These words are true and faithful. (Revelation 21:5)
Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. (Revelation 19:11)
And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: ‘The words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation. (Revelation 3:14)
Jesus is the Word, and Jesus is Faithful and True, and the word is faithful and true! How circularly wonderful!!
Published in 2006 and placed into the Museum of Idolatry in 2007, we find the artifact of “Your Best Life Now: The Board Game” still being sold on Amazon today. Apparently the Prosperity Gospel’s attraction does not wane but only grows more attractive with age.
A person named David Harrison wrote a review of the game on Amazon,
This was bought as a joke gift for a friend. Joel has popularized a gospel message that promises an easy, comfortable, and prosperous lifestyle to the Christian. He ignores the fact that God’s primary purpose for us is to make the glory of God known to the world, and instead, Joel promotes an idea that loving God will result in making more money. This game gives us a great example of what is wrong with the prosperity gospel.
This person wrote a hilariously sarcastic review,
This game doesn’t have the same style as those of the Reformation and even earlier. Augustine’s “Hungry, Hungry Bishop of Hippo” set a standard to which Osteen can only dream.
What is the most tragic thing on this page? The fact that such a “game” exists? Yes that’s tragic but…the fact that there exists a five-star review? Yes, that is bad also, but…the fact that even 7 years after this game was published it is still popular enough to have “ONLY 1 LEFT IN STOCK”?!?! We have a winner.
I continue to look toward my go-to prophecy, which I believe is being fulfilled in accelerating train style each day,
“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)
I always use the KJV for this verse because the language is more descriptive. The Greek word for ‘merchandise’ is emporeuomai, from which we get the word emporium, or mall. It literally means “I travel as a merchant, engage in trade; I traffic in, make gain or business of”. We can see the devastating fulfillment of this prophecy any time we go to a Christian bookstore, especially a Lifeway store.
Money tends to corrupt faith and the faithful. We are warned over this so many times. Money itself is not bad. The love of money is. (1 Timothy 6:10). Jesus was righteously wrathful over the merchandising of faith in the Temple, and cleansed it with a whip. (John 2:13-22). Ananias and Sapphira became the first Christians in the Church killed for their hypocrisy and it was over the money they’d held back and lying about it. (Acts 5:1-2). The Rich Young Man refused to believe in the Messiah who was standing in front of Him, in favor of the property he owned far off. (Matthew 19:22). Simon the Sorcerer tried to buy the Holy Spirit. (Acts 8:19-20).
The mixture of money and faith usually ends up being tragic if one is not careful.
And now we see not just greed and interest in personal wealth climbing to stratospheric proportions but the faithful actually being made merchandise out of.
The next time you enter a Christian bookstore, see how long it takes you to be distracted from buying a serious theological book which will edify you (if they even have any in the store anymore) in favor of buying something tangential, like a game or a praise CD or a gizmo or a piece of jewelry or a set of greeting cards or a huge bejewled cross or a birdhouse or … anyway, the tangential things are seeded around the store like sirens. And I don’t mean the loud clanging bells, I mean the seductive sea creatures who tried to lure mythological Odysseus off his path and onto the shoals in shipwreck.
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| The Siren: John William Waterhouse, ~1900 |
“A siren call means something that is alluring. It is dangerous and potentially deadly. Even if you know better, the siren call is hard to resist. In Greek mythology, the sirens who allured were sea nymphs beguiling enough to begin with, but with even more enticing voices.” (source)
The Sirens were luscious sea nymphs who lured sailors to their death with a bewitching songs. As Walter Copland Perry observed: “Their song, though irresistibly sweet, was no less sad than sweet, and lapped both body and soul in a fatal lethargy, the forerunner of death and corruption.”
Merchandising is today’s mythological Sirens. And the wolves do it via smooth talk and flattery- their voices. (Romans 16:8; Psalm 12:2; Colossians 2:4)
The greedy wolves seek to exploit the faith and the faithful with bewitching merchandising songs which lure you from the aisles of the bookstore to the shoal infested waters of games, trinkets, and fluff-filled books that tickle your ears with doctrines of devils and distract you into a fatal lethargy.
Stay vigilant! Don’t buy the merchandise, but more importantly, don’t BE the merchandise.
After we are born again, we still sin. However, the difference is, we feel it acutely. Before, we sinned and our hard hearts of stone didn’t feel the least bit bad. Or only a little and not for long. But post salvation, our sins weigh on us terribly, now that we know God and have been reconciled to Him.
Do you feel condemnation when you repent? I know we all feel the burden of our sins. It is so easy to slide into self-condemnation when we look at the wretchedness of our own selves compared to the majesty of His grace. But don’t allow the slide! Here’s why.
The sanctification process
When we repent and are forgiven of our sins, we become justified. Jesus as Judge removes the penalty of our crimes (sins) from us and brings the gavel down and we are declared ‘not guilty.’ That’s justification. We are declared just before the Judge.
Then He sends the Spirit to us to sanctify us. Becoming sanctified means the Holy Spirit Who dwells within us is working to mold us into a new creation. (2 Corinthians 5:7; Romans 6:4). This is the ministry of reconciliation and the Spirit’s work in creating us as new creatures in His likeness. (2 Corinthians 3:18).
See, before the fall, Adam was made in the image of God, in His likeness. (Genesis 1:26). When Adam and Eve sinned, we were no longer creatures who looked like Him because sin was found in them, and now, us. When the Holy Spirit comes into us, He works to reverse that devolving sinning process as long as we are on earth. When we die and our souls go to heaven, and we eventually get our new bodies, the sanctification process will be completed at the glorification. Our new flesh will be completely free of sin.
When I pray to Jesus in my private time and I repent of the day’s sins, I could easily slide into self-condemnation if I allow it. My sins are so many and His perfection and glory is so great! O, how utterly I understand Paul’s lament, “For I do not understand my own actions. “For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15).
Condemnation vs. Self-Condemnation
So why don’t I allow condemnation? Why is it important not to allow that slide? When I look at my
sin and ask for forgiveness, it is because of His glory. I believe as Thomas Watson the Puritan wrote, “Man’s Chief End is to Glorify God”. He chose us, justified us, sanctifies us and will glorify us through His Son for this purpose- to bring glory to Himself.
His condemnation rests on the unjustified. (Romans 1:18). All His condemnation is stored up to be poured out forever on those who refuse to believe.
So I have to remember, what glory does it bring Him to condemn the justified? The most glory that can be brought is His ever-working Spirit sanctifying believers into Christ-likeness. His grace expressed on the wretched believer is something that is so glorious that even angels long to look into it. As Jamiesson Fausset Brown Commentary so eloquently puts it,
As the cherubim stood bending over the mercy seat, the emblem of redemption, in the holiest place, so the angels intently gaze upon and desire to fathom the depths of “the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels” (1Ti 3:16). Their “ministry to the heirs of salvation” naturally disposes them to wish to penetrate this mystery as reflecting such glory on the love, justice, wisdom, and power of their and our God and Lord. They can know it only through its manifestation in the Church, as they personally have not the direct share in it that we have.
The more sin I bring Him and repent of, the more glory He gets.
Ultimately I have to tell myself that there is a difference between dwelling on the fact that I am condemnation-worthy, and knowing I am worthy of condemnation but I escape it through His grace.
It is the great mystery of Godliness! The former glorifies me, and the latter glorifies Him.
So bring Him your sins in a ministry of prayer and repentance, and bring Him glory by submitting to the Spirit in sanctification. Do not wallow in self-condemnation but glory in His grace.
I hope you find this encouraging. His grace is unplumbable, and the mystery of His love to us is unfathomable. Yet He promises rest.
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. (Hebrews 4:1)
I haven’t written a lot about Steven Furtick of Elevation Church in Charlotte NC. It is an emergent church led by a pastor in skinny jeans and casual attitude, and services have a loud band, a lot of smoke and not too much bible. One of those kind of churches. And given the times in which we live, it is growing by leaps and bounds. (2 Timothy 4:3). And given the times in which we live, going to Elevation Church website and clicking on “About Steven” brings you not to another church page describing the pastor, but to a separate website named after himself. And given the times in which we live (2 Peter 2:3) the pastor of this church lives in a 16,000 square foot, $1.7Million dollar home and is under investigation for excessive lifestyle. Of course. (2 Peter 2:3). But not to worry because Elevation church is planning an $86 million dollar expansion according to a leaked internal document, and thus there will be baby Elevation Churches born soon to distract the gullible.
Forget the biblical qualifications for pastor. The above is the resume for today’s hip, happenin’ pastor.
Ahab was facing a multitudinous enemy. Syria was encamped and ready to attack. The LORD told Ahab that he would give the victory to Ahab, and in such a way that all would know He is the LORD.
“And behold, a prophet came near to Ahab king of Israel and said, “Thus says the Lord, Have you seen all this great multitude? Behold, I will give it into your hand this day, and you shall know that I am the Lord.” (1 Kings 20:13).
And so He did. It came to pass exactly as he said it would via the prophet. The Syrians were upset, and mulled over their loss. They rationalized,
“And the servants of the king of Syria said to him, “Their gods are gods of the hills, and so they were stronger than we. But let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they.” (1 Kings 20:23)
The “gods of the hills”.
And herein lies the point for us today. The Syrians knew that a higher power was at work. They understood there were supernatural events caused by powers which lived above and beyond. They did not understand the nature of this loss, however, and attributed it to them fighting the wrong gods. If this god is powerful on the hills, they reasoned, then let’s fight their gods of the valleys, who are probably weaker. Yeah, that’s it.
In our faith, there is only whole worship or there is no worship. There is no worshiping God but not Jesus. There is no worshiping Jesus but dismissing the Holy Spirit. There is no worship of God on Sunday and blaspheming Him the other 6 days. There is no faith being simply mental assent but failure to reach the heart. God is not a God of the mountains only. He is God over the whole earth and everything in it.
“A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,” (Psalm 24:1)
All those who dwell in the earth are the Lord’s too. Even those who do not believe, He is king over. He demands proper worship and He demands whole worship- all our heart, mind, soul and strength. (Matthew 22:38)
No, God is God of the whole earth. There are no other gods. But people today “reason” the same way the Syrians did, albeit metaphorically. The attend a church and become convicted, but say ‘I don’t like this church of the mountains so I will seek another god of the valleys.’
Or they say ‘He is God of the New Testament but I don’t like the God of the Old Testament so I’ll just take those words with a grain of salt.’ They pick and choose a God of their own making by adhering to the words in the bible that speak of mountains and not the words that speak of valleys.
Thomas Jefferson did that. He liked Jesus of Nazareth but dismissed the Holy Spirit and declined to believe in God. Here, Smithsonian Magazine explains,
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| Thomas Jefferson cut verses from six copies of the New Testament to create his own personal version. (Hugh Talman / NMAH, SI) |
“At age 77, Thomas Jefferson, after two terms as president, turned to a project that had occupied his mind for at least two decades—the creation of a book of moral lessons drawn from the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, Mark and John. With painstaking precision, Jefferson cut verses from editions of the New Testament in English, French, Greek and Latin. He pasted these onto loose blank pages, which were then bound to make a book.”
You can read Jefferson’s bible online here, and see his actual cuts and pastes.
Today, people like the ancient Syrians seek a different god so as to conquer him. They forego traditional church for beer church. They eschew pastors who speak of sin and judgment for pastors who speak of our best life now. Or pastrixes. They go away from the battle and lick their wounds and reason and rationalize and they come back with a renewed philosophy of life that bears little to no resemblance to the revealed God of the bible.
God is God. There is no god of the mountains but not of the valleys. Partial recognition of “a god” of the mountains will only result is pain, loss, and gnashing of teeth. Jesus will say to them, “depart from me you evildoers. I never knew you.”
Our faith is a whole faith, requiring every cell of our body to come under submission to the God of the Universe. It requires acknowledgement of, submission to, and service under the Trinitarian God revealed to us via Has creation and His Son. He is glory upon glory, and a true worshiper would want to do no less.
Here, Linda Randle sings that the God of the Mountains is still God of the Valleys, and her intent is that He is God of our lives when we are at emotional high points and emotional low points. But He is in fact God of the mountains and God of the valleys, geographically, as well as emotionally, and in fact in every way one can possibly think of. Always worship the Ancient of Days in spirit and in truth, wholly and with no partiality. (James 1:8)
The title to this piece is from a verse in Luke 18:7-8,
“And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?“
Jesus is saying that we should pray for His return, and that He will render justice to evildoers, and He is also warning us that faith in general will wane as the ages go on.
And we do see that faith today is so corrupt that it doesn’t even look like faith. Prophet Jeremiah knew something of corrupt worship. So did Jesus when confronting the Pharisees and called them whitewashed tombs. But the lack of faith in view here in Jesus’s statement is a faith that exists in a few. Gill’s Exposition says,
“in the world at the last day: there will then be little of the doctrine of faith, and less of the grace of faith, and still less of the exercise of faith, particularly in prayer, and especially about the coming of Christ; it will be little thought of, and expected, or faith little exercised about it.“
We see this today. Here are two examples of the incredible, corrupt faith upon the earth, which is no faith.
Bolz-Weber’s liberal, foulmouthed articulation of Christianity speaks to fed-up believers
“Nadia Bolz-Weber bounds into the University United Methodist Church sanctuary like a superhero from Planet Alternative Christian. Her 6-foot-1 frame is plastered with tattoos, her arms are sculpted by competitive weightlifting and, to show it all off, this pastor is wearing a tight tank top and jeans.“
The lack of discernment among people who claim to be Christian is astounding. The biblical record is clear, woman cannot be pastors. (1 Timothy 2:11-12).
Profanity for any Christian, but especially for leaders, is something that impugns the spotless name of Christ. Leaders are supposed to be above reproach. This is a must. (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:6-7).
Further, cursing is a sin. (Ephesians 4:29, 1 Peter 3:10, James 3:9-12).
Women are supposed to adorn themselves modestly, not deliberately show off buff arms and flat tummies. (1 Timothy 2:9-10, Isaiah 3:16-17)
And tattoos? Leviticus 19:28 has spiritual significance for Christians living under the New Covenant today.
“In forbidding tattoos, God was telling Israel He did not want them to personally possess any physical marks or characteristics that externally resembled the pagan nations. Such a thing would link them visibly to the false religious practices and immoral behaviors of those nations, which ran contrary to God’s standards.” (source)
And in the New Testament we are told that we are not to conform to the world.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2)
This pastrix has said,
“I never experience God in camping or trees or nature. I hate nature,” she told the Austin crowd as she paced the stage. “God invented takeout and duvets for a reason.”
Yet the creation is one of the ways He has revealed Himself. I’m not a fan of camping either, but when I am outside I see God reflected in the beauty and complexity of His creation, and I give Him glory for it. If I was a leader I’d never say that I hate one of the main ways He has revealed Himself to us. Romans 1:19-20 says
For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Why, why do so many follow an obviously false pastor like this one? Why is her church overflowing and her speeches standing room only? Because they like to elevate themselves and/or reduce God’s stature. And with the case of Nadia Bolz-Weber, she is preaching a different Jesus, one that is reduced down to our level.
She said, ““God isn’t feeling smug about the whole thing,” she writes about Jesus’s resurrection and the idea that the story is used as fodder for judgment. “God is not distant at the cross. . . . God is there in the messy mascara-streaked middle of it, feeling as [bad] as the rest of us.””
God is feeling as bad as the rest of us? You mean, the God whose ways are so high above our ways? Whose thoughts are not our thoughts? (Isaiah 55:8). God is in the thick of our petty emotional woes? Not hardly.
I used to dismiss articles like this one which describes a pastrix such as this woman, believing that an apostate as profound as this woman would be obvious to one and all, but it is not so. Hordes flock to hear her, and why not? She is part of the promise of a coming apostasy.
“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,” (2 Timothy 4:3)
If a profane, tattooed, lusty and buff female pastor is not your style, then maybe the church beer bar is.
To Stave Off Decline, Churches Attract New Members With Beer
Todd Fadel, at piano, leads singers at a recent gathering of Beer & Hymns at First Christian Church Portland, OR
“With mainline religious congregations dwindling across America, a scattering of churches is trying to attract new members by creating a different sort of Christian community. They are gathering around craft beer. Some church groups are brewing it themselves, while others are bring the Holy Mysteries to a taproom. The result is not sloshed congregants; rather, it’s an exploratory approach to do church differently.“
Do church differently? Ask Nadab and Abihu how different church went for them. Ask Solomon, who experimented with everything under the sun and found it all vanity. The LORD who sent His Son to tell us what to do and how to do it, laid down how to worship in His word. There is nothing that has changed, that He wants us to now do differently. There is nothing in the bible that says “when looking for a good church, go to a bar.”
These church-in-a-bar folks are giving the gospel with a microphone in one hand and a beer in another. Their churches are literally named “Church-in-a-Pub”. They take communion among the barstools. They advertise “Beer & Hymns”. I am not making this up. And denominations are taking this seriously. The article states, “Last month, the regional council of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America named Church-in-a-pub a Synodically Authorized Community.“
At one church in a pub, “Between hymns, people can stand up and say anything they want.”
Paul expressly wrote to the Corinthians to stop such carousing, communion-insulting, prophesying chaos. He demanded orderly worship. Because God demands orderly worship.
“Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged, and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. For God is not a God of confusion but of peace.” (1 Corinthians 14:29-33)
He demands orderly communion!!
“When you come together, it is not the Lord’s supper that you eat. For in eating, each one goes ahead with his own meal. One goes hungry, another gets drunk. What! Do you not have houses to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I commend you in this? No, I will not.” (1 Corinthians 11:20-22)
This is exactly what the hedonistic, pagan-saturated Corinthians church was doing. Paul got on to them, and came down hard. Yet here we are, repeating the exact things the bible says not to do. How can this be?
“When the Son of Man returns, will He find faith upon the earth?”
These people disregard holiness. Be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16). The Lord hates profane worship. Read Malachi 1.
“Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.” (Malachi 1:10)
Stay in the word so you will not be deceived and lured off the path. Stay prayed up like the persistent widow demanding justice. Plead for the lost and straying, and remain grateful that His grace has found us, and that we will be with Him forever, and from what the state of the church looks like today, that time is nearing each day. Soon, my friends.
I hope to be in heaven soon, where I can worship in pure church, in perfect accord with His will, and not a blot or stain in me, but only holy desires to see Him exalted. O what a day that will be!
Jesus is long-suffering. He hates sin, but He withholds judgment upon sinners until the full measure of His anger He deems is ready to be poured out onto the world. The greatest news is, God sent His Son to absorb all of God’s wrath for sin onto Himself, so that those who repent and believe would not have to endure that same wrath.
However, those who reject Jesus and His substitutionary atonement, disbelieve His death and resurrection, fail to adopt His Gospel, do not repent, will endure the wrath of God for their sins. Jesus is longsuffering, but He is not a patsy. He’s not even tolerant. He hates sin and He hates all who do iniquity. (Psalm 5:5). At some point, He will unleash all His wrath and the world will then know just how much He hates sin.
That unleashing is called the Tribulation, (Matthew 24:9) also The Time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7). Jesus said the wrath is stored up for individuals and for the world. He will unseal 7 seal judgments, which are the first set of three series of judgments which include Trumpet Judgments and Bowl Judgments (or four, if you count mysterious Seven Thunders of Rev 10:4).
“calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?” (Revelation 6:16-17)
Jesus literally releases the full strength of His wrath and also unleashes Hell upon earth. The times will be unimaginable for the people left behind on earth after the rapture. The mind cannot comprehend its horrors.
I’ve mentioned His wrath, but next let’s discuss His grace. One of the amazing things about God’s grace is that He continues to reach humans with the news of His forgiveness. We are wretched creatures, constantly rebelling and opposing Him. Yet He extends the hand of grace and many have believed and many more will believe, even in the Tribulation. (Revelation 7:14; Revelation 7:17).
Throughout the Tribulation Jesus sends many messengers with the Good News. He extends His grace even amid wrath. He seals 144,000 to super-evangelize the world. The martyrs themselves are a witness for Him due to their willingness to die for His name. He sends His Two Witnesses (I suspect they will be Enoch and Elijah) to testify of Him. And He sends three angels who proclaim the eternal Gospel, speak of judgment on Babylon, and warn of eternal doom if anyone takes the mark of the Beast. By this time, every nation, tribe and tongue will have heard the Gospel. (Revelation 14:6). Jesus forgives all, every sin, and this continues throughout the first part of the Tribulation, just as it had since the age of Grace began when Jesus rose from the dead, having atoned for every sin. He forgives all sins, except for one. There is one sin that is unforgivable.
Taking a break from the overview of the Tribulation’s wrath and the run-up to Revelation 13’s Mark of the Beast, let’s discuss for a moment this “unforgivable sin”. It is found in Mark 3:28-29, and Matthew 12:31-32
“Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.“
This is a very serious thing. There is one sin that a person can commit which Jesus will never forgive. What IS this sin?
The Bible Gateway blog explains it this way: it is willful rejection of Jesus in an onoging attitude of rebellion. “Blasphemy against the Spirit is not unforgivable because of something done unintentionally in the past, but because of something being done deliberately and unrelentingly in the present.“
The Gospel Coalition blog explains it this way: “I suggest it’s a specific, active, and final choice to declare the person and work of Jesus as being demonic in origin“
Dr. Henry Morris states it as “speaking against the Holy Spirit has been interpreted in various ways, but the true meaning cannot contradict other Scripture. It is unequivocally clear that the one unforgivable sin is permanently rejecting Christ (John 3:18; 3:36). Thus, speaking against the Holy Spirit is equivalent to rejecting Christ with such finality that no future repentance is possible.”
Dr John MacArthur describes the unforgivable sin as: “But the one who won’t be forgiven is the one called the apostate who gets full exposure to the truth, full exposure to the gospel, full revelation and makes the final conclusion…it’s not true, I reject Christ.”
It’s a sin to have heard the facts, to have had the Gospel given to you, and to make a deliberate, willful, conscious decision that it is not true, to reject it completely and utterly, and to continue in your sins. That is unforgivable.
Hebrews 2:3 mentions it: “How shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,”
The word neglect means to ignore, to put little value on it. Hebrews 10:26-27 also mentions this
“For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
This means that if you have received full information about Christ, and reject it, it is as if you stepped over His body – which He sacrificed for your sins – and now you can only expect judgment,and in fury and fire, too.
Back to the Tribulation- In Revelation 13:15-17 there is a choice people are given. They may participate in the world economy (and thereby eat) but they have to worship the Devil to do it. Or they can reject the devil and accept Christ, but they will be hunted and killed. Here is the scripture which describes this choice: (“It” refers to the False Prophet)
“And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.“
Taking the mark is a mark of worship to the devil, who by then indwells the antichrist. It is a deliberate choice given the world, to worship satan or worship Jesus. The world knows this because three angels flying at midheaven circle the globe to first give the gospel of Jesus Christ, (“Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. Revelation 14:6), to declare judgment of Babylon and third, to warn them NOT TO TAKE THE MARK.
“And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.” (Revelation 14:9-11).
The people of earth by then have had the fullness of all God’s revelation to them through the bible, His son, the prophets, the angels, His Church, the witnesses and the sealed virgins…if they take the mark and worship the beast, they are sinning the unforgivable sin and in a way that for the first time ever, is demonstrable and evident. In the case of Tribulation non-believers who take the mark, they are not only showing their allegiance to satan and their rejection of Jesus, they are permanently modifying their body to show their rejection of Jesus and decision to worship satan instead. They are enacting it and cementing it with their very body, by accepting the mark of the devil on them as the emblem of worship. They reject Jesus and worship of Him, and thus blaspheme the Spirit. It’s over.
It is my contention that this moment divides the believers from the unbelievers in one final, conscious moment of choice. After the mark is places on the hand or the forehead, or refused, marks the final chasm between believer and non-believer.
The scriptures in Revelation 14:9 are clear: take the mark and endure wrath forever. You cannot be saved if you take the mark.
This turning point is also remarked on by the angel in Revelation 4:13a who says, “And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.”
One may ask why am I writing about this if the church isn’t going to be here and we always look for Jesus and not toward satan? Because satan is adulterating this simple truth as well. As long as he can sow confusion and persuade even one person to delay their day of salvation, then he has accomplished his evil purposes. The fact of a person’s devilish eternal choice in Rev. 13 matters it matters because when they enter the Tribulation, they are at extreme risk of believing the lie (2 Thessalonians 2:11) and won’t be able to decide.
The moral is always the same: believe on the name of Jesus Christ now. Do not delay your repentance and your appeal to Him, the Judge, for pardon. You are not promised a tomorrow. If you do receive a tomorrow, the rapture may come and you will be left behind to face hell on earth and God’s wrath. When that happens, you are at risk for believing the lie and losing your soul because of the delusion coming upon the world.
Jesus Christ is worthy of honor and glory and praise and love and worship because of who He is. He is the unique Person of the universe, extending His hand of grace to you now. Your sins will have to be dealt with- either through your repentance and His forgiveness, or by your torment and punishment for them in hell forever.
Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. According to this summary from Christian Book Summaries,
Writing in the mid-1500s, John Foxe was living in the midst of intense religious persecution at the hands of the dominant Roman Catholic Church. In graphic detail, he offers accounts of Christians being martyred for their belief in Jesus Christ, describing how God gave them extraordinary courage and stamina to endure unthinkable torture.
From the same link, the book’s purpose was fourfold:
Text from Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
The Seventh Persecution, Under Decius, A.D. 249, continued
In the year of our Lord 251, the emperor Decius having erected a pagan temple at Ephesus, he commanded all who were in that city to sacrifice to the idols. This order was nobly refused by seven of his own soldiers, viz. Maximianus, Martianus, Joannes, Malchus, Dionysius, Seraion, and Constantinus. The emperor wishing to win these soldiers to renounce their faith by his entreaties, gave them leniency and said that they would be allowed a considerable respite until he returned from an expedition. During the emperor’s absence, they escaped, and hid themselves in a cavern. The soldiers’ hiding place was discovered, and it was ordered sealed up, so that they would die of hunger and thirst.
The Voice of the Martyrs blog posted a story recently about how difficult it is for Chinese missionaries who obey God to enter the Tibetan mission field. One of those difficulties is the deep spiritual darkness of the region. It is Buddhist, and idols are everywhere. Here is an excerpt of a wonderful short essay about those difficulties, and the grace of God which strengthens and enables the missionaries to persevere.
“The biggest obstacle faced by Chinese missionaries, however, is the intense spiritual warfare being waged in the region. Tibet is a Buddhist stronghold. The vast majority of the Tibetan people adhere to this religion. “The streets are full of idols,” says the Chinese missionary. “All of these people worship these idols.”
“A quick walk through the old part of Lhasa confirms this statement. Everywhere you walk and at all hours of the day, people are ceaselessly mumbling chants, rubbing their prayer beads in calloused fingers and spinning prayer wheels. According to the missionary, penetrating this spiritual darkness is extremely difficult – many of the Chinese Christians in the area, he says, are lazy and weak of faith as a result. Many more go home, disillusioned and discouraged.”
“As if these challenges weren’t enough, Chinese missionaries are often persecuted by the Chinese government, which maintains very strict control on religion in Tibet. Chinese missionaries have been thrown in prison and even kicked out of the province as a result of their efforts to evangelize the Tibetan. Evangelism in Tibet must be conducted very covertly and on a small scale level in order to avoid the wrath of the authorities.“
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| In Lhasa, everywhere Buddhists are ceaselessly mumbling chants, rubbing prayer beads in calloused fingers and spinning prayer wheels.(source) |
The fingers of the Buddhist are calloused because they pray and pray but no one is listening.
The seven soldiers that the Emperor sealed up in the cave died a horrible death. Though not as painful as some of the Christians who were being actively tortured, the soldiers took a long time to die, in agonizing thirst, alone in the dark. Except … they were not alone.
I am sure that they prayed to our Holy God for comfort and to supplicate to Him. They laid down their lives for His glory. Being a faithful God, would not leave them alone in their moment of truth but accept the sacrifice of their lives and their dying prayers as the glory He deserves and demands. I wonder if the LORD sent an angel to minister to them as they lay dying. I wonder if they heard His voice whisper comfort to them. I wonder if they gained supernatural strength to pray and sing even as their wasted bodies lay shriveled and dying.
Even in death, the loss of the breath in the body is nothing, as long as there exists a blessed supernatural highway of communication between ourselves and our precious Savior. For the Buddhist, spinning wheels and counting beads, there is only blackness, emptiness, and darkness. They have the high altitude sunlight but have hearts of stone and dwell in the dark, while the 7 soldiers had the darkness of a cave, but the Light of glory at the end. No matter your situation today, whether you are in a real cave-like dark prison for the faith, or you are in a metaphorical dark cave of bad circumstances, you always know that you can pray. We are confident in Him.
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” (1 John 5:14-15)
I’ve chronicled that earthquakes (up until this year) had been been on the rise. For a steady number of years, using the United States Geological Survey’s own benchmark, the number of quakes had been increasing.
As far as 2013 data, we still have 8 weeks to go, but this is the running tally of number of quakes in the world in each of the four magnitudes I track. Data as always from USGS. The red means the number of quakes have met or exceeded USGS averages.
5.0-5.9 – 1169
6.0-6.9 – 110
7.0-7.9 – 15
8.0-9.9 – 2
The type and location of the quakes had also been diverse from times in the past. There were earthquakes at a deeper level than ever, or large quakes in places there had never been one (Svalbard, Norway).
USGS reported last week,
Earthquake Swarm Continues in Central Oklahoma 
“Since January 2009, more than 200 magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes have rattled Central Oklahoma, marking a significant rise in the frequency of these seismic events. “We’ve statistically analyzed the recent earthquake rate changes and found that they do not seem to be due to typical, random fluctuations in natural seismicity rates,” said Bill Leith, USGS seismologist. “These results suggest that significant changes in both the background rate of events and earthquake triggering properties needed to have occurred in order to explain the increases in seismicity. This is in contrast to what is typically observed when modeling natural earthquake swarms.”
What they are saying there, is that there was a sudden and inexplicable change in at least two variables, presenting an unaccountable statistical anomaly, and that they dunno why.
As far as volcanic eruptions go, the Smithsonian Global Volcanism Program counts them. I searched the database from January 1, 1930 to December 31, 1939, and did the same for each decade through December 31, 2010. The plain number of eruptions is up. Click to enlarge.
Raw data here
1930s – 312
1940s – 269
1950s – 467
1960s – 537
1970s – 562
1980s – 703
1990s – 574
00-10 -950
In some volcano news, KURL8 out of Montana reports today that the lava pool under the supervolcano at Yellowstone is much bigger than thought.
“The lava pool beneath Yellowstone National Park is more than twice as big as scientists previously believed, that’s according to new research from the Geological Society of America. Scientists from the University of Utah say the lake of molten lava is nearly 50 miles long and 12 miles wide.”
For all that, scientists say that the real danger in that area is not from an eruption, since the geysers let off steam and pressure. It’s from the earthquakes.
“Researchers analyzed, get this, 4,500 earthquakes in and around Yellowstone from 1985 to 2013. … The last major earthquake in the area measured 7.3 and was in 1959. It was the most destructive earthquake ever recorded in the Rocky Mountains.”
In other interesting volcano news, it was reported at a geology conference this week that remnants of a supervolcano have been found in Maine.
Maine’s volcanoes (yes, Maine) among world’s biggest
“Maine has supervolcanoes. Wait, Maine has volcanoes? Yes, and their eruptions could have been among the biggest ever on Earth, geoscientist Sheila Seaman reported here Tuesday (Oct. 29) at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting. … Since they formed, the ancient volcanic layers have been tilted up by tectonic forces, providing a top-to-bottom slice through a supervolcano. For example, Isle au Haut, part of Acadia National Park, exposes the heart of a volcano. “The whole magma chamber is lying on its side,” Seaman said.”
The Most Active Volcano You’ve Never Heard Of
“In the extreme northeast region of Russia is the Kamchatka Peninsula. Familiar to people who play the board game Risk, Kamchatka is a huge mass of land sticking out into the north Pacific, and sitting on the peninsula is a cluster of volcanoes, some of them among the most active on the planet. The biggest of these is Klyuchevskaya Sopka, a monster stratovolcano towering over 4750 meters (15,500 feet) high. It’s also the most active, having been more-or-less erupting continuously since the late 1600s. It’s erupted a dozen times just since 2000! On Oct. 20, 2013, the Landsat 8 Earth-observing satellite flew over Klyuchevskaya, capturing a tremendously long plume of ash as well as two separate lava flows moving down the volcano’s flanks:
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| Isn’t earth so interesting!! I can’t wait until we see it from that vantage point! |
Ever since the fall of man and the curse that was given by God over man, beast, and earth, the creation has been groaning. Though the dates in this scientific article are no doubt off, it is interesting to see that man has been living with a restless earth since the beginning of the curse
9,000-year-old painting of volcano linked to a real eruption
“A 9,000-year-old painting of an exploding volcano, the oldest ever found, can now be linked to a real-life eruption in Turkey. The towering Hasan Dag volcano erupted 8,970 years ago, plus or minus 640 years, according to a new dating technique that analyzes zircon crystals in volcanic rock, geochemist Axel Schmitt of the University of California, Los Angeles, reported here Wednesday at the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting. Turkish scientists long suspected Hasan Dag was the source of the painting’s dramatic scene, but never had a precise date for its volcanic rocks, Schmitt told LiveScience. The volcano is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the ancient village of Çatalhöyük, where the painting was discovered in 1964 during an archaeological dig.”
(FMI on the painting itself, here is the article from Daily Mail)
Daily Mail Caption: “A mural, pictured, found on a wall in the Turkish settlement of Catalhoyuk depicts a village in front of a volcano. The painting is thought to be a warning about the danger of nearby stratovolcano Mount Hasan, located 70 miles northeast from where the mural was found.“
Turkey is interesting. The world’s most mysterious and stunning archaeological site is there, Gobekli Tepe. I wrote about it in 2011 here.
I’d posted from the article, “The elegant bas-reliefs of vultures, scorpions, and other creatures found on the T-shaped pillars had to have been created by skilled artisans, evidence that hunter-gatherers were capable of a complex social structure. Pillars at the temple of Göbekli Tepe—11,600 years old and up to 18 feet tall—may represent priestly dancers at a gathering. Note the hands above the loincloth-draped belt on the figure in the foreground.”
Some believe that the area of the Garden of Eden was in southern Turkey. Here is a map showing the nearby village of Catalhoyuk to the Turkish volcano Mount Hasan, and Gobekli Tepe’s location. They are about 250 km apart or about 158 miles.
Hamlet replied,
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
Volcanoes being discovered, restless earth, unknown paintings of long ago eruptions, and mysterious monoliths by disappeared rivers…there is so much we do not know but even as we partially know now, later we will fully know, by His grace. (1 Corinthians 13:12).
“How great is God–beyond our understanding! The number of his years is past finding out.” (Job 36:26)
Paul and Silas in Berea. (Acts 17:10-12)
“The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.”
I am currently in a sad mood because friends are following the false teachings of a growing Charismatic church in my area. I had a conversation with someone, who answered with emotional arguments and completely rejected all scripture I’d offered. Though I’d tried hard in showing the biblical stance through scripture, I’ve been thinking long and hard about why and how a professed Christian can reject the bible as authoritative and refuse to submit to its teachings.
The classic reference as to the nobility of those who search the scriptures is well-known. The Bereans relied on scripture to check what Paul was saying, as quoted above. I usually focus on the latter part of the key verse, “searched the scriptures daily”. But today I’d like to focus on the former part, “received the word with all eagerness.”
We think, ‘of course they received the word with eagerness! Who wouldn’t want to check what you are learning against the word?’ But it goes a bit deeper than that. Paul and Silas ministered in Berea in about 54 AD. We have the advantage of 2000 years of history, culture, and theology and a completed canon of a revealed word of God on which to stand while making that statement. The Jews & Greeks in Berea hadn’t. They had about 20 years.
First, many were Jews, and Paul was teaching in the synagogue. Jews had a nearly two thousand year tradition of intimacy with God since Abraham. Judaism was the world’s only monotheistic religion. The Jewish temple, rituals, holidays and laws were literally embedded in the Jews via DNA and having become a peculiar race of people.
“For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God, and the LORD hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.” (Deuteronomy 14:2)
Second, Paul and Silas were teaching the opposite of everything every Jew had ever learned. They had to hear hard sayings. They heard Paul preach that the Messiah had come, and His peculiar people had rejected Him. They listened to teaching that His salvific gaze was no longer on the Jews but on the pagans until the time of the Gentiles was fulfilled. That He died and rose again- without having established the promised kingdom (yet). That pagans (Greeks) were now included in the bosom of the Lord as peculiar people- people a Jew had been taught to revile. That the Messiah had fulfilled all the law and there no longer needed to be feasts and Jewish holy days. That salvation only required belief in these hard sayings- faith in the dead and resurrected Jesus. And more.
How would you react if you heard hard sayings? Many who had just seen Jesus feed the five thousand rejected Him when they heard him speak hard things. And those were pagans with no history of a relationship with God. (John 6:53-56). I know that I get irritated when people email me to say that a certain interpretation I’d labored over was wrong. Or a pet teacher or preacher is no good. But I look into these things as a dutiful Christian to confirm what I am hearing, or to confidently reject it on the basis of revealed truth.
But the Bereans “received the word with all eagerness“. They listened, and then they checked. But the first part is that they listened and received the word. Their love for the Holy God of Israel was above any personal interpretation they held. It was higher than any value they laid upon the word. They wanted to know the truth, and it was obvious that these men were of God. Something was happening in the religious arena, exciting, troublesome, wondrous.
The only way they could begin to examine the scriptures was to compare what Paul and Silas were saying against it. So they listened.
Many Charismatics do not love Jesus more than their own experience. They do not love the word more than their own pet theory. They do not examine the scriptures to see if it is so. They reject the best this world has to offer, the sterling and true word of God.
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| Do they get angry, or do they receive with eagerness? |
If you are engaged in a discussion with someone who answers emotionally and refuses to listen to the scriptures you are sharing, they are not a Berean. They do not receive the word with all eagerness. And as long as they do not listen to hard sayings and verses from the bible, they can’t see if it is true. WHich is exactly satan’s point.
Then they can and do go on their way, experiencing and encountering and lifting ‘holy hands’ and singing and falling down in tongues and having a happy ‘worship time’ until the Lord returns and says “I never knew you.”
Third, what was the result of the Bereans receiving the word with eagerness, and then searching to see if it was so? Belief. It stands to reason that the opposite will be true also. Refusing to listen and search and confirm results in unbelief.
You see, He has revealed Himself in the word. Paul saw Him personally, all the apostles did. But we in the new millennium cannot see him, “for we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7)
Do we rely on tongues and miracles and signs? No. We rely on the word.
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 4:18)
And why do we rely on the word and not on signs and sight and earthly works as ‘manifestations of the Spirit?’
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.” (Mark 3:31)
The Bereans knew that when God speaks, you listen, and do so eagerly.
“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.” (Hebrews 1:1-2)
God spoke to us! He speaks! The holy God who dwells in heaven, parted the veil, and took over a thousand years to put together a holy book by His Spirit for our benefit. Who are we to ignore it? Who are we to place a higher value on our supposed experience than His Son, the Word?
To conclude, remember that the verse regarding the noble Bereans has two parts, receiving the word eagerly and checking for themselves to see if what they hear is true. A sign you are dealing with someone who is seriously adrift is if that person refuses to address the scriptures you share. A sign you are dealing with someone who loves the Lord, even if they are getting irritated, is if they hang in there and stick to a scriptural talk.
I said to the person I was speaking with about Charismatic manifestations, that I cannot do any better than offer the word of God. There is nothing higher, more true, or more absolute to place on the table as common ground in any discussion. All else is just opinion. And we know what Proverbs 18:2 says about opinions,
