“Rather than allowing for the common interpretation of Christ knocking at a person’s heart, the context demands that Christ was seeking to enter this church that bore His name but lacked a single true believer. This poignant letter was His knocking. If one member would recognize his spiritual bankruptcy and respond in saving faith, He would enter the church.” ~John MacArthur commentary
This was Jesus’ letter to the Lukewarm church. Looking around at churches today, is it SO hard to believe that an entire ‘church’ could lack one believer? Not really. True believers are so much rarer than we think.
Though millions call themselves Christian, the actual number is quite small. We’d have to erase most Catholics from the group, and most Eastern Orthodox, and many Charismatics, and all cults that call themselves Christian, including Mormons.
Here Jesus uses the word many to remind us of the fate of the unsaved:
Jesus said, “On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name? Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’’” (Matthew 7:22-23).
Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.” (Matthew 7:13)
In both those verses, the word for many in Greek is polloi. It means a “multitude, numerous, great in amount.” So, no, it isn’t hard to believe that churches could be full and there be not a believer among them. After all, on the day of judgment for the Cities of the Plain, among the bustling cities of Admah, Zeboiim, Sodom, and Gomorrah, there were found only three true believers.
We read the following from 2 Timothy 4:4, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions,”
We usually envision that verse as one which the teacher has accumulated the people, as an Osteen or a Joyce Meyer has accumulated. But the verse depicts the reverse: the people will heap up false teachers to themselves. What people? People calling themselves Christian but lacking discernment, or even true faith, they will follow the false ones who bring a pleasing but Gospel-less message. The Greek word for ‘heap up” [teachers] means “to obtain a multitude of.”
When Jesus said He will destroy the cities Abraham asked Jesus if, for the sake of 50 righteous, would the Lord destroy the city? For the sake of Lot and any believers, Abraham contended for them with Jesus. Abraham dwindled the number down and down until he got to ten: Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.” (Genesis 18:32-33)
The Lord is gracious and merciful! And again, we see in the Revelation verse, if there be one inside the church, the Lord will come in and sup with him and he with Him.
So skilled is error at imitating truth, that the two are constantly being mistaken for each another. It takes a sharp eye these days to know which brother is Cain and which is Abel.
So what is to be done? Here is what we can do in these waning days:
1. Do not automatically assume that every church member or teacher who calls themselves Christian actually are. (1 Peter 4:17).
2. Give the benefit of the doubt, certainly, but also test what they say, watch for fruit, and exhort for holy living. (1 Peter 1:16). This is important for two reasons. First of course is the Lord’s glory. Second, when one exhorts for holy living, the holy will appreciate it. The lost will be flushed out, because they will react badly.
3. Pray, pray, pray ceaselessly. Pray for your brethren inside your own local church. Pray for your local church; for protection, clarity and wisdom for the leaders, for discernment for the members. The Spirit gives discernment. (1 Corinthians 2:14). Therefore pray to Him for the wisdom we need in these terrible days. (Psalm 119:125).
4. Pray for the global body. Appeal to Jesus on behalf of the brethren who are in places where apostasy is likely or present. (1 Corinthians 12:12–14; more here)
5. Pray for yourself, for all of the above; wisdom, clarity, discernment, protection. (James 1:5; Proverbs 2:6, Psalm 5:11)
6. Repent often so that your purity is of the highest levels. (Matthew 3:8).
How utterly tragic that in some congregations all or most believers are so devoid of Spirit that Jesus is outside the church! It makes it all the more joyous to anticipate glorious, perfect worship in true, righteous unity in heaven!
1 Thessalonians 4:14–18
“For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.”
John 14:2–3
In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
Spurgeon, Faith’s Checkbook, “It Will Not Be Long”
“Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” (James 5:8)
Spurgeon: “The last word in the Canticle of love is, “Make haste, my beloved,” and among the last words of the Apocalypse we read, “The Spirit and the Bride say, Come”; to which the heavenly Bridegroom answers, “Surely I come quickly.” Love longs for the glorious appearing of the Lord and enjoys this sweet promise – “The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” This stays our minds as to the future. We look out with hope through this window.”
“This sacred “window of agate” lets in a flood of light upon the present and puts us into fine condition for immediate work or suffering. Are we tired? Then the nearness of our joy whispers patience. Are we growing weary because we do not see the harvest of our seed-sowing? Again this glorious truth cries to us, “Be patient.” Do our multiplied temptations cause us in the least to waver? Then the assurance that before long the Lord will be here preaches to us from this text, “Stablish your hearts.” Be firm, be stable, be constant, “stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” Soon will you hear the silver trumpet which announces the coming of your King. Be not in the least afraid. Hold the fort, for He is coming; yea, He may appear this very day.”
The above statement was from Dr. Paul McHugh, former psychiatrist in chief at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the author of “Try to Remember: Psychiatry’s Clash Over Meaning, Memory, and Mind”.
It is from an excerpt from an Opinion-Editorial article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal last week by Dr. Paul McHugh, formerly head psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University. [HT Stand to Reason Blog] from which the above was taken. Their title was “Why the First Hospital to Do Sex-Reassignment Surgeries No Longer Does Them”
I thought Dr. McHugh’s point about anorexia and bulimia was especially poignant. The comment about the 20-fold higher suicide rate of surgically transgendered patients in latter years having ‘no explanation’ was also poignant.
Christians have the explanation. The explanation is, the trans-gender seeker person is vigorously rebelling against God and denying His sovereignty over creation, including their own creation as a man or a woman. Rebellion against God and denying Him always leads to despair- because rebels have no hope.
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Halifax, Canada: “The familiar stick figures remain, so as not to confuse anyone used to looking for them to point the way to a washroom. But now Capital Health has added a third figure to the signs on some of its single-stall bathrooms in Halifax to represent transgender people, in a move designed to signal a welcoming environment to gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individual.”
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Satan actively seeks moral decline. He seeks it in the individual and he seeks it in society. In attacking the family satan has had success in bringing about an acceptance of divorce, and an acceptance of homosexuality- at least as it’s presented in the news and the media. The next frontier for acceptance of perversity is transgenderism, and polyamory (Multiple wives, or multiple partners under one roof.) If satan can corrupt the marriage institution and pervert the nuclear family, thus normalizing terrible sin, he will have accomplished his goal, which is to rebel against God’s holy standards. Getting an entire society to rebel is icing on the cake. (Romans 1:32).
Dr McHugh’s information is of interest because transgenderism is the next frontier of satan’s active battlefield. The cherry on top of the icing on the cake is that after getting individuals to fall, and after getting a culture to fall, is to get these perverted notions accepted by the church. It has been an onslaught lately.
Several weeks ago, a church identifying as Southern Baptist repudiated the biblical standard for sexuality and voted to keep a pastor who’d reversed his position on homosexuality as a sin. The reason for the pastor’s change of heart? His son came out as gay, and rather than repudiate the sin in his son and go through the Matthew 18 process, the pastor chose to repudiate Jesus instead. His church voted to keep the gay-affiring pastor, thus the congregation repudiated Jesus also. In these cases I am reminded of Revelation 3:20. Jesus is outside the door of the church, knocking to come in.
The Presbyterian Church USA voted this week to change their constitution declaring marriage as a union between two people, rather than specifically between a man and a woman.
In the face of the swelling tide of gender role and sexual reversals, last week the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution stating in part, “The separation of one’s gender identity from the physical reality of biological birth sex poses the harmful effect of engendering an understanding of sexuality and personhood that is fluid.“
And this piece by Dr McHugh agrees, medically, biologically, and psychologically. Transgenderism is in the mind, it is a desire, an appetite. It is a disorder, not a biological reality.
Acknowledging transgenderism as a sin and not a disorder does not diminish the pain and anguish the gender confused individual possesses. However the glory of the Gospel is that Jesus died to pay for all sins, and to bring peace between Himself and sinners. Any and all sin, confusion, and anguish can be covered and helped by repentance and submission to the Great and Holy Comforter. He is a man of Sorrows Himself, understanding our pains and woes. He will help. Repentance, means a true rejection of one’s sin, and in this case pleas to Jesus will be heard. It doesn’t mean that one’s anguish over sin will be immediately dissolved, but He sends a Helper in the Holy Spirit to aid us in resisting temptation. More than that He gives us HOPE, and changes our focus from self to Him, that is always the greatest and most magnanimous place to start the path to true peace.
Here is Dr. McHugh
[P]olicy makers and the media are doing no favors either to the public or the transgendered by treating their confusions as a right in need of defending rather than as a mental disorder that deserves understanding, treatment and prevention. This intensely felt sense of being transgendered constitutes a mental disorder in two respects. The first is that the idea of sex misalignment is simply mistaken—it does not correspond with physical reality. The second is that it can lead to grim psychological outcomes.
The transgendered suffer a disorder of “assumption” like those in other disorders familiar to psychiatrists. With the transgendered, the disordered assumption is that the individual differs from what seems given in nature—namely one’s maleness or femaleness. Other kinds of disordered assumptions are held by those who suffer from anorexia and bulimia nervosa, where the assumption that departs from physical reality is the belief by the dangerously thin that they are overweight….
Psychiatrists obviously must challenge the solipsistic concept that what is in the mind cannot be questioned. Disorders of consciousness, after all, represent psychiatry’s domain; declaring them off-limits would eliminate the field….
We at Johns Hopkins University—which in the 1960s was the first American medical center to venture into “sex-reassignment surgery”—launched a study in the 1970s comparing the outcomes of transgendered people who had the surgery with the outcomes of those who did not. Most of the surgically treated patients described themselves as “satisfied” by the results, but their subsequent psycho-social adjustments were no better than those who didn’t have the surgery. And so at Hopkins we stopped doing sex-reassignment surgery, since producing a “satisfied” but still troubled patient seemed an inadequate reason for surgically amputating normal organs.
It now appears that our long-ago decision was a wise one. A 2011 study at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden produced the most illuminating results yet regarding the transgendered, evidence that should give advocates pause. The long-term study—up to 30 years—followed 324 people who had sex-reassignment surgery. The study revealed that beginning about 10 years after having the surgery, the transgendered began to experience increasing mental difficulties. Most shockingly, their suicide mortality rose almost 20-fold above the comparable nontransgender population. This disturbing result has as yet no explanation but probably reflects the growing sense of isolation reported by the aging transgendered after surgery. The high suicide rate certainly challenges the surgery prescription….
At the heart of the problem is confusion over the nature of the transgendered. “Sex change” is biologically impossible. People who undergo sex-reassignment surgery do not change from men to women or vice versa. Rather, they become feminized men or masculinized women. Claiming that this is civil-rights matter and encouraging surgical intervention is in reality to collaborate with and promote a mental disorder.
For certain individuals whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. (Jude 1:4)
And yet, our gentle Lord encourages us with this verse,
But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. (Jude 1:20-21)
Time Magazine’s new cover features this photo, obviously their political opinion of what is happening in that troubled region of the world. They wrote, “The sudden military victories of a Sunni militant group threaten to touch off a maelstrom in the Middle East“
It is my opinion too, but not because it’s political, but because it’s prophetic.
Almost seven years ago, I wrote a cover story for this magazine about the coming collapse of the post-World War I Middle East map. I conducted the reporting for the story, which we eventually called “After Iraq: What Will the Middle East Look Like,” in the fall of 2007—pre-Obama, pre-Arab Spring, pre-a lot of things—but even back then, it was fairly obvious that the age of Middle East stability (relatively speaking) was coming to an end.
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In the last of the last days (days immediately prior to the rapture) and in the Tribulation, borders are going to be redrawn. Borders will be fluid, change, and disappear. We know this because of prophecy. Here are two examples:
1. In Daniel it is written that in the time of the antichrist there will be ten kingdoms. After the Antichrist takes control, the globe will be divided into ten kingdoms with ten kings (Daniel 7:7, 20-24).
2. We also know that borders are going to be redrawn because during the Tribulation, Israel acquires their covenental land, so that when the Millennium Kingdom is installed and Jesus reigns on earth, God’s promise to His people regarding their lands will be restored to them in full and His promise completed. (Read more here).
Secondly, we know that borders are going to be redrawn because of history. Borders are always being redrawn. Nations’ names even change- not just in the distant past but even in current history. (Burma—> Myanmar; Sudan into North Sudan and South Sudan, into UN-recognized separate countries).
In January 1991 the Soviet Union had the world’s longest boundary, clocked at 37,000 miles! But when the Union split and the 15 countries within it went their way, the borders changed. By December 1991, the USSR was no more. During that heady time, it seemed that new countries were emerging every day. Maps became outdated every year. It was a dizzying time, and I remember it well.
Just a few months ago the Crimea split from Ukraine and is now occupied by Russia. Abyssinia was the name of Ethiopia until the early 20th century. Namibia was born from Southwest Africa as an independent nation in 1990. The original Yugoslavia had borders much different than it does now. It’s now divided up into Bosnia, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro, and Slovenia. This occurred in the early 1990s.
So you see, new nations come and go. In addition, wars usually change borders. Austria-Hungary was a long-lasting monarchy established in 1867. It included not just Austria and Hungary, but also parts of the Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, Romania, and the Balkans. World War I redrew all those borders.
WWII changed a lot of borders. Prussia ceased to exist and the current Germany came to being.
So when we see an alarming national magazine cover that poses the question, “The End of Iraq?” one isn’t perturbed because it is the way of things for nations to come and go, borders ebb and flow, and names change and change again.
Mot assuredly of all, we know prophecy is simply history written before the time. God is in control of all nations.
For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. (Psalm 22:28)
Iraq is the home to the ancient land of Babylon. After the Flood, the world’s first tyrant, Nimrod, built Babylon and Nineveh and many other cities. He subdued the peoples and united them. He also led the world’s first rebellion against God (Genesis 11, Tower of Babel). The Plains of Shinar, Mesopotamia, Chaldea…they were, are, and will be “Iraq”. Let’s move from south to north in looking at this most historical and ancient of lands, Iraq.
The southern portion of Babylonia, Lower Mesopotamia, lying chiefly on the right bank of the Euphrates, but commonly used of the whole of the Mesopotamian plain. The Hebrew name is Kasdim, which is usually rendered “Chaldeans” (Jeremiah 50:10; 51:24, 35).
Somewhere between 593 and 565 B.C. during the Babylonian captivity Ezekiel wrote the following:
“You also multiplied your harlotry with the land of merchants, Chaldea, yet even with this you were not satisfied.“‘ (Ezekiel 16:29, NAS)
So, even in the beginning the region was called ‘the land of merchants’ and at the end of time it will be called so again. The last empire of man will be focused at Babylon, and it will be a religious empire and a commercial empire. In Revelation 18:11-13 we read that ‘all the world’s merchants’ mourn the loss of the great city because of its stupendous commerce.
~~~~~~~~~Mesopotamia~~~~~~~~~
Moving north from Chaldea a bit, we haveMesopotamia. Easton’s Bible Dictionary describes Mesopotamia:
The country between the two rivers (Hebrews Aram-naharaim; i.e., “Syria of the two rivers”), the name given by the Greeks and Romans to the region between the Euphrates and the Tigris (Genesis 24:10; Deuteronomy 23:4; Judges 3:8, 10). In the Old Testament it is mentioned also under the name “Padan-aram;” i.e., the plain of Aram, or Syria (Genesis 25:20). The northern portion of this fertile plateau was the original home of the ancestors of the Hebrews (Genesis 11; Acts 7:2). From this region Isaac obtained his wife Rebecca (Genesis 24:10, 15), and here also Jacob sojourned (28:2-7) and obtained his wives, and here most of his sons were born (35:26; 46:15). The petty, independent tribes of this region, each under its own prince, were warlike, and used chariots in battle. They maintained their independence till after the time of David, when they fell under the dominion of Assyria, and were absorbed into the empire (2 Kings 19:13).
~~~~~~~~~Babylon~~~~~~~~~
Moving north still, here is Easton’s again, describing the Kingdom of Babylon. Remember, we’re going through this history of changing names because today’s Iraq IS this ancient land.
Called “the land of the Chaldeans” (Jeremiah 24:5; Ezek, 12:13), was an extensive province in Central Asia along the valley of the Tigris from the Persian Gulf northward for some 300 miles. It was famed for its fertility and its riches. Its capital was the city of Babylon, a great commercial centre (Ezek. 17:4; Isaiah 43:14). Babylonia was divided into the two districts of Accad in the north, and Summer (probably the Shinar of the Old Testament) in the south. Among its chief cities may be mentioned Ur (now Mugheir or Mugayyar), on the western bank of the Euphrates; Uruk, or Erech (Genesis 10:10) (now Warka), between Ur and Babylon; Larsa (now Senkereh), the Ellasar of Genesis 14:1, a little to the east of Erech; Nipur (now Niffer), south-east of Babylon; Sepharvaim (2 Kings 17:24), “the two Sipparas” (now Abu-Habba), considerably to the north of Babylon; and Eridu, “the good city” (now Abu-Shahrein), which lay originally on the shore of the Persian Gulf, but is now, owing to the silting up of the sand, about 100 miles distant from it. Another city was Kulunu, or Calneh (Genesis 10:10).
In addition to being labeled the land of merchants, it is also called the land of Nimrod. (Micah 5:6, more here about Nimrod.) As you read the above description by Easton, note the cities of Babylon. Most were founded by Nimrod. (Babylon, Erech, Akkad and Calneh in Shinar (Genesis 10:8-10). That’s why I put them in bold.
Later Nimrod extended his Babylonian Kingdom and “went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city.” (Genesis 10:11-12).
~~~~~~~~~Assyria~~~~~~~~~
In the north, Assyria began as a Babylonian colony. It eventually shook off its colonizers and became one of the largest (and most brutally vicious) kingdoms in history.
The name derived from the city Asshur on the Tigris, the original capital of the country, was originally a colony from Babylonia, and was ruled by viceroys from that kingdom. It was a mountainous region lying to the north of Babylonia, extending along the Tigris as far as to the high mountain range of Armenia, the Gordiaean or Carduchian mountains. It was founded in B.C. 1700 under Bel-kap-kapu, and became an independent and a conquering power, and shook off the yoke of its Babylonian masters. It subdued the whole of Northern Asia
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So when the secular media pronounces a death knell on Iraq, is it true? Yes and no. Perhaps we’re seeing the name Iraq pass into history, as Chaldea, Babylon, and Mesopotamia have. Perhaps we are seeing the borders of the Iraq as we’ve known it pass into history, once again. Kingdoms rise, live for a time, and die.
He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; (Daniel 2:21)
What we are seeing is the hand of God in His providential working out of His plan for the Gentile nations, and His people Israel. These lands, Assyria especially, are so evil, the LORD will strike them and judge them. (Isaiah 66:15-16)
Yet, He is merciful! He will restore them! He blesses His lands and His people!
In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance. (Isaiah 19:24-25)
A so-called Christian heavy metal band whose frontman was convicted of attempting to hire a hitman to murder his estranged wife has admitted that it duped fans into believing that they were Christian in order to sell their music. “Truthfully, I was an atheist,” Tim Lambesis, the lead singer and founder of As I Lay Dying told the Alternative Press in a recent interview. “I actually wasn’t the first guy in As I Lay Dying to stop being a Christian. In fact, I think I was the third.
The band got together in 2000-1 at the end of the height of Contemporary Christian Music’s most lucrative year. They smelled money. The bible says,
“And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” (2 Peter 2:3 KJV)
“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 ESV)
The publication noted that his wife, Meggan, had likewise divulged in divorce papers that Lambesis had become an atheist. Lambesis, in admitting his atheism, outlined that he turned away from Christianity as he majored in religious studies while attending college through a long distance program. “In the process of trying to defend my faith, I started thinking the other point of view was the stronger one,” he said.
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds, there is none who does good. (Psalm 14:1)
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8)
Their CD covers. A clue maybe they weren’t Christian
And one sin led to another, turning his renunciation of Christ into justification for his actions. “The first time I cheated on my wife, my interpretation of morality was now convenient for me,” Lambesis explained. “I felt less guilty if I decided, “Well, marriage isn’t a real thing, because Christianity isn’t real. God isn’t real. Therefore, marriage is just a stupid piece of paper with the government.”
And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. (Luke 16:15)
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29)
But he continued to profess to be a Christian, as did others in the band, in order to sell records to Christian music fans.
And we’re back to the beginning:
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 ESV)
Wikipedia describes the band’s sound as “Heavy metal writer Garry Sharpe-Young described the band as a “Christian Hardcore act employing the Grind edged vocals of singer Tim Lambesis and a distinct hint of Scandinavian guitar chug” and parents, youths, the words ‘Christian’ and ‘hardcore’ do not mix. Ever. That should have been a clue. Here is the second clue
They are described “as being in the metalcore genre, not Christian metal. This is largely because the band’s lyrics do not directly focus on pro-Christian themes the way many praise music bands do nor do they treat their music as a direct extension of their private Christian worship or proselytizing efforts. For example, not once do the names God or Jesus appear in any As I Lay Dying song, nor do any of their songs explicitly invoke Christian doctrine or quote the Bible.”
Lambesis said in an interview, “I believe that change should start with me first, and as a result, our lyrics do not come across very ‘preachy.’ Many of our songs are about life, struggles, mistakes, relationships and other issues that don’t fit entirely in the spiritual category.” Jesus is not a category in your life, He IS life. If Jesus is not at the center of our lives, every aspect of it, we are not Christian. A person who has the Holy Spirit in them cannot compartmentalize Him into segments and then marginalize Him to the side. He is the very lifespring from which our entire new being, the new creature, flows.
The band members state that they lost their faith, or that they departed from the Christianity they’d once professed. People, this is not possible. One does not fall away. That is the third clue-
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. (1 John 2:19)
Always pray for discernment, stay in the word, and guard your children.
Switzerland’s “Katholisches Kirchenblatt,” a Catholic weekly, recently carried an unusual job ad: “Are you an idealistic, religious person who enjoys meeting people?” The ad was placed by the small Alpine city of Solothurn. But Solothurn isn’t looking for a new social worker or priest. It is searching for a hermit.
The town’s hermitage, built into the rock face of a striking gorge, has been empty since March, when its resident hermit, and the first woman to hold the post since 1442, resigned after five years.
Her complaint: People. The constant stream of tourists to the hermitage and neighboring chapel was just too much to handle, according to the city. This time around, Solothurn has updated the job description. “Along with acting as caretaker and sacristan, responsibilities include interaction with the many visitors,” the ad warns potential applicants.
“There’s a bit of a discrepancy between the job title of hermit and the fact he or she has to deal with throngs of visitors,” says Sergio Wyniger, the head of Solothurn’s city council. So far, the city has received 119 applications and expects to make a decision by next week.
The Hermitage of St. Verena, near the small Swiss city of Solothurn, is searching for a new hermit.
Some thoughts: –The Catholics still have actual hermits?? –since 1442?? –The Catholics turned a lifestyle into a job description? –‘Hermit wanted: must like people’. Hmmm, HERMIT…
All kidding aside, and believe me, I’m restraining myself right now, in the false religion of Catholicism, hermits actually have a long history. That history not only exists through to today, but is increasing in popularity. Even as recently as last year, Catholics were putting out the call for hermits. In the Swiss town mentioned above, 120 people applied for the job of “hermit”.
While we might think of hermits as relics of the Church’s medieval past, today there are many who devote their lives entirely to solitary prayer.
There are Catholic hermits in the US. There are male and female hermits. There are even hermits who are not affiliated with a religious order. Hermits are consecrated by taking certain vows and following certain rules.
In the article above, a US hermit named Maria, who raised her kids and now wants to answer the call to hermit life, explains the rise in recent Catholic hermitism.
“Maria, who lives on the Gulf Coast, thinks the increase in hermits may also be a sign of the times. “The call was answered in the early Church when there was heresy and persecution,” she said. “The world had become so wicked; people could not exist in it anymore.” “
That is the point, the world IS wicked. Christ came to provide the Light of the way to heaven, and imputed His righteousness to Christians, who by the power of the indwelling Spirit by His grace and love for people, we transcend the mundanity and wickedness of the world and point the way to Christ.
In living the life of a hermit, Brother Martin said he imitates Christ. “In the hermitic life one retreats from the world, much like Christ did when he went off for 40 days in the desert to pray or when he went to lonely places to pray,” he said.
Catholics see no discrepancy between the life of a hermit and the mandate to evangelize. Brother Martin mentioned above explains that a hermit’s call is to evangelize the souls of others in the form of intercessory prayer in private and in solitude-
Although Maria is discerning whether she has a call to the hermitic life, she, like Brother Martin, sticks to a strict schedule called an horarium. Some of her daily activities include prayer, daily Mass, lectio divina, meditations, study, physical exercise, household chores, and gardening. “It’s a very intensely busy life,” she said. “But it is all centered in silence and solitude, so you grow to the point where you can hear and discern God’s word.”
Catholic solitary ascetic life-styles are not just expressed in hermit-living. Anchorites and anchoresses were common in medieval times. Wikipedia explains the anchorite’s lifestyle:
Wikimedia commons
Anchorite or anchoret (female: anchoress) “one who has retired from the world”, from the verb anachōreō, signifying “to withdraw”, “to retire”) denotes someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society so as to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, ascetic, and—circumstances permitting—Eucharist-focused life. Whilst anchorites are frequently considered to be a type of religious hermit, unlike hermits they were required to take a vow of stability of place, opting instead for permanent enclosure in cells often attached to churches. Also unlike hermits, anchorites were subject to a religious rite of consecration that closely resembled the funeral rite, following which – ideologically, at least, they would be considered dead to the world, a type of living saint.
Of course, most of us are familiar with the notion of Catholic cloistered monks and nuns. In fact, the Catholic Church has codified the different forms of ‘Christian’ living, or as they call it, ‘The Consecrated life.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church states
From the very beginning of the Church there were men and women who set out to follow Christ with greater liberty, and to imitate him more closely, by practising the evangelical counsels. They led lives dedicated to God, each in his own way. Many of them, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, became hermits or founded religious families. These the Church, by virtue of her authority, gladly accepted and approved. [emphasis mine]
Every man’s way is right in his own eyes, But the LORD weighs the hearts. To do righteousness and justice Is desired by the LORD more than sacrifice... (Proverbs 21:2-3)
Some of the different consecrated lifestyles approved by the Catholic church are, consecrated virgins, consecrated widows, hermits, anchorites, or new forms of consecrated life not yet invented. The United States Lutheran church recognizes the hermit lifestyle, but they call those who choose to separate from the world “solitaries”.
What does the bible say? Of course the bible does not in any way endorse separating from the world. Jesus did not pray that the Father take us out of the world, not at all.
“I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.” (John 17:15). We may not leave the world until we die or are raptured. Until then, as Jesus prayed, for the sakes of those who would believe in Jesus, we remain so the world will believe God sent Jesus. (John 17:20-21)
Loner Sects have always existed, though.
Non-religions hermit Valerio Ricetti lived in a cave in New South Wales, Australia. The site is now on the State Heritage Register. Source
Essenes, according to the Jewish Virtual Library, were a faction group who believed the Pharisees and Sadducees had corrupted the Temple (the Essenes were not wrong on this point) and split apart from the other two Jewish groups to live a celibate, monastic life in the desert. (They were wrong on this point, though).
GotQuestions explains who the Essenes were, The Essenes were a Jewish mystical sect somewhat resembling the Pharisees. They lived lives of ritual purity and separation. They originated about 100 B.C., and disappeared from history after the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The Essenes are not directly mentioned in Scripture, although some believe they may be referred to in Matthew 19:11, 12 and in Colossians 2:8, 18, and 23. Interest in the Essenes was renewed with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were likely recorded and stored by the Essenes.
GotQuestions continues with an explanation of why John The Baptist, though thought by some to be an Essene, wasn’t. The main reason is that John lived in the desert but was at the same time a very public figure, and had disciples and followers. Solitary living apart from the world is not in view here, since it is not what Jesus wants of us.
This is because we are to interact with the world while maintaining a Kingdom perspective. After all, the lost are in the world, and it is they to whom we are called as Christ’s Ambassadors to share the Good News. (Matthew 28:16-20). Living a private and solitary life denies the Christ who told us to go into the world among men. It also denies us the opportunity to edify one another, (1 Thessalonians 5:11), to bear one another’s burdens, (Galatians 6:2), to pray together, to break bread together. (Acts 1:14). Removing one’s self from the world into a cloistered (enclosed) or solitary life also denies the power of the Holy Spirit to keep us strong and resist temptation while we are faced with daily pressures. Resisting these temptations and living a life in His glory is an important way to show His glory to the lost world.
We are to be IN the world but not of the world. (John 17:14-15). The world is ruled by satan, and whether one is in the middle of Times Square in NYC or alone in a desert cave in Australia, one is still in the domain ruled by satan. Removing one’s self only tells the world that you are relying on your own self to live a life pleasing unto God. A hermetic life, a ‘consecrated’ life; or a cloistered life, is just all about you, and not about Jesus. Sin will still get you. Read this anecdote from a sermon of John MacArthur’s:
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Oscar Wilde, once told a story. It wasn’t true, he just made it up but I [think] it illustrates the point. He said:
The devil was crossing the Libyan desert and on his way across he met a whole pile of his demons who were really working hard on an old hermit. Now this hermit was a saint. He had been, you know, set aside by the church and held had taken his vows and he was a very holy hermit. And so he‘s out there in the middle of the Libyan desert, you know.
He said, “No” to everything in the world and he had taken his cross and he had gone to the desert.
And so, these demons were out there really trying to get him to stumble … really trying to tempt this old hermit. And they were going at it full bore. And Satan came along.
And Wilde says this: “Steadfastly, the sainted man resisted their suggestions.” They weren’t successful, they couldn’t get him to fall into sin. “Finally, after watching their failure in disgust, the Devil whispered to the demons, ‘What you’re doing is too crude, permit me one moment.’ And then the devil whispered to the holy man, ‘Your brother has just been made the bishop of Alexandria.”‘
And Wilde says: “A scowl of malignant jealousy crossed his face. ‘That,’ said the Devil, ‘is the sort of thing I recommend.”‘
Get the point? They can’t get us in some places, they’ll get us someplace else
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The Dangers of the ascetic, solitary life
Living alone or within a very small group is dangerous, as well. Mysticism runs heavily through the cloistered life, as we saw from the description above of the Oregonian hermits’ daily schedule. It included contemplative prayer accompanied by Lectio Divina. Lectio Divina (“Sacred Reading”) is a mystical, Gnostic practice whereupon the seeker seeks not to understand the revealed word, and not to ponder the attributes of the God who revealed it, but to experience it in a two-way conversation with God. It is an example of a spiritually sounding exercise that is devoid of the power of God. (2 Timothy 3:5).
Most of the world’s false religions, cults, and sects were started by one or two disaffected persons usually having had received a vision. The Essenes were disaffected Jewish mystics who retired to the desert alone. Famously, Muhammad was living alone in a cave when supposedly the Archangel Gabriel appeared to him and revealed the Quran.
“Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.” (Jeremiah 23:16)
Founder of Mormonism Joseph Smith said that when he was younger he participated in religious folk magic. One night alone upon a hillside in prayer he received the first vision that led him to found the cult of the Latter Day Saints.
“According to the account Smith told in 1838, he went to the woods to pray about which church to join but fell into the grip of an evil power that nearly overcame him. At the last moment, he was rescued by two shining “personages” (implied to be Jesus and God the Father) who hovered above him. One of the beings told Smith not to join any existing churches because all taught incorrect doctrines.”
From the article I quoted above, we read the hermit Maria saying,
“In the ’70s, I became very ill, and on many occasions, the Blessed Mother actually came to me in various ways, and brought me comfort,” said Maria.
It is well-known that ascetic and mystical practices that focus on an ascetic interior life, including Lectio Divina and Contemplative Spirituality, actually provides a fertile breeding ground for visions and apparitions. In other words, if you want to gt a vision, live like a hermit according to man-made rules, and eschew solid biblical study for personal experiences, elevate yourself and your thoughts and your life above everyone else’s by showing the world how spiritual you are and go live in a hermitage or a cloister.
Or, if you want to please Jesus, live a life of unremarkable faith, persevering in His statutes, living in the world, resisting sin, and loving your neighbor. And that doesn’t mean the neighbor hermit in the next cave over.
What is New Monasticism? Christian monasticism is based on an extreme interpretation of Jesus’ teachings on perfection (Matthew 5:48), celibacy (Matthew 19:10-12), and poverty (Matthew 19:16-22). Monks and nuns attempt to control their environment and surround themselves with like-minded devotees. Many followers of Eastern religions also practice monasticism, the Buddhist monk perhaps being the most recognizable.
I read an interesting list of points an author made about John Bunyan’s conversion. John Bunyan was the writer of Pilgrim’s Progress, a book many say is the greatest book ever written, apart from the bible. It is without doubt a literary masterpiece. It has stood the test of time since its publication in 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature in history. And the man who wrote it was raised as an atheist.
In Geoff Thomas’ essay titled “John Bunyan,” Mr Thomas wrote,
“John Bunyan had no family influences encouraging him to become a Christian. … In June 1644 when he was 16 his mother passed away and four weeks later his sister died. Eight weeks after his mother’s death his father remarried and in 8 months his wife gave birth to a boy whom his Royalist father named ‘Charles’. Four months earlier John had left home and had joined the Parliamentary Army fighting against King Charles. There was little affection between son and father. How then did John Bunyan become a Christian? There were ten factors which all played their part, great and small:”
One of these factors caught my attention-
Bunyan was stirred by the godly conversation of Christians. He would work in Bedford and eat his bread with some Christian women who tailored their conversation for his ears. They talked of their own sin, the new birth, and the love of Christ. Bunyan listened intently and later wrote, ‘They spoke as if joy was making them speak. They were to me as if they had found a new world,’ and he often sought them out and sat with them.
‘they tailored their conversation for his ears.’ How important it is, to speak of Jesus in truth for known hearers and unknown hearers! The women must have seen the Spirit working in Bunyan, and they made a choice to and selflessly not speak of the carnal or mundane or the personal, but of the joy of His grace!
They were living this:
Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. (Colossians 4:6)
Gill’s Exposition says,
“let grace be the subject matter of your speech and conversation. When saints meet together they should converse with each other about the work of grace upon their souls, how it was begun, and how it has been carried on, and in what case it now is; they should talk of the great things and wonders of grace, which God has done for them, which would be both comfortable and edifying to them, and make for the glory of the grace of God”
Parents carry a pulpit with them. And from it, thousands of times a day, we preach a sermon to our kids. Whether the sermon is a good one or a bad one, we can be sure of this one thing.
Whether we are preachers exhorting in church, parents teaching our children, or two simple Puritan Christian ladies serving lunch to an obviously tortured soul, we have the privilege and the responsibility to speak ‘as if joy was making us speak.’
What glory it brings the Lord when we intentionally speak of the riches of His grace. Hearers known and unknown to us, Christian and perishing, listen to us and our Spirit-carried words,
For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. (2 Corinthians 2:16)
For John Bunyan, the ladies’ words were the aroma of life to life (‘he often sought them out and sat with them‘). Therefore season your conversation with love, joy, and salt, and watch with admiration and joy where He carries your words. For we all have a pulpit.
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Romans 11:36)
Fox News reporter Doug Luzader (@DougLuzader , @foxandfriends) asked the following question this morning, and answered it with the photo
How much ground has #ISIS won in Syria/Iraq? This pic puts it in perspective.
Who is ISIS? What do they want? How did this happen? I’d striven to show in a previous article (Has the Assyrian Empire just revived?) that the chaos in that region of the world has been in open rebellion since Genesis 10. The world’s first tyrant, Nimrod, built Babylon (Baghdad) and Nineveh (Mosul) and many other cities and led the world’s first global religious rebellion. We see by today’s news that nothing has changed.
Though we can overlay the veneer of civilization upon the region, it is still an evil place. Though we can militarily quell rebellions there for a time, such efforts are just a sham. Babylon is host to the greatest evil the world ever has known or will ever know. In the times ahead it is prophesied to get worse. Here are some facts.
ISIS stands for ISIS stands for The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. Who is ISIS?
Having occupied crucial sections of Syria over the past year and more recently seizing vast areas of Iraq, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria controls territory greater than many countries and now rivals Al Qaeda as the world’s most powerful jihadist group.
Islam is divided into two main groups, or sects: Shia and Sunni. Sunnis comprise by far the larger portion of Muslims in the world, approximately 80%. Shias are the more conservative, severe bunch, and comprise about 20% of all Islam. In Iraq however, those percentages are reversed. Iraq’s Muslim population is mostly Shia, and in that nation, Sunnis are the fewer.
In Iraq, Sunnis have felt marginalized and sympathy for the cause has been running high. Hatred between the two sects in Iraq is always a bloody undercurrent. The democratically elected Maliki promised better relations and when that didn’t happen, Sunni ire rose.
In Islam, Sunnis and Shias differ in their belief on who is the true descendant of Muhammad. There was a conflict over who was to succeed Muhammad after his death. The conflict was never resolved, and out of that conflict came the Sunni and the Shia sects. Another split between the two branches of Islam is their end time belief on how or what to do to incite the return of the last Mahdi, the twelfth Imam who will bring justice to the world through Sharia Law globally.
In the end, however, Muhammad’s father-in-law, Abu Bakr, was named the khalifa or “Successor” of Muhammad. A new religion and a new circumstance had formed a new, untried political formation: the caliphate. The Patriarchal Caliphs The earliest caliphs were relatives and followers of Muhammad himself. Under these four caliphs, the political, social, and religious institutions of Islam would be solidified, including the definitive edition of the Qur’an. The world of Islam would expand far beyond the borders of the Arabian peninsula during their tenure—east into the Persian empire, north into Byzantine territory, and west across the face of northern Africa.& Because of their foundational status and the fact that they were direct followers of Muhammad, these first four caliphs are called the patriarchs or patriarchal caliphs of Islam. For many Muslims, this was the golden age of Islamic government when a true Islamic polity was in existence; from some Muslims, such as Shi’ite Muslims, this was the only period when there was legitimate Islamic government. In this view, the founding of the Umayyad dynasty ushered in more than a millennium of illegitimate government.
In looking at history’s great empires,especially through a biblical lens, we often focus on the Persians, Assyrians, the Egyptians, Medes, Greeks, and Romans. But we often forget the Ottomans. The Muslim Ottoman Empire was in existence from 1299 to 1923 and held vast territories.
Map of the Abbasid Caliphate at its greatest extent, 750-1258.
You notice the red line of demarcation extends across the northern tier of Africa. These lands are part of the coming embroilment in the Ezekiel 38-39 Gog-Magog war.
For now, though, Africa is included as a high priority for the US Military in identifying where the next threats are coming from. Just last year,
Marine Corps Col. George Bristol, a trained sniper and martial arts master who for the past year has overseen a U.S. special operations task force in Africa, had a message for his troops before heading off to retirement. “An evil” has descended on Africa, Bristol said. “It is on us to stomp it out.” For all the talk of the U.S. military’s pivot to the Pacific, it is Africa and the growing threat posed by Islamic militant groups there that now has the attention of the special operations community. “Africa is not the next ridgeline,” Bristol said in an interview before Wednesday’s ceremony. “It is where the enemy is going now.”
The ISIS group wants a caliphate again, a life where “the political, social, and religious institutions of Islam would be solidified, including the definitive edition of the Qur’an”.
The Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774 was the beginning of the death knell for the Ottomans, (and caliphates in general) which would see its final demise in 1923. The outcome of the war saw the Turks lose large territories, including those with large Muslim populations such as the Crimean Peninsula to the Christian Russian Empire. You might remember recent news of war in Crimea. President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, abruptly annexed the peninsula. Always remember the history of the Baltics has Islam at its root, and that the Gog Magog battle includes Russia and the Baltics (among others).
At some point, all the nations in these current lands, from the norther tier of Africa, all the way to Turkey and Iran, unite against their perceived common enemy, Israel, and attacks her.
After many days you will be mustered. In the latter years you will go against the land that is restored from war, the land whose people were gathered from many peoples upon the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste. Its people were brought out from the peoples and now dwell securely, all of them. You will advance, coming on like a storm. You will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your hordes, and many peoples with you. (Ezekiel 38:8-9)
Anyway, in 1924 the Turkish National Assembly decided they wanted a secular state, and dissolved the Caliphate. And it has been dissolved ever since. But not forgotten.
ISIS controls hundreds of square miles where state authority has evaporated. It ignores international borders and has a presence all the way from Syria’s Mediterranean coast to south of Baghdad. CNN You might remember former CNN and Fox News reporter Glenn Beck warning the citizenry that extremists were trying to rebuild the caliphate. He bucked the trend and reported on this during the times when the politically correct mantra was “Islam is a peaceful religion.”
Here is an excerpt from today at Beck’s website, The Blaze:
Three years ago, Glenn Beck was relentlessly mocked for saying that Islamists in the Middle East are trying to rebuild the caliphate — the government implemented after the death of the prophet Muhammad that derives its authority from and governs by Shariah law. The idea was called “looney tunes” by MSNBC’s Chris Matthews in 2011, while others in the media said Beck was having “delusional ravings.” What did Beck say on Monday, now that the concept is being seriously discussed by CNN and a senior adviser to the Department of Homeland Security said the return of the caliphate is “inevitable”
there’s somewhere between 80,000 and 240,000 Kurdish peshmerga (militias) who don’t answer to Baghdad. They’re well equipped and trained, and represent a serious military threat to ISIS.
Joel Rosenberg has a good article today explaining the prophetic implications of today’s news, and also reminds us of another ethnic group involved in this religious war: the Kurds.
Could recent developments in Iraq have prophetic implications? Actually, the answer may be yes — especially with regards to the Kurdish people who live in northern Iraq. Let me explain. As we’ve been seeing in recent weeks, the Radical jihadist forces of the “Islamic State of Iraq & al-Sham” (ISIS) are on the move towards Baghdad. They are leaving a trail of bloodshed and carnage in their wake. The objective of the ISIS leaders is to topple the Iraqi government, seize control of all of Iraq, establish a jihadist state under Sharia law, and use Iraq to begin a regional — and eventually global — Islamic caliphate, or kingdom. Now, the Kurdish leaders have taken advantage of the chaos of this moment to seize control of the oil-rich region of Kirkuk for themselves.
Now, following the seizing of Mosul and other cities by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Kurdish Peshmerga, the fighting force of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), was quick to take military positions in and around the hotly contested city of Kirkuk as Iraqi forces fled. Although without the religious significance of Jerusalem, the disputed Iraqi city of Kirkuk has had a lasting significance for Iraqi Kurds. It is said that the Kurdish attachment to Kirkuk is comparable to the Jewish longing for Jerusalem.
So with all that in mind, please remember that God is the author of all this current history, just as He has been of the history of when Nimrod began his religious wars in Baghdad Babylon. These lands have been and will be in constant turmoil until the day Jesus returns and establishes… not a caliphate under allah, praise the Lord, but a perfectly just society where Jesus Himself rules and reigns. He is the true bringer of peace.
I was poking around in an old, old cemetery one day. I like cemeteries. I grew up next to one, and played there for hours. I liked to look at the ‘old Indian graves’, (which were really the graves of the first residents, 1600s era), marveled at the towering granite statues from the richer dead inhabitants, I was saddened by the baby graves. I rode my bike up and down the long, hilly pathways, and read Nancy Drew books under the pine tree near the brook.
Being that the family business was Undertaking, and that we lived next to a cemetery and there were two across the street, I thought about death a lot. Even in my child’s mind, I’d wonder, what happens after death? Is there more, or is this it? Where are all those dead people now?
The interest in cemeteries lasted through my adulthood. I’d visit them to take pictures wherever I went.
EPrata photo
EPrata photo
EPrata photo
I waited 42 years, but then I found out the answers to my childhood questions. I discovered the incredible, certain, absolute truth. There IS more after death. Everyone who lay under the ground in all those cemeteries I visit are either in heaven or in hell. In heaven, it’s perfect and wonderful and Jesus is there.
EPrata photo
But how do you get there? One must repent of their sins. Sins prevent us from going to heaven, which is holy because God is holy. It is His holy habitation. And yes, we all sin. You are a sinner. I am a sinner. We are born that way. We are always doing, or thinking, or saying wrong things that rebel against God. We all have sinned and fall short of His glory. (Romans 3:23)
So God sent Jesus down to earth. “You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” (Hebrews 2:7-8)
Jesus lived the perfectly sinless life that we could not. He preached Gd’s truth to a rebellious nation. He was despised, rejected, and crucified. Jesus’ rejection and death did not surprise God. This was all according to God’s plan. When Jesus was dying, he became sin, and God poured out His wrath on Jesus, wrath that was meant for us. Pleased with His Son’s submission, life, and sacrifice, God raised Jesus on the third day. Jesus is alive!
Jesus had become the sacrificial lamb in our stead, living the life we were meant to but couldn’t because of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden. He died, taking on all of God’s wrath for our sins. Because Jesus made a way, now any person can enter heaven through Jesus and be forgiven of their sins. They will be declared righteous, their sins pardoned, because God exhausted His wrath on Jesus. You will have escaped the penalty. All you had to do is ask forgiveness and submit to Jesus.
If a person refuses to go through Jesus, asking Him to forgive their sins and repenting of them, then when they die they will go to hell and receive the wrath that is due them. You see, the pardon only extends to those who go through Jesus, that is the only place where the wrath was exhausted. That’s what we mean when we say ‘Jesus is the only way.’ In no other religion, scheme, method, or plan, are your sins forgiven and are you made holy by God. If all the people of all the world end up going to heaven by all these different paths, what makes it heaven? It would not be holy. And God would not be God because He never would have dealt with man’s rebellion against Him and rendered justice. No, Jesus is the only way. We are blessed that there IS a way!
As John Bunyan, eventual writer of Pilgrim’s Progress, was being convicted of his sins and just prior to his conversion, he heard this in his mind:
‘Will you leave your sins and go to heaven, or have your sins and go to hell?’
Someday Jesus will return. He will put a stop to all this evil in the world. He will render justice, and avenge the blood of the martyrs. (Revelation 6:10). He will judge all flesh, according to their deeds.
But before He comes He is going to call His bride home. His bride is His church. He is going to emerge from His holy abode in heaven, shout with a loud voice and the dead shall rise and the living shall rise and we will meet Him in the air. He will lead us to heaven and we will escape the wrath of God. God will unleash His stored-up anger and it will become a literal hell on earth.
In the rapture event to come, Paul said the dead shall rise first. He was answering the Thessalonians’ questions about the things of the end of days, and Paul said “Don’t you remember when I was with you I was telling you these things?” (2 Thessalonians 2:5.) He was referring to this verse:
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)
I think about that verse a lot. It is the moment when the end of the Age of Grace occurs and we shall be translated from our sinful fleshly bodies to glorified sinless bodies, and be with the Lord in Heaven.
Back to the first line in this essay. I was poking around an old cemetery in my neck of the woods. I saw this grave and I wondered what had happened to it. Then I started thinking that when Jesus calls us in the rapture, all the graves are going to look like this!!
I no longer have to wonder about the grave. The grave will not hold me. Will it hold you? Will you repent of your sins and enter heaven through the narrow gate? The narrow gate is Jesus, and He is waiting for you. The age is fast coming to a close. The trumpet will blow…and the dead shall rise…
“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Corinthians 15:55)
It happened at the Women of Faith “Unwrap the Bible” Conference.
But first, some background.
This past February, just weeks ago, Beth Moore and four other women concluded the Unwrap The Bible event in Houston, and closed it with what the sponsor of the event, Women of Faith, called “A Commissioning”. (??)
“Unwrap the Bible” was touted as America’s largest bible conference, sponsored by “Women of Faith.” (WOF) It was held for two days at Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church. In addition to five women who were to teach and preach their way through the weekend, WOF used clips from Catholic Mystic Roma Downey’s “The Bible” series to punctuate the biblical “truths” the lineup of teachers was to teach. Downey also promoted the conference prior to its inception. Christine Caine, Beth Moore, Priscilla Shirer, Lisa Harper, and Sheila Walsh were the 5 scheduled bible teachers. Joel Osteen’s wife Victoria opened the conference with a prayer. Lisa Bevere was on hand too. Eleven-thousand women attended. Here is a photo of Lakewood Church with Beth on the jumbotron-
Screen shot from WOF video
At the very end of the conference, Beth Moore did not offer a benediction for the women, she did not sing a song for them, she did something peculiar. Very peculiar. She held a “commissioning”. At Moore’s insistence, telling women to grab the person next to them, and repeat after her, Moore led the 11,000 women in a ceremony whose likeness I can’t find anywhere in the bible.
At Moore’s command, the 11,000 women dutifully paired up, hugged up, listened and then spoke in unison in call-and-response style with Moore leading them in this “commissioning.” If you’ve never heard of a “commissioning” like this, I haven’t either, because it doesn’t exist. Moore has ripped the normal word from any biblical context and any known ceremony and has redefined it into something a seeker sensitive, New Age, pop psychology, comfy feminist would love. And love it they did.
Screen shot from WOF video
I am not making this up- the Women of Faith intended for the last segment of the conference to be called a “commissioning.” Here is the WOF title card for the video segment:
Here is the Women of Faith web page explanation about it.
At last month’s Unwrap the Bible event in Houston, Beth Moore wrapped up the weekend with a “commissioning.” She gathered major points from all the speakers’ messages and had the women in the audience speak them over each other. We loved it and thought you would, too.
I’m sorry, but I don’t love it. Not one word “spoken over the women” at the end of WOF Unwrap the Bible conference that Moore was “commissioning” was scripture. Not one. Many of the concepts in the ceremony were unbiblical, to boot.
How Moore introduced “the commissioning” to the women was:
“This is our way of sending you out with this truth embedded in the marrow of your bones.”
Sounds painful.
It was then that Moore told the women to grab a women next to them and repeat what Moore said to the women they’d grabbed. She would say a line, the 11,000 women would repeat it to the partner they’d grabbed, whether they knew the woman or not, not knowing whether the woman was even saved or not. That’s why there is a space for pauses after each phrase. Here is the transcript.
My dear Sister Be confident this great day That your God has chosen you He can make a miracle Out of your big mess He can stand you up straight And set your feet upon a rock No matter where you’ve been Or what you’ve done You are not dirty The power of the cross Has made you clean When you run out of what it takes Girlfriend, run to Jesus Let Jesus turn water into wine Never forget You have an enemy Hell-bent on destroying you But you have a Savior Who became earthbound to deliver you There is restoration and divine destiny for you Throw your arms wide open and receive in Jesus’ Name Rip off those expiration dates God’s promise to you will be fulfilled Quit just eavesdropping on God Start leaning in and believing what He says Impossible is where God starts! Your God is faithful He will do it Do NOT retreat in fear Now, girlfriend – get out there in that lost world And show them what a woman looks like When she unwraps her Bible
And thus, these women have now been “commissioned.” Did you notice the focus of the commissioning was on the women, and not the Lord? I did. In the bible, men are commissioned to go to the lost world and show Jesus to it by preaching His word. Beth Moore told 11,000 women to go to the lost world and show themselves to it.
But what exactly had happened at this commissioning? Was “the commissioning” at Unwrap the Bible an authoritative sacramental ceremony like baptism? Were they sacred vows like marriage? Was it an ordination ceremony? Unknown.
Was there a responsibility the women must now adopt because they’d uttered a creed and been “commissioned” by someone they consider a leader (and by some random women next to them)? It seemed so, because Moore said that she was “sending them out.” Therefore was it a Missionary Commissioning ceremony, akin to when Timothy had been laid hands on and sent out? (1 Timothy 4:14). Unknown.
Picture Moses standing before 11,000 Israelite women, raising his staff, and telling them, “Start leaning in and believing what He says. Now, girlfriend – get out there in that lost world”
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I submit to you that there are two problems with this WOF Commissioning event, and both represent an incremental slide down on the slippery slope of apostasy.
Discerners and watchmen are attuned to the incremental steps away from foundational truth. Most Christians with other gifts are busy employing their other gifts, and don’t notice the slide until a great number of leaps have lurched us downward. But we notice each inch. This is one. So we warn.
The first issue is that while the SBC has been looking north, east, and south to protect doctrine against the inflow of homosexuality, transgenderism, and Calvinists, to the west, the feminists have crept in. I’ve mentioned before that Beth Moore is a neo-feminist. She has usurped the authority of her husband and her home and the church. She teaches and preaches in authority along with men. She is the President of a multi-million dollar corporation, while her husband is the Vice-President. She brought home the bacon while her kids were little, and her husband took care of them while she was frequently away. She says she was a stay-at-home mom, but she lived like a feminist.
Christine Caine is more forward. She plainly states that she believes women should have leadership roles. Caine and Moore, along with many others, are good examples of the curse of Genesis 3: her desire is for her husband and he shall rule over her. (Genesis 3:16) The struggle for women is to submit to Jesus in their God-given roles in life and most importantly, in the church. It has been an age-old struggle, and it has become a pitched battle in many false churches and also some Protestant denominations. These days, most have lost that battle and women have been ordained to serve in leadership roles formerly biblically reserved for men.
Well, the second problem that ties back into the first (ecclesiastical feminism) is that words mean things. They mean things. Any liberal in any realm in the battle for hearts and minds will first seek to change meanings of commonly understood words in order to co-opt the meaning and then to redefine them to their advantage. Example: sodomite—->homosexual—->gay. In the church world, we no longer sin. We make mistakes. We’re no longer Christian. We’re Christ followers.
In the political world, terminology is no less important than in the world of the programmer. However, there has been a systematic effort to obfuscate and confuse terminology in order to usurp hitherto positive meanings and put them in the service of ideals which, in many cases, are opposite to the word’s original meaning.
Let’s contrast Moore’s commissioning above to a biblical one. Here is a commissioning service from the bible:
“So the LORD said to Moses, “Take Joshua the son of Nun, a man in whom is the Spirit, and lay your hand on him; and have him stand before Eleazar the priest and before all the congregation, and commission him in their sight. “You shall put some of your authority on him, in order that all the congregation of the sons of Israel may obey him.” (Numbers 27:19-20)
Here is another reference to a commission, Paul reminding Timothy of his commissioning ceremony:
Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. (1 Timothy 1:14)
Or this, when the church chose their first deacons:
And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them. (Acts 6:5-6)
Commissioning means something. It’s serious. Someone in authority gives authority to the ones who have been selected for a particular service, their qualification is affirmed by the whole church, and they are ordained in the work through a ceremony. Ordination means something too. GotQuestions explains a commissioning, this recognition of a man set apart for pastoral ministry, deacon service, or missionary work,
When God calls and qualifies a man for the ministry, it will be apparent both to that man and to the rest of the church. The would-be minister will meet the qualifications set forth in 1 Timothy 3:1-16 and Titus 1:5-9, and he will possess a consuming desire to preach (1 Corinthians 9:16). It is the duty of the church elders, together with the congregation, to recognize and accept the calling. After that, a formal commissioning ceremony—an ordination service—is appropriate, though by no means mandatory. The ordination ceremony itself does not confer any special power; it simply gives public recognition to God’s choice of leadership.
Christian feminists have seen that to redefine ordination into a commissioning is one way to get women into leadership. Moore publicly recognized all those women in a commissioning in a worship service and accompanied the recognition by a spoken creed.
Many denominations have been muddying the two words, most notably when Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York commissionedordained a female deacon in his church service in 2009. This sparked a heated discussion of commissioning vs. ordination. Here are but two examples-
Ordain or commission, either way it is a method for women to adopt leadership roles they were not given by God. But redefining the term away from ordain into commission helps soften the blow.
Here’s where the two issues, redefining terms and Christian feminism intersect with Beth Moore and the conference commissioning.
A scan on Wikipedia of the list of women ordained in this century, shows The Lutheran Protestant Church started to ordain women as priests in 1947. In 1972 America’s first female rabbi was ordained by a rabbinical seminary. The next year, a Mennonite church in Illinois followed, ordaining a female pastor. A branch-off of the Latter Day Saints ordained a women in the late 1990s. Methodists ordain women. Seventh Day Adventists, Episcopalians, and Congregationalists have all been accepting of women in leadership roles. The Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland stated this year that the Catholic church must ordain women and allow priests to marry in order to survive. Whether false churches or true denominations, every flavor of the spectrum have fallen to the notion that women can and should be ordained to serve in leadership roles in the church. Except the Southern Baptist Convention.
In 2000 The Baptist Faith and Message was amended to state, “While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”
So far the SBC has been practically the only denomination of any kind, in any true religion or false, to withstand the onslaught of feminism that hearkens back to Genesis 3 and do not ordain women as pastors or deacons and rarely commission a woman alone for missionary work. Or have they? Does what they say match up with what they do? No.
Beth more preaches in pulpits substituting for men or alongside men, in authority during worship services. Here is Beth Moore with three ordained pastors, leading worship, her bible in hand.
Moore leading worship at the pulpit during Passion Conference 2012. Screen shot Youtube. L-R, Moore, & actual ordained pastors, Chan, Giglio, Piper
Chan is a graduate of John MacArthur’s Master’s Seminary, a biblically solid seminary. Giglio is a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and spoke at the Southern Baptist Convention’s 2011 Pastors Conference. Piper is a Reformed Baptist. All of them have been through training and serve in conservative churches and should know unequivocally that a woman cannot be a pastor, nor serve as a deacon, nor teach in authority over men during worship service. Yet there they are.
The SBC has not rebuked Moore for usurping authority in violation of the bible and their own declared creed. People, it’s always important to see if what they say and what they do match up.
The authors of the Redefining Terms essay said of changing word definitions in the political world,
This is not an academic exercise in semantics. This is about truth, and about a threat as real as any terrorist attack and more immediate because it is covert.
It is exactly the same in the church world. Beth Moore’s ‘Commissioning’ at the end of Unwrap the Bible was not a small thing. She endowed women with a commission, and sent them out. The very act of leading a commissioning ceremony imbues Moore with a tacit authority to do such a thing in the first place. But from where does she receive her authority to commission men and women in the first place? (and yes, there were men in the audience). There was not a pastor with her on the stage. Just Moore, giving a responsibility to 11,000 women, co-opting a term that the rest of the church has understood for millennia, and trivializing it. Trivialize how, you ask?
First, because all commissioning ceremonies in the bible and in solidly doctrinal churches in the centuries since, depend on the Holy Spirit’s selection of individuals for the particular kind of service to Jesus (pastoral, deacon, or missionary). That’s what commissioning services are, a public recognition. The entire congregation recognizes it, and participates in prayer and/or laying on of hands. The men selected for whatever service they are commissioned for (pastor, deacon, missionary), are uniformly recognized as saved, Holy Spirit-selected, and qualified.
Yet Moore told 11,000 women and men to willy-nilly speak words to the person next to them that they might not even know, such as this- “Be confident this great day That your God has chosen you”. How utterly foolish to say to an unknown, random person that they can be sure God has chosen them! Moore urged women to say “Throw your arms wide open and receive in Jesus’ Name”. Jesus is not a genie and His name is not magic! And receive what, exactly? If they are saved they have already received, if they are not saved, they need to repent first!
And what if I don’t throw my arms open, will I still “receive”? What if the lady next to me I’m parroting this to is not saved? Will she “receive”? And how completely meaningless to say “Rip off those expiration dates Quit just eavesdropping on God”
From the majesty of the commissioning of Numbers 27, to the beauty and authority of this commissioning from Moses to Joshua,
“Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their ancestors to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance.” (Deuteronomy 31:7)
We have Moore who has NO authority telling a bunch of women that they’re chosen by God to quit eavesdropping and not be dirty and to then she sent them out and…what. To do what? The commissioning was absent any notion of service. But it was filled with self-esteem. So these women left the conference feeling like they’ve been given some authority to do something. They’ve been sent- to show themselves.
It’s just trivial and sinful and ugly. The entire Commissioning was a terrible display of what happens when a woman like Moore who has thoroughly usurped authority at home and has been allowed by her denomination to usurp church authority for 20 years. This commissioning fad will infiltrate the SBC and before you know it undiscerning local Baptist churches will be “commissioning” women into leadership roles. Soon after that, they’ll be ordaining them. You’ll see.
May the Lord return before too many more undiscerning women fall into Moore’s snare, and before too many good churches slide one more incremental step away from healthy doctrine into the pit of feminism. The Baptist churches have been so busy holding back the tide of homosexuality they forgot to look out for their wives, and sure enough, their desire is for their husbands and the struggle for power has at long last come to the last bastion of conservative church polity.
AMMAN — The Jordan Armed Forces (JAF) have strengthened their presence along the Iraqi border on Sunday as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) reportedly inched towards Jordanian territory.
Sources said Sunday that the terror organisation has opened a clandestine branch in Jordan to prepare for its expansion into the region.
Meanwhile, lawmakers scheduled a meeting Monday to discuss the developments in Iraq and their potential impact on the Kingdom.
According to military sources, the JAF nearly “doubled” its forces along the country’s 180-kilometre shared border with Iraq early Sunday amid a reported withdrawal of Iraqi forces from nearby border towns in western Iraq.
Although military sources reported no “unusual movement” along the Iraq border, one source familiar with the situation stressed that border guards “remain on high alert” as ISIL continues to make gains in nearby western Iraq.
According to media reports, Iraqi government forces withdrew from several towns and villages in western Anbar province in the face of an ongoing military offensive by the hard-line Islamic State.
In a statement quoting an Iraqi military source, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported that Iraqi forces had withdrawn from the western towns of Saklawisat in Ramadi and the village of Al Jisser near Fallujah, key towns in Anbar province that have been at the heart of fighting between the Iraqi military and jihadist forces since late December 2013.
Ramadi and Fallujah lie some 400km from the Jordanian-Iraqi border.
Despite the “precautionary” military build-up, security sources say the situation remains “calm” along the western Iraqi border, in contrast to the country’s shared border with Syria, which has seen several clashes between the armed forces and suspected Islamist militants over the past two weeks.
Lawmakers plan meeting
Government Spokesman Mohammad Momani could not be reached for comment on the border build-up.
However, MPs on Sunday expressed worries towards the ongoing instability in Iraq, amid expectations that the Kingdom would receive another wave of refugees from the neighbouring country.
The MPs filed this request during the Lower House’s session on Sunday, calling on Speaker Atef Tarawneh to schedule a “special” meeting with the government to discuss the ramifications of the ongoing fighting in Iraq on Jordan.
“The situation in Iraq and in particular on our eastern border with this country is a source of concern for everyone,” MP Bassam Manaseer said. The suggestion was supported by three major blocs: Mubadara, Islamic Centrist Party and Watan.
Branch for ISIL in Jordan
Meanwhile, Islamist sources claim that the Islamic State is preparing for “expansion into Jordan” as it continues to push westward through Iraq.
According to jihadist sources close to ISIL, the former Al Qaeda affiliate opened on Friday an “unofficial” office and branch in Jordan to usher what sources claim as expansion of the Islamic “caliphate”.
Despite having a low-profile presence in Jordan over the past six months, with over 800 Jordanian nationals reportedly serving under the ranks of ISIL, the movement has allegedly been reluctant to open an official branch in Jordan due to its ongoing rivalry with Al Qaeda, which retains larger popularity and support among hard-line Islamists in the country.
Senior members of Jordan’s hard-line Salafist movement, which keep strong ties with both Al Qaeda and the Baghdad-based ISIL, had previously mediated “understandings” with the Islamic State to forego expansion into the country in a bid to prevent ongoing jihadist civil war in Syria to spill over into the country.
In the wake of ISIL’s rapid gains in northern and western Iraq last week Jordanian jihadist sources fear that the previous pacts “are no longer being honoured”.
“The Islamic State seems to have reached a stage that it believes it no longer must act with cooperation or even informing its partners or the Islamic ummah,” said a leader of the Jordanian Salafist movement, who declined to be named due to security concerns.
“The last thing we want to see is bloodshed, and the entrance of the Islamic State into Jordan may unleash this.”
On Thursday, Saudi Arabian news network Al Arabiya published a map allegedly posted by ISIL depicting its planned so-called Islamic caliphate, which featured Jordan falling under the movement’s banner.
Al Qaeda has long differed with ISIL over its approach to establishing an Islamic state in the region.
The Pakistani-based Al Qaeda leadership, headed by Ayman Zawahiri, has called for cooperation with local populations in bringing about an Islamic caliphate, while ISIL leaders insist that an Islamic state should be imposed by force.
