It is apparent that this world is on a course for disaster. We cannot even read a news article without reading about a new calamity or problem or disease or abuse of governmental powers. Believers today should know exactly what time it is. The first coming of the promised Messiah was prophesied by the prophets of old and the Psalms and other passages of scripture contain types and shadows of His coming. Yet, the religious leaders of that day missed Him. They failed to recognize who He was.
We find that Yeshua (Jesus Christ) was constantly responding to these by calling them hypocrites. Despite all of our technology today, it is still apparent that some are blinded to the fact that He will soon return. Would He refer to the so-called leaders of the church today as hypocrites? Perhaps He would, time will tell.
“When ye see a cloud rise out of the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, There will be heat; and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time?” Luke 12:54-56
We are watching prophecy being fulfilled before our very eyes and yet there is greater unbelief and evil in this world than ever before. It seems that most people who profess to be Christians today accept Yehovah on their own terms instead of His. Many say that they cannot reconcile the God of the Old Testament with the God of the New; a god who leads Israel in conquering nations versus a god who sacrifices Himself, meekly, for all nations. Yet, no one denies that we see both of these attributes of God in our Bible.
Our problem today then is not one of intelligence, it is one of faith. We want the God that our human sensibilities would prefer to have, instead of the One who is. So, we unilaterally declare that the God of the Old Testament has morphed into the God of the New Testament; not because that’s what the Word of God tells us but because we are more comfortable with that. And this tendency of Christians is really both the cause and the definition of the word idolatry. An idol is the physical image of a god that comes from the minds of men; molded and shaped and ascribed attributes according to human philosophies, human characteristics and human desires. When we worship those attributes and characteristics instead of the God of the Holy Scriptures as He is, that is idol worship. There is no way around this and giving it some nice Christian name doesn’t make it okay.
There are a number of books with Christian-sounding themes making the rounds today. Most go to great length to attempt to degrade God by finding various ways of humanizing Him. Yes, to humanize God is to lower and defile His gloriousness. A human is a rather significantly lesser being than Yehovah. In fact, we are not even in the same cosmic ballpark. So, to attempt to equate Him with us is an insult of gargantuan proportions to His matchless divine essence. But really this attempt to humanize God is only a new age step in returning to the old world of Gnosticism.
The first step was to take humans down a notch (to de-humanize mankind) so as to be more equated with animals. This has been thoroughly accomplished nearly universally by demanding that Darwinian Evolutionism be taught and accepted as an undisputed fact. The notion being that we were not created by God, but simply evolved from animals and thus we are nothing more than another species of animal.
Many of these books set a deceptive pattern in teaching that God is above humans, and humans are above animals according to our Holy Scriptures. But, these make a mockery of that by seeking to make God approximately equal to humans, and humans approximately equal to animals. Churches and pastors the world over have fallen for this deception from hell, thinking it is a way for their congregations to get a warmer and fuzzier feeling about God. He is depicted more as a kindly grandfather and friend, and less the Mighty Creator and King who stands above all things and demands our faithfulness and obedience to Him.
This is only modern-day idolatry. It is absolutely no different than molding little figurines of god or gods and bowing down to them. It is making God in our image for our convenience. The idols and images we read about in the Bible were either people or animals, weren’t they? All the gods were ascribed human attributes; they partied, drank, had sex and procreated, worried, could be killed, needed to eat food, could be tricked, and loved to be flattered. And if you’ve succumbed to this hidden new age nonsense disguised as Christian literature, then you need to think again.
Put down those books and pick up your Bibles! Lay aside those novels and publications full of pithy prose and half-truths that make you think by reading them it will draw you closer to the Lord. In fact, it merely pulls you away by flirting with your emotions and distorting the truth. So many people do this because they see the Bible as being over their heads. Anyone can understand the Bible. It was made for normal, every day humans to understand. But more than understanding the Word of God, we are to believe and follow the Word of God. And, we are to take God as He is, not how we would rather He might be.
It is mind-numbingly irrational that the same people who despair and apologize for the God of the Old Testament who ordered the Children of Israel to slaughter their enemies will cheer and raise their voices in song over the coming of Armageddon and the total, grisly, merciless annihilation (by our Lord and Messiah) of the billions of people who form the nations but who will not submit to God.
This is what must be understood: First, whether the Torah or the Gospels, this is the same God with the same attributes, demonstrating the same principles. Second, at all times in history, Yehovah has chosen moments to slay those who are not His; at times for retribution, and at other times sacrificing them for the sake of those who are His. And third, the worst and most horrific slaughtering and blood-letting of His foes is yet to happen; it is in our future. Milder forms of His wrath and divine vengeance happened soon after Adam and Eve, it happened on a global scale at the Great Flood, it happened during the era of the Patriarchs, and it happened the night of Passover in Egypt.
We of the 20th and 21st centuries have watched as nations who sought to finally bring the Jewish people to extinction were laid low as the Lord gave might to the nations who sought to stop such a thing. And, we read in our New Testament book of The Revelation of Jesus Christ of our mild and meek Savior returning as a ravenous lion. He will lead the armies of God with sword in hand, as an invincible warrior chief railing against the enemies of God in a final war to end all wars where the amount of blood-letting will be so enormous as to stagger the imagination.
We do not have a God who joyfully kills; we are told that it is His will that all would be saved; but He does and will continue to destroy human beings who He deems as wicked in order to achieve His purposes, and among those purposes is to save Israel and to protect all those who are His.
We must never lose sight of the fact that the Lord always deals first with His own people, and then with those outsiders who persecute His people. In other words, the same foundational God-principles governed Israel as did all the nations of the earth, and the chief of those principles is that all will perish for their sins if they do not accept the grace of God by the death of Yeshua at Calvary as atonement for those sins. We read in the Old Testament the accounts of thousands upon thousands of Israelites being killed by the Lord for rebelling against Him. Thousands upon thousands from the nations (gentiles) were also destroyed. The large-scale destruction of Hebrew and gentile sinners is not an Old Testament principle that has somehow been abandoned with the advent of Christ. God’s justice did not end at the foot of the Cross.
Romans 2 goes to great length to explain that the Lord will treat Jew and gentile the same, and subject them to the same standard both in grace (unmerited favor) and destruction.
“But because of your stubborness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds: to those who by perserverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly amitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to every man who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 2:6-10
Let us never forget that God, Yehovah, the Creator of everything is sovereign, holy and He will not be mocked. Those who love Him have no problem serving Him and doing His will while on this earth. They understand that their treasure is where their heart is and it is not on the things of this world. Time is running short. Seek Him while He can still be found. He is waiting. He is calling.
“I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Revelation 22:16-17
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