We are former full-time Christian missionaries to Honduras begining a new chapter in Tennessee. Jesus is Lord. He is also Truth. All others must take a back seat. Brian is the writer. Cathy is the editor. Together we are one flesh, one heart, and one mind in Jesus's name. God bless!
The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand. “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
Ezekiel 33:1-9
We just finished Acts 10 in our Bible study where God flips Peter’s paradigm upside down again. I say again because Peter thought he knew what Jesus meant when He told the disciples to buy a sword in Luke 22:36-38 only to be rebuked for using it in Luke 22:50-51.
“No more of this!” And he touched his ear and healed him.
Luke 22:51
“No more of this!” was a mark in time. It was the official enactment of the Sermon on the Mount. No longer would God’s ambassadors conquer territory by the sword.
Acts 10 begins with Peter having gone to stay in the home of Simon the Tanner. Tanners were ceremonially unclean. Hence, Peter was in violation of Jewish law by having contact with him let alone sleeping in his house.
Next, God speaks through Cornelius, a believer in God but not a disciple yet, or a Jew. This is followed by Peter’s vision and God’s command to “Kill and eat” non-kosher food. This was another mark in time and formal enactment of Jesus’s words in Mathew 15.
“…it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
Mathew 15:11
Realize it or not, Jesus repeatedly brings us back to the original problem, namely the “knowledge of good and evil” from Genesis 3. Most people limit their understanding to the act of disobedience when Adam and Eve ate the fruit. The greater depth of their sin was that man became a god unto himself.
Paul quoted Isaiah that “no one is righteous“. Our very best, most altruistic ideas and judgments are like filthy rags. Isaiah 64 and Romans 3. Jesus flipped this paradigm when He only said and did what he heard and saw His Father do. John 5:19-20. Jesus was God incarnate on earth and yet even He did not lean on His own understanding…Proverbs 3:5-8.
I believe another mark in time is upon us.
A family member of mine has deconstructed from Christianity mainly due to spiritual abuse and extreme hypocrisy that all too often characterizes the contemporary Laodicean body of Christ. His worldview has since swung hard left. I have traditionally been just right of the middle. We often message back and forth on TikTok.
I mention this because my TikTok algorithm has changed. Instead of my being exclusively fed right-leaning content, I have been seeing almost exactly fifty percent right and fifty percent left-leaning media. In nature, there are compelling moral arguments on both sides for almost every socioeconomic or political issue. After all, we all want better, more affordable food, healthcare, and energy. No one I know wants to drink contaminated water or breathe polluted air.
One thing I have observed is that if you are on the right, you undoubtedly see the very worst representations of the left. We’ve all seen Black Block Antifa types throwing bricks through windows, starting fires, and attacking reporters. When questioned they have nothing but explicatives to share. Meanwhile, those on the left see overt white supremacists, e.g., Patriot Front members, Nick Fuentes, and KKK nut jobs. The right hears about Tim Walz drinking horse semen and partnering with Somali “Learing” Centers to rob the American taxpayers. The left hears that Donald Trump is a misogynistic Nazi pedophile and friend of Jeffrey Epstein. One thing is certain. Some, all, or none of this could be true. At the end of the day, none of us knows anything beyond what we are told by the media. Video footage might be AI. Still, we apply the logical fallacy known as “Appeal to Authority” and form a conclusion regarding the state of our nation and the world. We commiserate with like-minded peers in our respective echo chambers and discuss what should be done about and to the other side.
“Commiserate” means to falsely estimate.
Now Renee Nichole Good has been shot dead by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Minnesota is best known for the death of George Floyd. According to the left, he was killed by the knee of Derek Chauvin. The right claims he died of a methamphetamine and fentanyl overdose.
Right-wing media reported that Ms. Good had a rap sheet filled with protest-related charges. ICE was trying to apprehend her when she attempted to flee and purposefully ran into the ICE agent who then shot her dead. Given that she was the mother of a six-year-old child, JD Vance among others, wondered about her priorities. Why was she interfering with a law enforcement operation? After all illegal immigration is a crime.
Those on the left say ICE is the strong arm of the white supremacist Gestapo. They are now out to get white women, not just people of color. Ms. Good was just passing through when she got caught in the demonstration. No law enforcement officer should ever jump in front of a moving vehicle to block it.
Those on the right point out that Ms. Good was a lesbian who divorced her husband. The offending ICE agent is a Christian and married to an immigrant. False equivalencies abound ad infinitum.
The left is appalled that armed masked men have descended on their communities and are questioning everyone in a Nazi-style “papers please!” format. One mental health professional asked, “Where are the de-escalation skills?” “Just obey the law and comply!” Cries the right. “The feds are breaking the law!” the left replies.
“Nichole Good was just afraid!” says the left. “The ICE officer had been dragged by a vehicle in a previous incident. He feared for his life!” Says the right. “Nazis!” Cries the left. “Communists!” Cries the right. The right demands that Trump implement the Insurrection Act. The left declares its time to blow up police stations and begin an insurrection. Both sides claim it will be bad for the other.
I just listened to a left-leaning Marine Veteran of Fallujah explain that insurrection is upon us and a lot of people are going to die. Like gasoline on smoldering coals, each event creates more violent rhetoric. “Trump wants civil war so he can cancel the mid-term elections!” Says the left. “The Democrats want insurrection to distract from their fraud!” Says the right. Once again, some, none, or all of that could be true. Meanwhile as many as six thousand protesters have been killed in the current Iranian insurrection.
Is that what people want?
In my opinion it’s one big satanic psyop. You know a Psyop by F.A.T.E. Focus, Authority, Tribe, and Emotion.
An event happens that jerks the collective focus onto it. Authority, namely politicians and the media, defines and declares what happened or is happening. People commiserate within their respective tribal groups, e g Right or Left. Emotion is generated and sustained by rehtoric and a consensus is formed. Each subsequent event results in a positive feedback loop until both sides become increasingly escalated and begin killing each other. And the devil smiles. He smiles because he knows that he can do nothing to us. He can only convince us to do it to ourselves. This is world history in a nutshell.
I could be wrong, but as I see it all signs point to our being close to the end. If that is the case then we know that a third of mankind will be killed in the process. Rev 9:14-18
If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.
Revelation 13:10
Hence the current mark in time and enactment of Jesus’s words.
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
Mathew 7:13-14
Narrow is thlíbō to suffer tribulation, trouble, press (as in crushing grapes to make wine).
– Strongs Concordance 2346-
The time has come for all believers to walk the narrow way. The narrow way is marked by two ditches, one on the left and the other on the right. Genuine believers will not be duped into falling into either one because neither is correct let alone good. No one is good. There are no political or economic solutions to a spiritual problem. We will be pressed and despised by those in both ditches.
Jesus warned about the leaven of Herod, the Pharisees, and Sadducees in Mathew 16 and Mark 8. That leaven is of the world and the religious/political spirit. It is the knowledge of good and evil. It is this leaven that confused Peter, such that he denied Jesus three times when he swore he would give his life. It was this leaven that drove him to attack Malchus in Gethsemane and later argue with God three times over what he could eat in Acts 10. It is the leaven that will drive brother to deliver up brother and the love of many to grow cold. This leaven is the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is self-righteous and rebellious. Therefore, be sober, be watchful. 1 Peter 5:8 Prepare to endure in love as lawlessness grows. Mathew 24:12-13
“No more of this!” means exactly that, His Kingdom is not of this world. John 18:36 We are in the world not of it. John 17:16
Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Acts 8:14-16
The gospel going to Samaria was the beginning of the Church’s growth that proceeded as a result of Saul’s persecution.
Most of the group discussion last week revolved around the subject of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Everyone in attendance had received it. Each person gave testimony of receiving it.
The questions that preceeded it were,
Is it a separate event or does everyone receive it at baptism?
What is the evidence of it?
Some people received it when they were baptized. The evidence one cited was that the scripture suddenly made sense for the first time. One person had a demon cast out of them. One received the gift of radical love and the power to forgive. One received the gift of tongues. All agreed that a passion for God’s word was a result of the experience.
As Phillip proceeds on his journey, he runs into an Ethiopian Eunuch who just happened to be reading from Isaiah 53.
Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth.
Isaiah 53:7
Isaiah 53 prophesied the crucifixion of Jesus 700 years before Jesus was born. It is the very chapter that led Moishe Rosen to surrender to Jesus as Messiah. He went on to found Jews for Jesus in 1973. Isaiah 53 is dismissed or even forbidden by contemporary Rabis.
When the Ethiopian Eunuch understood the meaning of what he was reading, he immediately asked to be baptized.
And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.
Acts 8:39-40
Caught away is harpázō the same word used to describe the rapture.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
Harpázō toseize, catch (away, up), pluck, pull, carry off by force, claim for one’s self eagerly, to snatch out or away.
-Strongs Concordance-
While this is a side note, or a squirrel as we say in our Bible study group, it occurs to me that while the rapture is certain, the destination is not clear. Philip was harpazoed from Samaria to Cesarea about fifty miles away.
Revelations 12 and 13 describe the three and a half year tribulation from which the woman (the elect) is preserved.
And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Revelation 12:5
The only place harpazo is found in Revelation is in verse 5 speaking about Jesus in Daniel 7:13-14 and Acts 1:9-11. Even so, harpazo is implied for the remnant church.
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.
Revelation 12:6
And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
Revelation 12:14
What do you think?
If you are a regular reader you will notice that my weekly blog posts have dropped off. This is because I am writing a book. I’ll let you all know when it is published later next year.
And Saul approved of his (Steven’s) execution. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles.
Acts 8:1
Saul was a Roman citizen in Tarsus, one of, if not the most significant, trade hubs in the ancient world. After being trained in one of the most lucrative trades namely tent making, Saul went to Jerusalem to study theology under Gamaliel (remember Acts 5) for seven years. Some say this was the equivalent of two PhDs. Suffice it to say that Saul was revered. Hence, Steven’s killers laid his clothing at Saul’s feet. However, in sanctioning Steven’s murder Saul was guilty of breaking multiple laws. Capital punishment by local authorities was prohibited under Roman law without prior approval from the Roman government. Jewish law required the testimony of two or more witnesses. Also, stoning was required to be carried out outside the city gates. This was an impulsive murder by a mob driven by emotion. Saul went on to persecute believers en masse. Later he would refer to himself as the lowest of the low.
…We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
1 Cor 4:13
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
1 Timothy 1:15
Based on verse 4 in Acts 8, Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word; it appears that Saul’s persecution of believers was a catalyst for the propagation of the Gospel message. Historically speaking, persecution has been one of the most effective means of promoting the Gospel. The question in my mind is, is this God’s plan, or is He merely causing what the devil means for harm to accomplish His will?
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Romans 8:28-29
We know that the process of conforming something requires pressure. Tribulation, persecution, affliction, suffering, etc., areThilipsis in Greek and meanpressure. Our character is conformed to the image of Christ when we endure or persevere under pressure.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Romans 5:3-5
Christians are being persecuted and martyred for their faith all over the world as I write and you read. The graphic video below is from Darfur, Sudan. It happened just a few days ago. If this is hard to handle, how will you handle the same if it happens to you or someone you love? Ask yourself, what is idolatry? What does faithlessness look like in the context of our lives now and in the context of persecution? What is the definition of cowardice?
What do you think? Is our health, wealth, and comfort in this life God’s primary goal? Should the content of our conversation be food, entertainment, and worldly gossip, a.k.a the community news? Or should we be preparing our hearts and minds for something else?
Be sure you’re right. Then go ahead.
Davy Crockett
But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.
Cathy and I just returned from celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles with our good friends at New Wine Ministry in Decatur, Arkansas. We were assigned to share one night. Cathy told me she was hearing voices coming out of hermy people… I couldn’t get reconciliation out of my mind.
…All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation…
So I share about God’s original covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12. I mentioned the covenant through Issac and the blessing on Ishmael in Genesis 17. I talked about God’s love and continued covenant with Israel, that the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable, and that Israel will be saved. Romans 11 Then I read Isaiah 19 which concludes with,
In that day Israel will be the third with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth, whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.”
I read all in the context of the current conflicts between Israel and its neighbors. Most of all, I read it in the context of believers who insist on mixing politics and faith. I framed my argument with 2 Corinthians 5, and Revelation 12.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.
We inevitably regard our neighbor according to flesh anytime we attempt to use the gospel to fix the world for the sake of our best life now. Like it or not we are applying a Satanic framework when we sanction or support the killing of other human beings in the name of our definition of righteousness. A foundation of that framework is named in Revelation 12.
And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our God.
Accuse is katēgoréō, the Greek word from which the English word category is derived. The world organizes people into assigned categories and judges them as good or bad. This view is the product of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from the fall in Genesis 3. The Bible says that no one is righteous apart from Christ. Hence there are only two valid categories in the world.
In Christ and Not in Christ.
We can look at almost any instance of polarization of one people group against another in the world. We are in violation of scripture the moment we choose a side that results in “us versus them”. Mind you I am not talking about disagreement on issues. I am talking about treating others in a way we would not want to be treated if the roles and power were reversed. Roles and power are cyclic. They are repeatedly reversed and reversed again.
…with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
Those cheering the decimation of Gaza or immigrants slammed in the streets by ICE will eventually see the same standards applied to Israel and Christians in the USA. We just can’t seem to comprehend that Jesus was speaking to believers not unbelievers when He warned …with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
The pattern of God dealing with His people throughout history is a pattern that Israel has never been able to recognize. Those who persecute Israel are and will indeed be punished. But as we see with Assyria in Isaiah 10, God often uses those who curse Israel to punish Israel for her sins before punishing those who cursed her in the first place. That’s not because God is double-minded. It’s because God wants to reconcile all of Abraham’s dysfunctional family. He disciplines those He loves.Heb 12 God loves the descendants of both Issac and Ishmael. Satan, the accuser, is the one who wants us to categorize and facilitate our killing each other. Many are cheering the fulfillment of Zephaniah 2 today. Make no mistake. The fulfillment of Zephaniah 3 and Ezekiel 38 will surely follow. Study these scriptures out and see if what I am saying is true.
A picture of me teaching at Ninawachi in 2018. drawn by Daeme, a Waorani missionary student
Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the Waorani and Teromanane in the context of the ministry of reconciliation in which all followers of Jesus share. I have been meditating on the culture of depravity from which He wants us to be separated.
The depravity of man is both the most empirically verifiable statement and also the most intellectually resistant.
-Malcolm Muggeridge-
In October of 2018 we were blessed with the opportunity to travel, all expenses paid, to Ecuador where among other things we got to meet and minister to Waorani (Wow-rani) people.
The movie “The End of the Spear” is the story of Jim Elliot and his missionary partners who were martyred at the hands of Waorani warriors, a previously untouched people in the Ecuadoran Amazon valley in 1956.
It is also the story of their surviving widows who forgave and ministered to the Waorani people and led many of them to Christ. It is one of the most powerful contemporary stories of faith, forgiveness, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.
If you’ve seen the movie, then you know that the spearing of Jim Elliot and his friends was provoked by a lie on the part of a Waorani woman trying to avoid accountability for her actions. In a nutshell, she had an agenda that she advanced by manipulating the emotions of her own people. Were it not for the faithfulness of Elizabeth Elliot and the other wives, most, if not all, of the relatively small number of Waorani might have been killed in a retaliatory action by Western colonists.
Many Waorani became Christian after 1956. A portion rejected Jesus completely in favor of their old traditions and religions. These formed a separate clan known today as the Teromanane. Relations between the two clans have been strained ever since.
The Teromanane remained nomadic hunters and avoided the Waorani villages. Violence could be avoided provided they avoided each other.
Modernization and a shrinking of territory due to the expansion of oil companies in the region pushed the two closer together. Oil exploration and the lumber trade meant more workers needed to be fed. Game previously hunted for tribal sustenance now went to feed the growing oil company workforce. Overhunting and a resulting food shortage caused the Teromanane to begin migrating closer to Waorani villages in search of food. They began stealing Waorani bananas and Yucca.
Instead of retaliating according to previous tradition, the Waorani sought reconciliation with their Teromanane brothers and sisters.
One day some Waorani women went out as the Teromanane robbed their orchards. The women told them that they didn’t need to steal, that all they needed to do was ask and they would give them whatever they needed. This led to more social contact to include a romantic interest between a Waorani man and a Teromanane woman. In Waorani and Teromanane culture, a man and a woman who are seen alone together three times are expected to get married.
Apparently, the Waorani man changed his mind. We don’t know what the woman said to her people. We only know that the Teromanane became so enraged that they kidnapped three young Waorani children, took them by the ankles, and beat their heads against a tree until they were dead. In response, the Waorani formed a raiding party and killed 15 Teromanane men and women while they slept. Two children remained alive. The Waorani took them back to their village. That was 2013.
Fast forward to 2018. We were with some Waorani and other indigenous people in Ecuador. We even met some of the men involved in the previous raid. We had come to visit Ninawachi school for indigenous missionaries and make a “thank you video” for their donors.
The video opens with a Waorani woman worshiping in her native language.
Ninawachi disciples people from the Shuar, Kitchawa, and Waorani tribes, then sends them home as missionaries to their own tribes. Three of these, Daeme, a Huaorani native, his wife Diana, a Shuar, and Priscilla Vargas, an Ecuadoran colonial, were about to head into the jungle for their outreach practicum. Priscilla was one of the teachers and had nearly died from an Amazon-borne illness the last time she was there.
It was at that time that we learned that the Teromanane were starving and were willing to discuss peace with the Waorani again. The only condition was that the kidnapped children be returned. Everyone was hopeful, including the Ecuadoran military, who devised a plan to fly a helicopter into Teromanane territory and lower the children down by rope. The only catch was that someone else had to pay for it. That wasn’t going to happen.
The three Ecuadoran missionaries were getting ready to head upriver when we got news that the Teromanane had arrived just outside of the Waorani village where they were going. The situation was tense. Once again two or three Waorani women who were on fire for the Lord had gone out to meet them. Everything seemed to go well and a meeting to discuss peace was scheduled. Unfortunately, it was time for us to return to Honduras. All we could do was pray. A week after we returned, we learned that the Teromanane leader turned out to be Daeme’s great uncle.
Recently, I heard from our friend Pricilla. She told us that there has been periodic contact between the Waorani and Teromanane. The Teromanane have received a few solar Bibles and solar radios. However, the proverbial ground remains hard. Pricilla asked us to continue to pray. Here is a link to her blog Pricilla’s blog. She is a genuine example of the ministry of reconciliation in real time. She is currently affiliated with YWAM. Having lived on the mission field for six years, I know any support would be greatly appreciated.
One thing stands out in the conflict between the Waorani and Teromanane. No one outside these tribes is rooting for one side to dominate the other. Perhaps it is because their lifestyles and world views are so foreign to outsiders that no one can place themselves in any of their proverbial shoes. Outsiders are either ignoring the situation entirely or Christians are actively promoting reconciliation between the two tribes.
My question is, why don’t Christians apply the same approach to all people groups and conflicts, e.g. Israel and Palestine? After all, doesn’t God want all people to be reconciled to Himself? Why then, do so-called believers insist on regarding nearly everyone according to the flesh? Why do we continue to categorize everyone as good guys and bad guys? We give lip service to the cross and God’s word to the extent that it benefits us. Then we lay our lives down at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Another example is the so-called illegal immigration problem. Are there illegal immigrants who commit crimes? Yes. Is it a violation of US law to immigrate without permission? Yes. If that is the case, then it is also illegal to solicit, promote, and make money off of illegal immigrants. We were in Honduras and watched the caravans form and proceed north to the US border. We have friends who departed in the hope of making ten dollars per hour instead of ten dollars per day. We watched the promises of freedom and prosperity broadcast on CNN Central America. We know people who paid Cartel Coyotes five to twelve thousand dollars to transport family members across the border. We were dumbfounded by a bureaucratic nightmare resulting in the near impossibility of immigrating legally. Now we are watching them being hunted down and arrested while the people who invited and ushered them in remain unaccountable. The Trump administration claims only criminals are being targeted. Friends from affected cities say ICE has quotas. One thing is certain, a precedent is being set.
Here is another example that hits close to home. One of the two greatest commandments, love your neighbor as yourself is derived in part, from Leviticus 19.
“When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
People generally align with whichever side of an argument or conflict their respective side or team supports. They reinforce their argument with media narratives organized by internet algorithms designed to corral opinions and people. Our queries inform the algorithm of our biases. “Does Hamas kill Israelis?” will yield atrocities committed by Hamas. “Does the IDF kill Palestinian children?” will yield IDF testimonials of their own atrocities. People argue for and against sides in conflict as if war itself were not an atrocity. We think we are thinking and analyzing right and wrong, good and evil. In truth, we are being divided and corralled into opposing categories in an ongoing spiritual battle by the enemy who seeks to kill, steal, and destroy.
Shockingly few humans can think at all. Most of them are just bio-LLMs (Large Language Models) who regurgitate whatever garbage they ingested through their eyes or ears. They hardly have an original thought cross their minds. Shockingly few humans have a conceptual internal reality that maps anywhere close to the reality outside their heads. They live inside delusional constructs, distorting sensory input to match their internal maps rather than updating their maps to match the terrain in the world around them. As a result, most humans aren’t THINKING at all. They are PROJECTING…
Mike Adams
Apart from Christ, all people and all human conflicts are the same. Apart from being in Christ we are all Teromanane and Waorani. The antidote is to come out of her my people. Come out of the world of artificial categories.
Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins,
Jim Elliot and his friends gave their lives in the ministry of reconciliation that was carried on by their widows who forgave the Waorani who murdered their husbands. Why can’t we have the same heart for Israel and the Palestinians? Why can’t we have the same heart for the right and the left, Democrats and Republicans? People thank me for my service as a trained killer in the USMC instead of the missionary I became after I repented. Why are we so hypocritical? Why can’t we honor and obey Jesus’s commandments in Mathew Chapter 5 without reservations? The list goes on ad infinitum. It seems that we just can’t or we refuse. We praise Jesus with songs in church then live according to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We idolize that same tree every time we turn on the evening news. Many, if not most, ultimately reject the final sacrifice of Jesus in favor of a scapegoat that we are programmed to despise for self-righteousness’ sake. Otherwise, we’d look in the mirror and recognize Mystery Babylon in our own eyes. Then maybe, just maybe we’d repent and come out of her.
One of our goals in studying Acts is to understand and compare the very first church to the church today. Are we the church in Philadelphia, or Laodicea? Rev 3:7-13, Rev 3:14-22 Philadelphia is the true church. Laodicea is the worldly church. False equivalency is one path into worldliness that produces a Laodicean church.
“‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, “I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing,” not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
A False Equivalency is a logical fallacy where two things are inaccurately framed as being the same based on shared characteristics while ignoring major differences. The easiest example is saying apples and oranges are the same because they are both fruit. False equivalency is a popular tool that politicians and the media employ to manipulate public opinion.
As Acts 6 opens, we see the newly formed New Testament church growing rapidly. The Apostles realized they could not meet all the material needs of the people and also be devoted to prayer and preaching the gospel. So they appointed Stephen and six other men to fulfill the role of what would later be called deacons in 1 Timothy 3:8-13.
Deacon – diákonosOne who executes the commands of another, esp. of a master, a servant, attendant, minister. The servant of a king. One who, by virtue of the office assigned to him by the church, cares for the poor and has charge of and distributes the money collected for their use. A waiter, one who serves food and drink.
– Strongs Concordance-
Stephen was full of grace and power, doing great wonders and signs among the people. He was both anointed and brilliant. Surely anyone with the same ability to articulate truth so accurately and concisely today would have a celebrity platform and a large following.
Yet Stephen was chosen to wait tables.
“The Freedmen” (Libertines KJV) who contended with Stephen were former slaves from various regions of North Africa, Egypt, and Asia. They could not coherently rebut Stephen’s exegetical declarations. So they lied and devised a plan to turn public opinion against him. They accused him of blasphemy against Moses and God.
But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.”
Falsehood can never refute truth. It can only seek to silence the vessel through which it comes. Most recently, we’ve seen this in character assassination, cancel culture, riots, and, literal assassination. Are the human vessels through whom truth comes ever perfect themselves? Certainly not! That doesn’t make the truth they proclaim any less true. Paul clarified this in Romans. It remains true for all of us today.
What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar…
Simply put, if I proclaim Jesus is Lord of all creation one day and murder my neighbor the next, Jesus is still Lord. A common false equivalency embraced by unbelievers today would be to reject Jesus because one who had proclaimed Jesus then committed murder. Christians are prone to the same error, e.g., a transsexual committed a mass shooting in Tennessee, therefore all transsexuals are mass murderers. In both cases, the implied, albeit unconscious, false equivalency is that eliminating Christians and transsexuals will eliminate murder.
Many outside conservative Christian circles are critical of Charlie Kirk’s politics and economic philosophy. The false equivalency begins with their equating his political views with his character. I never met the man. And while I may disagree with his unbiblical view of history, he was, as far as I know, a man of integrity. I can hear the patriot rebuttal as I write. Whoa Brian! What do you mean by “unbiblical view of history”?!
Thanks for asking.
Like many politically conservative Christians, Charlie Kirk believed that America is a Christian nation because its founders were Christian and founded on Biblical principles. This is in itself a false equivalency. For example, Thomas Jefferson, who stated that our form of government is only fit for a moral and religious people, also used a razor blade to cut out every reference to the supernatural from his Bible. Benjamin Franklin was a Deist. The entire architecture and landscape of Washington DC is rooted in Freemasonry. While the Biblical principles injected into our Constitution and Juris Prudence remain true, it does not make the USA righteous or Christian any more than the Freemason architecture in Washington DC makes America Freemason.
The history of every nation is always a story of conflict between so-called good and evil according to human standards gleaned from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Genesis 3 When the gunfire ceases and the smoke of battle clears, the winner is declared righteous. History is subsequently written and taught to a respective nation’s populace from the perspective of the winner.
Paul addresses the biblical example of this false equivalency in his dissertation regarding the moral state of mankind. He addresses the Jews who believed they were righteous by birth. Romans 1-3 lays the foundation for the case that apart from Jesus, both Jews and Gentiles are exactly the same.
What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles) are under sin, as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” “Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive.” “The venom of asps is under their lips.” “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.” “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Charlie Kirk used scripture to support his political activism. The scripture he shared remains true as ever. But scripture can not sanctify politics any more than it can sanctify sin. Scripture counters sin by replacing the lie with truth.
Choose your preferred media narratives surrounding the death of Charlie Kirk. At the end of the day, we can not, and probably will never be certain why and who killed him. What we do know is that, like the Jews who killed Stephen, Kirk’s killers could not refute his assertions and concluded the only right choice was to kill him. Whether they were transgender leftists or Israeli Mossad or representatives of an unnamed agenda matters little. They were and are of their father.
You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
The underlying dynamic of the fear of truth remains the same. Truth is truth. Truth is only affirmed and supported by questioning.
Jesus contrasted how truth and those of the truth manifest themselves with those of the father of lies. There is no deviation. It doesn’t matter what church you attend or don’t attend. It doesn’t matter what side of the political aisle you prefer. If murder and mayhem are your solution, then you are of the devil.
So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
As Christians, we are to proclaim and seek to live according to the gospel and the example Jesus set. That example may include our death. It does not include taking the lives of others. We can only do this by abiding in Jesus.
Stephen is a model of that abiding.
No one seems to know anything about Stephen before Acts 6. That doesn’t matter much because the grace and power with which he was filled came from the same Holy Spirit that filled Peter and all those in the upper room in Acts 2. The same applies to us today. Our scarlet sins are now white as snow. All that matters now is Christ in me, the hope of glory. Col 1:24-29 There is a fine, but very important line between the message of Stephen and that of Charlie Kirk.
Once again, Charlie Kirk debated moral and political issues based on a Christian worldview as defined and supported by scripture. This apologetic approach is only valid in the context of an audience that shares the same worldview underpinned by the same presuppositions regarding moral truth. Kirk argued with those who shared a different worldview and definition of right and wrong. It is pointless to argue against issues like abortion or gay marriage with those who dispute the existence of objective moral law. Apart from God, right and wrong are completely subjective. The definition and value of life are subjective. The definition of a man and a woman is subjective. We must understand that all worldviews are rooted in one or more empirically unprovable presuppositions otherwise known as faith, the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Heb 11:1 Believers understand that faith in the cross of Jesus is the source of our understanding and power. Meanwhile, unbelievers regard this as foolishness. 1 Cor 1:18
If a wise man has an argument with a fool, the fool only rages and laughs, and there is no quiet.
In Acts chapter 7 Stephen is brought before the High Priest to answer the charge of blasphemy.
And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
Stephen replies with the most concise presentation of Israel’s history with God found in scripture. Note that he begins by addressing them with the utmost love and respect.
“Brothers and fathers, hear me.”
Like the rest of the disciples, Stephen’s purpose is not to change political policy but to bring them to repentance and salvation in Jesus Christ. Most of his sermon is a summarization of history. He concludes with quotes from Isaiah 66:1-2, and Exodus 32:9.
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered, you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
Stephen presented the truth to Jewish leaders in the context of their shared history and worldview. It was in this context that he presented the error that they had murdered their long-awaited Messiah. They could have repented. Instead,
Stephen was laser-focused on defending the truth of Jesus and His kingdom that is not of this world. He did not venture into politics, social issues, or economics.
Shouldn’t we do the same?
You’d think the church would get it by now. The same Kingdom versus world dynamic keeps repeating. Jesus was tortured and slain by the Romans. The Jewish leaders and many of their followers consented to the crucifixion of Jesus, as evidenced by the consensus that Barabbas should be spared instead of Jesus. Mat 27:15-26 They lied and framed Jesus as the Zealot revolutionary and threat to Caesar. The error and danger here is to create a false equivalency between the group of lying Jews who chose Barabbas and all Jews then and thereafter.
It is important to always keep in mind that we do not war against flesh and blood. Ephesians 6 Wherever we see human beings operating in accordance with a false equivalency be sure you are witnessing the enemy at work. The devil rallies people into groups like football teams then sits back and watches while they persecute and kill one another. Meanwhile, the path to salvation begins with understanding that no one is right. No person or group, no political party or country is right. Only God is right. We are made right by His grace and the love with which He loves us. Ephesians 2:1-10
It occurs to me as I write that in addition to questioning leftist ideology, Charlie Kirk also began to question the narratives following the October 7th Al Asqa massacre and subsequent decimation of Gaza. He did so based on the same objective moral truth defined in the Bible and the presupposition that Truth is never threatened by questions. Rather it is confirmed. After all, Israel has had evil leaders. Ahab and Jezebel are two well-known examples. I am not saying that Bibi Netanyahu and his government are evil. What I am saying is that Charlie Kirk posed several worthwhile questions that have yet to be answered. The false equivalency drawn by many conservative Christians is that anything and everything Israel does today is inherently good and right in God’s eyes simply because it is Israel. The implication that those currently living in the Holy Land, and its current secular government called Israel, define Biblical Israel in its entirety is another false equivalency. Israel is composed of 12 Tribes – thirteen if you count Joseph, the majority of whom remain dispersed around the globe. This matters because many have asserted that Israel killed Charlie Kirk. Can you imagine the firestorm that would result if a world driven by media narratives rooted in false equivalencies discovered that some Jewish people were behind the death of Charlie Kirk? The world would turn against Jewish people even more and their persecution would escalate. Be careful of false equivalencies, especially those that support unforgiveness in any form.
Lest Satan should get an advantage over us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
We put ourselves at risk anytime we step out of the pure word of God and preach anything other than the gospel of the Kingdom that is not of this world. Another false equivalency is the assumption that Charlie Kirk is a Christian martyr because he was a Christian who shared scripture in support of the Turning Point USA mission. Many are claiming that preaching the gospel was the primary mission of Turning Point. It was not.
Turning Point USA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk. The organization’s mission is to identify, educate, train, and organize students to promote the principles of fiscal responsibility, free markets, and limited government.
The danger here is the further conflation of the gospel of Jesus Christ with Conservative politics. The implied false equivalency is that Jesus is a capitalist and a Republican. Jesus wasn’t a capitalist or a socialist. He is niether Democrat or Republican. He was neither for nor against any earthly “ist” or “ism”.
His only desire was that all men be saved.
Stephen was the first Christian martyr. He set the standard. Countless men and women have been martyred for the same reason, that is preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Christians in places like Nigeria are being martyred as you read. As we will see in the remainder of Acts, the followers of Christ followed Christ. There were no attempts at influencing, let alone changing the political and socio-economic landscape of society.
We are witnessing a gradual progression in the intensity of persecution in Acts. I believe we are witnessing a similar progression in our society today. Now might be the time to ask ourselves,
What hill am I willing to die on?
Stephen was absolutely certain of the Truth he spoke and died for it. Charlie Kirk did the same. Stephen died preaching the gospel. Charlie Kirk died answering a question related to the 2nd Amendment. Like Jesus, Stephen never debated those who would kill him. He simply declared the truth. He loved them like Jesus. Charlie Kirk’s last words were in reference to a false equivalency, namely that most mass shootings are committed by white people. His last statement was, “are you inculding gang violence?” Stephen’s last words mirrored those of Jesus toward the least of His brethren,
Many are calling the recent events surrounding Charlie Kirk a revival. Maybe. Still, I see the risk of our falling into heresy and calling it revival. Once again, I find myself echoing Jeremiah’s words to Hananiah in Jeremiah 28.
“Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord make the words that you have prophesied come true…
I suspect the Lord’s answer to those prophets and their followers believing in the greatness of America apart from national repentance and the rejection of the leaven of Herod, the Pharisees, and Sadducees will receive the same response as Hananiah and the false prophets in Jeremiah 13 and Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah lamented in the end, even if he was preserved amidst what came upon Israel.
One thing seems certain. False equivalency is a primary tool of battle in Satan’s kit. That people today tend to feel more than think concerns me. The future looks like tribulation to me. May the Laodicean church in America repent and become Philadelphia. Lord help me to follow the example set by Jesus and Stephen.
Maranatha
The featured photo is one I took of Cathy sitting in the exact spot just outside of Jerusalem where Stephen was stoned.
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
mildness of disposition, gentleness of spirit, meekness Meekness toward God is that disposition of spirit in which we accept His dealings with us as good, and therefore without disputing or resisting. In the OT, the meek are those wholly relying on God rather than their own strength to defend them against injustice. Thus, meekness toward evil people means knowing God is permitting the injuries they inflict, that He is using them to purify His elect, and that He will deliver His elect in His time.
– Strongs concordance –
Meekness is also likened to a battle horse that is unwavering in its obedience to its master.
In our Acts 17:11 Bereans Bible study we are watching the gradual escalation of persecution unfold in Acts. The disciples are bold and unyielding in their message.
“Jesus is the only way. You murdered your own Messiah!”
The Sadducees wanted to kill the disciples from the start. But they were afraid of the people. Thus far, the disciples have been apprehended, warned not to speak, released, imprisoned, miraculously freed, beaten, and warned not to speak.
So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.
Acts 5:41
The disciples were meek.
They did not compromise their directive from Jesus. Neither did they add to it.
The world is shaken by the recent public assassination of Charlie Kirk. He was addressing the subject of gun violence. Some are crying. Others are riddled with excitement. As expected, extremes on both the political left and the right are heralding the start of civil war.
Charlie Kirk was a Christian. He was conservative, pro-traditional family, pro-Israel, anti – abortion, etc. Charlie Kirk was 31 years old.
Charlie Kirk was the same age as several of our family members whose worldview is diametrically opposed to that of Charlie Kirk. Israel vs. Hamas was a topic of a recent discussion. “Hamas launches rockets from hospitals and schools,” I said. “So does Israel!” they responded. “That’s ridicul…” I caught myself.
How do I know?
The truth is, I don’t. I only know what the Google algorithm presents to me according to my biases. Did Greta Thunberg’s boat recently get hit by an Israeli drone or was it an explosion and fire caused by fireworks on board? Were Israelis attending the Nova festival on October 7th killed by Hamas or the IDF according to the Hannibal Directive? In the words of the Palestinian Christian woman with whom we stayed in Samaria rang in my head,
“The Israelis and Hamas are the same.”
The truth is that neither one of us knows. Biblically, God has a plan for all of Abraham’s children, both Jacob and Ishmael.
Charlie Kirk began his final “Prove me wrong” public dialogue with a reference to 1 Corinthians 5 that addresses the subject of sexual immorality. He did not mention leaven.
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
1 Corinthians 5:6-7
Charlie Kirk should not have been shot. He was a genuine Christian man, a husband and a father adored by millions. Those who hated him, hated him because of his politics. Jesus warned about religious legalism and politics.
Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Matthew 16:6
The Pharisees and Sadducees were both religious and political parties. Charlie wasn’t killed amidst a proclamation and appeal that Jesus is the only way. He was killed amidst a dialogue concerning gun violence and the right to bear arms. The 2nd Amendment exists to protect the individual’s right to take human life and overthrow the government under certain conditions established by the Constitution. None of this has anything to do with the teachings and commands of Jesus and Biblical Christianity.
Probably the biggest gripe my family members and those with whom they are aligned have against Christianity is the hypocrisy of politically leavened Christians. As followers of Jesus, we are called to preach the gospel as Jesus and the Apostles preached it.
That is all!
There is not one shred of evidence anywhere in the New Testament of any directive to attempt a political transformation. Aside from “render onto Ceaser what is Caesar’s” and “Honoring the King”, politics is a Biblical nothing burger. Even more, we are not called to judge unbelievers and the system run by the god of it. We are called to judge believers. Not because unbelievers are right. But because even the most altruistic unbeliever is already dead in their trespasses and appointed to wrath. Dead people can do nothing. Rather we are called to an eternal perspective. We are to preach the Word in season and out of season. We are called to study ourselves approved, to take captive every thought, and cast down every argument that exalts itself above the knowledge of God. We are called to care for widows and orphans in their distress and remain untainted by the world. We are to always be ready with an apologetic defense for the hope that is in us. We are not called to fight with carnal weapons or transform institutions. We are called to be spiritual and meek even at the cost of our own lives.
The public assassination of Charlie Kirk is as horrifying as it is saddening. Many on the opposing political extreme right are calling for extrajudicial retaliation. Those on the extreme left are emboldened. Meanwhile, I can only imagine the same thing happening to those in my own family on the political left. While their worldview is diametrically opposed to that of Charlie Kirk, they aren’t any more violent than Charlie was. Still, given that some of them attend political protests at times, the possibility remains. One thing is certain. The love of many is growing colder by the day. Hence,
Violence begets more violence.
The time is coming, and it is now here, when we will be persecuted for our faith. Let us resolve today to study and follow the Acts of the Apostles such that if we are beaten, imprisoned, or killed, it is for the sake of an unleavened Gospel alone. Instead of praying and proclaiming MAGA, let us repent and pray MAMA as a church.
Make America Meek Again
Alas, apart from those who already view the world as I do, I suspect my words will fall on deaf ears. Others might be enraged. As. always all are welcome to prove me wrong via scripture alone. Meanwhile, I am a sojourner here. I am in this world but not of it.
The word and underlying theology of Dominion is the cause of much controversy in charismatic streams. We have dominion as believers.
The operative question is, over what do we have dominion?
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:28
Dominion is Radah (Hebrew) – to subjugate; specifically to prevail against, reign, rule, overtake.
Dominionism is a term used to describe conservative, politically active Christians who believe that God has appointed the church to subdue and Christianize all institutions and aspects of society. The most extreme among these seek to create a Christian Theocracy. The underlying presupposition is that Jesus appointed the church to bring Heaven to Earth. Jesus will only return when this is accomplished.
Adam and Eve were given dominion over the earth until they forfeited it in Genesis 3. Jesus (the new Adam) re-assumed dominion when he ascended in Acts 1. He is now seated on the throne at the right hand of the Father where He intercedes for us. Romans 8:34 No spirit-filled, Bible believing Christian would dispute this.
The same applies to,
Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.
Luke 10:19
Having among other things, been surrounded by headhunters in the Amazon, tread on scorpions, and killed more poisonous snakes than I can count and not been harmed, I bear witness to Luke 10:19. I also understand the application of authority in this verse is not my authority over snakes, scorpions and headhunters, but the authority over fear that would hinder my obedience to God. Even deeper is the revelation that my obedience is the proverbial electrical plug that connects me to His authority that flows through me. It is also my greatest protection. That said, He doesn’t need me to accomplish His will. If we aren’t faithful He is still faithful. The next verse adds more context that leads to a correct understanding.
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
Luke 10:20
In other words, don’t be consumed with the idea of your power and authority. You are going to die eventually. Be grateful that you are going to heaven and not going to Hell. Don’t fear those that can kill the body. Fear Him who can kill the body and send you to hell. That is the true meaning of nothing shall hurt you. The overarching context of Luke 10 is repentance, the lack thereof, and humility. Jesus’s death, resurrection, and ascension gave us the authority and power over our desire and propensity to sin. No longer do we need a priest and a bloody animal sacrifice to be forgiven. We can boldly come to the throne of Grace for help in our time of need. Hence we have dominion over sin and the temptation to sin. We exercise dominion over Satan via our power to believe and obey.
Dominionists use Luke 10:19 as proof text for their drive to assert dominion over others.
Another passage regarding authority and dominion is,
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Mathew 16:15-20
The keys to the Kingdom are the focal point for Dominionists. Yet the context of our God given authority is Peter’s revelation of who Jesus is, not who Peter is. It is framed by Jesus’s warning to
“Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Matthew 16:6
The leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” was the religious and political spirit. Jesus did not commission the church to overcome and sanctify the systems of the world over which Satan is god. 2 Cor 4:4 Those who believe the church is called to dominate the current world system are at best committing the error of Peter who believed that Jesus was going to destroy the Roman Empire and restore the sovereignty of Israel. It was upon this basis that Peter rebuked Jesus in Matthew 16:22. Jesus replied with
Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.
Mathew 16:23
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.
Mathew 16:24-27
Jesus is referencing Daniel 7:13-14, Mathew 24:29:31, and Acts 1:11 in reference to His return. In the meantime, we are promised tribulation, persecution, and suffering over which we are to exercise our authority through perseverance, endurance, and obedience which lead to our names being written in the book of life. Romans 5:1-11, Matthew 24:13, Revelation 12:10-1and 2, Revelation 13:5-10
Our authority and dominion are exercised in the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that we manifest despite the worst possible circumstances rather than some imagined ability to change and Christianize our circumstances.
In addition, Dominionists take Ephesians 2:6, …and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus… as a proof text regarding the current role of the church in ruling the world. Yet the context of Ephesians 2 is salvation not authority. Paul continued his sentence and established the future orientation of the coming blessing resulting from our being seated with Jesus in verse 7.
…so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:7
Jesus was clear regarding the venue in which His dominion and our authority reign in John 18.
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”
John 18:36
There is a mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he outlined in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, thingsin heaven and things on earth. This includes an inheritance for which Holy Spirit is a guarantee, (down-payment) until we acquire that inheritance in full. Ephesians 1:3-14
The Presupposition
Dominionism is rooted in what is known as preterism or over-realized eschatology. It is Kingdom Now Theology whereby the church is tasked with bringing heaven to earth in preparation for Jesus’s return. The underlying presupposition is that Mathew 24-25 took place in 70AD. We are now living in the millennial reign of Christ described in Revelation 20. This is contradictory to scripture and incoherent. We can discuss this more at length. However, in my experience, presuppositions rooted in incoherence are rarely countered with a logical scriptural argument alone. Incoherence usually requires suffering that brings the errant presuppositions into question.
Biblical dominion is predicated on a future fulfillment of the kingdom. Luke 17:20-21 Our current task is to pursue Righteousness, Joy, and Peace in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14:17 In contrast, Dominionists pursue political solutions and the sanctification of institutions as a condition for the fulfillment of the kingdom. Those with a Biblical understanding of their dominion aim for personal consecration, and sanctification as part of a bride that must become spotless. They understand that God uses circumstances to conform us to the image of His Son. Those circumstances may involve suffering. Our power and authority are exercised in our being witnesses for the gospel and discipling others despite circumstances. Dominionists aim to change circumstances. The apostles never did this. Like the apostles, we may be called to be imprisoned or killed by political and or religious systems for the gospel’s sake. The Bible does not command us to fix earthly systems for Jesus. In fact, it promises that the opposite will happen.
Many shall purify themselves and make themselves white and be refined, but the wicked shall act wickedly. And none of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand.
Daniel 12:10
The Bible doesn’t promise a revival that ushers in the return of Jesus. It promises a great falling away. 2 Thessalonians.
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;
2 Thessalonians 2:3
At the end of the day, a correct understanding of dominion places Jesus on the thrown where we bow before Him and pray,
Your will not mine be done!
It is found in the correct application of
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
Proverbs 3:5-8
Dominionism places a god of our imagination on the throne as we pray, often against the will of God,
My will be done in Jesus’s name!
Dominion is God centered, Christ in me the hope of glory. Dominionism is self-centered, even narcissistic in pursuit of our best life now in Jesus’s name. Dominionists hold ideas like America will be blessed because America is good. Biblical dominion states no one is righteous, not one, only God is good. We have the authority to proclaim this. We are on a trajectory established before the foundations of the world. Ephesians 1:4 His word shall accomplish that which He purposes, and shall succeed in the thing for which He sent it. Isaiah 55:11 He will accomplish it with or without us. Our job is to consecrate ourselves to Him and be sanctified by the washing of the water of His word. I could go on.
The difference in presupposition is deceptively subtle especially when not plainly stated. Yet it is profound because dominionism produces another gospel.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
Galatians 1:8-9
At the very least, I hear Jesus saying of Dominionists, Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.
So often I hear people speaking about the Old Testament versus the New Testament as if the two tell a story about two different Gods. The implication is that the Old Testament was hard. The New Testament is easier because of grace. Nothing could be further from the truth as evidenced by Acts 5, which begins in the context of the conclusion of Acts 4.
Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
“Now the full number” means everyone obeyed the Holy Spirit. There was no confusion. No prophet needed to declare “thus saith the Lord!” because everyone was in perfect submission to Jesus through Holy Spirit. That obedience can be likened to my right and left hands obeying my head. My left hand does not need to hear from my right hand to know the will of my head. It simply does what my head says.
Enter Ananias and Saphira a proverbial right hand with a will of its own. They altered God’s (the head’s) word that the rest of the body obeyed without question.
“So what if they saved a bit of the money for themselves?” cries the voice of contemporary society.
That rationalization is the first mistake. The issue was not the amount or value of what they held back. The issue was their rebellion against God! Rebellion is not measured according to stuff. Rebellion is determined by disobedience.
Biblicaly there is no such thing as partial obedience.
The rebellion of Anaias and Saphira was the same rebellion when Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to the rock as God commanded in Numbers 20. The carnal mind might justify the action because the people got the flesh-saving water they needed. But water was not God’s primary purpose. His purpose was to show Himself Holy (Set apart). And God said to Moses,
And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”
It was the same rebellion that exposed the true heart of Saul and ended his reign over Israel in 1 Samuel 15. Saul disobeyed God and kept some of the spoils of the Amalekites then rationalized and justified his disobedience by claiming he was doing it for the Lord. Saul was not concerned with pleasing the Lord or he would have obeyed.
Saul was concerned with promoting Saul.
And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.”
God cut Ananias and Saphira off for disobeying His word and so that others would fear (phóbos – terror) lest the rest of His body be infected with their witchcraft and idolatry.
And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Eve was beguiled by Satan and ate the fruit. Then Adam relinquished his position as the head of his wife and was led into sin by Eve.
In his book Spiritual Authority, Watchman Nee points out that Eve’s rebellion began with her reply.
And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Eve added the words, “neither shall you touch it…”
Once again, contemporary reason declares,
“Oh my gosh, Brian. That’s so religious! Why are you splitting hairs? Get a grip, you Pharisee!”
Watchman Nee says reason is the problem. Reason is the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil whereby people do what is right in their own eyes in Jesus’s name.
We are not commanded to justify, rationalize, minimize, and generalize, a.k.a. reason our thoughts and actions, then sprinkle Jesus on it all. We are commanded to obey. Saying that God said something He didn’t or changing the words He said is rebellion of the first degree. This is why Paul so strongly emphasizes this warning in Galatians.
But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.
This is why I shudder when I hear the nonchalant propagation of false prophetic words and or eisigeis in place of exegesis. “Oh, they are just learning to hear,” we minimize, never once considering the wreckage that is left in the wake. It’s as if the God of all creation has become some namby-pamby daddy who doesn’t take himself seriously, so why should we?
Exegesis means “to lead out of.” That means that the interpreter is led to his conclusions by following the text.
Eisegesis means “to lead into,” which means the interpreter injects his own ideas into the text, making it mean whatever he wants.
Correct doctrine is correct teaching concerning the word of God apart from which obedience is impossible. Correct teaching is always exegetical not eisegetical.
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
We must divide what is there, not what we imagine is there. We divide Truth from untruth. Paul gives an example.
But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.
Hymenaeus and Philetus engaged in profane and vain babblings via their eschatological claim that the future bodily resurrection promised in Mathew 24:29-30 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 had already taken place. The Sadducees taught that there is no bodily resurrection at all. Keep in mind, the context of this chapter is false teaching. Paul’s point was not to enter into a debate about eschatology. Rather he was illustrating the seriousness of false teachings that produce ungodliness to the point of falling away from the faith. Godliness is eusébeia (Greek) – holiness. False teachings make one unholy regardless of how sweet they sound.
But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus…
Paul concludes 2 Timothy 3 with a foundational presupposition in our Acts 17:11 Bereans Bible study.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
There are many important things in our walk with God. Yet nothing is more important than the ability to rightly divide the word of truth. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth who leads us into all truth. He brings scriptural truth to remembrance. John 14:17 If the spirit within us speaks contrary to the word of God, then that Spirit is not Holy Spirit. At best, it is our soul, namely our mind, will, emotions, and the stories we create to make sense of our experiences. At worst, it is a spirit of antichrist masquerading as an angel of light. One thing is certain. God’s voice will never contradict His word.
Period!
Except for the Book of Philemon, there are warnings against false teachers and false teachings in every book of the New Testament. That should tell us something. No wonder James warns that,
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.
If I say or write something wrong and you love me then you will correct me. If you can show me I am wrong I will thank you and I will repent. 1 John 1:9 I don’t much care about the tone you use, provided the correction is true, and rooted in scripture. I learn by being corrected by Holy Spirit and by my Holy Spirit-filled brothers and sisters.
Why then do so many minimize and even sanction the falsification of God’s word?
preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
So often I hear people defend their preferred teacher or preacher based on their kindness, compassion, and caring approach toward their flock. Some well-meaning followers become enamored with a personality or a person’s charisma and mistake it for anointing. Anointed is Christ – Christos, in Greek, and means one with the authority to speak on God’s behalf. Jesus warned of many false Christos in the end times. Many times sincere and honest seekers can’t fathom that someone so influential in the body of Christ could be so wrong or worse, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Others succumb to confirmation bias. They hear what they want to hear because it makes sense according to their experience and or what they have been taught. Or it suits their own passions and they simply disregard anything that opposes their point of view. Passion does not always imply blatant sins of the flesh. Passion could simply be
“My reasoning, my altruistic will in Jesus’ name”.
What we often end up with today is that people embrace the heresy and rebuke anyone who calls out the heresy. No one considers the seriousness of Anaias and Saphira in the context of
The God who does not change.
At the end of the day and the current age, it doesn’t make a lick of difference in how sweet, joyful, gentle, kind, gifted, intelligent, loving, etc. someone appears if they are twisting God’s words or proclaiming what God never said. Hence, in 1 Corinthians 4 Paul exhorts us to
Not go beyond what is written.
The KJV says, not to think of men above that which is written.
This was a huge problem in the church of Corinth. It is a huge problem in the church today.
When we study and endeavor to rightly divide the word of Truth, we need to be certain we are reading what was actually said at the time it was written. We need to understand the cultural and literary context. We need to know something about the audience to whom the message was given. We need to be sure our Bible translation accurately reflects the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek lest we produce a doctrine out of our own eisegesis. That’s how all cults begin. We need to follow the tradition of the Acts 17:11 Bereans and search the scriptures to see if what a given teacher or Bible translation says is true. Those who insist on an eisegetical, “God told me” even though scripture contradicts it approach may find themselves in the same proverbial boat with Eve, Saul, Ananias, and Saphira.
The following example is going to ruffle some feathers.
There is a popular Bible translation within the charismatic stream that is really an eisegetical interpretation. The author makes all sorts of radical prophetic claims about himself all of which glorify himself. One of these is that God took him to heaven and revealed an added chapter 22 to the book of John. Galatians 1:8-9 aside, the ubiquitous, undeniable spiritual proposition, “God told me,” shuts down most naysayers. After all, who am I, a mere man, to argue with God? Hence, Paul’s admonition to the Church in Corinth,“Let every word be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” Those witnesses are scriptures, not your friend’s opinion masquerading as Holy Spirit. We also have Paul’s instruction to the church in Thessaloniki “Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.”
While I felt a check in my spirit, my initial response when I heard of the Passion Translation at Harvest School in 2016 mirrored that of Jeremiah to Hananiah in Jeremiah 28.
“Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord make the words that you have prophesied come true…”
In the end, the Lord rebuked Hananiah through Jeremiah.
“Listen, Hananiah, the Lord has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie. Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have uttered rebellion against the Lord.’”
God killed Hananiah for speaking what He did not say.
The fact that God hasn’t killed all the fake prophets today does not mean that God has changed or His word has changed. It means there is mercy and time to repent. After all, accursed means
“Going to Hell.”
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment
The Passion author Brian Simmons also claims the God ordained authority to correct all other translations. I guess that makes the Passion the only correct translation. Many in our stream subscribe to the Passion. I suspect this is because it is more poetic, gentle, and loving according to contemporary definitions of “loving”, and therefore more palatable.
“I just feel like the Lord is pleased with it.“
I’ll admit, the poetic license Simmons uses frequently sounds a lot sweeter than other versions. We purchased the Passion Psalms and Proverbs after Harvest School and loved them at first.
Here is one example that sparked my concern.
Ephesians 5:22-33 is foundational to all of the counseling we do with couples. We would go so far as to say that all marriage problems would be solved if couples would simply obey these verses as they are written. If you want to know more about our counseling approach, you can read Husbands Love Your Wives.
“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.” KJV
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. ESV
Simmons claims that Ephesians 5:22 should actually read, “Wives be tenderly devoted to your husband as the church is tenderly devoted to Christ.”
Tender – showing gentleness and concern or sympathy.
-Oxford English Dictionary-
That seems nice.
Should a wife be tenderly devoted to her husband? Sure. There’s nothing wrong with tenderness. A mother should also be tenderly devoted to her children. Tender devotion is not the operative question at hand. The English word Devotion occurs twice in the New Testament ESV. For example,
But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Simplicity– haplótēs Singleness, sincerity, mental honesty, the virtue of one who is free from pretence and hypocrisy, not self-seeking.
-Strongs Concordance-
That’s not what Paul is commanding in Ephesians 5:22.
Simmons further claims that Ephesians should be translated from Aramaic because Jesus spoke Aramaic. But Ephesians was written Greek to people who spoke Greek. Therefore the correct meaning of this God breathed passage is only found in Greek.
The God breathed word in Ephesians 5 says, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.“
Submit in Greek is hypotássō “a Greek military term meaning “to arrange troops militarily under the command of a leader”. In non-military use, it was “a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden”.
– Strongs Concordance-
As Cathy says, tender devotion works great when things are going great. The true test of submission is when things are not going great or the wife vehemently disagrees with her husband’s decision. There have been times when Cathy disagreed with me and I was wrong. But she submitted to my final decision anyway out of obedience to the Lord. Tenderness and devotion toward me may are may not have been there in the moment. That put me in a position to be corrected by God which He eventually did. Having sailed from Hawaii to Thailand on a thirty-six-foot sailboat through a hurricane, Cathy will be the first to tell you there can be only one captain when the storm hits.
Paul isn’t giving his opinion or preferences regarding how he would like to be treated. He is declaring the God breathed word. He uses the picture of husband and wife, rightly related to one another, such that two become one flesh, to depict Christ’s relationship to His church. Marriage is unique and distinctive from all other relationships on earth. It is “a mystery” that can only be apprehended through obedience. Hence, submitt means submit. Meanwhile, the husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He gives himself up for her. He is fully prepared to die for her if necessary. When both parties are obedient to the word they submit to God before each other to form a triangle with God at the apex. The closer they grow together. The closer they grow to God and vice versa. At the root of every marriage in crisis is the failure of one or more parties to obey the Word of God in Ephesians 5. Obedience to the word by both parties brings healing to the marriage one hundred percent of the time. By rewording this one verse Brian Simmons effectively altered God’s blueprint for marriage and God’s depiction of the mystery of two becoming one in marriage and the church.
That should strike Phobos in our hearts.
For the record, Brian Simmons seems quite likable. He seems gentle and kind, and well-meaning. He seems like the sort of person with whom most believers wouldn’t mind fellowshiping. Like so many charismatic celebrities, his gifting and charisma led many believers to dismiss the warning in Galatians 1:8-9 entirely.
“Oh, it can’t be that bad.” We say. “I mean look at him. He’s so gentle and kind and loving…”
You might disagree. But here is the problem as I see it. Sometimes we are too willing to compromise in the name of love. We compromise because we have been indoctrinated, albeit subconsciously, to believe that tolerance is love. This is largely due to our collective worldview being tainted by an educational system rooted in Postmodernism and Critical Theory instead of Biblical truth that says obedience is love.
And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it.
We tolerate blatant error and even heresy rather than confront it because love has been framed as tolerance. The Bible says we cannot love until we have purified our hearts through obedience to the truth.
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
Tolerance prioritizes people’s feelings. We don’t want to risk hurting people’s feelings so we don’t tell them the truth. We claim to care about others. In reality, we are terrified of being disliked. We say we love God. But how can we love God if we are willing to compromise His word for the sake of being liked by people?
Shielding ourselves from Truth does not protect love. It suffocates it.
-Author Unknown-
Other times we won’t confront an error because we don’t want to be confronted ourselves. We tell people they are “amazing” because we want to hear that we are amazing. The Bible says we should fear the pursuit of personal affirmation and accolades.
“Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.”
Do not dismiss the potential depths of disobedience.
Again, I realize that some people are not going to like, let alone agree with what I have written here. That’s fine. If I am anything, I am a watchman. Believe and do as you will. My obedience to God on this matter is complete.
But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet to warn the people and the sword comes and takes someone’s life, that person’s life will be taken because of their sin, but I will hold the watchman accountable for their blood.
And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.
Most of Acts 4:1-22 is self-explanatory. There are a couple of points worthy of elaboration if only for future reference.
The Sadducees and Pharisees
The Sadducees and Pharisees were opposing religious and political parties. Here are some of the main differences that may be useful.
Sadducees – Saddoukaîos, “the righteous” a Jewish religious party at the time of Christ, who denied that the oral law was a revelation of God to the Israelites, and who deemed the written law alone to be obligatory on the nation, as the divine authority. They also denied the following doctrines: –resurrection of the body, –immortality of the soul, –existence of spirits and angels. -divine predestination, -They affirmed free will
-Strongs Concordance-
Pharisee – Pharisaîos A sect that seems to have started after the Jewish exile. In addition to Old Testament books, the Pharisees recognised in oral tradition a standard of belief and life. They sought distinction and praise by outward observance of external rites and by outward forms of piety, such as ceremonial washings, fastings, prayers, and alms giving. Comparatively negligent of genuine piety, they prided themselves on their fancied good works. They held strenuously to a belief in the existence of good and evil angels, and to the expectation of a Messiah. They cherished the hope that the dead, after a preliminary experience either of reward or of penalty in Hades, would be recalled to life by him, and be requited each according to his individual deeds. In opposition to the usurped dominion of the Herods and the rule of the Romans, they stoutly upheld the theocracy and their country’s cause, and possessed great influence with the common people. According to Josephus, they numbered more than 6000. They were bitter enemies of Jesus and his cause; and were in turn severely rebuked by him for their avarice, ambition, hollow reliance on outward works, and affection of piety to gain popularity.
– Strongs Concordance –
No Other Name
The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
In verses 11 and 12, Peter quotes Psalm 118 and declares, “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” This verse is also referenced in Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10, and we might be tempted to say, “Yes I know that.” Yet Peter is declaring this to the Sadducees, several of whom, e.g. Caiaphas, had a direct hand in the crucifixion of Jesus. In fact, Peter had been lurking about and denied Jesus at the same time that Caiaphas spat in Jesus’s face. Mat 26:57-75 Hence, the scene in Acts 4 is a testimony to Peter’s genuine surrender, transformation, and boldness as he had no reasonable assurance that Caiaphas would not do the same to Peter in that moment.
Whose Authority
But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”
This is the first time that Peter confronts believers with an ethical dilemma regarding authority with a question.
Should I listen to you or to God?
Mind you, the last time Peter had challenged the same religious authority based on what he thought was obedience to God, he chopped off Malchus’s ear in the Garden of Gethsemane only to be rebuked by Jesus. Was Peter’s question to the Sadducees now a reflection of his remaining ambivalence, or was it a masterful use of what contemporary counselors call “developing the discrepancy” in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, where any answer would confront the Sadducees with their own error? Given Peter’s previous track record and the depth of the wisdom applied, I suspect it was another example of Holy Spirit operating through Peter.
And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
After spending the night in jail, the Apostles go free and tell their tale to fellow believers who lift their voices together and quote the very eschatological Psalm 2. I use the term eschatological because it proclaims the first and second coming of Jesus.
They went on to declare the irrefutable omniscience and sovereignty of God.
for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.
Wait a minute! Did he say the actions of Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the peoples of Israel were predestined by the hand and the plan of God?
As a matter of fact, he did.
Those who followed us in our discussion of Freewill versus Predestination in Romans 9 and the post Getting Through the Gate will note the current score is,
Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. Thus Joseph, who was also called by the apostles Barnabas (which means son of encouragement), a Levite, a native of Cyprus, sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
Acts 3 begins at the Beautiful Gate. While there is some dispute regarding its location, we were told when we were in Israel that it is sealed because it is the gate through which Jesus entered Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, Mat 21, on a donkey, and will reenter from the same spot when He returns to rule in the Millennium. It sits directly across from the Mount of Olives, upon which both Jews and Christians expect the Messiah to descend.
While he clung to Peter and John, all the people, utterly astounded, ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s. And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?
One question that sticks out in our minds is, “Does that imply that Jesus would have passed him by?” If so, was it so that God could heal him as Peter told him to stand and walk?
In any case, everyone begins freaking out and as is usual with human beings, they begin assigning power and significance to people. Peter counters with “Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?“
This is the first Apostolic healing. Peter establishes an important truth that frames every incidence of healing thereafter.
The power of God, not the power of peopleheals.
After rebuking the Jews once again for delivering Jesus to Pilate to be killed, Peter declares,
And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.
My first question here is, “whose faith?” Was it the faith of the lame man that healed him? Was it the faith of Peter? Or did the faith of Jesus alone in the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy that healed him?
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
The exact interpretation is the jumping-off point for a major theological controversy in the body of Christ. Word of Faith adherents maintain that physical health is a right of all believers. They maintain that healing itself is the emphasis behind divine healing. An absence of healing correlates with the absence of faith. Some claim the faith of the one praying determines healing. Some claim it is the faith of the one receiving the prayer. Others hold that the sole purpose of healing is to glorify God.
“Doesn’t all healing glorify God?” You ask.
Not necessarily. As someone recently said, “One thing we don’t do well within the charismatic stream is illness.” We have seen parents blamed for the partial paralysis of their child.
“You need to take authority! Command him to walk!” They said. “He’s not healed because you don’t believe!”
If the parent assumes the blame for their child not being healed, then it follows that they would get the credit if the child is healed. A similar dynamic can be seen in those who take credit for leading someone to the Lord. That’s great that you did that! But that also means it’s your fault anytime someone refuses.
Thankfully Paul was clear about his and our responsibilities in God’s plan.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
In John 9 Jesus declares the man was specifically born blind for the purpose of Glorifying God. Similarly, in John 11, Jesus declares of Lazarus “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Then again, in Mark 10, Jesus declares of the blind man, “And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” Jesus declared the same thing regarding the woman with an issue of blood in Luke 8:43-48. “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” Was their faith in the sovereign deity and the power of Jesus? Or was their faith in God’s desire that they should be healed?
It seems that our role as believers is to be faithful and obedient. I don’t pray for people because I believe I have the power to heal. I pray because I have the power to know when and how to obey God. If someone is healed or delivered when I pray, it’s because God did it. I simply obeyed the word that the Holy Spirit brought to remembrance. If He doesn’t heal, it’s because His will or maybe His timing is different, as was the case with our friend Crystal who was repeatedly prayed for by Todd White before and after he became a celebrity.
If you insist that God always wants to heal our flesh and to say otherwise is heresy then please click on the link above.
Also consider Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians.
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
For the record, while it is common for people to project the sin they have yet to overcome onto Paul and claim it as their own thorn, Paul was speaking about his poor eyesight. He could not read or write though he was a scholar among scholars and had to depend entirely on Luke. If it is always God’s will to heal then Paul must not have believed. Obviously, the argument falls apart when we apply the laws of coherence and noncontradiction.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Either Jesus has been given all authority or He has not. If indeed Jesus is on the throne then nothing can happen that He does not cause or allow. “But all sickness is Satanic!” you say. Perhaps. But Godcauses all things to work together for those who love God and are called according to His purpose. If Satan can sift us, Luke 22:31, apart from the will of Jesus, then Satan, not Jesus, is on the throne. To say otherwise is completely incoherent.
Given the location of the opening scene in Acts 3, I can’t help but wonder if this first Apostolic healing wasn’t a prophetic eschatological foreshadowing. After all, a man who could not stand or walk stood and boldly marched through the gate that marked the beginning of Jesus’s journey to the cross that is the source of all healing and into the very city and temple from which Jesus will one day rule.
At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart.
I often think many of our would-be contemporary prophets and prophetesses would do well to meditate deeply on these verses.
In any case, Peter reminds them that all the prophets since Samuel have prophesied the coming of Jesus. He reminds them they are the sons of these prophets and are of the covenant God made with Abraham.
‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’
I could be wrong, but healing when it happens seems bigger and more significant than our flesh and comfort on earth. “But people come to Jesus as a result of miracles.” That’s not what the Bible says.
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.
Jesus denounced the places where He did most of His miracles because they did not repent of their sins. Matthew 11 People who are divinely healed but don’t truly surrender to Jesus may actually be worse off.
Are there healing and material blessings in this life? Of course. But these are not the determining factors for God’s love. We know God loves us because He gave Himself for us. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. Transgressions are sins we have committed. Iniquity includes the pressure to sin. The power of God is most clearly described in 1 John.
This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
One thing is certain everyone reading this is going to die. Barring some form of unexpected instant death, there is a good chance people will be fervently praying for you to be healed while you pass.
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die..
Again, physical healing in this life does happen. But it may not be the main point, or the main event.
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him
Everything God does on earth serves His purpose in drawing the current aeon to a close with Christ’s return followed by the reset of all creation according to His original plan.
I could be wrong, but I think human beings are myopic by default. Entitlement and ingratitude are also common. Some of us are so consumed with seeking superior natural experiences that defy natural law because we have never embraced the miracle of creation itself. We are so easily consumed with the present, often presented on a smartphone, that we forget we are living in eternity. Those chasing the manifest presence of God often forget, or perhaps never knew that at one point, we were destined for eternal torment.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
How many today have really embraced the reality of that from which we are saved because of who He is, not because of us. It about,
HIM, HIM, HIM!
Not
“US, US, US!”
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
I am convinced that our primary focus in reading scripture should be eschatological from the start. Or as Steven Covey wrote,
Begin with the end in mind.
-7 Habits of Highly Effective People-
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
