understand.
1) God’s Promise to David About the Davidic Throne of Israel:
A PROMISE was made by our Creator to king David, that he would never lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel, until Shiloh/Christ’s Second-Coming (Gen. 49:10, 22-24).
Jeremiah 33:17-21
33:17 For thus saith the “I AM”; David shall never want (lack) a manA to sit upon the throne of the House of Israel;
33:18 Neither shall the priests the Levites want (lack) a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to kindle meat offerings, and to do sacrifice continually.
33:19 And the Word of the “I AM” came unto Jeremiah, saying,
33:20 Thus saith the “I AM”; If ye can break My Covenant of the day, and My Covenant of the night, and that there should not be day and night in their season;
33:21 [Then] may also My Covenant be broken with David My servant, that he should not have a son [or daughter] to reign upon his throne; and with the Levites the priests, My ministers.
British Coronation Chair with the Stone of Destiny, Jacob’s Pillar Stone.
1 Chronicles 7:10-14
17:10 And since the time that I commanded judges [to be] over My people Israel. Moreover I will subdue all thine enemies. Furthermore I tell thee that the “I AM” will build thee an house.
17:11 And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go [to be] with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom.
17:12 He shall build Me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever.
17:13 I will be his father, and he shall be My son: and I will not take My mercy away from him, as I took [it] from [him] that was before thee:
17:14 But I will settle him in Mine house and in My kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for evermore.
2 Chronicles 1:9 Now, O “I AM” God, let Thy promise unto David my father be established: for Thou hast made me king over a people like “the dust of the earth” in multitude (Gen. 28:14, Gen. 48:19).
2 Chronicles 7:18 Then will I stablish the throne of thy kingdom, according as I have Covenanted with David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a manA [to be] ruler IN Israel.
Psalm 89:3-4
89:3 I have made a Covenant with My chosen, I have sworn unto David My servant,
89:4 Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to ALL generations. The rock.
Psalm 89:34-36
89:34 My Covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
89:35 Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David.
89:36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as “the sun” before me.
Psalm 132:10-11
132:10 For Thy servant David’s sake turn not away the face of Thine anointed.
132:11 The “I AM” hath sworn [in] Truth unto David; He will not turn from it; Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.
(see also: 2 Sam. 7:12-17, 2 Sam. 22:51, 2 Sam. 23:5, 2 Chron. 13:5, 2 Chron. 21:7, 2 Chron. 23:3)
ANOTE: Not that long ago, it was still standard practice to refer to the human race (men and women) collectively as “mankind”. So this promise to David—that one of his descendants (male or female – “his seed”, “house” or “the fruit of his body”) would sit on the throne of Israel until Shiloh/Christ comes – does not preclude female descendants from fulfilling that prophecy (reference/case precedent in The Law: Num. 27:1-11).
This single prophecy leaves no doubt that there has NEVER been a time since the reign of king David when there wasn’t one of his descendants to SIT on the Throne of David. This also automatically reduces the possibilities for the people Israel to a single monarchy.
It therefore follows that a careful search through the current monarchies of this world would be the most logical place to begin one’s search for the “lost” tribes of Israel, to see if one monarchy fits the scriptural descriptions we’ve been given. Please see the following links for lists of the world’s surviving monarchies.
8 Oldest Monarchies in the World
List of Current Monarchies
List of current monarchs of sovereign states
Please note well in the second link (List of Current Monarchies) that out of the 44 current monarchies in the world today, 16 of them are under the British rule.
The Truth About the British Monarchy
Please also note well that NONE of the other current monarchs rule over multiple sovereign states.
This is critically important, because with just one more Biblical prophecy, the Throne of David, and thus the TRUE people Israel, can be easily and positively identified.
2) Israel SHALL become “a nation AND a company of nations”.
The following prophecy describes the true people Israel during the latter days:
Genesis 35:10-11
35:10 And God said unto him, Thy name [is] Jacob (the Supplanter): thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and He called his name Israel (champion of God).
35:11 And God said unto him, I [am] God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation AND a company of nations SHALL be of theeB, and kings SHALL come out of thy loins;
BNote: There is no other monarchy on Earth that currently rules over “a nation and a company of nations” other than the British monarchy. It can therefore be said with absolute certainty that the British Throne IS the Davidic Throne of Israel.
The remaining Scriptural “birth-marks” of Israel can therefore be taken at face value to apply only to the British, since it is already an established and irrefutable fact that the British are the TRUE people Israel and that the British Throne is the Davidic Throne of Israel.
3) The Sons of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) SHALL be called Israel (Gen. 48:16).
4) The Sons of Joseph SHALL both become great and powerful nations (Gen. 48:16-19, Deut. 33:17, Rev. 11:3-5).
5) Israel SHALL grow into a Multitude and a Commonwealth of Nations in the midst of the Earth.
Genesis 48:16-19
48:16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name [Israel] be named on them (let Ephraim and Manasseh be called Israel), and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
48:17 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head.
48:18 And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this [is] the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head.
48:19 And his father refused, and said, I know [it], my son, I know [it]: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude (Commonwealth) of nations.
Ephesians 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from The Covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
No one, other than the British peopleC, have grown into a “multitude in the midst of the earth” AND become “a multitude (Commonwealth) of nations”.
Cincluding America, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Northern France, Celtic Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and the Baltic states and Gibraltar, i.e. the English-speaking nations of the world.
6) Israel’s “horn” (kingdom) SHALL be like “the horns of Unicorns”.
Deuteronomy 33:16-17
3:16 And for the precious things of the earth and fullness thereof, and [for] the good Will of Him that dwelt in the bush: let [“The Blessing”] come upon the head of Joseph, and the CROWN upon the head of him [that was] separated from his brethren (Gen. 49:10 & 22-24).
33:17 His glory [is like] the firstling of his bullock, and his horns [are like] the horns of UnicornsD: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they [are] the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they [are] the thousands of Manasseh.
Psalm 92:10 But my horn shalt Thou exalt like [the horn of] an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
DThat is why the “House of Israel” is pictured as a Unicorn on the British Coat of Arms.
7) Israel SHALL be as a lionE (Gen. 49:9, Num. 23:24, Num. 24:9, Mic. 5:8), which is representative of the line of David, from the tribe and “House of Judah”.
EAlso pictured on the British Coat of Arms, with a removable crown on the lion’s head.
8) Israel SHALL become a great and mighty nation, through which all the nations of the world shall be blessed (Gen. 18:8, Gen. 48:19).
9) Israel SHALL become “the empire upon which the ‘sun’ never sets” (Psalm 89:36).
10) Israel SHALL be multiplied as “the stars of heaven” (U.S.A. – Gen. 22:17, Gen. 26:4, Exod. 32:13, Deut. 1:10, Deut. 10:22, Deut. 28:62).
11) Israel SHALL be called by a NEW NAME (Isa. 62:2, Isa. 65:1, Isa. 65:15, Hos. 2:17).
Isaiah 62:2 And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a NEW NAME, which the mouth of the “I AM” shall name (Gen. 21:12).
This too automatically eliminates the counterfeit Jewish state in the land of Israel.
12) Israel SHALL be called after Isaac’s sons (Gen. 21:12, Amos 7:16, Rom. 9:7).
Genesis 21:12 And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called [(I)saac’s sons – Saxons].
13) God SHALL make Israel’s NAME “Great”: GREAT BRITAIN.
Genesis 12:2 And I will make from thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy (seed’s) NAME “Great”F; and thou shalt be a blessing:
FThere is no other nation on Earth whose name is “Great” other than Great Britain.
Note: The word “British” is NOT an English word. It is Hebrew and means “the people of the Covenant”, i.e. the people Israel.
14) Jacob/Israel SHALL be exceedingly fruitful; in particular the sons of Joseph (Gen. 22:17, Gen. 26:4, Gen. 28:14, Gen. 35:10-11, Gen. 48:16-19, Gen. 49:22, Exod. 32:13, Num. 23:10, Deut. 1:10, Deut. 10:22, Deut. 28:22, Isa. 10:22, Isa. 13:10, Jer. 33:22, Hos. 1:10, Zech. 10:8).
15) Jacob/Israel SHALL spread abroad to the West, East, North and South – in that exact order (Gen. 28:14, Isa. 43:5-6)
Genesis 28:14 And thy seed shall be as “the dust of the earth”, and thou shalt spread abroad to the West (U.S.A.), and to the East (Australasia), and to the North (Canada and Scandinavia), and to the South (Africa): and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
16) Israel SHALL be sown in the earth (Hos. 2:23, Jer. 31:27, Zech. 10:9).
17) Israel SHALL be set apart by their ways, and be first among all nations (Deut. 14:2, Deut. 26:18-19, Deut. 33:17, 2 Sam. 7:23).
18) Israel SHALL be set over all the nations (Deut. 14:2, Ps. 147:19-20, Mic. 4:1-5, Mic. 7:16, Isa. 2:1-5, Isa. 43:1-4, Isa. 60:12, Jer. 1:10).
19) Israel SHALL reign over the nations, but be ruled over by none, during the years of their WITNESSING (Deut 15:6, Ezek. 29:14-16).
20) Israel SHALL lend to other nations, borrowing from noneG (Deut. 15:6, Deut. 28:12).
GFrom Rule Britannia: “Britons never, never, never shall be slaves”.
Unfortunately, Israel hasn’t kept The Covenant, and the people have become debt slaves again, this time to rich people from within their own country, likewise as prophesied (Deut. 28:43-46).
21) Israel SHALL continue as a nation FOREVER (2 Sam. 7:16, 24, 29, 1 Chron. 17:22-27, 2 Chron. 13:5, Isa. 9:7, Jer. 31:35-37, Luke 1:32-33).
Which is yet another obvious reason the counterfeit Jewish state of Israel in the Middle East cannot possibly be the true people Israel.
22) Israel SHALL dwell alone (Num. 23:9, Deut. 33:28).
23) Israel SHALL have a new home (2 Sam. 7:10, 1 Chron. 17:9).
The Hill of Tara (Torah), County Meath Ireland, where Jeremiah planted the tender twig, Teia Tephi.
2 Samuel 7:10 Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will PLANT them (Jer. 1:10)H, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime,
1 Chronicles 17:9 Also I will ordain a place for My people Israel, and will PLANT them (Ezek. 17:22-24), and they shall dwell in their place, and shall be moved no more; neither shall the children of wickedness waste them any more, as at the beginning,
HThe job of uprooting the Davidic Throne of Israel from Palestine, and planting it in its NEW HOME in the British Isles, was assigned to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 1:10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to PLANT.
24) Israel’s new home SHALL be a land of great agricultural wealth (Deut. 8:7-13, Deut. 33:13-15, Deut. 33:28).
25) Israel’s new home SHALL be a land of great mineral wealth (Deut. 33:15-19).
26) Israel’s new home SHALL be filled with the treasures of the Gentiles (Isa. 60:5, 16; 61:6).
27) Israel’s new home SHALL NOT be invaded by gentiles (2 Sam. 7:10, Isa. 41:11-14).
28) Israel’s new home SHALL be protected by God during the time of their WITNESSING (Num. 24:8, Isa. 54:15-17).
Numbers 24:8 God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce [them] through with his arrows (from Joseph/Ephraim – Gen. 49:24 – the Welsh and English bowmen were the most feared archers in Europe).
29) Israel’s new home SHALL be Northwest of Palestine (Isa. 49:12, Jer. 3:18).
30) Israel’s new home SHALL be in the “isles afar off” (Isa. 42:4, Isa. 42:10, Isa. 66:19, Jer. 31:10).
31) Israel SHALL live in islands and the coasts of the earth (Ps. 97:1, Isa. 24:15, Isa. 41:1-2, Isa. 49:1-5, Isa. 51:5, Jer. 31:7-10).
32) Israel SHALL become a great naval power and rule the seas (Num. 24:24, Deut. 33:19, 1 kings 9:26-27, Ps. 89:25, Isa. 24:14-16, Isa. 43:16, Isa. 60:5).
RULE Britannia! Britannia rule the waves…
33) Israel SHALL possess the sea gates of its enemies (Gen. 22:17).
Genesis 22:17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as “the stars of the heaven” (U.S.A.), and as “the sand which [is] upon the sea shore” (U.K. and the Commonwealth); and thy descendants shall possess the [sea] gates of their enemiesI:
INote: The sons of Joseph (Manasseh and Ephraim – the U.S. and the U.K.) have controlled every major sea gate on Earth, including, but not limited to: the Bering Strait, the Bosphorus Strait, the Cape of Good Hope, Cyprus, the Dardanelles, the Strait of Dover, the Falklands, the Florida Strait, the Strait of Gibraltar, Heligoland, Hong Kong, the Hudson Strait, the Strait of Malacca, Malta, the Panama Canal, the Philippines, and the Suez Canal.
34) Israel SHALL become wealthy by tradingJ (Deut. 8:9, 1 kings 9:26-28, Isa. 60:9).
JResearch Solomon’s navy and the British and Dutch East India companies.
35) Israel SHALL see the Gentiles diminished before them (Isa. 60:11-12, Jer. 46:28).
36) Israel SHALL colonize MANY nations (Gen. 17:4-6, 16, Gen. 35:10-11, Gen. 48:19, Gen. 49:22).
37) Israel SHALL colonize the Gentiles in the desolate places of the Earth (Deut. 32:10, Isa. 49:8, Isa. 54:3).
38) Israel SHALL lose a colony (the U.S.A.) before increasing to make room for others (Isa. 49:20).
39) Israel SHALL be given all of the land it needs throughout the world (Deut. 11:24, Deut. 32:8-9).
Deuteronomy 11:24 Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea (the Atlantic, initially and later the whole world) shall your coast be.
40) Israel SHALL have a new language – EnglishK (Isa. 28:11).
KNotes:
a) the most universal language in the world is the English language;
b) the English alphabet is derived from the Phoenician alphabet; and
c) the Phoenician alphabet is itself derived from the proto-Sinaitic Hebrew alphabet
41) Israel SHALL adopt a new religion (Christianity – Matt. 10:5-6, Matt. 15:24, Luke 1:77, Luke 2:32, John 11:49-52, Gal. 3:24, Heb. 8:6-12).
Most of the 10-tribed “House of Israel” and the 2-tribed “House of Judah” converted to Christianity, sadly with its incorporated Babylonian/Roman pagan practices, long ago.
42) Israel’s teachers/pastors/shepherds SHALL be “the blind leading the blind” (Isa. 42, Isa. 43:8, Jer. 23:1-6, Ezek. 34:1-10, 23, Matt. 15:14, Matt. 23:8-10, 1 Tim. 2:5, Heb. 8:6)
43) Israel SHALL adopt heathen practices and become enslaved by them (Deut. 28:68, Deut. 32:5, 1 Sam. 8:4-22, Ps. 89:30-32, Isa. 3:9-15, Isa. 42:18-25, Matt. 6:5-8, 1 Cor. 11:17-22).
44) Israel SHALL be described as “drunken” (Isa. 28:1-9, Thom. 2:14-16).
45) Israel SHALL forget her identity (Deut. 4:9, Hos 2:6-17, Hos. 4:6, Isa 42:16, Mal. 4:4, Romans 11:24-25).
Romans 11:24-25
11:24 For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural [branches], be grafted into their own olive tree (Zech. 4:11-14)?
11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness (as to their true identity) is happened to part of Israel (the ten “lost” tribes – the House of Israel), until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in (Dan. 12:7)L.
LOn 9 December 1917, British troops led by Gen. Allenby liberated Jerusalem after 1260 years of Gentile Turkish Edomite rule, exactly as prophesied that the British-Israel would do
46) Israel SHALL remain ignorant of her identity and special relationship with God until the time of the “Great Revealing” (Isa. 44:21, Jer. 30:4-9, Ezek. 39:7, Ezek. 39:22-28, Mal. 4:4-5, Matt. 24:27-34).
47) Israel SHALL NOT be known as “the Jews” (Matt. 21:43, Matt. 27:25, Rev. 2:9, Rev. 3:9)M.
MNote well (by omission): NOWHERE in Scripture is the ten-tribed “House of Israel” nor the twelve-tribed United Kingdom of Israel EVER referred to as “Jews”.
48) Israel SHALL be given a New Covenant (Isa. 49:8, Jer. 31:33-34, Dan. 9:27, Matt. 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20, 1 Cor. 11:25-26, Heb 8:8-13, Heb. 10:16-17).
49) Israel SHALL be a people glorifying in ChristN (Ps. 110, Isa. 9:6-10, Isa. 41:14-16, Luke 2:29-32, John 11:52, Acts 5:29-32, Rom. 11:26-27, 1 Pet. 2:5-9).
NWhich is why the English speaking nations of the world were also the first Christian nations of the world, starting with Britain, as confirmed by Vatican records.
50) Israel SHALL be the custodian of the oracles of GodO (Deut. 4:1-14, Ps. 147:19-20, Isa. 59:21, Rom. 3:2, Heb. 5:12, 1 Pet. 4:11).
Psalm 147:19-20
147:19 He showeth His Word unto Jacob, His Statutes and His Judgments unto Israel.
147:20 He hath not dealt so with any nation: and [as for His] Judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the “I AM”.
OFrom the British coronation oath, when presenting the Holy Bible to the monarch:
to keep your Majesty ever mindful of The Law and the Gospel of God (Deut. 17:14-20)
as the Rule for the whole life and government of Christian Princes,
we present you with this Book,
the most valuable thing that this world affords.
Here is Wisdom;
This is The Royal Law (James 2:8);
These are the lively Oracles of God.
51) Israel, specifically the two Sons of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh – Gen. 48:16), SHALL carry the Bible to the rest of the world, as God’s Two “Candlesticks” and TWO WITNESSES (Gen 28:14, Mic. 5:7, Isa. 42:10, Isa. 43:10-12, Isa. 43:21, Isa. 44:8, Zech. 4:11-14, Rev. 11:3-7).
52) Israel SHALL be given God’s Holy Spirit as well as His Word (Isa. 44:3, Isa. 59:21, Ezek. 39:29, Haggai 2:5, John 14:16-17).
53) Israel SHALL be described as a kingdom of purists; a holy nation to the Lord (Exod. 19:6, Deut. 7:6, Isa. 61:6, Isa. 62:12, Dan. 12:7, Heb. 6:10).
54) Israel SHALL be the binding tie of God’s Inheritance (those who DO God’s Will – Deut. 32:8-9, Ps. 74:2, Isa. 47:6, Jer. 10:16)
55) Israel SHALL serve as God’s heritage FOREVER (Deut. 4:20, 2 Sam. 7:23-24, 1 kings 8:51-53, Hos. 2:19-23, Joel 2:27, Mic. 7:14-18, Isa. 43:21, Isa. 54:5-10).
56) Through Israel SHALL God be glorified (Isa. 46:13, Isa. 48:9-11, Isa. 49:3, Isa. 60:1-2).
57) Israel SHALL be the refuge of the downtrodden; the liberator of the oppressedP (Lev. 19:18, Lev. 25:10, Deut. 10:18-19, Deut. 14:29, Deut. 24:14-15, Isa. 1:17, Isa. 58:6-7, Mark 12:31, James 2:8).
P“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free (Lev. 25:10),
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp (Ps. 119:105, Zech 4:2) beside the golden door (John 10:9).”
– from Emma Lazarus’ sonnet, New Colossus, in the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty
(parenthetical Biblical references added)
58) Israel SHALL be kind to the poor (Exod. 22:25, Exod. 23:6-11, Lev. 19:18, Deut. 15:1-11, Deut. 24:12-15, Isa. 5:8, Matt. 5:3, Mark 6:34-44).
59) Israel SHALL have her currency denominated according to the shekel of The SanctuaryQ (Lev. 27:25, Num. 3:47, Num. 18:16, Ezek. 45:12.
QTwenty gerahs to the shekel became twenty shillings to the pound. The shilling had twelve pennies – one for each tribe. Like the British jury has twelve people.
60) Israel SHALL be exalted among the Gentiles (Ps. 148:14, Isa. 60:3-5, Isa. 61:9).
61) Israel SHALL be a peculiar peopleR (Keltoi in Greek – Exod. 19:5, Deut. 7:6, Deut. 14:2, Deut. 26:18, Ps. 135:4, Titus 2:14, 1 Pet.2:9).
RThe word Celt is the Anglicised form of the Greek word Keltoi, which means “the people who are different.” In Scripture, all nations, except the Twelve Tribes of Israel, are referred to as Gentiles (Foreigners), so the only people who are different are the people Israel
62) Israel SHALL be defended by God against her enemies, during the years of their WITNESSING (Exod. 14:14, 25, Deut. 1:30, Deut. 3:22, Deut. 20:4, Isa. 30:32, Isa. 41:12-14, Isa. 49:25-26, Isa. 52:12).
63) Israel SHALL deliver Jerusalem from the Edomites during the last daysS (Dan. 12:7, Ezek. 25:14, Ezek. 36:1-14, Luke 21:24).
SOn 9 December 1917, British troops led by Gen. Allenby liberated Jerusalem after 1260 years of Gentile Turkish Edomite rule, exactly as prophesied, to the day, 2520 years in advance.
64) Israel SHALL be given the power to break to pieces the nations (Num. 23:24, Num. 24:8-9, Mic. 5:8, Isa. 41:15-16, Jer. 51:19-24, Dan. 2:44, Rev. 11:3-6).
65) Israel SHALL be given the power to devour their enemies and smite the Earth with all plagues as often as they will during the “days” (years) of their WITNESSING (Num. 23:24, Num. 24:8-9, Rev. 11:3-7).
66) Israel’s soldiers SHALL wear scarlet uniforms in the latter days (Nahum 2:3)
67) Israel SHALL bear the “seal” of God’s Protection: the Union JackT (Exod. 13:9, 16, Deut. 6:8, Deut. 11:18, Ezek. 9:4, 2 Cor. 1:22, Eph. 1:13, Eph. 4:30, 2 Tim. 2:19, Rev. 7:3, Rev. 27:1, Rev. 28:14).
TThe command, given to the angel to put on the foreheads of those to be saved was to “set a mark”, but the literal translation is “mark a mark”. In the Hebrew usage of that day, this mark would be a “tau”, the last letter of the alphabet and so, what in English is “Mark a mark” in Hebrew would be “Tau a tau”.
In the original Hebrew alphabet this letter “tau” appears as an upright cross + and, consequently, as the only possible way to “tau a tau”, or “cross a cross”, is to put one cross diagonally over the other, exactly as appears on the Union Jack [the Union of Jack(ob)/Israel – Gen. 49:10]. In ancient cuneiform, the crossed-cross was the symbol of heaven.
68) Israel SHALL be merciful and just to its enemies and strangers (Deut. 1:16, Deut. 10:18-19, Deut. 14:29, Deut. 23:7, Deut. 24:17, 1 kings 20:31, Matt. 5:7, Luke 6:27-28).
69) Israel SHALL pray towards JerusalemU (1 kings 8:29, 2 Chron. 6:20-21, 29).
UFrom the British coronation oath, the following anthem is used to greet the Monarch:
Psalm 122:1–3, 6, 7.
I was glad when they said unto me:
We will go into the house of the Lord.
Our feet shall stand in thy gates:
O Jerusalem.
Jerusalem is built as a city:
that is at unity in itself.
O pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
they shall prosper that love thee.
Peace be within thy walls:
and plenteousness within thy palaces.
70) Israel SHALL be God’s Covenant people (Isa. 42:6, Isa. 49:8-9, Isa. 61:8).
Isaiah 42:6-7
42:6 I the “I AM” have called thee in Righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a Covenant of the peopleV, for a Light to the Gentiles (Rev. 11:4);
42:7 To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from this prison [planet], [and] them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.
VNote: The word “British” is NOT an English word. It is Hebrew and means “Covenant people” or “the people of the Covenant”, i.e. the people Israel.
71) Israel SHALL be the nation appointed to bring glory to God (Isa. 41:8-16, Isa. 43:10, 21, Isa. 44:23, Isa. 49:3, Isa. 60:21).
72) Israel SHALL be established in God’s Righteousness (Isa. 45:24-25, Isa. 54:14, Matt.5:6, Matt. 13:43, 1 Cor. 6:9-10, Rev. 7:4-9).
73) Those that bless Israel SHALL be blessed, and those who curse her SHALL be cursedW (Gen. 12:3; Num 24:9).
WThis clearly does NOT refer to the counterfeit Jews, currently occupying the land of Israel in the Middle East, who have stolen both the land AND the name Israel through their fraudulent Rothschild sponsored and co-authored Balfour Declaration (Ezek. 11:15). Don’t be fooled by oxymoronic Christian Zionism (Rev. 2:9, Rev. 3:9).
74) Israel SHALL gradually be weakened, until her enemies overcome her (Dan. 12:7, Rev. 11:7, Rev. 13:7)
75) Israel SHALL be brought into captivity AGAIN, for not keeping The CovenantX (Deut. 28:68, Amos 9:14, Jer. 30:3, Ezek. 29:14-16, Ezek. 39:23-28).
XPlease note well that the UNCONDITIONAL promise made to Abraham, and the protection that Israel has enjoyed during the years of their witnessing, will SOON be taken away as a punishment for not keeping The Law, as the sons of Joseph – Ephraim (the U.K.) and Manasseh (the U.S.) will be defeated in WW3 (Rev. 11:7).
Ezekiel 29:14-16
29:14 And I will bring again the captivity of Egypt (Deut. 28:68, Amos 9:14, Jer. 30:3), and will cause them to return [into] the land of Pathros, into the land of their habitation; and they shall be there a base kingdom.
29:15 It shall be the basest of the kingdoms; neither shall it exalt itself any more above the nations: for I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.
29:16 And it shall be no more the confidence of the “House of Israel”, which bringeth [their] inequity to remembrance, when they shall look after them: but they shall know that I [am] the Lord “I AM”.
Ezekiel 39:23 And the heathen shall know that the “House of Israel” went into captivity (slavery) for their inequity: because they trespassed against Me, therefore hid I My face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword.
76) Israel SHALL be SPIRITUALLY awakened out of the “dust of the earth” (Gen. 13:16, Gen. 28:14, Num. 23:10, Dan. 12:2, 1 Cor. 15:51-52, Eph. 5:14).
77) A REMNANT of Israel SHALL receive the Spirit of Life from God after laying “dead” for three-and-a-half “days”, and be feared by those who see them (Gen. 48:16, Isa. 43:10-12, Ezek. 39:27-29, Rev. 11:11).
78) Israel SHALL be an unknown nation (Great Britain), and unknown nations (America, Ireland, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Northern France, Celtic Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Scandinavia and the Baltic states and Gibraltar), a REMNANT of which will be called out of their captivity by Shiloh/Christ during His Second Coming (Gen. 35:11, Gen. 49:10, Isa. 55:5).
79) A REMNANT of Israel SHALL be gathered by Shiloh/Christ, from among the nations (Gen. 49:10, Amos 9:9, Isa. 43:9, Jer. 31:10, Matt. 24:31).
80) A REMNANT of Israel SHALL be gathered from – among other places – Australia (Isa. 49:12)
81) A REMNANT of Israel SHALL be gathered to the Rock of Gibraltar, whre they will dwell with Christ as their King (Isa. 33:15-17).
82) A REMNANT of Israel SHALL learn to sing the “New Song” on the Rock of Gibraltar, by Christ their Teacher and King (Ps. 33:3,Ps. 40:3, Ps. 96:1, Ps. 98:1, Ps. 144:9, Ps. 149:1, Isa. 42:10, Rev. 5:9, Rev. 14:3, Rev. 15:3, Rev. 24:4).
83) A REMNANT of Israel, under Christ’s Rule, SHALL expand the Rock of Gibraltar beyond the frontier, into the El Campo area (Deut. 33:20-21).
84) A REMNANT of Israel SHALL learn to speak the truth from Christ their Teacher and King, which most on this planet cannot understand (Isa. 30:10, Isa. 33:19).
85) A REMNANT of Israel SHALL keep the Sabbath forever (Exod. 31:13-17, Isa. 58:13-14).
86) A REMNANT of Israel, which keeps the Commandments of God, SHALL fight with Christ against the kingdoms of this world, and SHALL prevail (Dan. 2:44-45, Rev. 12:17, Rev. 17:14).
87) A REMNANT of Israel SHALL punish and utterly destroy Edom in the last days (Ezek. 25:14, Obad. 1:17-18, Mal. 1:2-5, Mal.4:3, Rev. 3:9, Rev. 14:18-20).
88) A REMNANT of Israel SHALL be saved by God, through His Christ (Deut. 33:27-29, Hos. 2:23, Hos. 13:14, Hos. 14:4-6, Isa. 43:1-8, Isa. 49:25-26, Isa. 54:1-15, Jer. 46:27-28, Ezek. 34:23-24, Ezek. 37:15-27, Rev. 7:4-9.
89) A REMNANT of Israel SHALL be allowed to board New Jerusalem (Rev. 21).
90) The Monarchy of Israel SHALL pass from Judah to Joseph (Ephraim) during the Second Coming of Christ/Shiloh (Gen. 49:10, 22-26; see also Deut. 33:16-17).
91) The Pillar-Stone of Israel (Jacob’s Pillar), upon which the kings and queens of Israel are coronated, SHALL be removed during the latter days (Hos. 3:4-5), to prevent anyone other than Christ/Shiloh from being coronated on it during His Second Coming.
Hosea 3:4-5
3:4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without The Pillar-StoneY, and without an ephod, and [without] teraphim:
3:5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the “I AM” their God, and their Well-Beloved King (Christ); and shall fear the “I AM” and His goodness in the latter days.
YIn the wee morning hours of Christmas morning (clue) in 1950, the Lia Fail (the 458 lb. porphyry Stone of Destiny) was removed from Westminster Abbey by four Scottish Nationalists:- Kay Matheson, Ian Hamilton, Gavin Vernon and Alan Stuart, and taken back to Scotland, with the assistance of two new members of the team: Johnny Josselyn and Bill Craig.
Several months later, on 11 April 1951, a 336 lb. sandstone block that had been quarried from Quarrymill at Scone in Perthshire, was left in Arbroath Abbey. That fake stone was then taken to England, where Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Battenberg knowingly used it in her fraudulent coronation ceremony on 2 June 1953, to deceive the children of Israel (the British people).
Since Elizabeth 2 has never been crowned upon the real Lia Fail/Coronation Stone, she has not been officially crowned queen of Britain, and thus is NOT the lawful monarch in the eyes of God. She has therefore been pretending to be the monarch now for 66+ years.
The FAKE, 336 lb., Scottish Perthshire sandstone block is currently on display in Edinburgh Castle, where it has been since it was returned there from England in 1996.
The REAL 458 lb. Stone of Destiny, aka Jacob’s Pillar-Stone is still hidden somewhere in Scotland.
92) The FAKE monarch of Israel SHALL be dethroned and stripped of her crown and power during the latter days (Gen. 49:10, Ezek. 21:26-27).
Ezekiel 21:26-27
21:26 Thus saith the Lord “I AM”; Remove the diadem (sovereignty), and take off the crown: this [shall] not [be] the same: exalt [him that is] low (Line of Zarah), and abase [him that is] high (Line of Pharez).
21:27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no [more], [overturned] UNTIL he come whose Right it is; and I WILL GIVE IT [him – Shiloh (Gen. 49:10)].
93) God SHALL give Christ the Davidic Throne of Israel during the latter days (Mic. 4:1-5, Isa. 2:1-5, Isa. 9:7, Jer. 23:5, Ezek. 21:26-27, Luke 1:32-33).
Luke 1:32-33
1:32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of The Highest: and the Lord God his Father SHALL GIVE unto him the Throne of David:
1:33 And he shall reign over the “House of Jacob/Israel” for ever; and of his Kingdom there shall be no end.
94) A REMNANT of the “House of Israel” and of the “House of Judah” will be reunited and become ONE KINGDOM, with Christ as their KING, in the land upon the mountains of Israel (Ezek. 37:15-28).
95) A REMNANTZ of Israel SHALL be joint-heirs with Christ during His 1000-year reign here on Earth AFTER Judgment Day (Isa. 60:21, Rom. 8:16-17, Heb. 11:9).
Z144,000 (Rev. 7:4, Rev. 14:1-3, Rev. 23:12, Rev. 26:9).
In Conclusion
These 95 Scriptural “birth-marks” describing the true people Israel are being metaphorically nailed to every church door around the world, to wake-up the REMNANT of Israel that, according to God, deserves to be redeemed from the Earth.
Everyone else is, as Christ said 2000 years ago, “the blind being led by the blind”, which is to say they wouldn’t see this obvious and irrefutable truth, even if it was right before their eyes, which, of course, is exactly where this is for those reading it.
Further, in the second chapter of Daniel (excerpt below), we are given a prophetic description of the great kingdoms of the world that would arise after the Babylonian Empire: the Medo-Persian Empire under Cyrus, the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great, the Eastern and Western Roman Empires, AND one FINAL Empire that would destroy all of the others and continue FOREVER.
Daniel 2:26-45
2:26 The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name [was] Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?
2:27 Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise [men], the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, show unto the king;
2:28 But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;
2:29 As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came [into thy mind] upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and He that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.
2:30 But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for [any] wisdom that I have more than any one else, but for [their] sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.
2:31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness [was] excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof [was] terrible.
2:32 This image’s head [was] of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
2:33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay.
2:34 Thou sawest till that a Stone was cut out without hands (Ps. 118:22), which smote the image upon his feet [that were] of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces.
2:35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the “Stone” that smote the image became a great “mountain” (government), and FILLED THE WHOLE EARTH.
2:36 This [is] the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.
2:37 Thou, O king, [art] a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
2:38 And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath He given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou [art] this head of gold (the Babylonian Empire).
2:39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee (Cyrus and the Medo-Persian Empire), and another third kingdom of brass (Alexander the Great’s Greek Empire), which shall bear rule over all the earth.
2:40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron (the Roman Empire): forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all [things]: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.
2:41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided (into the Eastern and Western Roman Empires); but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.
2:42 And [as] the toes of the feet [were] part of iron, and part of clay (Rev. 13:1; 17:12), [so] the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.
2:43 And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.
2:44 And in the days of these kings (Rev. 17:12-14) shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and THE KINGDOM SHALL NOT BE LEFT TO OTHER PEOPLE, [but] it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.
2:45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that the “Stone” was cut out of the “mountain” without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream [is] certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.
2:46 Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.
Please note well that this final “Stone” KINGDOM was prophesied to be set up during the latter days by God, using His people Israel rather than another nation or people (like the previous empires). That way the Kingdom and its Crown and Throne can be GIVEN to Shiloh/Christ during His Second Coming.
There is only ONE Kingdom that has spanned the globe since the demise of the Roman Empire and that is “the empire on which the ‘sun’ never sets”: THE BRITISH EMPIRE.
Psalm 89:34-36
89:34 My Covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
89:35 Once have I sworn by My holiness that I will not lie unto David.
89:36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as “the sun” before me.
The British Empire is also the ONLY Empire which coronates its monarchs on a rough stone (2 kings 11:13-19) that originated from the Bethel area in Israel, where Jacob laid his head on it and had his famous and likewise prophetic dream, about the angels ascending and descending back and forth from Heaven to Earth during Christ’s 1000 year reign on Earth.
So the “Stone” has a two-fold meaning: it is referring to both the Stone of Destiny (aka the Lia Fail, Bethel Stone, Coronation Stone, Jacob’s Pillar/Pillow Stone), and also to CHRIST, Who is THE CHIEF CORNERSTONE (Gen. 49:24).
Matthew 21:42-43
21:42 Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The Stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes?
21:43 Therefore say I unto you, The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof (the “10 lost tribes” – the “House of Israel”).
The British Throne is also the only monarchy on Earth that has the Scriptural Marks of Israel, which is why they can trace their lineage back to king David, through Scotland, Ireland and Jerusalem, in fulfillment of God’s Promise to king David. The Ten “Lost” Tribes of Israel (the “House of Israel”) did temporarily forget their identity exactly as prophesied; but the line of David, of the “House of Judah” from which the British monarchy is descended, most certainly did NOT.
Jeremiah and Teia Tephi (Ezek. 17:22-24) in Ireland
The Ark of The Covenant in Ireland
It should also be self-evident that NONE of these 95 Scriptural “birth-marks” of the true people Israel fit the counterfeit Jews currently occupying the land of Israel in the Middle East. The fact that they call themselves “Jews” (Rev. 2:9, Rev. 3:9) as well as “Israelis” proves they know the overwhelming majority of them are NOT Israelites, nor even Semites*.
*At least 95% of the people who claim to be Jews today, are Ashkenazis, descended from Japheth’s grandson Ashkenaz, NOT from Sem/Shem or Jacob-Israel’s son Judah as clearly stated in Genesis. So they ARE Japhethites, NOT Semites.
Genesis 10:1-3
10:1 Now these [are] the generations of the sons of Noah, Shem (from which ALL Semites are descended), Ham, and Japheth: and unto them were sons born after the flood.
10:2 The sons of JAPHETH; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras.
10:3 And the sons of Gomer; ASHKENAZ, and Riphath, and Togarmah.
And now everyone else should know who TRUE Israel and FAKE Israel are too, if only they open their spiritual eyes (Eph. 5:14) and ears (Mark 12:29-31).
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is ONE “I AM”; there is only ONE Teacher (Matt. 23:10), ONE Mediator between God and men (1 Tim. 2:5), ONE High Priest (Heb. 6:20), and ONE Good Shepherd (John 10:11) leading His “Lost Sheep” on the ONE and ONLY Way home.
These facts are CERTAIN, and the statement thereof is SURE.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 21:29:16 GMT -5
Dr. Robert Culver on the Son's submission to the Father and the Kingdom of God...
The Final Future State Is the Kingdom of the Father
After speaking of the order of the resurrections in 1 Corinthians 15:22–24, Paul’s thought continues:
24 Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. 25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27 ‘For God has put all things in subjection under his feet.’ But when it says, ‘All things are put in subjection under him,’ it is plain that he is excepted who put all things under him. 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, that God may be everything to every one (1 Cor. 15:24–28 RSV).
The Son was aware, as he spoke in parting words to the disciples, that all power had been given Him in heaven and earth (Matt. 28:18), but He had yet to employ that power to clear the creation of death, ‘the last enemy.’ Such ultimate benefit had to await the Last Judgment when not only that unholy trinity—the beast, the false prophet and the devil (Rev. 20:7–10)—but every other unreconciled enemy has been disposed of, removed from God’s world. After that, creation shall take the form originally designed in God the Father’s eternal counsels, including those features which even evils, both material and moral, were designed to effect (see Eph. 1:9, 10). In that coming epoch creation will have been delivered from its present bondage to corruption into the liberty proper to it (Rom. 8:19, 20).
George E. Ladd well says in comment on Romans 8:19–23:
The final restoration includes the very material world.… While Paul does not develop this truth of the redemption of nature, there is a profound biblical theology underlying it. The redemption of the natural world from evil and decay is the corollary of the redemption of the body. The prophet constantly described the establishment of God’s kingdom in terms of a redeemed world (Isa. 11:6–9; 65:17–25); and the New Testament shares the same theology.
It is also apparent that the Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, shall within the created order of things take the subordinate position which is a mark of the essential Trinity. This passage seems to suggest that the subordination of the Son to the Father is to be affirmed not only of the economic (functional) Trinity but of the essential Trinity, what the Godhead is in and of itself. The final, eternal age to come is to be the time of the Father’s unmediated authority; the millennium of the Son’s unveiled and manifest authority and glory; the present is the time of the ‘Son’s veiled reign and hidden glory.’
-Robert Duncan Culver, Systematic Theology: Biblical and Historical (Ross-shire, UK: Mentor, 2005), 1154–1155.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 7, 2024 8:53:20 GMT -5
THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
Arthur W.Pink
CHAPTER NINE -- GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY AND PRAYER
"If we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us" (1 John 5:14).
THROUGHOUT this book it has been our chief aim to exalt the Creator and abase the creature. The well-nigh universal tendency now, is to magnify man and dishonor and degrade God. On every hand it will be found that, when spiritual things are under discussion, the human side and element is pressed and stressed, and the Divine side, if not altogether ignored, is relegated to the background. This holds true of very much of the modern teaching about prayer. In the great majority of the books written and in the sermons preached upon prayer the human element fills the scene almost entirely: it is the conditions which we must meet, the promises we must "claim," the things we must do in order to get our requests granted; and God's claims, God's rights, God's glory are disregarded.
As a fair example of what is being given out today we subjoin a brief editorial which appeared recently in one of the leading religious weeklies entitled "Prayer, or Fate?"
"God in His Sovereignty has ordained that human destinies may be changed and molded by the will of man. This is at the heart of the truth that prayer changes things, meaning that God changes things when men pray. Someone has strikingly expressed it this way: 'There are certain things that will happen in a man's life whether he prays or not. There are other things that will happen if he prays; and will not happen if he does not pray.' A Christian worker was impressed by these sentences as he entered a business office and he prayed that the Lord would open the way to speak to some one about Christ, reflecting that things would be changed because he prayed. Then his mind turned to other things and the prayer was forgotten. The opportunity came to speak to the business man upon whom he was calling, but he did not grasp it, and was on his way out when he remembered his prayer of a half hour before, and God's answer. He promptly returned and had a talk with the business man, who, though a church-member, had never in his life been asked whether he was saved. Let us give ourselves to prayer, and open the way for God to change things. Let us beware lest we become virtual fatalists by failing to exercise our God-given wills in praying."
The above illustrates what is being taught on the subject of prayer, and the deplorable thing is that scarcely a voice is lifted in protest. To say that "human destinies may be changed and molded by the will of man" is rank infidelity-that is the only proper term for it. Should any one challenge this classification, we would ask them whether they can find an infidel anywhere who would dissent from such a statement, and we are confident that such an one could not be found. To say that "God has ordained that human destinies may be changed and molded by the will of man" is absolutely untrue. "Human destiny" is settled not by the will of man, but by the will of God. That which determines human destiny is whether or not a man has been born again, for it is written, "Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." And as to whose will, whether God's or man's, is responsible for the new birth is settled, unequivocally, by John 1:13-"Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but OF GOD." To say that "human destiny" may be changed by the will of man is to make the creature's will supreme, and that is, virtually, to dethrone God. But what saith the Scriptures? Let the Book answer: "The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: He bringeth low, and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory" (1 Sam. 2:6-8).
Turning back to the Editorial here under review, we are next told, "This is at the heart of the truth that prayer changes things, meaning that God changes things when men pray." Almost everywhere we go today one comes across a motto-card bearing the inscription "Prayer Changes Things." As to what these words are designed to signify is evident from the current literature on prayer-we are to persuade God to change His purpose. Concerning this we shall have more to say below.
Again, the Editor tells us, "Some one has strikingly expressed it this way: 'There are certain things that will happen in a man's life whether he prays or not. There are other things that will happen if he prays, and will not happen if he does not pray.'" That things happen whether a man prays or not is exemplified daily in the lives of the unregenerate, most of whom never pray at all. That 'other things will happen if he prays' is in need of qualification. If a believer prays in faith and asks for those things which are according to God's will he will most certainly obtain that for which he has asked. Again, that other things will happen if he prays is also true in respect to the subjective benefits derived from prayer: God will become more real to him and His promises more precious. That other things 'will not happen if he does not pray' is true so far as his own life is concerned– a prayerless life means a life lived out of communion with God and all that is involved by this. But to affirm that God will not and cannot bring to pass His eternal purpose unless we pray is utterly erroneous, for the same God who has decreed the end has also decreed that His end shall be reached through His appointed means, and One of these is prayer. The God who has determined to grant a blessing also gives a spirit of supplication which first seeks the blessing.
The example cited in the above Editorial of the Christian worker and the business man is a very unhappy one to say the least, for according to the terms of the illustration the Christian worker's prayer was not answered by God at all, inasmuch as, apparently, the way was not opened to speak to the business man about his soul. But on leaving the office and recalling his prayer the Christian worker (perhaps in the energy of the flesh) determined to answer the prayer for himself, and instead of leaving the Lord to "open the way" for him, took matters into his own hand.
We quote next from one of the latest books issued on Prayer. In it the author says, "The possibilities and necessity of prayer, its power and results, are manifested in arresting and changing the purposes of God and in relieving the stroke of His power." Such an assertion as this is a horrible reflection upon the character of the Most High God, who "doeth according to His will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?" (Dan. 4: 35). There is no need whatever for God to change His designs or alter His purpose for the all-sufficient reason that these were framed under the influence of perfect goodness and unerring wisdom. Men may have occasion to alter their purposes, for in their short-sightedness they are frequently unable to anticipate what may arise after their plans are formed. But not so with God, for He knows the end from the beginning. To affirm God changes His purpose is either to impugn His goodness or to deny His eternal wisdom.
In the same book we are told, "The prayers of God's saints are the capital stock in Heaven by which Christ carries on His great work upon earth. The great throes and mighty convulsions on earth are the results of these prayers. Earth is changed, revolutionized, angels move on more powerful, more rapid wing, and God's policy is shaped as the prayers are more numerous, more efficient." If possible, this is even worse, and we have no hesitation in denominating it as blasphemy. In the first place, it flatly denies Ephesians 3:11 which speaks of God's having an "eternal purpose." If God's purpose is an eternal one then His "policy" is not being "shaped" today. In the second place, it contradicts Ephesians 1:11 which expressly declares that God "worketh all things after the counsel of His own will," therefore it follows that, "God's policy" is not being "shaped" by man's prayers. In the third place, such a statement as the above makes the will of the creature supreme, for if our prayers shape God's policy then is the Most High subordinate to worms of the earth. Well might the Holy Spirit ask through the Apostle, "For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His counsellor?" (Rom. 11:34).
Such thoughts on prayer as we have been citing are due to low and inadequate conceptions of God Himself. It ought to be apparent that there could be little or no comfort in praying to a God that was like the chameleon, which changes its color every day. What encouragement is there to lift up our hearts to One who is in one mind yesterday and another today? What would be the use of petitioning an earthly monarch if we knew he was so mutable as to grant a petition one day and deny it another? Is it not the very unchangeableness of God which is our greatest encouragement to pray? It is because He is "without variableness or shadow of turning" we are assured that if we ask anything according to His will we are most certain of being heard. Well did Luther remark, "Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of His willingness."
And this leads us to offer a few remarks concerning the design of prayer. Why has God appointed that we should pray? The vast majority of people would reply, In order that we may obtain from God the things which we need. While this is one of the purposes of prayer it is by no means the chief one. Moreover, it considers prayer only from the human side, and prayer sadly needs to be viewed from the Divine side. Let us look, then, at some of the reasons why God has bidden us to pray.
First and foremost, prayer has been appointed that the Lord God Himself should be honored. God requires we should recognize that He is, indeed, "the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity" (Isa. 57:15). God requires that we shall own His universal dominion: in petitioning God for rain Elijah did but confess His control over the elements; in praying to God to deliver a poor sinner from the wrath to come we acknowledge that "salvation is of the LORD" (Jonah 2:9); in supplicating His blessing on the Gospel unto the uttermost parts of the earth we declare His rulership over the whole world.
Again; God requires that we shall worship Him, and prayer, real prayer, is an act of worship. Prayer is an act of worship inasmuch as it is the prostrating of the soul before Him; inasmuch as it is a calling upon His great and holy name; inasmuch as it is the owning of His goodness, His power, His immutability, His grace, and inasmuch as it is the recognition of His Sovereignty, owned by a submission to His will. It is highly significant to notice in this connection that the Temple wasn't termed by Christ the House of Sacrifice, but instead, the House of Prayer.
Again; prayer redounds to God's glory, for in prayer we do but acknowledge dependency upon Him. When we humbly supplicate the Divine Being we cast ourselves upon His power and mercy. In seeking blessings from God we own that He is the Author and Fountain of every good and perfect gift. That prayer brings glory to God is further seen from the fact that prayer calls faith into exercise, and nothing from us is so honoring and pleasing to Him as the confidence of our hearts.
In the second place, prayer is appointed by God for our spiritual blessing, as a means for our growth in grace. When seeking to learn the design of prayer, this should ever occupy us before we regard prayer as a means for obtaining the supply of our need. Prayer is designed by God for our humbling. Prayer, real prayer, is a coming into the Presence of God, and a sense of His awful majesty produces a realization of our nothingness and unworthiness. Again; prayer is designed by God for the exercise of our faith. Faith is begotten in the Word (Rom. 10:8), but it is exercised in prayer; hence, we read of "the prayer of faith." Again; prayer calls love into action. Concerning the hypocrite the question is asked, "Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call upon God?" (Job 27:10). But they that love the Lord cannot be long away from Him, for they delight in unburdening themselves to Him. Not only does prayer call love into action but through the direct answers vouchsafed to our prayers our love to God is increased-"I love the LORD, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications" (Psa. 116:1). Again; prayer is designed by God to teach us the value of the blessings we have sought from Him, and it causes us to rejoice the more when He has bestowed upon us that for which we supplicate Him.
Third, prayer is appointed by God for our seeking from Him the things which we are in need of. But here a difficulty may present itself to those who have read carefully the previous chapters of this book. If God has foreordained, before the foundation of the world, everything which happens in time, what is the use of prayer? If it is true that "of Him and through Him and to Him are all things" (Rom. 11:30), then why pray? Ere replying directly to these queries it should be pointed out how that there is just as much reason to ask, What is the use of me coming to God and telling Him what He already knows?
Wherein is the use of me spreading before Him my need, seeing He is already acquainted with it? as there is to object, What is the use of praying for anything when everything has been ordained beforehand by God? Prayer is not for the purpose of informing God, as if He were ignorant (the Saviour expressly declared "for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him"-Matt. 6:8), but it is to acknowledge He does know what we are in need of. Prayer is not appointed for the furnishing of God with the knowledge of what we need, but is designed as a confession to Him of our sense of need. In this, as in everything, God's thoughts are not as ours. God requires that His gifts should be sought for. He designs to be honored by our asking, just as He is to be thanked by us after He has bestowed His blessing.
However, the question still returns on us, If God be the Predestinator of everything that comes to pass, and the Regulator of all events, then is not prayer a profitless exercise? A sufficient answer to these questions is that God bids us to pray, "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17). And again, "men ought always to pray" (Luke 18:1). And further: Scripture declares that "the prayer of faith shall save the sick," and "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (James 5:15, 16); while the Lord Jesus Christ, our perfect Example in all things, was preeminently a Man of Prayer. Thus, it is evident, that prayer is neither meaningless nor valueless. But still this does not remove the difficulty nor answer the question with which we started out. What then is the relationship between God's Sovereignty and Christian prayer?
First of all, we would say with emphasis, that prayer is not intended to change God's purpose, nor is it to move Him to form fresh purposes. God has decreed that certain events shall come to pass through the means He has appointed for their accomplishment. God has elected certain ones to be saved, but He has also decreed that these shall be saved through the preaching of the Gospel. The Gospel, then, is one of the appointed means for the working out of the eternal counsel of the Lord; and prayer is another. God has decreed the means as well as the end, and among the means is prayer. Even the prayers of His people are included in His eternal decrees. Therefore, instead of prayers being in vain they are among the means through which God exercises His decrees. "If indeed all things happen by a blind chance, or a fatal necessity prayers in that case could be of no moral efficacy, and of no use; but since they are regulated by the direction of Divine wisdom, prayers have a place in the order of events" (Haldane).
That prayers for the execution of the very things decreed by God are not meaningless is clearly taught in the Scriptures. Elijah knew that God was about to give rain, but that did not prevent him from at once betaking himself to prayer (James 5:17, 18). Daniel "understood" by the writings of the prophets that the captivity was to last but seventy years, yet when these seventy years were almost ended we are told that he set his face "unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes" (Dan. 9:2, 3). God told the prophet Jeremiah "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end"; but instead of adding, there is, therefore, no need for you to supplicate Me for these things, He said, "Then shall ye call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you" (Jer. 29:11, 12).
Here then is the design of prayer: not that God's will may be altered, but that it may be accomplished in His own good time and way. It is because God has promised certain things that we can ask for them with the full assurance of faith. It is God's purpose that His will shall be brought about by His own appointed means, and that He may do His people good upon His own terms, and that is, by the 'means' and 'terms' of entreaty and supplication. Did not the Son of God know for certain that after His death and resurrection He would be exalted by the Father. Assuredly He did. Yet we find Him asking for this very thing: "O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine Own Self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was" (John 17:5)! Did not He know that none of His people could perish? yet He besought the Father to "keep" them (John 17:11)!
Finally, it should be said that God's will is immutable, and cannot be altered by our cryings. When the mind of God is not toward a people to do them good, it cannot be turned to them by the most fervent and importunate prayer of those who have the greatest interest in Him: "Then said the LORD unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before Me, yet My mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth" (Jer. 15:1). The prayers of Moses to enter the promised land is a parallel case.
Our views respecting prayer need to be revised and brought into harmony with the teaching of Scripture on the subject. The prevailing idea seems to be that I come to God and ask Him for something that I want, and that I expect Him to give me that which I have asked. But this is a most dishonoring and degrading conception. The popular belief reduces God to a servant, our servant: doing our bidding, performing our pleasure, granting our desires. No; prayer is a coming to God, telling Him my need, committing my way unto the Lord, and leaving Him to deal with it as seemeth Him best. This makes my will subject to His, instead of, as in the former case, seeking to bring His will into subjection to mine. No prayer is pleasing to God unless the spirit actuating it is "not my will, but Thine be done." "When God bestows blessings on a praying people, it is not for the sake of their prayers, as if He was inclined and turned by them; but it is for His own sake, and of His own Sovereign will and pleasure. Should it be said, to what purpose then is prayer? it is answered, This is the way and means God has appointed for the communication of the blessing of His goodness to His people. For though He has purposed, provided, and promised them, yet He will be sought unto, to give them, and it is a duty and privilege to ask. When they are blessed with a spirit of prayer it forebodes well, and looks as if God intended to bestow the good things asked, which should be asked always with submission to the will of God, saying, Not my will but Thine be done" (John Gill).
The distinction just noted above is of great practical importance for our peace of heart. Perhaps the one thing that exercises Christians as much as anything else is that of unanswered prayers. They have asked God for something: so far as they are able to judge they have asked in faith believing they would receive that for which they had supplicated the Lord: and they have asked earnestly and repeatedly, but the answer has not come. The result is that, in many cases, faith in the efficacy of prayer becomes weakened, until hope gives way to despair and the closet is altogether neglected. Is it not so?
Now will it surprise our readers when we say that every real prayer of faith that has ever been offered to God has been answered? Yet we unhesitatingly affirm it. But in saying this we must refer back to our definition of prayer. Let us repeat it. Prayer is a coming to God, telling Him my need (or the need of others), committing my way unto the Lord, and then leaving Him to deal with the case as seemeth Him best. This leaves God to answer the prayer in whatever way He sees fit, and often, His answer may be the very opposite of what would be most acceptable to the flesh; yet, if we have really LEFT our need in His hands it will be His answer, nevertheless. Let us look at two examples.
In John 11 we read of the sickness of Lazarus. The Lord "loved" him, but He was absent from Bethany. The sisters sent a messenger unto the Lord acquainting Him of their brother's condition. And note particularly how their appeal was worded-"Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick." That was all. They did not ask Him to heal Lazarus. They did not request Him to hasten at once to Bethany. They simply spread their need before Him, committed the case into His hands, and left Him to act as He deemed best! And what was our Lord's reply? Did He respond to their appeal and answer their mute request? Certainly He did, though not, perhaps, in the way they had hoped. He answered by abiding "two days still in the same place where He was" (John 11:6), and allowing Lazarus to die! But in this instance that was not all. Later, He journeyed to Bethany and raised Lazarus from the dead. Our purpose in referring here to this case is to illustrate the proper attitude for the believer to take before God in the hour of need. The next example will emphasize rather, God's method of responding to His needy child.
Turn to 2 Corinthians 12. The Apostle Paul had been accorded an unheard-of privilege. He had been transported into Paradise. His ears had listened to and his eyes had gazed upon that which no other mortal had heard or seen this side of death. The wondrous revelation was more than the Apostle could endure. He was in danger of becoming "puffed up" by his extraordinary experience. Therefore, a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, was sent to buffet him lest he be exalted above measure. And the Apostle spreads his need before the Lord; he thrice beseeches Him that this thorn in the flesh should be removed. Was his prayer answered? Assuredly, though not in the manner he had desired. The "thorn" was not removed but grace was given to bear it. The burden was not lifted but strength was vouchsafed to carry it.
Does someone object that it is our privilege to do more than spread our need before God? Are we reminded that God has, as it were, given us a blank check and invited us to fill it in? Is it said that the promises of God are all-inclusive, and that we may ask God for what we will? If so, we must call attention to the fact that it is necessary to compare Scripture with Scripture if we are to learn the full mind of God on any subject, and that as this is done we discover God has qualified the promises given to praying souls by saying "If ye ask anything according to His will He heareth us" (1 John 5:14). Real prayer is communion with God so that there will be common thoughts between His mind and ours. What is needed is for Him to fill our hearts with His thoughts and then His desires will become our desires flowing back to Him. Here then is the meeting-place between God's Sovereignty and Christian prayer: If we ask anything according to His will He heareth us, and if we do not so ask He does not hear us; as saith the Apostle James, "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts" or desires (4:3).
But did not the Lord Jesus tell His disciples, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you" (John 16:23)? He did; but this promise does not give praying souls carte blanche. These words of our Lord are in perfect accord with those of the Apostle John: "If ye ask anything according to His will He heareth us." What is it to ask "in the name of Christ"? Surely it is very much more than a prayer formula, the mere concluding of our supplications with the words "in the name of Christ." To apply to God for anything in the name of Christ, it must needs be in keeping with what Christ is! To ask God in the name of Christ is as though Christ Himself were the suppliant. We can only ask God for what Christ would ask. To ask in the name of Christ is therefore to set aside our own wills, accepting God's!
Let us now amplify our definition of prayer. What is prayer? Prayer is not so much an act as it is an attitude–an attitude of dependency, dependency upon God. Prayer is a confession of creature weakness, yea, of helplessness. Prayer is the acknowledgment of our need and the spreading of it before God. We do not say that this is all there is in prayer, it is not: but it is the essential, the primary element in prayer. We freely admit that we are quite unable to give a complete definition of prayer within the compass of a brief sentence, or in any number of words. Prayer is both an attitude and an act, an human act, and yet there is the Divine element in it too, and it is this which makes an exhaustive analysis impossible as well as impious to attempt. But admitting this, we do insist again that prayer is fundamentally an attitude of dependency upon God. Therefore, prayer is the very opposite of dictating to God. Because prayer is an attitude of dependency, the one who really prays is submissive, submissive to the Divine will; and submission to the Divine will means that we are content for the Lord to supply our need according to the dictates of His own Sovereign pleasure. And hence it is that we say every prayer that is offered to God in this spirit is sure of meeting with an answer or response from Him.
Here then is the reply to our opening question, and the scriptural solution to the seeming difficulty. Prayer is not the requesting of God to alter His purpose or for Him to form a new one. Prayer is the taking of an attitude of dependency upon God, the spreading of our need before Him, the asking for those things which are in accordance with His will, and therefore there is nothing whatever inconsistent between Divine Sovereignty and Christian prayer.
In closing this chapter we would utter a word of caution to safeguard the reader against drawing a false conclusion from what has been said. We have not here sought to epitomize the whole teaching of Scripture on the subject of prayer, nor have we even attempted to discuss in general the problem of prayer; instead, we have confined ourselves, more or less, to a consideration of the relationship between God's Sovereignty and Christian prayer. What we have written is intended chiefly as a protest against much of the modern teaching, which so stresses the human element in prayer that the Divine side is almost entirely lost sight of.
In Jeremiah 10:23 we are told "It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (cf. Prov. 16:9); and yet in many of his prayers man impulse presumes to direct the Lord as to His way, and as to what He ought to do: even implying that if only he had the direction of the affairs of the world and of the church he would soon have things very different from what they are. This cannot be denied: for anyone with any spiritual discernment at all could not fail to detect this spirit in many of our modern prayer-meetings where the flesh holds sway. How slow we all are to learn the lesson that the haughty creature needs to be brought down to his knees and humbled into the dust. And this is where the very act of prayer is intended to put us. But man (in his usual perversity) turns the footstool into a throne from whence he would fain direct the Almighty as to what He ought to do! giving the onlooker the impression that if God had half the compassion that those who pray (?) have, all would quickly be right! Such is the arrogance of the old nature even in a child of God.
Our main purpose in this chapter has been to emphasize the need for submitting, in prayer, our wills to God's. But it must also be added that prayer is much more than a pious exercise, and far otherwise than a mechanical performance. Prayer is, indeed, a Divinely appointed means whereby we may obtain from God the things we ask, providing we ask for those things which are in accord with His will. These pages will have been penned in vain unless they lead both writer and reader to cry with a deeper earnestness than heretofore, "Lord, teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1).
–ARTHUR W. PINK
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 7, 2024 14:13:15 GMT -5
Revelation 14:11
Rev. Carl Haak
Can you conceive of a more sobering truth than hell?
The Bible teaches that hell is everlasting torment of body and soul in the lake of fire which is prepared for the devil and all who do not repent. There are many who say that the judgment of hell, of everlasting penalty for sin, is so enormous, so horrible a thought, that they could not conceive of a God who is capable of inflicting such a punishment. There are many who say, "My God would never send a soul to the eternal torment of hell."
Those who speak so do not know the reality of sin, of how enormous an evil sin is in God's holy judgment. Those who speak so do not know God, do not know God in His essential attribute of pure holiness. You see, it is not the doctrine of hell that is the point at issue. It is the truth of God's holy being and the nature of sin which is at issue. Always the truth at issue is: Who is God? What is God? Always the point at issue is: Who is man, what is man, what is sin? And the Bible is straightforward and true on those issues. God is the Holy One. He is pure, perfect, and infinitely good. And man? Man, of himself is a sinner. And sin is an infinite offense against the holy God which truly deserves everlasting destruction. The Bible is straightforward to tell you the truth. Why is hell a reality? Why is there a lake of eternal burning to which impenitent sinners go? Because of the holiness and justice of God! Because sin is enormous and is committed against God. Because of the true nature of sin and the nature of an impenitent sinner. Get hold of this truth: the basic issue revealed in the Bible is not man's welfare, man's happiness, and man's rights. But the basic issue revealed in the Bible is God, and His glory. The holiness of God and the awfulness of uncovered sin call for the eternal curse of God in the fires of hell.
Jesus taught this. He said, in Matthew 25:41 , that in the last day, the day of judgment, He shall say unto impenitent sinners: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." That is what the Son of man, when He comes in all of His glory, is going to say. When He sits upon the throne of judgment and impenitent sinners stand before Him, Jesus Christ, the real Jesus Christ, is going to say to impenitent sinners: "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
Hell is to be separated from God. The impenitent and hard-hearted sinner gets exactly what he wants: banishment from God. That is the loss which the damned have.
When Jesus said that hell is to be separated from God, the idea is not that hell is the place where God is not. Psalm 139 says, "If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there." But Jesus meant that hell is to be deprived of the glorious enjoyment of God and to have nothing but one wave after another of His wrath to roll over the sinner. It is to have God's heart alienated from him, to be hated of a holy God. It is to taste, in the very center of the soul, divine vengeance against sin.
God is good. That is what Jesus said in Matthew 19 . There is none who is comparable to Him. There is nothing that can make up for God. Psalm 73 : Having Thee on earth, there is naught, there is nothing that I could yet desire. If you have God you have everything (the true God, that is). You may be cast off by man, your way may be very lonely. You may be distressed and filled with trial. But if you have God, you can sing and say, "I walk with Him and make His word my guide." But to be separated from the living God, from the blessed and good One? To receive His burning anger? Hosea 9:12 says, "Woe also to them when I depart from them." All peace is removed, all joy. There is unmixed sorrow. It is to be filled with horror and the anger of a holy God against you. What a horrible thing! When the creature made by the hand of God is separated from God, then only despair can seize that soul. That is why hell is called, in the Bible, "outer darkness."
Be afraid of living in any sense separated from God. Do not make friends who will draw you away from your God. Do not reach out for the job, money, promotion which you know is going to put distance between you and your God, which is going to force you to compromise on your Sabbath observance and the attendance of God's house on the Lord's day. Do not put up walls of separation between yourself and your God by continuing in a sinful course, by willfully deceiving yourself, telling yourself lies that your sin is only for a little time and then you will put it away. Repent! Put it away! Tremble at the thought of distance between yourself and your God.
We can be so concerned at losing things, worldly things, losing this friend, losing this possession, losing this money, losing this business account. But think of His Words: What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Think of the Words: Depart from me, ye cursed. Then all those things a man sought to substitute for God are gone. The covetous person's money is gone. He cannot have that in hell to soothe him. The drunkard's bottle is gone, the fornicator's bed, the philosopher's wisdom. There is nothing left. Everything has vanished. And they are alone forever with the holy hatred of God whom they have offended.
Jesus said that to be cast into hell is to be cast into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. "Depart from me, ye cursed," He says, "into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels."
I will not go into the question as to what kind of fire that is. The Bible uses stark language, repeatedly speaking of fire, of the fire that is not quenched, it is not put out; of the fire that burns with brimstone, intense, heated fire; of a lake of fire, an immensity of fire in which a soul will swim. Fire is the most horrible pain that we know.
What pleasure, what possession, what lust of your flesh, what amount of money could I offer you right now which would induce you to hold your hand over a lit candle, over a flame of a candle for one minute as it burned your flesh? What could I give you so that you would be induced to do that? Would you do that for all the wealth of the world? Would you? What pleasures of sin, what gratification of the flesh, what earthly possession, what honor is worth an eternity in hell? Do you see the folly of sin? Hell contains greater torments than anything found on earth.
When the Bible tells us about heaven it speaks to us of heaven as a city with gates of pearl and streets of gold. And we know that when the Bible speaks in those terms it is presenting heaven as being more excellent than the finest and most precious things in the world. When Jesus speaks of hell-fire, we must understand by it something more vehement, more tormenting than any fire ever seen by human eyes on earth. Heaven is represented as a treasure, as paradise, as a feast, as rest. And we know that the Bible is saying that words are not sufficient to express what God has in store for those who love Him. Even so, the torments of hell, represented in the idea of fire, a lake of fire burning with brimstone, those ideas are not sufficient to express the dread of falling into the hands of God as an impenitent sinner apart from Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And, understand, weeping and gnashing of teeth without repentance towards God. Revelation 16:21 reads: "And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, and men blasphemed God because of the hail." Their conscience will condemn them, but they will not repent. There is no repentance in hell.
What an awful punishment. Whose damnation, the Bible says, is just. It is everlasting fire in the company of the devil and his angels. That is dreadful, everlasting, no period to it, no stop, without intermission, without an end. We cannot conceive of that without horror. That is the evil of sin. The pleasures of sin are bought at a costly price. Brief moments of pleasure bring down eternal misery. That is the stark truth taught in the Bible. That is what sin is. Remind yourself of it. Sin is not a little thing. Sin is something so horrendous that it deserves everlasting punishment which only God's Son can take away for us. What hatred God has for sin. How severe is His punishment. And, remember, God does not punish more than justice requires. Flee to Christ. In Jesus Christ you see sin as an ugly and vile thing.
Then, to be with the devil and his angels. What a horrible company! Revelation 20:10 , "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever." In hell one is bound up with the devil; with the lion who seeks to destroy; with the serpent who hisses and spits his venom into a person's face.
What a glorious thing it is for a Christian to have the company of the saints and Jesus Christ and the angels. What a terrible thing it must be to have nothing but the company of the wicked, of the devil, and his demons. Will you join yourself to those who worship the devil? Will you follow the way of those who follow the devil? Join yourself to those who call upon the name of Jesus Christ. Follow them in faith and holiness.
Flee the everlasting fire.
Do you tremble? Do you tremble because you take God's Word seriously? Do you tremble because you know yourself as a sinner? Do you tremble because you say, "It is true. I violated God's law. I deserve such a death." This then is the testimony of God, the testimony of God to those who, by His grace, touched by His Spirit in their hearts to know their sins, this testimony comes now to them: Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not your works can deliver you. Not your ability to merit deliverance. Believe the free gift of God. Trust in Christ as the only One who can take the hell-coals away from you. Jesus Christ was sent of God to bind up the eternal hell deserved by His own elect, to hold that hell in His hands, and then to extinguish it by pressing it into His own bosom upon the cross and dousing the flames with His blood. Trust in His righteousness. Follow Him in this world. Go to Him for strength for repentance and holiness. As great as the horror of hell is, and as strong as the trembling can be in us over it, so the grace of God is greater to His people, Romans 8:1 , "There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus." Did you hear that, believer? There is no condemnation to you in Christ Jesus. Jesus has taken away our eternal hell.
You might remember that John the Baptist, in Matthew 3 and Luke 3 , cried out to his audience, "Flee the wrath to come." In part he was speaking to Pharisees. Those Pharisees did not believe that they had to flee. They said to John, "What are you talking about? We are the children of Abraham. We are righteous. Hell is deserved by other people, not by us." Oh, the blindness of self-righteousness. Let the Word of God tear those blinders from our eyes and prick our hearts. No, you are not righteous of yourself! No, you cannot remove your sin. Sin is an infinite thing. It is an infinite wrong against God. Sin is so heavy, so lasting in its vileness, that nothing can remove it. Your suffering for it eternally in hell cannot remove it. Only God's mercy can remove it. The offended God must bring my sin to an end. He must kill it. My death must die in Jesus, and, praise be God, it did. For the Bible tells me that mercy awoke, meeting justice at the cross, that righteousness and peace have embraced, that they stand in full accord. God has shown mercy in the way of perfect justice. In mercy He has given His Son. In justice, His Son bore in the place of His elect their eternal hell. There is no condemnation for them in Jesus Christ.
Now the word is: flee! "Get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city," said the angels to Lot when they came to take him out of Sodom. "Do not look back." The angels took him by his hand and led him out. In Revelation, chapter 18, there is this Word of God to you: "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins." Press towards Christ. Your time is very short. Are you going to go on in the way of that sin? Will you for sixty or seventy years live simply to pile up wealth and possessions as being the end-all, and let your soul be poor? Will you come to lust and to greed and say, "Satisfy me, be my portion in this life?" Will you entertain hatred and unforgiveness in your heart? You, you who have been forgiven so great a debt? You who frankly could never pay what you owed? Is sin in your life, that pet sin, that ensnares and enslaves you? Is it that important? Is it that satisfying? Is it worth it? And are the difficulties of faith in Jesus Christ and of confessing His name so great? Repentance and forsaking sinful friends, standing up for the Lord-is that so hard, in the light of what He has done for you?
Eternal life! We must have it. There will be time enough to rest when we reach the other shore and sit down under the tree of life. Right now the time is short. For the child of God, the Bible says, there is a race to run. There is a fight to be fought. There is a Christ to confess. There are sins to be battled. Flee!
There is one argument that unbelief makes against the truth of hell, an argument that has cut me to the very bottom of my soul. It is not the argument that I already referred to, that "your God is so evil to do that. My God would never do that." That argument does not move me. Anyone who would so argue does not know God in His holiness. And, very frankly, they do not know the reality of what their sin is. They are blinded to the horror of their own sin. Yes, sin deserves exactly that: eternal hell.
That is not the argument that moves me. There is another argument that hurts. It is put this way: "If it is true that hell awaits the impenitent sinner and burns with a fire which will never be put out, and you believe that, then why do you live as if it is not so? Why do you not warn your neighbor? Why are you so careless about your sins as if, after all, they are of no consequence? Is hell real? We cannot tell from your life that hell is a reality." Do not let that be said about you, child of God.
Flee to Christ in faith and holiness. Escape the everlasting fire.
Let us pray.
Our Father in heaven, we praise Thy name for the great deliverance in Jesus Christ. Wilt Thou ever humble us and wilt Thou ever give to us that amazing and wonderful comfort that we are delivered. We shall not see death, but we shall live and praise the Lord. Amen.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 7, 2024 19:34:52 GMT -5
THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
"Biblical Manhood"
Rev. Carl Haak
Dear radio friends,
Covenant, godly living. Do those words accurately describe your life?
What is covenant, godly living? The truth of the covenant is that truth, from the beginning to the end of the Bible, of the bond of fellowship with God in Jesus Christ. Godly living, that is, the covenant, is not merely an outward form of religion. It is not merely to play religion. But it comes forth from the grace of God in our hearts.
Covenant, godly living, that is, the friendship of God and living a godly life, reaches down to every area of our life and, therefore, must control our marriage, the rearing of our children, and our own individual walk of life. Now, do you live a covenant, godly life?
You ask, "But what is the heart of a covenant, godly life?" We sought to answer that last time. In the book of Genesis, chapter 17, verse 1, where God appeared to Abram, we found the very heart of a covenant, godly life. It is a profound, shattering knowledge that God is almighty God to me, and it is a commitment that every part of my life shall be lived for God's eyes.
We would like to continue our series by fleshing this truth out a bit. We begin by applying it to ourselves as men.
We ask the question today, "What is covenant, godly living for a believing man?" We ask even a more basic question: What is a man? What is biblical manhood? "Be a man," we are told from our little days. What is it to be a man? Is it some macho thing - iron-bodied, chiseled jaw, dark, wavy hair? Is it to know how to handle a woman? If you look around in the world for your definition of a man, you will end up being a self-inflated brute.
What does God say a man is?
I'd like to answer that question by following an old adage that one picture is worth a thousand words. So, I'd like to look at the picture of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, who was zealous for the Lord's sake. Phinehas' story is found in Numbers 25:10-13. We will take our message from that passage today. Open your Bibles to Numbers 25:10-13 and read that passage.
The heart of biblical manhood is to live out of a zeal for God. Phinehas is the example. Do not say that he is an unattainable ideal. Do not say, "But now wait a minute, that comes from the Old Testament. But we live in a different age than way back then. We live in a day of open sex and different influences and powers. You can't expect us to live the way he did. Besides, don't you believe that we are saved by grace, so our life really doesn't matter?" No, no, do not say any of that. Phinehas is given by God in His infallible Word to be for us a picture of biblical manhood and what it means in every day life to be a man.
The heart of biblical manhood is to live out of a zeal for God.
To be a man of God is to live out of zeal for God. Nothing less is a man of God.
The setting in Numbers 25 is this: Israel was about to enter the land of Canaan. They were so close. Only miles separated them now from the promised land. They had been journeying for forty years under many testings. And they were about to enter into the picture of heaven itself, the Old Testament land of Canaan. Yet, although they were so close, they showed that, according to their own sinful nature, they were a long way from Canaan. They remained undeserving.
It happened, the incident of Phinehas, after the strategy of a false prophet called Balaam. The king of Moab, Balak, had hired Balaam to curse Israel. You can read of that in Numbers 22-24. And Balaam tried three times to curse Israel, so that he could gain the gold and silver that he was promised. But, instead of uttering a curse, his mouth spoke a blessing.
But evidently the greedy heart of Balaam counseled Balak the king of Moab that there was another way to get at the children of Israel, a way in which God's wrath would burn against Israel. So his counsel was that Balak would get the women of Midian to dance before the men of Israel, to lure them into fornication, and then to have them commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Baalpeor. Baalpeor was a place where the idol Baal was served. At that service of Baal were also houses of prostitution, where every evil would be performed. Balaam aimed then at the genocide of God's people. He wanted the men of Israel to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab and to join themselves to Baalpeor.
That was no little sin. And it actually happened. That temptation occurred and the men of Israel, many of them, followed. That was not a little sin! That is not a little sin today in the church. Fornication is not a little sin.
The utter seriousness of it comes out exactly when we are told that Israel joined themselves to Baalpeor. That is the whole point. God will not share. God is jealous. The sin of fornication is a picture of the child of God joining with sin. But God says, "That won't be; that can't be, because I have redeemed you to Myself in the blood of My Son. I have called you out of the world. And I have joined you to Myself. You are not to be joined to sin, but to Me." The love of God is not neutral. Nor is God neutral. When His people join themselves to sin, then God comes in His faithful chastening.
The sin that was committed by Israel came to its boldness in a man called Zimri, who was a prince in the nation of Israel. He took a woman of Moab, who was also from a chief house. He took her in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the congregation who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle. He took her into his own tent to commit fornication with her, defiantly, shamelessly, openly, demonically. He said, "I don't care what you say. There is only me, my lust, and my appetite."
In our day it is the same thing. This sin is very loud. It is out in the open. It is as a great monster sucking up men, controlling men and women. Apparently even Moses was shocked. And the people of God were shocked and frozen and stood there.
But then we read that Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the grandson of Aaron, saw it and rose up with a javelin in his hand and went after the man and entered into the tent. With one thrust of his javelin, he killed both of them in their act of lust. And the Holy Spirit points now to Phinehas and to the source of his courage, to what lay behind his act. His act was not the self-righteous act of a man. It was not the act of some Islamic fanatic who says that women ought to be pure - while he charges pornography on his credit card. It was not simply a man who was trying to uphold the cultural norms of society. No, Phinehas acted because he was zealous for God. The Word of God says, "He was zealous for My sake among the people."
That is a man of God. That is biblical manhood, to have a zeal for God.
What is zeal for God? The word "zeal" is jealousy or zealous. To be concerned about one's rights is the intent - an ardent insistence on what belongs to one. God is a jealous God. God insists on what belongs to Him - His name and His honor. He is committed to His own honor. He is God, whose is the right to command and who determines what we are to be. He is God who has taken to Himself a church, a wife, and has redeemed this church for Himself. He will not share the affections of His people. He will not compromise on His holy Word. He is God. God's jealousy is simply His insistence that He is God and shall be God.
To be zealous for God means that we desire God to be God to us, that we acknowledge Him as God, and that we desire Him to be exalted. This zeal for God was seen, above all, in Jesus Christ His Son. The Scriptures say of Him, "The zeal of the Lord's house hath eaten him up." He said to His disciples, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me" (John 4:32-34). Jesus Christ was a God-centered man. Jesus Christ lived in zeal for God - that God would be glorified. He lived out of one holy passion: to do the will of Him that sent Him.
Zeal in us as men of God is rooted in Jesus Christ. In Christ we also have a holy zeal for God. Zeal for God, then, is an overwhelming desire of the heart to be devoted to the honor of God in your life. It will cause you, as a man, to buck the stream of popular opinion, to buck the stream of lust and greed and ambition and pride and drunkenness. These things shall not rule in your life. But God shall be the center and the sum of all of your affections. Zeal for God is a pleasure and a satisfaction of our soul in the service of God which no other thing can impart to us.
Zeal for God is an overwhelming desire of the heart to be devoted to the honor of God in your life.
Now, you say, "all of that sounds real good in theory, but we live in this world, with the old man of sin in us. How in the world can we be truly men who have zeal for God, since we are sinful and live in a wicked world?" The answer: only by God's grace.
Do you know what that means? That means that God gives you to see Him in His majesty and to see yourself in your sin and filth and corruption. That is sovereign grace. A man of God? A man of God is one who has been emptied of himself, of his self-pleasing, of his self-serving, and of his self-loving, and is now filled with one holy thing: to do the will of God who has saved him.
I said "emptied" of self. That word is too nice. That word would imply that if spiritually we could somehow be turned upside-down, all of our self-love and self-centeredness would just pour out nice and clean and easy. That is not the way it works. I should say instead, to be scraped out of our self. A man of God is one who knows the scalpel of God's Word, daily cutting down and cutting out his own sinful self, identifying himself. A man of God is one who understands that there is not a half-step between himself and God. There is an infinite chasm. I am a sinner. Yet this God, who has shown to me my sins, is also a God of mercy, who has willed to take me into His arms.
That is zeal for God. Listen to another man of God express zeal: Job. I abhor myself, for I have heard of him and mine eyes have seen the king of glory.
Are you a man of God? Do you have biblical manhood?
No man in an office or on the job-site, or young man in the locker room, when he is confronted with sexual filth and is pulled to go along with it and to laugh at the joke is going to withstand that and stand up for God - if he has not been given to know himself as a sinner and given to see the Lord in His glory and to say with the apostle: "I am what I am by the grace of God." No husband is going to take up the duties to care for all the spiritual needs of his family, the emotional needs of his wife, and to take up his headship and to deny himself who has not been given to see himself as a sinner and to see the Lord in His glory. No father is going to have patience with his son, no father is going to have patience with the infant or with the strong-willed child, who is not a man filled with zeal for God.
A man is not measured by the car that he drives or the swagger in his walk.
Are you filled with zeal for God? Do you understand that you are not a little Caesar, that you are a sinner, and that God in mercy has saved you, and that now God has become everything to you? You see, that is what it means to be a man. A man is not measured in feet and inches. A man is not measured by how much he can bench-press. A man is not measured by how many beers he can chug and still count his fingers. A man is not measured by the car that he drives or the swagger in his walk. If that's the way you measure a man, you are a fool.
No, a man is measured this way: Does he have zeal for the living God, the God who has loved him out of a dunghill and sworn to be a covenant God to him? Then he will take up his responsibilities as did Phinehas. He will be zealous for God's sake among His people. He will have courage.
What is courage? Courage flows from zeal for God. Courage is trust in God. The humblest child of God who is distrustful of himself but resolved that God shall be glorified by him is the most courageous child of God.
A man who has zeal for God will also express it in responsibility. We could imagine that Phinehas could have reasoned that day this way, "Well, wait a minute. Moses is the leader of the people of God. Let's see what he's going to do about this." Or, "Well, that's the elders' job, isn't it? Doesn't Moses have seventy elders around here? Where are they? Shouldn't they do this?" Or, "Well, I'm from the tribe of Levi, and the true rule is supposed to come from Judah, isn't it? So, we'll just wait to see what the men of Judah will do about this."
No, Phinehas assumed responsibility - because he loved God's people and he saw himself standing among God's people and, therefore, responsible for how things were going. The man of God takes responsibility. When Adam fell as the first man, what aspect of his being created as a man did he deny first? What aspect of his manhood did he lose first? It was the aspect of responsibility. "The woman thou gavest me, she…." All right, when the grace of God implants in your soul zeal for God and He gives you biblical manhood, then how will it evidence itself? You will take up your responsibility before God. You will not make excuses for yourself, but you will take up your responsibility in the church, in your marriage, and in your home.
Single young men, do you have zeal for God? Do you have manhood? What are you intense about? Sports, money, car, computers, looks? Or God in you. Are you intense about that? Do you love God? Do you love Him with an undivided affection? Are you guilty of showing disregard for His church, for others, for your mother? Do you pray for purity? Do you pray for purity in yourself and in your sisters in Christ? Are you zealous for God in the face of all the pornography that seeks to gobble your soul? Do you have zeal for God in doctrine? Do you love God's Word? Do you want the honor of His name and the truth?
Husbands, are you men of God? Do you have manhood? Do you seek the advancement of God in your wife? Do you want her to be lovely to God? In your marriage, do you live for yourself, for your happiness? If you do, you have your head on backwards. But do you see your responsibility that you are responsible for your marriage and you do not make excuses about your wife, but you are responsible? Is there a passion in your marriage for God?
Fathers, are you men of God? Do you have biblical manhood? Do you instruct your children? Are they learning from you how glorious God is? Are they learning from you how to be a husband and to lead a wife?
Is it zeal for God that comes into your life as a child? Is it zeal for God that influences you concerning your friends and what you watch and do not watch?
Biblical manhood is to have a zeal for God alone. God must give that. By the grace of God, let us go to Him. Let us confess that we are not men. We have forfeited everything. Let us confess that we are wretches, cowards. But let us pray for God to restore in us manhood in Christ and to implant in our hearts zeal for God.
Be it with a small beginning, may it be that He gives us zeal for God. Then we may live in confidence. For God says to a man of God, "He that honoreth me will I honor. I will be with you in trouble and I will honor you."
Let us live as men of God with zeal for the glory of God.
Father in heaven, write Thy word on our hearts. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Rev. Carl Haak
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jan 8, 2024 9:41:41 GMT -5
SAVED BY GRACE (TULIP)
3RD INSTALLMENT
CHAPTER I - SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
C. OBJECTIONS
Historically especially two objections have been lodged against the Reformed teaching of the sovereignty of God. It has been charged that to teach God's sovereignty is to make God the author of sin. And it has been charged that to teach God's sovereignty is to deny man's responsibility.
1. If God is sovereign, He is the author of sin. This is the contention of the enemies of the Reformed faith. The argument is that if God has willed and by His almighty power brings about the evil, God is to blame for the evil in the world. Since God is perfect, completely without any sin, He cannot be sovereign.
There are some who have attempted to reconcile this seeming contradiction by teaching that God in His sovereignty only permits sin. Although He actively wills the good, He only passively allows the evil to take place. This is an unsatisfactory explanation. For one thing it does not resolve the problem. If I permit someone to be run over by a truck, when I could have warned that person or prevented him from being run over, I am as responsible for his injury as if I had deliberately run over him myself. The point is that if God permits sin, when He could prevent it, the same charge can be brought that God is responsible for sin.
But besides not solving the difficulty, to speak of God only permitting sin and evil does not do justice to the teaching of the Scriptures with regard to the sovereignty of God. God did not simply permit the devil to afflict Job, but, says Job, "The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away." God did not simply permit the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, but Christ's crucifixion took place according to the "determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God" (Acts 2:23).
Our answer to the objection is that God is sovereign, sovereign even over sin and evil, but sovereign over sin and evil in such a way that He is not the author of nor can be charged with the sins that wicked men commit (Ezek. 18:25-30; Acts 2:23, 24; Rom. 9:10-18). Although God is sovereign over sin, the sinner sins willingly, desires to sin, delights in sin, and actively commits the sin. He is not compelled against his will to sin. He is not forced to sin although he does not want to sin. God effects the evil in such a way that Satan and wicked men willingly perform it. As James says in James 1:13, 14, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed."
That God is not to be charged with being the author of sin is further evident from His purpose in decreeing sin. In distinction from Satan and wicked men, God's purpose with sin is a good purpose. His purpose is His own glory through the demonstration of the glorious perfections of His Being. His purpose is the demonstration of His power that is able to make even sin and the sinner subservient to His will. His purpose is the demonstration of His righteousness which demands and accomplishes satisfaction for sin. His purpose is the demonstration of His free grace that saves not good people but unworthy sinners in the cross of Christ. God's purpose in decreeing sin is the revelation of His Son Jesus Christ, the Savior from sin.
2. If God is sovereign, man is not responsible for his sin.
This is the second objection that is often made against the teaching of the sovereignty of God. The argument is that if God sovereignly wills and brings about sin and evil, man cannot be held accountable for the evil that he does. After all, since God sovereignly willed that he sin, what else could he do but sin?
The apostle Paul deals with this objection to divine sovereignty in Romans 9. In verse 19 the objection is brought: "Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he (God) yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?" What is Paul's answer to this objection? Does he concede the objection? Not at all. Listen: "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?" (v. 20).
God is sovereign, sovereign even over sin and the sinner. But God is sovereign over sin and the sinner in such a way that the sinner himself always remains responsible before God for his sin. Yes, the Son of Man goes to the cross as it was determined by God: "But woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed" (Luke 22:22). To be sure, Christ is delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, but it is also true that "wicked hands" are responsible for His being crucified and slain (Acts 2:23).
Nor is this ever a real problem for the sinner. In our everyday life we experience no tension between God's sovereignty and our own responsibility. Although we believe that all things are under the sovereign control of God, we know that when we do wrong, we are responsible for the wrong we have done. We feel the guilt and must also face the consequences. In a way that surpasses our ability to comprehend it, God is absolutely sovereign and man is responsible for his sin.
Rev. Ronald Cammenga and Rev. Ronald Hanko
This article extract from “Saved by Grace” is posted with permission from its publisher, Reformed Free Association, Grandville, Michigan.
Next: Chapter I Sovereignty of God - D. Practical Importance
_________________________
|
|
