Overcome one day with meeting with Jesus in His word, I wrote this poem. We are not led by emotions, that’s emotionalism. See link below for more on that.
But we are emotional people. We feel. When we respond to what we have learned about Jesus from His word, when we are awed by His majesty, humbled by His power, overcome with lowliness in love for His heights, we’re having an emotional response and it’s OK.
I started a series in 2016 called #MemeHeresies. The name came from a sister named Jess Pickowicz who used it on Twitter (Now called X), she said I could use the name. I wrote three essays about memes that are passed around but actually contain heresies. I’ll link to those below.
Then in 2023 I changed the name to “Correct-A-Meme.” These are memes, that may not be actually heretical but do perpetuate false notions and false concepts twisted from the Bible. I’ll link to that one as well.
False doctrine does not come into a church and then to a congregant’s heart and mind solely by the pulpit. In fact, many pastors guard the pulpit vigilantly. It also comes in through the church library. Through Sunday School curricula. Through women’s studies (and men’s studies). And outside the church it comes in via social media, invitations to parachurch events, conferences…and memes.
Memes are not neutral. They are pithy statements of spiritual concepts passed around to audiences that number in the thousands. They may be correct. They may be correct but misquoted its source. Or, more normally, memes contain false doctrine. Picture milkweed seeds. Dandelions are weeds. Their seeds fly aloft in abundance and land indiscriminately to sprout more pesty weeds.
That said, there is a meme going around social media that I’d like to address. It contains several statements that I see often. They are usually misunderstood.
Here is the meme I am taking the time to correct. I’ll go through it line by line.
Line 1: “This year I want to be more like Jesus”.
This appears to be the thesis statement for the meme.
That is a great resolution. Our sanctification does move us from our innate depravity toward Christ-likeness. The Holy Spirit does that, along with our own individual efforts to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”. We pray, read His word, engage in holy living, and be obedient. These (and other efforts) will make us like Christ. (2 Thessalonians 2:13).
The meme then goes on to add specific ways to achieve the thesis:
Line 2: “Hang out with sinners”.
No. First of all, I’m offended by the language. Jesus didn’t ‘hang out’. He came to do specific work, which He began purposefully and completed purposefully. (Luke 2:49; John 19:30). Yes, Jesus engaged with sinners. He did so in order to call them to repentance. I wonder how many people who ‘hang out with sinners’ are telling them to repent for they are under wrath,…or are hanging out simply as a cover to continue their sinful ways…
Secondly, everyone is a sinner. At that time, almost all people were sinners. Only a few were called righteous or favored) (Simeon, Joseph of Arimathea, Mary…). It was the Pharisees who’d separated the demographic into righteous and sinner, calling tax collectors and prostitutes sinners but not themselves. Everyone is a sinner though. (Romans 3:10)
And remember, Jesus was perfectly holy. We are not. Many verses remind us of the dangers of partnering with sinners for any length of time. It is a snare that more likely brings us down rather than them, up. When you drop a glove in the mud, the mud doesn’t get glovey.
No. This is called divisiveness. It’s bad to be divisive. Religious people are the brethren, blood-bought and part of our spiritual family. Why would you resolve to purposely upset your family? Titus 3:10 says “Reject a divisive person after a first and second warning“
Proverbs 6:19 says the LORD hates those who sow discord among brothers. If what is meant in Line 3 is to upset pastors, that’s worse. They are worthy of double honor. We are to submit to them, not upset them.
If it means upset the unsaved or the hypocrites who aren’t really saved but act as if they are, the Gospel will upset them naturally. They will be offended by truth, which to them is the aroma of death to death. (2 Corinthians 2:16). Don’t be purposefully divisive. It’s unbiblical.
Line 4: “Tell stories that make people think”
We’re not Jesus telling parables. Jesus’ parables often confused people, even the disciples. They asked him in Matthew 13:10, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” Those who heard His parables (“stories”) often went away perplexed. That is because He was TRYING to confuse them. Even the disciples often had to ask what they meant.
If the meme means to tell “stories” that are anecdotes from your own experience, that’s not the word of God. The BEST thing to make people think is to share truth plainly, and then to pray the Holy Spirit applies it to their mind.
Speak the word from the Bible. Share verses and concepts plainly so as to give grace to the hearers. The word of God makes people think enough, as the Holy Spirit applies either conviction or transformation to the hearer.
We are supposed to love everyone. (1 John 4:7). If the meme means to choose unpopular people because they are unpopular, then this is favoritism in reverse. Jesus frowns on partiality. (James 2:1).
This is good advice from the Old Testament:
‘You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you shall judge your neighbor in righteousness. (Leviticus 19:15).
Line 6: Be kind, loving, merciful
This is what the Bible tells us to do. Over and over. It’s a good resolution, but it needs a Bible verse attached:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23).
Line 7: “Take naps on boats”
If you have access to a boat, then by all means nap away! However, the thesis at the top was to be more like Jesus. Napping on boats…unsure how that gets me to be more Christlike.
I parsed this meme hard because I wanted to highlight the absurdity of it. I also wanted to make the reader remember that when we absorb ANYTHING: movie, book, tv, meme, verses (often out of context on social media), we aren’t engaging in something neutral. I ask you all to THINK about what you are consuming. THINK about what you’re ;passing on. The nature of social media is fast superficial bytes without a lot of deep thought. Resist that.
Is napping on a boat really going to advance your sanctification? Will hanging out with sinners help your holiness? Is it good to purposely upset people?
Memes aren’t neutral. Think before you pass one of them on.
Woman are biblically urged to be at home, tend to their home, abide in their home, and perform duties oriented to the home. Are you getting the idea? The Proverbs 31 woman did all she did FOR the home, which is biblically her sphere.
That’s not to say that the husband and the wife may make other decisions based on certain circumstances. That’s not to say that at certain times it may require a woman to be away from the home for work or other reasons. I am not setting a mandate.
The Bible however, does make some clear statements that a wife’s primary orientation circulates around the home- especially when she has children. It should be her priority. This isn’t a popular statement these days.
In 2016 at the height of popularity for Joanna Gaines of Magnolia Enterprises, I wrote that she was a hypocrite and a liar. Joanna constantly claimed in interviews and on her TV program “Fixer Upper” that she was a mom first and her children were her priority. I showed with facts that this was not true. Her orientation was for herself according to her own “testimony”, her enterprises, her books, her speaking, her TV program, her bakery, her furniture store, her design products, her book tour, and so on. I received a LOT of heat for saying this. But I mean, you could even SEE it on the TV show. Facts are facts.
Don’t only listen to what they say. Watch what they do. Both must match up.
Jackie Hill Perry at the Activate 2019 conference with other speakers
I took heat for saying that Beth Moore was also a hypocrite and a liar for the same reason- not there for her kids. Beth’s public speaking engagements, IRS tax return statements of working 50 hours a week as President of her corporation, her own admissions in her blog writing of travels for writing, book tours, and television taping added up to a busy career women. Her lifestyle contradicted her claim that she was at home for her kids. Eventually, a few years later when her two daughters were grown they admitted in an interview that mom was gone a lot, dad picked up the slack, and they “ate a lot of takeout.” The interviewer also said of Moore, “Her days are tightly scheduled and obsessively focused on writing. She spends hours alone in an office…”
Propel Activate women’s conference 2019 tagline. We are not called to lead, nor step out
She is boisterous and rebellious, Her feet do not dwell at home; (Proverbs 7:11)
Speaking of hypocrites, when Diana Stone was writing for She Reads Truth, we read in Diana Stone’s bio that, “You can find her in the mornings with a cup of coffee and her Bible flung open, preparing for the day ahead.” And “With a sweet daughter in tow, Diana clings to God’s Word daily.” It turns out that Mrs Stone relaxes with the Bible “flung open” … after she drops her daughter to daycare. At the time of that writing, in 2014, the couple had employed a part time nanny to care for their daughter in their home so Mrs Stone could work as a freelance writer. After bumping along with several nannies, they put their child in daycare so Mrs Stone could continue to write at home. So yes, she was at home…while a day care worker took care of her kid.
Don’t only listen to what they say. Watch what they do. It must match up.
Mr Jerry Shirer “does his share of housework and child care so that Priscilla can study and write. He travels with his wife everywhere. Whenever possible, they take their sons along on her speaking trips, but they often deposit the boys with Jerry’s mother.” Quote
It is impossible for a woman to claim undivided attention for the children at home AND have an outside the house career, especially when it’s evident by reading their blogs, seeing their speaking schedules, and just having common sense to see their lifestyle.
When a woman has a full-time “ministry,” AKA career, it means the children will suffer a lack of attention from the mom. Which brings us to another career woman, Jackie Hill Perry. One of the main indicators of whether a woman is genuinely converted and submitted to the word of God is seeing her home life. Where is her attention? If she is a mother, do her children come first? Did she submit to the word of God as per her role and let go other entanglements? Or is she using the word “ministry” as a synonym for career and living a lifestyle at odds with the word of God?
In Jackie’s case, she has four children under the age of 10. To the best of my research, her kids are currently 9, 6, 3, and 2. Unlike Joanna, Beth, and Diana, Priscilla; Jackie hasn’t to my knowledge claimed to be an at-home mom. She is proud of her kids and writes of them often, but doesn’t try to maintain a fiction of being a SAHM.
At Jackie’s website her speaking engagements for 2023 were listed. It looked like a busy year of travel away from her children for this mom of four.
2023: March 10-11. New Orleans, LA. March 17-18. Atlanta (Decatur), GA. April 14-15. Kansas City, MO. April 21-22. Philadelphia, PA. August 18-19. Greensboro, NC. September 8-9. Grand Rapids (Wyoming), MI. September 22-23. Dallas, TX. September 29-30. Sacramento, CA October 27-28. Knoxville TN
Jackie’s speaking engagements in 2024, many of which require travel, are below. The list is INCOMPLETE, these are just the ones I could find individually searching. JHP’s speaking event page on her website isn’t updated for 2024 yet.
January 10: podcast interview February 23-24: Philadelphia PA February 23: Canada (online) March 1-2: Ft Worth TX April 12-13: Bluefield W.VA July 10-19: Bethel, Redding CA (It’s a 10-day event, I do not know which day or all of the days JHP is appearing there).
I wrote yesterday about JHP’s trajectory away from orthodoxy and that in many people’s estimation (mine included) partnering with heretic Bill Johnson AT Bethel to teach at their music school crossed the line.
Jackie Hill Perry claims to hear directly from God, basks with heretics, refuses wise counsel, rejects correction, and calls setting doctrinal boundaries ‘tribalism.’ But add to the cadre of items to be reviewed when assessing an influencer or teacher, is her home life.
I think it is QUITE telling when a mom of children gallivants all around the country for speaking engagements, leaving the care of her children to someone else (OR dragging them with her like Shirer did) in order to curate her own career. Oh, they call it “ministry”, they call it “using their God-given gifts”, but it’s a career. When you have kids, according to God, your ministry IS the kids. A woman’s priority according to the word of God, should be at home with them, raising them, keeping the home.
If a wife/mom won’t submit to the priority of God in this instance, what else of God does she rebel against?
I’ve written about poetic speaking artist, former lesbian, self-identified Christian Jackie Hill Perry (JHP) before. Negatively. And positively. But at all times had asked readers and followers of JHP to use caution.
We often feel such joy when a fellow member of the human race converts in faith by grace of God to His kingdom. If that person has a “platform” then all the better, some believe, because the person can use it for the glory of God. Unfortunately, we often rush to put the person up on their platform, or other platforms, forgetting to use patience and wisdom to see if their conversion is genuine.
Paul warned Timothy when explaining qualifications for pastors, that he must not be a recent convert lest he become puffed up with pride, conceit, and fall into the devil’s snare. (1 Timothy 3:6). The same concept can be applied to any new convert who is thrust into leadership before they are ready.
Preaching at UYWI National Conference Aug 21, 2019
Jackie wasn’t ready.
Spencer Smith on JHP began his latest video on JHP this way:
“False teachers operate the same way. They all do. They come out of nowhere. They start saying all the right stuff and everybody gets real excited about them. Then after a while they keep talking and then all these red flags start popping up. You’re thinking this-that doesn’t sound right. That doesn’t add up. And after a while they just start saying all these crazy things. You’re thinking now wait a minute I’m going to make a call here. Am I going to just let this go or am I going to kind of blow the whistle on this person?”
Here is a timeline of JHP’s biography as an adult starting with conversion:
2008: JHP renounces lesbianism and converts to Christianity. She’d heard the Lord speak to her. She said- “I repented of my sins that day in my bedroom, believing that Jesus was simply better.” (Better than what?) 2010: Began performing her poetry with Preston Perry. 2014: Marries Preston. 2018: Appeared in documentary American Gospel: Christ Alone as a solid Christian. 2019: Partners with some of the type of people she spoke against in the film; sparks backlash and a disinvite to Answers in Genesis conference. Open Letter from Truth + Fire is published pleading to JHP to be discerning. 2019: AG filmmaker tries to reason with JHP about her discernment. Fell on deaf ears. (see below for Facebook post about this). 2020: In a Q&A Session on Instagram Story, JHP pointedly refutes her participation in AG film, declares doctrinal divides as “tribalistic”.
“Q: Will you do another American Gospel type of documentary? A: Probably not. I deeply dislike the tribalism and theological superiority those type of films encourage. I did it then. I won’t ever do it again.”
2021: JHP continually partners with false teachers. List from Michelle Lesley: JHP partners with false teachers-Beth Moore,Priscilla Shirer, Christine Caine, Lysa TerKeurst, Lisa Harper, Lauren Chandler, and Amanda Bible Williams at variousLifeWay Abundance and LifeWay Women Live conferences. 2022: JHP often openly mentions hearing directly from God, (see link above “JHP comes out as prophet”) and tells some prophecies ‘God’ has allegedly given her. JHP rejects pleas for her to employ better discernment. 2022: Frequent preaching at many conferences and other locations, which requires much travel. Preaches unashamedly to men. 2023/2024: December 2023 it’s revealed JHP to be a teacher at the 10-day Bethel Music School in 2024, teaching WITH Bill Johnson. See immediately below the American Gospel summation of this sad situation-
In our last communication with Jackie Hill Perry (2019), we explained our concerns over her partnerships with Jenn Johnson (Bethel Music), Christine Caine (Hillsong), Sarah Jakes Roberts (daughter of T.D. Jakes) and other people connected with the Word of Faith or NAR movement. She explained that she did not agree with WoF doctrine because it was a misrepresentation of the gospel of God. But she was not in agreement with our interpretation of the Biblical lines in who we would avoid ministry partnerships with, or who would actually teaches that false doctrine.
We recently learned that Jackie will be a speaker at Bethel Music’s 2024 Worship School, alongside Bill Johnson. https://bethelmusic.com/worshipschool
Jackie also asked for our prayers for wisdom to discern what is pleasing to God, and how that affects her neighbors. We believe that her decision crosses both of those lines, because Bethel’s doctrine and practices lead people into spiritual danger, which means they should be avoided.
“I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.” — Romans 16:17.
-end American Gospel Facebook note.
Screenshot from Bethel School of Music’s announcement of the 2024 courses & speakers
Yes. She has crossed that line.
The discussion circling around Jackie these past few years has been whether JHP was genuinely converted and been drawn into a circle of wolves early on but will eventually come out of it, or that she was not genuinely converted and is now unconcernedly circling with wolves. I was suspicious from the start because her original testimony contained alleged direct hearing from God, and she later admitted publicly she hears from God in personal prophecies. For this reason I do not believe she is saved.
Jackie said the right things at the beginning and sadly, the wolves glommed on to her. She was promoted, touted, and trumpeted as a trophy of God. Discerners had warned that the Bible tell not to puff a new convert too soon else they become conceited. Jackie, in my opinion, showed an almost immediate disregard for wise counsel, indicating the aforementioned puffed-up-ness. No genuine Christian even with a small amount of discernment, would be comfortable with SO MANY wolves SO OFTEN as she has been associating with. And I put the timeline to show that she is not a newbie any more. She should have grown in wisdom and discernment by now, and she hasn’t.
Avoid Jackie Hill Perry. She is with her ‘tribe’- the wolves.
Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living person. (NASB)
It is a glory for us to be able to worship a God who is so intimate with mankind. He didn’t speak man into existence like He did the grass or the cows or the stars. He formed man personally. Then He breathed into man his own breath, giving us a soul.
In reading the Genesis verse, I was reminded also of the verse in Psalm 139:13,
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. (ESV).
He isn’t an indifferent Allah. He isn’t a multi armed, capricious god. He isn’t a fish-god. He is GOD, and He is involved with mankind, each man and women. He formed us. He knit us together from the womb, to have this personality, these physical features.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary makes another connection,
When our Lord Jesus anointed the blind man’s eyes with clay perhaps he intimated that it was he who at first formed man out of the clay; and when he breathed on his disciples, saying, Receive you the Holy Ghost, he intimated that it was he who at first breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life. He that made the soul is alone able to new-make it.
And He gave us a soul. Matthew Henry again,
To God that gave us these souls we must shortly give an account of them, how we have employed them, used them, proportioned them, and disposed of them; and if then it be found that we have lost them, though it were to gain the world, we shall be undone for ever.
From the beginning, God has been intimately involved with man. Not from a distance, not apathetically. Involved.
To the end God has been involved with man (“It is finished”). And He is involved as we continue through the the epilogue of His finished work; as He develops His Church, raises up His Bride, sustains His people to the end of the end when we’re all resurrected in glory living in New Jerusalem. We serve an amazing God.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires…(2 Timothy 4:3)
Do you notice that word “endure”? The verse does not say “they will not like sound doctrine…” It does not say “they will not enjoy sound doctrine…” It doesn’t even say “they will not accept sound doctrine.” It uses the word endure. When you endure something, you writhe. You wish you were not there in the midst of it. If anyone has ever undergone physical therapy, you know that you have to endure it but if you could you would shoot out of the gym so fast you’d be like a speeding bullet. If anyone has ever had to get a root canal, you know that you endure it. You do not seek it, you do not like it, and if you could, you go away from it.
That is the process by which lukewarm Christians, fake Christians, and unholy pastors feel about the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. To be sure, the true Gospel of the Risen Savior is full of warm fuzzies. He loves us. He prospers us. He sends angels to us.
But the True Gospel is also full of truth, the unpalatable truth that the lawless cannot endure: we are sinners. Rejection of the remedy for your sin means you will spend eternity in torment, apart from God. That there is nothing good in us. That we are fallen, craven, and deserve judgment. No, they will not endure that. So they don’t.
Instead they seek teachers to tempt us with what the devil has always tempted us with, and tempted Jesus too: health, wealth, fame. They may find it in some “preachers” and in some “churches”, but it is for a season. Most do not find prosperity in health, wealth and fame. The only ones becoming famous and rich are the false pastors who urge the hapless and desperate to send money.
A watered down gospel removes the book-end to the love parts that they seek. That other book-end is judgment. They will not endure sound teaching that His holiness involves love but it also includes righteous judgment.
“I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. “They will say of Me, ‘Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.’ Men will come to Him, And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame. (Isaiah 45:23-24)
The true word absorbed by submissive believers is sweet. But it is also sometimes accompanied by a bitterness felt by even the most beloved of followers, even the most obedient of disciples. Sometimes the true word is hard to hear and bitter even for believers, because it reveals to us the true state of our sinfulness and the fate of those who refuse His hand, those mockers and scorners whom we mourn over-
I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour. (Revelation 10:10)
The only way to endure the knowledge of judgment that is coming is to rest on His truth and His promises. Those who do not rest in that truth, bitter as it sometimes is, do not endure it. Not only have they stopped asking the Spirit for wisdom, but they simply stop ingesting the sweet Words of the LORD and they flee away, being unstable in all they do.
If you seek sound doctrine but have had a hard time finding it, I encourage you to enjoy the teachers I have been enjoying.
Alistair Begg is a good one. He is at Truth for Life. RC Sproul at Ligonier.org S. Lewis Johnson at Believers Chapel John MacArthur at Grace to You tells it like it is, compassionately. Many people don’t like that he tells it like it is, but what he tells is the word of God, from the Bible, demonstrating once again that people can’t/won’t endure the word of God applied to their heart and mind.
Has solid preaching become an endurance test for you? Or are the hard but truthful words uplifting to you and filling in every way? If you have recently changed churches because the pastor is “a little too Bible thumping for my taste”, or have you drifted away from regular worship lately because the sermons are too long, too convicting, or demand endurance on the part of your deceitful heart, then ask yourself if you are really just trying to accumulate a teacher in accordance with your own desires, and are wanting your ears tickled with a less filling but great tasting sermon. If so, you may be at risk.
Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. (Revelation 4:5)
In the Bible, God’s voice is often depicted as thunder, or, alternately, when thunder occurs, people believed it was God speaking. (Acts 9:7, John 12:29). We remember the people at Mt Sinai were scared out of their wits upon hearing the thunder and begged Moses to ask God not speak aloud again. (Exodus 20:19).
We recall Revelation 10:1-4 and the mystery of the Seven Thunders. We know they will be judgments, but we do not know what they are.
“And I saw another angel come down from heaven clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth. And he cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars: and when he cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and do not write them.“
Thunder, when it is not a God-controlled weather phenomenon, is shown in the Bible to be a representation of God’s power. Even adults startle when a particularly loud boom of thunder claps above us.
EPrata photo
The throne of God is surrounded by thunder. “From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. Before the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God.” (Revelation 4:5).
God spoke to Moses and the people heard thunder. “When the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and God answered him with thunder.” (Exodus 19:19).
When Jesus spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus, those who were with Paul heard thunder. God said to Job, “Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?” (Job 40:9).
The Bible shows us that sometimes when God spoke, it sounded like thunder. It’s a way of presenting God to us that uses terms our finite mind can understand.
But in these days, not every thunderclap is God speaking. Sometimes it is simply one of the forces of nature controlled by God.
Nowadays God speaks through His Son the Word, through His word. I think of the power of God’s voice at Mt Sinai thundering and the people quailed in fear; and yet Jesus, who IS the incarnate God, spoke with compassion and mercy to the people. He could have thundered! He spoke of His gentleness and lowliness instead.
He also in these days speaks to a believer’s conscience through the convicting work of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
But if I hear thunder, I would like to use that startled moment to acknowledge a merciful God and ask Him to awaken me to His tremendous power … He demonstrates His tremendous mercy by using only an infinitesimal amount of that power, otherwise we would surely surely die.
After a terrible natural disaster, people often wonder, “Where was God in all this?” Others wonder “Did God cause it? Did He allow it? Did Satan do it? Was it just the natural outcome of a fallen world?” And the biggest question, “Why?”
In the Garden, He would walk in the cool of the day. (Gen 3:8). With Moses He spoke face to face. (Exodus 33:11). Or through a bush! (Exodus 3:1).
He spoke to the the prophets (Jeremiah 36:2). In this way He sent the Law and then later He sent the Spirit to inspire the words of the bible, written down by the chosen apostles and disciples. (1 Corinthians 2:12-13; 2 Timothy 3:16-17). He sent angels with messages (Acts 8:26; Luke 2:9). He speaks to us through discipline (Hebrews 12:5-11) and trials (1 Peter 1:6-7). Sometimes He even uses a donkey (Numbers 2:28).
He uses symbols. “And God said to Noah: I will make a covenant with you. Never again will all men die because of a flood. This is my token to remind you of my promise. I will set a rainbow in the sky.” (Genesis 9:11-17). Bread is a symbol of Jesus’ life sustaining eternal truth. “And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life…” (John 6:35)
If you think about the myriad ways God spoke to us in the past, it is amazing. There is another way He speaks. He uses ‘natural’ events. Earthquake, fire, hail, thunder, drought…are all ways God had sent His people His word and expresses His will.
In today’s time He still allows or causes natural disasters, but unlike the Israelites of the past, we can’t know that THIS disaster is specifically tied to a judgment or exactly what God might be saying through it. We do know He is sovereign over it all, and when it happens, we should acknowledge that God is sending or withholding the rain- for whatever reason.
God is the creator of the earth and all the universe. (Psalm 24:1). He can and does use anything in it to get His point across. In Revelation we see 100 pound hailstones, a sun that turns up the heat, earthquakes, and at one point, no rain for three and a half years. (Revelation 11:6).
Remember that everything that happens on the earth, God either indirectly allows to happen, or directly causes to happen. Allows, or causes. That’s it. When people mock the notion that a particular natural disaster event was due to God, they are wrong. We don’t always know the reason behind the event’s occurrence but because God is sovereign, He either caused it or allowed it. Here is God causing an event:
“Then the LORD’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 11:1)
Let’s focus on drought as one of God’s vocabulary words. Drought is not a sudden cataclysmic event like an earthquake. It takes a long time to happen and its build-up is more creeping than instant. That is what makes it even more amazing. Only God who knows the end from the beginning, knows how to start a drought years prior and allow its progression to increase to the point of pain just at the moment the people need to be pricked. That is the heavenly dynamic.
“While much of the weather that we experience is brief and short-lived, drought is a more gradual phenomenon, slowly taking hold of an area and tightening its grip with time. In severe cases, drought can last for many years, and can have devastating effects on agriculture and water supplies. … In general, drought is defined as an extended period–a season, a year, or several years–of deficient rainfall relative to the statistical multi-year average for a region.”
Australia is susceptible to droughts– “Why are droughts dangerous? When there is a drought, there is less water available for growing crops, farming animals, industry and our cities. Droughts also impact the environment by causing erosion, harm animals by destroying their homes and cause people to pay more for food and affect our water supplies. Droughts are hard to predict and also hard to live with.” (Source)
Places in Africa are in a terrible drought. “Two of Africa’s impoverished drylands – the Horn of Africa in the East and the Sahel in the West – have experienced devastating droughts and famines in the past two years: the rains never came, causing many thousands to perish, while millions face life-threatening hunger.”
This verse is a direct example in the Bible of how He had uses the language of drought to squeeze His people and warn them they need to repent-
“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayer that is made in this place.” (2 Chronicles 7:13)
God is telling us a few things here. First, He controls the heavens and allows or disallows rain. Second, when God shuts up heaven and prevents rain it was because they have turned their faces away from Him. Third, He makes a promise, if they repent and turn their faces toward Him, He will re-open heaven. What a blessing! God is holy- He hates sin. God is kind, He warned His people.
In this next biblical example, God is telling us that His decision to send drought or rain is extremely precise. He is very much in control.
“I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither;” (Amos 4:7).
Annie Vallotton Amos 4:7 illustration Good News Bible “Still you did not come back to Me”
In the book Famine and Drought by Ellis, R. B. (2003), we read:
Drought was the most common cause of famines mentioned in the Bible. Drought caused famines in the time of Abraham (Gen. 12:10), Isaac (Gen. 26:1), Joseph (Gen. 41:27), and the judges (Ruth 1:1).
Famine and Drought as the Judgment of God God created the world as a good environment that would normally provide ample water and food for mankind (Gen. 1). However, the productiveness of the earth is related to people’s obedience to God. For example, the sins of Adam, Eve, and Cain resulted in unfruitfulness of the earth (Gen. 3:17–18; 4:12).
Israel’s relationship with God also directly affected the fertility of the promised land. When the people obeyed God, the land was productive (Deut. 11:11–14).
However, when they disobeyed, judgment came on the land by drought and famine (Lev. 26:23–26; Deut. 11:16–17; 1 Kings 8:35). Furthermore, the NT reports that famine will be a part of God’s coming judgment of the earth in the last days (Matt. 24:7; Rev. 6:8).
While the Bible states that some famines and droughts are the judgment of God (2 Sam. 21:1; 1 Kings 17:1; 2 Kings 8:1; Jer 14:12; Ezek. 5:12; Amos 4:6), not all such disasters are connected to divine punishment (Gen. 12:10; 26:1; Ruth 1:1; Acts 11:28).
When God did send drought and famine on His people, it was for the purpose of bringing them to repentance (1 Kings 8:35–36; Hos. 2:8–23; Amos 4:6–8). Moreover, the OT contains promises that God will protect His faithful ones in times of famine (Job 5:20, 22; Pss. 33:18–19; 37:18–19; Prov. 10:3). See Ben-hadad; Jerusalem; Nebuchadnezzar; Samaria; Water. Bob R. Ellis. Famine and Drought. (2003).
God either directly causes or indirectly allows each thing to happen on this earth and in heaven. Every drop of rain is noted by Him. Each arid seed blowing down a Kansas drought-stricken path is seen by Him. God speaks to us in many ways, praise His name! One way is through what the secular world calls ‘natural disasters’…but I call it the loving Hand of an angry God who seeks to turn His rebellious children from their sinful ways, One who sends the rain to bless the obedient and the sinful alike.
Yesterday I started a short series on the Language of God in Natural Disasters. I explored the questions of where is God when a tsunami happens? Does God send the hurricane, or is it merely the result of the proper meteorological elements coming together?
Today I want to start looking at some specific disasters that happened in the Bible, and today we’ll start with hail.
Two summers ago I looked long and hard for a reasonably priced, reasonably reliable used car. I finally found one with the help of a church buddy, and when I saw it I loved it. Lowish miles, good engine, clean interior. The only thing wrong was it had hail damage. The roof and hood was pockmarked with lots of tiny dents, and the side was scratched. Cosmetically the car wasn’t tip top, but I could live with it.
Living in a town, hail doesn’t bother me much. If I was a farmer, hail would bother me a lot. Hail can ruin crops. It can kill animals. Hail is a problem. Hail are ice particles that fall from the sky in various sizes. The meteorologists have a rating scale for when they talk about hail. Weathermen relate the size of the hail to food or familiar objects when discussing it. The following chart is from the National Weather Service:
Pea Size (1/4 inch) Mothball, peanut, USB Plug Penny Size Nickel Size Quarter Size Half Dollar Size Ping Pong Ball Size Golf Ball Size Lime or medium sized Hen Egg Tennis Ball Size Baseball Size Large Apple Softball Grapefruit (4 1/2 inches)
The NWS said if a hailstone is bigger than 4 1/2 inches, well-
4 1/2 Probably a record sized hailstone for Idaho or Oregon Freeze it, Measure it, Notify the NWS.
If you’re still alive that is. They consider anything from pea sized to nickel sized as non-severe. From quarter sized to lime sized, “At this size, a hailstone can fall from approximately 25-40 mph, which is enough to tear up crops, dent vehicles, crack windows, damage housing, and injure both humans and animals alike.“
Hail stones from tennis ball to grapefruit sized are considered high-end severe. Hail at that size can fall from upwards of 100 miles per hour. They can shatter windows, tear up the roof, or kill things outside.
How does God get our attention? Through many ways, and one of them is hail. God uses hail to demand attention, it is one of His signature calling cards. It behooves us to return to the Bible to see when and how He used hail to make His name known.
“Hailstorm Plague”. Page from Old Testament Bible manuscript, hand painted watercolor. N. Italian, c. 1650. Herbert Kraft Collection – MSS 0029. Courtesy of Archives and Special Collections. Source
The most famous case of hail was the one God promised to send to Egypt. God told Moses to visit Pharaoh and tell him-
Behold, about this time tomorrow, I will send a very heavy hail, such as has not been seen in Egypt from the day it was founded until now. 19So now, send word, bring your livestock and whatever you have in the field to safety. Every person and animal that is found in the field and is not brought home, when the hail comes down on them, will die. (Exodus 9:18-19).
And it was so. Even the trees were shredded, all the crops smashed, and any living still outside died.
“Throughout Egypt hail struck everything in the fields–both men and animals; it beat down everything growing in the fields and stripped every tree.” (Exodus 9:25)
Initially awed by God’s power, Pharaoh acknowledged that he had sinned. However when the rain and hail stopped, He sinned again. God specifically used a massive hailstorm to indicate His power over the earth, and to know that the earth is the LORD’S. Pharaoh did not acknowledge God’s sovereignty.
God has storehouses of hail (Job 38:22). It’s a metaphor. I don’t think there are barns in heaven with iced-up hail waiting to be unleashed (by angels? With shovels?) No, lol. But the metaphor is picturesque, something we finite humans can understand.
God uses hail to warn the unrepentant to come back to Him. “‘I smote you and every work of your hands with blasting wind, mildew and hail; yet you did not come back to Me,’ declares the LORD.” (Haggai 2:17).
He uses hail to render justice upon the wicked. “I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place.” (Isaiah 28:17). In one example, the LORD hurled hail down onto the Amorites at Azekah, as a vengeance against the wicked. (Joshua 10:11)
God plans to use hail again in the future: “The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered great Babylon, to make her drain the cup of the fury of his wrath. And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found; and great hailstones, heavy as a hundred-weight, dropped on men from heaven, till men cursed God for the plague of the hail, so fearful was that plague.” (Revelation 16:18-21).
In today’s times we have weather forecasters alerting us to foul weather, and we can prepare. We board up the windows for a hurricane, put the cars in the garage for hail, and buy ice-melt for the coming blizzard. Imagine the shepherds in the fields, they did the best they could predicting the weather by looking at the signs in the sky (Matthew 16:3). But when severe hail began to fall, they had nowhere to run. Farmers mourned the loss of crops and animals. I’m sure that some might have died.
Terrible hail storms have always been and will be part of God’s language to an unrepentant and wicked people. But in today’s times we simply do not know that THIS hail storm was a judgment or THAT hailstorm was a warning or if it was just a collision of air masses. We do not have prophets explicitly telling us God’s mind and plans in these days but we do have the completed canon to look to for comfort over anxiety with coming bad weather or after a disaster.
Yahweh also thundered in the heavens, And the Most High gave forth His voice, Hailstones and coals of fire. (Psalm 18:13)
When or if a severe hailstorm happens near you, what we can do in these modern days is look to the sky and acknowledge God’s sovereign hand over the weather and humankind, and praise Him for His involvement in the world. It may be hard to do if your car is crushed or your flock has been killed, but all things work together for good for those who love God.
the-end-time.org 