Author Gregory Cook in his commentary on Nahum (Severe Compassion: The Gospel According to Nahum), said that we tend to judge Israel harshly when we read the Old Testament. We think, ‘Oh those silly Israelites, how could they defect from the faith so quickly!’ But Dr. Cook said that we, in the church age, have an even greater responsibility. We have a better Mediator than Moses, who is Christ. We have the completed canon. We have the fuller revelation. We have the explicit Gospel. Cook wrote,
I have sought to demonstrate from Scripture that those of us who have received the full Bible, who have Jesus as a mediator, and who have known the gospel commit a much more serious sin than the Israelites when we love the world more than God. Does the television fascinate you more than the Bible? Do you care more about success at work than God’s glory? Do you willingly suffer shame and scorn for the sake of Christ? Ask yourself hard questions and be willing to answer honestly. Is there anything in your life that excites your passion more than Jesus? If so, you need to consider that the sins listed in the Old Testament are specks, while yours is a log.
Log, meet eye
Further Reading:
This is a good interview with Dr. Cook about his approach to writing about Nahum. He also offers advice for reading the Minor Prophets.
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.
Proverbs 1:8-9
For sale (in 2016): Gorgeous waterfront Home on Galveston Bay. This stellar property comes with TWO lots! One includes very rare private sandy beach for total land of 10,000 square feet.
Deep water right up to the dock, four bedrooms, and a guest suite downstairs. The Master bedroom has its own fireplace, wait, there are TWO Master bedrooms! Ensuite bath, whirlpool tub, double sinks, kitchen has granite countertops. There’s a fireplace in the living room, too. Screened-in porch, showers outside, covered patio, on a cul-de-sac. A must see! Listed for $827,001 – $947,000.
That property I described, based on publicly available information, sold on June 21, 2016. Guess who bought it?
When Beth Moore tweets fun tweets like that, about being unglammed in A bay house, she isn’t telling you the whole story. It’s not “a” bay house, it’s Beth Moore’s bay house. A fact she neglects to mention in her carefully crafted tweet. At the date of that tweet, they had bought the home just three weeks prior.
When you think of the outrageously wealthy televangelists and preachers, your mind would likely go to Joyce Meyer, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, or Creflo Dollar. Those are some of the guys that have been under investigation by Congress. Those are the guys who flaunt lavish toys, private jet travel, and multiple homes sprinkled around the US. You likely wouldn’t think first of … Beth Moore? But you should. She is climbing up to their level, and fast.
Beth Moore’s errant doctrine is well established and well known. She channels books, an occult activity. She blasphemes. She preaches to men. She twists the Bible. She claims direct revelation & visions from Jesus and comes back to teach what He “said,” (making herself a prophetess.) She is all about man-centered, pop-psychology, self-esteem preaching. These statements are supported, with proofs. They are not made up out of thin air.
She is a false teacher.
But part of discernment is knowing that false teachers who teach false doctrine also have lifestyle issues. Always. Where one sin exists, the other will exist. I wrote about this phenomenon with mega-rich pastors before. See additional note below in the quote about heresy and vain living.
That got me thinking. How well is Beth Moore doing? How much do these royalties pay? How much is she earning in salaries and gifts from Living Proof Ministry?
Apparently, a LOT.
Let’s examine the benefits Beth Moore and her family enjoy from her Non-Profit company and her royalties, gifts, and honorariums. First, the salaries.
Beth Moore’s Living Proof salary is about $250,000. The ministry received $500,000 in honorariums last year. Royalties came in at about $400,000 last tax year. Sponsorship income came in at $520,000. Investment income was $127,000. (Apart from salary, the other figures don’t go directly to Beth Moore but are funneled through Living Proof for operating expenses etc.) Living Proof total assets on the latest Tax Returnis $14 million dollars.
The personal royalties separate from Living Proof that Beth Moore earned from her movie appearance in the War Room movie is unknown.
Note: Beth’s daughter Melissa is also supported by the ministry, her salary is about $130,000.
Note: The Vice-President of Living Proof Ministries, Ivan Keith Moore, is Catholic.
A woman who said she works for LifeWay, tweeted,
“No one’s products provide as much revenue as Beth Moore’s.”
Luxuries: She owns a boat. When she travels, she travels by first class or, private jet. On the 2014 tax return, it stated that when Beth Moore flew to Houston with her daughter Melissa to preach at Hillsong, she bumped herself and Melissa up to first class cabins. Hillsong paid for the coach fare, the Ministry paid for the extra luxury to go first class. After that, she began to fly in a private jet, with LifeWay paying half and Living Proof Ministry paid the other half. The Tax returns state they fly in a private plane “as the ministry sees fit.”
Houses/Property
–House #1: on 45 acres in wealthy Tomball TX. Many custom builds both indoors and out, several toys such as golf cart and multiple tractors.
–House #2: on 45 acres in Tomball TX. Keith Moore’s parents lived there, his dad passed away in 2015. Total home square footage is about 6600 between the two.
–House #3: Menard TX, a newly remodeled ranch with farmhouse and large barn. The Assessor parcel information states, “No building information on record for this property,” so, determining square footage or how many structures are on the lot was not possible.
–House #4: Waterfront double lot with rare private beach in Galveston. Also, a boat. House is, 5500 sf, not including the land or the lot next door with the beach.
–Three storey office building in Houston: 8000 sf, tax exempt.
–Previously owned (sold in 2013) cabin in Jackson WY at gateway to Yellowstone at foot of Tetons. Turpin Meadow Loop subdivision. At the foot of the Tetons in Bridger-Teton National Forest.
Four homes and a huge office. Let’s take a photo tour at all of Beth Moore’s homes.
House #1: The Moore’s main residence, Tomball TX. (*see note at bottom)
House #2 Tomball TX. This home is also on Beth Moore’s 45 or so wooded acres in Tomball.
On her blog Beth Moore talks of a ranch they own. That’s in Menard, TX. The deed is dated 9/9/2015. It’s actually two lots, 3.3 acres and 2.8 acres for a total of about 6 acres. The property has a ranch house and a barn. The photos are from Moore’s twitter account. She tweeted the pics out when boasting of her husband’s talent in restoring the German farmhouse on the property to pristine condition.
House #3- Menard TX. House #3 property has large barn also. In the second picture, notice the two satellite dishes by the tree.
Living Proof owns a large office complex in Houston, for which she is exempt from paying taxes due to the listing of it as religious use. It is three floors and about 8,000 sf.
Nice boat. This was taken at the Galveston bay house.
House #4: Galveston. The white house. Waterfront, double lot. Also see photo at top.
House #5 (sold in 2013)
These cabins are on National Forest Service land at the opening of the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Moran, Wyoming (near Jackson). The homes are privately owned but the land they sit on is the Forest Service’s.
Abusing the Gospel has brought Beth Moore a best life now. False teachers are greedy. We know this from 2 Peter 2:3,
And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. (2 Peter 2:3)
For such as these are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. (Romans 16:18a).
As you know, we never used words of flattery or any pretext for greed. God is our witness!(1 Thessalonians 2:5).
Heresy, of course, involves the teaching of false doctrine, but false teaching always extends itself into the behavior of its adherents. It will always have a negative impact on the lifestyle of those infected “for as a person thinks in his heart, so is he” (Prov. 23:7). As these false teachers stand in opposition to the truth, so they will lead lives that are “detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed” (1:16). Source
Beth Moore’s Living Proof Ministry is a non-profit organization. It is exempt from paying certain taxes because they are listed as a religious organization. As such, there are some ethical considerations that non-profits should adhere to, especially the religious ones.
Appearance of Impropriety- “Sure, it’s not illegal; but that doesn’t make it right.” There may not be an express law or rule prohibiting certain conduct but “the sector would look down upon the behavior” or it “might be perceived in the wrong way.” There are certain examples; for instance, the AFP Code gives the example of “a fundraiser directly benefiting from a benefactor’s estate gift.” Otherwise, it requires an intrinsic moral compass. Sadly, not everyone has that these days. Source
Here are the IRS rules for personal gain in a non-profit:
IRC 501(c)(3) provides exemption from federal income tax for organizations that are “organized and operated exclusively” for religious, educational, or charitable purposes. The exemption is further conditioned on the organization being one “no part of the net income of which inures to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.” This article examines the proscription against inurement and the requirement that an organization must be organized and operated exclusively for exempt purposes by serving public rather than private interests.
I don’t know from which sources Beth Moore has amassed all this property and wealth. Perhaps her husband’s father’s fabulously famous plumbing business brought in millions. Perhaps the royalties from the War Room movie are more hefty than we know. All I do know is the real property, the income, and the lifestyle. Given that her life and occupation are based on false doctrine, the lifestyle is also a cause for concern.
Does this matter? Of course it matters. It matters to Congress, who has investigated seemingly-too-wealthy non-profits. It matters to the IRS, who audits non-profits when the accumulation of wealth seems out of whack with their stated exemption. It should matter to Christians. Any ministry whose main figurehead seems to be using the Lord’s monies for personal luxuries or exhibiting a lifestyle that could cause a stumbling block to believers, is a concern.
But Moore is private and coy just at a time when fame and celebrity should being openness and transparency in order to alleviate suspicions of an extravagant lifestyle. Ministers and teachers of the Gospel should be extra eager to be seen shepherding the Lord’s blessings carefully and generously. Her 2-year-old tweet sharing her 4th of July vacation at “a bay house” tells you of her coyness. Her blogs about her new home in Tomball explicitly downplayed the wealthy aspect such as the enclave-like atmosphere, the fact that it’s the largest lot in the area, and up-played the ‘smelly brook,’ dusty roads, etc.
In 2010 Moore was interviewed by Christianity Today. One would think that any minister of the Gospel would be eager for publicity for His name and fame. Not Beth Moore. The reporter wrote:
Each question had to be submitted and approved beforehand, I was told, or Moore would not do the interview. Follow-up interview requests were declined. I was permitted to see the ground level of her ministry, where workers package and ship study materials. But Moore’s third-floor office, where she writes in the company of her dog, was off limits.
But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. (2 Corinthians 4:2)
Her image is a careful one. It has gotten her to a place where just last month people were clamoring for her to become President of the largest Protestant denomination in the world. If they knew of her false doctrine, they never said. If they knew of her lavish lifestyle, they never said. But now you know.
It matters because this video taken in March 2018 at the Holmes Center in Boone NC at a Living Proof conference is devastating. These 9000 people (mostly women) at this conference are having poison poured into their spirit. Repeat that scene throughout all of 2018. Beth Moore’s influence is NOT passe. It is actually growing. If only one woman comes out from under her false teaching, the angels would rejoice, as would I.
Friends, we need to shepherd our resources carefully, no matter if they are a little or a lot, so as to appear as we are- earnest workers for the glory of God’s name. Sadly, Beth Moore appears to be on a different path, one that Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Joyce Meyer, and Creflo Dollar are taking.
From Joyce Meyer up, the wealthiest American pastors, in order.
Copeland is nearly a billionaire. This is not a Board you want to be on.
*Google Maps and Google Earth allow reposting of their material/photos/maps as long as proper attribution is made. They even have tutoring pages on how to export maps, edit, add labels, and ‘save as’. I read their terms of use very carefully.
My internet went out at 4:00 yesterday afternoon. I took a quick nap, did some other things, and after an hour or so saw it was still out. I turned the modem on and off, still no internet. I called my company and they said it was a widespread outage due to node failure. No word on when it was coming back.
It’s certainly disconcerting to be disconnected. All my lectures, sermons, entertainment, notes in the cloud etc. require online connection. I have no TV or stereo. Absolutely everything I do is online.
I have some downloaded lectures on my laptop from Todd Friel, in a series called Drive By Discernment. I bought them about ten years ago and went through them all at that time, about 70 lectures, delivered by various men. It’s one of the only and in my opinion, best, series on actually teaching what discernment IS and how to practice it. 70 lectures sounds like a lot but it isn’t. Drive By is the series, and it’s so named because the lectures are 7-11 minutes each. It’s to be listened to, you guessed it, as you drive to work or wherever. So they made the lectures fairly short so people can grab a listen on the go.
Two of the men on the series have since fallen. RW Glenn and Art Azurdia. It is so sad to see the progression of sin and the devastation of what it does to a man and his ministry. Here are a few of the quotes and thoughts from lesson #1 of Drive By Discernment, Todd Friel, speaker:
False teachers hate Jesus. They hate the Bible.
They carry a Bible around on the stage. They put it up on the big screens behind the podium. They claim to love Jesus, but the Jesus they love is the Jesus of their imagination, or the Jesus that makes their bank account better. It is the Jesus that gives them power. It is the Jesus that allows them to live a licentious life- which are all the markings of false teachers.
Believe it or not, there are some positives of false teaching-
1. Heresy clarifies orthodoxy.
2. Heresy sharpens believers in being able to give a reason for the hope that lies within us.
3. It increases the suffering of false teachers. This one is harder to swallow, but given God’s hatred of sin and His vengeance against those who draw His beloved people away from Him, it makes sense.
There are 3 reasons to practice discernment
1. Love of truth
2. Love of people
3. Love of God
Thomas Brooks said, “False teachers are hell’s greatest enrichers!”
During the offline time I did spend time of course in my Bible and in prayer. I started the Book of Nahum. I finished the book of Nahum. It’s only 3 chapters, lol. I love the Old Testament prophets, Major or Minor. Yesterday I’d heard a sermon from the wonderful series from Grace Community Church, Sundays In July, about the Major Point of the Minor Prophets. For my Bible reading, I decided to spend some time renewing my acquaintance with some of the OT Minor prophets again.
I say again, because I’ve read them all. I read through the OT when I was first saved and I focused a lot of my time on the OT prophets. I love the OT Prophets. I can’t say that enough.
There was a new book on sale that I’d bought back along, a Nahum commentary called Severe Compassion, The Gospel According to Nahum, by Gregory D. Cook. The commentary is so easy to read, insightful and biblical. I also have all of Roy Gingrich’s OT Prophet outlines.
Roy Gingrich contributed uniquely to the faith by making outlines of most of the books of the Bible. Instead of lengthy prose treatment explaining all the aspects of the verses, his outlines succinctly state the main point of each verse in one or two sentences. In his introduction to the book of Nahum, Gingrich wrote:
The book has great value because of its teachings concerning God’s righteousness. It teaches that God ultimately destroys the wicked and delivers the righteous. It teaches that God is severe to His enemies and good to His friends. It is majestic in its moral descriptions of God—No other Bible book excels Nahum in this respect. Gingrich, R. E. (2003). The Books of Micah and Nahum (p. 28). Memphis, TN: Riverside Printing.
As I read through Nahum, I was so moved by the poetry, the images, the contrast of man who thinks he is mighty and the true Mighty One. The OT Major and Minor prophets are majestic pieces of work. Nahum is particularly known for its poetic imagery.
If you are new to the faith, Minor Prophets are called that not because they are of less value, for all scripture is good for correction, edification, and reproof. But they are simply shorter books. Nahum, as I mentioned, is just 3 chapters.
We’re familiar with Jonah, mainly because of the strange tale of the runaway prophet who was swallowed by a great fish. Jonah was sent to Nineveh, the capitol city of Assyria, to preach that God was going to destroy the city. The Ninevites heard the message and repented.
They remained in God’s good graces for a few generations, but after 100 years passed, the Ninevites were back in the same boat. They were committing atrocities, they were boastful, they were spiritual adulterers. God determined that the time had come. He sent Nahum to preach to Judah that their oppression and harassment by this nation was about to be over, and gave Nahum an oracle to deliver. That message comprised the book of Nahum.
Nahum is a straightforward book, offering no interpretive challenges. Its history doesn’t bear a lot of digging into because it’s not complicated. Assyria & Nineveh, your time for destruction has come. That’s it.
Nahum is one of the most beautiful of the prophetical works, being the most vivid in imagery and poetry. Give Nahum a try. Better yet, read Jonah, then Nahum. I think you will learn a lot about God.
I’m struck by the plethora of false teaching today that undermines and poisons the faith, but by the same token, the false teachers bringing it are tolerated and even lauded. “You don’t know their heart”, we are told. “They’re sincere, and some people benefit from their works,” we hear. “Don’t judge them, let them be, God will take care of them eventually” we’re advised.
Saying false teachers are sincerely working for Jesus is the same as saying the cyanide is sincerely working for your death. EPrata photo
If you had a herd of rats running around your living room, would you say, ‘Let them be, they’ll die eventually.’ I’m sorry for the graphic visual, but of course you wouldn’t say that. Your home is your retreat, your safety. Rats are dirty and bring disease into your home. They bite your baby. They contaminate and pollute your food. You would not tolerate them.
Now how does God feel about false teachers doing the same in His home?
No, false teachers are not to be tolerated. They are a plague and a poison to one and all they come into contact with. To the people who say and advise such things, If I pour this eyedropper of cyanide into your glass of water, and say, ‘Just sip it. The rest of the water is fresh and good. Drink around the cyanide’ would you say I’m ridiculous? Of course. False teaching is like cyanide in liquid. It poisons everything. As is written, a little leaven spoils the whole lump. (Galatians 5:9, 1 Corinthians 5:6).
Ernest Borgnine in the classic 1971 horror film Willard.
Here is how the false teachers were viewed back in the day-
“The prophets who lead my people astray.” Micah 3:5)
Satan labors by false teachers, who are his emissaries to deceive, delude, and forever undo the precious souls of men! They seduce them, and carry them out of the right way into by-paths and blind thickets of error and wickedness–where they are lost forever! As strumpets paint their faces, and deck and perfume their beds, the better to allure and deceive simple souls; so false teachers will put a great deal of paint and garnish upon their most dangerous principles and blasphemies, that they may the better deceive and delude poor ignorant souls. They know sugared-poison goes down sweetly.
They wrap up their pernicious, soul-killing pills in gold! “Peace, peace! they say, when there is no peace.” (Jeremiah 6:14).
“Beware of false prophets, for they come to you in sheep’s clothing–but inwardly they are ravening wolves!” These lick and suck the blood of souls! These kiss and kill! They cry, ‘Peace, peace!’ until souls fall into everlasting flames! False teachers handle holy things with wit and trifling, rather than with fear and reverence. They are soul-murderers!
They are like evil surgeons, who skin over the wound–but never heal it. False teachers are hell’s greatest enrichers! Such smooth teachers are sweet soul-poisoners!
This age is full of such teachers–such monsters! They eye your goods more than your good; and mind more the serving of themselves–than the saving of your souls. So they may have your substance–they care not though Satan has your souls! That they may the better pick your purse–they will hold forth such principles as are very indulgent to the flesh. These are Satan’s great benefactors, and such as divine justice will hang up in hell as the greatest malefactors!
———–end Brooks———
He was fervent, wasn’t he? I think his is the appropriate attitude. False teachers draw away God’s beloved. They poison His Gospel. They’re a rebellion and a blot against His holy name. They fail at their ambassadorship. They vaunt sin and present a stumbling block to the lost. They are a scourge.
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
It’s a sanctifying hope. Keeping our eyes on the heavenlies keeps our hope in the future reward alive. Our citizenship isn’t here on earth, it’s in heaven. Hoping in faith for Jesus to come, each day, (‘When you pray, pray…Thy Kingdom Come…’ Matthew 6:10) keeps us inside a sanctifying hope. Our eyes lodged firmly on Jesus, we can better resist the flesh, which, in our sanctifying hope, we know will pass away
And every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. (1 John 3:3)
2. What does it mean to keep our eyes on our future?
It means we always remember this earth is not our home. Once your mind is awakened to this concept that we are pilgrims, you will see the reference and types throughout scripture from the Old Testament to the New. The Bible alternately uses words like sojourner, exiles, foreigners, aliens, and strangers.
You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. (Exodus 29:3)
Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers. (Psalm 39:12)
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:11-12)
The word in Greek as used in the 1 Peter 2 means,
parepídēmos – a sojourner (foreigner) – literally, someone “passing through” but still with personal relationship with the people in that locale (note the prefix, para, “close beside”). This temporary (but active) relationship is made necessary by circumstances.
The writer of Hebrews noted the patriarchs that have come before us, and concludes,
All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.
Do we acknowledge we are in relationship with the citizens of earth but know this relationship is temporary? Or do we participate in the world systems, for example the political, with a do-or-die attitude?
3. What will happen at the very, very end?
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. (2 Peter 3:10).
As John MacArthur said of global warming: “So, your hairspray isn’t going to do it. Go ahead and spray.”
This is one startling example of reasons not to get entangled in world systems. In the above case, it’s environmentalism. In the vein of the word sojourner above, we have a relationship with the people in our lives and our surroundings, and God did tell us to shepherd the earth (care for the garden). But getting embroiled in saving the earth is a quite different activity. It is an activity that people who are eternally attached to the earth will do. We are not attached to the earth. Upon salvation, our citizenship was transferred off the earth, to heaven.
We can rejoice in knowing our future is with Jesus and He is sovereign over all things, including the prophetic plan.
I can’t wait to see what you all look like when you are glorified! I can’t wait to see the glassy sea, the angels who have helped me, the face of Jesus! I can’t wait to be free from pain and shed of my sin nature. I can’t wait to be in eternity! However, I will await His timing. We all must await the number of our days to be up and His determination of when we enter glory. More on that below.
The Tribulation is prophesied to be a period where many things will happen. One of them is that the earth and heavens themselves will be wildly disrupted. Landforms disappear. Weather patterns evaporate. Orbits cease. And more.
The outline of what Jesus will be doing at that time is presented to us in Daniel 9:24. The Lord will do 6 things:
“Seventy weeks are determined For your people and for your holy city, 1. To finish the transgression, 2. To make an end of sins, 3. To make reconciliation for iniquity, 4. To bring in everlasting righteousness, 5. To seal up vision and prophecy, 6. And to anoint the Most Holy.”
Notice several things. First, it is a period where though the times will seem chaotic, it will actually be orderly. It is all in control of God. The three series of 7-judgments apiece (Seals, Trumpets, Bowls; perhaps four sets if the Seven Thunders of Revelation 10:3-4 are actually judgments) will be delivered in orderly fashion. The judgments unleash chaos, but their deliverance is orderly and controlled.
The Tribulation is the time for it all to come to the conclusion that God exists, He is angry with sinners, and to repent. So it will be a time of demonstrable wrath and the conclusion of the 6 things. In further orderliness, He stopped His prophetic timetable clock at 483 years. In Daniel 9:24a the angel declared to Daniel it would be 7X70 or 7 bundles of 7’s (a shavuim). But nowhere was it promised to be 490 consecutive years! But they should have known that, because the interruption was stated. In Daniel 9:25-26, a mere verse later, the angel told Daniel that after seven sevens and 62 sevens, Messiah will be cut off (vernacular for died) and the people of the prince who is to come (antichrist) shall destroy the city.
Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem was 483 years to the day and then the clock stopped. Since then, Jesus has been taking 2000 years to build His church. When the church reaches His quota of people inhabiting it, (Romans 11:25) He will snatch us away from this earth, and He will finish that last 7 years of the prophesied 70 weeks and accomplish the rest of the 6 things.
The angel also explained to Daniel that it is a time when God directs His attention to “your people” and “your holy city” (Jerusalem). That does not mean He isn’t paying attention to non-believers or non-Jews during the Tribulation, or that nothing will happen to them during the Tribulation. Not at all. Jeremiah 30:7 calls it the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, though, and its point is for the LORD to finish His promises to His people. #1 is to finish the transgression, and #2 says He will make an end to sins. This making an end to sins is an event that will affect everyone on the planet. God always sees the world through the lens of His people the Jews and through the central location of the Holy City. But all the world will be affected.
In addition, note the progression of the 6 things on the list. At the beginning, He allows the transgression to have its full expression. By the end, the Most Holy is anointed. The Most Holy is Jesus. Ahhh, what a day that will be! The Tribulation is the cap-stone to the final age of man where He allows the total outcome of rejection of the Holy Spirit to take its full course. Like in Noah’s day, where all of man’s thoughts were only evil continually, (Gen 6:5) so it shall be again at the end of days (Matthew 24:37). But in the Tribulation, man will actually act out all his evil in his heart, it won’t remain there. He who holds back lawlessness will be taken out of the way (2 Thessalonians 2:7), another way of saying He will release His restraining hold against sin, which will allow it to flood in..
The LORD set up certain restraints against sin in these and previous days. Our conscience, the family, government, and law, like police law that pagans are under all work to restrain sin in the unbeliever. (Christians have the Holy Spirit to help us restrain, even kill, sin.)
Can you even imagine how drastic that time period will be? Just as we can’t imagine in our finite mind the full scale of His glory in heaven, we cannot imagine that bottomless, putrid pit in which sin flows forth. /shudder/. Better to not think of it.
The Daniel 9:26 verse also promises that the end will come like a flood. This does not mean that there will be a flood of actual waters as in the first global judgment. He promised Noah that he would never drown the world again. (Genesis 9:13). However, as part of the cataclysmic geo-physical upheavals during the Tribulation there will be floods and tides and hurricanes and tsunamis. However, the verse uses figurative language. The Hebrew word in Dan 9:26 is “sheteph; from shataph; a deluge (literally or figuratively) — flood, outrageous, overflowing.” He means that SIN will have its outrageous overflowing.
This flood language mirrors the language in Revelation 12:15. Midway through the Tribulation, the antichrist tears up the peace treaty he had confirmed with the Jews at the beginning of the Tribulation. He then persecutes them with all unholiness and evil. He goes after the Jews with an evil vengeance that makes the WWII Holocaust look like a picnic. Revelation 12:15 says- “And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood.” Satan pours out his evil and sin flows over the world like a flood.
Floods have waters that rise, and rise and rise, eventually washing away all that is in its path. Even tsunamis which travel at jet speeds have waters that flow and rise accordingly. The end began when Jesus ascended, but it has been 2000 years and we can see that the flood waters of sin are not lapping at our toes…are not sweeping against our waists…but the flood waters of sin seem like they are actually crashing over our heads by this point in time. It is like the famous photo of the lighthouse and its keeper-
But we are not destined for wrath! (1 Thessalonians 5:9). Though sin tries to engulf us, it will not prevail against His church! (Matthew 16:18). Notice where the keeper is: INSIDE the Lighthouse. Would you want to be anywhere else when the wages of sin try to engulf you? No. You would not survive that wave. You would not survive the hidden reefs under the wave. (Jude 1:12). Being in the Lighthouse is the only safe place to be, in ages past and in this present age. Blessedly, Jesus removes His bride from the earth before the Tribulation begins. We are not condemned, nor will we be punished for sins that He forgave us for. It will be the unbelieving world and His people Israel who will suffer the consequences of their rejection of the Savior.
Jude says, the unbelievers and apostates are “Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” (Jude 1:12).
Peter says, “These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.” (2 Peter 2:17).
Isaiah says, “But the wicked are like the tossing sea, which cannot rest, whose waves cast up mire and mud.” (Isaiah 57:20).
What of us, individually? His word says that Hades will not prevail against His church. Some days, though, sin prevails against me. What about you? Each of us struggles against sin every day. Some days it truly feels like it will engulf me. Here is the remedy: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1).
We are Light keepers, and our job is never more important than during the storm! We are in Christ as THE Light, but we keep His word hidden in our hearts. We are ambassadors of His glory and His truths. We keep His commands. We keep His flame alive on earth by staying in Him and close to Him. It is important to be brighter during the storm and so let us be bright, by being full of peace and joy in these stormy times. Let the waves crash! We have the eternal Strength of the Light. Let others see, and hear the Good News, and come to Him.
Hear, my son, your father’s instruction,
and forsake not your mother’s teaching,
for they are a graceful garland for your head
and pendants for your neck.
Proverbs 1:8-9
I live a quiet life, very limited, with a small ‘reach’ in the daily routines in which I dwell. If it’s fall, winter, or spring, I go to work, go to church, go to small group, and come home, where I drink tea, read, nap, and commune with my cats.
If it’s summer, I do all the above except go to work.
At the beginning of the summer I started a photo series called “My Day”. I knew that I’d have little to show, being that I stay at home 5 days out of every 7, rarely even emerging from the house to breathe fresh air. I started the series because I wanted to challenge myself in being creative with limited options.
I kept it up for several weeks before the inevitable boredom and repetitiveness with it set in and I quit. I mean, how many collages can you make that show the same things: I ate a salad. Here’s my cat. This is the book I’m reading now. Coffee with whipped cream on it. Repeat.
But then someone said they really loved the series. I was surprised. I thought about this for a long time. Several weeks, in fact. I thought about why and what it meant. This is the conclusion I came to:
We should celebrate ordinary life.
I am a fan or ordinary life, and using social media to show that ordinary life. This is for two reasons.
1. It’s a rebuttal to the fad of being “radical” that was sparked by David Platt’s book “Radical” where the prominent thread throughout the book was that if you’re not shedding American/Western consumerism and flinging yourself headlong into an inner city or a third world country somewhere for the Gospel’s sake, you’re a second-level Christian. Be radical, that’s where it’s at.
John MacArthur rebutted the radical fad with an article I’ve mentioned and linked to many times on this blog. It’s called An Unremarkable Faith. It’s about a fictional high school chemistry teacher who goes to work, witnesses, loves his wife, repeat.
[From the essay], Pastor Tom Lyons describes the unremarkable Christian: “His aspirations, his thirst for notoriety, his estimate of greatness have all been changed. His horizon has come closer to home. He finds in the Bible no call to be outstanding. He is not without ambition, but his dreams have nothing to do with rising above his fellows. Unless pressed, he prefers anonymity to attention. He is steady. Steadied by grace. And one of the most amazing things about grace is how it works this even disposition.”
The unremarkable (ordinary) Christian life is full of things that are not there. The cross word never spoken. The impatience never displayed. The ignorance never revealed. The ordinary life is full of restraint. It’s buttressed by mundanity. It’s filled with kindness, love, patience and all the fruit of a successful life in Him.
and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, (1 Thessalonians 4:11)
The word ‘aspire’ in the verse as we read it in the ESV (philotiméomai) means I desire very strongly. Should we desire very strongly the celebrity life? No. Should we desire very strongly our best life now? No. Should we desire very strongly the quiet life? Yes.
2. I also esteem the ordinary life for a second reason that’s even more important than the first. It’s to honor the life described in the Bible.
Since it was 1st century AD most people worked with their hands. There was no Wal-Mart to go pick up stuff. Paul was a tentmaker. I can imagine Dorcas/Tabatha sewing, Lydia making purple running her business. Simon the tanner. Fishermen. Very few lived the life of the mind. The Pharisees, notably, and scribes. Their and my greatest moment in life has already happened: salvation. What is there after that? Where else would we go? Jesus has the words of life.
That word philotiméomai also means to seek after what is honorable. Living quietly, circumspectly, working at the mundane job, witnessing, demonstrating the day by day sustenance on His word, is honorable. We forget that.
3.This essay offers yet another reason to seek after the ordinary life.
Our discipleship mostly consists, day in and day out, of following Jesus on some rather ordinary roads. … Something similar is true in our own lives. If we ignore or pass over the ordinary things of life, giving the highest honor to our best, most picturesque moments, we miss what life is really about.
It’s hard to photograph the ordinary, but that is our life, most of us. It was the Bible people’s life, too. What would Simon the Tanner photograph and publish on Instagram if he could? Animal guts, blood, the kids running around, fixing the fence, sharpening the knives… His ordinary day. I suppose the jailer might post Kinfolk Aesthetic pics of his keys atop a pile of wood and artsy B&W pics of the jail bars in repeated shadow, lol. Dorcas: sewing needles and bolts of cloth and ladies sitting around.
We think of the Bible people’s lives as ones of wielding swords in victory and shekinah glory all the time every minute, but most people’s lives for their whole life was ordinary and filled with quiet routines. We see our friend posting photos and making Facebook statuses of their fabulous trips. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I personally I enjoy all the family vacation photos I can see on Instagram or FB because they encourage me. But as the article The Instagrammable Christian Life makes the point, the high points aren’t the only part of life. Life is the ordinary, the quiet, the mundane. The article goes on to remind us that the Christian life also includes suffering.
I’ll probably start up my daily collage series again but instead of My Day call it #OrdinaryLife. I’m also going to do a blog series called A Day in the Life of… and focus on the nuts and bolts of daily 1st century living for, say, a tanner, a merchant, a fisherman, a centurion, a jailer.
Meanwhile, celebrate your ordinary life. If you’re a mom changing diapers, a laborer counting widgets on assembly line, a nurse cleaning up a mess, it is OK. This is what God ordained in our quiet lives. We just plug along in our ordinary routines, exalting God in the big and the little. Repeat. Our real life gets really REALLY good after we die. It will be our best life then.
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