TruthInvestigate

“Oh, the unspeakable greatness of that exchange,—the Sinless One is condemned, and he who is guilty goes free; the Blessing bears the curse, and the cursed is brought into blessing; the Life dies, and the dead live; the Glory is whelmed in darkness, and he who knew nothing but confusion of face is clothed with glory.”

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Location: Kingsland, Georgia, United States

A person God turned around many times.

Monday, January 28, 2013

God the center, our strength and stability


“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (Rev. 4:11).

One website writes:
The mass of the solar system is 1.992 x 1030kg
Wikipedia states:
The principal component of the Solar System is the Sun, a G2 main-sequence star that contains 99.86 percent of the system’s known mass and dominates it gravitationally.
The mass of our sun amounts to the lion’s share of the total sum; and it must be this way.

Why? Because otherwise, the gravitational forces of the planets would tear at the sun until it would fall apart. The sun is the anchor of our solar system. Without the sun we would cease to be a system of planets orderly making their rounds.

Without the sun, each planet would wander off into the freezing blackness of space and become a ball of ice, like Pluto. Even the planets with some self-generating heat would cool off. Certainly, this would mean the immediate end of life on earth.

So, the sun must necessarily own much greater weight than all of its constituent planets combined.

In the atomic dimension we see a similar arrangement as the solar system.  The nucleus of each atom contains much more mass than the combined electrons flying around the nucleus. Even in the molecules oxygen atoms attract hydrogen atoms; and even though there are more hydrogen atoms than oxygen atoms, the oxygen atoms are much heavier than the featherweight hydrogen atoms. Thus, the oxygen can be the proper stability for the molecule.

What is God trying to teach us about Himself? He, the great center of His creation, holds it all together. “Him…, who created heaven, and the things that therein are” must be stronger than all of His galaxies. (Rev. 10:6). Without Him, order would cease in the universe and incomprehensible pandemonium would result. Chaos on an order incalculable would ensue, ultimately in the destruction of it all. Weaker orbs, such as planets would wander off into the outer darkness. Stronger orbs, the stars, would gravitate to each other and tear each other apart. The forces we witness on earth in the hurricanes, tornadoes, volcanoes, and earthquakes, are a drop in the bucket compared to the far and beyond greater forces of the cosmos. Only God can be our stability.

And He has proven Himself the great anchor in other ways.

The controversy of Satan and sin has created immense forces that pulled on the Ancient of Days. More than gravity and velocity or electricity and mass, form the basis of life. Existence means much more than mechanics. Love moves the One who from the beginning has been “upholding all things by the word of His power.” (Heb. 1:3).

Love and faith motivate the Designer of the grand design. The beauty of the physical universe is only skin deep; and the mechanics go a little deeper. But the love of God in making it all is deeper than the ocean and deeper than the deepest space.

That love was challenged by Lucifer and put to the test. Would God do right in dealing with rebellions against His empire? Is His love as empty of self as His creation advertises? Would He die in order than His most precious race could live? Would the power of sin be vanquished by His death? Or would the mighty general Lucifer out-general the King? In the end which would be still standing? Who would own the kingdom?

Would self-sacrificing love win over self-interested lust? Would self-effacing peace overcome self-indulgent bitterness? Would liberty overpower bondage? Would the forces motivating the creation and maintenance of the past and present order of the universe be the motivating force of the future?

God did win. When the Son of God said, “It is finished,” He finalized the victory over the adversary of the kingdom. (Jn. 19:30). He had assumed all the wrath of God on sinners. God beheld the perfect love and righteousness of His Son; He saw “the travail of His soul,” and was “satisfied.” (Isa. 53:11).

And in the presence of that perfect innocence and purity, the torture and wrath of Satan could do nothing else but find expression. Like the devils that, during the ministry of Christ, could not rest in the presence of Jesus, and like Cain filled with rage in the presence of Abel, Satan reacted to the self-sacrificing love of Christ with murderous passion that ripped the self-righteous mask off of his face.

God is the rock; He and His Son are the anchor of the intelligent creation and He is our rock. “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” (1Cor. 3:11). All other cornerstones are sand.

Within the human families God has made the same structure as His government. The father, the man, is the husband, the “house-band”. He holds the home together. The male adult, made in Gods image, resembles the Father, more than the mother does. Lacking in all the emotion and outward expression of mercy that the mother has, the man lays down the law and, by nature, is the enforcer of the law of the home. He also has the physical advantage to accomplish law enforcement by deterrence or actual execution of punishment. This has ever been God’s role in His universe.

But the wife and mother has her own subordinate yet utterly essential place and role. A family cannot hold together by law and law enforcement alone. There must be affection and mercy; there must be warmth and softness. There must be comforts and decorations, beauty and charm. All of these essentials the adult female, the matriarch naturally brings to the home and complements the power and justice that the patriarch demands.

Can we garner a lesson from our solar system with regard to the family structure? The sun is the great center of attraction among the little planets. But the next largest is the giant Jupiter, fuming with its own forces, that creates its own attraction out in the middle of the junior members of the solar unit. The planets don’t gather around her, but she stands as the queen of our planetary home. She sits between the four junior planets and their three bigger siblings. Pluto, is still part of the family, but seems like the child that ran away from home.

What part Jupiter actually plays in influencing the other planets in their orbits, I don’t know; but I would like to find out. “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth” in the solar system and in the entire universe! (Psa. 8:9).

Tribulation such as never was


“Hitherto is the end of the matter. As for me Daniel, my cogitations much troubled me, and my countenance changed in me: but I kept the matter in my heart.” (Dan. 7:28).
 “And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it.” (Dan. 8:27).

What did Daniel see? Was it more than just someone assuming the non-scriptural office of Vicar of Christ, taking God’s name in vain? Someone standing “up against the Prince of princes” (Dan. 8:25), taking His place? Is that what made Daniel faint and be ill? Is that what robbed his peace and affected the normal cheerfulness of a man widely known throughout the empire as a man who had “an excellent spirit,” “in whom [was] the spirit of the holy gods;” in whom “light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods,… and dissolving of doubts” “and excellent wisdom,” were found in him? (Dan. 5:11-13).

Hadn’t Daniel seen some awful behavior in the courts of Belshazzar, a vain king who thought nothing of profaning the holy vessels of Jehovah’s temple, who everyone knew was a God of true holiness and mercy. Yet, all the gross products of idolatry—the arrogance, the license, and the drunken orgies on Christmas and Easter—did not affect Daniel like what he saw in the visions. What did he see in the visions?

We’ve read of the murderous history of the medieval Papacy, the man of sin, the little horn power of Daniel 7 and 8. We’ve seen the growth of an unstoppable force of demonic anger and violence controlling the Christian church, beginning when the church lost its first love.

“Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;… Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” (Rev. 2:1,4,5). This announcement concerned the church’s condition long before John wrote the Revelation in 95 A.D., with a solemn warning that refusal to repent, would be the cause of their candlestick to be taken away. Their light would go out and remain extinguished, which is exactly what happened.

In John’s vision he saw a red horse that followed a white horse. The rider of the red horse had power to take peace from the earth. Because the majority of the church would not heed the warning of Jesus concerning the first love, when their connection with God, which illuminated their faith, did go out, they lost their peace; and they never sought it again. This was similar to King Saul, when he would not repent of losing that first joy and peace in believing.

“God gave him another heart:…a company of prophets met him;…the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.” (1Sam. 10:9,10). “But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.” (1Sam. 16:14). Continued refusal to repent left him unprepared for another test of character. “And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom?
And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.
And it came to pass on the morrow, that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house.” (1Sam. 18:8-10).

Satan took over Saul’s soul more and more until he wanted to murder “a man after [God’s] own heart,” a youth who was “as an angel of God.” (1Sam. 13:14;29:9). The church fathers lost their peace because they forfeited the science of salvation and a knowledge of God’s mercy, as they increasingly fed on the idolatry of the Roman Empire. King Saul hoped in an earthly kingdom as well, and his soul slipped into Satan’s grip without him recognizing it; this happened to the church fathers.

From that point onward, the church fathers exalted self and lost any hope of serving their Master in the heavens. They could not live without mixing Greek philosophy into the truth and allegorized the scriptures into Aesop’s fables, rendering the powerful word of God a useless fiction blending humanism and morals. They were doing no differently than the Jewish rabbis had done during the dark inter-testamental period after Nehemiah and Malachi.

The church fathers were Judaizing. “Judah hath dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah hath profaned the holiness of the LORD which He loved, and hath married the daughter of a strange God. The LORD will cut off the man that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles of Jacob, and him that offereth an offering unto the LORD of hosts.” (Mal. 2:11,12). “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness.” (Rom. 1:18). While the church fathers were excommunicating genuine commandment-keepers on the accusation of Judaizing, they were the ones guilty of Judaizing. For Judaism, according to Malachi’s testimony, resulted from Judah’s adoption of paganism into the Hebrew religion. Satan was simply continuing the same program with the early church that he had started with the Jews. Here we see God’s one eternal, true religion, “the everlasting covenant”, “the everlasting gospel” (Isa. 24:5;Rev. 14:6), powerfully influenced by paganism when backed by the violent and dictatorial civil Roman government.

And, per Satan’s standard procedure, the guilty who can beat their drums the loudest and have the military and government media behind them, can project their treacherous wickedness onto the innocent whom they fear will expose their sanctimonious fraud. “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake.  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” (Matt. 5:11,12).

As the centuries passed, the official church assumed greater and greater authority of God while adopting more and more pagan traditions. A list of assumptions by the Church follows by their date:

56    Paul warned  of “a falling away” of the church
56    “The mystery of iniquity doth already work.” (2Thess. 2:3-7).
64     “Grievous wolves [shall] enter in among you.”  (Acts 20:29).
95    “Antichrist…now already is it in the world.” (1Jn. 4:3).
95     “Even now are there many antichrists.” (1Jn. 2:18).
120   First Waldensian Christian opposition to the church apostasy
150   Justin Martyr muddied the stream of pure Christian doctrine
175   His student, Tatian wrote the Diatessaron, corrupted Gospels
200   His student, Clement taught Bible mixed with pagan philosophy
250   His student, Origen allegorized Bible into humanistic fables
331   His follower, Eusebius made first Greek Bible using Origen
380   Jerome wrote Vulgate from corrupted Eusebio-Origen type
431   Worship of Mary and applying to her the term, “Mother of God”
607 (or 610)  Boniface III made first uncontestable Pope
709    Kissing the pope’s foot
764    Worshiping the images and relics
850    Use of “Holy Water” began
995    Canonization of dead saints
998    Fasting on Fridays and during Lent
1079  Celibacy of the priesthood decreed
1090  Prayer beads (The Rosary)
1184  The Inquisition
1190  Sale of Indulgences
1215  Transubstantiation dogma decreed
1215  Confession of sin to a priest instituted
1220  Adoration of Host (Communion Wafer)
1229  Bible forbidden to laymen
1414  Cup forbidden to people at communion
1439  Doctrine of Purgatory decreed
1508  The Ave Maria approved
1534  Jesuit order founded
1545  Tradition granted equal authority as the Bible
1546  Apocryphal books put into the Bible
1854  Immaculate Conception of Mary introduced
1864  Syllabus of errors proclaimed
1870  Infallibility of the Pope declared
1930  Public schools condemned
1950  Assumption of the Virgin Mary
1965  Mary proclaimed “Mother of the Church”

And anyone who spoke out against the sacred liberties of the Church was hunted down, and demonically killed with as much torture as possible. Their goddess was Cybele or the ancient Semiramis, whose appearance was beautiful, but whose personality was split between ostentatious affection to those who adored her, and fierce, tyrannical revenge on all who dared to cross her. She guided the character of the pagan Roman Empire and of the Holy Roman Empire. When the Church adopted all of the pagan gods and baptized them as her holy retinue of saints, Cybele, mother of the Gods, became Mary, mother of God. Worshiping such a goddess reflected back onto the character of the Church and made it as murderous as the devil Cybele or Semiramis had represented from antiquity. Thus, the brutal vengeance of the Church against her dissenters or anyone who read and taught the Bible as the apostles wrote it.

But all of this, as horrible as it was, was not the worst of the tribulations. Jesus, regarding the days before His return, said, “Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Mat. 24:21,22).

In the Revelation, John saw a series of kings who would do Satan’s work to support the imperious and violent pagan woman, sitting upon the beast, “the great whore” (Rev. 17:1) of Babylon. “And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.” (Rev. 17:11). “The kings of the earth…have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her.” (Rev. 18:9).
“Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.” (Rev. 12:12).

With the continued recent rise of the papacy, the generation gap that has plagued Christian nations for the past fifty years will spread around the globe as Democracy and Christianity occupy in the wake each victory of the world war on terror. This generation gap is Satan’s tool to undo God’s great plan of redemption and to destroy all the families of the earth. Children will become the instruments of Satan to kill their own parents. “The brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.” (Matt. 10:21). Satan will create a vast army of crafty, duplicitous youth assassins, all garbed in a nice appearance of Christian humility until they accomplished the act of murder. “Through his policy [his dogma and legislated decrees] also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many.” (Dan. 8:25).

This is what caused Daniel to faint when beholding the details of the vision.

“Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grapegleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat: my soul desired the firstripe fruit.
The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.
That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.
The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.
Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.
For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man’s enemies are the men of his own house.” (Mic. 7:1-6).

“Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil!
Thou hast consulted shame to thy house by cutting off many people, and hast sinned against thy soul.
For the stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.
Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and stablisheth a city by iniquity!” (Hab. 2:9-12).

Through the duo of the Christian church and the holy armies of America, the devil will rid the nations of the last vestige of the image of God in humanity.
“For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.
Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?
Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble.” (Jer. 30:5-7).

All that Daniel saw and grieved over, to the point of falling ill, will be the experience of God’s people in that fearful and sorrowful time. With Daniel, they will “sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst” of the land. (Eze. 9:4). This will be the climax of the terrors of the Day of Atonement. “Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.” (Lev. 23:27-29). On them is put the seal of God. (Eze. 9:4;Rev. 9:4).

“Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.” (Eze. 35:14). Everyone who celebrates, rather than sigh and cry for the wickedness in the land and afflict his soul for his own sinfulness, is no different from Babylon and Sodom. “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.” (Eze 16:49). “This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the LORD of hosts.
The LORD will be terrible unto them: for He will famish all the Gods of the earth; and men shall worship Him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.…
This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.” (Zeph. 2:10,11,15).
 “In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD.” (Jer. 51:39). All who partake of the celebration churches in this Day of Atonement will receive the mark of the beast and be smitten with the angels’ slaughtering weapons. (Eze. 9:5;Rev. 9:5).

“Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the Gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:
The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.” (Deut. 29:18-20). Everyone who enjoys himself at that time will receive the mark of the beast. “The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Rev. 14:11).


“Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.
I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.
Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed.
In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.
Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.
Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things.
The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.
Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.” (Mic. 7:8-20).

“The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies; neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth: for they shall feed and lie down, and none shall make them afraid.
Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
The LORD hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more.
In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.
The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.
I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly, who are of thee, to whom the reproach of it was a burden.
Behold, at that time I will undo all that afflict thee: and I will save her that halteth, and gather her that was driven out; and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame.
At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth, when I turn back your captivity before your eyes, saith the LORD.” (Zeph. 3:13-20).
 “And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.” (Dan. 11:45).

“Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them?
Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the people shall spoil thee; because of men’s blood, and for the violence of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.” (Hab. 2:7,8).

“He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity: he that killeth with the swor d must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” (Rev. 13:9-10).

Friday, January 25, 2013

Revelation 11 and 12

Revelation 11 describes a case history. It measures the church. God’s people have always lived under His rulership—which means accepting His governance, coming up to His expectations. “Now we know that what things soever the Law saith, it saith to them who are under the Law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.” (Rom. 3:19). As chief of His tribes, He was elected first by Abraham, then by the apostles, to be the best leader, whom they could trust to do what was best for them, their tribe, their kingdom, His kingdom.

But while Israel’s God was 100% faithful to benefit the tribe or nation, the nation was not nearly so faithful to heed His rulership. Always rebelling against His will, Satan eventually filled them with an intense loathing of their Savior and merciful King. “His citizens hated Him, and sent a message after Him, saying, We will not have this Man to reign over us.” (Luk. 19:14). But, because of “a very small remnant” (Isa. 1:9) and His great mercy, their departure from the agreed-upon Leader-subject covenant did not immediately end their God’s relationship with them. So He judged them often.

“And therefore will the LORD wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for Him.” (Isa. 30:18).

His love for them was constant, as was His fatherly measuring and discipline. “And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it.” (Luk. 19:41). “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.” (Mat. 23:37-38).

Likewise His church, His new “peculiar treasure unto Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine,” was to “be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” (Exo. 19:5,6). “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.” (1Pet. 2:9-10).

The apostolic church had accepted His covenant, each to have and to hold until death do us part. “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” (Matt. 28:20). But that Father-child, King-subject covenant would likewise mean His Lordship, His rulership to judge us, to measure us, to keep us on the right track and to move us back to the right track if we departed from it. But, we have been as weak-willed and disobedient as ancient Israel.

So, we have His rebukes and His promises. “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith He that holdeth the seven stars in His right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;
I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:
And hast borne, and hast patience, and for My name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” (Rev. 2:1-7). This letter was a sample of six others to the church during its covenant period, the Christian dispensation. This dispensation is prophesied of again in the beautiful prophecy of Revelation 11.

The church is represented by two witnesses who keep up a constant warfare against the Gentile forces who desire to attack and to destroy the “the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.” (Rev. 11:1). The following prophecy in Revelation 12 shows the same defense except by taking up their position in the wilderness. But this rather literal location in the Alps and islands and distant lands, apart from the populated cities of civilization, in no way weakened their war effort; but rather, it strengthened and enhanced their missionary work of spreading the gospel to the world; staying in a land of Goshen alone made it possible for them to wage a relentless war. Living among the filth and degradation of the European pagan empire would only have poisoned the surviving church and brought it to ruin.

Both Revelation chapters 11 and 12 speak of the same scenario, albeit, using two different prophecies. Both show a war for 1,260 years; but each prophecy adds some unique details to the combined story. Chapter 11 clearly pictures the winning battles of the church of God against the heathen hordes of Satan, “their enemies,” “people and kindreds and tongues and nations.” (Rev. 11:5,6,9). Chapter 12 shows a war in heaven that coincides with the war on earth during the 1,260 year period; but then Christ finally wins over the Dragon (Satan), who is cast to the earth near the end of that long period when the mighty Protestant Reformation is born.

Never to be undone, the Dragon sends a flood of persecution against the church through the Jesuits, unlike any other persecution before this time. But, through Providence the earth swallows that flood of persecution when America becomes the refuge for the Reformation. So the demonic Dragon in fury redoubles his warfare against the last and final church. “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (Rev. 12:17).

This is where chapter 11 picks up the storyline again. In 1849, in the 5th and 6th trumpets (Rev. 9), the Dragon is loosed from a divine prohibition on unlimited temptation. “And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.” (Rev. 11:7). The Dragon and his beast power make renewed warfare against the church and it finally brings God’s people into subjection like it had never been able to do during all the church’s history since the two witnesses began their “defence of the gospel” in the apostolic church. (Phil. 1:17).

The Protestant armies finally lose and fall prey to total spiritual annihilation. They lay dead in the “the holy city,” prophetic Jerusalem. (Rev. 11:2,8). A period similar to their period of success during the 3 ½ figurative years, they lay dead and exposed to the elements; and the armies of Satan for figurative 3 ½ days, helpless objects to the Saturnalia jests and partying of the new dispensation’s Philistines. The temple is unguarded and the golden altar is taken like the confiscated ark of the covenant after the slaughter of Israel’s armies in the days of Eli. The church could cry out like the Israelites of old, “Ichabod…. The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken.” (1Sam. 4:21).

After the Dark Ages of Satan’s magnifying himself against Christ, who is “the Prince of the host,” the devil succeeded again to take away “the daily sacrifice,” and cast down “the place of His sanctuary.” (Dan. 8:11). Once again, but now through the Protestants “an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.” (Dan. 8:12).

And so, here we lay, dispossessed of “the temple of God, and the altar, and them that worship therein.” (Rev. 11:1). We have lost the power to protest because we have sold ourselves to the subjugators. Again, Satan and his earthly agency are waxing great, “even to the host of heaven;” and is casting down God’s people “to the ground, and stamped upon them.” (Dan. 8:10). Because of transgression, we are the new host that was given over to the Dragon “against the daily sacrifice; and it practised, and prospered.” (Dan. 8:12).

The letter to Laodicea is to us Protestants.

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of My mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.
To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” (Rev. 3:14-22).

Thankfully, the story doesn’t end here; the prophecy doesn’t close in such desolate circumstances. After the 3 ½ days God makes one last call and His call is heard. The people of God are resurrected.

“For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:
That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent Him.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth My word, and believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself;
And hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of man.” (Jn. 5:22-27). “For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom He will.” (Jn. 5:21).

The Spirit of God enters into His people and they revive to confess their sins against Him and to do vengeance on His adversary, the devil; “and great fear fell upon them which saw them.” (Rev. 11:11). The armies of the living God receive the Latter Rain; the paganized world-wide Jerusalem falls and the remnant that come out of Babylon “fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come,” and they “worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” (Rev. 11:12;14:7).

The 144,000 have finally learn righteousness by faith and win over to God the “great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues.” (Rev. 7:9). And the final end can come. The world is in chaos but Christ leaves the sanctuary to save His people. “And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.” (Rev. 11:19).

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

The good Law of victory

“Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” (Rom. 7:13).

Is the Law good or bad? “What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? God forbid.” (Rom. 7:7). The holy Law of God “is good.” Even still, “if there had been a Law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the Law.” (Gal. 3:21). Is it death or life? That depends on our current nature. Do we have the fallen human nature or are we “partakers of the divine nature” (2Pet. 1:4)?

What Paul is saying here is that the Law of God severely ruffles our feathers—even possibly lethally. But God doesn’t mean to kill His servants with His Law. “God forbid.” Our death is not His purpose by revealing His Law. “For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before Me, and the souls which I have made.” (Isa. 57:1).

“The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger for ever.…
For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.” (Psa. 103:8,9,14). It’s not His Law that kills us, “but sin.” (Rom. 7:13).

So what is His reason for crushing us with guilt and shame? Why then the tremendous hopelessness we feel when standing before the infinitely high mark of His will? It is so “that [sin] might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” (Rom. 7:13). “For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.” (Rom. 7:11).

Sin is what is working death into us. Sin despises goodness and purity. Rebellion hates submission and humility. Sin is the murderer, not God or His Law. But will we ever be submissive to goodness or surrender our pride and escape the death of sin? Aren’t those roots so deep that we will have them until we see Jesus on the mighty day of His return?

“Beloved,…it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” (1Jn.3:2). “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” (1Co. 15:52). “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself.” (Php. 3:20,21).
“For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” (1Co. 15:53,54).

Does this mean that we will go on sinning until Jesus comes? Until then, will we find our Christian experience summed up in the wail, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24). That doesn’t sound like the victory cry, “Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” (Rom. 15:13). No, “O wretched man that I am!” sounds like some poor ascetic flagellating himself for his never-ending plague of sin.

Christ is waiting with longing desire for the manifestation of Himself in His church. When the character of Christ shall be perfectly reproduced in His people, then He will come to claim them as His own.  Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 69.

    Says the prophet: “Who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap: and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.” Malachi 3:2, 3. Those who are living upon the earth when the intercession of Christ shall cease in the sanctuary above are to stand in the sight of a holy God without a mediator. Their robes must be spotless, their characters must be purified from sin by the blood of sprinkling. Through the grace of God and their own diligent effort they must be conquerors in the battle with evil. While the investigative judgment is going forward in heaven, while the sins of penitent believers are being removed from the sanctuary, there is to be a special work of purification, of putting away of sin, among God’s people upon earth. This work is more clearly presented in the messages of Revelation 14. 
     When this work shall have been accomplished, the followers of Christ will be ready for His appearing. “Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years.” Malachi 3:4. Then the church which our Lord at His coming is to receive to Himself will be a “glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing.” Ephesians 5:27. Then she will look “forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.” Song of Solomon 6:10. Great Controversy, p. 425.

Paul says victory is possible for a certain people. “…That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:4,5). While it isn’t fulfilled in everybody, victory over sin in this life must be possible for some. “Thou shalt call His name JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins.” (Mat. 1:21).

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed His people,…
That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;…
That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.” (Luk. 1:68-71,74,75).
“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy.” (Jude 24).

“Wherefore then serveth the Law?” (Gal. 3:19). “Sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.” (Rom. 7:13).
 “For I was alive without the Law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” (Rom. 7:9). Because of the Law, the Bible, the Spirit of Prophecy, I died. My self perished; self-will, pride, hope based on self-accomplishment—all were slain by the powerful testimony of Jesus, His mouth like a two-edge sword.

“For we know that the Law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.” (Rom. 7:14). We are carnal; our fallen natures naturally crave the satisfaction and preservation of self on all levels to some degree. The best of us are capable of the worst, and will be until the day Jesus comes. If not, then why need glorification at His coming?

We are carnal, but the Law is purely spiritual. It is self-less. It requires faith and love to obey it. This is so because its Author is infinitely unselfish. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:9). His love is infinitely self-sacrificing. This Jesus came to prove.

“For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” (Rom. 8:3). His Father’s spiritual Law was demonstrated perfectly by Him, “who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth:
who, when He was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not; but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously:
who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.” (1Pe. 2:22-24).

“And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luk. 23:33,34).
 “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Mar. 15:34).
“And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with Me in paradise.” (Luk. 23:43).
 “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.” (Joh. 19:28).
 “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and.” “He said, Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit: and having said thus, He gave up the ghost.” (Joh. 19:30;Luk. 23:46).
   “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Gal. 2:20).

The grace of God’s Spirit will sanctify us. But “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Gal. 5:17). The war is on between my faith and my fallen nature, between the gift of Christ’s nature, His power to fight my battle of sin, and my choice to ignore Him and to parley with temptation; between His robe that covers my putrid rags; “I” versus “sin that dwelleth in me.” (Rom. 7:20). Between My heart-felt desire to overcome and the deeply rooted sin that dwells in me.

The Law can be kept. Christ proved that by taking our body and nature. In our situation and in the condition of our fallen nature, He “condemned sin.” (Rom. 8:3). He did it when He walked on earth so that He could show us how to do it as He did it. Jesus said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (Joh. 16:33). He overcame so that we might overcome; that by beholding Him “the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:4). “We all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2Co. 3:18).

True, the Law cannot give us the power to overcome sin; the Law cannot save us. But God has left His Law in order to bring us to the need of His Son’s presence and power. Without the Law we could never need a Savior from our fallen nature. We would never even know we are so bad off that we should be destroyed when sin is destroyed at His coming. (Rom. 1:29-32;1Cor. 15:25).

Like Elijah and John the Baptist, before God sends His salvation, He sends His fore-runners to lift up their voices against us. “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” (Isa. 58:1). God must arouse our minds to our truly lost condition. And these servants faithfully present the Law in all of its force. “For I was alive without the Law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” (Rom. 7:9). Then He sends His Elisha and His only begotten Son, in whom alone He is well pleased, to heal the hearts that were broken, “to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He might be glorified.” (Isa. 61:2,3).

In all of the chaos that often arises from our resistance to God’s revelation, there is a method to the apparent madness; it is His science of salvation. Satan fights to keep his captives; he misrepresents and twists every word that God’s Spirit presents to our conscience. The demons call black white and white black. They “call evil good, and good evil;…darkness for light, and light for darkness;…bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isa. 5:20).

The devil puts on a real exhibition of resistance in us just like he did long ago. “And they brought him unto Him: and when he saw Him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.” (Mar. 9:20). Their repentings are,“That which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.… The good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” (Rom. 7:15,19). “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” (Gal. 5:17).

But if we will hang onto the hope in God’s grace toward us, that “He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger for ever,” that, “like as a father pitieth His children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear Him,” then He will bring us off more than conquerors. (Psa. 103:9,13). If we will “let patience have her perfect work,” then we will “be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” (Jas. 1:4). To all who will endure the chastisement of their peace and all the confusion, then “blessed are all they that wait for Him.” (Isa. 30:18). Then we finally lose all self-sufficiency and all doubt, wholly depending on Christ to do what He promised He would, and we let ourselves crumble before Him, saying, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” (Mar. 9:24). Jesus rebukes “the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.” “Peace, be still!” Another cry and scream, another flailing about in the fire, and then there is a great calm. (Mar. 9:25;4:39). Jesus has won another battle.

All of this heartache, both ours and our Savior’s: “That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside Me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” (Isa. 45:6,7).

“Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?
But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.
And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.” (Isa. 49:24-26).

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The Tale of Two Bibles

“Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you.
Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.” (Deut. 4:1,2).
“I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” (Rev. 22:18,19).

The NIV and every other version since the King James Version are a translation of a translation; they are a paraphrase; they are not original translations. They are based on the new branch of higher criticism of two theologians, Cambridge professors Mr. Westcott and Mr. Hort, which they translated from the apparently ancient Greek Bibles, Vaticanus Codex B and Sinaiticus Codex Aleph. Both of these manuscripts were virtually identical to each other and the making of the famed church father, Eusebius of Ceaserea, (who refused to preach the gospel without mixing into it Greek philosophy) who wrote fifty of them at the imperial command of Emperor Constantine, and were designed at his direction to incorporate many pagan concepts and practices into Christianity in order for the emperor to unite his empire, which was being by pervasive self-indulgence and being shaken by Christianity. Thus, the new Bibles came from the pen of Eusebius were full of corruptions in comparison to the original apostolic text. A little while later, Jerome received a commission from the church to make an official Latin Bible, knowing his love of Eusebius’ mixture of pure Bible truth with heathen ideas. Jerome produced the corrupted Latin Vulgate.

Every newer version since Revision Committee of 1870, from which the Revised Version came, have all been based on the translation of the Revision Committee lead by Mr. Westcott and Mr. Hort, instead of on the original “Received Text”. This Textus Receptus came down through the Dark Ages due to the unofficial Church in the wilderness. Of all the branches of this unofficial Christianity, the Celtic, the Gallic, the Syrian, the Abyssinian, the St. Thomas, the Nestorian, the Parthian, the Waldensian, the latter was the most persecuted; and yet to them and their Italick Bible we most largely owe for the existence of the Bible handed down from the apostles.

From the Italick Bible came the Tyndale, the Geneva, and the Lutheran Bibles; and from these and the Italick came forth the King James Bible. It stood for 300 years and established its authority, battling against the errors of darkness from Rome. “God in His wisdom had invested these Latin versions by His Providence with a charm that outweighed the leaned artificiality of Jerome’s Vulgate.” B.G. Wilkinson, True and False Bible Translation.

But, the Jesuits were commissioned to destroy the momentous offspring of the Textus Receptus—the Protestant nation of America. From many directions have they have bent their strategies to accomplish the downfall of America, politically, constitutionally, socially, economically, scientifically, and not the least, religiously.

They have joined the political parties, the media and entertainment industries, the banking sector, and the denominations. They started at the bottom of each organization, and through the effort of each individual Jesuit, by striving and jockeying for promotions, and by the mysterious inner connections of Rome through the power of legislation and policy-making, were able to rise to the top of the organizations within all of the branches of America’s infrastructure. Then they steered those organizations from the top to do the will of Rome.

It was their studied aim to gain entrance, under the guise of friendship, into services of the state and to climb up as advisers to the highest officers, where they could so influence affairs as to bring them into the orbit of Rome. They were past masters of the ways of deception. They were adept in the policy of secretly bringing on a public disaster, simultaneously providing for salvation from the last terrors of that disaster; thus they would be credited with salvation from the extremity of the calamity, while others were blamed for its cause. Truth Triumphant p. 316.

The individual Jesuit looked, sounded, acted like the average American. English with its varying accents was their native tongue. American was their culture. Protestantism was their religion. The U.S. Constitution was apparently their ideal and love, as was the King James Version Bible, apparently.

But it was all a duplicitous fraud. Their loyalty was not to America, but wholly to the Papacy. They were undercover agents working behind enemy lines—Protestantism being the enemy.

When they could, they fomented the American Civil War, and every other civil strife in the world. When they could, they created WWI and WWII. When they could they produced 9/11 and the U.S. Patriot Act and this War on Terror that is establishing U.S. military bases around the world in preparation for the third and final world war.

When they could, they harnessed the Protestant oil industry; when they could they took over Hollywood and the media. When Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species came out, their men quickly moved upon it and made it the instrument to redesign every branch of science; this, ultimately to destroy the faith of Protestants by promoting the non-existence of God. And when they had men to move into high ranking positions of our theological schools, those agents of Rome were the men who worked under Mr. Westcott and Mr. Hort to bring Protestantism the new revision of the Bible in 1881.  Although the changes from the King James Version were slight, barely noticed by the churched Americans and called insignificant by critics against its propositions, through its thousands of additions and deletions, it paved the way for more additions and deletions in later versions, which later Jesuits would be commissioned by Rome to create.

Today, for a generation or two now, most Protestant Americans do not understand the Bible, its thrust, its language, and thought; they are confused as to its content because of the plethora of versions, and because they have been defiled by the abominations of Rome through her entertainment industry which they sold their souls to consume.

The Bible’s warning to us today through Moses trumpets loudly and clearly.
“Your eyes have seen what the LORD did because of Baalpeor: for all the men that followed Baalpeor, the LORD thy God hath destroyed them from among you.
But ye that did cleave unto the LORD your God are alive every one of you this day.
Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it.
Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon Him for?
And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?
Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons’ sons.” (Deut. 4:3-9).

Do Protestants even know what significance this warning speaks of about them in this portentous hour? Israel was at Baal-peor, on the very borders of the Land of Promise and preparing to go in. Balaam’s curses failed to harm them, so his capricious soul devised another scheme to destroy Israel. Soon, friendly and provocatively dressed Midianite women began entering the Israelite camp and inviting the men to worship with them. Before long, a silent stampede from the tents of Jehovah began, and made its way to the party and the debasing worship of Baal. The end of that foray was the death of 24,000 Israelite fathers, brothers, and sons. Even the elder and leaders got carried away in the apostasy.

This incident was faithfully recorded as a testimony against us. Plainly, from the beginning of the Bible to its closing pages, in scripture indecent women represent the human agency of Satan to destroy Christ’s righteousness and His people. Figuratively and prophetically, women have represented religion, either the one true religion of God in the world, or the one false religion from Satan and his human followers.

Babylon was the source of Baal worship and every other form of the one false, counterfeiting religion in the world. One of the characteristics of the last victorious army of God which accomplishes the final overthrow of Babylon and Baal worship, is that the armies of spiritual Israel, “were not defiled with women.” (Rev. 14:4).

But what have we seen in the cornucopia of Bibles and the Protestants’ reception of them? What have we seen in Protestant America’s acceptance of the corrupt media and entertainment industries? What do we see in the new efforts to unite with New Age spiritualist Christianity born from the Far East religions? Look at Protestantism’s inculcation of the meditation and contemplation practices that empty the mind through Ignatius Loyola’s Spiritual Formation. Unbelievable? And listen to the call by Protestant leaders to unite church and state!

The women of Baal-peor have been speaking their smooth sayings from Protestant pulpits all through the land, “Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.” (Prov. 7:18). Are we sober and awake to recognize it? Here on the borders of the heavenly Canaan, have we become drunken with her carnal methods when behind all of these sweet sounding overtures of Rome’s Jesuits is our “adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, [walking] about, seeking whom he may devour”? (1Pet. 5:8).

Don’t forget that when Rome is in the minority she is meek as a lamb; when she is on the equality, when is clever as a fox; and when she is in the majority she is ferocious as a tiger. Let’s not be defiled with her women. Let’s escape her political and entertainment lures. Let’s remember our Protestant roots, let’s return to our Protestant KJV Bibles that points a powerful finger at Rome as the beast of Revelation, and let’s go back to our Reformation religion. “Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.” (Jer. 6:16).

Joy in the Holy Ghost

“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.” (Rom. 15:13).
 “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.” (Rom. 14:17).
“And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.
For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them: and many taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed.
And there was great joy in that city.” (Acts 8:6-8).
 “Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.” (Phil. 4:1).

We can have the proper diet, drink the eight glasses of pure water, breathe the fresh air, get the sunlight; we can exercise and rest, and abstain from unhealthful practices. We can have the perfect lifestyle and glory in our physical health like the Pharisee in the parable because of his fasting; but if we fail in the last law of health—trust in divine power—we will get cancer and die. Without the trusting God, our efforts to be healthy and happy are all for nothing. If anyone keeps all the commandments except one, he breaks them all.

Faith is the basis for health; trusting God is the foundation, the starting point. Yet, multitudes attempt to extend their life spans without faith in a Friend in the heavens. Maybe some fortunate ones, who have inherited a strong constitution, can have longevity without a relationship with Jesus. But quantity of years doesn’t necessarily equate to quality of life. Happiness still eludes them.

Peace and joy, rest and happiness: this truly is the elixir of life. It will be what the Latter Rain of the Holy Spirit is about, because the Holy Ghost is about joy and peace—joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. In God is the only place for joy and peace.

“Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption.
Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Psa. 16:9-11). So, let us dwell in Him.

“A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.” (Prov. 17:22). This merry heart comes not from a chemical ingested or injected, a powerful drug made by man. That results not in joy, but in sorrow. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” (Prov. 16:25). “With a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest.”
(Prov. 29:9).

Neither does this true joy come from a heart empty of God, even though the religious person goes to church or the agnostic tries to be moral. Without the experience of falling on the stone Law of Jesus and letting the natural pride break into pieces, approaching the joy that attends the sanctification of the Spirit is attempting impossibility. No joy comes from avoiding the difficulties and trauma of the new birth. Facing the Law of God and all of its thunder and lightning, its condemnation and wrath, is the strait gate and narrow way to life, which few ever find, because they dont want the thunder. But, when it is found, the grand finale is fireworks of joy and peace in the Holy Ghost. “There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” (Lk. 15:10). And there is rest in our soul. “The end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” (1Tim. 1:5). What more could one ask for?! Our Creator and Father gives us the best! There is no other path to real happiness.

After decades of punishment for rampant apostasy from God’s Law, the Jews returned to their old land and started over again. They now had ears to hear truth what their fathers, for so many generations, had never before been able to hear, and the Lord gave them an amazing teaching priest in Ezra who would explain the Bible after the leaders read from it. “So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.
And Nehemiah, which is the Tirshatha, and Ezra the priest the scribe, and the Levites that taught the people, said unto all the people, This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep. For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law.
Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, Hold your peace, for the day is holy; neither be ye grieved.
And all the people went their way to eat, and to drink, and to send portions, and to make great mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them.” (Neh. 8:8-12).

A corporate surrender swept through the small nation, and confession of sins spontaneously sprang from the hearts of the people. Then they sealed their reconciliation with the signing of a vow of obedience to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the Lord their God. “Also that day they offered great sacrifices, and rejoiced: for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wives also and the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off.” (Neh. 12:43).

The true merry heart is the heart surrendered to the mighty hand of God and the long arm of His Law. It doesn’t come cheap; the cost is great—total self-sacrifice of the heart to God. It comes through no man-made gimmick. The medicine which salvation offers comes only from the presence of God in the soul, His heart vibrating with ours. The false religions of the world have no relation with their Creator, and thus, receive no life from Him.

And they have no knowledge of how to get to the Life-giver. Therefore they teach ideas that simple laughter, devoid of God, will cause good health; and multitudes believe it. It might bring some health because God rewards obedience of any degree, but these health concepts are severely limited, and so is God’s blessing on them. True healing and happiness come when faith in the operation of God has opened the way for Him to resolve all of life’s troubles; and, then He is in charge. Then we can rest; then we can have joy and health.

One day I was running on a bike path and ahead of me was a man walking briskly who, from a distance, sounded schizophrenic. I could hear his frenetic laughing, “Hohohohoho Hahahahaha Hehehehehe Hahahahaha….”  As I gained on him he continued his repeated mechanically chuckling. Very strange, I thought. After I passed him I remembered Proverbs 17:22 (A merry heart doeth good…). As I thought about the verse, I realized that there must be a discipline out there that teaches a connection between laughing and health. Scientific studies have shown that there is some truth to laughter and well-being. This man, being oriental, probably was following the advice of an ancient oriental physician.

I’ve even heard of churches in America that base their worship service on laughing. The pastor’s sermons must be comprised of a lot of jokes and quips and funny stories. Righteousness By Hilarity. This kind of worship lies close to the celebration style of worship. But however good and beneficial it looks, salvation by hilarity and celebration is a mistake—and a big one, especially in the Investigative Judgment of the antitypical Day of Atonement in which we live today. It’s a diversion from the true joy and peace that God wants to give us after we have come into the presence of His Law and our pride has shrivelled up and been laid in the dust. Any rejoicing is empty if that proud beast is not killed. “Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.” (Prov. 14:13).

The only way to real joy and happiness is to fear God and glorify Him in obedience to His laws, wrestling with Him in our resistance to obedience, but recognizing that the hour of His judgment has come. True joy only comes through God’s justification of sinners when He accepts our repentance and brokenness, and forgives us. Peace comes from God’s acceptance. While the unregenerated man is rejected, he can have only resentment toward God; and all the right living and lifestyle will never compensate for the lack of right relationship with God, as he wallows in his resentment of Him. Salvation by anything else than reconciliation with God will never avoid the diseases he will contract because he can’t avoid the deleterious effects of the deep resentment growling in his soul, grinding away at his nervous system and rapidly eroding his lifespan, undoing all that diet and exercise and lifestyle gain for him. Despite all the good he tries to accomplish in the way of health, without reconciliation to God he is climbing up the down escalator.

But, the true Christian, the one who has reconciled with God will be freed from the plague of resenting. The Spirit of God will remove all resentment upon reconciliation with Him.

Peace with God and joy in His Spirit is the true spring of happiness. David said, “All my springs are in Thee.” (Psa. 87:7). Jesus said, “Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (Jn. 4:14). “In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” (Jn. 7:37,38). Paul said it another way. “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” (2Cor. 3:17).

True happiness and life and liberty come from the Lord. If only Thomas Jefferson had been a Christian, I'm sure he would have framed the opening statements of the declaration of independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost.”

In God alone lies the source of the happiness of all creation. America soon will finish its experiment with happiness apart from Christs righteousness; and it will prove that the pursuit of happiness evades them at every step. Like the nation of Israel of old that tried to arrive at the joy promised by spiritualism, this last generation of Protestantism, the people God gave the world for a blessing, will never know peace and joy. “They shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.” (Isa. 8:22).

But, those who sorrow for the results of living apart from God will join in the last triumphant repentance and revival. The joy of the Lord will be their strength. On His church, He says, “I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” (Zech. 12:10).

“In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.…
And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends.…
And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is My people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.” (Zech. 13:1,6,9).

“Therefore will I save My flock, and they shall no more be a prey....
And I will set up one Shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, even My Servant [Christ]; He shall feed them, and He shall be their shepherd.
And I the LORD will be their God, and My Servant [Christ] a prince among them; I the LORD have spoken it.
And I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause the evil beasts to cease out of the land: and they shall dwell safely in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods.” (Eze. 34:22-25).