Dealing with the Devil :: By Terry James

We who see things developing from truth found in God’s prophetic Word can, I think, agree that secular (humanistic) efforts at dealing with the principalities and powers of Ephesians 6:12 aren’t working.

Man trying to hold back the evil of this world has failed miserably at every level. Therefore, God’s next catastrophic intervention into earth’s history is imminent. Bible prophecy overlays the issues and events of this troubling day in an astonishing presentation that provides the forewarning.

Something stupendous is about to happen!

An unidentifiable, pent-up energy pervades the atmospherics of these ominous times. Every indicator that exposes the human condition points to a coming moment of truth—an impending transformation—that will alter the way things are forever.

Evil permeating the current generation of earth’s inhabitants, one can sense, creates a demand that things be set aright—calls for a change that judges the bad and sets at liberty the good.

Man’s Failure

Winston Churchill, one of history’s greatest leaders and thinkers in the quest for world peace, framed humanism’s core hope for mankind following World War II.

“A world organization has already been erected for the prime purpose of preventing war. UNO [United Nations Organization], the successor of the League of Nations, with the decisive addition of the United States and all that means, is already at work. We must make sure that its work is fruitful, that it is a reality and not a sham, that it is a force for action, and not merely a frothing of words, that it is a true temple of peace in which the shields of many nations can someday be hung up, and not merely a cockpit in a Tower of Babel. Before we cast away the solid assurances of national armaments for self-preservation, we must be certain that our temple is built, not upon shifting sands or quagmires, but upon the rock.” (Robert Rhodes James, Winston S. Churchill: His Complete Speeches 1897–1963, vol. VII [NY and London: Chelsea House, 1943–49] pp.7285–7293).

Churchill didn’t realize the prescience of his final words of this excerpt. The British prime minister was wrong in the first part of his statement about how to assure peace on earth, but he was on the mark—even if unwittingly—in the last part. The only way a truly peaceful world will ever be built is not on human government, not upon military might, but “upon the rock.” True, lasting peace will, in fact, be built upon the stone of Daniel 2:34, 45—the stone cut without hands that will smash to pieces the anti-God, man-made governmental system of this fallen world. That rock is none other than Jesus the Christ. Christ, alone, is able to deal with the devil as is necessary to bring all to a conclusion appointed by God.

Jesus told His disciples this unalterable truth as recorded in Matthew 16:13-18.

The humanistic roadmap for achieving mankind’s loftiest goals isn’t working out. Human government, as a matter of fact, is taking the world on the fast track to destruction.

Babel-like Rebellion Rules

Mankind exhibits the hubris of Lucifer the fallen one. Pridefulness grows in geometric progression while humanity proceeds deeper into history. Pride and rebellion in this sin-immersed world are synonymous. The world of rebels has come full circle and stands again where the tower builders of Babel stood in the Genesis account of God’s intervention into the evil affairs of man following the Flood. Heaven’s judgment thus cannot be far in the future.

The Genesis record frames the problem God confronted.

“And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11:4-9).

Modern-day one-world order builders have been able to circumvent the language barriers the Lord set in place to prevent the ancient tower builders from constructing the Tower of Babel. Technology makes possible instant communication from any place on earth to most any other place around the globe, no matter the language.

The neo one-worlders are every bit as set on trying to usurp God’s control over mankind as were Nimrod and his cronies of that ancient time.

The globalists elite today are observed at work within the United Nations, the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and deceptive entities like the World Economic Forum (WEF). These and others engage in constant efforts to formulate a new world configuration. Their grasp for power is joined by the many social engineers and scientists who seek to foist the global-warming hoax upon the rest of humanity. Their climate-change conferences — which thus far have not reaped the economic windfalls they hoped for — and lockdowns through contrived, engineered pestilences have failed miserably. Their pseudoscience, which was proved to be based upon fraudulent and contrived climate data, exposed their hubristic grab for power.

Warped Worldview Pervades

This generation, represented by the globalist-elite drive for one world order, fits well the description of rebellious earth-dwellers given in the final book of God’s recorded Word—Revelation. The neo-Babel builders exhibit hatred for those who want governance from the God of Heaven, not from humanistic reprobate thinking. Saints of the Tribulation era will appeal to the Lord against such “heathen,” “kings of the earth,” and “rulers” that “imagine a vain thing,” as outlined in Psalms 2:1-4.

Those who will have been martyred for the cause of Christ will ask the Lord a heart-wrenching question in that future time of horror:

“And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” (Revelation 6:10).

These who “dwell on the earth” today mock God and embrace Antichrist concepts. The Antichrist spirit is alive and well and is growing stronger in its influence.

The generations that have grown with the fantastic scientific breakthroughs have a visceral pride that makes them pull from the traces that God has designed for the moral governance of humankind. Humanity, in cultures and civilizations, always seems to go through the same kind of cycle of deportment toward total rebellion and judgment.

At this moment, we who “watch” things going on are like Lot of his day. We are “vexed” while the wickedness, deception, and unalloyed evil grow amongst us.

God’s Word, as always, tells us how to deal with the devil and the rebelliousness while we wait for and look for our blessed hope (Titus 2:13). Here is assurance from God’s Holy Word. The devil and his minions that have plagued mankind – including perpetrating their evil against Christians who are now, like Lot, vexed from day to day with their wickedness – will be dealt with in judgment.

“Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb….The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth. The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation. Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholdeth the righteous” (Psalms 37:1-2, 12-17).

All evil we see accumulating, with Antichrist’s foreshadow now darkening the immediate geopolitical horizon, means the Lord is about to intervene with promised judgment and wrath. Jesus told of the exact times in which we now live in His “days of Noah, days of Lot” prophecies recorded in Luke 17:26-30.

It is the Rapture of all born-again believers that will begin the process of instituting that judgment and wrath.

Folks, that great event, when God will deal with the devil and his minions, both human and demonic, is on the very cusp of becoming a reality in our time.

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh” (Luke 21:28).

 

Hebrews Study: Jesus, Author of Eternal Salvation :: By Sean Gooding

Hebrews 5:5-11

“So also, Christ did not glorify Himself to become High Priest, but it was He who said to Him: ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.’ 6 As He also says in another place:You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek’; 7 who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, 8 though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. 9 And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, 10 called by God as High Priest ‘according to the order of Melchizedek,’ 11 of whom we have much to say, and hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing” (NKJV).

Last week we took the time to show that Jesus is both King and High Priest. He was born into the lineage of the kings from the tribe of Judah. But He is a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. Why is this important?

After a bit of study and reading one of my favorite commentators, Guzik, he points out that human high priests all die. They all serve for a period of time, and then they all eventually die. Leviticus 21 lays out the very strict rules for becoming a priest. One could not be lame, blind, or have any physical defect. One could not marry a woman who was not a virgin, and on we can go. The calling was a serious undertaking. The reminder to us was that of the temporary. Both the high priest and their work were temporary. The high priest had to offer sacrifices for both himself and the people over and over again, year after year. So, for our salvation to be eternal, we would have to have another solution. Jesus is that solution.

  • Jesus’ Resurrection

This is the key to all that Jesus offers us. No resurrection, no eternal life. Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians 15: 13-15,

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is worthless, and so is your faith. In that case, we are also exposed as false witnesses about God. For we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead, but He did not raise Him if in fact the dead are not raised” (Berean Study Bible).

If there is no resurrection, our faith is worthless, and so too is our preaching. ‘Christianity’ is just another worthless religion filled with nice ideas and lots of fuzzy feelings, but it does nothing for us. We have a ‘good’ life, and then we die and turn to dust, or worse, go to Hell without any hope whatsoever. We will never see Abraham or Isaac or Jacob. I will not see my father, nor brother, nor any of the ones that we bid farewell, hoping to see again. But Jesus did resurrect!

Take the time to read the book The Case for Christ and see the wonderful explanations there from a man who was not looking to be an advocate but to disprove Jesus and all this church stuff. Because He did resurrect, He is not a High Priest after the order of Aaron because they ALL died. They could not offer eternal salvation because their sacrifices were temporary. Jesus, in contrast, lives even now as our High Priest, our Advocate, according to 1 John 2: 1-2:

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father— Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world” (Berean Study Bible).

This order of priesthood from Melchizedek was different in that, unlike Aaron, He did not die; when He did, He was resurrected. We will explore this more as we move ahead with the study of Melchizedek. But for now, we can see that Jesus was and is our High Priest to this very day.

  • Jesus, the Author of Eternal Salvation

The sacrifices of bulls and turtle doves could not save us eternally. They were just a shadow of what was to come and what was necessary. In Hebrews 10: 3-4, we see this sad reminder:

Instead, those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (Berean Study Bible).

These sacrifices were never designed to take away sins; they were a reminder that we are sinners and that we need to be redeemed some other way. Jesus, thus, is our Salvation. He came not to remind us that we are sinners but to abolish our sin and make us Children of God (1 John 3:1). Take a look at Hebrews 9: 11-12:

But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made by hands and is not a part of this creation. He did not enter by the blood of goats and calves, but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus securing eternal redemption” (ESV).

Jesus secured ETERNAL REDEMPTION for you and me. Only Jesus could do that. No one else in the entire universe could have accomplished this. He did not come to bring an annual reminder of sin but to abolish our sin to the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19) and to take them away as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). There are many verses that tell us that God will remember our sins no more.

Isaiah 43:25, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins” (ESV).

Colossians 1:13-14, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (ESV).

Jesus has removed our sins forever, something no mere human high priest could do.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

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