The Two Mysteries of the Present Age

[Study Aired June 2, 2026]

Scripture presents two opposing mysteries operating simultaneously throughout the entire age of the church. The first is the mystery of Christ — “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27) — the indwelling of the Son of God in his people as the revealed secret hidden from all prior ages. The second is the mystery of iniquity — “the mystery of iniquity doth already work” (2 Thessalonians 2:7) — the counterfeit operating through the same age in direct opposition to the first. The apostle Paul deliberately names both a mystery, and the parallel is not accidental. These two realities define the spiritual landscape every believer and every fellowship inhabits from the first coming of Christ until his final manifestation.

Most treatments of the antichrist flatten this landscape into a single question: who is the future political villain Scripture warns about? That question rests on a foundational misreading. The word — antichrist — appears exactly five times in the entire New Testament, and every occurrence is confined to the letters of John. It is absent from Revelation, absent from Paul’s letters, absent from the Gospels. John himself defines the term, gives his own test for identifying the spirit it names, and applies that test to the present-tense reality of his own first-century churches. Before any further inquiry is warranted, John must be heard on his own terms.

What John establishes, and what the full scriptural testimony confirms, is that the spirit of antichrist is not a future threat to be located in world events. It is the present-age expression of the mystery of iniquity operating at every level simultaneously — in the world through false teaching, within churches through apostasy and doctrinal denial, and within every believer through the flesh warring against the spirit. Against it stands the greater mystery: “Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). The victory has already been accomplished. The governing principle throughout is stated plainly: “Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual” (1 Corinthians 15:46). The natural came first as foundation. The spiritual follows as its fulfillment.

John’s Own Definition: The Word the Text Actually Uses

The Scope and Distribution of the Term

Antichristos (Strong’s G500) appears in 1 John 2:18 (twice), 2:22, 4:3, and 2 John 7. It appears nowhere else in the New Testament; this distribution establishes that John defines his own term, and his definition must govern before any cross-textual connections are drawn. What he establishes with certainty: antichrists are those who deny that Jesus is the Christ, deny that he came in the flesh, and thereby deny the Father-Son relationship John’s own theology holds inseparable. They were already present in John’s churches as former members who had departed — “They went out from us, but they were not of us” (1 John 2:19) — and the “last hour” was not a still-future period but John’s own first-century present, evidenced by the very presence of the many antichrists he describes. Once the term is anchored in John’s own usage, the apostolic principle applies: “the sum of thy word is truth” (Psalm 119:160), and no scripture is to be read in isolation from the rest.

Two cross-textual connections must therefore be distinguished. The specific profile of Revelation’s beast — political authority, military conquest, image worship — does not correspond to John’s Christological denial framework, and Antichristos never appears in Revelation; importing that profile into John’s term is not warranted by either text. Paul’s man of sin requires a different assessment: his specific individual profile — self-exaltation above God, sitting in the temple of God claiming to be God — also differs from John’s antichrist definition and should not be read into it; but the parallel mystery language both apostles employ carries genuine comparative weight. Paul’s “mystery of iniquity doth already work” (2 Thessalonians 2:7) uses the same “already operative” language John uses for the spirit of antichrist already in the world (1 John 4:3), both identify deception as the primary mode, and both trace the opposing reality to the same spiritual source. This convergence — following the method of comparing scripture with scripture rather than importing one text’s content into another’s definition — suggests that John’s spirit of antichrist and Paul’s mystery of iniquity describe related dimensions of the same opposing reality operating throughout the present age.

The Singular and the Plural

1 John 2:18 presents what appears to be a grammatical tension: “as ye have heard that antichrist shall come” (singular, with the definite article — ho antichristos) alongside “even now are there many antichrists” (plural, without the article — antichristoi polloi). The decisive evidence that settles what the singular refers to appears two verses later. In 1 John 2:22, John writes: “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist (ho antichristos), that denieth the Father and the Son.” Here John applies the identical singular articular form to a present-tense denier — not a future coming figure. This can only be coherent if ho antichristos functions categorically: naming the type, the defining spirit — such that any present denier instantiates the category. 1 John 4:3 provides the mechanism: one spirit of antichrist is the singular operative force; many antichrists are the plural persons through whom that spirit works across the age.

The Already of John’s Last Hour

Popular treatments of 1 John 2:18 routinely assign its eschatological language to a still-future window. John’s temporal claim is explicit: “it is the last hour” — present tense — and his evidence is given immediately: the many antichrists already present constitute the proof. This is diagnostic, not predictive. It is also entirely consistent with the uniform apostolic usage of last days language. The author of Hebrews applies “last days” to Christ’s first coming (Hebrews 1:2). Peter applies it to Pentecost: “this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit” (Acts 2:16-17). Jude identifies present mockers as the fulfillment of prior prediction about the last time (Jude 18-19). The New Testament uniformly identifies the last days as the age inaugurated by Christ’s first coming and concluding at the final day of resurrection and judgment. John’s “last hour” is the consistent apostolic identification of the present age.

The Confession Standard: What Is Come in the Flesh

The Perfect Tense and Its Significance

The confession John gives as the test for the spirit of God — “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” (1 John 4:2) — contains a grammatical precision that strikes at the heart of the error being addressed. The underlying Greek eleluthōta is a perfect active participle of erchomai — to come. The perfect tense describes a past action whose results remain permanently established in the present. The confession is not “Christ came in the flesh” — a past event concluded. It is “Christ came and remains come in the flesh” — an ongoing state. The incarnation is a permanent reality, and the perfect tense is built into the confession as its doctrinal nerve against any teaching that dissolves it to a past episode without present consequence.

Whose Flesh: The Two Layers of the Confession

The full meaning of the confession operates on two simultaneous layers. The first is the historical layer: Christ came literally, physically, in real human flesh at the incarnation — the natural first. The second is the present layer: Christ now comes in the flesh of His people through the indwelling — the spiritual afterward. Paul names this second layer explicitly as the mystery now revealed: “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Colossians 1:24 grounds this in Paul’s own body: he fills up “that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake.” The word “fill up” antanaplēroō (Strong’s G466) carries the sense of contributing to a remaining measure on behalf of another. Paul does not mean the atoning work was incomplete — the vocabulary of atonement is entirely different. He means that what the head experienced in the world, his members continue to experience in the world, because he dwells in them (Galatians 2:20) “Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God”. The coming in flesh is not confined to Bethlehem. John 6:63 holds alongside without contradiction: the spirit of Christ is the operative power, and the flesh — first his own, then his people’s — is the vehicle through which that power is expressed in the world.

Christ’s Current State

1 Corinthians 15 provides the most sustained scriptural account of what Christ currently is. Paul identifies him as “the last Adam” who “was made a quickening spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45) — the Lord from heaven bearing the image of the heavenly, whose glorious body is the pattern to which believers will be conformed (Philippians 3:21). John confirms this in 1 John 3:2: “it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” The Greek phanerōthē consistently describes the revealing of what already is, not the arrival of something new. Christ has a current state, not yet fully visible, that will be disclosed at the final manifestation. Paul states plainly in 2 Corinthians 5:16 that knowing Christ after the flesh was the former way of knowing him. The present way is through his indwelling — the quickening spirit expressed through the flesh of his people, declared in their ongoing confession. The spirit of antichrist denies the historical incarnation, denies the present indwelling, and denies the ongoing declaration of Christ through the flesh of his people.

The Two Mysteries and the Test

Both Operating Simultaneously

Three independent witnesses use the same “already” language to confirm the present-age operation of the opposing mystery. John: the spirit of antichrist is “already in the world” (1 John 4:3) and “even now are there many antichrists” (1 John 2:18). Paul: the mystery of iniquity “doth already work” (2 Thessalonians 2:7). Two authors, different churches, the same temporal claim. The character profiles differ — John’s antichrist is defined by Christological denial; Paul’s man of sin by self-exaltation — but they share the same source: “the working of Satan” (2 Thessalonians 2:9), the one Christ identifies as “the father” of the lie (John 8:44). The spirit of antichrist is the personal, doctrinal expression of the same mystery of iniquity Paul describes at the universal level. Both operate in the same age, in the same world, in the same churches — which is precisely why the testing John commands is not a one-time evaluation but a continuous present-tense discipline.

Within Believers and the Church

Both mysteries operate not only externally but within every local church and within every individual believer. Paul locates the internal conflict in his own experience: “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members” (Romans 7:23). Peter in Matthew 16 provides the starkest illustration: within a single conversation, Peter confesses “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” — and then immediately becomes the vehicle through which Christ says, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” The same disciple. The same conversation. The antichrist spirit operates through one of the twelve, in the presence of Christ himself. The threat was never only external.

John’s own letter addresses this without flinching: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). He writes to believers and includes himself in the “we.” Paul addresses the Corinthian church: “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened” (1 Corinthians 5:7). The fellowship is simultaneously unleavened in Christ and actually containing leaven that must be addressed. Galatians 5:17 states the governing principle: “the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other.” The daily experience of every believer is the personal-level expression of the same conflict the two mysteries present at the highest level.

The Continuous Test and the Accomplished Victory

1 John 4:1 issues the command in a grammatically precise form: “try the spirits whether they are of God.” The Greek dokimazete is a present active imperative — keep on testing, continuously. Because both spirits operate continuously, the testing must be continuous. The object is spirits — ta pneumata — not merely teachings. The same person can at different moments be the vehicle of different spirits, as Peter demonstrates. The confession standard in verse 2 carries matching grammar: homologei is present active indicative — the spirit presently and continuously confessing. Not a spirit that once confessed in the past. The negative form matches: the spirit presently and continuously not confessing. Both spirits are defined by their present-tense operation.

The pivot of the entire passage is verse 4: “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” The verb nenikākate — “have overcome” — is perfect active indicative, the same tense governing “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.” A past action permanently established in the present. Believers have overcome and remain overcomers. The victory is not future, not contingent, not achieved by effort. It is inhabited. Its basis is the identity of the indwelling one: — the one in you — the same Christ Paul names in Colossians 1:27 as the mystery revealed, the same quickening spirit of 1 Corinthians 15:45, greater than the one John identifies in the phrase “the whole world lieth in the evil one” (1 John 5:19).

John closes with the binary that governs the entire age: “Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error” (1 John 4:6). The spirit of truth is the one Christ promised in John 14:17 and 16:13. The spirit of error — pneuma tēs planēs — uses a word for wandering from the true path, the same root Paul uses in 2 Thessalonians 2:11 for the “strong delusion” sent to those who reject the love of the truth. The two spirits are the two mysteries by another name. What was true of the head is true of the body: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you” (John 15:18). Maintaining the confession places the believer in the same position Christ occupied. This is why the testing must be continuous, the declaration present-tense, and the ground of confidence the greater one in you rather than the believer’s own consistency.

The Present-Age Victory

Scripture’s testimony concerning the antichrist, examined on its own terms, arrives at a conclusion both more searching and more glorious than popular treatment allows. The spirit of antichrist is the present-age expression of the mystery of iniquity operating at every level — through false teaching in the world, through apostasy within churches, through the flesh warring against the spirit within every believer. It has operated since John’s own day. It is not a future political threat. It is a present spiritual reality requiring present-tense, ongoing discernment.

Against it stands the greater mystery: Christ in you, the hope of glory. The quickening spirit, the last Adam, the Lord from heaven, whose perfect-tense victory — “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) — is the ground of the believer’s own perfect-tense overcomer standing: “ye have overcome them” (1 John 4:4). The natural came first: Christ in his own flesh at the incarnation, establishing the historical foundation no denial can touch. The spiritual follows: Christ in the flesh of his people, declared through them, until the full manifestation when they shall see him as he is and be like him.

The confession test John provides is therefore not a declaration made once and filed away. It is the present-tense, living affirmation of a present-tense, living reality: “Jesus Christ is come in the flesh” — came at the incarnation and remains come, in his people, through his spirit, in their flesh, until the glory of the final revealing. The spirit of antichrist opposes this reality at every level. The spirit of truth maintains it at every level. The first man Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. We bore the image of the earthy. We shall bear the image of the heavenly. The mystery of iniquity operates in the age between. The mystery of Christ overcomes it. The greater one in you is the guarantee.

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3)

“Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” (1 John 4:1-3)

Not All Speak With Tongues – Part 2

[Study Aired May 3, 2026]

You ask:

“So [you believe] there’s no need for what Paul did [when he laid] hands on believers that they’d be filled with the Holy Ghost?”

The account of Paul laying his hands on 12 men who then received the holy spirit is found in:

Act 19:1  And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples,
Act 19:2  He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost.
Act 19:3  And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John’s baptism.
Act 19:4  Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.
Act 19:5  When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Act 19:6  And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
Act 19:7  And all the men were about twelve.

This story taken alone could indeed indicate the need for laying on of hands before one could receive the holy spirit. However, this is not the only account of how the holy spirit was given, and we must always consider “the sum of Thy Word” while we establish our doctrine:

Psa 119:160  The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever. (ASV)

Peter ‘laid hands’ on no one at Cornelius’ house. Yet they were given the Holy Ghost:

Act 10:44 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
Act 10:45 And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Act 10:46 For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God.

Just because Paul laid hands on these twelve men before they were given the holy spirit does not make the laying on of hands is a requirement for receiving the holy spirit.

Christ entered the home of Jarius, ‘a ruler of the synagogue’, and ‘laid His hand’… “took her by the hand”, and raised her from the dead:

Luk 8:54  And he put them all out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise.

Again when a Roman centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant, Jesus offered to go to his house and heal the servant. The centurion told Jesus he knew that if Jesus indeed had the power to heal, then Jesus did not need to physically lay His hands on anyone:

Luk 7:2  And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die.
Luk 7:3  And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant.
Luk 7:4  And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this:
Luk 7:5  For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue.
Luk 7:6  Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof:
Luk 7:7  Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
Luk 7:8  For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.
Luk 7:9  When Jesus heard these things, he marvelled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
Luk 7:10  And they that were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.

Receiving the gift of the holy spirit is no different than receiving the gift of being healed as the story of the Gentiles in the home of the Roman centurion, Cornelius, demonstrates. There are three accounts of the giving of the holy spirit in the book of Acts. The first was on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, when the gift of the holy spirit was first given. The second was at the home of the Roman centurion, Cornelius, in Acts 10. There was no laying  on of hands at either of these events.

Act 2:1  And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
Act 2:2  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
Act 2:3  And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Act 2:4  And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Act 10:44  While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
Act 10:45  And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Act 10:46  For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter,
Act 10:47  Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
Act 10:48  And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.

As Paul’s ministry matured, he was brought by God’s Spirit to see that many things he once did were simply no longer necessary.

There was a time when Paul also baptized with water. Later he tells us:

1Co 1:14 I thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius;
1Co 1:15 Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name.
1Co 1:16 And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not whether I baptized any other.
1Co 1:17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel:

Then he tells us:

Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify [the church] and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word.

It was to Paul that God first revealed that the ritual of circumcision was totally unnecessary. There was a period where anointed cloths were sent out from Paul’s presence for the healing of others. God honored these actions because they were done in faith, as they still are by some. As Paul matured, he became aware that sometimes our faith is “tried.” Not all our prayers are answered in the way we might desire, anointed cloths or not, hands laid on or not.

He tells Timothy, who apparently suffered digestive issues, to drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities (1Ti 5:23).

Again we are told:

2Ti 4:20 Erastus abode at Corinth: but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick.

Again Paul’s faith was tested:

Php 2:25 Yet I supposed it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier, but your messenger, and he that ministered to my wants.
Php 2:26 For he longed after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had heard that he had been sick.
Php 2:27 For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him; and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

Why didn’t Paul just send Timothy an anointed cloth or lay hands on him and pray for his healing? I feel sure that Paul had prayed fervently for Timothy’s “often infirmities.” Does anyone doubt that Paul prayed for either Trophimus or Epaphroditus? Of course Paul prayed for them all, but their immediate healing was not in God’s will at that time. That did not shake his faith because Paul’s faith did not depend on outward signs. Likewise our own faith must be based on more than outward displays. If not, the fiery trial of our faith will shake anything that can be shaken.

Heb 12:26  Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
Heb 12:27  And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

To answer your question directly, circumcision, water baptism, foot washing, the Lord’s supper, anointed cloths and the laying on of hands, are all outward displays of one’s faith. They are not a sin any more than “another who is weak in the faith eats herbs.”

Rom 14:1 Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
Rom 14:2 For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.

So it is with those who must have these displays of their faith. I lay my hands on a person when I pray for them if I can and if that is what they want, but I do not for one minute believe that this ritual is a requirement for an answered prayer. You cannot do physical things to become spiritual.

Tongues are no exception to that truth. When we take the spiritual truths of the new covenant and turn them into physical requirements, like water baptism and ‘unknown tongues’ and laying on of hands, we are not manipulating God at all. He will grant our request only if it is according to His will:

1Jn 5:14  And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
1Jn 5:15  And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask [“according to His will”], we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

“I have never heard of anyone without the baptism of the Spirit that has healed anyone, had a word of knowledge, prophecy, etc? Have you?”

If you are asking me if I know anyone who healed the sick, had a word of knowledge, or prophesied without speaking in unknown tongues the answer is… Indeed I do! Christ healed the sick, had all knowledge and prophesied. Yet He never once spoke in an unknown tongue. The same is true of every one of the apostles. As a matter of fact they did all these things before they were even converted. Yes, they did!

Mat 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying,

Mat 10:8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

Luk 10:1 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.

The 12 and the 70 performed miracles before they were even converted.

Luk 10:17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

Yet years later, the night of His apprehension by the Jews, Christ tells Peter:

Luk 22:32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted,  strengthen thy brethren.

Spiritual gifts are not a Biblical equivalent to the fruit of the Spirit. They are not even in the same league. I cannot over-emphasize this. Paul tells the Corinthian church:

1Co 1:5 That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and [in] all knowledge;
1Co 1:6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
1Co 1:7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

Do you see that? The church at Corinth “came behind in NO GIFT.” Yet in the next breath Paul tells them:

1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

So do not measure a man by the gifts he possesses. Measure him only by the fruit he produces. How does he react to being mistreated? Is he even capable of “loving his enemies?” That is a far better measure of a man’s spiritual condition than whether he can pray for the sick and experience healings, and it is far superior to whether he speaks in ‘unknown tongues.’

“So when believers sincerely ask to receive the Holy Ghost and begin to speak in tongues, God is giving them a counterfeit gift? Is that what you’re telling me? I’m curious, I thought Jesus said if you ask your father for a fish will he give you a stone?”

If you insist on equating ‘unknown tongues’ with the real languages spoken by those who were given the gift of the holy spirit on three occasions in the book of Acts (Pentecost, Cornelius’ house, and the Ephesian converts), then you alone must decide, “Am I asking sincerely, wanting only to know the truth of the word of God on this subject, or do I have a personal ‘idol of the heart?” which insists that ‘speaking in unknown tongues is the initial evidence of the gift of the holy spirit.’ I cannot answer that question for you. I can tell you on the authority of God’s Word that ‘unknown’ tongues have no basis in the scriptures. Known languages? Sure! However, the word ‘unknown’ is not in the Bible regarding the gift of tongues. God will not give you a stone for asking for a fish, and He will not give you a counterfeit gift of tongues if you ask Him for the gift of His spirit with a sincere and open heart. If you come to His word with your mind already made up that ‘the gift of unknown tongues is the initial evidence of the gift of the holy spirit’, and then self-righteously twist His word to fit into your heart’s idol, then yes, God Himself will answer you according to the multitude of the idols of your heart, and He will deceive you. Here are His own words:

Eze 14:1  Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2  And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;
Eze 14:5  That I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols.
Eze 14:6  Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Repent, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.
Eze 14:7  For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:
Eze 14:8  And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Eze 14:9  And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

“Again I’m not trying to argue with you, just want to understand what God’s word teaches us in this regard.”

Keep this attitude. Ask God not to deceive you but to give you a love of the Truth.

2Th 2:10 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 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

If you have not yet read the article entitled Strong Delusion. be sure to do so. When the Lord says, “If the prophet be deceived when he has spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet”, the Lord’s deception is not just a delusion, rather it is “strong delusion”:

2Th 2:8  And then [When we come to see the man of sin, our own carnal mind, sitting in the temple of God, “which temple we are”, (1Co 3:13-15)], shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming [the coming of His Truth]:
2Th 2:9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10  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 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The doctrine of unknown tongues is not “the Truth” of the scriptures, and anyone who believes they are is under the Lord’s “strong delusion.” That is The Truth of scripture.

YbiChrist,
Mike

Rev 11:7-14, Part 1 – The Beast Overcomes And Kills The 2 Witnesses

[Study Aired Nov 3, 2024]

Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
Rev 11:9  And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
Rev 11:10  And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.
Rev 11:11  And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
Rev 11:12  And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them.
Rev 11:13  And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.
Rev 11:14  The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly.

Introduction

The “beast… ascends out of the bottomless pit”, which is “the abussos”, G12, in the Greek. We have demonstrated that the bottomless pit signifies the abyss or the sea of flesh from which we are all drawn.

Rev 13:1  And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.

This ‘abussos’ is the flesh and its desires which are within all men, including the flesh of the two witnesses. If that really is true, how then is it possible that the two witnesses can “ascend up out of the bottomless pit”, the ‘abussos’ and “rise up out of the sea… [G2281, ‘thalassa’], finish their testimony” and still be killed by “the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit”? ‘Abussos’, and ‘thalassa’ are two Greek words for the same thing, the sea. We covered this subject of the bottomless pit in our study of Rev 9 and will not repeat that study here, except to reread that verse and to remind ourselves that the bottomless pit is in us all by nature, and the smoke from that pit darkens the sun and the air in every generation of mankind, including each of us in our own order.

Rev 9:1  And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
Rev 9:2  And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

As we consider these verses here in Rev 11, we once again just naturally slip into the frame of mind of the natural man who can only see one event following another, chronologically, instead of seeing the words of God from a heavenly perspective as spiritual words, which are unchanging and always applicable in every generation of mankind.

Mal 3:6  For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

What “I change not” means is that the words of God apply to every generation, so that “the beast [is] ascending out of the bottomless pit” in every generation of mankind. The bottomless pit within us is being destroyed by the brightness of the knowledge of Christ and His Words and doctrines coming into our hearts and minds. But as that ‘bottomless pit’ is destroyed within the two witnesses in every generation since Christ, it is also simultaneously being strengthened and perpetuated in the next generation of those who are even now rejecting that very same witness to the testimony of the words of Jesus Christ, as those words continue to proceed out of the mouth of the two witnesses of every generation. As an example of this, Christ was asked if Elijah would return before the coming of the Messiah. Here is His answer:

Mat 17:10  And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?
Mat 17:11  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.
Mat 17:12  But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.
Mat 17:13  Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

What it all amounts to is the simple fact that we all live the life of the first Adam, with all that is within him, and then in God’s own “predestinated” time and mercy, we will also live the life of the Second Adam, the life of Christ, with all that is in Him. What is so little understood is the fact that this is all accomplished within us and is expressed in prophecy in types and shadows, in signs and symbols and in parables. What is so little understood is that God’s elect are not exempt from one single word of God. “All things are ours…, it is near…, even at the door…, this generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled” is true in every man of God, in every generation of mankind (1Co 3:21-22; Mat 24:34-35), “each in his own order”:

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.

All men will die to their old man, but we will all experience that ‘death’… in [our] own order”.

Those who “die daily (1Co 15:31), offer [their] bodies as a living sacrifice (Rom 12:1), [and are] crucified with Christ” (Gal 2:20), in “this present time” (Rom 8:18), die first and will not “be hurt of the second death” (Rev 2:11), and ‘the second death will have no power over them’ (Rev 20:6) because they have already fulfilled that experience “in this present time”. Those who have died to their old man and all of his desires in this present time do so because they are given to be judged in this present time:

1Co 11:31  For if we would judge ourselves [in this present time], we should not be judged [at the great white throne judgment].
1Co 11:32  But when we are judged [now in this present time], we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world [to the great white throne judgment of all the rest of mankind].

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? [They will be judged at the great white throne/ lake of fire/ second death, judgment.]

That is why Christ tells us:

Joh 5:28  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice,
Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life [in the first resurrection at the beginning of the thousand year reign of “our Lord and His Christ”, Rev 11:15 and Rev 20:5-6]; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation [G2920, ‘krisis’, judgment, the great white throne judgment of Rev 20:11].

These New Testament statements are based upon this revelation found throughout the Old Testament:

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
Ecc 9:3  This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

The apostles of Christ remained faithful to the testimony of Jesus Christ to the end of their “course [Greek, aion – age] of this world”. But before they were made to be faithful, they too, “were by nature children of wrath, who denied him with an oath, and persecuted His disciples.”

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course [Greek, aion, age] of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6  And hath raised [us] up together, and made [us] sit together in heavenly [places] in Christ Jesus:
Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in [his] kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Mat 26:73  And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee.
Mat 26:74 Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew.

Act 9:1  And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,

“In time past you [and I] walked according to the age of this world”:

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

But Christ did not die just for those who were alive in His days. He died for all men of all time, and He prayed specifically for all those who would hear the words of those who believed on Him through the testimony of His disciples:

Joh 17:20  Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

So Christ’s disciples endure from generation to generation, and in this manner the two witnesses endure from generation to generation.

But this “My Words shall not pass away” principle is also true for “the children of disobedience” who “are of their father the devil”, which is just another name for the beast that “ascends out of the bottomless pit”. In every generation he too, will ascend out of the bottomless pit and will be killing God’s two witnesses who are tormenting them that are upon the earth.

We must remember that those two witnesses are symbols of all who witness for Christ in every age of mankind. We need to remember that the great city wherein our Lord was crucified, is later in this book called “Babylon the great”, where the blood of all of the saints, meaning the blood of Christ, is found.

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Rev 18:24  And in her [“Babylon the great, the mother of harlots”] was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

“The blood of the prophets and saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth” certainly includes Christ, and all those who are in Him. We are both those murderers first, and later we become those who are murdered and are killed by the harlot of chapters 17 and 18. So then “Babylon the great” is the type of God’s harlot church, and the symbols which explain all of this prophecy are all taken from the Old Testament scriptures concerning God’s own people as they turn themselves away from their own Lord.

Isa 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

In the same chapter, only 8 verses later, we read:

Isa 1:10  Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

Still speaking of “the vision… concerning Judah and Jerusalem”, in this same chapter we read this.

Isa 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

These are words proceeding from the mouth of God which we must live by (Mat 4:4, Luk 4:4). Our flesh, in turn, by the grace of God, will then be ‘killed daily’, and will die daily (1Co 15:50), by the fire of the mouth of the two witnesses. That fire is, of course, the spirit, which is “the words which Christ speaks to us” (Jer 5:14 and Joh 6:63). Here is the result of that fire:

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

Rom 6:3  Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

As we saw in our last study, the death of the ‘two witnesses’ was ‘read of, heard of, and kept’ by those who first read the sayings of the words of this prophecy in the day John put these words to paper and pen:

Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

Rev 1:3  Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

This entire 11th chapter is just a part of “those things which are written therein” which we must be read, hear and keep. All who are given the grace to do so will “keep the words of this prophecy for the time is at hand” to do so (Rev 1:3). This entire prophecy does nothing less than expand upon the words of the Lord’s prophecy of Mat 24, which makes the same point.

Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand: )

Only if God grants us “eyes that see, and ears which [can] hear” that we are that beast within “the holy place”, and we are that “man of sin” who sets himself up as God within that “temple of God”, will we ever know what is meant by the words “whoso reads let him understand… for the time is at hand”.

Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand: )

Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come [the day of Christ’s coming to His temple within us], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  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.
2Th 2:5  Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?

None of the apostles changed their doctrine from church to church. What Paul taught these Thessalonians “when he was yet with them” was that “you are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you”, which is what he had also taught the Corinthians (1Co 3:16-17). This inward ‘temple of God’ is the same ‘temple’ Paul had in mind when he said this to these Thessalonian Christians:

2Th 2:3  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 2:4  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.
2Th 2:5  Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? [That “ye are the temple of God”]

Therefore these Thessalonians knew exactly what Paul meant by these words:

2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth [our crucifixion by this world with Christ, and our resurrection with Christ] that he [the man of sin] might be revealed in his time.

Gen 15:16  But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. [When ‘the iniquity of our old man is full’ then Christ comes to destroy him]

2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [Greek, withholds the coming of Christ] will let [will withhold the coming of Christ, as revealed in the next two verses], until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2Th 2:9  Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,
2Th 2:10  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 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12  That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

“They that believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” is first our own ‘old man’. 2Th 2:6 is fulfilled in Rev 11, when the two witnesses are killed by “the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit when their testimony is finished”. You and I have been that beast which is doing the killing of those witnesses, and you and I in turn become those two witnesses who will be killed by that beast.

In this case, our ‘death’ is not the “dying daily” death of our old man. In this story our death “in the street of the great city” is “the savor of death” which we are to “the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit”. This is where you and I are at this very moment in the eyes and the nostrils of those in the great city of Babylon:

2Co 2:14 Now thanks be to God, Who always gives us a triumph in Christ, and is manifesting the odor of His knowledge through us in every place,
2Co 2:15 for we are a fragrance of Christ to God, in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing:
2Co 2:16 to these [those “in the street of that great city”], indeed, [we are] an odor of death for death, yet to those [in Christ we are] an odor of life for life. And for this who is competent?
2Co 2:17 For we are not as the majority, who are peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God in Christ, are we speaking. (CLV)

It is “all [who are] in Adam [who suffer the curse of] strong delusion [and who] believe a lie”. “All in Adam includes you and I who have “in times past” been sent that “strong delusion and [have] believed the lies” of Babylon, and have spiritually killed God’s witnesses and left their dead bodies unburied “in the street of the great city… where also our Lord was crucified”.

Rev 11:9  And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
Rev 11:10  And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.

As we saw last week, we are “the earth”, and we are “those who dwell on the earth” and who rejoice and send gifts to one another to celebrate our liberty from having to hear the words of these men of God. But the rejoicing of our flesh over the man of the spirit is soon turned to sorrow when we witness our resurrection with Christ “in the days of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound”.

Rev 11:11  And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
Rev 11:12  And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. (Eph 2:6)
Rev 11:13  And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.

Here is why we rejoice at the death of God’s elect. Here is how we are sent the “strong delusion” which causes us all to rejoice at the death of the true witnesses of Christ. This is how God sends His wrath upon us while we are “abiding in His wrath”. This is the reason why we never realize that we are deceived until we “look behind” ourselves to see this great revelation:

Psa 78:49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

So when we read [with understanding] about all the plagues of God’s wrath which are cast upon the earth in the seals, trumpets and vials, we now know how that is being done. “He casts upon us the fierceness of His anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble by sending evil angels among them”.

But those evil angels do not appear to be evil angels:

2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15  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.

The symbols of these verses

So here are the symbols of verses 7-14:

1) The two witnesses finishing their testimony,
2) The beast ascending out of the bottomless pit making war against and
3) Killing Christ’s two witnesses,
4) Their dead bodies lying unburied,
5) In the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt,
6) Where also our Lord was crucified,
7) The people, kindreds, tongues and nations,
8) See their dead bodies,
9) Three days and an half, and do not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.
10) Rather they rejoice over the death of Christ’s two witnesses, and send gifts one to another, celebrating the fact that these witnesses of Christ, who had been tormenting them, were at this time as good as dead, having no effect in the streets of the great city wherein also our Lord was crucified.
11) But after three and one half days, God’s witnesses are raised from their state of death,
12) Causing great fear to fall on those who see them.
13) At this point the two witnesses hear a voice from heaven telling them to “Come up here”, and so they
14) “Ascend up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies see that they have done so.
15) It is at this point that there is a great earthquake, and the entire event begins to be repeated again, as
16) A tenth part of the city falls and
17) Seven thousand men are killed in that earthquake, and the remnant are frightened, and give glory to the God of heaven.

Having established that these are words which are for those who are given to “understand what we read” (Mat 24:15), and having established that those who read and hear are to keep these words (Rev 1:3), we will now simply list each symbol and the scriptures which define how that symbol is to be understood and kept.

1) The two witnesses finishing their testimony, like all of these symbols and indeed all of God’s Word, is something which is always “near, even at the doors, and does not pass away”.

Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

So it is we who first, by believing the doctrines of “many false prophets”…

2) … ascend out of the bottomless pit, within us, to make spiritual warfare with the truths which proceed from the mouths of God’s witnesses.

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high [places].

By simply withstanding the testimony of the two witnesses, which we all do while believing and teaching the doctrines of Babylon, we are thereby guilty of:

3) … killing God’s two witnesses. We need not kill any one literally, and the two witnesses are not literally two in number, neither do they need to be literally killed to “keep the things which are written therein”. Here is all that must take place literally for these verses to be spiritually lived out and spiritually kept by us all:

1Jn 3:15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

4) If we hate the doctrine of the Lord’s witnesses then we have murdered them and their dead bodies lie unburied, because at this time in our lives, the word of God, which commands us to love our enemies (Mat 5:44), and bury our dead (Deu 21:23), and to bless and curse not (Rom 12:14), means nothing at all to us in our self-righteous, rebellious condition. God’s commandments are all ignored in favor of gloating over our physical dominance over the witnesses of God’s Word , while we are in great Babylon. The phrases “their dead bodies shall lie in the street of that great city” and “shall not suffer their bodies to be put in graves”, are both a type and a shadow of rebellion against the commandments of God which requires these things of us. Burying our dead is spiritually the sign and symbol of forgiving our enemies. We use the English phrase to this very day, “Let’s bury the hatchet”, and we simply cannot, at first, do so.

Deu 21:22  And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death, and he be to be put to death, and thou hang him on a tree:
Deu 21:23 His body shall not remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day; (for he that is hanged is accursed of God that thy land be not defiled, which the LORD thy God giveth thee [for] an inheritance.

5) “In the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt” is the city of God within us which has spiritually rebelled against His rulership and His commandments and has become a harlot (Isa 1:21). Both ‘Sodom and Egypt’ typify each of us as we are smarting under the rulership of our first love.

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers. [Haters of The Truth, 1Jn 3:15, and those who bring us that Truth]

Lot, who was Abraham’s nephew and the son of Abraham’s own brother, typifies our own flesh before we become Abraham. Lot typifies us as we “pitch our tent toward Sodom” and eventually end up sitting in the gate of Sodom, judging Sodom, being grieved with the sins of Sodom, and attempting to save and improve a doomed city, which in the end we, having become Abraham, are forced to “come out of” and stand afar off and watch the smoke of spiritual Sodom arise from the fields of the plains. That is the spiritual significance of calling the city where our Lord was crucified, Sodom.

Gen 13:12  Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.

Gen 19:28  And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.

Isa 1:8  And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city.
Isa 1:9  Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.
Isa 1:10  Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

Rev 18:15  The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,
Rev 18:16  And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!
Rev 18:17  For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,
Rev 18:18  And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city. [“Spiritually called Sodom and Egypt”, Rev 11:8]

As Israel, God’s first born Son, we cry out to be delivered from Egypt, but just as Lot had come out of the land of the Chaldeans just to “pitch his tent towards Sodom,” so too, as God’s Israel, we must come out of Egypt, just to end up rebelling against God “ten times” and wanting to return to Egypt.

Num 14:3  And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?
Num 14:4  And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

Num 14:22  Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
Hos 11:2  As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

We are the ones described by these phrases: “Let us return to Egypt… and [you] have not listened to my voice… and burned incense to graven images”. That is the spiritual significance of God revealing to us that we are first “spiritually called Sodom and Egypt”. Here once again is what Isaiah said of Jerusalem in his day:

Isa 1:21  How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Notice that it does say… “the faithful city”, just as Christ says “They have received… the words you gave me” just before the apostles forsake Him and leave Him to suffer His fate on the cross:

Joh 17:8  For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee,

The point of all scripture is that all men are first unfaithful, before the Lord causes them to be faithful.

We will pause at this point and continue our study of these verses concerning the Lord’s faithful witnesses in our next scheduled meeting.

A Mystery Hidden from the Ages and Generations: How Not to be Bitter Against One’s Wife and How not to Make a Husband Bitter – Part 1

[Study Aired July 15, 20 23]

Col 3:18 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
Col 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

In the beautiful account of Jacob lighting eyes upon Rachel for the first time, his response was to spontaneously burst into tears; such was his flood of profound emotions for having found a guaranteed virtuous woman to be his wife; to top off the connection, she was breathtakingly beautiful… besides, she obviously loved tending her father’s sheep in the sensorily arousing outdoors. That exhilarating imagery is enough to make any man nostalgically weep ~ it did Christ, who created all biological and spiritually related emotions that motivate ravishings (Son 4:9-11; Prov 5:19).

Gen 29:1 Then Jacob went on his journey, and came into the land of the people of the east. 
Gen 29:2 And he looked, and behold a well in the field, and, lo, there were three flocks of sheep lying by it; for out of that well they watered the flocks: and a great stone was upon the well’s mouth. 
Gen 29:3 And thither were all the flocks gathered: and they rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the sheep, and put the stone again upon the well’s mouth in his place. 
Gen 29:4 And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whence be ye? And they said, Of Haran are we. 
Gen 29:5 And he said unto them, Know ye Laban the son of Nahor? And they said, We know him. 
Gen 29:6 And he said unto them, Is he well? And they said, He is well: and, behold, Rachel his daughter cometh with the sheep. 
Gen 29:7 And he said, Lo, it is yet high day, neither is it time that the cattle should be gathered together: water ye the sheep, and go and feed them.
Gen 29:8 And they said, We cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, and till they roll the stone from the well’s mouth; then we water the sheep.
Gen 29:9 And while he yet spake with them, Rachel came with her father’s sheep: for she kept them. 
Gen 29:10 And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. 
Gen 29:11 And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept.

Upon seeing Rachel’s bright-eyed and sunny personality, Jacob’s unabashed howls expressed unspeakable joy and relief that such a beautiful creature existed. His unmasking no doubt cascaded Rachel with rapidly changing and enchanting emotions of surprise, tenderness and reverence, all amplifying the beauty in her face, only to make Jacob wail a little more. I’ll confidently wager that neither slept much that night, them having stayed up late excitedly chatting. Speaking from a man’s point of view, in disbelief, I would have lain brightly awake through the dawn just as Boaz’s commitment was for Ruth. The male-savvy Naomi knew that Boaz wouldn’t rest until his inherently protective masculine duty was performed for the particularly comely, virtuous young woman. 

I encourage you to please read all of Ruth 3 for Boaz’s and Ruth’s beautiful correlations to Jacob and Rachel, both parties individually representing Christ and his Bride.

Playful Shulamite-like poetic intimacy is the most provocative connection for a courting couple, and if continued in marriage, it is a key to supreme happiness. It is an elegant teasing game masterfully controlled and escalated by the fiancée or wife’s feminine charm and subtle delicacies, entrancing her lover. If ever a woman had righteous and powerful rulership over her husband, it is with that method! Jacob, Boaz, Christ and no righteous or unbelieving man could rest with those enviable traits alive in his home.

Of supreme importance, note in Jacob and Rachel’s connections that he meets her in the “field” to the “east”, tending her “Father’s sheep”. Spiritually he represents Christ and Rachel, His Bride, in the “high day” light of Him courting and connecting with her and magnifying her arousal for his plan of salvation, having rolled away the “stone” from the “well’s” mouth, washing her by the word (Eph 5:26) for her to wash the rest of the world for one of the two resurrections. Jacob and Rachel, Boaz and Ruth had outstanding sensual (physical) connections Solomon and the Shulamite epitomised spirituality for Christ and his Bride.

The intrinsic problem is with the connection! Worldly sensual connections are ordained to grow tiresome, particularly for a wife and by the curse. 

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Joh 6:64 But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.

All wives (as are husbands spiritually to Christ) are predestined to “betray” their husbands ‘whose hearts are snares and nets, and their hands are bands’ for the pre-marriage guarantee of bedroom intimacy, just as old Israel promised Jehovah, and grow weary.

Ecc 7:26 And I find more bitter than death the woman, whose heart is snares and nets, and her hands as bands: whoso pleaseth God shall escape from her; but the sinner shall be taken by her. 

Christ is a wonderful stumbling block (1Co 1:23); He found relief from bitterness in death to fulfill His dream for us. And so…

“The dream is one”! This study aims to energise wives and husbands with aspirations for a dream marriage. It is hoped to show wives how to attain a connection with their husbands that almost every girl and wife since creation has dreamed of and torn down with her own hands (Pro 14:1). It likewise is hoped to show husbands how to be Christ so that their wives can realize their dreams.

It is only the Bride of Christ who has been electrified by the Shulamite’s God-given daydreaming who understands her past sluggish bedroom intimacies are the direct result of her curse from Eden. It is the staggering reason behind husbands’ bitterness against their wives and our Lord’s (designed) hatred for his first wife.

The heavenly pattern is clearly seen in the order of courtship by our husband, Christ choosing us to be His Bride. Her job, her high calling, is to enthusiastically respond and incite arousal in Him for her more profound conception and resulting mutually exhilarated joy.

Joh 15:16 You have not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you.
Joh 15:17 These things I command you, that you love one another.

Col 2:17 For these are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ. 

Following are two verses with tremendous implications for an outstanding marriage. Embedded therein hinges all marital dissonance founded on not having a spiritual connection.

Gen 4:1 And Adam knew [H3045] Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.
Gen 4:2 And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. 

We don’t necessarily have to look up the word “knew” to understand that Adam and Eve were sensually intimate. Yet, if we don’t, Satan jams a broom handle into the spokes of our marital pushbike, and the alliance goes over the handlebars; and that is precisely what happens to all marriages.

H3045 – Knew
Yada`
– Phonetic: yaw-dah’
– Definition: 
to know
(Qal)
to know 1a
to know, learn to know 1a
to perceive 1a
to perceive and see, find out and discern 1a
to discriminate, distinguish 1a
to know by experience 1a
to recognise, admit, acknowledge, confess 1a
to consider
to know, be acquainted with
to know (a person carnally)
to know how, be skillful in
to have knowledge, be wise
(Niphal)
to be made known, be or become known, be revealed
to make oneself known
to be perceived
to be instructed 
(Piel) to cause to know
(Poal) to cause to know
(Pual) to be known 
known, one known, acquaintance (participle)
(Hiphil) to make known, declare
(Hophal) to be made known
(Hithpael) to make oneself known, reveal oneself

Nothing in that translation says anything about sexual intimacies (except passively h. 2. to know (a person carnally); therefore, if a wife authentically wanted to ‘know’ her husband, she would make it her intimate ‘job’ to discover every minute detail about his mind, inciting his (Christ ~ spiritually) classically designed male body and mind to respond. Traditionally since he (and she) is almost guaranteed not to know ‘the’ Christ, that is where the broom handle is unwittingly employed.

However, let’s see how subtly “knowing” a wife or husband directly relates to spirited bedroom intimacies.

1Co 7:2 Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. 
1Co 7:3 Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband. 
1Co 7:4 The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
1Co 7:5 Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency.
1Co 7:6 But I speak this by permission, and not of commandment. 

Permission G4774 from G48863 and G1097 meaning 1. to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of, perceive, feel a. to become known 2. to know, understand, perceive, have knowledge of a. to understand b. to know 3. Jewish idiom for sexual intercourse between a man and a woman< 4. to become acquainted with, to know.

The Bride’s (a wife’s) ‘job’ is the spiritual application of the highly sensual physical! If she doesn’t daily build her house with ravishing eyes (Son 4:9) to “provoke” her husband to good works (how dumb-easy is the biological application?), she is no different to that other dull woman from Mt. Agar (Gal 4:24-25).

Heb 10:22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the [highly spiritually arousing washing] of water by the word.

Continuing…

Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) 
Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. 
Heb 10:26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 
Heb 10:27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

Put simply, a husband’s ‘job’ is to know Christ; a wife’s ‘job’ is to converse submissively and enthusiastically engage him and be washed by the word of God. It is the most biologically and spiritually arousing act not known to mankind other than the Bride! With pounding hearts, it is the discovery of “hidden treasure”.

Mat 13:44 Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which when a man has found it, he hides it, and for the joy of it goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field.

I pray that men and women in the Body never regress to our former dismissive unaroused state and buy this field.

The most profoundly satisfying physical marriage relationship anywhere on earth is only found among a very few in the Elect of God, who have all the keys to the kingdom confined to the one outstanding spiritual act of being warmly and deeply kissed by her Lord. That enthusiastic physical interaction between a husband and his wife directly corresponds spiritually to the meaning of a stunning marriage and, ultimately, eternal life with Christ as our inheritance!

Sure, some Babylonian Christians know that mother Eve was given by the Lord to commit her sin and be liable to the inevitable curse, yet, they mostly have no whit why a husband would be guaranteed to be bitter against his wife. Husbands likewise have no whit of understanding the equivalent curse on them for being bitter against their wives! Accordingly, this study hopefully benefits those contemplating marriage and ‘resurrects to life’ those existing marriages, particularly for us all, spiritually.

Mat 16:16 And Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. 
Mat 16:17 Jesus answered and said to him, You are blessed, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood did not reveal it to you, but My Father in Heaven.

Peter represents the Church upon the “little rock” (Petros); he was compared to Christ and the foundation of the Church. The Father only reveals His truth through his Elect.

Mat 16:18 And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 
Mat 16:19 And I will give the keys of the kingdom of Heaven to you. [The Elect only] And whatever you may bind on Earth shall occur, having been bound in Heaven, and whatever you may loose on Earth shall occur, having been [already, before the foundation of the world] loosed in Heaven. 

1Co 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas [Peter], or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

Those who have not been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven are those who cannot possibly accept the plain statement here in 1 Corinthians 3 that even “the world (and) death” are ours and that we must all live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, including “yes, even the wicked for the day of evil” (Pro 16:4) in each of us.

Those who have taken away the ‘key of knowledge’ of how to enter into the kingdom of heaven will never agree that “all things are yours” really means “all things ~ the world, death, things present and things to come.” 100% of “all things” are for the Elect alone only in this age; others are not being judged as yet, since the world does not participate in the First Resurrection. Those who refuse this key to the kingdom of heaven also go as far as to hinder those entering the kingdom of heaven. “…Ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered” (Luk 11:52). Even those sad words are “in me, that is in my flesh.”

Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

The Shulamite has been given all the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven rolled into one master key by her single-eyed focus on her Lord. With bright-eyed devotedness, she actively goes out of her way to spiritually inflame intense desire in her Lord for their mutual ecstasy, eager in measured anticipatory arousals for “when he pleases” (Son 8:4).

Son 4:9 You have ravished My heart, My sister, My spouse; you have ravished My heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck.

The Lord slowly awakened the love of his Bride precisely ‘when he pleased’ at His death on the cross. There is no greater Shulamite awakening and inflaming of her love than today and increasing every day until His return! (Matthew 25 – the Ten Virgins)

The Lord made mature young women, particularly in their bloom of youth, devastatingly alluring to men. Even if some women are not instantly noticeably ravishing, they all have nuances of exquisite intrigue for the particularly attentive male. Almost all women fail to see those fleeting appeals that only a male sees, and even other males cannot see what a particularly discerning male loves in the girl of his watchfulness. She simply goes about being female in the body she was given, mostly innocently oblivious to what arouses males (a blight she inherits from dull-eyed mothers and elder women of influence). She’d be deeply intrigued, for sure, if she knew, yet, wrinkle her pretty nose up to understand its provocation to stare in the mirror to find the source for its amplification and frustrating failure. More likely, she grotesquely exaggerates what she perceives as sexually alluring, believing that ‘in-your-face’ sensual expressions trawl a larger catch for sorting… and she does.

All men and women sit somewhere in the long spectrum of lust that waxes and wanes in unrighteous lust; none are exempt. It is just that within that very broad band lies degrees of every dissolute thought and action imaginable. And by the design of the flesh, both men and women, particularly those ignorant of moral decency, lean toward exhausting their sensual titillations mostly secretly, yet in these end-times, becoming more and more pridefully triumphant.

The Lord made every aspect of feminine energy, those flashes of exquisite beauty that words defy, and the resulting male poetry of a million impassioned expressions for men’s endless fascination and intense focus. It is what mesmerises males to utter frustration of nonattainment, and many mournfully submit to pornography, either mentally or online. More women than those who admit do likewise. As an apparent statistical fact, today, it is hard to believe that women now watch more porn than men,  mostly for female sensuality vastly more than male. Ironic, isn’t it, that both men and women worship the Ashteroth^H6252.

Original: עשׁתּרת עשׁתּרות
– Transliteration: `Ashtarowth
– Phonetic: ash-taw-roth’
– Definition: Ashtaroth or Astaroth = star n pr f deity 
false Goddesses in the Canaanite religion, usually related to fertility cult n pr loc 
a city in Bashan east of the Jordan given to manasseh
Origin: H6251 –  1. ewe, flock, increase, young
From H6238 – 1. to be or become rich or wealthy, enrich, pretend to be rich.

Gen 14:5 And in the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer [Phonetic: ked-or-law-o’-mer] and the kings that were with him came and struck the giants in Ashteroth [ash-ter-oth’ kar-nah’-yim] Karnaim, and the Zuzim [zoo-zeem’] in Ham, and the Emim [ay-meem’] in Shaveh Kiriathaim [shaw-vay’ kir-yaw-thah’-yim],

There are plenty of derivatives of the term, Ashteroth or Ashtaroth, all meaning the worship of the female as a goddess.  You may like to check out this link. Astarte – Ancient Diety

Interestingly, the Ashteroth are of the Nephilim, the giants with which both Israel and we must contend. Fewer giants are ever more outstanding than the worship of women who rule over men. Women’s rulership over men and men’s most willing abdication of headship is the most damning sin of all, since, spiritually, it symbolises our imagined dethroning both the Father and Christ for our godship sitting on His throne (Rev 13, Rev 17, Rev 19).

Yet, the sexual vitality of a woman is the result of her overall feminine dynamism. Should she amplify authentic gentleness, kindness, softness in appearance and voice, peace, joy, temperance, gorgeous hair, her entire body and submissive mind (Gal 5) when devoted non-sexually to all men, she becomes an Esther, hopefully for one man’s unspeakable delight and glory for all the world to ultimately see ~ such is the Shulamite, the Bride, is to Christ.

The one-time protection of women for their purity for monogamous marriage is a cornerstone of a nation’s strength. Today, all focus is a flood of destroying the God-designed dynamism of our beautiful women, whose own hands (mind bogglingly) abet her destruction. Even though the following verse is for spiritual focus, its outward “natural” application today is immensely destructive to the glorious vitality of beautiful femininity.

Rev 12:15 And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

Today, her demise is in freefall, and tragically she is carried away by the flood of lies. Her beauty is destroyed by her shrill cry demanding respect for her power, strength and independence. No wonder today we have a major Western push for ‘men going their own way’ (MGTOW) since they never wish to be enslaved to that kind of woman ~ Christ didn’t but was.

Women’s feminine energy in the Body of Christ is sanctified, protected and nourished for that one ‘man’ whose teeth (his flocks) rest at noon through the peace that their animated spiritual conversation excites in the full brightness of the Son.

Son 1:7 Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon: for why should I [the Shulamite] be as one that turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? (More exposition on that verse later)

Nothing is more sexually arousing for a male than those mentioned above delectable female attributes with sparkling eyes authentically and singularly devoted to him at noon. For the spiritually void young man, her endless beauty seems to him melancholically as unattainable as a fictitious Shulamite. Shockingly, she is much closer than he’ll ever know!

Joh 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them [the Bride] out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
Joh 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 
Joh 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth [by ‘the washing’ of the Lord’s word]

It is understandable, yet a little desolate, that demurely inherent people tend to shift uncomfortably when the sexual “natural” that comes first corresponds to the spiritual. Almost daily, I ask most passionately of our Father to give me Christ’s kisses of deep spiritual understanding to be spiritually aroused and blazingly ‘turned on’, ravished, inflamed for Christ, my [the Body’s] husband and Lord, and for him to instantly delight in the beauty He is creating in me. There shouldn’t be one person in the Body of Christ who doesn’t know what intense sexual arousal feels like. If there is such a person, he is missing the full impact of its spiritual meaning. Does he think Christ figuratively closed his eyes and other spiritual sensories when he designed our incredible body, holding His breath and averting his eyes because it was all just too gross? (Php 2:5-8). It is intensely erotic for a husband whose wife, with unrestrained elegance and skilful planning, blesses him with her mind and body focused on him ~ so, too, is Christ spiritually. Subsequently, all things literally become hers.

Psa 139:13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. 
Psa 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. 
Psa 139:15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 
Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. 

1Pe 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

The curse from Eden immediately diverges a wife from her husband for them to be one flesh, body and spirit. When given to honour and submit to her head, a righteous husband, she captures the virtuously arousing nature of her God-given femininity. Her determination to exercise physical and spiritual enchantment in the home and for her husband and family immediately melds her and her husband as one spirit in Christ. That is the most powerful form of rulership she has that is infinitely greater than what her woke feminist kin in Babylon can only jealously lust for and deepen their ugly expressions.

Jud 1:12 These people are filthy minded, and by their shameful and selfish actions they spoil the meals you eat together. They are like clouds blown along by the wind, but never bringing any rain. They are like leafless trees, uprooted and dead, and unable to produce fruit. 
Jud 1:13 Their shameful deeds show up like foam on wild ocean waves. They are like wandering stars forever doomed to the darkest pits of hell.

Let’s explore why and how husbands become bitter against their wives and, if possible, Christ symbolically bitter against both.

The Bride of Christ alone has spiritually been given those keys as soundly understood in the study, the Song of Solomon. The Shulamite in the Song of Solomon was electrified to physically discover her marital ‘resurrection of life’ that her 1,000 sisters in Solomon’s palace could never discover. Even with Solomon’s infinite wisdom, she remained immutably “black” to him in understanding her unsearchable wisdom, reflected in perfectly expressed sensual arousal of an unknown (spiritual) higher plane. He had all the God-given wisdom above all fleshly wisdom, yet vexingly, this Shulamite held the literal (vernacular) ‘holy grail’ for an unspeakably blissful marriage! 

Meanwhile, Solomon’s 1,000 wives remained dead in their ‘perfection’ of beauty above all women in Israel, expecting the King to worship them. With a pout for not understanding why their Lord (Solomon/Christ) would not grovel before their self-acclaimed excellence and allurement, they, including Leah (Jacob’s first wife – greater Israel) and Queen Vashti, fulfill the following verse:

Isa 4:1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, we will eat our own bread and wear our own clothing; only let us be called by your name, to take away our shame.

An overwhelming fact remains that stunning sexual intimacy between a husband and wife results from outstanding spiritual connections that further cause an already pretty woman to become her heart’s desire, exquisitely ravishing. By the Lord’s design, Leah, Jacob’s (ironically) supplanted wife, couldn’t understand that multiple sexual encounters resulting in many sons weren’t the ultimate criteria for love (Gen 29:31-35); spiritually, neither can the woman from Sinai whom the nominative 99.99% of the world’s men, physically and spiritually marry.

Of course, Queen Vashti was spectacularly put in her place for glorifying herself before all the nobles, princes and nation of Shushan (Persia) by not humbly coming at her Lord’s behest. She was too absorbed in elevating her beauty before the other women of King Ahasuerus’s (Phonetic: ‘akh-ash-vay-roshs’)  palace (Est 1:9). She certainly didn’t need a man, particularly her husband, to have his image symbolically glorified when she could artfully satisfy herself before the entire nation by taking such an outrageous objection to her husband’s bidding. Vashti was a classical feminist. Vashti’s and Israel’s haughty dismissiveness of her husband’s appetite for her tantalising beauty cost her royalty ~ so, too, does it cost the 99.99% of humanity’s majesty who narcissistically worship themselves in Babylonian Christianity. 

1Co 11:7 For a man indeed ought not to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man.

All Christian Babylonian women are effectively feminists since they rarely submit to their husbands as unto the Lord (Eph 5:22). The accepted spiritual fact in the Body of Christ is that all men in greater Babylon are spiritual ‘feminists’ since they utterly reject Christ, and subsequently and unwittingly are subject to the greater judgement.

Before Christ’s people were dragged out of Babylon, they subliminally knew something about the other Christ preached was amiss (a Solomon-like vexation for the Shulamite’s blackness and his inability to understand her spirit).

Just as Babylonish wives can’t submit to their Babylonish husbands; similarly, Christ-like wives have grave difficulty submitting to a Babylonish husband, and Christ-like husbands have “bitter” distress connecting to their Babylonian wives, as symbolised by our Lord’s hatred for His first wife’s rejection of His ‘kisses’ (Israel in the wilderness). Even though our Lord designed Israel’s rejection for His deep kisses of His word, all husbands are in lockstep with Christ for the same near-guaranteed experience that leaves them feeling defeated and betrayed. The unspiritual husband is exceedingly troubled by his wife’s dismissiveness of his physical arousal for her. More often, his exasperation plunges his marriage into deeper discord.

God commanded Hosea to marry a known harlot (Hosea 3) to parallel Israel’s harlotry while married to her Lord; for most husbands today, the most insidious off-shoot dynamics of harlotry is his wife’s inherent increasing disdain to be authentically aroused for his love ~ why should she?

Harlotary is traditionally solely financially interested in the transaction and mostly despises her client’s inflamed passion; she has perfected feigning exhilaration, hoping to speed up his zenith while secretly hoping, “Are you finished yet?” She artfully knows that a hint of that expression will extend or kill her client’s fulfillment of the transaction and is the last thing she desires.

Of course, not all harlot’s business (covenant) involves money since a Queen Vashti-like self-glorification in the eyes of the entire nation is superior currency involving tens of thousands of ‘customers’. She is the ultimate capitalist. Indeed, a wife’s rulership over her husband is a damnably damaging act to marriage.

That self-worship is further narrowed down and identified in our physical marriages in the Body of Christ, where the same self-worshiping act can linger and hide physically and, worse, spiritually.

The spiritual Esthers and Shulamites intrinsically know from experience that honouring a husband, not only for his headship but his God-given design, to be easily sensually inflamed will bless her more leisurely arousals. Her entire body is a tactile organ with many more sensory interconnections than her husband’s; they complement his God-given greater gift for spiritual connections and, thus, headship. She teaches her husband to be a skilled ‘harpist’ with her body, lingering on some notes and ingeniously plucking others. She delights in seeing his delight in her sensory beauty, deliberately designed to further enhance her awakening and is a major key to her ultimate joy, the Shulamite no doubt learned from her mother. (Son 8:1-7 – in fact, all of Son!). Her husband is designed to spiritually do likewise to her overwhelming joy. No wonder the Shulamite, with that understanding, fiercely protected her virginity for “when he pleases”!

Of course, our Lord is the master psalmist and musician for our colossal spiritual arousals, deftly timing every essential disturbance for our excitement for Him. Our submission to Him guarantees Him raising a chorus in us of honour.

Pro 15:33 The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility. 

1Sa 2:30 Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

Our strong delusions in Babylon were mind boggling for the spiritually stimulated mind when we were given to see the cunning plan our Lord had designed for his Elect.

Mar 10:28 Then Peter began to say unto him [Jesus], Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. 
Mar 10:29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife [regardless of outstanding marital intimacies], or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s,
Mar 10:30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time [coming age; and maybe now physically for the wise], houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life. 
Mar 10:31 But many that are first shall be last; and the last first.

[End of Part 1]

Hi Mike,

What is the spiritual application of Ezekiel 33:8-9? My guess would be that Christ is the Watchman, and the Body of Christ is who He uses to warn. But this is within us, is it not? Since all will be saved in judgment, some voluntarily, others in the White throne judgment period in the lake of fire, which is Christ and His Christ as flames of fire, I can’t figure how to tell a friend of mine what this means. We are all judged, and our wood, hay, stubble will be burned up, and all the fine stuff will be refined as gold in the furnace. So, why “but you will have saved yourself”?

My friend is thinking he is the watchman, warning others of various evils of society in the USA. Thank you, Mike. I am amazed at the book of revelation of Christ within. I am also amazed at the revelation of how sin is so tenaciously entrenched in my DNA.

Your friend in Christ,

M____

Hi M____,

Thank you for your question concerning “but you will have saved yourself” as it relates to Eze 33:8-9.

Here is that section of scripture but with the preceding 7 verses:

Eze 33:1  Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 33:2  Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and say unto them, When I bring the sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coasts, and set him for their watchman: 
Eze 33:3  If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;
Eze 33:4  Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head.
Eze 33:5  He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul.
Eze 33:6  But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand.
Eze 33:7 So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me.
Eze 33:8  When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Eze 33:9  Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

When we are given to apply Matthew 4:4 to these words, then we understand that Ezekiel is merely a type and a shadow of who we are in Christ. It is we who are the watchmen of the house of Israel. When it says “if the people take a man of their coasts, and set him for a watchman”, it is not really the people who are doing that any more than it was Joseph’s brothers who sold him into Egypt:

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

After twice telling his brothers “ye sold me”, he then tells them “It was not you that sent me here, but God.” It is the same here in Ezekiel 33. God says the people took “a man of their coasts and set him for [a] watchman”, and then He tells Ezekiel, “I have set thee as a watchman unto the house of Israel.”

So it is with you and me today. We see what the Lord is doing, and we witness to what He is doing, but we do so only to those who are given eyes to see and ears to hear. We do not cast our pearls before swine by giving that which is holy to the dogs.

Mat 7:6  Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

There are many Babylonian Christians who consider themselves to be watchmen over the Lord’s house even as they are fleecing the Lord’s flock and participating in the traditions of men and spitting on the doctrine of Christ.

I hope this helps you to deal graciously with your friend and not try to make him see that he himself perhaps is in the strong delusion which has most of mankind within its grip.

2Th 2:11  And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

If you have not yet done so, be sure to read this article: Will God’s Strong Delusion Deceive You?

Your brother in Christ,

Mike

Hi Mike,

Today I asked my pastor question after question about the “living forever” doctrine and didn’t back down. Anyway, he said he is going to sit down with me to explain it, but he didn’t make sense. He said the fullness is now, but there is consummation fullness later on!

I felt that doesn’t make sense! Anyway, I had a dream last night, and I am trying to understand the symbols.

Who is the Beast in Revelation?

Who is The Woman riding the beast in Revelation?

Whenever you have time if you could help me that would be great! Talk to you soon!

J____

Hi J___,

Thank you for your questions. I hope you find the answers to be edifying and that they strengthen you to “do the things [ Christ] says” (Luk 6:46). You asked who the beast is, and who is the woman riding the beast? Here are a couple of the verses you allude to in your questions:

Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

The answer is that you and I are the beast, simply because the scriptures tell us that 666 “is the number of mankind”, and that “men… themselves are beasts”

Ecc 3:18 I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.

So when we read of the beast blaspheming God, we know that is speaking of us disobeying God’s commandments and doing what we want to do in spite of what His word tells us to do and in spite of the example He set for us to follow.

Mat 7:21 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.
Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?

We are told that our “bodies are the temple of God”, so when we are told that the man of sin sits in the temple of God proclaiming himself to be God, we know that this is that same beastly flesh of Adam which by nature sits in the temple of God, doing what he wants to do and defies Christ to dethrone him, saying “Who can make war with the beast?”

2Th 2:3 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 2:4 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.
Rev 13:1 And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea [ the flesh of all mankind], having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
Rev 13:2 And the beast which I saw [“the first man Adam” in all mankind] was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.
Rev 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death [ our “first love” which we lose, Rev 2:4]; and his deadly wound was healed [ by attending the churches and religions of the great harlot]: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?
Rev 13:5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies [ false doctrines like fulness now]; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
Rev 13:6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God [ by denying the truth of Eph 1:13-14], to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle [ those who are faithful to His doctrines], and them that dwell in heaven [ same people].

Who is the harlot that rides this beast? What else is this beast called? What are the waters on which she sits? The answer is right here is the verses to which you allude:

Rev 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: [ verse three tells you these waters are the beast within all men. Verse 15 reaffirms this]
Rev 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. [ all of mankind]

So this “great whore” in your particular case would be the church you are attending, whose minister is teaching the false doctrines of this “great whore”. She is a whore because she actually sees nothing wrong with consorting with another ‘man’ while claiming to be the bride of Christ in associating herself with the doctrines of men other than her spiritual husband who she claims is Christ.

Isa 4:1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread [ our own doctrines], and wear our own apparel [ our own “filthy rags… many wonderful works in thy name” righteousness]: only let us be called by thy name [Luk 6:46], to take away our reproach.
Luk 6:46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? [ Things like “Come out of her My people”]

She is so very beautiful, and she is full of good works, and thereby seduces “the whole world”, and this is what everyone who has fallen for her and her doctrines will do:

Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, [ the “many waters” on which this harlot sits, and who she continues to dominate] have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

The answer is, yes they did prophesy false doctrines like ‘fullness now’ in His name, and in His name they cast out demons [ they came behind in no gift of the spirit – 1Co 1:7], and in His name they have done many wonderful works and they have performed miracles in His name. That is why it is called “strong delusion”. I have shown you that it is God who deceives the ministers of this great harlot which dominates all flesh, and it is He who gives her ministers the power to perform miracles in the sight of the beast within us.

Eze 14:9 And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
Rev 13:14 And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.

So we are each the beast, and we are the image of the beast, and we are dominated by this great harlot in whom all these miracles take place to “deceive them that dwell on the earth”. But take heed of this warning from God, Himself:

Eze 14:9 And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.
Eze 14:10 And they shall bear the punishment of their iniquity: the punishment of the prophet shall be even as the punishment of him that seeketh unto him;

I pray that all these verses of scripture will help you, through Christ, to “make war with the beast” and to “come out of” the great whore who rides upon the beast who, by being “the first man Adam”, is naturally within all of us.

Your brother in your struggles,

Mike >

What is the sin unto death that we shouldn’t pray about?

Thanks

D____

Hi D____,

Thank you for your question. The verse you refer to is:

1Jn 5:16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.

What John is referring to becomes clear as you finish this chapter. Our emphasis is always on the “sin unto death.” John’s emphasis is on the “sin not unto death. Notice the next verse:

1Jn 5:17 All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death.

John emphasizes the fact that although “all unrighteousness is sin: but there is a sin that is not unto death.”

1Jn 5:18 We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.

John is not arguing that we are no longer in corruptible flesh. He even acknowledges that “there is a sin that is not unto death.”

This “sin unto death” is not a particular sin that is common to all men. But as we read the next few verses, it becomes obvious that this “sin unto death” is the result of not possessing a “love of the Truth.”

Look at the next verse:

1Jn 5:19 And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

John considered himself and those who thought as he thought, those who had the same mind that he had, to be “of God.” In the next verse he acknowledges that it is only because of ‘Christ in him’ that he has been “given [ this] understanding.”

1Jn 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life

This sounds very much like what Christ said about “life eternal:”

Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

It is the warning in the last verse of this chapter that indicates what John means by “a sin unto death:” Here is that solemn warning:

1Jn 5:21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

It is idolatry that is or at least causes this “sin unto death.” Here are the scriptures:

Eze 14:7 For every one of the house of Israel, or of the stranger that sojourneth in Israel, which separateth himself from me, and setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to a prophet to enquire of him concerning me; I the LORD will answer him by myself:
Eze 14:8 And I will set my face against that man, and will make him a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Eze 14:9 And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

“Idols of the heart,” clinging to the false doctrines of the Christian Babylonish system, are called “stumbling blocks of iniquity.”

Those found to be in this condition are said to be deceived by God Himself:

Eze 14:9 And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the LORD have deceived that prophet,

Now we can understand where Paul got the truth that he points out to us:

2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
2Th 2:12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

To whom does God send His “strong delusion? To the very people he was addressing in Ezekiel 14. Are these those people of the lost world? Well, not quite. The people to whom both Ezekiel 14 and 2Th 2 are referring are the leaders of the people of God, not the so called ‘lost world.’

Isa 9:16 For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.
Jer 29:8 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.
Jer 29:9 For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the LORD.
Jer 23:2 Therefore thus saith the LORD God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold,

And who was it that came to Ezekiel that provoked this entire fourteenth chapter?

Eze 14:1 Then came certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me.
Eze 14:2 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Eze 14:3 Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?

This Old Testament phrase “idols of the heart” is simply another way of describing those who are “sent strong delusion” in 2Th 2:11-14. With these ‘heart idols’ these men yet come to ‘enquire of God.’ In truth they don’t care what God has to say; they already have an ‘idol of the heart’ that has no intention of being influenced by the Word of the Lord. So it is with every denomination of Christianity today. They all have their by- laws that make them who they are. Those by- laws far supersede God’s word! The scriptures are not about incorporated churches and denominations and by- laws! They are one and all “idols of the heart.”

Here are Paul’s words describing these same elders in the early Christian church of his day:

2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish [ Greek-‘are perishing’]; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.

“The Truth” is a title given to Christ:

Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Consequently “the Truth” is not synonymous with denominational by laws. In fact they are directly opposed one to the other.

God’s Word is not confined to any by- laws. They always either “add to” or else “take away” from God’s word. Here is what happens to such people:

Rev 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

When God Himself has deceived a person (Eze14:1-9), and we see that this person is under “God’s… strong delusion,” “setting up… idols of his heart” in the stead of the truths of the scriptures, under those circumstances, I would definitely say ” There is a sin unto death: I do not say that [ you should] pray for it… Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen (Joh 5:16-21).

I hope this is of some help to you,

Mike

Hi Mike,

I want you to know that I am truly enjoying the Job series and am looking to really understand this book that so few people in Babylon can comprehend.

I do have a quick question for you as well, Mike, as a thought occurred to me. I know that there is a reasonable answer if I took the time to use the SUM of God’s word, but I’m not exactly sure how to in this particular case. The question is, how do we reconcile these two verses using the sum of God’s Word…

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?

Pro 19:3 The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the Lord.

I really think I know the answer to this, but I wanted to confirm if I am correct. I know that the argument would be used by people without eyes to see God’s sovereignty in ALL things that the verse in Proverbs proves that God is not responsible for the foolishness that perverts our way, and that the verse in Isaiah is just an example of someone blaming God for the failure of His people.

Thank you, Mike, and I’m looking forward to the next study. God bless you and your family mightily.

D____

Hi D____,

It is always good to hear from you. Recently a group of young Christian men were discussing marriage. They are all single, and they all agreed that the only thing worse than being single would be to be unequally yoked together with someone with whom they could not agree:

Amo 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

2Co 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

So I will also mention this verse of scripture for your consideration.

Luk 21:19 In your patience possess ye your souls.

God knows what we each need, and He provides for us what He wants us to have, and gives it to us when He wills. We are fools to contend with Him, and yet we all do at our appointed time.

Yes, the body of Christ is really always going through extreme testing just by virtue of living in this extremely corrupt world. That is one of the main reasons we need each other to exhort and encourage one another.

Heb 3:13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Heb 3:14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

You asked:

… how do we reconcile these two verses using the sum of God’s Word?

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?

Pro 19:3 Thefoolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the Lord.

I really think I know the answer to this, but I wanted confirm if I am correct. I know that the argument would be used by people without eyes to see God’s sovereignty in ALL things that the verse in Proverbs proves that God is not responsible for the foolishness that perverts our way, and that the verse in Isaiah is just an example of someone blaming God for the failure of His people.

You are right. “People without eyes to see” will always attempt to force the scriptures say whatever fits with their doctrine instead of adjusting their doctrine and lining their doctrine up with scripture.

“… You made us to err from your ways, and hardened our heart from your fear” accords with “It was not you that did it, but God… (Gen 45:8), I will harden Pharaoh’s heart… (Exo 4:21), an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him… (1Sa 16:14), The Lord hath made all things for Himself, yes even the wicked for the day of evil… (Pro 16:4), the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets” (1Kg 22:22), Can there be evil in the city and the Lord hath not done it? (Amo 3:3), and [God] works all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph 1:11).

I could go on and on with scriptures which demonstrate that God is “working all things after the counsel of His own will”, but none of these, or any other verses of the sum of God’s word, will change the mind of a blinded Babylonian who is steeped in the great false doctrine which teaches that God gave mankind a will which is free from God’s sovereign will.

God really does make us to err from His ways and “hardens [our] hearts from His fear”, and there is no one who can resist or withstand His will.

2Ch 20:6 And said, O LORD God of our fathers, art not thou God in heaven? and rulest not thou over all the kingdoms of the heathen? and in thine hand is there not power and might, so that none is able to withstand thee?

The scriptures are full of stories which deliberately lead us to believe that our decisions have superseded God’s will or have caused God to change His mind, and those stories serve to keep that “idol of the heart” called the ‘doctrine of free moral agency’ firmly in the minds of those who have not been given eyes to see or ears to hear the things of the spirit.

Gen 3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Deu 28:45 Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:

There are plenty of scriptures like these which seem to be saying that the reason God pours out His wrath is: “Because you listened not unto the voice of the Lord your God”.

“The sum of God’s Word” adds these thoughts to those listed above which demonstrate that it is God who “makes us to err from His ways and hardens our hearts from His fear.”

Psa 119:160 The sum of thy word is truth; And every one of thy righteous ordinances endureth for ever. (ASV)

I sometimes give the example of telling you that, Lord willing, I will be in Buford, Georgia tomorrow morning. Buford is twelve miles south of me. If then someone tells you that they saw me in Gainesville, Georgia, a city which is twelve miles north of me that same morning, have I lied to you, or have I contradicted what I told you I would do? No, not at all. I could very easily be in Buford as late as 10:00 A. M. take care of business for an hour, and still have plenty of time to be in Gainesville by 11:30 A.M. Both would be true. I was in Buford that morning, and I was in Gainesville that same morning. The sum of my word would be true.

Now let’s apply that same principle to these two verses you quote:

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Pro 19:3 The foolishness of man perverteth his way: and his heart fretteth against the LORD.

Now let’s ask: Does the foolishness of man pervert his way? Well, of course it does. But where in Proverbs 19:3 are we told that the Lord did not make man foolish? It certainly does not declare anywhere in that verse, or anywhere else in the Bible, that God does not make man foolish. The fact is that the Bible does tell us that “The thoughts of the heart and the answer of the tongue are from the Lord”.

Is there a single word in Proverbs 19:3, or anywhere else in scripture, where we are told that God never causes men’s hearts to “fret against the Lord”? Of course there is not one word to that effect anywhere in that verse or anywhere else in scripture. The exact opposite is true when we are told that God hardens our hearts from His fear.

So we should never ever say, “Yes, but what about this verse…” and then try to make one verse cancel out another. That would amount to ‘taking away from the things written therein’ (Rev 22:18-19), and there are very serious consequences for those who attempt to pit one verse of scripture against other verses of scripture. As a brother told me, “It doesn’t say ‘Some of thy word is truth’, rather it says, “The sum of thy word is truth.”

So let’s always be careful to see “the things of the spirit” in the Words of God, and then we will find it much easier to add only scripture to scripture. We must be very careful to always compare spiritual things with spiritual”, then we will never be guilty of ‘taking away from the things which are written in this book’.

Rev 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.

I hope this helps you to see that man’s foolishness and man’s fretting against God is “made” to be so by God Himself, and in no way keeps God from honestly saying that man’s foolishness perverts his way, and causes his heart to “fret against” God. God causes man to do all mankind does. That is the Truth of scripture. It is also the Truth of scripture that “man’s foolishness perverts his way”. Both are absolutely just as true as the fact that I can go to both Buford and Gainesville in the same morning.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike

Hi,

I am trying to come to grips with the location and stated finds of artifacts from the crossing of the Red Sea and Noah’s ark, which I have thought to be very understandable and a good candidate for the actual site. However after reading some assertions on some other claims, though there was no mention of the crossing, I am beginning to wonder a bit.

Can you throw any light on the subject?

Regards,
S____

Hi S____,

Thank you for your question concerning claims certain people have made to have discovered the ark of Noah and gold clad chariot wheels at the place where Israel crossed the Red Sea, etc.
It is not in the scope or purpose of this web site to prove or disprove any of the thousands of claims of discoveries which either bolster or refute the inspired words of God.
What this website does is point you to what the scriptures say. If God has given you faith in His Word, then I can be of some help to you. On the other hand, if your faith is based on what you see, I can be of no assistance to you whatsoever.

/ Here is why that is so:

Joh 20:29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

Faith, contrary to what many teach, is not based upon provable, demonstrable science. It is based upon verifiable historic Truth, but faith cannot be demonstrated in a laboratory.
“Blessed are they that have not seen and yet believe”. If one’s faith is based upon being able to see Noah’s ark, gold clad chariot wheels, or the ark of the covenant, then one has no faith at all. The entire Christian religion is based upon a Truth which cannot be duplicated in a laboratory. No one yet has ever demonstrated how a virgin can get pregnant without knowing a man.

Mat 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Crist was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

It is true that many physical signs and wonders followed Christ and his apostles. Why were there physical signs and wonders? Here is why for all of us:

“… Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed:”

But the last part of that verse is just as true as the first part:

“… blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

You say,

“I am trying to come to grips with the location and stated finds of artifacts from the crossing of the Red Sea and Noah’s ark, which I have thought to be very understandable and a good candidate for the actual site.”

The only ‘grip’ you need is faith in the Word of God which tells us:

Gen 8:4 And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

Those words are far more reliable than any artifact that will ever be proffered by any man. As our Lord also told us:

Mat 12:39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

Those are Christ’s words, and they are solid as a rock. Those who stand on Christ’s Words need no artifacts to bolster their faith in those words.
I would like to suggest that you read the article “Will God’s Strong Delusion Deceive You” which is located at this URL, http:// iswasandwillbe. com/ strongdelusion. php
In light of these words of scripture, it is far more likely that those who are seeking either artifacts from the ark of Noah to the so- called ‘holy grail’ or the ‘shroud of Turin’ are all simply making merchandise of the gospel.

2Ti 3:13 Yet wicked men and swindlers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. (CLV)
2Co 2:17 For we are not as the majority, who are peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God in Christ, are we speaking. (CLV)

I hope this is all of some edification to you.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike

Sir;

Isa 1:17-18 and Rev 3:20 … talk about salvation. My question is, if salvation is a done deal, why the invitation to reason, and also [ why is] Jesus knocking at the door (of peoples’ hearts)? Could you please comment on these two scripture verses?

Thank you,
L____

Hi L___,

The question you are struggling with is the same one I struggled with. Why, if God is all knowing, does He tell us not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, while in reality He knows we will eat of that tree and has already prepared the Lambnslain from the foundation of the world; Rev 13:8. Why does He say Come let us reason together, when in reality,…

Pro 21:1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, [ as] the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will…

… and…

Joh 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [ Gk. – drag] him?

The answer is that while God is all knowing [(Isa 46:10) Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure…] WE DO NOT KNOW EVEN WHAT TOMORROW WILL BRING FORTH! Consequently, we must make daily decisions AS IF we, ourselves, were making those decisions, when all the while, the Truth is: it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure (Php 2:13). So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy (Rom 9:16).

It is an amazing Truth that the word ‘responsibility’ is nowhere to be found in the scriptures! The reason is The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil (Pro 16:4). That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things (Isa 45:6-7).

Is this also true of those he asks to “Come and let us reason together?” Is it true for those of whom He says: Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me (Rev 3:20)? Here is your answer:

Joh 6:44) No man can come to [ sup with] me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [ drag] him.
Eph 1:11 [ He] worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

So while the word ‘responsibility’ is nowhere mentioned in scripture, the word ‘account’ is everywhere mentioned; (Rom 14:12) So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God… (Rom 2:6) … Who will render to every man according to his deeds.

If you haven’t already, be sure to read Strong Delusion and Biblical Examples of Rightly Dividing The Word on www. iswasandwillbe. com. Those two papers will help you to keep God’s Word foremost in your mind as you make all those decisions that God, but not you, already knows you will make.

I hope this has been of help.

Mike >