The Scourge Of Racism
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It is wonderful hearing of what God is doing during His Coronavirus judgment to stir the hearts of those bewildered and seeking for answers made up not just of persons never having made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, but those professed to be Christians living out nominal, spiritually dead lives. These are flocking in large numbers to the online services and instruction of churches and ministries. However, gauging by Christian media chatter and actions, it still does not appear there is a widespread appreciation among Christians, churches and their leaders that they are enduring judgment from the Lord and consequently, needing to give full heed to His call to repent!1
My mother used to always say to us kids growing up, “A hard head makes a soft behind;” a saying passed down to her from her parents and a cultural expression familiar to nearly all black Americans born before the 1970’s. The expression served to warn stubbornly disobedient children of pending corporal punishment if obedience was not immediately forthcoming! Only the hardest of heads did not get the message and pressed on to find out mom was not issuing idle threats (that would have been me on too many occasions, I am ashamed to report). Now, the Lord looks out upon professing Christianity and sees that far too many filled with stubborn pride are being hard headed.
To the Lord’s great displeasure rather than brokenness and repentance, many church and ministry leaders have gone into organizational survival mode with no plans to change anything from what they used to do before the Coronavirus except what is needed to keep from spreading it. On top of that, they are not taking any of the prophetic signs this judgment presents serious enough to prepare those following them online or that will assemble in their buildings for what is plainly foretold in the written Word to come next. One reason for this, of course, is psychology 101 in survival mode from ancient times: don’t frighten people with the truth; keep it positive (Jeremiah 38:1-4)!
In the face of God’s judgment, telling the truth to a people having been spoon fed a steady diet of deceitfully crafted ego affirmation using Scripture and “American style home grown,” but not unique to America ancient “false doctrines of perpetual peace and prosperity” as He led me to write in a May 2, 2020 social media post is like biting the human hand that feeds you--not a good thing when men are trying to feed themselves and sustain their organizations!2 But the Lord who hears all that these leaders say and sees all of what they do will judge them as false prophets and teachers without repentance (Jeremiah 14:11-16, 23:16-17; Ezekiel 13:1-16, 34:1-10; 2 Peter 2:1-3).3
Not peace and prosperity fully and perpetually restored now, but more judgment from God is coming upon this world! For as I wrote earlier in that May 2, 2020 social media post, “From His own words Jesus Christ did not come 'to bring peace on earth' prior to His return, 'but a sword' representing divine judgment and conflict in division over Him (Matthew 10:32-39; Luke 12:49-53, NKJV)." The Lord will bring perpetual peace and prosperity to the earth at His Second Coming and after the divine outpour of wrath on sinners that have refused to accept salvation by grace through faith in Him!” If the Lord Himself says there is no peace now, where do you get off contradicting Him?
Nevertheless, I wrote, “Now, His Personal peace; the peace of God is only available to His sheep,” (Isaiah 57:19-21; John 10:27, 16:33). This is His peace in the midst of this world’s troubles and the judgments He brings on it seeking for repentance leading to salvation from “whoever believes in Him” and His fruitless, strayed sheep (John 3:16-21, 36, 15:1-8, NKJV). Christian leaders and teachers deceive those they teach when they only want to present the shine of the Lord’s face in grace and purposely avoid dealing with the fiery glow of judgment in His eyes to keep it positive for people that will not give unless something is in it and “He is for me.” This they say not appreciating Christ is Savior and Judge and for the righteous even in judgment (Revelation 1:12-16, 3:19)!
While “famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various places” will continue and intensify to soon be followed by unmistakable acts of God from the sky as warning judgments for all, next up specifically for Christians is hatred fed persecution already rife in many parts of the earth and coming to “all nations” including America according to the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 24:7-9; Mark 13:8-10, 13; Luke 21:11, 17, NKJV). If you do not or refuse to believe the foregoing you are blasphemously calling Jesus Christ a liar! Too, you are quite deceived and denying reality in arrogance as an American since you must also be falsely believing persecution and suffering is only for those professing Christ in other, unexceptional nations of the earth as God’s throwaways.4
1 See the April 19, 2020 post, Does Anybody Repent Anymore? under the category, Call To Repent.
2 I am not without empathy on this point as this Ministry too, faces all of the same challenges of trying to raise funds to keep me employed full-time in the work. The
The difference for us though, is that we will not sell God out, soft pedal the Gospel, compromise the truth, avoid talking about sin and judgment or invent feel good
messages that tickle hears to raise what we need. We have struggled for nearly the entire organizational life of this Ministry from 1985 because of this conviction,
but have watched God continuously provide what we needed in His will on time, every time!
3 Like the handwriting on the king of Babylon’s wall declaring the end of his kingdom, so, this epoch of corrupt, huckster invented and driven Christianity has been sig-
naled by God through His Coronavirus judgment (Daniel 5)!
4 Read the November 12, 2017 post, God’s Throwaways?, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
If the cities or names of the seven churches of Asia addressed by the Lord Jesus Christ have any importance at all as to why He chose them, surely, the church at Philadelphia does as a name. Most commentators translate Philadelphia from the Greek as “brotherly love;” a name given to the city by an ancient king to honor his brother. Consistent with this, the Lord’s message to the church there was to His faithful Christian brothers that included those of His Jewish heritage. This is clear to see in the message that would have excited a Jewish Christian more than any Gentile given its quote of Scripture with Jewish specific application, experiences and prophetic references.
The Lord opens His message: “These things says He who is holy, He who is true....” Though all Christians would (or at least should) perk up with a message from the Lord opening like that, the Jewish Christian with joy immediately understands Him to be authenticating Himself as the promised Holy One of God, His Anointed, Son and Himself true God (Psalm 16:8-11, 20:6-9, 89:19-37; Isaiah 7:10-14, 9:6-7, 10:20, 12:4-6; Luke 1:30-35, 2:8-11; John 1:1-9, 14-18, 17:1-3)! Further, to ensure His identifying credentials were not missed, He quotes from Scripture: “He who has ‘the key of David,’ He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens,” (Isaiah 22:22; Revelation 3:7, NKJV).
In quoting from Isaiah’s passage originally spoken about the man that controlled access to king Hezekiah, the Lord instantly affirms its prophetic application to and fulfillment in Himself as the One who exclusively controls access to God His Father (John 14:6). All Christians are supposed to understand why He is the only way to God, but only Jewish saints painfully appreciate how important this is when their own heritage is attempting to block access to God through their common historical and traditional means such as worship at the Temple (destroyed by this time) and the synagogue.5 As in all of the churches, the Lord knew the individual works of those at Philadelphia.
The Lord greatly encourages the individual saints and especially His Jewish kindred of this church by setting “an open door” before them He says, “no one can shut” in applying His quote from Isaiah 22:22. He is doing this He says because they “have a little strength, have kept My Word, and have not denied My name,” (Revelation 3:8, NKJV). As I wrote earlier, historically, the wide river of the Jewish “remnant according to the election of grace” the apostle Paul wrote of (Romans 11:1-5, NKJV) narrowed to a tiny brook with very little influence in Christianity after the 1st century as the Lord here acknowledges and appears to prophetically forecast as their foreseeable future.
The historically oldest of Christians, though tiny, faithful Jewish saints were and would be dogged in displaying spiritual strength, keeping the Lord’s Word and not denying Him through the unimaginable pressure of persecution from family, community and the Gentile nations into which they were scattered with their unbelieving fellow Jews. In what should stagger no one, the Lord lets the Jews that believe in Him know, He sees and is watching them! As a result, His encouragement turns to rewards for faithfulness: future vindication and reversal in the form of former persecutors being forced in the manor of Haman of old to worship His faithful saints (Esther 3, 5:9-6:14; Revelation 3:9).
But His rewards do not end there. The Lord says “Because you have kept (past tense) My command to persevere, I also will keep (future tense) you from the hour of trial (testing) which shall come upon the whole world, to test those (all others) who dwell on the earth,” (Revelation 3:10, NKJV).6 I concur with all that interpret the “hour of trial” the Lord speaks of here as one and the same as “the great tribulation,” (Matthew 24:15-21, NKJV). This being so, His promise of protection cannot be “the rapture” as is taught since Christians are foretold to go through and many suffer martyrdom during it (Revelation 7:9-14).7 In context and consistency with who He is addressing, the Lord’s promise of protection is intended for Jewish Christians primarily living back in Judea at that time!8
Though the Lord’s promise of protection during the hour of trial speaks to the proven Jewish faithful believers in Israel at the time it occurs, this does not preclude Him in sovereignty extending it to select other faithful followers likewise proven throughout the earth. Together they will form the small number who are “alive and remain” at Christ’s Second Coming (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17, NKJV). For this reason, the Lord warns He is “coming quickly” and exhorts the faithful to tightly grasp what they have in strength, obedience to His Word and loyalty to Him, so, “no one may take your crown;” unmistakably asserting that even with protection, there will still be persecution pressures (Revelation 3:11, 16:15, NKJV).9 The Lord’s rewards are still not done for those that overcome.
With yet more Jewish significant implications is the Lord’s promise to make him that overcomes “a pillar in the temple” of His God adding, “and he shall go out no more.” Also, He declares, “I will write on him the name of My God and the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem...And I will write on him My new name,” (Psalm 48:1-3, 137:4-6; Isaiah 66:5-11; Revelation 3:12, 21:1-22, NKJV). Contrary to the lying deceit of these latter days, keeping His Word as it is written remains a critical part of the faithfulness Christ rewards! Those who are not doing so, put themselves in grave peril since disobedience is nowhere rewarded in the Bible (Revelation 3:13). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
5 Jewish persecution had led to those that were Christians being barred from entering or cast out of the Temple in the 1st century and it will be so again briefly when it is
rebuilt (Acts 21:15-30; Revelation 11:1-2).
6 The Lord led me to proclaim a timely six message series, The Hour Of Testing, now available in the Strong Man Store that instructs Christians on God’s biblically
taught purposes behind why He tests His people and fully explores the prophetic implications tied to the coming hour of trial our Lord speaks of in this post. Listen
to the series sample.
7 Faithful to the death as those at Smyrna, having overcome they will not be touched again by death; raised as they will be to eternal life and glory by Christ at the first
resurrection (John 5:28-29; Revelation 2:11, 14:12-13, 20:4-6, 11-15)!
8 What an amazing affirming prophetic disclosure by the Lord to Jewish Christians and all the church at Philadelphia, His faithful! Dispersed to the nations, as the Old
Testament prophets and He foretold, the Jews would one day return to their land and among them would be those that are followers of Him as Messiah (Matthew 24:
15-16; Mark 13:16). This prophecy of a return to the land became reality in 1948 when Israel once again became a nation with Jews from all over the world streaming
home since. Here again is the immutability of God on display to the world before our eyes (Malachi 3:6)! During this period of the return, growth in the number of
Jewish followers of Christ--many calling themselves Messianic--in Israel (still with hostility and persecution) and around the world has exploded though, their numbers
are still relatively small compared to the larger number of all Jews and their professed Gentile Christian brethren (Psalm 118:23-24)! Thank you, my brethren, for
your millennia long perseverance under trial in obedience to your Messiah--longer than any other ethnic group and an example to all in His Body! We who love you
rejoice in His righteousness of rewarding you in every way He will! Stay faithful through all that is yet to shortly come. To learn more about them, type “Messianic
Jews” into your favorite search engine.
9 Those who doubt the Lord can protect and preserve His people during times of persecution as well as His own acts of judgment should again acquaint themselves
with His Word as it is written (Exodus 8:20-24, 10:21-23, 12:21-23; Psalm 5:11-12; Joel 3:16; Matthew 2:7-15; Acts 12:1-11 as samples)!
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