Part 3: The apostolic origins of the church in the wilderness

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20/05/2019

The rise of Christianity and the spread of the Church in Syria was startling in its rapidity.

IN CONTRAST with the four hundred years of silence between Malachi and Matthew, the coming of the great Redeemer brought to the world a powerful, stimulating message and introduced a marvelous new era. Noneof the prophets before Him had been permitted to change the bases of thedispensation introduced by Moses. Jesus Christ, however, was that Prophet predicted by Moses who was to usher in a new dispensation. Hegave to man a new revelation from Jehovah. The twelve apostles, goingforth to promulgate the teachings of Jesus, formed the charter membershipof the apostolic church which flourished for about five hundred years. Then gradually the combined heretical sects seized the power of thenations and drove the true church into the wilderness. These apostolic origins will be the theme of this chapter. Previous to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70 by the Roman army, at which time the apostles were dispersed, the gospel had gone to Samaria, Ethiopia, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, Italy, and India. The religion of Christ was enriched in all utterance. As a bright and shining light, it evangelized Zoroastrians, Buddhists, Greek philosophers, and Confucianists, laying strong foundations for the future. As the apostolic church advanced, the gospel was planted not only indiverse nations, but in different languages. Often the same language wasused by several nations.

Therefore, in this volume Syrian or Syriac Christianity will refer to all churches which are indebted to Syrian origins; that is, to Syrian missionaries and authors to whom later churches looked as pioneers of the Syriac language in their services; as, for example, in Syria, Assyria, Persia, India, and China. Similarly, the term Celtic Christianity will apply to all churches and nations which used the Celtic language in their divine worship, such as Galatia and France, as well as Ireland, Scotland, and England before England was overrun by the pagan19Anglo-Saxons. Greek Christianity will refer to the churches throughout the world where the Greek language was used in their literature and worship. Latin Christianity refers particularly to the homeland of the Romans, Italy, and to certain other nations. No hard and fast rule of designation can be laid down for the overlapping of these different designations and terms. All that can be given is a general guiding description.

CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE JEWS

The gospel first went to the Jews. It is easy to forget that almost every hero of the Bible was a Jew and that every book of the Sacred Scriptures was written by a Hebrew. Jesus Christ Himself was an Israelite.It was to those having the blood of Abraham in their veins that the Redeemer first directed His message. His apostles were sent “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Tens of thousands received the word gladly,and among them were many priests. Even to the uttermost parts of the earth, where the Jews had

been scattered and their descendants were counted by the millions, did the message penetrate. For a long time, as will be shown in later chapters, the bulk of the early church members had been won from among the descendants of Israel. The first people other than the Jews to accept the gospel were the Samaritans. Christ had predicted that His disciples should witness for Him in Judea, Samaria, and in the uttermost parts of the earth. Philip, the newly elected deacon, was the one who determined to tell the good news to the Samaritans. (Acts 8:5.) Samaria was the only place where men were presumptuous enough to build a temple to rival the one at Jerusalem. It was claimed that it was the successor to Solomon’s temple. Here only could be found another Pentateuch.(2) The small group of Samaritans still existing look upon these first five books of Moses, written in the old Hebrew letters, as their greatest treasure.(3) Ethiopia is the second foreign country evangelized by the church at Jerusalem. The story, as told in the book of Acts, represents Philip the evangelist as being conducted southward by the Holy Spirit after his victories in Samaria. There he met the royal treasurer of the queen of Ethiopia returning to his country from Jerusalem where he had been to worship. The treasurer was reading the prophecy of Isaiah, who wrote about eight hundred years before Christ. Philip explained to this searcher for truth the fulfillment of the prophecy. This prophecy and its accurate fulfillment gave Philip a powerful message which caused the eunuch to accept Christ and be baptized. Thus began the evangelization of Ethiopia.

THE BEGINNINGS OF SYRIAN CHRISTIANITY

Christianity was to enter a new field through the leadership of Paul, strong herald of the cross. In Antioch, the capital of the Roman province of Syria, was to be found a new center for the gospel. When Jerusalem, the original headquarters, was destroyed, the leadership passed to Antioch, where it remained for some time. When the gospel moved into Syria, the whole church was astir. Cornelius, a Roman centurion at Caesarea, had experienced a remarkable conversion. Church members were fired with new zeal, and they entered Antioch“preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only.” Syria at that time included Palestine, parts of Arabia, and extended to the Euphrates River. Then began what may be justly described as “the golden age of Syria.”(5) In Antioch, its capital, an opulent center, was located the administration building of the Roman officials of the East. Many Jews were there, and so numerous and influential were they that their rights and privileges were recorded on tables of brass. (6) As a result of the ministry of Barnabas and

Paul at Antioch, the name of“Christian” was there first given to the followers of Jesus. The providence of God was looking to the future of the gospel. Soon Jerusalem would be destroyed, and tens of thousands of Christian Jews would be driven northward, rejected by the rabbinical Jews. It would now be greatly to their advantage as followers of Jesus to be called Christians. They would no longer be classed with the Jews, and the new name would help them to escape the wrath of the Gentile world against the Hebrew race. As will be shown later, these exiles were to populate with beautiful cities, and with institutions of unsurpassed scholarship, a section of country northward beyond the bounds of Canaan.(7) They would furnish an evangelical grasp of21Christianity’s greatest doctrines which their background of Jewish history enabled them to appreciate more profoundly than could Gentile converts. It was from Antioch that Paul and Barnabas, set apart by the Holy Ghost, went forth as the first foreign missionaries. The results were a revelation. Little did the apostles foresee the manner in which the Gentiles would desert the heathen temples for the churches, as they had seen the Jews come into the church from the synagogues. Leaving the island of Cyprus, where the Gentiles had heard with astonishment the doctrines of the Lord, Paul and Barnabas went into Asia Minor. Here,

as in Syria, the cities were full of Jews. Paul was proud that he was a son of Israel, because he knew that fifteen hundred years of sacred teaching on each recurring Sabbath had enriched the Hebrews with a mentality in things divine which enabled them to grasp readily such truths as God, sin, morality, and the need of a Redeemer. He entered therefore into the synagogues on the Sabbath day. The synagogues had long been established in the regions which were new to Paul and his helpers, and through the Jews they were able to secure an introduction to the Gentiles. A new vision came to the churches in Syria and Judea when the two men who launched Christianity’s foreign mission program returned with the reports of their successes. Even before Paul had finished his labors, or before Jerusalem was in ruins, the apostle Thomas had left for Persia and India. Eastward into those fertile lands between and around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers were laid the beginnings of Christianity at the second Syrian center, Edessa. Edessa, now Urfu, in Asia Minor, was at that time the capital of the small kingdom of Osrhoene. This city was about two hundred miles northeast of Antioch. From it Christianity emanated to Persia, India, Parthia, and China, and from it and other near-by cities, came the continued support of the work in those distant Eastern countries. Concerning Edessa, a well-known Orientalist writes as follows:

“Edessa had also a celebrated School of Medical Research which was removed to Nisibis. Many famous physicians were numbered in the Nestorian ranks who graduated there.”
See footnote 8

At Edessa, the purest Syriac (Aramaean) was spoken.22Tertullian, who wrote about seventy-five years after the death of the apostle John, speaks of the spread of Christianity in the following language: For upon whom else have the universal nations believed, but upon the Christ who has already come? For whom have the nations believed, — Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and they who inhabit Mesopotamia, Armenia, Phrygia, Cappadocia, and they who dwell in Pontus, and Asia, and Pamphylia, tamers in Egypt, and inhabiters of the region of Africa which is beyond Cyrene, Romans and sojourners, yes, and in Jerusalem Jews, and all other nations;as, for instance,…varied races of the Gaetulians, and manifold confines of the Moors, all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britains (inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ) In all which places the name of the Christ who is already come reigns.9By whom was the knowledge of Christ brought to all these places? By those Christians who had the spirit of the genuine Syrian theology. However, there were others who taught false doctrines. Gnosticism, a product of Alexandria, Egypt, Antioch’s rival, was a union of pagan philosophy and gospel truths. While it was founding churches and building colleges, it rejected the Old Testament, denied creation, and held in contempt all Jews, even Christian Jews. In these words, the historian Newman aptly describes the difference between the theology of Antioch and that of Alexandria: “In the great christological controversies of the fourth and following centuries Alexandria and Antioch were always antagonists, Alexandria representing a mystical

transcendentalism and promoting the allegorical interpretation of the Scriptures; Antioch insisting on the grammatico-historical interpretation of the Scriptures, and having no sympathy with mystical modes of thought.”(10) Whence came that marvelous missionary activity of the church of the East for a thousand years? It originated in the regions of Antioch and Edessa. How great was the difference between apostolic Christianity and its perversion at Alexandria in the early history of the church is shown in the following quotation from Bigg:

“The Church of the second century rang with alarm, and the consequence was that all the Christian writers of that period except Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria, shrank with horror from the name of philosophy.”
See Footnote 11

Shortly after the death of the apostles, the New Testament was translated into Syriac. This noble version, called the Peshitta, meaning “simple,” had for centuries a wide circulation in the East.(12) It is still the authoritative Bible in large Eastern communities

THE BEGINNINGS OF CELTIC CHRISTIANITY

The apostle to the Gentiles, after founding Syrian Christianity, was called to plant the gospel among the Galatians, in the heart of the large Celtic branch of the human family. The Celts of Galatia were of the same family, and spoke the same language as the Irish, Scotch, British, Welsh, and French. (13) Thus the Holy Spirit set another stream flowing rapidly which was to water the lands of the West. As India and China were to be bound to the West by Syrian Christianity, so Ireland and the western rim of Europe were to touch the East through Celtic Christianity. By one of those strange phenomena of history — may it not well be called providential? — the Galatians, a numerous branch of the Gauls from France, had pushed their way into Asia Minor. With all the fiery nature of the Celtic race, they had invaded and subdued Italy and sacked Rome in the fourth century before Christ. (14) Not satisfied with

this success, they broke into Asia Minor, and, settling there, became the founders of the province of Galatia. Paul prepared to pass them by as he journeyed west, but the Holy Spirit disposed otherwise. A severe affliction compelled him to tarry in their midst. He won the love and devotion of these people, and soon there was raised up what he pleased to call “the churches of Galatia.”(Galatians 1:2.)Patrick entered Ireland in the latter half of the fourth century. He found a well-organized and healthy Celtic Christianity there. (15) Evidence goes to show that Celtic Ireland learned the gospel from the believers in Galatia. One writer, who has made special research in Oriental history, says,

“The Christianity which first reached France and England (i.e., Gaul and Britain)was of the school of the apostle John, who ruled the churches in Asia Minor, and therefore of a Greek, not Latin, type.
See Footnote 16

There is abundant evidence of intercommunication between Ireland, France, and Galatia in the three hundred years between Paul and Patrick.(17) That the Celts in France were evangelized by the Celts in Asia Minor is shown by a well-known event in the history of the French church.(18) About seventy years after the death of the apostle John, the churches in southern France suffered a terrible persecution at the hands of the pagans. The distressed believers in 177 sent a pathetic account of their afflictions, not to Italy or to Africa, but to their brethren in Asia Minor.“In order to understand the situation, political and ecclesiastical, in southern France, we must bear in mind that the Gauls of the West and the Galatae of the East were of the same stock, and that each branch, though several nations intervened, retained unimpaired its racial characteristics.(19)

Thus Ireland received the gospel from Asia Minor, by way of the sea and by way of the Celtic believers in southern France; and they, in turn, obtained the light from the Galatians to whom Paul had ministered. The facts given by Douglas Hyde show how powerful and how widely spread over Europe was the Celtic race centuries before Christ. Alexander the Great would not embark upon his campaigns into Asia without having first assured himself of the friendship of the Celts. (20) Within the generation following the apostles, if not even before the death of John, the New Testament had been translated into that most beautiful of all Latin texts, the Italic version, often called Itala. For centuries scholars of the Celtic church quoted from the Itala. (21)

THE BEGINNINGS OF GREEK CHRISTIANITY

After Paul had labored in Galatia he was instructed by the Lord in a vision by night to go into Greece. He might have spent the rest of his days profitably in Asia Minor, but the Holy Spirit purposed otherwise. By his celebrated labors in the Greek centers of Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth, and later in Ephesus, the apostle founded Greek Christianity. At Athens, he entered the world’s intellectual center of paganism. Greece was still palpitating with the glorious memories of her victories over Persia’s millions, and the nation was reveling in the rich stores of her golden literature. Paul planted the gospel in the midst of the people who spoke the Greek language, that medium through which God was pleased to transmit to the world the most exalted of all literature, the Greek New Testament. The first revelations given to the gospel church were written in Greek. (22) In later days a deep hatred sprang up between Greek and Latin churches, and Greek and Latin ecclesiastics hurled bitter words at one another. These theological controversies arose because both churches had grown ambitious and had allied themselves with kings and emperors. At length, in 1054, the Greek and Latin churches separated. Long before this the Latin state church feared the effect of the accumulated stores of Greek literature. Latin was made the ecclesiastical language of Western Europe.(23) The Greek language, with its literature, was condemned by Roman ecclesiasticism, its study forbidden, and its writings anathematized. Ireland’s Celtic church in the medieval ages remained a center for instruction in Greek long after it had virtually disappeared elsewhere in Western Christendom.(24) The knowledge of Greek was declared in the universities of the Latin hierarchy to be full of daggers and poison.(25) For more than one thousand years it ceased to exist in the Teutonic kingdoms of Europe, except in the bosom of Greek and Celtic Christianity, and with those evangelical bodies which looked to the Scriptures as their only authority.(26) The repulse of the Greek church by the Latin hierarchy left the former as a buffer between the astounding activities of Christianity in the East and the victorious sword of the papal kingdoms of Western Europe.

THE BEGINNINGS OF LATIN CHRISTIANITY

Sometimes the Lord calls, sometimes He impels men to great tasks, not because they are disobedient, but because their interest in near-by labors makes them oblivious to distant opportunities. Paul was directed by a vision to go to Greece, but he went as a prisoner to Rome. Intent on anchoring his great work among the Gentiles to Jewish Christianity, he complied with a dangerous request of the leaders at Jerusalem. The other apostles wished to disarm the prejudices of Jewish authorities against Paul by having him unwisely appear in the temple of Jerusalem in fulfillment of a vow. Paul was willing to risk his life by performing the required ceremonies in the central sanctuary of Israel if only he might avert a rupture between Gentile and Jewish Christianity. He knew that the Gentile believers had received only a meager training in the profound truths of the gospel. Is it for this reason that practically all his epistles are written to the young, inexperienced Gentile churches? Moreover, in vision he foresaw the crushing opposition which would grow into an apostate church and which would pursue the true church for 1260 years, and therefore, he yearned to link the new Gentile churches to an experienced Judaism which had turned to Christ. In His ministry to the Jews, Jesus was sacrificed at Jerusalem; in his ministry to the Gentiles, Paul was sacrificed at Jerusalem. Only a sacrifice can open the eyes of tardy believers to the greatest spiritual advances. Nothing short of the sacrifice of Jesus could break hard hearts and inspire consecration. Although Paul knew full well the burning hatred of the rabbis against him, he followed the plan of the other apostles, and entered the temple. The temple throngs rushed on him with rage. If the tumult had not reached the ears of the Roman guard, who barely succeeded in snatching him from the hands of his enemies, he would have been torn limb from limb. When he appeared before the Roman tribunal, Paul felt he could not locally obtain justice, therefore he said, “I appeal unto Caesar.” The Roman magistrate replied, “Hast thou appealed unto Caesar? unto Caesar shalt thou go.”As a prisoner, Paul was carried to Rome, the capital of the Latin-speaking nations, the mistress of the world. Christianity did not come to Rome first through Paul; he found it there already when he arrived. Whether it preceded Paul by means of merchants, converted soldiers, or humble missionaries, is not known.(27) Nevertheless, the slender beginnings soon grew in strength through the ministry of the great apostle. He at once challenged the higher circles of Judaism and paganism. Having been recognized as a prisoner of no ordinary class, he was allowed the freedom of his own house, and permitted to come and go and to labor in no small public way during the two years before his case came to trial.(28) The epistle known as Second Timothy was written between the acquittal of the apostle at his first hearing and the death sentence at his second hearing. Greece was the intellectual, but Rome was the military, stronghold of paganism. No one can read scholarly authors such as Auguste Arthur Beugnot, who wrote the history of the destruction of paganism in the West, without realizing how nearly invincible was the resistance of Italian heathenism. Latin Christianity did not so early show the gains which soon adorned the labors of Celtic and Syrian Christianity. Out of the three hundred eighteen bishops who signed the decrees of the great Council ofNicaea in 325 — the first general church council — only seven were from the Latin West. To understand the apostolic origins of the true church, it is necessary to study the triumphs of the other apostles. In the first seven or eight years of gospel history the apostle Peter was a dominant figure. Paul held the center of the stage for the next thirty years. Peter’s closing years were scenes of wide and significant labors. They ranged from Babylon30 in the East to Rome in the West. For years he cherished the work at Jerusalem. There is reason to believe that at Rome he followed Paul in martyrdom.(31) What determinative effects came from his labors over widespread areas may be seen by noting carefully the first epistle of Peter.

PETER’S EPISTLE TO THE CHURCHES

This epistle opens with greetings from the apostle to the believers“scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,”and closes with a salutation from Babylon. All these first five provinces are found in Asia Minor. The significant results of Peter’s labors in Bithynia lead the student to glean awhile in that field. Paul was to evangelize Galatia but was forbidden by the Holy Spirit to go into Bithynia. In Galatia, Paul planted but Peter watered.(1 Peter 1:1; Galatians 1:2, 21.) In Bithynia, Peter both planted and watered. Many learned writers have given valuable time to analyzing the work in Bithynia. In 109, about nine years after the death of the apostle John, the Roman emperor requested the scholarly Pliny, governor of Bithynia, to make investigations concerning Christianity there because of the stories which had come to his ears. The governor of Bithynia, in rendering his report to the emperor, revealed the irresistible advances of the gospel. Pliny complains that the people are leaving the old gods and their heathen worship to go in throngs to the worship of Christ. He laments because the sale of heathen sacrifices has fallen off. Paying splendid tribute to the virtues of the Christians, he describes how they meet regularly once a week on “a stated day” for worship, which was undoubtedly the seventh-day Sabbath. While Peter lived, churches sprang up in Chaldea, Assyria, Syria, and Asia Minor. As the next two chapters will show, there grew up in this territory noble, heroic, sacrificing leaders of Christianity who for many centuries formed the most learned and stabilizing force in the world to strengthen and to help the true church in the Far East and the West. According to the writings of Origen (A.D. 185-254), the apostle Andrew was given Scythia as his field of labor, while Thomas was assigned to Persia.(32) According to evidence fully discussed in a later chapter, Thomas went farther than Persia. Reliable Syrian history indicates that the gospel was planted at Mosul, in Mesopotamia, in 170. (33) About 150, or fifty years after the death of the apostle John, the gospel had been preached and churches raised up in Persia, Media, Parthia, and Bactria.(34) Rawlinson speaks of Christianity’s spreading in the empire of Parthia by 150. (35) Evidently before he was killed in India in 72, the apostle Thomas had raised up many churches. (36) THE GOSPEL TO INDIA Pantaenus, one of the founders of the theological school at Alexandria, seventy years after the death of the apostle John, went to a country he called India, it is related, and reported evidences that the apostle Bartholomew had labored there. (37) The gospel must have made a great headway among the Syriac and Latin-speaking peoples within a half century after the death of the apostle John, because by that time the famous Syriac New Testament, called the Peshitta, had appeared.(38) Christianity is indicated as spreading among all ranks throughout Persia, Parthia, Media, and Bactria during the reign of the emperor Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 161-180). (39) What power drove these early believers to enter the intellectual strongholds of European paganism, to venture within the fanatical pantheons of Asia Minor, to brave the burning heat of Arabia, to spend their lives wandering in Tartary, and, as strangers, to struggle under the blistering sun of India? This power was the word of God, which burned as a fire in their hearts. They cried out with the apostle Paul, “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” These early missionaries clung to the Bible as the guidebook which would keep them from being deceived by apostasies, counterfeits, and by wolves in sheep’s clothing. Obedience to this Book singled them out for the rage of pagan emperors. They defended the truth against the wiles of Western false christs and of the counterfeit doctrines of the great Eastern religions. Nevertheless, as Paul wrote,

“The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword,”
(Hebrews 4:12.)

and by that word, they conquered. This chapter has traced the origins of Christianity in its various branches (Syrian, Celtic, Greek, Latin) and has revealed how the apostles and their immediate successors delivered its truths to these different peoples. Succeeding chapters will follow up the further history of these origins indifferent lands and show how and where the primitive New Testament faith with its apostolic origins survived. Then the reader will be better able to see how present-day Christianity compares with primitive Christianity.

Footnotes (sources):

Burgon and Miller, The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospel, p. 123.

2 Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. 1, p. 396.

3 The writer, in examining this Samaritan manuscript when he visitedSamaria, was surprised to find it in so good a condition, considering itsgreat age.

4 Geddes, The Church History of Ethiopia, p. 9.

5 O’Leary, The Syriac Church and Fathers, p. 21.418
6 Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, vol. 1, p. 74. AlsoSchurer, A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Christ, 2d div.,vol. 2, p. 271.
7 See the author’s discussion in Chapter 4, entitled, “The Silent Cities ofSyria.”
8 Gordon, “World Healers,” p. 450, note 2.
9 Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews, ch. 7, found in Ante-Nicene Fathers,vol. 3, pp. 157, 158.
10 Newman, A Manual of Church History, vol. 1, p. 297.
11 Bigg, The Origins of Christianity, pp. 143, 144.
12 Burgon, The Revision Revised, p. 9; Burkitt, Early Eastern Christianity,p. 41.
13 Menzies, Saint Columba of Iona, pp 11-13, see ch. 11, note 5;Fitzpatrick, Ireland and the Making of Britain, p. 160.
14 Ridgeway, The Early Age of Greece, vol. 1, p. 356.
15 Fitzpatrick, Ireland and the Making of Britain, p. 30.
16 Gordon, “World Healers,” p. 78.
17 O’Leary, The Syriac Church and Fathers, p. 32. 20.
18 Stokes, Ireland and the Celtic Church, p. 3.
19 Warner, The Albigensian Heresy, vol. 1, p. 19.
20 Hyde, A Literary History of Ireland, pp. 6, 7.
21 Stokes, Ireland and the Celtic Church, pp. 27, 28; Gilly, Vigilantius andHis Times, p. 116; Smith and Wace, A Dictionary of ChristianBiography, art. Patricius”; Nolan, The Integrity of the Greek Vulgate, p.17; Warner, The Albigensian Heresy, vol. 1, p. 12; Betham, IrishAntiquarian Researches.
22 Milman, History of Latin Christianity, vol. 1, p. 1, Introduction.
23 Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in the Original Greek, vol. 2, p.142.
24 Cubberley, The History of Education, p. 138.
25 Jones, The History of the Christian Church, vol. 2, p. 294.419
26 Westcott and Hort, The New Testament in the Original Greek, vol. 2, p. 142.
27 Burgon and Miller, The Traditional Text of the Holy Gospels, p. 145.
28 This can be read in the last chapter of Acts and in the second epistle toTimothy.
29 Michael the Syrian, Chronique de Michel le Syrien, vol. 1, pp. 247-253.
30 To sum it up, Dr. Adam Clarke says: “After considering all that hasbeen said by learned men and critics on this place, I am quite of theopinion that the apostle does not mean Babylon in Egypt, norJerusalem, nor Rome as figurative Babylon, but the ancient celebratedBabylon in Assyria, which was, as Dr. Benson observes, themetropolis of the eastern dispersion of the Jews; but as I have said somuch on this subject in the preface, I beg leave to refer the reader tothat place.” — Commentary, on 1 Peter 5:13.
31 Abul Faraj, Chronography, vol. 1, p. 50.
32 Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, b. 3, ch. 1, found in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers.
33 Adeney, The Greek and Eastern Churches, pp. 297, 298.
34 Fisher, History of the Christian Church, p. 45; Gordon, “WorldHealers,” p. 243.
35 Rawlinson, The Seven Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World(Sixth Monarchy), vol. 3, p. 225.
36 This conclusion has its opponents, but many scholarly and dependablewriters have ceased to be in doubt about this and have settled it totheir own satisfaction that the apostle Thomas laid the foundation ofChristianity in India. See the author’s discussion in Chapter 14, “TheSt. Thomas Christians of India.”
37 Adeney, The Greek and Eastern Churches, p. 296.
38 Burgon, The Revision Revised, p. 27.39 Yohannan, The Death of a Nation, p. 39

Part 2: The church in the wilderness in prophecy

By

tam

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20/05/2019

0

We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place. (2 Peter 1:19.)

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written forour admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come (1 Corinthians 10:11).

THE Biblical picture of the Church in the Wilderness and the emphasis of inspiration on its importance, especially as found in the writings of Daniel the prophet and of John the apostle, are now considered. These two prophetic studies shine with unusual brilliance among the sixty-six books which make up the Holy Scriptures. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the other prophets spoke particularly of the things already established in Israel; Daniel and the revelator on the other hand presented the prophetic blueprints of world history. Daniel spoke from his high pedestal as prime minister of Babylon, the first of the world’s four universal monarchies. John, the last living star in the crown of the twelve apostles, was banished by the emperor of Rome, a ruler of the last of the four universal monarchies.The Savior in His teachings referred to many passages in the books of the Old Testament; but none did He single out and command to be studied with more directness than the book of the prophet Daniel.(Matthew24:15.) To the beloved apostle, in exile on the Isle of Patmos, Christ presented glories for which the Roman emperor would have exchanged all he had. These two books are not the concealing, but the revealing, of the will of God. In both these writings God unfolded the supremely thrilling story of the beginnings, the growth, the struggles, and the final triumph of His church. He also exposed the daring impiety, the alliances with the kings of the earth, the long cruelty, and the final overthrow of the“mystery of iniquity,” the religious rival of His church.12With far-reaching vision, these two prophets, Daniel and John, foresaw the conflicts of the Christian Era and the final crisis. Using the well-known Biblical figure of a woman to symbolize a church, John the revelator said,“And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand

two hundred and threescore days.”(Revelation 12:6.)In the same chapter, in order to make the prediction prominent, the apostle John again said,“And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.”(Revelation 12:14.)When one accepts the Bible rule that a day in prophecy stands for a literal year of 360 days, he can explain scriptural prophetic time periods. It is the rule laid down by God Himself.(Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6.)Furthermore, a “time” is a prophetic year, or 360 literal years. By these two direct statements of the prophetic period we know that the church was to be in the wilderness 1260 years. The vision continues further to show that the remnant, or the last church,would be a successor to the wilderness church. The prophetic use of the word “remnant” is significant. Even as a remnant of cloth will identify the bolt from which it is taken, so the last church is a continuation of the Church in the Wilderness, and identifies it. In his vision John turns immediately from the scenes of the Church in the Wilderness to the outstanding work of the remnant church in the following words:“And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”(Revelation 12:17.)These scriptures plainly present inspiration’s insistent call upon the children of men to know and recognize God’s true church in all ages.Mankind should ponder the fact that the history of the Church in the Wilderness is linked with a definite period of 1260 years. Not only are13these 1260 years specifically presented seven times in the Bible, but this period is treated many other times in Holy Writ without using the definite number of years.(See Daniel 11:32-35; Matthew 24:21-29; 2Thessalonians 2:1-7.) Was the history of this church during these long centuries a blank, as church historians usually treat it? Why have they ignored its vast achievements? Have the Holy Scriptures prophesied in vain concerning it? Is the allotment by divine revelation of 1260 years of history to this organization nothing in the judgment of historical researchers?Any organization or connected movement among men which could hold the center of the stage for 1260 years ought to be a subject of vast importance. What other political kingdom or empire of prominence had so lengthy a history? Longer than the days of Great Britain, enduring more years than imperial Rome, even rivaling the centuries wherein the Jews were the chosen people, is the record of the Church in the Wilderness. No study of the nineteen centuries of the Christian Era can be harmonized with God’s revealed purpose unless it recognizes the dominant place of the Church in the Wilderness.

HOW HER RIVALS IN RELIGION COUNTERFEITED THE PROPHECIES

Apostolic Christianity, as a religion supremely superior to paganism,caused widespread upheavals in the world. So strong were her prospects of success that Jesus and His apostles were fearful of the great deceptions that would come because of imitations and counterfeits. To make a clear-cut distinction between these counterfeits and genuine Christianity, new light from heaven was needed. Such revelations were provided in the last books of the New

Testament. All the troths needed to chart the future course of gospel believers were to be found in the messages from the apostles.There is little point in claiming that a certain church or doctrine came down from the days of the apostles. Sin came down from the days of the apostles, and the devil also was active at that time and before. It is not so much what came down from the days of the apostles, as what came down from the apostles themselves. Even in his day the apostle Paul wrote:14“The mystery of iniquity doth already work.” The growth and final for mof the mystery of iniquity which was already operating before Paul’s death is seen more clearly in the stow of the Church in the Wilderness.Approximately thirty-six years stand between the writing of the first three Gospels — Matthew, Mark, and Luke — and the writing of the last —John. This gave that many years for the mystery of iniquity, already at work in Paul’s day, to develop more powerfully. The outstanding difference between the character of the Gospel by John and the first three gospels has long been recognized?1 It was the task of the beloved apostle to emphasize those events and teachings in the life of the divine Son of God which would enable his followers to meet the devastating growth of the organized “mystery of iniquity.” This power was pointed out in the symbols of the book of Revelation, and it had already advanced in a threatening manner in the days of the last Gospel writer.2 In order to understand properly this significant background it is necessary to take a short retrospect of the movements which swept over the nations in the centuries immediately preceding the birth of Christ. This will explain why powerful bodies, Christian in name, but antagonistic in spirit to Bible believers, sprang into existence soon after the appearance of the gospel.When Christianity boldly set forth, it faced a rising tide of Bible-counterfeiting religions. To grapple with all these, God imbued the Sacred Writings with latent power. The Holy Spirit and the Bible agree.

Without the Spirit, the Bible is dead; and without the Bible, the Holy Spirit and His message would be circumscribed. The Holy Spirit occupied the ground of truth in advance, yet the revelations of the Old Testament, designed by the divine Author to warn against these evil forces, were employed by the enemies of truth as weapons for their own use. In the visions of the prophets, warnings as well as descriptions had been given beforehand —especially by Daniel — concerning apostate religions that would arise,counterfeiting the truth, and seeking supremacy over the nations. It is an astonishing and significant fact that within one hundred years after the death of the prophet Daniel, Zoroastrianism flourished in Persia,Buddhism arose in India, Confucianism arose in China, and a little later,Socrates, famous Grecian philosopher, became a renowned thinker.15 This was at the moment when the visions of Daniel were sowing the world with electrifying conceptions. There is evidence which leads one to conclude that Daniel’s visions were an influence upon the state religion of Persia.3

GREAT PROPHETIC TIME PERIODS

The fulfillment of such predictions as the doom of Tyre and the overthrow of the Jews has attracted universal attention. In events still more thrilling did the prophecies of the Church in the Wilderness, as given in the books of Daniel and the Revelation, meet their realization.What value does the Bible place on prophetic time periods in general, and upon the 1260-year era in particular? For man to foretell in general terms with noteworthy accuracy some future situation, is a rare occurrence. To do this is not prophecy, but human calculations. Bible predictions of future situations, however, are given millenniums in advance; they tell of peoples yet to arise and of events to come of which at the moment of the prophecy there was nothing in contemporaneous events to inspire the prediction. Only divine foreknowledge could do this.Time-period prophecies are found in the books of Daniel and the Revelation. The most important of these in Daniel are the following: the1260-year prophecy of Daniel 7; the 2300-year prophecy of Daniel 8; the490-year period, embracing the 483-year and the 486 _-year subdivision,of Daniel 9; the many smaller time periods of Daniel 11; and the 1290-yearand 1335-year periods of Daniel 12. There are many similar time prophecies in the book of Revelation. The devout mind which has already discovered the eternal value of Biblical truth believes confidently that these divine scriptural predictions will meet their fulfillment.Jesus

Himself constructed His teaching in harmony with the time predictions of the Old Testament, principally those in the book of Daniel.When the Redeemer was covering in prophetic language the whole of the Christian Era, three times He referred to “those days” of Daniel (Matthew24:22,29.) which were the 1260 years — a major part of the time intervening between His days and now. Also Peter, speaking of the Old Testament prophets, said that they searched “what manner of time the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand16the sufferings of Christ” (that is, His first coming) “and the glory that should follow” (that is, His second coming) (1 Peter 1:11.) Paul warned the Thessalonian church against looking for the second coming of Christ until Daniel’s prophecy of the long reign of the “man of sin” had been accomplished.(2 Thessalonians 2:3.) In truth, the prophetic time periods constitute the framework around which the New Testament writers built.Christ came as the fulfillment of four thousand years of prophecy. Old Testament prophecy was substantiated by its fulfillment in the New Testament. With as great certainty and with no less volume, the prime movements and events which would concern Christ’s church to the end of time were also divinely predicted. Provision was made to forewarn His people, to discover for them beforehand the real meaning of movements —political, economic, and religious — in order to inspire their confidence and to send them forth determined to brave anything, even death, that this great salvation might be proclaimed to the ends of the earth.

THE 1260 — YEAR TIME PERIOD

Second to none among these chains of prophecy was the 1260-year time period concerning the Church in the Wilderness. Seven times it was given.(Daniel 7:25; 12:7; Revelation 11:2, 3; 12:6, 14; 13:5.) God did not announce it once and leave it. He did not utter it twice and drop the subject. Seven times He pressed it home to the attention of men. What excuse can be made by mortal man for not having carefully read the message of his heavenly Father on this subject? The importance of this subject will be seen by giving briefly the work of the church during this 1260-year period in Great Britain, France, Italy,Syria, Assyria, Persia, India, Turkestan, China, the Philippines, and Japan.Many books could be written upon it. Yet in all the thousands of published volumes treating of history during this period, how little is said concerning this topic so prominent in God’s book!There remains, however, a still more important phase of this subject. For what purpose did Jesus permit the Church in the Wilderness to suffer during the 1260-years? Surely there is a reason. Was it not to seal with the testimony of martyr’s blood the permanent values in the Christian religion? Did not these centuries of severe testing help to substantiate what17books constituted the genuine collection of the Bible, and to disclose the counterfeit writings? In fulfilling its remarkable destiny as the guardian of the treasures of truth, the noble children of this church fought and bled and marched, and turned and fought and bled again during the 1260 years. 4It is in a very significant setting that this matter is presented. The twelfth chapter of the Revelation reveals the complete history of the true church under three phases. Employing the well-known figure of a woman to represent His church, God sets forth three distinct phases of her experience to indicate the three periods of His church upon earth from the first to the second coming of Christ. Depicting the apostolic church, the woman wears upon her head a crown of twelve stars. In time of tribulation she fled into the wilderness. The final portrayal in Revelation 12 reveals the remnant church. As a woman is neither imaginary nor abstract it maybe said that this woman represents, not an invisible church, but one duly organized, visible, and tangible. It has an organization; it is visible and tangible. By the wilderness condition, God indicated that the true church,though under a long period of strong opposition and persecution, would continue to carry the gospel to the world.The Church in the Wilderness was to do her great work in quietness.Surrendering to her hierarchical opponents the pompous show, and demonstrating fertility in a comparatively diminished condition, she was to mold the human race. Contrariwise, her rival, clothed in scarlet and living pompously with princes and kings,(Revelation 17:2-4.) would, during the same 1260 years, feed her members with those weak and beggarly elements of the world from which the gospel was designed to free them.Where can one better find that sense of perspective touching the past, so necessary to the sense of correct value of the present and to definiteness of action, except in the divine prophetic time periods of the Scriptures?

Footnotes
1 Goddard, Was Jesus Influenced by Buddha?, p. 9.2 Home, Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the HolyScriptures, vol. 2, pt. 6, ch. 2, p. 316.3 See the author’s discussion in the chapters, “Papas, First Head of the Church in Asia” and “Adam and the Church in China.”4 How much we owe to these heroes, the world will never know. The Reformation was an outgrowth of the Church in the Wilderness. We owe indirectly, at least, the Constitution of the United States to this noble army. The light, liberty, education, and civilization we possess today carne because of the firm foundations laid in the convictions and courage of the heroes of the wilderness church

Part 1: What is the church in the wilderness?

By

tam

-

20/05/2019

0

PART ONE

And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she mightily into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared ofGod, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescoredays. (Revelation 12:14, 6)

THE Church in the Wilderness is the connecting link between apostolic Christianity and God’s people today. The purpose of this volume is to show that there were Christian people in every country during this long period of history who possessed churches, colleges, mission stations, and theological schools; who followed closely and adhered steadfastly to the beliefs and practices delivered by the apostles to the saints; and who possessed and preserved the original Scriptures given to the church in the first century. These people constitute the Church in the Wilderness. This is a conception which is not generally held. The title, Church in the Wilderness, is taken from the Bible prophecy of Revelation 12 describing the woman who fled into the wilderness. The woman is the church.1 The title clearly shows that it was not the popular or predominant church. These faithful believers held high the banner of truth, and withstood the encroachments of apostasy. Their fortunes varied, for at times they possessed many churches, famous schools, and distant mission stations, while in other ages they suffered from poverty and dire persecution. The great missionary work of this church is little known, its sufferings have been overlooked, and its heroes unsung. In the following pages is presented the precious heritage which it has bequeathed to modem times. By restoring the true church to its rightful place, the key is recovered which unlocks the meaning of great issues confronting this present generation. Some will ask, Should not we look to the church which for ages has been the favored of kings and nations to find the true church instead of looking to a people who for centuries were never the dominant church, and who many times were obscure? Let the prophet John answer this question: “The woman [church] fled into the wilderness.”(Revelation 12:6.) In order to recognize the true church, it is imperative that we fix our eyes upon those Christian bodies which have largely been forgotten in the works of history.Divine revelation teaches that the light which was to shine upon the last generation of men would be a continuation and an enlargement of the light which shone upon the Church in the

Wilderness throughout almost thirteen centuries; namely, the 1260-year period. While it is generally recognized that the 1260-year period of the Church in the Wilderness did not begin in apostolic times, it is nevertheless necessary to introduce, this prophetic period with a proper background. The beginning and ending of the 1260-year period is established in later chapters. No particular effort is made, however, to differentiate in nomenclature between the Church in the Wilderness and its apostolic origins.It should be understood at the outset that in giving the surprising record of this remarkable church, the old beaten paths used by almost all the writers of church history cannot be followed. The light of Bible prophecy has pointed the way for this investigation and the method in which this theme should be treated. This subject has rarely, if ever, been presented in such away as to reveal the amazingly interesting interrelationships which existed between and among the various groups of faithful believers in widely separated areas.Certain modem authors have assiduously labored to belittle the American founders of religious liberty and democracy, such as Washington,Jefferson, and others. This same class of writers has invaded the realm of church history, and that which was obscure before, is growing darker.These men seek to give the glory of the Church in the Wilderness to another. Sad to relate, many sincere persons are being deceived by the astounding propaganda in books and articles founded on misleading historical bases. It is time to bring to light the many heroic struggles of the men whom God used to preserve the divine doctrines and the Holy Scriptures. The statements here made concerning the Church in the Wilderness and its history will be clarified, enlarged upon, and further explained and supported by evidence from dependable sources.The Church in the Wilderness did not arrive at the truth by opposition top revailing dogmas and heresies. Its faith was not a faith newly received.The religious beliefs of its members were an inheritance from the days of the apostles. To them men owe the preservation of the Bible. Contrary to almost universal belief, the Church in the Wilderness embraced the true missionary churches during the long night of the Dark Ages. It held a loft the torch of education while the rest of the world about it was falling into the darkness of ignorance and superstition. Its territory was not circumscribed. On the contrary, its influence penetrated into all parts of the known world.

FROM THE DAYS OF THE APOSTLES

The history of nominal Christianity is the record of bitter theological controversies, and, at times, even of bloody encounters to achieve its aims; it is a record of incredible activity to secure political power. The history of the Church in the Wilderness is a stirring revelation of consecrated, evangelical labor in continent-wide leadership for the salvation of the hopeless and benighted. It did not, as its rivals did, claim intellectual logic in doctrine; it did not attempt to enforce its views by political cruelty. It severed all territorial and family ties which might have held it to the world and to the rapacious churches of empires, thus successfully preserving its scriptural doctrines and its apostolic organization. The present can never be properly understood without correct

information concerning the past. Those who have been taught falsified history or who have had their minds filled with the twisted interpretations of events gone by, stagger like the blind with a darkened mind. Everyone today wants to be modem. But those who neglect the lessons of the past do not achieve modernity. They achieve only contemporaneity. Minds indoctrinated by histories and encyclopedias which glorify a union of church and state will pass a discontented present in a democracy which completely separates the state and the church, for they will long for, and labor to make, a9different order of things. The ideas that one has concerning vanished generations have a great deal to do with one’s relation to the present.It is equally true that a person who has distorted views of the present cannot build for a better future. Those who look upon the medieval years of European history with its serfdom and theocracy as the ideal will be in revolt against modem society and will seek ways to re-establish those systems. Those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, the divine Creator,who unselfishly died upon a cross, will find no joy in self-sacrifice and loving service, but will reach out to seize all they can for themselves.Those who are convinced that there was a rebellion in heaven and that humanity today is surrounded by principalities and powers of darkness will be more willing to seek the help of the Holy Spirit than if they reject the teaching of the Scripture concerning Satan and evil angels. In other words, man visualizes a future which should logically follow his estimate of present potentialities, be his estimate right or wrong.All have not been made aware of the decisive struggles which occurred behind the scenes over the Church in the Wilderness. Many have failed tonote the true centers of Christian activity in the

past. They realize altogether too little the meaning of the momentous events taking place today because they are ignorant of this historical background. The correct perspective of past history is as necessary to effective leadership as the appreciation of present values. Many have but slight knowledge of the messages of God for this generation, because they have been taught to gaze not upon the underlying, but upon the superficial, origins of the past. The past which gave us democracy and religious liberty is the history which should be known and studied. We need the Sacred Book to point the way to the true history.The Church in the Wilderness, surrounded by savage tribes and battling against barbaric darkness, has been painted by its enemies without its victories. Driven often by opposition to mountain retreats, it was saved from the corrupting influences of ecclesiastical and political power. In many parts of the world, all the way from Ireland in the west to China in the east, there were centers of truth. The leaders in these centers were united in their desire to remain in the faith, and to perpetuate from generation to generation the pure truths of the gospel handed down from10the days of the apostles. Their records have been systematically destroyed. Remoteness and obscurity, however, could not entirely conceal these heroes, because the fires of their persecution have continued to light up the scenes of their sacrificing labors. The un garbled history of the true church will lead to the realization that God’s church of today is the successor of the Church in the Wilderness.The true church today unites the present to eternity, even as the Church in the Wilderness united the apostolic past to the present. As one follows the history of the Church in the Wilderness, the marks of identification will be given by which the final remnant church may be recognized. Such a presentation will, moreover, unmask the false, preposterous, and misleading history widely used today to discredit true history.

present generation.7 Some will ask, Should not we look to the church which for ages has been the favored of kings and nations to find the true church instead of looking to a people who for centuries were never the dominant church, and who many times were obscure? Let the prophet John answer this question:“The woman [church] fled into the wilderness.”(Revelation 12:6.) In order to recognize the true church, it is imperative that we fix our eyes upon those Christian bodies which have largely been forgotten in the works of history.Divine revelation teaches that the light which was to shine upon the last generation of men would be a continuation and an enlargement of the light which shone upon the Church in the Wilderness throughout almost thirteen centuries; namely, the 1260-year period. While it is generally recognized that the 1260-year period of the Church in the Wilderness did not begin in apostolic times, it is nevertheless necessary to introduce, this prophetic period with a proper background. The beginning and ending of the 1260-year period is established in later chapters. No particular effort is made, however, to differentiate in nomenclature between the Church in the Wilderness and its apostolic origins.It should be understood at the outset that in giving the surprising record of this remarkable church, the old beaten paths used by almost all the writers of church history cannot be followed. The light of Bible prophecy has pointed the way for this investigation and the method in which this theme should be treated. This subject has rarely, if ever, been presented in such away as to reveal the amazingly interesting interrelationships which existed between and among the various groups of faithful believers in widely separated areas.Certain modem authors have assiduously labored to belittle the American founders of religious liberty and democracy, such as Washington,Jefferson, and others. This same class of writers has invaded the realm of church history, and that which was obscure before, is growing darker.These men seek to give the glory of the Church in the Wilderness to another. Sad to relate, many sincere persons are being deceived by the astounding propaganda in books and articles founded on misleading historical bases. It is time to bring to light the many heroic struggles of the men whom God used to preserve the divine doctrines and the Holy8Scriptures. The statements here made concerning the Church in the Wilderness and its history will be clarified, enlarged upon, and further explained and supported by evidence from dependable sources.The Church in the Wilderness did not arrive at the truth by opposition to prevailing dogmas and heresies. Its faith was not a faith newly received.The religious beliefs of its members were an inheritance from the days of the apostles. To them men owe the preservation of the Bible. Contrary to almost universal belief, the Church in the Wilderness embraced the true missionary churches during the long night of the Dark Ages. It held a loft the torch of education while the rest of the world about it was falling into the darkness of ignorance and superstition. Its territory was not circumscribed. On the contrary, its influence penetrated into all parts of the known world.FROM THE DAYS OF THE APOSTLES The history of nominal Christianity is the record of bitter theological controversies, and, at times, even of bloody encounters to achieve its aims;it is a record of incredible activity to secure political power. The history of the Church in the Wilderness is a stirring revelation of consecrated,evangelical labor in continent-wide leadership for the salvation of the hopeless and benighted. It did not, as its rivals did, claim intellectual logic in doctrine; it did not attempt to enforce its views by political cruelty. It severed all territorial and family ties which might have held it to the world and to the rapacious churches of empires, thus successfully preserving its scriptural doctrines and its apostolic organization.The present can never be properly understood without correct information concerning the past. Those who have been taught falsified history or who have had their minds filled with the twisted interpretations of events gone by, stagger like the blind with a darkened mind. Everyone today wants to be modem. But those who neglect the lessons of the past do not achieve modernity. They achieve only contemporaneity. Minds indoctrinated by histories and encyclopedias which glorify a union of church and state will pass a discontented present in a democracy which completely separates the state and the church, for they will long for, and labor to make, a9different order of things. The ideas that one has concerning vanished generations have a great deal to do with one’s relation to the present.It is equally true that a person who has distorted views of the present cannot build for a better future. Those who look upon the medieval years of European history with its serfdom and theocracy as the ideal will be in revolt against modem society and will seek ways to re-establish those systems. Those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, the divine Creator,who unselfishly died upon a cross, will find no joy in self-sacrifice and loving service, but will reach out to seize all they can for themselves.Those who are convinced that there was a rebellion in heaven and that humanity today is surrounded by principalities and powers of darkness will be more willing to seek the help of the Holy Spirit than if they reject the teaching of the Scripture concerning Satan and evil angels. In other words, man visualizes a future which should logically follow his estimate of present potentialities, be his estimate right or wrong.All have not been made aware of the decisive struggles which occurred behind the scenes over the Church in the Wilderness. Many have failed to note the true centers of Christian activity in the past. They realize altogether too little the meaning of the momentous events taking place today because they are ignorant of this historical background. The correct perspective of past history is as necessary to effective leadership as the appreciation of present values. Many have but slight knowledge of the messages of God for this generation, because they have been taught to gaze not upon the underlying, but upon the superficial, origins of the past. The past which gave us democracy and religious liberty is the history which should be known and studied. We need the Sacred Book to point the way to the true history.The Church in the Wilderness, surrounded by savage tribes and battling against barbaric darkness, has been painted by its enemies without its victories. Driven often by opposition to mountain retreats, it was saved from the corrupting influences of ecclesiastical and political power. In many parts of the world, all the way from Ireland in the west to China in the east, there were centers of truth. The leaders in these centers were united in their desire to remain in the faith, and to perpetuate from generation to generation the pure truths of the gospel handed down from10the days of the apostles. Their records have been systematically destroyed.2 Remoteness and obscurity, however, could not entirely conceal these heroes, because the fires of their persecution have continued to light up the scenes of their sacrificing labors. The ungarbled history of the true church will lead to the realization that God’s church of today is the successor of the Church in the Wilderness.The true church today unites the present to eternity, even as the Church in the Wilderness united the apostolic past to the present. As one follows the history of the Church in the Wilderness, the marks of identification will be given by which the final remnant church may be recognized. Such a presentation will, moreover, unmask the false, preposterous, and misleading history widely used today to discredit true history.

Footnotes:

1 Clarke, Commentary, on Revelation 12; also Jeremiah 3:14; Hosea 2:19; Ephesians 5:23-32; Revelation 17.2 Gilly, Waldensian Researches, p. 78

______________________________________________

Read each chapter here online:
by Benjamin George Wilkinson

1. What Is the Church in the Wilderness?
2. The Church in the Wilderness in Prophecy
3. The Apostolic Origins of the Church in the Wilderness
4. The Silent Cities of Syria
5. Lucian and the Church in Syria
6. Vigilantius, Leader of the Waldenses
7. Patrick, Organizer of the Church in the Wilderness in Ireland.
8. Columba and the Church in Scotland
9. Papas, First Head of the Church in Asia
10. How the Church Was Driven Into the Wilderness
11. Dinooth and the Church in Wales
12. Aidan and the Church in England
13. Columbanus and the Church in Europe
14. The Church in Europe after the Time of Columbanus
15. Early Waldensian Heroes
16. The Church of the Waldenses
17. Aba and the Church in Persia
18. Timothy of Bagdad; The Church Under Mohammedan Rule.
19. The St. Thomas Christians of India
20. The Great Struggle in India
21. Adam and the Church in China
22. Marcos of Peking
23. The Church in Japan and the Philippines
24. The Remnant Church Succeeds the Church in the Wilderness

The Battle For Planet Earth

By

tam

-

14/05/2019

0

The Devil claims it’s his territory because of human decisions to follow his lead and that God is the intruder. Christ claims kingship over the earth by right as Creator and Redeemer.
Now let’s look into the conflict and why Christ has waited with taking full control.

Satan wants to be ruler here on earth for good.

The first thing we must understand in regards to power is that it is all about who gets to decide the ideology, moral and laws of the land. When you have riots against a government, for instance, it’s because they disagree with rules and regulations made by the state. If there is a war between two groups of people it’s always tied to ideology and way of life. Whether religious or atheistic. One group wants to decide the moral compass, the regulations, and rules that the society should live by, and the only way to get that is to be in a ruling position. So people fight for power so they can control the laws of the land.
In the battle between Satan and his allies and Christ and his allies, it’s the same battle.
God wants those who are obedient to Him to have resources or right to them.
The Devil wants those who are obedient to him to have them.
Those who have the resources have the power, and those who have the power are the ones who make the laws. The ones who make the laws are the one who gets to determine right from wrong and judge. The one who judges is the ruler. The short-short version: The one who makes the law is the Ruler. It’s that simple.

Gods law and Him being the Creator are the two things that make Him a King. That is why God dwelled over His Ark of the Covenant in His temple. The Ark containing His law, a law claiming He was the creator. Everyone owns the right to their creation. However, he gave man dominion over the earth. (Gen.1,26)
However He created humans with a free will, but He did not create them immortal. Eternal life was a gift that could be bestowed upon them reminding them they were created and God was the Creator.

When Satan got Adam and Eve to use their free will to go against God’s authority in the Garden of Eden, and their descendants followed in that direction, he claimed as they now followed his lead that he should be rightfully king on earth on principle of election rather the principle of origin.
God had entrusted the planet to man and denied man the right to eternal life. The Devils claim was that because they didn’t keep God’s law, and there was no pardon for breaking it – they were outlaws like him. And he was the king of the outlaws as long as they continued following his lead.
And that God had to let them use their free will to follow him if they so desired. God could not uphold His principles by forcing man into submission and run their lives without their consent or wish.

The earth slowly started to go by the Devil’s principle in their way of life as they listen to his suggestions more than they did the Spirit of God who was teaching them God’s ways. When presented with God’s way and the devil’s way, choosing the devils way made them his subordinates. And because God had given them a free will God allowed it to a certain extent.
The devil became a ruler of this world. Jesus called him the prince: «Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.» (Joh 14:30)
When we see all the misery on this planet many have been tempted to blame God, but the truth is that the «prince of this worlds» poor philosophy is the cause of it all. God has all the time presented an alternative route but man keeps going by the Devils system and they get the misery that follows it. Jesus said: «Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do» (Joh_8:44)
The only one mankind should blame for the terrible ordeals is their elected Prince and themselves for following his lead.

Just like in any ruling position, those who break the laws of the ruler are outlawed and punished. It was the same way with the devil. Those who wanted to be loyal to God and His law was considered rebellious in the Devil’s governmental system. Up through the ages, God’s faithful have been tortured, imprisoned, outcasts, runaways and innocently murdered. They were called a threat to society or just ridiculed. They were not innocent in the devil’s eyes, in his eyes they were allies to his enemy and competition, and he felt it right to fight and conquer them. Through his representative, the Bible says he would “wear out the saints of the most High” (Dan.7,25) The devil presents himself as some kind of good guy and that God is the bad guy. He presents himself as a freedom fighter and God the oppressor. In this way, he legitimizes killing and harming God’s followers.
But how should God really have dealt with the Devils rebellion? Should God really just give up His throne for a lesser being that could not even restore and keep the worlds safe? The Devil had none of the powers that God had and that every world needs. The power to create from nothing, to restore something completely. God is the only one who has life in Himself. He is irreplaceable. Removing Him would only lead to death. And if the Devils rules were to be regarded higher then God’s then God would be the puppet of his subordinate.
God knew something the Devil didn’t, the consequence of the ideas the devil was promoting. God knew the domino effect of the Devil’s ideas, explained in Gen 3,22: “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil». God claimed He knew what evil was. To the Devil, many of his own ideas and rebellious thoughts seemed right and would implement needed improvement, but God knew they were really the start point of a road to self-destruction. The devil had a self-deceptive motive that he was thinking of the welfare of the other beings, but the real motive of his heart was selfishness and self-elevation. Isaiah 14:13 tells us his real agenda was to be adored and worshipped as God. He was jealous and it was jealousy that was the driving force behind his faulty perception and following accusations towards God.
Not long time passed before he was willing to lie and kill to get there. He wasn’t against rules, he just wanted to be the one to make them. He wasn’t against a ruler, he just wanted to be that ruler.

The treatment he felt was so wrong that God had given him after his rebellion, he didn’t have a problem to give to God’s followers here on earth showing his great double standard. He had been exiled, something he believed was unfair, but didn’t have a problem in placing exile or even destroy those who wouldn’t follow his lead on earth.
The devil was angry because God humiliated him and that he lost his high position and influence over others in the heavenly world where he had hoped to turn everyone on his side. God had been forced to expel him because of his lies, manipulation, and deceit towards God. He was, therefore, cast out of heaven with his allies. Soon everyone could slowly see the devil’s true colors, intention, and his double standard here on earth. As it unfolded and the Devil was setting into motions his own standards, thousands upon thousands of angels in heaven could see his character more clearly and the result of his actions (1Co_4:9, Dan_7:9) .
God had not allowed sin to go on for to long in heaven as the majority of the beings trusted God and chose his lead. God could then expel the Devil without protests, but here on earth where the majority chose to follow Satan sin would come to develop in all its stages. This is why Paul wrote: “for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.”

The treatment God’s people here on earth received from ruling powers the Devil controlled had no class, empathy or fairness. They perfectly demonstrated the Devils wrath against God. The Devil was at war and unable to harm God Himself so he went for God’s little ones here on earth. (Rev 12:12-17)
Revelation 12 says that after he was cast to the very planet that had chosen to follow his lead, he started persecuting God’s people “which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”. The Devil was at war against heaven here on earth, making God’s faithful the target of his warfare. He would first try and win them over to his side by presenting his case and philosophy, if that didn’t work he would lie about God and God’s motive and character presenting him as the bad guy, if that would not work he would try to bribe them. And if that did not work the Devil went to war ready to sadistically torture and kill the inhabitants of God’s kingdom here on earth. He wanted to see the rebel of his rule in pain. He wanted them to curse God whom they followed (Job 1:11; Job_2:9 ). The Devils first intention was not to kill as his power of influence lied in getting as many as possible to raise their voices against God. The closer someone had been to God the greater value, as their testimony would harm God’s reputation even further. Anyone who instead of accusing God would praise God, even in their despair, would be a witness against everything the Devil wanted to achieve: An army of complaints and opponents against God. If there was not one single person left on the planet to embrace God surely God would have to let the Devil have the planet? And the heavenly world would have to face that not one person on earth thought God was righteous in His dealings with man? But as long as voices from our planet cried out to God, begging Him to interfere, as long as humans invited God into their lives, the Devil would lose ground. Wherever mankind prayed in repentance, angels from God would be sent. The Devil had to watch angels from heaven interfering and hindering plots he made. Prayers are therefore regarded by Satan as a weapon in the warfare against him and he wants to hinder it.
Not only does God send angels to hinder the Devils plans, but angels he knew from when he had a leading role in heaven. Angels that had rejected him and chosen to remain loyal to God. The angels that had joined Satan and the angels sent from heaven had once been part of the same kingdom and known each other. Now they were on two sides of a war. I think few comprehend the great tension that exists between the angels and between Satan and Gods angels. Satan and the angels that followed him had lost the battle with Christ and His angels in heaven (Rev.13,7-9). Now mankind was in the middle of this invisible war and anger (Rev.12,12). The Devil was constantly reminded that he was ruling on this planet on borrowed time and that he would soon be judged. He knew he was going to lose, all he could do now was to create as many problems as possible and hinder salvation for as many people as possible. The annoyance with all these people calling for God to interfere was, therefore, an ugly stench in his nose and he wanted to stop them. The less of them, the more power he would have here on earth. “And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them” (Rev.13,7) God let both Satan and his angels show their true colors. The saints that died, God knew they were safe and would be resurrected again. In many ways, the sleep was a blessing from the constant attack from the devil. He even says about the most worst time of tribulation for God’s people: “Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.” (Rev.14,13) God would revenge their blood in His time: “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled” (Rev 6:9 -11) .

The more people that prayed and called for God the more God would bring His presence to help those who wanted God has their ruler. Every prayer was a hindrance to Satans plan.

The new Adam
Had Adam, made to have dominion on earth, brought his earthly kingdom under the Devils rule by defying God and subjecting to the enemy? A new man with rights to the planet would turn the tables.
When Jesus came to earth reincarnated as a man and a descendant of Adam, the Devil tried to tempt him. The Devil presented himself to Christ as the owner of planet earth, and he offer to give Him everything on one condition.

If only Christ would worship him (Mat.4:9). The Devil was willing to give up on his claim on everything only for an acknowledgment from Christ. In that way, the Devil was ready to leave his claim to the kingdom if he could be glorified by his maker as an equal to God in return. Would not Jesus think it worth it?

Had He not left heaven and His divine nature to come and save mankind? Jesus was going to win back his lost children, but not by betraying His father and God’s law. He would never agree to break God’s law. And He would not give a single excuse for the existence of sin. Sin is never right no matter what can be gained by it. Often sin can appear justified or needed in certain situations, but this is a deception. Jesus said: “Which of you convinceth me of sin?” (Joh.8,46) If there excist one single excuse to sin it means God’s law is flawed. God claims it’s not. “The law of the LORD is perfect” (Psalm.19,7)
The devil had no right on any of his accusations. And the state of the earth that he had been playing ruler over was a witness against his ideas of how to govern.
Had Jesus accepted the Devils proposal Christ would have broken God’s law and become a lawbreaker or a sinner (1Jn.3:4) He would have to rule over the earth as a rebellion with His enemy. Naturally, Christ declined. He had His own plan to win back man, and He would not sin to get there.

Christianity’s influence after Christ death and resurrection was powerful. No matter how many were slain the movement still grew. Mankind was feeling love for God in heaven who had made such a great sacrifice to win them back and save them. The One who had been one in nature and spirit with God was now in nature become one with man and only one with God spiritually. A bigger sacrifice was made then most are aware. But man could understand part of the sacrifice.
God had not abandoned them. And He wasn’t that unfair, selfish ruler the Devil had made Him out to be. He was a loving Father wanting to save His disobedient children on earth out of love for each and every one of them. The Devil had offered mankind alternative religions to satisfy their needs and to fill that void created after leaving their Creator and pushing out His spirit. But man was no longer satisfied with these empty religions. Here was something greater. Instead of power hungry selfish and unfair gods, they saw God’s beauty that the devil had worked so hard to hide from man with all his lies. The light could not easily be distinguished. The Devil was forced to change tactics in order to remain his position as a ruler among man. He took the truth and twisted it to his advantage. If they wanted Christ dying on the cross for them, they would get that. Only different Christ. The devil would give them Christ the opponent to God’s law, a Christ that had come to destroy God’s law admitting it wasn’t good for man. A Christ that would die to save them from having to be obedient to God’s law. It was the devil who wanted to free man and angels from God’s laws, the new Christ was really just himself and his agenda in a new name. In his mind he was the one who had sacrificed for his rebellion, he was the scapegoat. If anyone should be worshiped it was him. The alternative Christ was none under the devil and his agenda disguised. The persecution against Christian halted and a new Christianity emerged from “the sea” (Rev.13,4). The devil had used Rome to attack God’s people only to see them grow in number. The dragon now gave his power to a new beastly system, Christianity and state together. If he could not do away with Christianity he was then going to be its leader and lawmaker.

He told people they could believe in Christ, He couldn’t prevent that, but that the law of God was done away with at the cross. That the church that the devil was now controlling were the ones to make the new laws for God’s people. He explained that God had done away with His law for people on earth and that they would now be saved even if they were broken. If you broke the church regulation however, God would punish you. The church now represented God’s authority and not God’s law. By using force and state power while persecuting and chasing away anyone who objected he soon became the leading Christian power on earth. And man accepted the lies. “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him» (Rev.13,8)

The lie resembled the one he once told Eve that started sin on earth. He told her she could defy God’s authority and still live. If Eve thought she was really going to die when eating that fruit she would never have eaten it. The power of the serpent’s deception was making her believe she was safe while violating God’s authority. Satan made her believe she would be elevated like God and not die as God had said.
The same lie has been told through the name of Christianity today. The devil offers mankind salvation through the blood of Christ, that they will not die but live, even though they continue to break God’s law.
If the devil could persuade man to continue to reject God’s law, only now in Christ name, he would remain their ruler. He would remain “prince of this world”. As mentioned at the beginning of this article “The first thing we must understand in regards to power is that it is all about who gets to decide the ideology, moral and laws of a land”. If you need to put the name “Jesus” to Satans ideology in order to follow him, he accepts that. Jesus repeatedly told about the future that there would be preachers preaching in His name while advocating freedom from God’s laws and that they were deceivers (Matt.7,21-23) He said there would be deceivers using His name: “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.» (Mar 13:6) Even people using His name to persecute Christ real disciples “But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me» (Joh_15:21 ). We were warned that the devil and his allies would pretend to be Christ workers: «For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.» (2Co 11:13-14)
So people claiming to represent Christ, and even claiming to be Christ, how then could anyone know who the real Christ is and who His real followers are. The clue to distinguish was simple. Christ said that we would know them by their fruits, and He ends His warning that if they work for iniquity a word that comes from the Greek to be «free from the law» it is the sign that it’s the false workers and the false gospel. (Mat 7:15-23) John, the apostle Christ loved, said the same thing having learned this important fact from Christ Himself (1Jn 2:3).
The real Jesus is obedient to God’s law (John.15,10) and so is His followers, or else they are not following His lead. The false Christ’s is the one promoting lawlessness from God’s law.

If God’s law is done away with, then God is no longer a ruler on earth. He cannot judge, He has no principles to judge by. If God’s law is absent, the Devil’s law can take its place. The Devils law is clear, “do what you want”, as long as you don’t follow God’s authority as ruler and as long as you don’t interfere with his plans.
Unable to beat the Christian movement, the Devil went as far up to it as he possibly could be by presenting a similar law and faith. There was no other way to deceive but to lie as close to the truth as possible. Only his alterations would serve his interests. He only replaced and removed the laws that interfered with his purpose and agenda. He knew all he needed was man to defy God where God Himself asks for loyalty as a sign of man’s submission to Him as the lawmaker. God does this in the fourth commandment of the ten commandment law which is why the Devil has through his church agencies changed this commandment, or done away with it. The sign of loyalty to the Creator is the very command the Devil attack more than the others. That is why the Sabbath has been such a heated subject for the past 6000 years. The breaking of it was partly what lead to Israel’s captivity (Neh 13:17-18; Isa_58:13; Jer 17:21-25 & 27; Eze_20:13 ; Eze_20:16 ; Eze_20:21 ; Eze_22:26; Eze_23:38).
Even the Pharisees and Scribes distorted the command by changing the requirements to fit their own laws, then later the church changing the day to another day. Disposing Gods sabbath commandment for Sunday. Many protestants reject the Sabbath altogether. The Devil through his “workers of righteousness”, through his appearance as “an angel of light”, through claiming to be “Christ” or been sent in “Christ name” has changed the one command that was to illustrate loyalty to the Creator of the Universe and the acceptance of Him as the rightful king on earth.

But the kingdom of Satan is an illusion. He claimed the descendants of Adam had given him the right to rule by election, by choosing him when they followed his lead. Not one man hadn’t sinned and so all men were his subjects. God would destroy also this argument of ownership.
When Christ was born in human flesh He became part of the human race. And His followers, by choosing an alliance with God through Christ obedience, became part of God’s family. That is why the Antichrist denies Christ came in flesh, that He genetically became human. The devil refuses that man have chosen a new ruler through Christ, he calls Jesus a cheater or that He didn’t really become human like us. This because it destroys his original argument and claim (1Jn_2:22, 1Jn 4:3) Christ became the second Adam, the new human father turning the scepter back to God who in return gives it back to Jesus. (1Co 15:21-22; 1Co_15:45)

If Jesus, born genetically as a human denies sin in the flesh, there is a human that has rejected Satan’s rule. And when he refused to worship the

devil in the wilderness He also became the first man on earth since the fall to reject the devil and his rules completely. When God gave Christ the kingship, Christ pronounced that His followers were to inherit the earth (Mat 5:5, Rev 22:14) Paradise would be restored to man through Christ merrits.

God had never accepted the devils claim on earth. He had created the planet, He was still rightfully owner of it. And He felt responsible for what happened to it. God could have let the earth, separated from the rest of the universe and planets, follow its course of evil alone until it self destructs. As long as the rest of the beings on other planets and in the heavens were faithful and a border made sure no one from earth came to them, they would still enjoy paradise. He could let the earth continue with its master the devil alone till no one was left until nature perished and humans became instinct. But God would not abandon as long as there was hope. He loved every human being and wanted to save and offer life to as many as possible. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life» (Joh 3:16).

God could destroy the devil and all the angels that followed him instantly or at any time. But sin wasn’t just in them but in mankind. In many instances, humans were even eviler than some of the angels following Satan. God didn’t want a kingdom of force, forced praise, forced obedience, forced alliance to Him. Even though He could have done it that way, He didn’t. He has no pleasure in false worship (Jer.7:9, Isa 1:13, Luk.6:46)
He created humans with a free will for a reason, He wanted them to give their hearts and alliance to Him out of love and respect. There is no other way to worship in God’s eyes. The heart has to be willing, the mind in agreement, for it to be true worship. God’s kingdom is built on love, not suppression. This is the reason God chose the method He chose. Rather taking over the planet from Satan immediately, He first wanted to reach people’s heart and speak to them and persuade them through His spirit to come “home” to Him. Those who wanted to leave the devils lawlessness society from God’s theocracy and go back to God, would by the blood and righteousness of Christ be pardoned, and in the end, they would inherit the earth.
God would restore the earth into its original beautiful state as it were before sin had taken its toll on animal and plant life (Rev. ch.21). The planet would again be under God’s jurisdiction with inhabitants that loved God and willingly placed their thrones before His feed in rejoice and praise.
God’s plan was never to abandon the planet or leave it in the hands of it’s elected master. He would not give up on man without offering them another chance or a hope (Gen.3,15). Jesus said about the devil, that he was a liar and had lied since the beginning. That he was a murder. “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it» (Joh.8,44) No matter how sincere the devil presents his case to the human heart, most of what he claims and says is a lie about his own role, his own character and about God. He is a murderer that did not fear to kill even the Lord that had created him when he pushed his human followers to crucify Christ. Christ was according to John 1,3: «All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.» That makes his hands the same hands to brought Satan to life. Now weak come in flesh to save the human race the devil had them pierce those very hands and nail them to a cross. The disrespect, the pure hatred was visible to everyone. He knew he would not win, he killed for the sake of his hatred alone. He had the Roman soldiers mock Christ as ruler.
Proving to be the worst murderer there is, the created being killing his own maker. But the Father would resurrect Him and restore Him. The devil would loose. The ruler he had mocked will one day come in a crown, not made of thorns, but in majesty (Rev 14:14, Mat.24:27). And the Devil would have to take his punishment (Rev 20:2-3)
The battle is so intense that Christ coming is hidden from everyone so that God can have the full advantage when He comes to judge. “And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye, therefore, ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not” (Luk 12:39-40).

Jesus will bind Satan and confine him even more. For a thousand years he will have time to think of not only his actions but also the hurt and suffering caused by his love for self and power. Yet God predicts, he will not learn from his confinement. After the 1000 years of his prison sentence, he decides to go to physical war against Christ once again, just like he did in heaven. (Rev 20:7-10; Rev.12,7-8) God’s long-suffering and patience with sinners have been indisputable. It reveals itself to the very point that the final execution of the Devil and his followers happens as they attack God’s city in open warfare (Rev 20:8-9). Even the execution of God’s last judgment is made in self-defense. Either God has to give Satan the power or He has to eliminate him. The devil has left him with no other choice. He has proven he and those that believe him, will never stop, never change, even when knowing the truth of their own actions and the consequences of them. And they will never live in peace but always attack God’s people as they do again in this final battle.

Why would an all-powerful God not just take over the earth at once, why all this drama? It’s tied to God’s moral compass as a ruler. He would not rule on earth over unwilling participants. Unlike many earthly rulers, God has no pleasure and sees no future in forcing man to submission in order to glorify Himself or win an argument. God’s worlds are not constructed that way. There is no paradise where there are pain and unhappy inhabitants, there is no freedom where people are forced to act against their conscience for the sake of not losing their lives. God’s paradise cannot exist with forced submission. (Rev 21:4) In God’s kingdom the “wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them” (Isa.11,6) Before sin the Lord Himself walked on earth and was friends with man (Gen 3:8-9). He was not invisible to them nor will He be in the future. This is why God, in order to re-establish His kingdom on earth, has to choose another method then just forcing all humans and angels into submission.

Although man had at first chosen to listen to Satan they had because they were deceived and had been lead astray about the Creator and His character. The Devil had described God with his own attributes and motives, his own faulty rule. The misery here on earth caused by the Devils rule was pinned upon God and the Devil made everyone thing He was the one to be blamed for it and that it was the result of God’s govern.
In addition; The Devil also made sure to create what is later popularly called “false flags“. In order to get man to rebel against God and join him in his attacks against him he is not a stranger to the method of destroying and causing additional misery just to point the finger towards God as the one to blame. Making religious people attack others in Gods-name is a common way of achieving anger towards God. Making catastrophes and disasters and then blaming God. “False flags” has been used by many governments in order to win the public over on their side in attacking their chosen enemy. The Devil also uses these tactics.

God was trying to win people over by giving them knowledge, the truth, and not by force. Jesus said the “truth will set you free” (Joh.8:32) But God also said that it was up to man to love the truth when they heard it as it would not be forced upon them. If they loved not the truth they would willingly or unknowingly choose to be deceived because they had more pleasure in the deception. “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them, that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved» (2Th_2:10). They were not forced to believe the lie, but when presented with both the truth and the lie they themselves chose to believe the lie.
So even being deceived was a matter of choice. God would never let the world be without knowledge of the truth or at least a path that lead to the truth. Jesus would be the light in the darkness to lead them. He said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (Joh.14,6). If they wanted to know who God really was they had to behold Him “he that hath seen me hath seen the Father” (Joh.14,9) “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” (Joh.8,12)

The fake gospel of lawlessness or that man now could make their own religious laws, was made to serve the Devils agenda to continue to rule on this planet. It’s false gospel the Devil created by transferring himself into “an angel of light” and his angels into “workers of righteousness”. It’s Satan that makes religious laws from the throne in the Vatican. The Pope claims to rule in Christ name, but his fruit is defiance to God’s original laws and presenting a changed law that step on God’s authority. The Pope even denies what God states in the fourth commandment, the fact that He created the world in six days. The papal system has agreed with the theory of evolution. The papal power is the first Beast mentioned in Revelation 13. This church-deception worked for a long time during the middle ages as Satan used them to rid himself of the real Christians who remained loyal to God’s law. His success was tied to people not having access to the source of the real gospel as found in the Scripture. This so-called Christian power claimed it was for the best that people were not allowed to have their own copies of the Bible, and owning one or even pages of one was severally punished. Many had to risk their own lives by smuggling Bibles in order to share the truth with others.

The Devil first tried to hinder people from having the Bible. In Christ name, the Devil systematically fought those who translated and spread the Bible. People like Wycliffe, Tyndale, Hus, Zwingli, Luther and many others translated the Bible to local languages while the Church did everything to stop them. Cursing them, condemning them and even killing some of them. He did it through the Catholic church. But as Christians started reading the Bible and ridding themselves of their loyalty to false religious teachers, the devil was forced to use the Bible to legitimize his lies.
Twisting the words of Paul so it seemed like he preached the law was done away with at the cross (2Pe 3:15-16). Paul, however, did never fight against God’s law or claim it made void (Rom_3:31, Rom_7:12, 1Ti_1:8)
His teaching was of a different nature. He did explain that the ritual services involving sacrifices were replaced with Christ sacrifice (Book of Hebrews). He also explained that keeping the law could not do away with our past transgressions or undo having first broken it (Gal_2:21). If man could obtain righteousness, have their sins blotted out, by either keeping the law or sacrificing an animal in the temple then Christ suffered in vain. Paul explains there was no other way to deliver us from our sins than through Christ sacrifice. That it was a false religion that indicated that good deeds can blot away bad ones. The record against our sins would remain even if we turned and lived a life in righteousness. The law required the perpetrator’s death and it could not be undone. And only by Christ dying in our place could these transgressions be blotted out.
His writings were important, even more in his time, as the understanding of Christ dying on the cross for our sins was new then. Up until then, people had tried to undo bad deeds by doing good deeds. Even the Jewish nation did. Even the worst rules wanted to redeem themselves by doing good deeds in front of the people. A yin yang mentality, that there was always something good in the bad and something bad in the good. But God would not accept that, He would not excuse sin because of good deeds. Would you really care if the man who stole your child helped old people in the local nursing home? Would you acquit him? What courtroom with respect for itself and the victims would ask to see a list of the criminal’s good records to evaluate if he should be punished for his recent crime? Neither does God.
This mentality had to change. No one could believe the lie that they could be saved even if they rejected Christ, just by being good. Would they not accept Christ taking their penalty upon Himself they would themselves one day have to take it. Paul however never suggested that although pardon could only be given through Christ blood and faith in Him, that we were through the same blood was permitted to lawfully break God’s law.
That was never his claim. The law and the need for man to turn to God was still as important as before. “God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?» (Rom 6:2) Jesus said if we continue in sin we are its servant. «Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin» (Joh 8:34) Jesus was clear after forgiving His trespassers to not continue in sin: «And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more» (Joh_8:11), «Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee» (Joh_5:14).
But the law was nothing without the atoning sacrifice of Christ as it could not save anyone in itself. We would just be converted people waiting for a death sentence.
Paul also discussed how keeping the law out of obligation and fear would just lead to sin and that keeping it by love and with our hearts was the only way the law could be kept (Heb.8,10) It was this mistake the Jewish nation had done and distorted God’s law and character in the law (Rom 9:31-32). They had proclaimed to be keepers of the law and its true representatives, but when the law was made flesh they did not know Him (Joh.1). When the living law in flesh was in front of them, they hated it. How could they love God’s law and reject and even hate the manifestation of it through Christ? Because they never kept it the way it was supposed to. Bible says the leaders “How can you say, “We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD,” when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely?” (Jer.8,8).
Paul discussed many things connected to the law and the principles of it, how to keep it. And he always addressed the important issue that once we had been freed by Christ we should not go back to our sins and continue in them. This is just another way of saying we still have to respect the law even though we have been acquitted from past transgressions.

The enemy of God used people in the name of Christ to twist Christ mission and the writings of Paul to create a false gospel. A gospel that was to ensure people were still in rebellion against God’s law after converting and therefore still in conflict with Him.

This deception will reach it’s climax when Christians all over the world will come together and get the state to make a law that makes God’s fourth commandment of none effect and that replaces it with the commandments of men. It’s no coincidence that the devil picked the very one commandment that states that God is the Creator and therefore has the right to make laws on earth. The very commandment that provokes the devils claim. If he can get even those who claim to follow Christ to step on the one commandment that God wrote was to show man subjected to Him as their supreme authority, he will have succeeded in stealing God’s authority over His people. This way the devil will continue to make the claim that because man rather listens to him than God he is their rightful leader.

But the Bible is clear. God’s true people will remain loyal to Him and to His command. The only ones who will not follow these laws are described as those who “have the commandment of God and the faith of Jesus”. (Rev.14,12) The same people that God said will one day inherit the earth, and rebellion will finally be over when Christ comes in the clouds to claim His people and punish the devil and his followers.

Don’t believe the devils “Christian-named” lie. God’s law isn’t, never was, and according to Jesus never will be “done away with”. Only by respecting God’s law will you be listed as an allay in the heavenly books. And even if you are priest, pastor, Christian and you preach the law is no longer binding, you will perish with the pagan, the idolatry, the rich and the poor. “And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. … because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.» (Isa 24:2&5)
Pray to today that if the devil has made you believe this lie, that you can break God’s law in the name of Christ, pray for healing and for Him to“anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.» (Rev.3,18) Ask the Lord Jesus to remove the fake gospel from your heart and replace it with the real one.

Turn therefore from your rebellion, and return to God’s govern. And He will save you and pardon your past transgressions through the blood of Christ.
“Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts» (Heb.4,7).

What Is The National Sunday Law the Angel spoke of?

By

tam

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25/04/2019

1

The angels in the chamber guarding the Ark of The Covenant told Ron Wyatt that the tables of stone would be shown to the world after a national Sunday law is legislated. Why does God choose this time and why would He be against a national Sunday law?

Sunday are for many people a day to the glory of God and Christ resurrection. That God may be strongly against a law like this seem therefore strange and to not make any sense. It might even seem not Christ-like.
The only ones who have warned against such a coming law are the Seventh Day Adventist church, who have claimed the enforcement of a Sunday law is what the book of Revelation call “the Mark of the Beast”. To most Christians, the mark of the beast is a computer chip or something related.

God choosing a man, who believes the national Sunday law is the Mark of the Beast, to find the Ark and prepare the world for it to be shown, have some puzzled. Ron also told that the angels protecting the Ark confirmed this to be the last end time conflict that will cause God to show the ten commandments, and this has also caused many to take offense.

Part of the reasons the meaning is not understood and seem so far out there is because of all the false ideas that have been introduced to evangelical churches for a long time.
The idea that God’s law is no longer valid after the cross.
Spite Christ saying nothing would be done away with, that He came to represent God’s law and teaching and not His own law and teaching, and that all the apostles say that obedience to God is still a thing, many Christians reject the validity of God’s law based on the writings of Paul alone (Matt.5,17-19; Joh_5:43; Joh 8:28, John 5:30; John 7:16, Joh_15:10; Mar_10:19; Act_5:32; Mat_28:20).
Peter in one of his letters urges people to not misunderstand Paul. He warns: “And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you; As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.» (2Pe 3:15-16)
That’s right, Paul is the only writer in the Bible that the Bible itself warns us against misunderstanding. Misunderstand this one Biblical writer and we might be lead into destruction. That also means that churches, pastors and priests that misguide their congregations in regards to the writings of Paul can end up leading their congregations to destruction. That is very serious. And, according to Peter, this misinterpretation has been going on from his time. Peter explained that it was the “unlearned”, who was the new heathen believers, that didn’t have knowledge in the Scripture and the law.
Christian people all over the world continue to speak against God’s law as it were evil with what they think is support from Paul. Paul has become to them the new lawgiver, the one who has started a new religious direction free from the practices even Jesus followed.
Paul himself said who was behind the future movement that was to twist all his words: “For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.
Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them» (Act 20:29-30).
But as you might say, most people agree that God’s moral law is still valid. That’s right, they only claim it’s done away with if you mentioned the fourth commandment, the Sabbath. Evangelicals and even Catholics will accept ‘God’s law’ if they can be free to disregard the Sabbath for the sake of their own church ordained sabbath. Basically, the Sabbath is the conflict-area of the law. The one command in the ten commandments they have an issue with.
Some think God only abolished the fourth commandment. It’s logic to say that Christ, on the cross, didn’t abolish the law against stealing, witnessing falsely, worshipping other gods or even killing. Their problem is the Seventh-day Sabbath. Not a Sabbath, as they eagerly want to protect Sunday as a sabbath seeing the need for having a day set aside for worship and rest, just not the Biblical Sabbath. The movements wanting to legalize Sunday-sabbath, by their actions and arguments, they show that they agree with the need of the fourth commandment. They understand the point of it, they even want it as law just like God placed it in His law. Their action speaks against the idea that God would regard a sabbath as no longer important along with the other commandments. Yet they refuse to keep the commandment and sabbath God ordained. They will only keep the one the church ordained. The logic against God’s fourth commandment sabbath is therefore strange, to say the least. So why is a sabbath important, but not the Sabbath of the Bible?
To many Christians, the biblical Sabbath represents legalism, the old covenant, and many even seem to think we hurt Christ if we observe this commandment. Preachers have over and over again imprinted this message to their followers, that the Sabbath commandment is competition to being saved by faith. That we reject salvation through faith, and reject Christ, by keeping it. The result is that many feel they betray Christ if they try to keep the Biblical Sabbath over the Sunday-sabbath ordained by the church. They picture Christ turning their back on them in disappointment. That breaking the fourth commandment even makes Jesus happy. The biblical Sabbath and Jesus have become enemies. Where did they get this strange idea and thoughts? That the law made flesh, yes the sabbath made flesh, is against Himself? The idea that we reject faith by keeping the biblical sabbath comes from preachers who are using the writings of Paul as support. That is how they interpret him, they think he supports this view.
The strange thing then is that Paul himself both taught Jews and heathens on the Sabbath and not one single place does he speak against the Sabbath commandment. Peter explained: “they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.” What is to be unlearned? In worldly wisdom? Paul says: “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” Jesus says there is no spiritual truth found in worldly wisdom: “the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive” (1.Cor.3,19; Joh.14,17) The unlearned Peter talks of is those unlearned in the law of God and of the prophets. They don’t know the difference between the ritual laws and the moral laws, they don’t understand the meaning of the laws. The prophet, even to the last one, warned that whosoever came and didn’t speak in harmony with the law was a deceiver and not sent by God (Mal_2:7). If Jesus abolished the law, if Paul really meant God’s moral law and Sabbath was done away with, then they were both what the law and the prophets warned against as deceivers. And because of this teaching by so many Christians, Jews view Christianity as a deception just like they have been taught by their prophets. What they don’t know is that this teaching against God’s law doesn’t come from the words of Christ, but by twisting the words of Paul.
Some say the Sabbath was only meant for the Jews. John the Baptist said God could create Jews from stones, Jesus said we are a descendant of whom we obey, and Paul said that the real Jew is he who has the law in his heart (Matt 3:9, Joh 8:39, Rom 2:28-29). Paul also said: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal 3:29 And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal 3:28-29). Paul said we graffed in on the tree with the Jews, not made into a separate tree. There are not two trees. The believer becomes part of Israel (Rom.11,17).
Not just Christians have separated the fourth-commandment sabbath from Christians, but Jews have as well. They claim only Jews should keep the biblical Sabbath. If you are pagan and a convert to Judaism you have to keep the Sabbath. But if you believe in Jesus, you are not allowed. Even they confess it’s not about if you have a heathen background, it’s about you accepting Judaism without Christ. Keep Christ and you don’t get to keep Sabbath. So many Christians and Jews alike claim the Sabbath and Christ does not belong together. An absurd view for a true Bible believer who believes Christ was the law manifested, meaning He was also the sabbath manifested. Jesus is the Sabbath made flesh (Joh 1:14)
So why are people so determined to attack the Sabbath and separate it from Christ? What is going on?

The resistance against the ten commandments is mostly directed at one single commandment, the Sabbath commandment. The Christians have made their own Sabbath commandment in honor of Christ, the Sunday, in its place. The biblical Sabbath is often used as a shopping day, everything that the command forbids. It’s used as a preparation day for the Sunday-sabbath. Even a cleaning day. God’s Sabbath commandment has become the servant of the Sunday-sabbath law. But shouldn’t God just be satisfied that man keep one day as Sabbath? So they didn’t pick the day He sanctified at creation and wrote with His own finger on the tables of stone, the one Christ Himself sanctified when He was here on earth, shouldn’t God just accept that His people on earth just thought another day would be more fit? Does it really matter? Can’t God just agree to change it to the Sabbath man have ordained instead? Why pick a fight with His followers on earth over a sabbath day? Why does God say: “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips (Psa_89:34 ) ?” Why does Jesus claim not “one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law”? Isn’t God being a bit difficult, can’t He meet mankind in the middle?
We who live here on earth, why can’t we have a say in what the Sabbath should be, wasn’t the Sabbath made for our sake?
But the question can be reversed. Why, when we see the need of a sabbath, can’t we just pick the one God ordained, the one God sanctified. The one God says is a sign of His relationship with us? Why can’t we just let Him have His Sabbath? Why do we feel the need to change God’s law, transfer the holiness from one day to another if God is not glorified by it? Is not God perfect? Is not His law perfect? Is the law only perfect if man’s hand get to write the fourth commandment with their own finger? Do we not trust God knows what is best? The bottom line is this, if we can change or abolish one single of God’s commandments, we place ourselves above God. That is right, the act is to elevate ourselves above the lawgiver. The one who makes and maintain the law is the one in authority. If we can dismiss or change a law we ultimately have placed ourselves above God in authority. The angel speaking to the prophet Daniel confirms this: “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws” (Dan.7,25) Now this was the devil’s agenda from the very beginning: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north” (Isa 14:12-13)
God’s throne consisted of His law, the law is the foundation of His throne. And in that law is the Sabbath commandment, part of the foundation of God’s throne and authority. Lucifer convinced Eve that she could eat from the tree God forbade and become her own god. He was a liar. Today he tells this lie with the help of Christian preachers, that God doesn’t mind if you set His command to the side for the sake of your own. But anyone who does is rocking the foundation of God’s throne on heaven and on earth. The change of the Sabbath is considered a rebellion against God’s throne in the courts of heaven. A rebellion against the law-giver, the supreme judge, the life-giver, the creator Himself. The Father that Christ sought to do the will of. Lucifer has given his traits to Jesus Christ and made Him a rebel against God’s law in the sense that He has convinced Christians that Jesus abolished God’s law. That because of Christ merits, you are free to break God’s laws or change them or even make your own. You have become your own god, your own lawgiver. This is the gospel of lawlessness that Paul and everyone warned against.

This is part of why the Sabbath-Sunday question has become the core of the conflict.
You see the Bible tells us God will only accept a repentant sinner, someone who agrees and confesses to having sinned. Who are sorry for having opposed God’s laws and by it sinned (1Jn.3:4). They are the ones who will take part in Christ atonement. The one who is still in opposition towards God and His laws will not have a part in the blood. The gospel that you will be saved by Christ sacrificed without acknowledging that the breaking of God’s law is sin, is a false and deceptive gospel.
Every sacrifice that was made had to be taken in front of the tabernacle and the throne with God’s law in order to be accepted as an atoning sacrifice (Leviticus chapters 1 to 4). This was because part of the sacrifice was to acknowledge the authority in God’s law. If the sacrifice was not brought before the law, it says the sacrifice will not save that person (Lev.17,1-9). Anyone asking for Christ atonement to be implemented to them who does not acknowledge the law, that doesn’t come before God’s throne containing the law repentant will have to bear their own sin. How great the deception that the devil has placed inside the churches. Millions think they have a part in the blood and worship God while still carrying their own sins. It’s the ultimate deception, a false sense of security.

Most Christians are in opposition to God’s law, they are not repentant. They refuse to acknowledge that they have sinned when broken the fourth commandment. Go try, tell an evangelical or protestant or even Catholic that they have sinned when breaking God’s original Sabbath, they will argue against. They agree all the other nine or eight is a sin, but they refuse that their breaking of the fourth, or having changed the fourth to Sunday, is a sin.
And so Christians might be in a huge dilemma. They might not get part in the atoning blood, because they refuse to acknowledge they have sinned against God.

Paul always added a confirmation that the law is valid to his speeches to make sure his meaning was not misunderstood: “But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully” (1Ti_1:8)
“Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” (Rom.7:12).
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Rom.3,31)
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” (Rom 6:1-2)

So to many Paul seem to say two contradicting things. But this is only by the help of Satans workers who have twisted his words. Pauls teaching is extremely important for the believer if understood in the right context. Paul never spoke against God’s law, if he did he would have been in conflict with both the prophets and Jesus and therefore a deceiver we ought not to listen to. Paul was a preacher, a man, he didn’t have the mandate to change God’s law or declare it abolished. No man has been given that authority, and if he did he would have placed himself over God. Paul was addressing multiple problems the early church faced. We will look at three of them.

The ritual laws continued in the Temple, could this still offer atonement? Should they take part? None of the moral laws, including the fourth commandment, was tied to sacrificial laws. In fact, Sabbath was instituted and made holy for the planet before there even was any sin (Gen.2,2-3). Sabbath wasn’t given as an atonement for sin. Paul was talking about the sacrificial laws that many clung to thinking it could bring them salvation, the sacrifice of animals. And although the action of sacrificing had been physical, it was now replaced with the faith in Christ sacrifice. In these instances, Paul never meant God’s moral law and the foundation of His throne was the problem. It was the sacrificial laws that were abolished by Christ sacrifice.
The moral law revealed what sin was. The sacrificial laws gave the remedy.
And so when Christ sacrificed Himself He gave the ultimate redemption. The law that was competing with Christ sacrifice was the sacrificial law, while the moral law was to lead people to Christ.
Paul also made the points that we cannot atone past sins by doing good deeds. Many people still think that way today. That if we outweigh the bad things we do with many good things, we have ourselves atoned for our bad deeds. Paul speaks greatly against such an idea. Every sin that we have committed is written in the books of heaven, and nothing we can do that is good, can blot away what we did that was bad. If it could, God would have provided man with an excuse to sin. We cannot kill one man and save another life and think we have nulled out our transgression. Many Jews and heathens did think this way in the time of Paul and even up until our own time. We feel guilty over things we have done but feel better if we do something good. This is another false sense of security. Paul made the argument that this philosophy was a sham and that the only thing that could blot out our past transgressions, no matter how good we now had become, was the blood sacrifice, the blood of Christ.
This included the ten commandments. We could not wipe away our past transgressions to this law by now keeping it. The only thing that comes out of keeping it was that we didn’t add sins to that book. But it couldn’t wipe away what was already in there. Only the blood of Christ could. This was Pauls point and argument, not that the law was done away with because God felt us trying to do what is right and obey Him was a rejection of Christ. What a strange assumption by those twisting Pauls words. But many are taught to read the bible that way and they only see in the text what they have been told to read into it.
Another point Paul was making in his letter was that even if we wanted to stop sinning and keep God’s moral law, why did we still fail over and over again? Every time we failed we came “under the law” again.
Yes, those unlearned who have twisted Pauls words claim being under the law is the horrible act of obeying God’s commandments. But Paul is saying being under the law means to be condemned by it because WE HAVE TRANSGRESSED IT. That means you are under the law when you break it not when you keep it. The devil has been so clever in changing the meaning to the opposite of its meaning. We are free from the law when we have given our sins to Christ and He has taken them upon the cross for our sake. But if we go back to our sinful ways, we become under the law again.
Now, this should not be hard to understand. If the logic of many evangelicals is right then the moment we turn to Christ we are now free to continue and sin as much as we want. For those who are in Christ cannot be condemned?
So I turned to Christ today and witness falsely tomorrow I’m still free right? No, I have to again go to Christ with my sin to be free. Many evangelicals think Paul is saying the opposite of what he is actually saying. Paul says that once Christ has freed us from our sins, we cannot go back and continue sinning without again coming in conflict with the law aka ‘under the law’. The Jews were under the law because they would not accept Christ, they had no atonement, the law witnessed against them. The Jews were under the law because they were lawbreakers without atonement as the sacrificial system no longer could provide them with atonement.
Paul argues that if we stay in Christ, in His spirit, we can live as He lived. We can be free and not continue to end up ‘under the law’. But to many, the idea of gaining victory over sin in our lives seemed impossible. If you had an abusive husband who kept beating you and asking for forgiveness, would you not eventually claim he had to stop the abuse in order for you to stay?
Even earthly judges don’t acquit people of crimes because they felt their bodies forced them to sin? Can a father who has raped his child claim his flesh is weak and therefore he should continue the abuse? Of course not. We humans except that when we do bad things we have to stop. We except no cause of “weakness” or “bodily dysfunctions” as a right to continue to abuse others. God demands the same. He demands that we change. Jesus came as our example to take away any excuse we might think we have for sinning. There is no excuse or “free-card” to sin in the Bible. So how does the repentant sinner, after giving his sin to Christ, stop doing his evil deeds?
How do we gain victory over the sin in our lives? Paul said over and over again that we couldn’t continue sinning with God’s blessing even though Christ had paid the penalty for our past sins. We needed to turn from our ways. In fact, every single book in the Bible tells us that God wants us to turn from our ways, to stop sinning, to stop doing that which is wrong. Find one single book that doesn’t give that same message.
If this is impossible, for someone to go from being a lawbreaker to a law-keeper why do they all, including Jesus, ask it of us? Would God ask and demand the impossible? Am I not forced by my body weakness to witness falsely about my friend causing him to be fired? Paul discusses how to practically turn from our ways. By legalism or by crucifying ourselves and living by faith? This was an important topic for Paul who wanted to see a transformation inside the churches, he wanted to see a victorious people representing that which is good. Not a house full of Baal worshippers, fornicators, liars and such.
I think most people understand that we cannot conquer sin in our lives if we are focused on our failures if we think we can do it in our own strength or when we struggle with disbelief. Faith was the key to victory. Faith in God’s love for us, faith in what He did for us. By beholding Christ and His sacrifice we would be healed from temptations. But trying to conquer sin by our own strength or relying on our own righteousness, would only lead us to fall again and again. To not have confidence in self but in Christ. This was the key to success and to not end up under the law again.
While if we gain victory over our sins by faith, by staying in Christ, we would not be ’under the law’ because we would no longer be condemned by it.
The miracle Paul describes in referring to God’s promise to those who would enter into a covenant with him is: “I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people” (Heb.8,10)

And so these three topics were important to Paul and he addressed them over and over again in all his letter. 1) Could atonement still be obtained by the ritual services, 2) Can good deeds atone for our bad deeds, 3) and how could we avoid falling in sin and by it again coming under its curse after Christ had freed us from our debts?

These valuable and incredible teachings were twisted. The devil’s workers claimed and infiltrated the early church and they started believing that Paul was trying to say we no longer needed to keep God’s law, further than that, that keeping God’s law was a rejection of Christ. That even keeping God’s law was evil. Only the serpent in the tree could make breaking God’s law seem like a good thing that would bring blessings.
Only the sacrificial rituals and the acceptance of an earthly high priest were a rejection of Christ, who is our only atonement and high priest working in the only temple of God, the tabernacle in heaven (Heb.8 & Revelation). God’s moral law was not the problem. The problem is and always was us rebelling against God’s authority.
It’s our sins, our breaking of the law, that is bad. Not the law. The law is the definition of righteousness.
Peter had said that those who twisted Pauls words were unlearned. They twist it to their own destruction, they twist Pauls meaning to speak against obedience to God’s law. What happens when we receive wisdom from God? “Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart” (Psa 119:34). That is the difference from being unlearned to being learned, we go from disobedience to obedience.

The Bible tells us repeatedly that the law is good and righteous. It says Christ obeyed the law, that was His righteousness. And so if God’s law is flawed we are basically calling Christ righteousness flawed. Any attack we make on God’s law is an attack on Christ. Christ is the law manifested. If we say the law is the cause of evil, we really say Christ is the cause of evil. If we say being obedient to the law leads to perdition, we actually say obedience to Christ and His example leads to perdition.

So when the devil created a gospel saying part of the law is flawed or not for the new covenant, or that it needs to be changed or that it can be violated, he is fooling millions upon millions of Christians into a false sense of security. They are deceived and the risk is what Peter said: «unto their own destruction». According to Revelation, all the world will be judged according to God’s law. ( Rev.11,18-19; 15,5 & 8 ) To be found preaching against it, teaching against the observance of it, or to have changed parts of it, will be considered rebellion against the Creator at Christ second coming, and because there has been no repentance only defiance, Christ blood will not cover their sins. The sacrifice was not brought to the tabernacle, the blood will come upon themselves (Lev.17)
“The false prophet” mentioned in Revelation that works together with the beast and the devil himself is by many Christians today claimed to be Mohammed or Islam. The devil has given them a scapegoat. But it is themselves. They are the false prophet. In the Bible, a false prophet arises among God’s congregation and his message is always the same, that you have not sinned and that you need not turn from your ways. That God will protect you regardless, that Jerusalem will not fall.
The real prophet is always the one who tells them they have sinned, who tells them they have to stop sinning and turn to God or they will be lost. Go read through the bible chapter after chapter.
The Christian movement that says God will save you even though you have changed and abolished his law IS THE FALSE PROPHET. But some will say, but look at all the miracles in Christ name they performing? Isn’t it a sign they are telling the truth? “And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Rev.19:20). “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.” (Rev.16,13) “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also are transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2Co 11:14-15).
In the end time, Christians are their own worst enemy.

The Sunday Law
The Sunday law is in the middle of the conflict because it addresses the biggest attack those who claim to serve God has done towards God. One of the biggest crimes.
The Sabbath commandment is founded alone on the fact that God is the Creator and lawgiver. Meaning the only reason God could make the Sabbath commandment was because of His identity. When man changes this very commandment they are rebelling against God’s authority as Creator and law-maker. They are attacking the foundation of God’s throne, against His Kingship over the earth.
When other Biblical characters did this, replaced God’s command with their own while saying their own is to God’s glory, God has rejected them and their worship (1Sa_15:21-22; 1Ki 12:32-33 & 1Ki_16:19; Mat 7:22-23, Isa_1:15).
The devil knows this, that is why, not being able to keep people from being attracted to Christ, instead of turning people against the gospel, he twisted it so that mankind would think they were worshiping God while he knew God was rejecting their worship because it had rebellion in it.

God said He had created the earth and that the earth belonged to Him. And because of this, we should respect His Sabbath commandment. When the world joins together in Sunday-legislation God see this has a co-joined final rebellion against His authority. If the Creator doesn’t get to set the rules for His worship, but man set up a competing rule of worship that places man above the creator as a law-giver, He has to let people know the truth. That it’s all a lie. A lie they think is going to save them all.

Sunday is the sacrifice of Cain
Sunday-legislation is the sacrifice of Cain. It’s said to be done to God’s glory, but God has no pleasure in it. “Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. …But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect.» (Gen.4,3 & 5)
The moment Sunday is legislated on a massive scale and God has revealed His law and enlightened mankind that only His law is valid worship of Him and that Sunday is an imposter-worship day, and mankind still choose their own rules of worship, they have received the Mark of the Beast.
The ’beast’ represents worldly authority, the authority of man, and the mark is our actions that are in favor of the worldly authority. Man chooses the laws of man above the laws of God. To follow the authority of human governments above God’s law and government.
So why do people think it’s a chip? This is a distraction. The book of Revelation is full of symbolic language explained in the Old Testament. The mark on the hand and head is explained in the books of Moses where these two places were where God’s people were to remember the importance of keeping the law of God. The forhead and hand were to mark God’s authority (Deu.6:6&8; Exo.13:9). When an alternative mark by another rule is placed the same places symbolically, it means the law of God that was supposed to be there has been replaced with the mark of the beast. The authority of God is replaced with the authority of a worldly government. God’s law is violated.

Jesus knew of the attack against the Sabbath that He was the protector of. When the disciples asked about the end of the world Jesus mixed the story of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD with the His second coming.

“But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day» (Mat 24:20)
Yes, Jesus was speaking about the importance of keeping the Sabbath holy even 40 years after His departure. By making this statement Jesus shows that nothing has changed in regards to His sabbath’s sacredness. It was still to be held in such great regard that even in a situation where they had to flee for their lives they should pray in advance that they don’t end up fleeing on the Sabbath and thus feel forced to break it. They were to pray to not end in a situation where they had to either save their lives and break the Sabbath, or keep it holy and maybe be caught by the enemy. Jesus was smart enough to mention this about Jerusalems destruction, placing His expectation for them to continue to keep the Sabbath holy long after the apostle meeting mentioned in the book of Acts and after Pauls letter to the churches. The time for this command comes after all of these letters. In case anyone would have misunderstood up until that point, Christ cleared it up by forseeing the future and proclaiming the Sabbath was still to be regarded holy even after Paul died. Christ authority in the Sabbath was to still be regarded even at the time after the apostles meeting and Paul letters. You know, just in case you had misunderstood Paul, Jesus cleared it up for you. His Sabbath was still valid.

By mixing the two events, the destruction of Jerusalem and Christ second coming, Jesus doesn’t just remind people to respect this commandment 40 years after His resurrection but He builds a bond from 70 AD to His second coming saying the Sabbath is still to be respected and is valid until He comes back. Jesus, once again, defends the Sabbath.

,When Jesus spoke of the destruction of Jerusalem He said one thing was a sign to His people to flee: “When ye, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place…”
This was Rome when they did the siege on Jerusalem. What defines something as holy?
God has declared that also His Sabbath is holy (Gen 2:3, Exo.20,11). Stepping on the Sabbath is also stepping on a holy place. The Bible teaches us that nothing can become holy unless the Holy One, God Himself, consecrate it. Holiness belongs to God alone and everything that is connected to Him. Nothing can be made holy or even unholy outside of God. Man cannot make anything holy by the Biblical standard of the term. “Holy days” and other such terms are therefore a claim of God’s consecration without the consecration. Man was not allowed to think they had the power to make anything holy by their own standard. The command was therefore important: “And that ye may put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean” (Lev 10:10) The difference between the creation of God and the creation of man was what separated something as holy and unholy. But God’s people failed to understand this over the course of time, leading even to God rejecting Jerusalem: “Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them” (Eze_22:26).
Yes God says He is PROFANED among His people when they hide their eyes from His sabbath. He is profaned! Synonyms for profaned? God is mocked, God is scorned, God is blasphemed, God is trashed!
The Sabbath is according to God holy. The Sunday-sabbath is not as it was never consecrated by God but by man. The problem with the Sunday-law is that it will ultimately lead to the stepping on God’s Sabbath, on God’s holy place. The warning Jesus gives when he mixes the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world is that it is a crime to step on God’s holy places and this is a sign to God’s people to withdraw and escape from whoever does this. When the beast and the false prophet steps on God’s Sabbath, elevating their own Sunday-sabbath in its place and wants to enforce it to everyone so that everyone will feel pressured for economical reasons to do so, they are stepping on holy ground. God is profaned among them.

So why was Christ seemingly violating the Sabbath according to the Pharisees? Didn’t Jesus show indifference and even annoyance to the Sabbath commandment? This is another twisting of the events. The devil tends to give things the opposite meaning to destroy the message in it. Jesus confronted the Jewish leaders several times on the Sabbath because He was the “Lord of the Sabbath” (Matt.12,8). The legislation of Sabbath was tied to God’s authority as creator, yet these teachers of men had mixed their own laws and regulations to the commandment. That is them trodding on holy ground. God had through Moses said that they would not rightly keep God’s law if they added or removed to it (Deut.12,32). A crime they had done. And so Jesus had to confront them and show who was the real authority of the Sabbath, only He could decide how it was to be observed as the observance of it was to worship Him. The Sabbath was made «holy» by God after creation. Man, when entering holy ground, need to humble themselves. The Pharisees and Scribes own interpretation of the Sabbath and they’re adding of rules and regulations was a crime against God’s law, and that is why Christ addressed it. Not because He was a sabbath breaker, but because He was a sabbath protector. Therefore, He said: «That the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath» (Luk.6,5) Jesus proclaimed He was the Lord of the Sabbath. Violating the Sabbath is, therefore, an attack on Christ authority.

Webpage of the European Sunday Alliance .

The attempt to make national Sunday laws was a movement, first by Christians, later by even labor people, to “save the planet”. Either to save it from moral corruption and/or from climate change. Many Christians generally believe that God will have pleasure and bless the world if they force mankind to observe the Sunday-sabbath. So much so, they have for years tried to get the government to legislate it, and the Pope is an eager helper and contributor. He has for a long time claimed Christians in governmental positions need to try and get church legislations into the worldly governments. Imagen if the whole world would join together in keeping a day legislated by the church representing that the pope now is law-maker on earth in Christ stead? What an honor to the church, for the church, to have their changes to God’s law legislated. Their legislation and version of law over God’s law itself? What an accomplishment. Even if people do it for the climate or other reasons, the church gets what it wants. That the world abides by the rules that are the fundaments of the papal throne.
The climate change groups are agreeing, the pope is agreeing, that Sunday being the official sabbath of the world will save the planet. How can it not? Fewer emissions, more family time, unification in finding a solution to the world’s problems. How beautiful right?
The whole movement, no matter what background they have, fails to understand that God already set a sabbath day for planet Earth at creation. And by placing Sunday in its place as the earth-sabbath is rebellion against the One who Created and sustains the planet. It’s lawlessness, the uproar against the Creator, a takeover. The Creators own law and memorial of Him is by millions exchanged for the commandments of men, no matter how well-meaning it is. Sunday will not save planet earth. And because they do this legislation in God’s name, abusing God’s name for their cause, lying about God, God will bring out the original tables of stone with the truth on it. The tables will display His real sabbath. And that if we want to repent and end our rebellion, we need to put away the Sunday-command, end the forceful legislation and choose obedience to God’s Sabbath instead.
God will let them know that this Sunday-sabbath hysteria is not going to save the planet, not going to make Him restore anything, that He has no pleasure in it, that it’s not His will, that He is not glorified by these laws and that no one will be blessed for making it. He is not blind to the disadvantage given to, and the mocking, of those who will stay true to His law. Shall those obedient to the Creator loose rights and those who step on His holy things and people flourish? God won’t have it.
The only one who is glorified by these laws is the Papacy. The Papacy was originally the church that first legislated Sunday in place of God’s Sabbath. It was their idea, they placed themselves in God’s seat and claimed the right to change God’s law as if it needed changing. And by making a national and even global Sunday legislation it’s really just honoring man and priests as lawmakers and not God. Not only that but the Papacy that stepped on God’s holy Sabbath and made their own sabbath bears all the same titles and rule from the same city as did the “abomination of desolation” that Jesus spoke of when he compared the destruction of Jerusalem with the end of the world (Matt.24,15). A power from the same city bearing the same titles. Strange coincidence? That the governmental institution that claimed the right to change God’s law, a change the whole world follows, just happens to have inherited the titles of the Caesars that was behind the destruction of God’s temple? (Rev.13,8) That just happens to have been given their seat and authority from the same power? (Rev.13,4) Jesus links the destruction of Jerusalem with the end time, and the enemy has not changed the city of reign, they are still standing on holy places. They are still robbing God’s temple. They are still sitting like God in His temple claiming to sit in His place, to speak on His behalf, to judge on His behalf, to change His laws on His behalf (2Th 2:4). They claim to sit in God’s place here on earth. Like Babylon, they have taken the cups from the temple of God and filled them up with lies and lawlessness (Dan 5:3-4; Rev 17:2)

Legislate Sunday as Sabbath to save the planet? What a huge lie. The only one who can save the planet is God. Showing the ten commandments with the real Sabbath will show the world that there is only one law we will be judged by, that determine the destiny of the planet, and that is God’s law.

Climate change queen are telling people to celebrate Laudato Si, the Pope’s letter telling us we will get the biblical sabbath blessing for keeping Sunday in it’s place.

The pope was given as a gift the titles from the Caesars but he stole the titles of Christ and added them to himself. He was now the claimed high priest of the church. The Pope also did the same with the Sabbath. All the blessings the Bible gives for keeping God’s Sabbath, the pope claim is transferred to keeping Sunday. He steals God’s arguments and blessings He states for those who keep His Sabbath and say people will have all of this if they keep Sunday instead. In the Pope’s Laudato Si – Climate Change Encyclical, he claims about the Sunday Sabbath that it: “heals our relationships with God, with ourselves, with others and with the world. …it also proclaims Man’s eternal rest in God …The law of weekly rest forbade work on the seventh day”. All stolen from God’s claims for His Sabbath. He is the ultimate man of sin, claiming to speak on God’s behalf while leading you to disobedience to God.
And so the papacy claims Christ titles and he claims the blessings in the Bible given to the Sabbath-keeper will be given them if they keep Sunday instead.
It’s a lie, a great deception. A robbery of God. The pope is a thief. He steals what is not his, he claims authority that is not his. And he will be judged.
The Bible clearly claims… that no priest that rejects God’s law or the authority of the law is His appointed priest. And any such priest will be judged. “that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.» (Hos.4,6 & 9) “For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth: for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts. But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law…” (Mal.2,7-8)
Jesus said the same thing.

The National Sunday laws are a thing to God because it effect the very part of His law that is given to proclaim His authority, and because such a law will eventually force people to break His Sabbath. And because the whole world has been fooled into thinking God will save the planet if they do this crime against Him, they are deceived and God will make sure they know they are. The Sabbath commandment is the commandment the devil attacks, as he consider that planet earth his. To him God is the thief, he claims it as his domain for the sole reason that mankind have subdued to him all these years and by it elected him as their leader. Under no circumstance will he allow the world to honor the original sabbath that reveals God is the rightful owner of the planet, and that he himself is the thief.
Creating mass worship on a Sunday-sabbath is the ultimate deception. Satan gets the world to join together in partnership against God’s Sabbath and authority all while thinking they are pleasing God while doing it. If you think you are worshipping and pleasing God you will not seek repentance.
The devil’s sin is really great, but so are those of all the priests and pastors that have helped him in presenting a gospel that says you are free to change or even break God’s laws.

The last conflict is about authority. Satan has used Sunday as sabbath as an attack against God and to fool millions of believers, and he has done so successfully for hundreds of years. But the deception has always been limited, in the end, the whole world will follow his lead.

There have been many Sunday laws up through the ages. Sunday laws are not The Mark of The Beast mentioned in Revelation until a certain point in time. Why? Because it’s a mark of authority. Only when God has presented the truth and the real law and the real Sabbath, and the world is enlightened about the two authorities and chose by their actions to obey one authority over the other, they have taken “the mark”. Satan will then as a last desperate attempt show himself as Jesus coming to say that He wants the world to keep Sunday as Sabbath and that He has really changed it. He shines with kindness, he heals and does good deeds. Will they follow a manifestation of Jesus claiming it right to break God’s law over the Bible? He will deceive multitudes. In Christ warning to the people leaving in the end times, he didn’t just warn against the enemy standing on holy ground, to pray they don’t end up breaking the Sabbath, but he also warned: “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matt.24,4-5). Jesus had to endure a similar temptation when the devil came to him in the wilderness claiming to be an angel of light sent from God with a message. Christ rejected the manifestation and used the word of God, the Bible, to expose him. (Mat.4,4) Are you able to put God’s word and His law first and reject a manifestation that appears to be Christ Himself telling you to break God’s law? The devils first cover was a serpent, his last cover is as Christ. Christ second coming is described with characteristics in Scripture that all has to be fulfilled in order for it to be the real Jesus.
This is the events tied to the real coming of Jesus.

Everyone will see it: “For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.” (Luk.17,24)
Jesus will come on a cloud with angels wearing a crown and a sickle: “And I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud one sat like unto the Son of man, having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle” ( Rev 14:14).
We will come to Him, not Him to us: “Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. “ (1.Thess.4,16-17)
The dead will rise when He comes: “For the Lord Himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first” (1.Thess.4,16-17); John 5:28-29)
He comes at an unexpected hour (no time prophecy fulfillment) Matt.24,42-44)
He comes in glory with ALL the holy angels, meaning probably thousands upon thousands of angels. “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory” (Mat 25:31)
Do not be fooled by someone claiming to be Jesus who says you can freely break the fundament of His throne. If a house is in conflict with itself it cannot remain to stand, Christ once said. If Jesus is in conflict with His own law, His Fathers law, the house will not remain standing.

Why the angel said what he said to Ron Wyatt:
This the reason behind the angel telling Ron that the tables of stone will be shown after the National Sunday laws. This is why God is going to choose this point in time to show them.
The world is in a mess, human and animal life is in danger. The call it the sixth mass extinction, but in reality, it’s the second and the last. The earth is, however, struggling.
He wants to address the world with the only solution, to turn back to Him as lawgiver and savior. But if man continues to rebel and make their own laws in place of His, He will judge the world instead of saving it.

God will give His blessings if His Sabbath is respected. It was on His sabbath the priests placed fresh bread on the table of shewbread in the tabernacle. Christ is in the tabernacle in heaven doing priestly service (Lev 24:8). In the Bible, bread symbolizes His word and Christ Himself (Joh.6,35, Matt.4,4). He renews knowledge of Himself and His word to His people on His elected holy day. That is why “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass…» was given as a blessing to the church on, that is right, the sabbath day: «I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day,» (Rev.1, 1 & 10)
Some claim this is speaking of Sunday, another great lie. In the Bible there is only one day that is called «the Lord’s day» and that is the Sabbath. The book of revelation takes us through the sanctuary in heaven and Christ priestly service, the word is given in the sabbath day like the law said it would.
God sanctifies His people on the sabbath day. (Esek.20,12)
The book of Revelation was given to God’s people who respected His Sabbath day (Rev.1,1; 12,17, 14,12).
Today the book of revelation is interpreted by people who reject God’s law and Sabbath, the result is that false interpretation about the end time events is circulating all over the churches and the web.
God spirit of truth, if you want to know the truth, is given to those who respect God’s law and follow Christ: «If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.» (Joh 14:15-17)
If you want to know the real truth, expose the devil’s deception, the false prophets, God will reveal it to you as soon as you stop the rebellion against His law and Sabbath. And the truth will set you free from the devils lies and the false gospel and give you peace in Him.
Do not take any part in the legislation of the Sunday-sabbath, don’t vote for its legislators or work with them in any other ways regarding religious laws. Do not take part in the battle against God’s authority.

Choose therefore today, who your king and God is.

The Ark, the Plagues, the Curse, and the Sunday law.

By

tam

-

01/04/2019

4

Understanding the plagues.
If we want to understand the meaning of the plagues mentioned in Revelation, we need to do as before, seek answers in the Law and in the Prophets, The Old Testament. In the Bible, nothing is random or without a deeper significance that is possible to discover if we search the scriptures. The harsh plagues coming over the earth mentioned in Revelation chapter 16 has its explanation in the Old Testament and with that explanation, we are told who gets them and why. It also tells who will avoid them. This is essential information to avoid being among those destroyed during the plagues. Again remember, the book of Revelation is written to “Christ servants”.

Two of the reasons behind the plagues:

Revelation 18 explains why the plagues are sent, it says: “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” (Rev.18,4)
It’s not so much being inside a physical city that is the problem, we are asked to “leave Babylon” so we won’t be tempted to “take part in her sins”. It’s the sins that are the problem.
It’s the sins that cause us to be afflicted with “her plagues”. In 1. John 3,4 says, “sin is the transgression of the law”. By this, we, therefore, know that the sins we are not to partake in equals breaking of the law. The meaning of Revelation 18,4 is, therefore “come out of her my people, that you don’t partake with her in breaking My law so that you won’t get the plagues that will come to those who do.”
In God’s law, it was already written that breaking the law would result in plagues. But only after a certain event, an event I will get to in a little bit.
But first, let’s look at the two main principles of the plagues. One is their sins against God’s law, the other is their sins against God’s people.
The first we are told in Revelation 18:
“For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double” (Rev 18:5-.6)
Here we are told that the plagues are also tied to vengeance, to do to them what they did or wanted to do to God’s people.
From Revelation 13 we learn two major sins that will be done against God’s people in the end times. It tells us about a deceiving “beast”-power fornicating with Babylon and their attack on God’s people:
1) “and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed” (v.15).
2) “And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name” (v.17).

The first declares that those who won’t follow the image of the beast don’t deserve life. God, however, has decided that those who follow Him before the beast, the same group that they say deserve death, is the group that is to “inherit the earth” (Mat.25:34, Rev 22:14). But the beast claims those who do not obey his standard deserves death.
The second attack made against God’s people will prevent them from getting food and life necessities. In today’s modern world, without the ability to trade, it means you will have problems providing for your needs. Most do not have farms where they can sustain themselves, and even then, even seeds have been modified and copyrighted. Those who had farms in the old days were still depended on trade to get all their needs and today is no different. Most people, however, are totally depended on an income and being able to buy their food. Even water accessibility today is tied to trade. Few have their own wells. And most properties follow tax, today no one is completely independent. Refusing God’s faithful the right to trade unless they turn their faithfulness towards man’s rules conflicting with God’s law, is practically taking from them the right to live. This is a great provocation towards God who has promised that those who choose Him will have the right to eat, drink and prosper on the earth.
In the plagues we, therefore, see God turn the power around and destroy their livelihood instead. Giving them what they gave. “Reward her even as she rewarded you…in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double” The earth belongs to God and His faithful and refusing God’s people the right to live is a rebellion God will not close His eyes too.
In one of the plagues, the food from the ocean will be taken from them: “every living soul died in the sea.” (Rev.16,3) Seafood is the livelihood for millions, when it’s taken away there will be great tribulations. The next that will be taken away is food-resources from the land when the sun dries it all up: “And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire. And men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory. ” (Rev.16,8-9)
They have refused to acknowledge that God is the one who had the power to make the crops grow, to sustain animal life, that all they had was a blessing from God. That they are not gods. But it says that even when they see their own weakness to sustain themselves without God’s help they still won’t acknowledge God as the Creator. According to scripture, all blessings will be removed. The men who had claimed God’s people had no right to their livelihood and that they were in charge of the blessings in the world God takes it from them:
“The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.” (Joe 1:10-12)
Under the plagues God also takes away their drinking sources: “And I heard the angel of the waters say, Thou art righteous, O Lord, which art, and wast, and shalt be because thou hast judged thus. For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.” (Rev 16:5-6)
Again remember their crimes: “Reward her even as she rewarded you…in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double”
The plagues are not a random act of wrath, they are a result of God righteousness judgments. Yet they refuse to understand, they refuse to repent.

The other explanation for the plagues:

The other aspect of the plagues is tied to God’s law. The plagues are actually tied to a curse God gives for breaking God’s law. This is how we know and can prove that those worshipping the beast and its mark (who are afflicted by the plagues) are actually people defying God’s law.
The first plague mentioned in Revelation is the following:
“And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image” (Rev.16,2).
In the curse God gives to those who make the decision to reject God’s law after being educated, it says:
“But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command…
The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed” (Deu. 28:15 & 27)

Now Revelation 18 says those who take part in Babylons sins will take part in her plagues. But at the same time, God tells us that those who will not worship the beast and it’s mark are those that “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus”. (Rev.14,12) They are the ones who escape the plagues. So the plague is, according to the law, a plague that comes from defying God’s law, and those who are exempt respect God’s law. In this way, we can see that the book of Revelation and the Torah (Books of the Law) are in perfect harmony.
The following promise was given God’s commandment keeping people in the law: “And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee. ” (Deu 7:15)
One of the plagues God sent upon Egypt was this evil sore as mentioned in the curse. “The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt”
And so the law explains Revelation, and that book of Revelation keep referring to the book of the law all over. The book of Revelations contains numerous references to the Torah, including the tabernacle and all its holy items. And they both say that this type of sore will be given those who after knowing God’s standard chose disobedience while those who obey God will be delivered from it. This is exactly what Revelation confirms will take place in the last judgments. The problem for many is that they have separated Revelation from the Torah and adding guesswork instead, missing the most important lessons in the revelation from God.

The other curses for defying God’s law is not getting the blessing of water (Deu 28:24). In addition, we learn of the following curse:
“Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.” (Deu 28:16-18)
This means that the animals will get sick and be full of illnesses, the crops will fail. God will remove His blessing from all their food sources.
Even the wild animals will die as part of the curse: “Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. ..seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children” (Hos.4,3 & 6).

While during the plagues the sun will: “scorch men with fire” (Rev.16,8)
The opposite promise is given to God’s people “The sun shall not smite thee by day” (Psa 121:6)

Another curse and plague is darkness. The curse: «And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness» (Deu 28:29) The plague: «And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness» (Rev 16:10)

Part of the punishment also included war, in the sixth plague we will see the forming of a great war, but they are striving with God and God will win the battle.

However, notice this detail of the curse given to those who oppose God’s law:
“And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray them away.” (Deu 28:26)
God says the end curse of rejecting His law is that the dead bodies will be given to the birds in the air.
This is exactly what the book of Revelation says is going to happen to those who followed the beast:
“And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; That ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great” (Rev 19:17-18).

For many who have been taught that the law has been done away and is no longer binding, it might seem strange that the future plagues and punishment mentioned in the New Testament are actually a curse for rejecting God’s law. And the Bible does give us the explanation. And for many, the explanation is a shock. They will discover they have been lied to.

You see God doesn’t change, His word still stands. Another unquestionable evidence we get that the plagues are tied to the breaking of God’s law is the fact that the angels that carry these vials to earth are actually sent from the Ark of the Testament/Covenant (the Greek word for testament and covenant is the same, it’s just translated differently to English).
“And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened: And the seven angels came out of the temple, having the seven plagues” (Rev 15:5-6)

The temple, the Ark, takes part in judging the world. That is a Biblical fact.
Firstly because of the rebellion against God’s law and secondly because of their attack on God’s people.
The world has at the time prior to the plagues reversed God’s judgments. While God promises that those who are obedient to Him will inherit the land, prosper, have their needs while those who don’t will be under a curse, the beast, and his followers have claimed blessings to those who defy God’s authority and physically removed the blessings from those who obey God.

To many Christians, these curses are only tied to the people of Israeli descent, the ones God made the covenant with. Yet in Revelation we see the whole world partaking in these very curses and only those who have the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus are spared the destruction. How can God judge all mankind after the law?
Remember, the Ark took part in judging Jericho, that rejected God as lawgiver. They took the law around the city for 7 days before judging the city. The Ark is not an item belonging to Israel, it belongs to God Himself and represents His kingship and ownership of the planet.
That is why it says: “the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth” (Jos.3,11). God is the creator of all and His standard, wheater we believe it concerns us or not, is what we will be judged by. The Ark’s presence at the outpouring of the plagues confirms this fact.

Israel reminded of the covenant at Mount Ebal and Gerizim

“And it shall come to pass, when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal” (Deu 11:29).
Israel followed this command. They crossed the Jordan river and later went up to Ebal.
“And all Israel, and their elders, and officers, and their judges, stood on this side the ark and on that side before the priests the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, as well the stranger, as he that was born among them; half of them over against mount Gerizim, and half of them over against mount Ebal; as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law” (Jos.8:33-34).
The Ark of the Covenant, in this particular situation, was taken to this place and was centered between the people. It served as a witness of the covenant God had made. They were told that the two mountains were to represent the blessings for obeying the law and the curses for rejecting it.
In the Bible, a mountain is often a symbol of a “kingdom”. And this is just the situation we see in the end times with the beast and his followers on one side afflicted with the curses written in the law, and those who remain faithful to God on the other side, they who keep both the law and have the faith of Jesus.

The purpose of this practical illustration at Mount Ebal and Gerizim was to enlighten the people of their two options, to let them fully understand the consequences of their actions and decisions. They were to openly and with their heart chose their path.
About the occasion, it says: “There was not a word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not before all the congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the strangers that were conversant among them.” (Jos 8:35)
Joshua enlightens the people of the covenant that God had made with them. He lets them know what obedience will lead to and what disobedience will lead to.
This is an important principle we see in the Bible repeated over and over again. God enlightens people about their options and warns them of the consequences that come from making the wrong decision. God was thural in letting them know the curses from defying God and breaking God’s law.
And so before these curses could be sent over the people that later were disobedient, they had to have been told beforehand of the risks of their decision.
God never changes, He is the same today and always.
The curses coming over the world in the end times, as shown in the plagues, do not come without the world first being enlightened with the cursings and blessings connected to their decisions.
In Revelation, we learn just that principle will be repeated. Before God’s people are told they will receive the plagues if they commit the sins of Babylon, we see the whole world being enlightened by a mighty angel. In the Bible, an angel is another word for a messenger or a mighty message. “I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory” (Rev.18,1). Mankind will be enlightened before God returns, and God will use His chosen methods to do this.
One of these educational messages might just be the revelation of the Ark. Last time the Ark was in the middle and part of the enlightenment. Will the Ark come back into the picture to present the world with its options and the consequences of disobeying God? All biblical logic says the world will be presented with the blessing and the curse before the curse will fall upon them. And the Bible also says that the Ark has a place in such a display, even in the past.
The two mountains of Ebal and Gerizim represents the same two choices we see in Revelation 13, 14, 18 .
The Ark will present the world with God’s covenant with mankind. The law and the blood of Christ represent God’s covenant, if we reject either one of the two or both we have placed ourselves in alliance with the beast. And with that alliance, God warns us, the curses of the law will come upon us.
But if we chose obedience to God, the blood of Christ will preserve us from the curses of the law and we will instead receive the blessings.
God’s reveal of the law and the blood at the end of time is God bringing before every human being the two mountains, the two kingdoms, the two options. One that brings the curse, the other that brings the blessing.
And we will be asked to make a decision. And that decision that we will take will determine if we will be struck by the curse, that the plaques are.
What side will you take?

But wasn’t the law and the curse done away with at the cross?

Jesus warned us beforehand: “For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Mat 24:5).
We will encounter the devil pretending to be Christ in the end time. As he will struggle to destroy the mighty evidence God will bring before man, he has only one thing he can do to possible presumably top God’s revelation. He will pretend to be Christ and tell you “in the image of Christ” that his living word is greater than that revelation from the cave. And that you are not required to keep the law as it was once written. He will offer you the blessing with the disobedience, just like he did with Eve. But God’s word stands fast. And by the words from this Christ-manifestation, you will know if it’s the serpent in his disguise or not. The real Jesus is not in conflict with God’s law, that would make Him the rebel. He is not the rebel, He is a priest before God’s throne bringing blood before the law as evidence that the demands of the law have been respected. Jesus is one with His father.
Eve thought she would be spared the curse when she was eating the fruit in the Garden because the serpent told her it would bring a blessing instead.
But he lied to her. God has said: “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips” (Psa.89,34).

Likewise, there are many that come in Christ name saying they are “Christos” also meaning “Christian”. And many claiming to be Christos, Christians, deceive many. They say you can freely continue to break God’s law and still escape the curse. They will tell you the law is done away with at the cross. It is true that Christ has taken the curse away from those who partake in the blood. Or else everyone would receive the plagues, for all have sinned. The curse is removed from those who have taken part in the blood of Christ.
The blood is, however, not permission to continuing defying God and violating His law. The blood is only the means of escape from the curse to the one who has repented and turned away from their rebellion against God’s law.
The blood is not given as a weapon for rebellion against God’s law. It’s a gift to the broken-hearted sinner, a second chance.
Those who have not given their sins and rebellion to Christ on the cross will not be spared of the curse, they will have to take the punishment themselves.
This principle is shown in the sanctuary service, the only one who got their sins taken away was they who by their own free will came before the tabernacle with the sacrifice, transferring their sins upon the head of the substitute by confessing and repenting and acknowledging God’s right to judge, and then the substitute took the curse in the repentant sinners place. The only way to escape the curse is to partake in a private covenant with God.
The offer of salvation is given to all of mankind, and that is why the discovery of God’s law with Christ blood serves as a loving final offer to mankind to turn from their ways, take part in the sacrifice and end their rebellion. Their past transgressions, the curse, has been taken from them and on to the cross. Every human being on planet earth has the opportunity to escape and let Christ death be for their sake.
But for those who abuse Christ name, for those who continue the rebellion and for those who reject God’s offer to save and heal you,
they will, according to every book in the Bible, have to take the punishment themselves. This punishment is being cursed by the law and ends with the death penalty. This is perdition. If this wasn’t the case some of the worst dictators that ever lived will be invited to heaven. God has to keep the validity of the law in order to judge and sentence the ungodly who refuse to change (1Ti.1:9). That is why we see it present in the book of Revelation taking part in the judgment of man.
So we have a choice. An amazing offer. And we can choose, spite our past wrongdoings, to take part in the blessing that Christ was rewarded with when He fully lived out God’s law. He is willing to take our curse and give us part in His blessing. But only if we repent and accept God’s authority.
The false Christ and/or deceiving Christians will promise you that you can take part in the blessings and be exempt from the curse even if you continue to rebel against God’s laws and precepts.
Of such Jesus said warned us beforehand: “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity” (Mat 7:22-23).
The word “iniquity” is the Greek word “anomia” which literally means to be in violation of the law (nomos). And so Jesus warns us beforehand that many will come in Christ name who seemingly have done many mighty works in Christ name but have preached in life and word that we could be free from God’s law (Mat 5:19).
This is a false gospel that leads many people in perdition.
“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition” (2Th 2:3)
Remember again, the Bible says sin is just another word for breaking God’s law. And so the “man of sin” is in other words “man of breaking God’s law”, yet it continues to say: “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (v.4) When God sits in His temple He sat over the Ark containing His law and commandment telling His jurisdiction included earth. So the “man of sin” is not just another man breaking God’s law, it’s a man who places “exalteth himself” over God by placing his authority seemingly above Gods by legalizing to breaking God’s law. It’s a spiritual leader who places his law in place of God’s law, and the verses say he does it by “deceivableness” (V.10) And it says about him “For the mystery of iniquity doth already work…” (v.7) Here again is the same word “anomia” The mystery of anomia(iniquity), meaning the mystery of breaking God’s law.
That is just what has happened, religious leaders have for hundreds of years convinced Christians to keep the church traditions and regulations before God’s commandments and that God’s commandments are no longer in authority. They have placed the church and man above God under the guise of righteousness.
Inside the fourth commandment of God, the Sabbath, it says God can make these laws because He is the Creator. But this commandment has by the church been replaced by a tradition claimed to be in God’s honor. But the Bible is clear, we honor God by respecting His command not by making competing ones and then persecuting those who keep God’s command.
The devil is in the churches: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works” (2Co 11:13-15).
The serpent is no longer in the tree, he is in the church trying to distort the gospel and the scripture and convince Christians that the law is no longer binding. That they will be even blessed by disrespecting it and replacing some of its requirements with their own rules and regulations. But the ability to make religious laws and to make something holy is reserved for God and not for man. Anyone who takes this position is exalting himself over God. But it’s self-deception. The Bible continues to tell us who will be fooled by this lie: “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2Th 2:11-12).
They who believe this lie has pleasure in rejecting God’s laws. They don’t love Christ righteousness, which is the law. Jesus is the “truth”, Jesus is also “the word made flesh” (Joh.14,6 & 1,1). The living version of the law. If we reject Christ righteousness which is His obedience to God’s law, we do not really love the truth. (Joh.15,10; Psa_119:142, Isa_42:21, Rom_2:26, Rom_8:4, Rom_10:4, Isa_51:7)
The way the devil planted the lie of lawlessness in the churches was by twisting Pauls letters just like the Bible warned us against doing (2Pe 3:15-16). Paul spoke of self-righteousness, he spoke against trying to keep the law by our own strength rather through faith. He also spoke against the ceremonial laws many continued to keep and that no longer were needed after Christ brought the ultimate sacrifice by His death.
The letter was written at a time when the temple service continued as before. It was written when people were debating on how the law could be written on our hearts and not if it should be (Heb.8,10). But the devil used time and twisted every meaning and put it in a new context. Suddenly he managed to fool Christians into thinking Paul spoke against keeping the Sabbath that honored God as a creator, that he spoke against God’s laws against making idols and other laws that many Christians have rejected.
They were misapplied to a new era and a constructed conflict. No longer was it about how the law could be fulfilled in our hearts so we could stop turning back to our old sins and by it come under the curse of the law yet again. (Gal.4:8-9; 2Ti 3:5, 2Ti_4:4, Tit_1:14)
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (1Co 6:9-11).
The name Satan is really a description of his mission. The word originally used in the Old Testament for Satan is “śâṭân” which means opponent or śâṭan which means to accuse or resist.
Satans rebellion against God has always been against God’s rule, His laws, and authority. That is what he is attacking. That is why he made Eve go against God’s law and that is why he is trying to make christians violate it as well. Knowing well he will fail making himself knowing he transfers himself to an angel of light, his workers to workers of rightousness, he helps “the man of sin”, religious leaders into their position where they can rule over God’s people and lead them away from obedience to God’s athority so that they once again fall under the curse of the law while having the illusion that they will be saved. But Jesus warned and said He would one day claim He never knew them if they chose to believe this lie.
Instead, the devil now made it about the law itself being bad and needing to be removed. Rather our sins/breaking the law being the wrongdoing, he convinced Christians under the guise as their leader, that the problem was, in fact, the law and not the breaking of it. And that is why God removed the law by the blood of Christ rather confirming it by fulfilling its requirements. A dangerous deception leading Christians into perdition.
It is in part to expose this false gospel God has planned to reveal the Ark of the Covenant with Christ blood upon it.
God knows that many are sincere and have been fooled. They have not learned the truth. They have since childhood been taught to read the Bible in this deceptive way and they don’t know the danger they are in. His sympathy is also with the rest of the world who knows not of the salvation they can obtain through Christ blood or who doesn’t even know about God’s standard for mankind.
This discovery preaches the correct gospel in a simple and illustrative way. The blood was shed above the law showing what law was part of God’s covenant with man, and what law we are required to keep. It shows that Christ offers us pardon from breaking this law, but at the same time, it reveals that the law is part of the New Covenant with all of mankind.
God gives the offer of the blood to the repentant sinner. You have to confess you have sinned. This required a confession that we know we have broken God’s law and we agree to it being wrong. The sinner who does not wishes to acknowledge God’s law as just and in force cannot take part in the blood.

The false gospel says that the law was done away with at the cross. But if that is the case, God, by doing away with the law, also did away with the definition of sin. If there is no law there is no sin. Nor is there a “man of sin”. The judging of the earth and the ungodly cannot take place. This is the teaching of lawlessness and iniquity and of the man of sin.
If the law could be done away with Christ didn’t have to die. The law could just be removed and no sinner could be judged. There is no rule in the law that says if someone dies the law can be destroyed. The only rule says that the accusation or curse directed on the transgressor can be removed if there is a substitute to take the penalty. Every symbolism in the rituals God’s gave explained this same principle over and over again.
God didn’t destroy His law. Instead of removing the law, He validated it by sending His son to take our place in the punishment.
By letting the law get its requirement is confirming the validity of the law.
When a man is sentenced in any courtroom in the world, the judges by the sentencing also confirms that the law he was judged by is still valid. Sentencing and confirming the law is the same thing. Jesus dying in our place is Him confirming the law’s validity, it’s right to judge, it’s rightful existence, that it’s in force.
If God had removed the penalty for sin, He would by that very action have destroyed the validity of the law. But instead of removing the penalty for trasgression, he transferred the transgression to a substitute and had Him fulfill the requirements of the law in our place. The requirement of death. But we still need to, after this great sacrifice, to turn from our ways and back to obedience to God. Or else Christ sacrifice is of no help as we will just be under the condemnation once again. “If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame” (Heb_6:6). If we willingly go in the idea that Christ dying for us means we can just continue to violate the law and reject its principles we put Christ to “open shame”.
This is the devils’ gospel. To rebel against God’s law, to put man in the place of God by placing traditions and commandments of God above or sometimes in place of God’s command, and to use Christ sacrifice as means to violate the law(means to sin).
And while doing all of that, raising our hands and praising God as if He would accept us spite our continues rebellion. Satan once deceived the people of Judah with the same lie, and it ended with God leaving the temple and letting Jerusalem be destroyed:
“And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood. Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isa 1:15-18).

The devil has twisted the gospel to make it seem like Jesus action on the cross did away with the validity of the law, something that is both illogical and unbiblical. And the only author of the Bible used to twist the gospel in such a way is Paul, the only Biblical author the Bible itself warns us against misinterpreting. It says the misunderstanding of him can lead us into perdition.
Paul is not a lawgiver or have the authority to give or take away a law. He is just trying to explain that the sacrificial rituals that were still being practiced while he wrote his letters, where no longer necessary when we had Christ, as His blood is the only blood that can save us. He also tries to explain the right and only way to become in harmony with God’s law. By faith, by the spirit and not by our own strength and accomplishments. When we try to be good we usually fail, but by the power of God and His spirit, we can succeed. And when we do, credit goes to God and not to ourselves.

God has only offered us one way out, only one possible salvation to flee the curse. To repent for having broken God’s law (sinned) and seek pardon through Christ blood. The law and the blood.
The only ones who will escape the curse that will fall on mankind in the end times are described as those still obedient to God’s authority and who are no longer rebelling against God’s law.

Can this be said about you? Are you among them? You still can be.
Yes many have been deceived: “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” (18,3)
“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world …And the beast
…the dragon gave him his power …And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him”
(Rev. 12; 9,13; 2,8) The whole world has fallen for the devils lies through his allies. The majority of Christians believe the lie of ‘anomia’ already.
Who is the devil out to silence by his deception? Whom does he fear? The very ones who have not accepted his lies:
“And the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keeps the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. …And it was given unto him to make war with the saints …And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. …Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus”. (12:17, 13:7 & 17, 14:12)

Jews still under the curse of the law

What about jews, many of them respect God’s law? Will they be spared the curse of the law (the curse of the law = being under the law)? The devil has made sure to fool also them among the Jews that respect God’s law by taking from them the blood of Christ.
A jew keeping the law is still under the curse because every man has “sinned” and broken God’s law, even jews claiming to keep it. And if they don’t have an atonement for their sins they are under the curse of the law even though they try to keep it.
And so jews are also under the curse of the law unless they accept Christ as their savior and atonement.
A Christian who claims Christ blood but continue to disrespect God’s law and a jew who respect God’s law but have no atoning blood are both under the curse of the law. They will both suffer the plagues if they do not repent. Because no one can be saved or atone for past sins by keeping the law. The law itself does not pardon anyone or save anyone from the curse. A good deed cannot cleanse away a bad deed.
It is very logic in everyday society, but people lose their logic when reading the Bible because the devil is confusing them. In every society that has laws a man who kills his neighbor will not be acquitted from this transgression in a court just because he saved another man from drowning. He will still have to pay the penalty for his transgression. It’s the same with God’s law. We cannot remove our sin for breaking one law by keeping another. Good deeds or obedience doesn’t remove past disobedience. We are still under the law. A fugitive who starts a new life and live like a saint will one day be caught by police and their good life will not acquit them from the judgment once made against their bad deed. They still have to go to prison. The only thing that can take the demand of the law from us is our substitute in our trial, Jesus Christ.
Of these things Paul wrote a lot about as he saw the danger, the Jews were in for rejecting Christ atonement. It’s these warnings many have misapplied and used against the validity of the law. But Paul only explains that the righteousness of the law cannot blot out sin, and that is why they need Jesus. This has been interpreted that Paul speaks against obedience to God’s law and that keeping the law competes with the gospel. But this is not what Paul is really saying.
Jews that claim to keep the law are therefore also under the curse.

There is no doubt what the two sides are.

Don’t believe the devils lies that the last conflict is about technology, Islam, Judaism, communism or atheism. Don’t be diverted into making this about anything but the core of the conflict.
There is only one great enemy who can destroy you and that is you if you chose to oppose God.
But if you chose the blessing God will be your King and your protector as He has promised to those who seek refuge under His king’s rod and by His throne. He will fight your enemies and your water and bread will be sure. You will be covered by Christ righteousness and your sins will be atoned by Christ blood.
You will get Christ earned blessing just as He took your curse.
This gift can be yours today if you repent. Even if you haven’t to this day kept God’s law, the blessing as if you had kept them can be yours. You just have to stop the rebellion and turned to your Father.

Last deception

As the world sees everything falling apart as a result of their transgression and rejection of God the devil will come up with a solution that will make everything worse. The solution is turning back to God and His law and authority. The devil will suggest for world leaders and religious leaders to give God glory by creating laws to His honor.
The idea that God will be honored by their legislation is another lie. God is only ever honored when we honor His legislation. When we make our own that compete and even allows the breaking of God’s, God is not honored no matter how much we claim that is our attempt.
The whole world will come together in honoring this legislation thinking God will be convinced by the multitudes, by the togetherness. He also commands His people to not be moved by multitudes: “Thou shalt not follow the multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause, following many, to divert judgment” (Exo.23,2). God’s law is not established through democracy but through a theocracy.
God rules an entire universe. Mans legislations that replace His legislations are still rebellion and will not save them from the curse of the law.
God had sent His son to die before adjusting to a single title of the law. He made the great sacrifice of risking His son rather freeing mankind of His law and the consequences for breaking them. If would rather send a substitute to take the penalty then to remove the law.
Mankind has listened to Satans lies and rebellion against God’s law. Even though they in their blindness think they please God they are really pleasing God’s enemy. The curse will not be removed.
When the devil under the guise of “Christ” claims the problem isn’t their legislation to God’s honor but those who continue to keep God’s original law and they set themselves to attack and destroy those who are obedient, their fate is sealed.
They have gone too far. They knew the truth, God had shown them the truth, and when they were presented with the lie they chose the lie over the truth. Because they loved not the truth.

Christ battle for the Sabbath.

Among the Devils, lies are the lie that Christ was fighting against the Sabbath when He was here on earth. This view has made way for the idea that it was time to make a change and remove this law and replace it with one tied to Christ resurrection instead.
The Sabbath was given at creation to all mankind, it was a law given before sin tying the bond between the Creator and the planet. Sabbath has, therefore, unlike the devils lies, nothing to do with the sacrificial law that came as a result of sin. The Sabbath was independent and part of paradise and God’s perfection.

In the Sabbath commandment written down on the tables placed into the Ark of the Covenant, it says: “Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and hallowed it” (Exo 20:9-11).
Now notice the words “the LORD MADE heaven and hearth… and all that in them is.. and rested the seventh day”.
Who did all of this work? According to John, it was none other than Christ Himself: “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made” (Joh.1,3).
When the Pharisees questioned Christ divinity He followed up with His speech regarding His preexistence and being that great I AM that spoke to Moses by making a practical example exposing of His identity. Jesus had first linked to name “I AM” to Himself: “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I AM (Ego Eimi). Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself…” (Joh 8:58-59)
I AM was the One who had met with Moses: “And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you” (Exo 3:14).
Right after Jesus had used these words on Himself to the scribes and they tried to stone Him, He did this practical example when walking up to a blind man:
“When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay…” (Joh 9:6-7).
This act was the same he wants did with the first human. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen 2:7)
Forming clay with His spit and then shaping them and placing them upon the man’s eyes was Christ showing them who He really was. The same who had formed Adam from the dust of the ground.

It was Jesus who had shaped the world and everything on it, in His father’s presence, who rested on that first Sabbath day and sanctified it.
It was Christ that gave Moses the law at Sinai telling them to remember the Sabbath to keep it as a memorial of His authority as Creator.
Jesus had said to the jews: “And he said unto them, Ye are from beneath; I am from above: ye are of this world; I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am (Ego Eimi) he, ye shall die in your sins” (Joh 8:23-24)
Christ also had a specific additional purpose for the Sabbath. Because of all the false gods and later false Christs He gave a sign: “Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD that sanctify them” (Eze 20:12). “And hallow my sabbaths; and they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the LORD your God” (Eze_20:20).
It’s a sign not only that the Lord is our God, but that Jesus is our Lord and Creator.
Because the Sabbath was such an important symbol of God’s relationship with man through His Son it was very important that the Sabbath was not distorted.
When Jesus was here on earth He did not debate so much theology as He healed and comforted people. But one thing He did use a lot of time to address was how they were ruining this important day with their extra rules and regulations. The law itself had forbidden them to add to God’s law, still, they had done it (Deu.4,2). Jesus confronted the Pharisees over and over again with their distortion of the Sabbath, how they had changed it’s meaning and significance. Jesus did this because it was such an important law with such an important purpose that He could not leave their corruption of this holy day without correction. Several times Jesus chose to do His confrontations upon this very day. They had placed their traditions and interpretations over the word of God. Because the day represented God’s authority it was the worst day to tamper with in the sense of placing mans’ authority on it. Jesus used the term “Son of man” to describe Himself after His incarnation in human flesh: “Son of man hath not where to lay his head” (Matt.8,20) “But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins” (Matt 9,6) These are only two of many examples. Jesus also said: “For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day” (Mat.12:8). He here speaks of Himself. The word Lord is the Greek Kurious which means “supreme in authority”.
Jesus is supreme in authority over the Sabbath. The Sabbath itself states it’s day witnessing of the Creators authority. Jesus here either places Himself above His Father or He reminds them of who He actually is, the one who formed the earth and everything on it. Only then would he be supreme in authority, Lord over the Sabbath.
This also means that if Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, as He says Himself, anyone else who places themselves as Lord of the Sabbath is a deceiver and opponent against Jesus.
Because the Sabbath belongs to Christ and was a sign between Him and His people and His capability to sanctify them, it was important for Christ to address how the Sabbath had been corrupted by the priests and scribes. The moment they placed their own laws into His sabbath they were trying to make themselves Lord of the Sabbath. It was a power struggle, and Jesus did not let it go without confrontation.
This is what Christ battle regarding the Sabbath was really about. But the devil who twist the Word of God to His favor in order to fool God’s people, have given them the idea that Jesus didn’t like the Sabbath and didn’t mind having it removed.
Jesus, when He had died for our sake, taking our curse upon Himself on the cross, rested on the sabbath day according to the gospel. After creation, He rested and after redemption, He rested on the same day. Then He rose on Sunday morning to continue the work for mankind on a feast He had ordained called the feast of first fruits (Lev.23,9-14). God didn’t replace the Sabbath with a new day, the few Sundays that events happened was a fulfillment of other feast God had ordained. These feasts were to compliment the weekly Sabbath but not take the place of it (Lev.23,1-3) Nowhere in the Bible does Christ followers reject the Sabbath for a new Sabbath day Sunday. This would have been a violation towards Christ person, identity and purpose. And it’s nowhere to be seen in the Bible.
It’s correct that the outpouring of the Spirit took place on a Sunday. But it wasn’t just any Sunday, it was on God’s ordained feast called the feast of weeks also called Pentecost or Shavuot. (Lev.23,15-22) On that day was celebrated a yearly law-ordained feast not a weekly Sabbath.
In the New Testament, we see that both Jews and Gentiles meet to hear God’s words preached on the Sabbath (Act.13:14, Act.13:42-44; Act 16:13; Act.17:2; Act.18:4). Nothing has changed regarding the day God set aside as Holy.
Jesus even defended His day when speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem and the earth. In His speech regarding the topic, He blends the two occasions together and says to them: “But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day” (Mat.24:20)
Jesus shows here clearly the expectation that His followers would continue to keep this day holy. It would still be there and valid long after His ascension to heaven, even long after the apostle meeting in Jerusalem. Not just in force, but that we need to pray that our flight won’t be on that day. Why? Because if we are fleeing for our lives on the Sabbath day we risk being tempted to break it in order to save our lives. This temptation could place us under the curse when we needed God’s blessings the most. Jesus tells that we need to pray in order to not end up in such peril that we will be lead to disregard the Sabbath for the sake of our own safety. The second peril of His people on the run was the winter and how the harsh climate could affect them and make them capitulate to the enemy. Jesus did not wish for them to end in a situation of temptation when they were in an even greater need to be at one with Christ than ever before.
It was clear that Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, needed His followers to continue to have the highest regard for the Sabbath.
How then did the church end up changing the Sabbath from the God-ordained day (Friday evening to Saturday evening) to a new day? They claimed they did it in honor of Christ, but if we honor Christ we let Him be the Lord of the Sabbath. Those who had tempered with His Sabbath in other ways had been rebuked. How then was Christ honored when His commandment to His honor, witnessing of Him as Lord, was changed and transferred to another day?
What should His followers say? I will not pray that my flight is not on the Sabbath, but I will pray that my flight is not on Sunday, for I have made that day the new Sabbath in honor of Christ”? Will we still be under the curse? We will still be under the curse.
Jesus said: “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which

I say?” (Luk 6:46) According to Jesus, calling Him Lord and doing what He says is the same thing. If we don’t do what He says, by that action we reject Him as our Lord even if we call Him Lord.
Jesus had no respect for people replacing His commandments with their own traditions and ideas, even if it was in His honor “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mat 15:9).

When the world sets to make Sunday a day to honor God as the creator in hope of Him bringing salvation from the peril on earth, they are building their house on sand. “And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it” (Mat 7:26-27).
Sunday-sanctification in place of Sabbath-keeping is a deception created by Satan Himself deceiving you to think you honor Christ when you are in fact spitting upon Christ authority. He deceives the world into thinking they will obtain God’s favor and blessings and that God will rid them of the curse that has come upon the earth by their religious legislation.
God is not honored, his enemy is. If Jesus is our Lord we will do what He says, we will honor the day He commanded and not a day humans have come up with to replace it.
Continuing to violate God’s law in favor of our own religious laws will bring no peace and prosperity on the earth. It will not heal the land. “For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.” (1Th.5:3)
Why did Satan especially attack the sabbath-day? Because it witnessed that the earth belonged to Christ and he claimed the earth was his and he Christ to worship him: “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me” (Matt.4,8-10).
Every time someone comes to God in submission and worship on the sabbath day they reject the Devil as the owner of the planet and he hates it. The Sabbath was also a sanctifying bond, according to God Himself, a sanctifying bond the devil wanted to break.
Thirdly the devil only needed them to oppose one commandment of the law in order to achieve his goal of placing God’s people under the curse. It was more unlikely for him to convince any Christian that they were permitted to steal or murder or commit fornication. The Sabbath commandment was all about worship and didn’t seem to have any moral attached to it that could expose the devils lies to easily. And so attacking the fourth commandment under the guise of doing God service made it possible for the devil to attack the symbols he hated, Christ authority on earth, and bring God’s people under the curse at the same time. His attack and hatred were against the “Lord of the Sabbath”. It was easy to just replace the day with the next day so that Christians and others could fool themselves into thinking they were respecting God when they were, in fact, opposing Him and de-throning Christ as Lord of the Sabbath. The deception of the devil went so far that many started saying if we keep the original Sabbath we reject Christ Himself. Completely turning the tables and causing people to fear they “loose Christ” if they obey God’s law. Only the devil can come up with such a twisting of the truth. But the Bible is clear and exposes these lies.

Do you remember what happened to Abel when God did not appreciate Cains sacrifice? They both sacrificed to the Lord, one gave what God had asked for and the other brought the works of his own hands before the Lord. But God had no pleasure in Cains idea even if it was claimed to have been done to God’s honor. “But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell” (Gen.4,5) Gods refusal to respect his offer made Cain hate the one who had done as God has asked. He hated the obedient one and killed his brother Abel.
This same conflict is seen in the end time. The beast wants to kill all those who do not worship the image of the beast. The “beast” and his followers are angry and those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. And rather repenting and turning from their ways they go after God’s obedient in anger feeling they are at fault.
This is the last conflict we see in at the end of Revelation 12 and in 13, 14 and 18.

Jesus defended the Sabbath because He was Lord of the Sabbath. By creating a new sabbath to do away with Christ sabbath is declaring war on God.
In the sixth plague, we see this war unfold. “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Rev 16:13-14).
The Ark of the Covenant with Christ blood witness that the Sabbath is part of redemption, part of God’s covenant with mankind and still unchanged from when it was written.
The world will know and learn that only by respecting the law of God and receiving Christ blood in their behalf, can they escape the plagues. No man-made religious law, holiday or man-made sabbath can heal the land or the people. Leaning on these deceptions is what is causing the problem. The solution is inside and upon the Ark of the Covenant. Turning back to Christ as Lord over the Sabbath, turning back to God’s law and the original gospel and stop persecuting those who are obedient to God’s commandments and who have the faith of Jesus.
The world will be given a choice to receive their Creator, their savior, His Father the supreme God of the universe, or to lean on religious leaders and the lies of spirit and devils. By accepting all of the devils lies and going with his rebellion against God’s law the churches have become corrupted: “And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird” (Rev.18,2).
God has, therefore, one last message to His people before the curse hits the earth and the plagues are sent upon it: “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities” (Rev 18:4-5).

Why the tables of stone will be shown after the national Sunday law

God has chosen to wait with the manifestation of His law and the atoning blood to a time where the whole world has been fooled into thinking they honor Him and save the planet by making a Sunday law. This Sunday law is built on the old church laws originated from the Catholic Church and their change of the original Sabbath day to Sunday. As the west grew in influence and development Sunday have become the seventh day around the world.
Sunday is and has always been the Biblical first day of the week, the day that followed after the Sabbath. The church took the «holiness» from God’s Sabbath and claimed to have placed it on Sunday.
However Gods law, that if disregarded place the earth under a curse, is the one inside God’s earthly throne The Ark of the Covenant.
The Sabbath commandment is the only commandment that in the law reveals who the lawgiver is and His jurisdiction and that He is the creator and owner of planet earth.
By changing this symbol the church has for a long time been in opposition towards God. But when a state (in the Bible a state or government is depicted as a beast) decides to force mankind to honor the man-made Sabbath over the God-ordained sabbath, fooling the world that it will bring peace upon the world and be to God’s glory to make such a legislation, God will act to let people know this is a lie. «It is time for thee, LORD, to work: for they have made void thy law. (Psa 119:126)»
The reason he shows the tables of stone now and not during past Sunday laws is because Christ second coming is at hand and this is the last chance for mankind to turn from their rebellion. The Sunday laws are the Devils last attempt to make religious people think they will be saved and are glorifying God when they are in fact rebelling. God will let them know what law is binding and what is a hoax.
Furthermore, the world has been lied to and been told that they will be blessed and the world will be healed by this legislation, that God will pour His blessings on them in reward for doing it. It’s such a grand lie considering the hopeless state the earth is in, they need to know the truth on how to save the earth.
Secondly, the Sunday law will be enforced by one of the last countries with complete religious freedom who at the same time is the most powerful and influential nation in the world (USA). This places God’s commandment-keeping people in an impossible situation. All the world is controlled by banking-system, electronic devices, surveillance. Anyone rebelling the governmental powers have nowhere to go, no way to hide where they cannot be found. They will have no way to eat or express themselves if placed under a terror law. The deception is so powerful and the power of the beasts of the earth so great, that if God does not act now there will be little chance of survival for those who oppose the new order.
The Sabbath is a sign that God owns the planet and all the resources. Forcing mankind to violate it and making a new legislated man-made day of rest is seen as a declaration of war by God.
The angel said the tables of stone will be shown to the world after the legislation of a national Sunday law. When people have made their decisions after having been enlightened with the truth, those who chose rebellion against God’s Sabbath and the law will be afflicted with the curse, the plagues. This will keep them busy until Christ can come and deliver His afflicted people.

MODERN MAN’S ILLUSION OF INDEPENDENCE FROM GOD.

By

tam

-

17/03/2019

1

What the real reason behind the climate changes is, why it will soon get a lot worse and the only thing that can be done about it.

From the very beginning man was depended on Higher powers for everything. For food and water, two important lifegiving factors. Jesus used both these things as a symbol of Him. He said:
«He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water». (Joh.7:38)
And He said: «I am that bread of life» (Joh_6:48).

Mans dependence on these two things was a matter of life and death, and also what determined prosperity and poverty. Man were also powerless to bring forth rain. They were powerless to order insects to work on their soil and work at pollination and to order other insects to not ruin their crops. All in all, them being for the most part unable to control the elements of nature, they saw their dependence on a higher power. The originator of all things, a God. There were too many things that needed to work together in nature to maintain life for it to be left to chances.
They noticed and learned that there were invisible powers ready to help them if they connected to the spiritual world.
From early on man were acquainted with the Creation story and God, but many didn’t like the Biblical God’s moral laws. They didn’t want to work with God becouse of what He asked for, and so when other spirits offered their assistance they started worshipping these spirits as gods in Gods place. The Bible actually says that the other gods, when they contacted them, they were actually contacting demons, fallen angels in opposition to God. (Deu.32:17, Lev.17:7)

It wasn’t that people hated having to be depended on a God, they just didn’t want to have to follow the rules of the Supreme God. And that is why they were drawn to other gods or spiritual helpers.
It was always about opposition to God’s law. Had God removed these laws or given laws they had pleasure in, they would have accepted the supreme God. Idolatry was therefore never about rejecting a deity, it has always been about rejecting God’s laws and ordinances. That is the part that caused them to resist. And so when the fallen angels offered them alternative religions and spiritual contact without God’s moral laws and requirements, people chose them over God.
Again, this is very important, it was not the rejection of «a God», but a rejection of God becouse of His laws.

The gods’ names varied, demons were helping them prosper on some parts. But even that was an illusion. For God is the creator of the world and the universe and all are maintained through His blessings. His patience with man, His pity with man has caused Him to wait with His judgement. (2Pe 3:9) The devil or demons portraying themselves as gods were liars, they gave the illusion that the blessings came from them. And so because God would not abandon mankind even though they chose to defy Him, and kept maintaining the course of nature and commanding the creatures on earth to continue the work for the blessing of man, those who had turned to demons saw it as a sign that their prayers to these gods were actually working.
So sometimes, in order to give man a chance to know the real truth and who the real life-giver was, He would take away His blessings, He would withdraw His life-giving spirit. The results were drought, failing crops and thirst.
He did this also in the days of Elijah. For long they had credited Baal for rain and the crops that God in His forbearance had blessed them with. But they had to know the truth. And so Elijah and the priests of Baal was gathered at Mount Karmel.They both had their alters, one for Baal and another for God. And they said that the god that provided fire from heaven was the real God. No fire came when the priests of Baal prayed, but when Elijah prayed fire from heaven came. (1.King.18) They all had to admit who was the real God. But they still didn’t want His laws and not long after they turned away from him placing their hopes in their own gods instead. Still being sustained by the grace of God until God could not sustain them any longer because of their horrible moral and wicked ways. Should He bless the hand that strikes His neighbor, would not His continues blessings to people that do evil cause God to aid them in their wrongdoings? And so God was forced, for the sake of His righteousness and all good, after numerous warnings, to take His protection and blessings from them. So their influence and harm could be quenched.
God said He was:«The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth» (Exo.34,6) But He could not be the hand that aided man to do evil.
If His blessings were used as a springboard to harm, He would take away His blessing.

This is why His quarrel with Sodom was so great.(Gen.18 &19) Sodom and the other cities of the plain owed all their prosperity to God. The kings of Mesopotamia had captured the kings of Sodom and the other cities, taken all their riches and their people with them. God, by the hand of Abraham, had saved them all. They even got to keep all their riches. From that moment Sodoms prosperity and growth was built on God’s forbearance and blessings. And they knew, yet they would not repent. Instead, their evil ways got worse. So bad that God could hear the cries from all the victims: «And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous» (Gen.18:20) God had saved Sodom and restored their riches, yet they used their blessings to harm others. God would not bear it any longer. He destroyed the whole city. Had He let it continue to grow and do its damage, God could have been blamed for their power and influence.
That is why God is forced to remove His blessings and also punish evil-doers. Their life and prosperity are preserved by His blessings. He will have no part in their opportunity to do harm.

God judges the ungodly because He is the life-giver.

Even the richest man on earth in all his wealth will not remain standing if the crops fail and the water dries out. Can he drink gold? Can he eat his car? Rich as well as poor eat and live becouse of God.

When he gave Israel Canaan and drove out the ungodly there, He could not, of all fairness, bless Israel if they did the same things those who lived there before had done. Should He continue to help them prosper regardless of their actions when He hadn’t with those before? (Rom 2:11; Jas.2,9)

With those who lived in Canaan, He had been patient for 500 years before judging them. Now Israel was rejecting God’s laws in the same way as those before. And God warned them through prophets over and over again, if they did not want to respect His laws He would take the land from them, He would take the rain from them, He would not bless their crops and He would not protect them from their enemies. (Deut.11) The only way God would show them a favor before any other nation was if they respected His laws. (Lev.18,26-28) Their willingness to accept His law was what were to work as a sign between them and God that they were, in fact, worshipping the real God and not false gods. (Lev 26:14 etc etc. Read the whole Torah)
God told them to not speak of the other gods, not take after their idol worship or their practices and He told them to drive all of them out of the land so they wouldn’t be tempted to follow their examples. But they didn’t and soon the two religions emerged.(Num 33:55, Jos 16:10,Jdg_1:27 Jdg.2,11-15 etc)

There was one true religion where God was working on peoples conscience and reason, with His laws. Then there was the other religions that allowed great sins and desires of the flesh. In not long, they were leaning to Baal and Ashtaroth for rain and crops and fooled themselves into believing that these gods would ensure their happiness and take care of them. And for a long time God had patience, He warned them over and over again. But they continued to praise other gods for the blessings God gave them. And so God removed His protection and the enemy sword came upon them, He stopped the rain from falling, the crops failed and the forces of nature no longer guided by the hand of God, destroyed nature and animal life. (5.Mos. 28,15-68; Eze.5:6-7, Lev 20:22)
Rather understanding what had happened, many chose to become bitter and hateful towards God. They blamed Him. They wanted God to bless them before others while they were doing the same crimes they were.

The core of the conflict was always and has always been God’s laws. When the serpent tempted Eve in the Garden he offered her,by violating God’s command, to become her own god. But man was powerless, having no life within itself, having no ability to create life or even maintain it left them still depended. The devil offered mankind alternative gods so that they could have the illusion of help from a divinity while being able to reject and be unlearned in God’s law at the same time. God’s battle with false religion was therefore crucial. If man would not keep His laws He could not continue forever to sustain them as God would not take part in their evil, and all the false religions taught man to reject what God needed them to do in order to save them, obedience to the Creator.
Today mankind do not worship Baal and Ashtaroth, but the battle is the same and the principles are the same. The devil has just created a new illusion in the place of the old pagan gods.

As mankind before was depended on their water, crops, early rain and the latter rain, most people in the western world think little of it with their tap water coming from human-created pipes and water reserves. The animals that were once sacrificed reminded man of the preciousness of life and killing life was done in humbleness. Today most people do not see or know the animals whose flesh they are eating, rather they are treated like items, they have horrible suffering and are in great pain their whole lives. Most men buy their flesh lying on a plastic tray in the store. Most people in the west do not grow their own foods, they buy whatever they want in the stores. Packed, cut and sometimes washed and ready for consumption.
They do not look up at the sky and praise God for bringing these fruits of the land, they look to the cooperations and stores as a certainty. If crops fail in one land, or draught strikes another, the state helps, or big corporations just move food from a fruitful area to the one who had the draught. Noone there knows that God’s blessings have been removed, for blessings are moved from

one country to another. And people do not think anything of it. Sometimes people in poverty have to give up their plenty to satisfy corrupt rich humans with little natural resources. They are mocking God while they hide the state they are in with God. They hide that God has taken His blessings away and most people go on with their every day life feeling no need for God.
We have the illusion that we no longer need God for the living water and the living bread. But it’s just an illusion. They also removed and changed those things that were to remind people of who the life-giver is.
God’s feasts were centered around the crops. At one time it wasn’t possible to keep the feasts without the blessings of God.The Feast of unleavened bread was depended on God sending early rain and latter rain to the barley crops so that they could from the time of this feast eat the new grain as the law instructed. During the feast of waving shaft, they were to wave the sheaf of new and mature barley before the Lord in thanksgiving acknowledging who was the source of life. The feast of weeks that came a couple of months later was depended on the crops of wheat having their early rain and latter rain so that they could be harvested for the feast. And the feast in the fall, first they celebrated God’s atonement brought to them to unify fallen man with Himself and then followed a feast commemorating other fruits and prosperity given from the land.
If God did not give the rain in its time and protect the production of food none of these feasts could be celebrated. And the feast itself was a holy assembly with God, a greater blessing. (Lev.23)
A man could not live without food and water, in the same way man could not live without God’s spirit and a continuous union with their Creator. And this bond was especially tied through these feasts and the Sabbath. This might be why the antichrist wanted to change Gods times and laws as stated in Daniel 7,25.

When Israel repeatedly sinned and rebelled against God in the wilderness, God took away His protection from them. The result was that serpents came into the camp and many were bitten by them(Num 21:5-9). Then God provided a stake with a serpent on it, if they looked at it they were to live. This, according to Jesus, was a symbol of Him. (Joh.3,14) God wanted to forgive, He desired to forgive. He longed to take away the sins from His people. But if they would not turn He would not continue to protect and bless (Isa.1,18-19; Ezek.18,32).
By taking away His protection they understood that His protection and care was the cause of their successfulness.

Today man give themselves the credit for their own prosperity. Baal and Ashtaroth are exchanged with the worship of self and other people we admire.
Sin is what it originated as. The serpent said to Eve she could be as god herself. Now man, with all their technologies are doing just that, acting like gods. They bring the pipes with the water to man, they bring them food from afar by planes and trucks if their own crops fail. They think they provide, that man provide. And man is man grateful and state-dependent. But it’s an illusion about to burst.
Man wants to be their own god, their own judge by their own judgment and they want the ability to measure right from wrong after their own private consciousness. They call it “my truth”. They keep their own moral laws, by their own faulty moral. They want their own laws and rules adjusted to their personal needs. Sometimes they have one rule for their neighbour and another for themselves. All to their own benefit.
Modern society have, by creating a world were God is seemingly unnecessary they feel liberated to break His laws for their own rightousness.
Instead of child sacrifices, they now kill the child while it is still in the womb. Not to satisfy the Baal’s, but to satisfy self and their independence. Self is the modern religion and the chase to satisfy one’s own needs is the knew idol worship. As ever before it’s attractive becouse it offers freedom from God’s laws.

Even though man today think they don’t need God, that they are independent with their jobs and houses, they are blind to the fact that they really have nothing that can save them. Their workplaces, their educational facilities that all teach that there is no God but that we evolved from nothing and have ourselves created our prosperity and developed our intelligence. Our food, all controlled by big cooperations and governments that openly reject a divinity. If it collapses so does the individual. Their lives are in the hands of dishonest and ungodly people who control the world economy. They are not rich because God blessed them, but because they steal others blessings and resources. They steal people and they divide families. Their blessings are an illusion. And becouse no one looks at the signs God made on if they were in the right place with Him or not, they are unaware of the great danger they are in.

Just like Israel came to Egypt as free individuals in search of prosperity, the freedom man experience today will be a short experience. What happens when the powers ask for something in returnfor nurturing you and yours in the life that you now not only are custom with, but you are unable or cable to live life any other way? What if they ask something in return for feeding you and providing you with water? For you to be allowed to go to that store?
Will you follow God that you haven’t seemingly depended on for anything or will you follow the powers you have trusted on for so long to keep you going?
In the last days, a power who controls and influence other world powers will refuse you to buy and sell unless you worship the beast(obedient to their state government), or take their mark (follow their religious laws) and take their names on your forehead (ownership) (Rev.13,17-18).

Who wanted to write His name on your forehead? The Lord. (Rev.22:4) Because it’s a symbol of who you belong to, where your loyalty and your alliance is, but also who your savior and provider are. Is it God or is it these powers?
God had yearly feasts that could not be properly kept unless God had given them early rain and latter rain. This was given on condition of obedience to God’s laws, then He would bless their crops so that they could feast with the Lord. Through these feasts, there were to be created consciousness and celebration of their dependence on God but also the importance of knowing that their prosperity was tied to obedience to God’s law and His longsuffering atonement for the laws that they had broken.

The governments of the world have removed these feasts and replaced them with feasts instituted by the church, inspired by the old pagan feasts that were once ordained for gods such like Baal and Ashtaroth. The feasts of independence from the one true God and His laws. They were not depended on crops, and the signs in the heavens like God’s was, but tied to your dependence of man in power and to secure your dependence to man rather being reminded on your dependence of God for everything.

The Sabbath, God’s mark of authority and sanctifying bond with His people as proclaimed several places in the Bible, was changed by the church and replaced with a new day, Sunday. (Eze_20:12& 20, Isa 56:4-5, Eze_22:26, Matt.12,8, Mat 24:20)

A day commemorating man as lawgiver and caregiver. (2.Mos.20,11) The symbol God had set to say He was our creator and life-giver and to remind us of that fact, was removed. Instead, we were left with a new resting day that all in all only illustrated our dependence on man’s power to change and make legislation seemingly on behalf of God. If there is an earthly mediator you will look to him and not to God. But our mediator, Jesus Christ, is in heaven (1Tim.2:5).

The false religion will always do this very thing, turn our faithfulness and dependence of God to allegiance and dependence of human powers instead.

In the book of Revelation, an angel comes with a message to the whole world before Christ second coming. It says: «Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.» (Rev.14,7)

The call to us in this hour is to again see our dependence of God, and that our confidence in the continuity of the world is an illusion. An illusion that is fading as natural catastrophes hit country after country. God has, as with the serpents in the wilderness, started to remove His protection in one last final attempt to wake us up to see that our prosperity, although credited mans own greatness, wisdom, and productions, has all of this time actually been God’s blessings in His forbearance with mankind. Man has never been able to provide food, all the food you see in the stores have come forth by God’s mercy and blessing upon the earth. Nothing could have been done without God. The animal life has been protected all these years by God’s hand and spirit, a hand that is now withdrawing and the result is that they now die by the millions.
All of thisGod is doing to wake the world to their false illusion of independence from Him, to teach them that they were never ever in the course of time during earth history, independent. That there is no safety, no life without Him.
But man continue to mock God and while they have been mocking, God has in His great love and forbearance year after year made sure that the earth brought forth its crops, that rain kept falling and rivers continued running, for the survival of man and animals.
But when the evil, defiance, and mockery towards the hand that feeds them becomes too great, God’s time of judgment has come. He withdraws His protection so we will see what really happens when He no longerguides nature as He has. Will they turn to Him, their creator, and true Father, or will they continue to blaspheme and tread on His laws as they did when they had all they wanted?

Environmental movements have risen all over the world. There are great protests and people are demanding the governments do something about the more and more intense situation. But they don’t turn to God as they have learned growing up from the same governmental learning institutions that man is the only god. Mankind is seeing the problem but they have decided to be their own savior and bring forth their own salvation. They want to save the environment, make changes, forbid straws, drive their car less etc. But this earths prosperity have never been caused by mans hand. The earth has remained prosperous because God has provided for it. Without God, there is no salvation. Without God, all mankind standing together in unity, cannot save the planet. They have yet to discover the greatest scientific fact: That everything on this planet is dependent on the power of God and His spirit. It has been that way since creation and ever since God blew His spirit in Adam’s lifeless body so that he could live. Everything on earth is dependent on God to continue to exist. No man can save it. Mankind can remove God or live on its own as little as a human can remove the chromosomes and DNA inherited from their parents without perishing. In the same way, we cannot remove God’s life-giving spirit and live. Rather giving God honor, turning to Him, learning His ways, His laws of love, they look for salvation within themselves, with the governments, with the big manufacturers that they lean on. And they continue to blaspheme God.

If you want to save the climate, this planet, there is only one way to do it. The earth must recognize its creator, mankind must recognize their sin of rejecting their life-giver and sustainer and again turn to God’s laws. This is the only hope of planet earth.
For God will not, according to His own law, continue to feed the mouth of evil-doers and mockers forever.
He will not strengthen the hand that violates other people’s right, or continue to bless those that bring curses to others. If we want to live, we need to be in harmony with God’s law.
And any religion, whether it be us as gods or other gods, they will always offer you the freedom from God’s law, that is how you know it’s a false religion. Even if that religion claims they honor God and that they offer you God. If they teach you can violate God’s laws and sabbath it’s God’s own sign to you that it’s the same spirit that was behind Baal and Ashtaroth.
If you chose the lie before the truth you chose because you hated the truth.(2.Thess.2,10) Chose salvation, by the blood of Christ, reconcile with your Creator and life-giver before it is too late.
Everything we now see falling apart in the world, in nature, will get worse as God’s spirit withdraws. The world will collapse without God. God doesn’t want to be evil man’s servant.

«Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.
The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.» (Isa 24:1-6)

The misconception regarding what the Bible calls idol worship has caused people to continue in idol worship not even knowing that is what they do. Worship in the Bible is not just adoring or praising something, it’s obedience to powers and authorities that oppose God. It’s submission to a higher authority. In fact, God repeatedly rejects praise and adoration if it doesn’t follow obedience to His laws.
The same with idol worship, it’s obedience to another authority. Whether it’s our own self made laws or a heathen government. So the worship is about which authority you follow. The difference between obedience and worship is that worship means that you don’t just follow their guidelines and example but you also do it with admiration and devotion. And the combination of obedience and devotion makes up the term worship.
The devil doesn’t mind you praising God in heaven as long as you don’t show Him obedience, for he knows that the God of the Bible rejects praise tied with defiance and disobedience. And so you think you are worshipping God but God is not accepting your worship as worship.
In this verse in the Bible, it says they sought God daily, yet they were not accepted.
«Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.» (Isa 58:-2)
«And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.» (Isa 1:15)
«For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee» (1Sa 15:23)

So if the whole world paid homage to God in praise and ecstasy while defying His laws, it would be one great self-deception.
Even Jesus said it over and over again. That many would do many works in His name but because they keep transgressing His laws God will proclaim He doesn’t know them. (Matt.7,22-23 Word iniquity is the greek anomia which means violation of the law.) He also said: «And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?» (Luk 6:46)
And the apostle said that those who claim they know Jesus and don’t keep God’s law are liars.

The so-called climate change is really God’s spirit withdrawing from the world preparing it for judgment like foretold.
«Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness» (Heb 3:7-8)
The world will fall apart, and God will let it «The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word. …The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.»
«Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.» (Hos 4:1-3)

Open letter to Seventh-Day Adventists regarding Ron Wyatt (NEW Corrected version)

By

tam

-

23/01/2019

4

The Ark of the Covenant discovery, is it ‘Adventist-friendly’?

Open Letter to Seventh-Day Adventists
(The letter is a PDF: To read the letter click here Letter_on_Ark_and_Adventists
(This letter was re-uploaded in May 2023 with some language corrections.)

**NEW!!** FOR FURTHER STUDY AND UNDERSTANDING OF EARLY ADVENTIST PROPHECIES AND HOW THEY FIT WITH THE ARK DISCOVERIES, READ THIS ADDITIONAL DOCUMENT IN ADDITION TO THE LETTER.
Link: The Second Coming, The Timelines And The Ark Discovery – Thirdangelsmessage.com

This letter is specifically directed at Seventh-Day Adventists and the Seventh-Day Adventist Churches. The claimed discovery of Christ’s blood on the Mercy Seat was made by an active Seventh-Day Adventist. Although Ron tried to cooperate with the church, he was eventually rejected by the leadership and a large portion of his people. We are going to examine why that happened, and also address the theological concerns Adventists believe arise when they encounter this discovery. Only an intensive study can help us determine whether this discovery is true or false. Throughout time, God’s own people kept rejecting the messengers sent to them. For that reason, it is essential that we learn WHY it happened, how to avoid making the same mistake, and how to tell if something is of God or of the enemy.

Topics in this letter:
*Our Mentality *The discovery of the Ark first given to the Adventist Church *Prophecies with
multiple fulfillments. *The Day of Atonement 1. *Destroying the Adventist pillars? *To the law
and to the testimony *Law concerning the sacrifice *Law concerning the blood *A prophet like
Moses *The Day of Atonement *Both sacrifice and Priest. *Why could the resurrection take
place? *IF He did *Bible prophecies the two sprinklings *Why use the word “anoint” *At the
border of the promised land *The Ark to search out a resting place *The Ark of the Covenant had
many functions *Can the tables of stone be shown to the world? *What it means to us personally

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS:
Question 1: Wasn’t the High Priest only allowed into the Most Holy Place once a year? How then could Jesus enter at Passover?
Question 2: How does the Ark discovery fit with the 1888 message?
Question 3: Why are so many misguided people sharing this discovery without the right message to accompany it?
Question 4: If it were from God, why didn’t God send this message to our leaders and have them
properly present it to the Church?
Question 5: Why do many conservative Adventists reject it? Aren’t they close to God?
Question 6: These discoveries don’t seem to have anything to do with calling people out of Babylon.
Question 7: Does God ever use archaeology?
Question 8: How can we tell what is of God and what is of the devil?
Question 9: Wasn’t the Ark of the Covenant taken to heaven?
Question 10: Did Ron Wyatt go against 1844?
Question 11: Did Ron aspire to be an archaeologist without the proper education? Isn’t that deceptive?
Question 12: How can one man make so many discoveries? Doesn’t that make it unlikely?
Question 13: Would God ever expect us to believe in the Ark discovery before it is physically shown?
Question 14: I believe in the Bible. I don’t need these things to strengthen my faith.
Question 15: This discovery, even if it’s true, means nothing to me personally.
Question 16: How can you so boldly preach this when you haven’t seen the Ark yourself?
Question 17: Who was to take over after Ron Wyatt?
Question 18: Why does God tell about the Ark before He shows it?
Question 19: Why is there only one witness to the Ark? Doesn’t there have to be more than one in order for a truth to be established? And why hasn’t God done anything, such as adding witnesses, since Ron died?
Question 20: I’ve heard some bad rumors about Ron Wyatt’s character. Shouldn’t I use that to determine if he has God’s fruits or was telling the truth? Would Christians lie?
Question 21: Maybe Ron was psychologically unstable and fooled even himself into believing this discovery? That he saw things that weren’t there?

Who am I?
I am not a pastor, a scholar, or a prophet. I am not even a man. If this makes you want to disregard the whole letter, I would like to remind you that some of the greatest truths have come from God through simple people. I am not saying I am one of them, but there might be something in this letter that God would like you to know, and the only way for you to know for sure is to read it. For almost 30 years, I have been familiar with Ron Wyatt’s discoveries. For a long time, I have had to listen to people speak badly about the man who helped lead me to Christ, and I have had to suffer harsh treatment by fellow Christians for believing him. But I know in my heart that I did something at the beginning that many others did not. I “searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11) I did not trust anyone else to give me a conclusion. I did not ask my pastor to study it for me. I went on my knees and said to God, “If this discovery is true, the evidence is in the Bible. If so, show me. And if this discovery is a deception, the Bible can expose it. If so, show me.” Then I got up and opened my Bible. I will present some of the things I discovered. Can I say that I got it all right?
No, this letter is not meant to tell you how it absolutely should be interpreted, but to present you with some material you yourself can use to pray over and study to find out if some of it might just be right. Remember when Rachel Oakes Preston first addressed the Millerites about the Sabbath? They were too busy to give her any notice. Later, a couple of men decided to see if it wasn’t so and accepted her invitation to her bible study. Then Ellen White, who at that time had already received visions, was tested to see whether, by study, she would receive the Sabbath before receiving a revelation on it. Yes, God wanted even her to learn to study scripture when presented with something new. And she did. Because of the pioneers’ willingness to study and pray to see if it was so, the church received its main pillar of faith, the Sabbath, enshrined in its very name.
Now, please give me this time, hear me out, gather yourselves together, and pray and study. Perhaps you can perfect this study? Maybe you can add to it, or maybe something is right, and something else is wrong? When God sends us any light, we are to do this work and study. I cannot gather a large group of elders to study these Biblical topics with me, so I am sending it out to you all. It is now in your hands. Please follow the counsel we have been given and study these things for yourselves.

TO READ THE LETTER CLICK HERE (PDF Letter_on_Ark_and_Adventists

Who Babylon IS, Why it’s “fallen” and what her sins are.

By

tam

-

06/01/2019

0

“Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen…
For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication…
For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication”
(Revelation 18: 2,3-4)
The Bible is clear that the ancient city of Babylon would never be rebuilt or have people living in it: “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees’ excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.” (Isa 13:19-20)
God takes pride in His prophecies and until this day Babylon has never again been inhabited.
The book of Revelation is full of symbolism tied to the old testament. It is a book full of clues. It mentions Jezebel and Balaam as people that will tempt God’s people. However, the Old Testament talks about both Jezabels and Balaams death. They are historical figures that represent an image of future deceivers. And so Revelation not naming the future personas instead use names that will help Gods people to understand what type of deception they will be up against and what type of people. By studying the Old Testament they will not be fooled by the future deceivers.
Babylon is mentioned in the same way. It’s a symbolic expression of a deceiving power.

One of the clues lies in the words “Babylon has fallen”. If we go back to the Old Testament we read about Babylons fall only one place. This is where we are meant to find our clue. Babylon fell in one day right after God had written a message for the king on the wall: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.
“MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it.
TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
PERES; Thy kingdom is divided” (Dan.5:26-28)

By these words God caused Babylon to fall. But what was the great sin that was committed that very day?

The King of Babylon had taken the holy vessels from the temple of God given them in the hands of their leaders, wives, concubines and drank wine and praised idols.

In the book of Revelation, we see a harlot. In the Bible, God calls His congregation a harlot when they no longer obey Him. “Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way, And that she increased her whoredoms” (Ezek.23,13-14) The reason He called their behavior that of a whore was because the people of God had mixed paganism and idol worship with Gods name and customs.

In Revelation, the woman with Babylon on her forehead holds up a cup with wine in it. This is exactly what they were doing the night Babylon fell, rising cups with wine in it.
The harlot in Revelation is, in addition, attributed like in Ezekiel 23 to have fornicated with world leaders.
The cup the harlot in Revelation 17 holds in her hand is called: “the wine of her fornication” (Rev.17,2)
Fornication in the Bible, symbolically, is always when they that proclaim His name have mixed paganism, alliances with the world into their worship.
This is just what the leader in Babylon had done the day Babylon fell. He had taken holy vessels belonging to the temple of God and desecrated it with the religions of the world. He had mixed the truth and what’s holy with a lie and a sin. This mixture represents “Babylons sins” and the reason God proclaims that “it is fallen”.
In this way, the Bible itself explains and we don’t have to add our imagination to understand the meaning.
Thus if we drink this wine, if we do as they did, and mix the mentality and religion of the world with God’s truth, we commit the sins of Babylon as well. And we will dive more in-depth into that problem in a bit.
Remember that the king of Babylon knew very well who God was.
In Daniel’s words against the king the day Babylon was falling he reprimanded the king saying “he knew”. He knew who God was and that He was the supreme God. He had learned this from His grandfather(also called father) who was a convert (Dan 4:34-37).

The papal power.
In the Papal church, we find the story of Babylon repeated. Just like Babylon conquered Jerusalem, and God allowed them to, Rome destroyed the second temple and later suppressed God’s people.
Just like the king of Babylon was converted (Dan 4) after destroying the temple and persecuting God’s people, the leadership in Rome seemingly converted to Christianity after having destroyed the temple and persecuted God’s people.
In both cases both Babylon and Rome had been permitted by God to destroy the temple because of the sins of God’s people.
In the same way, the new Christian Rome destroyed God’s true and pure church because God’s people had “fallen away” (2Th 2:3)
Papal Rome then after its conversion did what Babylons leadership had done after its conversion. They mixed God’s holy things with lies.
Historically we know this is what happened. The Catholic church took Christ name, God’s name, the Bible and mixed it with the old Roman pagan religion which was the religion of the world. The Roman religion was just a copy of a similar religion that had been practiced in Babylon and in the Greek empire, by the ancient Canaanites and others. It was the worldly accepted religion.
By mixing the two religions they got a corrupt Christian faith and became a harlot committing fornication. Not only committing itself, but the Catholic Church forced people during the middle ages to partake in their practice and horedom and they made alliances with the kings and leaders of the world getting them on their side to do their bidding.
But God had rejected that church. The new Babylon was fallen. God had cut her off. When she mixed truth with error and forced others “to drink of her fornication” God rejected her as His church.
MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. In time God caused the church to divide.

Babylons sins continue after the division.
Reformer after reformer tried to get Christianity back to the Biblical standard. To “bring God’s vessels back to Jerusalem,” for the truth to be measured with the Bible. However, whenever a reform leader died the group stopped reforming in a misunderstood loyalty to the teaching of that one leader. Despite this, there was always a small group that would constantly move forward towards a pure Bible-based faith. Constantly they received resistance from other Christians who wanted to hold on to church traditions and doctrines and practices that God never ordained but instead had their roots in the ancient worldly religions.
One group of people decided to go back to God’s law, to His times and ordinances, and completely reject the religion of traditions mingled with God’s name.

However, in Revelation 18 we hear that some of God’s people are still in “fallen Babylon” and they are tempted to sin as she has and does.
Christians still haven’t given up on their traditions and they still haven’t chosen a 100% loyalty to the Bible and the truth manifested there.

Even the church going back to God’s law has the last generations reversed their reformation by taking part in worldly feast and religious practices that originates from Babylon. They are mixing truth with error, God’s name with false religion.
It says: “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” (Rev.18,3) The whole world partake in the mixture of truth and error just like Babylon did, just like spiritual Babylon did later. They continue to desecrate God’s ordinances so they can keep their own traditions and practices. They follow God with one hand and resist His guidance with the other.
“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins” (Rev 18:4)
This calling to God’s people is the last they will get. If they don’t listen to this heaven-sent messager and separate themselves from Babylons ways, from mixing Gods name and ways with worldly and/or pagan practices they will fall together with Babylon during judgment.
Those who commit her sins will also receive her punishment:
“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” (Rev 18:4-5)
Jesus said: “But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” (Mat 15:9)
It was the same sin that Israel and later Juda committed that made God leave His temple and allow them to be taken by their enemies. They mixed His name and ordinances with the worldly religion of their day. This leads to their fall and according to Revelation 18 doing the same will lead to our fall as well.
There is only one way to be protected in the end days. In the Bible, whenever Gods people removed worldly and pagan practices, threw away their idols and traditions, repented and re-instituted Gods laws and times, God miraculously saved them from their enemies. This happened over and over again. Removing those practices made by a corrupt world from Gods temple, that is us, God will build a war of protection around us. Christ name and blood saves and protects us, but only if it’s together with God’s truth. Christ name does not save anyone who is in conflict with the truth. Jesus said so Himself: “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied IN THY NAME? and IN THY NAME have cast out devils? and IN THY NAME done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” (Mat 7:21-23)

“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” (Rev 3:6)

ARMAGEDDON

By

tam

-

17/12/2018

0

READ ALL THE CHAPTERS HERE.

READ THE BOOK HERE

FIND OUT WHO THE CONTENDERS ARE.
WHAT THE BATTLE IS REALLY ABOUT.
WHO GOD’S PEOPLE ARE.
HOW IT ALL WILL END
WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO IN ORDER TO BE ON THE RIGHT SIDE IN THE FINAL BATTLE.

“When ye see the Ark of the Covenant…”

By

tam

-

31/10/2018

1

(This article is directed to Seventh Day Adventists, lay-ministers, lay-ministries and independent SDA churches.)

“When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.” Jos.3:3

THE ARK COVERED:
Let us just state one fact, none of them actually saw the Ark. The Ark was hidden underneath the vail from the holiest as instructed. (Num.4,5) At no time was it visible in the open. Yet, in faith, they knew it was there and they were to follow it.
They had known the man who had built it, the man who had placed the ten commandments inside it. They had themselves heard the voice proclaiming the ten commandments. They knew the priests that had entered into the Most Holy and they knew the men who had been assigned to carry it.
The command from God didn’t require them to “see” it personally, it required it for them to see it in faith and follow it in faith.
Why were they to walk after the Ark?

THE TIME FRAME:
Israel had been wandering in the wilderness as prophecied for 40 years. Moses had just died and Joshua has taken over the leading role.
God’s people had recently faced great tribulation. An army had plotted against them, their enemies had even called for a known prophet to curse them. When it didn’t succeed, the leaders and the prophet plotted to deceive them. Beautiful women was sent in to seduce the men in Israel. It seemed like a good thing to unite with them. Wasn’t the Midianites also children of Abraham? And the Moabites, weren’t they also from Abrahams family, his brother? And wasn’t Moses himself married to a Midianite? They were. But they didn’t have God’s law with them. Their religion was a religious mixture. Their forefathers Midian and Lot had worshipped the true God. But as they mingled and married with pagans their religion had changed into idolatry. And now they were tempting Israel to follow them in their sins at the very border to the promised land. It seemed like a good thing to many, to make friends and unite in a peaceful union. But it was a deception. Before they knew it they were mixing their faith with that of the Moabites and the Midianites.
“And Israel abode in Shittim, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.” (Num 25:1-2, See also 4.Mos.31,16 for reference to the Midianite women)
I’m sure they felt like peacemakers in the world, but the truth was that they were working against God’s true peace. A union between a mixture religion and the truth would taint the true and no one would be left to represent the unfalsified truth of the Creator of the universe.
After this tribulation, those who remained faithful or who turned from their ways got ready to cross the Jordan river into the land God had promised.
The experience of Israel is compared to God’s people in the end times. In Revelation, we learn of a harlot with the “wine of fornication”. She has daughters. (Rev.17,2 & 5) The power has similar roots as God’s people. A woman in the Bible represents a church. An unfaithful one is called a harlot and a faithful one is called pure and holy. (Ezek. 23; Rev.12,17 etc) The harlot is, therefore, a symbol of a church that has gone astray, mixed sin with truth and is forcefully and seductively trying to make everyone follow in her footsteps. Do they not all believe in Christ, why not unite? It’s a false Christian power, a false prophet. And what differs between the church of the harlot and God’s people are that God’s people keep Gods commandments (Rev.14,12) and she tries to lure God’s people into fornication or disobedience to God. She is a temptress.
She appears as a peacemaker in the eyes of men for she works together with the kings of the earth, all nations and even through the merchants. The merchants in old Mesopotamia were the very ones who brought the religion of Babylon to the world. They are and have always been the influencers of the masses. Surely all these standing together seem like some sort of unity and therefore must be a good thing? But they are leading people into perdition. It doesn’t matter how many follow or support something if it’s wrong or sinful, God is not persuaded by the masses to change His character and His law. In the end time, it says the whole world will follow the beast. Gods enemy: “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him” (Rev.13,8) This is what we call a majority. God’s law says, however:
«Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong.» Exo. 23:2

THE PROMISED LAND
The promised land, Canaan, symbolizes the land promised to us who believe. (See Heb.3-4) It’s God’s true rest. The mansions Christ spoke about. (Joh.14,2) Our hope. But there was one important message that was given right before they were to enter the promised land.
When the time had come for them to go into the land, when the Captain of the host of the LORD had come, they were given a special message to guide them in their final steps. (Jos.5,14)
The Ark of The Covenant was to be a special sign for them that it was time to break up and go. It would go before them and lead them through the final obstacles before they could possess the Promised land. And that is when they are told: “When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.”
It was the Ark that would first enter into the waters and as long as it was standing in the middle of the river they could all safely cross over to the other side. The Ark then followed after them and joined them.

THE END TIME EVENTS
This great event has perhaps an important message to God’s end-time people who are standing at the border of the true promised land. The signal that they were to prepare to cross over was the Ark. But it was them walking after it that lead them into the river, or they would not have been able to cross it.
The discovery of the Ark of the Covenant might just be Gods sign to His end-time people that it’s time to “remove from your place, and go after it”. What would this mean symbolically? It means that when we learned of the discovery of the Ark we were to stand in order together and get ready for the final event. We were to be alerted and start walking in faith. To follow the Ark means to follow God’s lead. The Ark itself was only a representation of God’s leadership. A visible sign of Israel’s true great leader. God used the Ark to test their willingness to follow Him.
The discovery of the Ark of the Covenant is a story of God’s great mercy. What happened in the Jordan river tell a similar story as the blood on the mercy seat does. Jesus performed the symbolism of his death and resurrection, the baptism, at the same river not far from where this event took place. Just like the Ark standing in the river was what made it possible for God’s people to cross over to the promised land, in the same way, it is the blood of Christ that makes it possible for us today to enter God’s promised land. Both stories mirror each other. Only by grace and God’s miracle for our sake, can we have a hope of entering the true promised land.
Beholding the discovery of the Ark is beholding the blood, following its lead is to follow the authority it represents. The law inside the Ark.
Were God’s people meant to see the Ark in faith when God’s servant witnessed of it, as it was covered by Golgatha hill, and follow it in our days? What would be the consequence of not following its lead?

“AND THE PRIEST ..BEARING IT”
God’s people today is intensely divided. They all come up with different ideas, different interpretations of prophecy, a different understanding of important Bible scripture. They fight and cannot agree. They come with time prophecies that fail. All of this, the lack of unity in the understanding of the end time events, is the consequence of not following God’s lead. They all think they are following God’s lead, they might even all have great answers to prayers. God loves His people whether they have understood everything correct or not. He doesn’t wait with answering peoples prayer and helping them because they don’t say or think everything correct. God is a merciful and patient God. But to create unity and harmony in the end time is crucial for God’s people’s wellbeing. God’s people desperately needed a clear leadership in its final years to help them move forward in order.
It wasn’t just the Ark that went before Israel. Remember: “And he said, Nay; but as captain of the host of the LORD am I now come.” (Jos 5:14) This great Captain was to go and lead them, not just a chest of gold. But the chest of gold, the Ark, was a visible sign to the people that they were being led by that very Captain of the host. Because they would not be able to see Him. They were to show their obedience to the Captain by following the Ark, the symbol of His leadership.
If we take this into consideration in our days it’s not to avoid to ask the question, if God’s people had received the discovery of the Ark and followed the Ark when they saw it (in faith) would they also be in a spiritual union when faced with the temptations and dangers ahead? Would the captain of the host lead them as in one flock?
Being God’s people does not mean we can take for granted that God will gather and lead us in a union. Remember God’s plan for His people in the past could not take place because they refused His leading. Jesus said: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Mat 23:37) We see here that the unity under His protection and lead was only possible if His people cooperated with Him. The conditions for unity are no different for God’s people today. God’s plans for His people cannot take place if they don’t listen to Him and the messengers sent to them.

Many rejected the Ark discovery, they did not see it as a sign and they did not follow. Nor would they believe Gods witness. This might have added to the disunity that has come over God’s people in the end times. If we want to go together with the Lord we have to follow Him and His lead. If we at one point step away from his leading we subject us to temptations and will stumble.
The verse doesn’t just mention to look at the Ark but also to the priests bearing it. This might be another great help in the confusion. In the New Testament we learn that God’s priests are now those sharing the gospel. (1Pe_2:9; Rev 1:6). The priests had also other trademarks, they were God’s truth bearers. In the story by the Jordan river the priests literally physically carried God’s truth on their shoulders. In the same way, God has His truth bearers today. This is very important to understand in order to handle the different diversities we see among God’s people.
God adds advanced light to light that has already been given. That means that those who are chosen to give additional light already have received God’s previous light. If God were to give the additional light to someone who has rejected the previous light, He Himself will contribute and even lead people into the confusion that exists today among God’s people. The truth would then be divided up and no one would represent it fully. But as we see in the Bible, God always, without exception, build the blocks of light on the previous blocks of light. That is why you never see in the Bible someone coming from Moab or Ammon for instance to be a prophet to God’s people. God always chooses the ones who already have the roots and represents His truth correctly. This means that when God chooses people to represent the Ark, to “show” the Ark to man, He chooses the ones who already have a correct understanding of the truth.
This means that if the Ark had been accepted as a sign to follow, God’s people would at the same time have seen “the priests” bearing it and know that they had to have accepted the previous chains of light. This would help in the confusion on who is telling and even interpreting the truth correctly.
Many people do preach the Ark of the Covenant discovery, but not all are chosen by God to do so. The enemy of God will always have false preachers to share the truth in order to confuse the truth. But God’s people are not to listen to them. Those God has chosen will be able to bring evidence of their election for people to see and hear. One of such people is Ron Wyatt. The truth he represented is therefore important. The pillar truth that had previously been given by God, he had received and believed. He had received God’s previous truth as it had come to him and represented it together with the Ark. Under no circumstance would Ron be allowed to share this great discovery and enter the cave with the Ark if he represented a falsified version of the truth.
Yet others popular men have preached the Ark discovery after him who rejects the truth’s that Ron represented with the Ark. It is evident that these people are not bearers of the Ark after Gods election. They just claim to be. For they themselves have not “followed the priests bearing it” by rejecting what they represented together with the Ark. Neither do they have the Ark. These are evident not God’s elected messengers as they don’t build on the truth given, but try to steal the Ark discovery to fit with their own ideas and doctrines they have been taught. Taking it from it’s designed message and messengers to a path that have long rejected God’s truth in the past. But their falsehood is evident as they cannot show for having been in the cave with the Ark or near His holy things while Ron Wyatt did. Ron remains as a representant for the truth along with the Ark, while they just use Ron’s story to present their own ideas.

The Ark was to unite God’s people to go as in one accord in their final journey. Right now many of God’s people are in peril. Debates, and many interpretations. Many look up to preachers and leaders and follow each their own. They choose their teachers all after what they feel fit their already understanding or even wishes.
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers” (2Ti 4:3)

But there is one path that is lead by the Lord Himself in these final days. Our own captain of the host of the LORD. Watch the Ark and those who are specially chosen to bear it to the people. Notice what they teach and if they have added the new light with the old light and not gone their own path.
God will always have chosen workers who are specially selected to help people by guiding them to the “truth source”.
By following the Ark and watching those who are bearers of it, God can help you navigate trough truth and errors in the end time. This is yet another blessing and light that many of God’s people have missed out on because they didn’t follow the lead of the Ark.
Instead, they are partly defenseless as their brethren share one new (or old yet false) understanding after another causing division and strife. And the result is little unity of understanding.
Individualism is great in today’s society and also among God’s people. They think they are clever enough themselves, they think that the ideas and thoughts they have are divine, and they don’t see that God moves in order. The attitude is that if the truth fits your personal understanding then it has to be the truth. But God has always had His lightbearers who steadfastly move forward adding light to light.
And among them, there are people who start wandering off the path to the left and to the right taking each a crowd with them. It’s crucial to not reject light God has given if you want to continue on God’s straight and narrow path without stumbling.
Keep therefore also an eye on the people God has elected to help show people the Ark of the Covenant and notice what they believe and tell you. And if you are uncertain, notice if their truth is built on the same truth Ron represented or if it diverse you away from that pillar faith to that of another religious group or church. Then they are among those that are unrightfully stealing the discovery for their own personal gain. They will see Ron’s death as an opportunity for them to change the direction of the truth that goes with the message. Thinking themselves grand, as if God made a mistake in the man He chose not knowing the truth he represented at the time. God is not ignorant. He chose Ron for the very reason that he represented Him and the future events correctly. Ron was inside in the cave with the Ark and they that give a different gospel or a different view on the end time events were never invited in.

THOSE AMONG GOD’S PEOPLE THAT ARE SAYING THERE IS NO ARK DISCOVERY
These people are removing the sign for God’s people to break up and walk in unity the last part of the journey. It’s like turning off a light that shines in the darkness. They encourage people to look away from the Ark and those bearing it to themselves. These are causing people to be lead away from Christ leading while at the same time claiming to actually follow God’s leading. But they are not the first to do it.
“…in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly. I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.” (Jer 23:21)
Their rejection and their persuasion of people to not “follow the Ark” are part of the cause of the great disunity that followed within God’s remnant church. They hindered God’s people to walk gathered in God’s leading.
Instead of seeing the Ark as a sign to follow it in order to walk in order, they have removed the light from the path. The result is that preachers, independent and congregational alike, each come with their own truths. “Listen to me,” says one great preacher, “No, listen to me,” says another.
These men do not understand that they have taken peoples attention from God’s true light to themselves ripping up the body of Christ and leaving masses unprepared for the final events.

Today
“Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.” (Heb.4,7)
“When ye see the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, and the priests the Levites bearing it, then ye shall remove from your place, and go after it.”
Believe in this discovery, accept the sign God has given to you. Prepare and get up for the time is very short. Find peace in God’s leading. And God will go before you and after you and compass you.

The First Lie

By

tam

-

20/08/2018

0

With the earliest history of man, Satan began his efforts to deceive our race. He who had incited rebellion in Heaven desired to bring the whole creation to unite with him in his warfare against the government of God. His envy and jealousy were excited as he looked upon the beautiful home prepared for the happy, holy pair, and he immediately laid his plans to cause their fall. Had he revealed him-self in his real character, he would have been repulsed at once, for Adam and Eve had been warned against this dangerous foe; but he worked in the dark, concealing his purpose, that he might more effectually accomplish his object.Employing as his medium the serpent, then a creature of fascinating appearance, he addressed himself to Eve, “Hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” Genesis 3:1. Had Eve refrained from entering into argument with the tempter, she would have been safe; but she ventured to parley with him, and fell a victim to his wiles. It is thus that many are still overcome. They doubt and argue concerning the requirements of God, and instead of obeying the divine commands, they accept human theories, which but disguise the devices of Satan.

“The woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Genesis 3:2-5.

Eve yielded to temptation, and through her influence Adam also was deceived. They accepted the words of the serpent, that God did not mean what He said; they distrusted their Creator, and imagined that He was restricting their liberty, and that they might obtain great light and freedom by transgressing His law. But what did Adam, after his sin, find to be the meaning of the words, “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die”? Did he find them to mean, as Satan had led him to believe, that he was to be ushered into a more exalted state of existence? Then indeed there was great good to be gained by transgression, and Satan was proved to be a benefactor of the race. But Adam did not so understand the divine sentence. God declared that as a penalty for his sin, man should return to the ground whence he was taken: “Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Genesis 3:19. The words of Satan, “Your eyes shall be opened,” proved to be true only in this sense: After Adam and Eve had disobeyed God, their eyes were opened to discern their folly; they did know evil, and they tasted the bitter fruit of transgression.Immortality had been promised on condition of obedience to the requirements of God. It was forfeited by disobedience, and Adam became subject to death. He could not transmit to his posterity that which he did not possess; and there would have been no hope for the fallen race,had not God, by the sacrifice of His Son, brought immortality within their reach.

“The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23.

In no other way can it be obtained. But every man may come in possession of this priceless blessing if he will comply with the conditions. All “who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality,” will receive eternal life. Romans 2:7.

The one who promised Adam life in disobedience was the great deceiver. The first sermon ever preached upon the immortality of the soul was preached by the serpent to Eve in Eden,—“Ye shall not surely die;” and this declaration, resting solely upon the authority of Satan, is echoed from the pulpits of Christendom, and received by the majority of mankind as readily as it was received by our first parents. The divine sentence, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die,” (Ezekiel 18:20) is made to mean, The soul that sinneth, it shall not die, but live eternally. We cannot but wonder at the strange infatuation which renders men so credulous concerning the words of Satan, and so unbelieving in regard to the words of God.The fruit of the tree of life had the power to perpetuate life. Had man after his fall been allowed free access to that tree, he would have lived forever, and thus sin would have been immortalized. But a flaming sword was placed “to keep the way of the tree of life,” and not one of the family of Adam has been permitted to pass that barrier and partake of the life-giving fruit. Therefore there is not an immortal sinner.But after the fall, Satan bade his angels make a special effort to foster the belief in man’s natural immortality; and when they had induced the people to receive this error, they led them on to conclude that the sinner would live in eternal misery. Now the prince of darkness, working through his agents, represents God as a revenge fulty rant, declaring that He plunges into hell all those who do not please Him, and causes them ever to feel His wrath; and that while they suffer unutterable anguish, and writhe in the eternal flames, their Creator looks down upon them with sat-is faction.Thus the arch-fiend clothes with his own attributes the Creator and Benefactor of mankind. Cruelty is Satanic. God is love; and all that He created was pure, holy, and lovely, until sin was brought in by the first great rebel.Satan himself is the enemy who tempts man to sin, and then destroys him if he can; and when he has made sure of his victim, then he exults in the ruin he has wrought. If permit-ted, he would sweep the entire race into his net. Were it not for the interposition of divine power, not one son or daughter of Adam would escape.He is seeking to overcome men to-day, as he overcame our first parents, by shaking their confidence in their Creator, and leading them to doubt the wisdom of His government and the justice of His laws. Satan and his emissaries represent God as even worse than themselves, in order to excuse their own malignity and rebellion. The great deceiver endeavors to shift his own horrible cruelty of character upon our heavenly Father, that he may cause himself to appear as one greatly wronged because he will not submit to so unjust a governor. He presents before the world the liberty which they may enjoy under his mild sway, in contrast with the bondage imposed by the stern decrees of Jehovah.Thus he succeeds in luring souls away from their allegiance to God.How repugnant to every emotion of love and mercy,and even to our sense of justice, is the doctrine that the wicked dead are tormented with fire and brimstone inan eternally burning hell, that for the sins of a brief earthly life they are to suffer torture as long as God shall live. Yet this doctrine has been generally embodied in the creeds of Christendom. Says a learned doctor of divinity: “The sight of hell-torments will exalt the happiness of the saints forever. When they see others who are of the same nature and born under the same circumstances, plunged in such misery, and they so distinguished, it will make them sensible of how happy they are.” Another uses these words: “While the decree of reprobation is eternally executing on the vessels of wrath, the smoke of their torment will be eternally ascending in view of the vessels of mercy, who, instead of taking the part of these miserable objects, will say, Amen, Alleluia! praise ye the Lord!” Where in the pages of God’s word are such sentiments expressed? Those who present them may be learned and even honest men; but they are deluded by the sophistry of

The christian “hell” has pagan roots and are not consistant with the Bible itself.
Photo: Hell – detail from a fresco in the medieval church of St Nicholas in Raduil.

Satan. He leads them to misconstrue strong expressions of Scripture, giving to the language the coloring of bitterness and malignity which pertains to himself, but not to our Creator. What would be gained to God should we admit that He delights in witnessing unceasing tortures; that He is regaled with the groans and shrieks and imprecations of the suffering creatures whom He holds in the flames of hell? Can these horrid sounds be music in the ear of Infinite Love? It is urged that the infliction of endless misery upon the wicked would show God’s hatred of sin as an evil which is ruinous to the peace and order of the universe. Oh, dreadful blasphemy! As if God’s hatred of sin is the reason why He perpetuates sin. For, according to the received theology, continued torture without hope of mercy maddens its wretched victims, and as they pour out their rage in curses and blasphemy, they are forever augmenting their load of guilt. God’s glory is not enhanced by thus perpetuating continually increasing sin through ceaseless ages.It is beyond the power of the human mind to estimate the evil which has been wrought by the heresy of eternal torment. The religion of the Bible, full of love and goodness, and abounding in compassion, is darkened by superstition and clothed with terror. When we consider in what false colors Satan has painted the character of God,can we wonder that our merciful Creator is feared, dreaded,and even hated? The appalling views of God which have spread over the world from the teachings of the pulpit have made thousands, yea, millions, of skeptics and infidels. The theory of eternal torment is one of the false doctrines that constitute the wine of the abominations of Babylon, of which she makes all nations drink. That ministers of Christ should have accepted this heresy and proclaimed it from the sacred desk, is indeed a mystery. They received it from Rome, as they received the false Sabbath. True, it has been taught by great and good men; but the light on this subject had not come to them as it has come to us. They were responsible only for the light which shone in their time; we are accountable for that which shines in our day. If we turn from the testimony of God’s word, and accept false doctrines because our fathers taught them, we fall under the condemnation pronounced upon Babylon; we are drinking of the wine of her abominations. A large class to whom the doctrine of eternal torment is revolting are driven to the opposite error. They see that the Scriptures represent God as a being of love and compassion, and they cannot believe that He will consign His creatures to the fires of an eternally burning hell. But, holding that the soul is naturally immortal, they see no alternative but to conclude that all mankind will finally be saved.Many regard the threatenings of the Bible as designed merely to frighten men into obedience, and not to be literally fulfilled. Thus the sinner can live in selfish pleasure, disregarding the requirements of God, and yet expect to be finally received into His favor. Such a doctrine, presuming upon God’s mercy, but ignoring His justice, pleases the carnal heart,and emboldens the wicked in their iniquity.To show how believers in universal salvation wrest the Scriptures to sustain their soul-destroying dogmas,it is needful only to cite their own utterances. At the funeral of an irreligious young man, who was killed instantly by an accident, a Universalist minister selected as his text the Scripture statement concerning David, “He was comforted concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead.” 2 Samuel 13:39.“I am frequently asked,” said the speaker, “what will be the fate of those who leave the world in sin, die, perhaps, in a state of inebriation, die with the scarlet stains of crime unwashed from their robes, or die as this young man died, having never made a profession or enjoyed an experience of religion. We are content with the Scriptures; their answer shall solve the awful problem. Amnon was exceedingly sinful; he was unrepentant, he was made drunk, and while drunk was killed. David was a prophet of God; he must have known whether it would be ill or well for Amnon in the world to come. What were the expressions of his heart?— ‘The soul of King David longed to go forth unto Absalom; for he was comforted concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead.’“And what is the inference to be deduced from this language? Is it not that endless suffering formed no part of his religious belief?—So we conceive; and here we discover a triumphant argument in support of the more pleasing, moreen lightened, more benevolent hypothesis of ultimate universal purity and peace. He was comforted, seeing his son was dead. And why so?—Because by the eye of prophecy he could look forward into the glorious future, and see that son far removed from all temptations, released from the bondage and purified from the corruptions of sin, and after being made sufficiently holy and enlightened, admitted to the assembly of ascended and rejoicing spirits. His only comfort was, that in being removed from the present state of sin and suffering, his beloved son had gone where the loftiest breathings of the Holy Spirit would be shed upon his darkened soul; where his mind would be unfolded to the wisdom of Heaven and the sweet raptures of immortal love, and thus prepared with a sanctified nature to enjoy the rest and society of the heavenly inheritance.“In these thoughts we would be understood to believe that the salvation of Heaven depends upon nothing which we can do in this life; neither upon a present change of heart, nor upon present belief, or a present profession of religion.”
Thus does the professed minister of Christ reiterate the falsehood uttered by the serpent in Eden,—“Ye shall not surely die.” “In the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods.” The vilest of sinners,—the murderer, the thief, and the adulterer,—will after death be prepared to enter into immortal bliss. And from what does this perverter of the Scriptures draw his conclusions?—From a single sentence expressing David’s submission to the dispensation of Providence.His soul “longed to go forth unto Absalom; for he was comforted concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead.” The poignancy of his grief having been softened by time, his thoughts turned from the dead to the living son, self-banished through fear of the just punishment of his crime. And this is the evidence that the incestuous, drunken Amnon was at death immediately transported to the abodes of bliss, there to be purified and prepared for the companionship of sinless angels!A pleasing fable indeed, well suited to gratify the carnal heart! This is Satan’s own doctrine, and it does his work effectually. Should we be surprised that, with such instruction, wickedness abounds? Is there not need of contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints? The course pursued by this one false teacher illustrates that of many others. A few words of Scripture are separated from the context, which would in many cases show its meaning to be exactly opposite to the interpretation put upon it; and such disjointed passages are perverted and used in proof of doctrines that have no foundation in the word of God. The testimony cited as evidence that the drunken Amnon is in Heaven, is a mere inference, directly contradicted by the plain and positive statement of the Scriptures, that no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God.It is thus that doubters, unbelievers, and skeptics turn the truth into a lie. And multitudes have been deceived by their sophistry, and rocked to sleep in the cradle of carnal security. If the souls of all men pass directly to Heaven at the hour of dissolution, then we may well covet death rather than life. Many have been led by this belief to put an end to their existence. When overwhelmed with trouble, perplexity, and disappointment, it seems an easy thing to break the brittle thread of life, and soar away into the bliss of the eternal world.God has given in His word abundant evidence that He will punish the transgressors of His law. Witness the visitation of His judgments upon the angels who kept not their first estate, on the inhabitants of the antediluvian world,on the people of Sodom, on unbelieving Israel. Their history is placed on record for our admonition.Let us consider what the Bible teaches further concerning the ungodly and unrepentant, whom the Universalist places in Heaven as holy, happy angels.

“I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.”

This promise is only to those that thirst. None but those who feel their need of the water of life, and seek it at the loss of all things else, will be supplied.

“He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God,and he shall be My son.” Revelation 21:6, 7.

Here, also, conditions are specified. To inherit all things, we must resist and overcome sin.

“No fornicator, nor unclean person, nor covetous man,which is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.” Ephesians 5:5, (Rev. Ver.).

“Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall seethe Lord.” Hebrews 12:14.

“Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life,and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whore mongers, and murderers,and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.” Revelation 22:14, 15.

God has given to men a declaration of His character:

“The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thou-sands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.” Exodus 34:6, 7.

The power and authority of the divine government will be employed to put down rebellion; yet all the manifestations of retributive justice will be perfectly consistent with the character of God as a merciful, long-suffering, benevolent being.God does not force the will or judgment of any. He takes no pleasure in a slavish obedience. He desires that the creatures of His hands shall love Him because He is worthy of love. He would have them obey Him because they have an intelligent appreciation of His wisdom, justice, and benevolence. And all who have a just conception of these qualities will love Him because they are drawn toward Him in admiration of His attributes. The principles of kindness, mercy, and love taught and exemplified by our Saviour, are a copy of the will and character of God. Christ declared that He taught nothing except that which He had received from His Father. The principles of the divine government are in perfect harmony with the Saviour’s precept, “Love your enemies.” God executes justice upon the wicked, for the good of the universe, and even of those upon whom His judgments are visited. He would make them happy if He could do so in accordance with the laws of His government and the justice of His character. He surrounds them with the tokens of His love, He grants them a knowledge of His law, and follows them with the offers of His mercy; but they despise His love, make void His law, and reject His mercy. While constantly receiving His gifts, they dishonor the Giver; they hate God be-cause they know that He abhors their sins. The Lord bears long with their perversity; but the decisive hour will come at last, when their destiny is to be decided. Will He then chain these rebels to His side? Will He force them to do His will?Those who have chosen Satan as their leader, and have been controlled by his power, are not prepared to enter the presence of God. Pride, deception, licentiousness, cruelty, have become fixed in their characters. Can they enter Heaven to dwell forever with those whom they despised and hated on earth? Truth will never be agreeable to a liar; meekness will not satisfy self-esteem and pride; purity is not acceptable to the corrupt; disinterested love does not appear attractive to the selfish. The destiny of the wicked is fixed by their own choice. Their exclusion from Heaven is voluntary; it is just.Like the waters of the flood, the fires of the great day declare God’s verdict that the wicked are incurable. They have no disposition to submit to divine authority. Their will has been exercised in revolt; and when life is ended, it is too late to turn the current of their thoughts in the opposite direction,—too late to turn from transgression to obedience,from hatred to love.In mercy to the world, God blotted out its wicked inhabitants in Noah’s time. In mercy He destroyed the corrupt dwellers in Sodom. Through the deceptive power of Satan, the workers of iniquity obtain sympathy and admiration, and are thus constantly leading others to rebellion. It was so in Noah’s day, and in the time of Abraham and Lot; it is so in our time. It is in mercy to the universe that God will finally destroy the rejecters of His grace.But the doctrine of never-ending torment has no sanction in the Bible. John in the Revelation, describing the future joy and glory of the redeemed, declares that He heard every voice in Heaven and earth, and under the earth, ascribing praise to God. There will be no lost beings in hell to mingle their shrieks with the songs of the saved.

“The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:23.

While life is the inheritance of the righteous, death is the portion of the wicked. The penalty threatened is not merely temporal death, for all must suffer this. It is the second death,the opposite of everlasting life. God cannot save the sinner in his sins; but He declares that the wicked, having suffered the punishment of their guilt, shall be as though they had not been. Says an inspired writer,

“Thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be.” Psalm 37:10.

In consequence of Adam’s sin, death passed upon all mankind. All alike go down into the grave. But through the provisions of the plan of salvation, all are to be brought forth from their graves. Then those who have not secured the pardon of their sins must receive the penalty of transgression. They suffer punishment varying in duration and intensity according to their works, but finally ending in the second death. Covered with infamy, they sink into hopeless, eternal oblivion. Upon the fundamental error of natural immortality rests the doctrine of consciousness in death, a doctrine,like eternal torment, opposed to the teachings of the Scriptures, to the dictates of reason, and to our feelings of humanity. According to the popular belief, the redeemed in Heaven are acquainted with all that takes place on the earth, and especially with the lives of the friends whom they have left behind. But how could it be a source of happiness to the dead to know the troubles of the living, to witness the sins committed by their own loved ones, and to see them enduring all the sorrows, disappointments, and anguish of life? How much of Heaven’s bliss would be enjoyed by those who were hovering over their friends on earth? And how utterly revolting is the belief that as soon as the breath leaves the body, the soul of the impenitent is consigned to the flames of hell! To what depths of anguish must those be plunged who see their friends passing to the grave unprepared, to enter upon an eternity of woe and sin! Many have been driven to insanity by this harrowing thought.What say the Scriptures concerning these things? David declares that man is not conscious in death.

“His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish.” Psalm 146:4.

Solomon bears the same testimony: “The living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything.” “Their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.” “There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave,whither thou goest.” Ecclesiastes 9:5, 6. 10.

When, in answer to his prayer, Hezekiah’s life was pro-longed fifteen years, the grateful king rendered to God a tribute of praise for His great mercy. In this song he tells the reason why he thus rejoices: “The grave cannot praise thee;death cannot celebrate thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day. The father to the children shall make known thy truth.” Isaiah 38:18, 19. Popular theology represents the righteous dead as in Heaven, entered into bliss,and praising God with an immortal tongue; but Hezekiah could see no such glorious prospect in death. With his words agrees the testimony of the psalmist:

“In death there is no remembrance of Thee; in the grave who shall give Thee thanks?” “The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” Psalm 6:5; 115:17.

Peter, speaking through the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, said:

“Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried,and his sepulcher is with us unto this day.” “For David is not ascended into the heavens.” Acts 2:29, 34.

The fact that David remains in the grave until the resurrection proves that the righteous do not go to Heaven at death. It is only through the resurrection, and by virtue of the fact that Christ has risen,that David can at last sit at the right hand of God.Paul declares:

“If the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” 1 Corinthians 15:16-18.

If for four thousand years the righteous had gone directly to Heaven at death, how could they be said to perish, even though there should never be a resurrection?When about to leave His disciples, Jesus did not tell them that they would soon come to Him. “I go to prepare a place for you,” He said.

“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself.” John 14:2, 3.

And Paul tells us, further, that “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” And he adds, “Comfort one another with these words.” 1Thessalonians 4:16-18.

How wide the contrast between these words of comfort and those of the minister previously quoted.The latter consoled the bereaved friends with the assurance,that, however sinful the dead might have been, he was received among the angels as soon as he breathed out his life here. Paul points his brethren to the future coming of the Lord, when the fetters of the tomb shall be broken, and the“dead in Christ” shall be raised to eternal life.Before any can enter the mansions of the blest, their cases must be investigated, and their characters and their deeds must pass in review before God. All are to be judged according to the things written in the books, and to be rewarded as their works have been. This Judgment does not take place at death. Mark the words of Paul:

“He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised him from the dead.”
Acts 17:31.

Here the apostle plainly stated that a specified time, then future, had been fixed upon for the Judgment of the world.Jude refers to the same period: “The angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the Judgment of the great day.” And again he quotes the words of Enoch:

“Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of His saints, to execute judgment upon all.” Jude 6, 14, 15.

John declares that he “saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened;” “and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books.” Revelation 20:12.

But if the dead are already enjoying the bliss of Heaven or writhing in the flames of hell, what need of a future Judgment? The teachings of God’s word on these important points are neither obscure nor contradictory; they maybe understood by common minds. But what candid mind can see either wisdom or justice in the current theory? Will the righteous, after the investigation of their cases at the Judgment, receive the commendation, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,” when they have been dwelling in His presence, perhaps for long ages? Are the wicked summoned from the place of torment to receive the sentence from the Judge of all the earth, “Depart,ye cursed, into everlasting fire”? Oh, solemn mockery! shameful impeachment of the wisdom and justice of God! Nowhere in the Sacred Scriptures is found the statement that the righteous go to their reward or the wicked to their punishment at death. The patriarchs and prophets have left no such assurance. Christ and His apostles have given no hint of it. The Bible clearly teaches that the dead do not go immediately to Heaven. They are represented as sleeping until the resurrection. In the very day that the silver cord is loosed and the golden bowl broken, man’s thoughts perish. They that go down to the grave are in silence. They know no more of anything that is done under the sun. Blessed rest for the weary righteous! Time, be it long or short, is but a moment to them. They sleep, they are awakened by the trump of God to a glorious immortality. As they are called forth from their deep slumber, they begin to think just where they ceased. The last sensation was the pang of death,the last thought that they were falling beneath the power of the grave. When they arise from the tomb, their first glad thought will be echoed in the triumphal shout, “O death,where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

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CHAPTER SUPPLEMENT: ETERNAL LIFE ONLY IN CHRIST “The wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23. “Neither is there salvation in anyother: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby wemust be saved.” Acts 4:12. “That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, buthave everlasting life.” John 3:16. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, andthey follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish.” John10:27-28. “He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath notlife.” 1 John 5:12.“His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughtsperish.” Psalm 146:4. “His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they arebrought low, but he perceiveth it not of them.” Job 14:21. “For the living know thatthey shall die: but the dead know not anything.” Ecclesiastes 9:5. “For in death thereis no remembrance of Thee.” Psalm 6:5.“Our friend Lazarus sleepeth . . Then said Jesus to them plainly, Lazarus is dead.”John 11:11, 14. “For David is not ascended into the heavens.” Acts 2:34. “The deadpraise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.” Psalm 115:17.“All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.” Ecclesiastes3:20. “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which areasleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” 1 Thessalonians 4:13 (1 Corinthians 15:18, 20; John 11:11-14). “For the Lord Himself shall descendfrom heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God:and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” 1 Thessalonians 4:16.“Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nordevice, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.” Ecclesiastes9:10. “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection from thedead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Corinthians15:21-22. “I will ransom them from the power of the grave.” Hosea 13:14.

Satan’s Masterpiece

The doctrine of natural immortality has prepared the way for modern Spiritualism. If the dead are admitted to the presence of God and holy angels, and privileged with knowledge far exceeding what they before possessed, why should they not return to the earth to enlighten and instruct the living? How can those who believe in man’s consciousness in death reject what comes to them as divine light communicated by glorified spir-its? Here is a channel regarded as sacred, through which Satan works for the accomplishment of his purposes. The fallen angels who do his bidding appear as messengers from the spirit world. While professing to bring the living into communication with the dead, Satan exercises his bewitching influence upon their minds. He has power even to bring before men the appearance of their departed friends. The counterfeit is perfect; the familiar look, the words, the tone, are reproduced with marvelous distinctness. Many are comforted with the assurance that their loved ones are enjoying the bliss of Heaven; and without suspicion of danger, they give ear to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. When they have been led to believe that the dead actually return to communicate with them, Satan causes those to appear who went into the grave unprepared. They claim to be happy in Heaven, and even to occupy exalted positions there; and thus the error is widely taught, that no difference is made between the righteous and the wicked. The pretended visitants from the world of spirits sometimes utter

Apulian red-figure bell krater depicting the ghost of Clytemnestra waking the Erinyes, circa 380-370 BC

cautions and warnings which prove to be correct. Then, as confidence is gained, they present doctrines which directly undermine faith in the Scriptures.With an appearance of deep interest in the well-being of their friends on earth, they insinuate the most dangerous errors.The fact that they state some truths, and are able at times to foretell future events, gives to their statements an appearance of reliability; and their false teachings are accepted by the multitudes as readily, and believed as implicitly, as if they were the most sacred truths of the Bible. The law of God is set aside, the Spirit of grace despised, the blood of the covenant counted an unholy thing. The spirits deny the divinity of Christ, and place even the Creator on a level with themselves. Thus under a new disguise the great rebel still carries forward his warfare against God, begun in Heaven, and for nearly six thousand years continued upon the earth. Many endeavor to account for spiritual manifestations by attributing them wholly to fraud and sleight of hand on the part of the medium. But while it is true that the results of trickery have often been palmed off as genuine manifestations, there have been, also, marked exhibitions of supernatural power. The mysterious rapping with which modern Spiritualism began was not the result of human trickery or cunning, but the direct work of evil angels, who thus introduced one of the most successful of soul-destroying delusions. Many will be ensnared through the belief that Spiritualism is a merely human imposture; when brought face to face with manifestations which they cannot but regard as supernatural, they will be deceived, and will be led to accept them as the great power of God.These persons overlook the testimony of the Scriptures concerning the wonders wrought by Satan and hisagents. It was by Satanic aid that Pharaoh’s magicians were enabled to counterfeit the work of God. The apostle John, describing the miracle-working power that will be manifested in the last days, declares:

“He doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do.”
Revelation 13:13, 14.

No mere impostures are here brought to view. Men are deceived by the miracles which Satan’s agents have power to do, not which they pretend to do.The very name of witchcraft is now held in contempt.The claim that men can hold intercourse with evil spirits is regarded as a fable of the Dark Ages. But Spiritualism, which numbers its converts by hundreds of thousands, yea, by millions, which has made its way into scientific circles, which has invaded churches, and has found favor in legislative bodies, and even in the courts of kings—this mammoth deception is but a revival in a new disguise of the witchcraft condemned and prohibited of old. Satan beguiles men now, as he beguiled Eve in Eden, by exciting a desire to obtain forbidden knowledge. “Ye shall be as gods,” he declares, “knowing good and evil.” But the wisdom which Spiritualism imparts is that described by the apostle James, which “descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.” James 3:15. The prince of darkness has a masterly mind, and he skillfully adapts his temptations to men of every variety of condition and culture. He works “with all deceivableness of unrighteousness” to gain control of the children of men; but he can accomplish his object only as they voluntarily yield to his temptations. Those who place themselves in his power by indulging their evil traits of character, little realize where their course will end. The tempter accomplishes their ruin, and then employs them to ruin others. To those who regard themselves as educated and re-fined, Satan addresses himself by exciting the imagination to lofty flights in forbidden fields, leading them to take so great pride in their superior wisdom that in their hearts they despise the Eternal One. To this class the great deceiver presents Spiritualism in its more refined and intellectual aspects, and he thus succeeds in drawing many into his snare. He who could appear clothed with the brightness of the heavenly seraphs before Christ in the wilderness of temptation, comes to men in the most attractive manner, as an angel of light. He appeals to the reason by the presentation of elevating themes, he delights the fancy with enrapturing scenes, and he enlists the affections by his eloquent portrayals of love and charity. That mighty being who could take the world’s Redeemer to an exceedingly high mountain, and bring before Him all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them, will present his temptations to men in a manner to pervert the senses of all who are not shielded by divine power.To the self-indulgent, the pleasure-loving, the sensual,the grosser forms of Spiritualism are adapted; and multitudes eagerly accept teachings that leave them at liberty to follow the inclinations of the carnal heart. Satan studies every indication of the frailty of human nature, he marks the sins which each individual is inclined to commit,and then he takes care that opportunities shall not be wanting to gratify the tendency to evil. He tempts men to excess in that which is in itself lawful, causing them through intemperance to weaken physical, mental, and moral power. He has destroyed and is destroying thousands through the in-dulgence of the passions, thus brutalizing the entire nature of man. When the people are led to believe that de-sire is the highest law, that liberty is license, and that man is accountable only to himself, who can wonder that corruption and depravity teem on every hand?The reins of self-control are laid upon the neck of lust, the powers of mind and soul are made subject to the animal propensities, and Satan exultingly sweeps into his net thousands who profess to be followers of Christ.But none need be deceived by the lying claims of Spiritualism. God has given the world sufficient light to enable them to discover the snare. If there were no other evidence, it should be enough for the Christian that the spirits make no difference between righteousness and sin, between the noblest and purest of the apostles of Christ and the most corrupt of the servants of Satan. By representing the basest of men as in Heaven,and highly exalted there, Satan virtually declares to the world,No matter how wicked you are; no matter whether you believe or disbelieve God and the Bible. Live as you please;Heaven is your home.Moreover, the apostles, as personated by these lying spirits, are made to contradict what they wrote at the dictation of the Holy Spirit when on earth. They deny the divine origin of the Bible, and thus tear away the foundation of the Christian’s hope, and put out the light that reveals the way to Heaven.Satan is making the world believe that the Bible is a mere fiction, or at least a book suited to the infancy of the race, but now to be lightly regarded, or cast aside as obsolete. And to take the place of the word of God he holds out spiritual manifestations. Here is a channel wholly under his control; by this means he can make the world believe what he will. The book that is to judge him and his followers he puts into the shade, just where he wants it; the Saviour of the world he makes to be no more than a common man. And as the Romish guard that watched the tomb of Jesus spread the lying report which the priests and elders put into their mouths to disprove His resurrection, so do the believers in spiritual manifestations try to make it appear that there is nothing miraculous in the circumstances of our Saviour’s life. After thus seeking to put Jesus in the back-ground, they call attention to their own miracles, declaring that these far exceed the works of Christ. Says the prophet Isaiah:

“When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Isaiah 8:19, 20.

If men had been willing to receive the truth so plainly stated in the Scriptures, that the dead know not anything,they would see in the claims and manifestations of Spiritualism the working of Satan with power and signs and lying wonders. But rather than yield the liberty so agreeable to the carnal heart, and renounce the sins which they love, the multitudes close their eyes to the light, and walk straight on, regardless of warnings, while Satan weaves his snares about them, and they become his prey.

“Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved,” therefore “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.”
2 Thessalonians 2:10, 11.

Those who oppose the teachings of Spiritualism are assailing, not men alone, but Satan and his angels. They have entered upon a contest against principalities and powers and wicked spirits in high places. Satan will not yield one inch of ground except as he is driven back by the power of heavenly messengers. The people of God should be able to meet him, as did our Saviour, with the words, “It is written.” Satan can quote Scripture now as in the days of Christ, and he will pervert its teachings to sustain his delu-sions. But the plain statements of the Bible will furnish weapons powerful in every conflict.Those who would stand in this time of peril must un-derstand the testimony of the Scriptures concerning the nature of man and the state of the dead; for in the near future many will be confronted by the spirits of devils personating beloved relatives or friends, and declaring the most dangerous heresies. These visitants will appeal to our tenderest sympathies, and will work miracles to sustain their pretensions. We must be prepared to withstand them with the Bible truth that the dead know not anything, and that they who thus appear are the spirits of devils. Just before us is the “hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” Revelation 3:10. All whose faith is not firmly established upon the word of God will be deceived and overcome. But to those who earnestly seek a knowledge of the truth, thus doing what they can to prepare for the conflict, the God of truth will be a sure defense. “Be-cause thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee,” is the Saviour’s promise. He would sooner send every angel out of Heaven to protect His people, than leave one soul that trusts in Him to be overcome by Satan. The prophet Isaiah brings to view the fearful deception which will come upon the wicked, causing them to count themselves secure from the judgments of God:

“We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through,it shall not come unto us; for we have made lies our refuge,and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.”
Isaiah 28:15.

In the class here described are included those who in their stubborn impenitence comfort themselves with the assurance that there is to be no punishment for the sinner; that all man-kind, it matters not how corrupt, are to be exalted to Heaven to become as the angels of God. But still more emphatically are those making a covenant with death and an agreement with hell, who renounce the truths which Heaven has provided as a defense for the righteous in the day of trouble, and accept the refuge of lies offered by Satan in its stead,—the delusive pretensions of Spiritualism. Marvelous beyond expression is the blindness of the people of this generation. Thousands reject the word of God as unworthy of belief, and with eager confidence receive the deceptions of Satan. Skeptics and scoffers with great clamor denounce the bigotry of those who contend for the faith of prophets and apostles, and they divert themselves by holding up to ridicule the solemn declarations of the Scriptures concerning Christ and the plan of salvation, and there tribution to be visited upon the rejecters of the truth. They affect great pity for minds so narrow, weak, and superstitious as to acknowledge the claims of God, and obey the requirements of His law. They manifest as much assurance as if, indeed, they had made a covenant with death and an agreement with hell,—as if they had erected an impassable, impenetrable barrier between themselves and the vengeance of God. Nothing canarouse their fears. So fully have they yielded to the tempter, so closely are they united with him, and so thor-oughly imbued with his spirit, that they have no power and no inclination to break away from his snare. Long has Satan been preparing for his final effort to deceive the world. The foundation of his work was laid by the assurance given to Eve in Eden, “Ye shall not surely die.” “In the day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” Little by little he has prepared the way for his master-piece of deception in the development of Spiritualism. He has not yet reached the full accomplishment of his designs; but it will be reached in the last remnant of time, and the world will be swept into the ranks of this delusion. They are fast being lulled into a fatal security, to be awakened only by the outpouring of the wrath of God. Saith the Lord God:

“Judgment also will I lay to the line,and righteousness to the plummet; and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall betrodden down by it.” Isaiah 28:17,18.

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These two chapters have been taken from the book Controversy between Christ and Satan. Read the full book here.

Part 3: The apostolic origins of the church in the wilderness

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THE BEGINNINGS OF SYRIAN CHRISTIANITY

THE BEGINNINGS OF CELTIC CHRISTIANITY

THE BEGINNINGS OF GREEK CHRISTIANITY

THE BEGINNINGS OF LATIN CHRISTIANITY

PETER’S EPISTLE TO THE CHURCHES

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GREAT PROPHETIC TIME PERIODS

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The First Lie

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