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HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF? POTENTIAL OUTCOMES OF THE ESCALATING ISRAELI-HAMAS WAR

*This little girl is considered by the IDF as a “co-combatant” and is therefore treated the same as an enemy soldier. 5,000 such innocent children have already been killed by Israel in this war.*

Those who have studied ancient Israel’s war with Imperial Rome in 66-70AD notice interesting parallels with the present…

THE ZEALOTS’ RISE TO POWER

As mentioned in previous articles on this site, the two prominent Israelite religious parties in first-century Judea—the Sadducees and Pharisees—not only made the fatal decision to work together in orchestrating the death of their long-awaited Messiah which set their nation on a terminal course, they also made another fatal choice by aligning themselves closely with the militarist Zealot Party. Having perceived that the Zealots could be quite useful regarding their aims, the three parties formed a close bond, as a three-fold cord if you will. This resulted in the former loosely-aligned terroristic bands containing known robbers and villains under a common name which invoked their nationalistic zeal into a growing and more cohesive paramilitary force.

In the intervening thirty-plus years between the Lord’s time and the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome in 66AD, the Zealots had become much more sophisticated and gained greater ability to contend effectively with their hated Roman occupiers and actually wage war. This paramilitary group coalesced into three large main bodies, each with a powerful leader perceived as a Messiah figure.

When the main war began they put up an excellent fight showcasing their highly emotive tone against the Roman’s more steady professionalism. Those first-century Israelite fighters acted in a highly commendable manner from their country’s perspective and invoked the exploits of the renowned King David over a thousand years before. They saw their fight as not unlike the great battles of their more ancient forebears against the enemies of the time, whether nation states or indigenous Canaanites and Philistines.

Though it appeared quite clearly at the onset that Israel had no chance against powerful Roman forces, the small nation quickly illustrated otherwise by causing significant losses at intervals. This caused Rome to step up its game in that it realized the clash would not be a mere mop-up operation but a real fight. Rome had initially landed on the Mediterranean coast in northern Galilee and began its offensive there. Its forces were soon engaged in terrific battles and were forced to use all the military tools and know-how at their disposal. They eventually moved east facing skirmishes and winning battles along the way. The Israelites continued to put up stiff resistance. In the region of the Sea of Galilee there was another major battle though the superior Roman numbers using better and more numerous arms and military hardware prevailed.

This caused the Zealot armies to move south. They decided their best play was to head to Jerusalem in which their many forces could come together and use the walled city as both a strong protective bulwark and a national headquarters. As fate would have it, it was the place they would make their last stand. The Roman legions soon arrived in Judea and after one last major battle suffering significant losses they rallied together outside the walls of Jerusalem, having cornered their prey, and set up a siege encircling the city. It happened exactly as the Lord prophesied it would thirty-five years before:

When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” [Luke 19:41-44]

NATIONAL SUICIDE

Inside the city walls there was a constant grappling for power regarding which Zealot group would lead and which Messiah figure would take charge. The Pharisees and Sadducees, after having lost much power and influence in the city and environs among the people as well as with the ardent Zealot brigands, had perceived that they had indeed created a monster all those years before. For the Zealot Party, which had been reconstituted after three decades into a legitimate fighting force worthy of national honor, had by that time taken over the country in a winner-take-all last ditch effort to defeat Rome. Those of the wealthy religious parties then knew the ultra-committed Zealots would fight to the last man and sacrifice everything in the process if necessary.

No Israelites had ever done anything like this before. Throughout its long history, great national sin, losing power, and being subjected to the rule of one nation state and empire after another, even going through the Babylonian Captivity, their forebears had never gone so far as to risk everything. But this was the Zealot method. It had always been that way. They had always, since their inception roughly seventy years before, been men who would risk it all for their cause, even their lives. It was a credo that those of the powerful religious parties had not fully understood at the time of their initial alliance. Though the Sadducees and Pharisees had always been men of much intrigue and secret scheming to the point in which they could deceive and influence pretty much anyone, even the most powerful, they had never seen the need to make such great risks. It was because they knew they didn’t have to because they could gain and maintain their power, influence, and wealth regardless of who held political power.

But the Zealots were not men of such high level deceptive tactics, those who would slouch about in the night as it were, using underhanded methods for mere political gain. No, they were nationalists standing up for their country and would much rather fight than fool and murder than manipulate. Their methods were much more to the point even if it meant taking on the vaunted world-class, well-supplied, and unstoppable legendary legions of the Roman Empire which had to that time destroyed every other fighting force on the planet and anything else in their way. Whereas the Sadducees and Pharisees had the sense to know such otherwise plain facts and would never risk a head-to-head confrontation, the reckless Zealots saw it much differently.

In fighting the Romans directly in disregard of political guile, they intended on saving their country the way David would, in glorious battle. But alas, they were not David, the man after God’s own heart, but actually anti-Davids and anti-Saviors, men distant from God given over to sin among those evil ones who would go so far as to kill the one Man who could save them. The various false Messiahs of the Zealots would rise and fall but no one of them ever commandeered a majority for long. In the end, they stayed ever true to form. They gained full control of the nation because everyone wanted them in control though many changed their minds after it was too late.

The Zealots did risk it all. And they did cause the loss of everything. It was the end of national Israel.

SAVING ISRAEL FROM ITSELF

By indiscriminately killing over 10,000 Palestinian civilians including upwards of 5,000 innocent children (over 6,000 injured) to date since October 7 in its current air/ground offensive and destructive bombing campaign in Gaza, Israel has now managed to do the impossible by uniting the entire Muslim world (over one billion people) against it. Even the ever-squabbling Shiites and Sunnis are starting to come together. To give just one instance of how far things have already escalated on the international front, Pakistan, a nuclear power and 97% Muslim country of which 90% is Sunni Muslim, has apparently offered to deliver nuclear warheads to Turkey if such is requested. Turkey, almost 100% Muslim, is also a 90% Sunni Muslim country and a formidable regional player not to be taken lightly.

Of course, no other country in the immediate region has nuclear weapons except Israel, though it has never acknowledged this. France helped Israel get going on their nuclear program in the late 1950s and through secretive means Israel gained nuclear weapons by the mid-1960s. It managed to do this despite President John F. Kennedy’s strong objections and rightful attempts to stop them. Once he was taken out it cleared the way for Israel to become a nuclear power

There was also an unprecedented ice-melting alliance made earlier this year between Iran (Shiite) and Saudi Arabia (Sunni). Iran, another major player and at the top of the American and Israeli attack list for many years now, has close relations with Syria (Shiite) but also limited relations with Turkey which are reportedly increasing. Israel has always done well at doing its part to keep the Muslim world divided as a defense measure and is why Israel, in the late 1980s, was involved in the very creation of Hamas, its current hated enemy—it needed a hedge against Yasser Arafat’s PLO and Fatah. Though the Israeli intelligence involved acknowledged later that this was a serious blunder, Israel’s current leader’s policy of supporting Hamas politically in recent years has evoked strong protests on the home front.

Those who have closely followed the events in the Middle East of the last several decades know this current conflict in Gaza is the bloodiest with the most far-reaching effect. It will only get much worse if the stated plan remains ongoing and the present course continues. The events of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, which began almost exactly 50 years to the day before this one, were such that Israel had come close to activating its nuclear arsenal when the tide of battle had turned against it. It doesn’t take much extrapolating to see that this current conflict will likely turn into a regional war involving major Muslim nations who greatly outnumber Israel but are also much better equipped militarily than they were fifty years ago. The US is already dutifully involved and will be more so if other Muslim nations and fighting forces enter the fray.

Will a possibly overwhelmed Israel once again reach a point when it seriously considers the nuclear “Samson” option as the only remaining means of defeating its enemies? Accordingly, does the present leader of Israel, a man who equates long-vanished Old Testament adversaries of ancient Israel with indigenous Palestinians, regard himself as a Zealot-like Messiah figure? Referencing a possible ceasefire or pause for humanitarian purposes in Gaza, he said recently: “We’ll simply carry on until we win.”

THE LATE GREAT PLANET EARTH?

Those who may think this current conflict is the Armageddon of Revelation playing out before us and that it is therefore inevitable in that nothing can be done to stop it, they are making the same mistake so many Christians have made before. The entire construct of the 1970s prophecy teachers has been proven false. I have written about this in previous posts here. I lived through those days and followed that supposedly prophetic narrative closely, believing all of it early on and even using it in my witnessing. But I also began discovering flaws shortly thereafter. That was 1977. As the years went by the construct began dissolving even more and then never came to fruition in the clear timeline supplied and purported. It was therefore either a mistaken forecast at best which some of the prophecy teachers kept updating (changing) to overcome errors, or a deliberate act of propaganda which allowed for two things: (1) Millions of Christians blindly supporting Israel unconditionally and excusing it regardless of its often brutal behavior and doing nothing about the horrific events and ME wars leading to “the end” since they believed all of it to be inevitable and the result of Biblical prophecy, and (2) That which acted as cover for the powers involved and gave them free reign to act indiscriminately with a complete lack of accountability.

Christians who were deceived by the 1970s false prophetic timeline and still believe it to this day must take a much closer look and understand that the New Testament prophecies about the “Last Days” were not references to our time but their time. The “Last Days” prophecies were about the last days of the ancient nation of Israel in the first-century which came to an end in 70AD—the final generation—and not the generation of the 1970s or today. The prophecy teachers of the 1970s said we were living then in the last generation of the world and that reading the newspaper was like reading ancient Hebrew prophecies. Yet it has now been over 50 years and we are still here. There has been no rapture. None of those guys lived to see what they taught as immediate prophecy for their generation come to pass.

Therefore, instead of sitting around doing nothing while watching “inevitable” prophecy happening, what would happen if the vast majority of Christians in the world rose up and began speaking out against the constant ongoing Middle East blood-letting and war after war? What if a great intercessor army was raised up to pray against all the murder and mayhem and misery? What if Christians worldwide and especially in America actually stood up for PEACE as the Lord Jesus taught us to do instead of support and fund the warmongers and their endless wars which kill and maim multiple millions? And why do so many Christians never think of that which is actually inevitable—the reap-what-you-sow blowback and scads of karma chickens coming home to roost?

Again, the following is what the Lord Jesus said of His own nation in His time:

Sound familiar?

Posted in Current Events

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Tags: Ancient Israel, Biblical Prophecy, Book of Revelation, False Messiahs, First Century Israel, Hidden Agenda, Iranian Christians, JFK, Last Days, Last Days Deception, Lord Jesus, Messiah, Nuclear Weapons, Olivet Prophecy, One Will Reap What One Sows, Peace, Pharisees, President John F. Kennedy, Prince of Peace, Real Christianity The Nature of the Church, Roman Empire, Sadducees, Spiritual Deception, The Destruction of Jerusalem 70 AD, The Great Awakening, The Romans, Unreal Christianity, Zealots

THE REAL CHOSEN PEOPLE (PART 2)

Oct 24

Posted by RJ Dawson

I wrote and posted this article in March of 2012 as the second of a series. It revealed the New Testament definition of “The Chosen People.” What follows is an updated version.

SAVING ISRAEL FROM ITSELF

The Pharisees and Sadducees were so intent on stopping the Lord Jesus and His followers they unwisely enlisted the help of the belligerent Zealots. This proved to be an inauspicious decision that resulted in national disaster a generation later when powerful warmongering Zealot armies and their false-Messiah leaders took control of the nation and the national city of Jerusalem in a winner-take-all fight against Imperial Rome.

We see the beginning echo of this unfortunate choice at the Lord’s trial in the choosing of the Zealot Barabbas over the Lord. This unrepentant criminal and likely murderer was released from prison by popular demand while the same vociferous crowd demanded the Messiah be crucified. As the man’s name clearly indicates, the choosing of the “son of the father” (which could further indicate “fathers”) illustrates the malicious nature of the choice.

In the Lord’s time this loose collection of brigands which came to be known as Zealots in the early first century AD remained relatively small and incohesive. The party existed primarily as a hyper aggressive small-scale terroristic militarist movement intent on striking back at Rome due to what they perceived as its tyrannical treatment of the otherwise independent Israelite people in their own land.

The Roman Republic’s entry began almost a full century before in 63BC during the ongoing civil war which ensued after the Israelite queen Alexandra-Salome died in 67BC and the two heirs, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, fought each other for political control. This was yet one more event which demanded outside control to properly govern the region. The Roman general and statesman Pompey had already been moving east since being authorized that same year putting out fires, fighting battles, taking territory, and establishing Roman control across the northern Mediterranean regions. After capturing Syria in 64BC he decided to take advantage of the internal conflict in Judaea and head south.

One might note that this Israelite civil fight also involved the two still somewhat nascent but established major religious parties: The Sadducees sided with Aristobulus and the Pharisees remained true to John Hyrcanus II. Therefore, the Israelite civil war was a religious civil war as well. General Pompey entered the fray in Judaea and then after a siege took Jerusalem and captured the temple. Once establishing Roman control he returned home a hero. Rome then annexed much of the former Israelite kingdom, primarily Galilee and Judaea. This marked the beginning of the end of the independent Hasmonean Dynasty which eventually ceased to exist in 37BC when Herod the Great became the Roman client king. This set the stage for several profound future events culminating with the arrival of the long-awaited Messiah.

CHOOSING THE CHOSEN

But the Pharisees went out and conspired against Him, as to how they might destroy Him. But Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. Many followed Him, and He healed them all, and warned them not to tell who He was. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet:

“Behold, My Servant whom I have chosen;

My Beloved in whom My soul is well-pleased;

I will put My Spirit upon Him,

And He shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

He will not quarrel, nor cry out;

Nor will anyone hear His voice in the streets.

A battered reed He will not break off,

And a smoldering wick He will not put out,

Until He leads justice to victory.

And in His name the Gentiles will hope.” [Matthew 12:15-21]

In these days when everyone is a Christian and Christianity is watered-down to a consistency barely above water itself, why do we think God even cares about doing any choosing? This is how far fake Christianity has traveled. There is hardly any distinction at all between many so-called Christians and a world going to hell. And it is the touchy, thin-skinned, aggressively defensive and convicted Unchosen itself that is often first to speak out strongly against any perceived judgment, however slight, regarding its perceived standing in God. The motto of real Christians, on the other hand, is thus:

“Talk about me if you please, but I’ll talk about you on my knees.”

Where in this country is there a voice that represents the real presence of God? Where is the voice that distinguishes truth from error and fake, dry, dead, boring lifeless expressions of faux Christianity from the real thing? Those who have dissolved the life-giving Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ will have to account for it. All those who have been deceived by their “other gospel” will rise up against them at the Judgment, not that it will matter then.

Why does one think the people in hell will be gnashing at each other with their teeth like a pack of wild dogs? There is the clear indication that the unchosen do not agree with their ultimate status.

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. And he sent out his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding feast, and they were unwilling to come. Again he sent out other slaves saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited, “Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and my fattened livestock are all butchered and everything is ready; come to the wedding feast.”’ But they paid no attention and went their way, one to his own farm, another to his business, and the rest seized his slaves and mistreated them and killed them.

“But the king was enraged, and he sent his armies and destroyed those murderers and set their city on fire.

“Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main highways, and as many as you find there, invite to the wedding feast.’ Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered together all they found, both evil and good; and the wedding hall was filled with dinner guests. But when the king came in to look over the dinner guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed in wedding clothes, and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without wedding clothes?’ And the man was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are called, but few are chosen.” [Matthew 22:2-14]

This is a perfect illustration of God’s selection process. It goes like this:

(1) The first thing the king does is send out invitations. He makes his choices based on his own criteria. But these criteria must be based on those whom he considers His friends, relatives, and select subjects of his kingdom.

(2) What do the invited guests do? They refuse. They ignore him. They ignore the invitation. They treat the king with supreme indifference and disrespect. They are all completely unwilling to attend the wedding feast.

(3) Curious as to why no one wants to come after having been chosen, the king sends out another group to ask the invitees yet again, explaining how much trouble he has gone to, how much He has prepared, and how much he really wants them all to come and share in his joy. The slaves tell everyone what a great time will be had. There will be barbecued oxen and fatted livestock and a great dinner! My son is getting married and I want you all to come!

(4) This time the invitees not only continued to reject the king but some of them actually mistreated the king’s slaves, and they even killed them! What would compel the invited guests to resort to killing the messenger boys sent out by a loving king? (“Hey Joe, check out this story in the paper. Some dude up north was throwing a wedding for his son and one idiot killed the mailman when he got his invitation.”)

(5) Then what? The king was enraged! So He sent his army, executed the murderers, and torched their sorry city. I mean, all they had to do was politely decline. Why all the rage and murder about a simple wedding invitation?

(6) Now the king decides He is just going to invite everyone he can find. He no longer makes any judgment whatsoever on who may be qualified to come to the wedding. Those who were qualified proved themselves to be completely unworthy. He therefore sends out his slaves to invite one and all, whether good or bad. This time, he ended up with a packed house. His estate was filled to the gills with the rabble of the countryside. They must have thought themselves to be impossibly blessed. No one had ever done anything like this for them before. “Huh? You want little old nobody nothing me to go to a wedding at the king’s estate? Thanks!” They all wasted no time in taking showers and getting their fancy wedding duds on, however humble, and high-tailed it to the big barbecue. The king was most happy!

(7) But all was not perfect. You see, there was this one guy who made no acknowledgement at all of the great thing that happened to him. He didn’t consider himself fortunate and honored to be invited. He didn’t try to get cleaned-up. In fact, he had so little respect for the proceedings that he didn’t even put on a wedding garment. He just kind of wondered in off the street with no expression on his face loosely holding an invitation. The king confronted the man. He even called him his friend. But the man had no answer regarding his lack of proper attire. As a result, he was effectively thrown into hell. To close out the story, the Lord Jesus said: “For many are called, but few are chosen.”

There are three kinds of people in this story:

(A) Those who are called and chosen but do not respect the king and reject his invitation, some of whom even kill the king’s servants. By their own decisions, they revoke their called and chosen status.

(B) Those who are called but are not chosen because they do not properly respect the king or his invitation and dress incorrectly.

(C) Those who are called and chosen because they respect the king, honor his invitation, and dress correctly.

The man without the wedding garment was masquerading as a real Christian. The “wedding clothes” represent the robe of righteousness. Righteousness is a gift. It cannot be earned but can be accepted after one shows the proper respect and honor for the King, and also who properly repents, trusts, and obeys:

I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, My soul will exult in my God; For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. [Isaiah 61:10]

The following verses give us an indication of what God requires with reference to the appropriate wedding clothes which Isaiah had described so wonderfully in the preceding verse. Please understand that no will enter joyfully into the presence of the King and remain without being properly and respectfully attired:

“But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” [Revelation 3:4-6]

“Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent.

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.” [Revelation 3:14-20] [1]

Posted in Teaching

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Tags: America, Ancient Israel, Ancient Jerusalem, Called Chosen and Faithful, Christian Pharisees, False Forms of Christianity, For Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen, Hasmonean Dynasty, Hebrews, Isaiah the Prophet, Israelites, Jesus is the Messiah, Judea, Lord Jesus, New Testament, Parable of the Wedding Feast, Pharisees, Pompey, Real Christianity The Nature of the Church, Sadducees, The Destruction of Jerusalem 70 AD, The Great Awakening, The Real chosen People, The Romans, The Wedding Clothes, Zealots

THE TRUTH OF “TURNING THE OTHER CHEEK” (IN ASSOCIATION WITH GOD’S JUDGMENT OF EVIL)

Oct 13

Posted by RJ Dawson

Like many of His teachings, this is another one that has been somewhat mischaracterized and misapplied. Such has often led to disastrous results.

WISE WARFARE AND THE TWO PRINCIPLES

He never taught that one should never fight back. There is a spiritual war that must be fought which demands excellent spiritual warriors. Nor did He ever say there would not be proper retribution for crimes committed. Evil must be dealt with. To understand how this should be done, however, on a day to day basis, which reveals the heart of God, illustrates correct discipleship, and shows forth both a Christian’s method for living and engaging in spiritual warfare per the Lord’s teachings, it is mandatory, as a minimal initial starting point, to honor and apply the two foundational principles within the following two Scriptural passages:

ONE:

Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. [Romans 12:17-21]

This passage invokes two OT passages (as enclosed in quotes). The first is from Deuteronomy 32:35. The second is from Proverbs 25:21-22. Since the latter passage is relationally horizontal and self-explanatory let us focus primarily on the former since it is relationally vertical and states a clear command from God. It is the first of our two principles.

The context of this command regarding vengeance is more than initially meets the eye, however. There is an enemy of God referred to in Deuteronomy 32 (The Song of Moses) that God will act against and this party to whom he is referring must be identified. It is not, however, a foreign country or outside enemy of Israel but one much closer to home: It is the unbelieving and faithless faction of Israel itself, which comprised the majority:

“They have acted corruptly toward Him,

They are not His children, because of their defect;

But are a perverse and crooked generation.” [Deuteronomy 32:5]

“But Jeshurun (Israel) grew fat and kicked—

You are grown fat, thick, and sleek—

Then he forsook God who made him,

And scorned the Rock of his salvation.

They made Him jealous with strange gods;

With abominations they provoked Him to anger.

They sacrificed to demons who were not God,

To gods whom they have not known,

New gods who came lately,

Whom your fathers did not dread.

You neglected the Rock who begot you,

And forgot the God who gave you birth.” [Deuteronomy 32:15-18]

“How could one chase a thousand,

And two put ten thousand to flight,

Unless their Rock had sold them,

And the Lord had given them up?

Indeed their rock is not like our Rock,

Even our enemies themselves judge this.

For their vine is from the vine of Sodom,

And from the fields of Gomorrah;

Their grapes are grapes of poison,

Their clusters, bitter.

Their wine is the venom of serpents,

And the deadly poison of cobras.” [Deuteronomy 32:30-33]

“Is it not laid up in store with Me,

Sealed up in My treasuries?

‘Vengeance is Mine, and retribution,

In due time their foot will slip;

For the day of their calamity is near,

And the impending things are hastening upon them.” [Deuteronomy 32:34-35]

The main point here is that real Christians must never take vengeance on their enemies or seek revenge against them. We must instead love them, forgive them, and pray for them. Depending on the circumstance we might even feed them and give them water. Also, it is somewhat curious that the Lord is referring to His own wayward people here who are no longer actually His relational people but have strayed, abandoned Him, and betrayed Him. In this context one might note that the same tenet may apply between real Christians and unreal Christians.

TWO:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. [Ephesians 6:10-13]

From this we understand that as real Christians, our battle is not against people. Even if one may have enemies in the “flesh and blood” realm we are not to fight them but instead seek a way to bless them. If there must be a manner in which to deal with such human enemies (other than those mysterious unseen enemies in the spiritual realm that Paul lists in the preceding passage) we must leave it up to God and trust Him to take care of it. In fact, by treating human enemies in a positive way per His commands we enable the Lord to handle them His way.

We see then, that both of these two principles work perfectly within the particular teaching put forth in this article—turning the other cheek—and serve as a basis from which to operate regarding correct spiritual warfare.

WHAT IT ACTUALLY MEANS

Yet, due to spurious teachings on this subject and what is often a complete misunderstanding of the principle, Christians often go far too far in “loving their enemies.” Christians frequently condone evil behavior or “look the other way” from a misguided notion to be “nice” at all times, yet the Lord never taught this. It thus gives the enemy an upper hand and allows him egress into our lives and surroundings simply because Christians refuse to fight the evil that harms them.

When I was a rookie Christian, I was blessed to have a rather astute and relatively well-read pastor. He was also one of the best preachers I ever heard. This was not some egg-headed dry intellectual but a lively word-picture creator and one who could often hold a congregation enthralled and captivated. I remember well when he taught on this subject…

But before proceeding further with this story, let us first have a Scripture refresher. Let’s take a closer look at the teaching in question. It actually appears in the New Testament only twice, in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. The structure is basically the same in both. However, for our purposes here, as we shall see, I will use the Matthew account.

In its original delivery and context the audience was well aware of the Lord’s direct meaning when He referenced “turning the other cheek.” They likely recognized the point He was making as it was based on OT Scripture. However, it obviously must have appeared relatively foreign in contrast to the Law of Moses as they understood and applied it due to subsequent casuistic embellishments as per their Oral Law (overwriting the Word of God with religious tradition). This does not mean the Lord Jesus was adding to the Law but rather teaching on the original intent of the Law. He did essentially the same thing with the likely equally famous OT “revenge payback” retaliation dictum about eyes and teeth with which we are all familiar that also appears in the same passage. Here is the Matthew account:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” [Matthew 5:38-39]

As you will notice, the Lord was referencing a “slap” and not an incredibly fast and furious cheek-crushing left hook out of nowhere like the one Joe Frazier used against Muhammad Ali in their 1971 heavyweight title fight that knocked Ali across the ring and down on the canvas in the fourteenth round. Though it wasn’t a knockout, it likely would have been with most other opponents. Frazier won that fight. It was a devastating loss for Ali whom most thought was the better fighter and should have won.

So you see, a mere “slap” is not a bone-jarring left hook that can knock a 220-pound hyper-conditioned powerful professional boxer and one of the greatest fighters in history on his backside. Here is the Greek word and correct definition:

ῥαπίζω rhapízō (hrap-id’-zo); from a derivative of a primary ῥέπω rhépō (to let fall, “rap”); to slap:—smite (with the palm of the hand).

In the culture of that time, such a slap with the open hand (often relatively just a mere tap), was not meant to hurt another physically so much but emotionally. It was meant to wound one’s pride. It was meant to humiliate a man’s spirit. It was meant to illustrate one’s total contempt for another in that he would not expend any unnecessary energy or even have to use his fist against so weak and defenseless an opponent, one who has somehow apparently been compromised, debilitated, and possibly rejected by his immediate society for some such cultural offense. Sound familiar?

Getting back to the story of my first pastor when I first learned this truth, he brought out the teaching of the Lord so well I thought I was back there at that time and I could vividly imagine such a scene playing out. As he walked across the front of the church while preaching, expertly illustrating the passage, he said this “slap” was even akin to one taking out a handkerchief and lightly hitting the side of a man’s face with it. In other words, it seemed to have more effect the less it hurt physically. With that in mind, as he had set the stage, my former pastor then acted out that very thing: He took his handkerchief from his suit pocket, grabbed a corner and flayed it out before him as if “slapping’ an imaginary opponent with the flowing cloth. And he laughed slightly, acting out the indignity, then turned with a big smile to show us that such an affront has no effect on the Christian living for the Lord!

This was the point the Lord Jesus was making. He is telling us that offenses will come. There will be personal attacks. His followers will be treated badly and denigrated before men. Good reputations will suffer unjustly. Yet rather than retaliate He said His followers must do the opposite in order to deflate the conflict before it has the chance to take root. Rather than add more air to the growing ember or throw another log on the fire one must instead try to put the fire out and douse the flame. One must be willing to take the hit for possible positive spiritual purposes.

It called for an act of love and forgiveness. Rather than the religious legal precedent of demanding an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth, regardless of intent or accident and demanding retribution to even the score, one must instead allow the offended one his accusatory effort at wounding one’s dignity and thereby attempt to diffuse the situation. If done correctly the Lord’s follower will reveal to others a superior spiritual principle designed to lessen hate and hopefully eliminate hardness of heart. Our enemy may see that we are not his enemy.

Now, when the Lord Jesus—God Himself in the flesh—delivered this great teaching, He was before a gathered crowd in Jerusalem and particularly among the highbrow Israelite religious leaders who possessed both the upper hand and authoritative reputations to project and protect who knew the OT Word quite well. In His attempt to show them and all those there how they should respond to such affronts, they knew He was likely invoking passages such as the following:

(1) 1Kings 22:24 (the prophet Micaiah struck on the cheek)

(2) Job 16:10 (Job slapped on the cheek by his enemies)

(3) Isaiah 50:6 (a prophecy about the Lord giving His “cheeks to those who pluck out the beard”)

(4) Lamentations 3:30 (regarding a person who seeks the Lord, to “let him give his cheek to the smiter”)

(5) Micah 5:1 (“With a rod they will smite the judge of Israel on the cheek.”)

We see then, the bigger spiritual principle in the associated examples used by the Lord to drive the point home:

If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.” [Matthew 5:40-42]

SCRIPTURAL LIMITATIONS OF THIS TEACHING

Notwithstanding the Lord’s clear instructions on a Christian’s necessary humility and doing one’s best to act with love and not retaliate regarding minor offenses, the Lord Jesus was not a classic pacifist in that He did not swear off all violence. He obviously never did any violence to anyone nor did He teach His disciples to partake of violent acts against other people unless it was to defend oneself or one’s own. One may recall that the Lord defended Himself often. He had a knack for slipping through a crowd to avoid physical attacks. He was not here to fight in the flesh but if He ever did He could whip all comers. This was a man’s Man we are talking about who commanded respect by His very presence.

Therefore, though a person must turn the other cheek he also must defend himself. If it takes violence to do so then so be it. One must therefore know that self-defense is perfectly permissible according to the Lord’s teachings. It may not appear that way on the surface or according to incorrect teachings by Christians who should know better and who paint with too broad a brush in this area, but it is true:

And He said to them, “When I sent you out without money belt and bag and sandals, you did not lack anything, did you?” They said, “No, nothing.” And He said to them, “But now, whoever has a money belt is to take it along, likewise also a bag, and whoever has no sword is to sell his coat and buy one. For I tell you that this which is written must be fulfilled in Me, ‘And He was numbered with transgressors’; for that which refers to Me has its fulfillment.” They said, “Lord, look, here are two swords.” And He said to them, “It is enough.” [Luke 22:35-38]

Maybe a Christian man is willing to go beyond the dual cheek slap of indignity and take it on the chin to a greater degree for some reason. But will he also allow his wife and children to be physically accosted and never defend them? One might ask, “What about physical persecution? The answer to this lies in the reason for such an attack. Is one being “persecuted” because someone wants to steal his stuff and he won’t allow it? Is one being “persecuted” because someone who enjoys perpetrating violence wants to inflict harm upon him (beat him up) just for the sake of doing so? OR IS ONE BEING PERSECUTED BECAUSE HE OR SHE IS AN EFFECTIVE WITNESS OF THE GOSPLE OF THE LORD JESUS? There’s the difference, simply and to the point.

This is where real Christianity differs from other major religions, (including Unreal Christianity, of course), and especially the other two monotheistic religions which arose in the Middle East. These two are historically very violent and such violence is used primarily against anyone who may not belong to their religion or culture. Both look down upon those who don’t belong to their particular club and refer to them as “infidels” or even “cattle.” It’s in their “holy” books (not the OT). It is in part why their remains so much violence in the world. They have no problem using violence to gain what they want or inflicting violence on others if it furthers their cause and eliminates or debilitates the opposition. One might recall that the vast majority of violent persecution inflicted upon the early first-century Community of the Lord was done so by unbelieving Israelites.

EVIL MUST BE DEALT WITH

But if anyone thinks a Christian should simply let someone break into his home and steal his stuff such a person would not only be mistaken but an absolute moron. What if someone tried to hurt one’s children? Is one just supposed to stand there and let it happen? What if someone did hurt one’s child? Would one “turn the other cheek” and allow that person to hurt one’s child again?

Was not the entire point of the Law of Moses to bring swift retaliation against homegrown unrepentant evil people wreaking havoc upon the Lord’s planned holy and peaceful community so those who wanted to live a good life of peace and joy could do so? For historical reference, God stated exactly what would happen to His people based on their obedience or their disobedience. They would either be greatly blessed or terribly cursed. It is all stated very clearly in Deuteronomy Chapter 28.

God spelled it all out in the Law. He identified sin. He defined it. And He set up the correct punishment for those who engaged in it. His desire was to create a pure and holy people who could live in peace and joy in full loving relationship with Him but as it turned out there were not very many among His people who wanted the same thing. In fact, there was only a very small believing and holy Remnant throughout Hebrew history that desired to live peaceably in this world, strive for holiness and righteousness, love one another, and be close to God. The majority, though, went their own way. They essentially told God to hell with it. And that’s where one would assume they ended up.

THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Christian historians have pointed out that the creation and timing of the first-century Roman Empire somehow worked out perfectly for the relatively easy and rapid spread of the Gospel message. For the first time in world history a great empire arose with the best engineers and hardiest builders who created a vast network of extremely well-built stone roads, some of which still exist to this day. This was the genesis of the first national highway system on a massive scale. It included the construction of state-of-the-art bridges that could span any great ravine or canyon regardless of depth or width. The road builders let nothing stop them. Mile after mile after mile was laid down. They overcame nature at every turn. They often had to invent on the fly. They did all of this in a comparatively brief period, just in time for the Gospel messengers.

Was this a mere coincidence? Or is it possible that God Himself had a hand in it? If so it meant that He somehow assisted in the process which meant that even the Roman Empire obeyed Him. Remember the prophecy concerning the coming Messiah being born in Bethlehem? And that Joseph and Mary only went there due to Roman decree? When one thinks about this he or she begins to notice a lot of other “coincidences.” And then one concludes correctly that God used the Romans for His own purposes.

He also used the Romans for the purposes of keeping His insistently wayward people together. If it wasn’t for Rome the nation of Israelites would have blown themselves apart through their many political factions, religious parties, and constant infighting. Since the majority rejected the benevolent unifying force of God, God had to raise up a unifying force from without called Rome (not so benevolent but quite effective). Unfortunately, God also had to use Rome for the judgment of His wayward people.

All of this means, of course, that He is never unprepared, He is never without resources, He always plans for the future, He is always on time, and He always has a legitimate purpose.

A WRETCHED END

I will close this article in just a bit with a predictive parable explaining exactly the national judgment that would ensue in the very end including the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem itself in 70AD. He taught that particular predictive parable in the temple on the very day He engaged in the following:

Then they came to Jerusalem. And He entered the temple and began to drive out those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves; and He would not permit anyone to carry merchandise through the temple. And He began to teach and say to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a robbers’ den.” The chief priests and the scribes heard this, and began seeking how to destroy Him; for they were afraid of Him, for the whole crowd was astonished at His teaching. [Mark 11:15-18]

Some may see this temple cleansing as a violent act which reveals exactly what happened to His own people a mere generation later. It proves the Lord was willing to do exactly what must be done though it was the final straw that inflamed His religious money-loving haters to render unto Him the fullness of their wrath just four days later. In keeping with His teachings of love and sacrifice, however, He would lay down His life and never fight back against His hateful accusers at that time. He submitted Himself first to the Father but also, as the Sacrifice Lamb, to the scurrilous judgment and temporal authority of His haters though for a much higher spiritual purpose. It is the same reason there must be Christian persecution. It is why real Christians not only allow the affront of one cheek being slapped but turn the other cheek as well.

But the story does not end there. In the end the Lord proves He is no eternal pacifist. Evil must be dealt with. If not, there is no protection or justice for the righteous. And He was the only one worthy to deal with it properly. He is the only eternal righteous Judge who knows the thoughts and intents of all hearts.

Judgment had to come. One might remember, though, that the Lord had already provided a place of safety for His followers—the believing Remnant of Israelites—to escape to and thus miss the coming wrath. He had told them what signs to watch for. But His wayward unrepentant people had no clue of this due to their rejection of their only Savior, their love of this world and of money, and their resultant path of darkness. By this they had essentially begged for judgment as they had done throughout their history though in their twisted thinking they believed themselves to be bulletproof. They were the chosen. They had God on their side. Many centuries of rebellion and evil had coalesced in that final generation. Most of them never saw it coming.

They had never learned nor ever had the desire to turn the other cheek.

“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard and put a wall around it and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third.

“Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’ They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

“Therefore when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those vine-growers?” They said to Him, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and will rent out the vineyard to other vine-growers who will pay him the proceeds at the proper seasons.” [Matthew 21:33-41][1]

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Tags: America, Christian Persecution, Christian Pharisees, Deuteronomy, Discipleship, Evangelization and Witnessing, Evil, Israel, Jesus Cleansing The Temple, Law of Moses, Lord Jesus, National Judgment, Power To Be Anointed Witnesses, Real Christianity The Nature of the Church, Roman Empire, Self-Defense, Sin and Rebellion, Spiritual Humility, The Destruction of Jerusalem 70 AD, The Great Awakening, The Real chosen People, Turn the Other Cheek, Unreal Christianity, Vengeance, Violence

THE LORD’S POWERFUL “WOE TO YOU!” REBUKATHONS (PART 2)

Feb 17

Posted by RJ Dawson

By the time the Woe’s come it is apparently too late…

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW [14]

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you.” [Matthew 11:21-24]

“Woe to the world because of its stumbling blocks! For it is inevitable that stumbling blocks come; but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!” [Matthew 18:7]

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.” [Matthew 23:13]

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive greater condemnation.” [Matthew 23:14]

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.” [Matthew 23:15]

“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated.’” [Matthew 23:16]

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.” [Matthew 23:23]

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.” [Matthew 23:25]

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.” [Matthew 23:27]

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,” [Matthew 23:29]

“But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!” [Matthew 24:19]

“The Son of Man is to go, just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” [Matthew 26:24]

GOSPEL OF MARK [2]

“But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!” [Mark 13:17]

“For the Son of Man is to go just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born.” [Mark 14:21]

GOSPEL OF LUKE [15]

“But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.” [Luke 6:24]

“Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” [Luke 6:25]

“Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.” [Luke 6:26]

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades!” [Luke 10:13-15]

“But woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb, and yet disregard justice and the love of God; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.” [Luke 11:42]

“Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places.” [Luke 11:43]

“Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.” [Luke 11:44]

“But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.” [Luke 11:46]

“Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them.” [Luke 11:47]

“Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.” [Luke 11:52]

He said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come!” [Luke 17:1]

“Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people.” [Luke 21:23]

“For indeed, the Son of Man is going as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!” [Luke 22:22][1]

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Tags: America, Blind Guides, Christian Pharisees, False Forms of Christianity, False Religious Authority, Final Judgment, Gospel, Hypocrites, Judas Iscariot, Lord Jesus, National Judgment, Olivet Prophecy, Pharisees, Power To Be Anointed Witnesses, Reality vs. Fakery, Scribes, Sodom, The Destruction of Jerusalem 70 AD, The Great Awakening, Unreal Christianity, Woe, Woe to You

THE LORD’S POWERFUL “WOE TO YOU!” REBUKATHONS (PART 1)

Feb 15

Posted by RJ Dawson

Much of Christianity in America has either rejected or forfeited its spiritual vitality and strength. Christians must seek the Lord’s full anointing.

WOE

The following is a study of every occurrence of the word “Woe” in the four gospels. We will look closely at this list to see who the Lord directed His “Woes” against and why.

This word “Woe” occurs in 27 gospel verses.

It occurs a total of 31 times.

Each time it is spoken by the Lord Jesus.

Each time it is spoken by Him in great intensity and emotion in His powerful anointing.

He speaks it against His wicked enemies, against wayward cities, and against errant clueless Israelites.

The word “Woe” is from the Greek word οὐαί (oo-ah’-ee): Alas! Woe!

It is defined as “a primary exclamation of grief” and “an interjection of grief or of denunciation.”

WOE TO YOU!

He used this word primarily against evil Israelite religionists.

Of the 31 total occurrences in the gospels, 14 Woes were directed in strong rebuke against religious leaders. They are listed as follows as they appear in Scripture:

Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites [7 occurrences]
Pharisees [3 occurrences]
Lawyers (Torah teachers) [3 occurrences]
Blind guides [1 occurrence]

In addition to the preceding 14 Woes, 3 more Woes were directed against Judas Iscariot—the apostle who betrayed Him—the duplicitous deceitful man who took a bribe and joined up with the religious leaders and played a major part working in concert with their diabolical conspiracy to murder the Lord.

These 3 bring the total to 17 Woes.

17 out of the 31 are thus directed toward religious authoritarians and their supporters. This accounts for more than half the total (55%).

These facts should ring a bell.

They should ring church bells.

They should ring every conceivable bell, buzzer, and alarm all across the country.

WOE TO YOU!

He also spoke Woes against those who act as stumbling blocks against the innocent, against small children, and against His spiritual children, tripping up the ones seeking and living for the Lord:

The world [1 occurrence]
That man through whom the stumbling block comes [1 occurrence]
Him through whom they (stumbling blocks) come [1 occurrence]

WOE TO YOU!

The Lord likewise spoke a number of Woes against those Israelites who would suffer from the severe judgment coming upon the nation at the very end when all would be destroyed including the temple and the city of Jerusalem less than forty years into the future.

Remember, His Woes were also exclamations of grief. The Lord was pouring His heart out.

Those people would also be guilty and deserved such strong rebuke since they supported the wicked primary instigators who brought on the destruction or never did anything to stop them.

The people may otherwise have prevented it or at least saved themselves if not for their cowardice and great fear of the religious authoritarians, their refusal to repent, and their rejection of their Messiah.

The following recipients of Woes are listed as they appear in Scripture:

“But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!” [Matthew 24:19 and Mark 13:17] “Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land and wrath to this people!” [Luke 21:23] [3 occurrences]
“But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.” [Luke 6:24] [1 occurrence]
“Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry.” [Luke 6:25] [1 occurrence]
“Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” [Luke 6:25] [1 occurrence]
“Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way.” [Luke 6:26] [1 occurrence]

WOE TO YOU!

The Lord also singled out three particular Israelite cities located at the northern area of the Sea of Galilee for severe rebuke, pronouncing Woe’s against:

Chorazin [2 occurrences]
Bethsaida [2 occurrences]
(Capernaum) [2 occurrences]

These three Israelite cities, though they had experienced the Lord’s complete ministry, refused to repent.

He said the first two cities were worse than the sinful Phoenician port cities of Tyre and Sidon.

He said Capernaum was worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. Imagine that.

The Lord said the non-Israelite cities of Tyre, Sidon, Sodom, and Gomorrah all would have repented if they had been blessed with the Lord’s ministry.

Scripture also states that first-century Jerusalem was mystically called Sodom and Egypt (See Revelation 11:8).

What kind of hell holes were these? —Chorazin, Bethsaida, Capernaum, and Jerusalem?

What would He say about many American cities of the present?

He could obviously also say the same thing about many “Christian” churches, ministries, groups, and institutions of today that, regardless of outward beauty-is-skin-deep faux appearances, have apparently partnered with Tyre, Sidon, Sodom, and Gomorrah as sister cities and are candidates for Woe proclamations as well as the following:

And He found in the temple those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. And He made a scourge of cords, and drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen; and He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.” [John 2:14-16][1]

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TENDER MERCY AND THE PROPHETIC WORD: FROM MALACHI TO JOHN THE IMMERSER

Oct 19

Posted by RJ Dawson

The ancient prophecy of Malachi said the next prophet to come would be a forerunner to prepare hearts and would announce the Messiah through the prophetic Word.

The Messiah is always announced through the prophetic Word. That is why there is no Messiah wherever there is no prophetic Word.

JOHN

John the Baptist—I prefer to call him John the Immerser because this title is both accurate and illustrative in the original Hebrew—was a mere man. Yet he was a man with a powerful spiritual anointing. His anointing was so powerful that it was aligned with the anointing of the ancient prophet Elijah. This is what the prophecy in Malachi actually entailed. It did not refer to a mere man or to a return of Elijah but to a particular powerful prophetic anointing which would show up in the Last Days.

MALACHI

He was the last prophet of Israel before the prophetic Word ceased. For roughly four and a half centuries until John there was no prophet in Israel. Imagine that. For perspective, if we traveled back through time from now for 450 years we would arrive at the year 1572. This was way before anything America. It predates Plymouth (1620) and Jamestown (1607). It even predates the Lost Colony of Roanoke (1585-87). Hence, Israel was prophetless for an incredibly long time.

Malachi’s ministry occurred in the late fifth century BC and ended at some point prior to 400BC when he spoke his last and passed from the scene. His voice was stilled. Having no successor, the prophetic Word went silent. One may wonder how or why this happened but it likely had something to do with an age-old fight between two elements meant to work together but were often effectively at each other’s throats. This ancient battle between priest and prophet continues to play out in our day but’s that’s another story for another time. Suffice it to say that the priests won their battle against the prophets when Malachi breathed his last.

We get an indication of the timing by taking a closer look at Daniel’s prophecy of weeks. He speaks of a distinct division in time that occurred after forty-nine years (seven weeks) which coincided with the completion of the rebuilding of Jerusalem in approximately 407BC. One can easily read into this as a time when the priests had taken full control of the city of Jerusalem and the second temple. They had everything going their way though they achieved it in part (likely a major part) through guile, mammon, and self-serving determination. Now they no longer had to worry about that confounding variable of God speaking to His people and stirring them up against their dead religious order. They had finally eliminated their great nemesis the prophet who was ever exposing their corruption. Does this sound familiar?

The anti-prophet effort had been brewing especially during the time when what was left of the nation of Israel was in Babylonian Captivity almost two centuries before. The nation had been banished there due to its great sin and faithlessness. A defiant faction of the priestly element never did repent but grew further from God and more rebellious. They also picked up some bad demonic stuff while in Babylon and incorporated it into their teachings. When they finally returned to the land after their 70 year penalty phase it was only a matter of time before their evil hearts would overtake the dutiful priests honorably adhering to the Law of Moses and the pure honesty of the prophets and rid the land of not only the prophetic Word but the edifying and preserving influence of God Himself.

Thus, the words of Malachi have special import. Imagine a friend or relative at the end of life speaking his or her final words. This person would never be heard from again. One would therefore want to spend time with the passing one whose speech would soon cease forever. Whether Malachi knew this or not we may not ever know but I think he did. He was a prophet after all. Unlike the priests who performed routine quotidian tasks and ceremonial duties, prophets had to stay close to God at all times or would not be able to fulfill their callings. They could never fake it. Their lives were not composed of man’s order but the comparative wildness of spiritual warfare as reflected in nature when one may not know what may come next—crashing oceans, great thunderstorms, raging blizzards and the like—but had better be equipped and able to deal with it. They were given a most difficult task to achieve that demanded the crucifixion of flesh. They were often greatly humbled. It sometimes appeared that God had little concern for their welfare or physical comfort. They were driven to be the best and to achieve their calling against great odds. These were tough men. Very strong. God demanded of them a high level of spiritual discipline and the outworking thereof because the people needed to hear from Him for their direction and salvation and this could only happen through the prophetic Word delivered through humanity.

Obviously very few men qualified to be prophets, not necessarily because God was partial or particularly choosy but because He had a hard time finding those who would willingly submit to the rigors of the calling. I cannot imagine how hard this process must have been for the Lord but I get a pretty good clue whenever I think about the working out of my own walk and its hopeful effectiveness and how the Lord must be forever patient but also demand commandment-keeping, curriculum-learning, calling-achievement, and having something great to show in our lives for what He did for us on the cross. He built a great foundation which gave each real Christian a tremendous head start. I would think He expects us to strive to be the best we can be. This is how it was for the OT prophets, though to the nth degree.

The book of Malachi has been described as “a beautiful expression of God’s love for a nation that continues to disobey Him,”[1] and in one sentence: “The Great King will come not only to judge his people, but also to bless and restore them.”[2] It is composed of four chapters. The verses we are concerned with in this paper come from Chapter 4 and describe that distant time four and a half centuries from Malachi’s era into the future when the great closing prophetic events occur in the final generation of Israel in the first century AD. Here is Chapter 4, the last verses of the Old Testament, in full:

Final Admonition

¹ “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace; and all the arrogant and every evildoer will be chaff; and the day that is coming will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of hosts, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.

² “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.

³ “You will tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day which I am preparing,” says the LORD of hosts.

⁴ “Remember the law of Moses My servant, even the statutes and ordinances which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel.

⁵ “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.

⁶ “He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.” [Malachi 4:1-6][3]

Those who are aware of the final conflagration of the nation of Israel will see in this passage the absolute accuracy of the prophetic Word of the Lord spoken through the prophet Malachi. This man was given a pure vision of the future by God and he captured it in written form. As I wrote earlier, the vision within this short passage directly refers to the final generation of Israel and the “Last Days” spoken of in the New Testament writings. They were the days of the next prophet after Malachi, a man named John, who the Lord Jesus referred to as the greatest man born of a woman. And of course, right after John arose the greatest Prophet, a Man excepted from the former description since He is truly the greatest, who was the long waited Messiah as referred to by Malachi in verse 5, “the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD.” This day was great primarily because He would arrive and save all believers from their sin and grant them eternal life. But the day was terrible in that:

V1: It would burn like a furnace and all the arrogant and every evildoer would be chaff; the day that is coming will set them ablaze and leave them neither root nor branch.

V3: The wicked would be tread down and be ashes under the feet of the righteous on the day “which I am preparing.”

In the last verse the Lord speaks of one final chance for the nation. If not heeded He would “come and smite the land with a curse.” Of course we know it was not heeded. The prophet John was rejected. The Messiah was rejected. The prophetic Word was rejected. Every warning ever spoken was rejected.

The nation crashed and burned, as did the great city of Jerusalem, the city of David. And the brand new sparkling gold-laden and gold-filled third temple was also burned to the ground and every last trace of it vanished.

For the righteous believers who welcomed John and welcomed the Messiah and respected the prophetic Word we have:

V2: “But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings; and you will go forth and skip about like calves from the stall.”

We see this prophetic truth mentioned once again as reflected in the next passage from the Gospel of Luke when John’s father Zechariah spoke the following prophecy at baby John’s circumcision ceremony:

“Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people. He has sent us a mighty Savior from the royal line of His servant David, just as He promised through His holy prophets long ago. Now we will be saved from our enemies and from all who hate us. He has been merciful to our ancestors by remembering His sacred covenant—the covenant He swore with an oath to our ancestor Abraham. We have been rescued from our enemies so we can serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness for as long as we live.

“And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord. You will tell His people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins. Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.” [Luke 1:68-79 NLT]

[1] city.org.nz/kit/bible-overview

[2] biblestudytools.com/books-of-the-bible/

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Tags: America, Ancient Israel, Babylon, Discipleship, Generation, Herod's Temple, Jesus is the Messiah, John the Immerser, Last Days, Lord Jesus, Malachi, Mercy, Power To Be Anointed Witnesses, Prophetic Warning, Prophets, Real Christianity The Nature of the Church, Rejecting God's Prophets, Spirit and Power of Elijah, Spiritual Warfare, The Destruction of Jerusalem 70 AD, The Great Awakening, The Prophetic Word

ALL BECAUSE THEY REFUSE TO REPENT

Apr 26

Posted by RJ Dawson

To repent means to change one’s mind. It means one must allow for new Truth to update one’s mindset. Unfortunately, this demands a commitment many cannot make.

Gonna change my way of thinking

Make myself a different set of rules

Gonna change my way of thinking

Make myself a different set of rules

Gonna put my good foot forward

And stop being influenced by fools

Bob Dylan [1]

LAST DAYS ARCHETYPE

The Lord Jesus taught that real salvation demands radical change. He expressed a true turn or burn message. He actually stated this literally. He said His own nation would eventually burn due to its refusal to repent. He did everything He could to get this message across.

And following Him was a large crowd of the people, and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him. But Jesus turning to them said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’” [Luke 23:27-30]

This prophecy points directly to the Sixth Seal of Revelation:

Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” [Revelation 6:15-17]

One might say the Lord failed in His warning. In reality, though He knew the nation was at an end and would cease to exist forever in forty years, and that it would actually involve destruction by fire, He never came to His people to save the nation itself. Why would He try to save a nation that was already destined for destruction? He certainly wanted His nation to be saved and preserved. Again, He did everything He possibly could to gain that outcome.

It must be remembered, however, that He had been fighting that battle of preservation for multiple centuries. He was the one who created the nation in the first place. It was His nation. It began with Abraham. He called out Abraham for this very purpose. He created the miracle child Isaac to exist as the first generation of His nation. Thus, the future nation of Israel was founded on a miracle. And there were untold miracles performed by God to preserve the nation throughout its long history. No one was more involved in creating, preserving, and blessing the nation of Israel than God. He loved Israel with all His heart.

Therefore, no one was more saddened by what ended up happening to His nation than the Lord. His heart was broken. You can see this in the words He spoke to those women lamenting Him. They were words drenched in pathos. He had done everything He could over the many centuries of its existence to keep what ended up happening from happening, but to no avail. He lost the battle. Ironically, those who won the battle against Him destroyed their nation. They destroyed His nation.

And He began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and rented it out to vine-growers, and went on a journey for a long time. At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, so that they would give him some of the produce of the vineyard; but the vine-growers beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And he proceeded to send another slave; and they beat him also and treated him shamefully and sent him away empty-handed. And he proceeded to send a third; and this one also they wounded and cast out. The owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the vine-growers saw him, they reasoned with one another, saying, ‘This is the heir; let us kill him so that the inheritance will be ours.’ So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What, then, will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy these vine-growers and will give the vineyard to others.” [Luke 20:9-16]

And it was all because they refused to change their minds. They refused to allow for new Truth to update their mindset. They had already committed to a different mindset which they adhered to totally which left no room whatsoever for the introduction of anything else. Though absolutely nothing the Lord Jesus taught was ever refuted by His enemies according to the Law of Moses and objective truth, they rejected Him anyway. Why? Because their minds were made up. They were stubborn as mules. Not even the Lord could get through to them. They were obstinate, hard-headed, religious rednecks. At one point their off-the-scale close-mindedness caused the Lord to exclaim the following:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?” [Matthew 23:29-33][2]

Even then the Lord was thinking of their souls and their eternal destination. Again, He knew they were lost and many were filled with the devil. He knew they were the religious leaders of the most wicked generation of Israel to date. And that is saying a lot in light of so many evil generations of the past. Their world class obstinacy was one thing, but something even greater was the abject weakness of all those who submitted to them. Almost everybody in Israel was scared to death of those guys. There was such rampant fear in the nation drummed up by its leaders, next to no one was willing to challenge them. They knew they would be destroyed if they did. They knew their evil leaders controlled pretty much everything and could make their lives a living hell. How did such an outcome ever transpire in a nation created by God? How could a nation founded on spiritual freedom devolve into such a hellhole? To save their nation, all the people had to do was turn to God and repent. All they had to do was change their sorry way of thinking and get right with God, and then God would have taken care of the rest.

BUT NO! This proved there was something more than simple fear of religious leaders going on. It proved the majority of people actually preferred being led around like a bunch of stupid morons by idiots in charge. Otherwise they would have to do what God required. And what God required was crucifixion of the flesh. He required an elimination of sin from their lives. He required that they quit engaging in sinful practices. He required a total clean up on Aisle One. He required a circumcision of the heart. And though the sins of the average Israelite was less than that of those who led them, they still preferred a life of sin (though often sins of omission) to making the necessary changes that God required.

INSISTENT INSINCERITY

Keep in mind most of these people went to church every week (synagogue). They did what they were told by the leaders thereof. They bought into the program. For many, however, they never actually gave their hearts to God. They only obeyed because they were required to do so. To do otherwise would put them on the outs in society. Doors would close. They would be looked down upon. They would no longer be welcome at the cool kids table. Their popularity would plummet. They would be cancelled. They would get stuck with a low social credit score. Yet as long as they continued to surrender to the religious leaders in charge and obey the main prerequisites they could otherwise sin to their hearts content. The main prerequisites were based on:

(1) We are in control here and you must surrender to our control. (2) What we teach is what you must believe. You are to have no other teachers or doctrines before you. You must have no independent religious or spiritual thought. What we say is what goes. If you don’t understand it you must believe it anyway. (3) In order to be in good standing you must make a full commitment and dedicate yourself fully to our program. If so, all will go well with you. (In other words, you will avert our wrath and the possible disfellowship which could break your back socially.)

The people of the nation thus discovered that as long as they paid the proper obeisance to the religious leaders they could be free to do what they wanted within the set parameters. Some freedom was better than no freedom. As long as they deferred to them, genuflected before them, and essentially kissed their ring then all would go well. Whether they saw themselves as religious sellouts is another issue. There were certainly some who were completely brainwashed and actually believed all the tripe presented to them. Maybe this was the majority. It probably was because over time the constant pontificating from those who dwelt on high would have had an effect. The total lack of any alternate viewpoints would also serve to cause most to become indoctrinated. The fact that no one could ever stand up to the idiots in charge would eventually remove the backbone of the nation and cause it to become docile and subservient toward them. Once the big boys were successful at eliminating any testosterone directed in their direction, the men of the nation were made impotent toward them. They thus couldn’t change their nation for the better if they wanted to.

All the ultimate testosterone and manliness was thus reserved only for the religious elite in charge. Only they were allowed to throw their weight around. Only they could do whatever they wanted and get away with it. The law didn’t apply to them. Only they had no accountability except to themselves which was a circle to nowhere. Sound familiar? And because they controlled the rage factor they could draw up a rage response among those they controlled at any time. Because the men were held in estrogen prison they were ever-burning to get out and allowed the opportunity to vent. Then, whenever they got the word from on high they could be easily directed to enter into instant rage response mode and attack whoever they were directed toward, which were always those with the audacity to question “the elders” and “our tradition” or (aghast!) whoever may preach or teach a different message.

The Lord Jesus had managed to subvert this demonic process much of the time because the people in general were overcome by His great love and compassion, and His willingness to do miracles in their midst to help them. He would heal blind eyes, eliminate their illnesses in a flash, bless them with everything their souls were longing for, forgive and remove their personal sin, assist the poor on a grand scale, and even raise their dead on occasion. He was a force! He was winning hearts and minds!

In the end, however, everyone realized they would also have to change their ways, repent, change their way of thinking, love their enemies, change their hearts, submit fully to God, change their minds, and stop engaging in dead religion.

It was simply too much. There would be way too much to change. Their entire lives would be affected. They would have to start over. It was just too much. It would require way too much faith and too much effort. It would be much easier to simply continue on as before. And that’s the choice they made. They declined the great spiritual power the Lord offered them to make changes for the better.

THE REMNANT

This was not the case for the Remnant. There were some, many untold tens of thousands of Israelites, who actually did obey the Lord Jesus. They recognized Him as their Messiah. They saw that He was the great I AM. They became aware of just who this Man was and the great privilege they were allowed to know Him, be with Him, and honor Him. This brought forth the very first Great Awakening! For forty years the Lord’s new born again Spirit-filled people continued to work toward the salvation of as many of the people of their nation as possible. Many were saved, taught, and made secure. Many developed and came to full spiritual maturation. It was the greatest thing that had ever happened to Israel in all its history, even though the good guys, those who believed in love and loving, were outnumbered and always had to face the incessant hateful wrath of the bad guys.

But the wrath, rage, and hate of the rebellious religious tyrants along with those under their control—the unrepentant majority of insincere, spiritually lazy, surrendered silent sellouts who chose to continue being influenced by fools—caused them all to be without the one thing they needed to save the country: None of them were saved. How could they therefore save the nation or anything else? Their lack of salvation and lack of saving ability left only one other outcome: Their national rebellion and sin content insured they be destined for destruction.

And it was all because they refused to repent.

They refused to change their way of thinking.

They refused to allow for new Truth to update their mindset.

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Tags: America, Ancient Israel, Bob Dylan, Christian Pharisees, Clergy-Laity Division, Depraved Mind, Discipleship, Gospel Truth, Last Days Deception, Light and Darkness, Lord Jesus, Mind of Christ, Natural Mind, Real Christianity The Nature of the Church, Religious Control, Repentance, Spiritual Warfare, The Destruction of Jerusalem 70 AD, The Great Awakening, The Remnant, The War On Truth

THE “LAST DAYS” DECEPTION: New Testament References to the “Last Days” (3)

Apr 1

Posted by RJ Dawson

Christians of today believe they are living in the “Last Days.” Christians in the first century believed they were living in the “Last Days.” Both cannot be correct.

In Part 2 I listed every passage of Scripture in the New Testament that referred to “This Generation.” Each passage referred to the same generation. That generation was obviously the generation that existed in the first century AD. That generation began with the birth of the Lord Jesus. It ended in 70AD with the complete destruction of Jerusalem, the Temple, and what was left of the nation of Israel. Israel was thus no more, exactly as the Lord Jesus had prophesied forty years before.

The Lord Jesus said that last generation of Israel would see the fulfillment of all the prophecies made about that time, which was referred to by New Testament writers as the “Last Days.” Why were they the “Last Days?” –Because they were the last days of Israel. “This Generation” was the final generation.

THE NATION OF ISRAEL

The nation of Israel had begun with the call of Abraham. This took place in approximately 1876 BC when Abraham was 70 years old. It was birthed with the miraculous birth of Abraham’s son Isaac in 1846 BC, which represented the first generation. The nation was birthed in great joy, as Isaac’s name means at root, “to laugh,” or “laughter,” or “he laughs.” Isaac was a very happy child! One pictures little Isaac as a happy, smiling, joyous, laughing baby and little boy.

Sarah said, “God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.” [Genesis 21:6]

Isaac grew up and was blessed with a loving wife. Rebekah gave birth to the first-born twins Esau and Jacob in 1786 BC. Though Esau was born first he had no heart for God. God thus chose Jacob as the new heir. Later, God changed Jacob’s name to Israel.

Jacob/Israel had twelve sons. His sons married and began having children. Some of these children grew up and had children. Ten years after the great Patriarch Isaac died, when the young four-generational family group of Jacob consisted of seventy-plus persons, they left the land of Canaan in approximately 1656 BC and went to live in the Goshen area of Egypt. This was made possible by Jacob’s son Joseph who was sold into slavery by his own brothers when he was seventeen years old and ended up in Egypt, preparing the way for his family’s future salvation. Joseph rose to become the second-most powerful man in Egypt by the time he was thirty. This family group of seventy-plus persons consisting of generations two, three, four, and five was the original nation of Israel.

All the persons belonging to Jacob, who came to Egypt, his direct descendants, not including the wives of Jacob’s sons, were sixty-six persons in all, and the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt were two; all the persons of the house of Jacob, who came to Egypt, were seventy. Now he sent Judah before him to Joseph, to point out the way before him to Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen. [Genesis 46:26-28]

Untold multiple generations later we arrive at the time of the last generation of the nation, initially characterized by great joy and laughter once again with the miraculous birth of the long hoped-for promised Redeemer and Messiah. A Great Light had come into a land of darkness. When the Lord Jesus was thirty years old His forerunner, John the Immerser, prophesied about Him and the nation of Israel in the following:

Now while the people were in a state of expectation and all were wondering in their hearts about John, as to whether he was the Christ, John answered and said to them all, “As for me, I baptize you with water; but One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to untie the thong of His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” [Luke 3:15-17]

This verse has been misinterpreted often yet is actually quite clear. John is speaking in terms anyone there could understand: The wheat will undergo a harvest. The Messiah, winnowing fork in hand on His threshing floor, will do the work of separating the edible grains from the useless chaff. He will gather the wheat (the saved and redeemed of Israel, the sheep, the righteous) into His barn. But He will burn up the chaff (the unsaved and unredeemed of the nation, the goats, the unrighteous) with unquenchable fire.

He will thus baptize (immerse) the redeemed of Israel with His Holy Spirit, but will baptize the unredeemed with fire.

We see these two fates of the nation again in the following illustration of John:

“Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” [Luke 3:9]

In both of these prophetic pronouncements of John we see that the final generation (“this generation”) of the nation of Israel is under pressure to get right with God and produce good fruit. We see that the axe of judgment is already poised against the nation. The axe is about to drop. But before the end comes, as the nation will be divided by those who will either become wheat or chaff, so will the nation be divided by those who will be baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit of God to produce good fruit and those who will do the opposite. Again, the nation of Israel will be divided into two distinct parts during the final generation.

On that great Day of Pentecost at the beginning of the final thirty-eight years of the nation and continuing until the end, the Holy Spirit will be given to all those who properly repent and are cleansed by the Blood of the Lamb. This large group of the redeemed within the overall nation of several million, most likely the smaller of the two groups by percentage, will honor their Messiah and prove themselves with consistent discipleship and as trees bearing good fruit. At the conclusion of the final thirty-eight years the end will come when the besieged city of Jerusalem and the great Temple will be burned by unrelenting fire in a great conflagration just as both John the Immerser and the Lord Jesus had prophesied roughly forty years before. The end of Israel arrived in 70 AD.

THE “LAST DAYS”

Thus we see that what was referred to as the “Last Days” were actually the last days of Israel which took place almost two thousand years ago in the first century AD. Though referred to with other terminology, the following are the five Scriptural occurrences when the exact term “Last Days” is referred to in the New Testament by at least three if not four different writers, which greatly adds to its credibility (dates approximate):

ONE / 32 AD

¹⁵ “For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day; ¹⁶ but this is what was spoken of through the prophet Joel: ¹⁷‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour forth of My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; ¹⁸ Even on My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit and they shall prophesy.’” [Acts 2:15-18]

TWO / 64 AD

¹ But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. ² For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. [2Timothy 3:1-5]

THREE / 63 AD

¹ God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, ² in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. [Hebrews 1:1-2]

FOUR / 50-60 AD

¹ Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. ² Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. ³ Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! [James 5:1-3]

FIVE / 65 AD

³ Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, ⁴ and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.” ⁵ For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, ⁶ through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. ⁷ But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. [2Peter 3:3-7] [1]

We can see that four of the above five works were written just as the nation of Israel was coming to a close, in the twilight hour so to speak. They served collectively as a latter bookend to the former bookend at Pentecost. Each is filled with dire language describing very well the final times. Since Pauline authorship of the Book of Hebrews has never reached a consensus it could very well be that these were four different men using the exact “Last Days” terminology at a time when the end was extremely close and they could feel it in their spirit. The great Jewish Revolt against Rome began in mid-summer of 66 AD. Vespasian’s siege barricades began being constructed around Jerusalem in the spring of 67 AD. This was one of the signs of warning the Lord gave to His people dwelling there concerning when they should depart.

Only those who honored Him, who had treasure in heaven, would heed His words.

THE “LAST DAYS” DECEPTION: A Brief History of Misapplied Prophecy (1)

THE “LAST DAYS” DECEPTION: “This Generation” (2)

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Tish’a B’Av: The Destruction of the Temple

Jul 24

Posted by RJ Dawson

Jesus came out from the temple and was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. And He said to them, “Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.” [Matthew 24:1-2]

As He was going out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, “Teacher, behold what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!” And Jesus said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left upon another which will not be torn down.” [Mark 13:1-2]

And while some were talking about the temple, that it was adorned with beautiful stones and votive gifts, He said, As for these things which you are looking at, the days will come in which there will not be left one stone upon another which will not be torn down.” [Luke 21:5-6]

When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.

“For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.” [Luke 19:41-44] [1]

At sunset tonight begins the 9^th day of the Hebrew month of Av. It was on this exact date that both ancient temples of the Jews met their complete destruction.

Because this infamous date falls on the Jewish Sabbath this year, it will be commemorated on Sunday.

The original Temple of Solomon, which began construction circa 966 BC, was completely destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BC on the 9^th of Av.

It has now been exactly 2600 years since that date, and is a clear multiple of 13, the Biblical number of rebellion.

A second temple was built 70 years later, completed in 516 BC, though it in no way resembled the magnificent glory of the original. This temple had degraded significantly for five full centuries until the time of Herod the Great.

In approximately 19 BC, Herod began a massive overhaul of the entire temple mount area that was not fully completed until 64 AD.

Regarding the second temple built in 516 BC, it was essentially completely deconstructed and rebuilt by Herod on a far grander scale, taking less than two years to complete. Though it was not referred to as a third temple, this is a mere semantic overreach insisted upon by Herod and the religious leaders of that time and has always been known as the Second Temple.

It lasted less than 90 years.

On this date in 70 AD, on Tish’a B’Av, it was completely destroyed by the Romans, exactly as the Lord Jesus had prophesied.

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Tags: Ancient Israel, Building the Third Temple, Hebrew Calendar, Herod's Temple, Jerusalem, Lord Jesus, Roman Empire, Solomon, The Destruction of Jerusalem 70 AD, Tish'a B'Av

The Real Chosen People (Part 3)

Mar 17

Posted by RJ Dawson

“You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.” [John 15:16]

Most of the people who refer to themselves as some form of “Christian” choose God on their terms. But God chooses real Christians on His terms. Thus, unreal Christians create their own unholy covenant with God according to their own stipulations and provisos. It is not a real covenant, though, because God is not involved in it. He signed none of the papers. He did not agree to the terms. Such minor details do not concern the pretenders, however. They continue onward by themselves insisting God is with them. And these people preach about the Jews being stiff-necked?

Many “Christians” have been duped into thinking they have the power to choose Messiah Jesus as their Lord and Savior. But Christians don’t do the choosing. What they do, before they become real Christians, is have a hungry heart for truth and light. They know there must be something much more than this temporal world of sin. As a result they begin searching for that “something more.” In the process they find belief systems, gurus, false forms of Christianity, and eastern religions that look real and are quite promising. But after looking within these and practicing their tenets for a while, they continue to move on because there is no heart connection. They do not feel fulfilled. They are not satisfied. Something is missing. Knowing this, they realize they have identified yet another fake. Most people in the world are content with fakes, but real searchers of truth never allow this for themselves. They continue seeking, not knowing God is attracting them magnetically by His Spirit until they are chosen.

For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. [1 Corinthians 1:26-29]

Among every pagan nation in the ancient world, each dwelling in deep darkness and rebellion, God chose one nation to represent Himself:

For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments; but repays those who hate Him to their faces, to destroy them; He will not delay with him who hates Him, He will repay him to his face. [Deuteronomy 7:6-10]

Fifteen hundred years later, the very nation He called forth to be His own rejected Him. It became the opposite of faithful. It no longer loved Him or kept His commandments. It chose to hate its own Messiah.

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’” [Matthew 23:37-39]

There was always a believing Remnant, however. In the first century, the Lord Jesus managed to gather together the hungry in heart and those searching for truth among His people. He chose them because of their condition of heart. With 120 people, including the remaining original eleven apostles and His own mother, He created His own community. These were people who loved and honored Him, who recognized Him for who He is, and who pledged their lives to serve, obey, and trust Him forever. They are the chosen of the Chosen.

“Then a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, My Chosen One; listen to Him!” [Luke 9:35]

He chose many more after Peter delivered the first message of the Qahal:

So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. [Acts 2:41]

Can you hear the echo in the writings of Isaiah?

Behold, I will do something new, now it will spring forth; will you not be aware of it? I will even make a roadway in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. The beasts of the field will glorify Me, the jackals and the ostriches, because I have given waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My chosen people. The people whom I formed for Myself will declare My praise.

Yet you have not called on Me, O Jacob; but you have become weary of Me, O Israel. You have not brought to Me the sheep of your burnt offerings, nor have you honored Me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, nor wearied you with incense. You have bought Me not sweet cane with money, nor have you filled Me with the fat of your sacrifices; rather you have burdened Me with your sins, You have wearied Me with your iniquities. I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Put Me in remembrance, let us argue our case together; state your cause, that you may be proved right. Your first forefather sinned, and your spokesmen have transgressed against Me. So I will pollute the princes of the sanctuary, and I will consign Jacob to the ban and Israel to revilement. [Isaiah 43:19-28]

Was it just a coincidence that what was left of the geographic kingdom of David was utterly ruined forty years after the nation rejected their Savior? Was it coincidence that Jerusalem was razed and the Temple destroyed in 70AD?

Prior to this, He had made a Way for His real people, whether Jew or Gentile. He established a New Covenant. For forty years He continued adding thousands of believing Israelites, creating a new spiritual nation, as He said He would do through the prophets of old:

“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” [Jeremiah 31:31-33]

“Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” [Ezekiel 36:26-27]

As most “Christians” reject the Lord, so did most Jews initially reject the Lord. But of those who accepted the invitation to the kingdom, Peter says:

And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For this is contained in Scripture: “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” This precious value, then, is for you who believe;

But for those who disbelieve, “THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone,” and, “A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE;” for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed.

But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY. [1 Peter 2:4-10]

There are only two kinds of people in the world—those who are chosen by the Lord Jesus as members of the New Covenant and those who are not. Real Christians are not only called by the Lord and chosen for His community, they are also faithful and true warriors. Non-members of the New Covenant oppose it.

These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the Called and Chosen and Faithful.” [Revelation 17:6-14] [1]

Posted in Teaching

The Real Chosen People (Part 1)

Mar 9

Posted by RJ Dawson

Many Christians have been conditioned to believe that “The Chosen People” are the Jews, regardless of whether they honor the Lord Jesus as Messiah or not. Christians have been taught that Jews are the only people on Earth who belong to God and will forever belong to God even if they deny that Jesus is their Messiah, if they deny He died to save them from their sins, if they disparage His Name and character, if they actively fight against and oppose real Christianity, especially in Israel, and if they as individuals refuse to repent of their sins and submit to His Lordship.

For some odd reason, Christians have been taught that the New Testament teachings do not apply to the Jewish people. Why? Simply because they are Jews? We are living in a day when Messianic Judaism is very popular and growing. The followers of Messianic Judaism honor Jesus as Messiah. They are still Jews, of course, but believe in and follow the Lord Jesus as did the Messianic Jews of the first century.

Well then, what is a Jew? What is Judaism? Historically, after the complete destruction of what was left of the Jewish homeland in 70AD when Jerusalem was invaded and destroyed by the Romans, and when the Jewish Temple was completely razed to the ground and burned, there was only one segment of traditional Judaism that remained.

The Sadducees ceased to exist, since there was no longer any Jewish state. The Essenes, those likely responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls, also faded away. Some Jewish nationals held out after Jerusalem was destroyed, comprising segments of the Zealot Party, but committed mass murder against one another and suicide on the heights of Masada in 74AD. There were two other large uprisings against the Romans, the largest and last of which was the Bar Kochba Revolt from 132-135AD. After their defeat, there was no longer any effective and organized Jewish resistance against the Romans. It was the end of the Zealots. The Jewish homeland was lost.

The Pharisees, however, were the one party that lived on. They did not die out as all the other major religious parties had. They continued to exist as the sole religious representatives of the Jewish people. The Pharisees became Judaism, later known as Talmudic or Rabbinic Judaism. The same people who gave the Lord Jesus so much trouble during His ministry and fought the apostles at every turn, especially the apostle Paul, never ceased to exist. They continued teaching as they always had. They continued to deny Jesus as Messiah.

Again, Jesus was 100% a Jew (Hebrew: Yehudi; Greek: Ioudaios), from the Tribe of Judah, and a direct descendant in the kingly line of David. Every original apostle had Hebrew ancestral roots, and so had every single member of the Community of the Lord we read about in the earliest history of His Movement as recorded in the Book of Acts. For seven to ten years after the Resurrection of the Lord, the entire Qahal of the Lord Jesus was composed entirely of Hebrew descendants, members of the nation of Israel, and of the twelve tribes. It was not until the salvation of Cornelius and his group, as recorded in Acts 10, that the apostles understood that non-Hebrew Gentiles were also to be included among the Lord’s people. Prior to that time, the Hebrew followers of Jesus had somehow assumed that only Hebrews and full proselytes to Judaism would qualify for membership.

So here we see the first great division, especially after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD, of the Israeli people. One Hebrew camp saw that Jesus was indeed their long-awaited and hoped-for Messiah. The other Hebrew camp rejected Jesus as Messiah. The camp of rejecters coalesced around the Party of the Pharisees, the lone remaining representatives of overall first century Judaism. The Pharisees have existed throughout history ever since, and continued as the sole Hebrew organized religious force against Jesus the Messiah.

What happened to the first century Jewish believers in Jesus? After Cornelius, more and more Gentiles entered the fold of real Christianity. Indeed, the apostle Paul was called by God to be the first and foremost apostle to the non-Jewish Gentiles. Later, at the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15), it was decided by the Jerusalem Hebrew believers that Gentiles did not have to undergo all things Torah in order to attain official membership in the Body of Christ. As more Gentiles flooded in, ethnic differences between Hebrew and non-Hebrew believers were downplayed over time. This did not mean that Jewish followers of Jesus did not retain their Jewish identity. Such would have been tragic. These first century Jewish believers in Jesus were descended from the great Patriarchs of the distant past and represented the then-current true remnant of Israel.

Paul, a Hebrew in very high standing, both ethnically (of the Tribe of Benjamin) and religiously (a Pharisee)[1], as well as a solid Roman citizen says this:

“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

“And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise.” [Galatians 3:26-29]

This is a very powerful statement. From this we know that strict Jewish distinctiveness no longer matters with respect to membership in the kingdom of God. Whether one can trace his or her physical lineage to Abraham is no longer an issue. One can be a descendant of Abraham whether he or she is connected by genealogy, Judaism, or Israeli national identity.

It is not an ancestral link that makes one a seed of Abraham but a spiritual link by faith according to promise.

The Jewish non-believers discount and reject this entire notion. To them, it destroys Jewish identity. As a result, they hated Paul with the same passion they hated the Lord Jesus (How dare these heretics dispose of our status as God’s chosen people!).

Which brings us back to the original point: God’s chosen people are only those who honor the Lord Jesus as Messiah. Yet, even as you read this you probably cringe and think such cannot possibly be true. But it’s right there in your Bible. As is this:

“For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.” [Romans 2:28-29]

Throughout the Gospels and New Testament writings we see, then, that the “Chosen People” are those who are in Christ, who embrace the Lord Jesus as the only Messiah and Savior, whose hearts have been circumcised, who are in spiritual relationship with Him, and who submit to His full Lordship.

Though the Hebrew people were originally chosen by God as descendants of Abraham, the majority of the Hebrew people rejected God. All one must do is pick up the Old Testament and read a few pages to find that this is true.

There has always been a believing Hebrew remnant, however, and there were always enough who honored God to keep the ancient nation of Israel intact though diminishing. Israel split in two after Solomon’s death, the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom went into captivity and never returned, effectively ceasing to exist, and only the Southern Kingdom of Judah remained until the time of our Lord as a national entity, which was originally also comprised of the tribes of Levi and Benjamin. After its destruction by the Romans it was the end of the Jewish nation. The unbelieving and disobedient had so outnumbered the believing remnant who dutifully followed YHWH that the geographic and religio-political nation ceased to exist.

The Community of the Lord, however, began at the same time once the Messiah was revealed. Therefore, there is no hope for those who reject Jesus and look for another. There is no other Messiah and never will be. And without Messiah Jesus, there is no salvation, because He is salvation—it is the very meaning of His Name.

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people, if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health. He is the STONE WHICH WAS REJECTED by you, THE BUILDERS, but WHICH BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER stone. And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” [Acts 4:8-12] [2]

[1] Philippians 3:5-6

Posted in Teaching

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Tags: Gentiles, Jesus is the Messiah, Messianic Judaism, Rabbinic Judaism, Real Christianity, Talmudic Judaism, The Chosen People, The Destruction of Jerusalem 70 AD, The Nation of Israel, The Pharisees